A Mortal's Journey to Immortality: Starting as a Rogue Cultivator

Because he wasn't from a large family like the Xue or Wang families, the Li family was a small cultivation family without a Foundation Establishment cultivator in charge, so they didn't have the resources to provide him with any fine magical artifacts.

The few magical artifacts he possessed were all high-grade artifacts that he had painstakingly accumulated over the years, yet how could they possibly survive a clash between several top-grade magical artifacts?!

Sure enough, the alms bowl that was offered up transformed into a yellow light, which entangled with the emerald light emitted by a small, entirely green battle halberd on the opposite side for a few breaths. After returning, the halberd was much dimmer, and a crack had even appeared at the edge.

It broke his heart.

"My two elder brothers, we mustn't delay."

Now that you've chosen to take action, it's time to reveal your hand. There's always a trade-off.

The two exchanged another glance and immediately understood each other's meaning: those two mid-level talismans, one for control and one for escape, could not be wasted on such a trivial matter.

After another round of fighting, the two decisively slapped a low-level high-grade Divine Wind Talisman onto themselves; and found four high-grade magic artifacts from their spoils and threw them out. In exchange for giving up these four high-grade magic artifacts and the cultivator surnamed Li, each used one high-grade magic artifact for offense and one for defense to clear a path, quickly dodging left and right and rushing past the blockade of several spirit beasts in front of the bronze gate, successfully breaking through the bronze gate.

Then, without looking back, they fled into the distance!

In terms of strength, these two are definitely not bad, otherwise the Chen family members wouldn't have been so foolish as to place such high hopes on them.

However, this made things difficult for the still trapped cultivator surnamed Li.

"Brother Wang, Brother Xue."

The sound was so mournful, like the lament of a cuckoo.

At that moment, the cultivator surnamed Li felt a chill run through his hands and feet: he had been betrayed!

"No, I can't die here, absolutely not! If I, as the head of the Li family, perish here, what will happen to the Li family? What will happen to my three-year-old son?"

We must escape.

They turned around and ran.

"If we can reunite with that Senior Brother Wang Li, there might still be a glimmer of hope."

And even if they are trapped in the forbidden area later, they will still have more help, right?

"Hey, those two are fast runners."

"Four high-grade magic artifacts, that's quite generous of them."

Meanwhile, the cultivator surnamed Li, taking advantage of the fact that the group from Spirit Beast Mountain hadn't yet launched their attack on him, also turned and left without looking back, but in the exact opposite direction from the Chen family. He was in such a sorry state that he couldn't even retrieve the two high-grade magic weapons he had summoned; his losses were undeniably heavy.

They were on the verge of escaping this man-eating vortex.

Unexpectedly, a dark figure suddenly darted out from the bushes beside him and knocked him to the ground.

The creature that attacked the cultivator surnamed Li was a three-eyed fire wolf whose aura had been completely concealed by a mid-level talisman.

However, unlike the wild top-tier fire wolves in the Crimson Forbidden Land, this three-eyed fire wolf is only at the upper-tier level. It was raised by a cub that the middle-aged man at the thirteenth level of Qi Refining in Spirit Beast Mountain had obtained by chance years ago.

This is the reason why the four people released only eleven spirit beasts instead of twelve or sixteen.

"Trying to leave? Hmph."

With a flash of blood, a fine head flew off, filled with deep resentment and bitterness.

"Oh dear, if you really can't get over your hatred, then hate those two guys who abandoned you!"

"Senior Brother Zhong, look! Seven spiritual herbs!"

"Hey, Huangfeng Valley's got some fat."

"Tsk tsk, handing over four spiritual herbs would have created a win-win situation for everyone, so why bother?"

The man surnamed Li said that he also wanted to; however, Wang Xiao and Xue Pan didn't care about his seven spiritual herbs at all, they only cared about their own pockets, which was extremely selfish.

His teammates are terrible, what can he do?

"By the way, Junior Brother Xiao, why did you hold back against those two just now? If you had thrown out the Heavenly Thunder Token bestowed by Grandmaster Xiao, the two from Huangfeng Valley who escaped would definitely have been caught as well."

Beside them, Wang Li, wearing a mask and a bamboo hat, who was about to sneak out of the high wall and bronze gate while they were looting the corpse, using the remaining effect of the stealth talisman, felt a sudden tightness in his heart upon hearing this.

Luckily, I didn't force my way through, or I would definitely have messed up.

"Gentlemen, you must not make a mistake. Those two are members of the Chen family, and they seem to have some important mission on their shoulders. They may also have secret treasures bestowed by their elders. Although the Heavenly Thunder Spear is powerful, its range is too small, and directly wielding it is too conspicuous. If you fail to hit both of them at the same time, and one of them manages to dodge and escape, then this feud will become very serious."

He didn't want to invite a major enemy for himself or his elders.

The group from Spirit Beast Mountain, gathered together, had already removed their shields and put away their magical artifacts and spirit beasts amidst laughter and merriment.

Wang Li, who was about to leave, stopped in his tracks upon seeing this, then slowly lowered his feet, his eyes sparkling.

opportunity.

"The Chen family? Are they from that Core Formation Elder in Yellow Maple Valley?"

Everyone's eyes twitched.

"Fortunately, Junior Brother Xiao knew how to handle things..."

Exactly! Offending a Core Formation stage elder and ruining the plans of such a powerful figure would cost them ten lives. Junior Brother Xiao is fortunate; he has powerful backers. But what about those of them without such backing? Wouldn't they suffer a miserable fate afterward?

At that moment:

"Pfft pfft pfft..."

Including the young man carrying the Heavenly Thunder Seed, the middle-aged man at the thirteenth level of Qi Refining who was leading the group, and another young man standing next to the two; the three of them, who had lowered their guard and dropped all defenses after confirming that there were no threats around, suddenly had a string of blood gushing from their carotid arteries, and their throats were torn apart.

The three storage bags also disappeared without a trace, one after the other.

The only one who touched the corpse escaped unharmed because he remained vigilant and maintained a simple, close-fitting protective barrier.

"Cuckoo..."

The three victims bled profusely from their necks. They instinctively tried to cover their wounds, but their attacker was ruthless and showed no mercy. Within moments, the three, drained of strength, collapsed to the ground, feeling a chill creeping over them as darkness closed in. Clearly, their physical bodies were beyond saving.

"Who? Who is it?"

The people from Spirit Beast Mountain, who were hiding in the bushes, were first horrified upon seeing this scene, then their expressions turned extremely ugly. They no longer had any intention of hiding and lying in wait; they summoned their spirit beasts and charged out fiercely.

"No way? There really is such a powerful person? He even dares to kill a direct descendant of the Core Formation Ancestor of Spirit Beast Mountain?"

The other person, who was lurking in the shadows, stared wide-eyed in disbelief.

Damn it!

The lucky guy, who was kneeling on the ground and happily touching the corpse, was startled and instinctively rolled to avoid a claw attack. He then quickly and nimbly slapped a high-level defensive talisman on himself, while summoning his spirit pet and summoning his magic weapon again, turning around as if facing a formidable enemy.

His face showed a mixture of shock, fear, and anger! At the same time, there was also a deep sense of lingering fear and a faint sense of relief!

"pity."

Wang Li sighed inwardly.

The stealth talisman does indeed prevent him from using mana, otherwise it would automatically become ineffective; however, this doesn't mean he can't use normal attacks that don't involve mana while this mid-to-high-level talisman is active. Stealth talisman + Butterfly Hands + ordinary martial arts finger techniques + magical gloves—even without mana, he can still kill and steal treasures.

The downside is that without the support of magic, his speed is halved; this directly resulted in his attack killing three people in one hit, while the one looting the corpse on the ground was dealt with before he could reveal himself.

Of course, that's not the end of the story.

The Spirit Beast Mountain disciple, shielded and hidden in the grass, swiftly reached the corpses of his three fellow disciples. He saw a pair of discarded, blood-stained magical gloves and prepared to toss them to his spirit beast to sniff, hoping to pinpoint the attacker's aura and begin tracking. Just then, Wang Li, who had first quickly slipped into the high wall and gate a short distance away to drop something, suddenly appeared with nine talismans in his hand after a surprise attack.

Three intermediate beginner level cards and six beginner advanced level cards!

These are all rare offensive types.

Among them were three intermediate-level talismans, which were also the only intermediate-level attack talismans he possessed!

The gesture was quite generous.

Mana was poured into them, activating them one after another. Two intermediate-level and four high-level beginner-level cards were thrown at the crime scene where the two people from Spirit Beast Mountain were gathered.

At the same time, the stealth talisman completely failed, and Wang Li, wearing a bamboo hat, three layers of masks, and a close-fitting black night suit, quickly removed the invisible disguise and revealed his figure from a corner.

His appearance certainly gave the two from Spirit Beast Mountain an outlet for their frustration. However, the two intermediate-level spells from the intermediate-level talismans that came at them made them even more terrified.

An offensive, intermediate-level, low-grade talisman, generally equivalent to a full-force attack from a mid-Foundation Establishment cultivator.

The simultaneous activation of both means a dimensional reduction attack from two mid-Foundation Establishment cultivators!

Together, they'd be lucky to withstand even one of those attacks; two would be asking too much. Not to mention, after those two mid-level talismans, there were four more attacks comparable to a casual strike from an ordinary early-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator proficient in the Five Elements techniques, plus a top-tier magic weapon, a fire ring, to finish them off.

The two spirit beasts blocking the front were immediately sliced ​​into pieces by dozens of sharp golden rays. The two figures managed to buy half a breath before the low-level high-grade defensive light barrier broke, but before they could jump away in time, a fire dragon and several fire pythons came to strangle them, and the two figures were engulfed by the flames one after another.

"Do not……!"

They planned to continue using the spirit beast as a shield, but spirit beasts also have feelings and fears. A moment's hesitation led to their demise.

Within the fiery tornado, it quickly turned into ashes.

A mid-level talisman might not be enough to deal with a level two Ink Dragon, but it would be more than sufficient to deal with two Qi Refining stage cultivators of the same level who mostly relied on spirit beasts and whose own defensive methods were not particularly outstanding.

"Whoosh..."

Having witnessed such a shocking turn of events, the Tianque Fort disciples who were hiding in the shadows dared not harbor any more illusions and immediately tried to leave.

"Trying to slip away now? Too late."

Wang Li sneered.

He threw out the third intermediate-level Ice Cone Rain Talisman along with two other high-level talismans, and the area within dozens of feet was covered by thick curtains of ice rain.

However, this person from Tianque Fortress was indeed quite wealthy, possessing mid-level talismans, and the sight of familiar shields rising up caused Wang Li's expression to change drastically:

Hades' Shield!

The clash between the icy rain and the fiery rain was truly spectacular. With the six smaller shields of Hades' Shield all positioned behind them to cover any gaps, they managed to withstand the attack.

"Thank you, fellow Daoist, for eliminating the scoundrels of Spirit Beast Mountain. We shall meet again."

Before leaving, he couldn't resist teasing Wang Li.

But it was clear that they were about to rush through the high walls and the bronze gate.

"See you later? No, no, no, it's not 'see you later,' it's 'never see you again'!"

Wang Li gave a cold laugh.

"Whoosh..."

They were so focused on guarding against the Tianque Fortress disciple behind them that they had no idea there was an ambush ahead.

By the time he heard the sound of something cutting through the air, it was too late.

The weakness of Hades' shield, lacking a core shield, is exposed: it cannot automatically protect its owner in a timely manner.

"Pfft."