Mythical Cultivation

Putting away the Golden Light Sword, Wu Ming didn't bother with the ritual. Instead, he took out the storage bag he'd harvested, removed the restrictions, and scanned the contents with his spiritual sense. It was the type of storage bag commonly used by Qingyun Sect disciples, two feet square. Besides a pile of various spirit stones, perhaps over two hundred, there were a dozen or so bottles of elixirs: Qi-boosting pills, Qi-restoring pills, hemostatic pills, and fasting pills—all common elixirs that would replenish Wu Ming's supply. With a flick of his spiritual sense, Wu Ming placed the spirit stones and pills into his own storage bag.

Taking up the largest area was a pile of daily necessities, clothing, dried meat, and the like. These items were of little use to Wu Ming, so he destroyed them. What surprised Wu Ming the most were the three jade slips. After removing them and examining them with his spiritual sense, he discovered that the first contained a recipe for a medicinal elixir—the Qingling Pill. This elixir was said to have a calming effect, similar to the cushion Wu Ming had obtained in his senior's cave. While it was of little use to Wu Ming, it could be sold to a suitable alchemist for a good income.

The second jade slip contained a map, which turned out to be a treasure map. Unfortunately, Wu Ming had never seen the places listed, and he had no idea where they were. As he traveled more and gained more experience, he would surely know where the treasures were hidden.

The third jade slip contained instructions for crafting a second-tier talisman, the Earth Escape Talisman. While not particularly powerful, it was a crucial item for escaping. Ever since Wu Ming had seen the description of the Earth Escape Talisman in the library, he had wanted to obtain a few. Unfortunately, Earth Escape Talismans were relatively rare, and Qingyun Sect lacked a talisman master capable of refining them, so Wu Ming had never encountered one.

Wu Ming had no intention of selling the method for refining the Earth Escape Talisman. Although it was likely worth a considerable amount of spirit stones, it was a life-saving item, and Wu Ming would not use it to aid the enemy. The man in black presumably thought the same, otherwise he wouldn't have kept it in his storage bag. Tang Zhaojun had only recently acquired the jade slip, otherwise he would have sold it long ago.

The biggest gain today, besides the Golden Light Sword, was the precious jade slip containing the method for refining the Earth Escape Talisman. Wu Ming's current talisman refining skills were still limited to the first-order advanced talisman. If he wanted to refine the Earth Escape Talisman sooner, he would need not only to practice but also to increase his refining efforts, striving to reach the second-order level.

Four days later, a spirit boat stopped in front of a village and a young man in white clothes got off. It was Wu Ming who came from Qingyun Sect.

"Master He, what brings you to my Yunlong Village?"

Seeing the spirit boat parked at the village entrance, the patrolling guards reported it to the village chief, who was highly respected. Seeing Wu Ming disembarking from the spirit boat, the chief knew that it was a cultivator who had arrived, and he hoped that he would not bring any harm to the village.

Yunlong Village? It's a rather impressive name. Wu Ming wondered if there was any story behind it.

"I am Wu Ming, an outer disciple of the Qingyun Sect. I have come to resolve the issue of missing people in your village."

"So you are the immortal from the Qingyun Sect. My surname is Niu, and I am now the village chief of Yunlong Village. I am glad to see you. Please follow me into the village."

When the village chief heard Wu Ming say he was an outer disciple of the Qingyun Sect, he put his worries to rest. Since he was one of their own, he was no longer afraid. He then walked towards Wu Ming and came to a relatively wealthy house.

Wu Ming followed Village Chief Niu into the village while looking at the surrounding environment. Yunlong Village was not big, and there were not many people in the village. He also didn't see any cultivators. No wonder they had to report the missing persons incident to the county town.

"Aren't there people practicing cultivation living in most villages in Qingjiang County? Why isn't there one in your village?" Wu Ming also raised his own question.

"Alas, Immortal Master Wu, you don't know that not all villages have immortal masters guarding them. Furthermore, Yunlong Village is located in a remote area, and there are few cultivation resources around it, so there are no immortal masters stationed in Yunlong Village. However, fortunately, there are no powerful monsters nearby, so our village can still survive without an immortal master guarding it."

After hearing the village chief's explanation, Wu Ming gained some understanding of the various villages. However, if there were no demonic beasts nearby, how could people go missing? While Yunlong Village didn't have any cultivators who had entered the Qi Refining stage, there were many in the Body Refining stage. If it weren't for demonic beasts, people wouldn't have vanished without a trace, leaving the villagers unaware.

"Village chief, can you take me to the residence of the missing person?" Wu Ming wanted to know more about how the villagers disappeared, so he said to the village chief.

"How about you eat first, Immortal Master? I'll ask someone to prepare things." said Village Chief Niu.

"Don't bother. Let's find traces of the missing persons first. Take me to the residence of the person who disappeared recently."

"Listen to Master Wu. I'll take you there right away." When Village Chief Niu heard what Wu Ming said, he knew that Wu Ming was a man of action, so he no longer refused and took Wu Ming to the residence of the missing person.

I came to a thatched hut and pushed the door open. The house was relatively clean and not messy, and it didn't look like an uninhabited place.

"Master Wu, this is the residence of Wang San, who disappeared three days ago. Can you see if there are any clues?"

Wu Ming's spiritual consciousness scanned the room and he didn't find anything unusual in the room. All the daily necessities were placed normally, and there was nothing wrong, as if people were living a normal life. Then he disappeared.

"Village Chief Niu, can you tell us in detail about Wang San's daily life and who he has grudges against?" Seeing that there were no clues, Wu Ming turned to the village chief and asked if there were any clues he had missed.

"Wang San was one of the village guards. His usual duties were either patrolling the village or going out hunting. But three days ago, one team of guards didn't see Wang San on duty, so they went to his house to look for him. They found that his door was closed, as if he hadn't woken up yet.

So they knocked on the door and called him, but no one responded for a long time. They then suspected something had happened, as they had seen the same thing with previous missing persons cases. Then they saw his window was open, so they looked through it and saw no one was inside. That's when they called in someone to break down the door, and finally discovered that Wang San was missing.

After hearing what the village chief said, Wu Ming recalled all the details in his mind and finally looked towards the window. It was still autumn and the weather was cool at night. Most people should sleep with the windows closed. It was not right for Wang San to open the window.

So he used his spiritual sense to examine the window inch by inch, and finally found a slight difference on the window sill. There seemed to be something different on one part of the window sill. The original window sill had sharp corners, but the corners at this place became much smoother. Although it could not explain anything, Wu Ming felt that this was a suspicious point.

"Village Chief, take me to the residences of the other missing people so I can take another look."

Upon hearing Wu Ming's instructions, Village Chief Niu led Wu Ming to several other homes. Wu Ming discovered similar traces on the window sills of the other four missing individuals. He also detected a faint fishy odor on one window sill, reminiscent of a demonic beast. This combination of factors led Wu Ming to form a hypothesis.