Hah!
Lu Lin's dive continued unbroken, executing "Ferocious Elephant Charge" once again. His Qi and Blood boiled, condensing into a giant crimson elephant that crashed toward the young cultivator in the crater!
"A mere warrior… how dare you!"
Something crazed flashed in the young man's eyes as he gave an abrupt wave, sending three talismans flying.
The talisms instantly burned to ash, transforming into three crimson blades that howled through the air as they slashed toward Lu Lin!
This time, Lu Lin did not dodge.
A cultivator's means were too unpredictable. If he retreated again, who knew what technique the other might use to escape?
Once the cultivator fled into the sky and revealed what had happened, Lu Lin would face endless pursuit.
He had to seize the moment and kill him.
As he pushed his Qi and Blood to the limit, a surge of overwhelming power erupted in him. Lu Lin's fists struck out in rapid succession, meeting the crimson blades head-on.
Boom, boom, boom!
Amid three explosive noises, Lu Lin shattered the blades as if hacking through rotted wood, then smashed another lightning-fast, heavy punch at the young cultivator!
The "Spirit Turtle Shield" above the young man's head trembled violently, cracks rapidly spreading. With a final groan, it burst into seven or eight pieces, flying in all directions.
"No, I am an inner disciple of the Xuesha Demonic Sect…"
Before the young man's horrified roar died out…
Thud!
Lu Lin had already landed a solid punch on his head, which burst apart like a watermelon.
Hah—
Lu Lin let out a long sigh of relief.
It was finally over.
Cultivators were truly hard to kill, with an inexhaustible bag of tricks. Despite his advantageous sneak attack, the fight was still this difficult.
He shifted slightly, sucking in a sharp breath. Two blood-dripping, bone-revealing wounds, each over a foot long, marred his shoulder and waist.
They were from confronting the earlier talisman attacks.
His opponent's attacks were incredibly piercing; his protective Qi and Blood seemed nonexistent, easily torn apart.
If not for his Qi and Blood far more than martial artists of the same Realm, and his robust physique, he might have been cut in half. Fortunately, he had reached the Body Tempering Ninth Level. By summoning his Qi and Blood, the muscles around the wounds contracted, providing for immediate hemostasis.
Without hesitation, he reached out to the youth's waist, snatched his storage pouch, and willed it into the Inner Space of the Martial Dao Furnace.
Then, he zoomed around to collect the fragments of the "Spirit Turtle Shield" and the bone nail embedded in the tree trunk.
"As for the body…"
Lu Lin knitted his brows, but then the ground began trembling.
A Mingxue Beast was approaching.
Instead of panicking, Lu Lin was delighted. He stood still beside the young cultivator's corpse, motionless.
The next moment…
A crimson, spear-like tongue shot out from underground! Lu Lin swayed slightly, deftly avoiding it.
A more than ten-meter-long Mingxue Beast erupted from the ground, bit down on the youth's corpse, and dragged it underground.
"Just as well it helps dispose of the evidence."
Lu Lin's lips curled in a faint smile.
He had just worried about how to handle the body. If left unattended, the sect cultivators discovering him could easily tell from the wounds that he had been killed by a martial artist, which would only invite future trouble.
This way, it was neat and clean.
He executed Nimble Cat Steps, easily shaking off the pursuing Mingxue Beast and disappearing deep into the dense forest.
Along the way, he kept withdrawing his aura and moving with furtive care. Luck was with him, as he encountered no other sect cultivators.
Half an hour later, Lu Lin found an inconspicuous mountain cave and slipped inside.
Inside the cave.
With a thought, the storage pouch appeared in his hand.
"It's said this thing requires spiritual power to open, that martial artists can't use it… How do I open it?"
Lu Lin examined it closely for a moment, then tried and slowly infused his Qi and Blood into the pouch.
Immediately, a powerful resistance sprang up from the pouch, blocking the Qi and Blood.
"This should be the spiritual mark left by the previous owner. If I can wear it away, I should be able to open it."
Lu Lin called up all his Qi and Blood, slapping hard on the storage pouch like a rushing river.
Sizzle…
The two energies clashed fiercely on the pouch.
Clearly, the spiritual power from the pouch was more refined and superior, staying unmovable like solid iron.
But Lu Lin's vast Qi and Blood unceasingly washed over the spiritual mark, wiping it out bit by bit.
Another half hour passed, and the mark completely dissipated.
Lu Lin turned the pouch upside down and gave it a gentle shake.
Clatter…
A pile of items fell to the ground: bottles and jars, wooden boxes, talismans, magical weapons, a token…
Lu Lin first picked up the token.
One side was inscribed with the words 'Inner Sect.'
The other side bore six characters: 'Yu An, Qi Refining Eighth Level.'
"This must be the identity token of that young male cultivator. He was an inner sect disciple, but his Realm… only at the Qi Refining Eighth Level."
As Lu Lin murmured, something heavy weighed down on his heart.
A Qi Refining Eighth Level was already this tricky. He didn't have to be told what a terrifying strength those at the Ninth and Tenth Levels, or even those proclaimed geniuses, possessed.
His strength was still far from enough.
Pushing aside his thoughts, he stored away the token in the Inner Space, then opened the bottles, finding three different types of pills, twenty-two in total.
Upon touching them, he found that only one type contained spiritual energy and could be exchanged for Training Time, but one pill was only for two years.
He guessed these were likely pills used by Qi Refining cultivators to enhance their Realm, similar to spiritual stones.
The other two types were probably for healing or detoxification.
"I'll need to find a way to learn about cultivation pills. Their healing and detoxification pills should be usable by martial artists, too," Lu Lin mused to himself.
Healing pills aimed to regenerate flesh and mend bones, no different for cultivators or martial artists. Moreover, they contained no spiritual power, so they weren't harmful to martial artists.
"Exchange!"
With a thought, the ten pills containing spiritual energy turned to dust, granting him another twenty years of Training Time.
The wooden box held spiritual stones: sixty low-grade spiritual stones and over a hundred and fifty shoddy spiritual stones.
There were also five talismans of various types and two magical weapons. If including the bone nail and the shattered "Spirit Turtle Shield," that made four.
Clearly, the bone nail and Spirit Turtle Shield were of higher quality than the other two. This was evident from the Training Time they could be exchanged for.
After brief consideration, Lu Lin decided to exchange all the magical weapons and talismans for Training Time.
He couldn't use them anyway, and the weapons had distinctive features that could bring trouble if exposed.
As for the spiritual stones, he decided to keep them for now.
As the weapons and talismans turned to dust one by one, Lu Lin gained another sixty years of Training Time. Combined with the twenty from the pills, that made eighty years.
These treasures from a Qi Refining cultivator were far inferior to those for Foundation Establishment cultivators, but this harvest was decent enough.
Thus, his remaining Training Time reached one hundred and fifty-seven years and two months.
"Should I improve the 'Steel Elephant Body'?"
Lu Lin weighed the options for a moment but decided to hold off for now.
Without Bone Protecting Pills, simply splurging time on it was too inefficient.
Even if investing over a hundred and fifty years, he could at most reach the Seventh Level in the "Steel Elephant Body", a limited improvement.
He planned, upon his return to the Xuesha Demonic Sect, to go to the city to purchase a batch of pills like Qi Blood Pills, Tendon Tempering Pills, and Bone Protecting Pills.
With pills, his training would take far less time. The spiritual stones he had kept would come in handy then.
Stowing away the spiritual stones and the now-empty storage pouch in his Inner Space, Lu Lin left the cave.
...
At that moment, deep within the Mingxue Beast King's lair.
Elder Lin's face was ashen, spiritual power raging around him, creating a terrifying pressure that weighed down on the Qi Refining cultivators nearby like a mountain, making them tremble, almost forcing them to their knees.
"Gather everyone here at once! I want to see who had the gall to secretly pocket the 'Skeleton Nether Flower'!"
Elder Lin spat the words out from between gritted teeth, his voice brimming with overwhelming fury.
"Yes, Elder!"
The Qi Refining cultivators scattered to relay the orders, seemingly greatly relieved to withdraw.
"Junior Sister Chu, please oversee this. No one is to leave the Siming Mountain Range."
Elder Lin's voice was icy.
His rage was on the verge of exploding.
After racking his brains, paying a huge price, and joining forces with Junior Sister Chu to slay the Mingxue Beast King, who would have thought that upon arrival, the Skeleton Nether Flower would be gone!
Clearly, someone had stolen the prize right from under their noses.
How could he tolerate this?