The entry for cultivating immortality states that after dying a hundred times, I attained immortalit

Jiang Bai stood at the edge of the camp for nearly half an hour, holding a dagger. Three faint signs of malice lingered in the distance but ultimately did not approach.

The wolf howls gradually subsided.

He returned to the campfire and sat down as the sky began to lighten.

"Senior brother..." Jiang Yurou's voice was timid, "Was it just now...?"

"It's alright now."

Jiang Bai interrupted her, taking the cotton balls out of her ears. "It's almost dawn. Pack your things and get ready to leave."

Jiang Yurou's lips moved, but she didn't say anything more and obediently got up to tidy up her sleeping bedding.

Jiang Shan awoke as the morning light pierced through the gaps in the tree canopy.

The first thing the captain did after getting up was to check the area around the camp, his gaze lingering briefly on several spots on the ground.

That was near where Jiang Bai had stood last night, and there were signs that the fallen leaves had been trampled.

"Was something going on last night?" Jiang Shan asked as he walked up to Jiang Bai.

Jiang Bai was filling his water bag with cooled water that he had boiled the night before when he heard this and looked up: "Three directions, someone is watching."

He didn't mention how he realized it.

Jiang Shan frowned, and after a moment of silence, asked, "Distance?"

"The closest one is a hundred feet away, and the other two are even further away."

"Can you tell which side they're from?"

"No." Jiang Bai tightened the stopper on the water bag. "But it's definitely not a demonic beast."

These words made Jiang Shan's expression even more serious.

After the team had a quick meal of dry rations, Jiang Shan unfolded a map and traced his finger along the original route: "We originally planned to take the western valley, that route is shorter, but..."

He looked up at Jiang Bai: "Since someone is watching, let's change direction."

"Taking a detour will delay the collection time!" Jiang Li immediately objected. "Jiang Shan, you are the team leader, that's true, but you can't change the entire team's plan based on one person's words! Just because he says someone is watching, does that mean they really are? Where's the evidence?"

These words drew sidelong glances from the other team members.

Jiang Bai didn't speak, but slowly and methodically tidied the poison pouch at his waist.

Jiang Shan stared at Jiang Li for a moment, then said calmly, "I'm the captain. If I say we should change course, we should. If you have any objections, you can leave the team now and go on your own."

Jiang Li's face stiffened, and he fell silent, only glaring fiercely at Jiang Bai.

"Head east." Jiang Shan put away the map. "There's a poisonous swamp over there. It's dangerous, but few people go there, so there might be more Heart-Eating Grass there."

The group then changed course and headed east.

---

The roads in the mountains and forests are becoming increasingly difficult to travel.

The roots of the towering ancient trees protrude from the ground in a tangled mess, and the decaying leaves have been piled up for who knows how many years. They feel soft when you step on them, and sometimes you can even sink halfway down.

Jiang Yurou walked unsteadily, nearly falling several times, but Jiang Bai reached out and helped her up each time.

"Thank you, senior brother..." she whispered her thanks.

Jiang Bai waved his hand, but his gaze fell on a grove of dead trees not far ahead.

Those trees had long since died, their trunks blackened, and their bare branches reaching towards the sky.

At the edge of the deadwood forest, three dark purple plants were growing quietly.

"Heart-eating grass!" someone in the group exclaimed.

It is indeed a heart-eating herb.

The leaves are heart-shaped, with a faint purple light flowing through their veins; they are the auxiliary ingredients needed to refine the Foundation Building Pill.

Jiang Shan raised his hand to signal everyone to stop, and cautiously observed his surroundings.

The forest of dead trees was eerily quiet; not even the chirping of insects could be heard.

"Something's not right," Jiang Shan said in a low voice. "It's too quiet."

Jiang Yurou had already taken out the jade shovel and small wooden box used for gathering herbs. Hearing this, she looked at Jiang Shan and asked, "Captain, shall we continue gathering herbs?"

"Go." Jiang Shan gritted his teeth. "But be careful. Jiang Yurou, you go. The rest of you keep watch."

Jiang Yurou nodded and cautiously walked towards the three Heart-Eating Grasses.

She crouched down and gently inserted the jade shovel into the soil, her movements skillful and gentle, as if afraid of damaging the roots and affecting the medicinal properties.

The first plant was successfully harvested and placed in a wooden box.

The second plant was also intact.

Just as she reached out to pick the third plant.

From the depths of the deadwood forest, seven gray figures suddenly darted out!

It was a wolf, but not an ordinary wolf.

They are a size larger than ordinary wolves, with grayish-brown fur and unusually prominent joints on their backs, resembling barbs. Most terrifying of all are their eyes, with murky yellow pupils that gleam with a naked, bloodthirsty desire.

"Bone-Rotting Wolf! Mid-tier Tier 1 demonic beast!" Jiang Shan shouted sharply, "Form a circular formation!"

The ranks shrank instantly.

Jiang Bai and Jiang Li were assigned to the left wing, Jiang Shan provided support in the center, and Jiang Yurou and two other disciples were protected in the rear.

The wolf pack did not attack immediately.

They spread out in a fan shape, slowly approaching, making low gurgling sounds from their throats.

The wolf king, the leader, was exceptionally large, with a deep old scar over its left eye that made it look even more ferocious.

"Seven heads, that's equivalent to seven Qi Refining Level 4 cultivators." Jiang Shan quickly analyzed, "We can't fight them head-on, we need to find an opportunity to break through."

Before he could finish speaking, the wolf king raised his head and let out a long howl.

The attack has begun.

Three bone-rotting wolves pounced from the front, while four others circled around from the sides.

Jiang Shan faced the wolf king head-on, drawing his longsword, its blade flashing like snow.

On the left flank, Jiang Bai and Jiang Li each had a wolf in front of them.

Jiang Bai's opponent was a slightly smaller female wolf, but it pounced with incredible speed, its claws whistling through the air.

He didn't take the blow head-on; instead, he dodged the claw attack by turning to the side while simultaneously channeling spiritual energy into his right palm.

Poisonous spiritual energy surged from his palm.

He slapped the wolf on the side.

"laugh--"

The wolf pelt instantly emitted white smoke, and was corroded into a festering wound the size of a bowl.

The bone wolf howled and staggered backward, but its ferocity remained undiminished, and it turned around and pounced again.

Just as Jiang Bai was about to deliver the finishing blow, he caught a glimpse out of the corner of his eye that Jiang Li on his right had deliberately stepped aside.

The bone-rotting wolf, which was supposed to be restrained by Jiang Li, broke through the defense and rushed straight at Jiang Bai's back!

[Killing Intent Perception] Frenzied Warning.

Without turning his head, Jiang Bai grabbed a handful of gray powder from the poison sac at his waist with his left hand and sprinkled it behind him.

It smeared the wolf's face with smears.

"Awooo—!"

The wolf's eyes instantly turned bloodshot, and it frantically shook its head, halting its forward momentum.

Jiang Bai then turned around, his poisoned dagger flashing a cold light as it precisely pierced the wolf's neck.

The venom on the dagger spread rapidly, and the wolf twitched a few times before collapsing to the ground.

The whole process took no more than two breaths.

Jiang Bai withdrew his dagger, wiped the blood off the wolf skin, and looked up at Jiang Li.

"Mind your own business."

His voice was calm, but his eyes were as cold as ice.

Jiang Li's face was grim. He didn't reply, but instead used his sword to force back the mother wolf that pounced on him again.

---

The battle reached a stalemate.

On the front, Jiang Shan and the Wolf King were locked in a fierce battle, their swords clashing against the wolf's claws with a piercing metallic clang.

However, the team as a whole was at a disadvantage.

Two disciples at the second level of Qi Refining were injured. One had a deep, bone-revealing wound on his arm from a wolf's claws, and the other had been bitten on the shoulder, bleeding profusely.

Jiang Yurou frantically tried to heal herself from behind, but the healing speed was far slower than the speed at which she was injured.

The wolf king seemed to have seen through the flaw.

It suddenly gave up fighting Jiang Shan, feinted with its claws, and then turned its massive body sharply, rushing straight at Jiang Yurou at the back of the group!

"Not good!" Jiang Shan wanted to go back to help, but he was held back by the other two wolves.

Jiang Yurou's face turned pale. She subconsciously stepped back, but tripped over a tree root and fell to the ground.

The wolf king had already pounced into the air, its blood-red maw wide open, and a stench of hot air rushed out.

In that instant, Jiang Bai made his decision.

His spiritual energy surged wildly within him, and his figure moved three zhang horizontally like a ghost, forcefully inserting himself between Jiang Yurou and the Wolf King!

The wolf king's giant claw slammed down.

Jiang Bai didn't dodge, nor did he have time to dodge.

He crossed his arms over his chest, and his skin had a faint bronze sheen.

"Bang!"

A heavy impact rang out.

Jiang Bai was slapped so hard that he slid back two feet, his feet carving two shallow furrows in the ground.

The shirt was torn at the chest, revealing the skin underneath.

Three white marks were clearly visible.

But it was just three white marks, without even breaking the skin.

For the first time, a look of surprise flashed across the wolf king's cloudy yellow eyes.

Jiang Bai didn't give it any time to react.

He still clutched the unused poison powder in his right hand, and now he threw it all at the wolf king's face, shouting fiercely at the same time:

"Everyone, apply poison to their wounds!"

Jiang Shan was the first to come to his senses.

"Listen to him! Use poison techniques and poison talismans on their injured areas!"

The team members' spirits lifted instantly.

The five surviving rotten wolves each bore wounds, some deep and some shallow.

Some were cuts from swords, some were festering sores from poison, and some were marks left by accidental injuries from companions.

At this moment, all sorts of poison powder, poison mist, and poison needles rained down on these wounds.

A wolf that originally only had a cut on its shoulder suddenly had its entire front leg ulcerated after the wound was covered with highly toxic powder, and it collapsed to the ground howling and convulsing.

Another wolf with an old, corrosive wound on its abdomen had its ulceration rapidly expand after being stabbed with a poisoned needle, causing its internal organs to spill out.

The rate at which toxins enter the body through wounds is several times faster than that from external penetration!

The wolf pack was instantly routed.

Seeing that the situation was not good, the wolf king let out a reluctant howl and turned to flee into the depths of the dead forest.

The remaining two wolves followed closely behind and fled.

The battlefield suddenly fell silent.

Only four wolf carcasses remained, along with the stench of blood everywhere.

---

"cough……"

Jiang Bai coughed up a mouthful of bloody saliva.

Just now, I withstood the wolf king's claw attack. It seemed easy, but the shockwave had actually damaged my internal organs.

If he hadn't made some progress in the "Hundred Poisons Body Tempering Technique," he would probably be the one lying on the ground right now.

"Jiang Bai, how are you?" Jiang Shan quickly stepped forward and asked.

"I won't die." Jiang Bai wiped his mouth. "It's just a little painful—that new dress cost me three spirit stones."

Jiang Shan was taken aback for a moment, then smiled wryly: "I'll pay for your clothes."

He turned to check on the wounded.

Two disciples at the second level of Qi Refining were seriously injured. One had lost too much blood and was unconscious, while the other was severely poisoned and his face was purplish-black.

Jiang Yurou is doing her best to save her, but the effect is very limited.

"They need to rest," Jiang Shan said in a deep voice. "It will take at least three days for them to regain their mobility."

This means that the team will have to carry the two injured players for the next four days.

Jiang Li's expression grew increasingly grim, but he didn't say anything more. Everyone had witnessed his mistake just now, and speaking now would only make him look foolish.

Jiang Shan began to dispose of the wolf carcass.

The venom sac of the bone-rotting wolf is hidden below its throat, making it an excellent material for making poison; its fangs are hard and can be used to forge low-level magical artifacts; although the wolf skin is damaged, it has a good insulating effect, and he cut off some and gave it to two seriously wounded soldiers.

Finally, he walked up to Jiang Bai with four poison sacs in his hands.

"For you."

Jiang Bai accepted it without ceremony and put it into his storage bag.

Each of these items costs twenty spirit stones on the market, and the poison sacs from this battle alone are worth eighty spirit stones, so it's barely considered breaking even.

"Thank you for earlier," Jiang Shan said solemnly. "I owe you one."

"Captain, you're too kind." Jiang Bai waved his hand. "I'm just trying to survive."

These words were so true that they left Jiang Shan speechless for a moment.

The team rested at the edge of the deadwood forest.

Jiang Bai walked to an old tree and sat down to meditate and regulate his breathing. The battle just now had consumed seventy percent of his spiritual power, and he needed to recover as soon as possible.

Half an hour later, he opened his eyes and found Jiang Yurou sitting not far away, pounding medicine, her eyes glancing in his direction from time to time.

"Is something the matter?" Jiang Bai asked.

Jiang Yurou blushed and whispered, "N-nothing... I just wanted to thank you for saving me earlier, Senior Brother."

"oh."

Jiang Bai responded and got up to walk deeper into the withered forest.

"Senior brother, where are you going?"

"Just browsing."

---

The forest of dead trees was deathly silent.

The dark tree trunks resembled scattered tombstones, arranged without any discernible pattern.

The ground was covered with a thick layer of decaying leaves, and the soft texture underfoot gave one the creeps.

Jiang Bai walked for about a hundred feet before suddenly stopping.

There are drag marks on the ground, fresh drag marks.

It was a mark left by something heavy being dragged, about a foot wide, extending in a northeast direction.

He crouched down to examine it closely and found that the decaying leaves on both sides of the drag marks showed signs of being trampled. The footprints were messy, but they could be identified as human boot prints, and... they were not the sole patterns of the Jiang family's standard boots.

Jiang Bai followed the drag marks and walked forward for several dozen feet before the drag marks disappeared behind a thicket of bushes.

He pushed aside the bushes, his expression changing.

Behind the bushes lay a corpse, not human, but that of a demon beast.

It was a "golden-striped scorpion," the size of a wild boar, with a dark gold carapace covered in natural black patterns.

This scorpion is a high-level first-tier venomous insect, with strength equivalent to the fifth level of Qi Refining. Even Foundation Establishment cultivators would be wary of the deadly venom in its stinger.

But it was already dead at this moment, the fatal wound was in its head, pierced by some kind of sharp weapon.

Most strangely, its scorpion tail was severed at the root, and the venom sac at the tail was also missing.

The venom sac of the Golden-Striped Scorpion is worth at least one hundred spirit stones on the market.

Jiang Bai squatted down to examine the wound. The cut was extremely clean, clearly indicating that it was severed in one blow. The person who struck must have either possessed profound cultivation or wielded an extremely sharp weapon.

He looked around again. Besides the drag marks and messy footprints, there was a clear half-finished boot print on the muddy ground a little further away. Jiang Bai took out a blank talisman from his storage bag and carefully traced the boot print.

It was a fine and intricate pattern he had never seen before, a style that was not commonly used by any power in Ping'an County.

"Someone came to this area before us," Jiang Bai stood up and muttered to himself, "and they specifically targeted high-value poisons..." This person was ruthless and definitely not an ordinary disciple participating in the trial.

Just as he was pondering this, Jiang Yurou's exclamation suddenly came from afar.

Jiang Bai's expression changed, and he quickly turned and rushed towards the camp.