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A killing blow! Lin Xuan’s face darkened. She was even more ruthless than he expected…

Gritting his teeth, Lin Xuan faced it head-on and took a step backward, barely managing to dodge.

Whoosh, the flying sword missed and was stabbed into the cliff wall behind him. The force of the blow caused numerous pieces of gravel to break off from the top.

Zhou Yan was stunned. She could have never imagined such a novice would be able to evade her attack. Lin Xuan didn’t run. The instant the attack was over, he made a move of his own, somehow causing himself to sink into the ground.

Zhou Yan, in her anger and surprise, involuntarily started walking forward. Zhou Yan began to walk forward slowly trying to figure out what was going on, and on her third step, she heard a loud snap, and a huge net dropped down onto her from above.

Zhou Yan however was not surprised by this and tried to control her spiritual power to break free from the net, but at that moment, the ice ball Lin Xuan shot out into the ground and cut into a rope hidden at the base of a tree. As soon as the rope broke, Zhou Yan saw two wrist-thick bamboo spears flying toward her.

“No……”

As the sound of her screams faded, her face turned pale. The bamboo spears tear into her chest. Without even having a chance to run, she died.

With restless eyes, she still held tightly on the treasure that she killed her master for. After just two minutes, her soul faded away. Soon after Lin Xuan pulled himself out of the hole in the ground, and as he watched her body, he sighed. Simply because she underestimated him, she failed to keep her guard up.

Lin Xuan, from the moment he was found, had been trying to figure out how to get rid of her, not just blindly trying to escape. This cliff was miles from the sect, and if he had tried to escape, she would have easily caught up to him and killed him. As her cultivation was higher than his, her speed with the Light-Wind technique would also be incomparably superior to his.

Trying to escape from troubles, or even begging for mercy, Lin Xuan saw such acts as useless. The only way to survive was to kill the other person before you were killed. At first glance, that seemed impossible in the Lin Xuan situation, for even 100 Lin Xuans were still no match to Zhou Yan.

But she gave him no choice, and so long as they were the enemy, anyone could always be outsmarted.

Of course, that was easier said than done. If he was not as level-headed as he was, he would have had no chance to succeed.

To outsmart her, he first had to analyze the situation. He knew that he had fewer skills than her, so Lin Xuan’s only advantage was that he was familiar with the terrain. He has been coming here for the past two years, therefore, he knew it as if it was his own backyard.

He also found by watching Zhou Ya that she and her master had clearly come down to this canyon by accident, and the terrain was unfamiliar to her.

So from the beginning, Lin Xuan was taking advantage of this. By twisting and turning, he led her straight into a trap. In this valley, other than the occasional rare herbs, several animals can also be found, from rabbits to bears and tigers. Lin Xuan treated the place as his own private domain, occasionally hunting for his meals.

So, to make things easier, he had set some traps at various places, and just now, when he stopped, he had been checking the ground to check if the trap was destroyed. Thankfully, luck was on his side this time, and two of the traps were untouched and in good condition.

The two traps were meant to hunt different prey. One of the traps was a common pit trap made to capture animals that weren’t too large, with the top covered in weeds. Lin Xuan used that to sink into the ground.

Lin Xuan had predicted that Zhou Yan would not hesitate and would attack him right away, so he stood in front of the pit trap and was ready to dodge her attack.

Zhou Yan wouldn’t be expecting anything like that, so he expected she would be shocked, and step forward into his other trap, a trap used to catch large animals, such as tigers and bears. It was not only equipped with nets but also bamboo spears; a trap that was meant to kill rather than capture.

Lin Xuan knew that as long as he could lure her into range, he could activate the trap, and because of its nature as a trap, she would be caught unaware, and the plan had a high chance of success.

Each step Lin Xuan had taken was precisely calculated, using himself as the bait, and predicting how Zhou Yan would react. It was dangerous, but Lin Xuan was calmly able to plan out this strategy.

Eventually, his plan succeeded, not because his strength was greater than her’s, but rather because his mind was greater than his opponent’s.

This battle, although didn’t require him to use much Spiritual Qi and didn’t even take that long, left Lin Xuan mentally exhausted.

Staring coldly at Zhou Yan’s corpse, Lin Xuan walked over and plucked from her hands a green crystal bracelet. It was not a decorative accessory but a storage bracelet. Lin Xuan quickly sent his consciousness into it and began to take out the contents within.

Clothes, food, cosmetics, Lin Xuan didn’t even look twice at that stuff and tossed it to the side.

“Nice.” Lin Xuan’s face lit up, as in his hand he held two translucent stones.

Spirit Stones. 

Over the past three years, Lin Xuan had heard them being mentioned countless times, so he knew that they could be directly absorbed into the body and were ranked according to the amount and purity of the Spiritual Qi contained within. The stones were divided into low-grade, mid-grade, top-grade, and peak-grade.

To cultivators, Spirit Stones were one of the most important things; moreover, they were treated as currency among cultivators.

Translated by: James1kd2

Edited by: Summit