Chapter 167: The Final Restriction

The two of them turned their heads in terror, and there was Song Yan’s face, filling their vision.

“You…”

The token fell into his hand, and the spirit patterns transferred at once.

Almost simultaneously, both of them were enveloped by a flash of white light and teleported away.

“Phew…”

Gu Qingqing let out a sigh of relief.

Earlier, Song Yan had discovered that when the Hidden Sword Spirit Gathering Formation was operating at full power, his position would not appear on Gu Qingqing’s map.

It seemed the markers on this map were determined by a cultivator’s spiritual energy fluctuations.

Therefore, techniques that concealed one’s aura could render one’s marker invisible on the map.

This could be used to hide one’s position, or to catch others off guard.

And so, a bold idea took shape.

Along the way, he had used Gu Qingqing as bait, drawing quite a few people to deliver their spirit patterns of their own accord.

Now, the number displayed on his spirit pattern jade token had become “forty-eight.”

Gu Qingqing craned her neck to peek.

When she saw the number on Song Yan’s token, he was startled.

“That many… Senior Brother Song, you’re not in first place, are you?”

Song Yan rolled his eyes at her. “Stop flattering me. Let’s go.”

Her small face twisted bitterly. “Senior Brother, we’re already at this critical juncture. Why don’t you just go on your own?”

“If Qingqing goes any further, she’ll just get beaten up and sent flying.”

“It’d be more dignified to just march outside the restriction on my own and wait to be teleported out.”

Song Yan said nothing, simply watching her in silence.

“…”

“…”

“Fine…”

The two continued onward, though using his junior sister as bait was no longer a viable stratagem.

So Song Yan dispensed with concealing his presence altogether.

“Senior Brother, are we really heading straight for the Hunting Ground?”

Gu Qingqing tiptoed through the underbrush, whispering, “Won’t we run into too many powerful people all at once?”

“Senior Brother Li said all the strong ones would surely crowd toward the center. The outskirts should be safe…”

Song Yan glanced at her. “You believe that nonsense from Fatty Li? He was telling you to stay far away.”

“Oh…”

The two made their way toward the Hunting Ground, encountering surprisingly few people along the way.

It seemed most had already headed for the central zone.

The only encounter was with three herb-gathering disciples who had no interest in competing for rank and were fortunate enough to be heading outside the restriction.

Among them, Song Yan even recognized one.

It was Cen Qinghe, with whom he had crossed paths during the garrison at Changping.

Upon seeing Song Yan, the three of them promptly produced their own spirit pattern tokens and offered them to him.

They were not skilled fighters and had come only to seek treasures.

Thus, each of their tokens showed only “one.”

For them, they had intended to leave of their own volition anyway. Since Song Yan had some prior acquaintance with Cen Qinghe, giving the spirit patterns to an acquaintance was no loss.

After all, they couldn’t win anyway.

Handing over the tokens directly was, firstly, more dignified, and secondly, an opportunity to build a connection with this somewhat renowned inner sect senior brother—a favor that cost them nothing.

The three wished Song Yan a good ranking, handed over the tokens, and were teleported away.

“Senior Brother Song, I thought you were a quiet sort with no friends…”

Gu Qingqing’s expression was tinged with suspicion. “I didn’t expect you to know quite so many people—even pretty senior sisters.”

“Could it be that…”

She looked Song Yan up and down, studying this handsome and refined senior brother, and put on an expression of disbelief.

“Don’t tell me you’re the type who acts proper on the surface but secretly flirts with every senior sister around…”

“Ow!”

Before she could finish, Song Yan flicked her on the forehead.

“Just lead the way. You talk too much.”

“Oh.”

Song Yan, who had indeed hesitated over whether to head straight for the central zone, now had essentially no other choice.

For the final restriction advance would come soon.

The speed at which the restriction devoured the spirit patterns on the tokens increased with the passage of time.

Judging by the rate of spirit pattern consumption in the previous restrictions, with this final restriction, one would be teleported away the moment one stepped beyond it.

Therefore, to avoid being caught in too many battles during the final moments of movement and left outside the restriction, most cultivators would choose to enter early and find a safe foothold.

A minority would still follow the restriction’s advance, gradually entering the final battlefield.

Regardless of the approach, all would converge at the Hunting Ground in the end.

The two journeyed onward, the small blessed realm so vast it made Song Yan skeptical.

The moment they stepped into the Hunting Ground, they spotted a chase unfolding in the ancient vine forest in the distance.

Spiritual lights of various hues flickered in the distance, accompanied by the faint rumble of explosions.

“Hm?”

Gu Qingqing’s small eyes widened. “It’s Senior Brother Li!”

Song Yan fixed his gaze upon the scene.

Sure enough, it was that bastard Li Qingfeng.

“He runs pretty fast…”

“Hm? Isn’t that Kong…”

Kong You? That was his name, wasn’t it?

There, at a shallow bank along the edge of the Hunting Ground, Li Qingfeng fled in disarray with the Kong brothers—Kong You and Kong Yun—close behind in relentless pursuit.

“Where do you think you’re going!”

Spiritual light blazed in Kong Yun’s hands as several streams of water coalesced into blades and slashed toward Li Qingfeng.

Li Qingfeng looked thoroughly disheveled, his daoist robe torn in several places.

Even the great black pot strapped to his lower back seemed… no longer quite so black.

Even as he was hunted and fled in desperation, Li Qingfeng still cradled a peculiar herb in his palm, encased in a shell of spiritual energy.

The spirit herb was translucent purple throughout, its veins like threads of gold that shimmered with a golden glow.

Clinging to its roots were still-damp grains of soil—clearly, it had been freshly dug up.

“Gold-Veined Spirit Dissolution Grass…”

Song Yan’s pupils contracted sharply.

Spirit Dissolution Grass was primarily used in alchemy, one of the ingredients for refining the second-tier low-grade pill, the “Spirit Nourishing Pill.”

It was also used in small quantities during the inscription of certain formation discs and talismans.

A usable specimen of Spirit Dissolution Grass required at least eighty years of growth. The one in Li Qingfeng’s hand was roughly sixty years old.

But this particular herb possessed a unique property: during its growth, there was a small chance it would develop veins that resembled golden meridians.

Such a specimen of Spirit Dissolution Grass contained spiritual energy of extraordinary density.

It could be regarded as having an additional hundred years of medicinal potency beyond its actual age.

In other words, this single stalk of Spirit Dissolution Grass could be treated as one hundred and sixty years old.

“No wonder the Kong brothers are giving chase like this.”

Among the two brothers, the elder Kong You possessed exceptional talent. In three to five years at most, he would likely begin preparations for Foundation Establishment.

Though the Spirit Nourishing Pill could not help a cultivator break through bottlenecks, it provided an excellent transitional aid during the early period after Foundation Establishment.

The Spirit Nourishing Pill for the Foundation Establishment stage was as the Qi Nourishing Pill for the Qi Refining stage.

And in terms of importance, it was even more significant than the Qi Nourishing Pill.

“But why didn’t he put the herb in a medicine case?”

Unlike spirit fruits, herbs that needed to be uprooted generally required a medicine case for proper preservation.

Otherwise, if simply placed inside a cosmos bag, the spiritual energy would dissipate rapidly.

“…” Suddenly, Song Yan’s thoughts withdrew from the scene before him.

He seemed to have realized something and released his divine sense in full.

“Just as I thought…”

The commotion from this three-way chase was far too great.

Within the range his divine sense could cover alone, there were already eleven or twelve auras lurking in the shadows…

Among the distant spectators, some had sharp eyes.

“No wonder the Kong brothers have gone mad…”

“A Gold-Veined Spirit Dissolution Grass—this single stalk would fetch over five hundred spirit stones, wouldn’t it?”

“If sold to an alchemist, the price would likely be even higher.”

A single herb like this could not only be used for one batch of pills. Once processed through professional methods, the resulting elixir, roots, stems, and leaves could all be consumed gradually as needed.

By his estimation, it was enough for three to five batches.

“This kind of spirit herb usually grows in the lairs of plant spirits. How did this fellow get his hands on it?”

“Judging by the way things look, I get the feeling he snatched it from the Kong brothers…”

Li Qingfeng knew full well that he was the center of attention.

But he had no time for smugness. As he ran, he wiped a handful of sweat from his brow, a coppery sweetness surging in his throat.

Moments ago, under the combined assault of the Kong brothers and that strange demonic beast, he had forced the Heaven-Devouring Art into operation. Now he felt the searing pain of spiritual energy flowing backward and the distension of his meridians.

“How could there be demonic beasts in this blessed realm? The elders never mentioned any at the start…”

He grumbled inwardly, yet Fatty Li’s face still squeezed out a savage grin.

As he ran, he turned his head and spat a mouthful of blood toward the Kong brothers.

“You two tagalongs—you’ve been chasing me for half an hour! How long are you going to keep this up!”

“I don’t fancy men!”

BOOM—

A massive bolt of lightning crashed down, the surging shockwave sweeping across the ancient forest.

Unlike Kong Yun’s frantic exasperation, the elder Kong You merely furrowed his brow slightly, his robes billowing as he rode the wind at full speed.

Regardless, to have a spirit treasure snatched from under his nose—that was simply unacceptable.

With a subtle motion of his fingertips, dense water-element spiritual energy gathered on either side, seemingly intended to cut off Li Qingfeng’s escape routes to the left and right.

At the same time, several wind blades shot toward him.

Li Qingfeng roared inwardly.

“Brother Sun! Where the hell did you run off to?!”

Snatching this Gold-Veined Spirit Dissolution Grass from the Kong brothers and that demonic beast had been an unexpected windfall.

Li Qingfeng’s cosmos bag no longer held a medicine case for storing spirit herbs.

He could only temporarily seal it with spiritual energy, continuously replenishing the qi to prevent the herb’s potency from leaking away.

But Brother Sun surely had a medicine case on hand.

All he could think about now was finding Sun Zhengfu or Gu Qingqing—anyone familiar—so he could hand off the herb and bring his Sword Trial journey to a close.

“I should have asked Junior Sister Cen for one when I ran into her earlier.”

“Who cares about these spirit patterns or rankings—spirit stones right in front of me, I cannot let those slip away…”

Sensing the overwhelming spiritual energy closing off his escape, Li Qingfeng seemed to make a decisive resolve and halted abruptly.

His fingers formed a hand seal, spiritual light flickered, and a cyan-green vortex erupted around his body.

Fallen leaves on the ground stirred without wind, drawn into the cyan vortex and transformed into dozens of leaf-shaped streaks of spiritual light that shot toward Kong Yun!

This was a remnant of demonic power he had accumulated in his body from earlier use of the Heaven-Devouring Art.

He expelled it now through a daoist technique.

A sixth-level Qi Refining cultivator’s reserves of spiritual energy were slim indeed, but fortunately the Heaven-Devouring Art granted him some enhancement in sustained combat.

Kong Yun had not expected such a decisive counterattack. The three protective talismans orbiting his body shattered with a bang.

His steps faltered momentarily as he marshaled his spiritual energy to shield himself.

Thankfully, his protective spiritual aura remained intact. Otherwise, with that fat fellow’s bizarre techniques, he might have had his spirit pattern jade token sucked away and been eliminated on the spot.

Kong You’s brow furrowed. His great sleeves billowed as surging thunder-element spiritual energy gathered rapidly.

“Not good!”

Fatty Li’s heart sank, but there was no retreat. The Heaven-Devouring Art surged to full power.

A bolt of lightning crashed down.

The sheer force was overwhelming—clearly a strike intended to grievously wound and eliminate him.

But to everyone’s surprise, when the lightning struck, there was no expected impact or cloud of dust.

At that moment, arcs of lightning crackled around Li Qingfeng’s body, his frame rigid, his hair standing on end.

The power of the thunder did not dissipate—instead, it seemed as though he had forcibly absorbed it.

Outside the realm.

The illusory projection of the ancient vine forest had now captured the attention of nearly all the spectators.

The final restriction zone lay here, and the ultimate melee would reach its curtain call here as well.

At that moment, the plaza buzzed with discussion.

“Who is that? At the sixth level of Qi Refining, he can take a direct hit from Senior Brother Kong You?”

“I know him—his name is Li Qingfeng. When he first joined the sect, he worked in the mess hall.”

“Who would have thought—he’s been hiding his strength all along…”

In the elders’ pavilion, several elders had also witnessed the scene.

“What technique is that?”

The elder who was asked shook his head. “This old man’s knowledge is limited, but it appears to be some technique capable of temporarily absorbing external spiritual energy.”

“Rather interesting.”

Before the words had faded, an abrupt change erupted within the projection!

Li Qingfeng seemed unable to withstand such an overwhelming surge of thunder-attribute spiritual energy all at once. His legs went numb, and he stumbled and collapsed to the ground.

His spiritual energy destabilized, and the Gold-Veined Spirit Dissolution Grass slipped from his grasp and flew into the air.

Kong You’s eyes lit up, and he was about to lunge for it—

when a familiar streak of sword qi came hurtling in, sweeping up the herb in midair.

It landed securely in a lean, well-defined hand.

Kong You regarded the newcomer, his emotions slowly settling.

“Song Yan…”

At some point, Song Yan had appeared on the branch of an ancient tree.

He leaped down and landed beside Li Qingfeng, who was still grimacing from the shock.

He raised an eyebrow. “Fatty, if you’re going to steal spirit herbs, at least don’t be so polite as to deliver them to my door. That’s too formal, really too formal.”

Li Qingfeng had no strength to reply, only lying on the ground groaning.

It was unclear what he was muttering.

Song Yan patted his shoulder. “Fatty, seeing as you’ve so generously presented this herb as an offering, I’ll let bygones be bygones regarding what happened before.”

“Tell you what—hand over your spirit patterns first, then get out of here and heal up. Sound good?”

Li Qingfeng could be eliminated, but it had to be by Song Yan’s hand.

Otherwise, he simply could not swallow his pride.

Song Yan casually plucked the spirit pattern jade token from the other’s waist and then cheerfully bid Fatty Li farewell.

Fatty Li mustered every ounce of his strength and managed to stammer out a few words: “Screw your—”

Before he could finish, a flash of white light appeared, and Fatty Li vanished.

The number on Song Yan’s spirit pattern token changed to “sixty-nine.”

Xiao He asked in confusion, “Yan Yan, what did she just mean by that?”

“It was something rude. Children shouldn’t listen to that.”

“Oh.”

He placed the spirit herb into a medicine case and stored it in his cosmos bag.

He turned and glanced back.

He found Kong You staring at him with unwavering focus.