Cultivation begins with forming a bond with a spirit bee.

Chapter 69 The Death of Red Hare

By the time the Daoist aura rising from the animal skin book coalesced into a cohesive whole, Qu Ye had already cautiously advanced for a quarter of an hour.

Clearly, Red Hare's corpse was already within reach.

He didn't use his divine sense to avoid alerting the enemy. Instead, he carefully parted a clump of bushes to take in the view ahead.

Hou Ming, who had escaped not long ago, was now lying face up with his limbs all severed, his eyes lifeless, and his wounds roughly wrapped with a few pieces of cloth.

Not far from him, a Fiery Cloud Steed lay on the ground, and the Sun family cultivator was using a scissor-like magic weapon to continuously cut its flesh.

The fierce steed had its eyes closed, its body covered in wounds, and blood pooled beneath it.

It was Red Hare.

Looking at the scene before him, Qu Ye felt a jolt in his heart, and a complex emotion, indescribable and mixed with anger, rose up.

However, given the current unclear situation, taking any rash action would be a poor decision.

He took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing his anger, and stared at the two of them with icy eyes.

A moment later, the Sun family cultivator seemed to have exhausted his magical power, stopped what he was doing, and walked up to Hou Ming.

Unlike his previous smiling face, his expression was now somewhat gloomy.

Snapped!

He raised his hand and slapped Hou Ming across the face.

"Fellow Daoist Hou, why are you doing this?"

He looked at Hou Ming, who showed no reaction, and spoke calmly.

"I was planning to go back and have the clan give you a quick death."

"Go ahead and run, but use a mid-grade Tier 1 spirit beast as a shield? Do you know that this is a precious asset of the Sun family?"

He was present when Hou Yusheng was interrogated earlier, so he naturally knew that the Hou family had also prepared spirit beasts for the three of them to use for transportation.

If we can capture him alive, even if we don't use him ourselves, we can still make a large contribution by handing him over to the clan.

Perhaps, the opportunity to exchange for the late-stage Qi Refining Breakthrough Pill lies in this matter.

So along the way, whenever Hou Ming rode the Fierce Cloud Steed to escape, he would control the power, only injuring the spirit beast, causing it to bleed profusely and lose its strength.

Unexpectedly, just now, when he struck Hou Ming's right leg with all his might, Hou Ming actually patted his spirit beast pouch, causing the unconscious spirit beast to block the attack for him.

The Fierce Cloud Steed was not known for its defense. After being struck by the magic weapon and awakened, it let out a painful roar towards the horizon before dying on the spot.

That Hou Ming is utterly hateful!

With no hope of obtaining a breakthrough pill, the Sun family cultivator grew increasingly angry and slapped Hou Ming across the face again.

Qu Ye stood in the bushes, catching every word the Sun family cultivator said.

His heart was slowly filled with murderous intent.

Although he had only spent two years with Red Hare, he was still somewhat moved to see him die as a shield right under his nose.

Moreover, if the Red Hare's corpse is cut up by the Sun family cultivators, whether the marriage will be successful is still uncertain.

He had no intention of standing idly by, whether out of consideration for personal feelings or personal gain.

Although this cultivator from the Sun family was at a higher level than him, firstly, he had consumed a lot of his magic power chasing Hou Ming, and secondly, he was at most one level higher than him, which was the sixth level of Qi Refining.

They definitely have a chance!

-

Qu Ye took out the array flags of the Bewitching Killing Array, controlled several worker bees to each pick up one, and quietly set up the array under the cover of the dense forest.

Before the array flags are properly set up, they will not emit any spiritual energy fluctuations, so there is no need to worry about them being detected by the two.

Once the array flags were in place, he took out the array plate and infused it with his magic power.

A flash of light appeared on the surface of the array plate, and several array flags silently lit up in the dense forest. A layer of pale white mist surged from the ground, instantly enveloping an area of ​​thirty feet in radius.

The Mysterious Killing Formation begins.

The instant the attack began, the Sun family cultivator's body surged with spiritual light, his protective aura instantly activating. He abruptly turned around: "Who?!"

As he spoke, his divine sense probed into the mist, attempting to pinpoint the spiritual energy fluctuations within the formation other than his own.

There was no reply, only an ever-thickening fog.

"The magic array is shrouded in white mist; is it the remnants of the Hou family?"

His eyes flashed, and his scissor-shaped magical artifacts swirled around him, ready to attack as soon as his opponent appeared.

He didn't act rashly or wander around inside the formation, lest he trigger some kind of restriction.

Hou Ming's eyes finally showed some emotion. He looked around, wondering which member of his clan had come.

Just as the white mist rose, a wisp of cloud rose from Qu Ye's Four Directions Cloud Boots, blending into the white mist, and then he silently approached the Sun family cultivator.

Arriving at a distance that was neither too close nor too far, Qu Ye patted his spirit beast pouch, and a swarm of bees appeared, scattering in all directions amidst the white mist.

The Sun family cultivator heard a piercing buzzing sound coming from all directions.

"What is it?"

As he was still trying to pinpoint the source of the sound, three sharp golden spikes, arranged in a triangular pattern, struck the back of his neck and his left and right arms respectively.

The Sun family cultivator's gaze sharpened, and with a wave of his right hand, the scissor-shaped magic weapon met one of the golden spikes.

At the same time, he made a hand seal with his left hand, and a curtain of water formed around his body, blocking the other two.

He then breathed a sigh of relief.

Judging from the power of these three spells, the opponent is most likely at the mid-stage of Qi Refining, just like himself.

As long as it's not the late stage of Qi Refining, I still have a fighting chance.

"Playing tricks."

The Sun family cultivator snorted coldly, patted his storage bag, took out a mid-grade Flame Serpent Talisman, which transformed into a ten-foot-long fire serpent that swept outwards.

The fire serpent exploded with a roar, and the heat wave it generated dispersed the white mist a distance away.

During this brief moment, the Sun family cultivators finally got a clear view of their surroundings.

More than a hundred ferocious jade spirit bees with menacing mouthparts surrounded him, flapping their wings not far away.

Behind these jade spirit bees, there was a figure whose face was obscured, holding a three-foot sword and calmly staring at him.

"Insect Cultivation!"

The Sun family cultivators were deeply shaken, a chill running through them.

Before he could see anything clearly again, the thick fog surged in once more, overwhelming his senses.

Along with the thick fog came an increasingly close buzzing sound.

The Sun family cultivator hurriedly took out another protective talisman from his storage bag and activated it.

As soon as the light shield was erected, swarms of Jade Spirit Bees pounced on it, tearing at it relentlessly.

With a flick of his right hand, the scissor-shaped magic weapon emitted a powerful burst of spiritual light, slicing through the swarm of bees.

Several worker bees were caught off guard and cut in half, falling to the ground.

Just as he was conjuring a water blade in his right hand, preparing to slash at the remaining worker bees, he suddenly heard a sword's cry.

The Sun family cultivators immediately became alert.

However, the protective shield was covered with jade spirit bees that blocked his vision, and the surrounding area was filled with a confusing white mist, so he couldn't find the exact direction of the flying sword at all.

At the same time, two first-tier low-grade speckled giant bees with barbs suddenly appeared in the swarm, their mouthparts suddenly lengthening, and they bit down hard on the protective shield.

Although these two attacks were not enough to break through the shield, they did make it dim slightly.

bass!

A dark blue sword shadow pierced through the protective barrier, its momentum undiminished, and once again pierced through the protective spiritual light, shallowly stabbing into the lower back of the Sun family cultivator.

The sword shadow retreated as soon as it touched him, leaving only a small wound on his body.

The Sun family cultivator realized what was happening and breathed a sigh of relief. Fortunately, the wound wasn't deep and he was alright.

Just as he was about to take out the fire-attribute talisman again to kill the swarm of bees and dispel the surrounding mist.

Suddenly, I felt my magical power circulating more slowly, and my movements became somewhat restricted.

Upon closer inspection, I discovered a thin layer of frost had formed on the wound on my lower back.

The Sun family cultivator was somewhat annoyed. Why did the other party only use underhanded tricks and never show up directly?

He couldn't find the other party and couldn't unleash a powerful attack, lest he waste his magic power. He could only passively endure the constant harassment.

Next, golden spikes and longswords attacked from time to time in the mist, and with the constant interference from the Jade Spirit Bee swarm, the Sun family cultivators' magic power was gradually depleted.

With the close cooperation of the three, he sustained more than a dozen wounds.

During one of the bee swarms' attacks, he deliberately pretended to be out of magic power, letting a few worker bees in and silently enduring the pain of his flesh being torn apart.

All that's needed is for the opponent to show up, and then he will unleash a thunderous attack.

To everyone's surprise, the opponent remained unmoved, hiding in the mist and relentlessly launching attacks with golden spikes.

"No, this can't go on any longer."

Sensing the dwindling amount of magical power he had left, the Sun family cultivator felt somewhat depressed.

Clearly, the other party wanted to slowly wear them down.