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Chapter 8 Genuine Water of the Yellow Springs
Before Lin Fei could steady himself, a monster that looked like a cross between a serpent and a cow emerged from the underground river and sprayed water everywhere. This monster was hideous, its eyes were bloodshot and it was covered with scales from top to toe. There were two horns on its head which gleamed darkly and it used its serpent tail to propel itself upstream at incredible speeds…
“Damn, I really got lucky there. I can’t believe I ran into an Ophiotaurus the moment I got here..” Lin Fei did not dare to hesitate for he was facing the tyrant of the underground river. He sent out a ray of purple sword Qi. This was the first move of the Yangwu Sword – ‘Purple Qi From The East.’ As the purple sword Qi landed in the underground river, it whipped up a giant wave which was dozens of meters tall.
This ‘Purple Qi From The East’ was a highly masculine sword skill imbued with Yang energy. This was the natural kryptonite of these filthy monsters who lived in the cold and chilly underground river. The Ophiotaurus recoiled from Lin Fei’s sword and dived straight into the underground river.
Unfortunately, Lin Fei did not plan on letting it escape. If he did not kill ten monsters a day, he would have to go hungry and furthermore, the death qi which lingered on the monsters of the underground river was just the thing Lin Fei needed. Thus, after he slashed out the ‘Purple Qi From the East,’ he did not stop and glided to the riverbank. He then jumped dozens of meters high and stared fixedly at the river below…
Finally, as Lin Fei gradually descended, he suddenly saw a flash of red down below. This was the blood trail left behind by the Ophiotaurus after it was injured by his sword earlier.
“You’re the first!” Up in the air, Lin Fei slashed out once more with his long sword. This time, the long purple beam of sword qi did not appear but instead, a sword radiance which was about the length of a ruler flashed, then disappeared almost immediately into the river soundlessly as though it had never existed.
In just three breaths, the corner of the underground river where the black light had disappeared into suddenly turned bright red. By the time Lin Fei descended, the Ophiotaurus corpse had already floated to the surface. He grabbed its corpse and lightly tapped the surface of the underground river with his foot before gliding dozens of meters to land on the riverbank.
As soon as he landed, three more Ophiotaurus emerged from the underground river and when they smelled their comrade’s blood, they roared angrily and used their serpent tail to propel themselves forward as though they were about to charge up to the surface. Lin Fei did not dare to face three Ophiotauruses by himself and used his ‘Purple Qi From the East’ move again to scare them off. Then, he fled through the narrow crevice of the stone wall carrying the Ophiotaurus corpse…
Fortunately, those three Ophiotauruses did not dare to pursue him too closely. When they saw that he had fled, they bellowed a few times by the riverbank before diving back into the underground river.
“Phew..” Lin Fei heaved a sigh of relief after he watched those Ophiotauruses leave. He then looked at the Ophiotaurus at his feet and noticed that his sword had pierced through its heart. He smiled and said, “I wonder how much Yellow Springs death qi has this fella absorbed..”
Lin Fei first hacked off the Ophiotaurus claw as proof, then carefully used his sword qi to retrieve its monster core from its body.
The Ophiotaurus was merely a monster soldier and would be the equivalent of Foundation Realm in human cultivator terms. The monster core he had extracted was only the size of a pea and Lin Fei who had been used to various monster cores from Monster Kings and Emperors did not know whether to laugh or weep when he saw the size of it.
After he held the monster core in his hand, Lin Fei’s expression suddenly changed to one of joy…
He discovered that there was a dense death qi pouring out from the surface of this monster core. He estimated that this was twice the amount usually found in an average Ophiotaurus, which meant that the monster he had randomly killed earlier was a genius amongst the Ophiotauruses. Given time to mature, it could probably have the potential to become a Monster King one day!
“I’ve been quite lucky…”
Lin Fei was not too concerned about the size of the monster core. After all, it had not developed the ability to shapeshift and ten monster cores were not even worth one Spiritual Stone. All he cared about was the death qi that lingered on the monster core because this was a crucial element to dismantle magical artifacts.
Lin Fei rummaged through his pockets and dug out an empty jade bottle. He then activated his vital spirit, carefully extracted the Yellow Springs death qi from the monster core, guided it into his bottle and after the final trace of death qi had entered his bottle; Lin Fei injected his vital spirit into the bottle before sealing it.
He would now have to wait for the death qi to slowly turn into Yellow Springs genuine water.
The genuine water from the Yellow Springs was said to have the ability to cleanse anything. After entering the Nine Serenities, all souls and mortal forms would be cleansed of their memories by the genuine water. Therefore, many centuries ago, a weaponsmith had developed a technique to dismantle defective magical artifacts using genuine water.
This amount of Yellow Springs was not enough to transform into Genuine Water but Lin Fei was not too worried. In any case, there were many monsters residing in this underground river and thus, he confident of collecting enough to form one drop of Genuine Water. This drop of water could be used to not just dismantle magical artifacts but also had other extraordinary uses.
After Lin Fei sealed the jade bottle, he returned to the riverbank. This time, his luck proved to be good and he managed to obtain another Ophiotaurus monster core in just 15 minutes.
He did not leave the underground river for the rest of the day but spent the entire day hunting monsters one at a time.
At that moment, Junior Brother Su and his cronies drank and feasted on barbequed meat by the fireside to counter the chilliness of the Dark Ice Cave.
“Brothers, rest assured that if we complete that task Senior Brother Song has assigned us, I guarantee that we would be able to leave this stupid Ice Cave within the year. As the direct disciple of Heavenly Punishment Peak’s elder, one word from Senior Brother Song might be even more effective than a single word from our masters…”
All who were present had been stuck at Dark Ice Cave for the past two or three years and had enough of the bitter chill that permeated this place. All of them could not wait to get out of this stupid Ice Cave and thus grinned broadly at Junior Brother Song’s words. However, after their initial glee, there were some who could not help but voice their worries.
“But, Senior Brother Su, Lin Fei is still a disciple of the inner gate. Now that you have sent him to the underground river, will the sect punish us if anything happens to him?”
“Disciple of the inner gate? Haha, were you not listening to Senior Brother Song earlier? The headmaster had personally decreed that this disciple was to be sent here because he beat up the young Celestial Master of the Celestial Master mansion. Everyone in the Northern Lands knows how much Celestial Master Zhang loves his son. This crime is enough for Lin Fei to spend the rest of his life here at Dark Ice Cave…”
“But…”
“Stop fretting; nothing will happen to him…” Junior Brother Su attempted to reassure his comrades when he noticed their anxiety. “If anything happens to him, I’m sure Senior Brother Song would put in a good word for us. There is nothing to worry about. All we have to do is to make sure Lin Fei suffers. We don’t have to concern ourselves with anything else.”
“You’re right…” The rest of the group relaxed at his words. “But Senior Brother Su, the underground river might be extremely dangerous but I doubt you'll achieve the intended effect. Why don’t you send him over to me and I’ll get him to dig mines? I can guarantee that he would not be able to recall his name after a month…”
“What do you know…” Junior Brother Su smirked, his face full of disdain, “This is only the beginning. I’ll need to show him who is the true boss of Dark Ice Cave. He has to know that even though we are merely disciples of the outer gate if he provokes us, he might not only have to go hungry, he might also be in danger of losing his life. Just you wait, I’m sure he would come begging me for a change of location within three days…”
“I see. Once he starts to fear us, making him suffer after that would be a piece of cake. Even if we ask him to clean the latrine pits instead of digging mines, I’m sure he would obey our orders…”
“Exactly.” Junior Brother Su nodded proudly. He took another gulp of liquor and a last bite of the meat before he rose to his feet. “Alright, everyone, please take your time to finish up. I’ll have to patrol the underground river. Since I’ll be headed that way, I’ll also take this chance to check in on Lin Fei. I bet he has been scared to tears by this point in time…”
“See you later, Senior Brother Su.”
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