Chapter 148: Inventory and Standoff

Under the sun, the Grudge-Fiend lurks.

Lost in thought, Du En did not forget to knock out all the others who were terrified, and then, taking advantage of the air currents he had brought with him when he flew over, he also knocked out the two demon jackals and dragged them over to lie in a row.

It looked just like an extra row of corpses on the wasteland.

Du En thought for a moment, then took out the Iron Ox Shield, intending to enlarge it as a screen to see if it could block their line of sight, but he did not succeed.

"Can take it out but can't use it?"

"Spells can't be cast either, but magic power can still circulate normally within the body, and the body itself is unaffected; it seems only external manifestations are forbidden."

Given the peculiar nature hidden in the wasteland, it would silently annihilate and swallow them all.

Next was Xiang Tao's personal wealth.

From beginning to end, neither human nor beast dared to glance toward the direction of the cart acting as a wall.

"Patrol Guard Du... what exactly happened this time?"

"Stay here and rest easy for now."

Compared to Li Jian, who hesitated and in the end only asked about the current situation, Xu Ran appeared much more lighthearted, and the tone of his greeting was quite different.

"Greetings, Patrol Guard Du!"

In other words, once night falls, it will become whatever it is supposed to be!

Du En, who had already put away the jade slip, was rubbing his temples to soothe his throbbing head when he noticed the changes in the wasteland beginning to stir.

"It's not a big problem."

Therefore, Du En had to settle for the next best thing: he pulled over the corpse-burier's cart, cleared away the sundries, and stood it up to serve as a makeshift barrier, lest these people wake up, open their eyes, see that Grudge-Fiend, and suffer some kind of extreme shock.

"No, that's not right, it seems..."

So, Du En gave him an extra half-fingertip's worth, which immediately granted him the sleep of an infant.

Next, Du En first sorted and stored the spoils, then used his hands to crush the remaining scraps and fragments into powder, digging a pit in the wasteland to bury them.

A deathly silence began to spread.

The Grudge-Fiend was still under the tree shade outside the wasteland; as night approached and the mountain forest grew dim, its standing figure appeared increasingly eerie, causing one to feel genuinely uneasy.

In the past, at this time, various carrion-eating birds and beasts that would gather in groups to leave and avoid the corpse-buriers' hunting were now all dead in the places where they had been hiding, yet from the outside, they looked as if they were still alive, exceptionally vivid and full of vitality.

Even so, they were piled into a heap, looking just like a burial mound.

"Hmm... I remember..."

By comparison, it was much harder to dismantle than a first-tier storage bag; even for Du En, he could only salvage less than twenty percent of the items from it at the moment.

Thinking again, he took out a second-tier spiritual herb with calming properties, broke off unequal pieces according to their cultivation levels, and stuffed one into each person's mouth to be swallowed.

Thirty-eight thousand seven hundred and thirty-one medium-grade spirit stones.

"That guy really did hog all the good things, though it's a pity..."

Then there were over a dozen second-tier high-grade magical artifacts, four hundred bottles of second-tier high-grade recovery pills, fifty bottles of second-tier top-grade recovery pills, and three bottles of second-tier top-grade cultivation pills.

These were the things forcibly salvaged and seized; there were many more that were destroyed along with the storage bag, now becoming fine, crushed debris on the ground.

While doing all this, Du En's peripheral vision never moved away from the Grudge-Fiend.

Which means there is still a problem.

"No need to keep calling me 'Lord'; just address me by my rank according to standard protocol."

Du En approached their side while keeping his eyes on the Grudge-Fiend.

"Hiss! My neck hurts, did I sleep wrong?"

Moreover, because they were not corpses, there would be no obvious records, and as for the slight ripples caused by this, they could be entirely blamed on the current incident.

"Woof woof!"

Li Jian, who had woken up, looked haggard; only when supported by the observant Xu Ran was he able to sit up, and his words were hesitant.

Seemingly influenced by this, the others shivered and woke up one after another from their infant-like slumber.

Among them, the large quantity of low-grade spirit stones was placed in four ownerless first-tier storage bags, each capable of holding fifty thousand, with one not fully filled.

"Woof!"

"There are no talismans or other standard combat consumables; they must have been used up. However, there really are a lot of pills—'piled up' is the only way to describe it. It seems that in the past few months, that guy didn't actually waste his time and was silently making preparations to face the enemy, but he just didn't expect the evil cultivator to be so strong..."

Only then did he walk over to Li Jian.

If he were to practice from scratch, it would be too arduous and unrewarding, wasting effort without efficiency.

Du En appeared thoughtful, then turned his gaze toward the other three jade slips used as carriers.

After pressing one to his forehead for a brief look, he couldn't help but have his eyes flicker.

In terms of their relationship, Wei Ming and the others were old subordinates, while he was an old friend, so seeing Du En acting as he always did, they were not overly reserved.

It seemed that because of the changes in the wasteland, it was also affected and no longer stared straight at him.

"It was the evil cultivator who launched the attack; the outpost camp has already been breached, and I imagine the border town didn't escape either. Judging by He Bo's situation, the Qingya Garden is basically finished."

It seems something big happened, which is why that piece-of-shit manager He Bo ran over here first while injured, and then Lord Du escaped—er, returned! He killed that bastard He Bo, relieved their siege, and then...

The spiritual items were all of second-tier high-grade or above, totaling three hundred and eighty-one.

"The boss is back!"

You're close to him, you say it!

Time passed rapidly.

It was currently standing silently under the tree shade, still staring straight at him.

Du En couldn't help but think this, because among these three spells, only one could connect with the spells he currently mastered, while the other two could not.

This was clearly a change brought about by the isolation between the inside and outside of the wasteland.

Immediately, their expressions relaxed; there shouldn't be any major issues afterward.

After cleaning up the traces, Du En sat cross-legged, began to soothe his mind, and simultaneously continued to confront the Grudge-Fiend from a distance, staring at each other.

The sun moved from the zenith to the west; evening had already arrived.

It manifested like this, and the longer it stayed, even if it did nothing at all, it could cause terrifying effects!

As for the Corpse-Burial Wasteland, although an arrangement to isolate the inside from the outside had been activated, what Tang Yiping did not tell He Bo was that while the isolation was one thing, the inherent sinister nature of the wasteland itself would not disappear because of it.

"Ah? There are still so many corpses left to bury!?"

A full four Tier 2 Storage Bags!

However, they had owners and had been refined and branded; because of the special nature of storage bags, one could only rely on one's attainments in artifact refining to forcibly dismantle and seize them, which would certainly result in damage.

Especially for Li Jian, who had come into contact with the nightmare again and nearly had his Dao heart collapse.

"Do not overthink it."

Du En then found a place to sit cross-legged and, in a swaggering manner, began to count the spoils of this trip right in front of them.

Li Jian asked hesitantly, and the others, upon hearing this, also recovered from the incident of the evil cultivators' attack, casting worried glances one after another while simultaneously stealing a look at Xu Ran.

So they stopped again.

They immediately thought of standing up, subconsciously wanting to go before him to await his orders.

The words Du En issued at the right moment interrupted their train of thought.

Unknowingly, an inexplicable evil began to spread quietly through the surrounding mountains and forests.

Not to mention anything else, just learning it was a big problem; without a year or half a year of time, it would be very difficult to learn the basics and reach the level of a beginner.

Most of them were spirit stones and spirit items.

Three high-grade spells!

"I see, then... will there be trouble on your end?"

First was the camp inventory that had been swept up; counting it now, it was truly a lot, with 3,800 medium-grade spirit stones, 185,330 low-grade spirit stones, and over a thousand various Tier 2 spirit materials and items.

Hm?

Xu Ran always felt this gave a strong sense of déjà vu, but he did not refuse, asking quite directly: "Since you ran back, you won't be held accountable for this, right?"

After completely easing the fatigue and strain brought on by fleeing for his life, he took out the jade slip, pressed it to his forehead, and began to read, delving into that one high-grade spell that could be continued.

Because there was a great terror over there!

"Lord Du?"

The corpse-burial workers were in a daze, one person adding a sentence after another, and it was only at Wei Ming's exclamation that they suddenly jolted, recalling the general situation before they had passed out.

However, it should not be significant; Du En was always straightforward and direct about such matters, and if he said it was not significant, then it was not significant.

As for the matter of He Bo?

That dog-thief was dead, and that was that; whatever Du En said next, they would accept, so there was no need for further words at this time!

(End of this chapter)