Killing Chen the Pockmarked

Chen the Pockmarked controlled his spirit boat and gave chase at top speed.

Wang Mengde's face filled with even greater terror.

"Brother Chen, spare my life. I can give you the treasure my father left behind."

Chen the Pockmarked's eyes lit up.

A treasure?

"What treasure? Tell me, and I'll consider it."

Yet his hands did not pause in the slightest. He activated another Golden Arrow Talisman and fired it at Wang Mengde.

Wang Mengde turned the rudder again to evade.

The golden arrow grazed past his waist. Wang Mengde's heart tightened, yet his mind was exceptionally calm.

Now.

He did not continue dodging.

Instead, he violently turned the bow around.

He charged straight toward Chen the Pockmarked's spirit boat.

The two boats sped toward each other, the distance between them shrinking rapidly.

At the same time.

Wang Mengde abruptly raised his right hand.

The Golden Arrow Talisman in his palm had long since been activated.

Golden light exploded, transforming into a fierce arrow as thick as an arm. Carrying terrifying energy fluctuations, it shot like lightning directly at Chen the Pockmarked's skiff spirit boat.

Chen the Pockmarked's expression changed drastically.

He hurriedly controlled his spirit boat to evade.

But they were too close.

The golden arrow arrived in an instant and struck the hull savagely.

Boom...

The skiff spirit boat exploded into pieces. Wood chips flew everywhere as the hull was blasted apart, its fragments scattering in all directions.

Chen the Pockmarked himself was blasted away and plunged into the sea with a splash.

In that instant, Wang Mengde overstrained his spiritual power and swiftly cast the Entwining Silk Technique, creating a three-meter-radius binding force field that enveloped Chen the Pockmarked and the surrounding seawater.

Compared to more than twenty days ago, Wang Mengde's Entwining Silk Technique, fueled by his full-force overstrained spiritual power, was vastly more powerful than when he had first attained minor mastery.

Its binding force was stronger, and it was more flexible to control.

Wang Mengde's gaze was icy as he used the binding force field to control a three-meter sphere of water and Chen the Pockmarked within it, pressing them down into the deep sea.

Chen the Pockmarked floundered in the seawater, then swiftly pulled a Golden Arrow Talisman from his robes and activated it.

The talisman lit up.

A golden arrow as thick as an arm shot out, instantly shattering the surrounding binding force field.

Chen the Pockmarked frantically drove his spiritual power and shot toward the surface.

Wang Mengde, pale-faced, looked on coldly. Ignoring the stabbing pain from his meridians, he once more overstrained his spiritual power.

He cast the Entwining Silk Technique.

A binding force field rapidly took shape, enveloping Chen the Pockmarked, who was about to burst out of the sea, along with the surrounding seawater.

It pressed him down into the deep sea.

Chen the Pockmarked was horrified.

Why was this brat's casting speed so fast?

How could the Entwining Silk Technique be so powerful?

He frantically drove his spiritual power and pulled another Golden Arrow Talisman from his robes.

He shattered the binding force field again.

Wang Mengde's gaze remained cold as he activated another binding force field, enveloping Chen the Pockmarked.

Again and again, Chen the Pockmarked took out talismans to break the bindings, only to be bound again and again by Wang Mengde.

Chen the Pockmarked shattered the binding force field with a talisman for the fourth time, then shot toward the surface. The expected bindings did not appear again, and hope of survival surfaced in his eyes.

Wang Mengde, his face deathly pale and his gaze indifferent, used the binding technique to control a sharp-ended fragment of the skiff. It shot into the seawater at top speed, and just as Chen the Pockmarked was about to break the surface, it plunged viciously into his neck.

A cloud of blood exploded beneath the sea.

Chen the Pockmarked's eyes bulged wide, filled with endless horror and despair.

He reached up to clutch his neck, but blood surged out through his fingers, dispersing into a bloody mist.

He regretted it. Why had he broken his own principles and attacked a Qi Refinement Level Two cultivator?

Regret. Such regret.

Wang Mengde, paper-white-faced and icy-eyed, cast the binding technique again. He controlled another wooden spike and viciously drove it into Chen the Pockmarked's back, then yanked it out.

It brought out a spray of blood mist.

Wang Mengde's face was bluish-white, but his hands did not pause at all. He controlled the wooden spike and drove it into Chen the Pockmarked's neck again.

Pulled it out.

Drove it in.

Pulled it out.

Drove it in.

Until that head was completely severed from the body.

Only then did Wang Mengde stop.

He let out a long breath, then his body went limp. He dropped onto the skiff spirit boat, while a tearing pain surged through the meridians inside him.

It hurt.

A tearing kind of pain.

That battle had nearly cost him his life.

His crazed, overstrained output of spiritual power had long exceeded the limits his meridians could bear.

Chen the Pockmarked had prepared so many Golden Arrow Talismans. If he had made even the slightest mistake in that battle, he would have been the one to die.

Fortunately, he had won.

Yet Wang Mengde's eyes held only relief.

Then came the lingering fear.

His hands were trembling.

It was the first fight to the death of his life, and the first person he had ever killed.

The other man had wanted to kill him. He had no choice but to kill the other man.

The other man had possessed so many Golden Arrow Talismans, and the situation had been far too dangerous. He could only strike with everything he had.

He had even forgotten to leave the man alive to ask why he had wanted to kill him.

Wang Mengde's back was drenched in sweat as he panted heavily.

He had clearly prepared the spirit stones to repay his debt. All he wanted was to cultivate peacefully and steadily.

Yet that man had wanted his life.

Perhaps he had wanted to seize his skiff spirit boat.

This damned world truly was dangerous.

Sure enough, in this world of cultivation, strength was everything.

If he had possessed Qi Refinement Level Five cultivation, would that man have dared attack him?

Before long, Wang Mengde suppressed the lingering fear in his heart and regained his composure.

He circulated his spiritual power and recovered a little strength.

He stood up.

Enduring the intense pain, he cast the Spirit Eye Technique and scanned his surroundings. Only after confirming that no one was around did he look at Chen the Pockmarked again.

The Spirit Eye Technique detected spiritual power fluctuations in the man's chest.

Wang Mengde endured the pain and cast the binding technique again, drawing Chen the Pockmarked's corpse over. He searched the man's chest and found a money pouch, several talismans, a booklet, and a small jade bottle.

There was no time to inspect them closely.

He quickly tossed the items onto the skiff spirit boat.

He turned the bow around.

Then left this stretch of sea at full speed.

As for Chen the Pockmarked's corpse, sea fish drawn by the scent of blood would naturally take care of it.

After traveling thirty kilometers in one breath, Wang Mengde finally stopped in an area filled with reefs.

Wang Mengde, his face bluish-white, let out a long breath.

Then he sat on the boat, his gaze falling on the pile of items at his feet that he had taken from Chen the Pockmarked.

He first picked up the small jade bottle.

The jade bottle was not large. Three small characters were written on it: Qi-Replenishing Pill.

Wang Mengde pulled out the stopper and found two longan-sized pills inside, their surfaces faintly glimmering.

They really were Qi-Replenishing Pills. Wang Mengde recognized this medicine.

Without hesitation, he sat cross-legged, poured a Qi-Replenishing Pill from the bottle, and placed it in his mouth.

The pill entered his stomach and immediately transformed into a warm current that burst through his body.

Wang Mengde circulated his cultivation method.

Hiss...

Though that warm current was exceedingly gentle, it still brought Wang Mengde a tearing pain as it flowed through his injured meridians.

Wang Mengde forcibly endured the stabbing pain in his meridians and swiftly guided the gentle, abundant energy into his dantian's sea of qi.

After a dozen or so breaths, all the energy had merged into his dantian's sea of qi.

Within his dantian's sea of qi, the spiritual power that had nearly been exhausted was now fully restored, even slightly fuller than before.

His restored spiritual power nourished his body.

Wang Mengde's complexion recovered at a speed visible to the naked eye, gradually changing from that deathly bluish-white to an ordinary pallor.

His spirits recovered greatly.

His strength had returned as well.

It was as if his entire body had come back to life.

Wang Mengde opened his eyes and clenched his fist.

The feeling of abundant spiritual power was very good.

Yet within his meridians, that tearing, stabbing pain remained exceptionally intense.

Wang Mengde frowned.

He would need to buy a pill to restore his meridians later.

He put away the small jade bottle.

Then he looked at the remaining items.