Lu Ye concentrated his Spiritual Power in his legs and his speed of pursuit became noticeably faster.
This was a little trick he had accidentally discovered during the few times he had gone in and out of Green Cloud Mountain. There were many ways to use a cultivator’s Spiritual Power. If he gathered the Spiritual Power to his eyes, he could see things that he normally could not see. If he gathered the Spiritual Power to his legs, it would increase his running speed. If he gathered the Spiritual Power to his sword, it would increase the lethality of his weapon.
The terrain of the mountain forest was treacherous. There were large trees everywhere. These trees were wide enough that several people had to join hands just to encircle their trunks. It was only natural that the fleeing figure was not as familiar with the terrain as him, so the distance between them gradually closed.
When he got a clear look at that person’s back, various questions suddenly became clear. He finally knew who was behind all of this, but the result surprised him. From his point of view, he had no bad blood with this person. In fact, they only interacted with each other on one occasion before!
*Roar!* A snow-white figure suddenly rushed out from the front to block that person’s path. It was the tiger!
That person was so frightened by the tiger that her Soul nearly left her body. She let out a shrill scream and threw out the Spirit Talisman Paper that she had been holding in her hand without even thinking about it. The Spirit Talisman Paper transformed into a crescent-shaped slash in mid-air and flew straight at the tiger.
The tiger hurriedly dodged to the side and the crescent-shaped slash narrowly brushed past its body to slice through the tree trunk of the large tree behind it. That went to show just how powerful the penetrating power of the Spirit Talisman Paper was.
Failing to succeed in one go, that person panicked even more and frantically tried to dig something out of her Storage Bag.
At that moment, a small figure quietly and stealthily clung to her back and let out a piercing scream.
In that short moment of delay, he arrived in front of that person and brought his sword down on her. A cold Sword Light flashed out, an arm went flying, and blood splattered everywhere.
The pain made her scream. Although she was a rogue cultivator, she had been scouted and taken in by the Divine Trade Association not long after she entered the Spirit Creek Battlefield due to her outstanding figure and beauty. Therefore, she had never fought anybody before, much less received such a severe injury. It would not be exaggerated to say that she was a flower raised in a greenhouse.
That was the case for most people in the Trade Association. There was no need for them to fight others or experience hardships and dangers with their various Sect members on the battlefield. They only needed to excel at doing business.
Immediately after that, the tiger pounced and pressed her down to the ground. It let out a ferocious roar, a bloody stench blowing right into her face. She nearly fainted from the fright.
What horrified her even more was the sound of footsteps coming from the side. She looked to the side and saw the sword in Lu Ye’s hand pointing diagonally to the ground. Blood was still dripping from the blade as he walked toward her.
When Lu Ye came closer, he lowered his head to look down at her and lightly said, “Liu Ru Yin!”
This woman was the one who had traded with him during his first trip to the Divine Trade Association.
“Don’t kill me! Please don’t kill me!” Liu Ru Yin was crying so hard that her makeup had smeared all over her face. She kept begging over and over again.
He lowered his eyes. “Who ordered you to do this?”
“Nobody! I just got greedy and became blinded by the riches…” In her fear, she blurted out everything that she knew. She didn’t even wait for him to question her and explained everything in a panic.
“Is that so…” He raised the sharp sword high above his head.
Sensing his murderous intent, she screamed, “Don’t kill me! I will give you anything you want!”
The longsword came slashing downward. The tiger dodged out of the way just in time. The blade of the sword blessed with Spiritual Power sliced through Liu Ru Yin’s fair and slender neck. Then, a small yellow light flew out of the back of her snow-white hand and sank into his right hand.
The headless corpse twitched incessantly, blood spurting out of the neck area like a fountain. A long while passed before it finally stopped moving.
Yi Yi watched from the side, her eyelids twitching at the sight. Everything that had happened today had given her a new insight toward Lu Ye. Only now did she understand that it had been pure luck that the tiger had not died at his hands back then. This man was no good-natured pushover.
Meanwhile, Lu Ye bent down and retrieved the Storage Bag around Liu Ru Yin’s waist. Then, he reached out a hand to inspect her entire body. Naturally, he was not trying to take advantage of her or grope her. He just wanted to see if she was hiding any other Storage Bags on her body.
He himself had several hidden Storage Bags on him after all… Using himself as the standard, he believed that other people might have them too. Unfortunately, Liu Ru Yin did not practice that kind of habit. She was a part of the Trade Association after all. There was no need for her to fight others or face any risks out in the field, so it was perfectly safe for her to carry her Storage Bag on her body.
Her Storage Bag was currently in an unlocked state. Thus, he rifled through the contents and found some useful stuff inside. After that, he ordered, “Dispose of the body.”
“Huh!?” Yi Yi stared at Lu Ye incredulously as if asking him, ‘Are you joking!?’
Lu Ye took out a bottle from Liu Ru Yin’s Storage Bag and tossed it up and down in his hand.
“Sure!” Yi Yi replied without hesitation. She shot a look at the tiger and they hurriedly got to work.
Returning to the fair-skinned man he had killed previously, he retrieved the other party’s Storage Bag and did not forget to bring the other party’s weapon with him too.
About half an hour later, Lu Ye sat topless and cross-legged inside the cave he was sitting in. He was using some Healing Pills to treat his wounds. There were precious few Healing Pills left in his possession. After using two this time, he only had four left.
Looking back on the battle today, he did not become complacent just because he had managed to kill a Third-Order Spirit Creek Realm Master. He reflected on himself instead. Most of the battles between low-level cultivators revolved around close-quarter combat. It could be said that most low-level cultivators walked the path of the combat cultivation faction. As their cultivation was not high enough and their cultivation period was not long, they did not have the time nor the energy to study spells and the sort. Only when they became much stronger would they gradually figure out their future path.
The battle with the fair-skinned man this time had revealed a very serious problem: He had no combat skills to speak of. That was not something that could be helped. Less than three months had passed since the day he started cultivating and he had been busy improving his cultivation during this period. Where would he find the extra energy to improve his skills in battle?
Although he managed to kill the fair-skinned man in the end, he only succeeded by taking advantage of the tiger’s prestige to catch his opponent by surprise. Unfortunately, he did not know how to improve on something like skills. With no suitable teacher to guide him, it was impossible for him to figure this out on his own.
Then, there was the issue regarding his weapon… He had not noticed this issue in the past. The longsword in his possession was the same one that Manager Yang had left behind after his death. He had used this sword in the past to kill Zhou Cheng, but the battle with Zhou Cheng had been a fleeting one.
It wasn’t until the deadly battle with the fair-skinned man today that he noticed something crucial. His affinity was seriously incompatible with this longsword. The longsword simply felt wrong in his hands. He could not wield it freely no matter what he did.
A sword was all about lightness and speed. In addition, sword techniques were extremely important. Seeing as he could only use the longsword to hack and slash, he was completely incapable of bringing out the strengths of a sword.
While mulling over this issue, he changed into a new set of clothes and picked up the longsword by his feet to study it carefully. The blade was full of nicks and chips caused by all of his chopping and hacking actions. In particular, there was a chip on the blade located three quarters along the length of the blade. It was practically the size of a grain. A chip was a huge problem for a longsword. It was no longer usable.
He picked up the fair-skinned man’s long knife again. Standing up, he swung it about several times and lifted his eyebrows in surprise. [This… feels surprisingly easy to use.]