Chapter 10

Mount Lingyuan, Song Zhangxin, holding the sound transmission talisman received in the morning, was pacing softly in the small building.

"The clan leader sent a message that Qingming went down the mountain early in the morning. This kid, it's almost dark, and he hasn't returned yet. Could it be that he secretly returned to Muqiao Town?"

——

Having run to the west for I don't know how long, Song Qingming was a bit exhausted at this moment. Seeing that there seemed to be no one behind, Song Qingming found a big rock to hide behind and sat in meditation to restore his own spiritual power.

Unexpectedly, not long after he sat down, a red light flew straight towards his forehead. Song Qingming hurriedly dodged to the side, and the Blazing Sun Sword in his hand released a fire light to attack the enemy, but it was blocked by a cyan shield set up by the opponent.

Looking at the black-clothed robber not far away, Song Qingming really had a headache. This guy had been chasing him for several hours, from afternoon to dusk. Every time Song Qingming thought he had shaken off the opponent, it wouldn't be long before he appeared behind him again. Every time this black-clothed robber caught up with him, he was not in a hurry to keep him, as if he was deliberately playing with him slowly.

Song Qingming was covered in injuries all over his body at this time, and the spiritual power in his body was also not much left. Although only one black-clothed robber chased him, Song Qingming also understood that both his cultivation and fighting ability were far worse than this person.

After being chased and fought several times, without exception, he was completely suppressed by the opponent. His cultivation was far behind this person, and a head-on confrontation could be said to have no chance of winning at all.

After Song Qingming ran to the north for a while, the more he thought about it, the more wrong it felt. The old man just said to run separately, which could increase the probability of the two escaping successfully, but the direction he pointed to him was clearly a dead end.

The north is a desolate direction, and further ahead is Mount Yunwu where demonic beasts haunt. Running here has no chance of calling for help, and he will definitely be caught up. At this time, Song Qingming felt that he seemed to have entered Mount Yunwu.

And if he ran to the big road in the south, it would greatly increase the probability of survival. He didn't think much for a while just now, and still fell into this old man's trap. This old guy intended to let him help attract the opponent to divide his troops from the beginning, so as to increase his own probability of escaping successfully.

After another bitter battle, the exhausted Song Qingming escaped to the edge of a cliff. In front was a bottomless cliff, and behind was the black-clothed robber chasing after him. In his current state, rashly jumping off this unknown cliff would probably make him die faster.

Looking at the danger approaching slowly behind him, just when Song Qingming was a bit desperate, the corner of his eye caught a place shrouded in vines not far under the cliff, revealing a corner of a pitch-black cave entrance, like a cave abandoned by large birds. Now that he had no way out, he didn't think much, and jumped along the steep cliff into the cave.

"Kid, you've run for so long, can't run anymore, right? Thinking that hiding here, I won't be able to find you? Don't worry, I will give you a quick death."

Not long after Song Qingming entered the cave, the arrogant voice of the black-clothed robber entered the cave.

This black-clothed robber is named Zhu Wu, originally an ordinary loose cultivator in Wuling County. Since he was chased and killed by enemies more than ten years ago and fled into Eagle Nest Ridge, he simply joined this notorious loose cultivator organization entrenched in the northeast of the State of Wei and started this business of killing people and seizing goods.

After tasting the sweetness of hunting other loose cultivators to easily obtain spirit stones, Zhu Wu could not stop from then on. Relying on the cultivation resources exchanged for this life-risking business, he also successfully cultivated to the peak of the fifth layer of Qi Refining with his five-spiritual-root aptitude.

Zhu Wu, who walked slowly into the cave, released a small fireball technique for illumination with his left hand, and carefully opened a five-element shield to protect his whole body with his right hand. This cave was not big, and he had only walked for less than ten steps before reaching the end of the cave.

Zhu Wu looked around, a bit strange. He had already turned around several times and still didn't see the position where the prey was hiding.

"Could this kid be hiding..." Just as Zhu Wu was about to raise his head to look at the top of the cave, a cyan black iron sword with an angry shout slashed down from his head. It was precisely Song Qingming hiding on the top of the cave.

Facing this full-force blow of Song Qingming holding the sword with both hands, Zhu Wu also dared not be careless, hurriedly took out an iron shield magic tool to top his head. After the two magic tools clashed, a loud noise was emitted, sparks splashed, and after a cloud of dust fell on the mountain walls on both sides, the two stabilized their figures after retreating a few steps each.

Zhu Wu still firmly guarded the cave entrance, looking at Song Qingming in the cave with a look of contemptuous sneer.

"This is a good place for burial, quiet and remote. I think it's not easy for your clan members to find."

Facing Zhu Wu's verbal provocation, Song Qingming did not answer, just released spiritual power with both hands and wound it on the black iron in his hand. The black iron sword gave a light groan and flew away, stabbing towards Zhu Wu quickly.

Hmph, this kid started to seek medical advice in a hurry. With his current cultivation, releasing spiritual power to control magic tools, isn't this sending his own magic tool to the opponent?

Seeing the black iron sword flying in front of him, Zhu Wu retreated a few steps and then easily stopped it with the flying sword in his hand. Just when he wanted to put Song Qingming's black iron sword into his pocket, he suddenly found a burst of earthy yellow light under his feet.

"This is? Damn, where did the Earth Prison Talisman come from?" Zhu Wu turned to look at Song Qingming with some annoyance. He only saw Song Qingming putting both hands on the ground, and the spiritual power in his body instantly activated the Earth Prison Talisman buried under his feet.

The Earth Prison Talisman is a mid-grade defensive spiritual talisman, which can use spiritual power to instantly wrap nearby soil to trap the target for a while. Zhu Wu was soon wrapped into a ball by the surrounding soil.

Just at this time, Song Qingming, who had been waiting for a long time, used up the remaining spiritual power, and pushed this huge ball out of the cave entrance with all his might, and kicked it off the hundred-zhang cliff outside the cave.

Seeing the huge earth ball slowly disappearing in his eyes, Song Qingming sat paralyzed at the cave entrance and breathed a long sigh of relief.

This spiritual talisman was originally bestowed by Song Zhangxin for fear that the two of them would encounter demonic beasts when going to Mount Funiu. Unexpectedly, it was used when he returned alone. Song Qingming had fought several times before, but had no chance to use it to escape.

It was not until he saw this cave just now that he had a sudden inspiration, utilized this only trump card on his body, and set this trap.

About a stick of incense time later, a somewhat embarrassed figure jumped into the cave from under the cliff. At this time, the cave was already empty, and the mountain soil that collapsed after a battle had already blocked half of the cave entrance.

This person was precisely Zhu Wu, who had been sneak-attacked by Song Qingming and fell off the cliff earlier. It was just that at this moment, he no longer had his previous confidence and arrogance, and the black magic clothes on his body were also damaged a lot. There was still a trace of blood at the corner of his mouth, and his furious eyes were full of fierceness.

"I was really careless. This damn kid, when I catch you, I will definitely make you wish you were dead."

Zhu Wu jumped onto the cliff, released a spiritual power to sense, let out a few harsh words, and quickly chased towards the depths of Mount Yunwu.

Not long after Zhu Wu left, a sound of mud cracking came from the cave that had been silent on the edge of the cliff. A thin figure slowly broke out of the soil from the deepest pile of soil in the cave. It was precisely Song Qingming, who had pretended to escape into the depths of Mount Yunwu not long ago.

Song Qingming knew deeply that he was covered in injuries, and the spiritual power in his body was also not much left. The Earth Prison Talisman definitely couldn't trap the opponent for long. If he escaped directly in his current state, he would still most likely be caught up by the opponent.

Earlier, the opponent had always been able to accurately grasp the direction of his escape, so he must have unique tracking skills. He had no more trump cards in his current state. Once he was caught up by him again, he would really be fish on the chopping block.

Facing such a crisis, Song Qingming, who had calmed down, chose to bet on his luck. He first ran wildly towards Mount Yunwu for several mountain peaks, intentionally leaving some traces of escape along the way.

Then he turned back halfway to the cave where he had hidden earlier, lurking in a pile of mud that had collapsed during the fight between the two. Fortunately, his luck was good this time, and he really fooled Zhu Wu, who was chasing anxiously.

After removing the soil from his body, Song Qingming carefully walked out of the cave entrance, confirmed that there was no danger nearby, and quickly left along the road he came.

Early the next morning, Song Qingming, who had escaped from death, appeared outside Mount Lingyuan. Looking at the familiar mountain protection formation in front of him, the heart that had been hanging for the past two days could be considered stable. Although the loss was huge this time, losing the black iron sword that had followed him for nearly ten years, and even the Earth Prison Talisman that Ninth Uncle gave him was used up, fortunately, he finally returned safely.

Passing through the formation, he found a small path and wanted to detour back to his small bamboo house to deal with his injuries first. He really didn't want the family mortals who relied on them, the immortal masters, for protection to see him in such a sorry state.

Just as he was getting closer and closer to his small house, he unexpectedly discovered a tall and straight figure standing in the courtyard outside his house.

"Ninth Uncle, I..."

Seeing Song Qingming covered in scars, Song Zhangxin raised his hand to interrupt Song Qingming's subsequent words and told him to go back to the house to heal his injuries first.

Half an hour later, under Song Zhangxin's careful care, Song Qingming took a few blood-returning pills, and his face had already turned rosy. The external injuries on his body were also all fine after Song Zhangxin's careful treatment.

The external injuries caused by magic tools on his body were not serious and would soon recover. It was just that the repeated fighting had overdrawn the spiritual power in his body, which had hurt his vitality somewhat. This would take at least a month or two of patient recovery to recover.

After careful examination, confirming that there were no other serious injuries on Song Qingming's body, the heart that Song Zhangxin had been hanging for the past two days finally let go.

While healing, Song Qingming also slowly told Song Zhangxin the life-and-death crisis he encountered yesterday word for word.

"These robbers from Eagle Nest Ridge are also becoming more and more lawless, actually daring to come to our Qinghe County to kill people and seize goods. It seems that the occasional disappearance of cultivators in the past year or two is mostly related to them. I must quickly notify the clan leader of this news."

"This time, fortunately, you were not flustered in the face of danger and returned safely. There are crises everywhere in the cultivation world. You must also grow up quickly to have a little more ability to survive."

After hearing Song Zhangxin's teachings, Song Qingming nodded thoughtfully. In the final analysis, he was in such a sorry state this time because his cultivation was too low. If he had the cultivation base of the late stage of Qi Refining at that time, it should have been the opponent who ran away, and this crisis would not have existed.

The path of cultivation is inherently the law of the jungle. The weaker one is, the more crises there will be.

(End of chapter)