Paying the Price for Being Ignorant

Soul Master was a noble profession, but also a highly dangerous one. They fought Spirit Beasts to hunt Spirit Rings and Spirit Bones, and fought other Soul Masters over profit and countless other reasons. While enjoying the benefits brought by being Soul Masters, they also bore the corresponding risks.

Especially hunters like them, who walked the edge of a blade every day. The leader was terrified, yet he remained calm, because he knew that panic would only hasten his death.

"Spirit King..." he muttered. A blood-red saber appeared in his hand, and four Spirit Rings—white, yellow, purple, and purple—appeared behind him. Seeing that the people around him were still frozen in place, he cursed directly:

"What are you standing around for? Waiting for someone else to show mercy? He's a Spirit King! Fighting with everything we have is our only way out!" In truth, he was not confident either. If the hidden move he had prepared had not been discovered, he would still have had confidence in fighting. Two Soul Ancestors and several Soul Elders against one Spirit King still gave them a chance.

If their Spirit Rings and Martial Souls were of higher quality than their opponent's, a Spirit King might not necessarily defeat a Soul Ancestor. But reality was terrible. Not only had their backup plan been discovered, but his own subordinate had forced him into a position with no way out.

"Luckily, the other side looks inexperienced. He actually revealed his Martial Soul and rank before fighting the enemy. Do any of you know what a Nine-Section Jade is?" That was right. The leader of this hunting group had never heard of the Nine-Section Jade. Seeing that the other side had not made a move for the moment, he decided to ask the people around him first.

"No."

"No."

"Never heard of it." Everyone gave negative answers, but he noticed that one voice was missing.

"Liu Yu, what about you?" As he spoke, he turned around and discovered that Liu Yu, the one with the lowest Soul Power and the one who had cut off their escape route, had actually run away. Yes, Liu Yu was the one who had spoken at the beginning. His Soul Power was only level twenty-two, and his Martial Soul was a Sparrow. He was usually responsible for scouting, but since he had not yet reached level thirty, he had not learned a flying Spirit Skill. Right now, he was only relying on an acceleration-type Spirit Skill to flee.

"That's a Spirit King. How could we possibly beat him? While you idiots are facing off, I'll be taking my leave first. I'll gladly take whatever's left behind. I'll burn paper offerings for you guys in the future." As he muttered to himself, Liu Yu rapidly moved farther away, covering several meters with every step. But if he had eyes on the back of his head, he would have seen Xiao Qing raise a finger at him, making the exact same motion she had used against the archer Spirit Master before.

"Run away? No, that won't do. My lord said not to make too much noise. If he escapes, he'll definitely tell others and bring people back for revenge. No, no, I can't let him go." With that thought, Xiao Qing fired a green Bala. Unfortunately, this time, her Bala missed, merely grazing Liu Yu's shoulder.

The moment Liu Yu was hit, he dramatically increased his Soul Power output and fled even faster. But after only a few breaths, his body collapsed into the snow, unable to move again.

The Cero and Bala Ye Qing had created by accident were essentially compressed Soul Power released outward. Naturally, they carried the attributes of the Spirit Beast itself. As a Nine-Section Jade, Xiao Qing's attribute was naturally Poison. Even without striking a vital point, the poison of the Nine-Section Jade would still take the victim's life.

All of this seemed to take a long time, but it had actually happened in an instant.

"Idiot..."

After cursing, the leader continued, "See that? That's what happens when you run away. If we fight alone, none of us will survive!"

"A-Mu, buff us. Old Song, same as usual. I'll lead the attack, and you support me."

"Mm, go ahead, Boss." There was a reason this hunting group had lasted so long. Under the leader's arrangements, they quickly began moving.

"Flower of Strength, Flower of Soul Power, Flower of Penetration." A flower appeared in A-Mu's hand, and its falling petals merged into the bodies of the three main attackers. Dark red light also surged from the leader's blood-red saber.

Afterward, Old Song pressed both hands against the snow. A huge wave of snow rose before Xiao Qing, blocking her vision. Once the snow wave fell, the five of them had vanished.

That was the effect of Old Song's Martial Soul. His Martial Soul was a liquid substance that could freely change color. After sweeping up snow with his Martial Soul, he used it to cover the bodies of all five people, creating a layer of natural camouflage that allowed them to blend into their surroundings like chameleons. In the past, they had gained enormous rewards through this Spirit Skill.

At that moment, snowflakes could occasionally be seen falling from the treetops. Several of them were stepping across the trees as they advanced toward Xiao Qing, while a clear trail of footprints remained on the ground. This was one person deliberately feinting to draw Xiao Qing's attention.

Unfortunately, if their opponent had been an ordinary human Spirit King, this tactic might really have caused her to slip up and lose. But they did not know that the woman before them was not human at all. Within Xiao Qing's snake-like Vertical Pupils, every one of them was clearly reflected. Every movement they made was fully visible to her.

"Two above, one below, and two more hiding. Interesting. Hiss~" Xiao Qing flicked out her tongue. Her tongue had already returned to its forked, snake-like form. Ye Qing had told her not to trust her eyes too much, because eyes could deceive. Thus, she also used another method snakes had for gathering information. After confirming the positions of all five people, Xiao Qing vanished from their sight.

The leader had already drawn close to Xiao Qing and was about to unleash his charged slash when he discovered that the enemy before him had disappeared. Then he suddenly felt a faint sting on the back of his hand. A-Mu, Old Song, and the other two soon felt faint stings somewhere on their bodies as well—on their cheeks, necks, or hands.

Old Song had the lowest Soul Power among them, so he was also the weakest. Hidden in a pile of snow, Old Song quickly fell silent. The others revealed themselves because of his death and collapsed one after another. In an instant, only one person remained from the hunting group.

"You're still alive? Unbelievable."

"Poison..." Looking at his blackened palm, he swung his saber toward his shoulder. But before the blade could fall, he had already collapsed into the snow. Even though he had the highest Soul Power, the poison had entered through his palm, and he only endured for a brief moment longer before dying from the deadly toxin. If he had known what a Nine-Section Jade was, perhaps he could have struggled a little longer. But in the final seconds of his life, he seemed to hear another voice.

"Didn't I tell you? Even a lion uses its full strength to hunt a rabbit. Villains die from talking too much. If you can act, talk less. No, that line doesn't count..."

Afterward, Ye Qing pointed at Xiao Qing as he spoke. He had been nearby all along and had not shown himself because these people posed no threat. But he also knew that the deadly poison of the Nine-Section Jade was not something a Soul Master in his forties could withstand. Even if the poison entered through an arm, a human Soul Master in his forties could not endure the poison of a Nine-Section Jade with over twenty thousand years of cultivation—not even for two seconds. Therefore, the only possibility was that Xiao Qing had held back and weakened the poison.

"What if they had some backup plan...?" Ye Qing's lecture had not ended yet, but Xiao Qing did not take it seriously at all. Instead, she crouched down and grabbed Ye Qing's arm.

"But you were right behind me, my lord. What could possibly have gone wrong?"

"You... Forget it. We bought the seasonings. Let's go home and make braised pork." As he spoke, Ye Qing pulled the small cart and began walking back, while Xiao Qing followed behind him with a smile, heading deeper into the forest.

As for the members of the hunting group, Ye Qing had no interest in helping people like them collect their corpses. As Ye Qing left, winter snow began falling again, quickly covering up everything that had happened there.

When the two returned to the Castle, they discovered that new guests seemed to have arrived.

I forgot to set the posting time.

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