txolops Chapter 41 So it's the Xu family... Never heard of them!
Chapter 41 So it's the Xu family... Never heard of them!
Chapter 41 So it's the Xu family... Never heard of them!
"Fellow Daoists! I am a member of the Xu family of Taiqi Mountain! Today, I, Xu, have been blind and have offended you both!"
If you two are willing to show mercy and spare my life, my Xu family will surely repay you handsomely! ————”
The burly man with the thick beard was terrified when he saw Fu Bao's sword attack again.
No longer caring about saving face, he desperately urged his broken shield and black iron rod to defend himself while begging for mercy and even invoking his family background.
"It's actually the Xu family of Taiqi Mountain?"
Lin Chuan controlled his flying sword talisman to strike again, forcing the spiritual light on the opponent's shield to completely extinguish and become unusable. Hearing this, he raised an eyebrow.
"Fellow Daoist, have you heard of my Xu family?"
"The bearded giant from Spirit Beast Mountain exclaimed in delight."
"Never heard of it!"
Lin Chuan shook his head. As soon as he finished speaking, the silver giant sword formed from the flying sword talisman made a nimble turn, dodging the black iron rod, and with lightning speed, pierced through the green-winged monster snake that was still trying to harass Han Li!
"hiss--!"
The strange snake let out a shrill hiss, its emerald green body instantly stiffened, then it fell from the air, twitched a few times, and fell silent.
The death of the spirit beast dealt a heavy blow to the burly, bearded man whose mind was connected to the beast, and his aura weakened.
Seizing the opportunity, Lin Chuan's eyes flashed with a cold light. He controlled the remaining power of the silver giant sword and transformed it into a silver lightning bolt. Taking advantage of the moment when the opponent's defense collapsed and his mind was shaken, he instantly pierced through the weak protective spiritual light that the opponent had hastily erected again and accurately stabbed into his heart!
"Well----"
The burly man with the thick beard suddenly stiffened, looked down in disbelief at the silver sword tip protruding from his chest, his eyes dimmed rapidly, and he fell down with endless resentment and regret!
Thus, this ambush and counterattack at the narrow pass came to a complete end.
Having completed its mission, the silver greatsword's light faded, transforming back into a slightly dim, dark gold talisman that floated back into Lin Chuan's hand.
The silver sword pattern on the talisman had noticeably dimmed, indicating that the previous attacks had depleted some of its power.
Lin Chuan carefully put it away, then turned around and cupped his hands in thanks to Han Li, who had been standing at the rear, saying with a smile, "Thank you very much for your help, Junior Brother Han."
Han Li quickly returned the greeting: "Senior Brother Lin, you're too kind. It's only natural for fellow disciples to help each other."
He actually breathed a sigh of relief.
His biggest worry was that he would help for nothing and not get any benefits, or get involved in unnecessary trouble. Now that Lin Chuan had taken the initiative to thank him, the next step was naturally to distribute the spoils.
Sure enough, Lin Chuan continued, "We'll split this man's (referring to the bearded man) storage bag equally. As for the Tianque Fortress cultivator, I killed him alone, so his storage bag is mine. What do you think, Junior Brother Han?"
This allocation plan is reasonable, and Han Li naturally has no objection, nodding and saying, "That's how it should be."
Lin Chuan stepped forward, first taking the storage bag from the waist of the bearded man, then walking to the remains of the Tianque Fortress cultivator and taking his storage bag as well.
Then, Lin Chuan opened the bearded man's storage bag and poured all the items inside onto a relatively flat rock.
With a whoosh, spirit stones, talismans, jade bottles, materials, and other items scattered everywhere.
There are about three or four hundred low-grade spirit stones, and four mid-grade spirit stones brimming with spiritual energy.
Lin Chuan divided the spirit stones into two piles of roughly equal value, indicating that Han Li should choose first.
There was a large pile of talismans, mostly of low and mid-level quality, with a few low and high-level ones mixed in. The quality of all of them was about the same.
Lin Chuan was too lazy to pick carefully, so he simply gathered the talismans into two piles, compared their heights to make sure they were roughly the same, and then let Han Li choose one pile.
As for the pills, materials, and other odds and ends, the two of them simply divided them up.
The black iron rod with the bushy beard and the broken shield were originally of good quality, but their value has been greatly reduced after being damaged by the talisman.
Lin Chuan refused and offered it to Han Li, who didn't mind at all, believing that even a small amount was still something.
After dividing up the bearded man's inheritance, Lin Chuan checked the storage bags of the Tianque Fortress cultivators.
This person died a miserable death.
They barely had time to make their mark, so their assets are relatively well preserved.
Besides several hundred spirit stones and some talismans and pills, the most valuable items were two magical artifacts:
The two items naturally belonged to Lin Chuan: a palm-sized, pure white, top-grade defensive magic weapon called the "White Cloud Shield," engraved with cloud patterns; and a blue, ordinary top-tier flying sword called the "Frost Sword," gleaming with cold light and brimming with spiritual energy.
Han Li had no objection to this.
He was already quite satisfied to be able to share the storage bag of a Qi Refining 13th level cultivator, not to mention he also got that black iron rod.
After dividing the spoils, the two quickly cleaned up the battlefield (mainly burning the corpses to erase the obvious signs of fighting), and then walked out of the narrow path through the narrow passageway side by side.
Ahead lay a lush, dense forest, its trees still strangely shaped, appearing deep and unfathomable in the dim light of the forbidden area.
"What are your plans next, Junior Brother Han?" Lin Chuan asked casually, standing by the edge of the forest.
"Naturally, we're continuing towards the central area of the forbidden zone to search for spiritual herbs," Han Li replied, then asked, "What about Senior Brother Lin?"
Me too.
Lin Chuan smiled and casually invited, "In that case, why don't we travel together? That way we can look out for each other."
Upon hearing this, Han Li shook his head almost without thinking, his face showing his usual cautious expression: "Thank you for your kind offer, Senior Brother, but—I'm used to acting alone, it's more convenient for me, so I won't trouble you any further."
This answer was exactly what Lin Chuan expected.
Given Han Li's personality, he would never easily team up with others unless absolutely necessary, especially fellow disciples who might be stronger than him, as that would mean unpredictable changes and potential conflicts of interest.
"Alright, then Junior Brother Han, please be careful."
"7
Lin Chuan nodded, not insisting.
In fact, he also prefers to act alone and be free.
It enables one to act more effectively based on the guidance of the hexagram.
The two bowed and said goodbye.
Han Li chose a direction, and his figure quickly disappeared into the dense forest.
Lin Chuan chose another direction and also disappeared into the dense forest.
He didn't go in immediately, but searched the edge area for a while and found a strange tree that was exceptionally thick and had lush foliage.
He nimbly climbed up to the treetop.
He sat cross-legged in a secluded spot formed by the intertwining of several thick branches.
He definitely needs to rest and recuperate.
The battle just now, though seemingly smooth, involved continuously activating talismanic artifacts (even though they were just flying sword talismanic artifacts) and controlling the Azure Cloud Sword against the enemy.
Controlling the golden shield and protective aura also consumed nearly 30% of his mana.
More importantly, of the eighteen spiritual spikes stored in the Divine Court acupoint, nine had been used to deal with the cultivators from Tianque Fortress.
It has not yet fully recovered and solidified.
He held a mid-grade spirit stone in his hand and slowly absorbed the pure spiritual energy within it.
At the same time, the Soul Jade on his chest emitted a warm glow, nourishing his divine consciousness and accelerating the recovery of the "Awakening of Insects Divine Sword".
In fact, if he had used all eighteen of his divine sense spikes, along with the talisman, he might have been able to defeat the bearded man much faster.
But he deliberately kept it.
In this dangerous and forbidden area, we must not use up all our trump cards at once; we must always maintain a certain level of deterrence and adaptability.
What if we just deal with these two, and then run into other powerful enemies or ambushes?
Caution should always be the top priority.
While Lin Chuan was quietly recovering in the tree canopy, the first night in the Crimson Forbidden Land quietly descended.
Although the light inside the forbidden area is as bright as day all year round and there is no true distinction between day and night, this "night" period is the beginning of the first large-scale killing climax in the entire trial!
Those top elites who were truly expected to succeed by various factions began to bare their fangs and actively eliminate the "small fish" near the central area.
They tacitly launched the purge, with a clear objective: to eliminate those weak, opportunistic, or potentially troublesome low-level cultivators, thus clearing obstacles for the subsequent competition for the rare spiritual herbs in the core area and preventing any unforeseen complications.
For a time, the sounds of fighting, screams, and magical explosions were even more intense and brutal than during the day, throughout the forbidden area, especially in the outer areas near the center.
The stench of blood quietly permeated the eerie air.
As for those cultivators with weaker strength (Qi Refining Level 10 or 11), unless they have special concealment methods or are extremely lucky, they cannot escape.
Otherwise, the casualties would have been heavy during the first night of the cleanup.
Generally speaking, the disciples from various sects who entered the forbidden area can be divided into three categories:
The first category consists of those with the lowest abilities, who are either hoping for a lucky break or forced into the situation—the "cannon fodder." They are often the first to be eliminated.
The second type is like that burly man with a thick beard, of medium strength (level 12 or 13 of Qi Refining). Knowing that their chances of obtaining top-grade spiritual medicine are slim, they turn their attention to the weaker ones, killing and robbing them, intending to make a fortune in silence.
They were quite active in the first two days, but often chose to hide when it came to the later high-level matches.
The third category consists of the true elites of each faction, the people at the very top of the pyramid.
They possessed profound magical power, most of them reaching the thirteenth level of Qi Refining, and were well-equipped (at least with top-tier magical artifacts, and possibly even talismanic treasures). They bore the heavy responsibility of seizing the sect's core spiritual herbs. The carnage of this first night was largely led by them.
With Lin Chuan's strength (the thirteenth level of Qi Refining, several top-tier magic weapons, talismans, and divine sense techniques), he undoubtedly belongs to the third category of "top experts".
But his mentality was different from those of the other "experts" who went on a killing spree.
Unless someone actively provokes or hinders him from seizing an opportunity, he does not want to kill innocent people indiscriminately.
Those weaker cultivators might have their own unavoidable difficulties in entering the forbidden area, and as long as they don't run into his line of fire, he's too lazy to actively eliminate them.
His goal was clear:
A fortuitous divination, rare and precious medicines, and—survival.
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