The Attack of the Wastrel

Gu Lingzhi was extremely careful as she dodged to the side. Her Fengwu Sword was illuminated with gold spiritual energy as it slashed seven centimeters away from the Green Waist snake. The Green Waist snake had wood and fire attributes, if she were to use fire to deal with it, it would only result in an opposite reaction.

“Hss—” The Green Waist snake hissed as its thick and heavy tail spun a few times in the air before shooting for the Fengwu Sword.

In its impression, the weapon of a Martial Artist of Gu Lingzhi’s level would not be able to hurt it.

But it was ultimately still an animal and was ignorant that there were weapons in this world that could be suppressed to match one's cultivation level. With this strike of its tail, the Green Waist gave a pathetic hiss as its tail cramped and trembled, its blood raining on the ground.

Gu Lingzhi’s sword did not manage to cut off seven centimeters of it like she had planned, but instead cut off half of the tail the Green Waist used to defend. Half of its tailbone was exposed. Gu Lingzhi was delighted. She never thought that she would get the upper hand with this attack. She quickly activated her earth spiritual energy and a sharp mud spike, as tall as a half a human appeared under the Green Waist, trapping it at its spot.

The Green Waist snake’s tail had suffered a huge hit and it triggered its brutal side, ignoring the mud spike that was hurting it a second time, it raised its neck and spat out a flame ball towards Gu Lingzhi.

Gu Lingzhi did not dare to slow down as she quickly hit the ground with her Fengwu Sword, forming a two meter mud wall in front of her. Using the Sparrow Wings movement technique, she quickly moved and went behind the Green Waist.

Although her actions were fast, the Green Waist was just as fast. Even with its injured tail, when it was met with the earth mound, it simply paused for a while before destroying it. Its tail swiped with a hiss, knocking into Gu Lingzhi who had no time to dodge, throwing her back by a few feet. She only stopped when she knocked into several large trees, coughing out a mouthful of blood as she landed.

The Green Waist was not looking any better. Its body was pierced with numerous holes from the earth spikes and looked incredibly scary.

Taking the opportunity that more than half of the Green Waist’s body had yet to be freed, Gu Lingzhi activated what minimal spiritual energy she had left to create even more spikes around it. She then managed to have some time to retrieve a medicinal pill from her Storage Ring to swallow. She held a spirit stone in her hand, absorbing the spiritual energy from it.

Although absorbing spiritual energy from a spirit stone would not be able to recover her spiritual energy as quickly eating a pill, it was advantageous in the fact that it could continuously provide energy.

The battle between them lasted for a long time and the blood scent coming from the snake had drifted a distance away. Gu Lingzhi heard a delighted growl from a beast coming from far away and knew that the scent of blood would soon attract beasts here. Gu Lingzhi forced her unstable body to stand up, holding onto the tree behind her for support. With the little bit of spiritual energy that she had just regained, she sent it into her Fengwu sword, activating the special attribute of the sword.

In a split second, a huge gust of wind surrounded Gu Lingzhi causing her clothes to flutter. Her Fengwu Sword let out a low hum as gold spiritual energy spun within it. Very quickly, the gold spiritual energy in the hurricane changed and blue electric arcs appeared, emitting a horrifying aura.

From afar, the Green Waist felt the suppressing aura from the electric arcs and fear flashed in its red beady eyes. It went slightly crazy as it thrashed around in the earth spikes as it tried to move away from Gu Lingzhi, wanting to escape.

“Now you want to run? It’s too late,” Gu Lingzhi chuckled weakly as she saw the Green Waist thrash around trying to escape. She pointed her Fengwu Sword at the Green Waist.

A silver lightning as thick as a thigh shot out of the Fengwu Sword and flew at an unbelievable speed towards the Green Waist that had just managed to escape the spikes.

Bam! 

An extremely loud sizzling sound could be heard through the forest as the Green Waist did not even have time to cry before it was cooked into snake meat.

Gu Lingzhi looked at the Green Waist’s body slightly pitifully. It had been burnt into crisp and it would be impossible to extract any blood from it. Quickly retrieving a red green bead from it, Gu Lingzhi quickly left the area. Not long after she left, a three metre golden-maned beast appeared in the area. Its eyes flashed with a slight fear as it saw the burnt body of the Green Waist and carefully checked the surroundings for anything suspicious. Only after that did it open its mouth wide and happily devoured the snake’s body, retreating into the forest after.

Gu Lingzhi attempted to heal herself using Spiritual Medicine while slowly navigating through the forest, finding somewhere to rest.

With the little amount of spiritual energy left in her, any beast that she met would be able to kill her. Although she could escape into the Inheritance Space, she did not want to rely too much on it. Only in dangerous situations, would she be able to grow and mature.

When she met the capuchin monkeys previously, the sky was already starting to turn dark. After running from the monkeys and fighting the Green Waist snake, the sky had completely darkened.

Thankfully, Gu Lingzhi was not too unlucky. After avoiding a few beasts, she managed to find a tree that was about as wide as two humans. Gu Lingzhi was delighted as she hid into the tree in the same way that she and Wei Hanzi had hidden when they were trying to hide from assassins. She dug into the tree, leaving only the outer layer of bark as a cover before hiding inside.

The space that Gu Lingzhi dug out was huge and she could stretch out her legs completely. Taking out several wood-based spiritual talismans, she stuck it on the tree, causing vines to grow, preventing the tree from being blown down overnight. She then leaned on the tree and took a rest.

Closing her eyes, she thought about the previous time when she had to do the same thing and of Wei Hanzi who was there with her. She wondered how Wei Hanzi’s injury was now. The people from the North Qiu Kingdom were extremely cruel and did not intend to let her live. Damage done to Spiritual Roots was no small matter, if she did not recover properly, it would severely affect her cultivation in the future.

She would go and find her after her final examination was over.

Gu Lingzhi pondered - if Wei Hanzi’s injury was serious, she could look into her Inheritance Space to see if there was any cure. With her current standard, she was a high grade Yellow Level Alchemist. Although it was still slightly difficult for her to make valuable medicine, she could still find someone else that was better than her and get them to make it. She could not delay seeking help for Wei Hanzi.

Sustaining quite a serious injury and with her spiritual energy depleted, Gu Lingzhi fell into a deep sleep.

An unknown amount of time passed before Gu Lingzhi was awoken by the shaking of the tree.

A beast was hitting the tree!

The scary thought pulled Gu Lingzhi out of her slumber abruptly. The surroundings were pitch black and the sun had yet to rise. The vibration happened two more times before it stopped. Two different beastly calls could be heard, followed by the sound of flesh hitting flesh.

Gu Lingzhi sat up in confusion as she looked through the crack in the tree. With her Martial Teacher level enhanced eyesight, she could clearly see a fight going on between two beasts.

Thankfully, she was used to digging her hole high up in the tree, a few meters from the ground. If not, she would have become the sacrificial lamb.

The two beasts that were engaged in the battle beneath her were both large beasts. One had brown fur and was about three meters tall. It was a peak grade third-order Howling Lion Beast with fire attributes and could produce a special sound that would make one go crazy.

The other was a peak grade third-order Rock Hog beast that had an outer covering resembling rocks. The large vibration of the tree was probably due to it hitting the tree.

Just as Gu Lingzhi thought this, the Rock Hog let out a growl as its front hooves dug into the ground, its massive head positioned in front of his body. Its two sharp tusks were aimed directly as the Howling Lion Beast.

Oh no!

Gu Lingzhi quickly placed her hands on the ground and braced herself. Alas, the Howling Lion Beast dodged the Rock Hog’s attack and the Rock Hog had no time to stop itself as it crashed into the tree Gu Lingzhi was in. The huge tree shook as it got hit and under Gu Lingzhi’s horrified gaze, the huge bark that was used to cover the hole fell to the ground and onto the Rock Hog’s head.

What would happen if these two beasts were to spot her looking at them killing each other?

Gu Lingzhi rubbed her face dejectedly. There must be something wrong with the way she entered the Valley of Beasts, if not, how could she be so unlucky to keep meeting beasts?

Before the two beasts could react, Gu Lingzhi assessed her own injury. Not bad. After half a night, she had recovered about eighty percent and her spiritual energy was almost completely replenished. She was not going to be the supper of these two beasts.

Removing the vine at the entrance of the tree hole, Gu Lingzhi took a deep breath as she jumped out of the tree.

At this moment, the Rock Hog had realised something was not right. Its silver eyes caught a second of Gu Lingzhi before it then turned and shot towards the Howling Lion Beast once again as if it did not see her.

It seems like these two beasts had no intention of colluding and going against her. Gu Lingzhi breathed a sigh of relief before retrieving her Fengwu sword.

In the pitch black night, the silver body of the Fengwu Sword glowed as if it had been awakened. As the Fengwu Sword was taken out of the Storage Ring, the two Rock Hog and Howling Lion Beast who were in battle were suddenly drawn to it.

The Rock Hog let out two snorts before turning back to fight with the Howling Lion Beast. However, the moment the Howling Lion Beast caught sight of the Fengwu Sword, its nostrils flared as it took a frightened step back.

Was the Howling Lion Beast…afraid of her? Gu Lingzhi was confused.

Something then happened, making her even more puzzled. The Howling Lion Beast who was fighting the Rock Hog with all its might just a second ago, suddenly let out a terrified howl. Risking getting hit by the Rock Hog, it turned and fled away from Gu Lingzhi. In a few seconds, it completely disappeared into the forest.

“Do I…look that scary?” Gu Lingzhi pursed her lips as her ego took a huge hit. Was she so sorry-looking that even a beast would turn away in fear?