Chapter 126: The Scarlet Territory (5)

  He had become an old man, meaning the feeling of his vitality being drained during the crossing of the portal to the secret realm was real.

  "Don't joke with me!!" Xu Mo became angry for the first time since he had started cultivating and shouted, his voice echoing throughout the silent surroundings. He activated the Drifting Dragon Breathing Method all the way to the 3rd Stage for the first time since exiting the Trial of the Dao of Silence.

  Xu Mo had become a whale, the king of the ocean, devouring Qi and madly refining it. The huge influx of Qi even caused the surroundings to quake. Even while lying down, Xu Mo did not face any challenge in absorbing the spiritual energy of the secret realm.

  The sky above Xu Mo, which had been blood-red moments ago, started to become cloudy, like it was about to rain.

  His Qi reserves rapidly replenished, and after continuously using the Drifting Dragon Breathing Method for who knows how long, Xu Mo was back at the peak of the seventh stage of Qi Condensation.

  The narrow fissure path where he had been stuck before was now unable to contain him, and Xu Mo stood up straight, breaking the heavy rocks like they were air. His body, though brimming with power, was severely lacking in vitality.

  "System!" Xu Mo called out to this ungrateful system. Even though he had let it reside within his body for free, what he got in return was this... Xu Mo, unable to bring himself to curse at the system because of his good upbringing, gritted his teeth. Even though he knew no one was listening, he did not want to disappoint his parents' trust in him.

  [Unable to connect to the Host.]

  A twitch mark appeared on his forehead as he looked at the system screen that was lying through its teeth (if it even had any).

  "Inventory," he tried calling out to his inventory that contained his clothes and other pills and stuff important for survival.

  "Inventory," he attempted once again, but again no response came back. Xu Mo felt so frustrated he felt like crying.

  He felt angry at himself for letting down his guard once again.

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  Xu Mo slapped his head, cursing at himself. Even if he could not curse at others, at least he could curse at himself.

  After venting his frustration on his poor head, Xu Mo calmed down and saw the mess his cursed weapon had created above the ground.

  He looked at the dead bodies of the sect's disciples he had killed to save himself. He walked closer. Even after seeing the bloody scene, he did not have any reaction—except thinking: Was he a psychopath?

  It was not wrong of him to think that because Xu Mo had killed another human being for the first time. They had not shown any ill will towards him, and still, to save himself, he had killed these people. They might also have parents, siblings, lovers waiting out there for them.

  For some people, these disciples might have meant the whole world. Xu Mo did not search their corpses.

  "System, answer. Can I store dead bodies inside the inventory?" Xu Mo felt bad leaving even the dead bodies out in the open. Though he could have buried them here, he chose against it.

  [Error... Yes... Error. But you cannot bring out anything from the inventory until the system is done recharging.]

  It seemed even the system had suffered. He had become an old man, while the system... at least it was functioning.

  He was not doing this out of kindness. He just had the ability to take the corpses outside with him and hand them over to their sects or their families directly.

  Xu Mo tried to justify his actions.

  Waving his hand, the corpses of the sect disciples vanished from the spot. Fortunately, no body part had been torn or damaged too much, and the world only knew him as a sword cultivator; no one would doubt him.

  Swoosh—

  He took out the sword from its sheath at his waist and stepped on the straight broad blade, using his Qi to carefully fly up into the air.

  Xu Mo tried to see if there were any treasures that he could harvest. The best choice might have been to stick close to Xue Lingxi and Jin Meiyu, two daughters of luck. He could have let them have the jackpot while he would have been overjoyed at even obtaining some trash left behind by those two. Some might think he was being overly cautious, but it was important to note that every treasure obtained through the secret realm would be inspected by the Verdant Sky Hall.

  He doubted they would let the two daughters of luck have an easy time, but they had the background to act arrogantly, while he was only a commoner. For how long would the sect protect him?

  But first, let's try to obtain some treasure that could help me in regaining my precious youth, Xu Mo cried internally. He missed his cute cheeks, which he used to poke and play with in his free time. Now his skin had become so thin that it was almost sticking to his skull.

  However, what even was that, in the portal, that could devour someone's vitality and make them old? The frightening aspect was that the person being influenced was unaware the whole time that he was being devoured.

  Growl—

  Growl—

  Growl—

  Xu Mo smirked as he saw the beasts he had seen before growling at him angrily from the ground.

  "Come down here, human." Even through their growling sounds, Xu Mo could bet what they were saying to him.

  "Sorry, please find someone else to play with," Xu Mo said casually, choosing a random direction and flying away.