Deep within a mountain cave in the Dragonfall Abyss, Zhu Yu’s face was contorted, his body curled into a ball, fingers digging into the ground, clearly enduring immense pain.
He had used the Black Leaf Datura poison to kill his master, believing that from then on, the sea would be wide enough for fish to leap and the sky high enough for birds to soar.
Little did he know that human hearts could be so wicked.
To prevent him from escaping or betraying him, the elder had long ago planted a heart-devouring poison within him, requiring him to take an antidote once a month.
Fei Ji suffered the torment of his heart being devoured daily, with a major relapse every month that made him wish for death.
Previously, the elder had secretly administered the antidote in his food, making him poisoned without his knowledge.
Now that the elder was dead, he had barely enjoyed a few days of freedom before discovering he was afflicted with a strange poison, enduring the torment of his heart being devoured every day.
Moreover, he had a major relapse every month, precisely on schedule.
Today was the day the heart-devouring poison within him would have its monthly major relapse.
He had prepared well in advance, finding a cave and setting up a protective formation at its entrance to ward off external intruders.
He had inherited the elder’s entire estate and indeed obtained many valuable items.
For instance, this set of formation plates was portable, convenient to deploy, and worth over a thousand spirit stones.
Zhu Yu struggled in pain on the ground for a long time before the sensation finally began to subside. He lay on the cold ground, utterly weak, his robes soaked with sweat.
A moment later, Zhu Yu forced himself to sit up, changed into a fresh set of robes, and headed towards the cave entrance.
He had only found seven mission items so far and had no time for rest; he had to join the Danxin Sect.
The Danxin Sect specialized in refining pills and might be able to find a way to detoxify him.
...
In a plain area, Huang Feifei’s wings, shimmering with iridescent light, unfurled on her back. On the ground, a vicious wolf snarled at her incessantly.
The first-tier vicious wolf had not yet learned to fly and could do nothing about Huang Feifei, who was airborne. It could only watch as she flew further and further away.
Huang Feifei was only at the eighth level of Qi Condensation. After entering the Dragonfall Abyss, she had repeatedly escaped threats by relying on her Illusory Rainbow Butterfly.
To date, she had also collected several spirit herbs required for the mission.
...
Xiao Fei found over fifty mission items on the five disciples of the Lin family.
Excluding many duplicates, he had already found twenty-four of the twenty-five mission items for the Chiyang Sect.
For the other sects, he had found twenty-one, twenty-three, and twenty items respectively.
Xiao Fei was not picky about which sect to join; he would go to whichever one he could reach.
The Chiyang Sect's mission now only lacked one item, Dragon Breath Grass, which was relatively easy to find.
It was said that this spirit herb only grew in the special environment of the Dragonfall Abyss and nowhere else. It could not survive outside the Dragonfall Abyss.
Yet, this spirit herb possessed special efficacy in many pill formulas and was irreplaceable, making it very scarce throughout the cultivation world.
Therefore, the missions from the four major sects all required the submission of a Dragon Breath Grass that was twenty years or older.
Xiao Fei had searched many locations marked as having Dragon Breath Grass on the map but had failed to find any.
Some places had no growth, while others had been claimed by someone else, leaving not even a seedling.
Helpless, he could only try his luck at the place marked with a red circle on the map.
Later, he obtained similar maps from the Lin family cultivators and made similar marks in the center of the maps, presumably indicating something important at that location.
The red circle was in the central area of the Dragonfall Abyss, and most cultivators were currently heading towards the central region.
Xiao Fei had encountered many other cultivators along the way, some traveling alone, others in groups of three or five.
Everyone had gained some harvest by now, which led a portion of cultivators to set their sights on others.
Xiao Fei avoided other cultivators from a distance whenever possible. If avoidance was impossible, he would poison and kill them.
After all, swords and blades were blind, and in a direct confrontation, Xiao Fei’s cultivation techniques were average, and his magic artifacts were merely passable. Facing well-equipped family disciples, he did not have much of a chance.
Along the way, several more cultivators attempted to kill Xiao Fei for his treasures, but all were silently poisoned to death by him.
Each time a cultivator died, Xiao Lan, hidden within the Soul Nurturing Pearl, would invariably fly out and plunge into the corpse to devour the residual soul.
When cultivators died, their souls still lingered within their bodies, serving as the best food for Xiao Lan.
The souls of Qi Condensation cultivators after death were not yet powerful enough to resist the devouring of vengeful spirits.
With each residual soul Xiao Lan devoured, it grew stronger, its growth rate astonishing.
However, this method of cultivation was too sinister and not tolerated by heaven and earth. Each advancement would trigger tribulation lightning, and fewer than one in ten ghost cultivators could survive the tribulation lightning.
At this moment, Xiao Lan had just flown out of a corpse, and Xiao Fei squatted down before the corpse to loot it.
This cultivator had been at the twelfth level of Qi Condensation, possessed excellent magic artifacts, and was incredibly powerful and arrogant, daring to block the road and rob others while traveling alone.
Before Xiao Fei, he had intercepted and killed several cultivators, amassing a considerable fortune.
When this person stopped Xiao Fei, he deeply understood the principle that villains die from talking too much and gave Xiao Fei no chance to stall, immediately unleashing all sorts of fatal techniques.
Xiao Fei was beaten into a corner, his previously obtained high-grade magic artifact shield was shattered by him, and the two rings of the Golden Silk Great Ring Saber were split in two.
The Hidden Rain Pear Blossom Needles Xiao Fei released also failed to injure the opponent.
In a moment of life-or-death crisis, Xiao Lan from the Soul Nurturing Pearl flew out and directly attacked the opponent’s soul, finally allowing time for the poison to take effect.
However, after searching this person’s body for a long time, he only found a few spiritual items, which puzzled him.
This cultivator was powerful and had robbed several people before; he shouldn’t be this impoverished.
With a sense of doubt, he cast a fireball spell, reducing the corpse to ashes.
Just as he was about to turn and leave, he unwillingly swept his divine sense over the ashes on the ground again.
"Eh!"
He brushed aside the ashes and found a blue bead the size of a thumb.
His divine sense probed into it; the bead contained a storage space, about one cubic meter in size.
It was already packed with various spiritual items, as well as several magic artifacts of good quality.
Among these magic artifacts, Xiao Fei discovered a black spherical object that felt somewhat familiar.
He picked it up and took a look. Good heavens.
This was the Thunder Spirit Seed that had been sold for 3,500 spirit stones at the auction earlier.
This magic artifact, when activated, could unleash the power of a Foundation Establishment stage strike, equivalent to a fatal blow for a Qi Condensation cultivator.
"So close!"
Xiao Fei sighed inwardly. Even with the Black Leaf Datura poison in hand, it wasn't foolproof; he had almost died this time.
He immediately put this Thunder Spirit Seed into his spatial ring and stored it safely.
This storage magic artifact was also a priceless treasure. It had somehow managed to evade the divine sense scan at the entrance.
However, for Xiao Fei, who possessed his own spatial artifact, its utility was limited. He could sell it later.
When he followed the map’s guidance to the location marked by the red circle, he found that seventy or so cultivators had already gathered there.
These were all family cultivators, gathered in groups of five or six, or ten or so, making the newly arrived Xiao Fei appear very out of place.
Some had already cast covetous glances at him.
This made Xiao Fei feel uneasy, contemplating whether he should strike first and make a big move, poisoning all these dozens of people.
However, if the poisoning failed, or if even one or two survived, he would be in serious trouble.
Just then, another person approached alone from a distance.
This person had a face like jade, sword-like eyebrows, starry eyes, and red lips and white teeth, truly a handsome and talented individual.
However, the muscles in this person’s face twitched and contorted from time to time, slightly marring his handsome appearance.
"Zhu Yu, why are you so late? I’ve been waiting for you!"
Xiao Fei quickly walked towards Zhu Yu.
"True friendship is found in adversity!"
"Shall we join forces?"
Xiao Fei said softly as he reached Zhu Yu.
Zhu Yu glanced at the several family cultivators ahead, his face twitched slightly, and he nodded gently.