Chapter 11: It’s you again

About the fact that Bi’An Sect was so wealthy it actually possessed an entire demonic beast forest…

Recently, disciples of the Bi’An Sect—whether from Silver Moon Sect, Green Apricot Sect, or Ten Thousand Nights Sect—no matter if they were ordinary disciples, guest elders, or even the three sect masters, had all been busy cultivating.

The reason was simple: Bi’An Sect’s demonic beast forest was about to open once again.

Because the number of demonic beasts was not very large and normally required time to slowly breed and multiply, cultivators were not allowed to hunt them casually.

But the next five days would be an exception.

Cultivators could enter directly to seek compatible demonic beasts to form contracts with, or they could obtain demon cores through hunting and other means.

For a demonic beast forest that only opened once every ten years, cultivators naturally placed great importance on it.

When he heard the news, Yue Chuyin was visibly delighted.

If he could get his hands on some high-grade demon cores and sell them, he could probably stuff his recently pitifully empty storage pouch just a little fuller.

Lin Xi, on the other hand, directly played dead, lying flat in the small forest behind the mountain.

At his level—Foundation Establishment—he would definitely be at the very bottom of the food chain in the demonic beast forest. Any random beast would be enough to make him fall flat on his face.

“You’re going too?” Lin Xi looked at Gui Ying, who was wiping his sword beside him.

Gui Ying leaned against a tree and turned his head, “Why not?”

Lin Xi said, “Aren’t you the sect master? You’re really going to compete with disciples for demonic beasts?”

“It’s Master’s idea.” Gui Ying smiled. “She wants all of us to go, and for everyone to contract a decent demonic beast.”

Lin Xi suddenly understood. Indeed, although Gui Ying was the sect master in name, that was only because Shu Ling was too lazy to manage the affairs of the Bi’An Sect, so she took on the title of Supreme Sect Master.

At the end of the day, she was still the true pillar of the sect.

“Everyone has to contract one? That includes me?” Lin Xi reacted belatedly.

“Just act within your limits,” Gui Ying said, sheathing his immortal sword and pulling out a stack of talismans. “With your cultivation, if you overdo it, you’ll die in there pretty easily.”

“Take these. If you run into danger, throw them at the demonic beasts. Of course,” Gui Ying suddenly smiled with a slightly malicious edge, “you can throw it at people too.”

Looking at Gui Ying’s textbook villain-style grin, Lin Xi felt that this time, they were truly thinking along the same lines.

Thus, the “Partners in Crime” alliance was formed.

After accepting a stack of talismans from Gui Ying, Lin Xi carefully asked about the function of each one. Still suspicious, he even took out one of each type and tested them, just in case he was being set up again.

After all, in such a “loving and harmonious” sect, it was always better to be cautious.

Once he confirmed that everything worked properly, Lin Xi decisively treated his sect-master senior brother to a full-on, shameless monologue of flattery.

Although the big villain liked to pit people, when he wasn’t doing that, he was actually pretty reliable. Truly worthy of being his outstanding sect master senior brother!

In the blink of an eye, the day arrived. A massive crowd of cultivators surged toward the demonic beast forest.

By the time they reached the enormous teleportation array, it was already packed, people pressed tightly against one another.

Only then did Lin Xi finally understand why the teleportation array randomly sent cultivators to different locations instead of sending everyone to the same area.

If they were all sent to the same spot, wouldn’t they be crushed to death on the spot?

Yue Chuyin was like a little wave drifting with the current, squeezed by the crowd to the point he was nearly suffocating.

Originally, he wanted a private teleportation array, but Shu Ling told them they had to start from the grassroots level.

Lin Xi glanced at the lamp in his hand, “Nether Sea?”

Yue Chuyin rolled his eyes, “At least you’ve got some taste.”

Unlike Yue Chuyin, Gui Ying somehow managed to perfectly avoid all the congestion. Today, he was dressed very inconspicuously—his clothes looked like they’d been borrowed from some impoverished guest elder. He was hiding in a corner of the array, leisurely drinking tea, and even pulled Lin Xi over to leisurely drink tea with him.

That left Yue Chuyin alone, utterly disheveled in the sea of people.

Yue Chuyin: Are you unable to set down that teacup of yours?!

Lin Xi, internally: Allow me, someone who’s read the original novel, to interpret this. Facts prove that aside from when he’s killing people or attending court as emperor of the Yangxin Empire, he never seemed to part with his teacup.

At the instant of teleportation, a streak of white light flashed, and the array was instantly emptied.

Meanwhile, many new figures suddenly appeared throughout the demonic beast forest. Some people happened to bump into others the moment they were teleported in: “Hey, aren’t you so-and-so?”

Others were even more unlucky, getting teleported directly face-to-face with demonic beasts, and were immediately chased in a frenzy, screaming and scrambling for their lives.

Lin Xi’s situation was fairly normal, so he calmly chose to slack off, using a pile of talismans to barely set up a shoddy, ramshackle formation.

A bunch of talismans drawn by someone at late-stage Nascent Soul could at most block attacks from Foundation Establishment-level opponents when made into a formation.

One could say it was a great underutilization of its potential.

Still, Lin Xi was quite satisfied. He wasn’t a talisman cultivator and had never drawn talismans before, let alone set up a formation. The fact that he hadn’t blown himself up already counted as a success.

The formation was built around a huge tree hollow, so Lin Xi simply treated the hollow as his home.

Before the first day was even over, he lay down and went to sleep without the slightest guilt.

There were indeed demonic beasts that came to harass him, but his luck seemed pretty good. He didn’t encounter anything too outrageous. At most, they were Foundation Establishment-level beasts, which the formation could block.

That night, he started to feel a bit hungry.

Other cultivators had brought their own rations, but he was too lazy for that and planned to source food locally.

Seeing yet another clueless Foundation Establishment demonic beast charging toward him, he casually took out his homemade slingshot and fired at it.

The crucial detail was that what he launched wasn’t a stone, but a talisman.

As a result, the previously ferocious demonic beast instantly froze in place, completely motionless.

These talismans were indeed effective.

Sect Master Shixiong truly lived up to his reputation as a genius dual cultivator of sword and talismans!

And so, Lin Xi had roasted meat to eat that night.

Although he felt that demonic beast meat wasn’t as tasty as the chickens back on their mountain, at least it was better than hard, cold, crumbly dry rations.

He was just eating leisurely when he suddenly sensed that something was off. Something nearby seemed to be approaching.

It wasn’t a demonic beast but a person.

Lin Xi instantly became alert. After all, cultivators were competitors too, and hardly anyone had actually seen him. They only knew that Shu Ling had taken on a final disciple.

On top of that, a vast forest was the perfect place to commit crimes. If he ran into some powerful cultivator, he might very well become the shortest-lived personal disciple in history.

But once he got a clear look at the figure approaching, he let out a sigh of relief.

There was a long scar across the youth’s face, yet it didn’t detract from his originally delicate features in the slightest. It was none other than Xu Ke—the one he had once pinned to the ground and thoroughly humiliated.

Thinking that less trouble was better than more, Lin Xi planned to retreat straight back into the tree hollow and hide.

But upon closer inspection, he noticed that Xu Ke’s face was deathly pale, with several streaks of blood on his body. Even his sword flight was clumsy and unsteady, his footing visibly shaky.

Looking behind him, there was an enormous creature in hot pursuit.

Judging by its presence, it was actually a Golden Core–stage demonic beast!

Lin Xi was completely stunned, silently lamenting how unlucky Xu Ke was to have run into something like this.

He was still hesitating when the demonic beast suddenly glanced sideways—at Lin Xi.

However, the claw it swung came down on Xu Ke instead.

Lin Xi: …

So it planned to kill Xu Ke first, and then come after him? Fine. At this point, even if he wanted to ignore it, he couldn’t.

Without hesitation, Lin Xi shot out of the formation in a flash. Along the way, he quickly retrieved all the talismans he had already used, and even grabbed his food while he was at it.

In just a few seconds, he had completed an entire series of actions.

The demonic beast’s claw had already reached in front of Xu Ke.

Watching the youth close his eyes and wait for death, Lin Xi was speechless. He grabbed Xu Ke and hauled him onto his own immortal sword, then shot straight into the sky, charging forward. The sound of air tearing in their wake even faintly reached the speed of a Golden Core cultivator.

At the instant he was saved, Xu Ke clearly heard a single sentence: “What a coincidence—we meet again.”

…

The demonic beast chased them relentlessly, impossible to shake off.

Xu Ke finally came back to his senses and realized that he was standing on a sword, flying at high speed.

The other party seemed to be at Foundation Establishment, but at this speed, he had to be using a Gale Talisman.

He looked up, and wow, this face was really familiar.

Judging by the look of it, it was definitely Lin Xi.

More importantly, Lin Xi had just used talismans to attack that demonic beast, which now seemed even angrier.

“How long can your Gale Talisman last?” Xu Ke asked between gasps. He didn’t believe someone at Foundation Establishment could be this absurdly fast.

“Huh? Gale Talisman?” Lin Xi replied, still flying at full speed and somehow speaking perfectly normally. “Gui Ying didn’t give me any Gale Talismans. He said I’m fast enough and don’t need them.”

…What the f*ck?

Xu Ke once again felt his worldview shatter.

Lin Xi continued flying rapidly, still chatting as if nothing was wrong. “What exactly do you have on you that’s attracting demonic beasts?” He had already sensed it earlier. Xu Ke had picked up something he shouldn’t have, which was why he’d drawn not one but two Golden Core–stage demonic beasts.

Yes, two. There was another one behind them.

“It’s… a demon core,” Xu Ke said, pulling out a crimson object that faintly shimmered with an unusual glow. “I don’t know what level it is, but it’s been attracting a lot of demonic beasts.”

Lin Xi sighed silently. To think that something this good had ended up in Xu Ke’s hands.

Judging by the color, it was at least a Nascent Soul-stage demon core from when the beast fell. From the look of it, it resembled a Fenghu demon core, which explained why it had attracted a swarm of demonic beasts.

He took out a strange-looking talisman and awkwardly stuck it onto the demon core.

In an instant, golden light flashed and then vanished. The two Golden Core–stage demonic beasts noticeably slowed down, no longer as frenzied as before.

Lin Xi casually flung out a streak of spiritual light, trapping the slightly dazed demonic beasts, and took advantage of the moment to flee at full speed.

His speed was comparable to that of a Golden Core cultivator.

After they had run far away, Lin Xi returned the demon core to Xu Ke’s hand. Both of them let out heavy sighs of relief.

Only then did Xu Ke finally voice a long-overdue thank you.

No matter how the other party had beaten him up before, in the end he himself had been at fault too. And a life-saving favor should be repaid tenfold—naturally, he wouldn’t dwell on past grievances.

Lin Xi didn’t think much of it.

After all, no matter what had happened before, they were still from the same sect. There was no reason to stand by and watch the other die.

Though exceptions could be made for certain idiots, a disciple like Xu Ke—grateful, upright, and well-rooted—was absolutely someone worth saving.

So, no need to thank him~

But nearby, another aura seemed to be approaching. This time, it felt like a female cultivator.

Lin Xi frowned, finding the aura somewhat familiar. “This is…?”

Xu Ke fell silent for a moment, “Xuan Hou.”

Seeing the unmistakable disgust in Xu Ke’s eyes, Lin Xi immediately understood.

Xu Ke had grown up with Yue Chuyin since childhood, so he knew that Yue Chuyin had once been a perfectly normal human in his youth.

Compared to now—after being constantly tricked and manipulated by Xuan Hou—he’d been messed up badly, his intelligence dropping significantly. Once Xuan Hou opened her mouth, Yue Chuyin would give her anything. If it weren’t for her, Yue Chuyin wouldn’t have ended up this hopelessly braindead.

What’s more, Xuan Hou herself was sharp-tongued and vicious. When she went crazy, she cursed people left and right. Compared to normal female cultivators, she was practically a lunatic who’d escaped from an asylum.

So within the sect, aside from Yue Chuyin, no one really liked her. However, no one dared to provoke her either.