Chapter 56

In a corner of the desert.

Yutong, the leader of the Blood Sect, sat quietly on a sand dune, as if waiting for something. Dressed in bright red, Yutong held a clay flute in her slender hands, her full red lips gently blowing into it.

Surprisingly, no sound came from the clay flute.

Dozens of miles away, Mo Xi of the Ghost Sect held an identical clay flute, occasionally bringing it to his ear as if listening intently.

It seemed he was using the clay flute to determine direction.

After a long while, the other four disciples of the Ghost Sect, led by Mo Xi, arrived at the place where Yutong was sitting.

By then, Yutong had already stopped playing the clay flute.

"How did your battle go?" Mo Xi asked after instructing the other four to find a place to sit. He walked to Yutong's side, looking at her with a wild gaze.

Deep in his eyes was a hidden, intense desire.

"The trial participants of the Lingyun Sect were in the desert. They hunted and killed the ground lizard. Before their battle, we killed two of them, and after they finished fighting the ground lizard, we killed two more," Yutong said coldly. "Six members of the Lingyun Sect are still alive. Originally... we could have killed them all."

"An accident?" Mo Xi frowned.

"At a critical moment, people from the Spirit Treasure Pavilion arrived." Yutong snorted. "They came from the Ice Zone. It was because you didn't eliminate them that we also failed."

"Yutong! In the Ice Zone, we not only encountered people from the Spirit Treasure Pavilion but also ran into guys from the Ash Valley!" Du Kun of the Ghost Sect shouted.

If Nie Tian were here, he would recognize Du Kun as the one who pretended to be from the Ash Valley.

Mo Xi waved his hand, signaling Du Kun to be quiet, then said, "We killed eight out of ten from the Ash Valley, leaving only Yuan Feng and his cousin to escape. On the Spirit Treasure Pavilion side, we also killed one. Unfortunately, we spent too much time chasing Yuan Feng and didn't have the energy to completely wipe out the Spirit Treasure Pavilion."

"Hmm." Yutong responded indifferently. "Now the Spirit Treasure Pavilion and the Lingyun Sect have joined forces. I noticed they are heading towards the Fire Zone."

"In the Fire Zone, there should be people from the Mystic Fog Palace hunting. We need to act quickly and prevent them from joining the Mystic Fog Palace."

Mo Xi thought for a moment and said, "Six from the Lingyun Sect. If Yuan Feng joins them, that makes eight. The last time Du Kun saw the Spirit Treasure Pavilion, they had thirteen people. Du Kun killed one, so they have twelve left."

"If the Spirit Treasure Pavilion has no further casualties, adding the Lingyun Sect and the Ash Valley, they will have exactly twenty people."

"Together, we have ten people."

At this point, he grinned nastily, "Many of those twenty people lack combat experience. If we catch up to them, it should be easy to wipe them out."

As he spoke, he rubbed the finger bones around his neck.

Yutong glanced at him and noticed that the bone chain around his neck seemed to have grown a bit longer.

This meant that in the Ice Zone, he had killed a few more opponents of his level.

"Do you know the background of a young man named Nie Tian from the Spirit Treasure Pavilion?" Yutong suddenly asked.

"Nie Tian?" Mo Xi shook his head, puzzled. "I've never heard of him. Why are you particularly interested in him?"

"I was injured by him." Yutong's eyes turned cold.

Mo Xi looked at her strangely, "With your strength, even An Ying from the Spirit Treasure Pavilion can only be toyed with by you. A mere unknown young man actually managed to injure you? Weren't you too careless?"

Yutong remained silent with a cold face.

"I have a bit of an impression of that Nie Tian," Du Kun said softly at this point.

Mo Xi and Yutong both looked at him.

"I was wearing Ash Valley's clothes, infiltrating the Spirit Treasure Pavilion, planning to kill them one by one when they were off guard. It was Nie Tian who noticed something was wrong and attacked me first. Without his interference, I could have killed at least three of the Spirit Treasure Pavilion's young men that time."

Du Kun narrowed his eyes, his gaze filled with malice, and said viciously.

"That Nie Tian... is quite interesting." Mo Xi nodded slightly, remembering the name. He then said to Yutong, "When we catch up to them, I will capture that young man named Nie Tian and let you use the Blood Refinement Technique to refine his blood for your venting."

"I will kill the people I want to kill myself; I don't need your help," Yutong said coldly.

"Hehe! I don't care what you think. Anyway, I've also set my sights on Nie Tian. I will capture him before you. If you don't want him, I'll tear him apart." Mo Xi laughed loudly.

"Let's go. Don't waste time. Intercept them before they leave the desert and prevent them from joining the Mystic Fog Palace." Yutong said expressionlessly.

...

At the same time, Nie Tian, also in the desert, began to eat and drink again.

After Yuan Feng and Yun Song arrived, they set off on their journey, and it had been two days since then.

During these two days, they had been constantly on the move, with very little time to rest.

They wanted to leave the desert as soon as possible and head to the Fire Zone to join Zheng Bin and others from the Mystic Fog Palace.

Due to the lack of time for cultivation, Nie Tian's plan to reach the eighth level of the Qi Refinement stage within ten days by eating the ground lizard's meat was likely to be unachievable.

Finally stopping, Nie Tian naturally didn't want to waste time. He immediately took out the dried meat made from the ground lizard and ate as quickly as possible.

He ate dozens of pounds of meat and only stopped when he felt his body could no longer take it.

He immediately began to circulate the Qi Refinement Technique.

As he used the Qi Refinement Technique to transform his Spirit Sea, the energy that couldn't be quickly integrated into the Spirit Sea spread into his flesh and blood.

Soon, his body became hot, and a large amount of sweat flowed out from his pores.

Similarly, the sweat that flowed out of his body was mixed with murky impurities.

After a while, he opened his eyes and used his mind to sense that his Spirit Sea had indeed expanded by nearly ten percent.

He then spread his mental energy, extending it in all directions from himself, and found that the range of his mental energy had increased to about 78 meters.

"The changes aren't as significant."

Frowning, he carefully recalled the details and felt that the energy generated from his abdomen seemed to be weaker this time.

"The power stored in the spirit beast's meat is constantly degrading. The energy in the meat of a spirit beast is most abundant and easiest to absorb right after it dies."

"After the spirit beast dies, the energy in its flesh and blood gradually dissipates over time."

"Making the spirit beast's meat into dried meat also causes some of the energy to be lost."

"..."

He meticulously sought the reasons.

Actually, even in the Ice Zone, he had already noticed that the energy stored in the spirit beast's meat would degrade over time.

However, due to the extreme cold in the Ice Zone, the spirit beast's meat could remain fresh, so the energy loss was not particularly noticeable.

In the desert, he clearly felt that the energy loss from the spirit beast's meat was accelerating.

After the group made the spirit beast's meat into dried meat, it seemed to accelerate the energy loss even more.

After roughly understanding the reasons, he looked at the hundreds of pounds of dried ground lizard meat he was carrying and suddenly felt troubled.

He realized that to maximize the benefits from the ground lizard's meat to enhance his strength, he needed to eat the meat as quickly as possible.

Moreover, he needed to stop and cultivate day and night.

Only then did he have a chance to use the ground lizard's meat to advance his cultivation to the eighth level in a short time.

The longer he delayed, the less benefit he would get from the ground lizard's meat.

At this point, the group led by An Ying and Jiang Lingzhu only wanted to leave the desert as soon as possible and join the Mystic Fog Palace.

Those people would not slow down to wait for him for the sake of his cultivation.

He could either leave alone, find a secluded place in the desert, and risk being found by the Ghost Sect and the Blood Sect to cultivate day and night, quickly breaking through to the eighth level.

Or, he could miss this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and stay with the group for his own safety.

His face changed, and after deep thought, he suddenly stood up and said, "Everyone, I'm very sorry, but I can't continue to the Mystic Fog Palace with you."

...