Chapter 27: Golden Flame, Easy Pickings

Chapter 27: Chapter 27: Golden Flame, Easy Pickings

But after a moment’s hesitation, Ma Wu didn’t dare to make a move.

His main fear was that if they fought, a third party would swoop in and reap the rewards.

Ma Wu schemed for a moment, thinking, ’I should just wait for them to start fighting and send them both to their graves.’

Up ahead, Wang Li’s gaze was sinister. He clenched and unclenched his fist, but ultimately suppressed the urge to strike.

Ma Wu had hired him to kill Li Changsheng, but after just a few days together, Wang Li had already figured him out. Ma Wu’s target wasn’t Li Changsheng’s few young beasts at all.

It was Wang Li himself—or rather, everything he owned.

After spending a few days with him, Wang Li had a good idea of what his trump card was.

’It must be a single-use talisman,’ he guessed, ’one powerful enough to kill me.’

’The old bastard is too damn crafty,’ Wang Li cursed inwardly. ’The old fox is always holding onto his trump card, like a porcupine. It leaves me with no opening.’

A shadow passed over Wang Li’s eyes.

’If it weren’t for the limitations of my Spirit Vein, I would’ve broken through to the Mid-Qi Cultivation realm long ago, maybe even the late stage. Why would I be afraid of some old coot? I’d have just cut him down where he stood.’

The corner was less than five meters away, yet it took the two of them a dozen breaths to reach it.

At the corner, Wang Li cautiously peeked around.

He froze for a second when he saw the scene, but then his eyes lit up.

He turned and nodded to Ma Wu, giving him a hand signal.

The signal meant that the weaker Ma Wu was to create a diversion while Wang Li, the stronger of the two, launched a surprise attack.

The method was simple, but it was incredibly effective. The two had used it to build up a small fortune over the past few days.

Ma Wu hesitated for a moment before nodding and pulling a Low-Grade Fireball Talisman from his robes.

He took a deep breath, channeled Spiritual Power into the Fireball Talisman, and leaped out.

"Hah!"

Almost instantly, the talisman burned to ash, transforming into an orange-red Fireball that shot toward a dark shadow ahead.

The light of the Fireball illuminated the scene: the massive Tusked Pig, the swarm of insects, and Li Changsheng lying on the ground. The images burned themselves into Ma Wu’s mind.

’Crap!’

Ma Wu’s heart sank.

He glanced sideways and saw Wang Li’s sinister glare. Uncontrollable panic surged through him.

’He knows...’ he thought.

"Die!"

With a furious roar, Wang Li unleashed the full advantage of his dual body and Qi Cultivation. He shot forward like a cannonball.

Just as Ma Wu was about to land, the brilliant white light of a blade flashed past.

CRACK...

An almost inaudible sound echoed.

Ma Wu slammed onto the ground. He glanced down, and his face instantly turned deathly pale.

"Ahhh!!"

The intense pain that erupted from his waist forced a bloodcurdling scream from his lips, and he began to writhe on the ground.

Blood gushed from the wound, and the thick stench of it filled the air.

It turned out that Wang Li’s full-force strike had caught the unprepared Ma Wu completely off guard, cleaving him in two at the waist.

Wang Li didn’t let his guard down. He swung his blade again, aiming for Ma Wu’s neck.

Ma Wu suddenly cocked his head, glaring at him with venomous hatred. At the same time, a faint golden light began to glow from within his robes.

Wang Li’s eye twitched. A powerful sense of dread washed over him, and he instinctively dove to the side.

BOOM!

As Ma Wu glared with venomous eyes, a torrent of golden flames erupted from his chest, instantly shooting several meters into the air.

Ah! Ah!

Two screams of agony rang out simultaneously.

Although Wang Li had dodged quickly, the golden flames still grazed his right arm. In an instant, his entire arm was charred to a crisp, and a fiery poison bored its way into his body.

Ma Wu’s fate was far worse; the flames incinerated his entire body, leaving nothing but ash.

When the golden flames finally dissipated, only a palm-sized sachet remained where he had been.

"Ugh..."

Wang Li let out a muffled grunt as a trickle of blackish-red blood flowed from the corner of his mouth. He immediately sat down cross-legged and began circulating his Spiritual Power to fight the fire poison invading his body.

Under the night sky, Wang Li’s face flushed and paled in turns. Wisps of black smoke occasionally drifted from his ruined arm.

A Cup of Tea’s Time passed.

PFFT...

Wang Li opened his eyes and spat out a mouthful of blackish-red blood, which sizzled as it hit the ground.

"Whew... That was close. So close."

Wang Li let out a long breath, his eyes filled with lingering fear.

He had never imagined Ma Wu’s trump card would be so powerful. Just being grazed by the flames had nearly cost him his life.

’If that had hit me directly... Thankfully, my senses are sharp. Otherwise, I would have died right here.’

"Hahaha... In the end, I’m the one who survived!" A flush crept up Wang Li’s face. When he saw the sachet on the ground—untouched by the flames—he couldn’t help but laugh out loud.

"Tsk, tsk... What a magnificent show."

A mocking voice suddenly echoed.

The color drained from Wang Li’s face. A wave of dread, even more terrifying than before, washed over him, and he instinctively threw himself to the side.

But he had misjudged his enemy.

Swarms of Red-winged Blood Bamboo descended on him from all sides. With a burst of Spiritual Qi, their vicious mouthparts tore through his skin, burrowing into his flesh and injecting a blood poison that dissolved bone and melted muscle.

Ah!

The pain was like having his flesh gouged out piece by piece. Wang Li couldn’t focus enough to circulate his Spiritual Power and resist.

Soon, his cries faded.

Li Changsheng spared him a single glance before ignoring him. He bent down, picked up the sachet, and began to examine it.

The sachet was palm-sized and exquisitely embroidered with insects and beasts. Its opening was tied shut with a golden thread.

Li Changsheng tried to untie it, but the golden thread didn’t move an inch. A flicker of excitement appeared in his eyes.

’Could this be a storage pouch?’ he wondered.

Li Changsheng circulated his Spiritual Power and infused it into the sachet. After a brief daze, he suddenly sensed a vast, white space.

The space was quite large, about ten zhang in area. Inside were two adult Red Foxes, both a fiery red from head to tail.

’It’s not a storage pouch,’ he realized. ’It’s a Spirit Beast Bag.’

Delighted, Li Changsheng studied it for a moment before withdrawing his consciousness.

By now, Wang Li had fallen silent.

「A moment later.」

Behind the wooden cabin, the mound of earth in the rock crevice was a little higher.

In the small courtyard, Li Changsheng sat on a stool, fiddling with the sachet—or rather, the Spirit Beast Bag.

"In!" Li Changsheng focused his gaze on one of the Red-winged Blood Bamboo before him. With a mere thought, it vanished.

"Out!"

With another thought, the Red-winged Blood Bamboo reappeared in mid-air. It wobbled as it fell, then flew back up again.

Li Changsheng said joyfully, "With this, I don’t have to worry about how to carry the swarm and Xiaohua with me anymore."

Although his cultivation was only at the second level of Qi Cultivation, having Xiaohua and the Red-winged Blood Bamboo swarm put him in the upper-middle tier among the cultivators with deficient Spirit Veins in Beast Valley.

As long as he could keep the Guardian Cultivator from exploiting him, he would be completely safe in Beast Valley from now on.

’Still, there is another way...’ he mused.

Thinking of the Guardian Cultivator, Li Changsheng’s eyes glinted.

「The next day.」

Peace returned to Beast Valley. Plumes of cooking smoke curled into the sky, creating a tranquil, domestic scene.

At the entrance to Beast Valley, a golden figure rushed in from outside and quickly entered the Scripture Tower.

On the top floor of the tower.

Jin Fang pushed the door open. When he saw Tan Hu sitting cross-legged inside, his eyes lit up. "Junior Brother Tan," he asked eagerly, "did you succeed?"

Tan Hu nodded slightly. "There were a few... complications," he said with a smile, "but yes. I succeeded."

With that, he flipped his hand over, revealing a dark, iron-like fruit.