One more catty, one more attribute point

Let's set aside Shang Mengting's grand ambitions for now.

On the other side,

Su Heng and Solban continued to move forward.

Encountering Shang Mengting was a slight surprise for Su Heng.

But he didn't dwell on it; the gap between their status and strength was too vast.

Moreover, there had been no particularly deep interactions in the past, hardly differing from strangers. The pressing matter was still to find the Dragon Tomb and a way to enter it.

Previously, Solban had speculated that the Demon Descendant might possibly interfere in this matter.

If they encountered one, all the better.

Su Heng was quite interested in the physical structure of the Demon Descendants and their innate divine skills.

It would be a good opportunity to capture a few and bring them back to the Demon Suppression Tower for thorough dissection and study.

If they did not encounter any...

That would be no issue either, sparing them a lot of trouble.

The two passed through the bustling market and finally reached the center of the city.

Before them lay a vast open space of black stone square, with a gigantic square pedestal in the center, over which hovered a huge sphere with a diameter of about ten feet.

Upon closer inspection, the sphere had many large and small flat facets.

These facets cast streams of light outward.

Screens with a very sci-fi feel then materialized over the square.

Su Heng and Solban, being truly country bumpkins, were seeing such marvelous objects for the first time. Their attention was drawn to texts running through these screens—some displaying trading information, others announcing discoveries in the Dragon Abyss, requesting teams to venture out, and so on.

"What is this?" Solban blinked, his face filled with curiosity.

Su Heng was slightly better informed.

He had not seen it before, but he had read about it in the materials provided by Meng Huan.

"It should be a Shadow-Stone," Su Heng explained, "The Shadow-Stone is divided into a parent stone and child stones. Child stones can go out to collect information, while the parent stone can project these images. What we are seeing now should be the parent stone of the Shadow-Stone."

"I see," Solban nodded in realization.

Su Heng acted quite nonchalantly as it was just a big projector, nothing too surprising.

"Let's first visit the surrounding stalls to see if there are any clues about the Dragon Abyss," Su Heng planned as they walked.

"Alright!" Solban nodded.

Now under Su Heng's command, and not as enemies, the two got along quite well.

Sizzle!

Solban had just turned around, ready to search for clues.

But just then, a strange noise came from behind, causing him to halt his steps and turn back towards the square behind him.

He then saw that many of the screens hanging in the sky were disappearing one by one.

Finally, a bloody, massive screen spread across, dominating the center of all the information shown.

This conspicuous change quickly drew everyone's attention. Su Heng also furrowed his brows and looked up. The area first fell silent, followed by a noisy buzz of discussion. This marketplace, established under the auspices of King Qingyang, had been around for some time, and it was the first instance of such an anomaly.

"What happened?" someone asked.

"Not sure," another younger voice responded, "But by the looks of it, it's probably not a good thing."

In an inconspicuous part of another district,

Shang Mengting also heard the news and followed an elder of her family to observe from a distance.

With the opening of Dragon Abyss, a mass of resources flowed in and out of this market. Shang Mengting, seeking protection, had spent her last resources. It was the last chance for the Shang Family's rise, her face was calm but she was actually very tense.

She wouldn't miss any subtle developments and came immediately to verify the news.

The bloody screen was very blurry.

After a while, it seemed to slowly focus and become clear.

The image depicted a deserted city filled with collapsed ruins everywhere, the ground pockmarked and even the sky a hazy gray. Clearly, a tremendous battle had taken place here, significantly altering the surrounding environment.

In the center of the image,

was blood!

A headless corpse dressed in white lay slumped in a puddle of blood, smooth as a mirror.

His head was not far away, pierced through the forehead by a broken black sword, nailed to a wall.

His eyes were wide open in rage, filled densely with blood vessels. And his neck, the cut was not clean but involved skin, fat, and a swaying spine. Obviously, he had been crudely ripped from his body using savage means.

The image was dynamic, a breeze blew, the pale spine swaying back and forth, blood dripping down, staining the wild grasses and dust on the ground red.

The onlookers' breaths hitched, followed by a burst of noisy discussions.

"This person is Jing Yun, the chief disciple of the Liuyun Mountain!" a young and strong martial artist exclaimed in disbelief. "I saw him here in the market just a few days ago, surrounded by a crowd, an aura of Dao flowing around him, just like a banished immortal. It's hard to believe that in the blink of an eye, he has turned into a corpse, and moreover, died so gruesomely."

"And it's not just the chief disciple alone; there are many other corpses around the scene, all chopped up, all elite members of the Liuyun Mountain."

"The Dragon Abyss had just opened, and Liuyun Mountain has already suffered heavy losses!"

An old man with white hair exclaimed in shock. "As one of the four great Earth Immortal Mountains of Changyue, with profound heritage and ancient lineage, who would dare to act so heartlessly? Aren't they afraid of retribution under great fury?"

"The chief disciple?!" The green-clad maid beside Shang Mengting covered her mouth, her eyes red, struggling to accept such news.

Shang Mengting herself felt a sudden darkness before her eyes.

She felt a chill overtake her, her head heavy and her feet light. The strength drained from her body all at once, her knees weakening.

If not for a family elder beside her reaching out to support her in time, Shang Mengting would have collapsed to the ground.

Even so, her face turned terribly pale.

Inside her long sleeves, her slender, onion-like fingers were trembling slightly.

She felt completely bewildered, as if the entire world had darkened in an instant, utterly unsure of what to do next.

Leveraging her ancestors' relationships,

she had gambled all her resources on this current chief disciple of Liuyun Mountain.

But the moment Dragon Abyss had just opened, this chief disciple had already perished.

The shop she had rented in the bustling area of the market, though still operable, would be impossible to maintain and protect without the brand of Liuyun Mountain and the protection of the chief disciple.

With the current strength of the Shang Family, they were completely like a plump sheep ready for the slaughter.

Holding onto these wealth would only, more likely, invite trouble.

"What should I do?" Shang Mengting felt her limbs go cold, her sweat running cold.

...

"These are the methods of a Demon Descendant," Solban said with a slightly gloomy expression, speaking in a low voice. "In my previous encounter with that person, my immortality was suppressed, completely unable to perform. This person probably encountered the same situation, first suppressing the immortality, and then his head was directly torn off by a tremendous force, resulting in a gruesome death."

"If you encounter him, you must be careful," Solban earnestly advised.

But after speaking, he felt it was of little use.

Su Heng was still far from reaching the Earth Immortal Realm!

Without immortality,

no matter how sophisticated the methods of the Demon Descendant, they weren't of much value against Su Heng.

"I understand," Su Heng nodded. A wave of noisy discussions surrounded him, drawing some of his attention.

Dragon Abyss attracted strong cultivators from all corners, and Solban could discern some clues from the scene; other cultivators naturally possessed similar methods.

"Demon Descendants, it's been so long since I have heard their names; I didn't expect to see traces of them here," a burly man with a bold visage, open-chested like a butch, licked his lips, his face filled with excitement.

"There will be a good show to watch now."

Another companion chuckled, "No matter who took such a vicious action, Liuyun Mountain has suffered such a big loss, and they definitely will not let it rest.

Demon Descendants have shown up, and it won't be long before those hired swords will come running like wild dogs smelling blood. Moreover, this road was opened by King Qingyang, an upright man; he probably won't just ignore this matter."

"These Demon Descendant bastards, still basking in their past glory. Their era has long ended, and now the few remaining lost souls daring to make such brazen moves, are simply seeking death," an elder with white hair and an expression of disdain shook his head, seemingly familiar with the secrets of the past.

"Hired sword…"

Su Heng murmured. He did learn from Meng Huan about this group of people, professionally hunting Demon Descendants, exchanging resources and cultivation techniques with the imperial court. Moreover, their background dated back before the establishment of the Great Zhou dynasty, and these people had started moving around since then.

But he was curious about what extraordinary means these people had against the Demon Descendants.

Su Heng was filled with curiosity.

But he didn't want to waste much energy on this matter.

Just like a horse crossing a river, these Demon Descendants were a threat to Solban. Yet, in Su Heng's perspective, they might not pose much trouble.

"Let's go, we should start searching for clues related to the Dragon Tomb," Su Heng said.

"Okay!" Solban nodded in agreement.

To perform more efficiently, the two decided to split up, asking the vendors on both sides of the street in turn.

Su Heng seemed quite lucky, as before long, he gathered the needed information from a vendor on the roadside.

This vendor was tall with eyes fierce like a leopard's and a beard like a ram's.

Half-dressed as a scholar and half as a martial artist, he resembled a general wearing a Samurai's long robe.

His voice was loud, and he appeared enthusiastic, easily leaving a good first impression. But a closer look revealed his bright, calculating eyes and a somewhat insincere smile, as if he was scheming something.

Su Heng, practicing the Lai Treasure Sutra, was extremely perceptive.

Even without deliberately reading minds, he could feel that this man was intentionally hiding something.

However, he didn't care, as long as he could get useful information.

"I am Zhao Zhuang!" the man first introduced himself warmly before asking, "May I know what specific information you would like to learn from me?"