The Seven Mysteries Gate returned to their hidden camp established on an empty secluded corner of a forest. Carts of supplies guarded by the Iron Pine Sect sat here. On the side, their vice-leader was leading an effort to sort the supplies.

  “Good work,” Lu Qingshan said.

  He looked at his stone slab. Guiding the Bloodseeker Fly swarm here had given him the last few days of experience needed to reach the fifth level of the Insect Harmony Mantra.

  Lu Qingshan took out a jade box that had flies huddling all around it. Inside was the tick-mosquito-cicada spiritual insect he’d discovered after leaving the ghost market. He finally established a connection with the insect once the Insect Harmony Mantra reached level five.

  From there he also gained a sense of its capabilities. Having an insect under his command now shared some of their senses together if he actively focused on the connection while chanting the mantra. It was a strange feeling, to know how the wind felt and to receive an image of what the mass of insects saw. The scene became clearer to him the more insects he had.

  This also greatly increased the range he could give commands to his insects. Lu Qingshan did a cursory scan of the area, connecting with each cluster of patrolling Bloodseeker Flies, one at a time. He had been doing this for the past week and confirmed they hadn’t been followed by the kingdom’s armies.

  Lu Qingshan turned his attention to the tick-mosquito-cicada inside the box. Its connection with him was more vivid than even a swarm of flies. He supposed it was a confirmation of its spirituality, and placed it onto his hands.

  Its abilities revealed themselves to him through their shared connection. The first was its invisibility state. He had already confirmed this in his previous tests, but also now learned that the longer it stayed in this state, the more difficult it was to discover. At first, Qin Ye could still sense something was there. But a day later, it remained invisible even to a Mind Purification stage immortal cultivator.

  That explained why it went undetected the first time around. This ability to hide itself would greatly help him use it as a scouting tool.

  Having the tick-mosquito-cicada feed on blood activated its second ability: an instinctive knowledge of where to find the beings whom it had tasted the blood of. Since this was the primary ability of the spiritual insect, Lu Qingshan decided to call it the Bloodsense Bug.

  The insect also fed on the blood of its master in order to forge the initial spiritual connection. Using this, it granted them knowledge about where the Bloodsense Bug was at all times.

  However, the connection ran both ways. Just as the master knew the bug’s location, so did the Bloodsense Bug know where to find its master. Lu Qingshan, a third party, had subverted this connection and felt a sensation pointing him towards a vague direction. It probably led to the person who planted the bug onto him.

  The Bloodsense Bug also had a considerable resistance to poison, as it had breathed in Liu Yingting’s toxic fumes without any issue. He wouldn’t have to worry about its durability. The bug wasn’t as fragile as he thought, though stray attacks could certainly kill it.

  Since he had confirmed the Bloodsense Bug could not eavesdrop on conversations from afar, Lu Qingshan relaxed his vigilance. He stood up from where he was sitting and tried to feel out the distance to the bug’s master. It was a long distance from the city, and there was no longer time to pursue the lead.

  He would hunt them later.

  The Bloodsense Bug’s connection with its master had already been severed, so he didn’t need to worry about them coming after him instead. All that was left to do was to confirm the sect had everything in order before he departed.

  "You're saying Miao Mei hasn't sent a message?" Lu Qingshan asked Dong Qianyu.

  "She hasn't," the Elder replied, sifting through some of the transportable loose materials found in the bandit camps. "It's been two days and none of us have found anything."

  "I'll head to the city now. Anything I need to know before I go?"

  "We should have everything in order." Dong Qianyu looked up with a bag clutched in his hand. "Before you go, take this."

  Lu Qingshan opened it up. A row of neat, sharp throwing knives incomparable to his previous makeshift monster teeth appeared inside.

  "Those are the new knives I made for you," Dong Qianyu said. "Take these too. They're for the others, including Miao Mei and her two assistants."

  "Thank you," Lu Qingshan said, bowing to the forging expert. "I won't forget all that you've done for the sect."

  "You're a good sect master, Lu Qingshan." Dong Qianyu returned his gesture. "I am honored to serve."

  Chen Niu was in seclusion to break through to the Marrow Tempering stage with the secret medicines he'd earned from the last few bouts of combat. Another disciple looked promising as well, and a few notable Iron Pine Sect disciples started to advance to Flesh Tempering too. Overall, the sect's vitality was still flourishing, even if two of their Marrow Tempering Elders left to the city with him.

  Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

  Liu Yingting was teaching a pair of disciples from both sects how to use his vials of poison when Lu Qingshan approached. "Ready to go?" he asked, sending the two away.

  "Let's go find the others."

  Meng Zhang was standing on a tree, overseeing the area. He dropped down and followed them to where Li Fanghua and Qin Ye were standing together in a discussion. The two sole cultivators of the sect had grown closer in the past few weeks. Qin Ye had slightly tempered his arrogance when talking to his peer.

  "Sect master!" Qin Ye shouted. "Tell her I'm right. Immortal cultivation is the true path."

  "What's going on?" Lu Qingshan asked. Qin Ye had looked down on martial arts ever since his spirit root was revealed. The kid had stayed at the Flesh Tempering stage unlike Li Fanghua, who had broken through to the Bone Tempering stage recently.

  "He's wrong," Li Fanghua said. "I think it's best for us immortal cultivators to learn how to fight as a martial artist as well."

  Qin Ye shook his head with an insufferable laugh. "Come on. At the Radiant Lake stage and above, martial artists are like ants. Sect master is the only one who stands a chance," he proclaimed.

  Li Fanghua gave him a pitying look. "And how did those cultivators die? In physical combat," she said. "We are strong, but our weaknesses are great."

  Qin Ye was still wearing a smug smile on his face. "That weakness goes away at the Jade Cleansing stage. Just focus on your cultivation, Li Fanghua. I'm telling you this for your own good."

  "You're both correct," Lu Qingshan said, interrupting Li Fanghua's retort. He suspected that the kid would lack proper respect for him as well if he started to fall behind. "Qin Ye's not wrong. There's not much of a future in the martial path past the Grandmaster realm." Then he chuckled. "Of course, with me here, that remains to be seen. Let's go. We'll talk more on our way to the city."

  There was one last thing to do, and that was to handle the Viscera Tempering prisoner they'd captured from the Golden Dragon banner army. Qin Ye and Li Fanghua had already drawn out as much information as they could from the man. They confirmed the first interrogation was correct, and also drew out some more miscellaneous details about the Great Wind City and various parts of the kingdom. Nothing was useful at the moment - the man had departed the city months ago - but might provide help later on.

  A man with his limbs shattered looked up at Lu Qingshan with dull eyes. "Are you here to kill me?" he asked.

  "Sorry. May you live a long next life with a happy mortal family," Lu Qingshan said. His swipe broke the army general's neck and absorbed another portion of blood energy to push his Blood Seas Inner Force a little bit further. To thank the man for his contributions, Lu Qingshan decided not to feed the corpse to his flies. "Bury him, please," he asked a nearby Seven Mysteries Gate disciple.

  Lu Qingshan gave the other four the bags from Dong Qianyu, and after doing a final sweep of the area with his fly swarms, began traveling to the city proper. He didn't know what they'd encounter. With Miao Mei's silence, recent news had been lost, though Lu Qingshan suspected the city had sealed itself off. He only hoped there would be a place for them to sneak inside.

  On the way, his Bloodseeker Fly swarm traveled as quietly as possible around them. They fanned out in multiple swarms and found few travelers in their area. His suspicions were only increasing the further they drew to the city.

  There were some merchant carts still approaching the city gates. Lu Qingshan found one of them located in the middle of the pack with a mostly-empty cart. The group had a solemn atmosphere. No one was talking, not even in the same cart, and they appeared fairly suspicious. Inside one of their carts, his flies discovered it carried sets of armor, which had been declared as contraband in the kingdom.

  These were smugglers. Lu Qingshan was not sure if they'd let him hitch a ride with them, though. He had Qin Ye befuddle one of the caravan guards and sneak them into one of the carts containing smuggled goods.

  The space inside wouldn't fit them all. But Lu Qingshan simply had them take out enough of the items and leave them in the forest for someone else to dig up. None of the guards found them amidst Qin Ye’s muffling of noise, and the five of them settled down inside the cramped cart.

  They lay there, breathing steadily, listening to the noises outside. Qin Ye’s eyes fluttered ever so often. Lu Fanghua whispered, “Sleep a while, Qin Ye,” noticing the boy’s drowsiness.

  Voices approached from near their cart. “You sure this will work? We haven’t heard anything from the city for a while.”

  “It’s fine. There shouldn’t be any more shipments after this. Your girl will still be there once we’re done.”

  “Alright. I’ll trust you, boss.” The voices disappeared. It looked like this was a normal smuggling job. Lu Qingshan decided to let them do their thing, keeping watch through his fly clusters.

  The wheels on the carts slowly creaked forward after the guards finished their quick rest. Footsteps, along with Lu Qingshan’s soft insect-like chanting, sang a lullaby to lull Qin Ye to sleep. The others stayed awake and alert in case of trouble.

  Nothing happened, and the smuggling caravan was able to smoothly travel until they were stopped by shouting voices. Guards, who manned a tall city gate. After a brief conversation and the clinking of silver, the guards began to look through what was in the carts.

  Lu Qingshan waited with bated breath for them to stop on theirs. Li Fanghua shook Qin Ye awake. The boy yawned, and traced patterns in the air, near the cart’s openings.

  A young guard’s face poked into the cargo. Five pairs of eyes stared back at him, but he had no response. After a long look down at the armors, the man let out a short sigh and withdrew his head from the opening.

  “Everything’s good!” he shouted.

  “Let them in!”

  Past the gates, they continued to travel for a long while through the city, the cart turning over and over in many different directions. Sometimes they stopped at certain points to drop off the other carts and their guards. Those were normal deliveries.

  Theirs was almost the last one to go, joined by two other carts. The smuggling group’s numbers had dwindled down to about a third of its previous size - perhaps the others were actually not part of the smuggling operation. Alleyways became their new scenery as the carts moved towards a large…building in the distance.

  Lu Qingshan saw through his flies that it was a manor by the time they hit a smooth, paved road. The city's small shacks, occasional chatter, and bright lanterns were replaced by trees, silence, and gloom. No one spoke a single word.

  As they stopped in front of the mansion gates, Lu Qingshan saw a bronze plaque. “The Song family,” he whispered.