The so-called army was only a group of about a hundred soldiers dressed in armor and weapons. But Lu Qingshan waited for the ghost mask to explain more.

  "That insignia," the ghost mask said, calming down as he came to the same conclusion. “They’re here to attack the ghost market. Somehow they knew this was one of our exits. This was long coming.”

  “Can we run?” Lu Qingshan asked.

  “We can. It’s all we can do. The kingdom’s army is too well-trained. From what I can see, this division is from the Iron Dragon division. They can form a military formation and crush anyone beneath their iron.”

  “Their strength?”

  “Each of its members reach the Bone Tempering stage at the minimum. They have lieutenants at Marrow Tempering, and their generals are at Viscera Tempering. But with that formation, even peak experts with five tempered organs might fall.”

  Lu Qingshan hummed. It was still manageable. But he wasn’t sure about revealing his true strength and sect’s secrets in order to rescue strangers.

  He stood at the front of the group, staring the advancing soldiers down, who stopped a good distance away from him. Their commander wore a set of polished iron armor, his gaze clad in iron just like his horse.

  “Capture the villains!” roared one of the soldiers. Right as Lu Qingshan prepared himself for battle, a tiger roar in his throat, the commander blew his horn and pulled his horse to a stop. The charging cavalry naturally stopped with him.

  “Halt!” A quick sweep of his eyes, and the commander backed off, gaze trained on Lu Qingshan. “Leave the ghost mask behind and the rest of you can leave,” he shouted from the top of his horse.

  Lu Qingshan could tell from the man's martial prowess that he was at the peak of Viscera Tempering. If he fought them, he'd win, and even begin to heal from the Heavenly Demon Disintegration Technique's internal injuries. But the level of force he exerted would almost certainly reveal his own power to be above theirs.

  He trusted his instincts. There was a trap around the knowledge about the higher realms of martial arts. He decided not to trigger it just yet, turning around to leave with his sect.

  "Wait!" The commander continued to stare. “You’re…Liu Yingting from the Liu family!”

  Lu Qingshan blinked. A chill ran up his spine. Behind him, his Elder tensed up. “You’ve got the wrong person,” he said.

  “No. I know who I saw. Colluding with criminals? Then you can go and reunite with the rest of your rotten family." A few of the soldiers had smug smirks on their faces, looking down from their horses at the man.

  "What have you done with the Liu family?" Liu Yingting roared.

  "What they deserve," the commander shouted back. "Now, are you going to come willingly or not?"

  "Sect master, you can leave," he whispered, reaching a hand into his clothes. "I will make them pay."

  "No need." Lu Qingshan met the commander in his eyes. "Are you sure you want to force me?" he shouted.

  "Kill them all!"

  The horses picked up speed again. As the ghost mask tried to flee, Lu Qingshan formed a tight formation with Liu Yingting and Meng Zhang, fighting back to back, protecting Qin Ye and Li Fanghua. They easily fended off the first wave of cavalry and prepared for the next round of attacks.

  Liu Yingting's eyes burned colder than he'd ever seen. When the next horse passed by him, he slapped a few vials into the rider's clothes. They exploded into toxic fumes moments after the soldier had returned to his comrades, who all began coughing blood.

  "Demon!" screamed the commander. "Kill them!"

  Lu Qingshan's blood seas rumbled to life. In his eyes, the mass of cavalry turned into pure nourishment. A tiger roared, and all living beings kneeled.

  Cavalry tumbled from their horses, leaving Lu Qingshan's claw as the last thing they saw before it took their lives. Seven steps ripped the earth as they trampled a line of fallen soldiers. Lu Qingshan brought his full power to bear against the commander whose eyes were wide in shock.

  His first blow knocked him off his horse. His second tore the stunned animal in half and scattered blood into the rushing soldiers’ eyes. Like a whirlwind, Lu Qingshan reaped the lives of the soldiers before they could gather into a real formation. They scattered, leaving him to chase after the fleeing commander.

  Bright flames erupted from the ground and swallowed the remaining men whole. With the fodder dead, his Elders were free to wreak havoc on their chosen targets. Qin Ye’s immortal methods always managed to turn the fight in their favor. Each death of a Marrow Tempering expert crushed the fighting spirit of the other soldiers.

  Liu Yingting cut down a dozen men on his own. As arrows fell from above, an invisible wind blew them away and turned his toxic fumes into pure death. Skin boiled, blood sprang from the soldiers bodies, and none of the effects ever touched the Seven Mysteries Gate.

  Lu Qingshan stamped his foot onto the fallen commander’s breastplate. As the Seven Mysteries Gate hunted down the routed soldiers, he spoke, “Explain what happened to the Liu family.”

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  The man coughed out blood and spat it onto the ground. “They’re dead. We uprooted that scum of a family, burned down their manor, and slaughtered the lot,” he said with a face full of hate. “And you’re next.”

  Lu Qingshan frowned. Liu Yingting had heard it all, and the man’s eyes somehow turned even colder. His hand came down onto the fallen general, tracing a thin line down their neck.

  “Any other information you wish to provide?”

  Li Fanghua stepped into view, looking into their eyes. “I’m ready,” she said.

  “Good.” Liu Yingting drew a short blade from his robes and dug it into the general’s chest, drawing a sharp cry of pain. “Answer my questions truthfully and you won’t have to suffer.”

  The general was about to retort when Liu Yingting drove a needle into their ring finger. “Try getting uppity again and I’ll jam it into an eye,” he said.

  Qin Ye’s eyes were bright as he returned with the rest of the sect. He looked down at the torture session and smiled at Liu Yingting. “Need some help?”

  The Elder shook his head. “I will get my answers on my own,” he said. Another vial appeared in his hands which he poured down the general’s throat.

  Vomit bubbled past the man’s lips, but he wouldn’t stop screaming. The body juices made a mess of where Liu Yingting kneeled, dirtying his hands, but the Elder watched it all with a dispassionate gaze. He scarcely waited a heartbeat once the man recovered before stabbing them again with his needles.

  “I can do this all day.”

  Lu Qingshan sat down and began regulating his internal injuries. The Blood Seas Inner Force coated his wounds in healing energy, and he felt better. He wasn’t completely healed yet, but it was enough for him to practice martial techniques again instead of being limited to breathing methods.

  The enemy commander tried to lie at first. But Li Fanghua knew which statements were true or false. The two of them eventually drew enough information from the general before he expired.

  “There’s an emergency,” Liu Yingting said. He looked tired, but hate dripped from his eyes. “I want to accompany you into the city.”

  “What happened?”

  “It’s as he said. The Liu family of Great Wind City is no more.”

  There was a lengthy silence. “Sorry for your loss,” he ended up saying.

  “It’s fine," Liu Yingting said with a shaky breath. "We knew someday this might happen. But there are a few contingencies we left behind in the city, which I’d like to get to.”

  Lu Qingshan looked at Qin Ye, who said, “I can affect four people at a time with my concealment technique to help us sneak into the city. But I want the sword as my reward.”

  “You’ll still need a lot more contributions than just this,” Lu Qingshan said. “Keep in mind this is an artifact for Qi Refinement. And not just the early stage either. I know its true worth.”

  “Sure. I’ll be with you in the city and will have no complaints when you order me to act. As long as I have the sword,” Qin Ye said with a bright smile.

  Lu Qingshan internally shrugged. Better Qin Ye than him, he supposed. “In that case, who else wants to come into the city?”

  The disciples of the Seven Mysteries Gate looked at one another. He could see most wanted to follow him, but held back their words.

  “My family will be fine without seeing me for a while,” one of them said.

  “Same here.” As each disciple refused, Li Fanghua was soon next. Her face was consumed with worry but she still kept silent.

  “You can go,” Lu Qingshan said. “You’re worried about your family.”

  “I am,” she confessed. “Can I?”

  “No one else has anything pressing. There’s still one opening left. How about you, Meng Zhang?”

  “I do have expertise in the city’s inner workings,” the man said. “I can go with you if you’d like.”

  “Good. I’ll ask Dong Qianyu and Wu Ruoling before we go, see if any other disciple needs help. Then we’ll head into the city.”

  Lu Qingshan chanted the Insect Harmony Mantra, sending the ravenous Bloodseeker Fly larvae and many other nearby insects to clean up the area of blood and corpses. Then he noticed something odd with one particular insect. All the insects in the area should've been under his control, but his senses told him there was still a single one sitting on his body, hidden underneath his clothes, touching his back.

  He reached inside his robes and plucked it out. At first glance, the insect looked like a tick crossed with a mosquito or a cicada. It had bright, shimmering wings, a long, needle-thin mouthpiece, and a tiny size. None of his commands from the Insect Harmony Mantra could get it to move.

  Lu Qingshan stopped chanting while the insect was still in his hand. It seemed to disappear within moments, slowly fading away until his eyes no longer saw a single trace of its existence. He chanted the Insect Harmony Mantra again, and it reappeared.

  Clearly this was a trap placed by someone else. He was certain this thing had appeared during the time he was on the ghost market, as he hadn't detected the insect while chanting the mantra on the first river boat. A few suspects came to mind, but he couldn't act on them yet.

  Lu Qingshan needed to know if he could somehow manipulate it. Controlling the insect would let him figure out what exactly it could do. His current suspicions were that it was a tracker, an eavesdropper, or a poisonous insect. No matter its role, he was sure whoever put this on him was up to something malicious.

  He checked the stone slab, shaking his head at his progress.

  Insect Harmony Mantra (Level 4, 2237/10000)

  The Insect Harmony Mantra was still a long way off from reaching the fifth level. At this rate, it might take a few more months to gain control over the insect and its unknown functions.

  Still, there were some tests he could currently do to probe the insect's abilities before he made his decision. Lu Qingshan placed the frozen tick-mosquito-cicada onto the grass and left a good distance away. He watched it fly towards him a few heartbeats after he stopped his chanting, then continued while it was in flight. The insect fell into a patch of dirt. It was undamaged.

  He called Li Fanghua over. She carefully took the insect from his hands and walked away a further distance, but the connection broke early. It flew through the thin gaps in her hand back towards Lu Qingshan.

  "It had spiritual fluctuations," she whispered once she returned and the insect was still again.

  That confirmed his level of mastery in the Insect Harmony Mantra wasn’t yet enough to fully command the insect. Its frozen state was one of struggle. And for some reason, the insect would always fly towards him, nothing else.

  Lu Qingshan weighed his choices. Kill or wait? Each brought their own benefits.

  Beside him, his fly maggots fell into a deep sleep. They had finally entered metamorphosis, taking longer than the last batch.