Chapter 54: Set Fire To The Mountain
Repair the plank road openly, cross Chen Cang secretly!
Su Yan reacted, a glint flashing in his eyes, immediately guessing what was going on.
Pang Tianfeng had done a second no-capital business deal at the Little Mountain Association’s mountain peak in the east, drawing everyone’s attention there.
And if these things in front of him were truly his, that could only mean he wanted to lure the tiger away from the mountain, then do something here himself.
“Old Song said that this Pang Tianfeng is an expert at using poisons, and knowing how to use poisons means he can refine medicine. His strength has progressed so quickly; besides inheritance, he surely couldn’t do without resources.”
He understood in his heart and suddenly revealed a smile: “These medicinal herbs are fated for me. Since he used the cave dwelling I opened, don’t blame me for collecting rent.”
Su Yan didn’t hesitate at all and took all of this batch of medicinal herbs, enough for him to cultivate for a while.
Time was pressing, so he got to work directly, first collecting the pitch-black medicine furnace, then dismantling all the medicinal herb packages and boxes, only packing the medicinal herbs, and stuffing them all into his Insect Realm Space.
It was already packed with quite a few things inside, and it was soon filled up with the medicinal herbs.
Discard!
Right now, no one knew when Pang Tianfeng would return; it was impossible for him to loop back a second time, so any worthless things had to be discarded now.
He didn’t take any worthless medicinal herbs, only the precious ones with high years.
“Why are there so many toxic medicinal herbs?”
Su Yan’s herbology skills were not low; during the packing process, he immediately identified that many of the medicinal herbs were poisonous.
These things couldn’t possibly all come from Hundred Herbs Hall or the Little Mountain Association.
Their medicinal herb business was for strengthening the body and maintaining health, or for wealthy households to nourish their bodies, cure illnesses, and save lives; even if there were poisonous ones, the proportion definitely wouldn’t be this high.
These must inevitably be Pang Tianfeng’s own private stock.
“So many poisonous medicinal herbs—even eating them as meals wouldn’t use this much. What does this Pang Tianfeng want to do? Hmm? What’s this?”
After collecting most of the medicinal herbs into the Insect Realm Space, suddenly a rectangular small box caught Su Yan’s eye.
That box was only about two palms long, standing out starkly against the wooden boxes for medicinal herbs.
But only this box was hidden behind the numerous boxes, covered by vines on top.
If not for Su Yan’s sharp senses and careful inspection, he would likely have missed this box.
‘Treasure!’
Su Yan’s eyes lit up, and he was about to reach out when he suddenly remembered that Pang Tianfeng was an expert at using poisons.
He stopped his movement and had the Yin Water Centipede go forward to open this wooden box.
A burst of blue-green poisonous mist instantly surged out, sizzling loudly, and the surrounding vines immediately withered and rotted, dying in a large patch.
Even the Yin Water Centipede, with its not-low resistance to poisonous creatures, had its carapace corroded with sizzling sounds, developing many pits.
Su Yan’s expression turned stern; as expected, there was a prepared trap, not even fearing the destruction of the nearby medicinal herbs.
Hmm? Wait, doesn’t that mean the thing in the wooden box is even more precious?
What the Green-striped Viper guarded wasn’t just the medicinal herbs.
Thinking of this, Su Yan immediately stared closely; after the poisonous mist dispersed, sure enough, a roll that seemed drawn on feral beast hide was revealed.
The Yin Water Centipede went forward to probe, finding no poison, and only then did Su Yan reach out to take it.
He opened it and took a look—a green-scaled poisonous flood dragon’s aura rushed at him face-on, shocking his heart; he forcefully steadied his mind to avoid being scared.
Looking fixedly, it was exactly a lifelike picture album of a green-scaled poisonous flood dragon surrounded by poisonous clouds, with a majestic form.
Essence, energy, and spirit united, martial arts will infused within; though just a picture album, it felt like feral beast true intent.
Su Yan was shocked and suspicious: “No, there’s something wrong with this picture album; it feels just like Master Bai’s White Ape True Intent that day. Could it be related to the main cultivation technique?”
With this thought, he immediately scanned the content below, and sure enough, it was a cultivation manual sufficient to cultivate true intent, and that green-scaled poisonous flood dragon image was prominently the core visualization of the technique—the visualization diagram.
“《Poison Dragon Golden Body Technique》, this must be that Pang Tianfeng’s treasure, perhaps his opportunity.”
Su Yan was overjoyed in his heart, but grew even calmer.
It wasn’t suitable to stay here long; with this kind of thing in his hands, Pang Tianfeng would risk his life to take it back.
He was not yet a match for Pang Tianfeng.
Moreover, an ordinary man is innocent, but harboring a jade brings guilt; if the news leaked.
Su Yan’s heart tightened; he packed the medicinal herbs fully, ignored whatever was left, and strode out of the cave mouth.
He piled the shrubs, rotten stakes, and weeds at the mountain stream and cave entrance.
“Set a mountain fire, sit through the prison sentence—this can’t be blamed on me. Not setting a fire wouldn’t destroy the traces well, and it would also tell others you’re over here.”
Muddying the waters was the best way to escape suspicion, but whether spreading news covertly in the marketplace or reporting to officials with a fake identity, it was all too slow.
News wouldn’t spread fast enough, and in the gap, Pang Tianfeng might return and discover traces; plus, the process itself carried exposure risk.
Better to have a sky-high fire let people know something was wrong here and draw everyone over.
Su Yan poured the kerosene prepared in the Insect Realm Space for making torches onto the dry wood and weeds, then lit the torch, sending firelight soaring.
Blazing flames rose continuously; when they burned the still-damp vines and weeds, billowing smoke surged out.
“Add a bit more.”
Su Yan’s eyes moved; in the raging inferno, just destroying traces wasn’t enough—he scattered and tossed in the two daggers from Huang Sanhu and Huang Ba earlier.
These daggers’ style wasn’t that of ordinary mountain villagers but of martial artists, and there were two of them; even if it couldn’t fully mislead, it should add some chaos.
After doing this, Su Yan immediately chose a direction, hurriedly heading down the mountain; he constantly concealed traces along the way, twisting and turning, ensuring no one could track him.
After Su Yan left, in less than half an hour, billowing thick smoke soared to the sky, visible clearly even several kilometers away.
“Damn it!”
A figure rushed into the forest, hurrying to the mountain stream.
This person had a tall and burly build, arms like pillars, shoulders like an iron pagoda, and a face chiseled like with axe and knife, with angry and sinister sharp eyes.
His muscles were taut, skin seeming to sprout green scale patterns, as he charged straight into the fire.
The blazing flames scorched hotly; even with his tough skin unharmed for the moment, it still forced out a body of sweat with stinging heat, constantly evaporating.
Pang Tianfeng knew he couldn’t persist long and immediately rushed into the cave.
This cave had grown even hotter from the fire; as soon as Pang Tianfeng entered, he felt his skin starting to not hold up.
What met his eyes was a scene of devastation: wooden boxes turned to charcoal, scattered medicinal herbs burned to carbon ash, only shapes remaining.
Looking again at that special wooden box, it was open, empty inside without a single thing, not even half a speck of ash.
“Damn thief, I will kill you all!”
An angry roar surged from his throat as flames scorched over, heat waves pressing in.
Pang Tianfeng gritted his teeth and angrily rushed out of the cave.
It had originally been lure the tiger away from the mountain, hiding that thing here out of worry it would be seized in a fight.
Yet unexpectedly, the people were fine, but the thing was gone.
One could imagine his heart’s fury; if he found out who did it, he would surely skin them alive, dismember them, and exterminate their entire family.
He rushed out of the flames, his skin already red and stinging, face pitch black, utterly disheveled.
“Drip”
Bean-sized raindrops fell, the sky-high thick smoke and heat waves stirring the clouds above into forming a downpour.
The mountain stream fire began to diminish, at which point the remains of two daggers caught his eye.
“Knife wielders!”
“Pang Tianfeng, where do you think you’re going!”
Shadows flitted in the forest as Xu Guan strode out, finger guards on all ten fingers like eagle claws, pointing straight at Pang Tianfeng.
