Chapter 22

"Senior Sister Xie, if I don’t agree, my fate will be very dire, so I think I can only continue to endure and seek survival!" Lin Haoming said, seemingly very helplessly.

"Being able to bend and stretch is what makes a true man. Junior Brother Lin, I have high hopes for you! As long as you sincerely follow me and do things well, even if your talent is very poor, I will find a way to help you reach the Foundation Establishment stage!" Xie Ruolan threatened him, then gave him a glimmer of hope.

Lin Haoming felt that this was Xie Ruolan’s true words, of course, this should be after he had taken the blood oath.

A blood oath is a very special vow for cultivators. Once it is broken, the consequences can range from minor cultivation setbacks to immediate death. Although there are legendary treasures that can resist blood oaths, they are all extremely rare and can only mitigate some of the effects of the blood oath. Completely eliminating the effects is impossible, at least in this realm.

Xie Ruolan quickly put away the two storage bags again, then collected some useful items into her own storage bag and threw the remaining unnecessary items to Lin Haoming. She continued to extract the last bit of value from the two corpses.

"Senior Sister, the reason you killed this fellow disciple is probably because you were afraid he would reveal your true strength, right?" Lin Haoming guessed.

"You’re very smart," Xie Ruolan admitted casually while busy with her hands.

"Aren’t you afraid I will leak it?" Lin Haoming countered.

Xie Ruolan, having extracted the last bit of value from the fellow disciple, looked up at Lin Haoming and said with disdain, "If I just hint a little about my feelings for you, what do you think your fate will be?"

Lin Haoming laughed bitterly, realizing that he didn’t need any blood oath; he was already completely under her control.

After extracting the last bit of value from the Tianjian Mountain disciple, Xie Ruolan suddenly threw a set of flying swords to Lin Haoming and said, "Keep this. You have the Five Elemental Roots, so you can use this set of Five Elemental Swords all the way to the Foundation Establishment stage."

Lin Haoming caught the Five Elemental Swords Xie Ruolan threw and then caught a jade slip. He directly pressed the jade slip to his forehead, his divine sense sinking into it. He found that it contained a set of techniques to control the Five Elemental Swords. Even a cursory glance revealed that if he truly cultivated it, the power would be considerable.

However, when Lin Haoming’s divine sense withdrew, he looked at the Five Elemental Swords in his hand and said helplessly, "These are high-grade magical tools, and a complete set of high-grade magical tools, probably worth no less than a thousand spirit stones!"

"You know that, right? How about it? Following me won’t lack benefits for you!" Xie Ruolan said proudly.

Lin Haoming, however, continued to laugh bitterly, "Although this set of flying swords is good, they consume a lot of mana. It’s probably normal for Foundation Establishment cultivators to use them. I’m only at the Eighth Layer of the Qi Condensation stage, so I can probably only use half of their power, and not for long!"

"That’s true. This is for your protection!" Xie Ruolan then took a small bottle from her storage bag and threw it directly to Lin Haoming.

Lin Haoming caught it, opened it, and was somewhat surprised, "Spirit Recovery Pills!"

"These are from that Tianjian Mountain kid. There are three more. This thing can quickly replenish spirit power, no wonder he could use the Five Elemental Swords without hesitation." Xie Ruolan explained.

"These are very valuable, each costing over a hundred spirit stones, and are used by Foundation Establishment cultivators. I can use Spirit Recovery Pills!" Lin Haoming said while putting them away.

"When you fight, even high-grade Spirit Recovery Pills can’t quickly replenish spirit power. Besides, high-grade Spirit Recovery Pills, though not very expensive, are in short supply. Those three are for your protection." Xie Ruolan said.

Lin Haoming, of course, understood Xie Ruolan’s meaning. But at this moment, he glanced at her and realized that she was giving him so many means of protection, indicating that she really didn’t want him to die easily.

Xie Ruolan, with a wave of her hand, summoned several array flags and an array disk from the roots and behind the trees. These array flags and the array disk were clearly a set of arrays. Recalling how the Tianjian Mountain disciple couldn’t use the Earth Escape Talisman to leave, it was probably due to this array. This array could even affect the Earth Escape Talisman, showing that it was not cheap. No wonder she was so slow to act this time.

"Put the things away and follow me!" After putting away the array tools, Xie Ruolan said and started to follow some battle traces to search.

Lin Haoming guessed that Xie Ruolan was looking for the other two companions of the fellow disciple she had killed.

Sure enough, they found the two people three miles away. One seemed to have been ambushed and killed, while the other’s defensive magical tool was broken, indicating that he was directly killed by the Tianjian Mountain disciple. This showed that the Tianjian Mountain disciple was indeed powerful, and if Xie Ruolan had faced him head-on, it wouldn’t have been so easy.

However, from another perspective, Xie Ruolan could easily kill such a formidable opponent, showing her rich experience in killing.

"Senior Sister Xie, when did you start hunting here?" Lin Haoming, putting away the storage bag she threw him, asked curiously.

When Xie Ruolan heard this question, an image of a small girl, whose body had not yet fully grown, holding two mid-grade talismans, gritting her teeth to suppress her fear, and carefully searching for the Red Sun Ginseng in the mountains, appeared in her mind.

Xie Ruolan seemed very unwilling to think about that scene, trying hard to push it out of her mind and said irritably, "Why are you asking so many questions? To be honest, when I first came here, I was even worse than you are now, so don’t be so picky!"

Lin Haoming, seeing the displeasure in her eyes, realized that his question had touched on something, and he stopped asking.

The Red Leaf Mountain Range is vast, stretching three thousand miles east to west and eight hundred miles north to south, all in the border area of three countries.

Lin Haoming knew that one mile here is roughly half a kilometer on Earth. Calculating carefully, this area is about 600,000 square kilometers, equivalent to six Jiangsu Provinces. Although hundreds of cultivators from the three sects are active here year-round, it’s not common to actually encounter anyone. At least, they didn’t encounter anyone in the next two days.

They didn’t encounter anyone, but they did manage to pick two more Red Sun Ginsengs, though they were only about twenty to thirty years old, which was better than nothing.

Xie Ruolan almost comes here once a month, but usually not for more than three days.

So on the third day, the two of them started to head back.

Of course, on the way back, it was Lin Haoming alone. Although he knew Xie Ruolan was nearby, he didn’t know where she was. Her cloak was very mysterious, and even his divine sense, which was not inferior to that of a Qi Condensation stage cultivator, couldn’t detect her at all.

"Alright, we’ve left the border area of the three sects!" After walking for a long time, Xie Ruolan’s voice suddenly sounded in his ear, and then he saw her slender figure appear in front of him.