"What? You look surprised." I said grinning.
Vitra'Ghoul's lips trembled as he tried to come up with words. "Y-you… how do you even have fortified Sea of Consciousness, you're a mere Core Cultivator, you can't have this! It's impossible!"
"Well, you're currently here, and you're seeing this with your own eyes, now enjoy the fireworks," I said as jets and machine guns, anti-aircraft rocket launchers aimed at the ghost and then rained hell from above, incinerating his ethereal form to the embrace of the void.
Death and destroyed beyond redemption, Vitra'Ghoul's end was anticlimactic, and now all should be a done deal in the world of the demon kin.
Leaving my sea of consciousness, I found Tarta'Ghou's sword pointed at my throat.
"What do you think you're doing?" I asked.
"Oh, it's you, Shen Bao, it's really you? How did you survive possession?" he asked as he removed his sword.
"Oh, that weakling, don't worry I have ways to deal with possession, so now that he's dead," I picked up his pouch and opened it. He didn't even have a safety or security measure on his pouch. Well, considering he was a king, no one would dare steal from him. Thankfully this oversight made it easy to get what he had on him.
And lo and behold, another huge pile of Spirit Herbs and weapons. Also some treasures, defensive and life-saving ones. Pretty good, if he had used any of these in the fight he would have had a chance to at least escape. But since he underestimated me because of my cultivation level, he suffered before being able to use any of these.
I pocketed everything and pulled the four stone plates.
"How do you use this?" I asked Tarta Ghoul.
"We'll have to head west, can I please take my daughter for healing, she suffered greatly at the hands of that beast, then I'll take you there if you wish."
"No need, just give me a map and I'll manage," I said I didn't want to stay in this place anymore, and I still need to go to the Seven Mountain Peak sect.
"Alright, but I think my daughter wishes to bid you farewell, at least allow her to thank you for your help." He said as he handed me a jade that had a map to the exit.
I shook my head, "No need, I only saved her out of my own benefit, she owes me nothing, live well, and live long Tarta Ghoul. Arslan!" I shouted and the Purple Lion bounded over from the distance.
"We're leaving, let's go," I said and jumped on Arslan's back as I placed my sword back in my pouch.
(Reminder, Shen Bao uses his pouch to place regular items that won't be suspicious if he pulls them, but uses the Poison God's Book to keep more interesting items there, like the Samurai Puppet Y.)
Soon, Arslan arrived at the indicated location, it was a large circular stone platform that had a single protruding rectangular stone slab.
The stone slab had four faces that all needed one of the tablets I received to place there.
Once I placed the tablet, a small circular inscription formed on top of the square rectangle, and reading through the demonic writings it needed ten thousand spirit stones to activate the gate.
"Damn, that's expensive, thank god I'm rich." I grinned as I placed the ten thousand Spirit Stones that were instantly sucked inside the circle.
Soon, a gate with the exact same symbols as the one that allowed me entry here appeared. It opened up revealing a spiraling red portal. I walked alongside Arslan into the portal and found myself at the same point where I entered. The Concaved Desert.
"Arslan, I can't take you with me anymore," I said to the Purple Armored Lion, who whined in sadness.
"I'll be going to a dangerous place. I can't protect you there. But here," I said as I handed Arslan a load of Soul Strengthening Pills.
"Use this, sparingly, and increase your cultivation, if fate allows it, we'll meet again," I said.
The lion understood my meaning, the next step is the Swamps of Balur, a pretty dangerous place, from the map of the Seven Mountain peaks. I could get by, but Arslan is too slow and will risk getting trapped by the monsters in the swamps. I can't carry him inside my Poison God's book or my pouch because he is alive. As much as I wanted to keep him with me. I just can't.
So I have to leave him here.
"Hold up! Wait."
I pulled my Pagoda Token and summoned it. "Get inside," I told the lion and followed after him, then I chose the third floor, the alchemy area, and said. "You'll live here, if I need you I'll call you, I might even bring a few friends for you," I said then left the pagoda.
With a space as big as the Alchemy area I can have a whole city built there and it won't even take a fraction of the space inside.
Once I was out, I hid the token and used the Poison God's flying Sword, continuing west, towards the swamps.
There were no cultivators here, it's been a whole year apparently since I entered, and all would have left.
I wonder how Wu Di, Zhang Xiao, and Yuzehan are doing. I hope they got out and achieved some sort of progress. They're good kids.
As I flew across the Concaved Desert, I witnessed many demonic beasts, Jade scorpions, Two-Headed Vultures, and Sand Worms. All were carnivorous creatures. And found it rather difficult to accept that a biome can survive on only predators. But with the presence of Spiritual Qi, being a herbivorous prey is nothing but a death sentence.
Flying through the Desert took me the better part of a month before I began smelling the rancid smell of the swamps. And in front of me was a cloud of mist that spread all over the horizon.
I continued by following the map, it appeared to lead through the least populated and less hazardous areas of the Swamps of Balur.
From the map, I could see that there were many monsters and areas that had some poisonous plants and creatures. It would be a good opportunity to get some of these plants.
Just as I thought about entering the fog, I felt that I was being watched, no I was being attacked.
I immediately dove down and a wave of powerful sword energy went through the location I was on.
I stopped the flying treasure and looked back, there was a group of cultivators, about twenty of them. all were in the Nascent Soul stage.
"What's the meaning of this?" I asked.
And one of the twenty people didn't even wait to answer and shot another sword ray at me.
Now that I was able to see it I immediately dodged, and pointed my gun at him, "You didn't even identify yourself, we have no enmity between us, why must you look for death?" I asked.
"Will you look at that, this little core cultivator actually thinks he could survive this, and even threaten us with death? Just kowtow a hundred times and I'll promise you a painless death and an intact corps."
"Brother Han, he looks in good shape, I'd like to have some fun with him before you kill him," one of the men said.
For some reason his words caused me to shudder.
"Bro, chill on the homo vibes, also I like women," I said as I pointed my gun at him and shot.
He easily dodged the bullet, "Fisty, I like it!" he said as he rushed at me with an open grasp.
'This is troublesome. Who the fuck are these guys? Bandits probably, but they're too high level to come after a core cultivator, and they don't look like bandits, they're dressed well…hang on, they have the same type of dress as the guy with the flute.'
"Oh, I get it," I said as spat a poison breath in the direction of the incoming creepy pervert.
The man immediately stopped and pulled an umbrella that he used to blow away the smoke.
"Poison…I don't like this, poison cultivators taste bad, let's just kill him, brother Han."
"You're from the Wu kingdom. I said as I shot a few more rounds at the creep.
The man used his umbrella again, to protect himself, but the bullet easily shreds through the paper umbrella and tore into his shoulder. Since he didn't expect the bullet to have such power, he didn't coat his body with Qi, and the pill inside the bullet managed to enter his body.
The pull burst open and its content began spreading into the Nascent Soul cultivator.
He turned to his comrades with a voiceless cry, as his face and whole body began melting.
The Nascent Soul cultivator died as the rest looked with shocked expressions.
"Kill HIM!" the leader who looked slightly stronger than the rest shouted, "And bring me that treasure. It's strong enough to Kill a Nascent Soul Cultivator in one hit." He added.
"Well, if you have the ability, come at me!" I said.