Chapter 00154: The Ones Silencing Us Are Behind
# The Ones Silencing Us Are Behind
Chapter 154
Novel: After the Myth
Chapter 154: The Ones Silencing Us Are Behind
"Brother Huan, is something wrong?"
Lou Buzhi, though plump, was far from foolish.
He quickly noticed that Ding Huan's expression was off.
"Follow me," Ding Huan said before heading toward the direction of Jiu Cha Fang Market, walking for about several hundred meters before stopping.
He then spoke solemnly, "Brother, we need to say our farewells to the past."
As he spoke, Ding Huan tore a piece from his own clothing, then cut two pieces from Qi Xinyue's attire.
Not stopping there, he also snipped a portion from his shoes and helped Qi Xinyue with her shoes as well.
Next, he took a small tuft of hair from both his and Qi Xinyue's heads.
"Old Six, come here," Ding Huan called out to Old Six.
After Old Six arrived, Ding Huan trimmed a few strands of hair from him too.
"And what about me, Brother Huan?" Lou Buzhi asked cautiously.
"You too. Let me help you," Ding Huan said, cutting three pieces from Lou Buzhi's clothes and shoes, and took a large chunk of hair off his head as well.
After collecting all these items marked with mental energy, Ding Huan initially wanted to burn them all at once.
However, he felt that doing so might be unwise.
If his own mental mark vanished suddenly, he would be the first to notice.
With this thought, Ding Huan pointed in a direction and instructed Qi Xinyue and Lou Buzhi, "You two should hurry in this direction, the faster the better."
The direction he indicated was not towards the market or Chang Qiu City, but rather to the side.
"What about you, Brother Huan?" Lou Buzhi asked.
Ding Huan smiled, "I have a little errand to run. Don't worry, I’ll be with you shortly."
Qi Xinyue did not inquire further, trusting Ding Huan completely.
"Be careful," she reminded him, then quickly took off in the direction he pointed.
Seeing Qi Xinyue and Old Six leave, Lou Buzhi hurried after them.
Ding Huan, on the other hand, gathered the marked items and made haste towards Jiu Cha Fang Market.
Jiu Cha Fang Market was bustling, far more elegant than the small Xing Jiao Market.
However, Ding Huan had no intention of staying there long.
Once inside, he continuously peeled away the mental marks and discarded them on various stalls.
After finishing this task, he paid for a room at an inn before swiftly using his evasion technique to leave the market.
Ding Huan was certain that someone on the ship that brought them here wanted to kill them.
The reason was simple: to silence them.
He suspected it was the middle-aged man whose name he didn’t know.
He had no idea what level of cultivation the man possessed, but he seemed extremely eager for the Immortal Demon Pill.
Perhaps it was that same man who had killed Ding Qi due to the treasure the Heaven and Earth Tome represented.
Unfortunately, his ability to foresee was limited, and he couldn't gain a clear image of events.
Once he reached the back of Jiu Cha Fang Market, he couldn't predict anything; this likely indicated that he had been killed.
Since the goal was to silence them, it implied that others, including Sang Yuhe and her companions, were also within this man’s target range.
He likely still had a day or two to escape.
For him to silence them, he would first have to eliminate Sang Yuhe and her group.
He could only hope they could resist and not be silenced too easily.
Ding Huan moved swiftly, catching up with Qi Xinyue and the others when they were several hundred miles from their agreed meeting point.
"Brother Huan, what took you so long?" Lou Buzhi exclaimed with joy upon seeing Ding Huan return.
Ding Huan's expression was grave, "You all are moving too slowly. We need to step it up."
Ding Huan had thought Lou Buzhi was the slowest, but to his surprise, Lou Buzhi moved quickly.
The slowest among them was actually Old Six.
This made Ding Huan unable to resist sneering, "Old Six, you've been whining about reaching Foundation Establishment, and now you're the one slowing us down."
Old Six protested, but the truth was undeniable.
Luckily, his cultivation wasn’t too bad, allowing him to barely keep up.
For an entire day, Ding Huan pushed forward without daring to slow down.
His life was at stake, and there was no room for delay.
…
"Qi Yushan, you…"
On the ship that Ding Huan had traveled on not long ago, a thin man clutched his throat, having been ambushed.
"What do you want, Qi Yushan?" At that moment, Sang Yuhe appeared, unable to believe her eyes at what had unfolded.
The five of them had set out together, and this time they achieved great results.
If they could bring these treasures back to the merchant building, their future would be incredibly bright.
Just as the ship was about to enter the Dao Cultivation Realm, Qi Yushan had unexpectedly killed three of his companions.
If Sang Yuhe hadn't happened to step outside, Qi Yushan would have burst into her room and taken her life.
"I'm sorry, but the Immortal Demon Pill is too important to me. I don't want to part with it," Qi Yushan said, his tone eerily calm.
He had been hesitating the entire way, weighing whether or not to strike.
It wasn’t a matter of his conscience but knowing that he only had one chance.
If he failed and the others surrounded him, it would be the end.
As Ding Huan and his group were about to disembark, and with the ship nearing the Dao Cultivation Realm, he was still hesitating.
Finally, when Jin Da and Yu Jiting turned their backs to him, he seized the moment and resolved to act.
He ambushed and killed the two, and this caught the attention of Gong Qi, who was stepping out.
Without hesitation, he continued his assault on Gong Qi.
Sang Yuhe realized her strength was far inferior to Qi Yushan's.
If he intended to kill her now, she likely wouldn’t be able to escape.
In that moment, the doomed Gong Qi suddenly clung to Qi Yushan's leg, "Yuhe, hurry and run..."
Sang Yuhe reacted immediately and dashed towards the ship's entrance, pressing the hatch button.
"You seek death!" Qi Yushan roared in rage, slapping Gong Qi on the head, instantly killing him.
Just then, Sang Yuhe had successfully opened the hatch and dashed outside.
"Sang Yuhe, if I hear any rumors about the Demon Pill circulating outside, I will kill your entire family..."
Qi Yushan knew that Sang Yuhe's evasion technique was formidable.
Once she escaped the ship, killing her would be impossible.
Regret was futile now; he could only resort to threats.
Sang Yuhe heard Qi Yushan's threat; she wouldn’t dare spread the word about this, not even if Qi Yushan didn’t threaten her.
Half an hour later, Qi Yushan erased all traces on the ship.
It was a pity that the seven talented young men and women hadn’t even had the time to be overtaken before Qi Yushan killed them.
Right after eliminating everyone, Qi Yushan rushed straight toward Jiu Cha Fang Market.
He intended to silence anyone who might escape.
Yet upon arriving at the market, he was taken aback.
He found the mental marks, but none belonged to the person he sought.
After searching for over an hour within the market, he finally identified the inn where Ding Huan had stayed.
Qi Yushan vowed that if he didn't dismember Ding Huan in a fit of rage, he would never be at peace again.
How many things did he need to accomplish? A mere ant blocked him in this insignificant market, wasting his time.
How could he not be furious?
What fueled his anger further was that the inn had no news of Ding Huan.
Ding Huan did indeed book a room, but he had never stayed there.
Continuing his inquiries around the market, he wasted another half a day but still gathered nothing.
It was as if Ding Huan and the others had vanished into thin air.
Worse yet, before their disappearance, they had scattered their mental marks everywhere.
Qi Yushan forced himself to calm down and then directed the ship towards Chang Qiu City, where he had his own marks.
…
As soon as Ding Qi arrived in Chang Qiu City, he found an inn and pulled out the Heaven and Earth Tome.
This tome was not only a Dao Cultivation technique but also possessed the divine ability to foresee the future.
Ding Qi had read some descriptions of the predictive abilities within the tome, but they were far too profound for him to grasp.
After being reminded by Ding Huan, he had long suspected that Ding Huan possessed some predictive techniques.
However, the matter was too delicate to inquire about directly.
Ding Qi hadn't opened the Heaven and Earth Tome to predict the future but to resolve issues he encountered in his cultivation.
However, before he could address his concerns, an intense sense of unease washed over him.
He was aware that the tome could reveal past and future events.
Now, with the tome in his hand, his body felt unnaturally restless, rising an ominous feeling within him.
Could he die in Chang Qiu City? This thought troubled him, only heightening his anxiety.
He put the tome away, and the feeling of unease disappeared.
But as soon as he grasped the tome again, the unsettling sensation returned even stronger.
He wasn't sure why, but he vaguely sensed that it had something to do with his clothes and hat.
Immediately, he changed into a different outer garment, but the unease lingered.
After half an hour of anxiousness, Ding Qi discarded all his clothing and footwear.
Without a hat, he decided to shave off all his hair.
The nagging feeling of unease lessened slightly, yet it remained.
Ding Qi decisively chose to leave Chang Qiu City.
He couldn’t afford to stay here.
Compared to Ding Huan, his experience wouldn’t lag behind much.
Regardless of whether he was a puppet or not, he had held the position of star master for many years.
He began to suspect that his danger was somehow related to the need to silence those aboard the ship.
The threats associated with their silence were likely linked to the Immortal Demon Pill Ding Huan had brought.
Its value was beyond measure.
If someone attempted to seize it, it was entirely possible that they might resort to murder to keep their secrets hidden.
Qi Yushan arrived at Chang Qiu City and immediately sought out Ding Qi’s inn.
His anger surged when he discovered that Ding Qi had also left—properly checking out no less.
It was bad enough that he was gone, but that he shaved his head and left behind all his clothes and shoes, even his bag—this angered Qi Yushan to the core.
Even if he were a dull-witted person, he understood that Ding Qi certainly had some kind of storage device.
He aimed to silence them, yet one escaped from the ship, while none of the small ants in his eyes were eliminated.
Enraged, Qi Yushan nearly burned the inn down.
However, upon calming himself, he realized he needed to return promptly to the merchant building in the Dao Cultivation Realm.
In the vast and boundless realm of the Three Heavens Star Mortal Realm, with his current cultivation, capturing all those fleeing ants was nearly impossible.
As for issuing a bounty, he lacked the ability for that.
Moreover, he couldn’t risk it; that was no trivial matter.
If Ding Huan and the others were apprehended, revealing specifics would only lead to his own exposure.
(Today’s update ends here.
Friends, good night, and for those with monthly tickets, please lend your support!)
(The chapter ends here.)