Chapter 166: Weakest Target?

Jiang Li’s actions had undoubtedly offended the Immortal Ascension Pavilion.

However, he had done this after much consideration, and if all went well, it might only be the beginning.

Because at this moment, Jiang Li felt that he already had a certain degree of ability to protect himself, and it was impossible for the Immortal Ascension Pavilion to do anything to him.

Therefore, since he had already offended them, he might as well get the maximum benefits for himself.

After receiving that list, Pavilion Master Sun was naturally extremely depressed. He did not expect that there would still be such a shameless person these days. He really dared to write down everything.

However, although the number of items on Jiang Li’s list was shocking, they were not of high quality. Combined together, their value was barely within the acceptable range of the Immortal Ascension Pavilion.

He took a deep breath and accepted it.

Amongst them, the most controversial was the request Jiang Li made to choose items in the treasure vault.

In principle, the Immortal Ascension Pavilion wanted to reject it, but because of their consideration for the Scripture Storage Valley, they could only give in and let Jiang Li choose one item.

However, if it was only an item, Jiang Li felt that he had really lost out.

After a long discussion, it was decided that Jiang Li could choose two items from their treasure vault, but it was also stipulated that Jiang Li could not choose their few ultimate treasures.

Soon, the agent of the Scripture Storage Valley store stationed at the Immortal Ascension Pavilion received a large amount of supplies.

After checking everything according to the list, they were transported by the sect’s flying ship and temporarily brought back to the sect to wait for Jiang Li to return after the competition.

After the basic distribution was completed, Jiang Li very graciously released the four captives. He also returned all the artifacts other than the storage bag to Huangfu Tai.

This matter temporarily came to an end.

On the other hand, Elder He proposed to help Jiang Li capture another Foundation Establishment realm demon beast and get a new blood tattoo to recover his combat strength.

However, Jiang Li hesitated for a moment before rejecting this suggestion. He had his own consideration about the next blood tattoo.

…

The Great Mountain Cultivator Tournament was currently held in the Medicine Garden Mystic Realm of the Misty Mountain Range.

Somewhere thousands of kilometers away, two golden sword lights descended together and landed on a wide and slow stream.

This was the Mother River that had experienced a great battle back then.

Going downstream along the river, the slow-moving area was no longer as dark and smelly as before.

As the river water flowed, the repulsive Yin Corpse Blood was washed even farther away and even flowed into the sea.

The poisonous river water had already changed, but the aquatic creatures that had been poisoned by the Yin Corpse Blood could not recover so quickly. Moreover, the Yin Corpse Blood had also affected the downstream, causing a large number of creatures to be exterminated.

The fishermen who relied on the Mother River to fish would probably lose their livelihood.

As for these two sword cultivators, they were the ones who had been sent here to verify the situation after hearing the information about the sword cultivator clone.

“Big Brother, let’s go down.”

The two sword cultivators checked on the shore for a while and did not find any abnormalities. This was natural. At that time, hundreds of cultivators had searched thoroughly and did not find any clues. The hiding talent of the Nine Nether Wood was extremely powerful.

However, according to the information, the problem was underwater. Since they had flown so far here, they could not report to the sect if they did not go down and take a look!

Elder Zuo Mo nodded. The two of them took out two blue pearls at the same time and threw them into the water.

Two whirlpools soon appeared on the surface of the river, growing larger and deeper. The two beads actually pushed away the water that was more than a hundred meters deep, forming two vertical air columns that reached the riverbed.

This was a water attribute artifact, Water Repelling Pearl. Due to its practical function and simple refinement method, many skilled blacksmiths could make it. It was not a rare item.

“Go!”

The two of them stepped on their flying swords and cautiously activated their protective light before descending along the pillar.

Soon, the light became dim, and the moist, muddy riverbed appeared beneath their feet.

“The bottom of this riverbed is also very clean.”

“There’s no sight of corpses and ghost flames everywhere.”

“I think that Tang Yan was most likely hallucinating while on the verge of death. There’s no underwater graveyard at all. What a waste of time.”

The Sword Cultivator Zuo Luo held the Water Repelling Pearl and slowly checked the riverbed as he walked.

He suddenly kicked something and bent down to retrieve a damaged sword from the mud.

Judging from the looks of the damaged weapon, there were not many rust stains on the sword and it should not have been abandoned for long. It was very likely the weapon left behind by the cultivators who died in the battle over there.

“Brother, look at this…”

Elder Zuo Luo’s voice paused. He suddenly realized that no one had responded to him since just now.

He hurriedly turned his head to look for it. Rich spiritual light blossomed in his eyes as his gaze pierced through the murky river water and surveyed his surroundings.

The river water that had been poisoned by the Yin Corpse Blood was clean, but there was no sign of his elder brother, who had just come down with him.

Not far away, he could only see the pillar of air that repelled the surrounding water.

Where was he?

A bad feeling arose in his heart.

However, Brother Zuo Mo was a Golden Core cultivator. How could he have disappeared without a trace?

Had he returned to the shore?

Elder Zuo Luo rode his flying sword and hurriedly rose into the sky, wanting to leave the bottom of the lake to search.

However, in the next moment, his ankle was instantly bound by something. He felt a terrifying force that even Golden Core realm cultivators could not resist.

Elder Zuo Luo was startled. The momentum of his flying sword stopped abruptly.

What… What was that?

A golden sword light slashed down. The sword technique that had always been unstoppable due to the enhancement of the Sword Heart felt an indescribable sluggishness this time.

The incomparably sharp golden sword light sliced apart the thing binding his feet bit by bit.

A drop of cold sweat dripped down the Golden Core cultivator’s forehead. After he was grabbed, the originally calm riverbed suddenly wriggled strangely.

The golden sword light slashed with all its might. After a few breaths, his foot felt lighter, and the thing as thick as his wrist was finally cut off.

This was the first time Elder Zuo Luo felt that several breaths of time was actually so long.

He did not stop for a moment. He stepped on the flying sword and was about to leave the bottom of the river.

However, in the next moment, more than ten huge roots suddenly crawled out from under the riverbed and instantly bound the Golden Core sword cultivator.

A terrible force pulled him downward.

The Golden Core sword cultivator was still resisting desperately. The incomparably sharp metal flying sword directly pierced into one of the roots. He even spat out the Golden Core in his body.

However, it was still useless!

These tree roots possessed a terrifying absorption force. Once one came into contact with them, the spiritual qi in their bodies would be continuously absorbed.

Especially after the Golden Core was wrapped up, the speed at which the spiritual qi disappeared was like a floodgate being opened. The Golden Core sword cultivator fell to the left and his body quickly became weak.

In the end, he was pulled into the riverbed.

300 meters to the north of the river bed, Elder Zuo Mo, who was holding the Water Repelling Pearl, also turned his head in confusion.

“Second Brother, where are you?”

If Jiang Li was here, he would definitely be extremely shocked.

That was because the Spiritual Root Branch in the underwater graveyard only knew how to pull corpses back then. Why did it seem like it had started to target living cultivators now?

Moreover, the ability displayed by this Spiritual Root Branch was much richer and stronger than the one in his hand.

Even though they were both branches, the environment they grew in was different. The disparity was actually so huge.

When the two were compared together, Jiang Li’s spiritual root clone was really useless.

…

Back in the Misty Mountain Range.

At this moment, the second round of the competition had gradually come to an end.

There were currently only 100 cultivators left in the Foundation Establishment stage competition venue, while there were 200 Qi Refinement realm cultivators left.

In this Grand Competition, the two jade rankings that recorded the names of the participants would continue to pass through to the end.

In the end, there would be fifty names on the black list representing the Foundation Establishment realm and a hundred names on the white list representing the Qi Refinement realm.

In each of the two competitions, 50% of the total output distribution of the Medicine Garden Mystic Realm was determined.

Apart from the two most special first place winners, who would obtain 10% of the share each for their respective sects, the second to tenth places on the two rankings would have a total of 15% of the garden’s share. This meant another 30% of the total production.

Generally speaking, although the value of the second to tenth positions decreased, they also represented a considerable portion of more than 1%.

Therefore, this was the importance of strength in the cultivation world. The top ten on the Black and White Rankings, these twenty people, already decided half the share of the entire Medicine Garden Mystic Realm.

On the two rankings, there were a total of 130 people outside the top ten who could split the remaining 50%.

As the first ranked of the first round of the Grand Competition, Jiang Li arrived at the scene today. Next to him was the second ranked Shenshan Qiuhua and the others behind her.

The 200 Qi Refinement realm cultivators who had experienced the baptism of the second round of the competition and ultimately won were staring at them like tigers targeting their prey.

According to the rules, while the top ten obtained huge benefits, they also had to endure the greatest pressure.

Even though the top ten of their current rankings had directly skipped the intense elimination of the second round of the competition, they would receive the most severe test at this moment.

The second to tenth cultivators were about to face three consecutive intense challenges.

As the first on the rankings, Jiang Li had to face five consecutive challenges that he could not refuse.

If he could survive this challenge, then he would be able to keep his spot in the top ten.

After this challenge was over, these 200 cultivators could only contend for the 11th to 100th position and were no longer qualified to challenge the top ten.

Therefore, logically speaking, the best solution at this moment should be to choose a fifth to tenth place opponent with a relatively low ranking first. After passing three rounds, they would see if they could challenge a higher ranking person.

If one lost, their ranking would plummet. After the opportunity for the challenge passed, if one did not stay in the top ten, there would be no more opportunities.

On the other hand, as the first on the rankings, Jiang Li was undoubtedly standing at the center of the storm.

Not everyone could handle facing five experts of the same realm in a row.

Among the crowd, there were the most cultivators who looked at Jiang Li with strange gazes.

First of all, being fast in the first round of the competition did not mean that this person was strong. It could also be that he was purely lucky.

Most importantly…

The incident of Jiang Li being attacked a few days ago had caused an uproar, and almost everyone knew a little about it.

Although most people did not know the exact details, rumors of Jiang Li being chased by a Core Formation cultivator and two Foundation Establishment cultivators and unleashing a secret technique to severely injure himself while fleeing were very popular.

There were even rumors that Jiang Li had already been beaten to the point of near death at that time, and he had barely survived under the joint treatment of the elders who had rushed over.

He was originally a body cultivator, but later his body cultivation was crippled.

He had more than 200 broken bones and had to use the bones of several demon beasts to reconnect them.

There were also those who said that his Qi Sea was damaged and unstable, his cultivation level was less than 10% of before, and now, even a child could defeat him.

In short, according to them, even if Jiang Li escaped, he would definitely suffer heavy losses when dealing with a Core Formation cultivator. Naturally, they would exaggerate as much as they could.

Jiang Li had become the weakest target in the eyes of almost all the cultivators, and he was the type that had already been crippled.

However, if they really got what they wanted and faced a ‘pushover’ like Jiang Li, they might feel the biggest surprise of their lives.

“Jiang Li! Have you heard of it?”

“In the second round of the competition, a few impressive dark horses appeared.”

Under the covetous gazes of so many people, Shenshan Qiuhua also appeared a little nervous at this moment. She repeatedly touched the two swords in her arms. This pair of Fire and Water Swords could give her a sense of security like a toy bear.

However, Jiang Li was utterly not concerned about all this now. No matter how strong the dark horse was, he was still at the Qi Refinement realm, and it was utterly impossible for anyone to be a threat to him.

He was now concerned about other rewards other than the share of the spiritual medicine.

Long before he left the sect, he had heard that under the joint exploration of the sect, they had discovered an extremely long and strange spiritual fruit in the depths of the mystic realm.

At that time, the group of spiritual plant masters argued endlessly about what this spiritual fruit was. They only knew that it was very precious and powerful.

Later on, there were rumors that this spiritual fruit would appear as the reward for the winner of the competition, but there was no conclusion.

Only a few days ago did someone finally compare the ancient texts and analyze that this thing was very likely the legendary Dao Foundation Spiritual Fruit that could fortify and strengthen the Dao foundation!

The importance of a Dao Foundation to a cultivator was self-evident.

In the future, all aspects of cultivation would be affected by it. Its importance was almost equivalent to the spiritual root.

After establishing a Dao Foundation, it would be nearly impossible to re-cultivate. Even if one shattered the Dao Foundation to rebuild it, the success rate of this method was very low. It was very likely that the reconstructed Dao Foundation would be worse than before.

At this time, the value of the Dao Foundation Spiritual Fruit was revealed.

It could fortify and strengthen the Dao Foundation.

Be it Qi Refinement cultivators, who had yet to reach the Foundation Establishment realm, or high-level cultivators who had already built their Dao Foundation, they all had needs for it.

To Qi Refinement cultivators, the effects of the Dao Foundation Spiritual Fruit would be better. However, to some high-level cultivators who were restricted by the Dao Foundation and could not advance an inch, this was like a medicine for regret.

It was actually very difficult to determine just who this thing was more important and valuable to.

However, the upper echelons of the sect who held authority and had strong demands were usually unwilling to give such good things to the juniors.

This made it difficult for Jiang Li who wanted to obtain this fruit.