Chapter 137: Impressive

When Ye Jun confirmed that the Paragon was dead, his legs gave up on him as he fell on his butt. His chest heaved as he took a moment to calm himself.

Everything was happening so quickly that he didn’t even get time to breathe properly. Not to mention, he was more exhausted mentally. He wondered if he had gotten weaker after coming to this world.

Han Yuexin smiled and looked down at him, “Great work. It’s a shame we couldn’t save the other villagers, but let’s see if we can do anything for the remaining ones. It’s all thanks to you, so I’ll make sure the sect rewards you well.”

“It better,” Ye Jun sighed. “This mission was way above my pay grade. Also, I need compen—”

He stopped, his head snapping towards the well. A bad foreboding rose within him as he muttered, “Fuck!”

In the next second, a beam of dark mist shot out from the well, shaking the very foundation of the village. To his surprise, the beam remained contained within the well’s perimeter.

He really thought they were done for.

’Phew! Almost forgot about the formation,’ Ye Jun wiped his forehead. ’I malfunctioned it, so obviously it’ll react in a bad way.’

It was then he saw a silhouette walking out of that beam as he waved his hand, absorbing all the dark mist within him. Ye Jun tensed up, wondering if another Paragon of that entity had come.

“Relax!” Han Yuexin’s voice reached his ears. “It’s my brother.”

Ye Jun blinked in surprise, then focused on the silhouette. Sure enough, he could now see his face. It was none other than the Pavilion Master, Han Zixuan.

His regal white robes fluttered in the wind as he came down and looked around. Frowning, he said, “I am late.”

“Indeed, you are,” Han Yuexin said, not caring about his status. “If it wasn’t for him, everyone here would be dead, including me. You took too long.”

“I know. I’m sorry about that,” Han Zixuan sighed. “Tell me what happened here.”

With that, he waved his hand as the winds around them began to adhere to his commands. The unconscious villagers began levitating in the air, as they all gathered in a single location.

Ye Jun popped a Qi Recovery Pill and Han Yuexin explained the situation to her brother. Ye Jun had already told most of the things, so she didn’t miss anything.

“Interesting,” Han Zixuan rubbed his chin and said. “It isn’t the work of any Demonic Sects I’m aware of. Definitely not.”

“So, a new force is rising?” Han Yuexin didn’t like the sound of it.

“Perhaps. And they are very dangerous. Whoever this Lord is, he’s very powerful,” Han Zixuan said, as he tended to the villagers.

To Ye Jun’s surprise, he was quite good at it. The Pavilion Master made sure that those who were on the brink of death didn’t die, while others were also healed enough to sustain themselves for now.

“That Paragon… how did you defeat him?” Han Zixuan asked, raising his head.

“I only stalled him,” Han Yuexin shook her head and gestured towards Ye Jun. “He’s the one who discovered all of this, called me, and then did something which killed that lunatic.”

Han Zixuan’s gaze fell upon Ye Jun as he smiled, “Good work, young man. I appreciate your thinking process and the steps you took. So, what did you do at last?”

Ye Jun thought for a second before replying, “It was a gamble, really. I sensed a dark mist rising from…”

He explained his theories and added, “I don’t think just covering up the well would have worked. So, I thought of something else. For some reason, the Paragons didn’t absorb the villagers’ life force directly, they used a formation.”

“I didn’t think of that,” Han Yuexin muttered.

“That means they needed the formation to purify it or something. The dark mist is the result, but what if I contaminate it?” Ye Jun smiled. “And it worked.”

“How did you contaminate it?”

“Simple! Beast Cores,” Ye Jun shrugged. “I do want compensation for them, though. They were very precious to me.”

Han Zixuan’s eyes widened slightly, as he smiled as well, “Impressive. Really impressive. You thought of such a solution in such a situation. I’m really impressed.”

Ye Jun didn’t think it was that impressive. He just guessed it because of how Beast Cores functioned.

A Cultivator always had to refine the Qi within Beast Cores because of the lingering Will. If they absorbed it directly, then they might even face Qi Deviations. Even the Demonic Cultivators refined the Qi before absorbing it.

Ye Jun guessed that the formation in the well worked the same way. The dark mist contained the refined life force that the Paragons could absorb directly, so he simply mixed the unrefined essence of Beast Cores into it.

Once it was contaminated, it became a poison to the Paragon. After all, the Paragon was already unstable after absorbing the other two Paragons.

The situation worsened when his supposed Lord pulled away his support. Then, it was only a matter of time before the poison did its work and Han Yuexin used the advantage to kill the Paragon.

Ye Jun wanted to collect the attributes, but he was scared of taking in anything related to that Lord. He didn’t want to be associated with him in any way.

Shaking those thoughts off, he pointed at the well and said, “I sabotaged the formation just in case too.”

Han Zixuan stood up and patted his shoulders, “You saved hundreds of lives today. They matter too, even if they’re mundane. Other sects will probably disagree with me, but it doesn’t matter. You did the right thing and for that, the sect will reward you.”

He looked around and added, “I’ll take over things from here, so you should leave with Yuexin. Return to the sect. I’ll have to search the surroundings too. They couldn’t have emerged out of nowhere.”

Ye Jun felt like he was forgetting something, as if he had something to say to Han Zixuan but simply couldn’t remember it. He thought for a bit before shrugging, ’It isn’t important if I can’t remember it.’

…

The journey back to the sect was uneventful, especially since both Ye Jun and Han Yuexin wanted to recover. Fortunately, she had secretly informed Han Zixuan about it so they didn’t have to worry about the aftermath.

It was a serious matter that worried even the Pavilion Master. If it worsened, they might even have to alert the Heavenly Frost Palace.

Han Yuexin told him how seriously the orthodox sects took these matters. But Ye Jun doubted her words. If it really was the case, then there wouldn’t be a silent peace treaty between the Orthodox and Unorthodox Sects.

’But Pavilion Master was genuinely worried about the villagers.’

He had seen that in his eyes.

Resting near the Falcon’s nape, Ye Jun stared at the beautiful starry sky above. The night had descended, for which he was quite thankful. The cool air and mesmerizing twinkling stars above relaxed his mind.

’I will have to take another mission,’ Ye Jun thought. ’I still haven’t reached the peak of the Qi Condensation Realm. Only then can I return to the sect and attempt to break through to the Soul Tempering Realm.’

Soul Tempering Realm was unlike its predecessors. One needed to face a Heavenly Tribulation to advance. Worse, if they failed then they would suffer its consequences, so a Cultivator always made preparations for that.

Fortunately for him, Han Yuexin promised him that she would do it for him, as a reward for his actions today. That was a major relief since now he only needed to worry about picking up Attributes.

’Can the system help in it?’

It had helped in breaking through to the Qi Condensation Realm, so he hoped it would do the same again. He didn’t want to fail.

’Maybe I should just stop here,’ Ye Jun thought, looking down at the Black Wind Wildlands.

Its size really surprised him even now. The Wildlands spread from the east to the west, completely separating the north from the rest of the continent.

So, it was no surprise that he would still see it even after travelling for so long.

He went towards the Falcon’s centre back, once again thankful for the Gale Pressure Chamber for improving his balance, and found Han Yuexin sitting there cross-legged.

“Can you drop me off here?” Ye Jun asked, sitting down. “The mission was just an excuse for coming out. I wanted to practice more in the wilds.”

“I know.” Han Yuexin flashed him a knowing look and said. “But are you sure about it? Don’t forget you have many enemies. You even disrupted that entity’s plans.”

Ye Jun stayed silent. She was right. He had too many enemies now and this close to the sect, even the seniors might target him. Still, he smiled and said.

“A small matter. Please drop me here.”

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