Travels (Part 7)
Upon reaching the Golden Core stage, Lin Shi gained the ability to fly, including controlling celestial flight, and could manipulate weather changes through magic, such as rain and thunder, and even move mountains and overturn seas. However, under the constraints of the Heavenly Dao's rules, Golden Core cultivators cannot do whatever they want. Being too reckless and inviting the Heavenly Dao's annihilation would be a greater loss than gain.
Lin Shi had only recently entered the Golden Core stage. Instead of choosing to fly high-profile, she discreetly flew towards Seven Peaks Mountain on her sword. When she passed through Bali Town, which borders Dragon Valley City and Crescent Moon City, Lin Shi saw from the clouds below that the farmland below was parched, the ponds and wells were dry, and some villagers were sitting on the ground beating their chests and sighing in despair.
Bali Town boasts vast plains, lakes, and rivers, so drought shouldn't be a problem. Floods would be understandable, but drought is truly perplexing. Lin Shi, intrigued, flew down on her sword. Using concealment and stealth techniques, she crouched on the rooftops of some villagers' houses, listening to their discussions.
"Something must have happened at Bali Lake to cause the drought in Bali Town. The beautiful women in the town have all disappeared, but their shriveled bodies were found at Bali Lake. It must be an evil spirit."
"What can we do? We've hired all the old Taoist priests and sorceresses in town at high prices, but none of them can solve the problem at its root. These old men and women just pretend to be crazy and swindle money from people; they have no real skills at all."
"Sigh, we can only try anything, even if it's a dead horse. If the old Taoist priest and the sorceress can't solve it, then we ordinary people certainly can't either. The village chief, along with the village chiefs from the neighboring villages, went to another town a few days ago to ask around and see if there were any truly capable old immortals left. Otherwise, if the drought goes on for too long, with no food or water, people will resort to cannibalism."
...
Having roughly understood the situation, Lin Shi concealed himself and flew towards Bali Lake, north of Bali Town. In the blink of an eye, Lin Shi arrived at the scenic Bali Lake from the central area of Bali Town.
Bali Lake is nestled against the continuous Bali Mountain range on one side and connected to the river and sea on the other, its vast expanse seemingly stretching to the horizon. The half of the lake near the mountain is a pure turquoise, like a flawless, top-grade jade, while the other half near the river and sea displays a dreamy gradient of blue-green, like a sapphire.
Standing on the shore of Eight Carp Lake, Lin Shi could barely see the end of the lake in a single glance. She was only at the Golden Core stage, and her divine sense wasn't sufficient to survey the entire Eight Carp Lake and Eight Mile Mountain at once. She first placed her divine sense into the lake, but only detected a certain depth before withdrawing it.
The rules of the Dream Heaven Small World do not allow cultivators who have reached the Nascent Soul stage to remain in this small world; they must ascend to the upper realm. Golden Core stage cultivators remaining in the Dream Heaven Small World are considered high-level cultivators, and their numbers are not large. If even one appears, the cultivators of the Dream Heaven Small World will quickly find out. Lin Shi did not believe that Golden Core stage cultivators would hide deep in the lake or remain on the surface indefinitely. After thinking for a moment, she directly crossed the surface of Eight Carp Lake and flew towards Eight Mile Mountain.
A figure darted swiftly across the mirror-like surface of Bali Lake, so fast it seemed like an illusion. Some oblivious fish leaped from the water, trying to glimpse this different world. The birds in the sky continued their carefree flight, emitting a variety of calls, some melodious, some noisy.
After arriving at Bali Mountain, Lin Shi followed the aura of the cultivators and flew upwards. The main peak of Bali Mountain soared into the clouds, surrounded by cliffs and precipices, but there were no signs of any cultivation sects stationed there, nor any trace of any protective formations. Only when she reached the summit of the highest peak did she see a few stone houses in a crevice in the sinkhole.
As Lin Shi approached the vicinity of the stone house, the Demon-Slaying Sword in her hand began to vibrate. Lin Shi then dispelled the concealment and hiding spells, hovering in the air in front of the large open space in front of the stone house. Behind the stone house was a naturally formed rock fissure, only wide enough for two people to pass side by side, faintly letting in light, looking both dangerous and irresistibly inviting people to investigate.
"Who's there?" Someone noticed Lin Shi's presence and immediately shouted from inside the stone house. It was the voice of a middle-aged man.
Lin Shi stared intently at the stone houses. Immediately, two male cultivators dressed in cyan robes emerged from the first stone house on the outside. The two cultivators looked alike, were very large and tall, resembling two small mountains, and moved like mountain eagles. Their features were rugged, with square faces but cold, sinister eyes and fierce expressions. Of course, appearance and appearance weren't the criteria for judging their character. Lin Shi's face turned cold simply from the almost tangible black, malevolent aura emanating from the two cultivators.
"It's a Golden Core cultivator! Run!" The two male cultivators who emerged from the stone house were only recently at the Foundation Establishment stage. Upon coming out, they saw the most beautiful female cultivator they had ever seen, suspended in mid-air. Meeting Lin Shi's cold gaze, their expressions instantly changed. They immediately realized what was happening and turned to run back into the stone house.
Lin Shi did not allow the two male evil cultivators to escape. Her sword energy instantly transformed into countless small swords, piercing the two evil cultivators into sieves. Then, golden-red flames followed, burning away their bodies and souls. The miserable screams of the male cultivators only rang out once or twice before completely disappearing.
The area around the stone house suddenly fell silent, as if it had become a deathly still place; not a sound could be heard. Even the chirping of birds and insects nearby ceased instantly.
"Come out!" After killing the two evil cultivators, Lin Shi didn't move, remaining suspended in mid-air above the stone house. She waited for a while, but no other cultivators came out of the stone house, so she shouted. The pressure of a Golden Core cultivator was released, making the surroundings even more deathly silent.
After waiting for a while and seeing that no other cultivators came out, Lin Shi took out the array stones and set up a killing array and a combination of killing array and illusion array around the stone house. As soon as the array was set up, a murderous aura rose around the area.
Before long, the screams of several cultivators rang out. There were male cultivators and female cultivators.
"What a vicious formation!" As an old man's voice came from the largest stone house in the middle, several stone houses instantly shattered from their roofs. Scattered stones flew in all directions, but none of them touched Lin Shi.
As the old man's voice rang out, a white-haired, wrinkled male cultivator with age spots appeared suspended in mid-air, facing Lin Shi, about three meters away. Inside the collapsed stone house, seven middle-aged male cultivators and two middle-aged female cultivators lay dead, their faces and bodies covered in blood, groaning and writhing on the ground. There were ten cultivators in total; apart from the white-haired old man who was at the early Golden Core stage, the others were at the Qi Refining or Foundation Establishment stages. Their faces bore a certain resemblance, suggesting they were relatives from the same cultivation clan. A thick, black, malevolent aura emanated from each of them.
They were all heretical cultivators!
The white-haired male cultivator's expression immediately changed when he saw Lin Shi hovering in mid-air, her face young and exceptionally beautiful. He dared not underestimate her at all, and after uttering a single sentence, he immediately unleashed all his resources, attacking Lin Shi with his spiritual power as if it were free.
Lin Shi remained calm and composed, simultaneously manipulating the formation to annihilate the other nine cultivators trapped within it, turning their souls to ashes, while also dealing with the white-haired old cultivator.
Seeing that Lin Shi had killed the other nine cultivators, the old cultivator attacked Lin Shi even more frantically. However, his cultivation level was clearly inferior to Lin Shi's, and he was also inferior in terms of pills, weapons, and other resources. He also did not know any formations.
"I hate the people of cultivation sects the most in my life. You sect cultivators, you've occupied all the cultivation treasures and taken all the cultivation resources, and you're still not satisfied. You don't even give us small cultivation families who can only be rogue cultivators a way to survive!" The white-haired male cultivator became angrier as he fought, waving his long sword and launching all sorts of tricky attacks at Lin Shi.
"I am killing you all today because of your indiscriminate slaughter of the innocent, not because of your status as rogue cultivators," Lin Shi replied hatefully. She moved nimbly, dodging the white-haired male cultivator's attacks while simultaneously setting up new killing formations to aid her in her assault.
Seeing that he couldn't defeat Lin Shi no matter what, the white-haired male cultivator prepared to self-destruct his golden core. Lin Shi saw through his intention, quickly set up a killing array around him, and directed all the residual power of the self-destruction to attack him. Then, with a single sword strike, he annihilated his soul completely.
After killing the evil cultivators, Lin Shi landed on the open ground in front of the collapsed stone house. She picked up the storage bags, rings, and bracelets of the slain evil cultivators from the ground and used her spiritual energy to examine their contents. Apart from usable spirit stones, spirit plants, and spirit ores, she completely destroyed the remaining books, evil cultivator techniques, sword manuals, and spells.
Afterwards, Lin Shi circled around Bali Mountain, using purification techniques to cleanse the souls of the low-level cultivators and mortals who had died tragically, and then used the Rebirth Technique to send them to the new world.
After Lin Shi finished dealing with these matters, she saw dark clouds gathering over Bali Town, and then a torrential downpour began. The rain lasted for two whole days, until the dried-up farmland and wells were filled with water again, just like before, before the heavy rain stopped and turned into a drizzle.
Lin Shi used his spiritual power to create a transparent rain shield in front of him in the drizzle before continuing to fly towards Seven Peaks Mountain.
In the following few days, the story of a peerlessly beautiful but nameless and sect-unknown female cultivator at the Golden Core stage, wielding the Demon-Slaying Sword and dedicated to eliminating evil cultivators, suddenly appeared in the Dream Heaven Small World and spread like wildfire throughout Dragon Valley City and Crescent Moon City. The Golden Core cultivator used her sword energy to conjure countless small swords, slaying a pair of evil cultivator brothers, their bodies shrouded in black aura, who had killed countless mortals and cultivators, and burning their corpses and souls to ashes. She also effortlessly annihilated another group of ten evil cultivators—one Golden Core cultivator and nine Foundation Establishment cultivators—using an upgraded killing array and a combination of killing and illusion arrays.
The story spread like wildfire, with vivid details, and soon attracted some bored cultivators from Dragon Valley City and Crescent Moon City to come out and search for the beautiful Golden Core stage female cultivator.
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