Volume Two, Chapter Ninety-Four: The Scorpion Crone

“Hall Master Li has gone mad too! Run!”

At the cry, the crowd scattered in all directions.

Driven by bloodlust, Hall Master Li became even more ferocious. With one hand he seized the dog’s head as it bit into him and wrenched hard. In one brutal pull, he tore away the dog’s jaws together with a great sheet of flesh from the back of its neck.

Blood sprayed from the wound, but he paid it no heed. Instead, he bit down on the hound’s throat. The large dog was no less savage; it, too, clamped its teeth around his throat.

Man and beast, like primordial creatures, had long forgotten spells and techniques. Only raw, savage instinct remained as they tore at each other.

Gradually, both were exhausted, blood spent. Neither moved.

After that savage struggle, man and dog had actually killed each other.

The moment Hall Master Li died, a soul-shaped infant floated out from between his brows. It was his Nascent Soul.

When the body perished, a Nascent Soul had to find a host and seize it as soon as possible, or it would soon run out of spiritual power and die.

Freed from the body, Hall Master Li’s consciousness instantly cleared. Looking at the horrific scene below, his Nascent Soul was nearly bursting with rage.

He said through gritted teeth, “You brat, you destroyed my body and forced me to rebuild my cultivation. This hatred will flood the seas with blood. If I do not grind your bones to dust in this life, I swear I am no man.”

“Too bad. You won’t get that chance.”

A faint voice drifted up behind him.

The Nascent Soul spun around in alarm.

At some point, a black-and-white bear had appeared by the willow tree, holding a gourd in its paw and regarding him with a cold, sinister smile.

Panic-stricken, the Nascent Soul darted away in flight, only to find the sky ahead suddenly filled with fire.

When the flames faded, the Nascent Soul had vanished without a trace. A cultivator at the Nascent Soul stage had died so bizarrely, just like that.

Even Yu Mu found the outcome astonishing.

“Huh? How can a dignified hall master be carrying nothing at all?”

He searched the body inside and out, but found nothing. Aside from the flying artifact on the dead man’s feet, there was not a single thing on him. This was utterly unreasonable.

Yu Mu circled the corpse again, inspecting it carefully from top to bottom and from the inside out. At last, his gaze was caught by the leash still clenched in the dead man’s hand.

The leash looked utterly ordinary, woven from the most common hemp fibers. Yu Mu grabbed it with both hands and pulled hard, but it did not budge.

So tough?

His face lit up with delight. The strength of this hemp rope far exceeded his expectations.

He pried open the dead man’s hand. The knot in his palm was also made from hemp cord. Holding that knot, he slowly sent in a thread of spiritual power. The rope flashed with spiritual light.

He laughed inwardly. So it really is an artifact. And not just any artifact, but a top-grade one.

That suits a hall master much better. I was wondering how a hall master could be so impoverished.

Hundred-Form Hemp Rope, a wood-element top-grade Dao artifact.

Trait: versatile, with room for self-developed uses.

It seemed like a simple artifact, but after reading it, Yu Mu was greatly excited.

This hemp rope not only suited his own element, but its true value lay in its versatility and the fact that its uses could be developed by the user.

This was an artifact with infinite room for imagination.

Since it could be self-developed, that meant it could grow, already possessing the qualities of a spiritual treasure. In other words, it had the potential to become a true spiritual weapon.

“Huh? What’s this?”

To his surprise, Yu Mu discovered that the end of the rope held another space. Spiritual power extended, and the hidden space opened.

“Wow, we’re rich!”

He could not help exclaiming.

It turned out that the collar attached to the leash was a spatial item. Inside it were a great many possessions, evidently the wealth this hall master had accumulated over his life.

The most plentiful items were spirit crystals of many attributes and grades, along with property deeds, spirit pills, medicines, and the like. There was also a handwritten manual.

After opening the manual, Yu Mu finally learned that this Hall Master Li was merely the head of a branch hall, which explained why his cultivation had only reached the Nascent Soul stage.

The manual chiefly recorded this hall master’s research into the Hundred-Form Hemp Rope, along with techniques and insights on how to use it.

This provided Yu Mu with some methods for using it directly, and also offered reference and inspiration for the rope’s future development.

Only after storing everything into his own inner space did Yu Mu pick up the pair of black leather boots.

He had seen this style of flying artifact before on the two women from the Music Path. Because it could be worn on the body, it was especially popular among cultivators.

But because of the limited shape and surface area of boots, making them into flying artifacts required exquisite craftsmanship. For that reason, flying artifacts of this sort were usually of fairly high quality.

Yu Mu put them on directly and sent in spiritual power. At once, he felt as light as a swallow.

Black Wind Boots, a wind-element upper-grade Dao artifact.

Made from black horned antelope hide. Increases ground speed by eighty percent and flying speed by sixty percent. Comes with lightness and sound-dampening effects, and has a spring-launch function. When used by a wind spirit cultivator, performance increases by fifty percent.

As Yu Mu activated the Black Wind Boots, he instantly felt a wind rise beneath his feet. His steps became smoother than ever before. Combined with the movement technique he had learned while capturing the gourd, he truly achieved the marvelous effect of moving like a startled hare and standing still like a wildcat.

He had never experienced such exhilarating freedom. Unable to contain himself, he leapt up and down, thoroughly delighted.

With such excellent attributes, how could it only be an upper-grade Dao artifact?

Yu Mu was baffled. Perhaps only someone as poor at flying as he was would be puzzled by this.

The foremost purpose of a flying artifact was, after all, flight. With only a sixty percent boost, it was destined to remain merely an upper-grade Dao artifact.

After testing the Black Wind Boots, Yu Mu also dug the magic crystal out of the dog’s head. The great hound was an earth-element demon beast, and its crystal was a yellow-brown shard. Strangely, it bore a pattern that looked exactly like a lump of excrement.

Could this beast’s innate skill be finding crap?

There was no time to investigate its function. This incident had truly grown serious. Killing a few ordinary disciples had already brought out a hall master.

So what kind of people would be sent after the murder of a hall master?

Not to mention that he had also slain a formidable demon beast. Demon beasts were extremely difficult to tame, and purely in terms of loss, this one might even have been worth more than the hall master himself.

Those Fire Poison Path disciples who had fled would not take long to report what had happened here to the higher-ups. Yu Mu did not dare linger for even a moment. He spat out a burst of flame, reducing both the hound and the hall master to ashes, and immediately made himself scarce.

As he fled at full speed, Yu Mu suddenly caught a whiff of fishy air. His heart lifted at once.

I’m already not far from the dock!

But at that very moment, a harsh, mocking laugh rang out behind him. “Little thief, still think you can run?”

Yu Mu turned back in shock, only to see an old woman flying through the air behind him.

It was the Scorpion Hag.

A cold smile curved the corners of her mouth. She simply waved a hand, and Yu Mu was instantly bound in place, unable to move.

It’s over.

His heart sank.

The gap between them had grown so vast that he no longer even had the ability to resist, let alone escape.

“Little thief, not only have you repeatedly made yourself an enemy of Young Master Fan, you even caused the death of my hall’s guardian beast and Hall Master Li this time. Your crimes are beyond pardon. Unfortunately, Young Master Fan has vowed to flay you himself with a thousand cuts. So today, I’ll let you live a few more days. Little thief, come with me.”

With that, the Scorpion Hag reached out to seize Yu Mu and take him away.

Suddenly, a flash of light cut across the air, and the restraints on Yu Mu were severed.

Immediately after, a solemn voice rang out.

“Scorpion Hag, what do you mean by barging into the territory of my Holy Sun Sect and acting with such wanton arrogance?”

Yu Mu turned around and only then noticed that from a great cathedral ahead, people were flying out one after another. The one at their head was none other than the red-robed bishop who had once guarded the teleportation array together with this Scorpion Hag.

“So it’s Bishop Shang Yun,” the Scorpion Hag said with a frown the moment she saw him appear. She knew immediately that this would be difficult.

She pointed at Yu Mu and said, “This boy has killed many of my disciples for no reason and has now fled here. To the Free Alliance, this criminal is guilty beyond measure. I have merely pursued this killer here; I did not barge into the Holy Sun Sect without cause.

I will take him and leave at once, and not stay a moment longer. Consider it a favor owed to you. I hope, Bishop, that you will not ruin the friendship between our two paths over an irrelevant stranger.”

As expected of a scheming old fox, the Scorpion Hag’s words laid out the interests and consequences with perfect clarity.

Sure enough, upon hearing this, Bishop Shang Yun immediately hesitated.

Clearly, he too had no desire to bring the Holy Sun Sect into conflict with the Free Alliance over someone completely unrelated, even though the two sides were already as hostile as fire and water.

“Well...” Shang Yun was just about to relent when someone behind him stepped forward and said a few words in his ear.