The truly skilled hunter often disguises himself as prey.
Ji An's eyes were sharp and cold. After the bloody struggle with the Greenwood Ape tribe, he had undergone his first true transformation. He now had a clear grasp of his own combat strength.
Falling a step behind had been bait all along, and sure enough, someone took it.
The Stone Turtle Shield split apart into twelve glowing plates, spreading in the path of the incoming flying sword.
If the weapon had come straight down, at least one plate would have blocked it. That alone would have been enough to neutralize the attack unless the sword's controller curved around the defense.
Closer. A little closer…
Ji An watched as the enemy fell into the trap, dropping lower and guiding the sword smoothly past the plates, just as planned.
The plates spun and clipped the weapon, shifting its trajectory ever so slightly.
At that very moment, a concentrated golden light shot from Ji An's fingertip. Without even looking to confirm the result, he leapt back into the cover of the rain curtain.
By the time his body vanished, the flying sword had only just arrived, stabbing into the rock where he had stood moments earlier, quivering and ringing with metallic resonance.
The scrawny bandit cultivator cursed under his breath when he saw the attack miss. Instinctively, he raised his black-iron shield as the golden light came streaking toward him.
He recognized it immediately, Geng Metal Finger. A sneer curled across his lips.
Though only a low-grade artifact, his Xuan-iron shield was two fingers thick, with a layer of beast hide beneath. Its sole enchantment was toughness.
It could be used both at range and in hand-to-hand combat, and was especially suited to blocking sharp weapons like flying swords.
If his opponent had used something like Explosive Flame Technique, he might have worried about the shockwave rattling his insides. But Geng Metal Finger? At worst, it would poke a shallow hole into the shield.
He had just finished that thought when the golden light pierced clean through the shield, dazzling his eyes.
The razor edge of the energy bored into his brow and burst out the back of his skull. His mind felt as though it had fallen from the heavens. The last fleck of color drained from his sight.
His talisman bird wheeled aimlessly in the sky as its rider tumbled earthward.
"Thud!"
The man's head struck the rock first. Blood spread across the ground in a gruesome bloom.
The other bandits froze, dumbfounded. They had seen only a flash of gold, their comrade raising his shield and then… nothing.
A wet-furred golden-brown rat darted out, bit through the cord of the fallen man's storage pouch, and scampered away with its prize.
Receiving the feedback from his beast, Ji An dashed from the rain curtain, wrenched the enemy's flying sword from the stone, and activated a Water Curtain Talisman to guard himself. Once secured, he nimbly leapt back into cover.
The bandits erupted into curses. It wasn't just that the ambush had failed; it was that their comrades' valuables had vanished in the blink of an eye.
A robbery was a robbery; so long as spirit stones ended up in their pockets, it was a win. But this? This was humiliation.
Two of them guarded warily while the third swooped down on his talisman bird to snatch up their comrade's weapon before retreating higher into the air.
From above, they could sense a fierce battle raging below, but the rain shroud kept them blind. Frustrated, they dropped a few fireballs at random.
After some cursing, they could find no way forward. Once these disciples finished off the beasts, they'd have all the time they needed to recover their strength before turning on them.
These bandits were just a group of rogue cultivators, opportunists who dabbled in risk-free robbery whenever the chance presented itself.
They had been watching this Gold Spirit Sect squad for some time and thought they had chosen the perfect moment when the disciples were fighting the beast horde.
What they hadn't expected was just how wealthy their targets were. The Cold Wind Talismans had been spent like water, as though spirit stones were nothing. Who knew how many more trump cards they still held?
And with the two strongest Firehorn Rhinos already slain, the bandits feared the herd would be wiped out soon, leaving them with no chance at all.
"What now?"
"Leave. Head toward the other sects' territory.
We didn't show our faces, but our builds are exposed. And with Skinny's artifact and storage pouch taken, those disciples just need to report to Gold Spirit Sect's Law Enforcement Hall; it won't take long to trace him back."
The Gold Spirit Sect's condition for allowing rogue cultivators into its new market strongholds was that they register for an identity jade plaque. At that time, a strand of their qi would be bound to it.
If those rogues committed crimes, the sect could use that qi trace to track them down.
Artifacts and storage bags inevitably carried remnants of their owners' qi.
Perhaps the spiritual rain could wash some of it away, but they dared not gamble on that.
In spells and artifacts, most rogue cultivators were completely outclassed by sect disciples of the same realm.
Without the advantage of numbers, three against five was no contest at all.
"One little Minor Rain Technique, and this farming cultivator is already this strong? Instead of staying in the sect to grow crops, he comes out here hunting beasts? Has he been kicked in the head by a donkey? Hunting beasts is dangerous as hell!"
The few bandits cursed bitterly, then slunk away in dejection.
If not for that spell-concealing vision, they would have had a ninety percent chance of taking down these sect disciples together with the beast horde.
But a perfected spell carried a trace of true water-intent. In such an environment, the Firehorn Rhinos were at an even greater disadvantage.
The squad slaughtered several late-stage Qi Refining beasts with overwhelming force before Ji An shouted:
"Captain, from here on, I'll focus on defense and stop attacking; better to conserve my strength for casting Minor Rain."
Mid-stage Qi Refining beasts no longer posed much threat to them. Saving his strength to guard against the rogue cultivators outside was far more important.
"Good."
Chen Moxuan agreed readily, then called out again with a laugh:
"Brothers, let's show our junior how well we can coordinate!"
Even if Ji An hadn't spoken up, he had already planned to assign him that role. Without this junior brother today, their chances of survival would have been slim indeed.
The Firehorn Rhinos' straight-line charges were devastating, but once forced into close skirmishes, their advantage vanished.
Their defenses were tough, yes, but against late-stage Qi Refining disciples, they were nothing more than thick-skinned targets.
Two quarters of an hour later, the last Firehorn Rhino let out a sorrowful bellow before collapsing to the ground, unwilling to die.
Two spirit-seeking mice scurried out from different directions beyond the Minor Rain curtain, standing upright and scouting the surroundings.
"Tian Yulei reporting: no enemies spotted!"
"I don't see any either. Everyone, recover your strength. I'll keep watch."
Ji An shouted as he darted out from the rain shroud.
"Let's recover right here; the spiritual energy feels denser in this spot."
Chen Moxuan laughed heartily, plopped down cross-legged, and clutched a spirit stone.
The setting sun sank westward, staining the land in orange-red.
The squad bustled about skinning hides, stripping tendons, and carving up the beast meat, the scene lively and bustling.
Though the Firehorn Rhinos were fewer than the Greenwood Apes, their bodies were far larger. Chen Moxuan calculated inwardly that this harvest would likely surpass the last.
The beasts' skulls could serve as precious forging materials, and their horns were prized treasures for crafting artifacts.
Their hides and blood were top-tier ingredients for first-rank fire-element talismans, always in high demand.
Their meat, rich with fiery spiritual energy, was tender and far tastier than ape flesh. With so much of it in hand, they'd have no trouble selling it all.
Everyone was secretly tallying up the profits, grins fixed to their faces. To them, these bloody spoils were nothing less than piles of spirit stones. And what cultivator ever complained about having too much gain?
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