To the west side of the central area, precious medicine herbs grew in the ravines. Three cultivators were battling fiercely with a three-eyed Flame Wolf; a middle-aged man wearing the robes of the Giant Sword Sect controlled a huge azure sword, which blocked most of the Flame Wolf’s attacks. At the same time, a yellow-robed old man and a young man wearing a gray Daoist robe provided supporting attacks from the sides.

In a short time, the disciple from the Giant Sword Sect went all out and beheaded the wolf’s body in one fluid swing, getting hit by a huge fireball in the process. Then, he sheathed his giant sword and began to laugh while looking into the sky.

“Brother Meng’s magic power is truly profound, capable of killing even this three-eyed Flame Wolf in one slash! You are worthy of being called one of the Giant Sword Sect’s rising stars....”Upon seeing these circumstances, the yellow-robed old man immediately ran over diligently and began to unceasingly fawn over him; his face bore no traces of flushing.

If Han Li was there, he would have recognized this old man as the one who had initially invited him to form an alliance with the weaker members. His name was Xiang Zhili. However, the young disciple from the same sect as him was no longer there; it seemed that when they were being transported, he had strayed off.

“Hehe, if it wasn’t for Brother Xiang and Daoist Priest Li’s assistance from the sides, success would not have been so easy!” The middle-aged man who wore a black robe and held his sword was actually very modest.

“Brother Meng, there’s no need to be courteous! You were able to get rid of this kind of demonic beast, so you deserve all the credit. There’s no room for debate!” The other young Daoist Priest, although young in age, spoke neither overbearing nor in a servile way. He was clearly an experienced individual.

Hearing what was spoken, a trace of a smile appeared on the black-clothed, middle-aged man’s face, but he immediately spoke a few more modest sentences.

“Speaking of which, the other people who are still fighting really are silly! If they knew that the three of us could actually work together to defeat these demonic beasts and collect medicinal ingredients despite being from different sects, it’s possible that they would be so shocked their jaws would fall off!” The black-clothed man spoke, suddenly changing the subject.

“Of course! This all came about because of Brother Xiang! If it wasn’t for Brother Xiang making everything thoroughly clear, perhaps Brother Meng and I would probably still be fighting to the death!” The Daoist Priest nodded his head as he spoke.

“You praise me too highly! You are both extremely smart people; all I did was speak the truth! Nobody needs to waste their lives trying to retrieve items that could never end up in the hands of people like us. How great is it that everyone ignores the precious medicinal ingredients outside of the central area because they’re too busy killing each other! In addition, if we all work together, dealing with these demonic beasts is a piece of cake!” Xiang Zhili giggled happily, glibly and repeatedly declining politely.

Hearing this, the other two people began another frenzied round of flattery.

“Okay, we should quickly move and pick the ‘Fire Dragon Grass’! Everybody gets an equally large portion!” It was the black-clothed man who first ran out of patience and spoke. His voice revealed a hint of urgency, and after saying this he began to walk towards a few clumps of red grass behind the body of the Flame Wolf.

Hearing this, Xiang Zhili and the Daoist Priest smiled at each other with hidden meanings in their eyes; then, they walked towards him, their mouths full of words of agreement.

The two of them hadn’t realized, however, that the black-clothed man with his back facing towards them suddenly revealed a trace of a dark and strict expression. However, it quickly disappeared.

....

South of the central area, in a small area covered with yellow sand, a male and a female disciple from the Masked Moon Sect were using ice awls to continuously puncture the desert ground as if they were looking for something.

However, after half a day, they still had not obtained anything.

“This sl*t, where exactly did she hide! After finding her, I will definitely claw out her eyes!” The female disciple appeared to be incredibly enchanting, as beautiful as a flower, but as soon as she opened her mouth, she became sinister and vicious to the extreme. If men heard her speaking in this way, they would shiver.

“Junior Martial Sister, let’s just let it go! The time that the sect arranged is about to pass; if we don’t leave now, we’ll be late!” The male disciple weakly said. It seemed as if he was very scared of this Junior Martial Sister.

“Humph! It’s the fault of a worthless piece of trash like you. You couldn’t even keep track of a tenth layer cultivator girl. She actually slipped away from right underneath our noses! If this spreads, people will make laughingstocks out of me and my sister, the Masked Moon Sect’s Twin Beauties!

But words were just words in the end. The female disciple glanced at the brightness of the sky, and did not dare to continue to search. She didn’t want to interfere with the major plans of her sect; even if her status was special and she had a strong backer, they were all relatively unimportant.

On the other hand, she was also unwilling to leave this place with her tail between her legs; after hesitating many times, she gritted her teeth and pulled out a blue talisman.

Looking at this talisman, she laughed evilly, and abruptly tossed the talisman behind her.Then, she quickly ran out from that area until she was about a hundred meters away before stopping and turning around to watch from there.

Seeing this, the male disciple complained incessantly under his breath, but he quickly followed after her, not daring to slight her.

At this time, the talisman became a huge black cloud, roughly the size of fourty meters; the sky above the area was completely covered up by the cloud, and the nearby temperature abruptly dropped, becoming incomparably cold.

In no time, countless massive ice awls began to fall from the black cloud at an increasing speed, and in a very short amount of time the entire area was densely packed with ice awls stuck into the ground. It was as densely packed as the needles on a cactus.

In the time it took to boil a pot of tea, the black cloud slowly dissipated. At this time, the entire desert sparkled like crystal.

The female disciple opened her eyes wide, sweeping across the entire desert, which was virtually impossible to stand on. However, she didn’t see even a trace of anything peculiar.

Her face viciously fell, and she unhappily shouted at the male disciple. She resentfully took the lead and left the area. Her so-called cultivation partner naturally followed closely behind her.

The Masked Moon Sect woman who had just left didn’t notice that in a corner of the ice-awl covered desert, a trace amount of red liquid had seeped out. Unfortunately, its color was too light, and so it escaped the notice of that female disciple.

After half of a quarter of an hour, when the dark red had begun to spread, a spherical small bubble suddenly emerged from the yellow sand, becoming increasingly large and increasingly noticeable.

In the end, the sand bubble exploded in a raging torrent, and a green-robed female tumbled out of it, a long, slender awl stuck into her shoulder. Fresh blood flowed from the wound, covering half of her body already. Her hand was tightly gripping a yellow handkerchief; radiance flickered on its surface, as if it were not a common item.

The woman slowly crawled to her feet. When she looked at the wound on her shoulder, her sleek eyebrows tightly knitted.

She raised her other hand and lightly grabbed the latter half of the ice awl; then, gritting her teeth, she pulled out the ice awl. The woman delicately groaned in pain, and tears leaked out of her graceful eyes. Fresh blood poured out from the site of the wound.

However, she couldn’t afford to wipe away the tears on her face; she didn’t dare delay. After a brief flurry of movement, she retrieved a flowery porcelain bottle from her storage pouch. She dumped out some yellow medicinal powder onto her wound, and the blood immediately stopped gushing from her wound.

After finishing, the green-robed woman sat down on the desert sand and hugged her knees, unmoving. After a brief moment of time, she suddenly buried her head in her hands and began to cry. However, because she was scared of drawing the attention of other people, this woman kept her crying volume to a minimum.

After the time it took to eat a meal had passed, this female disciple from Spirit Beast Mountain finally stopped weeping. She raised her head. Gazing at the uninhabited desert, she couldn’t help but shiver!

She bit her lip, and then struggled to stand up. After vacillating for a long time, she finally determined her direction and staggered towards the central area. The woman’s pretty and pleasant face still had some tear stains on it, but at the same time, she wore a stubborn and resolute expression that didn’t seem to match her appearance.

This woman was the one who had sold Han Li the “Golden Sincerity Brush”. However, now that she had been wounded and was walking silently on the sandy ground alone, she was even more beautifully pitiful, causing people to want to take care of her.

After a brief moment of time, she continued to onward with her wounded body as she disappeared into the yellow sands.

...