Lu Qingshan made his decision. He would keep the tick-mosquito-cicada alive. He planned to keep its hidden abilities suppressed as long as it stayed near him. If he was forced to stop chanting the Insect Harmony Mantra, the Bloodseeker Flies could help him keep the tick-mosquito-cicada under control.

  From Li Fanghua’s confirmation, he believed this insect was a spiritual insect. Leaving it alive was a great risk but so were the potential rewards. He placed it inside a jade box, making sure the insect remained trapped inside, and repeatedly chanted the Insect Harmony Mantra.

  Lu Qingshan gathered what he could and left. The ghost mask had pointed out a direction to civilization from their boat. They only needed to follow that direction to reach a stony mound landmark. From there, the city was close by.

  Miao Mei had given them a map as well, sourced from her years of quiet activity in the city. She had noticed a few bandit camps nearby. Lu Qingshan could choose to eliminate some of them as a detour to secure temporary supplies for the sect. Feeding his flies was another consideration he had to take.

  The others were all for it. One of the bandit camps fell closer than the others to the area where they were to meet back up with Dong Qianyu and the rest of the Seven Mysteries Gate. He made that place their first target.

  Lu Qingshan recited the Insect Harmony Mantra the entire way. He had grown so used to the mantra that he even managed to sustain his chanting during sleep. His sect was mostly pleased, as they didn’t have to worry about insects during their nightly watches or campfire gatherings.

  They reached the stone mound that resembled a weird statue within four days of travel. Then they arrived at Dong Qianyu’s camp two days later. A cluster of flies were slowly gathering around Lu Qingshan by the time they met again.

  “You’re safe?” Both asked the same question within moments of seeing each other.

  “Yes,” Dong Qianyu answered first. “Wu Ruoling’s scouts found the approaching soldiers before they could see us. We were able to escape early.”

  “Good.” Lu Qingshan had Meng Zhang and Liu Yingting fill the veteran Marrow Tempering Elder in with the non-sensitive information they’d learned on his trip to the ghost market. In the meantime, he kept up his chanting, occasionally saying a few words in-between simpler verses.

  “We have to be careful of the royal guard and the army,” Meng Zhang said, nodding his head towards Lu Qingshan. “We should take greater precautions against their intelligence methods.”

  Liu Yingting’s eyes flashed with hate. Nothing more needed to be said about his attitude towards the kingdom.

  “I see,” Dong Qianyu said once he received all the relevant news. “I agree with most your decisions so far. But do not tell the ghost market about what we’ve found.”

  Everybody present nodded their heads. With an unknown enemy planting the tick-mosquito-cicada onto their sect master, none of the new forces could be trusted. By now they had all grown used to Lu Qingshan’s eerie chanting.

  The Iron Pine Sect looked at him with clear awe on their faces. Lu Qingshan didn’t mind. Authority would help keep them under control. He decided not to test their spirit root aptitude yet until they had ingrained themselves with the sect for a while longer.

  Lu Qingshan’s sect rested for another three days, gearing up for a march onto the bandit camps. Plans were mapped, scouts were deployed, and information was collected about the surrounding routes. He himself raised the Insect Harmony Mantra’s proficiency by around fifteen hundred points.

  The strongest bandit camp in the vicinity only held Marrow Tempering experts at the most, though there could definitely be hidden forces. Still, Lu Qingshan highly doubted anyone could match his sect’s power. Aperture Tempering was far out of reach of some random bandit group. Perhaps only forces like the kingdom’s royals could output such strength.

  And three extra days was enough for all his flies to hatch. Their bite force had reached another level, comparable to a Bone Tempering stage martial artist. That was terrifying considering the size of the swarm.

  Their enhanced bite force shredded apart the remaining Qi Refinement realm corpses’ flesh. Some of the flies perished after consuming the energy, many even exploding into insect guts, but some survived. They laid eggs for the next generation of flies. Lu Qingshan hoped they might enhance themselves again to the Marrow Tempering stage, though it did send chills down his spine to have such powerful insects flying around.

  He also confirmed they could safely prevent the tick-mosquito-cicada from reaching him once he stopped chanting the mantra. With everything prepared, the Seven Mysteries Gate was ready to set out for conquest.

  Their first target was of zero challenge. Lu Qingshan did not intervene personally, choosing to let the sect undergo another round of tempering themselves in battle. Against small Marrow and Bone Tempering stage experts, he would indeed be bullying the weak. Even the Elders stepped aside this time as the regular Bone Tempering disciples outnumbered the enemy. Led by Chen Niu, they carved a path through the weaker bandits while the man single-handedly tied down the enemy's sole Marrow Tempering expert in combat.

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  It was here they found prisoners locked inside cages. Some were men, and some were women. They only wore rags and most of their bodies bore freshly made scars. After a few questions, the Seven Mysteries Gate confirmed them as captives, held for ransom to draw money from the merchants they served. The Iron Pine Sect handled their care until they could be sent to safety.

  Bit by bit, the Iron Pine Sect played more of an important role in the battles to come. At first they delayed fleeing bandits, transported post-battle supplies, and served as basic grunts. They worked so hard Lu Qingshan had little to criticize. Having proven themselves, the Iron Pine Sect played more of a core role in the next battle, accumulating their own small merits in the process.

  After taking over two bandit camps rapidly, the sect entered another period of rest. It took two weeks for them to organize the looted supplies and send the prisoners back to the city. Led by Chen Niu, the Iron Pine Sect took credit for the rescue, as the Seven Mysteries Gate continued to keep a low-profile.

  It took until the third camp to require the Elders' intervention. Somehow this bandit group had three Marrow Tempering experts, and a fourth Bone Tempering expert who could match Chen Niu in combat. Lu Qingshan's suspicions were first stirred here, as mere bandits should not have been able to compete with the Seven Mysteries Gate of the past.

  For the first time, Wu Ruoling displayed her abilities to the fullest. She had always been performing on the same level as the rest of the Elders. After reaching the Marrow Tempering stage, Lu Qingshan had noticed her still holding back some of her knowledge. But now, she stood alone against two Marrow Tempering experts, not losing out with her sword arts.

  Beside her was Dong Qianyu, suppressing the third bandit with his Heavy Mountain Saber Technique. The man was in his thirties but his attacks were swift and deadly. Each slash of his saber moved with the weight of a mountain - rendering his enemy unable to do anything but defend.

  Two against three, and the Seven Mysteries Gate's two Elders eventually came out on top. Wu Ruoling's sword slipped through the melee and pierced Dong Qianyu’s enemy in his side. The bandit’s defensive line soon collapsed.

  More spoils came from this camp than the previous two combined. Not just food, but jewelry, gold, scraps of fine clothing, and plentiful silver too. Strangely, there were no prisoners on the surface, only bloodied cages. But Lu Qingshan’s flies sought flesh, and they quickly discovered what the bandits had done.

  All the prisoners accumulated in the recent months were dead, buried in a massive corpse pile and covered in mounds of dirt. And that was just the surface. Below the mass, a wide variety of skeletons stared back at the Seven Mysteries Gate.

  Lu Qingshan frowned. This behavior was abnormal. Even bandits weren’t usually this wanton in their actions. Since these were a successful group, they should’ve had some kind of bottom line or the local authorities would intervene sooner.

  In the end, Lu Qingshan weighed on the side of caution when encountering anything odd. Demonic cultivators would naturally have a good motive for killing all their prisoners. But there was no sign of them in the camp.

  Since the enemy had been wiped out, Lu Qingshan believed this was the best they could do. The Seven Mysteries Gate kept the incident in mind as they buried back the bodies and continued pilfering the camp of its supplies. Most of the sect was still shaken by the sight when it came time to attack another camp, so they delayed for another week.

  The fourth and final camp was a fortress on a mountain, and the last they'd take before the sect retreated into hiding. Somehow Lu Qingshan had the feeling this would be a tough battle. A cluster of Bloodseeker Flies quickly flew through the area, stopping whenever they encountered an enemy close to his level.

  They paused three times, confirming his suspicions. This bandit fort had supporters from a force on the level of a large sect. And it was not a simple one either, as three peak Viscera Tempering experts was quite a lot - even some large sects couldn't muster that amount at the same time.

  His Bloodseeker Flies helped the sect uncover more of the fort’s secrets. Through their locations, he discovered where the bandits were most likely to congregate, along with the fact that the Viscera Tempering experts never moved much from their rooms. There were plenty of other bandits visiting that area though.

  Lu Qingshan drew a sketch from his mind and shared it with his Elders. Meng Zhang volunteered to go personally inspect what was happening. As he was an assassin with expertise in such missions, Lu Qingshan let him go. With a few days left until the attack, it freed up time for him to brush up on some of the other skills.

  He took a look at the stone slab.

  Lu Qingshan (24 years old)

  Lifespan Remaining: 40 years

  Cultivation: Mortal Shedding - Viscera Tempering

  Techniques: Hundred Beasts Refinement (Level 1, 11/10000), Insect Harmony Mantra (Level 4, 8006/10000), Blood Seas Inner Force (Level 4, 8435/10000), Heavenly Demon Disintegration Technique (Level 2, 74/10000), Blood Pulse Technique (Level 2, 140/10000), Red Falcon Breathing Method (Limit), Tiger Fist (Limit), Deer Steps (Limit), Stoneskin Technique (Limit), Great Ape Breathing Method (Level 5, 5329/10000), Seven Steps Technique (Level 3, 3317/10000), Golden Shell Body (Level 1, 2548/10000), Roaming Tiger Breathing Method (Level 3, 5192/10000), Nimble Deer Breathing Method (Level 3, 4363/10000), Golden Drop Inner Force (Level 3, 300/10000), Hidden Veil Technique (Level 1, 61/10000), Turtle Breath Inner Force (Level 1, 32/10000), Wave Motions Fist (Level 1, 1/10000), Tiger Roar Technique (Limit), Crane Wings Technique (Limit), Iron Bear Technique (Limit), Viper Strike Technique (Limit), Basic Hand-to-hand (Limit)

  Mystic Jade Essence - Dao Fruit of Sublime Miracles - Condensing... 29%

  There was nothing to particularly target except for the Insect Harmony Mantra and the Blood Seas Inner Force. His other martial arts had slowed down, but that was fine. Once the Blood Seas Inner Force reached the next level, he'd experience a new level of growth.

  Meng Zhang’s return brought more questions than answers. One of the Viscera Tempering experts was badly injured. The other two had lighter, though still heavy, injuries judging by the amount of medicinal herbs delivered to their rooms.

  The atmosphere inside the fortress was unlike bandits relaxing at home. Instead, some wooden defenses were still in place, as if they were preparing for battle. They were quiet. Subdued. Scared. Even the prisoners did not speak, though they were definitely frightened as well.

  Lu Qingshan calculated the days. Though Miao Mei never gave them an expected meeting time, he didn’t feel comfortable leaving her alone in the city for too long. He needed to either order the attack now or retreat.