“At times, one would spend lots of effort looking for something fruitlessly—only to find it in the moment least expected.”

Qai may have appeared to have decided too rashly to entrust, just like that, the administration of the Saint Hall’s establishment to the Fang Clan

However, when Qai thought about it again, he felt it was a wise decision.

For one, it had lifted a burden on their part since they really did lack the personnel to do all the management stuff. Secondly, the Fang Clan was not really stranger at all to the Saints Hall.

And so immediately after their meeting, Qai instructed the Crag Brothers to properly turn the 2 establishments over the Fang Patriarch and to give the latter a badge as proof that the Fang Clan represented the Saints Hall.

That day, meanwhile, the posted notice about the exchangeable 10,000 Merit Points into outer official was written off.

And when several cultivators in the city learned of it, an uproar immediately broke out like wildfire—especially so when the news revealed that a certain village clan patriarch took the lucrative position.

Surprisingly, the noise created by the incident was so serious that nobody noticed that the posted mission to investigate the Hundred Graves was already pulled out of the board.

Of course, it was Qai who took the mission himself.

At any rate, many fret about the sudden luck of the Fang Clan.

Some were even intrigued.

Even the city lord started to inquire about the Fang Clan’s relation to the Saints Hall. In his mind, there must be some uncovered story hidden in the incident.

However, most felt relieved that it was not the more promising Honorary Elder position that was claimed.

In addition to that, the fact that the Fang Clan was able to get the outer official position meant that the Saint Hall was dead serious about the rewards and not simply putting on a show.

A week later, after revising the training routine of the Blood Knights and squire-servants, Qai finally left the Saints Hall and headed towards the Stonecrest village.

This time, he left the Queen Ant and the Eland in the mountain peak for fear that his Spirit Beasts might get affected by the hallucinating effect of the mist within the Hundred Graves.

The only helper he brought was the Ape corpse puppet on which he was certain would not be affected by any soul attacks.

Qai thus flew on his Guandao and reached the Stonecrest village in 2 days.

Surprisingly when he arrived he found out that the village was a large one and that there was not a single clan that ruled it. Instead, it was a home to several mortal families just like the nameless village back in Kamaria Island.

And even if there were few cultivators that lived there—upon extending Qai’s Spiritual Sense—the cultivators were rather mostly in the early levels of the Qi Condensation stage.

In short, the village was surely a backwater place.

Qai, moreover, did not need to ask around about the Hundred Graves since, from the village, he could already sense the toxic spiritual Qi energy a couple of miles down the village.

Before long, he arrived at the entrance which did look like a natural Array formation.

‘Pocket dimension.’

Qai mused when he stood before the entrance.

Apparently, it was the first time he ever saw one since coming into the cultivation world. Of course, he made some inquiries about what a pocket dimension was from Old Ye Mo, but it still felt different seeing one in person.

The entrance looked like a glow of silver like water constantly flowing in different directions. And from there he could already feel the obnoxious thick mist.

Qai did not hesitate and immediately stepped his foot through the entrance but only after unleashing his Cornelia Flame Shield.

Upon entering, he could barely see a thing—and only by using his formidable Spiritual Sense that he could get a sense of direction.

‘This place should really be dangerous to Qi Condensation stage cultivators.’

He thought of that after considering the value of using Spiritual Sense inside the Hundred Graves.

Right from the get-go though, he could already feel that the mist was trying to penetrate his mind.

Soul Attack!

But thanks to his Cornelia Flame Shield and Cloak, there was no sign that he would be affected by the hallucination any time soon.

The mist appeared to be formed from spiritual Qi energy, only that it was really toxic.

And from where he stood, he could already sense hundreds of dead bodies of cultivators lying on the ground.

‘If the word Hundred Graves makes any sense, it was because hundreds of cultivators died in here right after entering. So perhaps the rumors that this was a battlefield of some elite cultivators is false.’

Qai did not hesitate to pick up some items that came from the dead cultivators—to him, while they belonged to low leveled cultivators, they could still be sold off to his shop.

There were medicinal bottles, tools, weapons scattered near the dead bodies of Qi Condensation stage cultivators, and, of course, few other storage pouches from Foundation Establishment stage cultivators.

Right at the start, it could be said that Qai’s haul on his trip was already good.

However, as he went deeper into the Hundred Graves, the mist’s gradual penetration was also getting stronger. So he couldn’t help but patch 2 protective talismans to strengthen his defenses.

It was a good thing though that he did not find any other thing more dangerous than the mist.

Meanwhile, midway his travel, when the toxic spiritual Qi energy became much more intense, something—or more exactly, a couple of things—from his storage pouch vibrated.

He had long forgotten their existence since he did not know what to make of them before after some careful study, but now that they tried to suddenly catch his attention, Qai’s interest was greatly incited.

They were actually the pair of the One-eyed Spider eggs!

‘So you were alive after all. I would have lready cooked and fed the 2 of you to my Blood Knights had I remembered of you much earlier back in the mountain peak.’

Qai didn't know why, but he speculated that the presence of the toxic spiritual Qi energy made the eggs vibrated in elation.

He immediately pulled them out and checked what was really going on.

‘Is this a sign of being hatched!?’

He then recalled how much he had branded them and even placed a drop of his blood on them just to experiment if he would be able to hatch them.

Qai could not recall however the Elemental attribute of the mother One-eyed Spider that his Eland fought so he wasn't sure why the toxic spiritual Qi energy triggered the pair of eggs.

That was because he did not fight with it directly as he let his Spirit Beast Eland used the match to temper its battle experience.

‘Don't tell me the web it used was actually a kind of soul attack!? Impossible, as I heard, soul attacks do not have a physical form.’

He then thought that perhaps its single eye had its own soul ability like that of Zhao Feng—either that Qai just didn't know or that the Spirit Beast’s level back then was still too low to develop such ability.

Qai was thrilled with his own speculations.

If the pair of eggs hatched and 2 One-eyed Spiders added to his army of Spirit Beasts, he would now have a pair of minions that could potentially aid him with soul attacks.

He controlled his excitement and shook his head to bring back his thoughts into focus.

Qai then placed the eggs back to his storage pouch and put the matter at the back of his mind to continue with his trip.

Of course, his target was the center area where the 2 Ant Workers found the stone Artefact.

So he carefully advanced his footsteps and tried to gauge the toxicity of the mist if his defenses could still hold on.

To be sure, he added more patches of protective talismans on his body before he went on his way.