The First Watch

  Li Badao looked at Qin Lingyun with a condescending expression, in his eyes, the female cultivator in front of him had skin as white as jade, but her beauty was not stunning enough to overthrow cities and countries, and the spiritual light emanating from her body only reached the eighth layer of Qi refinement.

  Li Badao was the great-grandson of Hei Shui Men's Qing Yun Zhen Ren, his father was also a foundation-building cultivator, and he himself had a cultivation base of eleven layers of Qi Refining. A female cultivator like the one in front of him who had only refined her Qi to the eighth layer was indeed not taken seriously by him.

  This time, he came to the Valley of Venomous Snakes because he knew that there was a cave here where the Earth Spirit Fruit grew. Calculating the time, it should have already ripened. He told the elder of the sect and then came to pick the Earth Spirit Fruit.

  The female cultivator standing beside him saw Qin Lingyun and a layer of hatred surged onto her face, accompanied by a hint of joy at the corners of her lips.

  Qin Lingyun saw the female cultivator, and her heart also skipped a beat. She had never thought that she would meet her here. This female cultivator was Lin Wantong of the Xiangzhu Sect.

  Lin Wanrong's bright face seemed to have some distortion when she saw Qin Lingyun, and since that day, she remembered this hatred. Although it was just a small thing, Lin Wanrong's vengeful personality made her remember Qin Lingyun in her heart.

  Li Badao was just about to speak when Lin Wanrong already gritted her teeth and said, "I didn't expect it to be you." She scanned the surrounding area with her divine sense and found that there was no one hiding nearby, so her eyes began to glare menacingly.

  Li Badao turned his head and asked in surprise: "What? You know this woman?"

  Lin Wanrong stuck her red lips next to Li Badao's ear and whispered, "Will you catch this woman for me to deal with later?"

  Qin Lingyun heard Lin Wantong's slightly husky voice, and her whole body felt a chill. She thought to herself: "Isn't Lin Wantong the dual cultivation partner of Lian Zong's elder? How can she be so intimate with Li Badao? They won't have some unspeakable secret, will they? If that's really the case, even if they didn't come for the Earth Spirit Fruit, today is likely to end in disaster."

  Even if Lin Wanrong didn't make such a request, Li Badao wouldn't let this female cultivator off the hook anyway. His relationship with Lin Wanrong was clandestine and couldn't be exposed, otherwise, given Xiangzhuzong's Elder's personality, it might trigger a huge conflict between the two sects.

  Li Badao was arrogant and domineering, but he wasn't a fool either. His arrogance came from the fact that he had the capital to be arrogant, whether it was his background or just his own strength, which could easily leave Qin Lingyun in the dust.

  "Look at you, seeing me run away with my legs, just knowing that there's something strange about you. Did you steal the Earth Spirit Fruit from our sect? Hand it over obediently, otherwise let you experience the skills of this young master." Li Badao's face revealed a hint of unexpected and profound evil smile, his gaze towards Qin Lingyun was clearly not benevolent.

  Li Badao couldn't be certain if Qin Lingyun had picked the Earth Spirit Fruit, he came to the Venomous Snake Valley and hadn't gone down to check yet, but based on his own speculation, he put a big hat on Qin Lingyun's head. In fact, his big hat was correct, the Earth Spirit Fruit was indeed in Qin Lingyun's hands.

  If she could hand over the Earth Spirit Fruit, Qin Lingyun wouldn't mind humiliating herself temporarily. However, encountering Lin Wanrong, a vicious woman who would stop at nothing to get revenge, and coincidentally discovering the unusual relationship between Lin Wanrong and Li Badou, even if she handed over the fruit, it would be useless.

  "Faced with the current situation, I can only fight once more. Fortunately, my Ice Crystal Body has been cultivated to the primary level, and its physical defense is comparable to that of a low-grade spiritual artifact, so I should be able to put up a good fight." Qin Lingyun thought to herself.

  Seeing Qin Lingyun's calm and composed expression, Li Badao felt a hint of irritation in his heart. He enjoyed playing the cat-and-mouse game the most, and the more fearful and panicked the person he was dealing with was, the more excited he became.

  Qin Lingyun's eyes flashed with a cold light, and she said slowly: "I don't know what the Earth Spirit Fruit is. If you two continue to block my path, don't blame me for not being polite."

  Li Badao's face immediately became very colorful, he was first stunned, then furious, in his opinion, a mere Qi Refining Eighth Layer cultivator, actually dared to yell at him, it was simply lawless, not teaching her a lesson would be unforgivable for the title of Qing Ya Xiao Ba Wang.

  "You little scoundrel, you're simply asking for death."

  Li Badao slapped the storage bag hanging from his waist, and a black light flew out, instantly slashing towards Qin Lingyun's left arm. He didn't want to kill this female cultivator all at once; he wanted to slowly torture her, letting her know what it was like to be consumed by boundless fear and despair.

  "This young master will let you taste the flavor of being a punching bag, take down your hands and feet." Li Badao's loud and violent voice echoed in the air.

  Unexpectedly, Li Badao was so vicious, Qin Lingyun's heart immediately ignited a flame, but she forced herself to calm down. In the face of two strong enemies, it didn't make much sense to care about verbal sparring, focusing on dealing with the black light that would arrive in an instant was the most important thing.

  Inside the black light was a long sword, with an unusual shape. On the hilt of the sword, there was a skull carving with blood dripping from its mouth corner. The body of the sword seemed to be made of some kind of living being's bones, which were white and had three joints. On the blade, there were two rows of dense, inverted thorns.

  This skull long sword emitted a sharp whistling sound in the air, as if it could shake people's souls. The quality of the skull long sword was at least mid-grade spiritual equipment, and its power was clearly above Qin Lingyun's Wū Zhēn.

  Qin Lingyun reacted swiftly, her fingers tracing a circle in the air as a crystal-clear ice shield materialized before her. At the same time, her body began to rapidly envelop itself in a pale yellow protective aura, with at least ten layers of protection wrapping around her. Meanwhile, a faint purple glow quietly emerged from the spirit beast pouch and hid behind her back.

  Each layer of the pale yellow shield had a dragon and tiger soaring and leaping, making Lin Wanrong's eyes sparkle as she stood beside Li Badao. She leaned in again to whisper into his ear: "Don't kill her immediately, I want that protective body technique of hers."

  Li Badao nodded, a hint of ferocity appearing on his face. At this moment, the skull longsword collided with the ice shield, and the black light surrounding the sword seemed to possess powerful corrosive properties. The ice shield rapidly diminished under the corrosion of the black light, and with the impact force of the skull longsword, the surface of the ice shield immediately became covered in cracks resembling a spider's web.

  As the fissure expanded, the ice shield shattered with a loud crack, splitting open completely.

  Maintaining an icy shield also consumes a lot of spiritual energy, Qin Lingyun didn't expect Li Badao's skull sword to be so powerful, the ice shield couldn't even withstand it for a short while and shattered.

  Seeing the ice shield shatter, Li Badao burst out laughing: "How's the power of my Toxic Shadow Sword? Are you scared now, haha..."

  Seeing Qin Lingyun still without a panicked expression, Li Badao's face sank. His finger pointed forward, the Toxic Shadow Sword stabbed directly onto Qin Lingyun's protective shield, piercing through three layers of shields, and was repelled by a strong force at the fourth layer.

  Seeing the Poison Shadow Sword fail to break through the protective shield of this female cultivator, Li Badao said slowly: "I didn't expect that this defensive technique was actually Earth-grade. It seems that even I, Young Master, have taken a liking to this defensive technique."

  The poisonous shadow sword transformed into a black shadow surrounding Qin Lingyun, attacking the protective shield from all sides. However, this earthly-grade protective shield was truly extraordinary, and even mid-grade spiritual artifacts found it difficult to break through the ten-layered linked defense for a while.

  The ten-layered shield of the Guardian Technique, every time a layer is broken through, the rebound force received increases by several points. If it reaches the last layer, the rebound force will be at least four or five times that of the first layer. Therefore, the Poison Shadow Sword often gets repelled back at around the sixth or seventh layer.

  Moreover, the Guardian Shield seems to be the nemesis of the corrosive black light that shrouds the Poison Shadow Sword, just like ice encountering fire would melt away. When the corrosive black light encounters the Guardian Shield, it is immediately dispersed by a faint yellow glow.

  "Unexpectedly, it's so troublesome. It seems that relying solely on the Poison Shadow Demon Sword is not enough to break through the defense." Li Badao thought to himself, he cultivated demonic dao techniques, and since the black light of the Poison Shadow Demon Sword was restrained by the Guardian Shield, the few spells he knew would likely be restrained as well.

  Li Badao's fingers formed a seal, and a black glow condensed at his fingertips, quickly taking the shape of a bone spear. As soon as it was formed, the black bone spear shot towards Qin Lingyun like lightning.

  Qin Lingyun had already been directing the Wū Zhēn to continuously parry the Poison Shadow Demon Sword's attacks, and at this moment, facing Li Bàdào's Dark Bone Spear, she fundamentally didn't have a way to split her attention to dodge it. The Dark Bone Spear undoubtedly collided with her Protective Spirit Shield, but just like the black light on the Poison Shadow Demon Sword earlier, it was quickly dissipated by the Protective Spirit Shield.

  Li Badao's magic was completely suppressed by the protective shield, and for a moment he felt like a hedgehog with quills all over his body, unable to find an opening against Qin Lingyun.

  However, Qin Lingyun was not as relaxed on the surface. On one hand, she had to maintain the protective shield on her body, and on the other hand, she had to resist the poisonous shadow magic sword's relentless attack. The spiritual energy in her body was rapidly depleting, especially the divine shield, which was like a bottomless pit, constantly devouring her internal spiritual energy. This was not a technique that could be used by someone at the 8th layer of Qi Refining, but rather a divine technique that only Foundation Establishment cultivators could cultivate. Although Qin Lingyun had only cast a partial and incomplete version of the divine shield technique, her internal spiritual energy still faced the danger of being depleted.

  At the same time, Wu Jing was also being eroded by the black light while entangling with the Poison Shadow Demon Sword in mid-air. Before long, this treasure that had been used for a very long time would be completely scrapped.

  However, it had been a long time since he had taken down Qin Lingyu, and Li Badao's face was somewhat unbearable. He patted the spiritual beast bag, and a red light flew out, biting his tongue and spitting out a mouthful of blood on the red light.

  His face was somewhat ferocious: "Look at you, how long can you still hold on."

  The red light twisted and transformed in the air, turning into a blood-red evil spirit over one zhang tall, with two blood-red eyes cast towards Qin Lingyun.

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