Li Changsheng threw the bamboo tube, turned, and ran, ducking behind a rock. He peeked his head out to look at the cliff wall.
He then witnessed a rather spectacular scene.
The branches and leaves of the Blood Bamboo Vine on the cliff wall trembled. A dense, dark swarm of Red-winged Blood Bamboo burst out, wings beating, and descended swiftly upon the bamboo tube on the gravelly beach.
The bamboo tube was encased in layer after layer, forming a sphere made of Red-winged Blood Bamboo.
A look of joy appeared in Li Changsheng’s eyes. He could sense the gray solid rapidly diminishing.
A Cup of Tea’s Time passed.
The dense, dark swarm of insects took flight once more and returned to the Blood Bamboo Vine.
After they flew away, the gravelly beach was covered with a dense layer of Red-winged Blood Bamboo.
A quick count revealed there were over a hundred of them.
Suppressing his excitement, Li Changsheng sensed the magical connection within the bodies of the Red-winged Blood Bamboo. With a slight nudge of his will, he activated it.
BZZZ...
A strange transformation occurred within the Red-winged Blood Bamboo.
Tiny specks of light flickered. Gray patterns rapidly spread across the bright red, bamboo-joint-like bodies of the insects, covering them from head to tail in the blink of an eye.
Their thumb-sized bodies instantly swelled to more than double their size, and a faint wisp of Spiritual Qi was born within them.
As the Red-winged Blood Bamboo completed their transformations one by one,
Li Changsheng felt subtle connections flooding his mind. Within a few breaths, over a hundred new links had formed.
Just then, a sharp pain suddenly surged through his mind, as if someone were violently stirring his brain with a wooden stick.
"Ah!"
Li Changsheng cried out in pain, clutching his head as he collapsed to the ground, his face contorted.
Fortunately, the rock was quite far from the Blood Bamboo Vine, and the sound didn’t attract the insects’ attention. Otherwise, he might have ended up like the white bones in the gravel pile.
The stabbing pain lasted for more than ten breaths before slowly subsiding.
When he came to, Li Changsheng’s body twitched uncontrollably.
He felt abnormally exhausted, as if he hadn’t slept for days, and his thoughts felt sluggish.
’What’s happening to me?’
After a moment of panic, Li Changsheng forced himself to calm down and focused his gaze inward.
[Target: Li Changsheng]
[Race: Human]
[Cultivation: Qi Cultivation, Level Two "1%"]
[Cultivation Technique: Spirit Guiding Technique, Level Three "Cannot be upgraded" Trait, "Spirit Return"]
[Magic: Insect Seal (Fragment) "Lesser Success 23%", Water Purification Technique "Beginner 71%", Fattening Technique "Beginner 83%"]
[Status: Enfeebled.]
’Lesser... Lesser Success?’
Li Changsheng couldn’t believe it. ’Was it that simple?’ He then focused his gaze on the Insect Seal.
[Insect Seal (Fragment): Red-winged Blood Bamboo "One Hundred Twenty-Three," Spiritual Soul Saturated, Cannot Form Contracts.]
’Did I try to form contracts with too many...’
Seeing this, Li Changsheng rubbed the space between his eyebrows and let out a bitter laugh.
It was his own fault for being too greedy, trying to form contracts with hundreds of Red-winged Blood Bamboo all at once.
This had overloaded his spiritual soul, forcing a severing of the connection between the magic and the insects, which resulted in a backlash.
He could tell from the panel that with his current spiritual soul strength, the limit of Red-winged Blood Bamboo he could control was exactly one hundred and twenty-three. Not a single one more.
Li Changsheng fought back the exhaustion in his mind and focused his thoughts.
The hundred-plus Red-winged Blood Bamboo flew up unsteadily, gathering into a small swarm that converged on him.
After familiarizing himself with them briefly, Li Changsheng focused his thoughts again, and the swarm of Red-winged Blood Bamboo beat their wings and flew towards the Blood Bamboo Vine on the cliff.
Their arrival did not attract the attention of their kind. A moment later, the swarm returned, carrying a stalk of Blood Bamboo Vine with them.
Li Changsheng put it in his back basket, turned, and ran towards the ravine.
Reaching the deep pool, he circulated his Spiritual Power, leaped onto the giant rock, and quickly departed.
GLUG GLUG...
Not long after he left, the calm, deep pool suddenly began to churn with roiling bubbles.
「Noon arrived.」
The scorching sun beat down, making the plants wilt. In the Hundred Beasts Valley, the Spirit Beasts had also grown listless.
It should have been a time for quiet rest, but now, it was complete chaos.
A team of twelve people dressed in black robes, with the emblem of the Minghu Mountain Yue Law Enforcement Hall embroidered on their chests, moved between the beast pens.
Whenever they entered a pen, the Cultivators there would greet them with brilliant smiles, but after they left, their faces would turn horribly grim, as if someone in their family had died.
The new disciples thought something major had happened and poked their heads out to watch.
As time went on, they found it strange that the people from the Law Enforcement Hall were mostly seeking out the older disciples, paying little attention to the new ones.
"Did something happen?"
"I don’t know. Does anyone know what’s going on?"
"Strange..."
Many disciples gathered in twos and threes to discuss it, but no one could figure out what was happening.
Only seven or eight new disciples were approached by the Law Enforcement Hall. Their faces turned ugly, and they opened their mouths as if to say something, but upon seeing the imposing enforcement team, they immediately became docile.
For a time, the atmosphere was incredibly strange.
Some people looked grim, some wore smiles, and others remained calm...
It left the new disciples utterly confused.
As the people from the Law Enforcement Hall moved from one beast pen to the next, a crowd of hundreds gradually formed, all standing in front of their own pens, silently watching them.
「Until the great sun glowed red.」
The members of the Law Enforcement Hall finished with the last beast pen. Without a word or explanation, they quickly departed.
Once they were completely out of sight,
"Fuck! You bastards! *SPIT*..."
A withered-looking old man, as thin as a bamboo stalk, spat fiercely on the ground, then turned and walked back into his house with a face full of grief and indignation.
A few other angry curses could be faintly heard from elsewhere, but most people remained silent.
「Night fell.」
ROAR...
A long tiger’s roar echoed, and the Beast Valley became lively once more.
In the center of the Beast Valley, by an abandoned beast pen, a hunched-over old man walked out of his house and headed straight for a nearby pen.
THUD... THUD...
As he got closer, he could hear the sound of something being chopped inside the wooden hut.
Ma Wu’s face was a little pale. He stood outside the courtyard, hesitated for a moment, and then called out softly, "Senior Brother Wang, Senior Brother Wang."
THUD... THUD...
The person inside didn’t seem to hear, as the sound continued unabated.
Ma Wu stood at the outer gate for half a cup of tea’s time before a burly man in a black and red apron emerged from the house carrying two wooden buckets.
When the big man walked out, Ma Wu hurried over.
"Senior Brother Wang, I..."
"BLECH..."
Ma Wu had just started to speak when a choking, metallic stench shot up his nose, making him gag involuntarily.
Wang Li glanced at him and gave a sinister chuckle. He carried the buckets into the beast pen, and soon the sounds of fighting and tearing filled the air.
Ma Wu straightened up, his face alternating between green and white, but he did not enter the beast pen.
A moment later, Wang Li walked out, wiping his hands. He looked at Ma Wu, a grin splitting his face. "What’s the matter? It’s not time yet. Why the hurry?"
Hearing this, Ma Wu’s face instantly fell into a miserable expression.
"Senior Brother Wang, that Law Enforcement Hall is full of bastards! They took one of my Red Foxes for no reason at all."
Wang Li gave a strange smile. "Why didn’t you resist?"
"How would I dare?" Ma Wu laughed sheepishly. "The moment they walked in, they pointed a mirror at me. I was too scared to think straight."
"Hahaha..."
Wang Li laughed a few times, walked over, and clapped him on the shoulder. "That mirror checks if you’re haunted by resentful spirits. If you are, you have to obediently hand over fifty percent of last night’s earnings. If you don’t comply, they’ll just forcibly take half of all your Spirit Beasts!"
"What!" Ma Wu cried out, his expression changing drastically.
"Doesn’t that mean..."