"Possessed by a spirit?"
Ning Yuanshan stroked his long beard, looked at He Ziren's body, frowned and pondered.
Pang Jian showed no sign of change.
He had noticed before that many foreign objects, called "spiritual evil spirits" by Han Duping, flew out of the corpses and once they fell into the bodies of the servants of the Zhou and Ning families, they would cause them to kill each other.
He believed this was a suitable reason.
"It's He's own bad luck."
Ning Yao, who had heard the news, moved away from the pile of rocks and said, "Uncle Yuanshan, this is not Pang Jian's fault."
Ning Yuanshan sighed and said, "Young Master He died in our team. How should I explain this?"
"He Ziren is not the only one who died. Because of his high level of cultivation, the evil spirit controlled by the witch will naturally take the opportunity to enter Pang Jian's body and do its best to harm him. I even think that there are other evil spirits invading his body and corroding his mind in the chaos, so that the evil spirit possessed by Pang Jian can succeed smoothly." Ning Yao took the initiative to clear Pang Jian of suspicion.
"It is indeed possible." Ning Yuanshan agreed.
Pang Jian looked normal, but there was a strange ripple in his heart.
He had thought that the death of the He family's young master would cause some disturbance, and that the Ning family would blame him, but he did not expect that Ning Yao would take the initiative to excuse him.
And looking at Ning Yao's expression, he seemed somewhat relieved, as if he had helped Ning Yao solve some problem.
"Pang Jian..."
Ning Yao frowned, and her bright and shining eyes fixed on Pang Jian's face.
She noticed something strange.
Even though He Ziren was possessed by a "spiritual evil spirit", it was Pang Jian who killed him personally. However, Pang Jian acted too calmly, without the slightest sign of panic, which was a bit unreasonable.
"What?" Pang Jian was surprised.
"Have you... killed someone before?" Ning Yao suddenly asked.
"Um."
Pang Jian answered in a low voice, hesitated for a moment, and then said: "I have been hunting in the Cenji Mountains for many years. Some old hunters took advantage of my father's absence and saw that I was young. In order to rob me of my prey, they attacked me."
Ning Yuanshan's eyes lit up with surprise, and he said, "You actually killed a hunter who is more experienced and older than you?"
Pang Jian said: "Good luck."
Ning Yao was startled, and couldn't help but look at him carefully. There was a hint of surprise in her beautiful eyes, and she nodded and said, "I will have to trouble you a lot later. As for He Ziren's death... you don't have to take it to heart."
Pang Jian left tactfully.
Suddenly, he saw Zhou Qingchen looking towards him from afar on the most ferocious one-horned rhino corpse among the pile of rocks in the distance.
There was something intriguing in Zhou Qingchen's eyes, which made Pang Jian confused.
Next, Zhou Qingchen gave loud orders, asking the Zhou family survivors to unload all the objects and packages carried by the corpses and move them to the open space in front of the pile of rocks.
Everyone inside immediately got busy.
The two people from the Ning family and the surviving Zhang Heng tied them up outside, and used the war horses that did not enter the stone pile and shared them with the survivors of the Zhou family.
After He Ziren died, Zhou Qingchen took the black warhorse he rode for himself without any hesitation.
Soon, one war horse after another crossed the rocks, carrying the corpses and the objects wrapped on the unicorn rhino, and gradually passed through the pile of rocks.
Neither Zhou Qingchen nor Ning Yao expressed much sadness about the death of the family servants.
Perhaps they had long been accustomed to this kind of separation between life and death, or perhaps the lives of those servants were of low value and not worth their sadness.
After a while, only the unicorn and the corpses of its servants were left in the pile of rocks.
The Zhou and Ning families had already crossed the pile of rocks and built a fire to roast meat, preparing to continue going deeper after filling their stomachs.
Ning Yuanshan also called Pang Jian over. After hesitating for a moment, Pang Jian walked towards them from the other end of the pile of rocks.
On the way, he felt that there was still a strong "Xuanyin Power" remaining in the piles of rocks where corpses were scattered all over the ground, and he immediately had other ideas in his mind.
"I'll search to see if there's anything left behind."
In a conspicuous position among the pile of rocks, Pang Jian shouted loudly towards the Ningyuan Mountain in front of him.
After hearing what Pang Jian said, the people who stepped out of the pile of stones thought that he was still unwilling to give up and wanted to extract some valuable items from the bloody land that had been looted.
The crowd didn't care and let Pang Jian stay on the pile of rocks. They grilled around the fire and discussed the next itinerary.
"Ms. Ning, what's that boy's name?"
Zhou Qingchen turned the wooden pole with the meat on it, and in the crackling firelight, he smiled at Ning Yao across from him and said, "You should thank him for helping you kill He Ziren. I heard that this kid is licentious and has a bad reputation in the He family."
"Haha, although this guy has some talent for cultivation, I don't think he is worthy of you, Miss Ning."
Zhou Qingchen spoke to himself.
"His name is Pang Jian. But the real mastermind behind the murder of He Ziren is the evil woman who controls the evil spirits." Ning Yao said.
“That’s right.”
Zhou Qingchen smiled strangely, and did not dwell on this topic. He continued, "The demon girl has no flesh and blood yet. She must be a spirit that was sealed away by the old man in the Yinling Temple."
Touching the angular jaw and looking at the sizzling meat, he gradually frowned: "The demon girl just came out not long ago and is still very weak. So after we broke free from the magic sound, she hurriedly retreated."
"Well, next time we meet, she will definitely be much stronger than she is now." Ning Yuanshan interrupted worriedly, "Hey, I don't know where this witch came from. She actually set up an array in the pile of rocks and asked the people in the Yinling Temple to pretend to be practitioners of the Blood Moon. What does she want to do?"
"If I knew those corpses in the pile of rocks came from the Yinling Temple, I wouldn't have entered so early." Han Duping sighed and said, "Playing with strange objects like spirits is what the Yinling Temple is good at. In that desperate place, as long as there are people from the Yinling Temple, whether they are alive or dead, I will be doubly careful."
So many people died in there, causing Zhou Qingchen to suffer heavy losses, which made him feel a little guilty.
"Don't blame yourself. No one would have thought that the bodies in Yinling Temple would be wrapped in Blood Moon's clothes." Zhou Qingchen consoled them and said, "In my opinion, they were wearing Blood Moon's clothes before they died. If I'm not mistaken, they must have killed Blood Moon's people and then changed into their clothes."
"Well, they should be dealing with other people." Ning Yuanshan also agreed.
A group of people were talking outside the pile of rocks, and their voices were quite loud.
"The scene set up by the Yinling Temple?"
He originally thought that if this pile of stones containing the Locking Yin Array was man-made, then it might have been done by his father.
After hearing what those people outside said, he became unsure again.
Lifting up the front of his shirt, he looked at the bronze plate which had taken a long time to return to its original shape after becoming hot.
There was nothing unusual about the copper door-shaped sign except that it became very hot.
But he knew clearly that the reason why he was not affected by the scream and was able to maintain a clear mind was because when the soul-stealing scream sounded, the copper plate on his chest suddenly became hot.
It was this bronze medal that helped him.
"This thing seems unusual."
He vaguely felt that the only relic his father left him might contain some kind of magical power.
Moreover, when the bronze plate became hot, as long as he calmly comprehended the "Hutian Yangqi Jue", his perception seemed to become much sharper.
For example, right now.
When he calmed down and tried to activate the "Hutian Yangqi Jue", he felt that the weak "Xuan Yin Power" remaining in the pile of stones seemed to be escaping from the same direction.
After pondering for a moment, he began to look for the source of the "Xuanyin Power" with his keen perception.
He would stop from time to time to comprehend, and would only move again after he had identified the direction and target again.
After doing this several times, he moved to a corner of the rock pile far away from the crowd and saw a gray-white rock covered with cracks.
The weak "Xuanyin power" escaped out little by little from the cracks in the rock.
The gray-white rock was not too big. After hesitating for a moment, he reached out to touch the crack in the rock.
A very rich "Xuan Yin Power" suddenly flowed out from the cracks, making his whole body cold.
The pure and powerful "Xuanyin Power" instantly penetrated his body, causing his flesh and blood to become stiff.
After being startled, he hurriedly practiced the "Hutian Yangqi Jue", and saw that the blue-black "Spirit Pot" visualized in his mind instantly absorbed the "Xuanyin Power" that escaped into his flesh and blood.
In his spiritual sea, this extremely extraordinary "Xuanyin power" immediately melted away with the "cotton wool"-like dregs and dross.
"Fighting poison with poison?"
Pang Jian was secretly surprised.
He didn't expect that this inconspicuous piece of broken rock actually contained a considerable amount of "Xuanyin Power", which could help him cleanse the filth in his spiritual sea.
Outside, Zhou Qingchen and others continued their loud conversation.
Pang Jian inside was huddled here, his hands pressed against the cracks in the gray-white rock, frantically absorbing the "Xuan Yin Power" from it.
After an unknown amount of time, the noise outside gradually died down, and the dross and impurities in Pang Jian's spiritual sea were also cleared away by the "Xuan Yin Power" in the rocks.
Suddenly, he heard footsteps approaching slowly.
Pang Jian picked up the small piece of broken rock without hesitation, put it in the bamboo basket on his back, covered it with a bamboo raft, and pretended to search around.
Soon, the tall and rough-mannered young master of the Zhou family appeared alone.
Zhou Qingchen was holding a wooden pole with cooked meat on it. He handed it to Pang Jian with a smile and said, "Eat something. We'll need you to lead the way."
Pang Jian was a little flattered. He didn't expect that this person of the highest status would take the initiative to come to him and deliver meat.
He didn't act shy and took the pole openly. He was hungry too, so he opened his mouth and started to bite it.
The meat was roasted till golden brown and had some fat in it, but the texture was dry and tough, requiring a lot of effort to chew.
Compared to the meat he made from the wild animals he hunted in the forest, the skewer of meat Zhou Qingchen gave tasted quite ordinary.
"You think my meat is not tasty?"
Seeing him frown, Zhou Qingchen couldn't help but laugh and said, "We are all practitioners, not cooks. It's good enough that we can make something."
Pang Jian shook his head and said nothing.
"I heard from Miss Ning that your name is Pang Jian, and you are a hunter nearby." Zhou Qingchen thought for a moment and suddenly said, "If you can leave the Cenji Mountains alive, are you interested in following me to the Zhou family?"
Pang Jian looked at him in surprise. He didn't expect that the young master of the Zhou family would actually want to recruit him.
"Think about it first, don't rush to give me an answer." Zhou Qingchen laughed and said, "You can also use this period of time to understand my character and the status of my Zhou family in this world."
"My talent for cultivation is average." Pang Jian frowned.
"Talent is just a stepping stone, not everything." Zhou Qingchen waved his hand and said, "When you killed He Ziren, I really admired the ruthlessness you showed."
After saying this, he burst into laughter.
Pang Jian's expression changed drastically.
Zhou Qingchen smiled and patted his shoulder in a friendly manner, saying, "Although I was in the pile of rocks, I noticed that He Ziren was looking for trouble with you and twisted you up high. When the devil's scream sounded, the demon woman hid behind the white paper fan and took the lead in launching a mental attack on me."
"Her sudden attack left me unable to move for a moment, but my perception and consciousness are still there."
"I noticed that no evil spirit took the opportunity to leave the pile of rocks, so you were not possessed."
"As for how you got rid of the devil's scream, I really don't understand. But no matter what, I admire your ability to seize that opportunity and to kill He Ziren so decisively."
"Because you are young and have a chance to make up for your lack of talent, I, Zhou Qingchen, am willing to accept you."
The young master of the Zhou family, who took the initiative to show his goodwill, left these words and a skewer of roasted meat, then left in a leisurely manner.
Pang Jian bit the meat in his mouth, looked at Zhou Qingchen's tall back, and said nothing more.
He didn't breathe a sigh of relief until Zhou Qingchen completely disappeared, feeling fortunate that the young master of the Zhou family had not noticed the strange rock in the bamboo basket behind him, nor had he cared about He Ziren's death.
…
Go and vote quickly, all kinds of small tickets~~
(End of this chapter)