Chapter 31, Overcoming a Strong Enemy and Counting the Spoils

Translator: Raznick

 

At that moment, Zhou Chun, caught between two superior first-grade talismans, was initially startled but quickly reacted.

 

He increased his spiritual power to activate the Shooting Moon Blade, which instantly split into two half-moon blades. These then attacked the fire snake and golden spear.

 

He merely willed it, and the nearby Rock Turtle suddenly snapped its tail against the ground, leaping up to transform into a living shield of rock and turtle flesh that shielded him.

 

Midair, the moonblades collided with the fire serpent and the golden spear. After exhausting most of their mystical art’s power, they fell to the ground in exhaustion.

 

The power of the flame snake and golden spear greatly diminished upon impact with Rock Turtle’s back and Zhou Chun’s protective barrier, causing no significant harm to either master or servant.

 

Such a sudden transformation left the sharp eyed man and the woman veiled in red staring in shock, their faces showing signs of alarm.

 

Zhou Chun and the Rock Turtle launched a swift counterattack at this opportune moment.

 

Zhou Chun flicked his sleeves, and the silver shortsword immediately hurled forth swiftly, aiming directly at the man with sharp eyes ahead.

 

Rock Turtle then forcefully stomped the ground with its paws, causing countless sharp stone spikes to spring up around the man, striking his layer of golden light barrier and making it shake and wobble uncontrollably.

 

The man with finally snapped out of his daze and hurriedly activated the yellow shield artifact to block the silver shortsword. With a look of frustration on his face, he bellowed, “Damn it, this brat is so troublesome! Honey, run! I’ll hold them off for you!”

 

Hearing these words, the woman’s expression instantly shifted, hesitated slightly before nodding in response: “Then husband, be careful. I’ll wait for you at our usual spot.”

 

After saying that, she sheathed her own pale blue longsword artifact and quickly turned, retreating into the mountains.

 

Seeing this, Zhou Chun did not hold back and strike the escaping figure. Instead, he merely injected spiritual power to propel the two half-moon blades on the ground into the sky, where they remerged into a silver-black disc.

 

As he gazed at the silver-black rotating and dancing circular wheel in the air, a flicker of fear passed through the man.

 

He swallowed hard in nervousness and whispered to Zhou Chun, “Fellow Daoist, I admit defeat. If you let me leave, I will leave the storage bag for you!”

 

Zhou Chun heard this, his eyes flickered with surprise, and softly replied, “Really? Don’t deceive me.”

 

“It’s absolutely true—I wouldn’t be human if I deceive you!”

 

The man patted his chest confidently as he said, with unwavering assurance.

 

“Then you put the storage bag on the ground and just walk away.”

 

Zhou Chun pondered for a moment and then stated his terms.

 

When he heard these words, the man’s eyes lit up with joy and hurriedly performed a cupping hands salute toward him, saying, “Thank you, Fellow Daoist, for your generous heart. I shall take my leave.”

 

After speaking, he reached down and undid the storage bag at his waist. He tossed it carelessly into a nearby bush before leaving the golden light as is. With the protective shield still in place, he turned and walked away into the forest.

 

But he had barely turned and walked a few steps when the silver-black rotating artifact in the air suddenly broke through the air, slicing toward him with a roar.

 

“You lied!!”

 

A roar emanated from the man with sharp eyes as he turned around, his face filled with frustration. Hurriedly, he dispatched the brown circular shield artifact to block in front of him.

 

“Who said that? It’s not that I let you go; I just gave you permission to take a few steps ahead.”

 

Zhou Chun smirked faintly as he watched the circular shield artifact disintegrate quickly under repeated slashes from Shooting Moon Edge.

 

Before the man could employ any other skills, Zhou Chun focused his spiritual power to propel the silver-black artifact, which circled in mid-air and then hurtled back toward him.

 

This time, he finally couldn’t withstand the attack and was killed instantly as his protective barrier was shattered.

 

“That’s what happens when you commit too many injustices; you sealed your own fate.”

 

In the mountain, Zhou Chun formed hand seals to gather water vapor into rainwater, cleansing the bloodstains from the Shooting Moon Edge. He then sneered coldly at the mutilated corpse lying in a pool of blood on the ground.

 

Zhou Chun harbored no sympathy or compassion for these bandit cultivators who specialized in ambushing and murdering other cultivators to steal their treasures.

 

The crimes these people have committed were so heinous that they would deserve death a hundred times over.

 

It would have been understandable if he didn’t have the strength to do end him. But this time, since he could, Zhou Chun would of course carry out this act of righteousness.

 

He was convinced that the storage bag left behind by the triangle-eyed man earlier must be a trick, and it would never hold his true wealth.

 

Indeed, during the search of the corpse on the ground, Zhou Chun quickly found another storage bag inside its sleeve pocket.

 

He merely probed the storage bag with his Divine Sense, and immediately a smile spread across his face.

 

Following that, Zhou Chun set fire to the remnants on the ground with one sweep. He then placed Rock Turtle into his spirit beast pouch and swiftly cast the Soaring Art to leave the battlefield.

 

After Zhou Chun had left half an hour later, the red-veiled woman who had earlier departed returned to the scene.

 

When she saw the artifact fragments on the ground, along with the bloodstains and the ashes from burning a body, she immediately realized what had happened.

 

Her delicate face paled instantly, her legs went weak, and she collapsed to the ground completely, burying her face in her hands and bursting into tears.

 

“My beloved husband, how could you just leave like this? You promissed to be with me until our hair turned white, yet you have left me all alone…”

 

In the mountains, a woman’s mournful wailing and weeping echoed endlessly through the air.

 

On the other side, Zhou Chun dashed away from the Red Rock Mountains and found a secluded spot to stay, where he began meditating to restore his spiritual power.

 

The superior first-grade artifact was indeed effective, but the consumption of spiritual power was also quite significant.

 

The battle, lasting less than half an hour, drained Zhou Chun of nearly sixty percent of his spiritual power.

 

This was merely one superior first-grade artifact.

 

It could be imagined that if he didn’t breakthrough to late Qi Refining, even if given two superior first-grade artifacts, it was likely that he would deplete his spiritual power in just a few uses and then be at the mercy of others.

 

When compared in this manner, a spirit pet still held an advantage. Not only were their applications extensive and diverse, but they also did not deplete the owner’s spiritual power.

 

Thinking this over, Zhou Chun glanced at the Rock Turtle beside him, which had been keeping guard. Before entering a meditative state, he specially took out a bag of dried meat from his storage bag and fed it to the Rock Turtle as a reward.

 

After more than two hours, Zhou Chun awoke from meditate and found that his spiritual power had recovered to over eighty percent.

 

Then he took out the stone jar, drank a big mouthful of Spiritual Water to cleanse himself of Savage Qi, and then pulled out the storage bag taken from that man with the sharp eyes to count his loot.

 

The man with had quite a few items in his two storage bags. Among them, the one used as a decoy contained twenty or so spirit coins, along with talismans, clothes, and books, looking surprisingly legitimate.

 

Zhou Chun then looked at the other storage bag. Inside were over a hundred sixty spirit coins, two vials of pills, several jade and wooden boxes containing valuable items, and several cultivation manuals.

 

Additionally, the flame-tipped spear artifact and the copper gourd artifact used earlier by the man were also retrieved by Zhou Chun.

 

Of the two artifacts in question, the flame spear artifact was riddled with cracks. It likely wouldn’t last much longer with continued use and had little value.

 

However, the copper gourd artifact that could release fire blasts was well preserved, giving Zhou Chun another artifact that he could use.

 

Zhou Chun examined the two artifacts closely and then set them aside. He planned to return to his clan before performing binding them.

 

Then his gaze shifted to the vial holding the pills and several jade and wooden boxes.

 

He opened two jade vials, and one of them contained a purplish-red powder.

 

Zhou Chun recognized this as a type of herbs with strong hemostatic and healing effects for treating external injuries—specifically, the Blood Arresting Muscle Knitting Pill.

 

Another jade vial contained within it three unfamiliar yellow-brown pills he didn’t recognize, and he would need to return and have the elders identify them to understand their purpose.

 

The remaining two jade boxes contained two herbs. One was a century-old ginseng root, and the other was a rare herb known as the Seven Leaf Purple Star Orchid, which was even more valuable than the ginseng.

 

These two herbs were both wild herbs, and were most likely obtained by the sharp eyed man through robbery from others.

 

Inside the last wooden box was an oval-shaped tan-colored ore.

 

That reddish-brown ore was very heavy; Zhou Chun had to use both hands to lift it out of the wooden box.

 

While he was examining this object, trying to figure out its origin, the Rock Turtle suddenly stretched its head forward and sniffed at him, conveying an unusual emotion.

 

“You mean this thing can be eaten?”

 

Zhou Chun looked at Rock Turtle with great surprise.

 

However, with the intelligence of Rock Turtle, it was not capable of understanding the complex emotions that were beyond its comprehension. It merely nodded and then communicated new thoughts to him.

 

“Oh, so you’re indicating that consuming this item brings benefits, but not now.”

 

Zhou Chun slightly nodded, understanding the meaning of Rock Turtle.

 

It should be this yellowish-brown ore, which had a promoting effect on the bloodline evolution of the Rock Turtle, but also imposed requirements on their strength.

 

His Rock Turtle was currently merely an average first-grade demon beast. Its bloodline potential had yet to reach its peak, so even now, digesting such food proved challenging.

 

It would likely have to wait until this Rock Turtle had fully tapped into its bloodline potential, with its cultivation reaching a level comparable to that of a Twelfth Layer of Qi Refining Stage cultivator, before it could consume the ore to promote further evolution.

 

Considering that, this ore must be a rare resource. It was unclear where the sharp eyed man obtained it from.

 

Having come to this realization, Zhou Chun looked at the Rock Turtle and said, “If that’s the case, I’ll keep this for you. I’ll give it back to you when you can eat it later.”

 

Then, he turned his gaze toward the books.

 

In this way, by merely flipping through a few manuals, Zhou Chun quickly found what he was looking for.

 

In a volume of Feng Zhen’s Log, it records a concealment and spirit-suppression secret art left by the owner, Feng Zhen. This secret art was named the Cicada Forest Blending Breath. It served not only as a method to blend with nature like the Forest Blending Art by utilizing grass and trees to hide one’s tracks but also as a means to suppress and control spiritual power fluctuations.

 

And unlike the Forest Blending Art, which restricted movement once activated, the Cicada Forest Blending Breath could be performed while moving through the mountains. Moreover, during movement, it also achieved effective camouflage.

 

However, this technique also had its limitations. The disguise effect of the Cicada Forest Blending Breath could only evade physical eyesight during movement and had little effect against Divine Sense, highlighting its numerous limitations.

 

But even so, Zhou Chun immediately realized that the Cicada Forest Blending Breath secret art proved to be his greatest gain.

 

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Silavin: Going to 5 Chapters a week for now.