Hide in the world of gods and demons

Chapter 149 Serving
The air was filled with a strong smell of blood.

"Whoosh!"

Accompanied by a sharp whistle!
The flying sword pierced through the monster's eyes like lightning, its momentum continuing to churn its brain into a mess.

The monster's massive body suddenly stiffened, and its entire body began to twitch unnaturally.

Chen Li reached out and retrieved his flying sword, only then feeling relieved.

He stepped forward with his sword, leaped onto the monster's shoulder and neck, channeled his inner energy, raised his sword, and with a few consecutive slashes, completely severed the enormous head that was nearly as tall as a person.

At this moment, several Foundation Establishment cultivators finally flew over from a distance.

Chen dispelled the spell, jumped off the monster, and greeted it.

"Fellow Daoist Chen, you are truly a hidden master!" the first Foundation Establishment cultivator laughed loudly.

"Not at all, it was just a burst of courage. I didn't expect that this second-tier demon beast, which looked so majestic, would actually be so vulnerable!" Chen Li said modestly, "I should also thank everyone for coming to help."

"Ah, fellow Daoist, you are too modest. Your close combat technique is clean, efficient, and truly remarkable."

The group exchanged pleasantries for a while.

Among the Foundation Establishment cultivators who came over, there was one who had just teased Chen Li the other day for never having seen a second-tier demon beast. At this moment, his smile revealed a hint of embarrassment.

Fortunately, Chen Li didn't mention it, which saved his face.

The two sides exchanged pleasantries for a while.

The Foundation Establishment cultivators then took their leave.

……

"Oh, it's over again?"

Not long after the group left, Feng Qi hurriedly flew over. Upon seeing the monster's corpse and Chen Li beside it, he immediately landed with a look of annoyance.

"Fellow Daoist Chen, why are you alone? Where are the other fellow Daoists?" He suddenly looked surprised halfway through his sentence: "Could it be... that you're all alone!"

Chen Li smiled but remained silent.

"Tsk tsk! I really misjudged him!" Feng Qi stared at Chen Li for a long time, looking surprised, and left still somewhat incredulous.

He failed twice in a row and came up empty-handed, which was quite unfortunate.

Next, Foundation Establishment cultivators, some familiar and some not, arrived one after another. Chen Li greeted and saw them off one by one. When they heard that he had single-handedly dealt with the second-tier demon beast, everyone became much more enthusiastic, and even the usual subtle barriers between them dissipated.

"It's finally over."

Chen Li took out a porcelain bottle from his storage bag, uncorked it, knocked out two Qi Gathering Pills to restore his spiritual power, looked at the crowd that had hidden far away, and beckoned a few True Sect disciples to lead their team to continue burning the wasteland.

He then emptied the low-level demon beast meat from his storage bag, threw it on the ground, and began to decompose the enormous corpse.

This second-tier demon beast is much larger than the second-tier snake demon from last time.

Standing upright, it is about six meters tall, and its length, excluding its tail, is thirteen meters. Its weight is estimated to be twenty tons. If it is not disassembled, its two storage bags cannot hold much at all.

What happened next, Chen Li skinned, deboned, and took the meat, is not mentioned here.

"Another demon core!" He pulled a scalding hot object from the foul-smelling sewer.

Including this one, he already has three.

The freshly extracted demon core was relatively soft, with a hazy, shimmering surface that emitted strong energy fluctuations. When held in the hand, it seemed to pulsate faintly, as if it were alive.

Chen Li played with it for a while, then put the demon core into his storage bag and continued to decompose it.

Second-tier monsters have extremely heavy skeletons.

Almost all of them were semi-crystallized spiritual materials, with a very dense texture, as heavy as gold and iron, accounting for almost a quarter of the entire weight of the demon beast, while the weight of the blood accounted for one-tenth of the weight.

A 20-ton monster, its flesh and internal organs alone would only weigh around 13 tons.

Even so, his two storage bags, totaling eight square meters, were not enough to hold it all.

Moreover, these spiritual materials are also quite valuable, almost equivalent to the flesh and blood of a demon beast.

"Sigh, next time I definitely need to buy a large-capacity storage bag! It's such a hindrance at crucial moments," Chen Li sighed.

Leaving aside this second-tier demonic beast, this was completely unexpected.

In the past few days, he has killed at least seven, if not eight, low-level demonic beasts. Apart from taking the meat from one of them, the rest were either left in the wild or divided among the rogue cultivators in the team.

These independent cultivators were happy.

But he couldn't be happy.

All of this money is his!

A low-level demonic beast is worth at least ten or twenty mid-grade spirit stones, and sometimes more than thirty. Seven demonic beasts would be worth one hundred and forty mid-grade spirit stones. Even for Chen Li, this amount of money is not a small sum.

It takes him more than a month to draw a golden amulet.

All my savings combined amounted to only six high-grade spirit stones.

Seeing that there was still a small amount of demon beast meat left and a mountain of bones and fur, Chen Li had no choice but to return to the market. He put a few longer leg bones and some meat in the temporary hut and froze them with an ice spell, planning to deal with them when he returned in the evening.

As for the first-tier demon beast meat that was cleared out, it could only be divided among these rogue cultivators.

……

After returning from burning the wasteland in the evening, Chen Li, following the established custom, delivered over a hundred catties of second-tier demon beast meat to each Foundation Establishment cultivator. Fortunately, the trip was worthwhile, and Chen Li's headache was quickly resolved by Zhou Yuanpeng.

When Zhou Yuanpeng arrived, he expressed his desire to purchase the spiritual materials from the second-tier demon beast. This was exactly what Chen Li wanted to do.

"I didn't expect Fellow Daoist Zhou to be not only a master of formations, but also a master of weapon crafting," Chen Li complimented.

"I dare not claim the title of master; it would be a laughing stock if word got out. I've only learned the basics of weapon crafting," Zhou Yuanpeng said with a wry smile, waving his hands repeatedly.

"First-tier magic artifacts are acceptable, but I'm still struggling to figure out second-tier ones. If you have any second-tier spiritual materials you'd like to sell in the future, feel free to come to me. Don't worry, the price will definitely not be lower than the market price."

Chen Li immediately agreed and offered a few more compliments.

Zhou Yuanpeng was being gently stroked by Chen Li, and although he remained modest, he kept smiling. When he looked at Chen Li, his gaze became much more affectionate.

Chen Li then retrieved a large pile of bones and fur from the makeshift hut.

Zhou Yuanpeng appraised the item on the spot, and the final price was two high-grade spirit stones.

This price is indeed fair, much higher than the market price. If it were in a magic item shop outside, it would probably be valued at around 150 mid-grade spirit stones.

……

This time, there were twenty-five Foundation Establishment cultivators who came, not counting Chen Li. We chatted with each of them for a while after they delivered the meat, and by the end, the polite words had become a formula, flowing smoothly and naturally. By the time we finished, it was already night, which was even more tiring than the battle during the day.

But it felt pretty good.

Looking at these Foundation Establishment cultivators, their gazes were filled with enthusiasm, surprise, or disbelief.

Chen Li felt that the meat was a worthwhile gift.

Each Foundation Establishment cultivator received over a hundred catties of meat, which took away 1.5 tons. The remaining eleven or twelve tons of pure meat could barely fit into two storage bags.

However, it was packed full.

……

After a simple dinner, Chen Li practiced his swordsmanship as usual, his mind still lingering on the battle from earlier that day.

'I wonder what level that second-tier demonic beast is? It's said that many demonic beasts possess innate abilities, and judging from its performance, the demonic beast from earlier in the day clearly had an innate ability related to fire…'

'Sigh, the battle ended too quickly, that's the downside. We had no way of figuring out the monster's true strength!' Chen Li sighed inwardly.

"Senior, the room has been prepared. Please feel free to ask if there is anything else you need." A young female disciple said respectfully to Chen Li, her face flushed.

Perhaps because Foundation Establishment is difficult and the chances are low, the True Sect doesn't have a master-disciple system. The only difference between inner and outer disciples is that the former are provided with the best resources and the best spiritual land, and they only need to focus on cultivation without having to take on tasks or miscellaneous matters.

The outer disciples, on the other hand, had a much tougher time, as they were responsible for all the corvée labor. Some of the female disciples even had to serve the Foundation Establishment cultivators in their daily lives, making them practically servants.

"Yes, you've worked hard!" Chen Li stopped practicing his sword and said gently, "There's nothing else here, go back and rest early."

"Senior... let me serve you. I've never been touched by another man before." The female disciple gritted her teeth and said in a trembling voice with a shy expression.

As she spoke, she began to gently loosen her robe, revealing a light green undergarment underneath.

His chest was bulging, almost bursting out, and his whole body was trembling.

Chen Li glanced at it and then looked away: "What are you doing? Hurry up and put on some clothes. We don't need you to serve us here. Go back and rest."

The girl, who rarely mustered up the courage, blushed immediately upon hearing this, and large tears streamed down her face. She hurriedly put on her robe, covered her face, and ran out as if fleeing.

The lingering fragrance in the air.

Chen Li shook his head and chuckled to himself. What kind of situation is this?
He suppressed his erotic thoughts and continued practicing his swordsmanship.

……

The next day at noon, the flying boat came again.

A batch of supplies and thousands of emaciated ordinary people, men, women, and children, were transported in.

The supplies mainly consisted of building materials, grain seeds, various farm tools, and daily necessities. Clearly, these ordinary people were the first settlers to come to Green River Village.

When Chen Li returned in the evening, the tree stumps left from the burning of the fields in the market had all been dug up and burned.

Large numbers of ordinary people chanted in unison, pulling up huge wooden stakes tied with ropes, and tamping the ground down to level it, preparing to build houses and create a market town.

"In this world, mortals are like ants!"

This newly opened territory is inherently dangerous, not to mention that it is surrounded by forests on all sides.

For these mortals, let alone demonic beasts and evil spirits, even ordinary wild animals, poisonous insects, or even simple acclimatization problems are enough to be fatal. If half of these thousands of people can survive within ten years, that would be considered very good.

……

Time passed day by day, and a month has gone by in the blink of an eye.

As autumn deepened, the burning of the wasteland expanded into areas that were originally forested, and the teams led by each individual became increasingly dispersed.

During this time, the other teams encountered a second-tier demon beast. This time, things didn't go as smoothly as before. A Foundation Establishment member from a Foundation Establishment family died in the battle. This was the first time that a Foundation Establishment member had been injured or killed during this labor service.

This Foundation Establishment cultivator died a rather tragic death.

The corpses were bitten in two by the monsters.

The upper half of the body was found inside the monster's belly, and when it was cut open and removed, it was completely corroded and unrecognizable.

The body was not buried in Green River Ward, but was frozen, placed in a coffin, and prepared to be brought back to Luanluo City upon return.

The team even took a day off to rest before continuing the next day.

P.S.: This chapter counts as yesterday's; I'll try to write one chapter every day from now on.