Mortal: Reborn in Yellow Maple Valley, Awakening the Eight-Nine Arcane Arts

It turned out that the vendor regretted selling the stone cauldron, so he immediately instructed his accomplice, the old man, to test him.

Their scheme was extremely insidious: the old man first offered two hundred spirit stones as a pretense to buy back the item.

If Chu Zifei agrees on the spot, he will immediately back out and not buy it; if Chu Zifei hesitates, he will raise the price layer by layer to continue testing; once he confirms that the other party is determined not to sell, then his guess will be confirmed, and Chu Zifei must know the hidden secret of the stone cauldron.

The old man had already secretly sprinkled tracking powder on Chu Zifei the moment he patted Chu Zifei's shoulder, just to lock onto Chu Zifei's whereabouts and make it easier to kill him and steal his treasure later.

However, neither of them expected that Chu Zifei's five senses had already far surpassed those of ordinary cultivators due to the day and night tempering of his physical body by the Eight-Nine Arcane Technique.

Therefore, the tracking powder, which is invisible to the naked eye, colorless and odorless, and can only be detected by secret techniques, is no problem for Chu Zifei. He can smell even the faintest scent immediately, so when the old man patted his shoulder, he sensed something was wrong.

The stall owner in the distance saw that Chu Zifei was not moving and thought that he was just bluffing. He breathed a sigh of relief. If the other party had seen through his movements with his own methods, then he would have to weigh the pros and cons and judge whether the other party was hiding his true strength or whether he was going to proceed according to plan.

The stall owner, brandishing a giant axe, pointed it at Chu Zifei: "Hand over the stone cauldron you're carrying and the things you bought at Wanbaolou, and I'll spare your life!"

After testing Chu Zifei, the old man did not actually leave. Instead, he followed Chu Zifei all the way until he came out of Wanbaolou and left the market. Only then did he turn back to meet up with the stall owner.

After all, his own cultivation level was only comparable to Chu Zifei's, both at the tenth level of Qi Refining, while the stall owner was at the eleventh level. The two of them working together were enough to control the situation.

Despite the scene, Chu Zifei remained calm. His gaze first swept over the stall owner with the axe, and finally landed on the old man beside him. He said sarcastically, "You know, when you get old, you have to accept it."

As soon as he finished speaking, Chu Zifei raised his hand and quickly made a hand seal in the air. In an instant, several fireballs appeared out of thin air and blasted towards the stall owner and the old man.

Seeing this, the stall owner's expression hardened, and he raised his axe and slammed it into the ground: "Earth Wall Technique!" A thick, low earthen wall rose from the ground, instantly blocking all the fireball's bombardment.

Taking advantage of the stall owner's pause in casting a spell, Chu Zifei exerted force with his feet, his body shooting out, ready for close combat.

Just then, the old man who had been holding back suddenly launched his attack, throwing forward a talisman he had prepared in his sleeve while chanting incantations to activate it: "Bewitching Talisman, explode!"

The talisman exploded suddenly as the incantation was recited, transforming into a thick white mist that enveloped Chu Zifei.

Chu Zifei felt all his strength drain away instantly, and his body swayed unsteadily, unable to gather his strength for a moment.

The stall owner's eyes flashed with murderous intent. Taking advantage of the opportunity, he rushed over and closed the distance in an instant. Then, he raised his hand and swung his giant axe toward Chu Zifei's neck.

"clang!"

  

With a crisp sound, the expected separation of head and body did not occur. It was as if the axe had struck black iron, and the violent recoil caused the stall owner's arm to go numb and bend backward.

Chu Zifei had already secretly activated the Eight-Nine Arcane Technique when he left the market. Although the opponent's giant axe could be considered a divine weapon among mortals, it was not a magic weapon, so it naturally could not break through his physical body.

Chu Zifei snapped out of his daze after the powerful strike. He instantly recovered from his weakened state, unleashed his full power, and threw a punch at his opponent.

The stall owner was terrified and quickly turned his axe sideways to block the attack with all his might.

As a result, the sturdy giant axe was smashed to pieces by this punch. The sudden force terrified the stall owner, who turned pale and his eyes were filled with fear.

Before he could react, Chu Zifei's second punch landed hard on his chin.

The force of the blow almost shattered the stall owner's jaw. The heavy impact sent the stall owner flying backward, a mouthful of blood mixed with broken teeth spraying into the air.

After throwing the punch, Chu Zifei rushed out, caught up with the stall owner who was still in mid-air, grabbed his arm, pulled him down from the air and slammed him to the ground, then stomped heavily on his chest and pulled him outward with both arms.

"Pfft!"

With a cracking sound, Chu Zifei ripped the stall owner's arms off, blood gushing out, a truly horrific scene.

The old man not far away was so terrified by the bloody scene that he was speechless.

He saw Chu Zifei walking slowly towards him, and it was as if he had seen a bloodthirsty demon. The aura emanating from Chu Zifei made him tremble all over, and his voice trembled: "Why...why is your physical body so strong?"

His response was a powerful punch coming straight at him, which slammed into the old man's chest. The terrifying force caused his eyes to bulge out instantly, his chest to cave in, and he was sent flying backward, crashing into a tree before falling heavily to the ground, where he died instantly.

It should be noted that Chu Zifei's powerful punch contained the strength of a hundred oxen, and ordinary Qi Refining cultivators, with their weak bodies, were simply powerless to resist it.

After dealing with the old man, Chu Zifei squatted down again in front of the barely alive stall owner, casually pulled off his cloak, and said indifferently:

"Isn't it better to just make money honestly? Why do you have to resort to robbery and theft? To be honest, I really don't like killing!"

As soon as he finished speaking, he punched the stall owner on the head, ending his life.

Chu Zifei stared at the two corpses before him, wiping the bloodstains splattered on his body. His expression remained unchanged. He quickly searched their bodies but found nothing of value.

Both of them were independent cultivators and did not possess any spatial magical artifacts such as storage bags.

"However, this cloak is quite a good thing; it can actually shield you from the detection of Foundation Establishment cultivators."

Chu Zifei put the gray cloak into his storage bag, then threw two fireballs at the two corpses. After completely destroying the evidence, he continued flying towards Huangfeng Valley.

After traveling for nearly half a day, Chu Zifei made a point of stopping at the mine for an hour to give instructions to the servant disciples. After handling the mine affairs, he went straight to the mission hall and returned the token to Steward Wang.

After finishing his work, he returned to his stone house just before dark. As soon as he closed the door, he couldn't wait to take out the broken stone cauldron. By this time, he already had some guesses about the stone cauldron.

Without further hesitation, Chu Zifei lifted the broken stone cauldron high with both hands and then slammed it down onto the ground with force. With a loud "bang!", the stone cauldron fell to the ground and shattered into pieces.