The aura of death instantly swept through Joe Di's body from his wound, and he felt his vitality rapidly draining away.
A healing pill was tossed into Joe Di's mouth by Elder Crookback, accompanied by his voice: "This is a top-grade healing pill. It can suppress your injuries..."
Joe Di felt no gratitude towards Elder Crookback. The only reason Elder Crookback was healing him was to make him work. From his perception, Elder Crookback was a notch above the Soul Ancestor who had arrived. This Soul Ancestor must have come here using a locator, which meant Elder Crookback hadn’t lied—the Qi Family truly possessed a locator.
Just as Joe Di thought Elder Crookback would attack the Soul Ancestor who hadn’t yet landed, Elder Crookback suddenly activated the array disk in his hand again. Waves of rippling patterns instantly shielded this section of space.
Bang! The Soul Ancestor who approached crashed into the rippling spatial barrier and was bounced back by the recoil.
Joe Di was even more shocked in his heart— what grade was Elder Crookback’s array disk? Even a Soul Ancestor was so easily repelled; this was definitely a top-tier rare treasure.
"Kid, my array disk won’t hold out for long. Why aren’t you making a move? If the Qi Family’s Soul Ancestor breaks through my array disk, I’ll leave without a second thought. What happens to you then is none of my concern." Seeing Joe Di hesitate to break the seal, Elder Crookback’s tone grew cold.
Joe Di understood that, regardless of Elder Crookback’s motives for having him break the seal, one thing was true: if Elder Crookback escaped on his own, Joe Di would be doomed.
Joe Di didn’t dare delay any longer and increased his efforts to break the seal. Even though he still wasn’t using his full strength, it only took him a few minutes to open the seal.
The moment Joe Di blasted open the seal, he felt as if something new had appeared within his body. Before he could react, Elder Crookback had already snatched away the flame.
Boom boom! The Qi Family Soul Ancestor continued to strike at the array disk's defensive ripples, causing it to thunder loudly.
Joe Di was certain that Elder Crookback's array disk could easily last not just ten minutes, but perhaps even an entire incense stick's worth of time.
Heh, the kid’s arraycraft is truly impressive." Elder Crookback grinned at Joe Di after collecting the flame.
Joe Di guessed that Elder Crookback probably realized he hadn’t used his full strength, but there was nothing he could do—if Elder Crookback wanted him dead, he couldn’t resist.
"Let's go, kid." Elder Crookback wrapped Joe Di in primordial energy and, with a flick of his body, left the cave dwelling directly.
Even while enveloped in Elder Crookback’s primordial energy, Joe Di could sense a distant beam of light being put away by Elder Crookback. Joe Di was certain that this beam of light was Elder Crookback’s array disk.
A wave of dizziness swept over him, and Joe Di felt himself constantly shifting positions. He knew Elder Crookback must possess the escape art he had always dreamed of.
Bang! An hour later, Joe Di was thrown to the ground by Elder Crookback.
Kid, I’ve saved you again. Good luck. Oh, and don’t envy my flame—when you reach Skyveil, you might find even better flames. There’s a cave dwelling ahead; you can go in and heal." With that, Elder Crookback stepped out and vanished.
Joe Di felt no joy at being spared by Elder Crookback. He now fully understood why Elder Crookback had given him such benefits and dragged him along as a mere bystander.
With Elder Crookback’s own abilities, he could have easily taken the flame from that cave dwelling.
The reason Elder Crookback had him act in the Qi Trading House was obvious—he wanted all the experts’ attention focused on Joe Di.
Elder Crookback could have killed the Qi Family Soul Ancestor, but instead used the array disk to block him. When Elder Crookback blocked the Soul Ancestor, Joe Di could see him, and was certain the Soul Ancestor could see him too. As for Elder Crookback, the Soul Ancestor definitely couldn’t see him. Elder Crookback let the Soul Ancestor go to make it clear that the white-haired elder was behind everything.
The white-haired elder wasn’t that strong—he hadn’t blocked the Soul Ancestor with strength, but with a powerful array disk. This made Joe Di even more suspicious to the Qi Trading House. With such a top-tier array disk, even if his cultivation was weak, it wouldn’t be strange for him to wipe out all the Qi Trading House’s Golden Core cultivators.
It seemed Elder Crookback was very wary of the Qi Trading House. Now that all their attention was on Joe Di, Elder Crookback could roam free. If Joe Di was caught, the Qi Trading House wouldn’t find the flame. As for Elder Crookback, with his disguise, the Qi Trading House wouldn’t find him either.
In the end, he was nothing more than cannon fodder that Elder Crookback had thrown at the Qi Trading House.
As for the spirit stones and resources Elder Crookback didn’t take, it was probably to make the Qi Trading House certain that Joe Di was the one who robbed them.
Elder Crookback was sure the Qi Trading House would catch Joe Di soon. Otherwise, he would have taken the spirit stones and materials instead of leaving them to frame Joe Di.
Just as Joe Di thought of this, that feeling of his vitality draining returned. In just a short time, he felt as if death was right before his eyes.
What a sinister bastard Elder Crookback is!" Joe Di cursed furiously.
The healing pill Elder Crookback gave him only temporarily suppressed his injuries. Without it, any ordinary cultivator would have died in that cave dwelling. Elder Crookback’s purpose in suppressing his injuries was to ensure Joe Di “escaped” the Qi Trading House, only for his corpse to be found here.
Joe Di sneered—Elder Crookback had underestimated him. His greatest strength was his ability to recover physically, and besides, he still possessed half a fist-sized piece of green vitality.
Wait a minute…
Joe Di suddenly realized—why was Elder Crookback so sure the Qi Trading House would find his corpse? There were plenty of cultivators passing by outside; the Qi Trading House couldn’t be that lucky, could they?
A flash of inspiration crossed Joe Di’s mind—he remembered that when he broke the Flame Seal, it felt like something new appeared in his body.
What could appear out of thin air? A Spirit Mark.
It was definitely a Spirit Mark from the Qi Trading House. Joe Di had no time to be angry at Elder Crookback’s cunning—he hurriedly summoned a top-grade flying artifact, called out Sprout, and had Sprout pilot the ship away at maximum speed.
During this time, he had to find and remove the Spirit Mark—otherwise, he was as good as dead.
Over the years, Joe Di had been through plenty and was usually methodical—rarely did anyone catch him off guard. But compared to Elder Crookback, he felt like a preschooler. If he couldn’t strip away the Spirit Mark left by the Flame Seal today, he’d be forced to drink Elder Crookback’s foot bath. At least he was strong enough to realize he’d been marked.
With plenty of cultivation support, Sprout had advanced rapidly and was now a mid-stage Level Two tree demon. When he heard Joe Di say the Qi Trading House’s Soul Ancestor would soon catch up, Sprout dared not slack off. He frantically used top-grade spirit stones to power the ship and poured his own spiritual sense and primordial energy into it.
If the Qi Family’s Soul Ancestor caught up, it wouldn’t just be Big Brother’s life at stake—Sprout, who was just a little root, would be doomed too.
Joe Di didn’t care which direction Sprout was flying. He stripped off all his clothes and burned them, then scattered the ashes and let his spiritual sense thoroughly penetrate his body.
To find where the Qi Trading House’s Spirit Mark had been placed, Joe Di even checked every single strand of his hair.
After a whole incense stick’s time passed and he still hadn’t found the Spirit Mark, Joe Di felt not joy, but despair.
Joe Di refused to believe the Spirit Mark from the Flame Seal was on his clothes—after he threw them away, it should have been gone.
Joe Di grabbed a pile of spirit stones and tossed them beside him, then began frantically cultivating the Starstream Technique.
When he cultivated the Starstream Technique, a starry sky would form within his body. Now at the sixth stage of foundation building, he could control everything in that starry sky, and his spiritual sense would be even stronger.
Even if it was just a faint trace, it was still an opportunity. As he cultivated, the starry sky in his body grew clearer, and his understanding of his body deepened. This might help him find the Spirit Mark.
Before a full cycle of the Starstream Technique was completed, and before the starry sky had fully formed, Joe Di clearly discovered a hidden mark.
This mark definitely wasn’t his own. The reason he hadn’t found it earlier was because it was hidden in his meridians and could only be detected while cultivating.
If he stopped cultivating for a while, the mark would completely merge into his meridians, and even cultivation wouldn’t reveal it. Joe Di breathed a little easier—at least he’d found it.
Joe Di immediately tried to wrap the Spirit Mark and pull it out. To his alarm, his spiritual sense couldn’t lock onto it. Worse, the stronger his spiritual sense became, the more the Spirit Mark faded.
Joe Di didn’t believe the Spirit Mark fading meant it was gone—it was definitely merging deeper into his body.
He ran the Starstream Technique again, and his spiritual sense touched the gray stone in his sea of consciousness.
Joe Di sensed a kind of law—the fading Spirit Mark suddenly became clear in his spiritual sense. What he’d only been able to touch before, he could now easily wrap up and pull out.
Joe Di rushed out to the ship’s deck, grabbed another top-grade flying artifact, placed the Spirit Mark on it, and loaded it with spirit stones. He sent the empty ship off in another direction.
Only when the empty flying artifact carrying the Spirit Mark disappeared did the sense of deadly threat finally vanish.