"No!"
Beneath the night sky, Cao Bing roared as the crimson Electric Arc beneath Li Ye's feet pierced through his chest. The four streams of Spiritual Power around him shattered and recoiled into his body.
Pfft!
Cao Bing spat out a long stream of blood. His body arched backward, then flew uncontrollably through the air.
With a thud, he crashed to the ground in the distance, kicking up a cloud of dust.
Cao Bing twitched on the ground.
Although his four streams of Spiritual Power added up to twenty tons of force—that was, forty thousand catties—
Li Ye's strength was twenty-eight thousand catties at that moment. With Swift Wind Leg, his attack power doubled.
Converted into units of force, that was fifty-six thousand catties.
Without casting a spell, Cao Bing couldn't possibly withstand Li Ye's kick.
"Someone has fallen!"
Nearby cultivators were horrified when they heard Cao Bing's desperate cry.
Many people heard it, setting off a wave of commotion.
"It came from the battlefield ahead."
A woman at the Qi Gathering Realm spoke.
In truth, not much time had passed since Li Ye and Cao Bing began fighting.
But the battle had been so earth-shaking, with explosions ringing out one after another, that plenty of people had noticed.
"What am I seeing? Someone with a mortal body defeated the Cao Family young master, who had a flying sword."
Near the battlefield, a being stared in disbelief.
By common sense, if two people of the same rank fought and one had a flying sword while the other didn't, there would be no suspense.
The person without a flying sword couldn't possibly dodge its speed.
But Li Ye was an exception. He had done it.
Thud!
A dozen meters away, Cao Bing's flying sword hit the ground.
Li Ye stepped forward and picked it up. The sword hummed and trembled, trying to escape his grasp, but without its master controlling it, it was trapped fast in Li Ye's powerful grip.
Li Ye walked up to Cao Bing. The other man glared at him, blood spilling from his mouth. He could barely draw breath, and it was clear he wouldn't survive.
"Is a flying sword really that powerful?"
Li Ye pressed Cao Bing's Profound Ice Sword against his throat and mocked him.
"You!"
At his words, Cao Bing spat out a mouthful of blood. He was so furious he nearly passed out.
He remembered how, not long ago, he had ridden his flying sword through the skies, tracking and hunting Li Ye from on high, full of confidence.
He never thought he would end up in such a wretched state in the blink of an eye.
Defeated by a shabby opponent who was unarmed.
Cao Bing felt utterly humiliated.
He was deeply unwilling to accept it.
"The weak are prey to the strong. That's the law of the world. I believe in it completely, so die."
With that, Li Ye mercilessly drove the Profound Ice Sword in his hand into Cao Bing's throat.
Pfft!
Hot blood spurted from Cao Bing's throat. His eyes suddenly went wide, his pupils rapidly dilated, and the flame of his life went out.
His head lolled to the side. He was dead.
"Cao Bing is dead? The Cao Family's eldest young master just died like that?"
"The Cao Family's going to be shaken to its foundations."
The beings who witnessed the scene cried out in their hearts.
The Cao Family was a cultivation lineage, and an extremely powerful one.
Their family had experts at the Object Manipulation Realm to hold down the fort.
Besides, a group of the Cao Family's experts were in the Great Barren Forest.
Their genius had died. The Cao Family surely wouldn't let this go.
Li Ye had no idea who the Cao Family was, nor did he care.
By then, he had carried Cao Bing's corpse to an uninhabited area.
"You ruined my chance at fortune, so I'll use your corpse to make up for some of my loss."
That was what Li Ye thought as he searched the body.
A moment later, he found more than fifty thousand taels' worth of banknotes, some Loose Silver, and a bottle of red pills.
There was nothing else.
"Body Tempering Pills?"
Li Ye recognized the pills in the bottle. There were six in all.
But pills of this grade couldn't possibly be useful to him.
Still, Li Ye tried dropping one into his mouth. After chewing it a few times and swallowing, it turned into a faint Medicinal Power that flowed through his body.
As expected, it was completely useless.
Corpse Incineration Furnace!
Li Ye thought the words.
Hum!
The next moment, a glowing furnace appeared out of thin air before him.
Without hesitation, Li Ye tossed Cao Bing inside.
After a few breaths, flames swallowed Cao Bing's corpse.
The Life Imprint began to break down.
Scenes from Cao Bing's life unfolded.
Li Ye saw that Cao Bing came from a great cultivation lineage. Both his parents were experts, and whenever they celebrated a birthday, family after family arrived to present gifts.
Among them were even members of certain sects.
The Cao Family's experts seemed to emerge without end.
This guy's family connections were that extensive?
Li Ye was stunned by Cao Bing's family background.
When the final few scenes from Cao Bing's life unfolded, Li Ye's heart began to pound.
They showed Cao Bing coming to the Great Barren Forest with a group of family elders and fellow clansmen.
From their demeanor, there might be an expert at the Object Manipulation Realm among them.
I've gotten myself into trouble.
Li Ye cried out inwardly.
Just then, a wisp of Light Mist shot out, darted into Li Ye's body, and coursed through him.
The breathing method of the Nine Heavens Crimson Thunder Art activated, absorbing the power of the Light Mist.
Li Ye's strength began to rise, from twenty-eight thousand catties to thirty thousand.
He had gained one ton of force.
Whoosh!
Suddenly, another wisp of Light Mist shot out of the Corpse Incineration Furnace.
It flew straight into his mind.
A stream of information appeared: Immortal Slaying Devil Sword, an unparalleled sword art from the void, with the power to destroy all things.
A sword art?
Li Ye froze. But he couldn't enter the Qi Gathering Realm for now, so he couldn't comprehend the Great Dao of Heaven and Earth. No matter how powerful this sword art was, he still wouldn't be able to practice it, would he?
Wait, he had the Exquisite Sword Heart.
It might be possible to enter the Dao through swordsmanship.
Li Ye suddenly realized this. He immediately abandoned his original idea of tossing the Profound Ice Sword into the Corpse Incineration Furnace to burn with the corpse.
Now that he had a sword art, he might as well keep Cao Bing's Profound Ice Sword.
"Daily Divination can only be used once a day, and I've already used it today. It's not safe to stay here. I'd better leave and come back tomorrow."
That was what Li Ye thought.
His strength wasn't enough to dominate the cultivation world, so for now, he still valued his life.
As for the Golden Ginseng, Li Ye could only pray that no one had caught it by this time tomorrow.
And so, under cover of night, Li Ye hurried toward the edge of the Great Barren Forest.
Before long, news of Cao Bing's death spread through the Great Barren Forest, causing an uproar.
"Father, Big Brother's been killed."
In a certain patch of woods, a woman in red spoke with red-rimmed eyes.
What?
The Cao Family's senior members in the woods stared blankly, then erupted with sky-high killing intent.
"Who did it?"
"Whoever he is, find him at any cost and kill him."
The Cao Family's experts roared.
Their dense killing intent spread far and wide, making the scalps of passing cultivators tingle.
"I've been searching all day and haven't even seen a ghost. Looks like this Golden Ginseng and I just aren't meant to be. I'm out of here."
"There are too many experts around. Even if I found it, I couldn't take it with me. I'm leaving too. Time to go home and sleep."
Some people began to give up and leave the Great Barren Forest.
Li Ye suddenly darted out and blocked several people's path. Curious, he asked, "Brothers, in your opinion, who'll end up with the Golden Ginseng?"
The question immediately caught the interest of several nearby experts.
A bearded, burly man said, "If you ask me, it'll probably be the Mu Family's head, Mu Xiao. He's an expert at the third layer of the Object Manipulation Realm."
Another man disagreed. "No, no. It should be Feyhong Immortal of Purple Sword Palace. She's at the third layer of the Object Manipulation Realm too."
A third man laughed loudly. "Mu Xiao and Murong Feyhong have a chance, sure, but that doesn't mean no one else does."
"Besides those two, there are also Zhong Jian and Qi Tao of the Devil Sect. Qi Tao has a bead that can sense fluctuations in Medicinal Power. Lu Bai of Void Heaven Hall is incredibly powerful and has a rare treasure too. I heard it's a mirror that can lock onto a target. He's already locked onto the Golden Ginseng, but it's moving underground, making it hard to catch, and it's escaped him several times. There are plenty of experts at the Object Manipulation Realm. Who can say who'll end up with the Golden Ginseng?"
Li Ye listened, his heart pounding.
There were so many factions in the Great Barren Forest?
It seemed the difficulty of snatching the Golden Ginseng was far greater than he'd imagined.
More than half an hour later, Li Ye returned to Corpse Refining Courtyard.
He was about to practice the Immortal Slaying Devil Sword when he suddenly remembered a problem.
His right wrist was injured, the wound deep enough to show bone. Sword practice would definitely require his right hand. How could he train with it injured?
"Huh, it's scabbed over."
Li Ye stared at his scabbed wound in shock.
It had scabbed over in just half an hour?
It wasn't fully healed, but it no longer hampered him in battle.
Could that be the benefit of the Body Tempering Thirteenth Layer, making his physique far superior to an ordinary person's?
Li Ye was overjoyed.
The Body Tempering Thirteenth Layer already gave him such astonishing recovery. He strongly suspected that if he continued practicing the Nine Heavens Crimson Thunder Art, one day he might reach the realm of eternal life.
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