The fierce battle at the Sacred Spring reveals their true prowess; when righteousness and evil first meet, their intentions remain inscrutable.

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Shen Yi’s fingertip brushed over the bloodstained sand left on the desk, the star chart faintly glowing with an eerie dark red under the flickering oil lamp. On the system map, a newly appearing light spot coincided exactly with the location of the “Man-Eating Cold Pool” mentioned by the old drunkard.

“Daring to trespass when the miasma seals the mountain?” The old village chief’s pipe fire flickered, casting twisted shadows on the wall. “Twenty years ago, foundation establishment cultivators from Qingyang Sect came here, but not a single bone was ever found.”

Before he finished speaking, Shen Yi had already grabbed the bamboo basket from the corner of the wall.

The freshly dug purple cloud grass inside still glistened with night dew. The system prompt popped up in time: [Purple Cloud Grass x10, can be synthesized into a primary miasma-avoidance pill].

At midnight, the mountain wind carried the roar of beasts. Shen Yi trod softly over the decayed pine needles until he reached the cold pool, just in time to see three black-robed men pouring ink-green medicinal liquid into the water.

The silver-scaled fish on the surface instantly turned into white bones. On the slanted stone tablet by the shore, the characters for “Spiritual Spring” had been corroded until only half of the character for “white” remained.

“This is a place where Qi Refining cultivators come in teams. A mortal seeking death?” The leader of the black-robed men threw back his hood, revealing a centipede-shaped scar crawling on his left cheek under the moonlight.

The black iron token on his waist flashed faintly. The system immediately tagged him with a danger warning: [Third Leader of Black Wind Stronghold · Early Qi Refining].

Shen Yi shook the bamboo basket with the purple cloud grass inside. “Just gathering herbs, got in by mistake. Leaving now.”

“Leaving?” Black Wind crushed a strand of dragon beard grass growing from a rock crevice underfoot. The dark green medicinal liquid dripped from his boot. “Do you know how much spirit stones this cold pool is worth? Seventh on the Qingyun Sect’s bounty list...”

A sharp sound cut him off.

Shen Yi’s thrown bamboo basket exploded midair, the ten stalks of purple cloud grass shattered into powder, mixing with the realgar powder hidden at the bottom of the basket, forming a faint purple smoke.

As Black Wind waved his sleeve to disperse the smoke, Shen Yi rolled behind the stone tablet—where seven thunderwood stakes he had arranged on the way up formed a broken Big Dipper formation.

“A trapping formation?” Black Wind sneered and stomped the ground. From the cracks in the earth slithered three jade-green vines. “When I was playing with poison vines, you were still nursing at your mother’s breast!”

The moment the vines coiled around Shen Yi’s ankle, the system suddenly flashed red: [Detected wood-element spiritual energy fluctuations. Consume 3 spirit points to activate thunderwood stakes?]

Gritting his teeth, Shen Yi slapped his storage pouch at his waist. The powdered spirit stone given by the old village chief slipped through his fingers, absorbed instantly by the thunderwood stakes, erupting in dazzling electric light.

“Boom!”

Three bolts of thunder shattered the vines. As Black Wind staggered back, he crashed into the stone tablet, breaking it in half.

Blood sweetened Shen Yi’s throat. Forcing himself to channel spiritual energy, he endured the sensation of his meridians being sliced like with knives.

As he wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and prepared to rise, he suddenly saw the moonlight shining like a ribbon on the pool’s surface—at some unknown moment, a woman in plain clothes had appeared, her toes lightly skimming the water, the ice-soul sword in her arms reflecting his disheveled figure.

“Miss, watch out for the poison!” Shen Yi deliberately staggered toward the pool, flicking the realgar powder hidden in his sleeve toward Black Wind and the others.

This was a calculated move, both to block the enemy and to close the distance to the suspected reinforcements.

Gao Yao frowned and flashed aside, frost flowers with six sharp edges blooming beneath her feet.

The realgar powder missed its mark but revealed the Qingyun embroidery on her hem to Black Wind.

“A Qingyun Sect brat!” Black Wind spat blood. He whipped out a copper bell engraved with a skull. “I hate your righteous sects the most!”

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As the bell’s chime rang out, the cold pool suddenly boiled.

Countless white bones burst forth from the water, forming three puppets wielding bone blades.

Seizing the chance, Shen Yi moved toward Gao Yao’s side but was stopped two steps away by her sword scabbard.

“Using poison mist to create a visual illusion, employing thunderwood stakes to conduct electricity to counter wood-element spells,” Gao Yao’s voice was colder than the pool water. “You have such a precise plan. Do you need help from others?”

Shen Yi’s breath caught.

He had long suspected that this woman’s cultivation had reached mid-Qi Refining stage and had intended to use her to distract the enemy, but she had seen through his entire setup.

Black Wind seized this fleeting weakness. The bone blade puppets formed a pincer attack in a character-shaped formation, the stench of their blade wind making it hard to keep eyes open.

“Ding!”

Shen Yi raised his medicinal hoe to block, but the iron hoe shattered on impact.

As a bone blade grazed his neck, the system suddenly sounded a piercing alarm: [Detected host’s health below 10%. Force overdraft of spiritual power?]

He leaned back to dodge a second strike. The realgar powder hidden in his palm was about to be sprinkled into the puppet’s eye sockets when Black Wind shook the copper bell with a grim smile: “Explode!”

The three puppets simultaneously swelled, dark green poison oozing from their bone joints.

Shen Yi’s pupils contracted sharply—this poison was identical to the corrosive liquid poured earlier into the pond, now falling like a torrential rain!

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