Risks and Rewards

The balance between risks and rewards would always determine whether people were willing to take a gamble.

Originally,

when facing three people whose strength had reached at least the [Blood Strengthening Realm], Ling Wuyuan felt that the risks far outweighed the rewards. He only wanted to slip away as quickly as possible.

He was afraid of being caught up in something unrelated.

But after hearing that the three were fighting to the death over some kind of treasure,

faced with a treasure capable of making all three of them covet it,

Ling Wuyuan, already destitute, was naturally tempted without the slightest doubt.

The equation in his mind accordingly changed to rewards outweighing risks.

Without any hesitation,

he quietly drew a pure-black metal arrow from the quiver on his back.

The entire thing was made of metal.

It weighed a little over two jin.

It was a special arrow designed to deal with large ferocious beasts and cultivators. Not only did its arrowhead possess strong armor-piercing power, but its shaft was also lined with tiny barbs to increase the damage and prevent the arrow from being shaken loose.

Each one cost more than thirty silver coins just to purchase, enough to feed an ordinary family of four for quite some time.

After taking the special arrow into his hand, Ling Wuyuan still did not act rashly. Instead, he held the bow in one hand and the arrow in the other as he continued watching. He wanted to observe the actual situation a little longer before deciding whether to interfere.

At the same time,

unaware that, aside from the wolf pack, another player had entered the scene, the three men were still arguing fiercely.

"A treasure map?"

"Treasure map my ass!"

"This piece of junk has already made us waste several whole months in this area!"

"Rather than keep wasting time on this, I'd rather sell it!"

That was what one of them said.

Hearing that, another immediately retorted with great agitation, "Nonsense!"

"Do you know that the secret hidden in that treasure map could benefit the three of us for the rest of our lives, even blessing our descendants!?"

"How much money could we get from selling it?"

"Besides, what if someone decides to rob us after the deal?"

The last one was even more agitated. "You've got the nerve to say that?"

"You stole a treasure map, and it turned out to be incomplete. What fucking use is that!?"

"You even got us hunted down by the gang!!"

The first speaker immediately shouted, "How is it useless!?"

"We already know that the thing is somewhere within a few dozen li of this place!!"

However, all he received was even louder rebuttal and scolding:

"Bullshit!"

"Do you know how vast a few dozen li is?"

"And this is the Fog Sea Forest!!"

"The Fog Sea Forest, where you can barely see one or two hundred meters away at a glance through the fog!!"

"More importantly, that damn map is at least a thousand years old. Who the hell knows how much of the information left on it can still be trusted after a thousand years have passed?"

"You might not find the thing even if you searched your whole life!"

"..."

As he listened to the three men argue,

gradually,

Ling Wuyuan came to understand what had happened.

Those three fellows had once been mid-to-high-ranking members of some gang. But one day, one of them discovered that their leader possessed an ancient treasure map and had secretly been searching for the treasure all along.

However,

after discovering the truth, that fellow, based on his understanding of the leader, clearly concluded that the leader intended to keep the treasure all to himself.

Could that be tolerated?

Obviously, it could not!

So, while the leader was away, he joined forces with four others and stole the leader's treasure map. Following various clues, they spent two years reaching this region of the Fog Sea Forest and had spent several months searching around here.

As for why only three of the original five remained now,

which gang they had originally made their living in,

and exactly what those three fellows had gone through,

Ling Wuyuan had yet to figure that out.

But he knew that the three were fighting among themselves because they had disagreed over the treasure map's final ownership and certain related matters.

Some felt that since they had spent two or three years getting absolutely nothing, it was time to cut their losses!

Some felt that after staking everything and struggling for so long, they absolutely could not give up so easily!

And some felt that the reason they had gone from successful men to this sorry state—hunted down and too scared even to enter a town—was because of those two bastards!

The wolf pack, meanwhile, had arrived later to pick up scraps after smelling blood while the three were at each other's throats.

Just as the flesh and blood of ferocious beasts and demon beasts was an extraordinary tonic for cultivators,

the flesh and blood of cultivators was likewise an extraordinary tonic for ferocious beasts and demon beasts. Even a single bite was a huge profit!

Thus, in the wolf pack's eyes, the three blood-covered men were not much different from three lively, thousand-year-old ginseng roots.

"Mm~"

"I roughly understand now. You can start fighting."

Ling Wuyuan was quite expectant.

He understood that things had reached this point. The three men, whose strength was unknown, had no possibility of turning back. They would not suddenly put away their weapons and shake hands in reconciliation.

After all, they had already crossed blades and drawn each other's blood.

Today, no matter what considerations they had, the three would definitely settle this with life and death.

As for the wolf pack?

They barely counted as unexpected intruders disrupting the battle.

A few seconds later,

just as Ling Wuyuan had expected,

after resting and verbally probing each other for a while, the three ultimately could not hold back any longer.

Without any warning, the three figures vanished from where they stood. Only the deep footprints they left behind proved that they had been standing there moments ago.

Then came tremendous impacts and booming crashes.

Bang bang bang!!

The instant the three figures collided, though all three used blades and swords rather than heavy weapons, a sound like battering rams smashing against city gates suddenly erupted.

In the blink of an eye, the three exchanged dozens of relentless clashes.

As sharp blades struck against sharp blades, glaring crimson sparks burst violently from between their edges!

Looking over,

even the air between the three twisted along with them.

It was as though a massive furnace were blazing between them.

Wave after wave of powerful air currents spread outward at high speed from their center, turning into invisible hands that shoved away all the dense fog within a hundred-meter radius.

At the same time,

the ground several meters around them cracked apart as if an earth dragon were rolling beneath it.

It swiftly changed from solid clods into something like mud.

As though some massive machine were moving across it.

The surrounding wolf pack became dizzy and disoriented merely from standing too close, shaken by the thunderous noise produced as the three men's blades clashed. And when the three began moving at high speed through their deadly struggle, constantly changing the battlefield, they became like chariots that crushed every obstacle in their path, effortlessly pulverizing every tree and living creature they touched without distinction.

In merely half a second,

several wild wolves, each weighing at least seventy or eighty jin, were chopped into pieces on the spot. Their bloody severed limbs and fragments flew wildly through the air, drawing a chorus of ghostly howls from the wolf pack. Even the Wolf King, whose body was strongest and whose build resembled that of a bull, could only quickly avoid the three men fighting with all their might, terrified of being casually hacked apart by them on the spot...