The Great Serpent Qingli

As the bone shield showed signs of being unable to hold, Cai Xiuyong immediately sent out another magical artifact, a bronze bell.

"Soul Falling Bell, activate!"

The bell rang, and a wave of energy surged towards Lin Le.

But a faint golden light appeared on his body.

It was the Golden Light Divine Mantra taking effect.

Boom!

Lin Le swung his spear down again.

Cai Xiuyong's face was filled with shock: "You've actually cultivated the Heavenly Gate!"

He hadn't seen the layer of golden light. After all, it was broad daylight, and the sunlight shone on Lin Le. The golden light was faint, making it impossible to distinguish between sunlight and the actual golden light.

Therefore, Cai Xiuyong mistakenly believed Lin Le had cultivated the Heavenly Gate. Only those proficient in soul refinement would have such strong resistance to his Soul Falling Bell.

Boom!

Lin Le paid no mind to Cai Xiuyong's shock and swung his spear down again.

Crack! The bone shield had already developed cracks.

"Damn it!"

Cai Xiuyong could no longer hide and shouted, "Kill!"

A bone sword flew out from his sleeve, stabbing directly at Lin Le.

Lin Le swung his spear down again, this time with a scorching heat.

The spear's momentum was fierce, and it actually knocked the bone sword away.

Cai Xiuyong also spat out a mouthful of blood, his eyes filled with disbelief because the ghost hidden within the sword was gone.

Logically, a cultivator who hadn't reached Foundation Establishment couldn't usually control objects with their divine sense. But he had found another way. If he couldn't control objects, why couldn't he control ghosts?

Using ghosts to control objects was Cai Xiuyong's most prized technique.

The ghosts he used to control objects had their own intelligence and were equivalent to cultivators at the first layer of Qi Refining.

But just now, Lin Le had actually destroyed the ghost hidden within his sword with a single spear strike.

A Four Limit Martial Artist destroying a ghost equivalent to the first layer of Qi Refining? What kind of joke was this? He had never heard of such a thing!

Lin Le also raised an eyebrow. He had just received five points of Human Dao merit and ten points of killing karma.

Ghosts?

Lin Le immediately found the answer and couldn't help but feel a bit regretful. Killing ghosts directly resulted in killing karma, not Earthly Dao merit. He was in greater need of Earthly Dao merit right now.

"Run!"

Cai Xiuyong immediately made his decision. He was a Huangting cultivator. Without the support of ghosts, he had no powerful spells to use, especially during the day.

Thinking of this, Cai Xiuyong couldn't help but feel heartache. He had been too overconfident, having grown accustomed to dominating this small town. He had forgotten the caution he should have maintained in his early years.

He possessed three magical artifacts, which could even threaten the town mayor. Yet, he had encountered someone like Lin Le, who defied common sense. Not only was one artifact heavily damaged, but another was gone.

At this thought, Cai Xiuyong felt even more heartbroken.

Then, he realized he was truly heartbroken because his heart had been pierced by a spear.

When?

Cai Xiuyong looked at Lin Le blankly. He hadn't even reacted to the spear strike.

"Two Forms of Fighting Heaven, Sky-Breaking!"

Lin Le quietly watched Cai Xiuyong die, pulling out his spear imbued with Lightning Flash Momentum.

He also killed the coachman with a casual strike. Lin Le ignored the shocked expressions of the residents on the street and dragged Cai Xiuyong's corpse inside.

Finding a well, he knocked nine times. A giant snake emerged from the well. It glanced at the scattered bones and couldn't help but complain, "Are you the reincarnation of some killing star? You wipe out entire families with every encounter. Aren't you afraid of accumulating too much karma and getting struck down by heavenly tribulation later?"

"Killing evil people doesn't accumulate karma; it accumulates merit," Lin Le replied. "Do you want these three magical artifacts?"

Lin Le offered Cai Xiuyong's three magical artifacts to the giant snake.

The giant snake glanced at them, a human-like look of disdain appearing on its snake face: "Trash. I'd consider it too much if you paid me one low-grade spirit stone for them."

"Then can you help me reinforce my weapon?" Lin Le took out his Tiger Bone Spear, whose shaft already showed cracks.

The material was still a bit too brittle for his current strength.

"I can reinforce it a bit, but don't expect me to forge it into a magical artifact. I don't know how to do that," the giant snake said.

"Reinforcement is fine," Lin Le nodded.

The giant snake glanced at Cai Xiuyong's corpse: "But isn't your combat power a bit too abnormal? You can actually kill a cultivator at the Second Layer."

"He cultivated ghosts. During the day, he's about the same as a cultivator at the First Layer," Lin Le said.

It was precisely because he knew Cai Xiuyong practiced underhanded techniques that he decided to attack during the day.

The great snake flicked its forked tongue and pulled out a brocade pouch: "A storage bag, appearing on such a minor cultivator, that's quite rare."

"Is it very rare?" Lin Le asked curiously.

"Not exactly rare, but the cheapest ones cost at least a hundred low-grade spirit stones." The great snake seemed to examine the brocade pouch. "This one, four feet high and wide, should be worth two to three hundred."

As if discovering something else, the great snake exclaimed in realization: "No wonder this minor cultivator has a storage bag. So they received the legacy of predecessors, and are merely a demonic cultivator."

The great snake tipped the brocade pouch, and several items spilled onto the ground. Besides a large amount of gold, silver, and other valuables, along with some bottles and jars, there were also five milky-white stones and three booklets.

The great snake coiled its tongue and took the five stones: "These five spirit stones are mine, as a fee for my services. This storage bag is yours."

"You don't want it?" Lin Le asked, surprised.

"I have better ones, why would I want a shoddy one?" The great snake swallowed the spirit stones. "Give me your spear, and I'll reinforce it for you."

"Okay." Lin Le handed his spear to the great snake.

The great snake exhaled a puff of white mist, which instantly billowed like flames, enveloping Cai Xiuyong's three magical artifacts and the Tiger Bone Spear.

Then, it inhaled sharply, absorbing the essence from all the corpses in the garden.

Lin Le watched from the side, a little puzzled. "Speaking of which, what's the difference between you absorbing essence and just eating people?"

"There's a big difference," the great snake said. "I absorb the essence of dead people, which is just pure essence. But absorbing the essence of living people is different; it's essence, vitality, and spirit that are absorbed. That's eating people."

"So the difference between the two is like one drinks blood and the other eats flesh, right?" Lin Le summarized.

"Pretty much," the great snake nodded after thinking. "What, you look uncomfortable?"

"Not at all," Lin Le shook his head. "It's just absorbing blood, and it's recycling waste. I don't feel uncomfortable."

"If you don't want me to, I won't do it anymore," the great snake said. "I only absorb it to fill my stomach anyway. But you'll have to prepare more meat for me in the future; I don't want to go hungry."

Lin Le was stunned for a moment. He looked at the great snake with an unreadable expression.

The great snake felt a bit shy under Lin Le's gaze, and said with a hint of annoyance, "Hey, what are you looking at me for?"

"Nothing, I just suddenly realized you're quite beautiful," Lin Le turned his head, and a thought in his mind gradually faded.

"Eh, really?" The great snake lowered its head a bit, seemingly genuinely shy.

"Really, you're the most beautiful snake I've ever seen!" Lin Le said with exaggerated emphasis.

"Of course!" The great snake couldn't help but lift its head.

"By the way, what's your name?" Lin Le asked the great snake. "Let's formally introduce ourselves. I'm Lin Le, the Lin from 'forest of trees' and the Le from 'optimistic'."

Lin Le's reflection appeared in the pale golden snake eyes. The great snake also revealed a human-like smile. "My name is Qingli, the Qing from 'clear' and the Li from 'vivid'."

"Hello, Qingli," Lin Le said.

"Hello, Lin Le," Qingli nodded, her eyes curved like crescent moons.

Thanks to "Asking the Blind" and "I Am a Sincere Person" for the 100-point tip.