In the blink of an eye, an icicle appeared in front of the fair-skinned man. Under the mottled sunlight, the icicle radiated with a seven-coloured light!
At that instant, Lu Ye realised that he was in trouble.
When he gathered his Spiritual Power to his eyes just now, he had managed to see the aura around the body of the person who sneaked up on him. He judged that the other party was a cultivator in the Third-Order Spirit Creek Realm or above but less than the Fourth-Order Spirit Creek Realm.
The opponent’s cultivation was higher than his own. Judging by the way the opponent’s attack had come out of nowhere just now, the opponent’s combat experience was also above his own.
It had not been long since he started cultivating. He had not gone through any rigorous training before. He did not have any Master to guide him either. Therefore, he did not have any other moves or skills to speak of aside from the basic motions of hacking, stabbing, and slashing with the longsword in his hand.
[My cultivation is lower and my skills are inferior. The opponent also knows how to cast Spells… The situation is beyond terrible!]
Just as the icicle in the opponent’s hand was taking shape, he kicked off the ground and borrowed the power of the impact to propel himself forward.
Lu Ye’s reaction stunned the fair-skinned cultivator. He had assumed that the other party would run away immediately. Who could have known that his opponent would choose to attack instead? His figure fluttered backward once more. At the same time, the icicle flew out of his hand at great speed.
That icicle struck Lu Ye but was blocked by the golden light on the surface of his body. Although it had not harmed him, the force of the impact made his chest tighten in pain. The momentum of his forward charge also slowed considerably and the golden light surrounding his body faded significantly as a result.
The corner of Lu Ye’s eyes twitched at the sight. In a battle between low-levelled cultivators, those who could cast spells obviously held a huge advantage over the other.
“How many can you block?” The fair-skinned man kept a safe distance from Lu Ye while trying to provoke Lu Ye. Between the two of them, one chased while the other retreated. Lu Ye was hit by three consecutive icicles in a short period of time and the golden light around his body became so dim that it was about to be extinguished at any time. In contrast, he couldn’t even touch the other party’s clothes during this time.
This kind of battle made him feel very suffocated. He was very tempted to take out a Fiery Snake Talisman Paper and teach the other party a lesson on how to behave. Nevertheless, he suppressed the impulse. He was not certain if a Fiery Snake Talisman Paper was enough to kill the other party. This was a cultivator, not the wolves he had killed when he first entered the battlefield. He did not have the geographical advantage that he had when fighting the tiger either. Although he had a vague plan in his mind, he was not sure if he could pull it off smoothly. It would depend on his luck.
Fifteen minutes later, the golden light surrounding his body vanished completely when he was hit by another icicle. He had sustained internal injuries after being hit by all those icicles. Blood leaked out from the corner of his mouth. A chill shrouded him and he couldn’t help shuddering from the cold. He glared at the fair-skinned man fiercely. With a look of resentment on his face, he spoke his first words since the start of the battle. “What bad blood do we have between us?”
The fair-skinned man chuckled. “We have no bad blood between us.”
Lu Ye said nothing, waiting quietly for the other party to continue.
Sure enough, the fair-skinned man said, “But, if you tell me where you found so many mineral ores, I can spare your life!”
A sharp light flashed in Lu Ye’s eyes. He finally determined the root of the problem. This confrontation did not happen by chance. The other party had come looking for him on purpose! And, the reason was the mineral ores that he sold.
Frankly, he had always been very careful. He had always dealt with different people during the three times he had gone to the Divine Trade Association. Moreover, he only sold a small portion of mineral ores each time. He did not dare to sell too many, lest he caught the attention of ill-intentioned people. Even during his return journey, he would make many detours to ensure that there was nobody following behind him.
Unfortunately, reality proved that some people still sought to harm him anyway. It didn’t matter how careful he was. There was no stopping this unless he stopped selling stuff to the Divine Trade Association. Nonetheless, he needed the Spirit Pills to cultivate. Where would he go if he did not go to the Divine Trade Association?
The only thing he could confirm was that this was not masterminded by the Trade Association. An extensive Trade Association that prided itself on its sincerity and fairness had no reason to target a weak cultivator like him. Therefore, it was most likely caused by the private actions of somebody within the Trade Association.
He thought back to the three cultivators in the Trade Association that he traded with previously but could not figure out who among them was targeting him. All three transactions had been very ordinary. If there was anything that was out of the ordinary, then it could only be the subtle hints of the woman called Liu Ru Yin during his first time there. But, even that did not explain the issue.
Judging from the words of the fair-skinned man, he suspected that Lu Ye had found a vein containing various ores and wanted to find out the location of the mine. He was completely unaware that Lu Ye had not found any mines whatsoever. All his mineral ores came from Evil Moon Valley.
His expression darkened slightly when he saw that Lu Ye was not speaking. “I gave you the easy way, but you just had to choose the hard way!”
He immediately made up his mind to beat Lu Ye half to death before forcing Lu Ye to cough up the location of the mine. While speaking, he slashed his knife at Lu Ye. He did not activate the Icicle Technique again. The main reason was that the consumption was too great. Having broken through Lu Ye’s Golden Body Talisman Paper, he was confident that he could easily bend Lu Ye to his will.
Contrary to expectations, Lu Ye, who had been acting tough until now, suddenly turned around and ran away at a very fast speed.
The fair-skinned man was so furious that he laughed. He looked at Lu Ye’s back and said leisurely, “Can you escape?”
Afterward, he took his time chasing Lu Ye. At the same time, he took out a Spirit Stone from his Storage Bag and held it in his hand to slowly recover from his fatigue.
He could tell that Lu Ye was terrified. Running away desperately would only increase the consumption of his Spiritual Power. Once a low-levelled cultivator lost his Spiritual Power, he would be no different from an ordinary person. Manager Yang, who was murdered by Lu Ye, was a prime example of that fact.
Therefore, it was enough as long as he did not lose sight of Lu Ye.
During their chase, they passed through a rocky forest, crossed a small river, and arrived at an open space. In the end, the fair-skinned man found Lu Ye standing in the middle of the open space, pale-faced and motionless while gasping for breath.
[Did he run out of Spiritual Power so quickly?] The fair-skinned man let out a sneer and walked forward slowly. He made a few slashes in the air with the knife in his hand. “Why did you stop running?”
He was standing 30 metres away from Lu Ye with a contemptuous look on his face. However, he soon realised that something was wrong. That was because Lu Ye looked extremely frightened. Not to mention, he was staring in a certain direction and his hand that was holding his sword shook violently.
There was a musty stench on the wind. A low growl sounded. Then, a sturdy snow-white tiger slowly walked out from behind a large tree at a leisurely pace. The amber pupils of the tiger glanced in the direction of the fair-skinned man. A chill went through his heart and he suddenly recalled the rumour he heard in the market two days ago.
[I can’t be that unlucky, right?] He wailed in his heart. However, the thing that made him despair occurred. That tiger opened its mouth and spoke in the Human language. “How dare you disturb my dreams!? It looks like you no longer wish to live!”
The fair-skinned man’s forehead was instantly covered with fine beads of sweat. He finally understood why Lu Ye was so frightened. The source of that fear was not him, but that tiger!
Just as he was at a loss for what to do, he heard Lu Ye saying, “Please have mercy, Tiger King. We did not know that this was your territory. We will take our leave immediately!”
When the fair-skinned man heard those words, he nodded so vigorously that he looked like a chicken pecking at rice.
The tiger roared in fury. “Coming as you please and leaving as you please!? Just where do you think this place is!?”