"Damn bastard! He actually dared to set up us brothers. He deserves to die!"
"Damn it all, we brothers have hunted geese all our lives, yet today we nearly had our eyes pecked out by geese! What a sinister brat—he actually laid a false trail and placed several Tier 2 High-grade spirit talismans inside the formation. If we brothers had not always been cautious, we might truly have fallen into that brat's hands today!"
"This isn't over. Once we find that brat, don't kill him. Cripple every meridian in his body, chop off both his hands, and throw him into the sea of sand. Let him slowly die amid boundless despair!"
On an unnamed barren mountain, three black-robed sand bandits emerged from the ruins of a collapsed cave beneath spell barriers, glaring furiously at the rubble as they cursed without end.
After following the traces Zhou Yang had left behind all the way here, the three had carelessly triggered the formation trap he had set up, activating several Tier 2 High-grade spirit talismans within. They had nearly all perished inside, so they naturally had every reason to be furious.
After cursing for a while, one of the sand bandits looked at his two companions and asked, "What now? That brat's aura and traces disappeared on this barren mountain. I don't know whether he's hiding somewhere or has fled elsewhere."
Hearing this, one sand bandit immediately shouted, "He must still be here. Anyone who knows how to use such tricks to ambush people surely knows that those seniors are patrolling everywhere, hunting down fish that slipped through the net. If he dared run aboveground at a time like this, he'd be seeking his own death!"
The other sand bandit nodded deeply in agreement. "That's right. He must be hiding somewhere. In my view, he's most likely hidden deep underground. We might as well use the Earth Evasion Technique and search below."
"Now that you two brothers mention it, that really does seem to be the case. Then let's search." The questioning sand bandit's eyes lit up. He immediately formed hand seals and used the Earth Evasion Technique to vanish underground.
The other two sand bandits nodded to each other as well, then followed suit, using the Earth Evasion Technique to search underground.
Zhou Yang had not expected these sand bandits to be so cunning that they would see through his plan at once.
Though the underground chamber where he hid was deep enough that divine sense could not detect it from the surface, it feared nothing more than others using the Earth Evasion Technique to conduct a dragnet search underground. The barren mountain was only so large. With three sand bandits searching it like a net, they soon forced him out of his hiding place.
"Heh. I thought someone who knew how to use such traps against us brothers would be an old fox who had drifted through the Cultivation World for many years. I never expected it to be a young little brat. Brat, you're quite devious. Where did you learn this trick? Did one of your elders used to be a sand bandit too?"
On the barren mountain, the three sand bandits were all slightly stunned when they saw that the person hiding underground was actually the young Zhou Yang. Then, as though one of them had guessed something, he sneered and voiced his speculation.
Indeed, methods like using traps to ambush others mostly originated from sand bandits and Rogue Cultivators. Even if Family Cultivators and sect cultivators knew such methods, they generally disdained to use such underhanded tactics.
Zhou Yang had learned this method only because he had secretly remembered it when elders of his Lineage had once discussed the various ways sand bandits ambushed people.
Unlike those Family Cultivators who disdained such underhanded methods, Zhou Yang believed that any method capable of helping him defeat an enemy was a good method. Whether it was sinister or not did not matter.
Of course, that was only if the method did not violate the bottom line in his heart or offend the harmony of heaven.
For instance, certain fiends of the Cultivation World would not hesitate to use forbidden arts to blood-sacrifice hundreds of thousands of mortals in order to forge evil Demonic artifacts and kill their opponents. Even if Zhou Yang knew such methods, he would never use them.
"This is called returning the other's way unto them. If we're talking about viciousness, who could be more sinister and cruel than you sand bandits?"
Zhou Yang swept his gaze over the three sand bandits. Upon discovering that their cultivation had not exceeded the limit of what he could handle, he relaxed slightly and could not help looking at them with mockery as he sneered.
Of the three sand bandits, one was a Ninth Layer Qi Refining Cultivator, while the other two were Qi Refining Layer Eight. Against an ordinary Ninth Layer Qi Refining Cultivator, they would have had a great chance of victory even against any of the Zhou Lineage's other elders besides Zhou Xuanyu.
However, for Zhou Yang, as long as he used the trump cards he carried, fighting one against three was not impossible.
"What an arrogant brat! You're at death's door, yet you still dare talk tough!"
The three sand bandits were all enraged by Zhou Yang's attitude. Without another word, they summoned their artifacts and charged at him.
The artifacts of these three were all rather good. Two of them actually possessed Tier 2 High-grade Artifacts: a flying sword and a black bottle capable of releasing poisonous sand.
The poisonous sand released by that black bottle was especially troublesome. Though each grain was only the size of a fingernail, there were more than a hundred of them. Not only did every grain possess the power of a Tier 1 High-grade Artifact, but they also carried a virulent poison that corroded spiritual power. Zhou Yang could not block the poisonous sand assailing him from every direction with the Silver Gang Shield alone, so he could only use defensive spirit talismans to reinforce his defenses.
However, once a defensive spirit talisman was activated, it continuously drew upon a cultivator's spiritual power to maintain itself. Otherwise, relying only on the small amount of spiritual energy inside the talisman, it would disperse after blocking only a few enemy attacks.
As a result, Zhou Yang had gained another source of spiritual power expenditure.
Moreover, the battle's commotion was not small. If it dragged on and attracted the attention of Foundation Establishment Stage Sand Bandits, he would be finished.
Thus, after their initial exchange had tested the three sand bandits' methods, Zhou Yang knew that this battle had to be settled swiftly.
Moreover, the battle's commotion was not small. If it dragged on and attracted the attention of Foundation Establishment Stage Sand Bandits, he would be finished.
Thus, after their initial exchange had tested the three sand bandits' methods, Zhou Yang knew that this battle had to be settled swiftly.
"This is what you brought upon yourselves!"
He cast the three sand bandits a cold glance, then raised his hand and flung several Tier 2 High-grade spirit talismans at the sand bandit wielding the black bottle. With a movement of his divine sense, the four Armor Piercing Daggers battling the enemy flying sword in midair suddenly changed direction, instantly abandoning the flying sword and shooting toward the sand bandit under attack from several Tier 2 High-grade spells.
The three sand bandits clearly had not expected Zhou Yang to be so decisive and so daring. Their reactions were half a beat too slow, and the remaining two had no time at all to rescue their companion.
Because the artifact used by the sand bandit Zhou Yang had focused on consumed considerable spiritual power, he had previously only summoned a bronze mirror artifact and used the Golden Light Body Protection Art for defense.
Such defenses could not be called weak. At the very least, if Zhou Yang relied only on the Armor Piercing Daggers, that set of Tier 2 High-grade Artifacts, he definitely would not have been able to break through the double-layered defense and injure him in one strike.
However, the man had gravely underestimated Zhou Yang's methods, and even more gravely underestimated Zhou Yang's determination to kill him.
Zhou Yang spared no expense, smashing four Tier 2 High-grade spirit talismans at him in succession. They instantly tore apart every defense he had hastily erected, after which the following Armor Piercing Daggers easily severed his head.
The other two sand bandits were both shocked and enraged. As they hurriedly added several more layers of protection to themselves, they also took out spirit talismans and hurled them at Zhou Yang.
They had just robbed Golden Sand Market, and each had seized quite a few good items. Their wealth and methods were far stronger than those of the group of sand bandits Zhou Yang had encountered in the desert before.
Zhou Yang had not expected that, because of their companion's death, these two sand bandits would feel the grief of a rabbit's death and spare no expense in trading spells with him head-on.
Sand bandits with such loyalty and brotherhood were truly rare.
Now it was his turn to suffer.
He had quite a few spirit talismans on him, and he was confident that if they competed in wealth, he could bankrupt the two sand bandits.
But using spirit talismans also consumed spiritual power. Defensive spirit talismans in particular were enormous drains while blocking attacks.
Fighting one against two, not only was he consuming several times as many talismans as his enemies, his spiritual power was also pouring out like an out-of-control faucet, rushing away in a torrential stream.
This can't continue. Even if I exhaust the enemy's spirit talismans, my spiritual power won't last until the final victory. It seems I can only use that thing!
Beneath layers of multicolored defensive barriers, Zhou Yang inwardly groaned. He knew that if he did not use another means to break the deadlock, he might truly fall here today.
He did indeed possess another trump card capable of deciding victory or defeat. But it was exceedingly precious; using it against two Qi Refining Cultivator sand bandits was truly too wasteful, which was why he had not intended to use it before.
Yet now, it seemed that if he did not use this treasure he had kept at the bottom of his chest, he would find it difficult to end things well today.
Between life and treasure, he naturally chose life.
Having made up his mind, Zhou Yang did not hesitate any longer. He reached out and slapped the Storage Bag at his waist, and a black metal cylinder about a foot tall appeared in his hand.
He then forcefully tossed the black metal cylinder into the sky between the two sand bandits. With a surge of spiritual power, the cylinder spun rapidly in midair. Amid sharp whoosh, whoosh, whoosh sounds, it instantly fired a dense barrage of dark-red poison needles.
"Ahhh!"
Two miserable screams rang out from the two sand bandits almost at the same time.
The moment they saw Zhou Yang throw out the metal cylinder, both had heightened their vigilance and prepared their defenses with utmost care. Yet they had still underestimated the terror of those poison needles. In an instant, thousands of needles pierced through their defenses and knocked them to the ground.
Yet Zhou Yang, the culprit behind it all, was not surprised in the slightest by this scene.
The metal cylinder, which contained three hundred and thirty-three poison needles, had been specially forged by the Old Clan Leader, Zhou Minghan, from three hundred and thirty-three scorpion stingers of Poison Fire Scorpions fused with Dark Iron.
This artifact could only be used once. Once activated, every poison needle inside would fire out. Even if they were picked up one by one afterward, they would become useless.
Because it could only be used once, each poison needle within the metal cylinder possessed half the power of a Tier 2 Low-grade Artifact when fired. Of those needles, twenty-four had been forged from the stingers of Second-tier Poison Fire Scorpions, and their power was comparable to Tier 2 Mid-grade Artifacts.
Only a Third-tier High-grade Artifact Forger like the Old Clan Leader, Zhou Minghan, could forge such a precise and powerful one-use artifact. If it were Zhou Yang, even if someone told him the forging method, he would have no possibility of successfully making it.
"I can't stay here. I need to leave at once."
A trace of regret flashed through his eyes, but Zhou Yang did not retrieve the now-useless metal cylinder. He walked straight toward the sand bandits' corpses, intending to collect the spoils before leaving.
However, just as he reached one corpse and crouched down, the "corpse," which had lain motionless on the ground, suddenly opened his eyes wide and forcefully spat a fierce arrow of blood at him.
Not good!
Zhou Yang cried out inwardly and hurriedly tried to dodge backward.
But he was too late.
With a flash of bloody light, his body seemed to have been struck by lightning, and he violently fell backward.
Seeing this, the sand bandit who had spat out the blood arrow showed a flash of vindictive satisfaction in his eyes. His head tilted to one side, and he finally drew his last breath.
It turned out that although he had not immediately died after being struck by the poison needles, he knew he could not survive. Thus, he secretly circulated a secret art he had acquired in the past, gathering the essence blood throughout his body to prepare this strike.
This strike contained all of his essence blood and spiritual power. Its power was no weaker than a Tier 2 High-grade spell. If a Qi Refining Cultivator was caught off guard and struck by the blood arrow, they would basically have no chance of surviving.
That was why, upon seeing Zhou Yang fall after being struck by the arrow, the sand bandit had revealed such gratified satisfaction at having avenged his great hatred before finally being willing to breathe his last.
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