Cultivation Kill

Shen Zige and the hooded man who called himself Long Aotian broke off a few dry twigs.

The hooded man, Long Aotian, used a fireball spell to ignite the top of the tree branch.

"I have a pretty high success rate with the fireball spell," Long Aotian said. "If you agree to owe me a favor, I'll teach you."

Shen Zige would rather spend spirit stones to learn than owe Long Aotian a favor. He ignored the words and went to the Star Realm Company to buy it when he returned to the city. The spiritual power protecting the body was like breathing. As long as the spiritual power in the meridians and acupoints was drawn out with divine thought and spread throughout the body, everyone who successfully condensed the spirit would immediately understand.

Shen Zige believes that spiritual energy is sufficient to protect her from the four con artists.

Long Aotian had just said that his fireball spell had a high success rate, but the second torch failed to ignite. The fireball he conjured only slightly blackened the wooden branches and did not catch fire.

"That's not right... It's supposed to be using the spiritual power of ten acupoints simultaneously," Long Aotian muttered to himself. "Where did I go wrong? Is it because I don't have enough spiritual power?"

Shen Zige's heart skipped a beat—it turned out that the fireball spell only required selecting ten acupoints from the thirty-six major acupoints of the human body to use spiritual power!

But which ten acupoint combinations belong to the Fireball Technique?

He tried to use his divine sense to randomly manipulate ten of the acupoints—

"Well!"

With her blood rushing to her head, Shen Zige almost fainted!

"Don't experiment recklessly!" Long Aotian shouted when he noticed Shen Zige's condition. "Little one's spiritual power is out of control, and her body is exploding."

"I thought any combination of ten acupoints could unleash a fireball spell, but it seems I was overthinking it." Shen Zige's voice was a little weak. "However, it also eliminates one wrong answer: success is built on the foundation of failure."

"You're just being stubborn. You have a ready-made answer to copy; you don't need to experiment," Long Aotian said. "Do you know how many combinations there are when you randomly select ten out of thirty-six acupoints?"

Shen Zige thought for a moment and replied, "About 250 million combinations."

"Your mental arithmetic is quite good!" Long Aotian praised. "The speed at which you absorb spiritual energy cannot keep up with the speed at which you release it. With your current cultivation level, even if you keep experimenting every day, you can only do a maximum of 100 experiments. To complete the experiment of 250 million combinations, you will need 2.5 million days, which is 6,849 years!"

Long Aotian cast a spell again, lighting the wooden branch on Shen Zige's hand. The two entered the passageway, chatting as they walked.

“Even if the body is strengthened, the lifespan of a Spirit Condensation cultivator is only about 150 years,” Long Aotian said. “Therefore, cultivation requires standing on the shoulders of predecessors. For example, in the company’s history, when the Star Realm Company was researching magic, they conducted an experiment with 2.5 million Spirit Condensation cultivators for a day, which was equivalent to obtaining the best combination of ten acupoints for a fire spell using exhaustive search.”

The firelight illuminated their rosy cheeks, their shadows swaying back and forth on the walls of the passageway.

"Flame spell, isn't it fireball spell?" Shen Zige asked.

"Fireball is cheap, but Flame Spell is a bit expensive; I can't afford it right now," Long Aotian said. "I haven't lied to many people. This time, I must get Night Whisper Flower, then auction it off in a top-ranked arena city, and I'll have money!"

“I don’t know how many there are,” Shen Zige said.

"Of course, the more the better."

The passageway was winding, and after walking for about three minutes, the two of them came to the first fork in the road. Fortunately, it only split into two.

"How about we each take one side?" Long Aotian asked. "It'll be a matter of luck. Whoever encounters the four con artists, Ye Yuhua, will be the one to win."

"No need, the ground is damp here, there will be footprints." Shen Zige said, illuminating the ground with a torch.

Several shallow shoe prints appeared in front of the two.

"Go right."

The rest of the journey went very smoothly, with no further detours.

Half an hour later.

The torch in Shen Zige's song went out twice, but luckily he brought three wooden branches with him.

If the last torch goes out, the two will have to proceed in the dark.

"Is it mature?"

The voice of Zhang Kun came from ahead.

"Wait a little longer."

Shen Zige and Long Aotian immediately extinguished their torches and silently crept toward the source of the sound.

Under the torchlight—

At the end of the passageway, which was about the size of a house, surrounded by hard mud, stood the four-man scammer. One of them was carrying a bundle of firewood on his back and was playing with a metal lighter in his hand, which was probably made by Earth.

The Night Whisper Flower not far away appeared an eerie purple in the sparks.

Shen Zige knew that the Night Whisper Flower disliked light and was worried that it would wither in the firelight.

"Don't worry, the Night Whisper Flower isn't so afraid of light when it's in bloom," Long Aotian whispered, guessing what Shen Zige was thinking.

"You have mind-reading abilities?"

“Your micro-expressions betrayed you,” Long Aotian said. “If you encountered a master of interpretation like me in the Immortal Cultivation Killing Secret Realm, your identity would be impossible to hide. A true master is not expressionless, but can fake the expression they want.”

Shen Zige was startled. Long Aotian was right. He wasn't a professional actor and couldn't perfectly control his expressions. Fortunately, he didn't encounter an opponent like Long Aotian in the first round of the secret realm game, otherwise, the outcome would have been hard to predict.

After a while.

The Night Whisper Flower changes from purple to white, like the bright moon in the night, and at the same time, a delicate fragrance wafts out—

The four-person scammers were prepared. They took out a wet cotton cloth from their pockets, covered their mouths and noses with their left hand, and reached out with their right hand to pick Night Whisper Flower.

"thump!"

The four fraudsters appeared to have made a mistake in their precautions, experiencing a brief period of mental disorientation.

The torch fell to the ground, reducing the area illuminated by the firelight by more than half, and the mature Night Whisper Flower immediately disappeared into the darkness.

“Let’s go over there,” Long Aotian said. “It’s best to keep a body length apart. If things look bad, you run away first.”

Both of them simultaneously used their spiritual energy to protect themselves as they walked towards Ye Yuhua.

"Very good, the fragrance of the Night Whisper Flower cannot penetrate our spiritual energy protection." Long Aotian excitedly quickened his pace.

Shen Zige felt a warm breeze enveloping her, which seemed to be the fragrance of the Night Whisper Flower. Just as Long Aotian had said, it could not break through his spiritual energy protection.

Long Aotian picked up the nearly extinguished torch from the ground and held it high.

Two Night Whisper flowers came into view.

“Perfect, one for each of us.” Long Aotian picked the two Night Whisper flowers without any hesitation, put one in his pocket, and handed the other to Shen Zige.

"I thought you took both of them." Shen Zige didn't stand on ceremony, reached out and took them, then put them into her cloth bag.

Shen Zige was still a little excited. Even if she didn't use a Night Whisper Flower, she could still sell it for a thousand spirit stones. It would be good to buy a storage bag, which was much better than carrying it around in her pocket all the time.

“A Night Whisper Flower isn’t enough to make me turn against you,” Long Aotian said. “I also fought wild beasts and saved you.”

Shen Zige wondered what Long Aotian meant by those words. Did he intend to turn against her once he found something more valuable? As for killing the beast to save her, that was a forced act of kindness. Without Long Aotian, Shen Zige believed she could defeat the beast herself, at most it would just take a little more time.

Even if they turned against each other, Shen Zige wouldn't be afraid of Long Aotian. Long Aotian advanced on the same day as Shen Zige, and at most he knew some clumsy spells that he wasn't very skilled at. He would most likely rely on his fists and feet to fight Shen Zige. Long Aotian's kung fu skills would be a bit of a problem, but even if Shen Zige couldn't beat him now, he could escape. After all, they were at the same level and their spiritual energy output efficiency was the same. By keeping his distance, he could keep Long Aotian from catching up.

"What should we do with the four of them?" Shen Zige asked, pointing to the four fallen people.

“Take the spirit stones and silver, then give them to the government to collect your reward,” Long Aotian said.

“You really don’t waste anything,” Shen Zige said. “But we didn’t prepare any rope…”

Before the words were finished, the four people lying on the ground suddenly woke up and rushed towards the two, because the Night Whisper Flower had been put into their bags by the two, and its fragrance had greatly diminished.

Although Shen Zige had never learned kung fu, he still knew the basics of fighting. Now that he was protected by his spiritual power, dealing with the four fraudsters was like an adult bullying a kindergartener. He only needed to throw one punch and one kick to knock down the two who pounced on him!

Long Aotian performed with even greater ease, nimbly dodging the attack, then grabbing the burly man's head and slamming it against another man's head with a dull thud, the two men screaming as they fell to the ground.

"Your movements... you know kung fu?" Shen Zige said as he searched the two men he had knocked down, taking two cloth bags and putting them into his pocket without even looking at them.

"I know a little." The hooded man, Long Aotian, also looted the other two.

The two tacitly avoided mentioning each other's gains.