The miner who had killed a man landed on the ground without slowing his steps.
He moved like a surging wave, showing only a fleeting, animated profile.
With a fluid sequence of movements, relying on a surprise attack and a host of other methods, he had instantly killed the Xi clan elder of the Soaring Dragon realm despite having only Heaven-Piercing realm cultivation.
It was none other than Hu Shaomeng!
The treasure emerging now was the goal he had plotted toward for a long time.
In his early years, he had obtained a secret art called the Treasurelight Art, a wondrous technique that could detect treasures and use their radiance to reflect their value.
During an accidental inspection of the mine, he had discovered a treasure hidden deep within the vein. It was not yet fully formed and had not reached the moment of emergence.
He had been waiting all this time.
There was no need to grow anxious while waiting on his own turf.
But although this place was called the Hu clan mine, its true master was the Chongxuan clan.
When a great treasure emerged, it would naturally belong to the Chongxuan clan as well.
So before that happened, he had to make the Chongxuan clan leave.
Yet if he made the Chongxuan clan abandon this place too early, Jiacheng would inevitably take it over. The treasure would still not fall into Hu Shaomeng's hands.
That was why he had controlled the timing so strictly, personally stealing ore to make the vein run dry at the time he had planned.
Ideally, the treasure would emerge right after the Chongxuan clan gave up the mine, but before Jiacheng had time to take control.
He would seize the treasure by exploiting that gap in timing.
The intruder who had entered the mining area half a year ago had actually been Hu Shaomeng himself, stealing ore.
Unexpectedly, the cultivator Xie Hao guarding the mine discovered him. Hu Shaomeng had no choice but to kill him on the spot.
Afterward, he covered up the truth and framed Xie Hao as a spy sent by the Xi clan, pinning the blame for the exhausted vein on the Xi clan so he could deal with any accusations from the Chongxuan clan.
Ge Heng, Zhang Hai, and the others had all believed it. That allowed him to keep the truth hidden.
Everything he had done afterward served this one purpose.
But he had not expected the news to leak anyway, allowing Xi Zichu to notice something was wrong.
Even less had he expected a modest Azure Stone vein to draw the Chongxuan clan's attention, prompting them to send Jiang Chen, such a difficult fellow. His repeated probes had all come to nothing.
By then, the matter had become more and more troublesome.
So he had simply overturned his plan and laid out a new one by borrowing the momentum of others.
Xi Zichu had used him, but how could he not have been using Xi Zichu as well?
The two had competed openly and secretly for so many years. Hu Shaomeng understood Xi Zichu too well.
While Xi Zichu was still in Jiacheng and Jiang Chen was locked in battle with the Pig-Bone Mask outside the mine, Hu Shaomeng would assassinate the Xi clan elder and take the treasure. Then he would flee back to the Coastal County islands.
The Fishing Heaven Tower excelled at illusions. When it came to concealing his movements, Hu Shaomeng was far more professional and far more discreet than the Xi clan elder.
Xi Zichu believed he had the perfect plan: lure Hu Shaomeng to Jiacheng, capture and imprison him, secretly draw the Pig-Bone Mask and Jiang Chen into a deadly fight, and wipe out all his competitors at once. At the same time, he would send clan experts into the Hu mine to seize the treasure.
At the end, he would personally act together with the Xi clan elder to execute the Bone Path's notorious Pig-Bone Mask and give the people of Jiacheng justice!
What a perfect script.
What he had never imagined was that Hu Shaomeng himself had long been hiding in the mine, even right beside the Xi clan's disguised elder. The one who had gone to Jiacheng to oppose him was merely an illusion remotely controlled through a treasure.
...
Jiang Chen naturally did not miss the treasure's radiance outside the mine gate.
With all six directions in view, he noticed Hu Shaomeng briefly rise into the air and assassinate a transcendent cultivator.
He immediately shouted, "Su Xiuxing, Zhu Biqiong, go stop Hu Shaomeng! Leave this place to me!"
The Pig-Bone Mask was furious, but he had not lost his mind.
His field of vision was filled with flowers, but his other senses were unhindered.
Hearing Jiang Chen's voice, he immediately turned and came charging through the sea of flowers with thunderous steps, heading straight for him.
He was tall and broad of stride; after only a few steps, he was already close.
Taking advantage of his blinded vision, Jiang Chen deliberately formed several vine-snakes and tangled them together as a makeshift tripwire.
The enormous Pig-Bone Mask simply crashed through them and sent them flying.
In this state, the Pig-Bone Mask had merged the Bone Dharma Idol into his flesh. He possessed limitless strength and was entirely numb to pain.
Some Flameblooms hidden among the illusions were scattered by his palm. Others he took head-on. Even when a patch of flesh was roasted black, he treated it as nothing unusual.
One step of his surpassed three ordinary steps. In an instant, he was close to Jiang Chen.
Beneath the clear sun, a shadow descended over the sea of flowers.
Before Jiang Chen, vine-snakes tangled into a barrier, and a giant flower on the tangled wall opened its bloody maw.
The Vine Serpent Wall grafted with a Flower of Devouring.
At the same time, the sea of flowers transformed.
Within the Pig-Bone Mask's field of vision, countless Flowers of Devouring opened countless giant mouths and snapped at him.
Smack!
Yet he precisely seized the one real flower, gripping the upper and lower halves of its giant mouth in one hand and gently tearing them apart.
Wood sap splashed everywhere.
The Flower of Devouring collapsed, and the Vine Serpent Wall scattered.
But Jiang Chen was no longer before him.
Where was he?
That detestable yet crafty little bug, that hateful yet delicious man from the State of Zhuang.
"Roar!"
The Pig-Bone Mask let out a beastly howl.
He suddenly opened his mouth. A gigantic maw split open, fangs thrusting out as a foul stench surged forth.
This was a genuine bloody maw.
Compared with it, the "maw" of the Flower of Devouring was a cherry blossom's tiny mouth.
With his giant mouth open, he suddenly inhaled!
The power of gluttony!
A tremendous suction force erupted.
Zhang Hai, who had already retreated into the distance, suddenly felt his body grow light and staggered several steps forward. He hurriedly wrapped both arms around a pillar at the mine gate before he could steady himself.
More terrifyingly, the sea of flowers covering the surroundings and empowered by the Conch Pearl swayed slightly, then shattered.
This suction force even affected Dao arts, sucking them away and extinguishing them outright.
What kind of pressure, then, was Jiang Chen suffering while facing the power of gluttony head-on?
...
Compared with the corner of the mining area where everyone had gathered, the mine gate was actually closer to the collapsing shaft.
At Jiang Chen's command, Su Xiuxing and Zhu Biqiong shot forward.
Of course, neither of them was acting out of loyalty to Jiang Chen.
Although Su Xiuxing's life was in another person's hands, his thoughts were on the treasure.
As for Zhu Biqiong, she harbored resentment toward Hu Shaomeng. By now, she was certain that his vile character made him the culprit who had caused her elder sister Zhu Suyao's drastic change in temperament and ultimately her death in the Celestial Residence Secret Realm.
In the direction of the mine shaft.
Clip-clop, clip-clop.
Soft hoofbeats sounded.
A jade-like azure goat, its entire body a single flawless color as though carved from stone, seemed to step out of the earth and walk from the depths of the vein.
At a single glance, it was impossible not to want to keep looking, or to claim it as one's own.
From far away, Shuanzi's eyes widened.
A goat had really walked out of the mine shaft!
That miner had been telling the truth!
At last, he understood why Hu Shaomeng had killed someone that night.
So this was the secret Hu Shaomeng had been hiding.
What he did not know was that what the miner had seen that night had only been a projection. The treasure had not yet fully matured or emerged.
After that, Hu Shaomeng had found an excuse to shut down the mine shafts nearby.
The treasure was called the Azure Cloud Goat, the spirit of Azure Cloud Stone. Even ten thousand Azure Stone veins might not produce a single stone spirit. It was an extraordinarily precious wood-aspected treasure.
Hu Shaomeng was willing to give up thirty years of opportunity for the Hu clan's development under the Chongxuan clan's protection. That alone showed how precious it was.
The treasure he had dreamed of day and night had finally emerged. At that moment, Hu Shaomeng accelerated and struck first, sending out a water cord that coiled toward the Azure Cloud Goat.
But a wind blade was already clamped in Su Xiuxing's hand as he rushed over.
He reached the Azure Cloud Goat first!
Having lost his dagger, he simply clamped the wind blade between his fingers and cut the water cord apart.
Then he reached back to grab the Azure Cloud Goat.
Suddenly, his vision blurred. The Azure Cloud Goat had split into three, and he could not tell which one was real.
His hand closed on empty air.
It was an illusion Hu Shaomeng had cast on the spur of the moment.
"What kind of damn assassin is this? Is the World-Pervading Tower really such a rotten organization? Where's its reputation?"
The assassin he had paid a fortune to hire had not only failed to kill the target, but had instead been used by the target.
Hu Shaomeng rose on a wave, shaking with rage.
The world was truly going downhill. Even assassins had no professional ethics anymore!