In a desolate corner of the desert...

Yu Tong and four other Blood sect disciples were sitting on a sand dune. It seemed as if they were waiting for something.

Dressed in red garments, Yu Tong was holding an ocarina in her slender, jade-like hands, and blowing into it with her plump red lips.

However, not a sound came from within the ocarina.

In the meantime...

Several miles from her, Mo Xi from the Ghost sect was also holding a similar ocarina, and held it to his ear from time to time, seemingly listening attentively to something.

From the look of it, he was trying to determine a direction.

After a long time, he led the other four Ghost sect disciples to where Yu Tong was.

By that point, Yu Tong had long since stopped playing the ocarina.

After arriving, Mo Xi instructed the others to find a place to sit, and then walked to Yu Tong’s side, looking at her, his eyes brimming with unruly desire.

A strong desire was hidden in the depths of his eyes. “How did your battle turn out?”

“The Cloudsoaring sect’s trial takers were in the desert, hunting for the Lurker Lizard,” Yu Tong stated in a cold voice. “We killed two of them before they ran into the Lurker Lizard, and killed two more after their battle with it. The Cloudsoaring sect still has six people left, we... should’ve been able to kill them all.”

“Something went wrong?” Mo Xi asked with a frown.

“Right at the crucial moment, the people from the Spiritual Treasure sect got there.” Yu Tong snorted. “The Spiritual Treasure sect came from the glacier area. Because you didn’t finish your job, we failed in ours.”

Huffing, Du Kun from the Ghost sect said, “Yu Tong! Not only did we run into the Spiritual Treasure sect in the glacier area, but we also encountered the disciples of the Grayvale sect!”

If Nie Tian was present, he would be able to tell with a single glance that Du Kun was the one who had disguised himself as a Grayvale sect disciple and attacked them.

Mo Xi waved his hand, signaling Du Kun not to interrupt, and said, “We slaughtered eight of the ten Grayvale sect disciples. Only Yuan Feng and his younger cousin managed to escape. We also killed one of the Spiritual Treasure sect’s people. It was a pity that we spent too much time chasing after Yuan Feng, and thus didn’t have the time and energy to finish off the Spiritual Treasure sect.”

“Whatever," Yu Tong said indifferently. “Now the Spiritual Treasure sect and the Cloudsoaring sect have joined hands, and I even noticed that they’ve headed out toward the volcano area.

“The people from the Mystic Mist sect should be hunting in the volcano area. We should strike the Spiritual Treasure sect and the Cloudsoaring sect as soon as possible, before they join forces with the Mystic Mist sect.”

After a moment of thinking, Mo Xi said, “The Cloudsoaring sect has six people alive. If Yuan Feng and his cousin joined them, they would have eight people. When Du Kun last met the Spiritual Treasure sect’s people, there were thirteen of them. Du Kun killed one, so that leaves them twelve people.

“If the Spiritual Treasure sect didn’t suffer from more casualties, together with the Cloudsoaring sect and the Grayvale sect’s guys, there should be a total of twenty of them now. We, on the other hand, have a total of ten.”

With these words, he grinned viciously. “But among those twenty, many have zero battle experience. As long as we can catch up to them, it should be pretty easy to kill all of them.”

He kept stroking his thumb bone necklace as he spoke.

Yu Tong glanced at him, and found that the bone necklace around his neck seemed to have gotten longer, which meant that he had killed several more opponents of his cultivation stage in the glacier area.

“There was a punk named Nie Tian on the Spiritual Treasure sect team,” Yu Tong said suddenly. “Do you know anything about him?”

“Nie Tian?” Mo Xi shook his head, looking puzzled. “No, I’ve never heard of him. Why?”

A cold light flashed in Yu Tong’s eye. “He wounded me.”

Mo Xi looked at her, confused. “With your strength, even An Ying would fall prey to you. A kid we’ve never heard of could hurt you? Were you being sloppy?”

Face long, Yu Tong didn’t respond.

It was then that Du Kun spoke up, his voice soft. “I have a bit of an impression of this Nie Tian.”

Mo Xi and Yu Tong both turned to look at him.

𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

Du Kun’s eyes narrowed until his expression was completely ferocious. “I wore the robes of the Grayvale sect to get close to the group from the Spiritual Treasure sect. I wanted to catch them off guard and kill them one by one. But Nie Tian noticed something was wrong, and attacked me before I even made a move. If it weren’t for him, I would have been able to kill at least three of the Spiritual Treasure sect brats.”

“This Nie Tian guy... is pretty interesting.” Mo Xi nodded briefly, memorizing his name, and then turned to Yu Tong. “When we catch up to them, I’ll personally capture that Nie Tian, and let you use your blood refining technique to refine every drop of his blood, so that you can vent your anger.”

Yu Tong wasn’t grateful at all. “Those I want to kill, I’ll kill them myself. I won’t bother you with it.”

“Hahaha!” Mo Xi laughed. “Whatever. I’ve laid my eyes on Nie Tian anyways. I’ll capture him before you do. When that comes, if you don’t want him, I’ll just tear him apart myself.”

“Stop wasting time,” Yu Tong said, her face expressionless. “Let’s go. We’ve got to catch up to them before they leave the desert, otherwise they might join hands with those from the Mystic Mist sect.”

...

At this time, somewhere else in the desert...

Nie Tian was indulging himself in eating again.

It had been two days since Yuan Feng and Yun Song joined them and they set out as a large group.

For the past two days, everyone had been marching at a fast pace with very limited resting time, hoping to leave the desert and meet with Zheng Bin and his group in the volcano area as soon as possible.

Since there wasn’t enough time for cultivation, Nie Tian’s plan to use the Lurker Lizard meat to enter the eighth level of Qi Refining within ten days would very likely end up down the drain.

Now that they finally stopped to rest, Nie Tian didn’t want to waste any time, so immediately, he took out some Lurker Lizard jerky, and began eating it at the fastest speed possible.

Only after he had stuffed several dozens kilograms of meat down his throat and couldn’t eat another bite, did he finally stop.

Without any delay, he started to practice the Qi Refining Incantation.

While he was upgrading his spiritual sea with the Qi Refining Incantation, the energy that couldn’t be absorbed once again dispersed into his flesh and bones.

Before long, he was burning up again, sweat pouring out from his pores.

And just like last time, the sweat that poured out of his body was mixed with murky filth.

After a long while, he opened his eyes. When he concentrated his mind and examined himself, he found that his spiritual sea had expanded by another ten percent.

Without any hesitation, he spread out his psychic power in all directions, with him as the center, and discovered that the range of his psychic power had enhanced to a seventy-eight meter radius.

“The improvement this time isn’t so great.”

Eyebrows furrowed, he went over the whole cultivating process in detail, before realizing that the energy generated in his belly this time was weaker compared to last time.

“The energy contained in the spirit beast meat must be decreasing. Energy contained in freshly killed spirit beast meat should be at its peak, and also can be absorbed the most easily.

“After a spirit beast dies, the energy in its meat will gradually vanish as time goes by.

“Also, by turning the spirit beast meat into jerky, I must have lost some of the energy in the blood.”

...

He peeled away the onion, searching for the reason that lay within.

As a matter of fact, back in the glacier area, he already had the feeling that the energy contained in the spirit beast meat decreased as time went by.

However, it was extremely cold in the glacier area, and therefore the spirit beast meat could remain fresh for a long time, making the energy loss in the meat less obvious.

It was natural that he felt the sudden rise in the energy loss rate of the spirit beast meat after they entered the desert.

Moreover, when everyone had turned the spirit beast meat into jerky, it seemed to have sped up the energy loss.

After having a clear understanding of the reasons behind it, he stared at the hundreds of kilograms of Lurker Lizard meat jerkies that he had been carrying, and suddenly felt somewhat distressed.

He realized that in order to make the best out of the Lurker Lizard meat, he would have to consume it all at the fastest speed possible.

In addition, he would need to stop traveling, and practice cultivation day and night.

Only in this way would he be able to make full use of the Lurker Lizard’s meat and improve his cultivation base to the eighth level in a short time.

The more time passed, the less benefit he would be able to gain from the Lurker Lizard meat.

However at this time, everyone, with Jiang Lingzhu and An Ying as the leaders, wanted to leave the desert, and join forces with the Mystic Mist sect as soon as possible.

It would be impossible for them to slow down their pace, just for Nie Tian to cultivate.

Either he left the group, found a remote corner in the desert, and while bearing the risk of being found by the Ghost sect and Blood sect, cultivated day and night to break through into the eighth level at the fastest speed possible.

Or he missed out on the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and kept traveling safely with the group.

His face shifted between various expressions, and after a long pondering, he sprung to his feet, saying, “Sorry guys, I won’t be able to travel with you and search for the Mystic Mist sect’s guys any more.”