Why Fight to the Death? Popping Pills to Level Up is the True Way!

Rumble!

The heavy stone door slammed shut in response, the spiritual light of the restrictions flickering as they completely cut the cave dwelling off from the clamor of the market.

Zhao Hao did not take even a moment to catch his breath. With a backhanded wave—

Crash!

The "spoils of war" in his storage pouch poured out, thirty-five female corpses tumbling every which way until they filled the entire stone chamber. Their once peerlessly beautiful faces had been twisted into hideous, ferocious masks under the backlash of Wu De's secret art, giving off a faint stench of corpses and yin energy.

Every step today had been taken on the edge of a blade.

If not for his perfected movement technique, his instant-cast spells, and his decisive earth escape, he would probably already be a wisp of a dead soul in that mountain hollow by now.

In the end, he was still too weak!

He looked at the Corpse Refinings scattered across the floor, and only one thought remained in his mind.

Trade them for resources, then cultivate! He had to reach Foundation Establishment as soon as possible!

For the time being, he did not plan to return to the sect.

Lin Yaoyao's corpse and bones were gone without a trace, and her storage pouch had been taken by the sword cultivator as well. As long as he did not speak of it, this matter would remain a mystery forever.

As for Seventh Senior Brother Wu De... hopefully he could hold on a little longer. It would be best if he lured that baleful star from the Heavenly Sword Sect as far away as possible, buying Zhao Hao enough time to develop.

Having made up his mind, Zhao Hao immediately began to move.

He changed into the most ordinary gray cloth robe, took the Bronze Mask out of his storage pouch, and put it on his face. The icy touch made his mind focus.

Immediately afterward, the perfected-level Mysterious Yin Breath Concealment Art began to circulate.

He did not hide his cultivation. Instead, he simulated the fluctuations of his own spiritual power into a mixed, gloomy state, locking his aura at late-stage Qi Refining, with even a trace of that rotten smell that only came from dealing with corpses year-round.

At this moment, he looked like a demonic Rogue Cultivator who had spent years licking blood from the blade's edge, doing black-on-black business.

Mysterious, and not to be provoked.

After doing all this, Zhao Hao pushed open the stone door and, like a drop of water merging into the sea, disappeared into the endless stream of people in the market.

He specifically chose those small shops with unimpressive storefronts, remote locations, but signs hanging at their entrances that read "High-Price Purchase of All Kinds of Materials."

At the first shop, the shopkeeper was a lean old man with a goatee. His tiny eyes rolled around, carrying a shrewd gleam.

After Zhao Hao entered the shop, he waved his hand directly, and a female corpse landed on the floor with a bang.

"Boss, name a price." His voice had been altered, hoarse and low.

The goateed old man's eyelid twitched. He stepped forward and carefully examined it, pinching the corpse's bones, then probing the yin energy inside the body. A sharp glint flashed in his eyes.

"Customer, this material of yours is of rather average quality. And from the look of it, it has been driven by a secret art before. Its foundation is damaged, and there isn't much value in nurturing it anymore."

He stroked his beard and slowly held out a finger. "One fixed price. Seven hundred low-grade spirit stones."

Zhao Hao let out two hoarse, dry laughs.

Without saying a word, he turned and left.

"Wait, wait! Customer, please stay!" The goateed old man hurriedly stopped him. "The price can be discussed! Eight hundred! This really is the highest I can go!"

Zhao Hao stopped, still saying nothing. He merely "looked" at him quietly through the Bronze Mask.

Beneath that mask, it was as if there were two sharp swords, making the goateed old man's heart prickle with fear.

His eyes rolled. His hand casually fumbled for something beneath the counter, and the smile at the corner of his mouth also turned somewhat cold and sinister. "Customer, you look unfamiliar. I wonder which road you make your fortune on? This batch of goods, its source... is it still clean?"

This was a probe, and also a threat.

Zhao Hao sensed the fleeting fluctuation of spiritual power beneath the counter. It was a vicious restriction set up in advance.

He remained silent. Only under the goateed old man's increasingly impatient stare did a trace of aura, so faint it was almost imperceptible, flash out from within his body.

That aura was pure, blazing, and domineering. It did not belong to any of the mixed spiritual power he had disguised himself with.

It was like a drop of molten gold suddenly falling into a basin of murky ink!

The goateed old man's smile froze on his face in an instant. His pupils contracted violently, and cold sweat came pouring down his forehead with a swish.

He was also an old fox who had clawed and crawled through the demonic path for over a hundred years. How could he not sense what that was?

That was pure spiritual power that could only be refined by a high-grade cultivation method practiced by a sect's core disciples!

A sect genius, yet he was disguising his identity to come out and sell this kind of Corpse Refining...

In an instant, the goateed old man's mind filled in a ten-thousand-word bloody drama!

The person before him was absolutely someone he could not afford to provoke!

"N-nine hundred!" He almost jumped up, squeezing out a smile uglier than crying. "Senior! I was blind not to recognize Mount Tai! You are a great person with great magnanimity, please don't lower yourself to the level of a small fry like me!"

Only then did Zhao Hao withdraw that faintly discernible pressure and rasp out a single word.

"Good."

He took out another four in a row, making the goateed old man's eyelids twitch wildly.

Four thousand five hundred low-grade spirit stones obtained.

He did not linger. He turned and left.

Following the same method, he roamed through the shadowed corners of the market. An hour later, he returned once more to the temporary cave abode he had rented.

The thirty-five hot-potato refined corpses in his storage pouch had all vanished. In their place were a full thirty-one thousand five hundred low-grade spirit stones!

Added to his original savings, his total wealth had already reached a number unimaginable to a Qi Refining cultivator!

After the enormous wild joy came an even stronger sense of urgency.

Without the slightest hesitation, he changed his outfit again, disguised himself as an ordinary inner disciple at the fourth level of Qi Refining, and headed straight for the largest pill shop in the market—Spirit Pill Pavilion.

"What do you need, fellow Daoist?" the attendant greeted him warmly.

"Pills for late-stage Qi Refining cultivation. The best effects you have," Zhao Hao said, getting straight to the point.

"Then you've asked the right person! Our shop's Meridian-Impacting Pill is considerably more potent than the others'. It will help you assault bottlenecks with twice the results for half the effort!"

"Fifteen low-grade spirit stones per pill. Five pills per bottle, seventy-five stones."

"Give me forty bottles."

The smile on the attendant's face froze instantly, then transformed into the utmost attentiveness and respect.

Forty bottles of Meridian-Impacting Pills—two hundred pills in total—for a total price of three thousand low-grade spirit stones!

After paying the spirit stones, Zhao Hao took the pills, twisted and turned through seven bends and eight windings, and changed his aura and figure three times before returning to his cave abode.

The stone door closed. The restrictions activated.

Zhao Hao sat cross-legged and looked at the small mountain of pill bottles before him. He directly opened one bottle, poured a Meridian-Impacting Pill into his mouth, and crunched it like a sugar bean.

The berserk medicinal power exploded in his abdomen in an instant, like a volcanic eruption!

A scorching torrent of energy rammed wildly through his meridians, bringing waves of tearing, swelling agony. If it had been any other cultivator, their meridians would likely have already been damaged by now.

But the perfected-level Mysterious Yin Qi Absorption Art began revolving at high speed, like a precision machine, frantically refining this violent energy and transforming it into strands of even more condensed spiritual power that flowed into his dantian.

The spiritual power inside his body grew rapidly like a rolling snowball, scouring his meridians again and again.

Time flew by amid this dry yet frenzied cultivation.

Half a month later.

Inside the cave abode, the empty pill bottles beside Zhao Hao had already piled up like mountains.

Just after he finished refining the medicinal power of the final pill, his body suddenly shook hard!

The spiritual power in his dantian, after accumulating to its limit, turned into an unprecedented heaven-toppling giant wave and slammed fiercely against that invisible barrier!

Crack!

A crisp shattering sound seemed to ring out from the depths of his soul!

An aura several times more powerful than before erupted with a boom, breaking through the final shackles! The temperature inside the cave abode rose abruptly, and even the stone bed beneath him showed fine, tortoise-shell cracks!

[Realm: Qi Refining Ninth Level (100/100)]

It was done!

Zhao Hao slowly opened his eyes and felt the vast, brimming spiritual power within his dantian. An unprecedented sensation of strength filled every limb and bone. He was just about to use enhancement to destroy the pill toxins, then strike while the iron was hot and continue attacking Foundation Establishment.

But just then—

Buzz! Buzz! Buzz!

The disciple token at his waist began to tremble violently without the slightest warning!

The next moment, the utterly emotionless voice of his master, True Person Corpse Heart, rang out from the token and exploded directly in his mind.

"All disciples and elders of the Corpse Refining Lineage, return to Ten Thousand Corpse Hall within three hours!"

"There must be no mistake!"