Artifact Peak Exploded

"Ah!!!"

Screams rang out one after another, startling a flock of birds into flight.

Li Jun walked up to the edge of the pit and looked down from above.

Inside the deep pit, Liu Yan and the others were sprawled in all sorts of positions, but every one of them had been impaled by the earth spikes at the bottom. Blood sprayed wildly, the scene unbearably gruesome.

"Li Jun! What a vicious heart you have! Do you know the consequences of doing this?!"

Liu Yan was hysterical. At that moment, he was leaning against the wall, one leg pierced clean through by an earth spike.

His luck was decent; only his leg had been skewered.

The other two were not so fortunate. The instant they fell, their hearts were pierced, and they died on the spot.

"You were already trying to kill me, and I'm not allowed to fight back?"

Li Jun looked at Liu Yan. In the past, the two of them had been in Oak Garden, and their relationship had been neither close nor distant.

In his impression, Liu Yan was quick-witted and liked to brag, but Li Jun had never imagined he would harm people.

But judging from Liu Yan's earlier conversation with Zhao Wenjie, this man had done no small number of deeds in secret—killing people to silence them and wipe away traces.

In these ten years, if not a hundred, then fifty had died by his hand.

Therefore, at this moment, Li Jun felt no psychological burden at all.

A killer paid with his life; a debtor paid his money. It was heaven's law and earth's principle.

This was the sin Liu Yan had sown himself, so naturally he had to bear the consequences himself.

"Fellow Daoist, I think you've misunderstood. We never meant to hurt you. On the contrary, we only wanted to invite you to Artifact Peak for a gathering. You—"

"Enough. Save those words to fool yourselves!"

Li Jun cut off that third-level Qi Refining cultivator.

"Now I'm giving you a chance to live. Tell me, what else has Yao Yuzhi prepared to deal with Shen Xiyue?"

The people at the bottom of the pit froze, not expecting him to ask that.

"None of you know? Or you don't want to say?"

Li Jun picked up a huge rock from the side and was about to throw it down.

"Wait! Li Jun, don't be impulsive! You know as well as we do that Yao Yuzhi is Artifact Peak's chief disciple. Bottom-level people like us usually can't get near her at all, much less know what she's prepared."

"That's right. Senior Sister Yao's status is lofty. She's simply not someone we can come into contact with!"

Li Jun was not surprised. He continued asking, "Fine. Then who is behind Yao Yuzhi? You can risk your lives for her like this—if she were only Artifact Peak's chief disciple, you wouldn't have chosen to attach yourselves to her, would you?"

The people at the bottom of the pit opened their mouths, but when they saw the rock in Li Jun's hand, they ultimately chose to soften.

"We're not very sure either! We only know that behind Senior Sister Yao, it seems the Grand Elder is backing her! Fellow Daoist, we're all cannon fodder. If you spare us today, then in the future we—"

However, before he could finish speaking, the rock in Li Jun's hand had already been thrown down.

A wind-splitting sound rang out, and that third-level Qi Refining cultivator's head burst open on the spot.

"Li Jun! How can you go back on your word?! If Steward Zhao—"

Bang!

Another flying stone, and Liu Yan's head also burst open.

Li Jun's expression was cold. He threw down several more huge stones, finishing off all those assassins who were not yet quite dead.

At this point, all six assassins who had come to take his life had died here.

Li Jun leapt down, landing directly on the stones at the bottom of the pit.

He searched around for a while, and in the end obtained fifty low-grade spirit stones, more than a thousand taels' worth of silver notes, and a silver short blade.

"Not bad. Better than I imagined."

Li Jun put everything away, very satisfied with this haul.

Especially the silver short blade he had found on that third-level Qi Refining cultivator.

"This blade should be a low-grade first-tier magic tool. I'll make do with it for now."

The importance of magic tools to cultivators was self-evident. Otherwise, that Yao Yuzhi would not have gone to such great lengths to get mutated oak.

Li Jun returned to the ground, then took out a cage from the bushes nearby.

Inside the cage was the Blood Python he had caught over the past few days. This fellow loved blood and flesh most, making it perfect for destroying corpses and erasing traces.

He threw the cage down, casually sent out a streak of spiritual energy, and directly opened it.

Before long, the six corpses had been eaten clean by the Blood Python.

The Blood Python raised its head, its diamond-shaped pupils locking directly onto Li Jun.

Clearly, toward this human who had imprisoned it, the Blood Python had no intention of letting him off.

However, just as it was about to take revenge, its scales began to fall away, and the flesh on its body started festering at a speed visible to the naked eye!

"Hiss, hiss!"

The Blood Python rolled and struggled, but it could not stop it at all, and in the end, it turned into a puddle of bloody water.

Deep in the dense forest, Li Jun filled in the pit, then scattered the medicinal powder he had prepared in advance. Only then was everything finally over.

"Finally done. I should be able to see the results tomorrow, right?"

Li Jun smiled, then headed straight back to the cowshed.

After confirming that nothing seemed unusual in the cowshed, he quietly circled around to the meadow where he usually grazed the cattle.

He gripped the rope and descended straight to a platform fifty meters from the cliff edge. There was a pit there, just large enough for him to hide in.

After night fell, Li Jun let out a long breath, and his hanging heart finally settled.

"The effect of my first battle wasn't bad. Judging from the current situation, an ordinary third-level Qi Refining cultivator can't catch up to my speed."

Li Jun recalled everything that had happened today. Although he had not gone head-to-head with that fellow, he had been observing him the whole time.

The speed and spiritual energy intensity the other party had displayed were both inferior to his.

The only issue was that he still had not learned a proper offensive spell.

If he had learned a few offensive spells, combined with the support of the "Shadow-Folding Wandering Dragon Step," even in a frontal fight, he would not lose.

"I still need to learn a few more offensive spells later. Also, my actual combat experience is still too lacking. I still need to improve in real combat."

Li Jun summed things up, and his direction for future cultivation became even clearer.

"Now it depends on tomorrow's result. I hope everything goes smoothly."

The night passed without incident.

Early the next morning, Li Jun returned to the cowshed from the cliff.

After making sure nothing had happened last night, he put the problematic oak leaves from Liu Yan's carriage back into the storehouse, then drove the spiritual cattle to the meadow to graze.

Originally, he had thought that since Liu Yan had not returned all night, Zhao Wenjie might personally come over to investigate.

But looking at it today, neither the cowshed nor Liu Yan's carriage showed any signs of having been moved.

Clearly, Zhao Wenjie had not come, nor had he sent anyone else.

"Don't tell me that guy ran away?"

Li Jun thought of the conversation between Zhao Wenjie and Liu Yan that night. The other party had indeed developed thoughts of retiring.

Only, after he had done so much dirty work for Yao Yuzhi, how could he retire just because he wanted to?

Bang!

Suddenly, several muffled sounds rang out in the distance, startling all the spiritual cattle into raising their heads at once.

Li Jun looked toward the direction the sounds had come from. That direction was where Artifact Peak was located.

"Looks like it should have succeeded."

Li Jun grinned. Now Yao Yuzhi probably would not have the mind to bother with him, right?

Fifteen minutes after the huge sound came from Artifact Peak, Li Jun sensed a powerful spiritual pressure rushing straight toward him.

His entire body tensed, and then he saw Shen Xiyue, dressed in red, appear before him in a frantic hurry.

"Disciple Li Jun greets Eldest Senior Sister!"

"Get up, quickly. Li Jun, let me ask you, did Oak Garden deliver oak leaves yesterday?"

Shen Xiyue asked anxiously.

"They did, Senior Sister. I put them all in the storehouse."

Shen Xiyue's heart sank, and she continued asking, "Then did you use those oak leaves to feed the cattle this morning?"

Li Jun shook his head, pointed at the spiritual cattle in the meadow, and replied, "No, Senior Sister. The spiritual cattle have had a bit of indigestion these past few days, so I was planning to clear out their stomachs. Eldest Senior Sister, did something happen?"

Hearing Li Jun's words, the stone in Shen Xiyue's heart abruptly came to a stop. Immediately, the worry between her brows scattered, and she visibly let out a huge sigh of relief.

She exhaled at length and pointed toward the direction of Artifact Peak.

"Good thing you didn't feed those oak leaves to the spiritual cattle. Something went wrong with Oak Garden's latest batch of oak trees. This morning, Artifact Peak used the new oak, and the forging furnace exploded on the spot!"