Chapter 45: Luo Roumei
Meanwhile, back in the Thousand Valley Range, a group of cultivators were traveling through the air on their flying swords. They numbered five, three men and two women, with a female cultivator taking the lead among the group as they flew in a V-shape formation.
The first female cultivator had flowing green hair that had a light glow radiating off each strand, with beautiful features that seemed elfin. Her skin tone was a little tanned compared to the typical Yanhuang human on Tianming Continent, and her ears were slightly pointed in a way Li Ling would have found familiar.
Her expression was serene and her brocade silk robes were of the same style as her four compatriots, a greenish-brown color with the symbol of the Qing Shan Sect on it.
"Senior Sister, you are truly unlucky! Who would have thought that such a cushy job in an outer market could yield such trouble?" The other female disciple lamented openly, being in the second position to the left of the elfin young lady.
The elfin young lady’s gentle smile extended slightly. "Junior Sister Nan, you shouldn’t say that. It was my carelessness in protecting the sanctity of the market that led to this outcome."
The man to the right of the elfin young lady scoffed, his snake-like eyes narrowing. "Cheap talk! Luo Roumei, don’t think just because you are the favored disciple of the Alchemy Elder that you can brush off responsibility and coast throughout life! We all know he only keeps you around because you Spirit Humans are good at handling herbs!"
His words caused the previously polite atmosphere of the group to become cold. Luo Roumei, the elfin senior sister of this group, did not negate her smile in the least as her green pupils scanned the ground below continuously.
"It seems that Junior Brother Gu bears resentment towards me? Do you have any advice for me?"
"Tsk, what advice could this fellow have? He’s just envious that your talent was rated higher than his!" The male disciple to the left of Junior Sister Nan remarked casually, not at all intimidated by the growing atmosphere of tension.
Junior Brother Gu’s face changed as he glared at the other person who spoke dangerously. "Shi Feng, be very careful what you choose to say next! It will decide whether you return to the sect whole or with your attitude in check!"
"Oooh, terrifying! Once Senior Brother Gu gets angry, no one dares to stand in his way! Senior Brother Shi, are you sure you want to provoke this man?" The final male disciple, who seemed a little too young to be among this group, teased with excitement.
His words might seem like he was trying to give one side a warning, but it was actually a form of naked instigation, hoping to see both parties fight. However, the interesting thing was that his words rather caused both parties to look away and remain silent.
It seemed that even if they disliked each other, shutting up and swallowing their anger was more preferable than giving this instigator fellow a good show.
The instigating disciple saw this and became dismayed, feeling that life was unfair. Meanwhile, Junior Sister Nan smirked knowingly, while Luo Roumei shook her head, maintaining her approachable demeanor.
"Heng? What’s that?" The same young man saw something in the foliage below and called attention to it.
His colleagues saw this and scanned the area with their spirit sense, revealing all of them to be Foundation Establishment cultivators.
In the number 9 marketplace and in weaker regions, such a power was seen as a pillar in the sky, the true starting point of cultivation where one truly broke away from mortality and became something more... something immortal.
But Foundation Establishment cultivators part of a big sect like the Qing Shan Sect knew better. It was just the second realm of mortal cultivation and they had a long way to go before they could ascend to true power, even within their own sect.
At this time, Cai Dong was currently riding on the back of a moose-like demon beast at the third level of Qi Refinement, having long broken the seal Li Ling left on her and used her Mind Power to not only secure food and water, but to subdue this creature as a temporary mount.
As she traversed through the forest, her expression changed when she felt the spirit senses scan over her, startling the five disciples in the sky.
"Oh, it’s a Sage Race woman! No wonder she sensed our scans!" Junior Sister Nan exclaimed with surprise.
"But what is one of her kind doing out here at this time? Not to mention, she looks quite bedraggled." Shi Feng noted calmly, his brows furrowing.
"Pfft, why assume? Just stop her and ask, it’s that simple." Disciple Gu said belligerently, not waiting for the others to confirm before diving downwards and appearing before Cai Dong.
Cai Dong slowly reined her mount in and glanced at the group of Foundation Establishment cultivators who hovered on their flying swords before her, noting their auras and their sect affiliation.
"Sage Race woman! Why are you passing through here at this time?" Sect Disciple Gu asked directly, staring Cai Dong down.
However, before Cai Dong could answer, Luo Roumei raised a hand to block Disciple Gu and moved forward. Despite his overt dislike of his Senior Apprentice Sister, Disciple Gu definitely did not dare go against her commands, not only because of her affiliation with an actual elder, but also because she had the highest cultivation among them.
"Hello dear friend, sorry for the interruption. We are currently tracking a demonic cultivator who slaughtered innocents at a nearby outer cultivation market, and would like to ask if you have any information to that end?"
Luo Roumei’s words were soft and her voice pleasant, so anyone being asked about this by her would subconsciously relax. Not to mention, for both the righteous and neutral-aligned cultivators, demonic cultivators were their bane as they treated fellow practitioners as food, so anyone would want to help prevent such a scourge from existing further.
The only difference was that Cai Dong had seen and experienced this scourge for herself, finding that she couldn’t agree with the sentiment more. While she didn’t want to antagonize a monster like Li Ling anymore, it did not mean that she was going to protect his secrets.
"Yes, I was kidnapped by him from the number 9 marketplace. This is what happened..." Cai Dong succinctly spilled the beans on the goings-on, especially in terms of Li Ling’s bizarre decision-making and his rapid growth.
"Despicable! He actually managed to take down so many outer sect disciples!" Junior Sister Nan gritted her teeth with anger.
The others were equally unhappy, and even the ever-present smile on Luo Roumei’s face faded slightly. She raised her head to glance at the way in which Cai Dong came in silence for a few seconds, before returning her gentle gaze to the Sage Race woman.
"Thank you, Junior Sister Cai. Your information has helped us greatly and I sincerely apologize for the suffering you have endured due to my negligence, especially the loss of your father."
Luo Roumei pointed a finger, sending a condensed token of spirit energy into Cai Dong’s hands. "Use this token at the gates of the Qing Shan to be admitted and let them know I recruited you personally to be my disciple. Us variant humans should stick together in this world, we are simply too few nowadays."
Cai Dong silently took the token and nodded, bowing to the group before continuing on her journey back. The group of Foundation Establishment sect disciples did not leave immediately, the others digesting the information they received from Cai Dong slowly.
Shi Feng came forward and approached Luo Roumei with a serious look on his face. "Senior Sister, do you believe her words?"
The others were snapped out of their thoughts and felt that indeed, they should see what their Senior Sister thought about the matter. Luo Roumei, who had been asked this, simply chuckled and beckoned for the group to resume their flight.
"Her information is not wrong in and of itself. The problem is that she should not even be here to give us this information in the first place." Luo Roumei said with a smile.
"Tch, obviously! A demonic cultivator who practices a technique like Blood Asura Descent, who has perfected daoist arts and has killed everything he has come across suddenly let her go without even defiling her?" Junior Brother Gu stated with a cold snort, his hands folded behind his back.
"Indeed, it is strange. It is quite likely that she was left behind to feed us false information during the chase, which is the only value she could have that would be greater than just killing her outright." Shi Feng stated contemplatively, frowning deeply.
Junior Sister Nan shuddered deeply. "Still, that Li Ling bastard is truly cruel! He almost let such a pitiful person get ruined by a mere beast! How sacrilegious!"
The instigating disciple, whose name was Lu Kuangren, smacked his lips with a strange expression. "I don’t even know how a person’s mind can come up with something like that. You guys all accuse me of being a troublemaker with insidious pranks, but none of my wickedest thoughts have ever strayed that far!"
Suddenly, there was a short spell of silence as the others glanced at this fellow with clearly skeptical looks, to which he could only helplessly shrug. Anyway, it was his own fault for cultivating such a bad reputation in the sect for his antics, they were justified to not believe him.
"So what do we do now? He is clearly onto the fact that we are chasing him and has likely shifted his goal. That act of heading to Hewu Province is likely a smokescreen, right?" Lu Kuangren asked with hesitation.
The other four remained silent, until Luo Roumei spoke. "We have been tasked to apprehend him by any means necessary. Not only has his wanton slaughter caused severe losses to the sect, but it turns out that he is practicing the Blood Asura Descent."
"Coupled with his clearly strong ability to master daoist arts, he must not be allowed to join the demonic sects and grow into a scourge that will cause tribulations on Tianming Continent. Each demonic cultivator that has risen to the top has consumed enough of their own kind to drown a grade 4 Destroyer Whale in the blood alone, countless souls wailing in pain due to their actions."
Luo Roumei spoke softly, but her tone was firm.
Junior Sister Nan pouted. "You’re so determined Senior Sister, but how do we catch him? We don’t have a concrete idea as to where he is going. He could be going to the left, to Huxian Province, to the right, towards Leiwan Province or even have sneaked back behind us along with that Sage Race woman!"
Luo Roumei smiled gently. "He hasn’t yet passed us by yet. Regardless of whether he truly goes to Hewu, or passes the way to the other provinces, he still has one eventual goal, and that is to reach the Six Paths Demon Sect due to the Blood Asura Descent."
"It doesn’t matter if we cannot catch him during his flight, nor at his next destination. All we have to do is be present at his penultimate destination and wait patiently for him to fall into our hands, especially when he is at his most relaxed." She concluded with a faint light in her eye.
"Ehh? Senior Sister, are you saying you actually want us to go that far for a mere Qi Refinement demonic disciple? That’s a really long distance, even if we have free teleportation array use all the way~" Junior Sister Nan complained, dreading the long journey.
"Tsk, naturally we have to go! This mission isn’t just about the future of the continent as Luo Roumei makes it sound. It’s about the face of the sect and the fact that she can’t return without that brat’s head, lest she shame herself and her master!" Junior Brother Gu pointed out cruelly.
Shi Feng scowled at his fellow disciple and added: "More importantly, it acts as a form of deterrence. One of the main factors in deciding to flout the law of a place is the ease of escape, measuring how long law enforcement would pursue. If we capture him so far to the north, it would show that our Qing Shan Sect is willing to pursue criminals to the ends of the earth, significantly curbing such actions from ever happening again."