Ninth In the World

“The smell of blood is too strong here. Let’s quickly excavate some demon beast materials and leave this place immediately.” Di Jiu, who was also excited, was merely executing his idea by risking his life as a last resort.

“How did you know that the horned lion would not make a move against you when you used the saber to sneak up on the alligator, class monitor?” By now, Pang Fan had calmed down from his earlier excitatory state. His train of thought had become clearer and he had gone back to calling Di Jiu ‘class monitor’.

Before Di Jiu could reply, He Tai said, “It didn’t make a move, idiot. It opened its mouth.”

“‘My phrasing was correct as well. Plus, that lion had four sharp claws. Didn’t it also use those claws like hands?”

Even though he was not in the same class as Pang Fan, He Tai knew all about Pang Fan’s habit of nagging others. He was too lazy to continue that argument, so he explained, “If a formidable person teaches you a lesson, someone else will always come along and help you teach the formidable fella a lesson back. Then, would you keep attacking that formidable fella or attack the person helping you?”

“Your explanation has helped me understand. Looks like the lion was intelligent enough to know that the class monitor was helping it.”

“Even a stupid animal would intuitively not attack someone helping them immediately,” He Tai said speechlessly.

Di Jiu, who could not be bothered to join the conversation, started to dig at the two horns of the demon beast. The jade slips had explained that demon beast material was one of the most essential blacksmithing resources.

The two lion horns, which were more than a foot long, actually resembled bull horns. When he saw no marks on them, Di Jiu swung his knife, sure that these horns were quality items.

Pang Fan tried to tolerate the bloody sight of the long saber stuck inside the alligator’s mouth as he plucked it out and wiped off the blood vigorously. This was his precious saber after all.

“What shall we do about the alligator, class monitor?” As he watched Di Jiu dig out the two lion horns, He Tai pointed to the gigantic scaled alligator.

“The most valuable part of this alligator must be its scales. Let’s dig them out separately.” By the time he spoke, Di Jiu had already removed the two sharp teeth from the lion’s carcass.

He Tai and Pang Fan started to excavate the scales. Each scale had a circumference of one foot and felt heavy in their hands.

However, the three scales on the alligator’s back were the largest. After they dug out a scale each, Pang Fan stopped excavating. “This is too tiring. Plus, these things are extremely heavy. We can’t take too many with us even if we dig out a big number.”

“Why don’t we bury the two carcasses here? We could come back for more materials whenever we want to,” suggested He Tai.

Di Jiu agreed right way. The three of them combined their strength and dug a hole really quickly.

Half an hour later, both carcasses had been buried.

The disorderly scene was now tidier, and the smell of blood was much weaker.

“Where do we go now, class monitor?” He Tai’s admiration for Di Jiu had permeated his soul.

Pang Fan hugged his saber as he walked to the side and said with a hint of flattery, “Your saber move was really scary, but so cool… Could you teach it to me, class monitor?”

As soon as he heard Pang Fan’s words, He Tai forgot all about his previous question and looked at Di Jiu just as eagerly. When Di Jiu had executed this move, the temperature of the air around them had seemed to drop. That killing aura was something he could not block or attempt to hide from.

He Tai believed that, if Di Jiu executed this saber move, even Director Wu Cheng would not be able to escape it.

When he tried to pick who was more formidable, Di Jiu or Director Wu Cheng, He Tai did not need to consider it long. He believed that Di Jiu was definitely more formidable. He had faced two demon beasts fighting over territory, while Director Wu Cheng had chosen to flee, but most importantly, he could execute a really cool yet truly formidable saber move.

“Stop dreaming,” Di Jiu said without hesitation “My saber move is not something you could master, even if I tried to teach you. When we have some spare time, I will teach you my other two moves. And by the way, don’t call me class monitor. I’m not your fellow student. I was only using the elite class to get here.”

Di Jiu was telling the truth. The fourth saber move, which was called the Wind-Rustling Move, had been derived from his moment of enlightenment during his cultivation and based on his cultivation techniques and the Di Clan’s Seven Sabers. Di Jiu even suspected that the reason he had been able to achieve this moment of enlightenment was related to the stone he had acquired.

He could not teach this kind of saber move to someone else, for even he could barely sense and understand it.

“Alright, I know that the class monitor- I mean, Brother Jiu- would not give me the cold shoulder.” Pang Fan slapped the saber in his hand as he spoke proudly, changing the way he addressed Di Jiu once again. Although he had treated Di Jiu like a younger brother earlier, he now consciously demoted himself to a younger brother.

He believed that anything Di Jiu taught him would be a top-notch technique.

“The two demon beasts had been fighting over a territory. Now that we have killed them, we can head over and take a look at the territory in question,” Di Jiu said, pointing at the tracks left behind.

Pang Fan and He Tai naturally agreed with his decision.

…

The disorder the fight between the two beasts had left behind was hard to miss. After walking for more than half an hour, the three of them arrived at the bottom of a cliff.

Actually, it was more like a boulder cut off using a saber, but when they looked up from the bottom of the boulder, the three of them seemed to be standing at the foot of a cliff.

The boulder was several thousand meters tall, so it was as tall as a mountain.

At the bottom of the boulder was a flat, spacious piece of land without any grass. The three of them could picture one of the demon beasts frequenting this place.

“I wonder which beast this home belonged to, the alligator or the horned lion?” Pang Fan chuckled.

He felt really proud when he thought about the three of them actually finding the cave abode of a demon beast.

“Could a demon beast sleep on this spacious land? That would make sense. This piece of land looks like a massive soccer field.” He Tai used his feet to kick the ground.

“Of course not. The place where the demon beast lived must be under the boulder. We will find out as soon as we take a look,” said Di Jiu as he walked closer to the boulder.

The three of them did not have to search for long before Pang Fan shouted, “Something’s different here!”

Di Jiu and He Tai immediately rushed to his side. Indeed, the area Pang Fan’s hand was touching was different. That particular area was really smooth, as if something had been frequently rubbing against it.

“There is a stone blocking this area.” Di Jiu possessed Spiritual Force, so although the colors of the surrounding stones were identical, he could see a piece of stone blocking this area.

Di Jiu used his strength to push. The stone was like a moving door that shifted to the side. Virtually no sound was heard as it moved, revealing a pitch dark cave entrance. Although they stood outside the cave, the three of them could already feel the biting cold.

“This must be where the alligator lived. The horned lion would not live in a place like this,” He Tai said when he saw the pitch black hole.

“Let’s go inside and see!” Thanks to his Spiritual Force, Di Jiu could see clearly even when he closed his eyes.

He Tai took a torchlight out of his backpack. Di Jiu waited for He Tai and Pang Fan to enter the cave before he moved the stone back to its original position to prevent any demon beasts from following them in as they headed inside to search for items. It would be awful if a demon beast blocked their way out.

The cave was really deep, but the fact that it did not smell of blood much meant that the demon beast living there loved cleanliness.

As they went deeper, Di Jiu felt the Spirit Qi in the air become thicker. The Fairy Planet’s Spirit Qi was already thicker in comparison to the Earth’s, yet the Spirit Qi there was much thicker than it was outside the cave.

“I believe this is an ideal spot for cultivating.” Even a simple-minded person like Pang Fan could sense the benefits of cultivating in such an environment.

“Is that a stone soccer ball? Ow!” He Tai let out a sound of pain before he clutched his feet.

Di Jiu and Pang Fan looked at the thing on the ground. It was a stone the size of a soccer ball.

“This seems to have grown here. I used my feet to kick it, but it did not move.” He Tai grimaced in pain as he pointed to the stone ball in front of him.

Pang Fan walked over and tried to carry it. He lifted it up, but quickly dropped it back to the ground. “How could this be possible? This small thing actually weighs a few thousand kilos. How dense can it be?”

Di Jiu had been exposed to cultivation knowledge, so he knew that some ordinary objects would experience shocking weight changes when they were engraved with array inscriptions.

“Let me see.” Di Jiu walked over and squatted down, letting his Spiritual Force permeate the stone ball.

His Spiritual Force felt like a man made of mud entering the ocean. When he tried to forcefully permeate the ball, an ice-cold wind rushed straight into his Spiritual Sea. Di Jiu opened his mouth and spat out a mouthful of blood.

“What happened?” He Tai and Pang Fan squatted down quickly.

“This ball is really formidable…” Di Jiu wiped off the blood at the edges of his mouth as he added, “There is more to it than meets the eye. Wait for me. I will move it off to the side and bury it. I will come collect it when I am more powerful.”

Di Jiu could feel that this stone ball was not ordinary. According to the introduction on the jade slips, it would most likely be supreme-level blacksmithing material.

Unfortunately, despite the fact that he had read the jade slips and was more knowledgeable than most people, he was still a rookie in this field, so he did not possess the strength to take along a stone ball that weighed several thousand kilos.

Di Jiu did not explain why he had spat out blood, and Pang Fan and He Tai did not ask. They could sense that Di Jiu was much stronger than them and way more knowledgeable when it came to cultivation.

After burying the stone ball and walking less than 200 meters away, the three of them saw a cloud of white fog orbiting around a huge concave pit.

“What kind of place is this? Surely, the alligator would not sleep in this concave pit?” Pang Fan said in surprise as he stood at the edge of the pit.

“There is a blue plant with seven blooming flowers in the middle of that white fog.” Di Jiu’s Spiritual Force allowed him to see even clearer when it passed through the fog.