Killing and Robbing
And after a few post-mortem shakes of unwillingness, the lion's life force quickly faded. However, as unwilling as it was, with only a Qi Sea Realm cultivation base, the lion, without an intact brain, wouldn't last long.
Of course, higher cultivation bases would allow someone to live without their brain, heart, or even physical body as a whole, but for the lion, who was still in the Houtian Great Realm, it could only accept its death.
After killing the behemoth, Xue Bai quickly deactivated the formation flags before storing away the lion's corpse in his spatial ring. Following the cleaning of the crime scene, Xue Bai didn't waste a second and quickly climbed back into his hiding spot up in the tree, as he knew that this wasn't the end of the situation.
While Xue Bai wasn't sure how strong that lion was, it couldn't have been a weak beast in the Qi Sea Realm as it was one of the three leaders of this section of the core region. And in order to command other demonic beasts around and be recognized as a leader, unlike the human world, only strength was needed.
In the human world, even Xue Bai, a weak youth in the 5 physical realms, could order around weaker Domain Lord Realm cultivators just by using the threat of his parent's name. But in the demonic beast world, Xue Bai would only be another ant forced to submit to a stronger demonic beast.
So for that lion, who was able to lead this section of the core region, it had to, at the minimum, be in the Middle stages of the Qi Sea Realm. However, Xue Bai guessed that the lion was a few stages higher, possibly either in the Late stages or maybe at the Peak of the Middle stages.
And the death of such a powerhouse would surely cause chaos in the core region. Whether it was the corpse of the lion that other demonic beasts would greed over or the possibility of taking over the lion's territory, chaos was bound to ensue after its death.
However, unlike Xue Bai's guess, no beast reacted immediately after the lion's death. But since that would only help him, Xue Bai didn't care much.
So instead of mulling over why no demonic beast sensed the lion's death, Xue Bai sat in the tree and tried to regain his peak condition by meditating. In that short minute-long interval of when he had activated all 12 formation flags, Xue Bai had used almost a third of his Spiritual Qi.
And with Ye Xuan and Shi Tian leaving the Sword Tomb any moment, Xue Bai needed all the Spiritual Qi he could possibly have, should anything go amiss.
Thankfully nothing disturbed Xue Bai nor the Sword Tomb, where Ye Xuan and Shi Tian were, giving Xue Bai ample time to recover his wasted Spiritual Qi.
Hours passed, and the once-set sun had once again started to rise again from the east, shining light into the once terrifying and morbid hunting grounds. However, the picturesque sunrise didn't soothe everyone's hearts, as Xue Bai himself was starting to lose patience for the duo in the Sword Tomb while he stayed in the tree.
He had long regained all of the Spiritual Qi he had used in the lion's execution, but without anything to do, Xue Bai was forced to stay in the tree waiting. And after a few hours of waiting Xue Bai was getting both sore and bored.
Xue Bai didn't go down from the tree as he was scared of bad timing. But the longer he stayed in the tree, the more he thought that something had gone wrong in the Sword Tomb.
Maybe the two ran into an accident, or maybe there was another exit down there. Either way, Xue Bai was about to lose his patience waiting for so long.
"I'll give it another half hour. After that, I'm going in." Xue Bai pacified his anxiousness by saying so.
Thankfully, his time limit would never be reached, as the duo finally left after another 10 minutes.
Looking giddy with excitement and patting each other's backs like good lifelong friends, Ye Xuan and Shi Tian left the Sword Tomb.
"Brother Xuan, I can't believe you allowed me to come along with you to this Sword Tomb. The gains we got are by no means small." Shi Tian merrily laughed as he smacked Ye Xuan's back with enough force to send him stumbling.
Caught unprepared at the powerful smack, Ye Xuan first recovered before answering.
"Brother Tian, I needed your hands inside. Without you, I couldn't have gotten so much." Ye Xuan coughed awkwardly.
"That's true. I don't know how you would pass that second trial room without me." Shi Tian nodded in response.
The two would stroke each other's egos as they climbed out of the pit. However, as they jumped out, they noticed something.
"Brother Tian, did the area around here look so destroyed before we went in?" Ye Xuan spoke confusedly.
"No. But didn't you say that Qi Sea Realm demonic beasts would converge after the sinkhole was made? So maybe they destroyed the surroundings before leaving." Shi Tian shrugged his shoulders as he answered.
Which was half right. However, how could Shi Tian know that Xue Bai killed a Late-stage Qi Sea Realm demonic beast on the land they stood on?
Ye Xuan subconsciously agreed with Shi Tian's words, but he felt something was slightly wrong with the area. However, without any evidence and only an ominous feeling in his stomach, Ye Xuan could only shake his head as he started to leave.
"Brother Tian, I'll be off." Ye Xuan waved off as he started to walk away.
"Brother Xuan, are you sure you don't want me to help you kill those ungrateful bastards?" Shi Tian couldn't help but say as Ye Xuan walked away.
Ye Xuan had naturally told him his story while they were in the Sword Tomb. And finding his situation despicable, Shi Tian wanted to help him out.
However, Ye Xuan shook his head. While Ye Chen and Ye Xiao were spies planted under him by his suspicious Third Uncle, he couldn't bring foreign hands into his own clan matters.
Unable to convince his newfound brother, Shi Tian could only shake his head, but before they could separate, Xue Bai finally made his move.
Activating eight formation flags at once, Xue Bai immobilized the two just before they left the area of his gravity field array formation.
"Brothers, do you have something for me?" Xue Bai curiously asked as he jumped out of the tree.
His words were, of course, sarcastic, and the two could obviously sense that and started to yell out for Xue Bai to let them go.
However, Xue Bai just stared at them calmly, waiting for them to regain their composure.
"Xue Bai, what are you planning to do with us?" Ye Xuan eventually calmed down after seeing how indifferent Xue Bai became.
"I said it before. I'm curious about what you two found for me in that Sword Tomb." Xue Bai replied once more.
Gritting his teeth in anger, Shi Tian answered, "We found nothing for you, Xue Bai! What we found down there is our own."
"That might've been the case earlier, Brother. However, now that you're trapped by me, anything that belongs to you belongs to me." Xue Bai spoke with a smile as he took their spatial rings, much to their displeasure.
"So either you two can explain what you both found down there, and we go our separate ways. Or…" Xue Bai spoke as he pulled out his bow and let loose any arrow that stuck itself in the mud, only a few inches away from Shi Tian's head.
With such an undisguised threat, Shi Tian wanted to fess up almost instantly and, without looking over at Ye Xuan for confirmation, began to confess.
The Sword Tomb was the grave site of the previous Grand Elder of the Soaring Sword Sect, a powerhouse in the Xiantian Great Realm. And they both only figured out this from a rumor that was famous in the Inner Sect.
So after some plotting and promises to stronger Inner Disciples, Ye Xuan managed to get the maps and information about the Sword Tomb.
Finding their story believable, Xue Bai nodded simply before killing them both.
Letting them live was never on the table. He was 'Killing and Robbing' after all. If he only robbed them but let them go, then how could it be called 'Killing and Robbing'?
And whether or not this was something a righteous cultivator would do, Xue Bai cared not one bit.
Righteous and Demonic was the most useless-sided argument he had ever learned about.
Even on Earth, from the novels he had read, Xue Bai knew that the cultivation world wasn't black and white. Righteous cultivators were backstabbers, while demonic cultivators were just downright insane.
So the righteous and demonic factions never appealed to him. Whether it was the moral compass one had to abide by in the righteous faction or the horrible reputation demonic-sided cultivators had, Xue Bai wanted to do with neither.
So without any guilt to his conscience, Xue Bai burnt the two corpses before leaving the core region with excitement in his steps.
Not only did he kill a Qi Sea Realm demonic beast, but he had also found the inheritance of a Xiantian Great Realm cultivator.
Life was good for the androgynous youth.