Ning Sihua’s eyes shone with a strange light too. 

Ma Shanwei’s response alerted her too. She could tell that, so long as he survived, he would wait until his foes were at their most vulnerable, then attack like a mad dog and rip them to pieces.

Beneath this deeply oppressive atmosphere, Su Yi spoke once more. 

“Since I instructed you on good conduct out of the goodness of my heart, might you tell me who put you up to bullying Huang Qianjun?”

Ma Shanwei said in a booming voice, “I have only myself to blame for letting beauty blind me to good sense. When I learned that Nan Ying and Huang Qianjun had never gotten along, I decided to help Nan Ying vent her frustrations, leading to this mistake. Young Lord, your arrival has awakened me to the dangers right in the nick of time. I am deeply ashamed, and I admire you from the bottom of my heart!” 

Everyone was stunned, and all of them glanced over at Nan Ying.

Nan Ying, meanwhile, had gone deathly pale, and her expression was unsightly.

Even she would never have guessed that a glorious vice-commander of the Greenplate Army would sell her out without the slightest hesitation!

When she sensed the crowd’s gazes, Nan Ying couldn’t help but cry out. “I didn’t! That’s nothing but lies and slander! I, Nan Ying, have only a hundred men under my command. How could I possibly order about a vice-commander like you?”

As she said this, she knelt, then pleaded in a quavering voice, “Senior Apprentice Brother Su, I swear by the heavens themselves that I didn’t put Ma Shanwei up to this!”

Ma Shanwei boomed, “I said it earlier, I have only myself to blame for letting beauty muddle my good sense!” 

Reading between the lines, he was saying that he’d fallen for Nan Ying’s honey trap.

When he saw this, Su Yi couldn’t help but stare deeply at Ma Shanwei. “I’ve seen numerous others like you, including many far more ruthless and shameless. I imagine it’s due to overcoming far too many life-and-death tribulations. You’re deeply aware of how terrifying death is, so for the sake of living on, you’re willing to cast aside all thoughts of dignity and all concern for your reputation.”

Ma Shanwei instantly went rigid, and his expression shifted erratically. He suddenly felt transparent, as if Su Yi had seen right through him, and he felt a chill course through him. 

Su Yi smiled faintly and asked, “Tell me, how do you think things ended for others like you?” 

In the face of Su Yi’s calm and inscrutable gaze and emotionless smile, Ma Shanwei’s pupils constricted until they were as small as needlepoints. Irrepressible terror surged from deep within his heart.

A long time passed before Ma Shanwei overcame his fear enough to say, enunciating every word, “I dare not guess, but I can swear that for the rest of my life, I’ll remain grateful for your benevolence. I will absolutely never so much as entertain thoughts of revenge!”

“No, you’re welcome to choose revenge,” said Su Yi flatly. “Also, I heard numerous others like you say much the same thing, yet here I am, alive and well. As for them….”

Ma Shanwei cried out in terror, “I understand! I understand!”

Su Yi shook his head, then lifted his foot from Ma Shanwei’s face. “No, you don’t get it. In my eyes, you’re entirely unworthy of becoming my enemy.”

With that, he couldn’t be bothered to spare Ma Shanwei so much as another glance. 

He walked over to Huang Qianjun and said, “I’m leaving him here for you to deal with. Consider him a whetstone. Your time limit is three months. Can you do it?”

Huang Qianjun pursed his lips and nodded forcefully. “I can!”

Everyone present heard this exchange. The Greenplate Army soldiers were stunned, but more than that, they were confused.

Huang Qianjun was a martial artist in the early stages of Qi Accumulation. How could he possibly overpower a tough, experienced first-level Grandmaster like Ma Shanwei in just three months?

Ma Shanwei heard this exchange too, and he collapsed to the ground, his breathing ragged, and roared, “Young Lord, that you see me as worthy of becoming Huang Qianjun’s whetstone is an enormous honor! I am deeply grateful that you spared my life!”

The crowd was speechless.

Su Yi ignored Ma Shanwei completely. Instead, he glanced at Zhang Yiren. “Commander Zhang, how about we find a place to have a chat?”

Zhang Yiren took a deep breath, then smiled, “Young Lord Su, this way, please! The marquis said a long time ago that were you to arrive, we’d welcome you with Cloudburn Wine brewed with the blood of a hundred spirit beasts! It’s a rare, top-quality brew!” 

“You come too.” Su Yi glanced at Huang Qianjun, who hurriedly agreed.

Then, Zheng Yiren immediately led Su Yi and company away from the training grounds.

The soldiers of the Greenplate Army watched them fade away, all of them with complex expressions on their faces.

Su Yi’s strength shook them and made awe rise within their hearts.

The rules of the military were simple; the stronger you were, the more others respected you.

Su Yi had just used his Qi Accumulation Realm cultivation to easily suppress Ma Shanwei. It was unavoidable that the Greenplate Army soldiers would admire him.

Nan Ying, who was still kneeling in the training grounds, was dumbstruck.

She’d originally been tense and panicked. She thought that Su Yi was sure to lose his temper and that he might very well kill her where she stood.

Who’d have thought that, from beginning to end, he wouldn’t so much as spare her a single glance?

They said that being ignored felt even worse than being insulted. This was how it felt to be completely overlooked!

“That guy…. He’s scarier than ever…” Li Moyun sighed to himself. An emotion he couldn’t quite put his finger on welled within his heart. 

He’d once been one of the leading figures of Guangling City’s younger generation, as well as one of most dazzling and prominent disciples of Blueriver Sword Manor. 

In the past, he’d looked down on Su Yi, the Wen Family’s live-in son-in-law, to the extreme. Due to his desire to pursue Wen Lingzhao, he’d even once attempted to eliminate Su Yi in secret.

But now….

Li Moyun finally realized on a deep level just how immature and ridiculous he’d been. They say summer insects speak not of ice. I imagine that in Su Yi’s eyes, I’m nothing but a pitiful worm, so lowly that I’m beneath his notice…..

Just as Li Moyun thought this, Ma Shanwei’s voice reverberated throughout the training guards. “To me! Take Nan Ying into custody. When the marquis comes back, he can deal with her himself!”

Li Moyun’s head shot up, and he saw a group of Greenplate Army soldiers charge toward the still-kneeling Nan Ying.

No matter how much she shrieked in panic, it was to no avail. In the end, they dragged her off.

A deep sense of absurdity welled within Li Moyun’s heart. 

From beginning to end, Su Yi hadn’t so much as glanced at Nan Ying. He’d ignored her completely.

But it was funny; Ma Shanwei, the guy Su Yi had only just taught such a ruthless lesson, had turned against Nan Ying….

Was he doing this to punish her because he’d let her beauty manipulate him? Or to express his goodwill to Su Yi?

No one knew.

But Li Moyun was now deeply aware of something.

Once you obtained sufficient power, even if you disdained to deal with someone yourself, others would step in to help you deal with them on their own initiative! 

That was what was happening now.

Su Yi hadn’t said anything about how to deal with Nan Ying, but it was obvious to everyone that even if Ma Shanwei hadn’t given those orders, Marquis Chen Zheng wouldn’t let her off when he came back and found out about this. 

…..

Dusk faded, and night descended upon the world.

In a vast hall hewn of coarse stone, torches thick as an arm shone with surging firelight, illuminating the room’s interior. 

One steaming hot dish appeared after another. All of them were made with meat from a wide array of spirit beasts. Their strong fragrance permeated the air; it was enough to make anyone drool.

Each of them sat at their own little table, and they each had their own jar of Cloudburn Wine. It was bright red and perfectly transparent, like burning rosy clouds. 

This wine was brewed from the blood essence of over a hundred types of spirit beast, as well as numerous types of spiritual medicine. It was potent stuff, and it burned the throat as it went down. It could stimulate the hidden potential of a martial artist’s blood and qi. 

Su Yi took a sip. The flavor was indeed extremely distinctive, like a knife to the throat. A tearing, burning sensation surged into his body, like lava coursing through every inch of him, boiling his blood.

After savoring its flavor, he found that an icy, rich sweetness lingered in his mouth. 

He feared that an ordinary martial artist couldn’t possibly withstand such a despotic brew; one cup would be enough to get them drunk. 

At the banquet, Su Yi and company ate and chatted. Before long, they’d obtained some important intelligence from Zhang Yiren.

Bloodthistle Yao Mountain’s impending beast wave had already attracted the attention of numerous peak-level figures of the Great Zhou.

Some major factions had long since taken action and entered the mountain from other directions. 

This included several of the Great Zhou’s Ten Great Academies: Luyang Academy, Kongtong Academy, and Starcliff Academy. They came in teams led by some of their top experts. They’d entered the mountain some time ago.

Them aside, there were also a few tough customers from various other factions. 

When they heard this, Su Yi and his companions realized that if there really was fortune to be obtained within the mountains, there would undoubtedly be a fierce struggle to obtain it. 

“That’s rather troublesome.” After hearing this, Shen Jiusong knit his brow. With so many competitors, conflict was inevitable.

“Why worry about that? Even now, no one knows whether the strange occurrences deep within the mountain are a stroke of fortune or a calamity.” Ning Sihua shook her head dismissively. “Besides, with our power, we can handle whatever sudden dangers await us.” 

She then glanced at Su Yi and flashed him a charming smile. “What do you think, Fellow Daoist?”

“Let’s wait and see the situation,” Su Yi said offhandedly. 

In his past life, he’d ventured into countless danger zones. He’d long since lost track of how many ruins and hidden lands he’d explored. He’d obtained several strokes of fortune along the way, but he’d also encountered calamities.

On numerous occasions, he’d even faced nearly certain doom.

His experience was, naturally, ample to the extreme. 

It was because of this that he was well aware: in the face of unknown danger, you couldn’t afford to make random guesses, nor could you let your guard down. 

Ning Sihua nodded. “Then when do you think we should set out?”

Su Yi glanced at Zhang Yiren. “Where did the Spiritmartial Marquis depart from? Did he have a specific route in mind?”

“He did,” Zhang Yiren hurriedly. He then pulled out a map drawn on beast skin and passed it to Su Yi. “This is a map of Bloodthistle Yao Mountain the marquis drew himself. Please, take a look.”

Su Yi opened it and saw that, while the map was a bit crude, it roughly outlined the entirety of Bloodthistle Yao Mountain. 

Numerous places contained annotations like “dangerous”, “extremely dangerous”, “take a detour”, and “dead-end.”

But deep within the mountain wilderness, the map was empty, with only a single annotation—

“This is a land of grave peril, but it hides a profound secret!”

After looking it over for a while, Su Yi passed the beast skin map to Ning Sihua.    

He then glanced at Zhang Yiren. “Your marquis has been gone for five days, and he has yet to return. It’s highly likely that he’s encountered thorny difficulties, or that he’s in grave peril.

“I want you to tell me everything you know about when he set off, where he began his journey, and his intended route. Tell me everything in as much detail as you can. That way, when we venture into the mountains, we might very well be able to help him.”