74: The role of the spirit

The Dried Corpse Old Man's taunts reached his ears.

Shen Xi, however, remained unmoved.

Even when faced with the Dried Corpse Old Man's storm-like attacks, Shen Xi remained silent.

Before long, Shen Xi began to vomit blood in large mouthfuls.

Even with the Indestructible Glazed Body, facing the Houtian Major Completion's frenzied attacks, Shen Xi was still severely injured.

Almost there!

It's about to succeed!

Shen Xi gritted his teeth and persevered, murmuring to himself.

He was not a fool; it was impossible for him to simply endure the Dried Corpse Old Man's attacks head-on.

Finally, the time was ripe.

A pearl appeared out of thin air in Shen Xi's hand; he crushed it fiercely, threw it at the Dried Corpse Old Man's feet, and then quickly retreated.

"A Yuanqi Pearl? So you risked your life just to use a Yuanqi Pearl?"

"Fool, don't you know that a Yuanqi Pearl can at most threaten someone in the Houtian Chucheng Realm? I am in the Houtian Major Completion and also a Body Cultivator; a Yuanqi Pearl has no effect on me at all!"

"Besides, I can escape the explosion range before the Yuanqi Pearl detonates, you..."

Before he could finish speaking, the Dried Corpse Old Man's expression froze.

He found that his legs had gone numb and he couldn't move for a short time.

Everything that had just happened flashed through the Dried Corpse Old Man's mind.

On the surface, Shen Xi was exchanging injuries with him, carrying out a suicidal attack.

But in reality, his primary target was always his legs.

Moreover, although the Dried Corpse Old Man's 'Withered Wood Body' had extremely strong recovery abilities, on one hand, he had not Cultivated it to Perfection, so its recovery ability was naturally greatly reduced.

On the other hand, Shen Xi's offensive was too fierce; the speed of recovery was far from matching the speed of damage.

It was precisely because of this that the Dried Corpse Old Man temporarily fell into a state of leg paralysis.

He should have noticed this earlier!

It was only because he was too arrogant that he overlooked Shen Xi's subtle movements.

The Dried Corpse Old Man's face darkened; being outmaneuvered by Shen Xi made his expression extremely ugly.

However, he was not worried about losing; as he said, a Yuanqi Pearl could not threaten his life.

But just then, the Dried Corpse Old Man saw Shen Xi mouth two words.

"Farewell!"

At the same time, the Yuanqi Pearl finally exploded, and a terrifying force capable of instantly killing him was unleashed.

This, how is this possible!

How could a Yuanqi Pearl be so terrifying?

This thought flashed through the Dried Corpse Old Man's mind, and the next second he was engulfed by the explosion.

Dust and smoke billowed, and within a hundred meters, it was as if darkness had swallowed everything.

After a long while, the dust and smoke finally dissipated, and the Dried Corpse Old Man had completely vanished.

Houtian Major Completion, dead!

"Phew!"

Shen Xi let out a long breath.

This battle was finally over.

"Fortunately, I mastered 'Spirit'; otherwise, I would have certainly died in this battle today."

Shen Xi spoke with considerable emotion.

The Dried Corpse Old Man probably couldn't understand why he was killed by a Yuanqi Pearl, even until his death.

After all, since a Yuanqi Pearl is named after Origin Qi, it is naturally a treasure useful only in the Yuánqì Realm; even if it can store Origin Qi and create an explosion of infinite power at a critical moment, it should at most threaten someone in the Initial Stage of Acquired Realm, how could it possibly kill him.

But this was merely the traditional understanding of a Yuanqi Pearl.

Ever since learning the Spirit Guiding Scripture, Shen Xi had a sudden idea: could he inject 'Spirit' into a Yuanqi Pearl?

One must know that 'Spirit,' as a special energy, has the effect of improving Aptitude, and is definitely much more terrifying than Origin Qi.

The same Yuanqi Pearl, with the same capacity, filled with Origin Qi and exploding versus filled with 'Spirit' and exploding, are definitely not on the same level.

No sooner said than done!

Shen Xi tried to inject 'Spirit' into the Yuanqi Pearl and unexpectedly succeeded.

This left him with only one problem: to fill the Yuanqi Pearl with 'Spirit' would take at least a year.

Shen Xi used the Spirit Guiding Scripture to collect 'Spirit,' and it took a full year to fill the Yuanqi Pearl.

This is also why the Yuanqi Pearl was considered a 'chicken rib' (a metaphor for something of little value but still worth keeping).

How many Martial Artists would go without eating or drinking, spending a year to fill a Yuanqi Pearl, just for that one critical explosion?

Shen Xi could!

He used the System to conduct Martial Arts drills, spending a year of demon beast lifespan, just to collect 'Spirit'.

Finally, he filled the Yuanqi Pearl.

And after careful sensing, Shen Xi could confirm that the destructive power of this Yuanqi Pearl's explosion was comparable to the full-strength strike of a Later Heaven Transformation Realm expert.

It was precisely because of this that when facing the Dried Corpse Old Man, he chose to exchange injuries.

The opponent's speed was too fast; before the Yuanqi Pearl exploded, the opponent could slip away.

And Shen Xi only had this one Yuanqi Pearl.

Therefore, Shen Xi had made up his mind from the beginning to primarily attack the opponent's legs, to temporarily incapacitate him.

Once the time was ripe, he would use the Yuanqi Pearl to take the opponent's life in one fell swoop.

And everything went exactly as Shen Xi planned; he succeeded.

"This place is not suitable for long stay; the Council might send more people to intercept me."

Shen Xi looked regretfully at the Dried Corpse Old Man, who had already turned to ash.

The opponent's storage bag and other items had naturally also been reduced to dust.

He could not benefit from them.

Without further delay, Shen Xi left directly.

One day later.

A figure appeared at the place where Shen Xi and the Dried Corpse Old Man had fought.

"Old Nine's aura disappeared here."

"I can't sense his aura anymore; could it be that he has already..."

The figure couldn't help but gasp.

He knew the Dried Corpse Old Man's combat power well; even he would need to expend a lot of effort to defeat him.

But now, the Dried Corpse Old Man's aura had vanished, which could only mean one thing: something had happened to him.

This made him unable to understand how Shen Xi, with his strength, could have killed the Dried Corpse Old Man.

"I must report this to the higher-ups; it's very possible that Shen Xi has a master protecting him, otherwise, he couldn't have killed Old Nine."

The more the figure thought about it, the more he felt his guess was correct.

After all, for a Great Accomplishment of Yuanqi to kill someone in the Houtian Major Completion was simply a fantasy.

The most reasonable explanation was that Shen Xi had someone protecting him.

And who exactly was this person?

And where did he come from?

If it was just Shen Xi's Dao Protector, that would be a bit better; after all, the person wouldn't dare to target the Council directly, only secretly protecting Shen Xi, which was enough to show that his strength had not yet reached an invincible level.

But if it was a strong individual from the Judgment Squad, then the situation would be dire.

This meant that the other party already knew about the Council's covert actions, and there was no telling what kind of counterattack they might launch.

Thinking of this, the figure quickly chased after Zhu Feng City.

At this moment, Shen Xi was no longer the most important thing; the crucial factor was the attitude of the Judgment Squad, and the Council was not yet prepared for a direct confrontation.