Muddy Blades and Bitter Alliances

With a loud bang, two top-grade magic tools—after merely chipping two small notches into the centipede’s carapace—were deflected with a clear ringing sound, leaving Han Li momentarily stunned.

So hard! Its shell is nearly comparable to a mid-grade magic tool in toughness! Han Li breathed a silent sigh of relief. If he hadn’t used a few minor tricks, subduing this giant centipede would have cost him considerable effort.

Seeing that the flying knives and the golden bowl had little effect, he put them away.

Although the creature had suffered a fatal wound, its vitality was astonishing; it still writhed and thrashed, clearly not about to die any time soon. Frowning, Han Li lightly leaped, flashed past the demonic beast’s head in a single swift motion, and without further concern for its fate, returned down the cave passage to the stone chamber.

Inside the chamber, the several green “Purple Ape Fruit” plants still sat unharmed where they had been. A surge of satisfaction filled Han Li.

He took out several jade boxes of identical size from his storage pouch and laid them on the ground. Then he sacrificed his flying knife and, with extreme care, cut out the Purple Ape Fruit together with the small chunk of purple stone attached to its roots. Using the knife to scoop it up, he brought it back to his hand and placed it into a jade box, sealing it tightly.

Only after all the spirit herbs had been picked one by one and properly stored did Han Li let out a long breath, his mind settling into calm.

He stretched his limbs, then casually swept his gaze across the stone chamber, making sure nothing had been overlooked. Satisfied, he unhurriedly walked out.

When he passed the spot where the giant centipede had been gravely wounded, the demonic beast was now lying motionless on the ground, completely dead. A large pool of black, poisonous blood had spread beneath it, filling the cave section with a nauseating stench that made Han Li feel dizzy and lightheaded.

Alarmed, he realized the toxicity of the blood was diffusing into the air. He quickly swallowed some Clear Spirit Powder, and only then did the discomfort recede.

He stopped about seven or eight zhang from the centipede’s corpse, then sent his flying knife to stab it randomly seven or eight times. Seeing no reaction, he finally relaxed and continued forward.

But after only a few steps, he paused. Bending down, he pulled a dark, short blade from the ground. He used two fingers to lightly wipe the black mud from its edge, and the short blade immediately gleamed with golden light. It was a child blade of the Gold Cicada Mother-and-Child Blades.

It turned out that Han Li had been able to effortlessly slice open the centipede’s abdomen by, during the short time he had been out of sight, laying all eight child blades upside down in the cave passage, lined up in a row along the floor, with the sharp half of their edges exposed above ground.

Fearing the golden glow would be too bright and alert the demonic beast, he had coated the blade edges with black mud, blending them seamlessly into the dark cave. In this way, when the giant centipede chased him through this section, hugging the ground, it would be cut open by the hidden golden blades without even noticing, meeting its end in this very place. Pitiful as it was—an upper-grade poisonous insect demonic beast possessing a formidable array of venom techniques it never even got to use—it was reduced to being tricked to death by Han Li.

Although Han Li did not yet know he had killed an upper-grade demonic beast, he was well aware this poisonous insect was at least a top-tier mid-grade existence. He was quite satisfied at having dispatched it so easily.

Now, he took seven or eight steps, bending down at each one, wiping clean and collecting all the blades. Then he straightened up to leave, but after a casual glance at the giant centipede’s corpse, he hesitated for a moment before walking over to it.

Standing before the corpse, Han Li unceremoniously stabbed it with his golden blade in several places: the head, the back, and the tail. He found that the back shell was the hardest; the blade could only penetrate half an inch with a single stab and required continuous force to gradually cut through.

Without further hesitation, Han Li released all eight collected Gold Cicada child blades and laboriously began cutting through the centipede’s back shell.

Soon, several pieces of hard shell—each several feet across—were hewn off and carefully stored in his storage pouch. These pieces, capable of withstanding a full-force blow from a top-grade magic tool, were rare treasures. He could fashion them into a crude inner vest that would prove highly useful.

In truth, Han Li would have loved to cut off and take the centipede’s entire carapace. But doing so would take too much time, and time was the most precious commodity for him now.

So, with a touch of regret, he exited the cave and immediately set off for the next predetermined herb-gathering site, where there should also be some unripe Celestial Spirit Fruit.

While Han Li was tirelessly collecting unripe spirit herbs according to his plan, at several other well-known locations where ripe spirit herbs grew, major clashes had erupted among the elite disciples. After all, only a handful of locations could accurately predict where spirit herbs would ripen, and a collision of the various sects’ “experts” was unavoidable.

To the southeast of Han Li, in a secluded valley, three people had reached a stalemate over two Purple Ape Fruit—identical to the ones Han Li had just acquired.

Only these two fruits were no longer pale green but a dazzling, brilliant purple, exuding a thick, unusual fragrance. At the base of the two purple fruits lay a strange deer with a single fiery red horn, its body and head severed, lying in a pool of blood, dead for some time.

Not far from the demonic beast’s corpse, three individuals of varying attire stood in a triangular formation, none of them making a move, each apparently highly wary of the other two.

“What do you two mean? I killed this Blazing Horn Deer myself. The spirit herbs should be mine!” one man finally spoke, his face full of anger.

The speaker was a young man in blue, around twenty years old, with a handsome, resolute face and a slender build. He held a green flying fork in one hand and a yellow pearl in the other. Both items gleamed with spiritual light—clearly top-grade magic tools. No wonder he could single-handedly kill that seemingly extraordinary upper-grade demonic beast.

“Fellow Daoist, I didn’t expect to see you again this year. What a fateful coincidence!” This time, the speaker was an old man in green robes leaning on a staff. He appeared kind and benevolent, but completely ignored the youth’s accusation, instead addressing a middle-aged Daoist priest.

“Indeed, I didn’t expect to run into Benefactor Li again this year either,” replied the Daoist, carrying a simple sheathed sword on his back, his expression calm. He also did not spare the youth a glance.

The Tianque Fortress youth was furious. Having been gifted from childhood, born into a prominent family, handsome and dashing, he had always been the center of attention wherever he went. To be so humiliated by these two was unbearable.

But before he could say another word, the old man and the Daoist exchanged a few sentences that immediately made his face pale and his confidence crumble.

“No need to dwell on the past. Now that there are two spirit herbs here, it would be just right for us to split them—one each, what do you say?” The old man wasted no words and directly offered to join forces with the Qingxu Valley Daoist to divide the spoils.

Hearing this, the middle-aged Daoist showed no surprise. After a moment’s thought, he nodded in agreement: “Very well. Our strengths are roughly equal. Fighting would only leave both sides gravely injured. I have no objections.”

The youth, having heard the exchange clearly, was both shocked and enraged.

If the two joined forces, even though he was confident in his powerful magic tools, he knew he wouldn’t stand a chance. But to give up the spirit herbs he had almost obtained? That was something he could not accept.

His mind raced. Suddenly, he shot backward, heading straight for the two spirit herbs. He would snatch them up and then flee immediately.

“Seeking death!”

As soon as the youth moved, the green-robed old man’s face darkened. He tossed his staff into the air, where it transformed into a streak of green light hurtling toward the youth. The green light moved so fast that it flashed only a few times before appearing directly in front of the youth, blocking his path.

The youth was horrified. What kind of magic tool is this? So fast? But with no time to think, he raised his hand and sent the green flying fork to meet it, while continuing forward without slowing. He would not give up until he had the herbs.

“Young friend, it’s too late. Better leave quickly. Don’t force me to break my rule of abstaining from killing today,” came the Daoist’s unhurried voice from behind him, as if the man were breathing down his neck. The youth was terrified out of his wits.

His face pale, the youth turned back. Indeed, the Daoist was only a zhang away, watching him with a faint smile.

Saying nothing more, the youth immediately reversed direction and fled toward the valley entrance, not daring to look back. He knew his strength was vastly outmatched by these two. Coveting the spirit herbs would only be suicide. That they had let him off was already more than he could believe.

“Heh heh! Brother Dao’s Spirit Fox Step is even more refined than before—utterly transcendent!” the old man remarked, surprised that the Daoist had let the youth go, but he did not try to stop him. Instead, he praised him.

“It’s nothing. A mere trivial skill,” the Daoist said leisurely, casting a cold glance at the youth’s retreating figure.