Bai Her saw Ding Fan's actions and tactfully left. Ding Fan and Gusu Qingwen leaned on each other for a while before Ding Fan departed.

Previously, Ding Fan had sent a message through a pigeon to inform Wang Hu to come and pick up Qingwen and take them back to the Dayang Sect. Ding Fan trusted his brother Wang Hu, so he did not wait for Wang Hu at the inn and instead left first to head to Long Ren's assembly, as there was not much time left until the assembly.

Ding Fan estimated that by tomorrow afternoon, Wang Hu would be able to reach the inn to take Qingwen and the others back to the Dayang Sect. In his letter, Ding Fan had instructed Wang Hu to inform him of their safety upon returning to the Dayang Sect. Ding Fan knew that his brother Wang Hu now had the cultivation of the Spirit Severing stage, so there should be no accidents in picking up Qingwen and the others.

After all, a cultivator at the Spirit Severing stage is already a top-tier existence in the Cultivation World. Ordinary people naturally wouldn't dare to target a Spirit Severing cultivator unless they were seeking death. But Ding Fan still required Wang Hu to inform him of their safety because it was not someone else, but Qingwen. Ding Fan had to ensure Qingwen's safety to be at ease.

Then Ding Fan immediately left the inn and rushed towards Giant Peak, the place Long Ren had told him about…

...

Meanwhile, in the Panyang Mansion, the middle-aged man in luxurious attire gradually woke up. At this moment, the middle-aged man groggily stood up, rubbed his head, and felt a severe pain at the back of his neck, and his eyes seemed quite swollen. He couldn't quite remember what happened.

After a moment, the middle-aged man drank a glass of water, feeling weak and exhausted, and sat on the edge of the bed, carefully recalling the previous events. A moment later, he finally remembered. Just as he was about to have fun with the slave girl, someone had barged in and knocked him unconscious.

He suddenly turned his head to look at the empty bed, and sighed.

"Spent so many spirit stones, and couldn't even touch a hair before she was gone! What bad luck!"

"Right, what knocked me out?"

After sighing, the middle-aged man remembered this important matter. Quickly, he remembered that just a few seconds before he was knocked out, it seemed he heard the voice of his burly subordinate. Yes, it was his voice. After that, he was knocked out and knew nothing of what happened next.

"Could it be that my subordinate betrayed me?"

The more the middle-aged man recalled, the more solemn his expression became. He then walked out of the room and called in a cultivator at the Emergence Stage.

"Go bring Ah Feng to me!"

The middle-aged man's face was very grim, and slightly haggard, as he spoke to several cultivators.

The cultivators at the Emergence Stage respectfully standing opposite were somewhat fearful and responded:

"Brother Ferng hasn't returned for two days. We also don't know where he went."

"What? Then go find him for me!"

Hearing the words, the middle-aged man became angry. This was because if Ah Feng had disappeared at this time, then it was very possible that he was the one who knocked him out and took the slave girl. But having been by his side for such a long time, the middle-aged man could not understand why Ah Feng would do this.

The cultivators at the Emergence Stage immediately agreed and hurriedly left the room to find Ah Feng's whereabouts.

During this time, these cultivators also felt it strange that the master's room was too quiet for the past two days. After all, with a slave girl in the room, how could it be so quiet? But since the master gave no orders, they wouldn't dare to enter. It was only when the master called them into the room did they find that the slave girl was gone, and seeing the state the middle-aged man was in, they understood something had happened to the master.

Therefore, these cultivators at the Emergence Stage were fearful, and upon receiving the master's orders, they hurried to seek Ah Feng's whereabouts, knowing that what happened to the master might be related to Ah Feng…

A few hours later, two cultivators at the Emergence Stage entered the middle-aged man's room, where his face was still grim. Seeing the two enter, he immediately asked in a harsh tone:

"Did you find Ah Feng's whereabouts?"

"Reporting, master, we didn't find Ah Feng's whereabouts, but we discovered a merchant's corpse in the forest at the city outskirts, along with the corpse of a Spirit Severing elder. All their money and belongings were gone, leaving only their bodies, and it was evident from the scene that there were signs of a fight. From the broken branches, it seemed to be the result of Ah Feng's Great Strength Technique."

A cultivator at the Emergence Stage seriously reported.

"Damn it! That Ah Feng actually stole my woman and ran off with my spirit stones!"

The middle-aged man heard the cultivator's words and couldn't help but curse. It was evident that he was now quite certain that the one who knocked him out was Ah Feng. He had sent Ah Feng to kill the merchant and retrieve his tens of thousands of spirit stones. But not only did Ah Feng knock him out, he also stole the woman he had captured, killed the merchant, and ran away with the spirit stones!

For a moment, the middle-aged man was furious, and he roared at the two Emergence Stage cultivators:

"At all costs, find that beast for me! I want him sliced into a thousand pieces!"

"Yes, Elder!"

"Yes, Master!"

The two Emergence Stage cultivators replied with trembling voices. They were equally shocked, as they had merely speculated that the master's concerns might be related to Ah Feng. Now, it was confirmed from the master's own words that Ah Feng was indeed responsible.

Subsequently, the two Emergence Stage cultivators hurriedly left the room, gathered some cultivators, and began inquiring about Ah Feng's whereabouts to carry out the master's command.

...

At this time, Ding Fan had already traveled a considerable distance from Panyang Town. By day, Ding Fan used sword flight, and by night, he would find a spot to set up a campfire and cultivate in meditation. Unknowingly, a week had passed. Ding Fan had received a carrier pigeon message from Wang Hu, informing him that Qing Wen and Bai Her had safely reached the Dayang Sect.

Ding Fan felt a sense of relief. During his journey, he encountered two sect groups. It turned out these two sect groups were heading to the same destination as Ding Fan, and from their conversations, Ding Fan startlingly realized that these sects also originated from around Panyang Town and had participated in the destruction of the Immortal Sect.

From the disciples' words, Ding Fan learned that the Immortal Sect's destruction was pretty much as he imagined. Indeed, the Wild Wolf Gang launched a sudden nighttime assault on the Immortal Sect, wiping it out overnight. As soon as the nearby sects heard this news, they rushed to loot some treasures from the Immortal Sect once the Wild Wolf Gang retreated.

Ding Fan wasn't surprised that they knew this information immediately. Being neighboring sects, they always kept an eye on each other. Such a major event as the Immortal Sect being obliterated overnight couldn't be hidden from the nearby sects.

Ding Fan didn't harbor much resentment towards these sects. The Cultivation World was such that the strong preyed on the weak. When the Immortal Sect was destroyed, others swooping in to divide the spoils was quite normal. Furthermore, the Immortal Sect's biggest enemy wasn't them but the Wild Wolf Gang.

So, Ding Fan didn't pay much attention to these sect groups, merely observing them out of curiosity.

Since Ding Fan was traveling alone, he chose to take small paths and had little interaction with the two sect groups. But what surprised Ding Fan was that these two sects were headed to the same place he was — Giant Peak.

Ding Fan knew that Giant Peak wasn't famous or particularly appealing to cultivators. It was an ordinary place unless one considered that it was the destination for Long Ren's Thirty-Six Caves assembly. Thus, seeing these sects heading there, Ding Fan speculated they were likely Long Ren's subordinates, members of the Thirty-Six Caves.

This was a mere suspicion of Ding Fan's along the way, but when he reached Giant Peak, his guess turned out to be correct. These sects were indeed members of the Thirty-Six Caves, albeit of average size and not very prominent or of high status within the Thirty-Six Caves.

Before long, Ding Fan arrived at the foot of Giant Peak. It was the only path up Giant Peak, so he had to meet with those sect groups.

"Hey, look, this guy's come here too?" The master of Gaoyuan Sect, seeing Ding Fan alone, couldn't hide his shock. The Gaoyuan Sect and the Qinghe Sect, led by the middle-aged man next to him, were sects from around Panyang Town. Though they were headed the same way as Ding Fan, they hadn't interacted much.

"Is this kid crazy? Coming here? The Thirty-Six Caves assembly isn't something anyone can just attend!" The middle-aged man from the Qinghe Sect, hearing the Gaoyuan Sect master's words, looked at Ding Fan with surprise, but quickly smirked disdainfully.

"No need to worry, this kid is just a loose cultivator from around here. As long as he stays distant, the Lake Master won't bother with him," the Gaoyuan Sect master remarked calmly, looking at Ding Fan as if watching an ant.

"Yeah, just an ant," scoffed the Qinghe Sect master without concealing his contempt.

The two middle-aged men then proceeded toward the only path up the mountain, with several followers in tow. They were obviously excited, being called by their masters to attend the Thirty-Six Caves assembly for the first time. Looking up at the towering Giant Peak, they realized it was extremely difficult for an ordinary cultivator to ascend — it's steep and the only way up was a narrow, precarious path.

Apart from that path, all other sides were extremely steep, with even the small trees growing horizontally, almost parallel to the ground, wedged into the rocky mountain.

But as the two sect masters reached the front of that path, they were astonished to find the young cultivator they had noticed before had also arrived there. Both were shocked; had he just happened upon the place by accident, they could understand.

Yet, seeing the boy standing at the path's entrance, they realized there was more to him than a mere passerby.