Chapter 41: The Cruelty Of Li Ling 1
94 Slaughter Points obtained, of which 90 from the nine fellows at Qi Refinement Perfection and 4 from the Senior Brother’s extra Body Refinement level 4 cultivation. It was quite pleasing to know that the payout increased if the opponent had Body Refinement tiers on top of their Qi cultivation, because they would be much harder to kill on average.
There was a reason, after all, that bunch of Qing Shan Sect disciples dared to charge forward with their mount to try and close the gap, because the combination of the two produced deadly results. This had already been shown with Li Ling directly dispersing five Advanced-level offensive daoist arts with his weapon and his two cultivation paths overlaid atop each other.
Li Ling slowed down the speeding Steel Feathered Raptor and had it turn around towards the area where the bounty hunters fell. Since the entire fight had continued while moving for the most part, the distance between where he was now and where his foes fell was a little long.
But precisely because the fight had been quick and the speed of the Steel Feathered Raptor was unchanged, they took only seconds to arrive there, seeing scattered corpses on the ground in various states. All seven bounty hunters had tried different methods to withstand the fall, trying to brace with their artifacts, using daoist arts to weaken their fall or using items to conjure up various means.
Still, it was futile. The altitude they had been fighting at was as high as 10,000 feet in the sky, and falling from that height was enough to even kill a Core Formation cultivator without body cultivation, much less pure Qi Refinement fellows.
Alternatively, body refinement fellows would be immune to such fall damage by the time they entered the Body Foundation realm, which was the body cultivation equivalent of Foundation Establishment.
Though, some might survive in the Qi Refinement realm, but only if their body cultivation technique promised higher defensive power and stronger constitution over granting offensive power. Unfortunately, the Blood Asura Descent was almost 90% offense over defense, so Li Ling did not have that benefit.
Li Ling pointed a finger and forked it towards himself, using the Object Control Technique to lift the various storage bags and void rings to his person. Without going through them, he moved towards the crater where his Falling Boulder Art had landed, and tsked, noting that the powerful daoist art had turned everything to meat paste.
None of the nine were left with whole corpses, which was quite sad to think about.
But oh well, the good news was that their storage treasures were not so easily damaged, especially since the boulder was recalled by Li Ling at the last moment for that reason.
For him, battle was not just about gaining Slaughter Points, but also about acquiring funds to continue his living. The Infinite Slaughter System in its current state did not support investing points into non-combat methods, so he could not easily enter methods of production like alchemy, talisman making or even his very own array making without burning funds like a normal person.
As such, looting after he killed was important and would be his main way to acquire funds in the future until things changed.
Li Ling took off once more towards the border of the Hewu Province, which should be about a day’s journey away. This time, he had no plans of stopping to rest or wait for more enemies because he was certain that that previous batch was going to be the last for a while.
They would not stupidly send more Qi Refinement fellows for him to kill after seeing his streak of successes, so if he stayed here, the next batch of fellows to be dispatched—if they had not already been dispatched and were furiously on their way—would be Foundation Establishment disciples.
Li Ling was not yet ready and willing to attempt the fabled "fighting above one’s realm," so he made off at full speed. Once he crossed the border, due to the ongoing conflict between the Boundless Joy Sect and the Qing Shan Sect, no matter how much they hated him, they could only let him go.
Because both sides fought often, they usually needed excuses to raid the other, and no matter how the Qing Shan Sect explained or showed evidence of Li Ling’s crimes, would their opponents care? They would use the excuse of trespass to start another skirmish, and the losses from that did not outweigh the gains of pursuing Li Ling.
Still, it would be naive of Li Ling to expect things to end here. He, more than anyone in this world, understood the pettiness and vengeful nature of cultivators. If they could not catch him, they would definitely resort to darker means like hiring Foundation Establishment bounty hunters—who could cross borders freely—or they could just use an information broker to leak that he had obtained a great treasure and was fleeing into the Boundless Joy Sect’s territory, causing countless rogue cultivators to come chasing after him.
The methods they could use were endless, which was why Li Ling gave so much stock to the Disguise Art and the Qi Restraining Control. Those two were going to be the most important part of his survival in the next few days, not to mention the plan he had up his sleeve.
And of course, to effect that plan, Li Ling had to be alone, which meant it was soon to be time for the moment of truth to arise.
That exact moment came a day later when they reached the border, in which Li Ling directed the Steel Feathered Raptor to descend slowly. His target was a rather large water hole which he could see some animals and low-level demon beasts around, none of them being strong enough to even withstand his casual aura.
"Good, this place is perfect." Li Ling commented openly, smiling with satisfaction.
Cai Dong, who had been silent all this while, shuddered slightly as she was brought out of her daze. Ever since witnessing Li Ling’s actions and growth, she had come to understand that this young man was not just a human creature, but a force of nature.
His actions were hardly cohesive and even seemed to be detrimental to himself sometimes, but the outcomes always favored him in some way or another. Cai Dong realized that rather than escaping him, it was more likely that she would be stuck in his captivity for life, so she hoped that whatever he wanted her for was something she could continuously provide.
She especially hoped he wanted her for her Sage Race abilities, as she could take her time teaching him. The longer she took, the more time she would have to live and plan her next actions. If not her abilities, then she hoped he would want her for carnal pleasure, because that was a better alternative than death. She was also confident in her abilities to keep a young man like him satisfied enough to keep her alive.
In both scenarios, she could even see herself slowly winning his affection in time, getting him to lower his guard and grant her more freedoms. She would have to be smart about it, as this fellow was no fool, so she would have to have some level of sincerity.
Cai Dong closed her eyes and breathed out, as the first thing to that end was to start to brainwash herself.
No, Li Ling was not actually a murderous madman who killed her adoptive father and one of her junior sisters, then kidnapped her, but rather a handsome and misunderstood young man with a great destiny ahead of him.
If she told herself this enough times repeatedly over the course of the next few days, she might start to actually believe it, generating genuine goodwill and loyalty to him. Once he sensed that, he would be more hesitant to do away with her, as finding trustworthy people to be around him would be difficult.
When she opened her eyes after chanting her mantra in her mind, she was shocked to find that Li Ling’s Mountain Splitting Sword had beheaded the Steel Feathered Raptor, its eyes still bearing hints of confusion as it did not understand why it would be killed after doing nothing wrong.
Li Ling collected its body into the second void ring, planning to sell it when he got to another cultivator gathering place. In the meantime, he slowly turned to Cai Dong, whose face became pale, fearing the worst immediately.
However, Li Ling only grinned. "Go to sleep. When you wake up, we will have a very nice chat about how you’re going to help me."
Cai Dong wanted to shout that she could obey any commands right now without the need for such things, but Li Ling had already pointed a finger at her, causing her to blackout as the force from his attack struck a delicate meridian.
.........
"Urghh..." Cai Dong groaned as she came to, the sound of flickering firelight in her ears as she slowly opened her eyes.
The first thing she noticed was the yellowish green grass below her and the circle of trees in the near distance, indicating that she was in some sort of clearing. Apart from a big block of uneven stone to the side where the campfire was lit, she could only see a simple tent meant for outdoor survival.
"Awake huh? Rather than try to assess your surroundings, you should assess your own situation." Li Ling remarked, his voice appearing in front of Cai Dong, seating himself on a wooden chair he brought over while folding his arms.
Cai Dong was startled, then when she paid attention to her state, she was immediately shocked.
She was currently physically bound using extremely tight, tensile ropes that she could barely break out of even if she had her full powers, much less when they were still sealed.
However, that was not what left her stunned. What truly made her freeze was the fact that she was draped over a roll of neatly chopped firewood that was covered with some bedding, the support placed right underneath her torso area.
On top of that, and even worse, her skirt had been completely removed and placed to the side, along with her underwear, meaning that in the position she was in, her genital area was completely exposed to the air.
Her corset was still on, so her upper body up to her waist was clothed, but everything below that was already beginning to feel a bit cold in the night breeze.
Yet, Cai Dong rapidly calmed down, feeling that indeed, the moment of truth had come. In the end, since the moment she was captured by him, she envisioned something like this happening, though she did not understand why he needed to be so dramatic about it.
Would it not be better to invite her into the tent and have his way? What was the point of these theatrics? Or was this his specific type of interest?
"Understand? Now before we continue, let me spell the rules of our current interaction. You are going to share with me the full details of your Sage Race’s special system including the best techniques you have for cultivating the mind or soul."
Li Ling clapped a hand, which seemed to activate something as the ground began to tremble with a slow pulse, like something huge was stomping its way over.
"Now, to prevent any funny business like you lying to waste my time, we are going to add some stakes. I have injected a level 5 demon beast, the Ursine Horse, with a deadly dose of aphrodisiacs and used some tricks to make it hone in on you."
Li Ling crossed his legs as Cai Dong lifted her head to glance backwards with horror. "So unless you want to experience the joys of cross-species mating, you have about 10 minutes to explain to me, in perfect detail, all I need to know."
The stomping became louder and louder, and a vague silhouette was starting to become visible through the dark treelines. Cai Dong’s eyes widened with primal horror as she began to tremble, all the while Li Ling remained calm and casual, even a bit amused.
"Well? You’d better start talking. You don’t really have much time to avoid your gruesome fate when it catches you."