Chapter 20: Escape

"What a pity, this demon wolf is too big! And its timing was terrible!"

Zhao Yu looked at the mid-grade, first-level fire demon wolf, a hint of regret flashing in his eyes. If he could consume this fire demon wolf entirely, his Fire Attribute Spirit Root could significantly improve.

But at the moment, Zhao Yu had no time to deal with the fire demon wolf, let alone carry away its corpse.

The bloody scent of the fire demon wolf's body would definitely attract other monsters.

With a look of regret, Zhao Yu left the fire demon wolf's corpse behind and continued forward, carrying Su Bingyun on his back.

"A ghost!!"

After walking several more miles on the official road, Li Xianjiao suddenly turned pale, screamed involuntarily, then clamped her mouth shut, her eyes filled with terror.

When Zhao Yu looked toward the side of the road, he saw a ghost with a pale face, disheveled hair, one eye missing, the other eye turned inward, knees down completely missing, floating beside the road in a spectral state.

"A ghost? An evil spirit?"

Zhao Yu was also startled, his heart pounding as he crushed a Golden Light Talisman, a pale golden shield appeared around him, while he tightly held a talisman for warding off evil.

Su Bingyun spoke slowly, "That's the lowest level of ghosts! As long as you have a talisman for warding off evil, they won't dare to approach. Both the Fireball Technique and the talisman can easily purify them. There's no need to worry about it!"

What a pity, I wasted twenty Spirit Stones, no, it's now forty Spirit Stones.

Zhao Yu steadied himself and then looked at the pale golden shield somewhat painfully.

As security worsened, the price of Golden Light Talisman in the small Heiyan City Market soared, now priced at forty Spirit Stones each and still in short supply.

With the talisman for warding off evil in hand, Zhao Yu glanced warily at the lowest-level ghost, the talisman in his hand slowly burning.

The ghost's spectral body trembled slightly then vanished.

Zhao Yu finally breathed a sigh of relief and continued onward.

After walking several more miles, the talisman in Zhao Yu's hand suddenly burned intensely.

Zhao Yu's body shuddered, and his instincts, surpassing those of a Martial Path Great Grandmaster, immediately sent him a warning, prompting him to look toward the northwest direction.

From the northwest approached a creature three zhang long, covered in human faces, with a head similar to that of a wild boar, a ferocious expression, saw-toothed, and emanating an evil aura.

Su Bingyun's beautiful eyes flickered with a serious look, "That's an evil spirit conglomerate! A monster fused from monster and human evil spirits. This creature must possess the combat abilities of a late stage in Qi Refining, and its contamination power is very strong! Crush five evil warding talismans, then run! Your mana isn't strong enough to wield my Fire Crow Mirror!"

Zhao Yu complied smoothly, directly crushing five talismans for warding off evil, a powerful and mysterious force radiated from him, spreading out in all directions.

The boar-human hybrid evil spirit conglomerate, initially moving toward Zhao Yu, faltered in its steps at the burst of power from the talisman.

Zhao Yu reached out, scooped up Li Xianjiao in his left arm, activated a Featherweight Talisman directly, and a Light Body Skill descended on him, making him as light as a feather.

Zhao Yu executed the Phantom Step Technique, speeding wildly along the official road.

On the boar-human hybrid evil spirit conglomerate, the eyes on the human faces swiveled in an attempt to lock onto Zhao Yu's location, but under the power of the talisman, they found nothing.

Zhao Yu escaped past the boar-human hybrid evil spirit conglomerate, encountering several more ghosts and a few lesser evil spirits on his way. Under the protection of the talisman's power, Zhao Yu dodged these ghosts and evil spirits and arrived at a decrepit farmhouse just outside Heiyan City in the Ten Mortal Cities.

"This family has been devoured by monsters!"

Zhao Yu looked at the collapsed thatched roof, the simple and dilapidated house emitting waves of foul smell, and shook his head slightly. He took out a Cleansing Talisman and crushed it.

A mysterious force enveloped the entire thatched house, cleaning it thoroughly, removing dust, and making it habitable again.

Zhao Yu placed Su Bingyun on a wooden bed, allowing her and Li Xianjiao to rest together, while he himself stood outside, sword in hand.

"This is the storage bag!"

Zhao Yu took out Ren Peiming's storage bag, channeled his mana into it, and a space about a cubic meter in size appeared in his senses.

Inside that cubic meter-sized space were four mid-grade Spirit Stones, thirty-seven low-grade Spirit Stones, six Secret Manuals, a jade slip, seven bottles of Yellow Spirit Pills, five bottles of Red Jade Pills to enhance mana in the Qi Refinement Realm, fifteen Evil-Repelling Talismans, thirteen Golden Light Talismans, five Rocket Talismans, eight Armor Horse Talismans, and seven Featherweight Talismans.

Zhao Yu glanced over the seven Secret Manuals; they were "Fireball Technique," "Wind Blade Technique," "Spiritual Eye Technique," "Spiritual Shield," "Ice Needle Technique," and "Rocket Technique."

"This is the legendary jade slip!"

Zhao Yu took out the jade slip, placed it against his forehead, circulated his Divine Sense, and read the contents of the jade slip.

Zhao Yu held the jade slip, his expression changing unpredictably: "This is the Cang Ling Sect's Cultivation Technique 'Cang Ling Jue', and the contents of the jade slip could allow cultivation up to the late stage of Foundation Establishment!"

'Cang Ling Jue' is a core Cultivation Technique of the Cang Ling Sect, naturally much more powerful than the common 'Earth Elemental Skill' Zhao Yu cultivated.

However, in the northern wilderness, if Zhao Yu were to cultivate 'Cang Ling Jue' and be discovered by the Cang Ling Sect, he would be hunted down to death, unable to establish a foothold in the north wilderness.

"Forget it! This 'Cang Ling Jue' isn't some unmatched Cultivation Technique, powerful beyond boundary. To cultivate 'Cang Ling Jue' I would need to discard my current cultivation and start over, and the disadvantages outweigh the benefits."

Zhao Yu weighed his options briefly and then gave up on cultivating 'Cang Ling Jue', considering it merely as an alternate Cultivation Technique.

Two hours later, it finally dawned, and Zhao Yu let out a long sigh of relief.

Evil spirits generally only moved at night, and although magical beasts did appear during the day, the day was still safer than the night.

Zhao Yu then chopped down the surrounding trees and built a spacious cabin next to them.

It was too dangerous to rashly head to Heiyan City as it was controlled by cultivators from the Market.

That day, the temperature suddenly dropped, and heavy snow began to fall.

Bingyun sat inside the cabin, curled up on the wooden bed, covered by two wool blankets, her face pale and her body shivering uncontrollably.

The Canglong Mountain Range was already extremely cold in winter, and if Bingyun still had her mana, she naturally wouldn't fear the cold. However, she was seriously injured and had lost all her mana, barely stronger than an ordinary mortal, so a single wool blanket was naturally insufficient to keep out the cold.

The items that the ordinary family used for keeping warm had been destroyed by magical beasts, and the blankets on Bingyun's body were those brought by Zhao Yu and Li Xianjiao for protection against the cold.

"Celestial Bingyun, please excuse my boldness!"

Seeing Bingyun shivering from the cold, Zhao Yu immediately stepped forward, embraced her, and activated his Red Sun Cultivation Technique, turning himself into a giant furnace.

A struggle flashed through Bingyun's eyes, and then she collapsed weakly into Zhao Yu's arms.

Li Xianjiao also climbed onto the wooden bed, hugging one of Zhao Yu's arms to stay warm.

"She's beautiful! Unfortunately, she doesn't belong to me!"

Zhao Yu took one glance at Bingyun's exquisitely beautiful face, suppressed the agitation in his heart, closed his eyes, and quietly channeled his Red Sun Cultivation Technique to act as a heater.

Bingyun was a genius of the Cang Ling Sect. At a young age, she had already reached the Great Circle of Qi Refining and had prospects for Foundation Establishment. Such a celestial figure naturally wouldn't fancy Zhao Yu, an older Loose Cultivator.

Ever since Zhao Yu cultivated his Red Sun Cultivation Technique to the twentieth level, his vigor, essence, and spirit had greatly improved compared to before, making him look more heroic and attractive. However, in terms of handsomeness, he still paled in comparison to Li Yunhai.

Zhao Yu didn't want to save Bingyun from danger, only to potentially be killed by her if he couldn't control himself.

He wasn't too bad of a person!

After seeing Zhao Yu close his eyes, Bingyun also relaxed slightly, her favorable impression of Zhao Yu growing. Currently completely powerless, she would have had no way to resist if Zhao Yu had made a move on her.