“Someone always has to take this first leap of faith.”

Lin Xi thought for a long time and then finally thought through what he was going to do. He looked at this green-pupiled young lady and said, “I will take this first step… where do you want to go? I will bring you there.”

The green-pupiled young lady had a bit more patience, saying, “Then when do you plan to let me conduct meditation cultivation?”

Lin Xi said, “After tonight.”

“After tonight or before tonight, is there any difference.”

“For you, there might not be any difference.” Lin Xi said seriously, “But for me, there is a huge difference.”

…

The cave barbarian cultivator with the badly mangled right hand sat down in ruin.

He didn’t run because he knew that when facing a powerful cultivator like Tong Wei, with his current injuries, he couldn’t escape even if he wanted to.

However, what he never expected was that Tong Wei who walked up to not far from him didn’t take action, instead reaching out a hand and flicking out a finger, sending over a medicine bottle.

“There is some medicine for your injuries inside, should be of some use.”

This cave barbarian cultivator didn’t know Yunqin language, but could understand it. When he heard Tong Wei’s words, he felt a huge sense of humiliation, releasing a crazy roar, about to shatter this medicine bottle and then end his own life.

“You want your female cultivator to live, I also want my student to live.”

However, Tong Wei’s following words instead made his body suddenly freeze.

“Fighting, killing, your strength is still beneath mine, but you understand this place better than me. If we want to find someone, I am inferior to you. Moreover, when two people search together, the chances of success will be greater than that of just one person.”

Tong Wei looked at this cave barbarian cultivator and slowly said, “I am letting you leave to search for and rescue that female cultivator. If you can find them first… please do your best to help my student live as well.”

The cave barbarian cultivator raised his completely bloody head to look at Tong Wei.

He didn’t hesitate, throwing the entire medicine bottle into his mouth, crushing it and swallowing. Then, he nodded, standing up and leaving.

…

Xu Ningshen drew his blade, hacking the stalks of reeds before him apart.

The reeds fell, revealing the heavy lead-like black clouds in the skies ahead.

Originally, as long as he slowly waited, he could rise to at least third rank or just be a fourth rank great figure, enjoy glory and splendor in East Forest Province.

However, his only son instead died under Lin Xi’s hands, his prospects also becoming dark and dim. Regardless, he already dropped from a glorious military officer to a rat, unable to even appear in the light. He could only become a roving bandit who might die at any time in these stench filled white mountains black waters.

To go from a nasty environment to a superior one, this was something anyone could accept.

However, to go from a superior environment back down to a nasty environment, this was something extremely hard to accept.

Xu Ningshen already lived like a prince for many years, he was already fed up with this Dragon Snake Mountain Range. This Great Desolate Swamp’s nasty environment already filled his normally smooth and clean face with many pustules. After being used to sleeping on his large soft bed, he felt that lying in dry hard mud was a type of extreme torture, unable to sleep soundly.

What was even harder for him to accept was that this type of life might never end, he might just continue like this forever, or at least until he dropped dead. Then, just like the black waters, these dried branches and leaves, his corpse would start to rot, be eaten by bugs, birds and beasts.

As a result, in this life, he only had one last thing pushing him, which was precisely to chop Lin Xi into a thousand pieces.

This was already the sole force keeping him alive. He couldn’t even be called a person anymore, could only be considered a half dead walking corpse with only the thought of revenge keeping him going.

Seventy to eighty roving bandits dressed in all types of different clothes, equipped with all different types of bows and weapons silently and carefully searched around him.

The sky was already gradually growing dark.

Sss…

Suddenly, there were several bandits that sucked in cold air, continuously backing up, creating water splashing noises.

Two grizzly bear-sized wild beasts appeared not far from the reeds in front of them. Then, a large and tall grave faced black-armored high ranking Yunqin military officer appeared.

These two wild beasts’ appearances were a bit similar to a sloth, but their bodies were much, much bigger than sloths’. Between their brown and green thick long greasy fur was actually some light yellow moss, their large soles also like this. When moving through the marsh, they seemed extremely graceful, almost not making any sounds.

These were two Skyroot Otters.

These beasts weren’t extremely fierce, but their noses were many times more sensitive than those of wolves, to the extent where their sense of smell even reached underground. These creatures were extremely rare in Yunqin’s army, the greatest nightmares of bandits and cave barbarians.

The high ranking Yunqin military officer leading these two exceptionally precious military beasts was Wei Xianwu.

“Tomorrow, come nightfall, there will be a great rain. At that time, it might be hard for even these two Skyroot Otters to smell anything.”

Wei Xianwu was dressed in Black Dragon Army armor as well, looking even more heroic and powerful compared to before, like a living metal fort. He looked at Xu Ningshen who now only had a single remnant desire left, now acting as if they didn’t know each other, casually saying this.

Xu Ningshen began to laugh coldly in an extremely sinister manner. “There is enough time, we chase through the night. I want to see his flesh be cut up chunk by chunk under the morning sunlight.”

…

It was night time. Under the green-pupiled young lady’s guidance, Lin Xi continued on.

Suddenly, his body stopped, shocked at the scenery before him, stunned at the beauty before his eyes.

The endless reed filled swamp finally reached an end. When he separated the several stalks of reeds in front of him, what appeared before him was a large expanse of purple plains.

This wasn’t France’s Provence.

However, there was purple lavender growing all over the ground. Moreover, every single stalk of purple lavender was thicker and sturdier than the one he was familiar with, all of them reaching the height of his neck.

It was as if he arrived at a beautiful world of fairytales.

Compared to his previous sincere words, the shock at this beauty and his pure expression even more so calmed the green-pupiled young lady’s mind.

Those who could truly admire and enjoy beauty normally wouldn’t try to destroy the beautiful.

“Replenishing soul force here will definitely be easier than doing so in the swamp outside.”

The green-pupiled young lady said, “Just how long are you going to stall for before you stop and cultivate? You should understand that the longer you stall for, the more dangerous it will  be for us.”

Lin Xi walked out of the swamp, stepping onto black-colored but dry land, entering this sea of flowers that was worthy of admiration for him. He began to sense the ‘green roulette’ in his head, feeling a bit of excitement. “Soon.”

The green-pupiled young lady thought that Lin Xi was only using an excuse to drag things on, her face darkening.

However, soon afterwards, Lin Xi released her, starting to undo the bindings around her.

“You really are going to let me conduct meditation cultivation here, recover soul force?”

She found this a bit hard to believe, unable to help but cry out.

“Can you move?” Lin Xi looked at her, nodding and saying, “Starting from now, you can start at any time.”

The green-pupiled young lady could already move her arms and legs, but she decided she might as well directly sit down.

She looked at Lin Xi, just unable to understand why Lin Xi actually really dared do this, nor could she figure out why he would stall until now.

“You are going to start cultivating, treat your injuries here?”

When he saw what the green-pupiled young lady did, asked this question and then saw her nod, Lin Xi instead directly sat down more than ten steps from where she was. Then, he produced the Golden Wind Grass he obtained from the Lightning Python cave, directly eating them stalk by stalk.

“Right, what happened to the Lightning Pythons there? They were all killed by you all? Since you dealt with the Lightning Pythons, why didn’t you pick this Golden Wind Grass? Even if your cultivation has exceeded State Knight level, this Golden Wind Grass is still useful for other lower level cultivators.”

When he sat down and ate these medicines that were extremely beneficial to cultivation, Lin Xi thought of this, unable to help but ask.

“We didn’t kill the Lightning Pythons. That Lightning Python joined this battle with us, it was killed by your Yunqin army.” The green-pupiled young lady clenched her fists. She looked at Lin Xi and said, “We didn’t know this type of grass was beneficial to cultivators.”

Lin Xi was a bit stunned. He wanted to say more, but he only felt his tongue starting to become rigid and numb from the Golden Wind Grass’ juices, unable to speak properly. As such, while doing his best to throw Golden Wind Grass into his mouth, he asked with an unclear voice, “What is your name?”

The green pupiled young lady remained silent for a moment, and then said, “Chi Xiaoye.”

[1]

“Interesting name.”

Lin Xi’s tongue became completely numb from the Golden Wind Grass’ only side effect, the temporary numbing of the tongue. After saying this and eating the Golden Wind Grass, he closed his eyes, starting to conduct meditation cultivation.

The green-pupiled young lady Chi Xiaoye looked at Lin Xi who closed his eyes to replenish soul force with a complicated expression. After a few dozen breaths of time, she also erased all other thoughts, closing her eyes to begin cultivation.

…

Lin Xi was roused awake from his meditation cultivation state by a strange noise .

He saw this-green pupiled young lady Chi Xiaoye who was still extremely mysterious to him cough out a mouthful of blood.

This was a mouthful of black extravasated blood.

It was still pitch-black outside. By measuring the amount of soul force replenishment, Lin Xi knew that he only carried out a few dozen halts of meditation cultivation this time at most.

However, the corners of Lin Xi’s lips still couldn’t help but curl up, inwardly feeling happiness and satisfaction.

It was because after spitting out this mouthful of extravasated blood, Chi Xiaoye continued her meditation cultivation.

In reality, if Chi Xiaoye wanted to kill him, as long as he entered meditation cultivation, she could have done so at any time. This delay in time Chi Xiaoye just couldn’t understand, was because he wanted to wait for his ability to return, giving himself the safety of ‘returning’.

Now, Chi Xiaoye and himself already truly took the first step in establishing trust. This was enough to earn his happiness and satisfaction.

Meanwhile, what made him feel even more happiness was that he discovered that the cultivation principles he discovered were correct.

Ever since he led the Patrol Army, encountered the cave barbarian troops, fought that giant lizard, ran into Chi Xiaoye and then the following Purgatory Mountain Sacred Expert… these repeated instances of life and death situations squeezed out his potential, indeed able to greatly increase his cultivation speed. Right now, he could clearly feel that his own soul force cultivation was already considerably greater than when he first entered Great Desolate Swamp. Moreover, it wasn’t because of this Golden Wind Grass’ effects, because only now did he feel the Golden Wind Grass’ medicinal strength melt into warm streams, slowly spreading through his body.

He already felt the feeling of the energy within him passing over his hair and skin, as if it was going to flow out.

This meant that his strength might be able to take another step forward in this Great Desolate Swamp, reach the Soul Master level that allowed for imbuement of soul force into other objects.

Lin Xi was happy. He closed his eyes, continuing his cultivation.

1. Chi = Pond, Xiao = Little, Ye = Night

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