Before going out, Long Chen left the divine items he had seized to Meng Qi so that she could distribute them.

The Dragonblood warriors would need to get used to their power after refining the dragon blood. Only then could they train in the Dragon Blood Body Tempering Art. This would require quite a bit of time.

Long Chen also told Meng Qi to do her best at refining the Blue Eye Peacock’s true feathers. If she had the Silver Wing Horned Eagle, the nine hundred and ninety-nine true feathers, as well as the original true feather, Meng Qi would be able to fight on the same level as experts like Xie Luo and True Immortal Jiaoqi.

It just so happened that everyone was in seclusion now, so once the Dragonblood warriors finished refining the essence blood, she could go roaming on her own again.

As for awakening her bloodline, the main thing would be whether or not any terrifying experts had ever appeared amongst her ancestors.

If no such amazing figures had appeared amongst them, there wasn’t much potential to be excavated for her bloodline. However, if such a peerless expert had appeared once, then she would be much more powerful.

Anyway, whether or not such a powerful figure had ever appeared, the Scarlet Blood Spirit Fish could still make her bloodline purer. It could increase the quality of her Spirit Root and even draw her closer to the Heavenly Daos. Even in the worst-case scenario where they had little effect on her, they would still cause her Spiritual Strength to multiply. Because soul cultivators mostly inherited their spiritual prowess, so she would awaken at least a bit of power in that aspect.

Long Chen had also tried it, and he didn’t know if it was because of the Nine Star Hegemon Body Art, but the Scarlet Blood Spirit Fish had no effect on him. He could only satisfy himself with the taste.

As for the wood cultivators, once their core energy was fully excavated and awakened, Long Chen trusted that they would become the strongest healing corps.

Leaving the mountain, Long Chen flew toward a place that hadn’t been marked by anyone. He wanted to search through as many places as possible.

“Stop! This path was opened by me, these trees- aiya!”

Long Chen was in the midst of flying when three masked experts blocked him. However, when they saw who it was, they immediately fled for their lives.

“Get back here, or you’ll all die,” snorted Long Chen.

Those three experts froze. They had just started fleeing, but they didn’t dare to continue. They obediently returned.

“Senior apprentice-brother Long Chen, we were just joking. Don’t take it so seriously. In this world, who would be so stupid as to dare to rob you?”

One of them took off his mask, and repeated bowing toward him. It seemed he knew that if Long Chen wanted to kill them, it wouldn’t take him the slightest bit of effort. But experts on his level would disdain killing people like them as well.

They had been quite unlucky to encounter him. His aura had been hidden, and he was wearing black robes. They had thought that he was a lone expert of the Corrupt path or from some other race.

The majority of the Righteous path’s disciples wore white robes. The Corrupt path mostly wore blood-colored robes, but a portion of them liked black, so they had mistakenly assumed Long Chen was from the Corrupt path. Not sensing anything special about his aura, they had immediately swaggered out, but then upon seeing his face, they had almost crapped their pants.

“That’s right, senior apprentice-brother Long Chen is a mighty hero.” One of the others added a few gratifying words.

“Who you rob has nothing to do with me. Hand over your maps. Are there any interesting regions nearby?” asked Long Chen.

The three of them hastily took out their maps. One of them obediently said, “We slew seven Corrupt experts in the past few days. During the soulsearch, we noticed a sinister forest nearby. Based on their memories, quite a few powerful experts are gathering there. Most likely, there is some strange lifeform there that can kill others in a bizarre way. These Corrupt experts were fleeing from that region. Then… hehe, we cut them down,” said one of them proudly.

“It seems you specialize at plundering the Corrupt path?” asked Long Chen with a bit of surprise.

“Not really. We’ll rob anyone, even those from the Righteous path, but we won’t kill them. As for other races, we don’t care that much. However, we do choose to target Corrupt experts more,” said the first one that had spoken. He looked at Long Chen nervously.

Long Chen looked at him and smiled faintly. “You’re quite smart.”

This person was smart because he had chosen to tell the truth. That made Long Chen feel better about him, and this behavior didn’t give Long Chen a reason to kill them.

The cultivation world was one where the strong devoured the weak, and the Righteous path in particular was a scraggly bunch. Many of them had left the Martial Heaven Alliance. The Righteous path was currently in a very tumultuous period. Who was friend or foe was unclear. Plundering the people from the Righteous path but not taking their lives was already better than most people.

The reason this person chose to tell the truth was because he felt that he didn’t have the ability to lie in front of Long Chen. Being a bit smarter might increase the odds that Long Chen would let them off.

“Are these two your brothers?” Long Chen looked over the three of them, finding that this person was the leader.

Just now when the three of them had blocked him, it had been the other two to block his path and draw his attention, while this smart fellow had snuck up behind him to launch a sneak attack.

“Yes.” Although he didn’t know why Long Chen would ask such a thing, he could only obediently answer.

“Good. Using your smarts for others is real smarts,” said Long Chen.

Just now, when the three of them had fled, they had gone in an arc, leaving almost identical distances between each other.

That meant that this person had been thinking about the other two, or he would have chosen to flee in the other direction. In that scenario, Long Chen would most likely choose to chase after the two of them, and so this person’s odds of fleeing safely were much higher. But he hadn’t done that.

Being stared at by Long Chen, this person felt like his soul was laid bare before him. He couldn’t help sighing. “Senior apprentice-brother’s praise is too much. I, Wang Mao, cannot accept it. The three of us are just independent cultivators. My two brothers were set up by others in their sects and kicked out, while I was also crowded out, and in my anger, I schemed to kill the other side. Unfortunately, I ended up exposing myself and had no choice but to flee from my sect. Later on, while searching for an ancient remnant, I was injured and almost died. It was my two brothers who saved me. As a result, the three of us chose to become brothers closer than blood brothers. We will live and die together. Actually, we’ve been constantly doing some shameful things these years, but we have no choice. It’s to live, to get stronger, to not be crushed like ants.”

“Not bad. Dogs are loyal, but nobles aren’t. It is the people living on the bottom rungs of life that end up with greater integrity and camaraderie. When the Yin Yang World closes, you can come to my Xuantian Dao Sect or the Martial Heaven Alliance. Don’t roam around the world aimlessly. The Righteous path needs people like you, even if you’re bandits,” said Long Chen.

This person couldn’t be called a good person, but Long Chen had seen his heart and felt that he wasn’t bad. Even bandits could act open and aboveboard.

“Senior apprentice-brother Long Chen, we’ve been abandoned by large sects. Do you really think we can join?”

“So what if you were abandoned? I almost left the Martial Heaven Alliance myself. If there’s no place for me there, I’ll make my own place in the world. The Righteous path is already a mess, and the ones causing the mess are those without any unyielding backbone. They only know how to scheme all day and backstab each other. However, the huge waves recently could be called a big thing. They will wash away the trash. A person can lack intelligence and brains, but they can’t lack that unyielding nature. Well, there’s no need for me to say so much. When you get back, go find Ye Lingshan. I’ll say that I have found a few capable helpers for her, so you can just follow her in the future. She is the heir to the Martial Heaven Alliance, so following her will definitely be good for you,” said Long Chen.

“The heavenly genius Ye Lingshan? Will she really accept?” The three of them were startled. Ye Lingshan was famous, and they didn’t think they were a good match for her.

“She most definitely will. If she doesn’t, you can come to the Xuantian Dao Sect, but I wouldn’t worry about it,” said Long Chen.

Ye Lingshan needed to cultivate her own personal group. Although Wang Mao’s group wasn’t very powerful, once such people accepted a leader, they would be absolutely loyal. Low combat power could be made up for with resources, but loyalty was difficult to cultivate.

“Senior apprentice-brother Long Chen, we can’t thank you enough.”

Wang Mao’s group knelt toward Long Chen. The last few years had been hard on them. They longed to join a powerful sect, but they didn’t dare to at the same time, feeling like no sect would accept them.

“Get up. Don’t randomly kneel. It’s such a loathsome etiquette,” said Long Chen hastily.

“Senior apprentice-brother Long Chen, I have a favor,” said Wang Mao.

“Speak.”

“Well, in our group, we actually have a few other brothers. Can…” Wang Mao blushed. This group of his was clearly a bandit group.

“As long as you can trust them, you can bring them in. However, you all have to be prepared. If you join a sect, you are bound by the sect’s rules. You won’t be as free,” said Long Chen severely.

“That won’t be a problem,” promised Wang Mao.

“Alright, then I’m going to take a look at that mysterious forest,” said Long Chen. He had obtained the map, and that region was marked clearly by Wang Mao.

“Senior apprentice-brother Long Chen, please wait a moment. I have something here that might be helpful to you,” said Wang Mao suddenly, taking out a certain object.