Weird Cultivation, I have a five-organ temple

Chapter 697 A single spark can start a prairie fire

Shang Lu asked in confusion, "Uncle Lu, why was Senior Brother Bai sent away? I remember that before I went to Xingshan, wasn't he actively cultivating in seclusion to break through to the Tongtian Realm? Given his condition at the time, breaking through would have been a sure thing, if not a piece of cake."

“Who says otherwise?” Lu Dao sighed, his expression slightly strange.

When they were annihilating the bandits and exploring the perilous Netherworld, Bai Lingxu not only fought alongside him, but also saved his life along with Shang Lu, Lü Yang, and others.

Now that Bai Lingxu has been transferred to another post and returned to his hometown to work as a shaman, he can't help but sigh.

Seeing Lu Dao's expression, Shang Lu immediately guessed that there was something fishy about this matter.

"But is there some inside story?" he asked immediately.

Lu Dao glanced around to make sure no one was watching, then cast a peeping spell before lowering his voice and saying, "Bai Lingxu is just unlucky; he's been targeted. Someone bought Star Marrow, Earth Milk, and Thousand Family Millet from him for the sake of their family's younger members."

"Senior Brother Bai actually agreed?"

Shang Lu felt increasingly that something was wrong.

Bai Lingxu is indeed greedy, but all his efforts to earn money and the rewards from the Witch Academy are for the purpose of gathering the spiritual materials needed to break through to the Heavenly Realm as soon as possible.

Now that he finally has a chance to break through, how could he possibly be willing to sell it and give up the breakthrough?

Lu Dao told Shang Lu the whole story:

"At first, Bai Lingxu did not agree. However, on the eve of his breakthrough, he suddenly suffered a qi deviation, which caused his cultivation to plummet and his dantian to be damaged. Having lost hope of breaking through, he sold the Star Marrow, Earth Milk, and Thousand Family Millet, left the Witch Academy, and returned to his hometown to become a shaman."

Shang Lu frowned more and more as he listened.

Just as he was about to go into seclusion to break through his cultivation barrier, he suffered a qi deviation?
And just in time, it caused his cultivation level to plummet and his Qi Sea to be damaged.
What kind of coincidence could there be in the world?

I fear that everything is a deliberate arrangement by human hands!
Shang Lu sneered and asked, "Who was it that bought Senior Brother Bai's Star Marrow, Earth Milk, and Thousand Family Millet?"

However, this time, Lu Dao shook his head.

"I don't know. That person bought materials from Bai Lingxu in private, and no one else knew about it."

I sensed something was wrong when Bai Lingxu's cultivation level dropped and he requested to be released to a higher realm. I talked to him for a long time before I finally got the information out of him.

But Bai Lingxu refused to reveal a single detail about who bought the spiritual materials, and told me not to investigate, but to let him return to his hometown to live out the rest of his life as a shaman.

Shang Lu immediately understood: the person who bought Star Marrow, Earth Milk, and Thousand Family Millet from Bai Lingxu was definitely not simple.

It's very likely that Bai Lingxu truly felt the threat of death, which is why he dared not reveal a single word. Perhaps, this person planted some kind of curse on Bai Lingxu.

If Bai Lingxu dares to reveal his identity, he will die!

This confirms that the other party's methods of "buying" Star Marrow, Earth Milk, and Thousand Family Millet were definitely not clean.

In fact, if Bai Lingxu hadn't made contributions in wiping out the bandits and exploring the perilous Netherworld, and hadn't had a good relationship with Lu Dao, he probably wouldn't have been cursed, but would have died suddenly from a qi deviation.

Shang Lu then asked, "Uncle-Master Lu, do you know where Senior Brother Bai's hometown is?"

"It's in Fangting County."

Lu Dao roughly guessed Shang Lu's intentions, but did not stop him. He only instructed, "It is fine to visit Bai Lingxu, but do not act rashly or impulsively."

"Don't worry, Uncle Lu, I'm a person who knows right from wrong and what's important," Shang Lu replied.

Lu Dao looked at him, feeling that his words were not very credible, but in the end he didn't say anything, shook his head and said nothing more, leading him directly into the bamboo forest to find the Flower Learning Record and replace a witch's tablet.

Hua Xuelu was both happy and surprised to see the pokeweed. He said that if the Chancellor saw such a good student, he would be very pleased.

Unfortunately, the chief priest is not at the shaman's academy. He was summoned to Wushan by the imperial court a few days ago and has not yet returned.

The dragon and tiger statues were also summoned away.

However, the chief priest was probably there to discuss matters, while the dragon and tiger statues were being transferred.

As for where they took up their posts after they went to Wushan, neither Hua Xuelu nor Lu Dao knew.

After settling the matter of the shamanic tablet and leaving the bamboo forest, Lu Dao invited Shang Lu to his official residence for a chat. Feng Boyuan and Bai Lingxu were not there, and Shang Lu also wanted to get some information from Lu Dao, so he agreed.

Soon, Shang Lu followed Lu Dao to the mountain where the Discipline Department was located.

Now that Lu Dao has broken through to the Inner Palace Realm, he has been promoted to the position of Grand Shaman of the Discipline Department, and the level and standard of his office have been greatly improved compared to before.

However, the spirit painting and the snake spirit within it remained unchanged. The snake spirit also remembered Shang Lu. Upon seeing him, it not only brewed him a cup of spirit tea but also said with a smile, "When the news of your death in Xingshan some time ago reached you, it made your Uncle Lu sigh for a long time. Now, you've returned unharmed; it's truly a blessing from the gods!"

Shang Lu accepted the spirit tea, thanked him, and sincerely echoed, "Yes, it truly is divine protection!"

If it weren't for the timely rescue and assistance of the mountain spirit, the earth god, and even Wuzhiqi, he would have been annihilated long ago, or become a meal for the likes of the King of Chu.

The snake spirit did not disturb their conversation. After serving the spirit tea, it returned to the spirit demon map.

While offering him tea, Lu Dao inquired about the situation in Xingshan, showing particular curiosity about how the area had become a dangerous place.

Shang Lu answered all questions, but he concealed his identity as a Wei Wu, his relationship with Zi Shu Xun Shou, Da Zhu, and others, as well as his journey to Chu and Jiang.

With his silver tongue, and the fact that Shang Lu was merely concealing the truth and not lying, and that Lu Dao had not used any interrogation methods, his words were watertight.

Pokeweed also seized every opportunity to gather information.

He first asked, "Uncle Lu, why did the imperial court suddenly change its attitude? Before, they were determined to fight to the death with Chu, but after finally capturing several military towns and penetrating into Chu territory, seeing that the situation was very favorable, they wanted to withdraw their troops and even formed an alliance with Chu to attack Deng together?"

"I heard that the State of Chu sent an envoy to negotiate peace, and the terms offered were so compelling that Your Majesty and the officials of the court could not refuse them."

"What kind of good conditions are they?"

"I don't know either, but I heard that not long after His Majesty met with the envoy from Chu, his cultivation level recovered to the third-grade Divine Ascension Realm. Before that, His Majesty's cultivation level had already fallen to the fourth-grade Celestial Phenomenon Realm because it had not only failed to advance but had regressed."

Shang Lu thought to himself, "As expected." He had long suspected that the conditions offered by the King of Chu were mostly related to immortality and breakthroughs.

Now it seems that this is indeed the case.

Ba Wang's recovery of his cultivation was mostly due to the pills he refined from the strange divine flesh he obtained from the rotten and dangerous land.

This kind of pill, while it can make people's cultivation advance by leaps and bounds, can also cause poisoning and addiction.

Once the medicine is stopped, not only will the cultivation level be affected, but the person will also turn into a monster!

The King of Ba and the officials in the court, after taking this elixir, seemingly achieved a breakthrough in their cultivation, but in reality, they had boarded the King of Chu's pirate ship.

To continue obtaining the elixir, one must cooperate with the King of Chu and create a new, rotten and dangerous land through slaughter!
In the end, even the King of Ba and the officials of the court, who were controlled by the elixir, would become puppets under the control of the King of Chu, completely obeying his orders.

It remains to be seen whether the King of Ba, and the high-ranking officials in the Ba Kingdom's court who have taken this strange elixir, have already begun to sow discord.

Shang Lu asked a few more questions, but seeing that Lu Dao didn't know much, he didn't press further to avoid arousing Lu Dao's suspicion.

He didn't ask any further questions, but Lu Dao, with a stern face, began to give him instructions:
"I know you were quite dissatisfied with the alliance between the court and Chu after returning from Xingshan. But you should keep this dissatisfaction to yourself and not talk about it outside. Tell your men to keep their mouths shut as well. Wei Wu is busy arresting people around these days."

"The sorcerer is arresting people?"

Shang Lu was taken aback upon hearing this, thinking to himself, "Wasn't King Ba secretly dealing with Wei Wu? Why is Wei Wu still arresting people? And what are they arresting people for?"
"Yes, initially, people were forbidden from discussing state affairs, especially the alliance between Ba and Chu to attack Deng. Anyone who opposed it was arrested by the Wei Wu. Later, this escalated and turned into indiscriminate arrests. Now, if someone doesn't like you, they might arrest you!"

It was clear that Lu Dao was very dissatisfied with Wei Wu's arbitrary arrests.

But he only dared to complain about this dissatisfaction in private with people he trusted, and dared not say it to outsiders.

Shanglu once again detected something fishy.

Under the leadership of the Twelve Guardian Witches, strict discipline is enforced, and they would never arbitrarily arrest people.

Moreover, from the Grand Master of Ceremonies to the Twelve Imperial Tournaments, all of them opposed the easy withdrawal of troops from the State of Chu.

So, are these so-called "Witch Protectors" genuine Witch Protectors, or are some people impersonating them to deliberately tarnish the reputation of Witch Protectors, in order to incite public anger and lay the groundwork for dealing with the Witch Protectors and dismantling the Grand Priest?

Although Shang Lu was curious, he didn't ask too many questions, and Lu Dao didn't know much about Wei Wu's situation either.

After Lu Dao was promoted to the position of Grand Shaman of the Discipline Department, he was very busy with his affairs. Shang Lu chatted with him for a while, and people came to report on their work from time to time. So he took the opportunity to say goodbye to Lu Dao.

After leaving the Discipline Department, Shang Lu did not stay in the inner mountain for long. He casually tore off a paper bird, rode it back to the front yard, found Du Feng, Zhu Quan and others, and called out, "Come on, come with me to Fangting County."

He was going to find Bai Lingxu.

Besides asking Bai Lingxu to use his connections to help him gather information, Bai Lingxu's experience also gave him an idea.

There are countless cultivators in this world who are oppressed by powerful families. Is it possible for these people to unite and work together?
At this stage, the power of these people is indeed far inferior to that of the powerful clans.

But a single spark can start a prairie fire!

(End of this chapter)