Corpse

Hearing Yu Ci's mockery, the monk was almost spitting blood, but he didn't dare to stop. He only stopped when he was ten feet away and felt Yu Ci wasn't pursuing him. He wanted to open his eyes but closed them again, unable to bear the stimulation, and tears streamed down his face. He quickly covered them with his sleeve, his face already ashen.

Seeing this, Yu Ci was also taken aback, but he wouldn't give the thieving monk any face. He burst into loud laughter, his voice like knives stabbing into the monk's heart.

The monk's face flushed and paled alternately, his teeth gnashing. When he had first attempted the sneak attack, he had never imagined such an outcome. The blood in his chest flowed backward, and a mouthful of fresh blood rose to his throat, which he forcefully swallowed. After shedding tears, his eyes felt a little better. He squinted, trying to look at the detestable junior opposite him.

The sight before him made his heart ache again.

In Yu Ci's hand, the Nine Yang Talisman Sword hummed softly. A ring of fire spread out from beneath his feet, reaching ten feet around, igniting the surrounding grass and trees. Although it lacked real killing power, its momentum was quite astonishing.

"Nine Yang Talisman Sword?" the monk's voice was filled with extreme shock and anger.

Yu Ci looked up at the sound, not speaking, just grinning. This was more malicious than any words. The monk seemed to understand something, his face turning from pale to red, and finally to a deep purple. He could no longer restrain himself, grinding his teeth and saying fiercely:

"Junior from Bai Ri Mansion, I will make you wish you were dead!"

His voice was like a viper hissing, but he had clearly misunderstood. Of course, at this moment, only a fool would try to clarify!

As soon as the words fell, a long whistle sounded from the distant mountains. The sound waves, crossing the obstacles of mountains and forests, clearly reached both their ears. Though it was called distant, it was actually only about ten miles away. Hearing this sound, the monk was overjoyed. Just as he was about to pucker his lips to whistle in response, he saw the Bai Ri Mansion brat exert his strength and disappear into the forest in an instant.

Yu Ci had captured the monk's change in expression as soon as the whistle began. Knowing the situation had changed, he made a decisive move and fled immediately, heading due north. Having gained the upper hand, he retreated without hesitation. The monk, whose eyes had not yet fully recovered, could only stomp his foot and curse:

"Junior from Bai Ri Mansion, you killed Hu Ke, let the ghost beast escape, and stole the Shexing Disc! The Wanling Sect will not let you go!"

As for the mudslinging from the monk, Yu Ci merely spat: "You'll have to find me in Bai Ri Mansion first for that!"

In the time it took to say this, the person who had whistled had approached within three miles, and the whistling had not stopped. Yu Ci ran a few more steps and heard whistles erupting from the forest. Within a radius of tens of miles, at least seven or eight people responded, their calls like thunder, shaking pine needles loose and even making the ground tremble.

However, the person who had whistled first suddenly went silent, as did the monk's curses.

There were factions involved here... Did the thieving monk's group count as a self-own?

Yu Ci quickly discerned the situation and couldn't help but chuckle. However, he had also witnessed the atmosphere of "all winds gathering in the Central Plains." He felt that any one of the people who had whistled was likely stronger than him, which made him feel a strong sense of curiosity: What exactly was going on?

Referring to the monk's final curses, he tried to connect several factors: the corpse from before was undoubtedly Hu Ke; the monsters and ferocious beasts mentioned by the herb pickers were the ghost beasts the monk spoke of; the so-called "Shexing Disc" was stored in his Storage Ring; as for the Wanling Sect... that name sounded so familiar!

Putting aside external factors for now, according to Yu Ci's guess, it was likely that the deceased, Hu Ke, had intentionally led the ghost beast out of Sky Rift Valley as part of a plan. He had set up an ambush here and used the "Shexing Disc" to deploy powerful Talisman Arts to capture or kill the ghost beast. However, the ghost beast's power far exceeded his expectations, and the trap he had set did not function as intended. In his panic to escape, he was killed by the ghost beast.

The monk and his companions might have been part of Hu Ke's group, or perhaps they had received news and wanted to pick up the spoils, but they arrived too late, and Yu Ci had gotten there first.

At this moment, there was a commotion in the pine forest. After Yu Ci had run for more than ten miles, a hostile aura drifted towards him on the wind from behind. He didn't know which side it was, but they were pursuing him.

Yu Ci was very interested in ghost beasts, but he absolutely did not want to get entangled here. He immediately applied a Divine Movement Talisman to himself. This talisman also had another name, one well-known even among ordinary people: Jia Ma!

The spirit talisman attached to his body, and he immediately felt light as a swallow, his feet not touching the ground, feeling incredibly exhilarating.

With his speed greatly increased, layers of pine needles and branches like demonic arms rushed towards him, only to be left behind in an instant. Yu Ci seemed to transform into a wisp of smoke, darting wildly through the gaps in the foliage. That wasn't all; as the spirit talisman's effect enveloped his body, the true qi circulating within him seemed to resonate with it, creating a mutual vibration that unleashed astonishing energy, making him run faster and faster, feeling more and more comfortable, even unwilling to stop.

Yu Ci ran at his maximum speed all the way. The pursuers behind him could keep up at first, but Yu Ci was in excellent condition, continuously applying Divine Movement Talismans. With dozens or even hundreds of spirit talismans stacked together, after half an hour, those behind him had completely disappeared from sight.

He felt incredibly good, incredibly wonderful.

Although he was rapidly moving away from that place of trouble, away from that gathering area of cultivators, Yu Ci felt as if a giant door in heaven and earth had opened a crack, revealing the true face of the colorful world behind it.

That was the cultivation world, a place he longed for immensely.

His encounter with the viper-like monk, and all the events before it, could be said to be accidental, but it was precisely in this way that he had touched that world and was now striding towards it.

Yu Ci became engrossed in his running, and for another hour, he spent it in high-speed flight.

While running, he had the support of the spirit talismans and didn't feel it much. But as soon as he stopped, Yu Ci almost thought he had run himself to death. However, despite being exhausted to the point of death, the effect was very significant: by this time, he had run at least five hundred miles, far exceeding his previous record. At this speed, factoring in necessary rest, traveling a thousand miles a day and eight hundred at night was not impossible.

However, at this moment, Yu Ci's stamina had indeed reached its limit, and along with his excited mood, it rapidly subsided, fatigue washing over his entire body. He knew what was irresistible, so he casually found a relatively hidden spot, preparing to sleep soundly under the summons of Morpheus to recover his strength. As he drifted between wakefulness and sleep, he suddenly remembered that in the wilderness, he couldn't be without precautions.

Half-asleep, he took out the Zhaoshen Bronze Mirror from his sleeve. Sensing his faint aura, the mirror surface also flickered with a hazy blue mist. He poked his finger into it and, in a daze, began drawing talismans, specifically the Five Directions Spirit Communication Talisman. Only this talisman could alert him if wild beasts approached; whether it could wake him from his slumber, only heaven knew.

Yu Ci was too tired. While drawing the talisman, he was already in a semi-conscious state, performing the series of actions purely out of habit from many years. After barely completing the last stroke, he didn't care if the spirit talisman was successful or not. With a yawn, he fell asleep.

Bathed in moonlight, Yu Ci's completely depleted body breathed in and out. Without conscious control, it followed the habit of twelve years, inhaling with the sun and exhaling with the moon, expelling the old and receiving the new, drawing in the Yin energy of the moon. Beside him, the Zhaoshen Bronze Mirror seemed to sense this as well, its blue mist slowly expanding and contracting as if breathing.

This time, what woke Yu Ci from his deep sleep was a sudden nightmare.

The nightmare came out of nowhere, as if he saw a goshawk diving down from a thousand-foot-high sky in his dream. In a daze, his mind split in two, half in the sky, half on the ground. On one hand, the clouds and mist at a thousand-foot altitude flowed like water; on the other, malicious intent and evil pierced through his body, startling him into a cold sweat. Instinctively, he rolled over and stood up.