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DIV Chapter 55: Killing Zheng Jinbao
🕑 Added 2025-08-20 07:51:41 +0000 UTCAbout a quarter of an hour later, Li Chang'an finished his inventory.
"This fellow is truly fat with wealth," he silently marveled.
The treasures within the bracelet had a total value of no less than three thousand spirit stones.
Adding to the over two thousand spirit stones he already had, the total exceeded five thousand spirit stones!
What an enormous sum!
Some small-scale Qi Refining families couldn't even produce this many spirit stones.
Li Chang'an put away the bracelet and looked at Zheng Jinbao.
"I have some questions for you. If your answers satisfy me, I can let you go."
"Really?" Zheng Jinbao was stunned, a trace of hope arising in his heart.
He had thought he was surely doomed to die but now there was light at the end of the tunnel, a hope for survival.
"Rest assured, I'm a man of my word and never lie," Li Chang'an said with a serious face and solemn tone.
"Alright then, go ahead and ask," Zheng Jinbao swallowed hard.
Though he knew the hope was slim, he still harbored a sliver of luck.
What if Li Chang'an really did let him go?
"What's the real situation with your ancestor Zheng Yuandao? How many years can he still live?" Li Chang'an spoke, his gaze resting on Zheng Jinbao's face, observing his expression changes.
Hearing this, Zheng Jinbao was stunned.
His face showed bitterness as he shook his head, "Such matters are family secrets. How would I be qualified to know?"
"You're at least a core member of the Zheng family, yet you don't even know this?"
"Not even a few people in the entire Zheng family know," Zheng Jinbao honestly explained the reason.
"The family head fears there are spies within the clan, so he hasn't publicly disclosed the ancestor's physical condition."
He thought for a moment and added, "However, the young miss should know the ancestor's true situation."
He indicated that Zheng Qingqing was the Zheng family's Foundation Establishment candidate, deeply trusted by both Foundation Establishment ancestors.
She was the direct bloodline descendant of one of the ancestors, and her own strength was formidable enough, having long ago broken through to late-stage Qi Refining.
The reason the Zheng family didn't keep her at the clan grounds but sent her to the market was to temper her character.
"This young miss is indeed unfathomable," Li Chang'an pondered.
If nothing unexpected happened, Zheng Qingqing would very likely be the Zheng family's next generation Foundation Establishment ancestor.
"Does the Zheng family still have Foundation Establishment Pills?" Li Chang'an asked again.
Zheng Jinbao knew some information about this question.
He shook his head and replied, "There shouldn't be any left."
"Oh?" Li Chang'an looked thoughtful and asked again, "Could it be that someone failed Foundation Establishment and wasted the pills?"
"Yes."
This kind of news was also a family secret that Zheng Jinbao wasn't normally qualified to know.
But Foundation Establishment attempts caused abnormalities in heaven and earth spiritual energy.
Though the Zheng family tried to conceal it, they simply couldn't hide it.
Over the past several decades, four instances of spiritual energy abnormalities had occurred within the Zheng family, yet no new Foundation Establishment ancestors had emerged.
Foundation Establishment Pills could only increase success rates by twenty percent.
Whether one could ultimately succeed still depended on the individual.
"Later, I inadvertently heard the family head sigh that although those few had good talent, their characters were all too poor, lacking tempering, which led to their failures."
Four consecutive failures had somewhat hurt even the Zheng family's foundation.
After all, for such great families, each Foundation Establishment attempt was prepared according to extremely high standards.
Not only did they need to prepare Foundation Establishment Pills, they also had to ready Foundation Establishment spiritual items like "Earth Dragon Saliva," along with various auxiliary treasures.
The spirit stones consumed were astronomical.
"The last time spiritual energy abnormalities appeared was thirteen years ago. There's been no movement since, yet there are clearly several more in the family who meet Foundation Establishment conditions."
Therefore, Zheng Jinbao speculated that the Zheng family no longer had extra Foundation Establishment Pills.
"Perhaps the ancestors are preparing materials for refining more. After all, they value the young miss highly and will surely prepare Foundation Establishment Pills for her."
"I see," after listening, Li Chang'an pondered for a moment.
This Zheng family could be considered quite unlucky, failing four times in succession!
However, this also proved from the side that Foundation Establishment was indeed difficult!
Subsequently, Li Chang'an asked several more questions.
Zheng Jinbao was very cooperative, answering everything he knew.
Finally, he looked nervously at Li Chang'an and asked carefully, "Chang'an, you promised you would let me go, right? We've known each other for so many years, we're old friends after all."
"Mm," Li Chang'an responded and turned to glance at Big Yellow.
Nearby, Big Yellow understood perfectly. His eyes flashed with fierce light as he directly pounced, swiping down with one claw!
"Szzzt—"
Zheng Jinbao's face was filled with horror, unable to dodge in time.
His entire neck was torn in two by the sharp claws.
Blood instantly stained his robes red.
"You... you..." Zheng Jinbao stared fixedly at Li Chang'an, knowing he wouldn't survive.
At the moment of death, various emotions flashed through his mind.
There was venomous hatred, unwillingness, and regret...
Back then, he had taken Li Chang'an's spirit stones.
He should have removed Li Chang'an's name from the mining roster.
But at that time, he simply looked down on bottom-tier rogue cultivators like Li Chang'an, still insisting that Li Chang'an go to the mines.
One should know that cultivators assigned to mining mostly met tragic ends.
"Back then, you never thought of letting me go," Li Chang'an's expression was indifferent, his tone extremely cold.
Hearing this sentence, Zheng Jinbao's whole body trembled.
He said nothing more, slowly lowering his head as his breath faded away.
Past causes, present effects.
Perhaps everything had long been destined.
"Boom!"
Raging flames rose up, swallowing his corpse and burning him to ash.
After this, Li Chang'an instructed Big Yellow to fill this underground space.
One person and one dog used earth escape techniques to flee far away, finding another place to hide.
...
At this moment, the two Foundation Establishment ancestors had not yet determined victory or defeat.
The market was still in great chaos.
Through his puppet body controlling the formation, Li Chang'an had already killed over ten robber cultivators who attacked his residence.
During this time, he discovered several familiar robber cultivators.
"There are actually Black Wind Mountain people here."
Those robber cultivators were precisely the ones who had once pursued Zheng Yunting.
Their appearance here meant that Black Wind Mountain had interfered in tonight's events.
"Perhaps the market chaos was secretly instigated by Black Wind Mountain," Li Chang'an thought silently.
"However, Black Wind Mountain should only be targeting the Zheng family and has nothing to do with me."
Until now, he had remained relatively relaxed, suffering no losses.
Instead, he had gained quite a bit.
But not everyone could be as relaxed as him.
...
At this moment, Luo Kun, who lived next door, had reached the end of his rope.
"Why are these robber cultivators endless?" Luo Kun's face was pale, gasping for breath.
When the chaos first erupted, he had wanted to leave the market.
However, because he was usually too high-profile and well-known, he was targeted by a group of robber cultivators as soon as he stepped outside.
He fought while retreating, forced to return to his residence.
"Sigh, why was I so high-profile in daily life? I should have learned more from that boy Li Chang'an!" Luo Kun silently regretted.
In the past, he thought Li Chang'an was too rigid and didn't understand social affairs.
Now, thinking about it, not understanding social affairs had its benefits, at least not so many people would recognize oneself.
But regret was too late now!
In the blink of an eye, another group of robber cultivators came killing.
Among them were clearly several whose strength was not inferior to his.
"Hehehe, Old Man Luo, hand over all the treasures on you!" As soon as the words fell, a large blade chopped down.
Luo Kun's expression changed drastically. He summoned his magical artifact to block, but simply couldn't withstand it.
"Puff!"
His face paled as he spat out a mouthful of blood.
His entire body was sent flying by the chop, crashing through the courtyard wall with a thunderous sound.
He actually landed in Li Chang'an's courtyard.
"How has that boy Li Chang'an not run away yet?" Luo Kun discovered Li Chang'an's figure and couldn't help but sigh.
Now it was too late to run.
"Sigh, this old man has implicated him."
