Leaving Wanbao Pavilion.
Li Mu flew back to Nanyin Mountain on his Flying Sword. With a sweep of his Divine Sense, he put the Crimson Wolf that was running towards him into his Spirit Beast Pouch.
Then, he packed up the belongings in his mountain villa, rose on his Flying Sword, and flew to Xiao Liang Mountain.
He pulled up all the spiritual plant saplings from the half-acre experimental spiritual field and the one-acre cloud mist spiritual tea saplings, putting them into a spiritual plant storage device that could extend their life.
The remaining ten acres of cloud mist spiritual tea in the spiritual fields could only be left to grow on their own.
Li Mu sighed regretfully, then thought of something. He took off his Linglong Mask, secretly activated the Reversal Yuan Breath Concealment Art, compressing his cultivation to the Peak Qi Refining ninth-level. Then, he rose on his Flying Sword and flew to Qing'an Town, landing directly in the Qing'an Town 駐地院.
“Greetings, Senior Brother!”
The Utility Disciples at the Qing'an Town 駐地 looked at Li Mu, who had arrived on his Flying Sword, and respectfully greeted him.
“Where is Wang Feng? Tell him to come over!” Li Mu glanced at a few Utility Disciples and instructed.
“Yes! Senior Brother, please wait, I will go invite Senior Brother Wang right away.” One of the Utility Disciples quickly responded and hurried off to the steward's courtyard.
Not long after, Wang Feng rushed over, following the Utility Disciple.
“Which Senior Brother is visiting, uh!” Wang Feng was about to ask the purpose of the visitor's arrival when he saw Li Mu and was instantly speechless.
Seeing Li Mu's face, the scene of his severed arm reappeared in Wang Feng's mind. His face turned pale. Although his severed arm had been reattached, the after-effects were significant. Now, Wang Feng's hands and feet began to tremble uncontrollably.
“Senior Brother Wang, how have you been? Here are two years' advance payment for the Sect's tenant rent. I'm preparing for a long journey, so please don't let anyone go up to the spiritual fields on Xiao Liang Mountain!” Li Mu tossed a few medium spirit stones to Wang Feng and said with a half-smile.
“Uh! Where are you going?” Wang Feng was stunned for a moment, took the Spirit Stones, and couldn't help but ask curiously.
Li Mu glanced at him, didn't answer, and directly rose on his Flying Sword, flying north towards Lingyang City.
Zhao Huairen's identity as an Outer Sect Disciple was still useful. Li Mu was reluctant to give up the ten acres of cloud mist spiritual tea and eleven acres of Medium Grade spiritual fields on Xiao Liang Mountain, so he decided to keep it as a backup for now.
After flying for a distance, Li Mu released the Light Cloud Spirit Boat and flew towards Lingyang City at an even faster speed.
Two days later.
With the Advanced Artifact Refining Guest Elder token from Wanbao Pavilion, Li Mu successfully boarded Wanbao Pavilion's treasure transport ship bound for Qingyun City, and even got a spacious VIP room.
Wanbao Pavilion's treasure transport ships traveled between various cities, transporting treasures and goods, while also carrying some of Wanbao Pavilion's distinguished guests and managerial members of the pavilion. The space on the ship was limited, and Li Mu's VIP room was obtained by squeezing out a Wanbao Pavilion shopkeeper.
Upon learning that Li Mu was an Advanced Artifact Refining Guest Elder, that shopkeeper immediately used this as an excuse to ingratiate himself, which annoyed Li Mu so much that he simply stayed in his room.
Taking a piece of Thunderbird hide, Li Mu held a skinning knife. With a few swift cuts, he quickly peeled off a piece of talisman paper.
Thunderbird hide has some holes from plucked feathers, making it generally very difficult to peel into talisman paper for Spiritual Charms Drawing.
However, Li Mu had leveled up his skinning and talisman skin refining skills to Rank 5. His skinning technique was exquisite, and he was proficient in several methods of drawing second-tier thunder amulets. He could follow the natural thunder spirit patterns inherent in the Thunderbird hide, avoiding the feather holes, to cut and peel off pieces of talisman skin suitable for drawing second-tier thunder amulets.
Days passed, and Wanbao Pavilion's spirit ship flew swiftly across the sky. Li Mu hid in his VIP room, staying indoors, fully immersed in peeling Thunderbird talisman skin.
One piece of Thunderbird hide, in Li Mu's hands, could be peeled into over four hundred pieces of second-tier lightning-element talisman skin, increasing its value by hundreds, even thousands of times. In the future, if there was no business in Artifact Refining, this skill of skinning and making talisman skin alone could ensure he wouldn't starve.
“The last one is peeled, haha, I'm rich!”
Li Mu laughed happily. Of course, these talisman papers would not be sold; they would all be kept for himself to draw second-tier, or even third-tier, lightning amulets.
The self-detonating spider Puppets had already been modified. In his spare time, Li Mu also conveniently carved a large batch of them. However, there were no suitable Spiritual Charms to match the self-detonating spider Puppets. The first-tier Fireball Amulet was too weak, and the second-tier Golden Sword Talisman was powerful, but its attack range was too narrow, resulting in low accuracy.
Now, with this large batch of lightning-element second-tier talisman paper, and after drawing them into second-tier lightning-explosion amulets, combined with the self-detonating spider Puppets, tsk tsk tsk, the effect would be incredibly useful!
With a loud “boom”!
Just as Li Mu was fantasizing about good things, Wanbao Pavilion's treasure transport ship suddenly jolted, and the hull violently swayed. Li Mu didn't react in time and fell hard, and the talisman skin he had just peeled was immediately torn, his hard work ruined in an instant.
“What the, how are they piloting this ship!”
Li Mu cursed angrily. His Divine Sense quickly swept outwards, and his brows couldn't help but furrow.
“How unlucky, to actually encounter ship hijackers!” Li Mu looked annoyed. He never expected to encounter such a thing.
A Golden Core Cultivator, leading seven Foundation Establishment Cultivators, was attacking Wanbao Pavilion's captain's cabin. Many of Wanbao Pavilion's crew members and guards had been killed, and two Foundation Establishment Cultivators were cautiously beginning to move towards other cabins.
It was all because of the overly high security Rank provided by Wanbao Pavilion's 'VIP room,' which prevented Li Mu from being forewarned about the situation outside the ship, and also because he was too immersed in peeling talisman skin, causing him to forget to remain vigilant about the outside world at all times.
Li Mu took a deep breath, quickly summarized this 'mistake,' to avoid making it again in the future. Next, he had to find a way to escape this calamity.
“Master Li, open the door quickly! There are Cultivators hijacking the ship, please come with me!” Outside the door, Wanbao Pavilion's shopkeeper, Huang Wende, knocked and shouted loudly.
Li Mu was slightly startled, surprised that the shopkeeper thought of his safety in a crisis. However, at this moment, Wanbao Pavilion's spirit ship seemed to have flown into a remote mountain range, full of high-Rank demonic beasts. Without the spirit ship's combat power and speed, the chances of flying out of this mountain range were slim, right!
The only chance was to take down the Golden Core Cultivator. As for the other Foundation Establishment Cultivators, releasing the Battle Puppets refined from blood ironwood would be enough to pile them to death!
“Shopkeeper Huang, where are your pavilion's two Golden Core True Persons! Why aren't they showing up at a time like this?” Li Mu asked curiously to understand the situation.
“That Golden Core Cultivator is one of the Golden Core Guest Elders; he betrayed us! He suddenly attacked and severely wounded Guest Elder Lin. This is a premeditated ship hijacking. Let's get off the ship and run quickly! I have a third-tier spirit boat here, Master Li, if you don't leave, I'll go first!” Huang Wende urged anxiously through the door.
“Since they planned to hijack the ship, do you think he would let you escape so easily? Finding a way to resist is the proper course of action.” Li Mu said indifferently.
“How can we win! That's a Golden Core Immortal Master. The only one who could fight him, Immortal Master Lin, is probably in grave danger now. Captain Wang is probably in danger too.” Huang Wende was slightly stunned, his face full of sorrow as he spoke.
“If you want to go, then go ahead! Don't worry about me!” Li Mu observed every move outside with his Divine Sense, saying indifferently.
“In that case, Master Li, farewell then!” Hearing this, and seeing the figures of the two Foundation Establishment Cultivators, Huang Wende decisively abandoned Li Mu and left.
With Huang Wende's figure gone from outside the door, Li Mu also 'saw' the two Foundation Establishment Cultivators. He then opened a profound iron window, and five third-tier spirit swords shot out, heading straight for their heads.
“Who!”
“Who released the Flying Sword? If you have guts, come out!”
Suddenly encountering such sharp Flying Sword attacks, the two Foundation Establishment Cultivators were both shocked and enraged. They panicked, looking around furiously and shouting.
However, no one answered their questions. There was only more incisive, more ferocious Sword Qi.