Have You Ever Heard of Great Sage Punishes Heaven?

After the time it took to drink a cup of tea, Fang Wang set down the Spirit Sculpting Manual.

Creating temporary Heavenly Dao Spirit Stones was quite difficult and required certain special materials. It would be better to find a place where spiritual energy was so abundant it formed a vortex, then set up a special formation there to create an effect comparable to Heavenly Dao Spirit Stones.

With his photographic memory, Fang Wang memorized several key points before rising to act.

Before coming here, he had exchanged for the largest-capacity Storage Bag in the Taiyuan Sect, all so he could gather as many heavenly treasures and earthly jewels as possible on this journey.

He dropped into the woods beneath the cliff. The moment he landed, several brightly colored flowers and fruits caught his eye. He took out the Heaven and Earth Treasure Record Gu Li had given him. As for this book, he had only memorized the illustrations and the specific page numbers, not every detail within.

He flipped directly to a certain page and compared them.

"Deer Yellow Fruit, a fine fruit that strengthens one's vitality and blood. Not bad. I can take it."

Fang Wang thought happily. He had found something right from the start. Following the Heaven and Earth Treasure Record's instructions, he avoided the poisonous thorns amid the surrounding weeds and easily plucked the Deer Yellow Fruit.

For the rest of the journey, Fang Wang did not move quickly. He strolled through the forest as though taking a walk.

It was his first time gathering heavenly treasures and earthly jewels, so he was rather excited. It felt like playing an adventure game.

In this life, aside from cultivation, all he did was travel. He had never truly relaxed. In terms of his actual age, he had lived for over a thousand years, and most of that time had been like sitting in prison. If he did not properly unwind, he feared he would cultivate inner demons.

This forest was vast. Its trees were taller than those outside, and its flowers and grass grew more densely. Some patches of brush were even taller than Fang Wang.

An hour later, Fang Wang had already harvested quite a lot, but they could only be considered decent materials, nowhere near the level of heavenly treasures and earthly jewels.

Breaking through to the Spirit Pill Realm required certain special heavenly treasures and earthly jewels, and they were divided by attributes. The more attribute-based spiritual energy one absorbed from such treasures during the breakthrough, the stronger the Spirit Pill one forged would be. It would also transform the attributes of one's own spiritual energy.

In Zhou Xue's Spirit Sculpting Manual, she had warned Fang Wang not to focus too heavily on the fire attribute. It was best to gather heavenly treasures and earthly jewels of all five elements, allowing his spiritual energy attributes to achieve a balance of the five elements. Though she had not explained why, Fang Wang was willing to trust her.

Perhaps Spirit Pills focused on a single spiritual energy attribute could make cultivators stronger in the early stages, but to become immortal, one surely had to reach the state of Heaven and Earth Nature. And what was Heaven and Earth Nature? It was the unity of the five elements.

When the five elements became one, even more attributes could be born.

Suddenly.

Fang Wang stopped walking. He faintly heard a woman crying. He was a cultivator; auditory hallucinations would not happen to him.

What woman capable of entering the Great Sage's Grotto-Heaven would cry so easily?

Could some demon within the Great Sage's Grotto-Heaven be causing trouble?

Fang Wang was not wary. Instead, he felt somewhat expectant. Demons could cultivate as well, and some Great Demons could even refine Demonic Cores. Demonic Cores themselves were treasures that cultivators could use when condensing Spirit Pills.

He immediately rushed toward the source of the sound while circulating the Breathless Natural Skill, causing his aura to vanish.

As he continued forward, the mysterious woman's sobbing grew clearer and clearer. Gradually, Fang Wang sensed demonic aura.

It was undoubtedly a demon!

Only, the other party was farther away from him than he had imagined.

After traveling dozens of miles, Fang Wang saw the end of the forest. He began to slow down, leaping from branch to branch.

Clearly, the earlier crying had deliberately lured him here.

Fang Wang gripped the hilt of the Qing Jun Sword in his right hand. He was agile as a monkey, yet light as a swan, without making the slightest sound.

He reached the forest's edge and concealed himself behind the dense leaves, gazing beyond the woods. Mountains lay ahead, with sparse vegetation on the slopes and rocks of varying sizes scattered everywhere.

His gaze quickly locked onto a figure halfway up the mountain. It was a woman in white standing on a cliff, her hair hanging loose and obscuring her face. In her right hand, she held a Green Snake. It was this Green Snake that kept producing cries like those of a woman.

Fang Wang frowned. The Green Snake emitted an exceptionally powerful demonic aura, at least the strongest he had ever felt. Yet the woman in white had not a trace of aura. If he closed his eyes, he would not be able to sense her existence at all.

The woman in white remained motionless. The Green Snake in her hand trembled faintly, and its cries were so pitiful that they stirred sympathy. From the sound alone, one could easily imagine a gentle, delicate woman suffering a grievance.

Fang Wang could not gauge the woman in white's strength, so he did not dare act rashly.

He observed patiently and soon noticed a dark yellow stone embedded in the mountain wall behind the woman in white.

Earth Origin Ore!

It was a heavenly treasure used to refine magical artifacts and could also be used to condense Spirit Pills. Earth Origin Ore contained an extremely high concentration of earth-attributed spiritual energy, and the ore was definitely not as small as it appeared. Perhaps the entire mountain was Earth Origin Ore.

Fang Wang began to ponder. He had to find a way to cut off a piece.

If only someone would come charging out to test her!

The thought had barely surfaced when a sharp whistle tore through the air, startling Fang Wang into focusing his gaze. From the woods in another direction, a flying sword shot out and raced toward the woman in white at tremendous speed.

So fast!

It was even faster than Xu Lang's sword!

In the blink of an eye, the flying sword reached the woman in white and abruptly stopped. Its tip was less than five centimeters from her head. The blade trembled, unable to advance any farther.

Whoosh—

A figure sprang out of the forest. He was a young man dressed in black, and Fang Wang recognized at once that he came from the Xuantian Sword Sect.

The Xuantian Sword Sect's disciples wore black robes with sword symbols printed on their backs. The number of swords represented a disciple's rank. Five swords were printed on this man's back, indicating that he was a Personal Disciple of the Xuantian Sword Sect.

The Black-robed Man leaped over and swiftly grabbed the hilt of his flying sword. Raising two fingers on his left hand, he fired out a streak of Sword Qi that instantly struck the woman in white, passed through her body, and then hit the Earth Origin Ore behind her, sending shattered stones flying.

The Black-robed Man tried to raise his sword and leap away, only to discover that he could not lift the flying sword at all. An invisible force had fixed his sword in place, and his expression changed drastically.

He suddenly sprang away, abandoning the flying sword. While still in midair, his hands rapidly formed seals. Streams of Sword Qi surrounded him and shot skyward. He raised his right hand high, his fingertips pointing at the heavens as Sword Qi surged in that direction, swiftly condensing into a gigantic sword of Sword Qi over fifty feet long.

It sounded slow, but it all happened in an instant!

The Black-robed Man used his palm as a sword and slashed at the woman in white. The enormous Sword Qi crashed down like heavenly punishment, striking her.

The mountains shook violently, and Sword Qi burst in all directions like wind blades ravaging the hills and plains. Even the trees at the edge were sliced open with one gash after another.

Fang Wang's pupils suddenly widened, while the Black-robed Man's face turned ashen. His Sword Qi had stopped above the woman in white's head, unable to descend.

The woman in white slowly raised her head, revealing a deathly pale face. Her features were stunning enough to topple kingdoms and cities, but her skin was so white it made one's hair stand on end. Her eyes were even more numb, like stagnant water.

She suddenly released the Green Snake in her hand. The Green Snake fell to the ground and had just begun to flee when she stepped on it. Its body twitched, and it immediately stopped moving.

The Black-robed Man felt an extreme killing intent and instantly turned to flee.

Sword Qi wrapped around him as he streaked through the air like a flying sword, swiftly vanishing into the forest on the other side. The woman in white floated into the air, then suddenly disappeared from where she stood.

The opportunity had come!

Fang Wang immediately moved, transforming into a white rainbow and swiftly arriving at the cliff. He swung his sword, cutting the Earth Origin Ore from the mountain wall and tossing it into his Storage Bag.

Before leaving, he glanced at the half-dead Green Snake on the ground. He hooked it up with one foot, pinched its head with his left hand to keep it from biting him, and carried it away while riding his sword.

To prevent the woman in white from catching up, Fang Wang directly used the White Rainbow Escape Technique and fled at full speed.

Fang Wang was delighted. He had stumbled upon such a huge opportunity the moment he arrived. Heaven was helping him!

The Earth Origin Ore could serve as one of the materials for his Spirit Pill. The Green Snake in his hand had astonishing demonic aura; perhaps it contained a Demonic Core. He would find a place to cut it open and take a look!

Fang Wang's White Rainbow Escape Technique was incomparably fast. He sped onward for more than a hundred miles, even encountering two disciples from other sects along the way. Seeing how fast Fang Wang was, both were frightened and fled in different directions.

Only after fleeing two hundred miles did Fang Wang slow down. He looked around, seeking a suitable place to stop.

Just then, Fang Wang suddenly felt a chill run down his spine. Then a cold voice entered his ears:

"Have you ever heard of Great Sage Punishes Heaven?"

He turned his head and discovered that the woman in white was behind him. Less than three meters separated them.

An incomparably dangerous distance!