"Awesome!"
Su Bai rubbed his palms together.
He was beyond excited—happier, by far, than taking a brand-new bride.
The Hundred-Lifespan Pill.
It could increase one's lifespan by a full hundred years in a single go!
The Cloud-Piercing Sword was a mid-grade spirit weapon; treasures of this caliber were completely out of reach even for inner sect disciples.
The Samadhi True Fire Talisman contained the flame of absolute yang, a natural nemesis to fiends, ghosts, and monsters with devastating lethal force. Even a Golden Core cultivator would prefer not to face such a thing.
The silver notes were hardly worth mentioning. To a cultivator, such mortal trinkets were fleeting as smoke and dust.
Still, Su Bai obediently tucked the silver notes into his pocket. After all, he was not yet a cultivator; he was still just a mortal.
"Aside from that pill, these Spirit Stones are the most useful. With these Spirit Stones, I can definitely break through the Qi Refinement stage in a short time and become a true cultivator!"
Su Bai currently had a total of ten thousand Spirit Stones.
One had to know that outer sect disciples of the Qingyun Sect were only allotted a single Spirit Stone per month. The pile of Spirit Stones currently in Su Bai's hands could truly be called a massive fortune!
The System's critical-strike rebate was simply too wonderful to use!
Su Bai popped the Hundred-Lifespan Pill into his mouth.
He felt a surge of heat erupt from his lower abdomen, nourishing his withered body. Meridians that had shriveled with age regained their vitality, and his flesh and bones were flooded with robust vital energy. Although outwardly he still possessed the physique of an old man, internally he was brimming with vigor.
Not only was his hearing and vision sharp now, but even his little brother, dormant for a very long time, had regained his vigor.
At that moment, he felt an urge to seek out the seductress of the Hehuan Sect for a hundred rounds of fierce combat, just to show them the true power of a righteous cultivator!
Stowing all his newly acquired items away into his Storage Bag, Su Bai leaned on his walking stick, feigned an aged and decrepit appearance, stepped out of the inn, and headed straight toward the Qingyun Sect.
On the main street, Su Bai walked very slowly, his steps unsteady, truly looking like an old man of seventy or eighty.
Yet the moment he cleared the city gates, he ran faster than a horse.
Su Bai strode at a flying pace, hearing the wind whistling past his ears while the trees on both sides flashed rapidly backward.
He hadn't experienced speed like this in many years.
The last time he had tasted such velocity was when he peeked at a senior sister bathing and got batted flying over a dozen zhang with a single slap.
Thinking of his illustrious past, Su Bai felt a deep wave of nostalgia.
Back in his youth, he had also been known as the number one handsome fellow of the Qingyun Sect, the prime hunk of the chores quarters. How many young maidens and newlywed brides had fluttered their eyelashes at him, yet in the blink of an eye, he had turned into an old fogey.
Just as he was about to reach the mountain gate of the Qingyun Sect, Su Bai suddenly noticed two groups of people confronting each other in a tense standoff.
He immediately slowed his pace, caught the shoe that was about to fly off his foot, put on a panting, aged facade, and hobbled toward the Qingyun Sect with his walking stick.
As Su Bai drew closer, he made out the identities of the two factions.
One group wore the attire of Qingyun Sect disciples, clearly belonging to the sect.
The other group wore animal skins, mostly bare-chested with bulging muscles on their upper bodies, looking rather like savages. Their mounts were an eclectic bunch as well—some rode lions, some tigers, and there was even someone riding a giant tortoise.
Most absurdly of all, someone was actually riding a hedgehog.
Su Bai instinctively covered his backside.
He had heard of practicing the Iron Head Technique, but this was his first time seeing the Iron Buttocks Technique practiced.
Although Su Bai was just an old handyman, his worldly experience over the past few decades was quite extraordinary, and he knew that these guys with such bizarre mounts all belonged to the Beast Taming Sect.
Though the Beast Taming Sect was considered a righteous sect, their practices were rather perverted, most adept at human-beast cooperation. This method of fighting alongside spirit beasts gave many cultivators a headache.
To be hacked to death by a blade or pierced by a sword—for cultivators who licked blood off their knife blades, that was a fitting end. But if one were to be gored to death by a pig, a lifetime of reputation would be completely ruined.
"Clearly, Miss Ziyun came to seek refuge with our Qingyun Sect! What right do you have to snatch people away!"
Xu Gang, the senior brother of the Qingyun Sect's outer sect, brandished a pair of heavy hammers as he stood at the forefront, pointing at the opposite group and sternly reprimanding them.
He was tall and robust with the build of a tiger and the waist of a bear, possessing a muscular physique and a striking countenance with a pointed crown-like head.
The outer sect senior brother of the Beast Taming Sect was named Ji Kun.
He sported a dashing middle-part hairstyle, rode a golden chicken, and held a orb-shaped magical artifact in his hand, looking quite imposing.
"What are you dreaming about? Miss Ziyun has a half-beast constitution and can communicate with spirit beasts. Cultivating our Beast Taming Sect's techniques will yield twice the result with half the effort—how could we possibly let her join your Qingyun Sect?"
Ji Kun sneered. Facing this group of old rivals from the Qingyun Sect, he refused to yield an inch and showed no mercy whatsoever.
There were many sects in the vicinity of the Qingyun Sect, and friction frequently arose over the recruitment of disciples, resulting in poor relations among many of them.
"I came here to join the Qingyun Sect. Please stop trying to block my path."
Ziyun wore a purple long dress. Facing the Beast Taming Sect disciples blocking her way, she was growing increasingly impatient.
She had already made it clear that she was here to join the Qingyun Sect, yet these Beast Taming Sect people were still coming over to badger her—it was simply hateful.
These people were as noisy as flies.
"Did you hear that? Miss Ziyun said herself that she's here to join our Qingyun Sect! If you dare to act wild again, don't blame me for being unpolite!"
Xu Gang's expression turned as cold as an iceberg as he issued a final ultimatum to the other side.
"Unpolite to me? Just based on you?"
Ji Kun laughed up to the sky. "With just that little bit of skill of yours, if you want to deal with me, you'd better go cultivate for another two and a half years!"
He patted the mount beneath him. The ten-foot-long golden giant chicken spread its wings, lunged forward with him, and fiercely attacked the direction of Xu Gang.
That single bound covered a full ten zhang!
This golden chicken spirit beast possessed the cultivation of the Qi Refinement 7th Layer, roughly on par with Xu Gang's strength.
A spirit beast alone wouldn't have troubled Xu Gang, but Ji Kun, riding atop the beast, was also at the Qi Refinement 6th Layer.
He was essentially fighting two opponents at once!
Facing the terrifying assault of this golden giant chicken, Xu Gang's expression darkened as he swung his massive hammers upward from below.