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On the surface, it looked like Skin Painting Gentleman, Limp Celestial and Tiger Sovereign were all leading the life. They were respected by many and feared by more. However, that was only within the boundaries of Bei You, and even in Bei You, they were really just small fries who had to answer to a bigger fish.

Forget the likes of Joy Bodhisattva and Mistress Ruyi, they couldn’t even compare to the likes of the late Sunset Swordsman and Five Poisons Boy. Otherwise, they would have been invited to Joy Bodhisattva’s Trueman feast.

Of course, this was really a blessing in disguise. Had they actually attended that Trueman feast, they would either be dead or enslaved—but that was besides the point. The point was that, assuming that they never encountered a fortuitous opportunity again in their life, then what they had now was what they would have when they were at the end of their lives. They would never become stronger, never gain more power, never become more than who they currently were.

And why was that? They were still in their prime, weren’t they? They still had many years ahead of them, right?

The answer was as plain as it was cruel. It was because they had no backer or skill. It was because they did not know a martial art that would take them all the way to the top, nor the cultivation resources that would have allowed them to brute force their bottleneck.

Their current cultivation art was a Spirit Master-stage martial art. They could spend their whole lives devoting themselves to their martial art, and they would never become more than a late-stage Spirit Master or Half-Step Grandmaster.

And what was a Spirit Master? A pebble that a bigger man could kick as they pleased. An ant to be squashed by ignorant giants. Hell, they were so insignificant that they might not register as a blip in their killer’s memory.

How pathetic an existence would that be?

It was a different story if they could obtain a Grandmaster-stage martial art though. If their paths weren’t capped by their own martial arts, who was to say that they could not reach the pinnacle that was Grandmaster and become a giant themselves?

How could they not fight when the opportunity to change their lives forever was right in front of them?

Sure, the mysterious man looked unbelievably powerful, but he had just become a Spirit Master. Hell, it would not be an exaggeration to call him a “newborn”. On the other hand, all three of them were middle-stage Spirit Masters. If they worked together, they could give even a Half-Step Grandmaster a black eye.

Second, the mysterious man had just undergone the Five Phases Tribulation, and they had witnessed the tribulation’s power with their own eyes. They were certain that the mysterious man was seriously injured and exhausted right now.

If they didn’t act now, then when?

All three of them deduced that now was the best time to act. So they did. A hint of excitement and savagery flashed across their face when they thought of the reward that they were sure they would soon receive.

Behind them, Xie Taohua chuckled to himself. “Yep. Those three are as predictable as depression. Let’s see how strong that man is, shall we?”

His smile quickly froze, however. Skin Painting Gentleman, Limp Celestial and Tiger Sovereign were about three meters away from the mysterious man when suddenly, they stopped and began attacking the air in front of them. Judging from their greedy, excited expressions, it was clear that it wasn’t a joke or a ploy to fool Xie Taohua. After that, they crouched down and moved their hands across the air looking like they were searching a body.

A few breaths later, Limp Celestial clutched a bundle of thin air and cackled triumphantly. “Hahaha! I found it! I found it!”

Blinded by greed and envy, Skin Painting Gentleman and Tiger Sovereign did not hesitate to attack the cripple.

Caught off guard by the betrayal, Limp Celestial failed to react before Tiger Sovereign caught his arm and ripped the entire limb off. Not a moment too soon, Skin Painting Gentleman arrived and sent him flying with a palm strike.

After he dealt Limp Celestial a grievous blow, multiple skins came off Skin Painting Gentleman’s body and caught Tiger Sovereign in a death grip. The scholar himself was running in a different direction with all his might.

“You are courting death, Skin Painting Gentleman!” Tiger Sovereign roared. A tiger appeared behind his back and shredded the skin puppets in a few swipes. Then, both Tiger Sovereign and the tiger chased after the scholar.

It was at this moment the grievously wounded Limp Celestial roared, “That is my treasure! Mine! I’ll kill you!”

As he leaped into the air, his shrunken right leg grew rapidly in size. Then, he brought his foot down on Skin Painting Gentleman and Tiger Sovereign.

The resulting impact sent both warriors flying through the air. Despite their injuries, they charged toward Limp Celestial as soon as they hit the ground.

“You are courting death, limp geezer!”

More explosions followed. The three men were tearing into each other with a kind of ferocity and madness that was usually reserved for one’s nemesis only. If possible, Xie Taohua was sure that they would feed on each other’s flesh and drink their blood. They were fighting to kill the other person even at the cost of their own life, and that made no sense whatsoever.

“What the hell is going on here?”

Usually, there was nothing Xie Taohua enjoyed more than a good ol’ dog eat dog fight. Not this time though. Not when his pawns were killing each other over a bundle of air. It did not take a genius to know that the trio had somehow plunged into an illusion while they were charging the mysterious man, and the eerie, almost clownish sight sent a chill up his spine.

“Okay, this is too much. I’m calling it quits.”

Without hesitation, Xie Taohua corked his bottle and ran down the mountain.

He would be lying if he said he wasn’t planning on kicking a dog while it was down so to speak, but he didn’t join the trio in their charge because he was planning to use them to sound out the mysterious man.

It was why he bothered to rescue the trio at all. What, did you really think he had a bleeding heart? No, he was just a cautious man. He preferred to plan before he acted; safety over danger.

And thank goodness he did, because the mysterious man proved to be even more dangerous than he expected; so much so that he decided to beat a hasty retreat. It wasn’t like he was going home empty-handed. At the very least, he obtained the Sweet Rain of Blessing most people couldn’t even dream of. That was enough for him.

He was never a greedy man. If his venture turned out to be profitable, then hurray. If not, he would not hesitate to wrap it up and call it a day. In his opinion, there was no vice a human should be more wary of than greed. Excessive greed would only result in loss and even death, and that just wasn’t worth it no matter how he looked at it.

He had already seen far, far too many people who succumbed to their greed and suffered from it, and he had no interest in becoming one of them.

Xie Taohua was a decisive man. He disappeared into the peach blossom forest in just the blink of an eye. After he was gone, the man still basking in the Sweet Rain of Blessing abruptly opened his eyes and stared at the direction Xie Taohua had escaped to, smiling. “Interesting.”

The mysterious man was Ye Qing, of course. But why was he here at Peach Blossom Mountain?

After the Trueman feast incident was over, Sakyamuni Myriad Shadows left that very night after engaging Joy Bodhisattva in a secret discussion. It was because he did not want to run into Ding Chong, vice head of Sword King City or Yang Tianming, Azure Dragon Envoy of Earthfire Palace of Demons.

Right after Myriad Shadows left, Ye Qing bade Joy Bodhisattva goodbye as well. He too snuck out of Blissful Mountain without anyone noticing. His involvement was not necessary in what was coming, and he had no intentions of showing his face before the champions just like Myriad Shadows.

Joy Bodhisattva must have noticed his determination because she did not try to change his mind when he visited her. She only gifted him two nine hundred years old Moon Lotus Seed.

The Moon Lotus Seed was the seed of the Moon Lotus, and the Moon Lotus was a natural creation that could only be found in the tallest, uninhabited peak. It grew by basking in moonlight and had an extremely slow growth cycle. It took sixty years to germinate, sixty years to flower, sixty years to fruit, sixty years to seed, and another sixty years to finally reach full maturity.

Long story short, it took a total of three hundred years for a Moon Lotus to reach full maturity. It was worth it though. The Moon Lotus could drastically improve a warrior’s spiritual power. To make an example, a three-hundred-year-old Moon Lotus could transform an ordinary early-stage Spirit Purifier into a late-stage Spirit Purifier instantly. That was how potent it was.

That wasn’t all. An unharvested Moon Lotus Seed did not wither. It would simply continue its growth cycle and gain more potency over time. A six-hundred-year-old Moon Lotus Seed was twice as potent as a three-hundred-year-old Moon Lotus Seed, meaning that its potency would only grow with time.

However, a three-hundred-year-old Moon Lotus Seed was already quite rare. A six-hundred-year-old Moon Lotus Seed could only be described as a priceless treasure, not to mention that the Moon Lotus itself was exceptionally rare. As if that wasn’t enough, a mature Moon Lotus Seed would give off a scent that attracted all kinds of Stranger to harvest it. To say it was extremely unlikely for a Moon Lotus Seed to reach the age of six hundred naturally would be an understatement.

A nine-hundred-year-old Moon Lotus Seed was the stuff of legends. It was a kind of treasure a person might not find, much less obtain for a millennium. It was also said that a nine-hundred-year-old Moon Lotus Seed could transform one’s soul completely.

But of course, the two nine-hundred-year-old Moon Lotus Seeds Joy Bodhisattva gave Ye Qing were slightly different from a true nine-hundred-year-old Moon Lotus Seed.