Taoist cultivation begins with being a miner

"Die, you bastard!" Ji Ba Mao never dreamed that this would happen.

They thought the other party was just a Qi Refining Level 2 cultivator, and that killing him would be easy with so many of them. But who carries around a large number of talismans when mining?

After the fire went out, his underlings lay scattered on the ground, causing him heavy losses right from the start.

"Okay." Seeing Ji Ba Mao step forward, Lu Yan directly threw him a binding talisman, and several vines immediately wrapped around him.

Lu Yan seized the opportunity to swing his iron pickaxe and kill the remaining two.

At this point, only Lu Yan and Ji Ba Mao remained at the scene.

Facing Ji Ba Mao, who was wielding a low-grade magic weapon, the binding talisman only slightly hindered him before being shattered by a flurry of blades.

"Die, you brat!" Ji Ba Mao was furious as he watched his underlings being slaughtered.

Lu Yan dared not be careless and fought back with a fine iron pickaxe.

Opportunities for real combat are rare, so Lu Yan naturally wouldn't let them slip by. He used his movement techniques to dodge while simultaneously counterattacking with the Shadow Blade Technique.

The fine iron pickaxe was wielded by Lu Yan like a large sword.

However, a low-grade magic weapon is still a low-grade magic weapon. It only took a few moves to cut the fine iron pickaxe in Lu Yan's hand, leaving him with only the handle. With no other choice, Lu Yan could only use his last binding talisman to entangle Ji Ba Mao and then retreat repeatedly.

"I didn't expect you to be so good at hiding your abilities at such a young age. You're clearly at the third level of Qi Refining, but you're pretending to be at the second level." Lu Yan's cultivation level was also fully exposed during the all-out fight.

"Again." Throwing away the pickaxe handle, Lu Yan directly summoned the Pickaxe of the Mining God. With the blessing of the Vajra Talisman, it could barely be used for combat.

"Oh, not bad, you even have a storage bag. Today's harvest will be quite substantial."

"But this is the first time I've ever seen someone use a pickaxe as a weapon in all my years of life. You can go in peace." After saying that, Ji Ba Mao charged forward with his knife.

From the fight just now, he could see that Lu Yan was simply strong and had good stamina, but his combat experience and weapon skills were far inferior to his own.

He had to be careful, considering that the other party had a lot of talismans.

"Clang~"

This time, the impact did not break the pickaxe as Ji Ba Mao had imagined; instead, it produced a dull thud.

The immense force smashed the large knife in his hand away.

Seeing a gash in his broadsword while his opponent's pickaxe remained undamaged, Ji Ba Mao sensed something was wrong.

But Lu Yan wouldn't let such a good opportunity pass by, wielding the Mining God's Pickaxe and continuously attacking, giving him no chance to catch his breath.

"Clang clang clang~"

The sounds of impact continued incessantly. Lu Yan's immense strength, combined with the astonishing weight of the Mine God's Pickaxe, completely stunned Ji Ba Mao.

In no time, the broadsword was covered in nicks, while Lu Yan's pickaxe didn't even have a scratch.

Ji Ba Mao was shocked. His broadsword was a low-grade magic weapon that cost him twenty spirit stones, while the other party only had an ordinary iron pickaxe. How come it wasn't as hard as his?

If this continued, his greatsword would surely collapse, so he quickly retreated, channeled a large amount of spiritual power into the sword, and slashed hard, sending a transparent blade of energy flying towards Lu Yan.

Seeing this, Lu Yan dodged, and the blade energy struck the tree behind him, snapping the thick tree in half and causing it to crash to the ground.

Seeing that Ji Ba Mao was about to continue swinging his broadsword and unleashing sword energy, Lu Yan quickly used a hallucinogenic talisman to distort his vision.

Sure enough, all of Ji Ba Mao's subsequent sword strikes missed their mark, failing to even touch Lu Yan.

At this moment, Lu Yan had already arrived in front of Ji Ba Mao, carrying the Mining God's Pickaxe.

He swung the pickaxe down hard on his head. He had done this move countless times over the past few months. It was a standard mining move, somewhat similar to the "One Pickaxe to Decide the Fate" move in the Eighteen Styles of Pickaxe.

"Clang~"

Ji Ba Mao's broadsword only blocked for a moment before being broken by Lu Yan.

The Mine God's pickaxe continued its momentum, the tip entering from the top and exiting from the throat, tearing off half of Ji Ba Mao's head.

Red and white stains were everywhere, even on Lu Yan's body, which was disgusting.

Seeing that everyone was dead, Lu Yan put the Mine God's Pickaxe into the system.

Exhausted, I sat on the ground and panted for a long time before I could catch my breath.

Mining with the God of Mining's Pickaxe is fine, but in combat, it requires high-frequency swings and varied moves, which is very strenuous even with the Vajra Talisman's blessing; it's too heavy.

You'll need to practice more before you can use this thing freely.

Looking at the corpses scattered all over the ground, even though they were all in a terrible state, Lu Yan remained unfazed, as he was already used to it.

After Lu Yan got up, he searched them and found that they had obtained more than forty spirit stones.

As for their weapons, Lu Yan didn't even look at them. Although Ji Ba Mao's weapon was a low-grade magic weapon, it was already broken.

Seeing that there was nothing else, Lu Yan originally wanted to burn them down, but that would be too much of a waste of time, since it was already dark and the wilderness was full of monsters.

"Fellow Daoists, you were careless. Remember to be a good person in your next life. Farewell." Lu Yan waved goodbye to them and then quickly left.

On the way back, Lu Yan carefully pondered the battle. Although his strength and stamina overwhelmed his opponent, his experience and skills were extremely lacking.

If it weren't for the abundance of talismans, one would have to use props to win.

Moreover, these are just a group of low-level thugs and hooligans, nothing special. The cultivators outside the city are much more powerful than them.

They have the same talismans as us, the same magical artifacts we don't have, and they might even have formations, so dealing with them will definitely be more difficult.

Therefore, I must improve my combat experience during this period.

After resting for a night, Lu Yan did not go to work at the mine the next day. Instead, he went to Zhongcheng City to buy talismans for self-defense.

At the same place where he had previously purchased talismans, Lu Yan bought five fireball talismans, five ice cone talismans, five gust talismans, and five binding talismans.

Lu Yan also bought some Vajra Talismans, Rock Armor Talismans, and Hallucinogenic Talismans.

"Fellow Daoist, are you preparing to go out hunting demonic beasts?" The stall owner asked curiously upon seeing Lu Yan buying talismans in large quantities.

"That's right, my strength has just broken through to the third level of Qi Refining, and I'm preparing to go out and gain some experience." Lu Yan was in a good mood and answered truthfully.

"Does that fellow Daoist have a team?" the stall owner asked again.

"There are no plans for that yet," Lu Yan shook his head.

"Fellow Daoist, take my advice: hunting demonic beasts alone is too dangerous. You must be careful not only of the demonic beasts, but also of other cultivators."

"Oh, from what you've said, it seems you have connections." Hearing this, Lu Yan was quite tempted. Having a team to protect him would indeed save him a lot of trouble.

"I wouldn't presume to claim connections, I just have a good understanding of the situation."

Please explain in detail.

"There are many gangs and teams in Wuyou City that specialize in hunting monsters, and some of them are specifically for teaching newcomers."

"As long as you pay some spirit stones, they will personally teach you how to hunt."