Several corpses lay in the river, each bearing wounds of varying severity. Not only that, their souls had already dissipated. Seeing the dead, Ember Yang frowned and said, "Could it be that someone has started fighting here as well?"
"The way these people died is strange. If I'm not mistaken, it's poison insects—specifically, scorpions found only in the desert." Melody Wood observed for a while before speaking.
"That's right, they definitely died from poisoning, and the wounds were caused by insects biting them." Yang Han said.
"Could it be that group did it?" Lynn Lin frowned.
"Why would they kill these people? Did they have some conflict? But that can't be right—they could have acted inside the Bloodfiend Ground, just like they did with us." Melody Wood said.
"Did you notice how heavy the blood scent is on these bodies?" Yang Han, sensitive to aura, quickly voiced his suspicion. Ember Yang also examined carefully and said, "Seems so. It's as unpleasant as when we ate in the inn that day."
"I didn't smell anything," Lynn Lin said suspiciously. Melody Wood caught a faint trace, but it was barely noticeable—if you weren't careful, you'd miss it.
"Could it be that they targeted these people because they had Blood-Marks?" Melody Wood wondered after hearing Yang Han's words.
Yang Han pondered, "Maybe. Let's head back—there's nothing more to see here."
Ember Yang loved excitement and wanted to look more, but Yang Han pulled her away. On the way back, she kept talking about the corpses, eager to figure out what really happened.
"Don't get involved in this. For the next month, just stay put and cultivate—unless you want to train early. If so, I'll just leave you in this city to fend for yourselves," Yang Han said.
"Fine, we won't get involved," Ember Yang muttered, still annoyed at being left behind in the White Tiger Dynasty last time.
Lynn Lin also became more obedient, while Melody Wood was always the one Yang Han could trust most.
The four of them returned helplessly. Yang Han instructed them to focus on cultivating for the Bloodfiend Ground, while he himself also cultivated—but his Divine Sense had already spread out, covering the entire small city.
His goal was to keep an eye on that young man and observe his every move.
Sure enough, Yang Han soon noticed the young man acting suspiciously. Every time before going out, he would carefully disguise himself, and he always moved in the middle of the night when most people were cultivating or resting.
One night, Yang Han saw him sneak into a house. The place had been quiet, but suddenly, through Thousand-Mile Echo, Yang Han heard voices inside.
He heard a strange man's voice: "Who are you?"
"You don't need to know. Just hand over the artifact bound with your Blood-Mark," the young man said coldly.
"Dream on! So you're the one who's been killing those people these days?" the stranger said angrily.
"That's right, you figured it out. You should also know that no one leaves alive from my hands," the young man said with a smile. As he spoke, many scorpions appeared on the ground.
Seeing the scorpions, the stranger exclaimed, "You're from the desert?"
"That's right, you know that. But do you know what these insects are?" the young man asked with a smile.
"These are—" As one insect quickly crawled under his foot, the man paled with fear and blurted out, "Your holy insects."
"Correct. They're specialized for eating human flesh and blood. Now you can hand over your artifact, and I'll spare you. Otherwise, you'll be tortured to death," the young man said.
"Damn it, I won't let you get away with this!" the man shouted angrily, trying to attack the young man. But before he could move, his whole body felt unbearable pain and he began rolling on the ground.
"Will you hand it over or not?" the young man asked.
"I'll hand it over." Reluctantly, the man took out his artifact. Blood-Marks were wrapped around it, just like what they saw at Heavenrend's place before, only much weaker.
After receiving the artifact, the young man smiled, "Thanks. I'll keep your soul for you." With that, he killed the man and collected his soul.
Watching this happen, Yang Han frowned, still unsure what the young man wanted with those artifacts. This kind of thing happened several times that night. When the young man returned to his house, Yang Han planned to see what he was up to.
He discovered a barrier around the young man, preventing anyone from approaching—even Yang Han's Divine Sense couldn't penetrate it.
"Interesting," Yang Han muttered suspiciously.
Noticing the young man's unusual behavior, Yang Han naturally wanted to investigate further. But he didn't want to be discovered, so he changed his aura. Once everything was ready, he chose a spot on the barrier and began figuring out how to break it.
The barrier was set up by the young man, who was inside manipulating the artifacts and ignoring the barrier for now.
Yang Han knew Divine Sense alone couldn't open the barrier, so he flashed away. When he reappeared outside the barrier, he was completely silent—the Desert Envoy didn't notice, nor did the young man inside.
Yang Han reached the barrier and began trying to break it. After a while, he finally made a small hole. Though he couldn't enter, he could see what was happening inside.
Inside, the young man was refining the stolen gear. After each piece was refined, a faint red gas would float out, full of blood scent. The young man collected the gas in a special box and laughed, "Over a hundred already. I'll grab more in the Bloodfiend Ground. My cultivation method is guaranteed to reach completion."
Yang Han was curious about what cultivation method he meant, but the young man was alert and quickly noticed Yang Han outside, exclaiming, "Who are you?"
When he arrived, he found Yang Han had vanished, and there was a new hole in the barrier.
"Damn, someone was spying on me! Damn it!" Realizing someone had been watching—and that it was a powerful expert—the young man was furious. He immediately summoned the Desert Envoy and asked if anyone had come near the barrier. They all said they hadn't noticed anything.
The young man cursed angrily, "A bunch of useless fools—can't even keep watch properly!"
"Prince Leng, what's going on?" the Desert Envoy asked curiously.
(Irrelevant system message—skip translation.)
"What else? Someone found out and even snuck in to spy on me," the young man said.
Everyone was shocked when they heard this, but none of them had noticed anything. Just how terrifying was this intruder?
Not just them—even the young man only realized something was wrong at the last moment. He was wary of the hidden expert, so he said, "No matter what, we must find that person. This secret can't be exposed."
"Did you see what he looked like, Prince? Or sense his aura?" the Desert Envoy asked.
"I didn't see his face, but I know his aura. Later, search for him based on this aura. I refuse to believe we can't find him in such a small city," the young man said.
"Understood. We'll start searching right away," the Desert Envoy replied. The group went off to work, leaving the young man frowning and muttering, "Just wait. Next time I find you, you're dead."
Yang Han had already returned to his room. Reflecting on what he'd just seen, he frowned and muttered, "Refining gear to get that blood-colored gas—what's it really for?"
Not long after Yang Han returned, he sensed the Desert people searching everywhere for him, even tracking his aura.
Yang Han had already restored his aura, so they had no chance of finding him. Thus, Yang Han evaded them again. Ever since discovering what the young man was doing, he watched him every night but didn't approach the barrier.
A few days later, he saw some people—none other than the Grand General and the Empress he had seen before.
Seeing their arrival, Yang Han, who had been focused on the young man, immediately told Ember Yang and the others to pack up and enter the Strange Shell.
"What's going on?" Ember Yang asked, confused.
"The Miao clan is here—they're after me. You all go in first, I'll explain later," Yang Han said. Lynn Lin and Melody Wood were shocked, while Ember Yang was curious about the Empress, wondering how she knew where he was.
At that moment, they didn't think much—just entered Yang Han's Strange Shell.
Yang Han himself disappeared in a flash. The Empress and her group learned Yang Han's whereabouts from the young man and went to the inn where he was staying, just in time to see him vanish.
"Damn, we've been discovered!" the Empress shouted, then vanished in a flash, chasing after Yang Han. The Grand General and the others couldn't keep up, so they followed her aura.
Actually, Yang Han could have hidden and avoided dragging the others along.
Yang Han watched the Empress following behind and smiled to himself, "So you've arrived?"
Soon, Yang Han found a place to stop. Seeing the Empress approach, he smiled, "Welcome, Empress."
"Did you deliberately lure me here?" Seeing Yang Han unafraid and waiting for her, she frowned.
"You're not the original Empress. I brought you here because I want to clarify some things. Surely you won't refuse to tell me," Yang Han said.
The Empress smiled, "That's right, I'm not the original me, but I still have her memories. The previous Empress hated you, but I admire talent. If you're willing to follow me and give me the Phoenix Egg, I'll let you go."
"Phoenix Egg? It's gone," Yang Han replied.
"What? Gone? How is that possible? Kid, are you joking?" the Empress shouted angrily.
Yang Han smiled, "So what?"
"So you're not planning to hand it over? In that case, I'll kill you first!" the Empress snorted coldly.
"I'm curious to see what's different about you after your transformation." Yang Han noticed the scorpion on the Empress's forehead and wondered what it was, just as she began to transform.
The Empress's hands turned into scorpion claws, and a long tail grew from behind her—getting longer and longer.
"Kid, you'd better pray you don't touch my poison, or the consequences will be dire," the Empress snorted coldly.