Editor: Anuv
In the dilapidated hall, Old Li was staring at Ye Zhong with a look of disbelief printed on his face. Originally, he thought that the most troublesome person would be Su Yu, the brat she brought with her was at most at the Third Layer of Body Tempering. His underlings would be able to take care of him in minutes! However, who would have thought that in just a few seconds, his six experts were already dead!? At this moment, Old Li’s face was extremely pale.
“What a good approach!” Even when Su Yu turned around and looked behind her, she couldn’t help sighing. Even though she was not necessarily afraid of the six of them, if she wanted to get rid of all of them, she would not be able to do so as cleanly as Ye Zhong.
Therefore, Su Yu suddenly smiled and said, “Junior Brother Ye Zhong, if you can save me some effort, then the previous batch of Spirit Value points will be my free gift.”
Hearing this, Ye Zhong nodded his head and walked slowly towards Old Li. Although this Old Li looked much more difficult to deal with than his six underlings, Ye Zhong did not pay too much attention to him. On the contrary, he could get an extra 2,500 Spirit Value points for the deal.
“Su Yu, don’t go too far!”
Old Li’s body trembled slightly, shocked by Ye Zhong’s calm demeanor. His eyes twitched, but he was not an ordinary person. The next moment, he spoke with a ferocious expression.
However, Ye Zhong did not care for his words, and with a flick of his right hand, he retrieved another long green steel sword and walked towards the man with the sword in his hand. Speaking of which, it wasn’t handy for Ye Zhong to reuse these ordinary weapons. However, he had no other choice but to use them reluctantly.
Seeing that Ye Zhong ignored him and continued walking forward, Old Li grabbed the sheepskin map in his hands and shouted, “Su Yu, if you want to give me a taste of my own medicine, even if I, old man, die, I have time to destroy this map!”
“Wait!” Su Yu paused for a moment, then waved her hand. She frowned. If this Old Li was really going to destroy the map, it would be quite troublesome for her.
“Su Yu, as long as you let me go, I will naturally leave the map behind. From then on, the sky and the sea will be vast, and you and I will no longer have any relation.” When Old Li saw Su Yu’s expression change, he felt a sliver of hope and immediately, he slowly moved towards the back of the hall.
“Alright, as long as you leave behind the map, I will guarantee your safety.” Su Yu hesitated for a moment before frowning and asking.
“When I’m 10 miles away, I’ll naturally leave behind a map!” A trace of hatred flashed across Old Li’s eyes. After which, he squeezed out a smile and carefully opened his mouth as he spoke.
“You’re really letting him go?” Ye Zhong stopped and glanced at Su Yu.
“Our goal is the map of the Innate Temple. If it is destroyed by him, our mission will fail.” Su Yu said indifferently.
“It will indeed.” Ye Zhong smiled and lowered his long green steel sword, “You may leave.”
Ye Zhong was about to turn around when he finished his sentence.
At this moment, a trace of a smile appeared on Old Li’s face, as he suddenly wanted to escape from the back of the hall.
The moment he moved, Ye Zhong, who had lowered his long green steel sword, also made his move. The sword in his hand was moving at an absurd speed.
“You——”
After that, he reached out his hand to his throat with an unwilling expression on his face. However, in the next moment, his body slightly swayed and he collapsed onto the ground. It was only at this moment that blood gushed out from his throat.
“You’re really fast!” Su Yu was stunned for a moment before shaking her head. She walked over, picked up the map from Old Li’s corpse and carefully kept it close to her body.
“You don’t really believe that he will leave the map behind, do you?” Ye Zhong casually threw away the blood on his sword, and spoke while calmly looking at Su Yu. He had seen a lot of people like Old Li back then, so he naturally knew that these people had no morality. Besides, if Ye Zhong were to let him off today, it might bring him some trouble in the future. He did not like the idea of raising a tiger.
“I don’t.” After a moment of silence, Su Yu could only slowly shake her head. In front of this thirteen or fourteen years old devilish looking young man, she suddenly felt that her life these past few years had been wasted. Why would this young man’s style of doing things look to be of someone more experienced than her?
While Su Yu was sighing inwardly, Ye Zhong had already stretched out his hand and unfurled it.
“What are you doing!?” Su Yu was slightly stunned.
“The mission is complete. Where is the Spirit Value?” Ye Zhong replied flatly.
Seeing Ye Zhong’s reaction, Su Yu was speechless. She held her forehead and sighed, “We will only get Spiritual Value after we return to the Sect’s Mission Hall. Where can I find it for you now……Moreover, don’t you have any interest in this Innate Temple?”
Su Yu waved the map in her hands and said while smiling.
Hearing this, Ye Zhong frowned slightly. The Innate Temple was extremely attractive to the Great Zhou Dynasty. It had once filled the city with chaos, and many clans and powers were moved because of it. According to the legends, the most important part of the inheritance was a special Spiritual Secret Art that could greatly increase the chances of one at the Nine Layers of Body Tempering Realm entering the Innate Martial Dao Realm. This point was extremely attractive to most forces and powerhouses. But for Ye Zhong, the attraction was lacking. After all, Ye Zhong was currently practicing the Divine Secret Art of Body Tempering; and as for the Innate Martial Dao Realm, he had already entered the Upper Sky Realm before, but did not find it much difficult. So, this was regarded as optional, he had no great interest in the trivial matter of the Innate Temple. In comparison, he was more interested in the Purple Wood Spirit Root.
Seeing Ye Zhong’s seemingly nonchalant look, the corner of Su Yu’s eyes twitched slightly. However, she had a better understanding of Ye Zhong’s apathy towards rabbits and birds. At this moment, it was clear to him that unless there were sufficient benefits, this Junior Brother of hers would not do any voluntary work.
“That day in the Mission Hall, aside from accepting this Mid-rank Mission and obtaining the map, I also received a High-rank Mission to explore the ruins of the Innate Temple. If this mission can be completed, the reward would be 50,000 Spiritual Value points.” Su Yu squinted her eyes and said indifferently, “Moreover, it’s said that the ruins of the Innate Temple are rather special. At that time, the whole palace hall was annihilated in some kind of an accident, it’s just that there should be some items still hidden in the ruins such as many Spiritual Secret Arts and Spirit Herbs, also Spirit Vessels and so on. Of course, the most important thing is the Innate Temple’s inheritance. If we can obtain it, our chances of advancing to the Innate Martial Dao Realm will greatly increase.”
“And then?” Ye Zhong wasn’t moved at all.
Su Yu’s smile froze for a moment before she continued, “If you can obtain the Innate Temple’s inheritance and complete the mission, I will give you half of the Spirit Value points. As for the items inside, you will also get half of it, how about it?”
“I want half of the Spirit Value. The Innate Temple’s inheritance will be yours. You have priority to choose the Spiritual Secret Arts first, but the Spirit Herbs and Spirit Vessels will be chosen by me first. How about it?” Ye Zhong shrugged.
To be honest, Ye Zhong had his sect’s inheritance, so he was not too interested in the so-called Innate Temple’s inheritances. As for the Spiritual secret Arts, unless they were extremely special, he would not be interested in them either. On the contrary, what he lacked the most at this moment were Spirit Herbs and Spirit Vessels. In the next stage of cultivating the Six Paths Buried Sword, the cultivation resources required were basically all rare Spirit Herbs. And the Spirit Vessels were different from ordinary weapons. All kinds of items were forged by Spirit-Vessel Masters, including bladed weapons, defensive artifacts, and all sorts of strange Spirit Vessels. It could be said that anything can be made if one can think of it. And that was what Ye Zhong lacked the most right now. If he had the suitable Spirit Vessel, his combat power would have soared tremendously.
However, there was nothing he could do about it. Ye Zhong reckoned that even the Ye Clan did not have many Spirit Vessels, and with his status as a member of a branch family, it would be difficult for him to get his hands on one.
“Alright, I promise.” Su Yu gave Ye Zhong a strange look, but still nodded her head. What others valued the most were the inheritance and the Spiritual Secret Arts. On the other hand, this Ye Zhong, did not seem to care much about these things.
However, thinking back about Ye Zhong’s Spiritual Secret Arts of Body Tempering that seemed to be even stronger than her Astral Body, Su Yu was deep in thought. It seemed like Ye Zhong must have had some sort of fortuitous encounter, but since the matter involved someone else, she did not ask any further questions.
“However, there is still one more problem.” Ye Zhong’s attention fell on the corpses lying on the ground, and he indifferently said, “Even this kind of trash has a map of the Innate Temple, if he can find out the news about the Innate Temple, then I’m afraid that the map in your hands isn’t the only one?”
Hearing that, Su Yu’s expression also changed slightly. Earlier, she had also considered this possibility. After all, the Innate Temple had been extremely widespread in the Great Zhou Dynasty, and many forces and powerhouses from cities of all directions were extremely interested in it. The birth of the Innate Temple’s Ruins Map was probably not a coincidence.
“What do you mean?” Unconsciously, Su Yu had started to treat Ye Zhong as an expert of the same level, and no longer took him lightly because of his age and looks.
“What else can we do?” Ye Zhong shrugged. “Now we have the map in hand. We can only hurry and go to the place that was marked on the map. If we are lucky, and no one else received the news of the birth of the Innate Temple, then we will naturally do whatever we want. But if we go and find out that there are already people keeping their eyes on the place, with our insignificant strength, we can only act according to the circumstances.”
What Ye Zhong said was the truth. Su Yu’s Fourth Layer of Body Tempering and Ye Zhong’s Third Layer of Body Tempering strength seemed quite strong when compared to their peers. However, if they wanted to compete for the Innate Temple’s inheritance, their opponents wouldn’t be people of the same age as them! If all the major powers and clans were to make a move, the situation would become extremely troublesome.
“It’s useless to think too much about it right now. Let’s go.” Ye Zhong looked at Su Yu’s beautiful face and smiled, “So, Senior Sister Su Yu, where are we going next?”
Su Yu opened the map and looked at it for a long time before frowning, “Qingshan Town.”[1]
TL note(s):
[1] 青山 (qīngshān) literally means “cyan mountain”.