Chapter 129: The Mystery About to Be Revealed

Deep in the Tianmu Mountains, thunderous roars could be heard. All birds and beasts had long fled from this place. The plants and trees within several miles seemed to have been trampled by giant bulldozers, leaving the ground full of pits—clearly caused recently.

After a loud crash, two figures quickly separated—Ye Feng and Pei Hong.

Pei Hong was covered in blood, barely able to stand steadily, gasping heavily. In contrast, Ye Feng appeared relaxed and composed, his clothes as neat as ever, as if nothing had happened.

“How is this possible…” Pei Hong growled in frustration. “You’re only at the Golden Core stage…”

“Rank isn’t the only measure of strength!” Ye Feng said matter-of-factly. “You can’t be my opponent. I can kill fifty late Yuan Ying stage magical beasts in five minutes—this is the gap between us in terms of combat experience.”

“Hmph, who would believe your nonsense? The only Yuan Ying stage magical beast on Earth has already been killed by you guys… Where would you get fifty more?” Pei Hong sneered.

Ye Feng’s lips curled into a smile as he stared at Pei Hong.

“Why are you smiling?” Pei Hong found it strange.

“I’m smiling because you admitted so easily that you’re one of those masked men in black.” Ye Feng continued smiling. “Only the person who participated in capturing that magical beast, aside from those who were there, knows about it. And you weren’t part of that pursuit… Do you still have any excuses?”

“Do you think no one else knows about this? Such a major event like the Ghost Market Massacre—of course I paid attention. That’s why I came to City H. I knew many strong people would gather here just for the excitement, only to be troubled by you youngsters!” Pei Hong stubbornly persisted.

“Oh, then tell me—who told you about this? Let me see if that person is here.” Ye Feng’s smile grew wider as he pressed further.

“Why should I tell you such things?” Pei Hong knew he could no longer hide it and tried to stay calm.

“You refuse to speak because you don’t know who was involved in the pursuit, or even if you did, a single phone call to verify would expose you.” Ye Feng stepped closer to Pei Hong. “Actually, it doesn’t matter if you deny it. The moment you appeared near the zoo looking for the missing pearl, I already knew you were one of the murderers.”

“To be honest, your behavior really irritates me,” Ye Feng said calmly as he walked up to Pei Hong. “Let me tell you—I can indeed obtain mid-grade spirit crystals to help everyone leave Earth. I can also get the pills you need to break through to the Yuan Ying stage.”
Pei Hong’s expression turned blank upon hearing this.
“But if you hadn’t resorted to schemes from the start and were willing to pay a price in exchange, it would be hard for me to resist such a generous offer. I very likely would have given you the pills or spirit crystals you wanted,” Ye Feng said with a teasing smile.
At these words, Pei Hong’s eyes dimmed. He knew full well that since Ye Feng had spoken like this, cooperation was no longer possible.
“The reason things have come to this is solely because of that idiot who came up with the plan—only thinking of cheating and coming up with terrible ideas. That’s why my impression of you all turned completely negative.” Seeing that his hypnotic-like words had had some effect, Ye Feng secretly smirked.
“I can give you three choices now,” Ye Feng continued patiently.
“First, to protect those idiots who are in cahoots with you, I’ll kill you on the spot. There are two outcomes: One, after your companions learn of your fate, they might desist from further trouble and leave Earth with us. In that case, you’d be the only one among all the Yuan Ying-level strongmen who fails to leave Earth—a tragedy for you. The other is that they continue their evil deeds and get killed by us. In that case, your death would mean nothing.”
“Second, I’ll capture you alive, strip you of all your cultivation skills, and force you to confess everything under the interrogation of professional interrogators. Then you’ll watch us leave Earth, while you become an ordinary person with nothing left. Decades later, you’ll die from natural causes.”
“Third, tell us who your accomplices are. Then, under our supervision, I’ll send you away via the teleportation array to fulfill your dream of leaving Earth.”
“I give you ten minutes to think!” After saying that, Ye Feng sat down against a nearby broken tree stump and closed his eyes, pretending to rest.
Ye Feng’s words greatly shaken Pei Hong. He had originally thought that if Ye Feng killed him and he refused to speak, that would be the worst outcome. But after Ye Feng’s analysis, he truly felt it wasn’t worth it.

If he died and the other two managed to escape because of him, it would be a great irony for him. He was willing to sacrifice his own life just to let others go, and he couldn’t accept that. If he died and those two were also killed, then keeping their secret at this point would be pointless. Being captured alive and having all his cultivation skills destroyed was something he would rather die than endure. Not to mention having to watch Ye Feng and the others leave through the teleportation array. After careful consideration and struggle, Pei Hong let out a long sigh. “Are you sure that if I tell you about the other accomplices, you’ll spare me?” “Pei Hong, you’re not inherently bad. I knew that when you rescued Nikola from Long Tian back then. Right now, you’ve just made one mistake—everyone makes mistakes sometimes. If given a chance to repent, it would be a kindness to both you and me,” Ye Feng said, standing up and smiling at Pei Hong. “When you fought with me earlier, you didn’t have any killing intent at all. From start to finish, you just wanted to escape. Even though you thought you were stronger than me from the beginning, you never tried to kill me to silence me. I believe Pei Hong was involved in this out of momentary confusion. I’m sure the others are willing to give you this chance to repent.” “I’m already 2,972 years old, with only 28 more years of life left…” Pei Hong’s gaze grew dim. “Over nearly three thousand years, I’ve witnessed too many deaths. I really don’t want to die… 28 years is far too short for me… If I don’t leave Earth soon, I’m afraid I’ll never get another chance…” “You’re already at the peak of the Yuan Ying stage. If you leave Earth and go to a cultivation planet, you should be able to make a breakthrough in about ten years. It’s already December this year; if things go well, we might leave Earth next year,” Ye Feng said with a kind smile.

“Actually, I wasn’t very involved in these incidents, as I don’t like killing. I only helped catch the magical beast at the Yuan Ying stage. Then I assisted in transporting that beast to the valley where the Ghost Market is located and set it free from its cage… After setting the beast free, I couldn’t bear to see the bloody scene and fled. I had nothing to do with what happened afterward… I originally disagreed with the plan to frame you, considering so many lives were at stake. But since those two reached an agreement and used breaking through to the Yuan Ying stage as a bait, I had no choice but to go along…” Pei Hong lowered his head.
“Your accomplices are two people?” Ye Feng pressed.
“That’s right, two people. One of them is…” Pei Hong finally gave up resisting and chose to compromise.