Chapter 275: Saving People Is More Profitable Than Killing
The martial cultivators of Zuo Qiu Gatehouse did not find Zuo Qiu Qingying, but in a wilderness area, they found a large amount of bloodstains belonging to her. It was clear without guessing that her fate was grim.
They were filled with murderous intent. Thirty Tiger Camel Army masters activated the Hundred Character Battle Formation, trapping the Fourth Divine Son and his three companions.
The battle erupted.
In the battle formation, a bearded Dao Seed Realm commander sacrificed a sixth-grade Hundred Character Scripture Magic Tool “Compass”.
The thirty Tiger Camel Army masters each struck out a beam of magic energy light. Immediately, the compass rose into the air, expanding to the size of a grinding mill, releasing blazing radiance as it spun and flew out, crushing the Fourth Divine Son’s Dao Heart External Manifestation inch by inch.
The Fourth Divine Son knew the power of the battle formation. His expression changed drastically as he retreated swiftly. At the same time as releasing a staff-shaped magic tool from his Zu Tian, he also summoned Wang Zhi.
Though Wang Zhi was dead, the departed spirit within his body was extremely powerful, the Fourth Divine Son’s strongest trump card.
On the surface, Wang Zhi looked no different from a normal person, but he erupted with unfathomably eerie speed. He bypassed the compass, extended his claws to tear open the formation light screen, and charged into the battle formation.
His combat power was far superior to the Fourth Divine Son’s.
Screams rang out continuously in the battle formation.
Tiger Camel Army masters were sent flying by Wang Zhi’s collisions or directly slain with palm strikes—it was practically a slaughter.
Li Weiyi cast the Disguise Art and burst out from underground. With a wave of his arm, he released a thick cloud of magic energy mist from his palm, enveloping the coffin placed on the ground.
Then, he activated the governor’s official robe again, turning into a mass of purple mist radiance and vanishing from the spot.
The entire process happened in the blink of an eye.
More than ten feet away, the Fourth Divine Son saw that mass of purple mist radiance and sensed spatial fluctuations, but he could not break free. He could only watch helplessly as the other party seized the coffin and fled.
At the same time, he felt deep wariness in his heart, fearing the other party was an elder-level figure from Jiu Li Hidden Sect.
……
Lingxiao Life Realm had two worlds.
One was the surface world, the other the underground world.
In the surface world, the human race, demon race, exotic beasts, cursed monsters, departed spirits… myriad races competed freely. Each era had its own overlords and forms of civilization.
The underground world was generally more than a hundred meters below the surface, deepest reaching tens of thousands of zhang deep underground. Here, large and small blood rivers flowed eternally, crisscrossing in countless dangers.
The surface had transcendent beings dividing their territories, and the underground had its own forbidden zones and overlords.
Among them, many places were nests of the insect race. Once disturbed, even if you fled back to the surface, you would face pursuit and killing by insect swarms.
The underground was very dangerous, but it often became the best escape route for those with nowhere left to turn.
Li Weiyi shouldered the coffin, feet treading on a cloud of magic energy, sprinting along an underground blood river about two hundred meters below the surface, each step covering several zhang.
Great Phoenix cleared the path ahead, Er Feng guarded the rear.
Their feathers and membrane wings vibrated together, emitting dazzling radiance.
Li Weiyi did not believe fleeing underground meant safety. For Dao Seed Realm martial cultivators, surface and underground were freely traversable. As long as one avoided nests of commander-level strange insects and certain special forbidden zones, it was fine.
He fled north two to three hundred li.
Li Weiyi’s magic energy was severely depleted. He figured the enemies would struggle to track him in the underground with its dense network of forks. Thus, he took out the Magic Tool Jade Boat, landed inside it, set down the coffin on his shoulder, and drifted along the three-zhang-wide underground blood river.
On the stone walls along both banks of the river channel, many fierce insects emitting green, blue, and red radiance crouched.
Intimidated by the aura of the Phoenix Wing Moth Emperor, they dared not attack the jade boat.
Li Weiyi adjusted his breathing for a moment, then looked toward the purplish-black coffin with trepidation.
“Hua chi!”
He pushed open the coffin lid.
Great Phoenix and Er Feng crowded over. The radiance from their bodies illuminated the darkness as they peered into the coffin.
The pure immortal body woman in the coffin had awakened. Her body was roughly bound, her face dark purple, blood trailing from her mouth and nose, her eyes filled with tension and fear.
Upon clearly seeing the face of the one who opened the coffin, she was slightly stunned, then a look of joy appeared.
Though she had always disliked Li Weiyi, she had to admit he was a hero of the current era. Even if… this hero had become decadent and self-abandoned…
It was still far better than falling into the hands of an evil cult.
Li Weiyi was very surprised, his mood much relieved. He secretly exhaled, smiling: “You’re that one from Lei Xiao Sect… Lu Cangsheng’s woman…”
He no longer remembered her name.
But he had a strong impression of her.
Her cultivation and talent were not weak. Her figure and appearance could be called first-rate, below Zuo Qiu Hong Ting and Jiang Ning. Even beaten into this wretched state, her uncommon beauty was still evident. The jade-bowl-inverted peaks at her chest and her slender waist and legs were not something ordinary beauties possessed.
But she was very arrogant, and seemed… not very smart!
Li Weiyi’s impression of her was quite rigid. After all, on the first day entering Qiu Zhou Prefecture City, in Immortal Forest, she had despised him, calling Li Weiyi “mediocre and oblivious.”
Crucially, Li Weiyi had not even provoked her, or even looked at her.
This was a woman who could generate hatred for herself!
Li Weiyi strongly suspected that if not for her beauty, Lu Cangsheng would not have kept her around, and would have distanced himself long ago.
He fully opened the coffin lid.
There, the woman’s slender and plump body was covered in bloodstains, clearly having been brutally beaten by Long Ting for a long time. Her survival was purely because Long Ting felt his revenge was not enough.
Untying the binding ropes, Li Weiyi saw she still lay motionless in the coffin, so he asked: “Where are you injured? Can you still speak?”
Qin Qian’s eyes welled with tears. Biting her shell-like teeth, she whimpered in extreme grievance.
“What? Did Long Ting bully you?” Li Weiyi asked with pity in his eyes.
“No, don’t talk nonsense… cough cough… He struck ruthlessly. He broke many of my bones, severely damaged my organs. He sealed my Nine Springs acupoints and Five Seas with Dragon Gate secret method, so I can’t mobilize magic energy to heal… Now I can’t move…”
As she spoke, blood surged from Qin Qian’s mouth again, her round and full chest heaving violently.
Seeing her so wretched, Li Weiyi inexplicably felt happy. Arms crossed over his chest, he asked: “Why didn’t you return to Lei Xiao Sect? How did you end up in Long Ting’s hands? Where’s Lu Cangsheng? Couldn’t even protect his own woman—what’s he doing?”
Qin Qian was too severely injured and did not want to say much to Li Weiyi. She closed her eyes: “First help me unseal my sea of qi! Right now, every word I say worsens my injuries.”
“Fine!”
Li Weiyi’s hand reached toward her chest, where her lungs were.
He thought for a moment, then immediately withdrew.
He grabbed her left wrist and pointed a finger at the “Laogong” in her palm, injecting magic energy.
This was one of the nine major spring acupoints. Once the seal was broken, she could mobilize some magic power.
Qin Qian cried out in agony, her whole body convulsing and trembling.
Her left hand bones had been broken by Long Ting. With Li Weiyi lifting it like this, the bones were severely misaligned.
In the pain, a warm, numb qi flow came from her palm. The seal on her left Laogong broke. Li Weiyi placed her arm back in the coffin.
Then he went to unseal the Laogong in her right palm, the Yongquan at the soles of both feet, and the Baihui at the top of her head.
Li Weiyi helped her sit up in the coffin and tried to unseal the seal in the Feng Fu at the back of her head. As soon as the magic energy was injected, the inner world barrier of the Feng Fu showed signs of collapse, startling him into quickly withdrawing his hand.
“What a strange technique—can’t break it with brute force. First use the Five Springs Magic Power from the unsealed points to heal. I’ll think about it.”
Li Weiyi tossed her back in the coffin, lay down himself, then sat at the bow of the boat.
Qin Qian pondered for a moment and understood. Li Weiyi had not helped her unseal Zu Tian, Danzhong, Core, and Five Seas because those locations were too special. It would require removing the magic tool battle robe, even touching some private areas.
“Who’d have thought this guy has a bit of gentlemanly demeanor, different from the rumors.” She thought to herself.
She did not know Li Weiyi just did not want to invite trouble, lest he couldn’t explain it to Lu Cangsheng. After all, Qin Qian was not very smart—if she let something slip later, it would be unwarranted disaster.
Saving her with virtue despite resentment was already an act of pity.
Saying he was thinking about unsealing her, Li Weiyi soon began breathing exercises to recover the depleted magic energy in his sea of qi.
Whether Northern Territory’s Tuoba Bu Tuo or Long Ting, their auras were very powerful.
Evidently, using Dragon Seed Dao Cultivation, their cultivation progress was terrifyingly fast.
They advanced daily, step by step leaving senior predecessors behind.
No wonder at the Hidden Dragon Lantern Festival, Qi Xiao had staked his life for a Dragon Seed Voucher.
This was truly a treasure that changed fate!
Perhaps they really could forge longevity in a decade, or a few years.
Li Weiyi felt a strong sense of urgency. After adjusting his breathing, he took Lu Shi’s corpse from the boundary bag and searched for valuable items.
A second-grade Hundred Character Artifact protective battle robe, worth nearly a hundred thousand Spring Coins.
In the boundary bag were several thousand Spring Coins in cash and three jade bottles of medicinal liquid.
Besides that, nothing else of value.
Searching the Zu Tian…
No cultivated Zu Tian—an inferior root Dao Seed Realm cultivator.
“Cultivated for a century and this poor? Not even a single attack-type magic tool?”
Li Weiyi was speechless and tossed Lu Shi’s corpse into the blood river to feed the underground fierce insects.
He did not know that these Dao Seed Realm martial cultivators of great age had years of polished Daoist Arts as backing and fundamentally did not need attack-type magic tools. Only a very high-grade Hundred Character Artifact could boost combat power significantly.
For them, buying medicinal liquids to delay aging and maintain vitality and life force was the largest expense.
Li Weiyi opened the three jade bottles to study them.
Qin Qian smelled the exotic fragrance from the jade bottles and opened her eyes from healing: “That’s Life Spirit Spring. In Thousand Mile Mountain, ten thousand Spring Coins for a small bottle. Can… can you give me one to take?”
She paused, then said: “Count it as me owing you ten thousand Spring Coins.”
Seeing she understood nothing of human sentiments, Li Weiyi ungracefully took the initiative: “The same medicine has different prices at different times.”
Qin Qian gritted her teeth, hating him to death.
This guy was taking advantage of her misfortune!
But recalling her own proposal at the Hidden Dragon Lantern Festival to suppress him…
When settling grudges, this account was hard to balance.
She suppressed her inner anger: “What price do you think it should be?”
“Hundred thousand Spring Coins!” Li Weiyi was short on money lately, still owing Yin Er five hundred thousand Spring Coins.
Qin Qian’s beautiful eyes widened: “So expensive—why not go rob someone?”
“Life Spirit Spring twenty thousand Spring Coins, saving you eighty thousand Spring Coins. You’re Lu Cangsheng’s woman to be worth a hundred thousand Spring Coins—what’s expensive about it? When Lu Wensheng fought me in the arena, he bet thousand-year elixirs without blinking. Up to you, take it or leave it.” Li Weiyi said.
“Fine, give it to me! Li Weiyi… you… you’re really a scoundrel. And I just thought you had good character… cough cough…” Qin Qian spat out two more mouthfuls of blood in anger.
Li Weiyi made her open her mouth and fed her a bottle of Life Spirit Spring.
Qin Qian hesitated a moment, then said softly: “Can you help set my bones right, reconnect them? My ribs are broken in several places, and arm bones…”
“Ten thousand Spring Coins per bone.” Li Weiyi said.
She endured the pain: “Scram!”
No money, Li Weiyi turned to leave, mentally calculating: “Sure enough, same in any world—saving people always earns more than killing, and builds goodwill. Fighting and killing only makes small money, one-off deals… Hmm…”
Li Weiyi figured he had grasped the secret to getting rich, in great spirits.
He released all seven Phoenix Wing Moth Emperors to guard around the jade boat, then opened the box Tang Wanzhou had given him.
“Hua!”
Glimmering radiance emanated from the box.
The Spirit Platform Blazing Star Stone fragment was only rice-grain sized, crystal clear, with extremely intense light, illuminating the banks of the underground river.
Its aura matched exactly the description from Spirit Tablet Master—should be genuine.
Li Weiyi did not want to delay further. Since temporarily safe, he prepared to immediately condense a Mind Power Star and break through to Spirit Mind Master.
Once a Spirit Mind Master, he could contend against Dao Seed Realm martial cultivators with mind power alone.
“Huala!”
His brow’s spirit realm lit up, overflowing with massive spiritual light particles, sprinkling like light rain on the boat.
These spiritual light particles rotated, forming a small vortex that pulled the Spirit Platform Blazing Star Stone fragment in his hand inside.
The next instant.
The rice-grain-sized Yan Star Stone fragment floated to the center of the one-chi-square spirit realm.
