C.2057: Flower Den Cult

Zhao Hai slowly revealed himself. As he looked at the handsome man, he smiled faintly and said, “I must say, aren’t you ashamed? Do you actually use this method? It doesn’t really fit your image.”

“It wouldn’t even work in the first place.” Along with this voice, the room’s door opened as Steward Gui and Rong San walked out. Rong San held a huge axe in his hand and was now giving the handsome man a cold gaze.

Seeing that his opportunity has been ruined, the handsome man let it go. He shook his folding fan twice before saying, “I didn’t want to use this, but it seems like fate isn’t on your side. You can’t blame me, you’re all courting death!”

Zhao Hai smiled faintly and said, “Who dies or not is still uncertain. Looking at our appearance, you don’t seem to be an average person. Reveal your name.”

As soon as he heard this, the handsome man couldn’t help but snort, “You’re wasting your breath. Dead people don’t need to know anything.” Then he used his black fan to attack Zhao Hai.

Zhao Hai sneered, he didn’t hesitate as he used his blade to block the incoming attack. The handsome man didn’t use all of his strength to attack Zhao Hai. In his opinion, of the three people, the steward was the biggest threat. After all, the steward was the only Soul Fusion Cultivator among the three. Because of this, he didn’t treat Zhao Hai seriously, he was focused on the steward.

Zhao Hai didn’t think too much and just used his blade technique to trap the enemy inside. It must be mentioned that Zhao Hai’s spiritual qi was in no way comparable to the handsome man. Soul Fusion cultivators essentially have double the amount of spiritual qi. But in terms of achievements, the handsome man was too far from Zhao Hai. In addition to neglecting to use his full power, the handsome man was soon pushed back by Zhao Hai’s blade.

This stunned the handsome man, as well as Steward Gui and Rong San. Jumping stages to attack was possible in the True Spirit Realm, but it was very uncommon. Most importantly, those who could jump ranks were generally talented geniuses from famous clans or sects. The three haven’t heard of a genius named Zhao Hai who managed to jump ranks using his blade technique.

The handsome man regretted being careless. He regretted taking action at this time. Zhao Hai was very difficult to deal with, and the other two had yet to make a move. Once Steward Gui and Rong San took action, the handsome man would be in a heap of trouble.

Seeing that the situation wasn’t optimistic, the handsome man began to consider his escape. But he knows that if he used up his strength to keep Zhao Hai away, then Steward Gui and Rong San would intervene. So he didn’t immediately use all of his strength. On the contrary, he continued to block Zhao Hai’s attack while leading him away from Steward Gui and Rong San.

But how could Zhao Hai be unaware of the handsome man’s plans? However, he didn’t make any noise. It was impossible for the handsome man to escape. Zhao Hai’s clone had already moved and was waiting outside. If the handsome man wants to run away, then he would be blocked by Zhao Hai’s clone.

Steward Gui was also not stupid, he was similarly aware of the handsome man’s plan. He led Rong San to circle around to surround the enemy. When he saw Steward Gui and Rong San going into position, the handsome man knew that escape was becoming more difficult. His eyes turned as he glanced at the room of the Rong Clan’s young miss. He stopped blocking the attacks and began to retreat with all his might.

Although Zhao Hai’s blade techniques were very strong, the handsome man wasn’t weak. Zhao Hai’s blade technique was only enough to cover the gap in cultivation. It was almost impossible for him to defeat the enemy. Therefore, Zhao Hai’s previous advantage was beginning to slow down. The two sides were becoming evenly-matched.

Seeing this, Steward Gui coldly snorted. Then he waved his hand and took out a large blade. Then he attacked the handsome man.

With Steward Gui joining in, the handsome cultivator was soon pushed into a defensive position. Despite this, the handsome man was still able to hold on with his strength. Zhao Hai and Steward Gui were unable to deal with him.

Rong San was unable to join in on the fight. He was the weakest person present. Moreover, his weapon was the greataxe. This weapon was useful during huge battles but useless in small skirmishes. Therefore, Rong San can only stand on the side and observe the fight.

At this moment, the enemy suddenly waved his hand and threw black sand towards Zhao Hai and Steward Gui. When the sand appeared, Zhao Hai could smell that it stunk like fish. He was certain that the sand was poisonous, so he quickly shouted, “Be careful, its poisonous!” Steward Gui naturally knew that the black sand wasn’t a good thing, so he quickly took a step back.

On the other hand, Zhao Hai didn’t retreat. Instead, he used his blade light to protect himself. All sand coming towards him were quickly directed away.

All of a sudden, the handsome man lunged forward with a strange movement, like a snake. In an instant, he drilled through the space between Zhao Hai and Steward Gui. His target wasn’t the courtyard wall, but the young lady’s room.

Seeing this, Manager Gui’s expression couldn’t help but change, then he shouted, “You Bastard, you dare!” Then he moved on to pursue. Unfortunately, he was unable to catch up.

The handsome man laughed. But before he could sneak into the young lady’s room, a blade suddenly appeared on his path. This blade came in very quickly.

The handsome cultivator let out a strange yelp before using his folding fan to block the blade. Then he quickly jumped to the room. But at this time, Zhao Hai’s blade light was already on its way to kill him.

The handsome cultivator scoffed and said, “Don’t be proud yet, I will be back!” Then he used his movement technique to vanish from sight.

When Zhao Hai heard this, he couldn’t help but stagger, almost falling down the roof. He didn’t expect that man to say such words. Those words were too familiar. In novels, those who said that line would oftentimes suffer a bad fate.

As he stood on the roof, Zhao Hai looked at the direction that the handsome cultivator left towards. He couldn’t help but let out a long breath. Then he jumped down from the roof. He knows that he couldn’t catch up to that man. He might be able to catch up if he used his winged horse, but he has no plans of doing that right now.

Once Zhao Hai returned to the courtyard, Steward Gui looked at him and asked, “How is it?”

Zhao Hai shook his head and said, “I can’t catch up. His movement technique is too fast. I thought we would be able to deal with him, but I didn’t expect that he was a poison user. I have miscalculated.”

Steward Gui patted his shoulder and said, “Call me Uncle Gui from now on. And there’s no need to scold yourself. That fellow is a sect cultivator. It’s normal that we can’t stop him.”

Zhao Hai stared, then he looked at Steward Gui and said, “Uncle Gui, do you know him?”

Steward Gui shook his head and said, “Although I don’t know him, I can guess his identity. A sect comes to mind when I recall his abilities. He should be from the Flower Den Cult. It’s a medium grade evil sect whose disciples are beautiful men and women. What’s repulsive about this sect is that both of its male and female disciples are all flower-pickers.”

Zhao Hai couldn’t help but be stunned. He also heard about the Flower Den Cult. And just like Steward Gui said, it was an obscene sect. The reason they were able to exist until now was because they were a member of the Demonic Dao Alliance. WIth several large Demonic sects behind them, the sect was able to be rampant until now.

Sects in the True Spirit Realm are divided into three factions, the Righteous, the Evil, and the Demonic. Of the 81 Great Sects, 35 belong to the righteous faction, 28 belong to the demonic faction, and 18 belong to the evil faction.

The three factions might have conflicting beliefs with each other, but they didn’t wage huge wars. Each faction knew that the other two were very formidable. Even if they were able to destroy one faction, they would have to pay a huge price to do so. In this case, nobody would dare take action.

The righteous faction has the Righteous Dao League, the demon faction has the Demonic Dao Alliance, while the evil faction has the Devil Dao Coalition. It was said that a lot of Ghost Cultivators were hidden within the evil faction.

These three factions were the true overlords of the True Spirit Realm. However, there were still a lot of conflicts within these factions. If there were no internal problems, a faction would be able to easily deal with the other two. Because of this, the True Spirit Realm was currently in a three-sided stalemate.

The Flower Den Cult was actually a core component of the Demonic Dao Alliance. One shouldn’t underestimate the Flower Den Cult for just being a medium-grade sect. The Flower Den Cult uses mortals as a furnace to cultivate. At the same time, they can provide cultivation furnaces to the other sects. Every year, the Flower Den Sects would marry out their disciples to the other sects. Other sects would also send their female disciples to the Flower Den Cult to marry in. The Flower Den Sect used this interweaving relations to form a huge net of connection within the Demonic Dao Alliance. This caused other people to hesitate in forming a grudge with the cult.

Ordinary rogue cultivators might not know about the intricacies of the Flower Den Cult, but Zhao Hai did. Although he hasn’t been in the True Spirit Realm for long, the Tyrant Blade Sect knew a lot about other sects in the realm. With the Tyrant Blade Sect at his back, Zhao Hai knew much more than rogue cultivators did in their entire lives.

Steward Gui looked at Zhao Hai’s expression and couldn’t help but ask, “Zhao Hai, have you heard about the Flower Den Cult?”

Zhao Hai nodded and said, “I heard others say that it’s a sect in the demonic faction. Why would they dare enter the territory of the Tyrant Blade Sect? Aren’t they afraid of being chased down by the sect?”

Steward Gui forced a smile and said, “Of course they won’t dare offend the Tyrant Blade Sect. But as long as they succeed in the abduction and leave the territory of the sect, there’s nothing we could do. The Tyrant Blade Sect wouldn’t start a war just over our young lady. If they waged war, they would be facing the strength of the Demonic Dao Alliance.”

Zhao Hai nodded. Then he looked at Steward Gui and asked, “Uncle Gui, why would that fellow abduct the young lady? I could see that the young lady was just a mortal. There shouldn’t be anything special about her.”

Steward Gui smiled bitterly and said, “You don’t understand. The young miss’ body is special. She has the Nine Yin Pure Veins. It’s an ice element spirit root that mutated from water element roots. Because of this, the young miss can’t cultivate. As soon as she circulates spiritual qi through her nerves, her meridians would freeze and she would die. But for the Flower Den Cult, miss is… sigh, in short, let’s be more careful in the future. Now that we’ve been targeted by the demonic faction, our troubles won’t be small.”

Upon hearing this, Zhao Hai immediately understood what was going on. The Nine Yin Pure Veins was an ice-element spirit root, which essentially means that the woman has a body of pure yin. For the Flower Den Cult who uses people as cultivation furnaces, this physique was extremely valuable. No wonder the handsome man was after the young miss.

The happenings in the courtyard naturally alarmed the people in the village. However, since the villagers were just mortals, they knew that they couldn’t participate in battles between cultivators. Even if they were interested in seeing the battle, they would be risking their lives if they approached.

After speaking with Zhao Hai, Steward Gui approached the young miss’ room and whispered, “Young Miss, sorry for disturbing your rest.”

A girl’s voice replied, “It’s not a problem, Uncle Gui. Thank you for your trouble. We’ll leave tomorrow afternoon so that you can still rest.”

Steward Gui quickly shook his head and said, “There’s no need. We can depart on schedule. Otherwise, we wouldn’t be able to reach Magnificent Dragon City in time to rest. Then we’ll be in danger.”

The young miss’ voice replied, “Then we’ll follow Uncle Gui’s plan. You should rest.” Steward Gui complied, then he took Zhao Hai and Rong San to rest in their room. After arriving at their room, Rong San received his greataxe and then patted Zhao Hai on the shoulder while saying, “Good Brother, I didn’t expect you to be so strong. You actually managed to block that fellow completely.”

Zhao Hai smiled and said, “I’m just innately skilled in the blade. If we really fought seriously, I won’t be able to stop him. My cultivation is lower, so he can stall me until I run out of energy. He only escaped because he’s afraid of Uncle Gui.”

At this time, Steward Gui said, “Alright, go to sleep. We still have to travel early tomorrow.” Zhao Hai and Rong San complied. Rong San laid down on his bed and snored before long. As for Zhao Hai, he sat cross-legged on his bed to cultivate. Seeing this, Steward Gui couldn’t help but shake his head, he was now aware that Zhao Hai was a cultivation maniac.

Zhao Hai also needed to show an image of a cultivation maniac to explain his proficiency with the blade. Otherwise, Steward Gui would be suspicious. Zhao Hai felt that the journey of the Rong Clan’s young miss isn’t as simple as visiting family.

The people from the Flower Den Cult didn’t return for the second half of the night. Zhao Hai and the others rested until dawn. Then they ate a small meal and paid the village chief for the accommodation before leaving in haste.