Ambush and Gu Worms

"These are the medicinal herbs and implements you wanted, fellow cultivator. Please check them."

Li Ye inspected the many items before him one by one. Only after confirming that everything was in order did he count out the corresponding number of Spirit Stones and hand them over. He then put everything away and left the shop with Herb Pavilion written on its signboard.

"That should be just about everything I need..."

Li Ye made a quick mental calculation and murmured to himself.

After leaving the Hundred Treasures Pavilion, he had visited several more reasonably priced shops and bought a full assortment of talisman paper, other auxiliary medicine-refining tools, herbs to practice with, firewood, and the like.

Altogether, it had cost him nearly eighty Spirit Stones!

Combined with his occasional expenses over the preceding days, he now had only a little over a hundred Spirit Stones left.

"Having my wallet suddenly shrink by half really doesn't feel good!"

Li Ye touched his Storage Bag and couldn't help smiling wryly.

He also wanted to repair the Blackwood Sword and buy a defensive Law Artifact. Once he did, he probably wouldn't have much left.

"Forget it. I'd better wait until I've refined my first batch of pills and have a steady income before considering it..."

"Or I could save up some experience points, raise my artifact refining, and fix it myself!"

He thought to himself, with every intention of letting no one make money off him.

Li Ye looked up at the sky, lingered no longer, and headed straight out of the market.

As was his usual habit, he remained cautious, changing roads and clothes several times along the way.

But today, he had a faint feeling that someone was following him and that he hadn't managed to shake them.

"I can't see a trace of them. How are they keeping so close at this distance..."

"The market isn't all that far from the Purple Profound Sect's mountain gate. Even so, would a cultivator who doesn't value their life dare ambush and kill a Purple Profound Sect disciple on the road?"

Li Ye pondered to himself.

Apart from the Pill Furnace, none of his purchases had cost many Spirit Stones individually.

Bandit Cultivators weren't brainless, after all.

It hardly made sense to take such a great risk for that little money.

Unless the shopkeeper or the attendant at the Hundred Treasures Pavilion had passed word to the Bandit Cultivators, bringing this trouble upon him!

His thoughts turned, and a flash of murderous intent passed through his heart, but he suppressed it.

Without betraying anything, he continued speeding along. Though he still used the mountains to conceal his movements from time to time, he no longer stopped or slowed in the slightest. Whether someone was following him or not, everything would be fine once he returned to the sect.

He was already clutching a Golden Bell Talisman and a Cold Breath Talisman in his hand.

After traveling a little farther and passing another low hill, he came upon a tall mountain and a dark ravine ahead.

It was the perfect spot for an ambush!

Buzz, buzz, buzz-

A faint insect buzz reached him. Li Ye's expression shifted slightly, and he immediately activated the Golden Bell Talisman.

A pale golden screen of light instantly enveloped him, and the Blackwood Sword appeared in his hand in an instant.

The next moment, several tiny black insects slammed into the screen.

Li Ye glanced at them and saw that they looked ferocious. Even after striking the golden bell's screen of light, they still seemed intent on ramming and gnawing at it.

If he hadn't reacted in time and they had gotten close enough to burrow into a vulnerable spot like his ears, the consequences would have been unthinkable!

Without hesitation, he immediately sent the little green leaf boat into the air.

Just then.

A black flash appeared behind him, followed closely by the sound of something slicing through the air. But Li Ye happened to evade it as he rose, and the saber struck only the little green leaf boat, chopping off a small piece.

The blow knocked him off course.

Whoosh-

He swayed as he steadied himself, then looked in the direction of the attack and finally caught sight of his assailant.

The man had his head and face covered and was burly in build. His cultivation wasn't particularly high, only at the fifth layer.

Seeing that Li Ye had dodged his blow, the man immediately gave a vicious grin, gripped his long saber, and closed in to attack again.

Expressionless, Li Ye simply retreated and activated several talismans with a wave of his hand.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh-

Streams of cold Qi burst forth.

Though they weren't very powerful individually, together they came down almost like a blanket over the man's head and face.

The scattered black insects closing in were immediately frozen to death and fell.

The masked burly man was charging straight ahead and had no time to dodge. He could only activate a Golden Bell Talisman of his own and push forward against it.

But Li Ye had activated four Cold Breath Talismans at once, and they weren't so easily blocked.

Cold Qi engulfed the masked man, and the golden bell's screen of light around him rapidly dimmed and froze before shattering and dispersing.

The remaining cold Qi chilled him to the bone. Covered in white frost, he was frozen stiff and trembling, his vision much more blurred as well. He couldn't help cursing aloud,

"Bastard!"

He reacted quickly enough, immediately relying on his memory to escape toward the mountain forest below.

He also used another Golden Bell Talisman to guard against attacks and buy himself time to recover.

Boom, boom, boom!

Just then, the cold faded, and scorching heat swept over him.

Several fireballs blasted down at him. The masked man barely dodged two before he was hit on the spot.

Firelight exploded, and the masked man screamed as he crashed headfirst into the mountainside. He rolled over and over, trying to put out the flames. In the blink of an eye, his clothes were in tatters and his body was covered in burns.

Whoosh-

A sword flew over and came to rest against his neck.

Feeling its sharp edge, the masked man didn't dare struggle, even though the pain of the burns was nearly driving him mad.

He could only shout,

"Spare me, fellow cultivator! Please, spare me!"

Standing on his flying boat, Li Ye looked down at the man from the air, his gaze cold.

"If you want to live, tell me who sent you!"

"I'll talk! I'll talk!"

The masked man hurriedly said, "It was your... cough, cough, no-"

Before he could finish, his eyes suddenly bulged and his voice became muffled. In the end, he let out a single scream, and his Vitality was snuffed out in an instant.

"What kind of method is this..."

Li Ye frowned deeply.

It wasn't because he was uncomfortable with killing.

Having died once and inherited his predecessor's memories, he was no longer affected by it.

But a method that killed someone instantly, without any visible sign, at the slightest intention to reveal something-surely that wasn't something a Qi Refining disciple should have, no matter how one looked at it!

The next moment, his expression changed.

A sweep of Law Power tore open the man's clothes, revealing something about the size of a thumb wriggling beneath the skin over his heart.

With a slash of the Blackwood Sword, he sliced open the flesh.

As blood flowed, a small insect wriggled out. It struggled a few times, then went still.

"A Gu worm?"

At the sight, Li Ye immediately recalled some accounts he had read in the records and formed a vague guess.

"At the slightest revelation, a Gu worm immediately bit through his heart meridian and killed him. That's not a method just anyone could possess. Could the Hundred Treasures Pavilion really be behind this?"

He pondered it.

After all, aside from them, he really couldn't think of anyone who could have sent a Qi Refinement Fifth Layer cultivator to ambush and kill him.

And if that really was the case... he would have to repay them someday!

As soon as the burly man died, the tiny black insects that had been secretly closing in scattered, flying off who knew where.

Li Ye tested the small insect briefly and found that, though it wasn't dead, it could no longer move. Only then did he feel at ease enough to take out a jade bottle and put it away.

He also pulled off the burly man's face covering, revealing a rough, pockmarked face he had never seen before.

Since he didn't recognize the man, there was no need to waste any more time.

After a quick search, Li Ye collected the fallen Law Artifact and the man's Storage Bag, then took out a fireball talisman and burned the burly man's corpse to ashes before setting off again.

This time, the rest of his journey passed without incident, and he returned smoothly.

In the underground quiet room at his residence.

"A dignified Qi Refinement Fifth Layer Bandit Cultivator is this poor?"

Looking at the contents of the burly man's Storage Bag spread out before him, Li Ye cursed aloud.

Aside from some odds and ends, there were only a dozen or so Spirit Stones, a few jin of spirit rice, some jade bottles containing insects, and a copy of the Torrent Art, which could be found on every street corner.

The only thing that seemed to be worth anything was the low-grade black long saber the masked man had left behind!

"Hmm... now this is interesting!"

But when Li Ye found a small booklet without a cover, his expression immediately turned serious.

It contained accounts and descriptions of several Gu worms!

For instance, the little black insects with sharp teeth and mouths were Gu worms called Iron-Devouring Gu. Judging by their power and effects, however, they didn't seem to have been fully refined and were only half-finished.

There was also the Breath-Tracking Gu, which could follow a person's trail from afar after absorbing their scent.

And the insect that had killed the burly man in an instant was something called the United Hearts Gu...

Two people had to feed them with their Essence Blood and refine two together. In the end, each person would swallow one, allowing it to attach itself to their heart meridian.

If either person betrayed the other, they would instantly suffer a backlash from the Gu worm, which would gnaw through their heart meridian and kill them.

"And it is often used by couples in the Southern Border when making marriage vows..."

When Li Ye read that far, a cold gleam flashed in his eyes.

If that was the case, he really had provoked a woman recently!