"Aargh―" Tan Jun screamed as he dodged to the side, but he was in for another shock as his ears rang with the sound of shattered glass.

Tan Jun was horrified. It was the sound of his life-protecting treasure activating, meaning he just avoided certain death. How could it be? He had dodged the blade, yet he was still cut and almost died. Shocked and frightened, Tan Jun staggered as he tried to suppress the bleeding and looked at the attacker.

"It's you!" Tan Jun cried out in disbelief. A blue hue enveloped his body―a sign that his life-saving treasure had fully activated. Under its protection, he was safe. But he couldn't hide his shock as he looked at Mu Chen.

"I failed." Mu Chen stood up, sword in hand. The rope that had been tying him fell on the ground into pieces as he stood. "It's really hard to kill an expert." He looked at Tan Jun who was covered in his protective treasure's brilliance and sighed with regret. If possible, he would have liked to kill him in a single strike. But because he was lying on the ground, his position was awkward and he couldn't strike with his fastest speed.

"How did you…" Tan Jun gasped as blood flowed from his wound. "What did you…" His eyes darted between Mu Chen and his sword. What baffled him the most was that there was no fluctuation of spiritual qi when Mu Chen attacked. It looked like a physical attack, but how could a physical strike extend beyond the weapon used for striking without using spiritual qi? But Mu Chen didn't use spiritual qi, or he would have noticed it and his life-saving treasure would have also activated in time and not at the last moment.

"Nevermind the details." Mu Chen looked at the gash on Tan Jun's waist. "I want to know, can you still fight?"

"Asshole! You will pay for this!" Tan Jun growled. But recalling how Mu Chen's attack had almost cut his spine, he shivered and immediately distanced himself, splattering blood on the ground. Although he escaped death, it wasn't without severe injury. Mu Chen's attack had cut his liver and other internal organs. Tan Jun took out a few pills from his spatial ring and swallowed them. He glared at Mu Chen like a wounded beast, then sat down cross-legged to recuperate.

Mu Chen didn't pursue Tan Jun but used the opportunity to approach Old Shi, who was in a daze.

"Old Shi, it's time to settle debts," Mu Chen said. He slashed with his sword and Old Shi's shackles fell with a clang.

Old Shi still hadn't gotten over the shocking turn of events. But with the shackles removed, Old Shi felt his strength return back to him. He looked at Tan Jun and his eyes burned with hatred. "Tan Jun! I will kill you!" Old Shi roared. "I will tear you to pieces and feed them to the dogs!" Old Shi stood up in excitement but almost staggered back. Even with his cultivation base restored, his injuries couldn't be ignored. But he didn't care and rushed at Tan Jun.

Mu Chen rolled his eyes and dragged Old Shi back. "Did your head get hit by a donkey?" He handed Old Shi his spatial ring. "Take it." Li Kun had examined the ring and hadn't found anything impressive. But there were a few tokens in it whose function they didn't know. When he came to this cave, Mu Chen had an idea what the tokens might be for.

"Hahaha!" Old Shi looked into the ring and became ecstatic. "Tan Jun, prepare for retribution." He took out a token from within his ring.

Tan Jun who was sitting cross-legged treating his injuries trembled on hearing Old Shi. He opened an eye and saw Old Shi staring at him with a token in his hands.

Old Shi raised the token in his hand and poured his spiritual energy into it. The token began to glow. In response, the pearls that had been embedded into the ceiling began to glow brighter. Beams of light fired from the pearls towards Tan Jun.

"Damn!" Tan Jun cursed on seeing dozens of beams fire towards him. They attacked him from every possible direction―there was simply no dodging them. Tan Jun didn't bother dodging them and flicked his sleeve. A black light zipped through the air at extreme speed towards Old Shi.

"Watch out!" Mu Chen moved and slashed his sword at the black light. Clang! Mu Chen's sword hit something metallic. The black light was deflected and spun off the course. At the same time, the ceiling exploded and they were showered by rubble. The beams of light stopped firing.

"Old Shi, do you have anything else?" Mu Chen whispered, looking at the ceiling. Several of the pearls had been destroyed.

Old Shi coughed. "There...isn't."

Mu Chen's face twitched. "Old Shi, you are very unreliable."

Old Shi said with a red face. "That―I, I'm not good with formations."

"Well, I don't blame you." Mu Chen sighed. He understood Old Shi's struggle. Laying down attack formations required specialized knowledge and a certain amount of talent. The existence of a spirit vein was his secret so Old Shi couldn't just invite another expert. So the attack formation Old Shi had laid was rather basic and its flaw was also very obvious.

The dust settled and they saw Tan Jun still standing, but the glow on his body had dimmed.

"You guys damn!" Tan Jun cursed. In that moment he had fired two darts. One at Old Shi, and another at the ceiling. But just this action almost caused his wounds to reopen. He had not even stabilized his injury and wasn't in the condition to fight. Yet, he had no choice but to fight. Tan Jun flicked his sleeves again, and two darts shot toward Old Shi.

"Damn!" Mu Chen deflected one of the darts with his sword. But the other one swerved around him and attacked Old Shi's heart.

Old Shi snorted and the rubble that had fallen gathered in front of him, shielding him. The dart hit the shield of earth and both exploded. Old Shi coughed and blood flowed from his mouth.

"Old Shi, his protective treasure won't last forever," Mu Chen said. "Can you continue to use magic arts?"

Old Shi wiped away the blood. "I will try."

Tan Jun, on the other hand, wasn't faring much better. "Ugh!" Tan Jun groaned and clutched his waist as blood oozed from between his fingers. He looked at Mu Chen and roared. "You...what did you do...why won't my wounds heal?"

"Huh? There's such a thing?" Mu Chen was surprised. He never thought injuries caused by his sword intent were resistant to healing. No wonder Tan Jun was in such a poor condition.

"You...didn't know." Tan Jun realized he had said something unnecessary, and became furious. He suppressed his injuries once more and raised his hand. His spiritual qi surged and a mass of thick black smoke appeared in front of him. The smoke twisted into the shape of a claw and attacked Mu Chen.

"Damn!" Mu Chen took a step back and instinctively slashed at the black claw with his sword. The claw split in two and dispersed, stunning both him and Old Shi who was preparing to counter.

"H-how?" Tan Jun was even more shocked. Once his magic art had taken form, he only needed to supplement spiritual qi to balance the consumption. But just now, he lost connection with his magic art. He once again recalled how Mu Chen's sword could cut beyond its edge. "That sword, what kind of treasure is it?"

Mu Chen shrugged. "Just an ordinary sword."

"Really?" Tan Jun narrowed his eyes and stared at Mu Chen. He had seen Mu Chen's sword when he first saw him, but it looked ordinary, so he had ignored it. But Mu Chen had surprised him with his sword, again and again, he couldn't help but examine it carefully. Even now, when he scanned it with his divine sense, it still looked ordinary. But the more ordinary it looked, the more extraordinary it must be. Tan Jun's eyes turned red with greed, but he hid it.

"Believe it or not." Mu Chen didn't care.

Tan Jun looked at Mu Chen and his sword once more. "Let's stop fighting," he said. "How about we negotiate?"

"You are the one who is at a disadvantage," Mu Chen chuckled as if he had just heard a joke. "Why should we stop fighting?"

"Even if I am at a disadvantage, if you force me I can definitely take both of you with me to the grave." Tan Jun looked confident. "If we continue to fight, it won't be good for anyone."

Mu Chen narrowed his eyes. What Tan Jun said was what he had been worried about. Mu Chen didn't know what hole cards Tan Jun had in reserve. It was why he hadn't fought desperately, even though they had an advantage.

Tan Jun saw Mu Chen fall into silence. "You can state your conditions," he said.

"Oh!" Mu Chen raised an eyebrow. "So I don't have to be a test piece anymore?"

Tan Jun's face turned stiff for a moment. "It's no longer necessary. "As long as you are willing to let me go―I am sure we can reach a compromise."

"After what you did to Old Shi, you think you can just walk away?" Mu Chen sneered.

"Old Shi has decided to follow you. As a retainer, he shouldn't let his grudges affect his master's safety," Tan Jun said looking at Old Shi.

"Young Master, he is right," Old Shi said. He had been overwhelmed by anger before. But after reflecting on it, he felt he shouldn't let Mu Chen continue to risk his life for his revenge. He was already touched by what Mu Chen had done for him. Especially after Mu Chen had managed to almost kill Tan Jun, Old Shi couldn't help but admire this teenager who wasn't even a cultivator.

Mu Chen shook his head. "We still can't let you just go. You already know about the spirit vein. What if you leak the news?"

"I can promise you," Tan Jun said. "I won't tell anyone."

"Your words don't mean a fart." Mu Chen was unmoved and looked at Tan Jun with cold eyes.
 
"I'm being very sincere." Tan Jun hesitated a bit, then said, "I can even sign a blood-oath contract. I believe you have one from Old Shi―"

"Young Master, don't fall for his words." Old Shi said, "Although the blood-oath contract is genuine, there are ways to get rid of it, as long as you are willing to bear the price."

Mu Chen looked at Tan Jun and sneered. "Is this your sincerity?"

"Old Shi! Don't speak rubbish," Tan Jun said. "The price is not something I am willing to bear."

"I am curious," Mu Chen said, "what's the price?"

"You will permanently lose part of your cultivation base and your realm will drop," Old Shi said. "To regain it, you have to cultivate again."

"So just a few years of toiling and you can once again reach your peak." Mu Chen said. "I say, it's not that bad in exchange for a spirit vein."

"I didn't plan to…forget it." Tan Jun sighed, "You guys won't believe me anyway."

"Yes, we don't believe you," Mu Chen said, "So better come up with a way to convince us."

"I...I can give you my entire savings."

"We have a golden goose here―we are not short of your spirit stones."

"Not just spirit stones. I have some treasures…"

"Are they worth more than my sword?"

"You...do you want any cultivation technique or magic art? Over the years, I've collected several. Some of them are very valuable?"

"I'm not even a cultivator. They are useless to me."

"I...I have a map here...it's an inheritance of a supreme expert hidden there…"

"Then why didn't you go and get it first?"

"I―"

Mu Chen and Tan Jun continued to bargain, unable to reach a compromise. Seeing this, Old Shi sent Mu Chen a sound transmission. "Young master," Old Shi said, "I believe he is just delaying time."

"I know," Mu Chen whispered through the corner of his mouth. "So am I."