Cultivating Immortality: What kind of cheat can you use if you don't have money?

Chapter 74 Soft-hearted

Xuanmi's hand gently landed on Li Qingyi's shoulder, and the oppressive aura that had been as heavy as a mountain suddenly dissipated.

Instead, a gentle and peaceful vitality seeped into his limbs like warm sunshine.

Li Qingyi felt a sense of lightness throughout her body, and the excruciating pain was instantly replaced by a feeling of comfort.

He couldn't help but shudder, and his injuries were slowly healed.

"Thank you, senior."

Li Qingyi looked inward and discovered that the vitality had not only healed his injuries, but was also subtly tempering his flesh and meridians, making them more resilient.

He could even clearly feel his Qi Refining Level 5 cultivation level beginning to rise.

Its magical power was stirring, almost ready to step into the threshold of the sixth level of Qi Refining.

If Li Qingyi wanted to, he could take advantage of the situation to break through to the sixth level of Qi Refining.

But he didn't do that.

Although the vitality that Master Xianmi forcibly infused with his Purple Mansion cultivation was good, it was ultimately not as solid as the foundation he built step by step by himself.

The cultivation level bestowed by the system is perfect and flawless, while the improvement driven by external forces is somewhat superficial.

He decided to spend more time refining his skills before making a breakthrough.

Seeing that Xianmi did not make things difficult for Li Qingyi, but instead healed her injuries, Ling'er finally relaxed and breathed a sigh of relief.

The worst-case scenario did not occur.

Master Xianmi withdrew his palm, his gaze towards Li Qingyi complex and unfathomable, containing both admiration and deep regret.

"With an iron will, he respects his teachers and values ​​the Way, never forgetting his roots, and remains humble and composed even when faced with the temptation of breaking through realms..."

Such excellent talent and potential, what a pity, what a pity! If you were willing to join my sect, what worry would you have about not achieving the Great Dao?

He shook his head, seemingly unwilling to say more. "Let's go down the mountain."

Before he could finish speaking, he didn't give Li Qingyi a chance to reply.

With a gentle wave of his sleeve, Xianmi created a breeze that carried the two of them down the mountain.

The two felt the scenery before them blur and distort, and when they looked again, they found themselves in the bustling crowd at the foot of Lingtai Mountain.

"Brother Qingyi, are you alright?"

Li Qingyi nodded slightly. "It's alright."

Although his trip to the Dao Sect went slightly astray, his cultivation improved and he was confirmed as the "pavilion master's personal disciple," which was much better than he had expected.

He looked around and saw that the cultivators who had been punished by slapping themselves had all swollen and red cheeks, and some even had their skin torn open and their flesh torn and bloody.

Their gazes toward Li Qingyi and her companion were filled with resentment and indignation.

Someone in the crowd shouted:

"The assessment wasn't even over, and they've already come down! They must have been caught cheating by the Dao Sect seniors and expelled!"

This sentence was like a spark thrown into a hot oil pan, instantly igniting everyone's anger.

The thought of the pain on her face and her disheveled state just now immediately turned her resentful gaze into a sinister and vicious one.

The burly cultivator was the first to jump out, grinning maliciously as he blocked the two of them.

"I can't let these injuries on my face go unpunished! You must pay the price!"

"Tsk tsk tsk, kid, kneel down and kowtow a few times, let this girl spend the night with us, and we'll call it even!"

"Hahaha……"

In an instant, everyone burst into laughter.

Seeing someone take the lead, another twenty or thirty cultivators immediately surrounded them, trapping Li Qingyi and Ling'er in the center.

However, only a few dare to step forward.

Many more cultivators chose to stay back and observe, not daring to easily offend these two who appeared to have extraordinary bearing.

Li Qingyi remained calm despite being surrounded.

But those foul words filled him with murderous intent. "Since you're in such a hurry to be reborn, I, Li, don't mind sending you beasts on your way ahead of time."

Upon hearing this, the faces of the surrounding cultivators instantly turned ashen.

They were, after all, cultivators who had embarked on the path of immortality. Wherever they went, mortals would respectfully address them as "Immortal Masters."

I have never suffered such an insult before.

"Sharp-tongued! You're asking for it!"

The burly cultivator flew into a rage, his eyes flashing with ferocity, and his magical power erupted without reservation.

With a flick of his wrist, a palm-sized throwing knife, crackling with fine lightning, appeared in his hand, emitting soft "crackling" sounds.

"There's actually a low-grade spiritual treasure?"

Li Qingyi was somewhat surprised.

For a rogue cultivator at the second level of Qi Refining to possess a spiritual treasure, he is indeed quite wealthy.

"Kneel down and admit your mistake!"

The burly cultivator roared, and his lightning-light flying knife instantly transformed into a white bolt of lightning, accompanied by a piercing sound as it hurtled through the air, heading straight for Li Qingyi's face!

However, facing this lightning-fast attack, Li Qingyi neither dodged nor evaded. Just as the flying knife was about to hit her, she swiftly extended her right hand and precisely pinched it with her index and middle fingers.

hum-

He held the throwing knife firmly between his two fingers, and the violent lightning instantly dissipated.

The savage grin on the burly cultivator's face froze, turning into extreme terror.

He desperately channeled his magic power, trying to recall the flying knife, but the knife seemed to be rooted to the spot between Li Qingyi's fingers, remaining completely still.

The cultivators who had been so aggressive around them were now all horrified, their eyes filled with fear as they looked at Li Qingyi.

Catching a magical treasure with bare hands? What level of cultivation would that require? Only one thought remained in their minds:

We've hit a brick wall!

Li Qingyi toyed with the struggling throwing knife in her hand, and sneered:

"Since you are so kind, I, Li, will gladly accept this little trinket. In return, I will grant you... a painless passing."

He had no intention of giving the other party any chance to beg for mercy or react.

Before he finished speaking, he pointed his fingers like a sword and gently slashed at the fleshy cultivator with a face full of despair.

An invisible sword aura silently swept across the sky.

The cultivator's expression froze instantly. A thin line of blood appeared between his head and neck. Then, his head rolled to the ground, and blood gushed out like a fountain.

He...died with his eyes wide open in disbelief!

The entire room fell silent.

Li Qingyi's ruthlessness and decisiveness completely shocked everyone.

Those cultivators who were originally closest to the group were now terrified, letting out a scream and turning to run away.

"Hmph." Li Qingyi snorted coldly, her gaze sweeping over the fleeing figures.

"You think you can just surround them whenever you want, yell at them, and then run away? There's no such thing as a free lunch!"

He pointed his fingers and sent several invisible sword energies flying, precisely piercing the back of each fleeing person.

Screams rang out one after another.

In the blink of an eye, those cultivators who tried to escape collapsed to the ground, dead, their blood staining the grass beneath their feet.

In an instant, the stench of blood filled the air.

The remaining cultivators were closest to Li Qingyi and were fortunate enough to survive because they didn't have time to escape.

Seeing their companion die instantly, they were so terrified that their legs went weak, and they all knelt down with a thud, wailing and begging for mercy while tears streamed down their faces.

"Senior, spare me! Senior, spare me! I was blind and ignorant, and offended you!"

"Senior, we know we were wrong! Please have mercy and spare our lives!"

"Senior, please give us a chance to reform! We are willing to serve you like cattle and horses to repay your kindness!"

The cries for mercy continued incessantly.

Li Qingyi was not a particularly evil person.

He toyed with the lightning-fast throwing knife in his hand, listening to the incessant pleas for mercy around him, a hint of helplessness on his face:

"Fine, I'm just too soft-hearted. Seeing how sincerely you've repented..."

Upon hearing this, everyone felt as if they had been granted a pardon, their faces instantly filled with ecstatic joy, and they hurriedly tried to get up.

However, before the joy on their faces could fully bloom, Li Qingyi flicked her wrist slightly.

An even more powerful and fierce sword aura swept out, instantly grazing the necks of all those kneeling and begging for mercy.

"Then I will send you into the cycle of reincarnation to be reborn as human beings."

As Li Qingyi finished speaking, the pleas for mercy abruptly stopped.

Heads rolled off, their faces still frozen with the relief of surviving a catastrophe.

The entire venue was so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

Only the mountain wind carries the heavy stench of blood.

All the onlookers stared wide-eyed, their bodies turning ice-cold, not daring to even breathe, for fear of attracting the attention of the blue-robed killing god in the arena.

Looking at Li Qingyi's calm profile, they felt a chill run from the soles of their feet to the top of their heads.

The cultivators: "???"

Soft-hearted? You call this being soft-hearted?!

Not a single survivor was spared; the ruthlessness was as decisive as cutting melons and vegetables. If this were a sign of soft-heartedness, would there be any truly heartless people in the world?!

They felt that the young man in the blue robe in front of them was even more terrifying than the legendary demons who would massacre entire cities and families at any time!

"Hmm..." Li Qingyi thought to himself in surprise, as he sensed a gaze fixed on him from the shadows.

He had originally planned to leave directly, but immediately changed his mind.

He immediately activated his divine sense, scanning the entire area, but unfortunately, he did not find anyone suspicious.

In order to find out who that gaze was earlier, Li Qingyi came up with a plan.

He randomly chose a gaunt cultivator who was pale with fright and asked in a gentle tone:

Do you think I'm a good person?

The gaunt cultivator shuddered, forcing a smile that looked more like a grimace:

"Senior... what are you saying! I... I think you are simply the kindest... the most compassionate person in the world!"

Li Qingyi nodded as if she understood, quite satisfied with the answer, and then turned her gaze to the other cultivators.

When the gaunt cultivator saw his gaze shift away, he nearly collapsed from exhaustion, his back completely soaked with cold sweat.

Seeing this, the other cultivators dared not hesitate any longer and shouted in agreement:

"Yes, yes, yes! Your virtue and benevolence are unparalleled!"

"Our predecessors were compassionate and kind-hearted; they are truly role models for us all!"

"This senior helps people enter the cycle of reincarnation; he is truly a great Confucian scholar in this world!"

Li Qingyi's heart skipped a beat. She scanned the entire area with her divine sense but found nothing amiss. "Could I be overthinking it?"

Seeing Li Qingyi's actions, Ling'er's mood, which had been irritated by the foul language, immediately improved.

She was about to say that there was no need to show mercy to these scoundrels when, in the next second, Li Qingyi slaughtered them all.

How come I never noticed how heartless he was before?

Seeing Ling'er's expression, Li Qingyi weighed the throwing knife in her hand and chuckled:

"I originally wanted to use them to test the power of this newly acquired spiritual treasure, but then I thought that since it was my first time using the spiritual treasure, I was not very skilled. What if I made them die in too much pain or struggle for too long? Wouldn't that be cruel?"

"I can't bear to do it, so let them leave peacefully."

Ling'er indeed felt much better after hearing Li Qingyi's words, and immediately agreed:

"...Yes, yes, you're right, you're such a kind person."

Li Qingyi casually waved her hand, and magical power surged forth.

The storage bags on the more than twenty corpses on the ground seemed to be drawn by invisible threads and flew into his hands.

There are a total of twenty-seven storage bags.

Li Qingyi thought to herself, with so many people, surely we can gather some decent spoils of war?

He opened them one by one with great anticipation...

I suddenly felt everything go black.

Twenty-seven storage bags!

All the items inside combined barely amounted to three spirit stones!

Besides these, there were only some worthless herbs, low-quality talismans, and some junk of dubious significance.

"A bunch of paupers!"

Seeing his disgusted expression, Ling'er couldn't help but burst out laughing.

With things having come to this, Li Qingyi could only put away the spirit stones and throwing knives with a dark expression.

Before leaving, he seemed to suddenly remember something, stopped, and swept his gaze once more over the group of silent, trembling cultivators watching. He asked in a loud voice:

Do you know why I was eliminated from the Dao Sect and sent down the mountain?

The crowd looked at each other, none of them daring to speak.

Li Qingyi narrowed her eyes, her gaze once again precisely locking onto the gaunt cultivator who had just praised him as a good person.

The gaunt cultivator's heart skipped a beat, and he almost burst into tears.

"My goodness! It's me again!"

He dared not be negligent in the slightest, and immediately bent over, carefully and cautiously probing, word by word:

"Could you please enlighten us, senior?"

Li Qingyi smiled calmly, her voice clearly reaching the ears of everyone present:

"Because I am the true disciple of the Pavilion Master of Tingyu Pavilion."

"Oh, oh, the Sect Master's teachings are truly excellent! The Sect Master's teachings are truly excellent!" The gaunt cultivator reflexively flattered him.

But the next second, he suddenly realized what was happening, and his eyes widened instantly.

"Just now... this god of death said... whose disciple was he again? The... the Master of Listening Rain Pavilion?!"

He couldn't help but gasp, his hair standing on end.

When he mustered his courage again and looked in the direction where Li Qingyi had just stood, he found that there was no one there.

All that remained were corpses scattered on the ground and the strong smell of blood, proving that what had just happened was not an illusion.

Not only that, after a brief moment of deathly silence, the surrounding cultivators also came to their senses, their faces showing extreme terror.

"Listen...Listen Rain Pavilion? Is that...the assassin organization Listen Rain Pavilion?"

"He just said... he's a personal disciple of the Pavilion Master of Listening Rain Pavilion?"

"This...is this even possible? The disciple of the Listening Rain Pavilion Master has come to participate in the Dao Sect's assessment?"

For a moment, everyone looked at each other in silence, feeling a chill seep into their bones.

"Judging from his ruthless methods of killing just now... perhaps, it really is possible..."

"But...but doesn't the Dao Sect pride itself on being a prestigious and righteous sect, hating evil as if it were its enemy? Since he's from the Listening Rain Pavilion, why...why was he able to come down from the Dao Sect alive?"

Someone, with a trembling voice, muttered something under their breath:

"Could it be...could it be that even the Dao Sect is wary of the Listening Rain Pavilion Master's strength?"

Upon hearing this, all the cultivators present looked at each other, and no one uttered a sound for a long time.

At the edge of the crowd, an inconspicuous gray-robed cultivator stared intently in the direction Li Qingyi had left, his eyes flickering uncertainly.

He quietly reached into his robes and pulled out a token.

The token bears the three characters "Tingyu Pavilion" in bold on its front.

He hesitated for a moment, but finally used his magic to carefully transmit a message into the token.