Chapter 18

Translator: Atlas Studios  Editor: Atlas Studios

‘How could an immortal be so poor? He only had an axe, a storage Dharma treasure…’

As Li Changshou had expected, cultivators living in the mortal world were idlers in the cultivation ‘industry’.

As the black ashes rained down, Li Changshou stored the ring-shaped storage Dharma treasure and the axe into his storage bag that was marked Heaven Number Four. Then, he put away the Soul-Bewitching Pearl, jumped to the edge of the cliff, and squatted down in front of the Immortal-Emancipating Herb.

Li Changshou took out the two jade containers that he had prepared beforehand. He placed two detoxifying pills below his tongue and encased his hands in eighteen layers of Dharma powers. Then, he dug out two of the older poisonous herbs with their roots intact very swiftly and carefully and sealed them in the jade containers.

Not causing the extinction of medicinal herbs while harvesting them would prevent the loss of one’s good fortune.

‘Finally…’ Li Changshou displayed a faint smile.

He stood up quickly and did not dare to stay there for long. He was worried that Yuwen Ling had other companions.

He rushed to the head of the Three-Eyed Blue Wave Serpent, took out a storage bag labeled Earth Number Two, and stored the serpent’s head in it. He sealed the storage bag with a talisman and stored it into a storage Dharma artifact labeled Black Number Four.

Li Changshou should be able to extract a powerful poison from this that his junior sister could use to protect herself. The serpent’s body was too big and sturdy to be dissected. He could only give up his plan of taking the serpent’s body back with him.

The serpent’s venom was still boiling around him. The corpses of the masked men were burned to ashes by the three ‘Attacking’ paper dolls.

As long as it was not an immortal, the Cold Flames of the Underworld could burn almost everything effortlessly. The remaining ashes of those people had mixed with that of their general and were waiting to be blown away by the wind.

Afterward, Li Changshou and the four paper dolls moved simultaneously to scatter two medicinal powder bottles all over the place.

The human blood on the ground was ignited instantly. A series of green flames appeared, and the bloodstains on the ground vanished in the blink of an eye.

Yeah, purifying the Primordial World and protecting North Continent’s environment was every human cultivator’s obligation!

Li Changshou collected a few storage Dharma artifacts. His gaze swept across his surroundings, and his spiritual senses scanned for any signs of trouble in the five-kilometer radius around him while he started forming a hand seal.

After confirming that he did not omit anything, the silhouettes beside him turned back into paper dolls and scurried into Li Changshou’s sleeve.

Li Changshou closed the umbrella, slipped into the rock strata, and left the place.

After the array formation had dissipated, a soft breeze swept across the area as the poisonous Miasma Qi in the surroundings filled the void.

Only a headless serpent carcass was left on the cypress tree, pools of deadly serpent blood, intersecting cracks on the ground, and a cliff about to collapse.

The old cypress tree had a change of ‘hairstyle’. Its sparse branches swayed in the wind as though it was bidding goodbye to Li Changshou, who was hiding in the ground.

2…

Li Changshou utilized the Earth Escape technique and snuck to the place where his junior martial sister and brother were battling.

Toxic Xuanya was fighting against Yuan Qing with the sword that she was controlling. Yuan Qing was struggling to fight back. There were multiple wounds on his body, and his robe was drenched in blood.

‘This Yuan Qing, did he use medicinal pills to reach the Void Return Realm? This is the capability of the second-highest-ranking disciple amongst all the sect disciples from the same generation? If all the other rascals in the current disciple ranking are similar to him, Ling’e will be able to reach the top 100 in the Immortal Sect Competition that’s a few years from now. If I prepare more medicinal pills and self-made Dharma artifacts for her…’

Li Changshou snuck near them. He analyzed the tempo that Youqin Xuanya executed her moves, stretched a hand out of the ground, and threw a porcelain bottle towards Yuan Qing.

That empty porcelain bottle previously contained the transcendent-grade Soft Immortal Disperser.

Yuan Qing had already damaged two flying swords. He heard the quiet sound of something tearing through the air behind him and waved the sword in his hand behind. His sword blow landed handsomely and precisely on the porcelain bottle and shattered it immediately.

‘Huh? Where did that porcelain bottle come from?’

Yuan Qing blinked his eyes. He did not even have the time to retract his sword. His body staggered, and he was about lunge forward.

At that time, four flying swords pierced the air in front of him!

Yuan Qing was lunging forward. He seemingly opened his arms and ‘welcomed’ the flying swords that were coming at him!

Youqin Xuanya originally did not plan on killing Yuan Qing. Even though she thought that Yuan Qing was despicable and shameless, he was still an inner sect disciple. She needed to bring him back to the sect for their masters to punish him.

However, Yuan Qing had abruptly stopped fighting back…

As Li Changshou had predicted, Youqin Xuanya was unfamiliar with this set of sword-kinesis technique, so she was unable to retract her swords in time. Those four flying swords pierced through Yuan Qing’s neck, forehead, chest, and abdomen immediately.

Her move was incredibly precise. The flying swords destroyed her three souls and penetrated Yuan Qing’s dantian. She had attacked smoothly and cleanly, meaning there was absolutely no chance for him to survive.

1“This…” Youqin Xuanya was stunned. She suddenly recalled something and heaved a sigh.

She landed on the ground, jumped off her flying sword, and walked towards Yuan Qing’s corpse.

Yuan Qing left in peace.

Yuan Qing was indeed peaceful when he died. He had not sensed any impending dangers when he had lost consciousness. Moreover, he could not wake up after the swords pierced his body. Therefore, the corners of his mouth were still lifted.

Even if there was only a sniff of Soft Immortal Disperser left in the bottle, that was still not something that Yuan Qing could handle.

Meanwhile, Youqin Xuanya saw the smile on Yuan Qing’s face.

“Even though you might be evil at heart, I suppose you still have a tint of remorse in your heart, do you? Were you also pressurized by someone?”

Youqin Xuanya seemed to feel a little pity for him. She shook her head. The flying swords turned around and stuck together, and a blazing fire ignited. The flying swords integrated into one huge sword and hung behind her back.

Li Changshou could not resist the urge to give her a thumbs up after hearing her murmurs.

‘Just like her nickname, Junior Sister is toxic. She has an exceptional ability to make herself chicken soup for the soul!’

Speaking of which, she did not even leave after killing her opponent in this unknown place but instead stayed to reminisce and be sentimental about the situation. It was apparent that she had not suffered the cruel beating of life. She had strong nerves indeed.

At that moment, Youqin Xuanya lifted her head and looked at the edge of the cliff. There was nothing there. She could not sense that there was a living person there at all. The terrifying demonic serpent was motionless too.

‘I wonder how Senior Brother Changshou is doing. I’ll bring Yuan Qing’s body over and have a look,’ she thought.

Youqin Xuanya walked towards Yuan Qing and was about to wrap his body with a layer of Dharma power when she felt her eyelids turn heavy. Her body slowly collapsed on the ground.

Clank!

The huge sword crashed on the ground as well.

Simultaneously, tiny cracks appeared on the ground below Yuan Qing. The porcelain fragments were silently buried into the ground.

The cracks quickly extended to the ground below Youqin Xuanya. A hand stretched out from the crack and casually grabbed her by the hair. The hand tugged harshly without showing any mercy and dragged the unconscious Youqin Xuanya into the ground, which trembled a few times, and the cracks disappeared. The ground returned to its previously flat and sturdy state.

1The defense abilities of a cultivator’s body exceeded that of a mortal tremendously. That included their scalp and hair follicles. It was impossible to make a cultivator that was at the Void Return Realm bald just by tugging at their hair.

Li Changshou merely wanted to get that person away as quickly as possible and immediately leave this troublesome place.

As for Yuan Qing’s corpse, Li Changshou was not the one who had killed him. There was no need for him to scatter his ashes. It was enough that he dealt with the porcelain fragments.

The Soft Immortal Disperser was only an incapacitating agent that would completely disperse two days after a person was dead. It was almost undetectable.

Moreover, Li Changshou would face a tougher problem if the sects’ immortals failed to find Yuan Qing’s corpse when they arrived.

Under the ground, Li Changshou dragged the unconscious Youqin Xuanya with him and headed directly in the south-east direction. They moved like two fish in the pond, and they disappeared in no time.

…

“Ah! This stupid array formation is simply way… too… irritating!”

1Accompanied by Jiu Jiu’s angry howl, the ground beneath her feet trembled continuously. The venomous insects and beasts all trembled in fear and horror. Because the big array formation was sealed, the ground beneath Perfected Immortal Jiu remained sturdy and did not collapse.

At the corner of the array formation, Wang Ji and Liu Yan’er were sitting together. They seemed to be drained of energy and appeared weary.

They had been trapped in that place for a long time, so it was only normal that they were not in their best psychological state. However, this environment also helped to drive their relationship forward. They now called each other Senior Sister Yan’er and Junior Brother Ji Ji.

On a side note, there were multiple pronunciations and meanings for the word ‘Ji’ in Wang Ji’s name. The pronunciation of his name was not Qi—which stood for strange—but instead Ji—which stood for unlucky and illegitimate.

The reason why Jiu Jiu was so irascible was mostly because of the actions of this Daoist couple.

After venting the anger in her heart, Jiu Jiu hugged her arms, crossed her legs, and levitated three feet above the ground. She continued thinking of a solution.

Liu Yan’er walked towards her slowly and said gently, “Aunt-Master, do not worry too much. Good people are blessed by heaven. Junior Brother and Junior Sister might be waiting for us in the town.”

Jiu Jiu snorted and said, “It’s been so long that their corpses might have disappeared!”

“Aunt-Master…”

Liu Yan’er continued trying to convince her. “Martial Aunt, didn’t you mention yesterday that there should have been someone from the sect here to help us? Maybe, we might be able to escape in no time.”

“Aiya!” Jiu Jiu disheveled her medium length hair with both her hands. “Who knows if those three are dead or alive!? If anything has happened to Li Changshou, how am I going to answer to his master? If those two precious immortal seedlings are dead, 100 years of wine money will be gone for me!”

A few black parallel vertical lines appeared on Liu Yan’er’s forehead. Although Martial Aunt Jiu did not explicitly say that, Liu Yan’er knew that she was still concerned about them. However, she felt that Aunt-Master Jiu was indeed more concerned about her wine money.

All of a sudden, a gentle breeze blew within the big array formation. Then a sigh sounded from all directions.

Afterward, a nonchalant and old voice resonated in the array formation.

“Little Jiu, do you admit your wrongdoings?”

Jiu Jiu could not resist a shiver. Her skinny legs landed on the ground, and she replied, “Ma… Master?”

Liu Yan’er was also shocked. She asked in surprise, “Did the Exalted Wang Qing come and find us personally?”

The white fog around them dissipated quickly. The immortal and spiritual senses of the three individuals trapped in the array formation were finally released and expanded towards their surroundings without obstructions.

At that moment, two silhouettes flew from afar and crashed in front of Jiu Jiu.

They were two elders with white hair. They were clad in black and had reached the Essence Immortal Realm. They were currently severely wounded and unconscious. There was a palm mark imprinted on both their bodies.

Wang Ji shouted anxiously, “Aunt-Master Jiu, it’s them! They are the ones who attacked Senior Sister Yan’er and me!”

Jiu Jiu knelt down without any hesitation. She touched the ground with her forehead and said dejectedly, “Master, I have been tricked. I lost contact with three young disciples. I am willing to accept all reprimands and punishment. Master, please find them quickly to check if they are alive!”

Just then, the white fog that was surrounding them had dissipated completely. A few silhouettes appeared in the distance.

The Daoist priest that was standing at the front was less than five feet tall. When he saw Jiu Jiu kneeling on the floor, he could not help but to feel a little awkward. He lowered his head, coughed, and asked while smiling, “Our Master is not here. It’s me—cough—your handsome and chic… Fifth Senior Brother…”

“Eh?”

There was killing intent!

The short Daoist priest shivered as he tried to salvage the situation. The little junior sister that was standing far away and was clad in a linen robe was jumping on her feet. She darted over immediately!

She moved like an arrow shot using a divine bow. There were sonic booms as she moved!