In the west of the central zone, in a hollow where rare medicinal herbs grew, three cultivators were fighting a Three-Eyed Fire Wolf with all their might. A middle-aged man dressed in the attire of the Giant Sword Gate was driving a green giant sword, blocking most of the wolf's attacks, while an old man in a yellow robe and a young man in a gray Daoist robe were assisting the attack from the left and right sides.
Before long, this disciple of the Giant Sword Gate, after taking a hit from a large fireball in a direct clash, beheaded the beast with one stroke of his sword, then withdrew his giant sword and laughed triumphantly toward the sky.
"Brother Meng truly has profound magical power! To be able to kill this Three-Eyed Fire Wolf with a single strike! Truly worthy of being a top disciple of the Giant Sword Gate..." The old man in the yellow robe, seeing this scene, immediately ran over with fawning behavior, his words of flattery flowing non-stop, without a hint of embarrassment on his face.
If Han Li were here, he would recognize this old man as Xiang Zhili, who had once strongly invited him to form some kind of Weak Alliance, but the young fellow disciple who was with him back then was not here, presumably separated during teleportation.
"Hehe! If Brother Xiang and Daoist Priest Li hadn't assisted from the side, how could I have succeeded so easily!" The black-robed middle-aged man holding the giant sword was quite modest.
"Brother Meng, there's no need to be so modest! To eliminate this demonic beast, Brother Meng has made the greatest contribution, that's undeniable!" The young Daoist priest, although not old in years, spoke with a composed and unassuming tone, extremely experienced.
Hearing this, a smile flickered across the black-robed man's face, but he immediately said a few more modest words.
"Speaking of which, those other fellows still fighting and killing are really foolish! If they knew that three of us from different sects could actually work together to eliminate monsters and gather herbs together, I wonder if they would be shocked to the point of their jaws dropping!" The black-robed man suddenly changed the topic and said this.
"Indeed! This is all thanks to Brother Xiang's diligent efforts! If Brother Xiang hadn't analyzed everything so clearly for us, I'm afraid Brother Meng and I would still be fighting to the death!" The Daoist priest nodded repeatedly in agreement.
"I wouldn't dare claim credit! Both of you are extremely intelligent people, I was just stating the truth! There was never any need for us to risk our lives over things that could never possibly fall into our hands. We could spend this time, instead of killing each other, sweeping up all the rare medicinal herbs outside the central zone! And if we work together, dealing with these demonic beasts would be a piece of cake!" Xiang Zhili chuckled and modestly declined with oily words.
Upon hearing this, the other two exchanged meaningful smiles and agreed enthusiastically.
"Alright, let's hurry up and gather the 'Fire Dragon Grass'! We'll each take an equal share!" It was the black-robed man who spoke first, unable to contain his impatience, his voice revealing urgency. As he spoke, he walked toward the several small red plants behind the fire wolf's corpse.
Hearing this, Xiang Zhili and the Daoist priest exchanged a deep, meaningful look and both agreed readily, walking over.
But neither of them noticed that on the black-robed man's face, turned away from them, a sinister expression suddenly appeared, but it vanished almost immediately.
...
In the south of the central zone, in a place covered with yellow sand, a male and female disciple of the Bright Moon Sect were using the Ice Spike Technique to continuously stab the sandy ground in a small area, as if searching for something.
But after half a day, they still had nothing to show for it.
"Where on earth has that bitch hidden! When I find her, I'll挖出 her eyeballs!" The female disciple, who was originally beautiful and charming, with a face as lovely as a flower, spoke such vicious and cruel words that they sent chills down any man's spine.
"Junior Sister, let's just give it up! The time agreed upon by the sect is almost up, if we don't leave soon, we'll be late!" The male disciple said somewhat timidly, seeming very afraid of this junior sister.
"Hmph! It's all your useless fault, you can't even watch over a little girl at the tenth level of cultivation properly, letting her slip away right under our noses! If word gets out, won't they laugh themselves to death at the reputation of me and my sister as the Bright Moon Twin Beauties! Honestly, how could the sect let a loser like you be my cultivation partner!" The woman didn't react well when she heard the man's words, but once she did, she immediately pointed at the male disciple's nose and berated him, her face full of anger. The male disciple's face turned red, but he could do nothing about it.
However, despite her words, the female disciple looked at the brightness of the sky and still didn't dare to continue searching, after all, delaying the sect's important matter, even though she had special status and powerful backing, was still a serious matter.
But just leaving here without anything to show for it, the woman was still somewhat unwilling. After hesitating several times, she gritted her silver teeth and took out a blue talisman.
Looking at this talisman, she gave a sinister laugh, then suddenly threw it behind her, and dashed away, stopping only after she was dozens of zhang away, then turning back to observe.
Seeing this, the male disciple secretly cursed inwardly, but didn't dare to delay at all and followed closely behind her.
At this moment, the talisman had transformed into a giant black cloud dozens of zhang in size, completely covering the sky above the area. Then the temperature in the vicinity dropped suddenly, becoming extremely cold.
Before long, countless large, sparkling ice spikes began to fall from the black cloud, from slow to fast. In a short while, this small area was densely covered with them, as thick as the spines on a cactus.
After the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, the black cloud gradually dissipated. By then, the entire sandy ground was a glittering expanse.
The female disciple widened her eyes and scanned the sandy ground, which now had almost no room to stand, but found nothing unusual.
Her hateful expression darkened, and she shouted irritably at the male disciple before leading the way out of the area. Her so-called cultivation partner naturally followed close behind.
The Bright Moon Sect woman who had left didn't notice that in one corner of the sandy ground, now covered with ice spikes, a trace of crimson liquid was seeping through. It was just too faint, so it had escaped the female disciple's notice.
Half an hour later, when the crimson had begun to spread, the yellow sand here suddenly bulged into a small, round mound, which grew higher and more obvious.
In the end, the sand mound violently churned, and a woman in green clothes rolled out from within. An ice spike was embedded in her shoulder, blood flowing freely, staining half her body. In her hand, she tightly clutched a yellow silk handkerchief, which glowed with light and seemed to be no ordinary item.
The woman who slowly got to her feet looked at the wound on her shoulder, her beautiful brows tightly furrowed.
She raised her other hand and gently grasped the back half of the ice spike. Gritting her teeth, she pulled it out, causing the woman to let out a soft cry of pain. Tears welled up in her beautiful eyes, and blood gushed from the wound.
Not bothering to wipe the tears from her face, she didn't dare delay at all. After a flurry of activity, she took out a floral porcelain bottle from her storage bag and poured some yellow powder onto the wound. The bleeding immediately stopped.
After finishing all this, the woman in green clothes knelt on the sandy ground, hugging her knees, and sat motionless. A moment later, she suddenly covered her face with both hands and began to sob quietly. But afraid of attracting others, she kept her crying very low.
A meal's time passed, and this Spirit Beast Mountain female disciple finally stopped crying. She looked up at the empty sandy ground and couldn't help but shudder!
She bit her lips and stood up with difficulty. After hesitating for a long time, she finally determined the direction and stumbled toward the central zone. At this moment, her lovely and attractive face still bore faint tear stains, but at the same time held a stubborn expression that didn't match them.
This woman was actually the young girl who had sold Han Li the Golden Bamboo Pen. Just wounded and walking alone on the quiet sandy ground, she looked even more pitiful and sympathetic.
A moment later, the young girl's figure gradually disappeared into the yellow sand as she pressed on her wound.