The sky was bathed in sunlight, gradually piercing through the narrow gorge of the 5A-level scenic area, shimmering like colored glaze. Lin Shuang had finally completed her tour of this famous attraction, feeling utterly content.
Xiao Qi circulated the Diamond Sutra, and golden light radiated from his entire body. With a noble gaze, he looked at Lin Shuang, “Go to the small grove nearby?”
Behind the pile of stones beside the narrow gorge, bushes grew chaotically, barely enough to shield them from prying eyes.
Zhou Xuanwu, who was meditating among the caravan, couldn’t help but frown. He watched Lin Shuang sheath her sword and take out two pink, uniquely shaped gloves from her spatial pouch.
Lin Shuang was also watching her. Her eyes slightly lowered at the corners, her dark pupils quickly scanning him. Instantly, countless calculations formed in her mind.
Zhou Xuanwu didn’t associate with disciples of lower cultivation levels. He conversed mostly with junior apprentice sister Zhao Keran and supervisor senior apprentice brother Xu Rui. At most, a few elders from the Transmission Hall whom he particularly respected.
Knowing Zhou Xuanwu meant only those few would know. It wouldn’t cause a large commotion among the outer disciples.
Thus, her cultivation issue would only need to be explained to a few people, avoiding more senior apprentices challenging her, disrupting her future plans.
However, if supervisor senior apprentice brother Xu Rui discovered she had been concealing her strength…
Lin Shuang’s contemplative gaze suddenly flickered.
Among the outer disciples, the capable would be burdened with more tasks.
More mission assignments, outer sect competitions… she couldn’t escape them, and this would slow down her quest to become the fastest cultivator!
Lin Shuang’s eyes gleamed, “Yes, I trust Senior Apprentice Brother Zhou’s character. He won’t ask endless questions nor casually discuss my private matters with others. It’s fine for him to know.”
Zhou Xuanwu was slightly taken aback.
She actually trusted him that much?
But as Lin Shuang finished speaking, she turned gracefully, “Xiao Qi, let’s go to the small grove.”
Zhou Xuanwu: “???”
Xiao Qi: “…”
What about the trust they just talked about?!
“Senior Apprentice Brother Zhou, please temporarily guard the caravan. I’ll return to relieve you after one incense stick burns,” Lin Shuang didn’t forget this ‘weekend trip’ mission before leaving.
Zhou Xuanwu looked toward the small grove, frowning involuntarily.
Taking turns guarding, the two of them alternating surveillance, was Lin Shuang’s suggestion, saying it allowed their spiritual senses to rest in shifts.
He shook his head, suppressing his curiosity, forcing himself to look away from the small grove where the two had disappeared.
However, his meditative state quickly became unstable.
In the small grove, branches and leaves trembled violently, occasionally accompanied by loud cracking sounds.
A woman’s dissatisfied complaint faintly came from the forest.
“You’re too slow…”
“…Can’t handle it already? Hmph, man, not even a quarter of an incense stick.”
Sun Lao, the male martial artist in the caravan, listened in shock.
Several female martial artists were even more amazed, looking toward the swaying grove with admiration.
“It’s still the female immortal!”
“No wonder the talented Lin Xianzi!”
During the three-day journey, everyone had developed a strong liking for the approachable Lin Shuang.
But they never expected her to be so formidable.
She had pushed a seemingly high-cultivation, handsome male cultivator to such a state.
The male martial artists felt a sense of fear, “It seems male cultivators can’t be complacent either. Lin Xianzi is fierce like a tiger.”
The female martial artists nodded in admiration, “Cultivation should be like Lin Xianzi.”
Zhou Xuanwu: “…”
His temple twitched, the Water Spirit Sutra circulating in his body almost going haywire, nearly causing chaos in his Conception Vessel.
Xiao Qi, how could you not last even half an incense stick? No, how could you fall so low?
*
At the Clearwater Hall of the outer sect.
Senior apprentice brother Xu Rui, carrying his Bagua sword, entered the meditation room but stopped abruptly.
After three breaths, he stepped back outside.
Quickly forming seals, he moved the two bamboo mats inside, positioning them exactly on a straight line, each facing a window on the north and south sides, before nodding and exhaling, re-entering the meditation room.
“Senior Brother Xu, I’d like to take an E-class mission,” a disciple hurried in.
Seeing him enter from the side door, stepping on the line of the left blue brick, a crease appeared between Xu Rui’s brows.
He quickly turned away, taking out the outer sect mission manual from his spatial pouch, “Mm.”
Flipping past the first ten pages, the A-class missions, he reached the B-class—available for Qi Cultivation stages five to eight.
Just about to show it to the other.
He paused.
[Big Wasteland Mountain Escort Mission A-class (posted by Sun Trading Company)]
[Already accepted by Zhou Xuanwu and Lin Shuang.]
Xu Rui’s normally composed face showed a flicker of confusion.
Had the mission manual gone wrong?
This would drive an obsessive-compulsive person crazy!
But skimming through, his expression changed drastically.
[Big Wasteland Mountain Escort Mission: Originally rated D-class.]
[However, receiving shared intelligence from the Mountain Sea Sect and Annihilation Pavilion, Liu Ba, the Diamond Hammer cultivator at Qi Condensation stage seven, lost an arm and fled into Big Wasteland Mountain.
Therefore, the mission difficulty has increased. It’s advised that cultivators below Qi Cultivation Perfection avoid entering Big Wasteland Mountain.]
[Liu Ba, the Diamond Hammer: Temperamental, committing numerous atrocities, once slaughtered over twenty Qi Condensation cultivators. Listed on the Annihilation Pavilion’s Qi Condensation Pursuit List at position 534, bounty of 5000 spirit stones.]
[The mission has been upgraded to: A-class.]
[Available to cultivators from Qi Cultivation Perfection to Qi Condensation stage two.]
Xu Rui’s face turned pale.
*
Beside the narrow gorge of Big Wasteland Mountain, the small grove’s branches trembled violently, leaves rustling.
Occasionally accompanied by mountain tremors.
Occasionally, the commotion from Lin Xianzi and Xiao Xianren was too intense.
The caravan members looked up, silently timing them.
“Xiao Xianren has lasted half an incense stick.”
“Ah, you forgot, Lin Xianzi was initially dissatisfied, thinking his heart rate wasn’t up, no sweat, so that previous quarter incense doesn’t count.”
“Yikes, poor Xiao Xianren.”
Everyone was worried about Xiao Qi’s condition, as they could only hear his heavy, bellows-like panting, growing weaker.
He seemed about to collapse.
The male martial artists silently cheered for him in their hearts.
The female martial artists showed disdainful looks.
Zhou Xuanwu sat cross-legged, his sword across his thighs, no longer cultivating.
He silently perked up his ears, constantly watching the burning incense in the male martial artist’s hand.
As sunlight rose, the small grove swayed more violently, even giant stones trembling slightly, showing signs of cracking, leaving everyone awestruck.
Zhou Xuanwu first felt admiration, then his expression turned furious.
“Enemy attack!”
His entire body’s pores tensed, and he shouted loudly.
But as his voice fell, a cruel laugh accompanied by an iron hammer flew from afar!
With a thunderous boom, the massive boulder in front of the caravan cart beside the small grove exploded into dust.
“Ha ha ha! Qi Cultivation ninth stage, strong vitality, perfect! Delicious!”
The sinister laughter came from all directions, yet no figure was visible.
Zhou Xuanwu’s face darkened, instantly sending several Grade One defensive talismans from his sleeve to stick onto the caravan carts, turning to the caravan martial artists and Sun Lao, shouting, “Get onto the carts!”
The second strike of the iron hammer suddenly came toward his face.
Zhou Xuanwu immediately formed seals.
The Water Spirit Sutra circulated rapidly, his flying sword like rushing water, blocking the hammer’s attack.
In an instant, sword and hammer collided, spiritual energies clashing!
Zhou Xuanwu’s hand holding the sword had its tiger’s mouth instantly split, spiritual energy backfiring.
He retreated five or six steps, crashing into the cart behind him before stopping.
Unbelievably raising his head, his eyes showed shock, “Qi Condensation…”
“Heh, you have some insight.”
A yellow moonlight, above the narrow gorge, a sinister man with a scar running from his nose bridge to his lip, half his body bloodied, holding his right shoulder where his arm was missing, sneered with narrowed eyes.
“Come here yourself, let me feast on your vitality, and I’ll spare you a complete corpse!”
Sun Lao inside the cart was terrified, lips trembling.
In the eyes of mortals, Qi Cultivation was revered as immortals because they entered the path of cultivation, no longer bound by mortal lifespans.
But before Qi Condensation, the capacity and intensity of spiritual energy in the dantian were completely a level lower.
Even at Qi Cultivation ninth stage, Zhou Xuanwu couldn’t match a Qi Condensation first-stage opponent.
Let alone this sinister man who looked like a brutal killer.
Seeing Zhou Xuanwu retreat ten steps, the caravan members felt panic and despair.
“How unlucky are we to encounter a heretical cultivator?”
“Originally, Zhou Xianren could easily handle those bandits…”
“Right, there’s still Xiao Xianren and Lin Xianzi! Quickly call them!”
With a bang, Zhou Xuanwu was smashed into the narrow gorge by the Diamond Hammer, his spine broken, vision blackening.
Cultivation defies heaven, full of hardships, and his luck was just too bad.
Zhou Xuanwu struggled to stand, unwilling to give in.
He threw into the air a Grade One sound transmission talisman he had just drawn recently—an A-level work.
“Xiao Junior Apprentice Brother, Lin Senior Apprentice Sister, escape!”
The talisman burned rapidly, even though he could only groan weakly, the message clearly reached the small grove!
Zhou Xuanwu weakly closed his eyes.
He hadn’t yet mastered A-level sound transmission talismans, nor had he learned Grade Two talismans from Master Li of the Transmission Hall.
There was still sword technique cultivation, which he hadn’t achieved the annual top of the outer sect.
Also, supervisor senior apprentice brother Xu Rui had already entered Qi Condensation, and he had always wanted to surpass him…
“I’ll let you feast on vitality!”
Zhou Xuanwu reached out, tightly hugging the Qi Condensation heretic pressing on his chest, continuously drawing spiritual energy from his dantian.
His ten fingers dug into the heretic’s back and arms.
Liu Ba, the Diamond Hammer, angrily slapped his back, “Let go—”
Zhou Xuanwu opened his mouth, biting down hard on his intact arm.
As the talisman burned, his spiritual message continued to spread.
“Old Sun… escape!”
“Senior Apprentice Sister Lin… hurry… escape…”
Zhou Xuanwu strained to open an eye slit stained with blood, trying to see the path of immortality he pursued—the inner sect of Clearwater Sect.
But he saw nothing.
Before his blurred vision, he vaguely saw the small grove trembling, a red cord tied to a green sleeve flying upward into the sky.
Then came an angry, coquettish rebuke.
“Damn it!”
“How dare you injure my travel companion!”
Nearly unconscious Zhou Xuanwu: “?”
What “donkey”?
Did that voice sound like Senior Apprentice Sister Lin?
Zhou Xuanwu struggled to hold onto the Qi Condensation heretic, preventing him from attacking the caravan civilians, but he couldn’t hold on much longer. Why hadn’t she fled with everyone yet?!
As this thought arose, he suddenly felt looseness before him.
The Qi Condensation heretic he had tightly held vanished right in front of him.
The hand pressing on his chest, drawing vitality, instantly moved far away.
Zhou Xuanwu struggled to lift his head, and what met his eyes was the one-armed heretic instantly lifted by a red cord around his neck.
The strange pink gloves struck him—hitting his jaw, his back, his chest… sending him flying, crashing into a flat-topped stone!
“Daring to injure my 5A-level natural scenic spot of the narrow gorge! Ruining my sightseeing plan!”
“Daring to interrupt my fat-burning exercise for an incense stick! Disrupting my heart rate rhythm!”
“Daring to injure my travel companion, causing unexpected complications in my three-day weekend trip, preventing timely completion!”
“Ruining my schedule, my mood, my efficiency, my contact list—”
Boulders rolled, a pink fist, another pink fist.
Pounding the one-armed man into a pit, buried ten feet underground!
Zhou Xuanwu: “…!”
Stunned, his mouth, which was spitting blood, slightly opened as Xiao Qi, panting, shoved two Healing Pills into it.
Xiao Qi helped him sit down, staggering himself, offering a bitter smile.
“It’s okay, she’ll finish her fat-burning exercise after another quarter incense stick.”
“…………!”
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