The bandit headquarters

The bandit's base was located on the other side of the cave with the Great serpent sect separating the alliance from the bandits.

As Tianlong neared the Great serpent sect, he could see many scantily dressed women shooting lascivious glances at all the cultivators passing by. Their sect was conducting both flesh business while also Spirit Liquid.

Many cultivators, some of them even women, were bewitched by their beauty and happily went inside to vent their desires.

However, the majority of the male crowd stayed away from them. After all, their mistress Lu Yan didn't exactly have a good reputation.

"This place is just what I imagined it to be."

Not paying them any more attention, he quickly crossed their area.

As he reached the base of the bandits, the first thing he noticed was the difference in the crowd.

There were no female cultivators nearby.

Once inside their dwelling, he was greeted with a similar scene of people queuing up for buying spirit liquids. However, the number of people here were far lower as compared to the two other sects.

The general crowd here consisted of people with a notorious reputation, something that prevented them from going to the other two sects.

Tianlong went to a nearby counter where an evil-looking young man was meditating.

After gauging the cultivation base of Tianlong, the man closed his eyes and started to cultivate again.

"The line for getting the spirit liquid is there."

He pointed towards the queue and didn't pay attention to him.

Tianlong did not flinch at his behaviour at all. Looking at the young man he said, "I want to reserve a spirit pond."

A few people who were standing nearby looked at him with raised eyebrows. After all, he was just at the first level of the Qi condensation and the spirit pond was way too costly for someone at his level.

The young man didn't open his eyes and said in a rather cold voice, "For every hour you cultivate inside, you'll pay 5 spirit stones. The time cannot exceed 12 hours. And you'll need to pay half the price in advance. If you don't come out in the period you paid for, you'll be charged 20 spirit stones for each consecutive hour."

Except for the penalty part, the rules were exactly similar to the Alliance sect's own. Maybe the three powers had an agreement regarding the price before.

Tianlong directly took out 25 spirit stones and kept them on the table.

The young man looked at him with a slight surprise. It was very rare for someone at the first layer of Qi condensation to have so many spirit stones.

Keeping the spirit stones, the young man took out a token with the number 10 inscribed on it and threw it to him.

"Go through this corridor and you'll meet Li Cai and old Zhan."

Tianlong received the token and nodded at him.

However, just as he was about to go there, a middle-aged man stopped him in his tracks.

"Looks like you have too much money with you." He looked at him with a smile.

"And how does that concern you?"

Hearing his response, the man's smile vanished and was instead replaced with a cold expression. "Junior, your cultivation level is too low. It'll only be a waste of spirit stones for someone at your level to cultivate inside. Instead of cultivating in the pond, you should buy spirit liquid like the rest of us."

"…"

"Here, I have a bottle of spirit liquid with me. I'm willing to exchange this with you for the token." Although he was negotiating, his tone was full of threat.

Exchanging the token for spirit liquid? It was all just a pretence!

If Tianlong yielded to him and agreed to the exchange, others would label him as a coward and he would be a common target of bullying.

The people nearby watched the scene with interest. Even the young man at the counter looked at the scene with amusement.

Facing the young man, Tianlong asked in a slightly curious tone, "I thought the Qin Bandits were conducting honest business here."

"Who said we aren't?" The young man grinned. "You see, he's not one of us."

Tianlong nodded in understanding.

The people who were coming here were all evil path cultivators. So even if the bandits didn't create a problem, it didn't mean they wouldn't.

If he kept his Body refining aura for display instead of first level Qi Condensation, the man wouldn't have dared to stop him.

However, Tianlong refrained from doing that as body cultivators were simply too rare and he didn't want to attract attention.

But from the few encounters, it looked like things weren't going as he expected.

"Too little of something garners as much attention as too much. Mediocrity indeed is the best camouflage. My low Qi condensation stage has painted me as a target instead." He inwardly sighed.

While Tianlong was lost in his own thoughts, the man was losing his patience. Taking Tianlong's silence and his words as a form of submission, he thought that the man in front was completely frightened.

"Stop wasting my time and hand over that token and your spirit stones now!" This time he shed all forms of cordiality and directly threatened him.

"Ok."

This sudden answer stupefied everyone, including the young man at the counter. They never thought that Tianlong would yield so easily without even protesting.

Only after he handed the pouch and the token to the man did everyone come to their senses.

"What a coward!"

"He isn't fit to be a cultivator!"

"Looks like old Wang made quite a killing this time!"

Many words of scorn immediately rang out from those who were watching him. The gazes with which they looked at him was filled with disgust.

Not only was he weak, but he also had no backbone to speak of!

The man was laughing internally. "Heh, It's good that you know your place!"

Giving a last look at Tianlong, he went towards the corridor. He couldn't wait to cultivate inside a pond for 10 hours.

*Swish*

However, just as he moved few steps, he felt a cold metallic sensation across his neck. After which, his body came to a stop.

He watched as Tianlong calmly sheathed an ordinary-looking blade strapped to his waist.

Walking up to the man, Tianlong took the token from his hand as well as the jade bottle which was holding the spirit liquid he had just bought.

The man wanted to stop him but to his horror, he found that he couldn't feel his body anymore.

A thin line of blood encircled his neck. It was as if someone had tied a red string around his neck.

*Plop*

Fear and disbelief were plastered over his face as his head separated from his body.

The headless corpse tumbled, a fountain of blood gushing from the neck.

The headless corpse of the man kept convulsing on the floor as blood gushed out from it.

Even after being beheaded, his heart hadn't stopped beating.

Sadly, no one was paying attention to it.

Their eyes were fixed on the direction Tianlong had gone.

"What a decisive and ruthless person! He acted like a weakling and struck that man when he expected it the least!" A nearby cultivator finally broke the silence, his voice filled with admiration.

"Hmph! That's only because the other man was unprepared. In a direct confrontation, Wang Wei would have crushed him like an ant!"

"You are right."Another man coldly harrumphed "Also attacking someone from the backside? Heh, this man has no honour as a swordsman!"

"Oh please! As someone who raped his own sister-in-law and got chased down like a rabid dog, you are the last person who should lecture others about honour and dignity!" Someone commented from behind.

"Bastard! I'll kill you!"

Similar conversations broke out among the other cultivators.

"Silence!"

A voice imbued with spiritual energy hushed the crowd. Their attention immediately shifted to the young man sitting on the counter. He did not look happy.

"There's no need of discussion over such a small matter. Deceit or not, that man killed someone two stages above him. Not to mention it was all done in just a single strike. I doubt anyone of you would be able to accomplish the same given the same opportunity." He said in a flat tone.

"Maybe his sword was a treasure that helped him in killing so easily." Someone was still not convinced.

The young man looked at the speaker with a cold gaze. The latter couldn't stand his stare and averted his eyes.

"I had my eyes glued to him the entire time. The blade was just an ordinary weapon. It was just a single decisive strike that took the man's life." As he spoke eyes were furrowed because even he, with his seventh layer of Qi condensation, wasn't able to follow the entire movement.

The crowd descended into silence with everyone having different thoughts regarding the matter.

Wang Wei's death didn't matter, what mattered was that there was a new evil cultivator whom they had never seen.

However, it didn't matter much since the other party's cultivation was still too low.

"Someone clean this damn place! That trash is making the floor dirty even after his death!"

...…

Meanwhile, Tianlong soon found himself at the end of the corridor where a staircase led to an underground dungeon.

There was a small platform at the end of the staircase. Two men were sitting on top of it.

"Hicc~ What ish shomeone like you doin here?" The man sitting on the left asked in a slurred voice.

His clothes were coarse and poorly stitched. Dry messy hair covered his face. There was a wine gourd in his hand and a strong smell of alcohol covered him. If not for his fifth level Qi condensation aura, others could easily mistake him for a drunken beggar.

As for the other man sitting beside him, he gave the exact opposite impression. His clean white robe, lightly bearded face and intelligent eyes gave others the impression of a mature and wise old man. Overall, he gave the aura of a senior that would make most people around him comfortable.

However, looking at the man's eyes which others would consider pure and intelligent, Tianong only found brutality.

With an expressionless face, he took out the token given to him and threw it towards them.

The man took a sip from his bottle and made a grasping motion towards the token.

"Hicc ~ Old Zhan take a look…"

The other man took the token from his hand and scanned it with his spiritual sense.

After seeing that there was nothing wrong with it, he stood up from his position and started walking towards one of the rooms. Taking it as a signal, Tianlong followed after him.

Unlike the alliance sect, there weren't any attendants or guards in this place. After all, no one dared to cause trouble here.

Along the winding pathway, Tianlong saw many abandoned rooms with signs of mining.

Many different thoughts passed through his mind. But considering who the other party was, he chose to remain silent.

Inadvertently, Tianlong started to calculate his possibility of killing the two men who were guarding the passage.

"He's at the fifth level of Qi condensation. I don't know about his spells and fighting style. So killing him in one go may not be possible. Moreover, it'll be over for me the moment others realize what's going on…

"However, it would be a different case if I manage to reach the mid-stage of the Blood gushing realm. But then I won't be able to mask my aura with just this Qi condensation cultivation base and the two would be more cautious of me…" He inwardly mused.

As Tianlong was hatching a plan to murder the two in cold blood, Old Zhan seemed to have sensed his ill intentions.

Suddenly he stopped in his place and looked at him with an expressionless face.

Tianlong was surprised by how sensitive the man was. However, he let nothing transpire on his face.

After a minute of looking at him with that gaze, old Zhan suddenly flashed a brilliant smile. Tianlong noticed that his teeth were extraordinarily sharp.

The old man took out a jade slip from his pocket and touched the stone door with it.

*Creak*

A breeze filled with pure spiritual energy assaulted them as soon as they opened the door.

With the same smile, old Zhan handed him the jade slip and motioned him to go inside.

Tianlong's expressionless face and old Zhan's elderly smile looked at each other until the former finally sealed the cave from inside.