"People are disappearing?" Lu Qingshan walked with Qin Ye through the streets of the Stone Axe Gang's territory. His Bloodseeker Flies didn’t spot anything abnormal. The gang’s martial artists were still patrolling around the territory, though they looked more subdued, their aggressive interactions a touch softer than before.

  "It seems so." Qin Ye led him towards the houses of the vanished people, who were Flesh Tempering martial artists. There were three in total, living around the same area. Disappearances weren't exactly common in this city, but they happened. The most important thing was that it happened to three gang martial artists who were supposed to be safe and sound inside the Stone Axe Gang's territory.

  There was clearly an enemy here. Lu Qingshan didn't know how to find them. Around their houses where they were last seen, nothing seemed out of place. If only there was a drop of blood left behind somewhere.

  "Try to get me some of their blood," he whispered to Qin Ye. "It wouldn't look good for me to start asking."

  "It doesn't look good for me either," Qin Ye whispered back. "But I'll try."

  Lu Qingshan busied himself with his human-faced spiders and the Bloodseeker Flies. They crawled all over the room, into small cracks and inside the walls, trying to find any fresh blood spots. Perhaps one of them had very recently cut themselves on the wooden splinters of the house.

  There was a small amount of blood, but it was too old for the Bloodsense Bug to use. Qin Ye didn't have any luck either. Those three hadn't participated in any recent battles.

  Since that approach didn't work, Lu Qingshan spread his human-faced spiders around while he clustered the Bloodseeker Flies around the area. The only thing left to do was wait. He couldn't spend all his time guarding the Stone Axe Gang. All he could do was ask the Wang brothers to order that everyone remain in their homes at night while he awaited their arrival. But if the enemy chose to not strike again, there really wasn't much to do.

  Lu Qingshan had Qin Ye continue to remain behind for the investigation. He called Meng Zhang and Li Fanghua over as well to help. Meanwhile, he himself continued onto the Blade Shadow Valley territory. Liu Yingting’s Hundred Poisons Elixirs were nearing completion, and he urgently needed some Green Heart Worms to finish the batches.

  The Blade Shadow Valley occupied a large temple and pagoda pair with their disciples in the middle of the city. They were one of the oldest sects in the area, and the largest of them. In recent years, they had experienced a short decline, but quickly recovered.

  Now Lu Qingshan was wondering if those Green Heart Worms were the source of their recovery. This was likely. But he also wondered if someone was behind their recent downfall or if it was just an inevitability for the sect.

  Either way, he needed to get those worms. The temple was where the martial artists listened to lectures while the pagoda was where they trained. Near the two massive buildings were residential areas, trading hubs, and other amenities. He had to wait for an opportunity to grab a disciple when they eventually left the heavily defended area. Usually, sect disciples lived on sect grounds until they were sent on missions where they had to leave.

  Lu Qingshan saw an opportunity after a few hours of sitting around. A group of martial artists were coming towards him. From their stature, he judged that two of them were amateurs, two were average, and the one leading in front was an expert. They were probably off to fulfill a sect mission.

  He traced their movements with his flies. They were heading into Broken Ring Society territory, somewhere that was far from Liu Yingting's setup in the middle of the Barbarian Bull Gang's former territory. Lu Qingshan dearly hoped their plans would work.

  Liu Yingting had constructed a few jade boxes that would try to shield the Green Heart Worms from external forces. But if the worms disintegrated due to the air itself, then there was nothing they could do. Unless an immortal cultivator had a spell to ward away air as well, the worms would just die. And that type of auxiliary spell was not found in the Lesser Qi Sensing Technique.

  The group of five martial artists were headed towards a place Lu Qingshan actually recognized, since it was one of the places they had decided not to raid almost four months ago. Intrigued, he made sure to remain hidden while following them. They briefly looked around the area before the leading expert knocked on the door and brought his face closer.

  After a few breaths, someone opened the door to let them in. Lu Qingshan snuck a few flies behind them and observed. In total, there were eight people in the room, all discussing something. It was difficult to hear them speak, so he had to move closer.

  Inside, the eight of them spoke about their next plans for the city. “Marquis Zhou is going to attack again,” the Blade Shadow Valley expert said. “We need your men to be in position to act.”

  “That’s fine with us,” the Broken Ring Society member replied. “We’ll be there when you need us.”

  Lu Qingshan had heard enough. While they discussed where to position themselves during Marquis Zhou’s earth-shaking moves, he kicked down the door and rushed in. A small cluster of Marrow Tempering stage Bloodseeker Flies immediately devoured the three gang disciples. Then his fists brought down the Blade Shadow Valley disciples to their knees.

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  He chanted the Insect Harmony Mantra. The things he sensed inside their bodies fell under his control before they could dissolve into poison. While he was distracted, the lead Marrow Tempering expert managed to muster a single blow to his head. But it bounced straight off.

  “I’m trying to save you,” Lu Qingshan said in a deadpan voice. His claw tore open the man’s chest and out came the Green Heart Worm, wriggling its head towards him. Their eyes turned wide in shock, staring at the long, thin hair-like creature coiled around their ribs and organs.

  As soon as Lu Qingshan plucked it out, the man’s skin visibly sagged. His heart then stopped a few moments after. Lu Qingshan watched him wither away with a frown, as the worm settled itself down into the jade box. Such a long worm was not exactly juvenile and had been growing for quite some time.

  He targeted the youngest martial artist this time, though this person was still at the Bone Tempering stage. Not long after coaxing the Green Heart Worm out, they died as well once the worm was removed. This worm was smaller than the first one but it was still not juvenile.

  Liu Yingting's recipe called for juvenile Green Heart Worms, and these were clearly longer than the adults of what he had described. But these were mutated species. Perhaps something could be done to improve the recipes, using the altered properties of these mutated worms. Lu Qingshan decided not to pull out a third one and let the rest remain in their hosts.

  Lu Qingshan watched the Green Heart Worms writhe inside their separate jade boxes, giving them some of the organs from the Marrow Tempering expert's body. They had already gone dry. Whether or not these worms would survive was no longer his problem.

  He made his way to Liu Yingting’s residence as quickly and quietly as possible, carrying two bodies in his hands and one on his back.

  Liu Yingting's place was located in an empty corner of their territory. The Wang brothers made sure everyone was gone. In the middle of his house, the Elder was watching over a set of three bubbling cauldrons, where a sweet smell wafted out into the air.

  "Here you go," Lu Qingshan said, throwing the bodies down onto a table and taking out the jade boxes as well. "How's progress?"

  "Good," Liu Yingting said. He sprinkled in a few additional herbs into the bubbling mixture and turned his head towards the table. "Are the worms in good condition?"

  "They were alive when I plucked them out, at least."

  Liu Yingting opened the boxes. The first one was still wriggling around, but it definitely looked more sluggish. The second one though was completely dead.

  Liu Yingting simply picked it up. "They share traits with juveniles," he said, inspecting it. He then dropped the live worm into one of the cauldrons. "Let's give it a try."

  The solution bubbled and boiled. "We'll have to wait until morning when this is finished," he said.

  Lu Qingshan nodded. "I'll stay here and make sure these three remain alive. They have smaller Green Heart Worms inside them, so we can see how they work."

  "If that's the case, I had a different idea. We can put one worm inside one of these batches, two worms inside another, and cook all three at a time."

  "Can the recipe be changed like that?" Lu Qingshan slit open the three martial artists' chests and coaxed the worms out.

  Liu Yingting grabbed them barehanded. "I had some ideas, so I want to try," he said, placing them into the cauldrons. He stared at the cauldron with two worms for a long while before adding another set of herbs into the container. "Alright, that should be it."

  Lu Qingshan left the house. Hopefully, the man would bring results. In the meantime, it was about time to head towards the Nine Wines Restaurant again. He visited Qin Ye at his house and then Li Fanghua on the route towards the restaurant. This time though, they ordered just enough for the three of them to have a quick meal.

  While they waited for their food, a familiar voice interrupted his thinking. The first of the six travelers had finally lowered their guard. "We wanted to ask if you could help us with a small problem," said the same woman who had first asked them for wine. "It's not dangerous."

  Lu Qingshan looked towards Li Fanghua, continuing the act that he was here to serve her. She gave the woman a nod.

  "Thank you," the woman said. "I'm Feng Ranran. We're travelers from far away. We..." she paused. "We need to speak to some important people about the events that led us here."

  "What do you mean?" Li Fanghua's smile turned confused.

  "We came from Clear Wind City from Changshan Province. We left because of an ominous omen in the air. Nobody listened to us, and now..."

  "Now, they're all dead." The Marrow Tempering expert was finally here. He hadn't spoken to them all this time, except now. "My name is Jin Teng. A disaster struck our city but we were lucky to leave early."

  "What happened?" Li Fanghua asked.

  Jin Teng said in a low voice, "There had been rain a few days before I had this terrible feeling something was going to happen. We left faraway for a few months. But before we could return, people were saying a drought had struck the area where our city was. We didn't believe them. How could a drought happen that quickly? So we went back, but the city was surrounded by the kingdom's army. We had to sneak in to find out what happened."

  "The whole city was empty," Feng Ranran said. "Everybody just vanished."

  Li Fanghua's eyes went wide. "How?" she mouthed. "An entire city?"

  "We were a small city. Only one sect had Viscera Tempering experts, the Dragon Spine Sect," he said. "We caught a small glimpse of their sect pavilion when we were leaving. It was the only one that had something different about it. Burn marks, all over the sides," Jin Teng said.

  Lu Qingshan's eyes narrowed in suspicion. "Was there an unnatural heat in the area? Dead plants everywhere? It looked like a drought, didn't it?"

  Jin Teng gave him a look, like he didn't want to believe it. "How did you know?"

  "This isn't the first time we've encountered something abnormal," Lu Qingshan said.

  "Tell us more."