I, Jiang Ke’er, don’t accept anything for free.
Not even a single meal!
This Qiankun Bag of yours will just barely cover the cost of the meal then.
Jiang Ke’er smiled as she pulled open the mouth of the Qiankun Bag.
I love opening Qiankun Bags the most! It’s like a lucky draw; anything could appear inside.
“Oh my!”
After dumping all the contents of the Qiankun Bag into her inventory, she stared, dumbfounded, at the 15,000 Demonic Crystals that had appeared in her currency bar.
This is too intense! Do people from the Tribulation Immortal Hall carry over ten thousand Demonic Crystals in cash with them?
She had painstakingly aimed at other people’s pockets, toiling away, and even with the Demonic Crystals from the freebie system, she had only accumulated a few hundred.
But now, her Demonic Crystal balance was a staggering 15,777!
With this amount, she could already buy a good quality sixth-grade magic artifact.
Although Yuan Zheng’s Qiankun Bag only contained this money and a strange token engraved with the name of the Tribulation Immortal Hall, it was substantial enough to make Jiang Ke’er want to follow them to the Tribulation Immortal Hall’s stronghold and explore a few more times.
Of course, that was just a thought.
With her current strength, dealing with the Tribulation Immortal Hall was a high-difficulty operation that would have to wait.
“Eat fish~ eat fish~”
She wondered how delicious this fish was that it could make a large living person like Yuan Zheng disappear after eating it.
Would she also burst out of her clothes after taking a bite?
That would be terrible; wouldn’t she be benefiting Qiao Xiaoxian again?
Never mind, she was starving. The Foundation Establishment Pill she ate earlier wasn’t filling at all.
From the moment she bit into the grilled fish, Jiang Ke’er vowed that from now on, every meal she ate would be personally prepared by her!
It was too delicious! It was truly so delicious that it caused hallucinations.
After eating it, the quality of her spiritual root and charming bone even increased by 5 points! She also gained a BUFF effect that increased her true qi recovery speed by 10%!
And these attribute bonuses could be triggered once by each type of ingredient.
Eating a new ingredient would grant a new effect… How could there be billions upon billions of ingredient types in this world!
From today onwards, she wanted to eat her way across the Divine Land!
Qiao Xiaoxian wholeheartedly agreed with this.
“Where did you get all these strange skills?” Qiao Xiaoxian couldn’t help but ask curiously, “Stealing techniques, cooking skills, the Truth-telling Horse Killing Art… what else can you do?”
“Me?” Jiang Ke’er leaned back on the boat’s edge, patting her belly, and wagged her little tail proudly, “I know a little bit about everything. Perhaps I don’t understand now, but I will in the future…”
“Know a little bit?”
Qiao Xiaoxian recalled the taste of the grilled fish and Yuan Zheng’s complex mental journey, from “disdain” to “shock,” and then to “this ‘shit’ is amazing, I want to eat it every meal.”
She probably understood what Jiang Ke’er’s “slight understanding” meant for this newborn anomaly.
The small boat finally reached the shore.
Standing on the beach, Jiang Ke’er looked up at Hanye Island.
Though called an island, it looked more like a towering mountain in the sea.
The mountain’s peak was out of sight, divided into two by clouds: one half below the clouds, and the other above.
The lower half was lush and green, while the world above the clouds seemed quite mysterious.
A straight staircase led directly to the mountaintop, like a heavenly path straight to the immortal gate.
Along this celestial path, every hundred meters, a cultivator sat with a sword, like a BOSS guard stationed at a pass.
The lowest-level guards were currently in combat with some human sword cultivators.
Other human sword cultivators were watching nearby, with cheers and shouts echoing, creating a very lively atmosphere.
The scene here was completely different from Jiang Ke’er’s imagined Hongmen banquet.
The lively atmosphere of sword discussion and learning filled her with joy and envy.
Everyone discussed sword techniques, engaged in friendly sparring, and occasionally teased each other, making the other party blush, yet their friendship deepened through the exchange.
After discussing swords and fighting, a group of bruised and battered individuals called each other brothers, linked arms, and went to a tavern with bandages and band-aids to join a party.
Finally, they all got thoroughly drunk, slurring their words as they agreed to fight again next year.
Jiang Ke’er gripped her sword, wanting to go say hello, but ultimately could only sigh softly, holding the hilt, her gaze becoming indifferent and profound.
Some things, after all, simply don’t belong to you, and even the strongest thievery cannot steal them.
Jiang Ke’er seemed to carry a distinct foul odor about her.
Her appearance quickly cooled the surrounding atmosphere.
The bustling crowd of sword cultivators, upon seeing Jiang Ke’er, suddenly fell silent.
She wasn’t foul-smelling; in fact, she smelled quite pleasant.
Jiang Ke’er knew this well… but it only made her heart ache more, wishing she truly carried an unbearable stench.
“Hanye Island’s Hundred Pass Sword Debate,” Qiao Xiaoxian suddenly spoke, interrupting her thoughts.
“I’ve heard much about it; I never thought I’d truly see it one day.”
“Hundred Pass Sword Debate?”
“It’s a sword debate mountain path guarded by one hundred sword cultivators from the Ancient Learning Realm,” Qiao Xiaoxian explained.
“These cultivators come from various schools, with their cultivation becoming stronger from lower to higher levels, representing the highest standard of sword cultivators in the Ancient Learning Realm… If you can pass all hundred stages, become the hundredth-stage guard, and remain undefeated, it signifies that you have conquered Myriad Blades State.”
Jiang Ke’er nodded; she understood.
As she had expected, this sword debate assembly, on the surface, was not held specifically for her, but rather a grand event concerning all sword cultivators in Myriad Blades State.
Everyone could participate in the challenge, and she was just an inconspicuous one among many challengers.
After all, if a sword debate assembly were held specifically for her, it would not only make Myriad Blades State seem undignified but also elevate her status excessively, virtually admitting that they feared Jiang Ke’er.
Handling it this way avoided such awkwardness and even made Myriad Blades State, as the host, appear impartial, giving them a psychological advantage from the start.
As just one of the ordinary challengers, Jiang Ke’er also had to fight her way up from the bottom, just like other sword cultivators.
However, while others might only suffer minor injuries from a failed challenge, she would lose her life.
—Not only did they want to kill her, but they wanted to kill her honorably and with dignity, publicly claiming she died in a sparring accident. This was the outcome the upper-level sword cultivators of Myriad Blades State wanted to see.
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