Harvest

Zhao Hong panted violently, his heart hammering as a sudden hollow exhaustion swept through his limbs and bones, followed closely by pain.

Smack!

A large hand suddenly seized his arm.

The corner of his eye twitched wildly. He struggled with all his strength, yet failed to break free.

He raised his head slightly.

And met the gray-robed man's eyes, filled with despair, unwillingness, grief, rage, and savagery.

His remaining left arm trembled uncontrollably, gradually losing its strength.

Zhao Hong let out a breath of relief.

Fuck, that nearly scared me to death.

If he still had any strength left at this point, he would hardly be human.

Then again, after fusing with Mystic Embryo Jade Hide, he was indeed no longer human.

Huff, huff—

Feeling the corpse on top of him gradually turn cold, Zhao Hong finally went limp.

The woods were deathly silent.

Zhao Hong's heart skipped a beat as he weakly called out, "Brother Zhou."

"Hahaha... cough, cough. Good, good."

He turned and saw Zhou Baishan lying on the ground, struggling to crawl toward him, leaving behind a shocking trail of blood.

Zhou Baishan's injuries were equally horrifying.

After risking his life against the gray-robed man several times, he had been hanging on by sheer force of will.

After Zhou Baishan dragged himself over, Zhao Hong grinned. "He's dead for good."

A hint of approval appeared in Zhou Baishan's eyes. Then, with difficulty, he pulled a bell from his robes and let a wisp of force emerge from his fingertip.

Clang!

With a crisp chime—

A jade bottle fell to the ground.

Inside were several emerald-green pills, smooth and lustrous as jade.

"One each," Zhou Baishan said weakly.

Zhao Hong understood at once. They had to be healing medicine.

He picked up the jade bottle, opened it, and poured out two pills.

One each.

Gulp!

The pill slid smoothly down his throat and into his stomach, immediately turning into a cool current that spread through his limbs and bones.

The comfort it brought tugged at the wounds all over his body.

Hiss—ah!!

The two sprawled on the ground, shuddering in unison as they let out groans of exquisite pain and relief.

Their eyes met.

The groans came to an abrupt halt.

The atmosphere was somewhat awkward.

Then Zhou Baishan chuckled softly.

More than half an hour later.

Zhao Hong recovered first. Compared to Zhou Baishan's injuries, his own were practically light.

"Gather those beast hides and put them away first. Don't waste them. We can get quite a few benefits by taking them back. At worst, we can use them as bait at the black market," Zhou Baishan reminded him.

Zhao Hong first brought over the stack of beast hides and Jade Hides. After giving them a brief look, he found that the remaining beast hides were all intact, though they seemed quite crude compared to the Jade Hides.

Combined with what he had encountered along the way and the information he had gathered, he made a rough guess.

These beast hides had clearly been crudely made. Whenever they ran into some unlucky bastard, they would toss one out to create chaos.

The Jade Hides were what truly mattered.

The wolf-hide man they had encountered just after leaving the village had had his wolf hide torn apart. It had not stuck back together and healed like the gray-robed man's hide had after being ripped apart.

The difference was far too obvious.

"Six beast hides, all at the Bloodforce level. Two Jade Hides, Mystic Embryo level."

With lingering fear, Zhao Hong set the Evil Skins aside before looking at the gray-robed man.

"Hm?"

At a closer look, he immediately noticed something strange.

"What is it?"

Zhou Baishan forced himself upright and followed Zhao Hong's gaze, then froze slightly.

"Three layers of skin?"

"This guy fused with Jade Hide, and this isn't even his original face."

The Jade Hide on the gray-robed man's body was now riddled with holes and had completely lost its ability to recover and heal. It had fallen off to one side.

Yet the skin on his face still hung loose.

Zhao Hong peeled it off, revealing an exquisite human-skin mask.

"So it was him."

When Zhou Baishan saw the man's true face beneath the mask, he cried out in shock.

"You know him? Is he one of ours?" Zhao Hong asked instinctively.

"Not one of ours." Zhou Baishan shook his head lightly. "I've seen this man before. He was a manager for a merchant caravan."

A merchant caravan!

Zhao Hong remembered that there was a trade route north of the Azure Cloud Mountains' edge, leading to other prefectures.

It had a long history.

Though dangerous, taking a detour would make the journey far too long and the losses even greater.

Was this an isolated case, or...

There was something deeper going on here.

Zhao Hong asked no more questions and carefully searched the gray-robed man's body.

"Nothing."

"Is this a waterskin?"

He frowned at the small leather pouch hanging from the gray-robed man's waist.

"That's a storage pouch."

"They're generally made from the stomachs of certain monsters. Now that this man is dead, his mark has dissipated. You can open it by flooding it with your blood and vital energy."

"I'll give it a try."

Zhao Hong's eyes lit up.

A storage pouch—now that was good stuff.

He grabbed the storage pouch and gave it a shake.

Clatter!

A pile of items spilled across the ground.

Clothes, miscellaneous items, several swords and sabers, several delicate boxes, several beast hides, a Jade Hide, and more.

"Banknotes."

"Six hundred taels, three gold leaves. Nine hundred taels in total."

Only this much?

Zhao Hong was somewhat disappointed.

The bandits from before had carried five hundred taels on them.

This man had been a merchant caravan manager and an Evil Skin Cult fiend. When he unleashed the power of Jade Hide, he was comparable to a Mystic Embryo cultivator. With such meager wealth, he seemed downright impoverished.

Zhou Baishan also moved closer to inspect the items carefully.

"The second level of the Heaven-Seizing Art."

Before they had fought, the gray-robed man had given Zhou Baishan some method for skinning and inscribing patterns, along with a Heaven-Seizing Art.

The name sounded quite imposing.

But it was easy to imagine that it had to be an evil art.

"This technique is the demonic art cultivated by the Evil Skin Cult. It forcibly steals the essence and vitality within others. After fusing with Evil Skin, its effects are even greater, but it leaves the body filled with mixed and vicious energies, with an unstable foundation. Deviating into madness is commonplace."

"Once someone cultivates the first level, unless they destroy their cultivation, it becomes difficult to escape its temptation. But for those vicious criminals with nowhere left to turn, it is a lifeline."

Zhou Baishan casually tossed the manual onto the ground, mockery on his face.

Though it was an evil art, it truly was not simple.

No wonder the Evil Skin Cult was so troublesome.

Bandits, murderers, those wanted by the authorities—when they had nowhere to go, who would care about such things?

Even those driven by hardship, unable to survive, were perfect targets for the Evil Skin Cult.

How could it not grow stronger?

Zhao Hong secretly shook his head.

These were not matters he could concern himself with.

After sorting through everything.

There really were quite a few good items.

"Ten Bloodforce Pills, one Tenfold Bloodforce Pill, two precious ginseng roots, and even one Tiger-Leopard-Bear Essence Pill. Take them all, along with the silver and the storage pouch. You can make good use of them," Zhou Baishan said, handing the items and the storage pouch to Zhao Hong.

"All of it goes to me?" Zhao Hong was taken aback.

"I have no use for them. Killing the gray-robed man is the greatest gain."

Especially the information revealed in the gray-robed man's earlier words.

The credit he could earn this time exceeded all expectations.

"The Tenfold Bloodforce Pill is much more potent than a Bloodforce Pill. It is generally used for cultivation in the middle and late Bloodforce stages, and there are even stronger Hundredfold ones."

"These two precious ginseng roots are barely comparable to a Tenfold Bloodforce Pill."

"The most valuable is this Tiger-Leopard-Bear Essence Pill. Each one is worth several hundred taels and can improve the strength of someone at Bloodforce completion."

"I'm already close to the Mystic Embryo stage."

The Tiger-Leopard-Bear Essence Pill would improve Zhou Baishan's strength somewhat as well, but it would be far too wasteful for him. Giving it to Zhao Hong was the best use of it.

After hearing this, Zhao Hong did not stand on ceremony and stuffed everything into the storage pouch.

These items were more than enough to bring him to inner force completion.

At last, Zhou Baishan cut off the gray-robed man's head and stored the remaining items inside his own bell.

"Let's go. We'll leave this place, recover a little, then head back."

Zhao Hong's spirits rose.

After being delayed for so long, they were finally going to the Judge's Office.