Because of the existence of Tianlang Sect, the tranquil forest was almost devoid of dangerous creatures. Only small animals like squirrels darted about in the dappled sunlight.
Li Tan ventured slightly deeper, where there were hardly any paths suitable for normal walking. Everywhere was filled with towering ancient trees and thickets. Yet this remote place, far from human habitation, was quite pleasant, with the fresh scent of soil and tender leaves permeating the air, cleansing away the worldly disturbances.
Li Tan placed his palm against the rough bark of an ancient tree, closed his eyes, and extended his spiritual sense toward a low growl barely perceptible to ordinary people coming from afar. Soon, he detected a hideous beast prowling beneath a large tree, its blood-red eyes warily scanning its surroundings, seemingly ready to pounce on any approaching creature.
His spiritual sense traced up the tree trunk, and a slight smile curved Li Tan’s lips. Hidden beneath the dense foliage was a delicate small flower quietly blooming.
This was a parasitic flower that grew on plants—one of the medicinal herbs he needed but had failed to successfully pilfer from the inner sect’s herb garden. It wasn’t fully mature yet, but Li Tan specifically needed the immature flower.
“Really lucky.”
Li Tan activated Moye Steps, his figure nimbly leaping between treetops without making a sound, and swiftly jumped from a tree behind the beast to the one where the spiritual plant grew.
Li Tan cautiously glanced downward. The fierce beast guarding the spiritual plant was swinging its massive head around, emitting dangerous growls. However, it remained completely unaware that the “thief” had already slipped onto the tree right above it. Praying not to be discovered, Li Tan reached his hand out toward the delicate little flower.
At that moment, the beast below suddenly roared.
Startled, Li Tan thought he had been discovered and prepared to evade an attack. But upon looking down, he saw that directly in front of the four-legged beast was a scaly serpent rising up.
The four-legged beast growled at the serpent, which raised its head and flicked its tongue.
It turned out he hadn’t been discovered after all.
Li Tan exhaled in relief, withdrew his hand, and concealed his presence even more carefully.
Through spiritual sensing, Li Tan, relying on his exceptional experience, identified the identities of the two fierce beasts.
The serpent’s full name was Lined Armor Snake, its scales impervious to blades and bullets, extremely sturdy.
The four-legged beast was fully named Sharp Fang Leopard, with incredibly fast movement speed and abnormally sharp teeth capable of easily crushing steel. To it, a human brain was no different from a watermelon.
Both were outstanding among second-tier fierce beasts, their strength around the early stage of innate cultivation. Meeting them near a human sect, Li Tan didn’t know whether he should consider himself unlucky or fortunate. Now, he planned to let the mantis catch the cicada while the oriole waits behind, reaping the benefits.
Under the tree, the Sharp Fang Leopard and the Lined Armor Snake remained locked in a tense stalemate. The confined terrain, encircled by towering trees, actually put the Sharp Fang Leopard at a disadvantage. Yet, seemingly unwilling to give up the rare spiritual plant it had painstakingly discovered, the leopard showed no intention of backing down. Instead, it bared its menacing fangs aggressively toward the Lined Armor Snake.
A clash between spear and shield?
Li Tan was watching like a spectator, finding the most comfortable sitting position, and soon the battle erupted.
The Sharp Fang Leopard swiftly lunged forward, and the Lined Armor Snake reacted quickly, climbing up the nearest tree. However, its excessively long body became a burden, causing its tail to be fiercely bitten, producing a harsh grinding sound.
The Lined Armor Snake let out a mournful cry, turned its head, and lunged at the Sharp Fang Leopard.
However, the Sharp Fang Leopard, relying on its small and agile body, easily dodged the attack.
Unfortunately, although it performed exceptionally well in this round, it didn’t gain much advantage. Only a slight indentation was left on the scales of the Lined Armor Snake’s tail. Learning from the experience, the Lined Armor Snake, fully aware of its slow movement speed, decisively coiled its long body tightly, raising its head high and flicking its tongue at the Sharp Fang Leopard.
“Quite smart. However, although coiling up its body can prevent it from being continuously worn down by the leopard, it also means losing the initiative.”
Li Tan made a simple evaluation before continuing to observe.
The Sharp Fang Leopard did not rush to attack. It patiently circled around the Lined Armor Snake slowly, searching for an opening. After all, recklessly charging in at this moment might result in being grabbed, and the Lined Armor Snake could easily crush it to death.
But just as Li Tan had said, although the Lined Armor Snake coiling up its body meant the Sharp Fang Leopard could do nothing to it, conversely, as long as the Sharp Fang Leopard didn’t charge forward, it would never be in danger. Therefore, the balance of victory hadn’t clearly tilted toward either side.
The atmosphere was extremely tense. However, after circling the Lined Armor Snake a few times, the Sharp Fang Leopard suddenly lay down beneath a large tree, its beastly eyes staring at the Lined Armor Snake, filled with provocation.
It seemed the Sharp Fang Leopard had already decided on its strategy: since actively attacking was too dangerous, it would simply wait patiently for the spiritual plant to mature and then snatch it and run.
As for the Lined Armor Snake, it showed no sign of panic either. It probably planned to wait for the spiritual plant to mature and then launch a sudden attack when the Sharp Fang Leopard climbed the tree to grab the flower. That would be the moment when the Sharp Fang Leopard was most vulnerable.
Above the tree, Li Tan softly muttered, “So, are they starting a prolonged battle?”
After waiting for more than half an hour, the two fierce beasts below still showed great patience, but Li Tan was exactly the opposite—he had completely lost his patience.
He held his forehead with one hand, feeling helpless. If he waited for these two creatures to determine the winner, he might be an old man by then. The spiritual plant was probably still two or three days away from full maturity. The two fierce beasts below could wait, but where did Li Tan have so much time?
He plucked the spiritual plant with one hand and, without looking back, fled in the direction of the Tianlang Sect. Soon after, two furious roars came from behind.
If the Lined Armor Snake and the Sharp Fang Leopard had been separated, Li Tan could have easily killed both and taken their beast cores. However, with these two beasts united against a common enemy, it became a bit complicated.
Li Tan wasn’t sure whether his rusty sword could penetrate the Lined Armor Snake’s defense. If not, facing the joint attack of the two fierce beasts, especially the extremely fast Sharp Fang Leopard, he might fall into danger. Although the possibility was actually quite low, Li Tan had no intention of taking that risk. Unless necessary, he didn’t want to get entangled.
But these two beasts clung to him like stubborn leeches, and even with Moye Steps, he couldn’t shake them off.
While continuously leaping across the treetops, Li Tan muttered, “I don’t believe you dare to chase me into the Tianlang Sect.”
However, something unexpected happened. The two fierce beasts really did chase him in and completely ignored Li Tan, who had already stopped running. Instead, they excitedly started devouring the spiritual plants in the inner sect’s herb garden.
Seeing the herb garden being destroyed, Li Tan was furious. He quickly bent down and rapidly gathered all the medicinal herbs needed for refining pills that he had previously overlooked during his last scavenging, hiding them into the Desolate Pagoda.
Soon, an angry voice of an old man rang out. The two brainless fierce beasts were killed by an old man with a head full of white hair.
The old man, with long white hair flowing and wearing a simple white robe, looked like an immortal sage. However, at this moment, he was extremely agitated, glaring at Li Tan with a dark expression: “It was you who brought those two beasts in?”
“It was an accident, disciple originally thought those two beasts wouldn’t dare to come in.”
Actually, Li Tan had originally run toward the outer sect, but for some unknown reason, he ended up in the inner sect without anyone noticing. These two fierce beasts just happened to be the fearless kind.
The old man with white hair stared at Li Tan with an expression that seemed like he wanted to devour him alive. However, he finally sighed, shook his head helplessly, and didn’t take out his anger on Li Tan. After calming down, he looked somewhat puzzled and asked, “Which sect are you from? I have never seen you in the inner sect before.”
Li Tan truthfully answered that he was a servant disciple. The old man initially didn’t believe him, but eventually, after explaining his relationship with Zhang Zhi and others, the old man’s suspicion was dispelled.
Actually, it would be more accurate to say that the old man simply didn’t care about these matters. He waved his hand, directly indicating for Li Tan to leave, then clutched his aching chest, squatting on the ground with a sorrowful expression, gently stroking a spiritual plant that had been bitten off halfway while muttering in grief and anger, “Could those two beasts have been the ones who stole my spiritual rooster?”
Li Tan, who hadn’t gone far, immediately stumbled, feeling somewhat guilty, and quickened his pace. Soon, he returned to his residence.
Li Tan carefully counted the medicinal herbs he had collected over the past few days, confirming everything was correct before taking out the Xuanhuang Cauldron, intending to directly start refining the pills he needed.
However, before he could officially begin, the door suddenly slammed open with a bang as someone kicked it in.
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