CHAPTER 107: FANG CHE'S ASTONISHMENT

By Fang Che's estimates, at this current rate of dissipation, he would be lucky to have rid the piece of jade of all of its baleful qi in ten years!

He attempted to use his Boundless Sutra to envelop the piece of jade and seal it away.

It was too dangerous to allow it to constantly emanate baleful qi without restraint.

His Boundless Sutra was capable of sealing it away, but not for long, in light of his lowly cultivation base, and by his estimates, he would have to release some baleful qi once every four hours or so.

Who did this piece of jade originally belong to?

Fang Che was astonished.

Given the immeasurable quantity of baleful qi within the piece of jade, its former owner's kill count had to have been at least in the hundreds of millions!

No wonder the Church of the Self-Righteous is so desperate to recover it...

At the same time, Fang Che was feeling a little concerned. Was there any way that the Church of the Self-Righteous could detect its presence in his body?

With that in mind, Fang Che had been searching for a soul seal within the piece of jade this entire time while releasing the baleful qi that it harbored.

If it had a soul seal, then he would be forced to hand it over to the Guardians as there was no way he would be able to keep it.

If it were discovered that his body was currently acting as the vessel for this piece of jade, he wouldn't be surprised if the Church of the Self-Righteous sent Duan Xiyang himself to kill him!

However, Fang Che was unable to find any soul seal within it, and the fact that it was so eager to fuse with his soul served as further indication of a lack of an existing soul seal.

How could there be no soul seal? How could something so important just by lying around like this, completely defenseless?

Fang Che was perplexed.

He was naturally oblivious to the fact that his actions had resulted in the jade's former owner completely losing control over it.

If Fang Che had known all of this, he would be amazed by how fate had orchestrated everything and delivered the jade into his hands, but given how oblivious he was to everything, all he felt right now was confusion.

The fact that the Church of the Self-Righteous is taking such a barbaric approach to finding this piece of jade clearly indicates that they have no way of detecting it or determining its precise location.

Mu Linyuan instructed me to leave for a day and a night, and that can only mean that they have to examine the jade one by one. In that case, the jade should be undetectable to them in my spirit sense. That tells me that it either harbors no soul seal, or the original soul seal within it was somehow destroyed, so being in possession of this jade shouldn't put me in any danger.

With that in mind, Fang Che was feeling very relieved.

After all, no one would want to give up such a precious asset.

It was still only afternoon, so he still had the entire night ahead.

Thus, he closed his eyes again.

As he continued to channel his Boundless Sutra, more and more wisps of baleful qi continued to surge out of his body before dissipating into the surrounding environment.

The sun quickly set as day transitioned into night.

Ye Meng carefully approached Fang Che, then asked, "Should we go back, Young Master? It's already dark."

"It's not every day that we get to connect with nature like this, so let's camp here tonight," Fang Che said.

"Huh?"

Ye Meng was quite taken aback by this.

"What are you standing there for?" Fang Che snapped with a disgruntled wave. "Didn't I tell you to bring some weapons with you? Go and hunt for animals for our dinner tonight! Make sure it tastes good. Otherwise, I'll..."

"You'll sell me to a brothel!" Ye Meng finished in an exasperated manner.

"That's right, now get out of here!"

Ye Meng was forced to go out hunting, while Fang Che continued to release baleful qi.

The more baleful qi he released, the more stunned by just how much there was.

Even for a warrior on the Cloud Weapon Archive, it would've taken at least several months to dissipate so much baleful qi.

If an Emperor or a Sovereign had come into possession of this thing, it would've only taken a few days at most for them to be driven insane and reduced to a mindless killing machine.

Of course, if he were currently at the Emperor tier or the Sovereign tier, it would most likely only take him an afternoon to banish all of the baleful qi using the Boundless Sutra.

A peaceful night passed by.

Upon awakening from her seated meditation in the morning, Ye Meng discovered that Fang Che was still laying on the ground in the exact same spot as the day before.

He stayed out there the entire night? Why did he even bother to bring a tent?

Before she had a chance to think or do anything else, she was stunned by the sight that she was greeted by.

The entire mountain was covered in a thick carpet of red autumn leaves, while all of the trees had been stripped completely bare!

The grass that had been green and exuberant the day before had all turned yellow and withered, and Ye Meng could scarcely believe her own eyes.

How did this happen? Did I end up somehow sleeping for three months?

Fang Che slowly opened his eyes, having sealed away the jade in his body and the baleful qi harbored within.

He felt like he would be able to bear it for four hours without much trouble.

He stood up and began to stretch, but his eyes abruptly widened as he yelled, "Ye Meng! Ye Meng!"

"What is it, Young Master?"

"What's going on here? Why is it winter all of a sudden? What happened to all the leaves? What did you do last night?"

"What did I do?" Ye Meng exclaimed.

"Yeah, what did you do to the mountain?" Fang Che asked.

"I didn't do this! I'm wondering what happened myself!"

"It must've been you! No one else came here last night, and I was asleep the entire time, so who else could it have been but you?"

"I can't pull off something like this!"

"We need to get out of here. If it wasn't you, then it must've been a ghost. It's not like we could've just slept for three months!"

Fang Che began untethering their horses from the trees as he spoke.

The black horse let loose a long neigh, and the white horse also seemed desperate to leave.

They had no idea what had happened, all they knew was that the grass on the mountain had suddenly become very unappetizing overnight.

On the way back, Fang Che was still trying to scare Ye Meng, putting on a fearful expression as he mused, "There's no other explanation! There must've been a ghost on that mountain! I thought I heard some ghostly cackling last night, but I thought it was just a dream. Even our horses are looking really unsettled, it must've been a ghost. Why is your face so pale? You haven't been possessed by the ghost, have you?"

Ye Meng was finally unable to suppress her fear, letting loose a loud shriek as she frantically whipped her steed, sending it galloping forward to leave Fang Che far behind.

Fang Che immediately burst into laughter, very pleased with the outcome of his little prank.

He was even more pleased after examining his own spirit sense space, which had expanded by more than threefold.

Essentially, his soul had been enhanced by threefold, so he was naturally ecstatic.

If a normal Grandmaster's spirit sense was a meter, then Fang Che's would've previously been around three meters, and it had since been enhanced to twelve!

The soul was the foundation to everything, including future progression in combat prowess, so how could he not be ecstatic?

Furthermore, the jade was still constantly nourishing his soul, and there was no telling how much benefit it would provide him when all was said and done.

With that in mind, Fang Che decided that there was no way he was going to submit it to the Guardians, even if keeping it presented an element of risk.

***

In the Virtue Manor, Bei Mingxin had finally finished examining the mountain of jade, and he was laying on a reclining chair in a dazed and exhausted manner, lacking the energy required to even lift a single finger.

He was suddenly struck by the urge to weep. He had to examine every single piece of jade with his spirit sense, and all of the counterfeits that Fang Che had acquired to screw with him had certainly done their job.

"How did it go, Master Bei?" Mu Linyuan asked as he brought over a cup of tea.

"It was a complete waste of effort,” Bei Mingxin sighed as he downed the cup of tea in one go. "A lot of it wasn't even real jade at all, and there were even some that were buried with bodies in funerals, the type that are placed in the mouth or shoved up the butthole..."

Mu Linyuan: "......"

"The problem is that the Formless Divine Jade appears to be a piece of jade, but it's actually a different material entirely, so even though I knew a lot of those pieces of jade were counterfeits, I had to examine them anyway," Bei Mingxin sighed, and it was if he were trying to exhale all of his frustration and indignation at once.

"There are still some other places that we need to go, so I'll leave you to rest for now, Master Bei."

"Just kill me now!"