Don't farm, cultivate immortality!

“Very good. If you find the smell too unbearable, just stuff your nose with a strip of cloth.” Zhuang Xing nodded, let out a long breath, licked his chapped lips, and took a sip of water.

"I'm leaving the rest to you." Zhuang Xing placed his hand on the mandrill's claws, his consciousness growing increasingly blurred, and he lay down beside the mandrill.

The mandrill guarded him like a guardian deity, leaning on its sword, protecting the person behind it in such a terrifying dark night.

...

"It's just ahead." Linghui looked at the compass and rode forward with Yunling in tow.

He smelled the strong stench of blood and decay, and a very ominous premonition filled his heart.

Yunling clenched her fists so tightly that her nails dug into her flesh until it turned blue and white.

The taste of blood, the taste of death...

She dared not imagine what she would do if she arrived at the scene to find Zhuang Xing's body; she only felt an immense sense of suffocation engulfing her.

If Zhuang Xing dies...

No, he couldn't possibly be dead...

He's so capable, so intelligent, so brave...

Yunling could only comfort herself in her heart, but the closer she got to the front, the stronger the feeling in her heart became, as if she were hanging on a high cliff with a bottomless abyss below.

Finally, they saw the dilapidated temple ahead.

Linghui stopped his horse, drew his sword, and looked at the hell on earth before him.

Yet, in such a place, there were still living people; the carriage was carrying more than a dozen young children.

Yunling jumped off her horse. She didn't care about anything else; all she wanted was to find that person's shadow.

She looked around, searching every place she could see, and finally, next to the mandrill, she saw the blood-covered figure lying down.

Her heart felt like it was being squeezed. She ran over without thinking and knelt down beside the person, barely daring to look at his face.

But she could hear his breathing and his heartbeat; he was still alive...

When Yunling discovered this, she noticed something warm sliding down her cheek.

Tears streamed down her face as she realized that the person before her was irreplaceable and precious to her, and she carefully embraced him.

The blood stained her fair face, but she didn't care. She just wept silently. Why couldn't she stand by his side and stay with him when it was so dangerous?

"This is... the nest of a white-tailed jackal?" Linghui was more alert than Yunling.

He kept a close watch on his surroundings and came to the carriage. A little girl stood up and came to Linghui.

"Are you the Taoist brother's companions?" the little girl asked.

“Yes.” Linghui bent down. “Little sister, can you tell me what happened here?”

“It was the Taoist priest who saved us,” the little girl said. “He killed all those big dogs, and he told us to sit here and that someone would come to save us soon.”

"Did Zhuang Xing kill this white-tailed jackal tribe?"

Linghui couldn't believe that a child who had been cultivating on the mountain for a year, even with the help of a mountain demon, could single-handedly clear out a white-tailed jackal's nest and even save so many children. It sounded like an outrageous story someone had made up.

But... everything around us silently tells the truth.

Linghui looked at Zhuang Xing's sleeping face again and took a breath.

"Uncle-Master Qingxu, you have truly brought back an extraordinary disciple."

Chapter 93 Embrace

“He only has some superficial injuries. He fainted because he overused the Spirit Qi Talisman and exhausted himself.” Ling Hui placed her hand on Zhuang Xing’s chest. “Don’t worry, your master only gave him three Spirit Qi Talismans.”

"Even if he uses it all at once, his life won't be in danger, but... judging from the situation, he still needs to rest for a while."

"Yunling, you stay here and take care of him and these children. I'll go check around. If anything happens, just call me and I'll come right away."

"Okay, senior brother, you go ahead."

Yunling nodded, knelt down, and gently placed Zhuang Xing's head on her lap. She took out her handkerchief, dipped it in a little water from her water bag, and gently wiped Zhuang Xing's cheeks.

Linghui nodded and went for a walk around the neighborhood.

He found the villager who had become crippled. Judging from the villager's appearance, he had been bitten by a white-tailed jackal. The little girl told him that Zhuang Xing had bandaged the man's wounds.

It's not hard to see that these thieves stumbled upon the White-tailed Jackal's lair while on their journey, as the bodies of the men and horses bore the marks of the beast's gnaws.

Linghui looked at the corpses of the white-tailed jackals again. Two of them had been cut in half at the waist, and the cuts were very smooth, as if they had been cut without any resistance.

Linghui thought that if he were to fight these white-tailed jackals... he would never use such a violent method to kill one.

It's not that he couldn't do it, but that would be too physically demanding for him, and it would also cause a lot of wear and tear on the sword.

He usually kills his enemies by stabbing them in vital areas with his sword.

But Zhuang Xing... his true qi seemed to be born for fighting...

It was easy to tell which white-tailed jackals Zhuang Xing had killed and which had been killed by mandrills. The wounds inflicted by mandrills were very rough, with obvious signs of broken bones. But when Zhuang Xing's sword killed a white-tailed jackal, it was as if he were cutting a piece of fine cloth with scissors.

He wasn't using a sword to kill the demon, but rather his incredibly sharp true qi.

Not only that, Linghui also found the dent that had been created by bombarding with the Xuanhuo Talisman.

The lava inside had extinguished, but Linghui still managed to deduce from the remaining hair and bones that Zhuang Xing had killed four white-tailed jackals with that attack...

It should be noted that the white-tailed jackal is a demonic beast that can ride the wind. They are very fast, and although the power of the Xuanhuo Talisman is great, it is not easy to hit them.

To kill four white-tailed jackals at once with a single Xuanhuo Talisman, there is only one possible scenario: all four jackals must have been attacking their prey, which is why they gathered together.

Linghui guessed that Zhuang Xing had deliberately used himself as bait to create this situation, and the danger involved made Linghui's scalp tingle just thinking about it.

It's hard to imagine that this is Zhuang Xing's first battle. Ling Hui recalled the day more than ten years ago when he first went down the mountain and his senior brother asked him to pick up his sword and face the monsters. At that time, he could hardly even hold the sword tightly.

In comparison, Zhuang Xing's performance was simply terrifyingly outstanding. Whether it was temperament, insight, combat intuition, or talent, this child far surpassed anyone he had ever seen.

Linghui glanced back at the unconscious Zhuang Xing and felt a sense of relief. She thought it was fortunate that Zhuang Xing was a disciple of Xuanqing Temple and that he had fought against the white-tailed jackals to protect the children. At the same time, Linghui made up her mind to properly teach her junior brother and never let him go astray.

Linghui spent some time exploring the entire battlefield before letting out a long sigh of relief.

Even if he had been there, he couldn't have done any better than Zhuang Xing.

An entire White-tailed Jackal clan is a type of monster that requires at least two Red Tassel disciples to form a team of seven or more to fight.

From this day forward, he will remember the name Zhuang Xing deeply in his heart.

All he could do was finish up the last bit of work.

He righted a carriage, loaded it with the food and water he could find, and then led his horse over to pull the carriage a little further away.

All the children went to the carriage. Yunling carried the unconscious Zhuang Xing onto the carriage, while the unconscious villager was held by the mountain demon.

Afterwards, Linghui dragged all the corpses to the vicinity of the dilapidated temple by herself.

He chopped up the remaining wreckage of the wagons and piled the planks around the ruined temple.

He took out a small knife from his satchel and dug out the demon cores one by one from the white-tailed jackal's head.

Actually, the white-tailed jackal's fur, teeth, and bones are all excellent materials, but they only have one horse and can't carry too much with them, so they can only take the most valuable demon core.

After finishing these tasks, Linghui went to the dilapidated temple, looked at the piles of rotting corpses, sighed, and recited Taoist scriptures for the dead.

He bowed deeply and took out several ignition talismans to activate them.

A raging fire broke out inside the dilapidated temple, the flames leaping and burning the remaining body of the deceased, along with the temple itself.

This is something that must be done. The arrival of white-tailed jackals usually causes a plague. These carrion-eating monsters are ominous beasts, and the rotting corpses in their lairs are the source of plague and disease.

It was fortunate that these ominous beasts were eliminated before they could bring disaster.

Linghui slowly walked out of the dilapidated temple and came to the carriage.

Everyone was watching the fire blazing in the night, the darkness dyed the night with the color of flames.

Death, fear, sin... all the bad things seemed to be burned away in the fire.

Even the mandrill watched the fire silently. It stood in front of the fire, the heat wave blowing from there, the withered yellow grass undulating like waves. The old mandrill hunched over, its cloudy eyes reflecting the three humans dressed in Taoist robes. No one knew what it was thinking.

The fire lasted until almost noon the next day before it was finally extinguished.

Linghui watched as the charred, dilapidated temple collapsed and woke up the resting children.

"Let's go back."

He patted the horse's neck, and the horse pulled the cart forward.

They walked back into the village along the same road they had come from.

Linghui told the children that if they got tired, they could rest in the car for a while.

Not a single child complained of being tired; they all silently gave up the space in the car for the unconscious Zhuang Xing.

Although they were young, they knew very well who had saved their lives, and every child had great respect for Zhuang Xing.

The journey wasn't long, nor was it short. Because they had to take care of the young children in the group, Linghui didn't lead everyone to the empty mountain village until the morning of the second day.

When Zhuang Xing woke up, it was already evening. He found himself lying on a bed with Yunling sitting by the bed, holding his hand. He had changed out of his Taoist robes into clean everyday clothes.

Upon seeing him wake up, Yunling suddenly hugged him.

The girl's head rested on Zhuang Xing's shoulder, and Zhuang Xing's body was enveloped in that warm embrace. He could feel the girl's heartbeat, and a pleasant fragrance wafted from her soft hair.

Zhuang Xing patted her back and said softly, "I'm sorry for making you worry."

Yunling didn't let go; she just hugged him even tighter.

Zhuang Xing was a little at a loss. Although he felt that the situation was all within his plan and he could handle it more than enough, Yun Ling must have been terrified to see so much blood on him.

He sensed the girl's concern and worry for him. After thinking for a moment, he decided not to apologize, but simply hugged her tightly.

He used this method to tell her that he would not leave her.

Chapter 94 Poor Thick Barrier

"Really? I slept for two days..."

Zhuang Xing raised his arm and felt it was a bit heavy. He hadn't fully recovered yet, and his whole body felt tired and his muscles ached.

The worst part is that his vital energy is recovering very slowly; two days have passed and it's still almost depleted.