Early morning.
Nangong Qin left the guest room.
As she was leaving, she said with a resentful look, "You cultivate Toad Skill, yet you want my Snake-Swallows-Heart Sutra? You're crazy."
"Take care, miss." After seeing the woman off, Li Shuidao closed the door again, took paper and brush from his Storage Bag, and bent over to transcribe the Snake-Swallows-Heart Sutra and his related insights.
By the time Li Shuidao had recorded his insights into the Dao in Chinese characters, it was almost noon. If he didn't leave now, he would have to pay for another day's lodging.
After leaving the Marketplace without incident, Li Shuidao walked alone across the vast Poison Dragon Ridge. A stillness filled the air around him.
He moved lightly along the rugged mountain path, giving every courtyard a wide berth to avoid unnecessary trouble.
Suddenly.
As Li Shuidao hurried along, his eyes caught a flash of emerald green, appearing and disappearing in the cracks between the blue stones beside the path.
He looked closely and was delighted to discover it was a gecko.
A faint demonic aura wafted from its body.
It was a wild first-rank demon insect.
It was worth at least a dozen spirit stones.
Li Shuidao licked his lips and pretended to approach casually. The gecko seemed to sense his intentions and darted into a crack in the rocks to escape.
"Don't even think about running!" Li Shuidao shot after it like lightning.
In an instant, he plunged into a thicket.
Dense branches and leaves swept past him with a rustle. He dodged whipping branches one moment and slipped through gaps in the undergrowth the next, searching for the gecko's tracks without pause.
He seemed to have lost it...
Neither Li Shuidao nor his toad Spirit Companion could sense the demon aura anymore.