"Junior Brother Chen, Cloud Mist Mountain is a long way off. How about we find a few other senior brothers and go together?"
Yu Hailong suggested.
"I need contribution points urgently, so I'll have to team up with you for the Cloud Mist Mountain mission next time, Senior Brother Yu."
Chen Changming wore an apologetic expression.
He did urgently need contribution points, but that wasn't the main reason.
The most important reason was that he had to go to the Ziyuan Secret Realm to water the medicinal fields in two days. If he went to Cloud Mist Mountain, he would break his promise to the Ten Thousand Treasures Pavilion.
Seeing Chen Changming refuse, disappointment showed on Yu Hailong's face.
Chen Changming walked to the entrance, handed over his identity token, and said to Elder Liu, "Senior, I'll take the Penglai Village mission."
"The evil spirits in Penglai Village are no ordinary foes. Aren't you afraid, little disciple at the second layer of Qi Refining?"
Elder Liu glanced at the youth and asked.
"I'll give it a try..."
Chen Changming smiled faintly. Even if he couldn't beat the evil spirits, he could still use Dragon Glide Step to escape.
How powerful could a mission worth 200 contribution points be?
These evil spirits were probably no stronger than a low-grade, first-level Beast!
Seeing that the youth had made up his mind, Elder Liu swiped his identity token.
Chen Changming said goodbye to Yu Hailong, then left Lingxiao Sect alone and headed straight for Penglai Village, two hundred li away.
Penglai Village was named after Penglai Lake.
The enormous lake stretched a hundred li in every direction. Its clear waters and pleasant scenery provided the villagers on its shores with an endless supply of food.
After reaching Penglai Village, Chen Changming visited some of the villagers to learn about their losses of cattle and sheep. He also asked them about the evil spirits.
According to the villagers, the evil spirits were thin and long, pitch-black all over, and appeared only at night.
Whenever the evil spirits attacked cattle or sheep, they drained every drop of blood from their bodies.
"A snake demon?"
After hearing the villagers' description, the first image that came to the youth's mind was that of a snake demon.
But then he dismissed the idea.
If it were a snake demon, the cattle and sheep would have been swallowed without even a scrap left. Why would it only drink their blood?
"Immortal Master, that thing has eaten hundreds of our cattle and sheep. Please, you must get justice for us..."
An old man wept bitterly and fell to his knees.
Chen Changming helped him up and said gently, "Don't worry. I'll rid Penglai Village of this evil spirit."
"Thank you, Immortal Master."
The old man stood up and wiped away his tears, relief washing over him.
Lingxiao Sect enjoyed a great reputation throughout the Yue Kingdom, so the villagers had great faith in its immortal masters.
Night fell.
Dark clouds packed the sky, hiding the stars. Gusts of wind swept through, as though a heavy rain were on its way.
A youth with a blade strapped to his back stood on the roof of a villager's house.
His gaze was deep as he scanned his surroundings, alert to every movement. The howling wind whipped his robes into disarray.
The evil spirit was said to come out to hunt every night, so Chen Changming waited for it to show itself.
At the bottom of Penglai Lake.
In the lake's pitch-black waters, a small patch of red light suddenly rose. Indistinct human figures seemed to shift within it, blurred and impossible to make out.
"Mm. Once I've drained blood this one more time, my injuries will be stable. Then I can return to the sect and report in..."
A man's voice sounded softly from within the red barrier.
The sound of water followed. A long, black, snake-like shape extended from the red light and sped along the muddy lakebed. Within a few breaths, it reached the shore.
The black tendril slipped silently above the surface and crept into Penglai Village.
A muffled moo came from the eastern side of the village.
No matter how hard the wind blew, the sound still reached Chen Changming's ears.
"It's here!"
A surge of excitement rose within Chen Changming. He drew the steel blade from his back and launched into Dragon Glide Step. In the blink of an eye, he had vanished from the rooftop.
He covered the several-hundred-meter distance in an instant.
He had to admit, after being enhanced twice, Dragon Glide Step was astonishingly fast.
"What in the world is that?"
Chen Changming was startled by the black thing tightly wrapped around a yellow ox in the night.
If his eyes weren't playing tricks on him, that snake-like black shape was actually a huge bundle of long black hair.
The bundle had already strangled the ox to death. At one end, the strands had burrowed into its body and were greedily sucking out its blood. The ox's body visibly shriveled before his eyes.
Whoosh!
The phantom images of five tigers appeared behind him, and Chen Changming brought his blade down.
The strike came like a fierce tiger descending the mountain, unstoppable.
The black hair clearly hadn't expected anyone to ambush it so quickly. It had no time to dodge and was struck by the blade.
Pfft, pfft...
More than a dozen strands of hair were severed.
The hair recoiled in pain, pulling away from the ox before fleeing rapidly along the wall.
"Trying to run?"
Chen Changming sneered. This was worth 200 contribution points; he was going to kill it.
Like a swimming dragon, he weaved through the darkness and caught up with the black hair in two breaths.
Pfft, pfft...
He struck twice more.
But Chen Changming had only managed to sever a small portion of the hair. The rest surged madly toward the lake nearby.
"What in the world is this thing?"
Chen Changming's gaze sharpened. Seeing the blade's edge already curling, he couldn't help but feel surprised.
The Five Tigers Soul-Severing Blade had been enhanced twice. He knew exactly how powerful it was, yet it still couldn't kill this bizarre black hair!
Chen Changming didn't hesitate. He used Dragon Glide Step to keep after it and brought his blade down again and again, severing over a hundred strands.
The remaining hair slipped into the lake.
Chen Changming activated the Spirit Armor Art and pursued it closely.
Once he was underwater, Dragon Glide Step was hindered and his speed slowed. He could only watch as the black hair disappeared into the water.
Naturally, Chen Changming didn't want the duck in his mouth to fly away, so he kept searching the lake.
"What? A disciple of Lingxiao Sect?"
An angry man's shout rang out from the red glow at the bottom of the lake.
The black hair bobbed repeatedly.
"Dammit, Lingxiao Sect gave me these injuries! I was just about to leave this place, and now some little disciple at the second layer of Qi Refining has come looking for trouble!"
The man roared again and again, his voice growing louder.
It seemed someone had touched a raw nerve. This time, he was determined to vent his fury on that little disciple of Lingxiao Sect.
"What's that?"
After swimming a hundred meters, Chen Changming spotted a small patch of red light in the distance, and instantly grew wary.
The red glow must have been quite far away, which was why it looked so tiny from here, like a fingernail.
Could that be the black hair's lair?
The thought surfaced in the youth's mind. Staying cautious, he slowly approached the red light. Half an incense stick later, he finally reached a point twenty or thirty meters away.
The red light was a barrier that flickered softly. There seemed to be figures within it, but he couldn't make them out clearly.
"Heh heh, you piece of trash from Lingxiao Sect. Have you come here to die?"
A sinister laugh suddenly rang out from within the red barrier. The voice was arrogant, with an air of utter conceit.
Chen Changming was startled. He activated Dragon Glide Step and immediately retreated several dozen meters.
He held the steel blade in his right hand, while the phantom images of five fierce tigers appeared behind him, their roars echoing across the lakebed. The fingers of his left hand trembled lightly, ready to unleash—
Spirit Finger Flick.
This instant-cast spell was his ultimate killing move.
"Five Tigers Soul-Severing Blade? Hahaha! You're not doing too well in Lingxiao Sect, are you? You've started cultivating immortality, yet you're still using martial arts from the jianghu!"
The man inside the red glow jeered.
"Who are you, sir?"
Chen Changming asked solemnly.
The red glow slowly receded, revealing a man in blood-red robes sitting cross-legged on a sandy bank. A red disk hovered above his head, and a bundle of black hair lay beside him.
One end of the black hair rested in his palm. Blood flowed into it, where it was absorbed.
The man in blood-red robes was at the fifth layer of Qi Refining, but his face was deathly pale and his breathing weak, as if he had yet to recover from serious injuries.
Seeing this bizarre scene, Chen Changming immediately understood: his opponent was sucking blood to heal his injuries.
While absorbing blood to heal, the man in blood-red robes sneered, "What a fool. You can't even recognize the clothes I'm wearing? Hahaha, no matter... Once you're dead, you'll find out when you report to the King of Hell."
"You're a disciple of the Blood Demon Sect!"
A flash of insight crossed Chen Changming's mind, and the words slipped out.
"Hmph, not bad. You've got a little brains after all."
The man in blood-red robes finished absorbing the blood and slowly rose to his feet, his expression dark and his smile sinister. "I nearly died, all thanks to your Senior Sister!"
As he spoke, he suddenly swept out his hand. The bundle of black hair sprang up and shot toward Chen Changming like a black bolt of lightning!
"Die!"
His face twisted as he roared.
Without hesitation, Chen Changming's left hand instinctively flicked again and again. In an instant, several thick pillars of spiritual power shot from his fingertips.
Hiss, hiss!
His Spirit Finger Flick was even faster than the black hair.
Boom, boom...
Two beams slammed into the black hair. Their violent force instantly tore it apart, shattering every strand and utterly destroying it.
Pfft!
Pfft!
At the same time, three beams struck the man in blood-red robes. Blood sprayed everywhere as three bowl-sized holes were blasted through his body.
"How... could..."
The slain man stared in disbelief at the youth in the distance. His eyes grew unfocused, and his body fell onto the sand.
He died with his eyes wide open.
He had never imagined that a minor cultivator at the second layer of Qi Refining could strike like thunder and lightning, leaving him no time to react and ending his life in an instant.
After killing the man in blood-red robes, Chen Changming smiled faintly.
His Spirit Finger Flick was terrifyingly powerful within a hundred meters and struck in the blink of an eye. The disciple of the Blood Demon Sect had been far too careless. He hadn't even activated the magical treasure above his head, and Chen Changming had killed him with a single attack. He had died without knowing why.
Chen Changming swam over, put the severed black hair into an empty Storage Bag, then went to the Blood Demon Sect disciple and cut off his head with a single stroke. He put that into the Storage Bag as well.
These were spoils of war, and proof he could exchange for contribution points.
Chen Changming's gaze shifted to the red disk that had already fallen onto the sand. His eyes brightened, and he murmured, "This treasure seems pretty good..."
He had never seen a proper magical treasure before; this was his first time.
Now that the Blood Demon Sect disciple was dead, the treasure had become his spoils of war.