The village in the records wasn't very far from Yuzhou City.

At least it was within the jurisdiction of the Demon Suppression Bureau of Yuzhou City.

If two Foundation Establishment cultivators traveled at full speed, it wouldn't take long to get there.

Li Xingtian followed behind Zhao Wanqing for a while, noticing that her way of traveling seemed a bit odd.

It looked as if her right leg was injured, as there was always an unnatural feeling whenever she landed.

This also made Zhao Wanqing's traveling speed seem not very fast in Li Xingtian's eyes.

"Is your right leg injured?" Li Xingtian asked.

Zhao Wanqing looked at him in surprise, "How did you know?"

"You subconsciously ease the pressure when your foot lands," Li Xingtian explained and continued to ask, "Are you sure it's okay to drag a leg like this?"

"Time is of the essence..."

Li Xingtian's tone was calm, "So urgent that you haven't even taken a healing pill?"

"I did, but the blood qi can't be cleared that quickly, which is why the recovery is slow."

"Could you stop for a moment?"

Upon hearing this, Zhao Wanqing stopped and looked at Li Xingtian with a puzzled expression.

"I have a way to solve it, please cooperate. If we encounter an attack, I can't guarantee your safety."

Li Xingtian explained, then quickly scanned Zhao Wanqing, indeed sensing a trace of blood qi lingering around her.

Isn't this wound a bit too much?

"Pardon the intrusion, please bear with it."

Li Xingtian also stopped, controlling his spiritual power to quickly envelop the wounds containing blood qi.

When his spiritual power touched the blood qi, it seemed to recognize its master, quickly submitting to Li Xingtian's control.

With a slight tug, the blood qi and spiritual power surged out from Zhao Wanqing's wounds under Li Xingtian's control.

Zhao Wanqing was stunned as she felt the fierce, entangling blood qi, which seemed to want to cling to her for life, being effortlessly taken away by the spiritual power.

It was as if a daughter raised for eighteen years was taken away by a mischievous boy with a mere beckoning of his finger.

Zhao Wanqing hesitated to speak, curious as to why Li Xingtian's spiritual power could so easily suppress the blood qi.

"It's a matter of cultivation technique," Li Xingtian naturally understood Zhao Wanqing's expression, "There’s a reason Master called me and not Senior Sister."

"Thank you..." Zhao Wanqing expressed her gratitude. In any case, without the entangling blood qi, the pain had indeed reduced significantly.

Li Xingtian nodded slightly in response. After all, having a burden while working was always a foolish thing in his eyes.

His past life experience taught him not to team up with fools.

Now, Zhao Wanqing was already considered half a fool in his eyes.

If she couldn't show her strengths in the upcoming case, Li Xingtian would consider taking over Zhao Wanqing's command and handling the case his way.

---

"This is where I found traces of the ritual procedure," Zhao Wanqing pointed to a patch of empty ground, "They acted quickly, we need to hurry."

Li Xingtian's gaze quickly swept over the empty ground. If Zhao Wanqing was telling the truth, the ground had indeed been cleaned thoroughly, with no useful traces left.

Zhao Wanqing kicked the original position of the formation's core with her foot, finding no energy fluctuations:

"Their ritual procedure is so brazen, it must have reached a critical point, or some change must have driven them to such reckless actions."

"So we need to predict their next target."

Li Xingtian nodded slightly, agreeing with Zhao Wanqing's plan. It seemed she wasn't just blindly searching.

Having a plan and ideas was enough, and it seemed Zhao Wanqing also had a destination in mind.

Zhao Wanqing's destination was to the north from here.

Yuzhou City was bordered by water to the south and mountains to the north. Zhao Wanqing believed that since the Demon Suppression Bureau of Yuzhou City discovered the evil cultivators conducting sacrificial rituals, they wouldn't be so blatant again.

They were evil cultivators, not suicidal.

They were likely to target secluded villages in the mountains.

Firstly, such secluded villages were hard to inspect, and secondly, the mountains had trees, so even if the Demon Suppression Bureau found them, they could quickly disperse and escape, making it difficult to catch them.

So under the night sky, Zhao Wanqing led Li Xingtian in a mad dash towards the nearest northern village.

Zhao Wanqing had already studied the surrounding terrain map before setting out.

After about half an hour, they were close to the village Zhao Wanqing mentioned.

"Wait!" Li Xingtian suddenly stopped, frowning slightly as he surveyed the surroundings.

Zhao Wanqing immediately halted, "What's wrong?"

"We're in a maze array," Li Xingtian's gaze swept through the dense forest, "We've circled here at least three times."

Zhao Wanqing was stunned at his words, three times? She hadn't sensed it at all.

"Leaving this maze array isn't difficult, but I'm afraid we've been exposed."

Li Xingtian's gaze swept around, quickly sensing a point of spiritual power fluctuation.

Although his cultivation level had restarted after rebirth, Li Xingtian's knowledge and experience remained.

From the beginning of the mission, Li Xingtian had been closely monitoring the surroundings.

Li Xingtian's vigilance against evil cultivators was always at its peak, for one reason: all the evil cultivators he encountered shared a common trait—no bottom line.

Li Xingtian cautiously approached the point of spiritual power fluctuation.

Zhao Wanqing quickly followed in Li Xingtian's footsteps, watching as he parted the grass and picked up a small stone from the ground.

After examining it repeatedly, Li Xingtian carefully placed the stone back in its original position:

"It's a Stone Bead Maze Formation, follow me."

Zhao Wanqing followed closely behind Li Xingtian, watching as he twisted and turned, seemingly going in circles, yet eventually leading them out.

Then, Zhao Wanqing was stunned.

In front of her was a village that had been completely slaughtered.

All the houses had been burned to ashes, the smell of blood wafting in the cold night wind.

Headless bodies hung from the trees at the entrance of the village.

Li Xingtian looked down at the traces of the formation ritual on the ground, which hadn't even been dealt with.

"How dare they...?"

Zhao Wanqing's voice trembled slightly. Kidnapping villagers for evil cultivator sacrifices and sacrificing an entire village were entirely different concepts.

Evil cultivator sacrificial rituals typically involved extracting blood qi and souls to enhance themselves.

But whether blood qi or souls, adult men were the best source.

Women, children, and the elderly provided little blood qi.

They might even contaminate the blood qi.

So even the most heinous evil cultivators wouldn't do something so counterproductive.

Moreover, this was an entire village, not sparing a single woman, child, or elder!

This was outright slaughter!

Li Xingtian spoke, "They left in a hurry, didn't even deal with the formation ritual. I'll record these rituals to investigate later, you go inside and see if there's any useful information left."

He glanced at Zhao Wanqing's expression, understanding that she was a bit overwhelmed, and thus made the arrangements.