Lu Qingshan made sure he had rested enough for a second emergency use of the Heavenly Demon Disintegration Technique before getting back up. His insects were constantly patrolling a ring around the forest, and he'd know if something dangerous appeared if a large group stopped moving. Though the Bloodseeker Flies were a lot better at this, the lesser insects had their own instincts. There were a few false alarms, which Qin Ye and Li Fanghua easily handled.

  The two corpses by his feet were bloody and mangled, but they still carried intact treasures. Lu Qingshan moved to peel away their torn clothes. He picked out several items that remained undamaged from the fight.

  Qin Ye came up from behind him. His eyes sparkled. "Did you find anything good?" he asked.

  Lu Qingshan nodded. Two pieces of jade in the form of slips appeared in his palm. He gave one each to Qin Ye and Li Fanghua, asking them to determine what they were.

  Lu Qingshan had just placed the two cultivator’s unopenable storage bags onto the ground when his two disciples cried out in shock. He turned to them, eyebrows raised, and saw that they looked completely fine.

  While they were deep in concentration, Lu Qingshan only found the man’s fire-attribute flying sword to be of any use. The blade looked spotless after he wiped off the blood. He couldn’t activate its abilities, but his disciples might be able to after a while. And it was a very sharp weapon on its own. He hacked through trees with ease, though without spirit qi, it would take much more time.

  There was that ice-attribute flying sword as well, but finding it would be difficult. His insects couldn’t tell the difference between the sword and the rest of the environment. They only responded to movements. He needed a more powerful force to go search for it manually, so he decided to wait.

  The sect currently lacked the manpower to do any large scale actions in the mountain ranges. With only twenty-three people excluding himself, it was hard to pore over every inch of land. Not to mention the other cultivators who’d want the artifact back.

  Their clothes were opulent. Counting their artifacts, talismans, storage bags, and companions as well, Lu Qingshan knew they had to have a formidable force behind them. Last time, it was just demonic cultivators, sneaky and below the ground. He had a feeling things were different this time. These people were clearly not outcasts sent as part of an early attempt at securing territory.

  They were here for a mission. And they wouldn't leave until they succeeded.

  Qin Ye and Li Fanghua had finished reading through the jade slips while he was lost in thought. They contained spell techniques, not anything that could be used to help them cultivate, but were more suited for combat. Written on the fire cultivator's slip was the Fire Escape Technique. Meanwhile, the ice cultivator's slip contained something far more complex, instructions on how to perform the last move on the giant ape monster beast. Both were not suitable for anyone to use just yet.

  They moved onto investigating the two storage bags, but even the two budding immortal cultivators couldn't open them. Lu Qingshan thought it too risky to transport them without a single guarantee of safety. To avoid possibly being tracked, he decided to bury them nearby to retrieve them once they returned to these mountain ranges in the future.

  Finally, the corpses themselves were useful. Though the batch of Bloodseeker Flies in his jade boxes hadn't yet hatched, there were also the monster apes' corpses scattered around the battlefield, which could be used for the Great Ape Breathing Method's secret medicine. Unfortunately, he'd already ordered the Elders to return to the city and follow Miao Mei's orders. They couldn't bring all these bodies there in time.

  Li Fanghua interrupted his sigh with good news. She said, "I've been working with Liu Yingting and Wu Ruoling on the nature of secret medicines. We’ve been trying to incorporate spirit qi into our methods, but haven’t made a breakthrough yet. I learned things from them that I could try here.”

  Lu Qingshan nodded. “Better than nothing,” he said. “Qin Ye, go over and help her with the fire.” The boy looked bored, but he begrudgingly went to help.

  While they were making medicine, Lu Qingshan packed up what flesh pieces he could into his jade boxes. He prioritized the ones he recognized from the shadow lynx, the giant leader ape, and the cultivator’s bodies as the best of the bunch. A few scattered limbs were also incorporated into his stock.

  He attempted to practice his martial arts while waiting for them to finish making secret medicine, but a sharp pain jolted him out of his efforts. Anything too strenuous worsened his internal injuries. He couldn’t do much except practice some of the lighter moves in his various breathing methods.

  That limited the speed of his growth until he could recuperate fully from the effects of the Heavenly Demon Disintegration Technique. But the Insect Harmony Mantra maintained its rapid speed. He decided to continue prioritizing it while he recovered.

  After finishing their tasks, the three of them did a cursory sweep of the nearby forest, trying to find the lost flying sword. They weren't successful. With nothing else to do, Lu Qingshan returned to the Seven Mysteries Gate’s camp to make some final preparations before heading to the city. He made a detour to the Bloodseeker Fly swarm beforehand.

  As he had predicted, the swarm of Bloodseeker Flies had been replaced by ashes and scorch marks by the time he returned to the area. The Insect Harmony Mantra couldn't draw any more out of the woods. The batch of eggs he had were all that remained of the swarm.

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  Back at the camp, their houses were fine, but Lu Qingshan could tell someone else had been there from the cleanliness of the buildings. He asked Qin Ye to destroy them. There was no point in having housing stay for the next group of enemies that came through the forest, now that they needed to avoid the mountain ranges.

  It was time to relocate into the city. Lu Qingshan had three goals in mind when he commanded everybody to evacuate there. First, he needed access to better martial arts, which couldn’t be found in the forest. Second, the Seven Mysteries Gate needed a much better understanding of what was going on in the world. Staying isolated was no longer conducive to their growth.

  Finally, they needed to recruit more people into the sect. Lu Qingshan had a few ideas where to go. Ever since their sect dissolved, most of the usual recruitment tactics went away, so they’d need to be more secretive. Miao Mei’s channels would be most useful in this regard.

  She had secured a local store in Great Wind City, hidden inside a fairly bustling neighborhood with a small market. It was completely detached from the past Seven Mysteries Gate. The shop had come with a few troubles regarding the previous owner, but Miao Mei had handled them well the past few years, not letting anyone know her status as a Seven Mysteries Gate Elder.

  Lu Qingshan needed to find a way to get into the city without too much attention from the guards. The Seven Mysteries Gate might not be criminals, but those who destroyed it would not be happy to see them again. They had to continue hiding for now.

  Miao Mei’s channels could take several Flesh Tempering experts and a Bone Tempering expert into the city, citing them as helpers for the store. Unfortunately, the disciples were Bone Tempering experts. Only one could use this way to get inside, while the others had to do something else.

  Lu Qingshan no longer had the time to worry about them. The first priority was regaining control over their areas of the city and gathering information as quickly as possible. To do that, he thought of two plans.

  The first was to take the Roaming Tiger Breathing Method to the utmost level and combine its principles with the Tiger Stalks Prey, enhancing the ability to conceal his martial arts realm and letting him sneak into the city himself. But whether or not it was possible to hide the realm of a Viscera Tempering expert was still uncertain. This was a risky and time-consuming plan.

  His other method was to approach the city's ghost markets. As non-lawful organizations that nonetheless had their own support in the city government, they definitely had ways to smuggle people inside. This was his plan of choice along with most of the Elders. Some of the Seven Mysteries Gate Elders even had experience in this, namely Liu Yingting and Wu Ruoling, although these two didn’t need to smuggle themselves in with their identity.

  Those in the sect who wanted to take this option were supposed to meet somewhere outside the city before they headed in together. Liu Yingting would be their guide. Lu Qingshan didn’t think the journey there would be anything dangerous, but it looked like he was wrong.

  An armed group of twenty men and five horses blocked the road in front. Their leader jeered at Lu Qingshan from a distance, prodding at his horse to gallop towards them, spear in hand.

  Lu Qingshan couldn’t believe his eyes. Where in the world did a mere Bone Tempering expert have the gall to attack someone like him? He displayed a small portion of his blood energy, and the man’s smile immediately froze.

  “You know what?” Lu Qingshan said as the rest of the riders closed in and froze in turn. “Why don’t you all come with us?”

  Lu Qingshan, Qin Ye, and Li Fanghua rode on horses towards the meeting zone, interrogating the bandit chief and their vice-leader as they went. Apparently, the city had been changing around a year ago to crack down on a few unruly martial sects.

  “Sects have to pay more of a tithe?” Lu Qingshan asked. “Sounds normal to me.” To regulate the power of martial sects, local governments usually enacted higher taxes on them. Changes usually depended on who was in charge at the time, and the tithes had been relatively stable after Lu Qingshan had joined the Seven Mysteries Gate.

  “It’s different this time.” The bandit leader’s eyes were full of fear. “Many small sects and some medium sized sects with a long history have been destroyed by the new policies. There’s been rumors that they’re coming from the royal court - the enforcers are unfamiliar but powerful experts.”

  Lu Qingshan frowned. He couldn’t help but see immortal cultivators around every corner with his past experiences. “What happened to the large sects? The Jade Skies Sect?”

  “They’re doing fine. Large sects like them have the capital to withstand heavy taxation for a while.” The man hesitated. “I haven’t seen an expert of your caliber among those sects before. Are you…”

  “I’m not a foreign expert.”

  “Right. We’re from the Iron Pine Sect, if you’ve heard of us. We were forced to disband a few months ago.”

  As a matter of fact, Lu Qingshan had heard of them. The Iron Pine Sect was a small sect on the verge of becoming a medium sized one with the breakthrough of their newest Marrow Tempering expert. What made a medium sized sect different from a smaller one was ensuring a continuous line of multiple experts at this level.

  The Seven Mysteries Gate had been one of many who had supported them. Even Lu Qingshan had been sent to oversee a trade at one point, and he knew one of their sect members by name and appearance. That man wasn't among these bandits, but there was a connection.

  Lu Qingshan was not one to let those who robbed him live. Still, he could make an exception this time. They really needed more manpower.

  “We used to be friends back in the day,” Lu Qingshan said with a smile, stopping his horse. “Why don't you all separate for a while?" he suggested, inclining his head towards the distance. "I want everyone to scatter. Keep us within line of sight, answer our questions, and I might not have to kill you all."

  The bandit leader and vice-leader looked very hesitant. It was clear they feared him, but perhaps not his two disciples. A deadly mistake if they chose to act on their desires.

  Lu Qingshan had each bandit stand far apart from one another while Qin Ye and Li Fanghua went to question them individually about their crimes. He'd noticed how close they were to one another. That bond might make them answer truthfully about their misdeeds after becoming bandits. As long as their crimes weren't too egregious, he could justify recruiting them into his sect.

  Lu Qingshan really hoped they were a good batch.