Chapter 14: Reaping Benefits Without Sowing

  "Received!" Li Mu's large sleeve waved, and the beam of light trembled several times before retracting, taking the white fire spirit with it.

  "Seal!" Immediately afterwards, Li Mu shouted again, his palm forming a spell seal. Instantly, strange patterns appeared in the air, enveloping the fire spirit within.

  Right after that, Li Mu took out a jade box and put the fire spirit inside. After doing all this, Li Mu finally turned around and looked at Ding Yao.

  "Photography! Brother is so amazing, he actually learned photography." Ding Yao saw Li Mu's actions and showed a hint of admiration.

  "Hehe, Sister is praising me, I'm just evenly matched with you." Li Mu put away the Huo Ling and walked towards Ding Yao, his expression natural.

  Just then, Li Shixiong seemed to have discovered something was amiss and suddenly changed his expression, pointing behind Ding Yao's back and saying: "Ding Shimei, be careful of what's behind you!"

  "What's wrong?" As soon as she heard this, Ding Yao hastily turned around, but just as she did, a sudden change occurred.

  Li Mu suddenly sprang up, and another ice-sealing charm appeared in his hand, shooting directly at Ding Yao who was completely unguarded.

  "Li Shixiong, you..."

  Ding Yao was caught off guard and could only watch as her body was covered in a layer of frost, until finally, only her skull was exposed.

  "Heh heh, junior sister, you're so pure and naive, how could you be so easily deceived? The Xuanbing Huoling is such a treasure, why would I share it with you?"

  Seeing Ding Yao being thoroughly sealed by his own Ice Seal, Li Mu's face revealed a triumphant smile, and he brushed off the dust on his body, walking to her side with an extremely pleased expression.

  "Li Mu, I didn't expect this person's mind to be so deep!"

  Wang Fei, hiding in the bushes, witnessed with his own eyes the two joining forces to seize the Xuanbing Huoling from the Ice Fire Lizard's body. He also saw Li Mu, for his own selfish desires, ruthlessly turn against his former companion, and a chill ran up his spine.

  This cultivation world is indeed full of deceit and conspiracy.

  "Li Mu, you are despicable and shameless!" Ding Yao angrily scolded the hypocrite in front of her, but the icy feeling spreading through her body made her blood run weaker, and her face turned even paler.

  "Shameless? Haha, if one doesn't take care of oneself, heaven and earth will destroy them. Ting Yao, Ting Yao, you've actually forgotten this survival principle?"

  Li Mu looked up at the sky and laughed loudly, standing with his hands behind his back, a posture that said life and death were in his control.

  "Alright, I won't argue with you anymore. Time is almost up, and I still need to go hunt a few more demonic beasts to avoid arousing suspicion from others." Li Mu's expression turned cold as he raised the Qingyan sword in his hand, ready to strike Ding Yao's neck.

  "Li Mu, I will never let you have your way."

  Ding Yao glared at the person who had betrayed her, gritting her teeth and saying, "I would rather be broken jade than intact pottery, I will never let him get away with it."

  Just as Qingyan's sword was about to fall, Ding Yao made a desperate move, biting the tip of her tongue and spitting out a mouthful of blood.

  This is a high-level Blood Refining Technique, specifically used to increase one's strength. The more refined blood that is spat out, the faster one's strength will increase.

  However, since casting this spell requires the caster's blood gas essence, after casting it, not only is the cultivation greatly damaged, but also affects the lifespan, so ordinary people are generally unwilling to cast this spell. My Taoist Canon 14

  However, at this moment, Ding Yao is already on the verge of death and has long since put life and death out of his mind. Since he can't escape death himself, why not drag someone down with him as a shield?

  With this thought in mind, Ding Yao spat out five mouthfuls of blood, almost exhausting all the vital energy she had accumulated from her years of cultivation.

  "Pffft! Pffft! Pffft! Pffft!"

  Five mouthfuls of fresh blood suddenly transformed into five blood arrows, carrying a powerful energy, shooting towards Li Mu's heart and neck.

  "Foolishness!" Li Mu saw the situation and coldly shouted, with a big sleeve shaking out another Vajra seal to block.

  "Clang! Clang! Clang!"

  Five blood arrows struck the Golden Symbol, emitting a metallic tremolo. As the blood arrows attacked, Li Mu's originally calm and composed expression also began to turn grave, because that layer of golden light symbol had already appeared with fine cracks.

  Unfortunately, this was his last defensive talisman.

  "Crack!"

  With a crisp sound, the Golden Seal cracked and one of the blood arrows also disappeared in response, but there were still four blood arrows that came precariously.

  "Despicable person!"

  Li Mu shouted loudly and quickly retreated his body while pushing out several palms forward to block the attack of the blood arrows.

  "Green Rock Sword, defend me!"

  At the same time, Li Mu once again urged on Qingyan Sword, this top-grade artifact. Immediately, Qingyan Sword enlarged once more, transforming into a copper wall and iron fortress that blocked the Blood Arrows.

  Qingyan Sword, a mid-grade artifact, immediately blocked the Blood Arrows' attack. However, Li Mu had just caught his breath when the jade box in his hand began to shake violently, emitting a loud humming noise.

  Seeing this, Li Mu secretly thought it was not good and hurriedly activated the method, pointing at the jade box, wanting to suppress the commotion of the Xuanbing Huoling.

  But his hopes were apparently dashed.

  All of a sudden, there was a loud rumble, the jade box burst open with a crash, and a white bead suddenly shot out and flew high into the air.

  Bang! Bang! Bang!

  Xuanbing Huoling flew into the high sky, breaking through three layers of restrictions in a row, and rushed out.

  "Let's go!"

  Li Mu shouted loudly and immediately chased after him with his sword.

  Wang Fei gazed at the Xuanbing Huoling that was shooting towards him, initially intending to ignore it. However, upon seeing Li Mu's tense expression, Wang Fei's heart stirred. He glanced at the Lingyao on the nearby cliff and, without saying a word, pulled out a red talisman from his Spirit Pearl.

  "Go!"

  Wang Fei raised his hand, and the talisman paper instantly ignited, transforming into a rainbow light that shot up into the sky.

  At the moment when this rainbow light shot into the high sky, it suddenly expanded and turned into a heavenly net. The white Xuanbing Fire Spirit was caught off guard and fled in panic, only to crash directly into Wang Fei's heavenly net.

  Seeing the white pearl enter the net, Wang Fei's spiritual power urged on, and that Luo net was shaken, extending two tentacles to take in the two medicinal herbs on the steep cliff. Afterwards, a light flashed, transforming into a red glow that fell towards where Wang Fei was located.

  Wang Fei immediately picked up the white bead wrapped in red silk thread and casually tossed it into the Lingzhu.

  A white bead entered the Lingzhu, and a stream of icy fire energy burst out, surging inside the Lingzhu. Wang Fei's face turned cold, and he hastily deployed his spiritual power to resist it.

  The aura of ice and fire was too intense, even Li Mu's cultivation of Ling Yu Ba Ceng couldn't completely suppress this thing, let alone Wang Fei. Suddenly, Wang Fei's forehead broke out in a cold sweat.

  But just then, the jade stone inside the Lingzhu suddenly emitted a soft and gentle glow, and the violent Xuanbing Fire Spirit immediately calmed down and sank into a certain corner of the Lingzhu.

  Jian Huo Ling calmed down, Wang Fei let out a long breath and immediately turned his head and ran away.

  "Who is this thief, daring to steal Li's treasure!"

  Li Mu saw the sudden emergence of a huge net, his heart skipped a beat, he handled it with extreme caution, but was still discovered, which made him extremely unwilling, so he brought his rolling anger and roared in the direction where the net fell.

  "Those who know what's good for them will quickly put down their treasure, otherwise..."

  Li Mu loudly shouted, intimidatingly said, but just as he had only spoken halfway through his sentence, a loud "Boom" sound was heard, and immediately in front of him appeared a thick black smoke, so dense that one couldn't see their own fingers, let alone give chase.

  The one emitting black smoke was Wang Fei. Wang Fei had a total of three smoke bombs, which he occasionally picked up in the bushes. It turned out that these smoke bombs were really useful. When Lin Feng discovered him peeking at the alchemy that day, he used this object to escape. Now, using the same trick again, Wang Fei couldn't help but smile wryly.

  With a sigh, Wang Fei vanished into thin air the moment he emerged from the smoke bomb, disappearing along the winding path.

  As for Li Mu's angry roar, Wang Fei had nothing to do with it. As for the previous words, they were even more ridiculous. When you have meat in your hands, what reason is there to return it?

  As for Li Mu and Ding Yao's struggle, Wang Fei was secretly delighted, letting him play the fisherman once, gaining a treasure for no reason, how could he not be happy?

  ……

  After running for half a day, Wang Fei was already panting, looking at the gloomy sky, Wang Fei found a deserted place and sat down cross-legged. He had to recover his strength as soon as possible, in order to return to the starting point by sunset tomorrow.

  ……