Eternal Tale
chapter-51

"Who goes there!" One of the women shouted before quickly retrieving her flying device and taking flight. She then slashed in an arc, and with a thunderous boom, the entire tree trunk was cut in half.

As the trunk tumbled down, a sudden downpour of dry leaves came down, obstructing their vision.

"Hmph! At the eight level of Qi Refining yet you play such petty tricks. How laughable!" one of them said with a delicate snort. She pointed her sword at them and declared, "Since you've seen us, I can’t let you go."

Chen Xun didn’t mind her words and stared at the little Silica Valley bird flying around. With a glint of killing intent, he leapt up with surprising force and caught the bird. It wiggled and struggled in his hand. But with a _pop_ and a cloud of blood, the bird was crushed.

His speed was incredibly fast, catching the three women off guard. __

_How dare he kill the Silica Valley bird? And right in front of their eyes, too!_

"How dare you!"

"You're courting death!"

"From which ditch did this barbarian come from!"

The women’s eyes turned ice-cold, and they manipulated their spiritual power to slash down in three different directions.

The duo weren’t flustered in the face of these attacks. The black ox stood at the forefront, with Chen Xun at the back, both steady and unshaken.

A hoof moved, and a _flame came to life. It burst ahead in waves before forming into many fireballs._

**_Boom!_**

Propelled by violent spiritual power, the fireballs grew rapidly in size before descending with powerful force akin to a tempest.

When they saw the sea of fire surging toward them, their faces turned pale with disbelief.

"What... what is this?!"

A sense of crisis suddenly arose in their hearts, causing their ears to ring, and for a chill to travel down their spine.

In the midst of the sea of fire, the women screamed in terror. Their spiritual power was being eroded, it was constantly being devoured by the flames. They couldn't even muster the strength to resist anymore.

"_Augh_!" Their desperate cries echoed from within the sea of fire, until their shrieks slowly started to die down and completely disappear shortly.

"Do your thing, old ox." Chen Xun looked around before taking his sword out and flying ahead. “These storage bags really aren’t up to par.”

The disciples' storage bags weren’t able to withstand their spiritual power. The pocket dimension inside couldn’t handle the pressure and completely fell apart, causing everything inside to disappear.

If he recalled correctly, above storage bags were storage rings, which he saw on the fingers of those high-ranking figures. Unfortunately, for now, they weren’t able to own such treasure.

"Moo."

The black ox nodded and pinched the Water Spirit Seal with its hoof, causing countless water droplets to rise and scatter. They flew towards the sea of flames. The water droplets evaporated into a billowing mist that quickly engulfed the fire.

They had managed to reach the third level of the Water Spirit Seal Technique in these past few years without encountering any bottlenecks.

They swiftly covered their tracks and gathered the storage bags of the three Pill Cauldron disciples before quickly leaving the area.

"Let’s not get too cocky, old ox. We can’t yet fight hundreds or thousands of cultivators if they decide to swarm us. " The trod swiftly through the towering ancient trees. “Caution is key. We mustn't draw any attention towards ourselves.”

"Moo!"

The black ox replied earnestly. It did feel its ego inflate a little just now, but it listened to Chen Xun and immediately suppressed those feelings. It was always in a state of self-reflecting.

They stopped on one of the trees—one which was quite a distance away from the previous one. The surrounding area was dense with branches and leaves, and they blended into the environment seamlessly. Their pitch-black eyes continuously scanned the surroundings for any signs of movement.

"As expected, they had a map too." Eyes lighting up, Chen Xun took out an identical map to the one they had from one of the storage bags of the three disciples, however it was much more detailed than the map they were given by the sect.

The black ox picked up the map, its eyes growing wider and wider.

Inside, not only were many marked locations, but there were, astonishingly, marks indicating where spiritual herbs grew.

"Old ox, that place should be the Jade Soul Lake. The map even has detailed information about it." Chen Xun explained carefully.

He added that the greatest advantage of cultivating was having sharp senses. In such dim surroundings, they could see everything clearly. He pointed at a spot on the map and said, "So, we should be here."

He drew a small circle on the map, confirming that they were still on the outskirts.

The locations of the supplementary spiritual herbs they needed for the pill were marked with big red dots, deep within the Southern Dipper Mountain.

"Moo~" The big black ox nodded, fully understanding.

"Those disciples from the Ten Great Sects should be heading towards these three locations. They'll definitely be faster than us."

Chen Xun contemplated for a second before saying, "Let's not rush to the first group; the competition there will be fierce. We should first gather the supplementary spiritual herbs."

He continued pointing at different spots on the map. Slowly, the route he had in mind turned crystal clear.

"Moo~Moo~" The big black ox nodded repeatedly. This place was full of towering mountains and dense ancient tree forests. Taking the wrong step could lead to a world of difference.

"We'll leave these spirit stones and spiritual herbs here, and I'll leave behind one storage bag. Destroy everything else, including these manuals and magical artifacts."

Chen Xun inspected the storage bags. Although he was extremely tempted, he couldn't leave any potential troubles behind, especially since these were disciples of the Ten Great Sects.

"Moo." The big black ox agreed, with no hint of regret in its eyes; these weren't originally theirs.

They had already prepared a way to escape the detection of others when they took things back with them. It involved having the black ox swallow the storage bag and then use Worldly Essence to hide its aura and take it back home safely.

"There are more than four hundred low-grade spirit stones! These disciples of the Ten Great Sects are truly impressive!"

Chen Xun praised, quickly stashing them in his storage bag. "Old ox, we have too few means of concealment. They even brought reconnaissance-type spirit beasts. There are probably quite a few people like them."

"Moo." The big black ox exhaled heavily. It was very surprised; it had never encountered such things before.

"Hehe, old ox, how could I not have a backup plan!"

Chen Xun smirked; he originally thought he wouldn't need these, but he slapped his storage bag and said, "Nine Star Valley, five low-grade spirit stones, _Breath Concealment Technique_!"

The black ox felt a chill run down its spine and quickly stared at Chen Xun in amazement. Its eyes seemed to say, "Big brother, you're amazing!"

They had discovered a while ago that, apart from cultivation techniques and spell manuals, they were exceptionally talented in mastering these types of auxiliary spells.

"Use concealment, escape, change location; that's the plan. First, let's cultivate the 'Breath Concealment Technique' "

"Moo!"

The two of them acted swiftly, with the big black ox swallowing one storage bag and directly destroying the other two with magic. It left no traces behind before they headed deeper into the boundless darkness of the woods.

Their actions were done with practiced ease, clearly showcasing their cunning side.

Half a month later, in a hollowed hole in an ancient tree, sat a man and an ox cross-legged, their vitality seemed almost completely snuffed out. One couldn’t even hear a single breath from them.

Occasionally, poisonous insects and snakes would crawl on the dry leaves surrounding them, but they still didn't realize that there were two living beings among them.

Chen Xun and the black ox had truly merged into the Southern Dipper Mountain.

"Old ox, time to move."

"Moo~"

The man and the ox slowly opened their eyes. Their breath was as thin as a thread, and flames seemed to flicker around them. Crackling sounds could be heard, but the dry leaves on their bodies remained unburned.

Two clumps of dried leaves shot out of the tree and headed in a certain direction.

The large river, that’s their goal.

Half a day later, they arrived.

The man and the ox took out another set of "Lucky Clothes" and draped it over themselves.