4: Eat the dead

Early the next morning, Zhang Daobai got up early and put his last few personal items into his Storage Pouch.

After looking at the empty room before him and the Storage Pouch in his arms with a complex gaze, Zhang Daobai finally opened the door and walked out.

Just as he stepped out of the door, Zhang Daobai felt a strange sensation of being watched.

However, he did not look around. Instead, acting as if he knew nothing, he turned to close the door and then walked toward the mountain gate.

Zhang Daobai had nothing left to miss about the Cloud Sword Sect, so he reached the mountain gate without stopping along the way.

Once he stepped out of the mountain gate, Zhang Daobai had officially withdrawn from the Cloud Sword Sect.

Just as he stepped out of the mountain gate, Zhang Daobai suddenly turned his head to look back.

Sure enough, the moment he turned his head, a group of sneaky-looking Utility Disciples in the distance subconsciously panicked.

Seeing this situation, Zhang Daobai sneered in his heart, then turned and bolted down the mountain.

Seeing Zhang Daobai turn and run, the group of Utility Disciples in the distance hurriedly sped up to chase after him.

By the time they had all run out of the mountain gate, the Outer Sect Disciples stationed by the gate seemed to have long since become accustomed to it, a trace of mockery appearing in their eyes.

The Cloud Sword Sect strictly forbade fellow Disciples from killing each other; at best, one would be sent to the Law Enforcement Hall for severe punishment, and at worst, one's cultivation would be abolished and they would be expelled from the Sect!

Although the Sect rules were strict, there were always people who could find loopholes.

Since killing fellow Disciples was forbidden, then Disciples who had withdrawn from the Sect were no longer considered fellow Disciples!

Thus, a grey profession was quietly born, which Zhang Daobai also called the cultivation version of 'Preying on the Isolated'.

Whenever a Utility Disciple withdrew from the Sect, a group would chase them out to rob and kill them.

After all, the highest cultivation level of a withdrawing Utility Disciple was only the Middle Stage of Qi Refining, yet when they left the Sect, they carried their savings from the past ten years with them.

These savings were definitely a rich source of resources for Utility Disciples and even some Outer Sect Disciples.

Therefore, of the Utility Disciples who withdrew from the Sect every year, seven out of ten died in the mountain forests outside the Cloud Sword Sect.

The higher-ups of the Cloud Sword Sect naturally knew about this behavior of Preying on the Isolated, but they all tacitly ignored it.

After all, to them, Utility Disciples who had already withdrawn from the Sect were already outsiders, or even less than outsiders.

Below Cloud Sword Mountain, after Zhang Daobai sprinted down the mountain, he did not choose to take the main road, but instead plunged straight into the mountain forest.

After entering the mountain forest, Zhang Daobai seemed to be very familiar with the way, taking out a wind movement talisman from his Storage Pouch and sticking it onto himself.

In the next second, the wind movement talisman transformed into a wisp of cyan Spiritual Qi that swirled around Zhang Daobai's body.

Zhang Daobai immediately felt his body become lighter, and his running speed more than doubled.

"Damn! That kid definitely used a wind movement talisman!"

Not long after Zhang Daobai entered the mountain forest, that group of Utility Disciples also chased their way in.

In the hands of one of the Utility Disciples was a wooden circular Formation Plate, and on the Formation Plate, a red dot of light was moving rapidly.

"Stop talking! Hurry up and chase! If we let him run out of the Spirit-Seeking Plate's tracking range, it'll be over!"

"Right! Chase!"

Seeing Zhang Daobai running faster and faster, everyone also hurriedly took out wind movement talismans to speed up and chase after him.

In the tense and exciting chase, Zhang Daobai finally arrived at his destination just as the wind movement talisman was about to expire.

This was a small pond, and by the pond stood a willow tree as thick as two people's embrace, with part of its roots spreading into the water.

This was a hiding place Zhang Daobai had found in advance a few months ago; inside the trunk of that willow tree was a hidden tree hollow, but the entrance was underwater.

After stopping, Zhang Daobai quickly took off all his clothes, even his shoes and socks, and then took out a piece of cloth to wrap them up.

Subsequently, Zhang Daobai took out a spirit bird talisman from his Storage Pouch and injected it with Spiritual Qi.

Very quickly, the spirit bird talisman transformed into a large bird with a wingspan of over two meters, flapping its wings and hovering in front of him.

Immediately after, Zhang Daobai hung the bundle on the spirit bird's claws and then controlled the spirit bird to fly rapidly toward the east.

After the spirit bird flew away, Zhang Daobai, naked and holding his Storage Pouch, dove into the water and entered the tree hollow through the roots of the large willow tree.

After hiding himself, Zhang Daobai took out a Breath-Concealing Talisman from his Storage Pouch and stuck it onto himself, hiding his aura.

After doing all this, Zhang Daobai pressed his ear against the tree trunk and listened carefully to the movements outside.

Not long after, hearing a burst of noisy footsteps approaching, Zhang Daobai's whole body suddenly tensed up.

"Damn it! How did that kid's speed increase so much again!?"

"He probably used some kind of talisman."

"Then hurry up and chase! If we let him get away later, we'll lose big on this trip!"

"Right! Chase!"

"Damn it! When I catch up to him, I'm definitely going to torture him to death!"

Immediately after, the group of people one after another took out wind movement talismans again and chased in the direction the spirit bird had flown.

After the group's footsteps gradually faded into the distance, Zhang Daobai waited in the tree hollow for a few minutes before returning outside from underwater.

After reaching the shore, Zhang Daobai did not take out clothes from his Storage Pouch to put on, but instead ran stark naked toward the direction of Yunshan City.

Because the spirit bird talisman could only fly a few thousand meters at most, once those people found out they had been tricked, they would definitely return here to investigate the situation.

Therefore, Zhang Daobai had to take advantage of this bit of time to run as far as possible; otherwise, if he was caught by them, he would suffer greatly.

Honestly!

Running rapidly through the mountain forest stark naked actually gave Zhang Daobai a sense of freedom.

After running for about an hour, Zhang Daobai estimated that he should have shaken those people off.

So he found a flat piece of ground to stop and took out his clothes from his Storage Pouch to dress properly.

After getting dressed, Zhang Daobai sat down on the spot and began to circulate his Cultivation Technique to recover his Spiritual Qi.

Since Zhang Daobai had a white spirit root, the Cultivation Technique he practiced was the common Qi Gathering Art, which barely counted as a Yellow Grade Low Grade technique.

With low cultivation Aptitude and a poor technique, it took Zhang Daobai a full hour to completely recover his Spiritual Qi.

"It seems I must resolve the issues of my Aptitude and Cultivation Technique as soon as possible."

After Zhang Daobai stood up, he patted the dirt off his body and sighed.

After recovering his Spiritual Qi, Zhang Daobai continued on his way to Yunshan City.

Since Outer Sect Disciples and Inner Sect Disciples cleared out Yao Beasts within a hundred miles of the Cloud Sword Sect every year, Zhang Daobai did not encounter any danger along the way.

However, if there were no accidents, an accident was about to happen.

Just as Zhang Daobai was about to take out a map to confirm if he had taken the wrong path, a sudden loud explosion came from the distance, startling a flock of birds.