Encountering Robbery, Turning Host into Guest

After the Hong Huang returned to peace, many Cultivators who had been afraid of being caught in the crossfire between factions or used as cannon fodder by major powers emerged. This immediately brought a bit of life back to the initially desolate world.

Following this Great Tribulation, all Cultivators placed an unprecedented emphasis on strength. The status of Golden Immortals rapidly rose, and various factions, large and small, offered generous terms to recruit them.

This indirectly led to Cultivators going to any lengths to improve their strength. Having strength was the foundation for survival, the basis for status, and made it easier to acquire further resources… This was almost a consensus among everyone.

Thus, although the Hong Huang had calmed down overall, the phenomena of fighting over Spiritual Treasures and seizing blessed lands occurred intermittently in localized areas.

Three hundred years after leaving the battlefield, Li Yi walked barefoot across thousands of mountains and rivers, witnessing the wonders of the vast world, looking down upon roaring rivers, and gazing up at countless high mountains.

Traveling thirty thousand li a day, he endured wind and dew, traversed perilous lands, and saw all the colorful worlds.

When he first exited the battlefield, Li Yi was filled with killing intent, like a fierce god. After three hundred years of listening to the grand sounds of heaven and earth, observing mountains and flowing water, the evolution of stars, and contemplating the Heaven and Earth Principles, Li Yi faintly achieved a state of unity between man and nature, and his killing intent was completely contained.

For 300 years, by being close to nature every moment and comprehending the Great Dao of heaven and earth, Li Yi's six sword techniques had unconsciously merged into one, simplifying complexity and encompassing both offense and defense.

This single technique was built upon the framework of "Lotus Born Heaven and Earth" and "Sword Lord World," with "Immeasurable Sword Light," "All Things One," "Ten Directions Annihilation," and "Instantaneous Samsara" as its branches. When unleashed, it could not only combine the six techniques but also smoothly transform into any one of them mid-action according to the situation. Li Yi called this technique "Green Lotus One World." In reality, this technique was already a state of being, and therefore, Li Yi could break through to Golden Immortal at any time if he wished.

However, Li Yi did not intend to do so for the time being. He wanted to draw the Power of Slaughter into himself, transform all his Magic Power into a single stream of Power of Slaughter, and then merge the Power of Slaughter with "Green Lotus One World" to create a Slaughter Sword Dao.

As his Sword Dao grew, Li Yi's Soul and divine sense had, through three hundred years of arduous cultivation, completely transformed into willpower. In Li Yi's mind, bright silver willpower would occasionally manifest as small swords, flying and dancing.

On this day, Li Yi arrived near Shouyang Mountain, intending to cultivate there for a while and also to see this future holy land of Humans.

"Halt, you Daoist! This tree was planted by me, this mountain was opened by me. If you wish to pass this way, leave your toll!" the Leopard Spirit, a Flower Leopard, holding a crudely made, uneven iron pillar, looked extremely nervous. "Give, give, give me a Magic Treasure, and I, I, uh, I'll let you go," he finished, pointing a finger at the Green Lotus Ancient Sword behind Li Yi.

Heaven knows how nervous the Leopard Spirit was at this moment. This was his first "business." The Leopard Spirit was notoriously timid in this area; whenever he encountered other Cultivators, he would just hide in his cave.

Seeing that other demons all had weapons, he could no longer stand it and mustered the courage to attempt a robbery. However, he dared not rob Cultivators who exuded killing intent, possessed an imposing aura, or clearly appeared to be transformed rare beasts.

Upon seeing Li Yi's ordinary demeanor, disheveled hair, and bare feet, he thought Li Yi looked even more down-and-out than himself. But behind him was a sword.

The Leopard Spirit's eyes turned green with envy. "This is outrageous! Even someone worse off than me has an ancient sword!" The Leopard Spirit was indignant. To avoid making a mistake, he observed Li Yi again and felt that Li Yi truly didn't look like a master, only then did he boldly jump out.

Because it was his first robbery, the Leopard Spirit was also very nervous, speaking haltingly and intermittently.

Li Yi was speechless. Even in this state, he was attempting a robbery, trembling so much that an uninformed observer might think Li Yi was the one robbing the Leopard Spirit.

However, this Leopard Spirit was rather interesting. Since he planned to rest here for a while anyway, taking a servant would be convenient. With this thought, Li Yi sent a stream of Sword Qi towards a small hill nearby.

"Rumble!" The entire small hill vanished, and a deep gully was plowed into the ground by the Sword Qi.

This completely stunned the Leopard Spirit, the Flower Leopard. So, the person he had just tried to rob wasn't a weak Cultivator, but a god of slaughter! Thinking of this, the Leopard Spirit wished he could slap himself twice, wondering why he was so pathetic.

Seeing Li Yi looking at him with a half-smile, the Leopard Spirit was so scared he quickly kowtowed, fearing for his life.

"My lord, spare me! My lord, spare me..."

Li Yi found this voice unbearable. "Take me to your cave dwelling," he said, glaring at the Leopard Spirit.

The Flower Leopard dared not object. "Yes, yes, my lord, this way."

Li Yi stayed and cultivated at the Leopard Spirit's place for 150 years. Usually, besides touring Shouyang Mountain, he would constantly meditate on the Power of Slaughter.

Ten years ago, he finally managed to draw the Power of Slaughter into his body, and all his Magic Power was transformed into Power of Slaughter. Instantly, the power of his sword techniques increased significantly. However, the fusion of the Power of Slaughter and "Green Lotus One World" was not smooth; it was either unevenly distributed or output too excessively. It seemed he would need an opportunity.

During these 150 years, the Leopard Spirit lived a life of both pain and joy. The pain was that he couldn't live in his cave dwelling and had to sleep at his doorstep, constantly being summoned. The joy was that Li Yi occasionally gave him pointers, allowing him to advance from incomplete transformation to the middle stage of Heavenly Immortal in a mere 150 years.

At this moment, watching Li Yi's receding figure, the Leopard Spirit felt a sense of reluctance. He secretly vowed to become a great divine being himself in the future.