Cultivation Kill

Shen Zige walked while reading, at a pace similar to that of Dazhu's mother, estimating it would take two days to reach Xizhou City.

In this unfamiliar land, where demons still exist, one cannot fly recklessly on a sword, or one will not even know how one dies.

The ancient script contained thousands of characters, which Shen Zige memorized in less than an hour. After achieving perfect spiritual concentration and divine thought control, his memory also improved. He spent the rest of the time practicing and consolidating his skills.

"Ancient Chinese isn't too difficult."

Shen Zige closed the book and gently placed it back into her storage ring.

"Why should we walk ourselves when we're so rich?" Shi Yuan said. "I looked at the map and saw that after crossing this mountain, it would take another two hours to reach a county with a population of 100,000, which is under human jurisdiction. We can hire a horse-drawn carriage then."

"rich?"

The bushes on both sides of the mountain path swayed, and three little demons with long ears and pointed beaks jumped out and blocked the way.

"I'll give you two choices. The first is to leave the spirit stone and go; the second is to leave both the spirit stone and yourself."

All three demons were at the late stage of Lesser Demon, and since demons are generally stronger than humans, late-stage Lesser Demons are usually stronger than late-stage Spirit Condensation Demons. Given that it was a three-on-two situation, they believed that Shen Zige and Shi Yuan had no choice but to surrender.

"I choose the third option." Shi Yuan took out a high-grade spiritual weapon sword, infused it with spiritual power, and unleashed a sword beam!

The sword light, as bright as the moon, flew and spread towards the three long-eared, pointed-mouthed little demons, cutting all the grass and trees along the way in two.

"Don't underestimate us!"

The three little demons reacted quickly, leaping up at the same time to avoid Shi Yuan's horizontal sword strike.

"rise--"

Shi Yuan raised his sword beam upwards, slicing through the bodies of the three demons.

With a thud, the demon's body fell into the bushes. Shi Yuan walked over and picked up the storage bags of the three little demons.

"Do you want it?" Shi Yuan asked.

"No need. If those three demons were rich, they wouldn't need to ambush and rob people in this remote place," Shen Zige said. "Your swordsmanship is very strong. Did you just learn it?"

"I learned it last month," Shi Yuan said. "It's much better than my family's traditional swordsmanship. My family's traditional swordsmanship can't even produce a sword beam."

"Of course, your family only teaches mortal swordsmanship."

As Shen Zige spoke, he continued onward. The mountain path was rugged and steep. Several times, while pondering the interpretation of the ancient characters, Shen Zige was not paying attention to his footing and almost slipped on a round stone.

Shi Yuan was fine. He even took out a handheld game console and played it while walking. He didn't have to worry about cars rushing towards him in the mountains. Besides, even if there were cars, they might not be able to kill him.

"Young masters, wait for me!" A plain-looking, round-faced girl chased after them.

Shen Zige scanned the area with her divine sense and found that it was just an ordinary person, not a monster, so she immediately lowered her guard.

Shi Yuan continued walking along the road, playing games as he went, ignoring the girl's calls.

The round-faced girl caught up with Shen Zige, her face flushed and panting heavily.

"Who are you?" Shen Zige asked.

He ignored the girl.

"Are you two going to the capital of Xizhou to attend the Grand Yuan Assembly?" the round-faced girl asked. "I am Luo Wansheng. I would like to travel with you. Don't worry, I won't hold you back on the way."

Shen Zige noticed that the girl had a cloth bag tied to her shoulder, and inside the bag was cooked corn, the aroma of which was wafting from the bag and spreading in the air.

"You plan to use these few ripe corns to get to Xizhou City?" Shen Zige asked.

“Yes, I still have some copper coins on me. I can buy some naan bread in the county town and that will be enough to get to Xizhou City,” said Luo Wansheng, the round-faced girl. “Oh, and I also have water in my bag!”

She opened the cloth bag, inside was a section of bamboo tube, shook it, and heard the sound of water.

"Why should we bring you along?" Shi Yuan paused the game, turned around and said, "There's no benefit to it." After saying that, he continued to play the game while walking.

Shen Zige hurriedly followed Shi Yuan.

"Because you two are good people, I believe you." Luo Wansheng caught up with the two of them. "I'm going to Xizhou City to find Shi Dazhu."

Shen Zige and Shi Yuan were walking quite fast, and she was having some trouble keeping up.

"Didn't you get together with some young master from the county town?" Shen Zige said. "Why are you still going to see Shi Dazhu? Is it because you saw that he joined the Dayuan Sect and want to climb up the social ladder?"

"No, that Young Master Zhou used Brother Dazhu to threaten me, saying that if I didn't obey him, he would kill Brother Dazhu," Luo Wansheng said anxiously. "I thought he had locked Brother Dazhu in the county town's dungeon, so I... I didn't expect that Brother Dazhu had been waiting for Da Yuanhui in Xizhou City all along. Young Master Zhou lied to me!"

Shen Zige thought to herself that she was really an innocent and naive girl who had never experienced the ways of the world. She wondered if Dazhu would still be willing to marry her after he knew she was not a virgin.

Since it was none of his business, Shen Zige was too lazy to analyze other people's feelings and continued to silently recite ancient texts in his mind.

"Did you see anything on the road just now?" Shi Yuan asked, pausing the game again. He wanted to know if the round-faced girl, Luo Wansheng, had seen the little demon's corpse.

“I’ve been running and didn’t notice. Did you drop something?” Luo Wansheng replied.

Shi Yuan observed her expression and scanned it with his divine sense to confirm that she was not lying. As a micro-expression master with spiritual power, he believed that no mortal could deceive him with lies!

The demon's body had fallen into the bushes and would not be found without a careful search. Shi Yuan continued playing the game and continued on his way.

The three of them stopped talking.

After crossing this mountain, we arrived at flat land.

“Just keep walking along this road and you’ll reach the county town.” Luo Wansheng, a girl, usually only dared to go to the county town with the villagers. This time, she ran away, which showed a lot of courage.

Shi Yuan noticed an old man farming ahead, pushing a wooden cart to transport straw, and hurried over.

Shen Zige looked up and saw Shi Yuan talking to the old man who was farming. He threw some silver to the old man and then pulled the wooden handcart onto the road.

"Hey, Luo Wansheng, you can't just take our protection for nothing. You need to work to repay us." Shi Yuan waved to Luo Wansheng, "Come and be my driver."

"Driver?" Luo Wansheng heard this word for the first time and didn't understand what it meant.

“I’m the driver,” Shi Yuan said. “There are no mountain roads to the county town now. You pull this cart forward, and I’ll sit on it.”

Shen Zige was speechless, not expecting that Shi Yuan was too lazy to even walk this short distance.

Of the three people present, Shi Yuan couldn't possibly let Shen Zige be his rickshaw driver, so he could only let Luo Wansheng do it.

Shi Yuan had no intention of showing any mercy to women. In his view, men and women are equal. If you want to gain something, you have to give something in return. You can't expect to enjoy his help for free just because you are the one with the advantage of being the woman!

Luo Wansheng said with a hint of grievance, "I'm not very strong. You're a grown man sitting on a cart, and I have to pull you. Aren't you ashamed of that?"

"Ten taels of silver, are you in or not?" Shi Yuan took out the silver and tossed it in his hand.

Luo Wansheng silently calculated how many copper coins ten taels of silver could be exchanged for, and then said, "I'll take it, don't go back on your word!"

Her father usually earns this much in a month. She only needs to spend a little over two hours to take Shi Yuan to the county town to earn ten taels of silver. Then she can spend two taels of silver to hire a coachman to take her to Xizhou City.

Considering it's only ten taels of silver, it's a very good deal!

So Luo Wansheng pulled the cart, and Shi Yuan sat on it like a big boss, playing games.

Shen Zige stood to the side, too embarrassed to sit down; he couldn't bring himself to do it.

If the rickshaw puller were a strong man, Shen Zige probably wouldn't refuse to ride in the rickshaw.

"Here, this is roast chicken. You need to eat well to have energy." Shi Yuan handed it to Luo Wansheng. "Be my driver, and I'll provide three meals a day."

Luo Wansheng hadn't done any physical labor in a long time, and after pulling only a few dozen meters, his forehead was covered in sweat.

"Where did the roast chicken come from?" Luo Wansheng asked, as she hadn't seen Shi Yuan with any roast chicken earlier.

"I'm a magician," Shi Yuan said. "Are you going to eat or not? Stop talking so much nonsense."

She didn't stand on ceremony with Shi Yuan and took the roast chicken and started eating it.

After finishing the roasted chicken, she drank a few sips of water from the bamboo tube and continued pulling the cart on her way.