On his way to the next Foundation Establishment family, the Gusu family, Qi Ping took the time to sort through the spoils he had gained this time.
These spoils were all collected by his bees. All Qi Ping really did was pick up the storage pouches of those two Foundation Establishment cultivators and loot the Qi family’s treasury and technique library.
After briefly organizing all the loot and getting rid of anything that might reveal his location, Qi Ping handed the spoils over to his bees. He had them hide the loot in various places, to be gathered and counted together later when the time was right.
“Although these Foundation Establishment families don’t have a lot of good stuff individually, it still adds up to quite a bit.”
“Especially the knowledge from their techniques and spells. That’ll be really useful for my research into the essence of spellcasting.”
What Qi Ping needed most right now was still knowledge of techniques and spells, along with all kinds of information about the cultivation world. For him, the more of this stuff, the better.
After having the bees take away all the spoils, Qi Ping also submitted his completed mission.
Once that was done, he couldn’t help but think back to something unusual he had sensed earlier.
Right after he destroyed all the blood sacrifices, he clearly perceived what seemed like a barrier above them being shattered.
After that barrier was destroyed, a faint but incredibly mystical force drifted out from the blood sacrifices and returned to the world.
It was only because Qi Ping, as a Druid, had extremely keen senses and a high degree of affinity with the world that he could detect this anomaly.
“Could it be that making blood sacrifices is a method of sealing the world’s creative force, and refining those blood sacrifices means refining that very creative force within them?”
Qi Ping had a hunch he might have found the key point.
What made him even more certain was that, after this mystical force returned to the world, he sensed an inexplicable emotion mixed with both joy and sorrow.
This emotion had no discernible source, yet seemed to be everywhere.
It was an indescribable feeling.
Beyond that, Qi Ping also noticed that his affinity with this world seemed to have increased slightly. This was a pleasant surprise for him. There are so many benefits to having a higher affinity with the world.
It positively affects things like comprehending the Dao, surviving heavenly tribulations, and spiritual energy affinity.
“Looking at it this way, the production and refinement of these blood sacrifices are indeed causing considerable harm to the world. Otherwise, there wouldn’t be so many anomalies, and my affinity with the world wouldn’t have increased…”
Only by doing something that affects the very essence of a world can you increase your affinity with it.
The reason he hadn’t noticed this before, Qi Ping figured, was because the numbers were too small to sense. It was only by destroying over three thousand blood sacrifices in one go that he truly became aware of it.
Furthermore, this kind of behavior—plundering the world’s resources recklessly, damaging nature—is inherently repulsive to a Druid.
This kind of act also erodes the very world that Druids rely on to live and grow.
Before he left the Qi family estate, another important reason Qi Ping destroyed all those blood sacrifices was to prevent ordinary rogue cultivators from discovering and spreading the word.
Because the exposure of the blood sacrifice matter would bring no benefit to ordinary rogue cultivators.
This is the cultivation world, not like a mortal dynasty where water can carry a boat or capsize it.
If the secret got out, in order to continue suppressing the news and keeping rogue cultivators in the dark, there’s no guarantee that some people wouldn’t just start a massacre, killing everyone who knew about it.
Then they’d find some rogue demonic cultivator to be the scapegoat. After killing that demonic cultivator, they’d have solved the problem and gained fame, then they could continue attracting more rogue cultivators back in.
After all, as long as they managed things well, the rogue cultivator population would quickly flourish again.
“Sigh…”
Thinking about all this, Qi Ping couldn’t help but let out a sigh.
For ordinary people, faced with a despair they couldn’t change, maybe it’s truly better to live in ignorance. After all, as long as you don’t reach Foundation Establishment or encounter the extremely low probability event of being made into a blood sacrifice…
At least you can still live out an ordinary life. The only ones truly harmed are the world itself and that tiny fraction of people made into blood sacrifices.
In a way, maybe a big reason ordinary cultivators and mortals are protected as a whole is so they can produce things like “blood sacrifices.”
“Maybe so!” Qi Ping wasn’t certain.
But if this continues, this world might gradually lose all its spirituality, and might even collapse or be destroyed.
From this perspective, this kind of behavior must be stopped, or else it will inevitably lead to irreversible destruction one day.
While Qi Ping was hurrying towards the Gusu family, the mysterious organization that refines blood sacrifices sprang into action immediately.
Last time, Qi Ping’s escape had already made the Immortal Envoy extremely angry. This time, Qi Ping had directly wiped out an entire Foundation Establishment family and destroyed over three thousand precious blood sacrifices!
So this time, they were determined to completely kill Qi Ping, no matter what!
They absolutely would not allow anyone to dare oppose them so arrogantly!
At the Immortal Envoy’s command, the entire organization mobilized quickly, forming a vast net. As soon as Qi Ping showed himself, they would immediately surround him and tighten the circle!
They were also setting up ambushes in places Qi Ping was most likely to appear, based on his usual style of doing things.
And it wasn’t just this organization. Even some of the ruling-level powers of the Qingtian Domain were mobilized, joining the operation to hunt down and search for Qi Ping.
On the other side, Qi Ping had naturally considered all of this. That’s why, when choosing his mission target, he randomly selected from among targets he was confident he could handle.
This time, the target, the Gusu family, was about five or six days’ travel away from Qi Ping—significantly farther. But Qi Ping still randomly chose to go there.
And it was precisely because of this random choice that Qi Ping avoided the areas with the most ambush experts.
After more than five days, Qi Ping, keeping his form hidden, successfully arrived at Wuling County.
After some investigation and probing, Qi Ping quickly figured out the situation with the Gusu family.
“Just as the mission details said, there’s only one elderly mid-Foundation Establishment cultivator. The original early-Foundation Establishment one was already killed in battle…”
“Over a thousand blood sacrifices. That’s a lot fewer than the Qi family…”
“But they’ve only been part of this mysterious organization for a few years and already have this many. They might even be more cruel!”
After confirming the situation, Qi Ping had nothing more to say.
There was nothing left to say except to kill.
Blazing Fist!
After finding the weak point in the Gusu family’s formation, Qi Ping directly unleashed a fist technique infused with a Fiery Explosion Fireball, slamming into it without holding back!
With an earth-shattering explosion, the low-grade second-grade defensive formation instantly shattered!
Immediately after, a mid-Foundation Establishment figure shot up from within the Gusu estate!
When the Gusu family’s Foundation Establishment cultivator saw Qi Ping’s iconic blood-red figure, he immediately recognized him.
“The Bee Master? It’s you!”
Among cultivators, there’s a habit of addressing someone by their surname or a characteristic plus “Daoist” or “Master.”
Then the Gusu family’s mid-Foundation Establishment cultivator couldn’t help but laugh. An early-Foundation Establishment cultivator, thinking he could challenge a mid-Foundation Establishment cultivator just because he had a few bees?
How utterly ignorant of the heavens and earth.
“Foolish child! Today, this old man will show you the insurmountable gap between early Foundation Establishment and mid-Foundation Establishment!” With that, the Gusu cultivator immediately attacked Qi Ping!
But Qi Ping, faced with the Gusu elder’s words, didn’t say anything. He had started setting up his formation as soon as he entered.
Saying even one more word to these people is a waste. Only slaughter is the best response!
Ground Armor Bees… World-Encompassing Ground Armor Formation!
Mysterious Gold Killing Formation!
Activate!
