Chapter 154: Looting

Snow fell gracefully through the air.

This had nothing to do with the temperature of the world; it was simply because their composition was entirely Ling Qi.

Xu Xiaoshou silently got up and stowed Zang Ku and the Hei Luo Jian Qiao into the ring on his chest.

The Hei Luo Jian Qiao seemed to sense that his emotions were off and didn't emerge to cause trouble again.

His white clothes stained with blood, Xu Xiaoshou squatted on the ground, gazing at the massive corpse before him.

It still exuded surging power seeping into the world, likely the residual energy from the golden blood.

"Why bother?"

He had never been a strong advocate for killing, but now, facing this giant corpse, he no longer felt the palpitations from his first kill.

In the end, things had changed...

Xu Xiaoshou slowly shook his head; he was just feeling a bit sentimental.

Yuan Tou could have avoided death, but he insisted on meddling in the affairs between Xu Xiaoshou and Zhang Xin Xiong, so his fate was no longer in his own hands.

"Perhaps in this world, making a choice sometimes means facing life or death."

Puff, puff!

He lit a fire, and Xu Xiaoshou watched as the giant gradually vanished.

Suddenly, he darted forward, plunging into the flames of Jin Zhao Tian Yan and pulling out...

A ring.

"Oh my god, I've finally looted a body for the first time." Xu Xiaoshou's smile spread across his face.

He had killed several people before, but each time, he either held back out of fear of not finishing them off or unexpected events arose afterward.

In short, he had never gotten to enjoy the thrill of looting.

"Cough, cough... sorry, I forgot you were still here."

Xu Xiaoshou put on a sorrowful expression again, tucking the ring behind his waist. Only after the flames died out and the karma was resolved did he gleefully pull it out.

Probing it with his spiritual sense, he found a wealth of items inside; clearly, this guy's collection was far richer than his own.

Well... after all, he was a senior disciple of the inner court, so that was to be expected.

Aside from some miscellaneous items, the most striking were piles of Ling Jing stacked like several small mountains, totaling around tens of thousands.

Xu Xiaoshou had never seen so many Ling Jing in his life; he nearly drooled.

In the "Feng Yun Zheng Ba," after all the life-or-death battles, the total Ling Jing rewards didn't even come close to what was in this single ring. No wonder they say robbery leads to riches...

"Pah, that's not a good line of thinking. I, Xu Xiaoshou, am a righteous man and absolutely won't engage in shady deeds!"

He continued looting.

Besides the Ling Jing, there were all those bottles and jars.

Lian Ling Dan, Chi Jin Dan... even these basic pills numbered over a thousand each, leaving Xu Xiaoshou utterly stunned.

This was incredibly wealthy, and then there was...

Yuan Ting Dan!

Xu Xiaoshou snapped to attention when he spotted this familiar yet unused pill; there were actually over a hundred of them!

"Oh my god, this must be all of Xiao Yuan Tou's stock. How long did it take to accumulate all this..."

After rummaging through everything, Xu Xiaoshou didn't find what he wanted most—the golden blood.

Such a rare item probably meant that even one drop was a boon.

"What a pity. If I'd known, I wouldn't have let him swallow it."

Xu Xiaoshou resolved in his heart that, with this lesson learned, he swore he wouldn't give enemies any opportunities again.

Flipping into a ditch was the least of it; the real issue was that some one-time trump cards, once used, were gone forever!

"Next time I face an enemy, I have to kill with one strike to gain more rewards..."

Xu Xiaoshou nodded firmly, adding another entry to his "enemy strategy" in his mind.

This "enemy strategy" didn't have much content; it was all lessons from the opponents he'd encountered.

Liu Zhen: Enemies can hide their cultivation.

Wen Chong: Choose the right angle for sneak attacks.

Feng Kong: Maybe the enemy's cultivation isn't as high as you think.

And now, another one...

Yuan Tou: Kill with one strike to loot a bigger prize.

"Keep it up, Xu Xiaoshou! The road ahead is long, and life requires reflection to keep improving!" He secretly jotted it down in his mental notebook and encouraged himself.

After emptying the ring, he incinerated the miscellaneous items inside, swept the area with his spiritual sense, and confirmed no one was nearby.

"Good, Yuan Tou has successfully vanished."

Xu Xiaoshou took off, leaving this troublesome place behind.

This battle had a significant impact on him; the Yuan Tou who consumed the golden blood had finally managed to harm Xu Xiaoshou, but it also showed him just how overwhelmingly powerful his current combat abilities were.

With "Sheng Sheng Bu Xi" combined with "Fan Zhen," the attrition warfare he envisioned was fully realized—as long as they couldn't one-shot him, enemies were doomed.

Under the boost of various passive skills, in close combat, even opponents with the power of a Zong Shi would be hampered at every turn and completely overpowered by him.

The "Xiao Huo Qiu Zhi Quan" he improvised on the spot capitalized on the attribute differences between himself and his enemy, delivering an explosive attack enhancement.

Hmm, that boost was truly explosive!

One slip-up, and it meant total destruction.

As for the finishing move "Xi Feng Diao Xue"...

Xu Xiaoshou was extremely satisfied with the name; he had finally moved beyond the "Bai Yun You You" series of naming blunders and become a novice genius at naming!

This technique fully leveraged his own agility and the super cutting force from drawing his sword to execute the kill.

The power itself wasn't the point...

Xu Xiaoshou was simply fascinated by this spiritual technique that suddenly appeared behind an enemy, followed by slowly sheathing the sword to finish them off.

Thanks to "Min Jie," he had finally made this little dream come true.

The only slight drawback...

Xu Xiaoshou felt he talked a bit too much; if he said less, it might have been more poetic.

"It's already good; I can't demand too much. Yeah, that's it!"

Sensing Xu Xiaoshou's shifting mood, the Hei Luo Jian Qiao carried Zang Ku out of the ring for some air.

Xu Xiaoshou quickly grabbed it; even though this thing seemed to have acknowledged him as its master, he still wasn't entirely at ease.

Only what was in his hand felt truly secure.

Zang Ku buzzed, apparently dissatisfied with Xu Xiaoshou's favoritism, and he couldn't help but laugh.

How could you compare?

That earlier move, "Qian Ye Liu, Ba Jian Shi, Hei Luo Zhan," had scared not just Yuan Tou but Xu Xiaoshou himself!

His original goal was just to boost the power of "Ba Jian Shi," but with the Hei Luo Jian Qiao's enhancement, it had instantly multiplied by over a thousand times.

Directly transforming it from the strongest single-target attack to the strongest area attack!

"Tsk, tsk."

"Without realizing it, I've become this strong, huh, Xu Xiaoshou?"

He chuckled foolishly, flying aimlessly through the sky, his excitement bubbling over.

"Calm down, don't get ahead of yourself..."

After a while, once his mind had settled, he focused his thoughts, and a jade slip appeared in his hand.

This was the Tianxuan Gate map that Mu Zi Xi had given him. Xu Xiaoshou pressed it to his forehead, and the contents immediately surfaced.

"Where should I go?" Xu Xiaoshou scratched his neck.

Assuming each trial secret realm had a treasure like the Hei Luo Jian Qiao, then the twelve marked points on the map should correspond to twelve treasures.

Considering the time, there was only a little over a day until Tianxuan Gate reopened.

It was impossible to collect all the treasures in such a short time, but grabbing one or two should still be doable...

Xu Xiaoshou looked back at the map; there were two prominent markings.

One was "Hei Luo Cliff," which he had already visited.

The other was "Sen Luo Mi Lin," which was likely where Mu Zi Xi had undergone her trial.

"It must have been marked by Sang Lao!"

Xu Xiaoshou speculated that, in theory, these were probably the cultivation spots Sang Lao had recommended for the two of them respectively.

But for that old man to highlight them, it meant these places weren't simple—they might be the top two in the Tianxuan Gate trial secret realms.

The best secret realms probably held great treasures...

With time limited, Xu Xiaoshou naturally aimed for the best, so he made his decision.

A star on the horizon marked the eternal north.

Xu Xiaoshou identified the direction and sped away.

"Little junior sister, senior brother is on his way to see you!"