Chapter 241: To Kill and Plunder, a Golden Belt

Li Jing knew that although he was an Unsurpassed Purple Seed and had cultivated to the Eleventh-Leaf of the Spirit Sprout Realm, he was absolutely no match for the Twentieth-Leaf Qin Yang. Seeing his out-of-control state, he was afraid that if he flew into a rage and did something crazy, he would be the one to suffer.

Li Jing, who had fled back to his tent in a panic, finally let out a breath of relief. He grabbed a cup from the table and smashed it, the rage on his face no longer concealable.

“Qin Yang, Qin Yang, you actually dared to shout at me, you actually dared to shout at me!” Li Jing’s eyes glinted, and he roared in his heart, “I sent you to deal with Qin Haoxuan, and you couldn’t even handle such a small matter, yet you dare to take your anger out on me! When I have sufficient strength, I will surely find a chance to kill you, to avenge today’s humiliation!”

The few underlings in his tent, seeing his furious expression, were so frightened they were as quiet as cicadas in winter, not daring to even breathe too loudly.

Li Jing sat in his chair, but no matter how he sat, he was uncomfortable. His burning gaze fell on his few trusted followers. “Tell me, how should we deal with this Qin Haoxuan?”

While Li Jing had been with Qin Yang, the news of Qin Haoxuan single-handedly slaying four rogue cultivators had already spread throughout the entire camp. These trusted followers, of course, knew why he was so angry. If he hadn’t asked them, they would have been happy to play dumb. But now that he had, and his murderous gaze was upon them, they shivered. One of them quickly said, “Senior Brother, Qin Haoxuan is just a weak seed. Even if he is a bit formidable for now, his future potential is certainly no match for yours. You don’t need to get entangled with him at all.”

“You think I want to?” Li Jing leaped from his chair and slapped the follower who had spoken across the face, cursing loudly, “If our Taichu Sect had only one Unsurpassed Purple Seed, then it wouldn’t matter. No matter how fast or slow my progress, I would be the only genius. I could grow slowly. But the sect took in three Purple Seed disciples at once, three of them! I have had a fated encounter, and I thought I could surpass Xu Yu and Zhang Kuang. But they have had their own fated encounters, and their cultivation speed is far greater than mine. Although I am an Unsurpassed Purple Seed and look glorious on the surface, why must I, a dignified prince of the Soaring Dragon Nation, a dignified Unsurpassed Purple Seed, be at the bottom of the three? I am not reconciled, not reconciled!”

His voice was hysterical, the rage in his eyes like a physical substance, frightening his followers so much their faces turned pale and they broke out in a cold sweat. They all screamed in their hearts, You’re an Unsurpassed Purple Seed, and you’re at the bottom of the Purple Seeds. What’s the use in shouting at us?

“Qin Haoxuan, a weak seed, the worst of weak seeds! Yet he has such a powerful combat strength, and he has the Qi-Circulating Pills from Xu Yu. Why did such a good resource fall into his hands? If it fell into my hands, I could surpass Xu Yu, and even Zhang Kuang! So, this Qin Haoxuan, I must capture him, take the pills from his hands, and use him to threaten Xu Yu, to make her give me the recipe!” The current Li Jing was flushed with excitement, his expression savage, like a demon that chose people to devour. “Tell me, how should I deal with him?”

His followers trembled with fear. They were good at flattery, but that didn’t mean they could come up with a strategy. One of them thought for a long time and said, “Senior Brother, why don’t you just negotiate with him directly? Tell him that as long as he provides you with the pills, you will support him in the sect in the future. With your status as an Unsurpassed Purple Seed, he will surely be moved.”

“Bullshit!” Li Jing cursed, a strange light flowing in his eyes, which were wide with anger. “He has Xu Yu’s support; why would he need mine? Don’t think that just because Xu Yu is a woman, she is soft-hearted. When it comes to matters concerning Qin Haoxuan, she is very decisive! Last time, the Sect Master invited her, gave her a pile of benefits, and then shamelessly asked her to give a few pills to Zhang Kuang. But because Zhang Kuang is his enemy, she decisively refused the Sect Master’s request!”

Li Jing sighed, a hint of envy in his eyes. “With Xu Yu backing him, providing a steady stream of pills, why would he care who I support?”

…

After receiving the jade slip from the elder at the registration office, Qin Haoxuan put it in his robes without a second thought and then returned to his own tent.

Seeing him return, Ye Yiming finally let out a breath of relief, a happy expression on his face. “Thank heavens, you’ve finally returned safely.”

Xing, who had reverted to his human form, said with dissatisfaction, “Why don’t you even care about our harvest?”

Ye Yiming saw Qin Haoxuan’s calm expression and thought they hadn’t gained much. He laughed. “With Qin Yang and Liao Qiankun there, the two of them surely took all the credit. Don’t be angry; just think of it as training. Besides, those rogue cultivators are not easy to kill.”

Qin Haoxuan was slightly moved. He knew that his senior brother thought he had gotten nothing and was deliberately trying to console him. He laughed. “Senior Brother, not only did we come back, but we also killed a few enemy rogue cultivators.”

“Oh!” Ye Yiming’s eyes lit up. “Did Qin Yang and Liao Qiankun share the war merits with you?”

Seeing that Ye Yiming looked down on him and Qin Haoxuan so much, Xing grumbled with dissatisfaction, “With this genius demon taking the field, of course all the merits belong to me! How would Qin Yang and Liao Qiankun dare to share our merits?”

Ye Yiming thought he was joking and looked at Qin Haoxuan with a grin. “What really happened? Tell me.”

“Xing is right,” Qin Haoxuan said very casually. “We did indeed kill four rogue cultivators: one at the Twenty-Second-Leaf, one at the Twentieth-Leaf, one at the Seventeenth-Leaf, and another at the Fourteenth-Leaf. I killed all of them.” He really didn’t take this matter to heart. He had killed the four of them with the purpose of intimidating Qin Yang and Liao Qiankun, and to make Li Jing, who was behind them, behave himself.

Although he spoke of it lightly, Ye Yiming was startled. A Twenty-Second-Leaf, a Twentieth-Leaf, a Seventeenth-Leaf, a Fourteenth-Leaf—none of them were to be trifled with. And Qin Haoxuan was only at the Seventh-Leaf, yet he was so formidable, killing in all directions. He could also imagine the expressions on Qin Yang and Liao Qiankun’s faces. To kill one or two, they might still have had the wicked thought of fighting for the merits. But to kill four in a row, each one of them no weaker than themselves, and even some who were stronger, even if they were given a few more guts, they wouldn’t dare to play any tricks.

After his shock, he recovered and said with an excited expression, “We’ve struck it rich! This time, we’ve really struck it rich!”

Qin Haoxuan sighed. “Rich? Aigh, don’t mention it. These four rogue cultivators, don’t look at the fact that one was at the Twenty-Two-Leaf realm. All together, they only had five thousand five hundred low third-grade spirit stones. Not even six thousand!”

If the other Taichu disciples had heard his words, smoke would have probably come out of their heads in anger. Over five thousand low third-grade spirit stones, and he was still not satisfied? If one were to till the fields, they would have to do so for twenty years in good weather to earn that much.

Ye Yiming laughed. “Not bad. They actually had five thousand five hundred low third-grade spirit stones on them. But besides the spirit stones, the sect will also reward you greatly for killing these four.”

Qin Haoxuan was taken aback. “No, they didn’t. After I registered, the elder just gave me a jade slip; he didn’t give me any spirit stones. Could he have embezzled them? Just fobbed me off with a broken jade slip?”

Ye Yiming laughed. “How could the elder embezzle your things? The jade slip he gave you recorded your war merits! You killed four rogue cultivators, and you will receive corresponding war merits based on their strength. One war merit point can be exchanged for one hundred low third-grade spirit stones! These four… tsk tsk, that’s a lot of war merits!” Even the usually steady Ye Yiming’s eyes were now shining with the light of spirit stones.

“Senior Brother, tell me how the war merits are calculated!” Hearing that killing enemy rogue cultivators also earned war merits, and that they could even be exchanged for spirit stones, and it sounded like quite a lot, Qin Haoxuan grew excited and quickly began to inquire, the true colors of a miser completely exposed.

“Alright,” Ye Yiming nodded and began to explain. “For killing a cultivator below the Tenth-Leaf, each leaf is one war contribution. For example, if you kill a Tenth-Leaf cultivator, you get ten points. For killing a cultivator below the Twentieth-Leaf, each leaf is worth three points. For example, for that Fourteenth-Leaf rogue cultivator, for his first ten leaves, you still only get ten points, but for the leaves from ten to fourteen, you can get three points for each. In other words, for a Fourteenth-Leaf rogue cultivator, you can get twenty-two war merits!”

After his long explanation, Qin Haoxuan immediately began to calculate. The Fourteenth-Leaf was twenty-two points, the Seventeenth-Leaf was thirty-one points, and the Twentieth-Leaf was a full forty points.

“What about the Twenty-Two-Leaf rogue cultivator?” he asked, his eyes also shining with the light of spirit stones.

“Between the Twentieth and Thirtieth-Leaf, each leaf is worth six war merits.”

He quickly began to count on his fingers. Xing, at his side, also grew excited and muttered, “We’re rich, we’re rich! It turns out there’s spirit stones for killing people.”

“Twenty-two plus thirty-one, plus forty, plus fifty-two,” Qin Haoxuan silently calculated and finally shouted, “Holy crap! One hundred and forty-five war merits! Fourteen thousand five hundred low third-grade spirit stones!”

After finishing his calculation, he was completely stunned. Just for going out for a stroll today, plus the five thousand five hundred from the corpses, he had raked in a full twenty thousand low third-grade spirit stones in a single day. He remembered a month ago, when he and Xing had risked their lives to track the Mountain Hermit Yunhe and had even detonated the Bifang Talisman Beast, which had cost nearly ten thousand spirit stones to infuse. From his jade slip, they had only gotten a total of thirty thousand. After subtracting the expenses, he had only made a profit of twenty thousand. But today, in a single day, just by casually killing a few not-so-strong Spirit Sprout Realm rogue cultivators, he had also raked in twenty thousand.