Chapter 49: Hiding

Ye Jingyun sighed.

Then, she propped herself up, took out her flying sword, and began a series of post-mortem strikes against Yu Yuehai's body, only stopping after he had been hacked into countless pieces.

Walking closer, she used her flying sword to hook up and collect his storage bag, then used a fireball spell to burn the remains to ash.

At this point, she finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Having dealt with Yu Yuehai, she went to the previous positions of the five clan leaders. She took out a disc-shaped dharma tool to probe the area for a while, then began digging with her flying sword. Soon, she unearthed an intact body.

This person was also in a miserable state, his entire body covered in mangled flesh. It was only after careful identification that she realized it was Han Yuhe, the head of the Han family.

Probing with her spiritual sense, she discovered that he was actually still alive, likely due to a passively triggered defensive treasure.

However, if he wasn't treated immediately, he would probably lose his life momentarily.

Looking at the storage bag at Han Yuhe's waist, Ye Jingyun's eyes flickered, but in the end, she chose not to kill him for his treasures. Instead, she took out a medicinal pill and fed it to him.

During her years in Kaiyuan City, the Han family had looked after her quite well; saving his life was purely an act of returning a favor.

Next, she repeated the process, using her disc dharma tool to locate the remaining five clan leaders of the great families.

None of them were at the center of the explosion, so they weren't buried very deep.

After a round of inspection, she found that these people were already dead, and they had died quite miserably—it was a gruesome sight.

Ye Jingyun unceremoniously took their storage bags and then walked over to check on the Xia sisters.

These two women were only at the Qi Refinement stage and possessed no defensive dharma tools; they had been blown into minced meat.

She sighed and shook her head. Since they were already dead, even the greatest hatred was now wiped clean.

Feeling that her magic power had recovered somewhat, Ye Jingyun did not dare to linger. The explosion from that unknown thing just now had been so powerful that it could easily attract demonic beasts, and she might not have the ability to contend with them right now.

After a hasty burial of the deceased, she grabbed Han Yuhe and used her flying tool to transform into a streak of light, fleeing into the distance.

The area returned to silence once more.

A long time passed.

From the soil beside the giant crater, another person crawled out.

It was Zhao Zhengyuan!

His situation was even more wretched. After emerging, he took a look around and then left, crawling and rolling away.

This time, it finally became completely silent.

...

Chen Lin had been running frantically for an unknown amount of time. Once he could no longer run, he found a hidden spot to hide.

He stayed hidden for three days and three nights.

During this time, he did not move at all, not even to use the restroom.

Fortunately, he had been eating spiritual rice all along, so he produced very little waste, and a cultivator's constitution is different from an ordinary person's, so he wouldn't die of thirst or hunger.

During those three days, several waves of cultivators appeared in the sky, and several demonic beasts passed by in the distance, but none discovered his presence.

As time passed, the cultivators became less visible, while demonic beasts still appeared occasionally.

At this moment, he was being watched by a demonic beast.

It was a large tiger, massive in size, with black spots covering its body.

This creature was a Black-Spotted Tiger; he had once eaten its meat along with Zhao Zhengyuan.

Thinking of Zhao Zhengyuan, Chen Lin felt a sense of melancholy. He wondered if the other man had survived the explosion. Zhao's position had been quite far from where he had thrown the Thunderbolt No. 4; if he had a defensive treasure or a talisman, perhaps he might have survived.

Then there were the five clan leaders and Ye Jingyun; he didn't know if they were dead or alive.

However, he had no choice at the time. He couldn't miss his only chance to strike, and even if he hadn't, those people would certainly have died at the hands of Yu Yuehai, only to be refined into pills. It was better that they were blown to death.

Thinking this way made him feel a bit better.

As for the Xia sisters, it didn't matter; their deaths were well-deserved.

What he was most concerned about was actually whether Yu Yuehai was alive or dead, but according to his guess, it was highly likely he was dead.

Because shortly after he had gone into hiding, he felt a change in the Black Essence Insect within his body. Not only could he clearly sense its existence, but it also seemed to have become much weaker.

The Black Essence Insect was blood-linked to that devil; this sudden change suggested that the other party was either dead or severely injured.

While his mind raced with thoughts, Chen Lin stared at the Black-Spotted Tiger not far away.

If the beast did not attack him proactively, he would continue to hide for a while; the longer he stayed hidden, the safer he would be.

However, things did not go as planned.

"Roar!"

This Black-Spotted Tiger must have been hungry for a long time. Having finally encountered prey, how could it possibly give up? With a roar, it lunged at him.

Chen Lin immediately released a Vajra Shield on himself and then used the Wind Control Technique to soar into the air.

Although the Black-Spotted Tiger looked quite large, it was actually only a low-level demonic beast. An early-stage Qi Refinement cultivator might face a threat to their life, but for him, who was at the mid-stage of Qi Refinement, there was no need to fear.

Because the beast could not fly and had no ranged attacks, his position in the air was an invincible one.

Coincidentally, since he lacked combat experience, he could use the beast to practice.

Chen Lin controlled his flying sword, launching various types of attacks at the Black-Spotted Tiger—slashing, hacking, and piercing in repeated succession.

The Black-Spotted Tiger had strong defense and thick skin; it roared repeatedly under the attacks but did not suffer much damage.

Chen Lin then used Fireball spells and Intimidation spells, but the damage was also minimal.

This immediately made him realize that his methods were insufficient.

If he struggled this much against a single low-level Black-Spotted Tiger, he would likely have to flee in terror if he encountered other demonic beasts.

Of course, if he used a Thunderbolt Pearl, he could certainly kill it instantly.

But Thunderbolt Pearls were only effective against low-level demonic beasts; against high-level beasts or cultivators who could use defensive spells, the effect was not as strong.

Especially against ghosts or demonic entities that existed in special forms, it was uncertain whether they would even work.

He secretly decided that once he reached a place with other cultivators, he must first purchase some higher-level spells to practice.

Even if the damage wasn't high, he could win through attrition, and eventually, the Black-Spotted Tiger was slain on the spot.

Chen Lin was drenched in sweat and had to consume a Qi-Replenishing Pill to recover.

The most valuable part of a Black-Spotted Tiger was its pelt, but it had been hacked into an unrecognizable mess by his flying sword, rendering it worthless.

In the end, Chen Lin only took one tiger leg and put it in his storage bag, while the rest was buried in a pit before he quickly left the area.

He moved intermittently, hiding and dodging.

Several more days passed.

Chen Lin had become like a wild man, though his mental state was still quite decent.

He hadn't encountered any demonic beast attacks during these few days, nor was he short on food or water. He had even dug up two medicinal herbs, one of which was a primary ingredient for refining the Primordial Pill, which made him extremely joyful.

He originally had nine sets of materials; with this one, if he could find two more auxiliary herbs, he could set up his furnace to refine pills!

With pills in hand, he could cultivate anywhere and wouldn't need to rush to leave.

The key issue was that after wandering in this wilderness for so many days, he was completely lost. He didn't even know where he was, and it was unlikely he would find a way out anytime soon.

Fortunately, because the spiritual energy in this direction was thin, high-level demonic beasts rarely appeared, so it wasn't excessively dangerous.

From then on, he lived a life of searching for an exit while simultaneously searching for spiritual herbs.

(End of Chapter)