Cultivation: Beginning with the Heart Reflecting Heaven and Earth

"That seems possible!"

Mu Dong shook his head helplessly, "I was thinking that I could easily gain merits here now that I've just gotten used to it. But if there really are evil cultivators manipulating things behind the scenes, I won't be able to come here anymore!"

"Brother Lu makes a lot of sense! Although there are quite a few Iron Corpses, there should also be many people from the Holy Land coming. With more people, more Iron Corpses will be killed, and the evil cultivators won't be able to withstand the losses. Naturally, they will come up with some ways to stop us from attacking!"

As Mu Xue spoke, a smile appeared on her face. "But we can always come back sooner or later! We just need to find the right opportunity!"

Lu Qian didn't speak, but thought of other things. They had hardly seen anyone else in the Chaotic Burial Mountains recently, which was not surprising.

There were only a few dozen people from the Holy Land, scattered across various areas, so the probability of encountering them was already very low. Moreover, the Chaotic Burial Mountains were shrouded in gray-white mist, resulting in very low visibility. Even if there were people from the Holy Land here, it would be difficult for them to spot each other.

What's most noteworthy is the speed at which they acquire battle merits. Although the merits may not seem like much when divided equally, they are not insignificant when acquired by one person.

If someone forms a team and one person receives the lion's share of the battle merits, they might be able to obtain the Spirit Stone very quickly.

It would be quite difficult to earn all five thousand battle merits on one's own.

No matter how careful a person is when dealing with evil spirits in the later stages of Qi cultivation, if they encounter even the slightest accident and their true Qi is depleted too much, they can easily find themselves in perilous situations, possibly even getting injured or dying.

However, if you form a team, the danger will be much less, and you will be able to accumulate battle merits much faster. Once you have accumulated all the battle merits, you can quickly exchange them for Spirit Stones.

While it's not impossible, achieving it would be quite difficult.

The disciples of the Holy Land are all proud and arrogant; how could they be willing to work for others or be their benefactors?

Moreover, even those who take the lion's share of the battle merits still need to buy some pills for cultivation, to replenish their true energy, and to deal with unexpected situations.

Even though the speed of gaining battle merits is not slow, the speed of consuming battle merits is also not low. It will still take a considerable amount of time to accumulate five thousand battle merits.

However, since such a possibility as Lu Qian thought exists, there will definitely be people who want to do it. That's human nature, and it's hard to avoid.

For example, if someone could provide Lu Qian with a certain resource he needs, even if it meant sacrificing some battle merits, it wouldn't matter; he could make up for it elsewhere, and everyone would be happy.

As the group continued walking out, they suddenly heard a faint, muffled sound, accompanied by the roar of a refining corpse. Almost immediately, they thought of Shen Chi, whom they had met before.

Mu Dong's eyes flickered, and he stopped, seemingly hesitating whether to go over and take a look.

Mu Xue frowned her delicate brows and transmitted her voice, saying, "Don't meddle! We don't even know him, and interfering rashly might not do us any good! Besides, his identity is sensitive; getting involved with him would be a complete loss!"

Although it sounds harsh, it's absolutely true. There's no personal relationship between them, and Shen Chi is almost universally hated in the Holy Land. Everyone avoids him. What good would it do to get involved with him?

Lu Qian didn't speak, and deep down he didn't want to take any risks. Wouldn't it be better to just leave like this? Why did he have to meddle in other people's business?

Lu Qian was very displeased with Shen Chi's previous spying and final interrogation, and had no good feelings towards him at all.

But after hesitating for a while, Mu Dong finally made up his mind, "Let's go and see first! We'll do our best to help if we can! If it really doesn't work, then we'll leave!"

He ultimately prioritized the sacred site and actually chose to take the risk!

Lu Qian and Mu Xue exchanged a helpless glance. They said they would go and take a look first, but once they got close to the battlefield, would the other side let them leave so easily? Wouldn't they still have to take action?

Even knowing the risks involved, neither of them objected once Mu Dong had made his decision.

After all, Mu Dong is Mu Xue's brother, and he helped Lu Qian gain military merits. How could Mu Xue and Lu Qian oppose his decision?

We can only go and see how things go first, and if it doesn't work out, we'll make other plans!

They quickly approached the source of the sound. From a distance, Lu Qian saw Shen Chi bent over, one hand pressed against his chest, and the other hand hanging limply at his side, seemingly broken.

Not far away, a group of mutated corpses were attacking a mutated corpse with crimson skin. The crimson mutated corpse had a much stronger aura than ordinary mutated corpses, its body radiating a metallic luster. It possessed immense strength and would occasionally let out a roar, tearing any mutated corpses that approached it to pieces.

Even an Iron Corpse, if caught by a Crimson Refined Corpse, cannot last more than a few rounds before being easily cut in two.

Lu Qian could tell that although the zombies were attacking the Crimson Corpse, Shen Chi was actually using these zombies to hold back the Crimson Corpse, and he had been locked onto by the Crimson Corpse and dared not run away.

If Shen Chi runs away, he will lose control of the corpse-refining creatures, while the crimson corpse-refining creatures can catch up with him without any scruples. At that time, he won't even have a helper to hold off the crimson corpse-refining creatures.

"It's a bronze corpse, almost at the Foundation Establishment stage!"

Mu Dong glanced at the scene quickly and immediately understood the situation. "Logically speaking, it's unlikely that a bronze corpse would appear here. Could it be that Shen Chi lured the bronze corpse here? Is he trying to subdue it?"

Shen Chi looked at the group with a slightly puzzled expression, seemingly confused as to why Lu Qian and the others were here.

Hey!

The bronze corpse let out a deep, penetrating roar. It seemed to have caught the scent of living people and became excited. It instantly shoved aside the several refined corpses surrounding it and chased after Lu Qian and the others at an extremely fast speed!

Although it looked somewhat clumsy, when the bronze corpse sprinted at full speed, it was almost like a shooting star falling from the sky. In the blink of an eye, it had arrived at a distance of only a dozen meters from the group.

Even from this brief encounter, it was clear that the bronze corpse possessed more intelligence than the iron corpse and was not as mindless as it seemed; at least it had some instincts.

Mu Xue subconsciously used the Turbid Wave Corrosion Spell, and a chilling aura blew onto the bronze corpse. However, it only covered the bronze corpse with a layer of frost, making its limbs stiffen slightly and slowing it down a little. It did not have much effect.

All that training had paid off. Taking advantage of the bronze corpse's momentary hesitation, Mu Dong unleashed the Crimson Flame Melting Technique. Thick, dark red flames enveloped the bronze corpse, emitting a violent explosion. At that moment, he shouted, "Run!"

Lu Qian and Mu Xue left immediately without hesitation, but Shen Chi hesitated for a moment, seemingly reluctant to part with the corpses he controlled. In the end, he chose to follow the others.

The Turbid Wave Corrosion Curse and the Crimson Flame Melting Technique created an ice and fire domain. The cold mist and raging fire intertwined. Even though the bronze corpse was not seriously injured, it still became covered in soot and was torn apart by the two different forces, which still delayed it for a breath.

By the time it finally broke free, there was no one in sight. It could only roar wildly, scaring the surrounding zombies into fleeing in panic.

The group kept running until they were almost out of the area of ​​the Burial Mountain Range, when the gray-white mist began to thin. They then stopped and breathed a long sigh of relief.

Mu Dong let out a long sigh, saying with relief at surviving such a close call, "Luckily, it was a corpse refiner, something that's neither quick-witted nor physically agile. If it had been a demonic beast or evil cultivator approaching the Foundation Establishment level, we probably wouldn't have been able to escape!"

The reason is simple: the refined corpse has little intelligence. Even if the bronze corpse seems a little smarter, it still won't avoid the cultivator's attacks without anyone controlling it. After all, it has thick skin and flesh, and ordinary spells can't hurt it.

If it were a demon beast or an evil cultivator, at least they wouldn't be a target, making it difficult to restrain them, and it would be very difficult for them to escape.

However, they were able to restrain the bronze corpse thanks to their teamwork.

If it weren't for killing ordinary iron corpses and developing this tacit understanding, they might not have been able to act in time to restrain the bronze corpse.

Although the bronze corpses seem to have a simple attack method, they are not slow at all; in fact, they are much faster than the others. If they were to keep chasing someone, it would probably be difficult for them to escape.

The worst part is that, with their methods, it's very difficult to harm the bronze corpse.

This is equivalent to being unable to kill it by fighting it, and unable to outrun it by running away; the bronze corpse is not something they can deal with now.

Before long, Shen Chi caught up with him and said calmly, "I will remember your kindness today! I will repay it in the future!"

The moment he finished speaking, he vanished in a flash, like a ghost.

Mu Dong watched his retreating figure and calmly said, "His escape speed is quite fast; even without us, he should have been able to escape successfully!"

"It's not as good as you say! Without us, that bronze corpse will keep chasing him, and if he encounters any other danger, he might just die!"

Mu Xue immediately saw through Mu Dong's polite words, frowning and looking somewhat dissatisfied. "He didn't even have time to say two words before leaving immediately. I guess he still doesn't trust us! We risked our lives to take action, and this is the result? Was it worth it?"

Although Shen Chi said he would repay today's kindness in the future, who could believe such an unrealistic promise?

However, since the group didn't have high expectations for Shen Chi to begin with, they weren't too disappointed.

As for Mu Dong, that's just who he is, so there's not much to say about him.

"The Burial Mountain Range was supposed to be safe enough, but I didn't expect we couldn't stay there any longer!"

On the way back, Mu Dong still looked somewhat regretful.

With a little care, the refined corpses in the Chaotic Burial Mountains are like easy targets, and dealing with them shouldn't be too difficult.

In contrast, Mu Xue seemed unconcerned, saying calmly, "What you can think of, others can think of too. Right now, it's just because we've only just arrived, and the evil cultivators in the Chaotic Burial Mountains haven't reacted yet, or haven't made any preparations. Who knows what will happen in the future?"

Mu Dong smiled and nodded, "That's true! Even without evil cultivators, the number of refined corpses inside is limited; it's just that no one has been specifically cleaning them up before. As the number of people like us gradually increases, the number of refined corpses inside won't be infinite."

Lu Qian remained silent, still thinking about Shen Chi. Shen Chi's cultivation was not much stronger than Mu Dong's, yet he could easily control several iron corpses, and those were not weak ones at that.

Each Iron Corpse requires the combined efforts of the three of them to deal with easily; if there are three Iron Corpses, they can only flee in panic.