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Chapter 729: Chapter 735: Picking Up a Bargain
Yuanzhong was indeed seriously injured, but even so, he was an elite cultivator nurtured by the Wanxiang Sect, and his strength was not to be underestimated!
Moreover, being from a powerful clan, he had numerous life-saving Spiritual Objects at his disposal, enabling him to dodge deadly situations, and sometimes even launch a counterattack.
As for the black-robed Nascent Soul, years of accumulation had given him considerable strength, not to mention his unscathed condition. No matter how many tactics Yuanzhong unleashed, he always gained the upper hand.
He knew he couldn’t rush things; if he stayed steady, he would definitely be the final victor, but the longer it dragged on, the higher the chances of an accident, so he didn’t want to wait any longer.
His attacks became ever more fierce, and he no longer hid his identity, using all of his signature skills.
"Bai Haoyuan, you’ve got some nerve!" Yuanzhong’s evasive moves became increasingly ragged, his hair disheveled, and his Taoist Robe began to tear.
He also recognized the black-robed cultivator before him!
He came from a vassal family within the Wanxiang Sect, which had three Nascent Soul cultivators of extraordinary strength, but all of them were quite old.
"As a vassal, you must know about the Heavenly Machine Peak within the sect. Aren’t you afraid of the repercussions afterward, implicating the entire Bai Family?" Yuanzhong shouted loudly.
"Hahahaha, if that Heavenly Machine Peak were as formidable as you claim, how could you have ended up in such a plight?" Bai Haoyuan, whose identity had been revealed, still didn’t show his face, but his moves became even more ruthless, each aimed to take Yuanzhong’s life.
Under Bai Haoyuan’s relentless onslaught, it took less than a quarter of an hour for Yuanzhong’s vitality to wane and flicker like a candle in the wind, his life force quickly dissipating.
"Want me dead? I’ll make sure you don’t have it easy!" At death’s door, Yuanzhong lost his wits in the face of great terror; his mind obsessed with dragging Bai Haoyuan down with him!
He swallowed copious amounts of Precious Pills that restored Mana like a madman, the immense Spiritual Energy within him clashed and coursed through his body like worms, grotesquely deforming him.
But a crazed and irrational Yuanzhong was the most terrifying of all!
Bai Haoyuan had no choice but to back away, not daring to confront him head-on. He was biding his time, depleting Yuanzhong’s Mana while waiting for the madness to pass.
His plan was sound, but he was still injured by Yuanzhong’s desperate strikes; thankfully, the fruit of victory eventually fell into his hands.
Looking at the nearly unrecognizable corpse, Bai Haoyuan did not approach immediately, instead standing quietly a hundred yards away, as if waiting for something.
After a few dozen breaths, a white light emerged from between the dead Yuanzhong’s brows. The facial features were indistinct, but the towering rage and fury were unmistakable.
Unfortunately, the soul of a Nascent Soul cultivator cannot leave its physical body. A gust of wind blew by, scattering it into specks of Spirit Light that dissolved into the cosmos.
Seeing this, Bai Haoyuan heaved a sigh of relief before stepping forward.
Being from a vassal power of the Wanxiang Sect, he was quite familiar with its Secret Techniques and often-encountered Nascent Souls. He had heard of a soul-marking Secret Technique.
Out of caution, he had not approached Yuanzhong’s body immediately, but as it turned out, Yuanzhong had indeed learned this technique. Fortunately, he had avoided that disaster.
Bai Haoyuan searched every corner of the corpse with his Divine Sense and found a total of four storage magical devices!
In addition to Yuanzhong’s own storage ring, the remaining three devices were all filled with Spirit Stones and Spiritual Objects prepared by the Wanxiang Sect for the auction. Among them were many rare Fourth-order Spiritual Objects, but the most precious was undoubtedly the Fifth-order Soul Protecting Pearl!
It was a special Spiritual Object that dissipated after one use, but was coveted by all Cultivators because it could withstand a single Heart Demon invasion!
Moreover, unlike the Soul-protecting Fruit, the Soul Protecting Pearl would only take effect in the last extremity, thereby turning the earlier Heart Demon’s influence into nourishment for the growth of one’s Daoist heart.
"It’s truly worthy of Wanxiang Sect to be willing to auction such a treasure," Bai Haoyuan mused with a sense of awe in his heart, but soon a wave of joy surged, because all those treasures were his now!
"Cough, cough!"
In his excitement, he accidentally aggravated his wounds and then calmed down, realizing he could not stay here for long. He quickly and thoroughly swept the battlefield to make sure he left no trace of himself, then soared away into the sky.
——
"It seems that those spiritual objects really aren’t meant for me," lamented Li Zhirui, who had been stealthily moving through the wilderness without spotting any sign of the Wanxiang Sect cultivators.
So much time had passed—they must have either safely returned to their sect or been found by other cultivators, leading to a skirmish that resulted in their fall at some unknown corner of the world.
After all, Li Zhirui had seen with his own eyes in Xuanfa State how severely injured the leader with the Nascent Soul was; if met by a fellow Nascent Soul cultivator, the chances of survival were really slim.
"To gain it would be my fortune, to lose it, my fate; enough of this, let’s stop here," he concluded.
To say he wasn’t frustrated would be untrue, but what could he do? He was no expert in tracking or Divine Powers like Heavenly Calculation Deduction; he could only rely on luck.
Just as Li Zhirui was determining the direction to Wanxian Island to return to his family, he suddenly spotted an injured Nascent Soul cultivator flying by not far from him.
"Could that person be the very one I’ve been searching for?" he wondered.
But then he had second thoughts, feeling something was off because the direction of the person’s flight wasn’t towards the location of the Wanxiang Sect’s gates.
"No matter! I can’t just return home empty-handed after all this time and effort," he decided.
The trip to Xuanfa State had been full of fear and danger, and he had used up a stalk of Rongxi Cao and a fourth-order Invisibility Talisman. To return with nothing would truly be a great loss!
All these thoughts flashed through his mind in the span of a breath. 𝔫𝖔𝖛𝖕𝖚𝔟.𝖈𝖔𝔪
Watching the direction in which the man was disappearing, Li Zhirui immediately gave chase, rapidly catching up with the full force of his Wood Escape Skill.
Bai Haoyuan, seeing Li Zhirui suddenly appearing before him, had his breath catch, but quickly regained his composure and asked, "May I know why you have stopped me, fellow Daoist?"
"Fellow Daoist seems a bit anxious; I’m not some fierce and evil being," Li Zhirui started.
But he quickly changed his tone, "However, after running back and forth so many times, though I’m unwilling to leave empty-handed, I had no other choice—until you showed up!"
"So, please kindly hand over your storage magical device."
Bai Haoyuan’s expression darkened as he replied coldly, "Do you think just because I’m injured, you can take advantage of me, fellow Daoist?"
"Of course not," Li Zhirui shook his head and said with a quiet laugh, "because even if you weren’t injured, you wouldn’t be a match for me!"
What did he have to fear from a mid-stage Nascent Soul cultivator who was injured and had spent a significant amount of Mana?
