Cultivation begins with ice harvesters

"Whoosh"

Red Willow Leech is naturally extremely sensitive to the aura of cultivators. Although Tong Bingfeng stood in the upwind position and tried his best to limit the leakage of his aura, he still failed in the end.

Once the red willow leech senses the threat, it opens its mouth and sprays out a jet of water, which also contains a small amount of reddish-brown toxin.

Once the water arrow lands on a cultivator's body, even a small wound will allow the toxins to penetrate immediately.

The toxins contained in leech-like monsters are usually neurotoxic, capable of paralyzing a target in the shortest amount of time. Once hit, the consequences are unimaginable, leaving no way to retaliate.

"Azure Water Sword, go!"

Although Tong Bingfeng had never fought the Red Willow Leech head-on before, he still knew some basic information about it, so he naturally wouldn't let the water arrows get close.

After being refined, the Azure Water Sword is so easy to control that it's no exaggeration to say it's as easy as using an arm. Although it was only the first time it was used against an enemy, and the cultivator and the magic weapon still lacked some tacit understanding, it was more than enough to deal with the innate water arrow spell from the Red Willow Leech.

As the most common water-attribute monster beast talent spell in the entire Northern Frontier Ice Domain, Water Arrow has the advantage of being flexible, convenient, and saving mana, but its disadvantages are also obvious, namely, it is at the bottom of the class in terms of both offense and defense.

"Bang"

The Azure Water Sword neither dodged nor evaded, but transformed into a streak of light and headed straight for the Water Arrow Technique. When the two truly made contact, there was only one sound of collision before the Water Arrow was completely shattered, turning into countless water droplets that scattered and drifted away.

The Azure Water Sword was not sheathed. Tong Bingfeng pointed his hands forward, sparing no effort in using his magic power and divine sense to slash at the Red Willow Leech's body.

Leech-like monsters are not good at defense. As long as the Azure Water Sword can land on their bodies, it can easily cut them in two.

As the Azure Water Sword approached, a section of dark red, blood-like soft body suddenly burst out of the water. Its body was as supple as a willow, its skin covered with slippery mucus, and its sharp teeth gleamed coldly as it opened and closed its mouth. Taking advantage of the water, water vapor surged around its body, and walls of water rose up in response, blocking the Azure Water Sword's inevitable path.

The first-tier mid-grade Water Wall Technique was the second innate spell that Red Willow Leech comprehended after advancing to the first-tier mid-grade. With the two spells, one offensive and one defensive, working together, Red Willow Leech's combat power was truly revealed.

Upon seeing this, Tong Bingfeng frowned, but his cultivation aura remained completely unchanged. He flipped his palm, using pure water-attribute magic power as the core and the water vapor in the world as its adjunct, and a water blade quickly took shape. Complex array patterns were attached to it, which was the first-order mid-grade spell, Water Blade Slash, that he had initially mastered after advancing to the fourth level of Qi Refining.

With a slight wave of his arm, the cultivator unleashed a water blade slash that transformed into a streak of light, hurtling towards the red willow leech from another direction.

It is impolite not to reciprocate, and taking a beating without fighting back has never been Tong Bingfeng's style, let alone the fact that the goal of this trip is to hunt down demonic beasts and exchange them for various spiritual resources to aid in cultivation.

The red willow leech in front of him contained at least ten drops of high-quality first-grade mid-level spiritual water, making it the best choice at this stage, and he naturally wouldn't let it go.

"hiss"

As the water blade slashed, the Red Willow Leech let out a rare hiss, and at the same time, a violent aura emanated from the entire beast's body.

The red willow leech suddenly lashed out, whipping towards Tong Bing's face like a long whip, splashing mud and water. With the strength of the monster's body, it was impossible to effectively resist such a blow.

Faced with the Red Willow Leech's attack, a classic case of attacking where the enemy must defend their own territory, Tong Bingfeng remained calm and advanced instead of retreating. He understood that this was a matter for his own people; at the fourth level of Qi Refining, his spiritual energy was limited, and he dared not prolong the battle. He prepared to seize this opportunity to end the fight in one fell swoop. With a flick of his wrist, he channeled all his magical power and divine sense into the Azure Water Sword from afar, then decisively spun it back. The sword shimmered brightly, drawing water vapor from the pool to the blade, transforming it into a condensed stream of water light.

"Azure Water Sword, slash!"

He let out a low shout, and the Azure Water Sword pierced straight into the vital part of the Red Willow Leech's soft body with lightning speed. This sword, inherently imbued with water and sharp energy, possessed a certain restraining effect against demonic beasts like the Red Willow Leech. With a single strike, it pierced through the leech's mucus-covered surface and deeply penetrated the core of its demonic body. The Red Willow Leech let out a shrill scream, its body twisting violently, the water vapor around it dissipating, and its dark red blood mixing with the pool water. Moments later, it slumped limply in the swamp, its life force extinguished.

Tong Bingfeng dared not delay for a moment, and he didn't care about the fatigue and mess brought about by the fierce battle. He immediately took out a fist-sized transparent jade bottle from his pocket and rushed towards the broken lower half of the Red Willow Leech's body.

This is the location where the spiritual water accumulated over time after the Red Willow Leech became a demon beast. Once the Red Willow Leech dies, it means that the spiritual water loses its best place for preservation and begins to deteriorate rapidly.

If these spiritual waters are not properly preserved within the time it takes to brew a cup of tea, they will completely lose their value, their spiritual energy dissipating and rendering them utterly worthless.

Given Tong Bingfeng's personality, he naturally couldn't stand such a waste of resources. This jade bottle was originally intended to store the essence of demonic beasts' hearts, so using it here was perfectly timed and not a single bit wasted.

"Tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock"

Soon, drops of spiritual water, imbued with a special aura, fell into a special jade bottle under the cultivator's careful manipulation.

"A full eleven drops of mid-grade first-level spiritual water should be just as effective as five mid-grade first-level spiritual pills. Unfortunately, apart from the spiritual water, the red willow leech has no other value."

With a satisfied smile, Tong Bingfeng put the jade bottle into his pocket, while glancing at the worthless remains of the red willow leech, revealing a slight pity.

In fact, as long as it has even the slightest value, it can be sold to Liu's General Store as a mid-grade first-tier monster corpse, serving as the quest item for the first month of renting the Azure Water Sword.

"I wonder if there are a second, third, or even fourth red willow leeches breeding in this area. If they do, it would truly be a treasure trove."

As Tong Bingfeng felt the value emanating from the spiritual water stored in the jade bottle in his arms and its assistance to his future path, his heart burned with unprecedented fervor.

Perhaps the hiding of the Red Willow Leech is something that other cultivators would need to spend a lot of time searching for, and the success rate would be extremely low, with most of the time they returning empty-handed.

However, for him, who possesses large incisors that can lock onto the aura of demonic beasts, as long as there are still Red Willow Leeches in the Red Willow District, he is confident enough to catch them one by one and turn them into much-needed resources on his path of cultivation.

Of course, after a fierce battle, the already insufficient mana in his dantian was almost depleted, and it was already late, so it was not suitable to continue catching red willow leeches. Although Tong Bingfeng was greedy, he could also distinguish between priorities, so he decisively turned around and left.