As the Verdant Serpent Sect descended into a fever pitch of excitement for the Grand Competition, Elder Wei slipped away like a ghost in the morning mist. The disciples were consumed with training, the deacons with organizing the arenas, and the elders with preparing to judge the next generation's talent. No one noticed the quiet departure of the reclusive Poison Elder. His official travel permit, already approved, ensured that even if his absence was noted, it would raise no alarms.
Miles away from the sect, in a secluded canyon, he summoned his Golden-Striped Venom Fliers. The living cloud of giant bees formed his personal transport, lifting him silently into the sky and carrying him eastward toward the contested Crimson Cloud Valley. The journey was a peaceful one, a stark contrast to the mission's true purpose. He spent the time in meditation, circulating the 'Soul-Nourishing Chant', further strengthening the silvery sheen around his Nascent Soul. Every moment was an opportunity for growth, and he wasted none of them.
After a day of travel, he arrived at the edge of the valley. From the sky, it was a breathtaking sight. It was not a valley of greens and browns, but of vibrant, shocking reds. The trees had crimson leaves, the soil was a rich ochre, and a faint, reddish mist clung to the ground, giving the entire landscape an ethereal, dreamlike quality. This unique environment was due to a massive, high-grade spirit stone vein of the fire and wood attribute deep beneath the earth, which infused the entire region with a unique energy that gave birth to countless rare and valuable spiritual herbs.
Wei dismissed his bee-cloud, sending the swarm to forage in the outer forests with a command to remain hidden. He entered the valley on foot, his presence completely suppressed. His spiritual sense, sharper and more resilient than ever, spread out like an invisible net, not just scanning for life, but tasting the very air, analyzing the composition of the mist, and identifying the energy signatures of the local flora and fauna.
His excuse to his fellow elders had been to sweep for traps, and he did so with meticulous care, not because he feared for the sect's disciples, but because he would not tolerate another's work interfering with his own hunt. He found three crude explosive formations near a patch of 'Fire-Tongue Flowers', easily disarming them. He also found a patch of 'Nerve-Rot Moss' deliberately transplanted to the base of a 'Seven Treasures Ginseng', a classic Blackwood Sect tactic to poison a resource they couldn't immediately claim. Wei simply harvested the moss for his own collection, a small, unexpected bonus.
For two days, he explored the outer perimeter of the valley, the territory designated to the Verdant Serpent Sect. He collected several valuable herbs, both medicinal and poisonous, storing them carefully. His new Cauldron of Myriad Venoms hummed in his storage ring, eager to taste these new ingredients. But the valley was quiet. It seemed the Blackwood Sect was, for now, respecting the terms of the agreement.
On the third day, Wei ventured deeper, crossing the invisible line that separated the two sects' territories. The energy here was slightly different, wilder. And it was here that he found his prey.
Concealed on a ridge overlooking a small clearing, he watched a group of five Blackwood Sect disciples. They were all young, arrogant, and at the peak of the Foundation Establishment realm. They were led by a burly young man who had just broken through to the Core Formation realm, and he carried himself with the unearned confidence of a new king. They were carelessly harvesting a patch of 'Crimson Vein Grass', a key ingredient for a pill that aided in breaking through cultivation bottlenecks. They laughed and joked loudly, secure in the belief that the Verdant Serpent Sect was too preoccupied with its competition to patrol so deep.
"Hurry up!" the Core Formation leader barked. "The sooner we clear this patch, the sooner we can go hunt some of those cowardly Verdant Serpent disciples who are stupid enough to be out here."
Wei watched them from a thousand meters away, his face an emotionless mask. These were not worthy opponents, but they were a perfect test for a new poison he had conceptualized, one refined by his new cauldron. He had named it 'Maddening Spore'. It was a simple but insidious creation, derived from the Swamp Jester's Cap he had collected in the Shadowfen Marsh. Refined by the Cauldron of Myriad Venoms, the spores were now smaller, more potent, and carried a spiritual trigger. Once inhaled, they would lie dormant until they detected a significant flare of hostile spiritual energy from the host. When triggered, they wouldn't kill directly; instead, they would amplify aggression and paranoia, inducing a state of hyper-violent psychosis. They would see their closest allies as their most hated enemies.
Wei opened a small pouch, and a puff of invisible, odorless dust was carried by the wind into the clearing below. The five disciples inhaled it without noticing a thing. Wei then settled in to wait, his patience absolute.
An hour passed. The disciples finished harvesting the grass and began to argue over its division. The leader claimed a full fifty percent, leaving the other four to split the rest.
"That's not fair, Senior Brother Fang!" one of the disciples protested. "We all did the work!"
"I am a Core Formation expert," Fang sneered, his spiritual energy flaring with arrogance. "My share is what I say it is. Do you have a problem with that?"
That flare of hostile energy was the trigger.
In the eyes of the protesting disciple, Senior Brother Fang's face suddenly twisted into the demonic visage of a hated rival from his childhood. His eyes turned bloodshot. "You dare mock me!" he screamed, his own spiritual energy erupting as he drew his sword and lunged.
The sudden attack shocked everyone. Fang, enraged by the insubordination, retaliated with overwhelming force, blasting the disciple back with a palm strike. That violent burst of energy triggered the spores in the other three disciples. The clearing descended into absolute chaos. Alliances dissolved in an instant, replaced by a free-for-all of paranoid rage. Each cultivator saw the others as monstrous threats, screaming about past slights and imagined betrayals as they unleashed their deadliest techniques on the people who had been their comrades just moments before.
Wei watched the bloody spectacle with detached, academic curiosity. The refined poison was even more effective than he had anticipated. Within ten minutes, the battle was over. Two disciples lay dead, their bodies mangled. Another was bleeding out from a fatal sword wound to the gut. The fourth had his spiritual core shattered, a fate worse than death. Only the leader, Fang, remained standing, albeit heavily wounded, panting over the carnage, his eyes still wide with a mixture of confusion and lingering psychosis.
Wei stepped out from his concealment, walking calmly into the blood-soaked clearing.
Fang spun around, his eyes locking onto Wei. "Who... who are you?" he stammered, the madness slowly receding as he took in the fresh horror he had wrought.
"Just a passing scholar," Wei said softly. With a flick of his will, a single Venom-Quenched Soul Needle shot from his sleeve, a black streak that was too fast for the wounded and exhausted Fang to react to. It pierced his forehead, snuffing out his life and his confusion in an instant.
[Five targets confirmed deceased. Cause of death attributed to Host's poison.]
[Calculating Rewards...]
[Host has received: 1 Core Formation cultivator x 800 points = 800 points.]
[Host has received: 4 Foundation Establishment cultivators x 150 points = 600 points.]
[Total: 1400 Sovereign Points.]
A paltry sum, but this was an experiment, not a true hunt. The real profit came next. Wei walked from body to body, his movements efficient and practiced. He slid the storage rings from their fingers. He took their spirit stones, their unused pills and talismans, and their spiritual artifacts. He even took the freshly harvested Crimson Vein Grass. A cultivator's entire net worth was in their storage ring, and he left nothing behind. This was not just about wealth; it was about sanitation. A body with no storage ring was a victim of robbery, a common crime. It blurred the lines, creating a false trail for any potential investigators.
After looting the bodies, he used his corrosive powder to dispose of them, turning them into a sludge that seeped into the rich, red soil of the valley. Within minutes, there was no sign of the bloody battle, save for some disturbed earth.
He sat down amidst the eerie silence and inspected his haul. The five storage rings contained a decent amount of spirit stones, a few mid-grade cultivation pills, and some standard-issue Blackwood Sect artifacts. More interesting, however, was a small, black iron token he found in Fang's ring. It was inscribed with a map of the Crimson Cloud Valley. On the map, a location deep within the Blackwood Sect's territory was marked with a symbol of a coiled serpent. It was a rendezvous point.
Wei's eyes narrowed. This was not a random foraging party. They were part of a larger, coordinated operation. His "reconnaissance" mission had just become far more interesting. The presence of a Core Formation leader suggested that the person they were meant to rendezvous with was of a higher rank. A Nascent Soul expert, perhaps?
Now that was a target worthy of his attention. A target that would yield thousands of points.
He stood up, the iron token in his hand. He looked deeper into the valley, towards the territory of his enemies. The hunt had just begun.