In the early morning of the next day, the dark blue of the secret realm gradually faded away, and the gray sky light began to shine again. Qin Tiexin and Duan Xuan simply tidied up, then left the stone hall and continued to advance deeper into the ruins.
The ruins along the way gradually became sparse, replaced by gravel slopes and low bushes. The air no longer only had the smell of decay, but also the smell of earth and plants. The two climbed over a low ridge, and Duan Xuan's footsteps suddenly stopped.
"Over there."
Qin Tiexin looked in the direction she pointed. Below the ridge was an open depression, surrounded by a broken half-circle of stone walls. There were several broken wooden piles remaining on the base of the stone wall, and the structure of what was once a fence could be vaguely seen. The land in the depression was obviously different from the surrounding area. Different - it is not gray-brown frozen soil, but dark brown soft soil, which is obviously artificially plowed medicinal gardens. But at this moment, these medicinal gardens have been dug into pits, most of the soil has been turned upside down, and the few remaining spiritual grasses on the edges are hanging crookedly, and their leaves are withered and yellow.
In the center of the depression, four Ironback Pigs were lying on the loose soil and taking a nap.
These four Ironback Pigs are much bigger than what Qin Tiexin has seen before. Normally, Ironback Pigs are no more than five feet tall at the shoulder, but these ones are close to seven feet, and their skins are stretched tight by tendons. The layer of iron-gray horn on the back is nearly twice as thick as the ordinary Ironback Pig. The most eye-catching thing is their fangs - the fangs on the upper jaw have poked out of their lips and bent into two arc-shaped bone spurs, glowing with a dull bone luster in the morning light.
"It's rare for Ironback Pig to grow to this size." Duan Xuan lowered his voice, "Normally Ironback Pig can't grow fangs."
"Demon Beast here is not normal." Qin Tiexin said.
Duan Xuan didn't speak anymore. The two of them lay down behind the remains of the stone wall and observed quietly for a moment. None of the four Ironback Pig's cultivation level exceeded that of Peak of Qi Refining. They were breathing heavily and steadily and were sleeping deeply. Duan Xuan's eyes moved from the backs of the pigs to the hind legs, and then from the hind legs to the ribs. The meaning in their eyes did not seem to be assessing the threat level of the prey.
"The meat of this kind of pig should be tenderer than the one last night." Duan Xuan said in a low voice.
Qin Tiexin glanced sideways at her and said nothing, but his hand holding the knife was already tight.
The two of them didn't wait any longer. With a glance, Duan Xuan went around from the left, dragging the long whip silently behind him. Qin Tiexin went straight in from the right, and Edgeless dragged behind him. The four Ironback Pigs were not very alert, and the closest one was at Qin Tiexin suddenly raised his head after taking five steps, and just as a low roar rolled out of his throat, Edgeless's knife back hit it on the head with a muffled sound, knocking it unconscious. Duan Xuan's whip wrapped around the hind legs of the second head at the same time, and he knocked it over with a flick of his wrist. The long sword followed closely and killed it.
The remaining two woke up from their sleep, turned over and ran away. One was whipped back by Duan Xuan with a long whip before it could even start. The other ran wildly towards the outside of the medicine garden for less than ten steps. A javelin thrown by Qin Tiexin was pierced into the back of the neck and fell down. The four Ironback Pigs were all killed from the time they woke up in less than ten breaths.
Duan Xuan pulled out the sword from the pig's neck, shook off the blood, squatted down and looked at the pig's hind leg meat. "It's really not right. Look at the lines on the tendon. Normally Ironback Pig the meat lines are not so dense."
"You quite understand?" At least Qin Tiexin can't tell the difference in meat. I only know that the meat quality of these Ironback Pig may be better.
"You'll know it when you see it more." Duan Xuan stood up and glanced at the dug-out medicinal garden around it. "Maybe it was because of eating the medicinal materials grown in this medicinal garden that it became like this. No one took care of the medicinal garden after the Iron Spine Sect's accident. These pigs probably came in smelling the smell of medicine."
Qin Tiexin was about to squat down to dissect the pig carcass when his back suddenly tensed up. He noticed that the stones on the soles of his feet were shaking slightly, which was the hooves of the large Demon Beast sprinting with all its strength.
He stood up quickly, held the handle of the knife, turned around and looked back
From the bushes behind the medicine garden, two iron-gray figures broke through several dead trees and rushed out. It was Ironback Pig again, but these two were larger than the four just now, with a shoulder height of nearly eight feet. They looked like they had reached Foundation Establishment Early Stage. Their fangs had grown to the thickness of their forearms, and the cuticles on their backs were raised into a row of bone spurs.
The one in front stopped on the upturned soil, and its four hooves dug four deep holes in the loose soil. Its small blood-red eyes scanned the four corpses of the same kind on the ground, and a sharp neighing sound came from its throat.
Duan Xuan has changed the long whip to his left hand and pulled out the sword with his right hand. "Kill the smaller one and kill the bigger one. The two ends are fatter, one for each?"
"Okay!" Qin Tiexin said, the two together were not as oppressive as the bull-shaped Demon Beast last night.
As soon as he finished speaking, he stepped out Mountain-Shaking Steps and stepped forward to meet him. One of the Ironback Pigs roared and bumped into him with its fangs pointed at his chest. Qin Tiexin sided to dodge, took out two Armor-Piercing Spears with his left hand, flicked his wrist, and shot one at Demon Beast's right eye, blocked its direction change route with a handle. Demon Beast shook his head to avoid the first javelin, but the second handle grazed the base of his ear and opened a bloody gash. Qin Tiexin held Edgeless tightly with both hands, the blade buzzed, and the heavy sword drew a thick arc and slashed towards him.
One man and one beast clashed, and the blade and fangs passed by each other. The impact was as dull as a drum, Demon Beast's fangs were split into cracks, and Edgeless's blade fell from the It was cut open at the shoulder blade, cut through a thick layer of mane, and embedded it a few inches into the shoulder blade - this Ironback Pig has a stronger defense than the one Foundation Establishment Middle Stage last night Demon Beast was just a little short. Qin Tiexin didn't give Demon Beast a chance to breathe. He kicked its front leg, knocking Demon Beast sideways and unbalanced, and then punched it with his left hand. Blast out. Bang! Vajra Fist Hammer hit Demon Beast on the lower jaw, knocking the bloody head backwards. A section of its fangs broke off, and its throat was exposed. Edgeless followed up and stabbed in with a knife.
Demon Beast twitched twice and stopped moving.
Qin Tiexin pulled out Edgeless and looked back. The battle over Duan Xuan was also coming to an end. She did not directly confront the tough one, but used her speed to keep the distance, and then repeatedly used the long whip to trap the pig's back. After several repetitions, the pig began to circle in an attempt to protect its lower back, but instead exposed the side of its neck. Duan Xuan was waiting for this opportunity, and the dagger pierced the heart cavity diagonally through the gap in the ribs, killing him with one strike.
"The skin of these two ends is much thinner than the one last night." Duan Xuan pulled out his sword and wiped the blood on the bristles, "But the teeth are big enough."
Qin Tiexin put away the carcasses of the two pigs and put them together with the previous four. "These two pigs should be the parents of those four pigs."
"A family of six, one pot served." Duan Xuan shook his head, but there was no regret in his tone.
The two began to search in the ruins of the medicine garden. Most of the medicine garden had been rotted by pigs, and the soil was rolled up, revealing the remains of roots deep inside. Duan Xuan squatted down and dug out a dark brown vine stump from a corner. It was as thick as a thumb. The juice oozing out from the break was dark red, and exuded a faint sweet smell in the air, like diluted animal blood.
She brought the rhizome closer to smell it, scraped a little juice with her fingernails and applied it on the back of her hand, observing for a moment. "Blood Strengthening Vine. Body Refining Stage is used to temper Qi and Blood. These pigs gnawed it clean from the rhizome to the vine leaves."
"No wonder they grew so big and had tusks." Qin Tiexin glanced at the mud pit dug by the pigs. "After this medicine garden was abandoned, no one harvested the vines, and they grew wildly. The pigs ate them for hundreds of years. From generation to generation, the entire group mutated."
The two of them rummaged through the pig's nest in the corner of the medicine garden for a while. The so-called pig's nest was actually a shelter surrounded by several broken walls. The dry soil was covered with a layer of dead grass and broken leaves. Duan Xuan used the tip of his sword to push aside the haystack, revealing the fragmented underneath. Jade Slip fragments and several pieces of black and hard animal skin. She picked up a larger Jade Slip fragment and put it on her forehead, Divine Sense swept it over, and then shook her head. "Spiritual Qi is all gone and can't be read."
Qin Tiexin took the fragments, turned them over, and picked up another piece of animal skin. The animal skin had shrunk into a ball the size of a palm, with a few vague scratches remaining on the surface, but it was no longer clear what was written on it.
Qin Tiexin put the things back to their original places and guessed. "Iron Spine Sect When the mountain was closed, the people in the sect disappeared en masse for unknown reasons, but the spirit beasts raised for meat were still kept in pens, or roamed nearby. No one closed the pen doors, and no one repaired the fences, so these spirit beasts slowly ran out."
"They have nowhere to go, so they can only look for food in this area." Duan Xuan said, "Some entered the medicine garden, and some broke into Alchemy Chamber. Spirit medicine and other things that either grow in the medicine garden, or they were refined into elixirs and put into Alchemy Chamber. The cow probably swallowed a whole room of Alchemy Chamber elixirs last night, and these pigs have eaten Blood Strengthening Vine for hundreds of years--so all of them look abnormal."
"There are other things that were taken away by them." Qin Tiexin stood up, "The bookshelf in the Cultivation Method pavilion is empty, but the Jade Slip fragments left on the ground indicate that there were things stored in the pavilion. The cow had embedded in its hind leg last night. Jade Slip, there are also fragments in the nests of this group of pigs. They should have passed through the Cultivation Method Pavilion. It may have been the attraction of Spiritual Qi on Jade Slip, and these Jade Slip were brought out by the Demon Beasts."
After listening to his words, Duan Xuan thought for a moment, "If we want to find Cultivation Method, we will have to look through Demon Beast's lair."
Qin Tiexin nodded. He really wanted to find a Cultivation Method of the Qi and Blood Realm. Judging from the current findings, the probability of Demon Beast carrying Jade Slip is not low.
The two of them did not stay in the medicine garden for too long. After collecting all the six Ironback Pig into Storage Bag, the two briefly divided the tasks - Qin Tiexin was responsible for paying attention to the terrain and the traces left by Demon Beast, Duan Xuan was responsible for identifying locations along the way. They no longer walked along the main road of stone temples and building ruins, but turned their attention to the surrounding jungles, dilapidated Alchemy Chamber, medicine gardens, and any place that might be used as a lair by Demon Beast.
Half an hour later, Duan Xuan found a nest of Gray-Furred Rabbit under the corner of a half-collapsed Alchemy Chamber wall. The cultivation level was only Middle Stage of Qi Refining, and the coat color was They were gray in color and had extremely long ears. They were one of the edible spiritual beasts that monks loved to hunt in the wild. Duan Xuan killed three of them with a short sword. Qin Tiexin blocked two more in the rubble on the other side.
As soon as the rabbit was put away, a Grass-Horned Deer was attracted by the smell of blood. It poked its head out of the bushes and looked for a moment, then shrank back. Qin Tiexin didn't give it a chance to escape. A javelin penetrated through the gap in the bushes. The deer only struggled twice and then stopped moving.
The two walked forward along the path trodden by Grass-Horned Deer, and found another Jade Slip near the deer nest. This Jade Slip was more complete than the one last night, with only two minor cracks on the surface. Qin Tiexin is placed on the forehead to check. It contains a defensive martial art - "Stone Skin Technique", which uses Qi and Blood to condense a hardened protective layer on the body surface. It is heavy-duty defense and adopts a blunt approach.
Qin Tiexin accepted Jade Slip: "This one suits me. The next suitable one is yours."
Soon after, the two found a nest of Stone-Scaled Lizard on the ruined wall of a side hall. Stone-Scaled Lizard's cultivation level was not high, only Peak of Qi Refining, but his scales were extremely hard. Duan Xuan wrapped one head around with a whip and threw it out of the nest. Qin Tiexin cut down the holes one by one, and the efficiency was faster than when hunting pigs in the morning. A Jade Slip-"Slithering Snake Steps" recording footwork and martial arts was found in the lair. The movement and dodge in a relatively small space was a flexible way of changing directions.
Duan Xuan took Jade Slip and checked it. "I can use this footwork just right."
After a long time, more and more Demon Beast bodies were piled up inside the two Storage Bag, Cultivation Method Jade Slip's harvest plus the previous one also saved three doors. When passing by a gravel field, Duan Xuan pressed Storage Bag and suddenly laughed, "Other monks are here to enter the secret realm. We were looking for heavenly materials and earthly treasures and the treasures left by our ancestors. We fought for a long time and Demon Beast killed a lot of them, but Law Artifact and Spirit Stone were not seen at all."
"The refining room and the elixir store were evacuated, and everything that could be taken away was taken away, and everything that could not be taken away was eaten by Demon Beast." Qin Tiexin said, "On the contrary, there are more things left on these Demon Beast's bodies than in the ruins."
The two looked at each other, shook their heads at the same time, and said nothing more.
In the afternoon, the two men continued to push deeper into the building complex. When they passed a forest, the bushes in front suddenly shook violently. Qin Tiexin suddenly stopped, held down the handle of the knife, and whispered, "There is movement."
A deep roar came from the bushes, and a huge bear Demon Beast knocked open two dead trees and walked out of the forest.
The bear was one foot tall at the shoulders, a bit taller than Qin Tiexin. It was covered with thick dark brown skin, and its four palms were extremely thick, with hook-like black claws protruding from the seams of its palms. Its eyes were dark yellow, without wildly swelling bloodshot eyes, only a calm and vigilant look. This was a completely normal Blazing Mountain Bear, with steady steps, regular breathing, and every palm strike carried a well-controlled force.
Qin Tiexin recognized that this was a Blazing Mountain Bear, inner disciple's Body Refining food supplement, this thing is the most outstanding kind of blood food. Its bear Meat can play a role in stretching the fascia, bear marrow strengthens the meridians, and bear blood is a good thing to improve the explosive power of the physical body. In the sect, such Demon Beast often need to apply to get a piece of meat, and here it is a direct hit.
He felt the breath of that bear - Foundation Establishment Early Stage. But Blazing Mountain Bear was born with a strong physical body, and the breath of this bear was much stronger than the Foundation Establishment Early Stage and Ironback Pig of the two bears in the morning.
"Help me hold off the battle." Qin Tiexin said to Duan Xuan, his tone was calm, but his eyes did not move away from the bear.
Duan Xuan glanced at him and then at the bear.
"Want to challenge one another?"
"Hmm."
Duan Xuan didn't try to persuade her. She took a few steps back and stood next to a thick dead tree. She tied her whip with her whip and paid attention to whether there were other Demon Beast in other directions in the woods, leaving enough space for one person and one animal.