Feng Qingping briefly explained how they had tracked the distress signal to this point. After listening, Jiang Yifan’s brow furrowed even deeper. "I was the one who sent the signal, but I didn't expect you to arrive so quickly."
Li Nanzhu keenly sensed a hint of oddity. "Fourth Senior Brother, who did you originally expect would come to rescue you?"
Jiang Yifan remained silent for a moment before answering, "...Eldest Senior Brother, or Eldest Senior Sister."
Feng Qingping and Feng Weilan exchanged a look, their expressions subtle.
Li Nanzhu felt a stirring in her heart—it seemed the original story was right; Jiang Yifan's relationship with his family was indeed poor, to the point where he only dared to count on people from the sect for help.
She hesitated for a moment but couldn't help asking, "Fourth Senior Brother, the mysterious yin iron you mentioned before... is it really here?"
Jiang Yifan’s eyes flickered, and his tone became vague. "Mm, there are indeed clues pointing here."
Feng Qingping frowned. "Fourth Senior Brother, mysterious yin iron shouldn't appear in a place like this."
Feng Weilan added in a deep voice, "The Blood Fiend Sect being active here is likely no coincidence."
Jiang Yifan was silent for a while before slowly speaking. "I know what you're worried about, but now is not the time to discuss this."
Feng Qingping did not agree with his stance. "Fourth Senior Brother, it isn't our place to pry into your family matters, but you were truly too reckless this time."
Feng Weilan echoed the sentiment. "Coming here despite knowing it might be a trap... that's not like you."
Jiang Yifan ultimately shook his head. "There are some things that I simply had to do."
Looking at his exhausted expression, Li Nanzhu felt a shift within her; the plot seemed to have deviated once again.
In the original work, Jiang Yifan was a genius refinery master—proud and never one to bow his head. Yet now, he had been pushed to this state by family infighting...
Her confusion deepened, but it wasn't appropriate to press him. After all, she wasn't close to Jiang Yifan yet. Even her fifth and sixth senior siblings weren't saying much, so she had no reason to be curious. Prying rashly would only make her seem suspicious.
She could only suppress her questions for now and asked instead, "Fourth Senior Brother, how did you end up like this? These injuries..."
Jiang Yifan shook his head. "It’s a long story."
He raised a hand to rub the wound at his temple, hissing in pain before continuing, "I originally came just for the mysterious yin iron, but I accidentally stumbled into this underground area. Those evil cultivators attacked me as soon as they saw me."
He paused, a look of dissatisfaction surfacing on his face. "I am certain there was mysterious yin iron here before, but after those evil cultivators messed with it, even the best materials would have been contaminated..."
"Is that why you were blowing things up all over their territory?"
"Is that why you dared to stay in a Blood Fiend Sect stronghold all by yourself?"
Feng Qingping and Li Nanzhu spoke at the same time. Jiang Yifan’s expression turned slightly unnatural, and he twitched the corner of his mouth awkwardly.
"I thought it was just a small outpost, who knew..."
He didn't finish, but the meaning was clear—he had underestimated the enemy's strength.
Li Nanzhu couldn't help but ask, "Then, Fourth Senior Brother, how long have you been here?"
"Over twenty days." Jiang Yifan’s voice was weary. "At first, I could barely manage to deal with them, but this place is a labyrinth with no way to fly. I couldn't find an exit at all. Later, the evil cultivators started hunting me everywhere, and the ones I ran into refused to tell me the way out. I could only hide in this tunnel and use my Mountain-Moving Disk to slowly dig a path."
"Fourth Senior Brother, your injuries..." Her gaze fell on his blood-soaked sleeve.
Jiang Yifan twitched his lips and pulled his sleeve down. "I won't die."
Feng Qingping, however, grabbed his wrist without a word, her spiritual energy probing his meridians. Her expression grew increasingly grave. "Spiritual energy depletion, damaged meridians, and residual toxins... Fourth Senior Brother, it's a miracle you've held on until now."
Jiang Yifan pulled his hand back and said flatly, "I'm used to it."
Silence fell over them for a moment. Li Nanzhu searched her storage bag for useful pills and suddenly felt the fragment of the Red Flame Copper Mirror.
She handed the pills along with the mirror fragment to him, earning a surprised look from Jiang Yifan.
"I thought this Red Flame Copper Mirror was lost for good." Jiang Yifan took it with some emotion. "It seems you also ran into that thing that looks like an octopus?"
"Mm, we only fell down here after fighting it," Feng Weilan said, his face looking a bit grim; he was clearly still bothered by it.
"You should have noticed the strangeness of those things as well." Jiang Yifan tapped the mirror fragment. "I haven't been here for nothing these past few days. This thing... I have a rough idea of its origin."
"Let's hear it." Feng Qingping nodded for him to continue.
"All the tentacles here actually originate from a demonic beast... no, calling it a fiend beast would be more accurate."
As the words fell, the three were too shocked to speak for a moment.
Everyone knew that the demon realm had been completely severed from the cultivation world a long time ago. Forget demon cultivators, even fiend beasts were unheard of. To suddenly be told that the evil cultivators were feeding a fiend beast was equivalent to being told that the demon race was about to reappear in the world.
Li Nanzhu, however, took the news quite well internally because she knew that in the original story, a large number of demon race and demon cultivators did indeed appear in the later stages, causing many geniuses of the cultivation world to fall.
Like Li Nanyi, for example.
But she still put on an astonished expression and asked.
"A fiend beast? Aren't those only found in the demon realm? How could it appear here?"
Jiang Yifan’s face looked exceptionally solemn in the dim tunnel. He slowly pulled a crystal fragment from his robes that shimmered with a ghostly blue light. The surface was covered in eerie patterns that flickered as if the object itself were breathing.
"This is the proof." He placed the crystal fragment in his palm. "I found it near the mother nest. It has residual demon qi on it."
Feng Qingping gasped. "This really is a demon qi crystal... but how is that possible..."
"What kind of experiments is the Blood Fiend Sect performing?" Feng Weilan gripped the hilt of his blade, his knuckles turning white.
Jiang Yifan shook his head. "The specific goal isn't clear yet, but I suspect they are trying to open a passage between the two realms."
"Then are these so-called fiend beasts something they obtained through a broken passage?" Feng Qingping asked in a heavy voice.
Jiang Yifan’s expression was complex. "No... I suspect... it's not that they obtained fiend beasts, but that they 'manufactured' them."
"What do you mean?" Feng Weilan frowned.
"Those tentacles..." Jiang Yifan pointed back the way they came. "They should have been ordinary demonic beasts, but they mutated after being injected with demon qi. I found a massive amount of failed experimental remains near the mother nest..."
Li Nanzhu’s fingertips suddenly turned cold. Failed experimental remains? The mountains of skulls piled on those bone platforms...
"Fourth Senior Brother." Her voice trembled slightly. "The test subjects those evil cultivators were using... they couldn't possibly be..."
Jiang Yifan’s gaze confirmed her suspicion.
Feng Weilan’s blade hissed as it left its scabbard by three inches, the cold light reflecting his icy expression. "They are using living people for their experiments."
If that were the case... given the number of skulls on the bone platforms, just how many innocent cultivators and demonic beasts had they slaughtered!
Not to mention they were still capturing cultivators to feed them with fresh blood!
Rate on N.U.
