A Farmer's Journey To Immortality

The moment Arkaal disappeared, the other commanders of the royal faction would immediately grow suspicious.

And if the royal faction mistakenly believed that the Big Five Sects or the Three Major Demonic Sects were responsible—

Then the war that had been slowly brewing for years could erupt far earlier than planned. That would create chaos across the entire Dadangar Subcontinent.

Aksai slowly rubbed his forehead. Time was limited. He needed to leave soon. Looting a well-hidden gu insect farm wasn’t in his initial calculations at all. Especially when the process of looting took so long.

Originally, if Aksai had failed to kill Arkaal and Qishan properly, he would have escaped immediately without caring about the consequences.

Once the full-fledged war broke out, the royal faction would have targeted all the known Lords of Dadangar with everything they had in order to establish a new world order.

Aksai had seen what the royal faction was capable of. Who knew what else it had hidden that he hadn’t encountered himself?

As one of those Lords himself, Aksai would never risk his own life just to protect what he had built. A certain level of self-preservation would be maintained by all Spirit cultivators, not just Aksai.

What he had built was supposed to protect and serve him, not the other way around.

If the guild survived while he died in the process, then there would be no point in that guild existing for a dead Aksai. Thus, even if his island and guild were destroyed or heavily affected, he would simply flee to another world and seek shelter there.

Survival was paramount in the cultivation world, and vainglory had to be avoided at all costs. Aksai didn’t dare to underestimate the royal faction’s reach just because he had managed to turn one of its assassination attempts into a failure.

But things had unexpectedly gone in Aksai’s favor.

He had killed both Qishan and Arkaal silently. That was good news.

And because of that success, he could still control the situation to some extent.

Aksai had already started planning how to alter the “crime scene.”

He would make it look as if one of Qishan’s poison experiments had gone wrong and killed both master and disciple together.

There were many ways to achieve this with the right tools and some planning. An easy way would be to keep some things a bit vague to let the royal faction draw its conclusion.

Firstly, he would destroy both the apothecary and Gu Poison King’s cave abode using the destructive functions of the 4th Order formation that was already in place.

Secondly, he would destroy the gu insect farm before burning away his borrowed identity as Naran (Aksai’s fake identity to infiltrate the royal faction) for good.

He had already taken control of the 4th Order formation and nobody would believe that it could be fully operated with complete authority by someone other than the Poison Gu King himself. Especially some rookie Formation Establishment Expert like Naran who was merely selected as Qishan’s vessel.

After the destruction, only surface-level clues would remain at the scene, painting a vague picture of what had taken place there. Of course, those clues that had “miraculously” survived the explosion would be planted by him.

The majority of the details of what took place inside the apothecary would be blanked out by the destruction. And the royal faction would be left to fill those blanks with their own logic.

This way, Aksai’s made-up reason behind Qishan and Arkaal’s deaths would sound believable enough. His act of looting the place dry would also remain hidden. Even if the royal faction were to investigate Naran as a formality, it would not lead them anywhere.

Gu Poison King’s desperation leading to fatal mistakes was a reasonable assumption.

After all, those who knew about the Gu Poison King would also know how desperately he had been trying to find ways to revive himself by possessing someone else’s body.

Even before Aksai’s arrival, the old King only had a year or two remaining before he kicked the bucket for good. Arkaal’s vessel search started to turn urgent.

If Aksai’s cover-up was successful, the war between the royal faction and the sect forces could be delayed for years. Perhaps it could even be avoided entirely because of Gu Poison King’s disappearance.

Aksai desperately needed that time after knowing about the royal faction’s plan and depth of its powers. He needed the subcontinent to remain peaceful for a while longer.

Emerald Cove Island still needed to grow stronger. His guild was not prepared for a continent-wide war. Neither were his subordinates.

If chaos spread too early, even his seemingly well-protected island could eventually be dragged into it.

Which meant—

Aksai could not afford unnecessary risks right now. He quietly stared toward the strange platform again with a whirlpool of thoughts raging inside his head. The chronic planner in him was at metaphorical crossroads.

Then suddenly—

Yelia spoke.

“My lord, are you worried about finding something unknown on that void stone platform that you can’t control? Or are you thinking too much about protecting others by your side? I think it’s the latter, right?”

Aksai looked toward her silently.

Yelia floated calmly beside him while the swallowing shadows continued moving behind her.

“For now,” she said softly, “you should think about your own growth first.”

Aksai narrowed his eyes slightly. Yelia continued as she looked at the platform with some understanding.

“I really admire how you plan things, my lord. But sometimes plans can’t keep up with the ever-changing reality of life. If some things are bound to happen, they will happen no matter what you do.

“Besides, there are some risks that are worth taking. There are some actions worth taking without worrying about consequences.”

Silence filled the underground space again.

The distant gu insects screeched endlessly while the void shadows slowly swallowed the remaining sections of the farm.

Aksai quietly looked at Yelia for a long time. Then he lowered his gaze and carefully sorted through his thoughts.

Yelia was right.

If he kept avoiding every unknown danger at all times, he would never truly grow stronger.