Highway Robbery

The carriage was on its way home.

Dust-covered and looking disheveled, Xu Bai rested his chin in his hand with a gloomy expression, letting out a sigh every now and then.

He finally understood the true meaning of the phrase "easier said than done."

Digging soil was a simple task, but digging a massive amount of it was no easy feat. At the very least, he and Di Yi couldn't possibly carve out a small plot of land in the Beast Taming Space in such a short time.

It had taken him and Di Yi an entire morning just to dig up about twenty cubic meters.

Fortunately, this was enough soil to plant five fruit trees and the little Blue Silver Grass, but seeing that his ultimate goal remained a distant prospect, Xu Bai decided to call it a day.

Transforming the Beast Taming Space is a long and arduous journey...

With a soft sigh in his heart, Xu Bai closed his eyes to doze off and recover his energy.

The journey was silent, and by the time they returned to Huangshan City, it was already dark.

As the saying goes, there is no place like home.

Back home, after washing up, Xu Bai rushed into his bedroom, pulled up the covers, and drifted into a sweet slumber.

The next morning, the weather was clear and cloudless.

He didn't train Di Yi that day. After breakfast, Xu Bai went to the Seven Treasures Trading House and ordered another five ten-year-old Clear Heart Orange Trees.

Then came the planting and the refining of Hundred Herb Liquid.

A fulfilling morning passed just like that. In the afternoon, he went to the branch hall to read, and it wasn't until the following day that his life returned to its usual rhythm.

Six more days passed, and all ten Clear Heart Orange Trees bore fruit, yielding a total of two hundred and ten oranges.

Xu Bai made a trip to Qinghe City and sold them for two hundred and fifty-two Gold Soul Coins.

Although his little treasury was gradually growing, he was still a long way off from the one thousand five hundred Gold Soul Coins he needed.

And that was just the cost of the materials for a single portion of Spirit Ascension Liquid; furthermore, the difficulty of refining Spirit Ascension Liquid was far higher than that of Hundred Herb Liquid.

He had gone through four sets of materials before successfully refining the Hundred Herb Liquid, so the Spirit Ascension Liquid would surely require more—he estimated at least ten sets.

Ten sets meant fifteen thousand Gold Soul Coins!

Realizing just how strapped for cash he was, Xu Bai suddenly looked at Di Yi, who spent his days doing nothing but training, eating, and sleeping. Filled with resentment, he took the beast out to dig more soil for the rest of the day.

After that, ten more Clear Heart Orange Trees were added to the Beast Taming Space.

With the increased yield, the trees could produce at least four hundred fruits at a time.

That meant he could earn four hundred and eighty Gold Soul Coins every six days, or two thousand four hundred Gold Soul Coins a month...

Calculated this way, fifteen thousand Gold Soul Coins didn't seem so daunting after all. If he lived frugally, he could save it up in six or seven months.

From then on, Xu Bai settled into a happy routine: traveling to Qinghe City every six days, while spending his usual time training Di Yi or studying at the branch hall.

Just like that, more than half a month flew by.

On this day, Xu Bai received some good news.

The proficiency of Di Yi's racial skill had successfully reached the "Proficient" level.

They say Di Yi is a genius for a reason; it had been less than a month since he awakened his racial skill, and he had already reached the Proficient level.

Now that his Metal Spirit Power had reached the Proficient level, it finally possessed the ability to kill silently.

When the proficiency was only at the "Skilled" level, Di Yi had to focus his mental energy to control a single piece of metal.

But after reaching "Proficient," metal became as obedient as an extension of his own limbs. If he wanted to, he could control metal throwing knives to perform fancy apple-peeling tricks in mid-air.

Most importantly, when paired with an Iron Skewer, it possessed formidable lethality.

Under Di Yi's control, the Iron Skewer could pierce through a tree as thick as a man's embrace in an instant, without even needing to charge up.

Xu Bai didn't know the combat power of a first-ring Soul Master, but he felt that a first-ring defense-type Soul Master definitely couldn't block Di Yi's attack. A quick calculation suggested he might even be able to take down a Great Soul Master by surprise.

Although he felt a bit more confident, he wasn't at the point where he could act recklessly, so the Clear Heart Oranges still had to be sold.

As the saying goes, practice makes perfect.

Xu Bai had already sold them four times, so he could truly say he was an old hand at it.

After efficiently completing the handover with the young lady in blue, Xu Bai didn't plan to return as usual. Instead, he had the carriage take a turn, setting their destination for the Hengduan Mountain Range.

In the past, Di Yi was too weak, so for the sake of safety, Xu Bai never dared to go and record Soul Beasts, which meant his cheat—the ability to leech mental energy—had never shown its true power.

Now, it was time to let this world witness the terror of a cheater!

Traveling along the main road, it would take about four to five hours to reach the Hengduan Mountain Range if they hurried.

Xu Bai had expected another dull and uneventful journey until they reached the market outside the Hengduan Mountain Range, but he didn't expect an accident to occur halfway there.

Suddenly, the horses outside neighed, followed by the carriage coming to a violent, screeching halt, nearly sending Xu Bai, who was dozing off, tumbling over.

"Coachman, what's going on!" Xu Bai frowned, his expression showing his displeasure.

With his treasury gradually filling up, he had splurged for once, paying a high price of half a Gold Soul Coin to hire an experienced veteran driver.

Logically speaking, such a low-level error wasn't something an experienced veteran would make. Could it be that he had been scammed?

Just as Xu Bai was pondering this in his heart, the coachman's voice, laced with terror, reached him: "Young Master, there are bandits blocking the road, and one of them is a Soul Master lord..."

The carriage driver was on the verge of tears. In all his years of driving, this was the first time he had ever seen someone dare to commit highway robbery on the main road, and to make matters worse, the robbers were Spirit Masters.

His carriage didn't even look luxurious; what on earth could they possibly see in it that would catch a Spirit Master's eye? If he knew, he would change it the moment he got back, wouldn't he?

"Spirit Masters robbing the road?" Xu Bai raised an eyebrow, a thought suddenly occurring to him. With a flick of his mind, he released Diyi from his Beast Taming Space.

As soon as Diyi emerged, it prepared to let out a tiger's roar, but Xu Bai stopped it with a sharp look, then communicated through Telepathy:

"Diyi, it seems we've run into some trouble. When I step out in a moment, I'll leave a gap for you, so keep your eyes sharp.

We'll use the sound of falling iron as our signal. Once you hear it, don't worry about who is standing across from me—just use these Iron Skewers as throwing knives and turn them into sieves. Do you understand?"

Hearing this, Diyi nodded, its tiger eyes gleaming with excitement.

After so many days, it finally had a chance for some real combat.

It was a pity that its Beast Tamer wanted it to hide in the carriage and control these throwing knives; in truth, it still preferred the feeling of flesh-to-flesh, close-quarters combat.

Seeing this, Xu Bai didn't say another word to Diyi. He signaled to the carriage driver and carefully stepped out of the carriage.

Once outside, he saw seven masked men not far away. Their weapons were a motley collection, ranging from daggers to long staves, which he assumed were their martial spirits.

The only one worth noting was the burly man in the lead, who carried a battered, heavy broadsword on his shoulder. Beneath his feet floated one white and one yellow spirit ring, marking him clearly as a Great Spirit Master.

Seeing the formation before him, Xu Bai's expression tightened. He summoned his own century-old spirit ring, then smiled and said, "Greetings, gentlemen. I am a disciple of the Huangshan Chen Clan. I am unsure of your intentions here, but I hope you can clarify them so we might avoid any misunderstandings."

When traveling abroad, one's status is whatever one claims it to be.

The Chen Clan of Huangshan City was a family of Spirit Kings and held a fair amount of prestige in this region. Combined with his young age and his century-old spirit ring, he hoped to intimidate this group.

Although there was a possibility that Diyi could slay a Great Spirit Master, it was only a possibility, and Diyi had never experienced real combat before.

The cost of losing that gamble was too high, and Xu Bai had no desire to take the risk.