In this sort of situation, Mo Wuji could not be merciful at all, so he swung the Tian Ji Pole straight at the neck of the guy wielding the gigantic scissors.
With a crack, this cultivator’s neck and his shoulder on one side was smashed to a pulp by the swing of Mo Wuji’s pole, and he fell to the ground without making a sound.
Mo Wuji quickly dug up the Lingzhi and kept it in his storage bag. Yu Zhi also picked up the guy’s storage bag that fell to the ground.
From the time Mo Wuji dug up the Lingzhi, to this cultivator ambushing him with the giant scissors, then to Mo Wuji and Yu Zhi joining forces to kill that guy, barely a few breaths worth of time had passed. Both of them worked together as though as they had done so before, with impeccable teamwork.
"You dare kill my junior apprentice brother, kneel before me…" A wild aura came extended in their direction, and a punch towards Mo Wuji and Yu Zhi soon followed. Even with the both of them combined, they could not block this aura, and were pushed back to the point that both their legs gave out cracking sounds. Mo Wuji clenched his teeth, but just as he was prepare to release a burst of Lightning Flash, a wave of energy exploded forth from his side.
This came as a shock. If that strong wave of energy landed on his back, he would have been dead meat.
"Bang!" Two waves of spiritual energy slammed together, blowing up a gigantic crater in the ground. Mo Wuji could also feel the pressure surrounding his body lessen, hence he gave up using Lightning Flash.
Following which, he heard a calm voice say, "So what if we killed your junior apprentice brother?"
"Hou Yucheng, are you going to intervene?" A muscular man landed not far away from Mo Wuji. It was him that ambushed Mo Wuji and Yu Zhi.
"Brother Hou, thanks for the assistance. Senior Qu, I didn’t think that we’d manage to meet again." Mo Wuji turned around to see Hou Yucheng and Qu Wan’Er standing there.
If it were not for their appearance, while he could have used Lightning Flash to resolve the previous strike, it would have been difficult to escape from this muscular man with his life. This guy was probably at least at Transcending Mortality Intermediate Stage, and he was just at Channel Opening Stage Level 9. Yu Zhi was at most at the Great Circle of Spirit Building Stage.
Hou Yucheng grinned at Mo Wuji, "After all we’re teammates that scaled the ice mountain together."
After completing that sentence, he turned around towards the muscular man and said, "I’m definitely intervening in this matter. If there’s any issue, come at me." The man gave a death stare at Mo Wuji and Yu Zhi, and without saying another word, turned around to leave. Hou Yucheng was much stronger than him, and also belonged to a large sect. He could not stand up to Hou Yucheng at all.
"Brother Mo, I knew that you were all right. And indeed you are." Hou Yucheng bowed respectfully to Mo Wuji.
Qu Wan’Er added on at the side, "Senior Hou thought that something happened to you, and always felt guilty in his heart, saying that it was him that asked you to come along. Thankfully, you’re safe and sound."
For Hou Yucheng, Mo Wuji still felt that he could not read him or see through his motives completely. However, this time Hou Yucheng acted to save his life, for this he was extremely grateful.
While all of the spiritual herbs in the vicinity had been snatched clean, the three of them did not leave, but stayed to exchange stories about the past. In the process, Mo Wuji found out from Hou Yucheng that the two sides of the gorge was indeed spiritual veins, hence many spiritual herbs naturally grew in the middle of the two spiritual veins. As time passed by, the poorer quality spiritual herbs were competed out of the ecosystem, leaving the top grade spiritual herbs behind.
After that, Mo Wuji briefly explained how he managed to survive, being trapped in a icy hall, then enduring all that hardship before escaping with his life. He did conveniently leave out his haul from the icy hall, and Hou Yucheng did not ask about it either. Naturally, Mo Wuji did not question Hou Yucheng and Qu Wan’Er about what they got from the ice mountain.
Seeing that Mo Wuji was acquainted with Hou Yucheng and Qu Wan’Er, Yu Zhi quietened down. Previously, he agreed to stay by Mo Wuji’s side because he was not afraid of Mo Wuji taking his spiritual herbs. Now that Mo Wuji knew people much stronger than Yu Zhi, if he wanted to take all the spiritual herbs for himself, Yu Zhi would not be able to do a thing. Luckily Yu Zhe had left a few stalks of spiritual herbs for himself.
Just when Yu Zhi was in a state of unease, Mo Wuji called him over, and said to Hou Yucheng and Qu Wan’Er, "This is Yu Zhi, his wife is ill, so he asked me to help him concoct some pills, hence we came here to look for spiritual herbs."
Hearing Mo Wuji introduce him allowed Yu Zhi to heave a sigh of relief, and quickly returned the greetings. A rogue cultivator like him felt extremely inferior and lowly in the presence of genius disciples like Hou Yucheng and Qu Wan’Er. At least Mo Wuji had the title of pill refiner.
"Oh, which spiritual herbs are brother Yu still lacking?" Hou Yucheng maintained his courteous attitude, which did not change a single bit despite Yu Zhi’s status as a rogue cultivator.
Mo Wuji quickly replied, "We’re still lacking the Sky Spider Fruit and Extreme Orchid Flower. These two spiritual herbs are relatively common, so I believe we’ll be able to find some in the depths of this natural gorge…"
As he spoke these words, Mo Wuji felt quite ashamed of himself. His original reason for coming here was to help Yu Zhi harvest Sky Spider Fruits and Extreme Orchid Flowers, but the first thing he snatched up was a 100,000 Year Old Lingzhi. By the time the Lingzhi came into his possession, no other spiritual herbs was left.
Qu Wan’Er smiled, "Then there’s no need to carry on searching, I have these two spiritual herbs with me." While she spoke, many stalks of spiritual herbs appeared in her hands. They were exactly the Sky Spider Fruit and Extreme Orchid Flower that he was looking for.
Yu Zhi saw that Qu Wan’Er did not even probe any further, and just took out the spiritual herbs required to concoct the Body Constructing Pill, hence he swiftly moved forward to offer his thanks. Qu Wan’Er waved him off, "This bit of spiritual herbs means nothing, the amount that I owe Pill Master Mo is much more than these mere spiritual herbs."
If Mo Wuji did not give her a bracelet, even if she managed to get in here by herself, the price she would have paid would have exceeded these few stalks of spiritual herbs. Thus, deep in her heart, she was still very grateful towards Mo Wuji.
On his side, Mo Wuji took no notice of this, and just asked curiously after keeping the spiritual herbs," Senior Qu, there’s definitely more spiritual herbs in the depths of this gorge? Why don’t we carry on searching?"
To this, Hou Yucheng replied, "If we venture further into the gorge, it would take at least three days to reach the next area that spiritual herbs grow at. So both to and fro would take us six days. If that’s the case, we won’t have enough time to make it out of here. Moreover, in a few days, the poison fog of the Five Elements Desolate Domain will return to cover this whole area, and all sorts of demonic beasts will return too. Once that happens, we will have trouble ensuring our survival, much less talk about obtaining spiritual herbs."
Indeed, Mo Wuji could see that other than the minority of cultivators that were hesitant, the bulk of them had left the gorge.
"If that’s the case, then let’s leave too." While spiritual herbs were good stuff, to Mo Wuji, Yan’Er’s safety was still the number one priority.
"That’s my intention too." Hou Yucheng replied.
Qu Wan’Er herself had already made a great windfall, so naturally she agreed to leave too. Yu Zhi’s original aim for coming here was for the Body Constructing Pill, and since he had placed all his hopes on Mo Wuji, whatever Mo Wuji did, he would follow.
When Mo Wuji’s gang of four turned around to leave, the last few hesitating people also decided to follow suit. Valuable spiritual herbs incited greed among people, but if one lost their life in the process, everything would have been for naught.
"It’s a pity for Brother Mo. Three months in the Five Elements Desolated Domain is simply not enough and Brother Mo even got trapped in the ice mountain for almost two months." While the four of them were on their way, Hou Yucheng commented with a tinge of sympathy.
Qu Wan’Er smiled, "That’s hard to say. In my case, if I did not have senior apprentice brother Hou’s help, I might have fallen here much earlier. Just as senior apprentice brother Hou helped Mo Wuji when he was in danger."
Mo Wuji could understand the meaning in Qu Wan’Er’s words. It was that his level of cultivation was low, and if he did not get trapped in the ice mountain for two months, he might have been killed on the outside.
In reality, Qu Wan’Er was not making things up, for someone with Mo Wuji’s cultivation, in an intense fight like before, there existed the possibility that he could die at any moment.
Perhaps out of all the people that entered the Five Elements Desolate Domain, he spent the least time on searching for treasures, because most of it was spent on cultivating.
"Maybe if I did not intervene, Brother Mo would have similarly brushed off that guy’s ambush. With two months of time, Brother Mo might have actually found a Flower of the True Gods." Hou Yucheng said matter-of-factly.
With this, Mo Wuji suspected that Hou Yucheng knew that he had some tricks left up his sleeve, hence saying these things on purpose.
"Brother Hou, have you seen a Immeasurable Soul-forging Crystal before?" Mo Wuji was unwilling to elaborate further on the extent of his strength, and on top of that, he really wanted to know if what he had obtained were Immeasurable Soul-forging Crystals, so he inquired about it.
Hou Yucheng chuckled, "Immeasurable Soul-forging Crystals are even more valuable that Flowers of the True Gods from some perspectives, so how could I have seen such a thing before. What I do know is that a Immeasurable Soul-forging Crystal is a crystal with four corners and a light yellow tint…"
Listening till this point, Mo Wuji’s heart sank. He finally understood what he did wrongly. What he obtained was not the Immeasurable Soul-forging Crystal. Not only was it so, but the object he got appeared very different from one.
What Hou Yucheng described to be an Immeasurable Soul-forging Crystal indeed existed down below, because not far away from where he got the two ice flowers, there was a row of four-cornered, light yellow crystals which fit Hou Yucheng’s description. But that row of things seemed as though they were thrown to one side like a pile of trash. Based on his first impression, Mo Wuji naturally thought that the things being nurtured on the icy altar werr the most precious. Who knew that the stuff that was thrown to one side were the Immeasurable Soul-forging Crystals.
No wonder the man and woman said that they saw the Immeasurable Soul-forging Crystal. They saw what he thought was a pile of rubbish.
"There’s one more day before the day that we’ll leave the Five Elements Desolate Domain, let’s pick up the pace." Seeing that Mo Wuji and Hou Yucheng’s conversation ended, Qu Wan’Er interjected with a sentence of her own.
It was too late for him, and Mo Wuji could only sigh to himself. If there was still time, he would definitely make a trip back to the icy hall. Regardless whether he froze to death or not, he had to bring back the Immeasurable Soul-forging Crystals.
The worst part was that when he first decided to go to the ice mountain with Hou Yucheng, he only asked Hou Yucheng if there were any Immeasurable Soul-forging Crystals up there, but did not find out what it looked like. Even if Mo Wuji was sure that he would not make the same mistake again, he would not be able to take it if such an error was committed again.
"Your father just doesn’t want to hand it over, what can you do?" A booming voice woke Mo Wuji up from his bout of regret, followed by the explosive sounds of energy colliding into each other.
Zhen Shaoru? Mo Wuji saw Zhen Shaoru in combat with a skinny bearded man, so he leapt over without hesitation and landed at one side to observe the fight. If Zhen Shaoru could not defeat the other party, it didn’t matter that his level of cultivation was insufficient, he would still take action to help.