Big Data Cultivation
Chapter 1113: The Ethereal Ascetic Makes a Run for It

Chapter 1113: Chapter 1113: The Ethereal Ascetic Makes a Run for It

After hearing Deng Lao Er’s words, Feng Jun simply had them retreat another two li and proceeded alone.

He activated the Mirage King Bracer and circulated his protective qi, to guard against any venomous snakes that might bite him unawares.

What happened next doesn’t need to be elaborated upon; he gradually approached the White Shadow until he was about five hundred meters away, then cautiously began to search his Mobile Phone for "nearby Storage Bags".

As expected, there was a Storage Bag in the direction of the White Shadow, confirming the presence of a Cultivator.

Feng Jun estimated that this person must be at least in the High Tier of Qi Refinement to dare get involved in such matters.

However, five hundred meters was already at the edge of a Cultivator’s alertness; any closer and it would be too easy to startle the other party.

If he made a move now, he wouldn’t only be unable to identify the opponent, but his array of tactics would also be extremely limited within the forest.

Not to mention others, take the Immortal Binding Rope for example—it’s known to bind anything, but it’s slow to activate, and the trees would only slow it down further. The same was true for the Mountain and River Seal.

In fact, even Sword Cultivators find forest battles troublesome; cutting down branches and trunks with Flying Swords is no issue, but the real problem lies in the sheer abundance of them.

Even Thunder Cultivators dislike fighting in forests, as the canopy can block lightning strikes.

At this moment, Feng Jun particularly regretted not bringing Elder Liao Brother along—Gu Cultivators actually favor such environments.

After some thought, he still decided to take the risk and move closer to the other person.

The Mirage King Bracer was incredibly mystical, but it wasn’t so advanced that it could shield all auras. For instance, if he stepped on a dry twig and snapped it, the sound would undoubtedly be uncontainable, so he opted to float one foot off the ground and slowly approach.

After all, his body might come into contact with some branches, making a slow advance inevitable.

It took him a full hour to finally get within a hundred meters of the other person, who seemed to sense something and abruptly turned his head, sweeping out with his Divine Sense.

An Ascendant Phase Cultivator! Feng Jun finally confirmed the other party’s Cultivation Level, silently summoning the Mountain and River Seal.

The other’s Divine Sense swept past, also with a hint of puzzlement, having felt some faint spiritual energy fluctuations—that was the tiny disturbance Feng Jun had inadvertently caused as he moved through the air.

Although his Divine Sense detected nothing unusual, he vaguely felt a Divine Sense similar to that of a Cultivator, very close by.

Before he could react, a Great Seal the size of a small mountain suddenly materialized overhead and smashed down towards the ground with crushing force.

The person indeed had remarkable skills, flicking out a fist-sized transparent stone, his body bursting to the side with a flash as he shouted, "Feng Jun, you truly are despicable and shameless!"

The transparent stone was a Kong Ming Stone, the lightest stone in this realm; once it exploded, its dust would rise rapidly, even capable of lifting extremely heavy objects. This stone was the favorite of Sword Cultivators; by incorporating a bit of Kong Ming Stone into the making of Flying Swords, they became exceptionally agile.

To Sword Cultivators, this fist-sized stone was a rare treasure, yet now it was casually thrown by him, merely to buy a moment’s time to dodge the Great Seal. If any Sword Cultivator witnessed this, they would probably curse him to death.

Feng Jun was first taken aback upon hearing the other party shout out his name, followed by a cold laugh, "Indeed audacious, I thought you would not dare to show yourself and hide, yet you still couldn’t restrain yourself and sought to ambush me!"

"I’m a little curious whether you’re planning to ambush me or to silence Yan Xiaomo by killing him... but I guess you don’t have the guts to kill him, do you?"

While he was speaking, his hands were not idle; he cast two Falling Thunder Techniques, not caring whether they hit the target, followed by a Divine Sense Attack, and then he drew his Long Blade and lunged toward his opponent.

The ambusher was indeed Xue Jingxiang; the Falling Thunder Technique was ineffective against him, but the Divine Sense Attack had caused him some difficulties. By the time Feng Jun pounced on him, Xue Jingxiang had already drawn a stone mace, engaging in a fierce battle with Feng Jun.

Fighting in the woods with a weapon was really cumbersome; Feng Jun felt that his blade technique had no problem in killing the opponent, but Xue Jingxiang fought slippery, dodging around using the trees, never engaging directly if it could be avoided.

After two moves, Feng Jun knew he couldn’t take down the opponent on the spur of the moment, so he shook his hand and shouted, "Behold my Gu Insects!"

Xue Jingxiang knew Feng Jun was associated with Gu Cultivators, and at the mention of "Gu Insects", he instinctively tightened his defense and slightly extended his Divine Sense.

Little did he expect, while Feng Jun mentioned releasing Gu Insects, he actually launched another Divine Sense Attack.

Xue Jingxiang had a hard time withstanding Divine Sense Attacks; the previous strike had already made his head split with pain, and seeing another strike coming his way, he couldn’t help but shout, "Liar!"

This attack was much harsher than the last; his entire head felt as if it had been hammered severely, leaving a brief void in his mind. When he regained his senses, he saw Feng Jun’s Long Blade less than a foot away from his head.

Luckily, he had accounted for this battle earlier; he didn’t panic, but immediately crushed a Talisman.

The Talisman was a Blink Talisman, capable of instantly teleporting him over two li away. Although for an Ascendant Phase being this distance was not much, it did put some space between them.

After getting away, he didn’t think twice before throwing out a small shuttle-shaped Flying Boat, stepping onto it and starting to activate it.

This Flying Boat, purchased from Jumu Market Town, was called the "Flash Star Boat". It wasn’t large and the protection was fairly ordinary, but it had one noteworthy feature—it was especially fast—up to seven or eight times faster than a regular Flying Boat.

Seeing the flying boat activate, Xue Jingxiang was about to breathe a sigh of relief when he suddenly realized something was amiss, "Huh, where’s my left arm?"

His left arm was gone from the shoulder down, the severed area was unnaturally smooth, and blood was spurting out uncontrollably.

Although his Blink had worked, Feng Jun’s blade was too fast; it had still taken his left arm, and because he was so tense, he didn’t even realize it immediately.

Realizing that his left arm was gone, anger surged in Xue Jingxiang’s heart.

Although for someone of his cultivation level, losing an arm wasn’t a big deal, and he had embezzled enough of the Xue Family’s public wealth to afford the spiritual medicine necessary for regenerating a limb, thoughts of the Xue Family’s downfall and a mix of old and new resentment bubbled up inside him.

Originally, he hadn’t planned on crossing swords with Feng Jun; he simply thought of hiring an assassin to kill Feng Jun—whether the assassin succeeded or not didn’t matter, he had done his part.

He came to Xiyin City just wanting to learn of Feng Jun’s death sooner, so the living members of the Xue Family would know he had been there too.

But after he arrived, as he meandered outside the city, he had the misfortune of running into Yan Xiaomo leaving the hillside.

Yan Xiaomo was quite surprised and asked him why he was there, to which Xue Jingxiang replied, "I was wondering if you needed any help."

However, Yan Xiaomo contemptuously remarked, "Your involvement would reduce my chances of successful assassination."

Xue Jingxiang didn’t want to dwell on this topic, so he asked her: "How come you are here?"

Yan Xiaomo casually replied, "I’ve hidden a Storage Bag here. If you’re not convinced, you can wait in ambush nearby. If I can’t defeat Feng Jun and he escapes here, we could both attack him together."

He wasn’t worried she would take his Storage Bag; the area was simply too vast, even an ascended immortal couldn’t find it, and he was very sure that she had indeed settled near Jumu Market Town. If she dared to swallow his Storage Bag, he was confident he could make her spit out even more.

This was Yan Xiaomo, an assassin with a particularly contradictory personality.

When Xue Jingxiang encountered Feng Jun, he originally intended to explain that he didn’t really have an unyielding intent to fight to the death.

But now, after being beaten into a hasty retreat and even losing his left arm, he couldn’t help but yell out, "Feng Jun, I’ll never let this go!"

Before his voice faded, the Flash Star Boat sped away, slashing through the pitch-black night sky like a shooting star.

Feng Jun, furious, knew that he couldn’t catch up to the departing figure no matter what he did.

So, he could only settle for second best and began searching for Yan Xiaomo’s Storage Bag.

Indeed, Yan Xiaomo had not lied; beneath a large stone at the base of a pine tree, there really was a Storage Bag.

Feng Jun handed the Storage Bag to Tian Lewen for safekeeping, then used night vision goggles to scan the surroundings. Finding nothing out of the ordinary, he unleashed the Time Shuttle to carry everyone straight to Mount Zhige.

Soon after the Time Shuttle disappeared, a distortion rippled through the air above the hillside, and a woman in green appeared.

Master Sumiao first glanced in the direction Feng Jun had vanished, sighing lightly, "Truly a fascinating mundane object, to be able to calculate the Storage Bag’s location so quickly... I really want to understand this set of theories."

The next moment, she descended to the ground, reached out a hand, and a clump of soil flew into her grasp—not just random soil, as it contained Xue Jingxiang’s blood.

Xue Jingxiang’s Flash Star Boat was exceedingly fast. Master Sumiao wouldn’t fear chasing such a flying boat in the Cultivation World, but this was the Mortal Realm.

However, as a Golden Core Master, her strengths were not limited to just speed. She extended her delicate, porcelain-like finger and began to calculate...

When Feng Jun and the others returned home, it was already past 3 a.m. He didn’t bother with anything else and went straight to sleep, sleeping all the way until around 10 a.m. the next morning.

Upon waking, he noticed it had started to rain again, a rather pleasant occurrence during the height of summer.

Sister Hong and Feng Jing knew he enjoyed rainy days, so they didn’t disturb him, each practicing their cultivation in the backyard. Only when they saw him did they stop their practice one after another and came to his side.

Feng Jun got straight to the point, "From now on, you two can only stay in the Earth Realm to cultivate. Last night, an early-stage ascendant escaped... that Xue Jingxiang, he says he’s not done with me."

He wasn’t afraid of Xue Jingxiang, but it would be somewhat dangerous to continue letting them practice here—if possible, he even wanted to have Mi Yunshan hide in the Earth Realm as well.

Sister Hong and Feng Jing were both aware of this Xue Jingxiang—with the current uproar, the two exchanged glances, unsure of what to say.

Sister Hong was the most frustrated because she was on the verge of reaching the sixth layer of Transcending Mortality.

Just then, Lang Zhen came over, "Mountain Master, a distinguished guest has sent over a corpse and a Storage Bag."

(Update to this point, calling for monthly votes.)