Another One For the Collection

Chen Wentian let his disciples train on their own for a while. They each had a clear training method and their own plans. He finally felt comfortable leaving them to handle some overdue problems.

News from the Immortal Association's grapevine was that the Lion faction and Eagle faction of the Beast God Sanctum had been engaged in a cold war ever since the beginning of the monster invasion. The remnants of the Snake Lord's forces had either abandoned the sect or been captured and killed. Nobody had heard anything from the Spirit Lords under Immortal Mamba of Shadow. It was like they had all disappeared.

The two factions were too busy guarding against each other and the four other provinces under their protection were ignored and in shambles. Only the Beast God Province was safe from the monster invasion.

Chen Wentian's target was the Beast God Sanctum and the Lion faction specifically. He had to pay back He Zicheng and He Xinghan for all their crimes against his disciples. He was also curious about the death of Immortal Mamba of Shadow. He decided it was a good time to do some spying and dig into the secrets of the beast loving idiots.

He could stroll into Beast God Province himself. He would instantly be detected and kicked out. He also didn't have enough spare time to hide around like a rat and spy on them. What he needed to infiltrate the sect was a person, a cultivator to be exact. He needed anyone that was a member of the Beast God Sanctum, preferably with the Lion faction.

After announcing he was going to Cloudy Mountain Province to train his disciples, he slipped away from the Immortal Association's attention and headed out to hunt.

His target was the two northern provinces under the control of He Zicheng's Lion faction. They didn't care about the fate of the commoners and monsters had completely overrun large swaths of territory. However, this also meant rich gains when the Lion faction occasionally headed out to cull a few valuable species.

Chen Wentian couldn't fly around carelessly as his spiritual aura and residual spiritual energy would alert high level Spirit Initiate Realm cultivators or immortals of his trace. The chances of this were low but he wanted to be absolutely sure nobody would suspect anything. He slowly made his away across the first province, marking down areas that had valuable beasts the Beast God Sanctum would want for food and resources. Beasts that cultivated to the Spirit Initiate Realm were incredibly valued for their meat, organs, and bones. Almost every part of them had some use to the Beast God Sanctum. Thus, he played the part of a patient hunter, waiting for his prey.

---

Chen Wentian's patience was rewarded on the fifth day as one of the signal traps he had laid down was triggered. It meant a party of powerful cultivators were going after one of the herds of beasts he had marked.

"Finally! I was getting seriously bored." He muttered.

He sneaked to a safe distance before hiding himself inside a tree and activated his split shadow. While his body remained motionless, a black shadow rushed forward along the trees and bushes towards his target. He approached a meadow next to a lake and saw a group of ten cultivators that were slaughtering their way through a pack of Bristle Bears.

"Raawwrrr!"

"Kill it!"

Roars mixed with human yells as swords clashed against the hard needles that grew from every inch of the beasts' skin. The men were all at the upper levels of the Spirit Initiate Realm while the bears were a few levels lower. The difference in cultivation as well as organization soon showed its result and brown colored bears succumbed one by one, dyeing the lake crimson with their blood and guts.

The ground shook as the largest one, a massive hunk three meters tall, was brought crashing to the ground. The men cheered at their triumph. Some immediately started to pull the dead bears together while others cleaned up the battlefield. An older looking man studied each bear, jotting something down and storing them into a spatial bag.

Jackpot! Chen Wentian was excited. Having a spatial bag meant that man was not a simple character.

"Master He, where will we go now? Shall we continue our hunt?" One of the younger cultivators asked.

"Hmm..." The one surnamed He stroked his beard, "It's better to be safe, let's head back."

Once everything was cleaned up, they got on their horses and started heading back towards the capital city of the province. It was still a couple day's ride away so Chen Wentian's shadow followed after them, waiting for a good time to strike.

Chen Wentian decided on Master He as his target. Anybody with that surname was definitely a relative of He Zicheng. The guy also had a spatial bag, signifying his status. He was the best choice.

After the party had set up camp for the night, Chen Wentian recalled his shadow and quickly caught up with them. He lurked around until after they had gone to sleep. There was one person standing guard but he dealt with him easily through a powerful sleeping powder. After making sure everyone else was knocked out as well, he went into the main tent where Master He was.

"Who! Mmmm!"

Master He called out in alarm as he sensed an intruder but was immediately silenced by Chen Wentian's spiritual aura. It looked like Master He was not simple as he even had prepared some protective arrays to protect against the sleeping powder. But it didn't matter as there was nobody here that could stop Chen Wentian.

Master He looked at this strange person fearfully as every inch of his body was frozen, unable to move. Immortal! There was no other possibility. The first thought was someone from the Eagle faction but he didn't recognize the face. What could anybody want with him? He was merely a lowly elder within the Beast God Sanctum. The stranger didn't say anything, only extending his hand and soon Master He felt a strange energy enter him.

The energy was like water, spreading across his body until it permeated everything, seeping into his upper, middle, and lower dantians. There was no pain, but the world around him faded away and he found that he was no longer in the tent. What was before his eyes was a vast starry space, as vast as the universe. He looked down, to see his body had become like gas, it was white and ethereal with no substance.

He looked around and saw the stranger appear. That man was also white and ethereal like him. The white ethereal hand of the stranger reached out once more. This time, it directly dug into Master He's chest. He tried to scream but there was no sound. He could do nothing as his consciousness slowly drifted away into darkness.

---

Master He, or more specifically He Xingping, opened his eyes after a long time. He was still He Xingping, with all the memories and the same thoughts as before. But he was no longer the same person as before. He now knew the name of the stranger in front of him, Chen Wentian.

"Another one for the collection..." He Xingping muttered.

"Indeed, have fun!" Chen Wentian said and disappeared into the night, leaving the new and improved He Xingping alone in the tent.