Chapter 129: Extracting the Essence
From where he stood, Bei Chengling saw the approaching monk.
This wasn’t the first person who tried to collect the bounty on him, and he frowned in annoyance.
’What a bother.’ He thought and glared before turning to the person beside him.
"Let’s go." He spoke.
Without waiting for his companion to respond, he activated his speed boots and rushed ahead.
His companion rolled his eyes and escaped in a different direction.
"Cunning traitor." Xuan Ke cursed but continued to pursue Bei Chengling.
Unfortunately, the other was too fast.
Xuan Ke had never cultivated a movement art and couldn’t keep up with Bei Chengling whose speed was enhanced by the speed boots.
After a while, he lost track of the opponent and stopped chasing.
At the same time, Li Futian had also lost trace of the accomplice, and the two returned to the medicine field.
"It seems that nothing will be gained from this task." Xuan Ke lamented.
At first, they just wanted to find a clue about the half of the map owned by the Death Flower Ascension Front.
After that, they got a little greedy and also wanted the purple crystal herb, in addition to the grains of star sand and enemy loot.
In the end, they gained nothing but lost Wang Xue’er.
Although he regretted everything, there was no medicine for regret.
Worst of all, even if they knew ahead of time that things would be difficult, they would still have joined the task.
This was the nature of cultivators.
Cultivation was against the sky, and nothing could be gained without struggle.
With a tired sigh, Xuan Ke turned to Yu Nianzhen and Jiang Yue.
The two were still fighting as if their life depended on it, and he felt a little depressed looking at them.
"Who told me to consider them friends?" He muttered and then joined the two to slaughter enemies.
"As expected, ..." Li Futian smiled and also joined the fray.
As a cultivator from the Celestial Sky sect, he was disinclined to fight.
However, all fates are written by the heavens, and some entanglements could not be avoided.
’I wonder how far we can go.’ He thought as his judgement pen sunk into an enemy’s neck.
When Xuan Ke and Li Futian joined the fight, Jiang Yue and Yu Nianzhen naturally noticed.
They looked at each other, and understanding flashed in their eyes.
After everything that happened, Li Futian and Xuan Ke should have retreated as most others had.
The reason they hadn’t was probably because of the tentative friendship between them.
’We won’t forget this.’ Jiang Yue thought and continued to slaughter enemies.
At the same time, he kept a look out for Jin Xuan and his party.
When the formation broke, Jiang Yue expected the group to show up to fight for the herbs.
However, they neither appeared to fight for the herbs nor to escape when everyone realised there were no herbs to be harvested.
’What is going on? Is there another secret we don’t know?’
He looked at Yu Nianzhen, and the other was also frowning in thought.
’We were pitted this time.’ Jiang Yue sighed and finally gave up on Jin Xuan and all thoughts of star sand.
"Let’s hurry up." He shouted.
Yu Nianzhen nodded, and his sword swung faster.
At this time, most enemies had already been eliminated by those who came for the task.
They probably wanted the enemy loot to compensate for the lost rewards, and this played well with the two’s plan to eliminate all the enemies.
By eliminating as many Death Flower Ascension Front members as they could, they could at least have an explanation for Yang Xu and his betrothed.
When the sun was at its highest, the last enemy was finally killed.
Yu Nianzhen and his three companions collected their loot before moving to a secluded place to rest.
"Everything was too confusing this time around." Jiang Yue said after taking a sip of water from a gourd.
"We seem to have been used."
"Mmmm..." Yu Nianzhen nodded, and his brow furrowed.
He understood everything that happened, but he didn’t understand the reason for it.
"What was the purpose of everything?" Jiang Yue asked, but no one had an answer.
.....
While the four recovered, Jin Xuan and his group entered the medicine field.
They were still hidden under invisibility talismans, but this did not hinder their small actions.
"Everyone should be careful and move fast. The protection will only last for an incense stick. When the time is up..." Jin Xuan said in a low voice and didn’t finish his words.
However, he didn’t need to finish because they all knew what would happen when the protection ran out.
If they were lucky, they would be affected by resentment and slaughter each other.
If they were unlucky, the resentment would trap their soul and use their body as a vessel to live.
When they thought of the consequences, no one dared to be careless.
Soon after, the group of twelve divided into four groups of three.
The groups walked around and stood equidistance in a square formation.
When they were in place, the group leaders removed small wooden rectangular tablets from their storage artefacts and injected qi into them.
The wooden tablets had mysterious runes curved on the surface, and when qi was introduced, the runes glowed.
The tablets floated in the air and also formed a square formation.
"Don’t break the formation." Jin Xuan instructed.
The two extra people in each group also shot strands of qi into the wooden tablets, which caused the tablets to glow brighter.
At this time, the movement in the medicine field could not be hidden.
As soon as the group began to use their qi, the invisibility talismans naturally dissipated, and the people became visible to everyone who survived the battle.
"What the..." Jiang Yue cursed.
"What are they doing?" Xuan Ke asked.
His voice was filled with aggression, which matched the black faces of the other survivors.
At this point, they all understood Jin Xuan had used them.
When they saw the person, they naturally wanted to avenge themselves, but they were curious about what was going on.
"They seem to be collecting the resentment." Li Futian said in disbelief.
From what he had observed, the resentment wasn’t something that cultivators at the origin forging realm could handle.
However, if someone had a way to collect and purify it...
His thoughts trailed at this point, and he understood.
Although the purple crystal herb could not be harvested, the resentment also came from the herb.
If one found a way to extract the original essence, the effect would not be too inferior to the purple crystal herb.
"We were really tricked." He said and chuckled.
"We can only blame ourselves for being too greedy." Jiang Yue was bitter as he watched the group that was extracting the essence of the purple crystal herb.
"We can still get the star sand in this way." Xuan Ke said, and Jiang Yue rolled his eyes.
’Toxic positivity.’ He thought.
In Jiang Yue’s mind, all the loot they gained and the star sand couldn’t make up for what was lost.
However, this was a painful lesson.
In future, they would be more careful when accepting tasks and choosing people to cooperate with.
"Let’s get ready to go back." Yu Nianzhen said.
Since Wang Xue’er died, his mind was not calm, but it calmed down at this moment.
In the end, this regret would make him stronger.
It had tempered his heart and smoothened the remaining impulsiveness in his character.
"After we return, we can make a proper plan to retrieve the other half of the map." Li Futian suddenly said.
The others were taken aback when they heard that.
They initially tried to get information from Li Futian, but he was not willing.
It now took them by surprise that the other was suddenly willing to give the information he had.
When he saw their surprised expressions, Li Futian sighed but didn’t explain anything.
"Going back may not be easy." Xuan Ke said and tipped his head to the east.
Jiang Yue and the other two turned and saw a group of survivors looking at the medicine field.
Their eyes were red with anger but mostly with greed.
"The previous oath doesn’t seem to cover this situation." Jiang Yue commented.
"Excluding us, only seven survived from the original group of thirty. Even if we join them, we are still one less than Jin Xuan’s group." Xuan Ke continued.
"Numbers are not the problem. The problem is that we are all exhausted while they are still in peak condition."
At this, everyone realised a problem.
If Jin Xuan was determined to cut the grass and eliminate the roots, he probably had a plan to deal with any and all survivors.
"Try to recover as soon as possible."
After saying that, Yu Nianzhen swallowed a qi replenishing pill and began to adjust his condition.
