txolops Chapter 134 Compromise
Chapter 134 Compromise
Right after I broke through to the Foundation Establishment stage.
Li Ping needs to be careful when facing a mid-Foundation Establishment cultivator like Xiong Pohai.
But now, he is still a rogue cultivator.
However, Zhang Tie had already become a disciple of Master Fenglan, so he wasn't without connections in the Immortal City.
Furthermore, following Ye Chen's incident, Dai Sangyu has been ordered to resign as acting sect leader and reflect on his actions in seclusion. Meng Qingyi is now the acting sect leader of Immortal City.
After Li Ping settled in Xiantao Mountain, he maintained a good relationship with the Meng family and cooperated happily. He also had a good personal relationship with Meng Qingyi.
As for Xiong Pohai, who was in the same lineage as Ye Chen, he became the target of suppression after the incident.
The balance of power had shifted, so how could he let Xiong Pohai capture Gu Musheng?
As for whether this will offend a mid-Foundation Establishment cultivator?
Li Ping was even less worried about this matter. If Xiong Pohai dared to secretly follow him and retaliate when he left the city, he would welcome it even more.
With the numerous magical artifacts and treasures he possessed, he could easily kill him.
……
"How dare you obstruct matters concerning the Immortal City!" Xiong Pohai roared angrily upon hearing Li Ping's words, "Get out of the way!"
Li Ping remained unmoved, merely staring coldly at him: "You think you can represent Immortal City?"
Seeing that he hadn't frightened Li Ping, Xiong Pohai couldn't help but look up and give him a deep look.
He was able to build the largest gang in the mortal world, and after stepping into the path of immortality, he successfully established his foundation as a rogue cultivator. He was certainly not a reckless fool.
He knew very well that the martial arts world was not just about fighting and killing, but about human relationships and social interactions.
The reason he deliberately acted reckless and careless after successfully establishing his foundation was mainly to impress others, making them think he was a simple-minded, unrefined man.
In this way, it will not attract too much attention.
So after Ye Chen's accident, despite his close relationship with Ye Chen, he was not implicated at all.
Even the Meng family and other Yuanxun families did not deliberately target him; he continued to serve as their law enforcement officer.
But beneath this facade, he knew perfectly well what was going on.
They know clearly who they can mess with and who they can't.
For example, he knew that Li Ping had a close relationship with the Meng family, so before coming to Li Ping's cave, he specially invited the Meng family patriarch as well.
If Li Ping truly has a close relationship with the Meng family, then after a conflict breaks out between the two sides, the Meng family patriarch will step in to act as a peacemaker.
In this way, he could both give the Meng family face and have an explanation in the Immortal City.
If the relationship between the two sides is just average, and the Meng family patriarch remains on the sidelines, then he will not hesitate to take action to suppress Li Ping and capture Gu Musheng.
On the contrary, capturing demonic cultivators was not important to him.
After all, what does the demonic cultivator have to do with him?
He had been a rogue cultivator for decades, and finally managed to accumulate enough spirit stones to successfully establish his foundation. But he had no interest in actually risking his life for the Immortal City.
Calling someone "Master" makes him think he's a dutiful disciple?
……
Just as the two were facing off, the Meng family patriarch broke the deadlock with a cheerful voice: "Why are you two angry? Fellow Daoist Xiong, Fellow Daoist Li is focused on his cultivation at the Meng family's Immortal Peach Mountain. He would never be involved in anything that could harm the Immortal City. There must be some misunderstanding. Let's clear it up."
The words of the Meng family patriarch seemed to be an attempt to reconcile the two sides, but every sentence was an attempt to exonerate Li Ping, making it obvious which side he was on.
"Fellow Daoist Meng, it's not that I'm disrespecting your family." Xiong Pohai understood the meaning of the Meng family patriarch and said nonchalantly, "This Gu Musheng is involved in a massacre of a demonic cultivator's family, which is why I need to take him back for investigation."
The Meng family patriarch was still smiling. He looked at Xiong Pohai and explained, "Your junior brother Zhang Tie is Gu Musheng's second brother. With such a relationship, how could he do anything to harm the Immortal City?"
After pointing out that Gu Musheng was a person with connections, the Meng family patriarch then looked at Li Ping: "Fellow Daoist Li, since Fellow Daoist Meng says that Gu Musheng is involved in the massacre of a demonic cultivator's family, could you have him answer some questions right here, in the presence of you, myself, and Fellow Daoist Xiong, in order to clear his name?"
"Question?" Li Ping was still pondering.
Xiong Pohai waved his hand again and readily agreed, saying, "Since this kid is related to Junior Brother Zhang, I'll give Junior Brother Zhang and the Meng family face and question him here. If there are no problems, we won't take him back."
Both men turned their gazes to him, and Li Ping finally nodded: "Alright, you can ask him here."
He understood very well that although He Yunyi was brought into the Immortal City by Gu Musheng, he really didn't know that the other party had been possessed by a demonic cultivator.
His involvement in this matter was actually a coincidence, and you couldn't get anything out of him by questioning him.
The only thing worth keeping secret is the matter of the demonic cultivator's storage bag, but normally, the person who possesses another's body would not leave their own storage bag behind.
Therefore, the probability of this question being asked is very small, so it's fine to ask, as it will clear Gu Musheng of any suspicion.
……
Under the watchful eyes of the three Foundation Establishment cultivators, Gu Musheng was slightly nervous, but he quickly adjusted his mindset and waited for Xiong Pohai's question.
……
Under the watchful eyes of the three Foundation Establishment cultivators, Gu Musheng was slightly nervous, but he quickly adjusted his mindset and waited for Xiong Pohai's question.
Xiong Pohai stared at him and casually asked, "Do you know He Yunyi?"
"I know him." Gu Musheng nodded and immediately began to explain in detail: "My sixth brother was from that village. He died in the beast tide, and we took on the responsibility of taking care of the villagers for him... I found He Yunyi in my sixth brother's village and brought him back to the Immortal City to cultivate."
While using his divine sense to imprint Gu Musheng's words into the jade slip, Xiong Pohai continued to inquire, "Then do you know that he was possessed by a demonic cultivator?"
Gu Musheng knew there was no need to hide this matter, so he immediately said, "I didn't know when I brought him to the Immortal City, but after he committed a crime and fled, I guessed it was true, so I came to report to my elder brother."
Nodding, Xiong Pohai continued to ask, "Where is that village located?"
Gu Musheng: "Yes..."
……
The two sides exchanged questions and answers. Xiong Pohai asked more than a dozen questions in a row, and Gu Musheng answered them honestly.
After the questioning was over, Xiong Pohai put away the jade slip with satisfaction and asked Gu Musheng to make a Heavenly Oath to guarantee the truthfulness of what he had just said!
Gu Musheng was telling the truth, so there was nothing to refuse. He immediately and without hesitation swore an oath to Heaven.
Xiong Pohai then left with his men, satisfied, but the Meng family patriarch stayed behind.
Li Ping then smiled and invited him to sit down, and began to ask him about the matter of demonic cultivators seizing bodies.
The Meng family patriarch made no attempt to hide anything and told Li Ping everything he knew.
……
Half an hour later, watching the departing figure of the Meng family patriarch.
"Big brother, I..." Gu Musheng hesitated, unable to finish his sentence.
Li Ping said calmly, "Don't worry, with Fellow Daoist Meng's guarantee and the Immortal City having already obtained the information they wanted, no one will make things difficult for you anymore."
"I understand, brother." Gu Musheng nodded, a relaxed expression appearing on his face.
He then bid farewell to Li Ping and left Xiantao Mountain.
Li Ping stood in the pavilion, lost in thought. After a long while, he sighed softly.
According to what the Meng family patriarch told him, the Immortal City learned about the demonic cultivator's possession not much later than he did.
A demonic cultivator who had abandoned the darkness and embraced the light secretly informed the Immortal City about the demonic cultivator's possession of another's body. At that time, the Immortal City dispatched a large number of cultivators out of the city to search for the demonic cultivator's whereabouts.
Furthermore, in order to prevent demonic cultivators from escaping back to their sects, the Immortal City focused its search efforts on the area between the Immortal City and the Western Wilderness.
After searching for several days, they found nothing, which led to Xiong Pohai's attempt to capture Gu Musheng.
If they really caught the demonic cultivator, they wouldn't need to go through all this trouble.
From the Meng family patriarch, Li Ping finally learned the identity of the possessing demonic cultivator.
Yan Liming, a Core Formation cultivator of the Blood Shadow Sect.
Li Ping sighed because even the large-scale search in Immortal City had failed to capture Yan Liming, so it was almost impossible for him to find Yan Liming on his own.
Whether it's rescuing Yan Hengchuan alive or killing Yan Liming to avenge him, he'll probably find it very difficult.
The reason he had his third senior brother send Yan Hengchuan to the Immortal City was so that he could personally guide his cultivation and give him the opportunity to go further on the path to immortality.
But now, inexplicably, Yan Hengchuan has been abducted by Yan Liming, and his fate is unknown.
How will he face his third senior brother in the future?
"Why!"
……
After calming himself down, Li Ping returned to the weapon-refining room and took out the Blood Banner.
This top-grade magical artifact played a crucial role in his battle against Miaorou and Liu Wusheng.
Thanks to the blood-corroding poison released from it, Miao Rou was crippled before the battle even began, and Liu Wusheng was also weakened by one level.
If it weren't for this, even with the talisman in hand, he probably wouldn't have been able to kill Liu Wusheng so easily.
However, this level of blood-corroding poison is not very effective for those in the late Foundation Establishment stage; more poisons need to be refined in.
With a wave of his hand, the Blood Banner floated in mid-air.
Then, Li Ping patted the storage bag at his waist, and a large clump of green worm corpses floated out of the storage bag. They were attracted to the Blood Banner and began to refine them greedily.
These green worm corpses were collected by Li Ping after he killed Liu Wusheng and returned to the battlefield.
The green worms themselves are also highly poisonous, which is perfect for refining and enhancing the power of the Blood Banner's Blood-Corroding Poison.
Li Ping placed the Blood Banner in the weapon-refining room to refine the poison, while he himself returned to the training room to concentrate on his cultivation.
……
The village where Teng Feng was born was the place where Xiong Pohai led the cultivators from the Immortal City to find him.
While inspecting the surrounding environment, he also called over villagers to inquire about the specific situation.
Under his questioning, the villagers recounted in detail what had happened that day.
But as he listened, Xiong Pohai's expression changed: "Green flying insects? If they bite you, your whole body will turn into pus?"
Before coming here, he had gathered information about Yan Liming through Xiancheng channels, and among the people associated with Yan Liming, he was the only one who matched this description.
He dared to bully a Foundation Establishment cultivator like Li Ping in the early stages, but when faced with a Foundation Establishment cultivator like Liu Wusheng in the late stages, he just wanted to stay far away!
He could tell whether his own life or his mission was more important.
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