The Purgatory Calamity
Chapter 297 - 282: Making the Best of a Bad Situation_1

Chapter 297: Chapter 282: Making the Best of a Bad Situation_1

Pang Jian was stunned.

He had not expected Dong Tianze’s obsession with this matter to run so deep.

Dong Tianze, drunk on his first bout of drinking, asked again.

"Meteorite Sea? An unknown Fragmented Land?"

Zhao Yuanqi and Fang Boxuan’s eyes twinkled slightly.

The obviously drunk Dong Tianze, who had revealed the deepest secret buried in his heart and inadvertently exposed the unknown Fragmented Land, had no idea if he would survive this ordeal.

"Unfortunately, I don’t know if he can survive..."

Fang Boxuan sighed quietly to himself.

What good would knowing about such a Fragmented Land do?

Trapped within "Mysterious Fog," they would never find their way out, and death would be their endpoint.

What did cultivation level, fame, wealth, and status matter now?

"Pang Jian!"

Dong Tianze raised his voice, glared at him fiercely, and demanded harshly, "Given the circumstances, do you still need to keep things hidden?"

"Who knows what the future holds? There’s a good chance we’ll both die here, so what do you have to be afraid of saying?"

Dong Tianze questioned angrily.

He became the first one to drunkly forget himself, his usual aloof image replaced by an innate madness.

From his posture, it was clear he intended to discard all caution in his drunken state, ready to fight Pang Jian to the death over a single unsatisfactory answer.

"Dong Xiaozi, what are you causing a commotion for?"

Qi Qingsong huffed in impatience.

"This is between me and Pang Jian, and it concerns nobody else."

A fierce light flashed in Dong Tianze’s eyes, as he stared at Pang Jian, demanding a direct answer to his question.

"If you can’t drink or don’t know how to, then don’t drink so much," Pang Jian said, irked.

"Cut the crap! I’m asking you, did you enter that Meteorite Sea intending to hog it all for yourself?" Dong Tianze was burning with rage, completely unapologetic, ready to turn hostile in an instant.

Pang Jian frowned and said gravely, "Is this matter truly so important to you?"

Dong Tianze answered decisively, "Important!"

"I had no intention of hogging it all, nor did I meddle with anything on Black Iron Mountain."

Pang Jian responded first, then paused and added, "As for that Fragmented Land you mentioned, I’ve known about it for a while. The man who was chasing you, wasn’t he an Individual Cultivator with a face full of scars? If I’m not mistaken, he followed you into it stepping on a zither, right?"

Upon hearing this, Dong Tianze’s expression changed dramatically, and he stared at Pang Jian in shock, "You, you... "

"Dong Tianze, the reason you survived in that Fragmented Land isn’t that you were favored by the heavens but for another reason altogether!"

"That’s all I’ll say; what you make of it is up to you," Pang Jian declared coldly.

Dong Tianze, who had stood up, took a painful swig from the wine jar, "glug, glug," then suddenly sat back down with a thud.

He looked at Pang Jian from across the way with an odd expression, his breathing growing more labored.

The scar-faced Individual Cultivator had chased him all the way to the Nameless Fragmented Land, stepping on an ancient zither.

The Individual Cultivator was killed by his own hand, his Phoenix Seal assimilated and refined by him, allowing his advancement to the mid-stage of the Hollow Profound Realm.

This was a secret known to him alone!

Yet, Pang Jian spoke as if he had witnessed it all, revealing the incident and suggesting that he was not the first to discover the Nameless Fragmented Land.

"Where was Pang Jian at the time? If he knew all along, then I..."

Dong Tianze rubbed his head, his thoughts in disarray, no longer possessing the confidence to interrogate further.

At that moment, he had a faint feeling that the zither-stepping Individual Cultivator being pinned to the ground was no accidental occurrence.

—Someone had schemed in secret!

"Could it be..."

Dong Tianze’s heart suddenly opened up, and he stopped drinking unrestrainedly, bowing his head in silence.

"Two odd fellows..."

Fang Boxuan looked around, puzzled.

"Let’s not talk about grievances and grudges, lest we start fighting halfway through," Qi Qingsong said with a wry smile, "The reason I called everyone here was not for you to bring up old scores."

"Then let’s talk about something else," Zhou Qingchen said, chewing on dried meat.

After that, conversation among the group suddenly increased.

With Qi Qingsong’s persuasion, and influenced by the alcohol, those feeling lost about the future began talking more.

They discussed the various hardships of cultivation, shared amusing stories from within their own Sects, talked about the secrets of the First Realm’s major Sects, and even the legends of the four great Spirit Beasts from the Saint Spirit Continent.

The usually quiet Zhao Yuanqi, along with the two inferior Outer Sect Disciples, joined the conversation.

The assistance of alcohol and meat, along with the increased number of topics, dissolved the awkwardness and gradually lightened everyone’s mood.

"I’ve buried a secret in my heart, I must speak or I’ll burst!"

Ye Fei of Black Valley exclaimed to catch everyone’s attention.

When all eyes turned to him, the Inner Sect Disciple of Black Valley suddenly looked at Lu Lingchan and said earnestly, "Junior Sister Lu, how many strands of Divine Sense do you have?"

Lu Lingchan, who was feeling downcast and had drunk quite a bit, now had a rosy glow on her fair cheeks.

The wine-induced red glow on her face and slender neck made her look enchantingly tipsy.

As soon as Ye Fei spoke, a hint of undeniable pride appeared in her misty, drunken eyes.

"One hundred and twenty-four strands," Lu Lingchan stated coolly.

"One hundred and twenty-four!"

Sword Tower’s outer sect disciple Guo Hongyuan clicked his tongue and said, "No wonder you were taken in as a direct disciple by the Valley Master!"

"One hundred twenty-four..."

Qi Qingsong’s lips curled in bitterness as he spoke enviously, "As far as I know, not even Wu Yuan from the Demon Sect, Chen Lushi, or Jiang Chao from Sky Water Swamp have reached one hundred twenty-four."

"Wu Yuan is at one hundred twenty-two."

"Chen Lushi hasn’t exceeded one hundred twenty."

"Jiang Chao? He’s only at one hundred twenty-one."

All three sentences came from Lu Lingchan’s mouth.

She knew in great detail the total number of Divine Senses within the Sea of Consciousness of those proud children of the Hollow Profound Realm in the Second Realm, simply because it had been mentioned in front of her more than once.

Even if she did not want to remember, she remembered it all too clearly.

"Ye Fei, why do you ask this?"

As she spoke, she glanced at everyone present, Qi Qingsong, Dong Tianze, Zhao Yuanqi, Zhou Qingchen, and also Pang Jian.

In her eyes, merely talking about the total Divine Sense numbers of the Hollow Profound Realm was not nearly enough—let alone these people here, even gathering those from the Demon Sect and Sky Water Swamp together.

—None of them would stand a chance.

Her total number of Divine Senses towered over all others, overwhelming all of those in the Hollow Profound Realm within the contemporary Second Realm. This was the source of her pride!

—This was also why her master valued her so highly.

"There is one man who also comes from Sword Tower, who calls himself an outer sect disciple, named Luo Yuan. I encountered him once in the Cloud Thunder Forbidden Zone."

"I once glimpsed inside his Sea of Consciousness with the Dragon Fish Mirror."

"Lu, I mean no disrespect to you, but his total number of Divine Senses is one hundred twenty-eight!"

Ye Fei stated emphatically.

"One hundred twenty-eight!"

"Luo Yuan, an outer sect disciple from Sword Tower?"

"How is this possible?"

Everyone, drunk and confused, suddenly exploded into discussion.

"If I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn’t believe it either. Really, I can’t imagine someone who has condensed one hundred twenty-eight strands of Divine Sense and remains obscure within Sword Tower." Ye Fei looked towards Qi Qingsong and continued, "I asked Shen to inquire about you, and I also secretly probed, but astonishingly, I never heard his name mentioned."

He kept shaking his head, exclaiming, "This is a true god among men!"

Seeing Pang Jian giving him a strange look, he hurriedly stood up, bowed with clasped hands, and with a smile on his face said, "Pang, I mean no offense; you surely have your extraordinary qualities to become a direct disciple of the Tower Master."

"I’m just drunk, bringing up this Luo Yuan for everyone to discuss."

"Haha, if I’ve offended anyone, I’ll punish myself with three cups!"

He immediately downed three cups of wine, and then he sat down with a flushed face.

Afterward, everyone maintained their Spiritual Power Strong Shields, gathered on the third layer of the Sword Boat’s stands, and continued to drink and eat meat, talking freely and at ease.

While they conversed, on the deck above, the "living dead" of Sword Tower and Black Valley occasionally dropped dead—one by one.

Those with weak willpower, who had already given up in their hearts, weren’t worth their further attention.

Those people didn’t have the right to ask for the Spirit Jade collected by the eleven of them to sustain their lives.

That day.

Sword Tower’s outer sect disciple Guo Hongyuan, along with Qi Qingsong, both returned from the Sword Boat’s cabin below.

"Han has long been dead in the cabin."

Qi Qingsong said with a dark expression, staring at those on the stands, "The remaining Spirit Jade should have totaled thirty-one thousand, but now not a single piece is left."

"Someone took advantage of the chaos to enter the cabin and take away those Spirit Jades."

"Han’s death might even be suspicious! With so many Spirit Jades in hand, it’s unlikely he would lose hope and end his own life so early!"

Guo Hongyuan also spoke in a grave voice, "The two of us went down together, and I can attest that we didn’t find those Spirit Jades."

Pang Jian activated his Spiritual Power to clear the drunkenness from his body and looked at those around him with a puzzled gaze.

Others were doing the same, looking around with suspicion in their eyes.

The meaning revealed in everyone’s eyes was unanimous: who had stealthily entered the Sword Boat’s cabin to murder Han Lu and appropriated the Spirit Jade meant for powering the Sword Boat?

"It’s simple, check everyone’s storage bracelets to see the total number of Spirit Jade inside."

Fang Boxuan suggested.

"I currently have more than thirty thousand Spirit Jades on hand, but it wasn’t me," Lu Lingchan sniffed and explained, "Before coming here, my master gave me seventy thousand Spirit Jades."

"Seventy thousand..."

Ye Fei and Lv Lianchen from Black Valley were shocked.

They thought to themselves, the Valley Master truly dotes on her like a mountain, so generously giving such a large amount of Spirit Jades.

"I have plenty of Spirit Jades; I have no need to kill Han Lu. His death has nothing to do with me," Lu Lingchan added.

"I lack the strength to kill Han Lu," Zhou Qingchen stated, then continued, "Pang Jian and I have been together the whole time, we have never been apart."

His words seemed to clear Pang Jian of suspicion as well.

"I have never left the Sword Boat’s deck."

Zhao Yuanqi said coldly in black clothes and silver hair.

Qi Qingsong looked around, his gaze sweeping over each person’s face, confirming that Lv Lianchen, Ye Fei, Dong Tianze, Fang Boxuan, Zhou Qingchen, including Zhao Yuanqi, lacked the ability to kill Han Lu alone.

He felt that only he himself, Lu Lingchan, Pang Jian, and Zhuang Yuyan had the ability to kill Han Lu.

Then, in his heart, he silently ruled out Lu Lingchan, followed by Pang Jian, before his gaze finally landed on Zhuang Yuyan.

"Zhuang, was it you who did this?"

...