Chapter 107: Unable to Hold Back a Laugh

Clang! Clang!

Chu Xin'er did not care what Zhang Yingli was thinking. She drew her willow-leaf blade and, pouring every ounce of her strength into the effort to end the fight quickly, unleashed a torrential barrage of strikes that shattered the flying sword Zhang Yingli was using to contend with her.

"Big brother!" Seeing her brother in a precarious position, Zhang Xia cried out and attempted to pull away to assist him, but Xiao Wenzhi threw himself in her path to intercept.

"Get lost!"

Seeing the nimble mosquito flapping its wings to attack, Zhang Xia glared with fury. Ignoring the sharp arcs that distorted and warped her protective spiritual light, she unleashed her fire-tongue flying sword and other attacks toward Xiao Wenzhi all at once.

*Buzz.* With a blur of his figure, Xiao Wenzhi once again utilized his Demon Shadow Technique to evade.

However, taking advantage of this distraction, Zhang Xia’s flying sword whistled toward Chu Xin'er’s willow-leaf blade, momentarily easing the pressure on the failing Zhang Yingli.

*Damn it. Without system currency to exchange for talismans, I am still too weak in a head-on clash.*

Cultivator duels were not only about one’s own cultivation level; magic treasures often played a significant role. Although Zhang Xia could not defeat Xiao Wenzhi in the short term, he could not take her down either; he could only serve as a nuisance. Consequently, fighting until this point, Xiao Wenzhi deeply felt that he had relied too heavily on talismans in the past. While showering the enemy with talismans was exhilarating, the drawbacks were obvious. Just like now—without system currency, he was like a tiger with its teeth pulled. From now on, he had to focus on his own cultivation and the mastery of various techniques, especially the Body-Forging Claw Technique, which could continuously enhance his physical strength.

However, the battle was still ongoing, and overthinking would not change the situation. Xiao Wenzhi quickly cast aside these distracting thoughts, flapped his wings, and launched a series of wing-blade projectiles at the pair.

"Damn you, go to hell!"

Zhang Yingli had recovered from the shock of his magic tool breaking. He produced another low-grade flying sword, and together with his younger sister, he battled Chu Xin'er, managing to maintain a rough balance. In fact, they were slightly gaining the upper hand, as Chu Xin'er had to control three magic tools simultaneously, which placed a massive burden on her spiritual sense and cultivation. Of course, this was only because Xiao Wenzhi was not there to harass them. Because their protective spiritual light was under constant assault, their own cultivation was depleting rapidly.

Zhang Yingli knew that to take down Chu Xin'er, he had to kill this annoying mosquito first. With an angry shout, he condensed sword qi at his fingertips and slashed fiercely toward Xiao Wenzhi. Zhang Xia followed suit, her fire-tongue sword whistling through the air.

Attacks from practitioners at the Great Perfection of the Qi Refining stage were something he could not withstand with his physical body alone. Xiao Wenzhi had no choice but to use the Demon Shadow Technique to dodge, then circle back to harass them. In this way, the three humans and one demon mosquito clashed back and forth, neither side able to overcome the other in the short term.

In truth, that was not entirely accurate. How much spiritual power could Qi Refining cultivators possess? Whoever exhausted their cultivation first would inevitably lose. Chu Xin'er was controlling three magic tools, two of which were mid-grade, and Xiao Wenzhi’s combat power was only equivalent to a cultivator at the twelfth level. Zhang Yingli believed that in a contest of deep cultivation, he and his sister would never lose. His second brother, Zhang Lingfan, had died a stifling death; once he captured these two, he would make them pay in blood.

However, Chu Xin'er, whose aura had dimmed significantly, suddenly reached out and flipped her hand, producing a jade bottle from her storage bag. She uncorked it and quickly swallowed several pills. Her pale complexion rapidly regained its rosy hue.

These were Qi Gathering Pills. Although their effect in replenishing cultivation was average—nowhere near the instantaneous recovery provided by millennium stalactite milk or ten-thousand-year spiritual nectar—Chu Xin'er had obtained a large quantity from Liang Fan. She consumed them regardless of the cost, and her depleted magic power began to recover rapidly.

"This..."

Zhang Yingli and Zhang Xia were dumbfounded. They lacked such extravagant resources. A bitter taste filled their mouths, and they began to feel the urge to retreat. But it was clearly too late to stop now. With a loud *bang*, under the impact of Chu Xin'er's fully powered willow-leaf blade, Zhang Xia's flying sword shattered into pieces. Before she could withdraw her spiritual sense, blood spilled from the corners of her mouth, and her face turned deathly pale.

*Strike.* A golden opportunity could not be missed. Chu Xin'er waved her jade hand, and the willow-leaf blade erupted with spiritual light, slashing directly at Zhang Xia's protective barrier, which had been constantly warped by Xiao Wenzhi's attacks.

"Little sister!"

Amidst Zhang Yingli's anxious cry, Zhang Xia's protective spiritual light shattered on impact. However, since his own magic tools were entangled by the enemy, he could only fire off sword qi techniques to support her, but it was too late.

*Puff, puff.* Blood sprayed as a wing-blade projectile pierced through Zhang Xia's chest, while the willow-leaf blade sliced through her skull. The scream she let out before death was cut short.

At the same time, the sword qi technique fired by Zhang Yingli grazed past Xiao Wenzhi's body. With a flicker of a phantom, he split into six, and his true form reappeared several feet away.

"You..."

Having failed to harm the enemy while witnessing his little sister fall, following in the footsteps of his second brother, Zhang Lingfan, Zhang Yingli was consumed with rage. But Chu Xin'er did not give him the chance to trade verbal barbs. The golden sword and willow-leaf blade slashed with full force, while Xiao Wenzhi harassed him from the side. The man's situation immediately became precarious.

*Boom.* After several collisions, Zhang Yingli's low-grade magic tool crumbled under the strain, and his protective spiritual light could no longer withstand the combined strike of the wing-blade and the willow-leaf blade.

Once the light barrier shattered like a bubble, his tragedy was sealed. Before he could recall his black dagger, the wing-blade and the willow-leaf blade sliced across his throat and abdomen, respectively.

Having finally slain her formidable enemies, Chu Xin'er let out a long breath as she watched the headless Zhang Yingli fall backward. However, this place was not safe for long. She had no time to recover her cultivation; she simply gathered the spoils of war and turned into a streak of light, fleeing into the distance.

Chu Xin'er's caution was not without merit. Half an hour later, a streak of light descended onto this wasteland. Fortunately, she was already dozens of miles away. The cultivator in the light was only at the Half-Step Foundation Establishment stage; his spiritual sense could not probe that far, and he did not recognize Zhang Yingli and his sister, so he did not pursue them further.

The great battle had consumed too much of her cultivation. Although she had won, her appearance was quite disheveled. It was not appropriate to head straight for the Spirit Medicine Sect, so Chu Xin'er flew for another half hour before landing in the mountain range below.

This range, adjacent to Spirit Medicine Peak, was vast and rich in spiritual energy, so it naturally lacked no shortage of rogue cultivators who had opened their own caves. However, Chu Xin'er was not planning to reside there for a long time, so the richness of the spiritual energy did not matter; she simply needed to find an ownerless peak to open a temporary cave.

With a dance of sword light, a cave dwelling of only a dozen square meters took shape. After setting up a Mist-Concealing Demon-Subduing Array, the young girl stepped inside.

The world of immortal cultivation was filled with thorns at every step; one had to remain vigilant at all times to survive for long. Therefore, after sitting cross-legged on a prayer mat, Chu Xin'er did not immediately examine her loot; she needed to restore her cultivation to its peak state first.

Time passed slowly. The next morning, the sound of silvery laughter rang out from the cave. It turned out that Chu Xin'er, now fully restored, had broken all the imprints on the storage bags belonging to the Zhang siblings and had finished counting the items within.

The black dagger alone had already satisfied her, but upon seeing the dozens of materials for refining Foundation Establishment Pills, as well as the payment the siblings had prepared for the Spirit Medicine Sect's alchemist, she could no longer hold back her laughter.