Although the Great Demon pushed hard, moving against the emperor was still not easy.
The civil officials led by the loyal minister Qin Rong made this a hard pass.
Fortunately, the current Yongcheng Emperor had not completely become a puppet, and for once showed some backbone.
"If the Path to Immortality exists, our Great Qian Ancestor Dragon will surely ascend to the upper realms and achieve even greater immortal fruits. Our human race's prodigies throughout history would have a longer road to travel. This endeavor brings immediate merit and benefits for a thousand autumns. I have no reason to refuse to strive for it! Ministers, there is no need to argue, my will is set. From this day I order elite troops and strong generals to march, the army will head to the North Sea!"
With the Li Imperial Clan and Great Qian elite joining, Chen Yi's team vying for the Path to Immortality grew much larger.
Great Qian needed time to dispatch troops and gather masters.
After obtaining some Imperial Mausoleum Nethersoil, Chen Yi set off for Golden Sand Beach ahead of schedule with the Great Demon and Hua Wuyan.
The three flew north together, passing through the Northern Frontier on the way.
"Stop!"
The Great Demon raged.
"What now again? Can you hurry up? Do I look like I can hold out for a long time??"
Chen Yi smiled.
"I know you carry the Sun Moon Tower with you. With that tower stabilizing your power and soul body, you should be able to endure for quite a while."
Chen Yi ignored the Great Demon's protests and led him and Hua Wuyan to a cliff.
Below the cliff were several felt tents, and a few figures came and went, looking rather old.
These were the elders of the Northern Frontier tribal alliance who guarded the Longevity Grass.
In previous simulations, Chen Yi had to rely on his elder brother's acting to obtain Longevity Grass.
This time he did not need to.
When three Martial Gods appeared, the old men in the Northern Frontier were simply overwhelmed.
Are we this backwater hamlet really worth such a grand display by these big shots?
There were not many Martial King-level or higher experts in the Northern Frontier, and most were very old.
Considering the limited "seats" to the Ancient Wasteland Secret Realm, Chen Yi did not invite the Great Khan of the Northern Frontier, he only took a few stalks of Longevity Grass.
With that, the materials needed to refine the Five Regions Sacred Pill were complete.
"So you're going to refine the Five Regions Sacred Pill."
Along the way, seeing Chen Yi with the Stainless Flower, Imperial Mausoleum Nethersoil, and Longevity Grass, Hua Wuyan naturally understood his plan.
"This pill is not easy to refine. I've studied alchemy for many years and only succeeded a few times."
That implied Hua Wuyan had indeed succeeded before.
Her alchemy skill was very high.
They were now not far from Golden Sand Beach.
Chen Yi did not rush there, instead he went to see someone.
The Great Demon grew anxious again, roaring oddly in the sky and scaring many of the Northern Frontier herders' cattle and sheep into a stampede.
On the boundless prairie, Chen Jing walked through grass up to his waist, carefully distinguishing the weeds around him, trying to find the "Hundred-Cough Herb."
This was his task for the day.
If he failed, he would be eliminated from competition to become the Great Khan's adopted son.
If he succeeded, he would become the Great Khan's two hundred forty-ninth adopted son.
Chen Jing knew that at an ordinary person's pace, this place was too far from home; there was no chance he could return alone.
He couldn't even reach the next inhabited Central Plains village.
All he could do was join the competition, fight to survive, and climb up!
"Ah!!"
A scream, and Chen Jing fell into a trap.
At the bottom of the pit was a row of sharpened bamboo stakes, one of which had pierced directly into his thigh.
Blood flowed like a flood. Agony contorted Chen Jing's face.
"Hiss—"
Chen Jing endured the pain, yanking the bamboo from his flesh, then climbed up the jagged pit wall, leaving a smear of blood.
"Ha! Ha! Ha..."
Chen Jing lay beside the trap, gasping.
He tore a strip of cloth and tied it tightly around his thigh to stop bleeding and avoid dying from blood loss.
Just as he prepared to stand and continue his task,
a tall figure appeared before him, its shadow falling over his face.
The newcomer wore a white mask that hid the face, and the voice was hoarse.
"Chen Jing, do you want to go home?"
Chen Jing sat up, clutching his thigh wound, looking up at the masked man.
"You can send me home?"
"Yes."
"Why would you help me? It's not another test, is it?"
"No. But I must tell you, Luoding Village was massacred by a mysterious force. No one survived except your fourth brother and the village simpleton Da Chun. Oh, and your third sister — she married into the county and escaped the disaster. If you want to go home, you must go to your fourth brother or your third sister."
"What?! Father! Mother! Second Uncle! Third Uncle! Aunt! Xiao Hu! Cuihua! They... they are all dead?!"
"They are all dead."
"Who did this?!"
Enraged, Chen Jing sprang to his feet despite his wound bursting open further; he felt nothing.
"I told you, a mysterious force. I don't know who."
"You're not the one who did it, are you?"
"If I were, I should have cut you down and finished you now, not chat with you."
The immediate perpetrators of the massacre were the Sacred Flame Cult and the Chixin Sect, and the Blood Moon organization was behind the scenes.
But the motive for the slaughter remained unclear. It might have been aimed at the Nine Provinces Cauldron's Artifact Spirit.
This complex web, if Chen Yi told the present Chen Jing, he also would not understand.
So the masked man simply called it a mysterious force.
Learning his hometown had been slaughtered and his family wiped out, Chen Jing did not collapse into tears.
He calmly crouched and continued tending to his wound.
"Thanks for telling me, but I don't want to go home now."
"Why?"
"The Great Khan's ways are extreme, but if I can climb up, the entire Northern Frontier will belong to me in the future!"
"I can be your master. I can offer you cultivation resources far beyond the Northern Frontier."
Chen Jing rose, as if the severe leg injury did not exist.
"I must walk my own road! You and I are strangers. I don't know why you want to help, but a life arranged and paved by you may not be the one I want!"
"But the path you face now will be full of hardship."
"Hahaha! Fighting others is endless fun! This trap was dug by my competitors; they wanted to kill me! Heh, little do they know I prepared more traps; by now they should be finished..."
Chen Yi released his divine sense, scanning the surrounding area.
Sure enough, in a small grove in the distance, he discovered over a dozen corpses with their necks strangled by ropes, hanging upside down from branches.
Big brother is ruthless...
Chen Yi had not revealed himself because he wanted his elder brother to choose for himself.
From several simulations, his elder brother each time could grow into the Great Khan of the Northern Frontier, holding unquestioned prestige and strong support in the region.
Chen Yi did not know whether it was better to keep his elder brother close and support his cultivation, or to let him develop on his own.
Cultivation outcomes were unpredictable.
Some people achieve greater success after hardships, while a life of comfort may strangely cause stagnation despite diligence.
So Chen Yi left the choice to his elder brother.
If he showed up and revealed his identity, trusting his kin, Chen Jing would very likely follow Chen Yi home.

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