With Lin Yichen's slacker mindset, managing too many things would easily cause his CPU to blow up. Anyway, the guys who had seen him were all dead, so no one would ever know it was his doing.
Besides, there was still a Demon corpse inside that cave. When those three Great Grandmasters saw it, they would surely ask for stronger martial practitioners to come and investigate. By then, figuring out the cause would be as easy as pie, wouldn't it?
Watching the Demon before him take its final breath without a shred of fear in its eyes—only a hint of relief—Lin Yichen clicked his tongue and sighed:
"Tsk tsk tsk, just look at what they've driven the poor kid to."
Grumbling to himself like this, Lin Yichen neatly and efficiently extracted a white magic core from within the corpse.
This was a drained empty magic core. If it were filled with demonic energy, the core would turn pitch black.
After extracting the core, Lin Yichen tried channeling his own energy into it, and in no time at all, it was completely filled. The originally white magic core had now turned purple.
"Whew! Just this little trinket actually consumed a full two-tenths of my Mental Power!"
You had to know that killing this Martial King Level Demon twice had cost Lin Yichen less than a tenth of his Mental Power in total. Thanks to the automatic circulation of his Source Scripture of All Techniques, however, it recovered within just a few breaths—maintaining a pace where he used it faster than it could recover.
Yet filling this empty magic core right now had actually consumed one-fifth of his power. You had to hand it to this "little trinket"—it truly lived up to its reputation of leaving even a Martial Emperor either dead or crippled upon contact.
Examining the exquisite, compact magic core in his hand that radiated a faint purple glow, Lin Yichen curiously asked in his mind:
"System, can this little thing really threaten a Martial Emperor?"
"Ding! What kind of power could it possibly have that differs from the host's? You lousy host, have some confidence in your own strength! If all else fails, you can activate it right now and throw it out to see!"
Hearing this, Lin Yichen chuckled dryly, put it away, and said:
"Forget it then. What a waste to use it now. I'll save it for later when I run into some Martial Emperor I don't like, and without another word, I'll blast him with it first to see what happens. For now, hurry up and issue my reward. This ugly thing is thoroughly dead by now, right?"
"Ding! Congratulations to the host for completing the mission. The special battle skill—Void Stealth has been issued. Do you wish to use it immediately?"
Hearing this, Lin Yichen immediately said:
"Use it! Use it right now!"
"Ding! Pouring the training experience of Void Stealth into the host."
As the words faded, a flood of unfamiliar knowledge rushed into Lin Yichen's mind. Fortunately, backed by his powerful Mental Power, he completely mastered the special battle skill Void Stealth in just a short while.
After understanding the capabilities of this battle skill, Lin Yichen was also somewhat startled.
Void Stealth: Escaping into the void to conceal one's figure, making it impossible for powerkeepers who are one major realm higher than the cultivator to detect them.
Simply put, it was a conceptual-level stealth skill. The stronger you were, the stronger the stealth effect became. For example, if you were only a Martial Disciple and used this skill, beings at the Martial Practitioner level and below wouldn't be able to detect you, but a Martial Master could.
And if you reached the Martial Sage realm, you could stand right in front of a Martial Deity, and the other party still wouldn't be able to sense you. That was the bug-like nature of this conceptual skill.
"Good, good, good! System, my good sister, you really are something! When you have good stuff, you really give it out!"
"Ding! Hmph! Lousy host, with a system as smart, cute, and universally adored as me, you should just count your blessings!"
Facing the currently tsundere System, Lin Yichen smiled and said nothing more. Since he had already accomplished the purpose of his trip, he naturally intended to leave.
Just as Lin Yichen stood up, however, the System's voice sounded once again:
"Ding! Detected that a path-guarding binding target has appeared fifty-two miles away from the host. Please proceed to bind immediately!"
Lin Yichen was stunned for a moment upon hearing this, only then remembering that the system he had bound to seemed indeed to be a path-guarding system. Meeting a path-guarding target for the very first time made Lin Yichen quite curious about what kind of person they were.
He then walked toward the location provided by the System.
Calling it walking, but in reality, those fifty-some miles were covered in a single step.
Swish, swish, swish!
Right in the forest, a young maiden so flawless and perfect she looked like an otherworldly fairy was holding a long sword, killing a Moon Shadow Leopard—whose strength rivaled a Level 4 Martial Practitioner—with three extremely crisp and neat strikes.
The maiden skillfully gathered the valuable parts from the Moon Shadow Leopard on the ground and packed them into the backpack on her back.
Her stunning appearance contrasted sharply with her crisp, efficient actions in dismembering the Moon Shadow Leopard, creating a strong sense of incongruity.
Having finished all this, the maiden wiped the sweat from her forehead and muttered to herself:
"Phew! Just a little bit more, still a bit short of breaking through. It looks like I'll have to find another fierce beast."
"Roar!!!"
As if sensing the maiden's thoughts, a tiger's roar suddenly echoed from the forest, and before long, a completely white, one-eyed fierce tiger appeared before the maiden.
Looking at the white tiger in front of her, the maiden's expression instantly turned dead serious. Feeling its terrifying aura, the palms of her hands began to ooze fine beads of cold sweat from tension.
"Damn it! A Striped White Tiger? Judging by the looks of it, this one has probably already stepped half a foot into the Martial Master realm. How could a fierce beast of this caliber appear on the outer fringes?"
Once the Striped White Tiger appeared and saw the miserably mangled carcass of the Moon Shadow Leopard on the ground, the murderous intent in its eyes grew even more intense.
"Roar!!!"
With an angry roar, the Striped White Tiger lunged fiercely toward the maiden.
Seeing this, the maiden did not dare to be negligent. Channeling the strength of her entire body, she managed to dodge the pounce by a hair's breadth, then immediately raised her long sword and slashed fiercely at the Striped White Tiger.
Faced with this fierce sword strike, the Striped White Tiger merely raised its paw and slapped violently against the sword light.
Boom!!
The maiden's figure was sent flying backward instantly, coming to a halt only after crashing into a thick tree trunk.
"Pch! Cough!"
Upon landing, the maiden immediately coughed up a mouthful of blood. Her entire right arm was trembling slightly, and even the Yellow-grade long sword she had bought at a heavy price visibly developed a tiny crack.
"The gap in strength is too big..."
However, the Striped White Tiger didn't come away completely unscathed either. A shallow sword mark was left on its paw, and blood slowly oozed from it.
Yet this minor injury did not hinder the Striped White Tiger at all; instead, it fueled its ferocity even more.
However, the maiden felt no despair; a trace of a smile appeared on the corner of her mouth as she muttered to herself:
"It's injured, which means there's a chance."
Having learned her lesson, and knowing that she couldn't match its raw strength, the maiden engaged the Striped White Tiger in a war of attrition.
A pale green glow surrounded the maiden, making her look like a forest sprite as she left a trail of sword marks on the Striped White Tiger's massive body with her long sword.
Boom, boom, boom!!
The Striped White Tiger tried to counterattack, but every one of its powerful onslaughts was dodged, failing to even brush the hem of its opponent's clothes. Sensing that the situation was bad and that she would be worn down to death if this continued, the Striped White Tiger immediately intended to flee.
However, the maiden, currently in a special state, moved at a speed far surpassing that of the Striped White Tiger. How could she let it escape? She immediately tangled with it once more, her long sword relentlessly raining blows upon the Striped White Tiger's body.