Although some of those from the other valleys thought it was unbelievable when they saw Fang Xing and his branch begin their collection, there were others that could no longer restrain themselves. "Quick, we should do it too, or they’ll have it all! Remember, whatever we get is ours to keep!" Once such thoughts were exposed, those from the other branches also joined in the scramble for the beast corpses and cores. By this time, however, the Duanzhen Valley had already s.n.a.t.c.hed nearly half of what was there.

Those from the Danxia Valley did not join in on the scramble. A few female disciples were quietly healing Lin Qinxue while the one who had received the b.l.o.o.d.y black pellet remained silent for quite a while. The disciple finally took out a small knife to first sc.r.a.pe off all the fluids on its surface before cutting away a thin layer of powder from the pellet. Once he took a closer examination of the powder, the color on his face drained away and he looked towards Lin Qinxue with annoyance. "The face of Danxia Valley has been lost because of you!" He turned to look at Xu Linyun still up in the air before letting out a light sigh.

The other nearby Danxia disciples felt their hearts sank when they heard those words. They all then turned to look towards Lin Qinxue filled with mixed feelings.

"You have the result?" No one could tell when Fang Xing had gotten so close to them, and he snickered at the disciple who had done the examination. At the question, the disciple showed a complex expression and replied in a deep tone, "I will let s.h.i.+jie Linyun know. She will make the final decision."

"What did you want to let me know?" a calm voice suddenly rose up from the air as Xu Linyun threw out a red-colored furnace. The furnace rotated in the air as a bright ray of light s.h.i.+mmered and—since the two remaining snakes had been heavily wounded by her—the Fiery-Scaled Serpents only managed to give a final struggle before they were completely covered by the light. Both snakes then shrank down small enough to be contained within the furnace, and the furnace then shrank into a much smaller size before landing atop Xu Linyun’s palm.

After Fang Xing had slain one of the Fiery-Scaled Serpents, the remaining two were no match for Xu Linyun. The reason why the fight had taken a bit long was because Xu Linyun had wanted to capture them with her furnace after wounding them. This pair of snakes favored extremely hot magma, which had contributed to them developing a Demonic Qi of the fire element. With enough time, they could be tamed into spirit beasts to act as protectors of her furnace for when she crafted pellets.

Amidst the clear cry of the white crane, Xu Linyun landed on the ground. Her neatly coiled hair was now loosened, showing the fight was not without effort, but the expression she wore was still calm and she didn’t have any wounds. The t.i.tle of Qing-Yun Core Disciple was indeed not merely for show.

When the male disciple saw Xu Linyun land, he walked over to quietly fill her in on the entire course of events. As he spoke, Xu Linyun’s expression darkened and she looked to Lin Qinxue with displeasure. Those that had been healing Lin Qinxue also moved aside one by one, leaving her sitting quietly alone. The act Lin Qinxue committed was, in a sense, more than simply trying to wound a sect disciple—it was borderline the desire to bring grave danger to the Danxia Valley lead disciple, Xu Linyun. If Xu Linyun had even slightly less self-control, she might have already killed Lin Qinxue in pa.s.sing.

Xu Linyun stared at Lin Qinxue for a long while before tossing a pellet into the latter’s lap. "Take this pellet."

Lin Qinxue picked up the pellet, her expression changing. "A Hibernation Pellet?"

Xu Linyun emotionlessly replied, "Yes, I don’t want to punish you, but since you’ve done something to endanger our sect disciples, it’s best for you to abandon this mission. Once you take this pellet, your vitals and blood flow will be temporarily halted. This will benefit your wounds and I’ll keep you inside my storage ring. Once the Duty Talisman mission is over, I will bring you back to our dear s.h.i.+fu who will make a decision as to your actual punishment."

Lin Qinxue’s lips s.h.i.+vered, as she knew that there was no longer any hope for her. Back when she had been sent to confinement for half a year after failing to kill Fang Xing, the gossip of her being slapped twice by Fang Xing had already been spread throughout the sect alongside her secret romance with Hou Qing. All of her reputation and future had been ruined. Even the att.i.tude of her s.h.i.+fu towards her had undergone a complete change, as her s.h.i.+fu believed that engaging in such shameful acts with Hou Qing meant she was no longer pure and was unsuitable for further teaching or nurturing.

In these three years, she had worked extra diligently to raise her cultivation level from tier three to tier five, and this alone had already made her one of the top pupils amongst the ordinary disciples. However, this still did not raise her s.h.i.+fu’s opinion of her until this Duty Talisman mission appeared. Her s.h.i.+fu finally gave her the opportunity to join the other disciples in this mission, and if she had made good use of this chance to prove her worth and ability, it might have been perfect to regain some of the favor she had lost from her s.h.i.+fu, even if it was just a hope of hers….

It was precisely because of such hope that she hadn’t wanted to take revenge on Fang Xing in the first place. What she hadn’t expected was that even though she didn’t take any initiative in seeking revenge, the boy had never forgotten about their feud and began a verbal altercation the moment he saw her, causing her anger to rise. When the fact that Fang Xing not only demonstrated a close relations.h.i.+p with Xu Linyun, but also had a relations.h.i.+p with her s.h.i.+fu’s most favorite little s.h.i.+mei—Xiao Mahn—came to light, it caused Lin Qinxue to realize she wouldn’t gain any benefits for herself even if she moved on from her earlier hatred. The boy was clearly someone who remembered even the smallest of grudges; if he one day grew powerful, would she have any chance of escaping from his attention? Despite the low odds of success, Lin Qinxue’s desire to kill flared up once again.

It was when she was given the opportunity to craft a pellet that luck came to her aid. She was the last one to complete the pellet and saw that the other two detoxifying pellets had been completed and handed over to Pi Junzi and Feng Qingwei, ensuring her pellet would go to Fang Xing without a doubt. She had seized this chance and decided to quietly alter the last ingredient to something else.

In truth, the pellet she had crafted was not exactly poisonous; it would only slow down the consumer’s reaction time and thoughts. In Lin Qinxue’s mind, the fight between the disciples and the snake would be extremely intense. If Fang Xing had taken the pellet before facing the Fiery-Scaled Serpent, even a split second’s worth of delay could allow the snake to give him the kiss of death. This would have satisfied her wish and no one would have ever been able to find the real reason behind his death.

Lin Qinxue hadn’t antic.i.p.ated that Fang Xing would be able to recognize the pellet with just a single glance, but she hadn’t panicked at the time and simply consumed the pellet herself before anyone was able to examine it. This way, not only would it prove that the pellet was not a poisonous one, but it also destroyed the sole piece of evidence. It would make it impossible for anyone to pin the blame on her and would take advantage of the situation, creating the false impression that Fang Xing was trying to frame her—a move that could potentially push Xu Linyun away from him and sabotage their relations.h.i.+p. Lin Qinxue had never expected that Fang Xing would slay the snake with one blow and capture her to slice open her stomach to retrieve the pellet, ruining and exposing her entire plan in front of everyone. The boy’s ruthlessness was just not normal.

She could only imagine that her bright future would end the moment she was back at the sect. Based on her s.h.i.+fu’s temperament, Lin Qinxue may not necessarily be punished for trying to harm sect disciples or for putting them in danger, but her s.h.i.+fu would certainly think of her acts as stupidity at its finest. It was her fault that Danxia Valley had lost its face, and it was possible that her s.h.i.+fu might expel her from the sect, or worse—kill her.

All sorts of thoughts flashed before her mind, and Lin Qinxue suddenly wished that the dagger in Fang Xing’s hand had simply stabbed her to death instead. At least that way, considering how protective her s.h.i.+fu was of her pupils, it was possible she might have been avenged….

But no one cared about all of these thoughts running through Lin Qinxue’s mind, as everyone now considered her as good as dead. The Qing-Yun disciples were busy tallying the injured and deceased.

Aside from the eight disciples that had been killed in the first instance with the black insects, there were nine more that had been wounded from fighting with the beast packs. Five of them had received light injuries, but they were quickly as good as new with a little help from the Recovery Pellets activated by the Danxia disciples. The remaining four disciples were not as lucky and had lost a limb or two; although they didn’t need to worry about death, they were no longer able to be useful for any future battles.

Of the four valleys, it had been Duanzhen Valley that had fared the best, with only three receiving light wounds, no deaths, and no critical injuries. With this outcome, although all of the Duanzhen disciples were surprised at first, they all began to see Fang Xing as a touch more pleasing to the eye. Those who had wounds had mainly received them from fifth and sixth-tier beasts hiding amidst the packs of fourth-tier beasts. Although Fang Xing might not have joined in during the entirety of the battle, he had focused on picking out all of the irregular higher-tiered beasts and had slain them immediately before they caused any harm. This was another reason why the Duanzhen disciples had managed to avoid much loss and injury.

Duanzhen Valley had also been the first to react after the battle to go through all of the beast corpses, making them the biggest winners so far. Beast cores were effectively money, so it was true that scrambling through these corpses was no doubt equal to s.n.a.t.c.hing up as much money as possible. The other three valleys’ disciples had been a little reserved and—coupled with the shock of how Fang Xing had retrieved the pellet by slicing open someone’s stomach—the others’ reactions had been a little slow. Fang Xing didn’t care about any of that, however; his top priority was to s.n.a.t.c.h up as much money as possible.

Out of the over three hundred beasts that had attacked the Qing-Yun disciples, less than a hundred or so had later escaped and there were a good two hundred corpses lying across the lake. Although most of them were only in the fourth tier, this was still an incredible amount of wealth taken altogether. Converted, it would be the equivalent of at least forty thousand low-grade Spirit Stones.

And the Duanzhen disciples had already managed to secure half of that for themselves!