Hide in the world of gods and demons

Chapter 129 Pioneering the Land (Part 3)
In late autumn, the temperature has already turned quite cold.

A gust of cold wind blew by, and he shivered slightly, goosebumps rising on his skin.

After the marrow refinement, Chen Li felt completely refreshed; his skin felt like that of a newborn baby, delicate and sensitive, as if it had just emerged from a warm womb.

This is not a weakening.

Instead, his body became more sensitive, able to receive more and more subtle information. Even the slightest chill was keenly felt by his body, causing him to react spontaneously.

He felt pleased and checked the game panel.

"Basic Swordsmanship Master: 0/3200"

In addition, their lifespan increased by two years, reaching 142 years.

"I wonder when I'll reach the Grandmaster level!" he thought to himself.

He glanced at it, then closed the game panel, sheathed his sword, and began to return.

Walking felt slightly awkward after the marrow refinement. Having gotten used to the 'high latency' of the body, it was difficult to adapt to the 'low latency' in a short period of time.

When walking, my feet are always a bit uncoordinated. Often, before my front foot has even firmly planted on the ground, my back foot starts to eagerly move forward. Even the natural swinging of my arms when I walk becomes unnatural.

If it weren't for a high degree of physical control, an ordinary person would probably have stumbled and fallen countless times.

Chen Li walked slowly, getting used to his unfamiliar body while savoring the wonderful sensations that came with the marrow refinement.

After the fire, the forest was charred black. Some charred and remaining wooden stumps were still emitting thick blue smoke, sparks flickering and crackling in the darkness, and could reignite at any moment.

What he saw with his eyes, what he heard with his ears, what he smelled with his nose, what he felt with his skin... even the most ordinary scenery became vivid in his eyes at this moment.

Everything was incredibly new and wonderful.

Until they returned to their temporary hut.

……

night.

afterwards!

afterwards!

afterwards!

Chen Li rolled over and lay on the bed, staring blankly at the roof beam above his head.

"What's wrong? It's nothing!" Zhou Hong propped herself up on her arm and nudged Chen Li with a laugh, "Maybe you're just too tired, hehe!"

This is not just tiring.

"It'll be fine in a while, then you'll be sorry," Chen Li said sullenly.

Zhou Hong coaxed her like a child, "I know you're amazing."

"Sigh!" Chen Li thought to himself, feeling annoyed. "Go to sleep, go to sleep. I have to get up early tomorrow."

I never expected that this marrow refining would have such a drawback.

My body is too sensitive.

I don't know when I'll be able to adapt.

When Chen thought of this, he sighed softly again.

……

In the days that followed, as Chen Li refined the essence daily, his body became increasingly sensitive.

He even had an uncanny sensitivity to the objects around him. There were no images, no light, but he seemed to have a strong intuition that allowed him to know what was around him, and to clearly discern its general shape and even its texture.

For example, he can sense how many people are within a few meters and clearly know whether they are male or female. He can feel a small insect wriggling about a foot deep in the ground beneath his feet.

Ultimately, it was proven that this 'super intuition' was never wrong.

Chen Li suspected that this was the spiritual consciousness of someone who had reached the Foundation Establishment stage.

In addition to being a physical training technique, basic swordsmanship also has the effect of tempering consciousness. From tempering the flesh and organs with consciousness to tempering the marrow now, it has almost completely tempered one's body except for the brain.

His soul consciousness had long been trained to be incredibly powerful, far surpassing that of ordinary rogue cultivators at the ninth level of Qi Refining.

It took Chen Li a full half month to get used to and adapt to this body again.

……

"Is this a tree spirit?" Zhou Hong exclaimed in surprise.

"Wow, it's huge!" Zhang Shuniang exclaimed.

A towering tree in the distance was shaking violently, as if trying to escape before the flames reached it.

Chen Li estimated that this giant tree was over twenty meters thick, its trunk as black as iron, covered with cracks, exuding an ancient and desolate aura, like a giant pillar supporting the sky, seemingly connecting heaven and earth, its huge canopy covering the space for miles around.

At this moment, tree roots twisted like angry dragons were slowly rising from the ground, causing the entire earth to churn. Even though the crowd was more than ten miles away from the giant tree, they still felt the earth shaking.

This was the first time Chen Li had ever seen a plant become a demon.

It was incredibly awe-inspiring, yet also felt somewhat weak.

The shock comes from the fact that both its size and strength are unbelievable. Even the slightest movement causes the earth to tremble. Weakness is the obvious and fatal weakness of this tree spirit. It is not only afraid of fire, but also moves very slowly.

Judging from this situation, they had no chance of escaping being burned to death.

“There are so many bugs on it,” Chen Li said.

As the fire line drew closer, countless tiny dots flew out from the enormous tree demon, densely packed and innumerable, looking as if a gray cloud had risen into the air.

Immediately afterwards, these small dots spread across the fire line and surged towards this side.

The buzzing sound gradually rose, initially barely audible, but soon became so loud it pounded in our ears, and the whole world seemed to be filled with only one sound.

The female cultivator surnamed Bai sensed something was wrong and shouted, "Be careful! These are stinging gray bees! Be on guard!"

The crowd then realized what was happening and panicked, hurriedly setting up a defensive barrier.

Chen Li and the others also quickly took pictures of themselves with golden amulets.

Like clouds of gray bees, they drew ever closer, gradually filling the sky and obscuring half the heavens, even dimming the light.

"Hiss! Too much!" Chen Li gasped.

The female cultivator surnamed Bai swiftly cast a Flame Talisman, which instantly transformed into a blazing inferno in mid-air, clearing a small area and killing countless Stinging Wasps. However, the empty space was quickly filled again: "Use an area-of-effect spell!"

only……

This female cultivator surnamed Bai was clearly used to cultivating in seclusion within the sect and lacked understanding of independent cultivators, thus overestimating them.

For most independent cultivators, a magic weapon for self-defense and a few talismans for self-defense are already standard equipment. They don't have many different kinds of attack methods. Apart from a few people whose magic weapons are special and have their own area damage, the rest can only use their magic weapons to make random moves.

"Bang bang bang bang..."

Finally, one poisonous thorn after another rained down, striking the golden protective shield, only to be deflected by it.

These stinging gray wasps were no bigger than a thumb, and the force of their stings was not great; they could easily defend against even an ordinary protective shield, let alone the golden light shield. But there were simply too many of them, densely packed together.

“You two stand behind me,” Chen Li said to Zhou Hong and Zhang Shuniang.

"Oh! Uncle, be careful," Zhang Shuniang said, forcing a smile.

Chen Li nodded, and at this moment, he could no longer hold back and began to cast the Frost Technique.

Ice spell, Tier 1, Level 7. Although I rarely practice Ice spell, there is still a mastery level.

After a while.

He pointed.

A pale, icy ray shot out from the fingertip in an instant. After hitting a gray bee, it exploded into a cloud of extremely cold light mist that spread in all directions. Countless gray bees were instantly frozen and fell down.

Chen Li cast spells continuously, and soon cleared a large area.

Seeing this, many clever rogue cultivators nearby gathered around Chen Li.

But the gray bees kept coming one after another, and for a moment it seemed endless.

Even Chen Li became slightly anxious.

He took out a bottle of Qi-Nourishing Pills, swallowed a few, and began to recover his spiritual power.

"what!"

Not long after, a series of screams rang out.

One after another, the protective shields of the rogue cultivators were broken. The next moment, their bodies were riddled with countless poisonous thorns. After struggling for a few moments, they foamed at the mouth and collapsed to the ground, clearly already dead.

"Don't panic!" The female cultivator surnamed Bai shouted in a deep voice, stopping the fighting spirit of those with weak wills from collapsing. Seeing that the casualties were increasing, she couldn't care less about anything else at this time: "Everyone cover your ears."

As soon as she finished speaking, she threw out a bell-shaped magical artifact. The artifact swelled in the wind and transformed into a large bell, standing in mid-air.

"when!"

……

"when!"

……

"when!"

……

In mid-air, concentric ripples spread out, instantly pulverizing all the gray bees in their path, clearing away a large area.

At the same time, the crowd was shaken to their knees by the sound waves, and some were even knocked unconscious. Only a few people, such as Chen Li, were able to stand up, thanks to the golden light amulet which provided good defense against the sound waves.

"What level of magic weapon is this? Its power is truly astounding," Chen Li thought to himself in surprise.

The swarm of bees then lost its previous imposing, dark atmosphere and became much sparser. After a while, it finally retreated completely.

"Are you alright?" Chen Li asked Zhou Hong.

"I feel a little dizzy and nauseous, but it will get better after a while."

"Where is Shuniang!" Chen Li looked at Zhang Shuniang. She was even weaker, and her face was as pale as paper, without any color in her skin. She was obviously badly injured by the sound wave just now.

"I..." Zhang Shuniang said weakly, before she could finish speaking, she started gagging repeatedly.

Zhang Yan quickly stepped forward to support his daughter, took out the water bottle, and said with concern, "Have some water!"

"Father, I...I'm alright!"

Seeing that the others were mostly unharmed, Chen Li felt relieved and glanced around.

Everywhere you look, there are corpses. A quick count reveals more than ten people. Including those who have been injured or killed in the past two months, the death rate from this forced labor has exceeded 10%.

"Alas, human life is as worthless as grass!" Chen Li sighed inwardly.

The members of the True Sect were indifferent to the deaths of rogue cultivators, and even the rogue cultivators themselves were indifferent. They were only glad that it was someone else who died, not themselves, and they had long been accustomed to the deaths around them.

Next, the members of the Zhenhuan Sect searched the bodies for their belongings and then hastily buried them, leaving behind simple graves.

Although the True Sect members would return these relics to the deceased's family, most independent cultivators were alone and had no family to worry about.

The tree spirit in the distance struggled for hours in the raging fire before finally falling silent.

The female cultivator surnamed Bai stepped forward, observed for a while, then summoned a small green sword, its sharp energy surging forth, and soon severed the large tree.

As soon as the tree fell, she raised her palm, gathered her magic power, and began to slap and scratch at the tree stump. The sound was deafening, and wood chips exploded. She even used magical artifacts during the process, completely disregarding her dignity. She was busy for quite a while.

Finally, they pulled a green crystal from the tree stump, which was faintly glowing.

Looking at the object in his hand, a smile appeared on his usually indifferent face.

"It must be something good!" Zhang Yan whispered.

"I know without you saying it!" Chen Li said speechlessly.

"This is a tree heart, similar to a demon core. This is a second-tier tree demon," Zhou Hong said from the side. As a former adventurer, she knew a lot about this. "Because tree hearts are rare and precious, they are said to be several times more expensive than demon cores!"

"Hiss!" Zhang Yan gasped. "That must be worth over a hundred mid-grade spirit stones. Alas, it's just a pity for us rogue cultivators. We not only have to contribute our labor and money, but we also have to risk our lives!"

In the past two months, apart from a few medicinal herbs he picked casually and a few pieces of smoked animal hides, he gained nothing else, but his losses were much greater. He used up five amulets, one golden amulet, and his magical artifacts were also slightly worn.

This trip was completely unprofitable.

"Just say less!" Chen Li said speechlessly.

"What's so hard to say? She lives far away!" Zhang Yan, having long forgotten the pain of her past wounds, said dismissively in a low voice, "If we have to force her to do this every year, who can stand it?"

"That can't be!" Chen thought to himself.

Given this casualty ratio.

Even if you were to treat rogue cultivators as consumables, you wouldn't consume them like this.

"You'll see, there will definitely be more next year or the year after. Zhen Huanzong just moved here, there's a lot going on," Zhang Yan said, deeply worried.

“I heard that the True Sect has established rules regarding corvée labor!” A rogue cultivator nearby chimed in familiarly, “You only need to perform corvée labor for half a month each year. If you don’t have any in a year, it will be carried over to the next year. Sometimes you only have to perform corvée labor once every few years.”

"Then why do we serve for three months at a time?" Zhang Yan asked the newcomer.

"Who told us we were once people of the Eternal Life Domain?"

After introducing himself, this rogue cultivator, whose surname was Zhao and given name was Chang'er, had come over to make friends with Chen Li after seeing how powerful he had been.

He was short, hunchbacked, with downcast eyes, and wore a blue robe. When he spoke, he always had a habitually fawning smile on his face, a smile that suggested he had been through the harsh realities of society.

In fact, his cultivation level is not weak.

Upon inquiry, it was learned that he was already in the late stage of Qi Refining, but the specific level was not revealed.

Zhao Chang'er looked at Zhang Yan and found him increasingly familiar: "Have we met somewhere before? You look kind of familiar."

Zhang Yan blushed and stammered, "Well... I've always sold talismans at a market stall, perhaps you've seen me there."

"Wait a minute!" Zhao Chang'er stared at Zhang Yan for a while, then suddenly slapped his thigh, clicking his tongue in disapproval. "No wonder you look so familiar...aren't you that..."

Seeing that Zhang Yan was losing face, Chen Li quickly changed the subject, saying, "Alright, it's enough that you know, fellow Daoist, let's not mention it again."

"I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry! Fellow Daoist Zhang, please don't take offense. Look at my loose tongue, please don't take it to heart," Zhao Chang'er quickly said with a smile.

"This person is really annoying," Zhang Yan thought dejectedly, forcing a smile. "It's no big deal, it's nothing. I wouldn't take such a small thing to heart. Actually, it's not a big deal to say it out loud, haha!"

"That's good, that's good. Fellow Daoist was really bold back then, daring to criticize a Foundation Establishment cultivator. To be honest, I was sweating bullets for you..." Zhao Chang'er said excitedly, his words flying.

Zhang Yan could only manage an awkward smile.

"This guy's a bit of a fool," Chen Li thought to himself.

(End of this chapter)