Chapter 71: The Mysterious Badge

In the secluded forest, the battle had already ended.

Lu Li let out a sigh of relief and returned the sword in his hand to Zhou Tai.

Opposite them, the bodies of the demon cultivator Qu Ji and the scorpion-tiger Demon Beast had already been sliced into several pieces by the violent Sword Qi, scattered across the ground.

However, fortunately, his head was still relatively intact and could be brought back to count as merit for slaying the demon.

Yes, at least in Qingzhou, killing demons earns merit.

If a non-cultivator happens to slay a Demon Beast or demon cultivator by chance, relying on this merit, they can even obtain a cultivation inheritance and have a chance to step onto the path of a cultivator.

Lu Li turned his head and said to Zhou Tai, "My Storage Bag doesn't have enough space; you two clean up the battlefield. We should leave this place as soon as possible."

Zhou Tai took the long sword, ignored Lu Li's words, turned around, and said, "Hmph, I'll go keep watch on the surroundings."

A bit tsundere.

In the end, it was Jiang Yinuo who cleaned up the battlefield.

"To hack the demon cultivator into such a state, that sword strike just now was truly powerful. Fortunately, the head is still intact..."

Jiang Yinuo manipulated her Flying Sword, first using a ball of crimson fire to roast the heads of the demon cultivator and the Demon Beast, then placing them into her Storage Bag so they could be brought back to exchange for merit.

After being roasted, the heads would carry a faint, lingering fragrance.

More importantly, it could be a bit cleaner and more hygienic.

She was, after all, a clean and fragrant girl!

Afterward, Jiang Yinuo pinched a Sword Formula, and an even more violent crimson fire slashed out from her Flying Sword, landing on the remains.

The body of the demon cultivator, having lost its life, could not resist the flames of the Vermilion Bird Sword Spirit at all and quickly turned into a pile of bone ash.

Blown by the sword wind, it vanished without a trace.

High-temperature sterilization, grinding bones and scattering ashes.

On the other side, Zhou Tai carefully stroked his own sword, comforting his partner.

Regarding the fact that Lu Li had used his sword, he chose to keep his mouth shut.

After all, Lu Li was very fierce and had killed the demon cultivator with a single strike.

But in his heart, he still did not like others touching his sword.

"Baby, it must have been very uncomfortable just now; it was really hard on you to endure it."

Zhou Tai said concernedly in his heart.

However, he did not seem to sense any unwilling emotions from the sword.

On the contrary, his sword seemed very happy? It was as if, after Lu Li used it once, his sword had already taken on Lu Li's shape.

Soon, Jiang Yinuo finished cleaning up and walked over.

"Senior Brother Lu, I will report all the credit for slaying this demon cultivator to you."

"You all have a share too; if not for you, I wouldn't have had the chance to strike."

"I don't want my share."

Zhou Tai said with his back to Lu Li.

Jiang Yinuo pursed her lips and said, "Their bodies were hacked into such a state by you; the staff and armor were already shattered, and there was nothing left on them.

However..."

"I found this badge next to the demon cultivator's corpse.

I see a sword mark on it, yet it failed to cut the badge in two. I don't know what material it's made of."

As Jiang Yinuo spoke, she opened her palm, and a badge could be seen floating above it.

Lu Li looked over and saw that the badge was entirely black; he could not tell what material it was made of.

And on the badge, a pattern of an eye in a special color was engraved.

The color of that pattern was very strange; it looked like gray, yet it was not just gray, as if it were a chaotic mix of countless colors.

This mottled chaos seemed to show different proportions of color when viewed from different angles. Under such special light and shadow effects, that eyeball looked as if it had come alive.

That is to say, no matter from what angle you looked at the pattern, that eye seemed to be watching you!

Zhou Tai glanced at it and quickly turned his head away.

He felt that this eyeball was a bit disgusting.

Jiang Yinuo did not like looking at this pattern either;

it was not cute at all.

But Lu Li's expression turned solemn and cold in an instant; his eyes stared fixedly at this badge.

He remembered this pattern.

Lu Li remembered the demon cultivator he encountered three years ago; on that demon cultivator's forehead, there was this very eye pattern!

The difference was that now this pattern was on a badge, while the eyeball on that demon cultivator's forehead was a tattoo resembling a vertical pupil, even more vivid than this one.

"If I had known, I would have left that demon cultivator with a breath of life..."

Lu Li sighed.

He glanced toward the location of the demon cultivator's corpse; it was clean, and the bone ash had been scattered.

"What?"

"Nothing. Yinuo, could you give this badge to me?"

"Of course, this is your spoils of war.

To exchange for merit, one head is enough."

"Thank you."

Lu Li took the badge and put it away.

"Let's go, back to the city."

After finishing off the Demon Beast, it was time to return to the city.

It was just that they had come on two Flying Boats, but they were returning together on one.

This was because Zhou Tai's Flying Boat had been wrecked by the Quji.

On the Flying Boat, the group of disciples who had just reached Entry still kept a certain distance from Lu Li, just as they had when they set out.

Only, when they set out, they had looked down on Lu Li somewhat, and that distance carried a certain degree of contempt.

But on the way back, this distance was due to their awe of Lu Li, as well as shame for their own previous poor attitudes.

A few disciples were brewing Spirit Qi Tea for everyone.

Spirit Qi Tea is a common beverage among sword cultivators in Qingzhou; it has a sweet aftertaste, a refreshing fragrance, and provides some help in improving cultivation for those in the Initial Realm, while for sword cultivators of higher cultivation, it can provide some mana-restoring effects.

After a great battle, drinking a cup of Spirit Qi Tea on a Flying Boat is also a wonderful thing.

Many disciples held cups in their hands, drinking tea while whispering: "So, the senior brothers who spoke ill of Senior Brother Lu Li before were all out of jealousy, right? Senior Brother Lu Li's strength is actually terrifyingly strong."

"Sigh, I previously held misunderstandings about Senior Brother Lu. If not for Senior Brother Lu today, I fear we would have already perished in the jaws of the Demon Beast."

"I definitely won't dare to take newcomers out alone in the future. Thinking back on that Demon Beast now, I still have lingering fears."

"That goes without saying, Senior Brother Lu has awakened a Sword Spirit; his future achievements will be little different from Senior Sister Jiang, and he is not someone an ordinary person can compare to."

"I fear Senior Brother Zhou also..."

Lu Li stood at the bow of the boat just as he had when they came, and he basically did not care about the discussions of others.

Because from his previous life, he knew that life is one's own and has nothing to do with others.

In actual life, many people care about the eyes of others.

They worry that if they do something poorly, or say something wrong, they will be mocked by others.

But many moments that one thinks are embarrassing are actually long forgotten by others.

The raging waves in one's own heart are merely a splash of water in the eyes of others.

Life does not have that many spectators; one might as well live a little more boldly.

Furthermore, those discussions only came from some supporting characters who didn't even have names, so why bother with them? Lu Li's attention was entirely focused on the Experience Gourd in his mind.

"Now that I have broken through the Initial Realm, I have reached the First Realm First Grade."

"But in reality, my cultivation improvement is still very slow."

Thinking back to when he practiced the Entry-level technique, the Qi Refining Art, Lu Li was the first person to sense Qi, and he was also the first student to reach Initial Realm Great Perfection, which is enough to prove that his talent is extraordinary.

If not for the system's mission requirements, his cultivation should have reached the level of Jiang Yinuo by now.

No, Lu Li shook his head; it should be even higher than hers.

"Fortunately, the cultivation from when I traveled through the heavens is stored in the Experience Gourd in the form of experience, and some can be leaked out."

"So the question now is, how many levels should I upgrade?"