13 Discovering Treasure

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

The pair of eyes of the Jade-eyed Spirit Serpent could uncover illusions and see through the nether world. This cloud of evil intent was not a super-advanced spell formation, hence the snake could see through it with just one look.

Under the direction of Qin Long, its eyes shot out two beams of jade light shining directly into the altar in the center of the spell formation, the crux of the formation.

"Huh?" 

Li Tianchou and the black-robed priest were startled by the sudden attack. While the both of them were standing confused within the formation, the sound of Qin Long's voice rang through, "Master Li, the jade light is shining on the key point of the evil killing intent spell. When are you going to act to break the formation if not now?!"

Once he heard Qin Long's voice, Li Tianchou was overjoyed. He did not expect that this early Foundation Establishment Stage cultivator had this trick up his sleeve.

Without a hint of hesitation, he yelled, "Daluo Sword Spell, Thousand Swords Ancestral Return!" 

Following his gesture as he casted the sword spell, the scattered blade energy fused together in an instant, combining to form a 100-foot long blade. It sliced through the obstructing ghostly creatures in front of it as it hurtled toward the area highlighted by the jade light.

The black-robed priest also heard the words of Qin Long. Of course, he would not allow Li Tianchou to easily destroy the key point of his spell formation and allow him to wreck his evil killing intent formation. Without the support of his formation, he was not a match for Li Tianchou in his injured state. 

Once a swordsman cultivator unleashed his full potential, his fighting ability would be astonishingly powerful. Very quickly, Li Tianchou sent the black-robed priest's Bone Crusher Hammer flying and also vanquished numerous Foundation Establishment Stage ghosts that had rushed forward to block him. He brought the full brunt of his sword viciously down on the crux of the formation.

With a loud clang, the altar suddenly collapsed on one side. The formation shattered into pieces and the energy of evil intent started to leak out in all directions. As for the ghost creatures within the formation, their power started to fade and they became less deadly.

"Hahaha...." Li Tianchou could not help but burst out in laughter. After he was done, his expression grew cold and said, "Evil cultivator! How dare you set a trap here and even thought of refining my soul into a ghostly creature!

"Hmph, I will destroy you today, villainous being, and crush your spirit so thoroughly you won't be able to return, even as a ghost!" As he spoke, Li Tianchou's sword power increased explosively as he aimed his sword directly at his foe.

The black-robed Daoist priest's expression was overcast, his gaze cold and venomous. With a voice full of hatred, he spat, "Damn you. How dare you ruin my plans. I'm going to tear you limb from limb and ensure that you fully experience all 72 methods of cruel torture from my Skeleton Sect."

In a flash, he avoided Li Tianchou's attack and glared viciously at Qin Long in the distance. Raising his hand, the Priest summoned six skeletons as he wanted to use these skeletons to shield him from Li Tianchou's flying sword.

At the same time, he sent his three Bone Punisher Spikes in Qin Long's direction. The old priest hated these two people from the bottom of his heart. As for Qin Long who had shown Li Tianchou how to destroy his formation, he gritted his teeth in absolute loathing when he thought of him.

However, he had his hands full trying to oppose Li Tianchou; when he thought about fighting against Qin Long as well, he felt a little underpowered.

Smack! Smack! Smack!

Three smacks rang through the air. With a flick of the Jade-eyed Spirit Snake's tail, the Bone Punisher Spikes were sent flying away.

Under Qin Long's instructions, it slithered in the air and drew near the black-robed priest in the blink of an eye. Coiling its body, the snake caught two of the skeletons. As it coiled forcefully around the skeletons a few times, these hard as iron skeleton figures were twisted like braids. Their bones began to split segment by segment, scattering all over the ground.

Of course, the Jade-eyed Spirit Snake's body also suffered a few wounds because it was clawed by the skeletons. Even though this Spirit Snake possessed some amount of supernatural power, it was only in the early Foundation Establishment Stage. Strictly speaking, it was in the same realm as the skeletons and there was not a great difference between their strengths. Hence, it was only possible for the snake to achieve victory from relying on Qin Long's instructions.

Those skeleton figures were merely dead spirits that were cultivated by the black-robed priest and were completely devoid of any instinct. The skeletons could only attack in a singly-focused manner without fear of death; which was why they were defeated so easily by the Jade-eyed Spirit Snake.

As for the rest of the skeletons, they were mostly vanquished by Li Tianchou in just a few moves. Even those that were not dead were only left with a shiny skull that was still gaping its mouth and gave off clicking sounds as it tried to bite people. 

Li Tianchou carried his sword and rushed to attack the black-robed priest. As for the Spirit Snake, it cast its eyes on the ghostly creatures. 

The Spirit Snake was a spirit beast and was different compared to normal wild beasts. Spirit beasts possessed intelligence from birth and even though their intellect was not as high as that of humans, it was still comparable to that of a five or six-year-old child.

As for Jade-eyed Spirit Snakes, they are a uniquely talented species as they possess the ability to devour ghostly creatures and convert their evil intent into its own demonic energy. Hence the Spirit Snake did not help Li Tianchou and hurtled towards those ghost creatures instead.

Li Tianchou's flying sword was sharp and showered its radiance in all directions as he attacked. As for the black-robed priest, he was also a Foundation Establishment Stage cultivator, albeit of the evil path. The spirit snake was not a match for either of them, what if it got seriously mauled by the two men in a moment of carelessness?

Its nature of seeking benefits and avoiding danger prevailed at this moment. Furthermore, Qin Long also did not give permission for his own nascent spirit beast to intervene.

In this type of battle, a Foundation Establishment Stage Spirit Snake would not be much help. As for Qin Long himself, he remained hidden at the back and occasionally casted a few spells or launched a couple of sneak attacks on the black-robed priest. From time to time, he also helped his spirit snake attack the ghostly creatures to allow his own spirit beast to consume their souls.

In any case, he would not personally step into the formation to fight. 

As an early-stage Foundation Establishment Stage cultivator, it was best to not readily get involved in a battle between advanced-stage cultivators. Furthermore, he was already wounded so there was no need to step in and add more injuries on top of his pre-existing injuries.

Moreover, he was trained in the way of the Beastmaster Sect. One of the most unique things differentiating Beastmaster Sect's disciples from the fighting method of others, was the fact that they allowed their spiritual beast to head into battle before them. If they won, they won. If they did not manage to win, it was best to quickly hide in some faraway corner. 

Qin Long felt that his own spiritual beast was not a match for that evil cultivator and decided against sending it forward. 

Li Tianchou was in the midst of an intense battle with that priest. Both their spells caused the altar to shatter further into pieces. In the end, the black-robed Daoist priest was defeated and forcedly cast several powerful spells to force Li Tianqiu to retreat. With a spin, he turned to flee. 

However, how could Li Tianchou allow him to escape? He chased after the priest all the way and both of them continued fighting non-stop within the forest. Their battle startled all the birds in the forest to fly wildly about and the animals trying to run away.

Qin Feng and Qin Yang both saw that the black-robed priest and Li Tianchoou were moving further away as they fought. Only then did they start to calm down and they started to walk in the direction of the spell formation.

Along the way, they encountered Chen Hu and the others. They initially thought that Chen Hu and the others had been harmed but after Qin Yang inspected them, he discovered that these men were not dead. Their bodies had merely been exposed to evil intent and it had entered their bodies, causing them to faint.

After careful consideration, it seemed understandable to Qin Yang. Chen Hu and the rest were only acquired stage martial artists. In the eyes of cultivators, they were basically commoners, hence there was no need to use a powerful spell to deal with them.

Perhaps the black-robed priest still planned to send these men into the evil intent within the large formation then cut their souls out and cultivate them to form ghost creatures.

Qin Yang gave a go at attempting to use his almost-late-stage Qi Refinement Stage cultivation to try helping these men eliminate the killing intent within their bodies. However, he was worried that it would wipe out all of the spiritual energy within his body.

After another thought, he decided to not act directly. The battle had not ended. If the black-robed priest returned to kill them, what would they do? It was best for him to conserve his own energy for now. After all, Chen Hu and the others were not dead. After they have heard the news from Li Tianchou's side, then they could discuss the issue of how to treat them.

Qin Feng and Qin Yang both arrived at the tattered remains of the formation shrouded with evil intent. In that instant, they both felt that the atmosphere here was far colder than anywhere else.

The reason for this was because the majority of the evil killing energy had dissipated. If the spell formation had not been destroyed, this place would definitely be much colder. He could tell by looking at the frost that was beginning to form from the condensed water vapor.

"Dad, what do we do about these people?" Qin Feng saw that his father was currently moving around Zhao Jinglei and the others with him so he rushed to ask about them.

"Evil intent has entered their bodies and they were possessed," Qin Long shook his head and sighed softly, "As I was part of the outer circle of the Beastmaster Sect, I know how to handle demon beasts, however, I am not an expert in how to deal with ghostly creatures. 

I've cast a few spells to momentarily suppress the evil ghosts within their bodies. They will not be killed by those evil spirits, but the specific method of exorcising ghosts will need to be discussed after Master Li returns. "

Qin Feng nodded his head as though he understood, then gazed upon Zhao Jinglei. He felt that the clothes and accessories on this Zhao family heir were all exquisite and very valuable. 

Even with just the tiny Veil lying by his side, a mere glance and one could tell that it glowed with spiritual energy and was extraordinary.

It was a shame that his own Qin family was only a small family. Even if Zhao Jinglei did not recover from his coma, the Qin family could not lust after his treasures.

Qin Feng walked around the few men out of sheer boredom and saw the altar that had been beaten into a pile of rubble in the distance. He walked across to inspect it. Suddenly, a gleam flashed across his eye and he picked up a few stones that were as black as coal from the pile of rubbish.

From behind, Qin Long walked up and after having a look he said, "Those are nether world stones used by the evil cultivator to create the large formation. Apart from demon cultivators, there are few cultivators who would use such things.

"If you want, you can keep them. Perhaps when you enter the sect there might be some use for them. There are some Beastmaster Sect disciples whose spiritual beast might be those of Yin nature. If you did meet them, there might be a chance to trade these for some spirit stones."

Once he heard that he might be able to exchange these black stones for spirit stones, Qin Feng was immediately overjoyed and could not resist digging among the rubbish pile to see if he could find any more nether world stones.

Qin Long shook his head, he did not mind that at all. Instead, he handed a small sachet that was about the size of a fist and said, "This is a storage sack, it's not considered large but you can use it for now. In the future, I will swap it for a better one."

"Thank you, Dad." 

Qin Feng happily received the sachet that was as large as his fist and it felt soft to his touch. It was probably made out of the fur of some type of beast.

He placed a little of his spiritual energy into the storage sack and quickly refined it. He then extended the divine sense that he had just cultivated into the sack, leaving behind just a dab of divine sense as an imprint.

At the same time, he also discovered that this storage sack was just as his father had said; the space within was not large and it measured about several dozen feet of space.

Out of all the types of storage sacks, it should be considered one of the lowest grades. However, for Qin Feng, that was his first time owning this type of magical tool so it was an extremely pleasant surprise.

He placed the nether world stones in his hand into the storage sack and then retrieved it to feel what it felt like. The energy that it took to retrieve the items did not feel like it was too much.

Qin Long watched the exuberant look on his son and smiled indulgently. He then cast his gaze into the distance where the sound of fighting continued to ring.

He did not know if Li Tianchou would be able to kill that evil cultivator. If Li Tianchou failed to do so, it would cause him problems in the future.

Qin Feng was still immersed in the fun of discovering treasure. As he was digging within the altar's rubbish pile, he really did find a couple more types of formation materials that contained Yin energy and kept all of it.

As he was thinking about searching another area, he suddenly felt like he stepped on something. After flipping away two pieces of broken stones to have a look, it turned out to be a quaint copper kettle.

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