The Purgatory Calamity
Chapter 171 - 156 Pacifying Matters and People_1

Chapter 171: Chapter 156 Pacifying Matters and People_1

"Had enough yet?"

An irritable female voice rose from the rocky ground beneath Pang Jian’s feet, putting him in a somewhat awkward position.

He had in fact already held back his strength, yet he still managed to disturb the person below.

Knowing he was in the wrong, he didn’t respond to the woman’s aggressive "greeting."

——He hoped silence would quell the anger below.

A moment later.

"Bang bang!"

"Bang bang bang!"

The person from below came up and furiously pounded on the stone door, forcing Pang Jian to reluctantly get up and open it.

Before he even had a chance to apologize...

"Testing your powerful Spirit Spells, can’t you do it outside? Don’t you know other people are trying to meditate and cultivate?"

"Where did this wild brat come from? Don’t you have any manners?"

"You’ve made my head explode with all this noise; what on earth are you trying to do?"

A beautiful woman with an apparently quick temper stood outside the stone door, yelling like a Ferocious Beast ready to devour someone:

"Kid, don’t think you’re so great just because you’re staying up here! It’s only because I’m short on Spirit Stones right now... Otherwise... I should be above the twentieth floor!"

Full of rage, Han Ting glared fiercely at Pang Jian.

Recently, she and a few Individual Cultivators were exploring the Forbidden Land and had barely escaped with severe injuries to the Yuan Mang Fragmented Lands. She was recovering from her wounds in a cave dwelling on the first peak.

She planned to seek revenge on those fellows once her injuries were healed, not expecting constant rumbles from above.

She had tolerated it for a while.

But as the disturbance grew louder, she felt like the rock ceiling above her head was about to crack, preventing her from healing in peace.

"I didn’t know someone was living in the cave below, my apologies..."

Pang Jian clasped his hands in a gesture of apology.

"Kid, don’t blame me for not warning you! If you damage Cao’s cave dwelling, you’ll have to pay for the repairs afterward!"

With a cold face and seething anger, Han Ting continued to curse: "I’ve been disturbed by you for half a day; you have to compensate me for my losses!"

Pang Jian, knowing he was at fault, let her vent her dissatisfaction without saying a word.

Just as he was about to speak a few soft words.

From cave dwelling number fifty-seven on his left, a person suddenly emerged, flashing him a grin and said, "Damaging Cao’s cave dwelling can cost a pretty penny. You better prepare some extra Spirit Stones for compensation before you leave tomorrow."

Pang Jian turned to look and his heart thundered with shock!

In Sky Fortune City, within the cabin of the Beast-Catching Ship, a blood shadow drifted out from the blood vat, assuming the appearance of a middle-aged man with a square face.

The person before him, was the one he had seen back then!

His mind was greatly shaken by the sight, but his face remained calm, without revealing any significant fear or panic. Instead, he retorted, "What’s it to you?"

Lei Kun smirked wickedly, about to speak when...

Han Ting, standing at Pang Jian’s door, shoved him into her own cave dwelling and slammed the stone door shut.

"That guy..."

Lei Kun contained his anger and frowned at the closed stone door.

In that instant Pang Jian saw him, there was a flash of surprise in his eyes, but whether it was because of Lei Kun’s words or the sudden recognition, was uncertain.

Lei Kun couldn’t guess for sure.

Aside from the surprise, Pang Jian showed no other sign of abnormality, even retorting with "What’s it to you?"

This left Lei Kun even more uncertain.

By all logic, if he was indeed the one who had robbed the Beast-Catching Ship and seen his new body, he should be panicked and afraid upon seeing him again, certainly not retorting with "What’s it to you?"

"Could it be... that he’s not the one Elder Jiuyuan spoke of?"

Lei Kun muttered to himself.

He couldn’t be sure just from Pang Jian’s surprised look that he and his sister were the ones involved in the Dark Ghost operation.

So he decided to keep watching.

...

Inside Pang Jian’s cave dwelling.

Pushed by Han Ting, Pang Jian staggered back, inexplicably looking at the female Cultivator who lived in the cave dwelling below.

This was when he took a serious look at her.

The female Cultivator before him was dressed in a neat and simple purple uniform, with a storage pouch hanging at her waist.

Apart from the storage pouch, she wore no superfluous accessories; her long, black hair naturally draped over her shoulders, unsecured by pins or jewels.

Although her looks were slightly above average, she had an incredibly explosive figure that her uniform could scarcely contain.

With just one glance, Pang Jian felt her chest and hips were about to burst from her clothes.

The female Cultivator appeared to be about the same age as Zhao Ling, likely in her early twenties. Pang Jian probed quietly and found that her aura was naturally in harmony with the nature’s spiritual energy in the cave dwelling, clearly also at the Innate Realm.

He then sharply sensed that the Blood and Flesh Essence Energy within her body was weak and her complexion slightly pale, indicating she was still recovering from serious injuries.

"Kid, you really have no idea how to live!"

Just as Han Ting had settled her roiling emotions, she saw Pang Jian staring at her explosive figure. Her eyes widened with fury, and she snapped, "Are you courting death, looking around like that? Kid, do you have any idea who you’ve disturbed?"

Pang Jian shook his head, equally curious about the square-faced man’s identity.

In the Beast-Catching Ship, that man had entrusted Blood Moon with refining a new body, only for Luo Hongyan to easily strangle it.

Before he died, the man did threaten him with words, saying he would come down and seek revenge.

Luo Hongyan didn’t take it seriously. She later told Pang Jian that, given that man’s cultivation realm, it wasn’t possible for him to stay closely connected to his soul and true body.

Which is to say, the man only knew that a new body holding a part of his soul had died, but not who exactly had killed it.

"His name is Lei Kun! He’s a famously Individual Cultivator from the Third Realm, he cultivates lightning techniques, and he’s always had a fiery temper!"

Han Ting whispered out Lei Kun’s identity and then asked with suspicion, "Do you have a grudge against him?"

Pang Jian shook his head, "Never met the man."

"Then why was he in the cave abode next to yours?"

Han Ting felt it was very odd and said softly, "He is at the early stage of the Spirit Condensation Realm, a Great Cultivator. Among the many Individual Cultivators of the Third Realm, although not as renowned as Cao the Eccentric, he’s still quite a figure."

"Moreover, he has always had a rather good private relationship with Elder Jiuyuan from the Blood Moon."

"In these Yuan Mang Fragmented Lands, as long as he doesn’t intentionally provoke the Star River Alliance, Red Mountain, or the geniuses and elders of the Raging Sun Sect, he can walk around unopposed."

"He doesn’t need to seek a cave abode on Cao the Eccentric’s first peak. Even if he truly wanted to find a cave abode to settle down in, it should have been on one of the top layers, not the nineteenth."

As if afraid that Lei Kun would overhear her, Han Ting lowered her voice and surreptitiously expressed her confusion.

She worried that Pang Jian was unaware of Lei Kun’s identity and feared that he would again say something like "none of your damn business," attracting needless deadly trouble for himself, so she pushed Pang Jian to explain.

"A famous Individual Cultivator, at the early stage of the Spirit Condensation Realm, and he knows Jiuyuan too..."

Pang Jian silently contemplated, and he already had an idea in mind.

He guessed that Lei Kun’s arrival must have something to do with Elder Jiuyuan from the Blood Moon. It was very likely related to the incident with him and Luo Hongyan looting the Beast-Catching Ship, which might have led Jiuyuan to suspect something and hence sent Lei Kun to probe the situation.

Jiuyuan was at the Spirit Condensation Realm, and so was Lei Kun. Having two enemies at the Spirit Condensation Realm in the Yuan Mang made Pang Jian somewhat troubled.

Furrowing his brows, he maintained his inner calm, thinking about how to dispel Lei Kun’s suspicions and prevent adding new enemies for himself and Luo Hongyan.

"If I truly don’t know him, and my identity is from the Upper Realm, knowing his identity now, I should..."

Pang Jian pondered inwardly.

At this point, Han Ting changed the subject and started to admonish him not to damage the cave abode or cause any other disturbances.

Having thought of an idea, Pang Jian suddenly said softly, "Wait for me a moment."

"What?"

Han Ting looked astonished.

Ignoring her, Pang Jian opened the tightly shut stone door and went straight to the cave abode adjacent to Lei Kun’s.

Lei Kun, who was secretly listening in on their conversation with his Spirit Condensation Realm cultivation, suddenly saw Pang Jian appear at the door.

He hadn’t closed his door; he was planning to watch for Luo Hongyan’s return, wanting to surprise her and gauge her reaction upon her arrival.

He suspected that the stunning woman who had blown apart his new body on the Beast-Catching Ship had not been present during the incident.

Because she wasn’t there and hadn’t seen his true face, that would explain why she hadn’t shown any obvious signs of recognition.

He hadn’t expected Pang Jian to show up again so suddenly.

"So it’s Senior Lei."

Standing at the doorway, Pang Jian bowed respectfully, his face full of apologies as he said, "I’ve just learned that Senior Lei is a Great Cultivator of the Spirit Condensation Realm, and I was rather rude with my words earlier. I hope Senior will not take offense."

"Here are some Spirit Jade, a small token of my sincerity, hardly enough to express my respect."

Revealing the storage bracelet on his arm, Pang Jian calmly took out ten pieces of Spirit Jade and placed them on the stone floor in front of Lei Kun’s cave abode.

Taken aback, Lei Kun hadn’t yet reacted when he saw the Spirit Jade—worth more than Spirit Stones—neatly placed before him, and he instinctively uttered a "hm" sound.

"A storage bracelet, Spirit Jade, an unassuming attitude..."

Lei Kun immediately compared Pang Jian with scions from the Upper Realm’s great families and disciples from major sects.

In the Third Realm, cultivators commonly use Spirit Stones.

But in the Second Realm, cultivators settling transactions for items typically use Spirit Jade.

Pang Jian offering Spirit Jade as an apology, along with wearing a storage bracelet, and not showing much fear or unease upon knowing his Spirit Condensation Realm cultivation level.

These behaviors made Lei Kun feel that Jiuyuan sent him here perhaps with malicious intent.

If Pang Jian had truly seen him and destroyed one of his new bodies, would he dare to seek him out so quickly?

Wouldn’t he normally try to avoid it at all costs?

Lei Kun snorted softly to himself.

He felt increasingly that Jiuyuan was up to no good, intending for him to provoke, in his capacity as an Individual Cultivator, the siblings from the Upper Realm’s great family and sect.

"I won’t disturb Senior any longer."

As Lei Kun thought with an unsettled expression, Pang Jian, who had left the Spirit Jade behind, turned and made his way back to his cave abode.

"Swoosh!"

Lei Kun raised his hand, and the ten pieces of Spirit Jade flew into his palm.

Running his fingers over the polished jade, he frowned and murmured to himself, "It shouldn’t be them. Even if they did kill Ling Yun and Zhu Yuanxi, they likely wouldn’t have any connection to powers like Dark Ghost. With both a storage bracelet and Spirit Jade, they clearly come from a grand household and wouldn’t covet some Beast Blood and flesh."

Thinking this, Lei Kun figured there was no longer a need to keep a close watch on Pang Jian’s cave abode.

Considering that the youngsters from the Second Realm’s great families were so well-versed in manners, both apologizing and giving Spirit Jade...

Lei Kun stood up to leave his cave abode, planning to make use of this incident to blend in with Pang Jian.

When he arrived in front of Pang Jian’s cave abode and saw the stone door tightly shut again, Lei Kun thought of the woman with the stunning figure inside, who had even made him a bit itchy inside.

After a short deliberation, he decided not to spoil the younger brother’s mood and refrained from knocking or eavesdropping from his own cave abode.

Lei Kun then departed.

...