After retrieving the Soul Ensnaring Zither, Yuan took a seat on the soft ground and placed the zither on his lap.
He then closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
A moment of pure silence later, he opened his eyes, and his fingers flicked the strings extremely quickly.
Whoosh!
A massive ripple appeared from the zither and swept the place in an instant.
The next second, the Black Horn Bulls didn't even have the time to react before their bodies exploded into a bloody mess.
When Xia Jingyi used the technique, the Black Horn Bulls didn't explode violently, so when she saw the results, she began gagging from shock, nearly puking.
"Whoa… brother… I think you went a little overboard…" Even Yu Rou had to take a step back with a disgusted look on her face after seeing the magical beasts' guts and internal organs flying all over the place. Even though they were magical beasts, Yu Rou felt sorry for them.
Luckily for them, they were standing far enough, or the blood and organs would've definitely hit them.
Yuan's jaw dropped wide open when he saw the results.
"I-I also didn't think it would be so powerful!" He exclaimed a moment later.
"Brother Tian… Did you forget your cultivation base? Even a Mortal-rank cultivation technique will display extraordinary strength if it's used by you." Xiao Hua said to him.
"Even if you say that, this is my first time using a zither technique, so I didn't know how to control my strength." Yuan sighed.
If an Earth-rank zither technique is already this destructive, he cannot imagine how powerful his Divine-rank zither technique could be, and he was afraid of finding out.
"There's no way we can harvest their horns when they're in this state…" Meixiu said a moment later.
"I'm sorry…" Yuan apologized to them.
"Brother, you're banned from using that technique if we're with you! It's simply too gruesome!" Yu Rou said to him afterward.
"I understand." Yuan nodded.
He then turned to look at Xia Jingyi and asked her, "Are you okay?"
She wiped the tears from her eyes and nodded, "Yes… I was just… shocked…"
"I'm sorry…" He apologized again.
Shortly after, they went to look for more Black Horn Bulls.
"Meixiu, do you want to try fighting them?" Yu Rou suddenly asked her.
"Eh? I don't know any techniques besides my cultivation technique…" she said.
"What? You still don't have any techniques?" Yu Rou looked at her with wide eyes.
She then looked at Yuan, who merely shook his head and said, "Looks like we'll be returning to the Myriad of Techniques sooner than I'd anticipated…"
Since Meixiu didn't have any martial techniques, Yu Rou and Xia Jingyi took care of the magical beasts without making a huge mess.
After that batch, they continued to spend a couple more hours hunting Black Horn Bulls until they essentially hunted almost all of them in the area.
"How many horns did we collect?" Yu Rou asked Yuan at the end.
"About 400 give or take," he said.
"So 4,000 gold coins, huh? That's extremely good for a single quest, and it didn't even take us that long." Yu Rou said.
"And it is mostly thanks to Xiao Hua for locating the magical beasts for us or this would've taken much longer, so thank you, Xiao Hua!"
Xiao Hua nodded silently.
"Are we going to go back now?" Yuan asked them.
"Yes. Once we hand in our quest, we can go shopping for some cultivation techniques. Though I doubt 4,000 gold coins will be enough to buy even half a technique..." Yu Rou said.
"Money, huh? Xiao Hua, do you still have the spirit stones I gave you? Feng Feng said that you didn't spend it."
Xiao Hua nodded and retrieved the storage pouch containing the spirit stones and handed it to him, "Xiao Hua didn't use it, and if Brother Tian needs more money, Xiao Hua still has the money from the auction."
Xiao Hua reminded him that she still has money from selling her Heaven-grade treasure, something that even she forgot about for a moment.
"Okay. We'll use it if we really need it." Yuan nodded, no longer feeling as reluctant to use that money anymore for some reason.
Sometime later, they returned to the carriage, where the driver was taking a nap.
"Hmm? Are you ready to return to the city already, esteemed guests?" The driver woke up when he noticed their presence.
"Yes."
Once everyone was inside the carriage, the driver began driving the carriage back to the city.
On their way back to the city, they talked about what kind of techniques they wanted to get.
"Meixiu, what martial technique do you want? In fact, what kind of weapons do you want to use?" Yuan asked her.
"I don't know..."
"Do you have any experience with weapons? I know you have combat experience working as a servant for the Yu Family since you're expected to be a bodyguard as well. What did your mother teach you?" Yu Rou asked her.
"Well… Everything…" Meixiu said.
"When we're trained, we're not just trained as servants. We also have bodyguard training as well as other things, and as the future personal servant of Yua— Yu Tian, I had to train more than the others, so I am proficient with a lot of weapons, especially guns." Meixiu said.
"Wow… I didn't know that." Yuan began seeing Meixiu in a new light now.
Yu Rou chuckled and said, "Brother, Meixiu is probably strong enough to beat you in a fight without any cultivation techniques or cultivation."
"Really? She's that powerful?" Yuan's eyes widened.
Yu Rou nodded, "I have seen her beat up people twice her size by accident once. It really widened my eyes."
Meixiu blushed slightly after hearing Yu Rou's words.
"Anyways, guns, huh? Are there any weapons in the cultivation world that resemble guns?" Yu Rou wondered.
"What's a gun?" Xiao Hua asked.
"Well… How should I explain this? It's a weapon that comes in many different sizes and shapes, but they all do the same thing— shooting bullets." Yu Rou said.
However, Xiao Hua didn't understand a word she'd just said.
Meixiu then said, "Imagine a weapon that can shoot a small rock so quickly that it can pierce one's body. Kind of like a bow and an arrow."
Xiao Hua pondered for a moment and said, "Like a slingshot?"
"Yes, something like that."
Xiao Hua then shook her head and said, "Xiao Hua has never seen anyone using slingshots as a weapon of choice, but there are many people who use bows and arrows."
"Bows… I have never used a bow before." Meixiu said.
"What about just using your fists, Meixiu? Besides guns, you should also have plenty of hand-to-hand combat," said Yu Rou.
Meixiu nodded.
"Hand techniques, huh? I actually have one on me right now." Yuan suddenly said.
And he asked her, "Do you want to try learning it?"
"Okay."
Yuan then retrieved the Ancient-rank technique he'd obtained from the Dragon Temple and handed it to Meixiu in a casual manner. While he also wanted to learn the technique, he never really got the chance to do so, as he has been busy with cultivation in the real world shortly after leaving the Dragon Temple.
"Thank you."
After accepting the technique, she opened it.
Meixiu's eyes widened when she saw the rank of the technique, but she didn't say anything, and she proceeded to study the technique until they returned to Seashell City a few hours later.
"How was it? Were you able to understand it?" Yuan asked her.
Meixiu shook her head and said, "I think the technique is too complex for me right now."
"I see… Don't worry, I'm sure we'll find something suitable for you at the Myriad of Techniques." Yuan said to her after storing the technique back into his spatial ring.
"Thank you for your business." The driver said to them after dropping them off inside the city.
Yu Rou and the others began making their way back to the store to turn in their harvest.
"Welcome, young lady. Hmm? You're back already? Did you forget something?" The manager there asked Yu Rou when she returned much faster than he'd anticipated.
"No, I am here to hand in the horns we have hunted." Yu Rou said.
The manager raised his eyebrows upon hearing this. He can only imagine how little horns they have collected after leaving for such a short time, but he didn't say that to them.
"Okay. Let me see how many you've collected. 10 gold coins each," he said a moment later.
Yu Rou then looked at Yuan and said, "Let him see them, brother."
Yuan nodded and went to look for an empty and spacious spot to dump the black horns.
Once he found the spot, he went there and began dumping out the black horns from his spatial ring.
The manager's jaw dropped when he saw the black horns piling up into a small mountain inside his shop. In fact, he has never seen so many black horns gathered in the same place at once before.
And the manager began worrying about whether he would be able to afford to pay them for so many black horns.
Yu Rou chuckled when she saw the manager's reaction, as this reminded her of her first quest with Yuan when they had to gather Spirit Grass, and Xiao Hua collected so much that the manager of that store began sweating.
"Okay, that should be the last one. Please count them." Yuan said to the manager after dumping out all of the black horns.
The manager showed a crying smile before kneeling on the floor and crying out loud, "Please have mercy!"
The manager's response immediately dumbfounded Yuan and the others, as they didn't know why he was crying or pleading for mercy.