The colorful clown paid no heed to the situation, his mouth stretching into a wide, eerie grin as he bowed to the crowd of onlookers outside.

This scene didn’t seem like he had just killed several cultivators, but rather like he had just finished a juggling performance.

Moreover, he seemed to enjoy the sensation of being watched by the crowd.

Especially when most of the people’s eyes were filled with surprise and terror, their faces showing extreme fear.

After bowing to the crowd, the colorful clown turned around leisurely, raised a hand, and shot out a snake-shaped golden light from his palm, rolling up the storage artifacts of the black-robed elder and Ula.

Outside Changxian Tower, Yuan Ming saw this scene, his mouth curling up in a smile. Without a word, he turned and left, blending into the crowd on the street.

The colorful clown’s consciousness entered the two storage artifacts, but the smile on his face froze instantly, a strange color flashing in his eyes.

Ula’s storage artifact was fine, but the black-robed elder’s storage bag only contained a few dozen spirit stones, not even a single mid-grade spirit stone.

The black-robed elder, a Foundation Establishment cultivator, was so poor! He had never heard of such a thing.

The colorful clown looked at the black-robed elder with some pity.

“Are all the people from White Dragon Island,” the colorful clown suddenly shouted, “paupers?” His consciousness exploded, enveloping the crowd outside Changxian Tower.

The crowd, who didn’t have time to disperse, saw darkness before their eyes, their souls as if struck by a heavy blow. Some with shallow cultivation directly fainted.

Yuan Ming was far away from Changxian Tower at this moment, not covered by the colorful clown’s consciousness, but he also felt the oppressive sensation brought by the other party’s consciousness and quickened his pace again.

At this moment, a yellow light flashed on the ground next to the clown, and a tall woman in white appeared out of thin air.

The woman had black hair like a waterfall, bare feet, and her whole body exuded a pristine and holy aura. Unfortunately, her face was covered with a ferocious ghost mask, making it impossible to see her features.

“What are you doing! The law enforcement team of Black Rock City is coming. Stop talking nonsense, let’s go!” The woman in white spoke anxiously.

The woman in white pointed her finger, and five column-shaped yellow lights fell on the ground around the two of them.

Array patterns surged out from the yellow light columns, intertwining and combining like living things, forming a circular array about a foot in size in an instant.

The colorful clown reluctantly retracted his anger. This deal was a loss.

The woman in white flicked her fingers, and seven or eight earth attribute spirit stones flew out, embedded in various array pattern nodes.

The yellow array immediately erupted with a powerful spiritual power fluctuation, spinning rapidly.

“Array formation with a wave of the hand!” A cultivator in the crowd outside the shop exclaimed.

Array formation with a wave of the hand is a realm of array formation cultivation. The path of array formation is vast like a sea of smoke, requiring the study of various array diagrams and patterns, understanding of celestial phenomena and geography, communication with earth vein spiritual power, etc. It is recognized in the cultivation world as one of the most obscure and difficult to learn abilities.

Many array masters study hard all their lives, but can only set up some small arrays, and each time they set up an array, they need to spend a lot of time, bit by bit, inscribing array patterns. It may take ten days and a half month to set up an array.

However, the world is vast, and geniuses emerge in large numbers. Some people are naturally good at the way of array formation, and their understanding of array formation reaches a realm that ordinary people can’t understand. They can simplify complexity and set up an array with a wave of their hand.

Such experts are one in a million, and without exception, they are all array masters. This woman in white looks young, but she is actually an array grandmaster!

“Don’t go!”

A thunderous shout came from a distance, and a silver sword shadow flew like electricity, piercing through the gate of Changxian Tower, almost reaching the yellow array.

The woman in white ignored all this and waved her sleeve again.

A dazzling yellow light burst out from the yellow array, and the figures of the woman in white and the colorful clown flickered and disappeared out of thin air.

The silver sword shadow pierced through the two of them, but hit nothing.

A flash of silver light passed over the sword shadow, and a burly man in a purple robe appeared, slowly landing on the ground, his face ashen.

He turned his head to look at the staircase in the hall. Accompanied by heavy footsteps, the fat steward Zuo Linlin was running down the stairs, her face still showing a look of panic as she ran towards him…

Although Gu Yue’s cultivation was shallow, he was standing far away just now and was not stunned by the powerful consciousness of the colorful clown.

After he came to his senses, he saw the burly man’s face and immediately turned around, saying, “This big man is from the city lord’s mansion, quickly…”

Gu Yue suddenly stopped talking, only then did he notice that Yuan Ming had already disappeared.

He looked around, but there was no sign of Yuan Ming, so he had to leave alone, holding his still somewhat dizzy head.

The other clear-headed onlookers also scattered like birds and beasts, staying away from trouble.

No one noticed a small hole in the mud under the old man.

The other people in the market didn’t know that something big had happened. The earth-shattering shout of “paupers?” attracted many people to come and watch the excitement, making the scene extremely chaotic.

Gu Yue hurried away, completely leaving Changxian Tower behind before slowing down and looking for Yuan Ming.

A shout came from ahead, Yuan Ming had already changed back into his Southern Border attire and was standing by the roadside.

“Brother Yuan Ming, where did you go just now? You made me look for you everywhere.” Gu Yue hurried over and complained.

“I had something urgent just now and left for a while. Did you see what happened at Changxian Tower? Is that burly man in the purple robe from the city lord’s mansion?” Yuan Ming said.

Fearing that the people from the city lord’s mansion would trace it back to him, he pulled Gu Yue and walked while talking.

“Yes, his name is Lei Bao, a late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator. He has a powerful thunder and lightning ability and ranks among the top five in the city lord’s mansion. It’s a pity that those two ran too fast, otherwise, it would have been another unprecedented battle.” Gu Yue said excitedly.

Yuan Ming nodded silently.

Gu Yue, after experiencing the recent events, became more and more excited. Speaking of the colorful clown and the woman in white, he said, “From the final conversation between the woman in white and the colorful clown, it seems that they came specifically to assassinate the young master of White Dragon Island. These two people are really bold, daring to act so blatantly in Black Rock City, and even managed to escape from the hands of the city lord’s mansion so calmly…”

“Those two are indeed formidable. One kills without a trace, and the other is a master of formation who can set up a formation with a wave of his hand. They must be people of great background. Brother Gu Yue, can you guess their identities and origins?” Yuan Ming asked.

He had stolen items from the storage bag of the black-robed elder and made a considerable enemy of the clown in colorful clothes. He was quite curious about their origins, so he could be prepared.

“Brother Yuan, don’t joke with me! I’m just a small broker in Black Rock City, how would I know the origins of those two experts? However, they dared to act so boldly, they must have some backing, perhaps they are from some assassin alliance.” Gu Yue said.

“Assassin alliance? Do you mean an alliance that specifically carries out assassination missions?” Yuan Ming asked.

“You’re right, Brother Yuan, but this is just my speculation.” Gu Yue said.

“Would the major sects in the Southern Border allow them to exist?” Yuan Ming asked in surprise.

He had thought that the alliances were all about hunting fierce beasts, collecting materials, and escorting bodyguards. He didn’t expect that there were alliances that openly accepted assassination missions, which was somewhat unexpected.

“The major sects in the Southern Border naturally can’t control them. The assassin alliance operates secretly. If they offend them, those sects would also suffer heavy losses. As long as it’s not detrimental to them, the major sects don’t bother with such desperados. Now that the young master of White Dragon Island has been killed, and the location is even within Black Rock City, White Dragon Island won’t let it go, and Black Rock City will be busy for a while.” Gu Yue pondered for a moment and then spoke confidently.

Yuan Ming was not worried about this. Once things here were over, he would immediately return to Bi Luo Cave and retreat for a few months. No matter how powerful Black Rock City and White Dragon Island were, they couldn’t possibly find him.

“Brother Yuan Ming, where are you going next?” Gu Yue asked, suppressing his emotions.

“I’ve already bought the Ice Spirit Material, so your guiding duty ends here. I can act on my own from now on.” Yuan Ming thought for a moment and said.

“Alright, Brother Yuan, if you ever come to the market in Black Rock City again and need someone to guide you or need to inquire about news, you can find me at the Pine Wind Tavern in the West Market. I’m usually there when I’m not working.” Gu Yue said, then hurriedly left.

The assassin alliance had assassinated the elder and young master of White Dragon Island. This was big news, worth a lot of money. He had to sell it quickly, or it would be meaningless if it was too late!

Yuan Ming watched Gu Yue walk away, found an inn to stay in, closed the room door tightly, and quickly took out his storage ring.

He had been in a hurry when he transferred the items from the black-robed elder, and hadn’t had time to look closely. Now he needed to examine them carefully.

He activated his divine sense and entered the storage ring, his face couldn’t help but light up with joy.

The black-robed elder had collected quite a few items. The first thing that his divine sense detected was a small pile of low-grade spirit stones, as many as five or six hundred. Among them, there were exactly seven medium-grade spirit stones. The total amount of spirit stones had already exceeded one thousand.

Yuan Ming had risked his life before, and happened to find someone willing to pay a high price for Master Hei Mu’s runes, and had only managed to gather more than six hundred spirit stones. He had almost spent all of them before, and now he had almost doubled his spirit stones. How could he not be surprised?

However, considering that the other party was a Foundation Establishment cultivator, having so many spirit stones was normal.

“The wealth of a Foundation Establishment cultivator is indeed substantial.” Yuan Ming thought to himself, then moved his divine sense to look at other things.

Four spirit materials, a black token, a palm-sized water-blue small flag, a square white jade box, and two medicine bottles, one large and one small.

The four spirit materials were a piece of earthy yellow shell, a yellow spirit wood, a fist-sized blue egg, and a head-sized gray object formed by numerous fine threads tightly wrapped around it.

Although he didn’t know what they were, all four items emitted unusual spiritual power fluctuations. If judged by the standard of spirit materials, they were all medium-grade spirit materials, or even higher.

“This yellow shell seems to be the shell of some turtle-like fierce beast… I don’t know what kind of yellow spirit wood it is, I can grind it into powder later and make it into incense to see the effect… I don’t know what kind of fierce beast this blue egg is, the spiritual power fluctuation is so strong, the level of the fierce beast should not be low, as for this gray thread ball…” Yuan Ming took out the gray thread ball, it felt soft and hard, very elastic, like a silkworm cocoon.

He pinched a gray thread and pulled it, but it didn’t move.

Yuan Ming’s cultivation had already reached the ninth level of Qi Refining. His physical strength had been nourished by his magic power and had increased a lot. Even without using the Hair Shedding Technique, he could break a hemp rope with his bare hands. He couldn’t even pull this small gray thread.

(Dear Daoist friends, it’s the beginning of the month, please vote for the monthly ticket.)

(End of the chapter)