Ye Shanhu smiled. "At this juncture, Martial Uncle Li naturally wouldn't trail us. He likely traveled ahead to the Huosang Kingdom, waiting to secretly shadow us only after you've secured the Exceptional Spirit Root."

Xu Changshou furrowed his brow. "Then why not secure them himself?"

Ye Shanhu pondered, "I suspect Martial Uncle Li fears exposing the Exceptional Spirit Root prematurely. His personal intervention might draw unwanted eyes and invite calamity."

"Perhaps."

Xu Changshou nodded slightly.

Inwardly, he dismissed her reasoning. There's no way it's that simple. Li Daotu sending me on this errand definitely harbors an ulterior motive.

Glancing at Ye Shanhu, Xu Changshou shifted the subject. "Senior Sister Ye, do the five great sects of the Dongyu Immortal Forest ruthlessly poach disciples from one another?"

"Without hesitation!"

Ye Shanhu nodded solemnly. "They will violently contest any resource they can grasp, and that naturally includes disciples overflowing with Heaven's providence.

You must understand, the five great immortal sects endure solely because their foundations are evenly matched. The moment one sect shows weakness, annihilation swiftly follows.

Thus, whether in the light or the shadows, the warfare between the sects is absolute. If an illustrious clan births a peerless genius, the sects will vie to claim them. Should they fail, they will stop at nothing to eradicate that genius.

Otherwise, decades down the line, a single cultivator might rise to overturn an entire sect."

"I see."

Xu Changshou nodded in silence. The cruelty of the cultivation world was far more suffocating than he had initially measured.

...

Two or three days passed in the blink of an eye.

Astride their Red-Scaled Horses, the pair had already traversed three thousand Li from the Sect. Before them stretched an endless, desolate plain.

The Red-Scaled Horses possessed fearsome stamina, capable of covering a thousand Li a day with ease. At this pace, they would reach the eastern coast in less than ten days.

Because Li Daotu had not dictated a firm deadline for his return to the Sect, Xu Changshou felt no urgency. The two journeyed at a measured pace, taking in the vast landscapes.

Suddenly, where the heavens met the earth, a dense cluster of countless black specks manifested.

The specks rapidly sharpened, accompanied by the violent, rhythmic trembling of the earth.

The pair hastily yanked the reins, halting their Red-Scaled Horses.

A flicker of panic crossed Ye Shanhu's face. "Junior Brother Xu, what is that?"

Xu Changshou channeled Spiritual Qi into his pupils, and the distant swarm instantly snapped into sharp focus.

The encroaching horde was composed of pitch-black ferocious bulls.

Xu Changshou released a tense breath. "Senior Sister Ye, it is a herd of ferocious bulls. We've stumbled into their migration path."

Hearing it was mere beasts, Ye Shanhu's taut posture relaxed.

Ferocious bulls were nothing more than mortal fauna. Even a stampede of tens of thousands could not threaten cultivators of their caliber.

Moo-!

A deafening bellow shattered the heavens. Xu Changshou snapped his gaze forward, spotting a golden ferocious bull tearing across the plains directly toward them.

The golden beast boasted a monstrous frame, easily thrice the size of its kin. Its metallic fur radiated a harsh, blinding glint, each strand akin to a tempered golden needle.

In its furious wake, thousands of ferocious bulls charged with ground-shattering momentum, a merciless torrent of black steel.

"It is a Ferocious Bull King!"

Xu Changshou's eyes narrowed.

A Ferocious Bull King was no mundane animal. It had awakened a sliver of Dao, standing as a true Demon Beast equivalent to a Qi Condensation cultivator.

Judging by the sheer, crushing pressure radiating from the golden bull, its might was entirely on par with a mid-stage Qi Condensation cultivator, if not greater.

"Junior Brother Xu, we must evade its deadly charge!"

Ye Shanhu summoned her White Jade Boat, preparing to take to the skies.

"Hold!"

Xu Changshou blocked her path, his tone grave. "We cannot retreat. We just passed a mortal settlement. If we yield the path, that village will be pulverized into dust by this stampede."

"Then how do we proceed?"

Panic edged Ye Shanhu's voice. Even as the words left her lips, the Ferocious Bull King closed the distance at a terrifying speed.

She could vividly perceive the crimson, bloodthirsty malice bleeding from its eyes.

"Senior Sister Ye, steady your heart. I will sever its path!"

Xu Changshou snapped the reins, driving his Red-Scaled Horse into a blistering sprint directly toward the horde.

Ye Shanhu cried out in alarm, "Junior Brother Xu, guard your life!"

Roar-!

The Ferocious Bull King unleashed a deafening bellow, hurtling into striking distance of Xu Changshou.

Planting his boots upon the saddle, Xu Changshou vaulted into the heavens. Executing the Wind Manipulation Technique, he soared over three Zhang, directly intercepting the descending behemoth.

Simultaneously, he slapped his Storage Bag, drawing the pitch-black Five Clouds Sword.

"Foul beast! You court death!"

Xu Changshou slashed downwards, erupting with a five-colored radiance. The blade's edge swallowed the ambient light, descending like a divine guillotine toward the Bull King's skull.

Yet, the Demon Beast did not meekly await slaughter. It roared in fury, a distinctly human glint of disdain flashing within its crimson eyes.

Its twin horns erupted with a blinding, metallic brilliance, firing a Chi-long beam of golden slaughter directly at Xu Changshou's Five Clouds Sword.

Schlick-

The five-colored slash effortlessly annihilated the golden beam. An instant later, a colossal, blood-drenched golden head thumped heavily onto the earth.

Moo!

Moo!

Moo...

Witnessing the instant execution of their king, the encroaching horde shattered in terror. Bawling in absolute panic, the torrent of black steel violently reversed its course and fled.

"Junior Brother Xu, what terrifying martial might!"

Ye Shanhu spurred her mount forward, her eyes trembling with disbelief as she beheld Xu Changshou.

She had never imagined that this humble junior, who constantly deferred to her as Senior Sister, masked such monstrous, lethal combat prowess beneath his mundane facade.

The aura of that Ferocious Bull King had unquestionably rivaled a peak ninth-layer Qi Condensation cultivator.

Unless she exhausted her life-preserving trump cards, she would have struggled bitterly to merely survive an encounter with the beast.

Yet Xu Changshou, whose realm lay beneath her own, had cleanly severed its life in a single breath. It utterly defied logic.

"Junior Brother Xu, that lethal strike just now... was that the Five Elements Sword?"

"It was."

"No wonder its destructive force was so absolute. You've truly mastered the Five Elements Sword."

Ye Shanhu smiled bitterly. A pity. The Five Elements Sword restricts itself solely to those possessing all five elemental affinities.

She was well aware that Xu Changshou bore a hopelessly mixed spirit root. While such poor aptitude chained one to an agonizingly slow realm advancement, it granted immense versatility in mystical arts. The more elements one harbored, the wider their arsenal of slaughter.

"This pelt is of decent quality. Leaving it to rot would be a squandered chance."

Wielding the Five Clouds Sword as a butcher's knife, Xu Changshou efficiently flayed the colossal beast, stripping it completely bare, leaving not a sliver of hide upon its severed skull.

From the moment he swept his eyes over the Ferocious Bull King, Xu Changshou recognized it as a metal-attribute Demon Beast.

Its flesh and skin served as the perfect vessel for drafting metal-attribute spiritual talismans.

If he rendered this pelt into talisman paper for the Sharp Gold Talisman, its penetrative lethality would easily double that of a standard draft.

My defensive arrays and evasion arts are solid, but my offensive means remain a glaring weakness. This Demon Beast's hide perfectly bridges that fatal flaw.

Having harvested the spoils, the pair mounted their beasts and resumed their trek.

The remainder of the plains yielded no further Demon Beasts. The occasional blood-crazed mortal predator that dared cross their path was effortlessly decapitated by a casual flick of Xu Changshou's blade.

Ten days later.

The pair finally arrived at the precipice of the eastern coast.

It was the nascent hour of dawn. A blazing golden sun breached the distant horizon, ascending into the heavens.

The ocean surface was a mirror of shimmering gold, undisturbed by violent squalls.

Spanning between this shore and the Huosang Kingdom lay three thousand Li of treacherous waters. The duo stored their Red-Scaled Horses into their spirit beast bags, as the fiery steeds were useless upon the sea.

"Manifest!"

Ye Shanhu struck her Storage Bag, hurling the White Jade Boat into the air. It rapidly expanded, settling with a heavy splash onto the lapping tide.

Stepping lightly onto the vessel's deck, Ye Shanhu flashed a shrewd smile. "Junior Brother Xu, maintaining the arrays of my White Jade Boat drains a fragmented Spirit Stone every hundred Li. You will shoulder this toll."

"Naturally. Consider it paid."

Xu Changshou chuckled dryly, vaulting onto the pristine deck.

Ye Shanhu commanded the core Formation, and the White Jade Boat silently cleaved through the coastal waters.

Disguised by its aquatic displacement, the vessel masqueraded as a mundane merchant skiff, shielding them from the predatory gaze of roaming cultivators.