“Overcoming one’s selfish desires is oftentimes the most difficult Dao to cultivate—for it takes a lot of determination in order to succeed.”

Right after Qai disposed of his enemy, he went to pick up the latter’s storage pouch as well as that of the Devil Dao cultivator’s, whom he first killed.

Thereafter, he immediately went to his Spirit Beast Eland’s side to finish off its enemy and plunder the latter’s treasures as well.

The enemy was also a Devil Dao cultivator in the mid Foundation Establishment stage and had bizarre ability.

Apparently, the enemy’s hand could create a huge claw-like arm formed from his spiritual Qi energy which he used to literally grasp his target.

Apart from that, his treasure was a black banner that could produce some poisonous gas.

From the combination of the two, Qai could already guess the enemy's plan—the banner was meant as the hidden trap while he tried to catch its target with his claw-like arm.

It was all thanks to the Eland’s fast movement that it wasn't caught by its opponent otherwise Qai’s Spirit Beast could have already ended up in a dangerous situation.

But with Qai’s sudden arrival, the enemy was instantly cornered.

Qai did not try to approach as he was cautious of the banner. As between him and his Spirit Beast, he knew that the latter was way faster than him—that is even with the help of his dark brown Cloak.

So he equipped himself with his Cornelia Sphere Shield in case he got caught with the enemy's poison. Although he didn't know how much it would protect him.

In order to avoid getting near the banner, he only used his ranged ‘Raging Bison’ and ‘Sky Piercing Dart’ as his method to attack and allowed his Spirit Beast to overwhelm the enemy on its own.

With the advantage Qai created, the Devil Dao cultivator started to panic which was very obvious from the way the latter struggled to fight.

Meanwhile, the Spirit Beast Falcon which helped him earlier, once again took advantage of their numbers to help the rest of the group.

In effect, the Precious Tree Sect forces were able to surround the enemies from all sides.

There was no way for them to escape—besides, Qai’s group wouldn't allow them to.

Soon, all 7 of their enemies were defeated.

However, Guan Yijian did not kill his opponent and decided to just seal the latter’s cultivation.

His thoughts were to bring his captive with them and let Elder Li apply some soul searching methods later in order for them to find some leads about the Broken Moon Sect’s true strength.

Evidently, the appearance of Devil Dao cultivators was a truly unexpected development. And based on their weird methods, he suspected that the Scarlet Feather Sect would have a tough time fending the enemies off.

At any rate, the group’s mission was not yet completed. They were still far from their destination and no one knew how many more ambushes were laid along the way.

So they needed to hurry but they had to be careful at the same time.

Like Qai, Guan Yijian and Lin Feng also took their enemies’ storage pouches as well as those of the faceless puppet and Leopard’s opponents. Thus, the two of them collected 2 storage pouches each—they were their spoils of war.

As for Qai, he gained 3 storage pouches for himself—2 from Devil Dao cultivators.

While he wanted to inspect all of his gains, it was not the best time for him to do so.

Right after all of them replenished their spiritual Qi energy, they resumed their journey.

At full speed, it would probably take them half a day of travel from their current location up to the region’s first Clan settlement they would see along their way; and another full day to reach the designated battlefield.

Apparently, the route that Elder Li gave them would not lead them to Scarlet Feather Sect's main grounds. Instead, they would take a detour in order for them to arrive at the said sect’s camp in the shortest possible time.

Fortunately for them, apart from occasional Spirit Beasts, there was no other ambush set up for them.

The group did not stay long when they stopped by the said clan. They simply paid their respects to the clan’s elders and mentioned in passing their purpose—which was exactly to reinforce their region in their fight against Broken Moon Sect.

Such news, of course, made the clan elders elated. They understood the predicament of Precious Tree Sect’s position in the war which explained why it willingly sent help.

Nevertheless, to them, any help they could get was better than nothing.

In return, the clan elders generously gave some tips which areas along the way should be avoided and which ones were safe for travel.

“Definitely, passing through the Death Valley will give you the shortest amount of time to reach the camp. However, it is also filled with danger. But it was not on the level of great risk.”

“Death Valley!?”

“Yes. The thing you should be wary of in that place is the presence of the black spiritual Qi energy in the area. As we see it, it is perhaps one of the reasons why Devil Dao cultivators appeared here in our region. That black spiritual Qi energy is said to be extremely helpful to their cultivation techniques.”

When Qai heard about the black spiritual Qi energy, he immediately felt that the Queen Ant residing in his shadow was thrilled.

Eventually, the Queen Ant made it known to him that such spiritual Qi energy would save her for who knows how much years of cultivation.

‘Haha, then absorb as much as you can once we get there.’

After the clan elders explained as much as they could, they then allowed Qai’s group to pass their territory and even saw them off with a promise to properly receive Elder Li and the rest of the Precious Tree Sect disciples.

Soon, the 3 Precious Tree Sect disciples arrived at the entrance of Death Valley.

Indeed, the place was rich in spiritual Qi energy but the atmosphere was visibly dark. Although it was high noon when they arrived, it seemed to turn into dusk as soon as they stepped inside.

The Queen Ant did not waste a single moment and immediately absorbed as much spiritual Qi energy as it could. Somehow it completely understood that Qai would only be passing by the place in less than a day.

Unnoticeably, rich black spiritual Qi energy soon began to converge beneath Qai.

On the other hand, the 3 disciples summoned their Spirit Beasts into their own beast pouch and decided to pass through the valley on foot.

However, to mislead his seniors, Qai instantly equipped himself with his Cornelia Sphere Shield—to the surprise of the Guan Yijiang and Lin Feng.

But upon careful examination, the 2 simply thought that Qai was being overly cautious so they just let him be.

The Death Valley stretched for about a mile. And according to the information from the elders, they would find a huge crevice on the ground in the middle of the place—from which the black spiritual Qi energy stemmed from.

True enough, the black spiritual Qi energy began to be suffocating when they reached the surface of the crevice.

Guan Yijian and Lin Feng instantly summoned their own protective talismans to repel the toxic effect of the atmosphere. And as they did that, it was only then did they approve of Qai’s earlier act of cautiousness.

The 3 stopped and swept their Spiritual Senses downward to the depths of the fissure—but it appeared bottomless!

“In as much as I wanted to investigate what’s down there, we are short of time. Besides, I’m pretty sure the cultivators from this region has long explored what kind of treasure causes all this black spiritual Qi energy but it seemed none of them succeeded.”

It was Guan Yijiang who made the assessment. He was the leader of the group—so in this trip, his words weighed the most.

“It is better for us to proceed with our mission first than to give in to our greed at this moment. There would be plenty of opportunity for us to come back here once the war is over.”