The black-robed cultivator in the sky stared down. From his slightly raised sleeve, a slender finger, thin as a bamboo joint, slowly emerged...
At the sight, every villager below was frightened out of their wits.
Despite the freezing chill radiating from him, they forced their mouths open and, shivering violently, cried to heaven and earth as they begged for mercy.
Amid the chorus of pleas, Wu Lei also shouted urgently.
"My lord... my lord, spare us! Spare our lives... I truly don't know when the talisman was activated!
We're willing to offer you this year's entire harvest of soul crystal shoots. We... we truly didn't send out a bounty talisman. We really didn't!"
In his desperation, his words came a little more fluently.
The black-robed man in the air remained unmoved by their pleas. Just as he was about to point his finger down, however, Wu Lei's words reached him, and his movement faltered.
"My lord, my lord, all the soul crystal shoots here are yours! They're all yours! We truly sent out the bounty talisman by accident. It was unintentional!
Making a false report would only earn us a death sentence. There's nothing for us to gain. Please judge this fairly, my lord. Please!"
Seeing the black-robed man hesitate, Wu Lei hurriedly pleaded again, tears and snot streaming down his face.
The black-robed man's expression remained dark as deep water, but he spoke again.
"Oh? Soul crystal shoots nearing their twentieth year?"
"Yes, honored immortal master. They could actually have been harvested four days ago, but we wanted to let them grow a little longer. Please accept them as our apology."
The black-robed man was already a mid-stage Golden Core Realm cultivator. Soul crystal shoots of this age were not particularly valuable to him.
But soul crystal shoots that