Dividing the Spoils on the Spot

Shen Qingzhou's cry of "Senior Sister, save me!" rang out with full force, echoing through the woods.

"Playing tricks!" Yellowstone True Person snorted coldly and stomped his foot.

"Mountain-Shifting!"

The ground trembled, and the earthen spikes swelled into thick stone spears that smashed down toward the three of them.

Fang Wuji and Liu Yinghan went pale.

This spell was no trifling matter. Early Qi Refining Stage cultivators simply could not withstand it, and the two were so frightened that they could not even move their legs.

Just as the stone spears were about to crash down, a leaf drifted from above.

The moment those stone spears touched the leaf, they turned directly into rotten mud and splattered across the ground.

The surrounding earth-element spells all lost their force, as though something had dissolved them, leaving only pools of sludge.

This was the gap in cultivation.

"What?!" Yellowstone True Person's expression changed. His Mountain-Shifting Art had actually been broken so easily.

The old Daoist turned and fled.

Su Yu blocked his path. She still looked as though she had not fully woken up.

"What's the rush? Weren't you acting so arrogant just now?"

She smiled. "You scared my junior brother like that. Shouldn't you give us an explanation?"

Yellowstone True Person's scalp tightened.

Just now, he had not even seen clearly how this woman had moved.

He formed hand seals and raised a thick earthen wall between them.

"Fellow Daoist! We can talk this out! This is a misunder—"

Before he could finish.

Su Yu flicked a finger.

"Pff." A dull sound rang out.

A small hole appeared in the center of the earthen wall. Cracks crawled outward in every direction, and then the entire wall collapsed with a crash.

That leaf passed through the dust and pressed against Yellowstone True Person's protective rock armor.

Yellowstone True Person froze. He looked down and saw his rock armor softening and dissolving.

"Kan Water... you are..." The old Daoist spat out a few words, then his legs gave way and he fell.

Su Yu did not bother checking whether he was dead or alive. She turned to look at the other two bandit cultivators.

When the scar-faced man and the black-clad assassin saw Yellowstone True Person fall, they had already scattered and fled in opposite directions.

Su Yu raised a finger and gestured lightly. Two droplets of water shot out.

The scar-faced man and the black-clad assassin, already far away, swayed, then plunged into the dirt. Each had a bloody hole in the back of his head.

Su Yu clapped her hands, walked over to Yellowstone True Person's corpse, and bent down to rummage through his robes.

The whole affair had taken only a few breaths.

Fang Wuji stood there with his mouth hanging open, blood still flowing from the wound beneath his ribs. Liu Yinghan stared ahead, her hand still clenched around her sword hilt.

A Mid Qi Refining Stage Yellowstone True Person had died just like that.

Shen Qingzhou stepped out from behind the tree and looked at the corpse on the ground.

He had expected this outcome long ago, but witnessing Su Yu act with his own eyes still sent ripples through his heart.

What formidable mastery of spells!

Moreover, through these several encounters, he had discovered that there seemed to be a faintly suppressive relationship between Dao Lineages!

Wèi Earth cultivators seemed to possess an innate disadvantage when facing the Kan Water Lineage... Yet this was probably more than mere elemental suppression. After all, thick earth was only one of [Wèi Earth]'s many images. It also encompassed storage, digestion, and countless other meanings. It should not have been at such a disadvantage.

Because he possessed [Investigation of Things Source Tracing], Shen Qingzhou had a natural sensitivity toward the secrets of Dao Lineages. He faintly sensed that there was another hidden truth, yet for the moment, he had no clue.

"Found it."

Su Yu interrupted his thoughts. Beside Yellowstone True Person's storage pouch, she pulled out a black iron token engraved with the character "Kill." The other side bore Yellowstone True Person's portrait and name.

"A sect bounty order?" Shen Qingzhou recognized the item.

"Isn't it?" Su Yu spun the iron token on her fingertip and said with a beaming smile, "Earth Spirit Sect traitor, Huang Shi, secretly cultivated the demonic art Blood-Soil Scripture, slaughtered mortals, and can be killed for three hundred contribution points, plus two hundred low-grade spirit stones. Not a bad deal, right?"

She shook the storage pouch she had searched from Yellowstone True Person's body. "This is called eating one fish two ways. It solves your problem and earns the sect bounty. Junior Brother, learn from it."

Shen Qingzhou fell silent.

Those who kill and burn wear golden belts; those who build bridges and mend roads leave no corpses behind.

Looking at Su Yu's harmless smile, he understood those words more deeply than ever before.

This move is ruthless. I need to learn it!

Su Yu was not polite in the slightest. Right before their eyes, she poured out everything from the three storage pouches.

Yellowstone True Person had the richest holdings: over a hundred low-grade spirit stones, several bottles of medicinal pills, and a jade slip containing a cultivation technique that gave off a bloody stench. The other two paupers together had no more than thirty-odd spirit stones.

Su Yu put away the demonic art jade slip separately, then piled all the spirit stones and medicinal pills together.

"Here. You made quite a contribution this time too. You lured out a big fish, and you even dealt with one yourself." Su Yu pointed at the pile on the ground, smiling sweetly.

"But Yellowstone True Person was dealt with by me, I'll be the one collecting the sect bounty, and I bore the greater share of the risk. How about this? Our old rule, a thirty-seventy split. I get seven, you get three. I'll handle the cleanup and fencing the goods. You're not losing out, are you?"

The corner of Shen Qingzhou's eye twitched. He recalled how the split had been exactly the reverse when they had sold talismans before, but he still nodded.

Reasonable. After all, she had been the one to kill Huang Shi, and it was already good enough that she was willing to share with him.

If she wanted to keep it all for herself, he would have nowhere to argue his case.

There were nearly two hundred spirit stones and medicinal pills in total. Thirty percent came to over sixty spirit stones, already a windfall to him.

Su Yu smiled in satisfaction, swiftly counted out sixty low-grade spirit stones and a bottle of healing pills, and pushed them toward Shen Qingzhou. She swept away the rest without the slightest politeness.

Only then did Fang Wuji and Liu Yinghan come back to their senses.

"Shen... Senior Brother Shen?"

Fang Wuji looked at Shen Qingzhou, then at Su Yu. A trace of embarrassment appeared on his face as he clasped his hands in salute, his voice trembling slightly.

"Th-thank you, Senior Brother and Senior Sister, for saving our lives!"

How could he dare retain even a shred of arrogance now? If not for these two today, he and Liu Yinghan would have become two corpses in the forest.

Thinking of this made him even more ashamed. Earlier, he had believed Shen Qingzhou had gone astray. Yet without a word, the man had already become capable of chatting and laughing with someone this ruthless, even taking part in such a killing game.

Liu Yinghan walked over as well and gave Su Yu and Shen Qingzhou a deep bow. "Thank you, Senior Sister. Thank you, Senior Brother Shen."

She had seen things more clearly. Su Yu's strength was beyond doubt, but Shen Qingzhou was no ordinary person either.

She knew she absolutely could not have accomplished that silent strike that killed the formation cultivator.

How long had he even been in the sect?

This fellow disciple's rate of growth had already far surpassed her imagination.

"It was nothing." Shen Qingzhou's tone was earnest. "I do not want a third person to know about what happened today. Once we return to the sect, pretend nothing happened."

"Understood! We understand!" Fang Wuji nodded like a chicken pecking grain. He was not so tactless.

Liu Yinghan nodded solemnly as well.

They both knew this matter involved a sect-bountied traitor and a demonic art. If word spread, it would surely draw questioning from the Law Enforcement Hall, bringing endless trouble.

Besides, most cultivators preferred to hide their strength and did not wish to reveal their foundations.

Keeping silent was better for everyone.

Su Yu dealt with the corpses, and her methods of destroying evidence were even cleaner and more decisive than Shen Qingzhou's.

Su Yu brought forth a stream of water and washed the bloodstains, along with the earthy reek, completely away. The forest was left with only the scent of grass and trees.

"Let's go. We're heading back." She called out and took the lead toward the sect.

Once they returned to Sword-Coming Peak, they went their separate ways. Fang Wuji and Liu Yinghan thanked them once more, then hurried back to their own mountain to treat their injuries. The two fellow disciples had been badly frightened this time, and none of the arrogance they had displayed back on Cinnabar Glow Peak remained.

Shen Qingzhou returned to his small courtyard. Night had long since fallen completely. Ahu had already gone to sleep. The courtyard was quiet, while the spirit-gathering array disk continued drawing in the surrounding spiritual energy.

He entered the study, shut the door tightly, and poured all the gains from this trip onto the table.

There were over two hundred low-grade spirit stones on the table. Several bottles of healing and qi-restoring pills. There was also a low-grade magical artifact, the Ripple-Pattern Sword, which suited his cultivation technique perfectly.

Beyond that, he had personally watched how Su Yu killed. It had been just a casual flick of her finger. She did not clash head-on, but circled to a blind spot, seized the flaw, and took the enemy's life directly.

Shen Qingzhou held the Ripple-Pattern Sword as the Abyss-Hiding Sword qi within him began to circulate. The watery ripples on the blade glimmered, while the mass of black water in his sea of qi, formed from the Wall-Water Essence, stirred as well.

The Kan Water Dao Lineage depended entirely on how well one understood and borrowed the situation.

Just like how Su Yu had laid a trap today. Yellowstone True Person had been led around by the nose every step of the way, and until his death, he had not understood how he had fallen into the pit.

"Enough, enough. Going into seclusion to cultivate is the true path... Without sufficient strength to protect myself, I'd better not leave so casually. Wouldn't it be stifling if some high-level cultivator hooked my soul and I died in vain one day?"

Shen Qingzhou muttered a few words. He stuffed the bulk of the items on the table into his storage pouch, leaving only one bottle of Qi-Refining Powder outside. With this windfall, he would no longer need to worry about lacking spiritual energy for cultivation over the next few days. He had to turn these resources into his own cultivation as soon as possible; that was what truly mattered.

He found a place to sit, picked out a medicinal pill and swallowed it, then began circulating the Abyss-Sinking Formula.

This seclusion was the perfect chance to directly break through to the third layer.