The line of corpses on the ground pointed towards a cave at the foot of the mountain.
As the crowd angrily charged towards the cave, a chilling wind swept through, piercing their hearts, causing everyone to shiver uncontrollably.
Under the overcast sky, countless shadowy outlines of beastly forms twisted and were swept into the cave. The cave flickered with light, alternately bright and dim, and faint roars of wild beasts and cries of vengeful spirits emanated from within.
As the group walked, they involuntarily stopped. Ma Wei was so terrified that he was half sobered, the remaining half insufficient to bolster his courage.
"Second Boss, you go in and take a look," Ma Wei said, trembling with fear.
Xiao Zhen, on the other hand, recoiled a step, startled. "Third Brother, you go in and take a look."
Third Brother Liu Kan Kan glanced back. Fortunately, Fourth Brother was still behind him, which somewhat eased his mind. He quickly said, "Fourth Brother, you go in and take a look."
Fourth Brother looked back. There was no one else behind him. He had no choice but to brace himself and walk forward, looking back at every few steps. Each time he looked back, he saw the encouraging eyes of the others. This only made him more fearful. For a distance of a few dozen feet, he walked for half an incense stick's time. When he reached the cave entrance and glanced inside, he let out a startled cry and fled back as if flying, causing everyone to retreat a few steps. They only stopped when they realized nothing was following them.
"What's wrong? What did you see?" Ma Wei asked Fourth Brother.
Fourth Brother calmed himself and said, "I didn't see anything clearly!"
Ma Wei was so angry that he kicked him away. "If you didn't see anything clearly and you're this scared, you're too pathetic!"
As soon as he said this, he regretted it, because if he called others pathetic, he had to prove that he was not!
As expected, Second Boss looked at him with a subtly flattering gaze. "Boss, we're also pathetic. We're all looking to you."
Ma Wei was so angry he felt like spitting blood. He sighed inwardly, lamenting how difficult it was to lead the team. At the same time, he had no choice but to press forward, adopting a fearsome, indifferent stride, even though his legs were trembling slightly.
When he reached the cave entrance, he quickly glanced inside. A smile appeared on his face, and his eyes held an expression of boundless courage. He beckoned to the other three. "Come over here, all of you!"
Seeing Ma Wei's relaxed expression, the other three were no longer afraid and immediately ran over with full courage. They looked into the cave and saw a young man in white robes, about fifteen or sixteen years old, engrossed in refining pills, oblivious to his surroundings.
The young man in white was none other than Mo Qi, who had narrowly escaped death. When he was ambushed, he acted on impulse, activating his protective battle armor to withstand most of the divine ability attacks. He was severely injured in the end and escaped by consuming an invisibility pill. After fleeing into a cave and hiding for a few days, he recovered his strength and resolved to seek revenge. This was an irreconcilable hatred, and tears streamed down his face whenever he thought of it.
The group had set out on their mission with high spirits, only to meet a sudden, unexplained death. The voices and smiles of Elder Qian and Sima Qizhi still echoed in his mind. Although they had known each other for a short time, they had left a deep impression on him. He often recalled their spirited demeanor and hearty laughter.
He thought that if he hadn't luckily survived, not only would these people have died unjustly, but how many more upright individuals would Wan Beifeng and Wu Cunxin have colluded to harm? Every time he thought of this, his blood and tears mingled, and he sighed day and night, having already added Wu Cunxin and Wan Beifeng to his kill list.
However, after inquiring around the outer perimeter of the Divine Crow Sect, he learned that Wu Cunxin had already reached the Small Ascension stage. His heart sank again. With his current strength, he was probably powerless to exact revenge. Moreover, the teleportation array was destroyed, and he couldn't return for a while. He had no choice but to settle down first and improve his cultivation.
He then searched for a place to stay. He accidentally discovered that Xiao Gu Mountain had a good environment, pleasant scenery, abundant spiritual herbs, and a relatively dense concentration of beast souls, making it suitable for refining pills and cultivation. He first found a cave and, after a brief cleaning, moved in. Unexpectedly, as soon as he entered, those "bandit cultivator" lackeys followed him in, claiming it was their territory and demanding that Mo Qi move out. If he refused to move out, he had to pay ten thousand spirit stones. Mo Qi was not short of spirit stones, but he simply refused to give them any. Consequently, those lackeys attacked Mo Qi, leading to the fatalities.
As Mo Qi fought, he also absorbed the surrounding beast souls and refined them with spiritual energy. His internal spiritual power continuously grew, but his cultivation remained stuck at the late stage of Core Formation, unable to break through. Later, he remembered the effect of beast soul pills in promoting cultivation and took out his pill furnace to refine beast soul pills again. He was now at a critical juncture, with a batch of pills about to be completed, and was thus even more focused. However, he was fully aware of the situation outside.
Fourth Brother shouted, "Kid, who are you? How dare you run rampant on our territory? Are you tired of living?"
"No, I haven't lived enough yet," Mo Qi replied calmly.
"Hahaha," Fourth Brother couldn't help but laugh. "If you haven't lived enough, why don't you get lost quickly?"
Ma Wei glared at Fourth Brother and said angrily, "He killed so many of our brothers, and you're just telling him to get lost?"
Fourth Brother immediately came to his senses and shouted, "Getting lost is not allowed either. You must crawl out."
Ma Wei was furious and kicked him away. "You get lost, don't embarrass yourself here."
Fourth Brother indeed rolled away.
Ma Wei glared at Mo Qi, his eyes shining brightly. "Are you the one who killed these brothers of mine?"
Mo Qi feigned ignorance. "Which brothers of yours?"
Mo Qi could also tell that the person in front of him had a higher cultivation than him. Although he was not afraid of him at all, his pills were not yet refined, so he had to stall for time with rambling talk.
Ma Wei said, "These people lying on the ground."
"Are these people lying on the ground your brothers?" Mo Qi asked in a questioning tone.
"Of course, genuine," Ma Wei said.
"Full brothers? Same father and mother? Same mother and different father? Same father and different mother? Different father and different mother?" Mo Qi said casually, his eyes fixed on the pill furnace. Seeing that the pills were successfully refined, he stopped supplying spiritual energy.
"They are different father and different mother," Ma Wei said after thinking for a long time, feeling that this option was more appropriate.
Xiao Zhen immediately reminded him, "Boss, he seems to be stalling for time. He's playing you."
Ma Wei thought about it carefully and felt that this entire conversation was unnecessary. He immediately came to his senses and was enraged. "You are doomed today. Originally, I just wanted to kill you, but now I not only want to kill you, but I also want to grind you into ashes and annihilate your soul and spirit."
As he spoke, Mo Qi patted the lid of the pill furnace. The lid opened with a sound, and five pills flew into Mo Qi's mouth in a straight line.
Ma Wei only reacted then, and his surprise was immense. "You, you refined beast soul pills?"
Mo Qi snorted. "Yes, what's so surprising about that? I can refine as many of these pills as I want."
Ma Wei re-examined Mo Qi's cultivation. He was only at the Core Formation stage, which finally put him at ease.
"So what? You still can't escape death today," Ma Wei said arrogantly.
Mo Qi said nothing, merely beckoned with his finger, appearing even more arrogant.
Xiao Zhen said loudly, "Boss, why use a butcher's knife to kill a chicken? How can you personally handle such a matter?" However, his body was honest. As he spoke, he retreated, and after finishing his sentence, he was already thirty feet behind Ma Wei.
Ma Wei had intended for him to take the lead. Seeing his cowardly demeanor, he could only sigh, lamenting how difficult it was to lead the team, and had to go himself!
Just as Ma Wei was about to form a hand seal, Mo Qi put away the pill furnace and suddenly said, "If we're going to fight, shouldn't we fight outside? Can you be more honorable and let me go out first?"
Ma Wei was considered honorable. Hearing Mo Qi's words, he immediately retreated, and the others followed him back several feet, fearing he would escape but not wanting to be too far away.
Mo Qi emerged from the cave and immediately formed a hand seal with his left hand and made a fist with his right. The Flame Fire spiritual energy instantly concentrated on his right fist. The entire fist boomed and expanded, and the scorching temperature suddenly increased. The entire space seemed to have plunged into a lava cave. Flames flickered on his right fist, a verdant green, as if the eyes of a demon had opened. Carrying that flame, Mo Qi's figure surged forward towards Ma Wei.
Ma Wei formed a hand seal, grabbed the ground with his right hand, and lifted. A mound of earth rose from the ground, instantly forming a mountain. Mo Qi's entire arm plunged into it, and his whole body crashed into the mountain. With a booming explosion, rocks flew, and smoke and dust filled the air.
In the flickering shadows, more mountain bodies continuously rose, and in an instant, they moved to crash towards Mo Qi.
At the same time, Ma Wei's arrogant voice echoed in the air: "You can only refine beast soul pills, what are you so arrogant about? Let me show you true strength."
Mo Qi knew he had underestimated his opponent. He hurriedly consumed an emergency pill, his body swelling several times. At the same time, he activated both the Flame Fire divine ability and his protective battle armor. His entire body turned crimson, as if lava was flowing up and down, with verdant green flames floating on the surface. Simultaneously, his entire body was faintly surrounded by golden light.
Facing the crashing mountain bodies, Mo Qi did not dodge but crashed directly into them. With a deafening roar, amidst wisps of smoke, the mountain body was smashed through, and Mo Qi emerged from the other side. In front of him were more mountain bodies blocking his path, which he passed through one by one. At the same time, he secretly opened his Heavenly Eye and swept it with divine light, discovering Ma Wei's location. At some point, Ma Wei had circled behind Mo Qi and hidden within a mountain body. At this moment, he used his palm as a sword and slashed down from the air. A red light flashed. In Ma Wei's eyes, this move would not only serve as a surprise attack but also possess the momentum of thunder and lightning. It would surely cleave Mo Qi in two.
But at the critical moment, Mo Qi merely had a divine thought flash through his mind. The Earth Arrow within his body also emitted a white light. The two lights tore at each other, and the red light was instantly swallowed. The white light continued to rage forward, and the mountain body was instantly split in two. Fortunately, Ma Wei forcibly shifted within the mountain body, thus avoiding being split in half.
However, Mo Qi's entire body had crashed forward. His lava-like arm paused just before piercing his body, then changed from a fist to a palm, striking him to the ground. His body instantly emitted a charred smell and a wisp of green smoke.
Ma Wei writhed in pain on the ground, wailing incessantly. His three brothers had long since fled and disappeared.
Mo Qi revealed his true form and shouted loudly, "Do you submit?"
Ma Wei's wails turned into groans, and he said in a low voice, "I submit, I submit..."
Mo Qi now felt his internal spiritual power surge, flowing freely like tides. In that critical moment, his divine sense awakened, and he had already broken through to the Nascent Soul stage.
Seeing Ma Wei looking like he was about to die, Mo Qi felt a pang of pity. He took out a Longevity Pill and a Healing Pill from his storage bag and gave them to Ma Wei.
A moment later, Ma Wei's unfocused eyes gradually regained their clarity, and the deathly aura on his body gradually receded. The injuries all over his body also gradually healed.
Ma Wei himself was baffled. He had clearly felt like he was dying just moments ago and had given up all hope. But he never expected to be alive and kicking again in the blink of an eye.
All of this had a profound impact on him. For a moment, he felt a mixture of emotions. After sighing, tears of gratitude flowed down his cheeks, and he bowed to Mo Qi. "Thank you, senior, for sparing my life."
In his eyes, Mo Qi's high level of alchemy skill and his bizarre techniques must have made him a senior. His appearance was deceiving.