Lu Qingshan appeared on top of a mountain cliff, looking down at the people wandering around. This was a small village hidden in the mountains near Great Wind City. But the direction was opposite of the Seven Mysteries Gate's home.

  The Furious Whale Gang had clearly planned to escape for a while. Their choice of refuge was seamless. Lu Qingshan traced one of the blood connections to the martial artist assisting an elderly villager with her water bucket. It truly did seem that the man was a normal villager, and only the Bloodsense Bug revealed his former status as a disciple of the Furious Whale Gang.

  Lu Qingshan frowned. He couldn't exactly go around massacring villages for harboring criminals. They could be guilty, but from how hard the Furious Whale Gang tried to hide, it was likely the villagers didn't know much. Instead, a few locals who had previously left for the city had likely used their relationships to bring in the fleeing martial artists with them.

  He had no life-long enmity with the Furious Whale Gang. Perhaps this situation could be treated more delicately than with slaughter. Lu Qingshan stepped down from the tree and approached the martial artist.

  The villagers saw him coming. Most of them ran off but the two he wanted to speak to stayed behind. The martial artist became tense, and the grandma who could barely walk turned to gaze in his direction.

  "Welcome," the martial artist said, eyes narrowed in suspicion. "We're the Rising Mountain Village. What brings you here?"

  "Shelter," Lu Qingshan replied. "A band of people drove me out. They wore armor and carried the emblem of a five-headed dragon. I had to leave many of my comrades and belongings behind." His face turned sorrowful.

  "Uhh," the martial artist said, now looking a lot more shocked with his eyes wide and steps unsteady. "I'll go get the village elder for you," he muttered, leaving in a hurry.

  Lu Qingshan helped the old grandmother carry the water bucket to her home. After he sent her safely inside her door, a voice cleared their throat behind him.

  "How did you find us?" a grizzled voice asked. Lu Qingshan turned around to see a burly strongman standing there. On his face and bare arms was a series of scratches and scars.

  "Never mind. I know what you're here for," the man said. "Yes, I am the leader of the Furious Whale Gang. I was born in this village, so I have to thank you for not killing us all. Follow me."

  Lu Qingshan remained silent, keeping pace with the grizzled man. His flies had already infiltrated the area and there was nothing that could threaten him. The man wasn’t leading him to an ambush.

  Instead, they arrived in a remote corner of the mountains. It was between two colorful purple flower stalks that the Furious Whale Gang’s leader started to dig.

  “I used to pluck these flowers,” he said while kneeling on the soil. “Weaved them into little rings and gave them to the girl I liked. But she refused, saying that was not what I should do. She wanted me to be like my brothers, hunting in the mountains.”

  The man dug deeper. “Then she died. One of my brothers took her hunting with them, and there was an accident. A third person tried to save them only to be slain as well.”

  Lu Qingshan raised a brow. “Interesting story. What does it have to do with me?”

  “I joined the Furious Whale Gang because I was looking for something to fill the void. That’s my story,” he said, lifting up the object unearthed from the soil. It was a small chest that he opened to reveal a single martial arts manual.

  Lu Qingshan took it from his hands. He saw the words emblazoned on the cover. Giant Whale Breathing Method, it read.

  “Our foundational treasure,” the man said. “We didn’t always have this. I found it in some ruins buried underneath the river. Do you want to know the location?”

  “You’re willing to give it up just like that?”

  “Of course.” The rugged man looked up at the sky. “Right now, I just want peace. I’ve had enough of the fighting and killing. Take this and leave our village alone.”

  “Did Marquis Zhou frighten you that much? If I had a way to avoid him, would you join me?”

  “Even if you used violence, we would refuse you. None of us want anything to do with the martial world anymore. We would rather die.”

  Lu Qingshan shrugged. As long as he got what he wanted, there was no need to push the issue. The life and death of this village didn’t concern him, and from the few days he’d spent observing, it seemed the man was telling the truth. Or at least it wasn’t a brazen lie.

  “That technique has the power of rapid digestion. It requires more secret medicine than all other martial arts I encountered, but accelerates growth in return. Costly, but fast. I think it can reach the Innate realm if you bring it to the peak.”

  “Thank you.”

  “I don't have any other techniques — we didn't take them with us when we fled. Just this one, though the others might be able to recall some. As for the ruins where I found the technique, follow the river in Great Wind City. There’s a deep, deep crevice located at the bottom of one of the curves. You need to be at the Viscera Tempering level to go down there and back without too much injury.”

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  Lu Qingshan recorded the information down in his mind. Then he stepped backwards. "Anything else I should know?"

  "Nobody should've been down there other than us during the time we ruled the territory. But we have no way of knowing what Marquis Zhou will do. I suggest you move quickly, or they'll scour the river bottom before you have the chance to explore the crevice."

  "Are there no enemies?"

  "None," the man swore. "Just the pressure and the silence."

  If only Qin Ye was here to assure him the man was telling the truth. Lu Qingshan chose to believe him though. The Wave Motions Fist allowed him to fight freely underwater, and he was assured in his ability to come back alive. A lie only meant Lu Qingshan could track down the village again.

  “You can leave,” Lu Qingshan said. “But can you tell me about this village? I want to know about its surroundings and its people.”

  The bear-like man gave him a deep look. "We have a fruit tree growing in the mountains. There's a large fence built around it to keep wandering animals away. Sometimes, when it's the harvesting season every few years, the fruits it bears give many of us a surge in strength to compete with Flesh Tempering martial artists."

  Lu Qingshan's flies were circling around the aforementioned place. So far the man was very forthcoming with information. But there was one more thing the Furious Whale Gang leader hadn't touched on, while he instead transitioned to complimenting the villagers.

  "What about the grave buried deep in the mountain cliffs?" Lu Qingshan interrupted. On top of the highest peak in their surroundings was a simple gravestone. It appeared normal at first glance, but his flies avoided flying too close to it, even when he ordered them to move in that direction. They always seemed to breeze past the location.

  The man's face twisted. "Who are you?" he whispered.

  Lu Qingshan only gave him a questioning look.

  "That's the grave of an old, old ancestor from when the village was first founded. I don't know who that is specifically, but the village elder often goes up there to lay flowers and clean up the area. Come to think of it, I heard that the last generational village elder and the generation before that also took care of the grave."

  Lu Qingshan fell into thought. It was very likely that grave was where an immortal cultivator was buried. He couldn't tell whether or not the place contained traps for other people, since only the village elders would bother going up so high.

  "That's all," he said. "Thank you for your cooperation. Live in peace. I might come and see you all again in the future."

  The Furious Whale Gang leader breathed a sigh of relief. "May you find success in the martial world," he said, bidding Lu Qingshan farewell.

  Lu Qingshan planned to investigate the grave once everything was finished. How long that would take depended on his level of knowledge. At the moment, he didn't know enough about the mechanisms driving his insects away. It was a degree finer than the other immortal cultivators he faced, who just killed the flies, and he was worried he wouldn't be able to leave.

  After letting his Bloodsense Bug target a few random villagers around the city, Lu Qingshan tried searching for a more tangible way to mark this place down. There were a few beasts around the mountains, which he drew blood from as well. That would have to do.

  Lu Qingshan took a final look at the village when he left. The Furious Whale Gang leader had returned to his cottage, sitting inside a rocking chair with his eyes closed. The villagers and martial artists fell back into a normal lifestyle filled with chores and chatter. Some of the children were running around with sticks, chasing each other.

  There was one last thing to do before he returned to Great Wind City. Lu Qingshan's speed was more than he thought with the combination of the fourth level Seven Steps Technique and a near-boundless source of stamina. After that period of rest at the Rising Mountain Village, the time had come to personally visit Dong Qianyu. Even without the need for directions, this would extend his trip by more than a few days.

  Lu Qingshan hoped Liu Yingting and the others were doing fine. He vanished into the mountains, feeding his swarm of flies along the way.

  --

  Lu Qingshan appeared in the remote region where the Seven Mysteries Gate was hiding. It had been a long time since he'd seen them. Makeshift tents decorated their surroundings, where horses grazed and the occasional martial artist could be seen wandering around.

  On top of the wooden barricade, Chen Niu — the simple and honest man from before — was the first one to meet his eyes. He pulled out a torch and lit it. Green smoke trailed into the sky, and martial artists flooded out from the camp. All familiar faces Lu Qingshan recognized.

  "Welcome back, sect master!" Dong Qianyu said with a bright smile. The man had more gray hair than before.

  "How are things?" Lu Qingshan asked.

  "Good," Dong Qianyu replied. "We haven't been lacking in supplies for a while. There's a small lake nearby where animals usually come to drink. We still have plenty to spare, enough for another year at least even if we lose some of it."

  "Anything in the area I should know about?"

  "The place has been mostly empty for the past one and a half years. But there have been large groups of people traveling nearby recently."

  "Armies?"

  "Not quite. Too small for that, and they don't carry banners. But they're larger than caravans, more armed, and have sturdy, strong horses."

  "Might be bandits." Lu Qingshan weighed his options. "How confident are you in a battle with them? Do you need reinforcements?"

  Dong Qianyu looked behind him at three specific people, including Chen Niu. "It shouldn't be a problem," he said, beaming, proud of their progress. The three martial artists stepped forwards.

  Chen Niu had become a Marrow Tempering expert long ago. The man had only turned stronger afterwards. Then, there was the Iron Pine Sect's past leader, who had also recently reached Marrow Tempering. Finally, another Seven Mysteries Gate Disciple had made a breakthrough as well. His name was Tian Du.

  "Very good," Lu Qingshan laughed. Four Marrow Tempering experts were on the absolute high end for bandit camps, not to mention the sect's wide variety of techniques. He took out the newly acquired martial arts manuals in his bag for them to record. While traveling towards the sect, he had entered the first level of the Giant Whale Breathing Method, so he no longer needed to carry it around.

  “This technique requires a massive amount of resources,” Lu Qingshan said. “Only one person should be allowed to cultivate it until we gain more.”

  “Understood.” After arranging things, Lu Qingshan did a quick sweep over the area. It looked peaceful. The lake appeared normal. With nothing else to do, it was time to head back.

  “Make sure to keep laying low,” Lu Qingshan emphasized to Dong Qianyu. “I don’t want you to engage in any unnecessary conflicts yet. Focus on your martial arts — I may have a use for you soon.”

  Dong Qianyu nodded. “Goodbye, sect master. We’ll be waiting for your signal.”