Staying Alive Cautiously in the Celestial Realm and Becoming the Strongest

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The Clarify Technique is an advanced spell of the Spiritual Perception Technique, and Wang Chen had already mastered it to the Grandmaster level of the Purple Mansion tier.

His perception silently expanded in all directions, covering all the villagers nearby.

Although Shangyang Village was in a remote location, the proportion of cultivators among the villagers was quite high.

However, their cultivation levels were generally low, mostly below the fourth tier of Qi Cultivation.

Wang Chen was confident that if any of the villagers were tainted with evil energy, they would not escape his insight!

The higher the cultivation level of the evil cultivators, the easier their evil power would become uncontrollable, and even if they could maintain their sanity, phenomena of outward dispersion would occur.

Therefore, if the villagers had contact with the target, they would surely be tainted with some evil power.

However, to Wang Chen's disappointment, after observing for a moment, he found nothing.

Could it be that the intelligence from the Dongming Residence was inaccurate?

Wang Chen first ruled out this possibility—that was intelligence he had obtained for one hundred thousand Spirit Stones!

If the intelligence was accurate, it was possible that Zhou Senzhi had hidden himself very well and hadn't made direct contact with the villagers here recently.

Or perhaps the villagers who had had contact with him were not here.

Another possibility was that the evil cultivator possessed some Dharma Technique to hide his presence.

But no matter which reason, it brought great trouble to Wang Chen.

Evil cultivators were different from demon cultivators; demon cultivators could hide and cultivate in the wilderness or deep mountains, and as long as they had enough resources, they could survive for years or decades without any problem.

However, evil cultivators possessed an innate, strong desire for "human breath", and the more people around them, the more it benefited their cultivation.

Once removed from human society, they would be like fish out of water, quickly suffocating and dying!

It's just that large cities usually have arrays or talismans that expel evil, so low-tier evil cultivators cannot survive there; they can only hide and cultivate in villages and small towns.

The trouble for Wang Chen lay in the fact that even if he could confirm that Zhou Senzhi was indeed in Shangyang Village, he could not search house by house.

He had to discreetly lock onto the target and then achieve success in one strike.

Otherwise, the mission would likely fail!

Wang Chen thought about it while trading with the villagers, and his divided attention did not cause any mistakes.

At that moment, he suddenly had the feeling that someone was watching him.

Without changing his expression, Wang Chen glanced over and saw several burly village toughs standing a hundred steps away in the left direction, arms crossed, watching him.

One of them had a straw in his mouth and his eyes flickered with a roguish look.

Wang Chen was disappointed.

These guys didn't seem like evil cultivators, probably just some undisciplined characters in Shangyang Village.

In every village, no matter how many hardworking and honest people there are, there will always be a few lazy and frivolous ones.

He didn't pay it any mind and traded the last piece of osmanthus candy to a villager.

"The osmanthus candy is all gone."

Wang Chen said with a smile, "It's all traded."

In fact, he still had quite a bit hidden in his Storage Bag, but since he had already traded away three servings, bringing out more would not fit the persona of a Traveling Merchant.

Traveling merchants ran small businesses and usually didn't stock up in large quantities.

As soon as his words were spoken, a child who had just arrived, clutching some herbs, immediately burst into loud sobs.

He was just a bit too late, and the sweet and delicious candy was gone!

Seeing his companions enjoying the candy, his heartache surged like a reverse flow, crying like a child of about one meter four.

Wang Chen broke into a sweat and quickly said, "Don't cry, I will be back in a few days, I'll save a portion for you then."

This finally stopped the child's tears, "Really?"n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

"Of course it's true!"

Wang Chen swore earnestly, "You keep your stuff for now, and I promise to trade with you first next time."

The child sniffed and nodded, "Okay."

Seeing that the exchange was almost done, Wang Chen decisively retreated.

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As the saying goes, haste makes waste, and currently, Wang Chen still had enough time, so he didn't want to rush into things.

And upon leaving, Wang Chen also took on several commissions from the villagers.

This was also one of the services a Traveling Merchant provided.

After leaving Shangyang Village, Wang Chen followed the map to a small city two hundred miles away.

He made a round through this city and stayed a night, leaving the next day for another city that was even farther away.

Four days later, Wang Chen returned to Shangyang Village.

This time, quite a few villagers recognized him.

Wang Chen fulfilled his promise, delivering the items that some villagers had entrusted him to buy.

Of course, he hadn't forgotten to trade for candy for that child.

There were more villagers coming to exchange goods this time, many of whom he hadn't seen before.

However, using the Clarify Technique, Wang Chen still didn't detect anyone who had been in contact with Evil Cultivators!

That was a bit troublesome.

If he couldn't find his target, then the only method left was to sneak into the village at night and stealthily investigate house by house.

With Wang Chen's current Cultivation Level and his Grandmaster-tier Hidden God Technique, the likelihood of being discovered was still very low.

But merely observing from the outside might not reveal the target, especially if the Evil Cultivator was hiding in an underground chamber, his Clarify Technique, no matter how powerful, could not penetrate the thick layers of soil.

After much thought, Wang Chen realized he could only take things step by step.

Once the exchanges were nearly done, he packed up and left again.

The identity of a Traveling Merchant was something Wang Chen couldn't use for the time being; the interval between his visits was too short, which could easily arouse suspicion.

Yet what Wang Chen hadn't expected was that just as he left Shangyang Village and started on his way back, he was stopped on the road.

"Friend, do you understand the rules of doing business?"

The ones blocking Wang Chen's path were precisely those few idlers he had seen on his first visit to the village.

The leader of the village men, with a fierce look and a broad, muscular build, glared at Wang Chen with eyes like a wolf staring at a lamb.

The three men standing behind him spread out tacitly, forming a surrounding stance.

All of these men were at the third or fourth tier of Qi Cultivation, and together with their leader who was at the sixth tier, they were quite brazen to attempt to rob Wang Chen, a "Traveling Merchant" at the seventh tier of Qi Cultivation.

Clearly, this wasn't their first time engaging in such deeds!

Wang Chen smiled, "What rules?"

The burly man's eyes flickered with greed, "Of course, the rules of our Shangyang Village. We let you go last time; this time, you need to pay a toll."

He extended his palm towards Wang Chen, "Fifty Spirit Stones, and today we'll let you go again!"

Fifty Spirit Stones wasn't a lot.

But Wang Chen didn't want to give even a single one, "But I don't want to let you go!"

No sooner had the words left his mouth than Wang Chen slapped a Binding Skill toward them.

The four village men were struck as if by lightning, their bodies stiffened, and they couldn't move.

The next moment, they all fainted.

Wang Chen flicked out a scroll, which instantly unfurled to reveal a long painting, and he gathered all the village men into it.

It was the True Form Chart of the Mystical Mirage Dragon!

This precious chart could contain living creatures; the big green donkey had always been kept inside it.

It could also contain people.

Wang Chen's actions were swift; the moment he collected the men, he used the Shrinking Ground into Inches skill to dash tens of steps away in an instant.

He vanished without a trace in the blink of an eye!

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Here comes the second update.