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

Upon hearing this, the young man in the lead changed his expression and instantly dropped his playful smile, his eyes flashing with a cold light.

"Sixth Junior Brother, send your Golden-Winged Eagle to fly up into the air and check on the situation in that mountain stream..."

A few breaths later.

"Senior brother, there are a few scattered signs of a struggle over there. Wait, those five lotus flowers that are six or seven hundred years old are gone!"

They came here specifically for these five spiritual herbs, which are used to refine a certain kind of pill for the late Foundation Establishment stage.

"Could it be this kid?"

"It must be him."

"Hey kid, leave your stuff here, and we might consider sparing your life."

From the moment they appeared until now, it was the five people from Spirit Beast Mountain who were making a racket. Wang Li, whose path was blocked, had long been impatient.

Therefore, he had no intention of uttering a single extra word.

The close-fitting defensive light barrier is always maintained, there's not much to say about that.

With his right hand, he slapped the storage pouch hanging from his right waist, and the Thousand-Joint Whip shot out, transforming into a long snake aimed straight at the leader's face. Simultaneously, with his left hand, he slapped the storage pouch hanging from his left waist, and with a wave of his hand, summoned dozens of high-tier and four top-tier puppets. Furthermore, the high-tier magical artifact, the Illusionary Sound Needle, was also launched amidst the overwhelming barrage of fire, its target the young man riding the golden eagle.

This scene naturally terrified the five Qi Refining stage disciples, leaving them pale as death.

"Foundation Establishment stage?!"

"Impossible! The restrictions of the Crimson Forbidden Land cannot be broken by a Foundation Establishment cultivator!"

Normally, an ordinary early-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator isn't particularly strong in combat; six or seven Qi Refining elites can easily restrain them. The two-person teams from the Hidden Moon Sect, working together in a small formation, can also deal damage comparable to an ordinary Foundation Establishment cultivator. This is the foundation upon which Nangong Wan led her team to sweep through the Crimson Forbidden Land.

However, Wang Li's strength cannot be measured by ordinary Foundation Establishment stage cultivators.

The puppet alone is equivalent to the combined attack of dozens of high-grade magic artifacts plus four ordinary top-grade magic artifacts. Moreover, it mainly consumes the spiritual power of spirit stones, not its own mana, and therefore does not affect the use of other magic artifacts.

Taking on five opponents of the same level by himself is just a matter of a little effort.

How are the five Qi Refining stage cultivators supposed to compete with this?

"Escape! Scatter and escape! Every person who can get away is a chance..."

The intelligence must be passed out.

This is outright cheating.

How could a Qi Refining stage disciple's Green Leaf Magic Weapon or Sword Control Technique possibly outrun a puppet's beams and bullets, or be faster than the Thousand-Section Whip or the Illusionary Sound Needle that Wang Li personally drew out and swung out?

In a single exchange, the young man who was the leader of the five was pierced through the chest by the spear-like form of the Thousand-Section Whip, and then dragged along with his shield and "bang," he was pinned to a cliff face.

The young man who leaped onto the golden eagle's back erected a defensive light barrier as thin as a piece of toilet paper, easily torn. His right hand, reaching for the storage pouch at his waist, seemed to be trying to retrieve some life-saving item; however, in terms of reaction and speed, he was a level below Wang Li. Before he could even take out the magical artifact, a chill ran down his spine: a bloody hole appeared in his chest, followed by a whooshing sound.

Another elite disciple, with decent agility, managed to erect a top-tier shield in time, showing that he hadn't neglected his physical training and sculpting. But even with his toughness, after Wang Li's precise prediction and a casual ground spike piercing his sole, he couldn't withstand the combined fire of over twenty high-tier energy blasts plus two top-tier energy beams.

A group of five people, eliminating three key members.

The remaining two are either a support role or a mere background character.

The reason he kept it was because Wang Li was currently missing a living map of the forbidden area of ​​Spirit Beast Mountain.

It's not too late to kill them after we get the map.

"Hmm? Little one, are you sure you want to resist?"

Originally, he thought that not killing the two immediately was already a form of mercy. Unexpectedly, a young man at the twelfth level of basic cultivation not only did not appreciate it, but also summoned three pets, looking like he was ready to fight him to the death.

"Since we're going to die anyway, instead of begging for your charity, I might as well let go..."

"Pfft."

His head was tossed high into the air, and a mouthful of red blood appeared on his neck.

A transparent thread flashed and then retracted from the whisk ring that Wang Li always wore on his left middle finger. Within thirty feet, any human Qi Refining cultivator who dared not raise a defensive shield would die, no matter how many came.

"Huh? What happened?" The fifth person next to him was still confused and was now the only one left in position five on the team.

"Alright, hand over the maps of the forbidden areas that Spirit Beast Mountain has explored over the years. Don't hold back."

Wang Li offered a kind reminder.

"Senior, may I offer you everything I have...?"

"Whizzing."

Two "black-hearted needles" transformed into thin threads, burrowing into the creature's heart along the artery, and then began to wreak havoc like maggots clinging to its bones.

"Ugh!"

He screamed and fell to the ground, pounding his chest and rolling around in agony, but to no avail.

A quarter of an hour later, Wang Li got what he wanted, and then a large fireball sent the young man lying on the ground, tears and snot streaming down his face, down to reunite with his friends.

"Take care."

Since we've started a group buy, shouldn't we give away the gifts together?

The map was integrated, the previous route was slightly modified, and then we continued.

……

In the following two hours, two more groups of people stumbled into his line of fire.

However, the male and female duo from the Hidden Moon Sect were not intimidated by him at all. They immediately sought to cause him trouble and try to seize the spoils of his killing a nest of high-level flying beasts.

And another young man from the Qingxu Sect.

Although he was only at the twelfth level of Qi Refining, he had remarkable eyesight and seemed to have discerned his cultivation level at a glance, and then made his escape without saying a word.

This made it impossible for Wang Li to turn a blind eye.

"My father and mother are both Core Formation Elders of the Qingxu Sect, you can't kill me!"

What? Two offspring at the Core Formation stage?

Their identity is indeed quite frightening.

But... I'm sorry, you're even more likely to die.

Chapter 76 Pest Control

In the central area, at a direction six degrees north of west, at the deepest part of the stone palace, lies a stalactite cave.

Above the cave, numerous sharp protrusions hang like long spears, and occasionally the sound of water dripping from the bottom can be heard. On the cave floor, similarly, long, pointed stone cones protrude, seemingly complementing the shapes above in some way.

A quick scan with divine sense revealed some hidden corners of the cave containing holes the size of fingernails, as if they had been eaten by insects. Furthermore, the nearby walls were unusually soft and fluffy.

The space here is actually quite large, but it always gives Wang Li a strange sense of oppression.

It was as if a monster had opened its mouth wide, just waiting for him to crawl in.

"Tick."

Water droplets dripped from above, striking the rounded buttocks of the high-ranking beast-shaped puppet. Clearly, Wang Li was not venturing deeper rashly, but rather choosing to use the puppet's perspective to carefully search this underground world.

One li, two li... all the way up to about five li.

Ahead, the view suddenly opened up, and the forest of stone cones disappeared. What came into view was an open space, and in the center of the open space was a pitch-black abyss. Upon closer inspection, it was a bottomless abyss. Even with the eyesight of a high-level puppet, it was difficult to see very deep; however, it could still see a pavilion suspended in mid-air below.

Afterwards, Wang Li controlled the other two puppets, patiently and carefully exploring the other corners of this space. In the deepest part, he found more than twenty very old spiritual herbs, including some that were thousands of years old.

"Strange, are there no guardian beasts?"

He didn't encounter any trouble at all until the humanoid puppet carefully dug up all the spiritual herbs.

The beast-shaped puppet leaped into the abyss, heading straight for the stone pavilion.

As expected, they successfully landed on top of the pavilion. They then nimbly squeezed inside and saw a stone box, about the size of a bed board, floating silently and weightlessly within the pavilion.

"There really are no guardian beasts?"

After receiving the spirit herbs from the humanoid puppet, Wang Li prepared to go inside to retrieve the chest. After all, lifting the restrictions and moving the treasure chest were not things that a puppet could do; the cultivator himself had to go and open the chest.

Of course, he maintained the protective shield and Hades Shield, but still had no intention of personally taking risks.

One pat on the spirit beast pouch:

"Go, Xiao Qi!"

"Hiss..."

With the Golden Python's keen intuition, it was more than capable of sensing any danger. As soon as Xiao Qi was summoned, it flicked its tongue and ran over to rub against Wang Li's trouser leg, only to be promptly kicked several meters away by Wang Li.

Xiao Qi was very sensible and knew that it was because it had upset its owner, so it swam diligently deeper into the stalactite cave.

But at some point, a rustling sound began to appear all around, rapidly converging and approaching it.

Xiaoqi sensed something was wrong, but its instinctive sense of danger gave it no warning; however, the more it did not, the more uneasy it became.

It wanted to retreat, but before Wang Li could tell it to go back, it couldn't spoil its master's good mood, so it had no choice but to bravely continue crawling forward for several dozen meters.

At the exit of the passage behind, Wang Li, who was constantly observing his surroundings with his divine sense, had also noticed something amiss. The once tranquil cave had become restless, as if ants were crawling all over it. What started as a faint rustling sound had now become a clear, buzzing hum.

It was at this moment.

"Hiss, hiss..."

"Boom bang..."

First came Xiaoqi's painful screams; followed by the thud of its tail and the noise of it slamming its neck against the ground.

In the blink of an eye, Xiao Qi, who was being observed by divine sense, seemed to be covered by an imperceptible curtain.

"return!"

Wang Li was extremely anxious.

Although they say they want to use the little guy as raw material and keep him as a backup, after several years of living together, that thought has actually faded.

He was still very reluctant to see Xiao Qi die.

After all, it felt strange not having a little mudskipper rubbing against his trouser leg anymore.

"Hiss, hiss..."

However, Xiaoqi's response was that she was willing but unable to do so!

It was held back. And the emotions it conveyed, besides panic, fear, and anger, also included a trace of... reluctance.