Chapter 77: Each with Their Own Schemes

Seeing that Zhao Tiepao was already dead, the Ghost-Headed Man felt a sudden shock in his heart. Daring not to linger for even a moment, he hurriedly pulled a God-Speed Talisman from his body and stuck it onto his leg, wanting to break free from the entanglement of the Lei Hu puppet beast and escape into the distance.

However, after Song Qingming killed Zhao Tiepao, he immediately thought of this possibility. Under his careful control, a flash of spiritual light appeared on the Lei Hu puppet beast, and it released several sharp bolts of lightning toward the direction the Ghost-Headed Man wanted to flee, quickly cutting off his path forward.

Seeing the lightning strike from behind, the Ghost-Headed Man dared not use his protective Qi to resist it head-on and could only choose to roll sideways to dodge. With just this moment of delay, Song Qingming had already run ahead of him, completely blocking his path.

"This fellow Daoist, stop, let's stop. Our Eagle Nest Ridge has Foundation Establishment cultivators, and you are also someone who drifts through the Floating Cloud Mountain Range. I advise you not to let this grudge go too deep."

"Today's matter was our fault first. Why don't you give us some face and let this matter end here? I am willing to swear that today I will act as if I never saw you, and in the future, we will absolutely not come looking for you for revenge."

With Song Qingming in front and the Lei Hu puppet beast behind, the Ghost-Headed Man saw that it was difficult for him to escape. His face had become extremely terrified, and his mouth no longer held the mocking tone from when they were besieging Song Qingming just moments ago.

Even now, he could not figure it out. Just a moment ago, he and Zhao Tiepao were the cats teasing Song Qingming, the mouse. Yet, after only a short while, their roles had completely reversed; Zhao Tiepao had become a corpse, and he himself had become the desperate mouse.

Hearing the Ghost-Headed Man's plea for peace, Song Qingming pretended to be somewhat surprised and said, "Eagle Nest Ridge people again? How can I be sure that if I let you go today, your Eagle Nest Ridge won't come looking for me for revenge later? Don't try to deceive me with empty words."

"You can be completely at ease about this, fellow Daoist. I can establish a Blood Soul Contract with you. In the future, I will never mention today's events to anyone. This way, you can be at ease, right?" Seeing that Song Qingming was already hesitant after hearing about Eagle Nest Ridge, the Ghost-Headed Man hurriedly continued to speak.

"A Blood Soul Contract? Do you still carry such a thing on you? Take it out first and let me see." After Song Qingming finished speaking, he walked slowly toward the Ghost-Headed Man.

Seeing that Song Qingming seemed to have been persuaded, the Ghost-Headed Man slowly revealed a trace of a smile on his face. He reached into his storage bag, took out a pitch-black scroll, and wanted to hand it to Song Qingming.

Just as the Ghost-Headed Man took out the black scroll, Song Qingming, who had already reached in front of him, suddenly had a sword light emerge from his hand, which he slashed rapidly toward him. The Lei Hu puppet beast, which had been behind him the whole time, also simultaneously released a bolt of lightning toward the Ghost-Headed Man's back.

Although the Ghost-Headed Man had been somewhat wary of Song Qingming, he blocked the sneak attack from the Bai Yu Sword in Song Qingming's hand, but he was still struck squarely in the back by the lightning from the Lei Hu puppet beast.

"You... you... we agreed to sign a Blood Soul Contract, why would you still do this?"

After the Ghost-Headed Man asked these few words in unwillingness, he spat out another mouthful of fresh blood. He staggered back more than ten steps and collapsed onto the ground. This strike from the Lei Hu puppet beast had truly injured him severely. He really did not expect that Song Qingming, who already had the absolute advantage, would still choose to sneak attack him so shamelessly.

"I don't know what a Blood Soul Contract is, and I don't have time to study it with you here today. I think it's better not to go through all that trouble."

Song Qingming kicked away the black scroll that had fallen to the ground, expressionlessly raised the Bai Yu Sword, and walked directly toward the Ghost-Headed Man with the Lei Hu puppet beast.

"Fellow Daoist, please spare me. I am willing to hand over my storage bag, I only ask that you spare my life..."

Facing the Ghost-Headed Man's sincere and bitter pleas, Song Qingming did not choose to spare him. In the end, he still ended his life with one sword strike.

After killing the Ghost-Headed Man, Song Qingming unceremoniously and quickly searched everything on both of them. Then, with a movement of his magic power, he released two Fireball Talismans and burned their corpses until nothing remained.

Although he had already dealt with these two pursuers, Song Qingming dared not stay here for long. After recovering some of his magic power, he chose a random direction and continued on his way.

He had not won this battle easily. It was because he relied on the fact that the opponent did not know he possessed the magic treasure, the Heavenly Net Umbrella. He had deliberately feigned weakness while the opponent had the upper hand, which allowed Zhao Tiepao to reveal a flaw, catching them off guard.

Although these two cooperated well, their own strength was not considered very strong. Before the great battle, Zhao Tiepao had also lost his spirit beast, the Earth-Splitting Bear, which affected his combat power significantly. Otherwise, even if Song Qingming had a top-grade spirit talisman as a trump card, it would not have been so easy to counter-kill them both today.

Half a day later, an exhausted Song Qingming arrived on a high mountain. He built a simple shelter next to a huge blue stone, preparing to rest there for the night.

After traveling continuously for half a day and seeing that no one was chasing him from behind, Song Qingming gradually let down his guard.

After consuming some spirit rice to replenish his magic power, Song Qingming came to the top of that huge blue stone under the moonlight.

Borrowing the bright moonlight and the cold wind, Song Qingming tried hard to calm his still-flustered mood.

Still somewhat immature in the cultivation world, although he had experienced life-and-death struggles a few times, this was indeed the first time in his life he had killed someone with his own hands.

Unlike the spirit beasts he had killed, although he was forced to kill these two people, the feeling after killing his own kind left him feeling somewhat uneasy in his heart.

Come to think of it, these robbers from Eagle Nest Ridge were truly his adversaries. Back in Qinghe County, Song Qingming was chased by them to the point of almost losing his life. He did not expect that after arriving at Guiyun Market, he would encounter them again.

After a long time, Song Qingming suddenly took out that pitch-black scroll. This scroll was exactly the "Blood Soul Contract" scroll that the Ghost-Headed Man had mentioned earlier. Song Qingming eventually put it away as well.

After placing the pitch-black scroll at a distance from himself, Song Qingming used object-control techniques to try and open the scroll. Unexpectedly, after the black scroll opened, a small silver ball suddenly popped out.

After the silver ball flew into the air, it suddenly flashed with silver light and released a blinding radiance. Song Qingming hurriedly closed his eyes. He only heard a loud "Boom," and after Song Qingming opened his eyes, he saw that the silver ball, along with the black scroll, had been blown to pieces.

"As expected!"

Two days later, in a desolate mountain, Song Qingming was fiddling with a pile of miscellaneous spirit items.

Among these spirit items, there were not only magic tools but also elixirs, spirit talismans, cultivation technique scrolls, and all sorts of common things in the cultivation world. In the corner, there was also a pile of colorful low-tier spirit stones.

Both the Ghost-Headed Man and Zhao Tiepao used the same low-tier storage bags as Song Qingming. This time, Song Qingming spent less than two days in total to easily open the magic power restrictions they had set on their storage bags.

Compared to the storage bag of Liu Tianlong that he had picked up back then, these two people were much poorer. Apart from the few magic tools they had used, there were only some low-tier spirit items of little value, and there were not even many common talismans.

The spirit stones on the two of them added up to less than one hundred, which truly made Song Qingming, who had been full of expectations before opening the storage bags, somewhat disappointed.

(End of Chapter) ===== CHAPTER 78 =====