Cultivation begins with forming a bond with a spirit bee.

Hu Si's mouth trembled, and his expression changed drastically.

"who!?"

He turned around abruptly, only to see another figure standing beside the courtyard gate.

Qu Ye stood in the shadows beside the door, the white sword in his hand trembling slightly.

Unaware of Hu Si's arrangements, he did not venture deep into the courtyard, but merely glanced at Hou Youde on the ground.

"It's you?" Hu Si's face turned extremely ugly upon recognizing the person. "What are you doing here?!"

Qu Ye did not answer, but looked at the magical artifact in Hu Si's hand.

"Fellow Daoist Hu, you've gone too far."

Hu Si's eyes twitched, a hint of panic flashing across his face.

He had fought a fierce battle with Hou Youde and Zhao Haiqiong, and his magical power was already running low. Now that his killing trap had been broken, if the fight dragged on any longer, he would surely die.

With a sudden thought, Hu Si pulled out a talisman, slapped it on his body, and turned to rush towards the other side of the courtyard gate.

Qu Ye's eyes turned cold. Now that he had shown himself, how could he let him escape?

He glanced at Hou Youde and whispered, "Uncle De, hang in there."

Before he finished speaking, Qu Ye had already used his lightness technique to chase after Hu Si.

……

After Hu Si rushed out of the courtyard, the talismans on his body burned to ashes, and he quickly flew towards the mountains behind the horse farm.

Before murdering Zhao Hou and his companion, he had already planned his escape route.

"Damn it... damn it!"

Hu Si gritted his teeth, took out a pill from his storage bag and swallowed it, desperately mobilizing the little magic power he had left.

"Why did that guy surnamed Qu have to come at this time of year!"

Under the cover of night, his steps were unsteady, yet still not slow.

He quickly ran into the forest and saw the hiding marks he had made, and was overjoyed.

However, just a few breaths later, a sharp sound suddenly came from behind!

laugh!

Hu Si's scalp tingled, and he almost instinctively lunged to the side.

The next instant, a sword flashed past his ear and pierced the tree trunk in front of him, sending wood chips flying everywhere.

"Qu Ye!"

He turned around abruptly, his expression fierce but his voice weak, and said, "Do you really intend to wipe us all out?!"

Not far away, Qu Ye kept a certain distance from Hu Si, his left hand pointing together, his face expressionless.

He completely ignored Hu Si's stern shouts and raised his hand to gesture.

The white sword nailed to the tree trunk suddenly trembled, flew backward, and once again transformed into a cold light, heading straight for Hu Si's back.

Hu Si was shocked and furious. In his haste, he could only barely muster his magical power to parry with his sword.

clang!

The clash of swords and blades caused such a powerful impact that Hu Si's hands went numb.

His back had already been injured by Hou Youde, and now the wound had reopened, staining his clothes red with blood.

Seeing that the white sword had failed to strike and was taking flight again, Hu Si ignored the stinging pain in his meridians, threw out a fireball, and turned to prepare to continue his escape.

Qu Ye would never give him that chance.

He dodged the fireball, and the white sword shone brightly as it slashed towards Hu Si.

The sword came extremely fast, at an incredibly tricky angle, aiming straight for Hu Si's nape.

Hu Si was terrified, but managed to dodge to the side.

puff!

The sword slashed diagonally, slicing off half of his shoulder.

"what!"

Hu Si let out a miserable howl, lost his balance, and fell heavily to the ground.

He struggled to lift his head, his face filled with terror: "Fellow Daoist Qu... Lord Qu, let's talk this out, let's talk this out!"

"Lord Qu, here's my storage bag, along with spirit stones and talismans—it's all yours!"

"I just want to be spared!"

Seeing that Qu Ye was standing ten meters away, unmoved, he hurriedly spoke again: "Oh right... I also hid a lot of spirit stones in another place. I can take Lord Qu to get them."

"This is a map I drew, Lord Qu, please take a look..."

Before he could finish speaking, he suddenly felt many foreign objects crawling onto the wound on his back.

Immediately following was the pain of being torn apart.

"What is it?"

Hu Si subconsciously turned his head to see what it was, and then felt a flash of white light in front of his eyes.

The white sword pierced his neck, sending him flying several meters before pinning him to a tree trunk.

He tried to pull it out, but he couldn't muster any strength, and its life gradually faded away.

On his deathbed, Hu Si vaguely saw numerous spirit bees appear around him, fly to Qu Ye's side, and surround him.

Through the gaps in the bee swarm, Qu Ye looked at himself calmly.

"Where did these...Jade Spirit Bees come from?"

This became Hu Si's last thought in his life.

……

After confirming that Hu Si was dead, Qu Ye retrieved the White Light Sword.

As the white sword was drawn, Hu Si's corpse fell to the ground, his palm open, revealing a talisman that had been clenched and was somewhat deformed.

Qu Ye controlled the worker bees to bring over the talisman, and examined it carefully in his hand.

"So it was a mid-grade Fireball Talisman."

This kind of talisman follows a very extreme path.

To maximize the damage to the opponent by concentrating all power within a very short distance.

It is a method that many cultivators use to perish together with their enemies.

Fortunately, Qu Ye stood forty meters away from Hu, giving him no chance to make a move.

"You can keep it for yourself."

Qu Ye put the Flame Burst Talisman back into his storage bag, thinking, "Maybe I'll need it someday."

Then, he walked to Hu Si's body and picked up the three storage bags.

He didn't rush to check the harvest; the aftermath wasn't completely finished, and Hou Youde was still waiting.

Qu Ye then beheaded Hu Si, gathered up the bees, and hurried toward Hou Youde's location.

Soon, he returned to Hu Si's courtyard.

Inside the courtyard, Hou Youde was leaning against the wall, his face pale, his breath no different from that of an ordinary person, but he looked as if he had aged ten years.

Upon seeing Qu Ye return, his previously unfocused gaze finally brightened.

"Where...where is Hu Si?"

"His magical power was insufficient, and I was fortunate enough to kill him."

Qu Ye casually tossed the head in his hand onto the ground.

With a thud, Hu Si's unseeing face rolled halfway around and came to rest right next to the stone table in the courtyard.

After Hou Youde saw it clearly, the tension he had been holding in his chest eased slightly.

"It would be better if he were dead...it would be better if he were dead. By the way, be careful of that pot of spirit flowers; there's something that can cause confusion and loss inside."

After saying that, he looked at his dantian with a complicated expression and sighed softly.

Is it discrete?

Qu Ye suddenly realized why Hu Si was able to cripple two mid-stage cultivators all by himself.

He held his breath, went to the Spirit Flower, and found a fragment of the Mystic Flower, about the size of a fingernail.

Qu Ye took out a porcelain bottle, sealed the mouth of the bottle, and put it away.

He then stood aside, his eyes darting around.

Now that Hu Si is dead, one less potential threat has been eliminated, and only Hou Youde still knows about my affairs.

With just a single, gentle strike of his sword, he could kill the man before him who had lost all his cultivation.

However, Qu Ye suppressed the thought just as it arose.

It wasn't that he was soft-hearted or couldn't bring himself to do it; the two weren't particularly close either.

Rather, he felt that Hou Youde was more useful alive than dead.

Firstly, regarding tonight's events, the story of Hu Si murdering for money and the author chasing and killing the thief requires a living witness to corroborate it.

Otherwise, relying solely on his own words, coupled with the fact that he was holding three storage bags, would surely arouse suspicion.

Secondly, he was currently raising horses for the Hou family, and Hou Youde was, after all, a member of the Hou family, so he might still be of some use.

Thirdly…

Qu Ye's gaze fell on Hou Youde's ashen face.

With his dantian destroyed, he has no hope of becoming an immortal in this life and will surely have to return to the mortal world.

Once he returns to the mortal realm, without the nourishment of spiritual energy, and given Hou Youde's advanced age and declining spirit, he will soon reach the end of his lifespan.

Naturally, there will be no future troubles.

Thinking of this, Qu Ye composed himself and walked over.

"Uncle De, how are you?"

Hou Youde gave a bitter smile: "I definitely won't die, but..."

He looked up at Qu Ye again: "Fellow Daoist Qu, I owe you a lot today, otherwise I would have lost my life here."

"Don't rush to say that."

As Qu Ye spoke, he took out a muscle-regenerating pill from his storage bag and handed it to Hou Youde's lips.

"Take the pill and save your life first."

Hou Youde did not hesitate and swallowed the pill.

As the pill entered his stomach, a warm medicinal power slowly dissolved, finally stabilizing his breath, which was on the verge of dissipation.

He closed his eyes and regulated his breathing for a moment. When he opened his eyes again, his face was still not good, but at least it was not as pale as before.