Poor Liu Yihong

As it turned out, the moment Ye Fei had charged into the horde of Demon Beasts, he had entered the Azure Dragon Sword.

With the Demon Beasts providing cover, Liu Yihong had noticed nothing amiss.

Inside the Azure Dragon Sword, he had swallowed pills to recover while watching the situation outside.

He had heard every word Liu Yihong said. He had also seen everything that happened outside with perfect clarity.

By now, Ye Fei knew that Li Zaitian, an Outer Sect Elder of the Free and Easy Gate, was definitely no good. He must have already betrayed the sect.

At that thought, he cautiously flew onward while taking out the Voice Transmission Jade Plaque Ning Siyu had given him.

Since he was less than a hundred li from the Free and Easy Gate, the Voice Transmission Jade Plaque still worked.

"Senior Sister, Outer Sect Elder Li Zaitian is suspected of betraying the sect. Be extra careful, and don't get too close to him."

"Also, I may not be able to return to the sect for a while. Please let Master know for me."

After activating the Voice Transmission Jade Plaque, Ye Fei gave a brief warning and sent the message.

Only a moment later, the Jade Plaque in his hand suddenly lit up, and Ning Siyu's somewhat anxious voice came from within.

"Master already knows about this. Junior Brother, are you in danger right now? I'll come out and save you."

Ning Siyu's concern warmed Ye Fei's heart, and he hurriedly sent a reply:

"Don't worry, Senior Sister. I'm fine now, and the danger has passed. But I can't go back yet, for fear of arousing Li Zaitian's suspicions."

"I've hit a bottleneck in my cultivation, so this is a good chance to go out and gain some experience. Please allow me to do so, Senior Sister."

A dozen or so breaths later, Ning Siyu's voice came through again.

"Master said there's a Market in Qingyuan Town, southwest of Green Pine Mountain. You can go take a look. You might find an opportunity that helps you break through."

Clearly, Ning Siyu had already relayed Ye Fei's words to their master, Luo Ying.

With everything settled, Ye Fei sent no further messages and put away the Jade Plaque.

After traveling just over a li, Ye Fei discovered the corpse of an Earth-Splitting Beast ahead.

The Earth-Splitting Beast had been gutted and was dead beyond all doubt.

But judging by the lingering warmth in its body, it had not been dead long. Liu Yihong had probably killed it.

"Your grandpa will gladly accept this gift."

Ye Fei grinned happily, then swept his sleeve and stored the Earth-Splitting Beast's corpse inside the Azure Dragon Sword.

Next, he guided the Azure Dragon Sword into the air, checked his bearings, and resumed the pursuit.

Since Liu Yihong was also only at Qi Refining, his divine sense extended no farther than twenty zhang. He could not possibly detect the Azure Dragon Sword.

His battles with the Demon Beasts also caused quite a commotion, so Ye Fei had a perfect grasp of his movements.

And so, Liu Yihong worked hard slaughtering Demon Beasts up ahead, while Ye Fei leisurely collected the corpses behind him. The two made a remarkably well-coordinated team.

This teamwork continued for ten days.

Throughout those ten days, Liu Yihong carried out his duty faithfully, barely resting even when injured.

Sure enough, his tireless efforts brought Ye Fei a rich haul.

He collected over two hundred corpses of various first-tier Demon Beasts.

They were enough for another spiritual root cleansing.

On the eleventh day, having found nothing, Liu Yihong gave up searching.

He found a large, secluded rock and sat cross-legged on it.

"Damn it, which Demon Beast ate that brat?"

"Ugh, ten days. I'm exhausted to death. If I don't recover soon, my foundations might suffer."

Sitting on the rock, Liu Yihong heaved sigh after sigh.

He was at the peak of the Qi Refining Sixth Layer and had brought fifteen subordinates at the third and fourth levels, yet Ye Fei, who was only at the fifth level, had reduced him to this sorry state.

It truly left him feeling stifled.

After ten days and nights of battling Demon Beasts on top of that, Liu Yihong was utterly exhausted in both body and mind.

"I must find that Yinluo Banner, or I won't be able to answer to the young master when I return."

Muttering another line with a face full of worry, Liu Yihong took out a Precious Flower Jade Dew Pills, put it in his mouth, and began recovering.

What Liu Yihong did not know was that, as he recovered, a tiny speck of dust was drifting toward him on the wind.

It drew closer and closer.

"Since you've come, why bother going back?"

As that speck of dust floated behind Liu Yihong, a voice suddenly came from within it.

At the same moment, Ye Fei flashed into view, thrusting his sword toward Liu Yihong's back, straight at his heart.

"Who?"

In the middle of recovering, Liu Yihong instinctively turned to look behind him.

He actually failed to dodge at the first opportunity.

When he saw that the person behind him was Ye Fei, his eyes went wide with disbelief.

He had never imagined that the man he was certain had been eaten by Demon Beasts would appear before him again.

At that very instant, Ye Fei's sword pierced straight through his heart.

"You... actually... survived."

Blood streamed from the corner of Liu Yihong's mouth. With bitter unwillingness written across his face, he toppled to the ground and breathed his last.

It was an utterly humiliating death.

Looking at Liu Yihong's fallen corpse, Ye Fei showed neither joy nor sorrow.

He reached forward with his right hand and drew Liu Yihong's Storage Pouch into his grasp.

Then, with a thought, he entered the Azure Dragon Sword again. After shrinking into a speck of dust, it settled on a nearby tree.

Inside the Azure Dragon Sword.

Ye Fei dumped out everything in Liu Yihong's Storage Pouch.

A Black Disc Magic Treasure.

A bottle of recovery pills.

Fifty Lower-Grade Spirit Stones.

An ordinary magic-implement longsword.

A black token.

A Voice Transmission Jade Plaque.

Two pale Yellow Talismans and a cultivation manual called the Yinluo Art.

There was nothing else.

"A man with over a dozen subordinates was actually this poor!"

Ye Fei looked over the items one by one, slightly disappointed.

After putting away the sword and Spirit Stones, he picked up the black token.

It was a hexagonal token about the size of his palm.

The token was small, with the character "Luo" carved on one side and "Sha" on the other.

It was probably a sect identification token.

Setting the token aside, Ye Fei picked up the two talismans.

Since this was his first encounter with such things, Ye Fei could make neither head nor tail of them and could only put them away.

As for the Yinluo Art manual, he had no interest in studying it whatsoever.

One glance at the name told him it was an evil art, so he tossed it aside.

Finally, Ye Fei picked up the Black Disc Magic Treasure.

It was a flying magic implement, though Ye Fei had no idea what material it was made from.

Rather than refine it now, he put it away first.

After examining his spoils, Ye Fei went straight to the Spirit-Washing Tree.

By now, the Demon Beast corpses beside the Spirit-Washing Tree had piled up like a mountain.

He took out his sword and cut off every part of the Demon Beast corpses that could be submitted for missions, then let the Spirit-Washing Tree absorb all the remaining corpses.

When the Spirit-Washing Fruit ripened again, Ye Fei had also calculated how many Demon Beast corpses the Spirit-Washing Tree had absorbed this time.

"Last time it was a hundred and fifty corpses, and this time it was a hundred and eighty. That means the next time should require two hundred and sixteen."

Ye Fei soon worked out how many Demon Beasts would need to be absorbed for the Spirit-Washing Fruit to ripen again.

"It's getting harder and harder."

With a soft sigh, Ye Fei picked the Spirit-Washing Fruit and put it in his mouth.

And so, inside the Azure Dragon Sword, Ye Fei completed his fourth spiritual root cleansing.

This Spiritual Root Cleansing lasted nearly half an hour.

Moreover, the sensation of ten thousand ants gnawing at him had grown even stronger than before. Ye Fei had almost been unable to endure it.

"At this rate, I definitely won't be able to endure the next spiritual root cleansing."

After washing the filth from his body, Ye Fei could not help frowning.

He had begun to realize that both the duration of the spiritual root cleansing and the pain his body endured were increasing at a fixed rate, just like the requirements for the Spirit-Washing Tree to mature.

And judging by the current situation, that rate was also about twenty percent.

"If that's the case, then no one could possibly complete eighty-one spiritual root cleansings, could they?"

"The final spiritual root cleansing alone would last decades. Who could endure that?"

The more Ye Fei thought about it, the colder his heart grew.

"No, I have to ask Azure Dragon and get this cleared up."

With that thought, Ye Fei raised his head and looked toward the clouds at the top of Azure Dragon Waterfall.