11: Chapter 11 The Hunting Ground

The world of gray fog.

Gu Shen's figure slowly emerged at a collapsed corner.

As soon as he landed, he quickly crouched down, back against the wall, the gold-severing saber sliding silently into his palm, his Divine Sense spreading out like tentacles in all directions.

After confirming there was no threat within a radius of ten zhang, he breathed a slight sigh of relief.

This time, the landing point he chose was a hundred meters deeper than the last, at the edge of an abandoned commercial plaza.

Above his head were exposed twisted steel bars, and under his feet was thick dust and broken glass. In the distant mist, muffled low roars could be heard from time to time; those were large mutated creatures roaming.

"Previously I was the prey, but now..."

Gu Shen touched the hilt of his saber at his waist, his eyes cold and sharp.

He had come to test his blade.

Following the broken escalator upwards, Gu Shen arrived at the second floor. This seemed to have once been a clothing store; mannequins were scattered in disarray, appearing especially creepy in the dim light.

Ten steps ahead, a tall figure was wandering aimlessly.

It was a special "walking corpse."

It was a head taller than an ordinary zombie, its entire body's skin presenting a rock-like gray-black color, muscles knotted, even its eyeballs covered by a thick layer of keratinous membrane.

"Iron-skinned Corpse."

Gu Shen silently gave it a name in his heart.

This kind of monster had extremely strong defense, its Physical Body strength almost comparable to a Middle Stage Body Cultivator.

Gu Shen held his breath, his feet stepping in a strange pattern, approaching silently.

Ten steps.

Five steps.

The Iron-skinned Corpse seemed to have smelled the scent of a living person, suddenly turning around, letting out a roar from its throat, and swinging its hammer-like fist as it smashed over.

The wind of the fist whistled, powerful and heavy.

Gu Shen did not retreat but advanced instead.

He did not use spiritual power to protect his body, but instead slid sideways, avoiding that heavy, clumsy punch like a swimming fish, while simultaneously flicking his right wrist.

Swish.

A dull gray light traced a semicircle in the air.

Gu Shen's figure crossed paths with the Iron-skinned Corpse.

He did not look back, instead directly flicking off the non-existent blood from the blade, and sheathed the gold-severing saber back at his waist.

Behind him, the Iron-skinned Corpse remained frozen in the posture of punching.

A moment later.

Pfft—

A thin line appeared on its neck, and immediately after, the large head slid down along the incision, falling to the ground with a thud. That iron-hard keratinous skin, in front of the "gold-severing" [saber] infused with geng metal sand, was as fragile as a thin sheet of paper.

"Good blade."

Gu Shen turned around, looking at the smooth incision, feeling greatly reassured.

With this blade, such ordinary monsters posed no threat to him.

He stepped forward and placed his palm on the corpse.

[Heaven and Earth Furnace] vibrated.

Gray fog rose, and the corpse shriveled up.

[Obtained: essence white dew (inferior) x3 drops.]

Two drops more than an ordinary walking corpse.

Gu Shen did not complain about it being too little; even a mosquito's leg is meat. He stored those few drops of white dew into his Dantian, not rushing to refine them, but continued to explore deeper into the mall.

Killing monsters was just incidental; finding resources was the real business.

Passing through the clothing section, Gu Shen arrived in front of a luxuriously decorated shop.

This seemed to be a gold shop.

The counter had long been smashed, the gold jewelry inside looted, leaving only glass shards all over the floor and a few empty boxes.

Gu Shen was not disappointed.

Gold is valuable in the mortal world, but in the Cultivation World, one tael of gold can only be exchanged for one piece of fragmented spirit crystal, and people would even complain that it takes up space.

His gaze landed on the power distribution box that had been violently ripped open on the wall of the gold shop.

There, the broken ends of several black cables as thick as a wrist were exposed, and the bundles of purple-red metal wires inside radiated a charming luster in Gu Shen's eyes.

"Red copper."

Gu Shen stepped forward and used the tip of his blade to pick up a copper wire.

The color was purple-red, the texture soft but with excellent toughness.

In the Great Yu Cultivation World, red copper is a basic material for refining fire-attribute Magical Artifacts and also an excellent carrier for engraving Formation Plates. One jin of purified refined red copper is worth five Spirit Stones.

And here...

Gu Shen looked at the cable lines extending deep into the walls and running through the entire mall, his breathing involuntarily quickening a little.

This is a red copper vein! And it's a rich ore that has already been purified!

"Dismantle!"

Gu Shen didn't say a word, swung his blade to cut the cables, and then pulled hard.

Zzzzt.

Several meters of cables were forcibly dragged out of the wall by him.

He didn't mind the dirt, sat cross-legged on the ground, and used the gold-severing saber to skillfully peel off the outer insulating rubber, revealing the heavy purple copper core inside.

This peeling took half an hour.

Beside Gu Shen, a small mountain of copper wire had piled up, approximately two hundred jin.

"That's about enough."

Gu Shen weighed it; two hundred jin of red copper, if refined into refined red copper using the Great Furnace, would probably yield about two jin.

Two jin of refined red copper could at least be exchanged for ten Spirit Stones.

Just as he was preparing to pack up these copper wires and leave, a strong sense of crisis suddenly struck his heart.

The hairs on Gu Shen's back stood up instantly.

Without any hesitation, he lunged forward, forcibly twisting his waist in mid-air.

Whoosh!

A black afterimage grazed past his scalp, sharp claws ripping his collar and leaving three bloody scratches on his shoulder.

Gu Shen landed and rolled, quickly rising, back against a pillar, staring fixedly ahead.

He saw that where the copper wires had been piled, a black creature was now crouching.

It was a cat.

But its size was like a leopard, pitch black all over, without a single stray hair, its eyes showing an eerie, ghostly green, and at the end of its tail, there was actually a bone spur, which was swaying gently.

"Mutated beast!!"

Gu Shen's pupils shrank to the size of pinpoints.

Cats are known for their speed, have sharp claws and teeth, and are extremely vengeful; it seems this mutated strange cat is even more troublesome than the previous two-headed gecko.

Meow—

The mutated strange cat let out a shrill scream, its hind legs slightly bent, its body turning into a black bolt of lightning, lunging again.

Too fast!

So fast that Gu Shen couldn't even swing his blade in time.

At this speed, the naked eye could only capture an afterimage; if he engaged in close combat, he would definitely be shredded into pieces.

A moment of life and death.

Gu Shen did not swing his blade, but instead raised his right index finger.

No need to aim; his Divine Sense had already locked onto that mass of rapidly moving Evil Qi.

Inside his Dantian, one-tenth of his spiritual power was instantly extracted.

Golden light appeared at his fingertip.

Golden Light Finger, instant cast!

Pfft!

A sharp sound like tearing silk rang out in the air.

That black afterimage lunging in mid-air shuddered violently, as if it had been fiercely slapped by an invisible giant hand, and its originally smooth lunging trajectory instantly deformed.

The mutated strange cat fell heavily to the ground, rolling several times before stopping.

Between its eyebrows, there was an extra small hole that went all the way through, bubbling with black blood.

In those ghostly green eyes, the fierce light had not yet dissipated, but they had already lost their focus.

One-hit kill.

"Hoo... hoo..."

Gu Shen leaned against the pillar, panting heavily, cold sweat sliding down his forehead.

That finger just now, if it had been off by half a fraction, he would be the one dead now.

The high consumption and high penetration of the Golden Light Finger were vividly demonstrated at this moment. As long as it hits a vital point, even a mutated beast known for its agility cannot block the penetration of Geng Metal Qi.

Gu Shen took a porcelain bottle from his bosom, tilted his head back, and poured down a mouthful of spiritual liquid, his pale face quickly returning to a rosy color.

This was his reliance.

As long as he didn't die instantly, he was a perpetual motion machine.

Stepping forward, Gu Shen looked at the corpse of the mutated strange cat.

"This fur is not bad."

He crouched down and began to skillfully process the loot.

The mutated strange cat's fur was intact, without any stray colors; although there was a hole between the eyebrows, it did not affect the overall value. In the Cultivation World, this kind of fur can be used to make stealth-type Magical Artifact robes or boots, which are deeply loved by Cultivators.

And that bone-spurred tail, hard as iron, was a natural Artifact Refining material.

As for the flesh and blood...

[Second-order mutated beast Shadow Cat, contains trace amounts of shadow power.] [Refining can yield: Shadow Essence (micro), essence white dew (medium).]

Gu Shen's brow-center Great Furnace rolled, taking the Shadow Cat's corpse along with that pile of peeled copper wires, and sucked it all in at once.

Blood has been shed here; it is not suitable to stay for long.

Who knows if that scream would attract something even more terrifying?

Gu Shen was not greedy either, took one last look at the cables in the distance that hadn't been dismantled yet, and turned around decisively.

"I'll come again next time."

A flash of gray light.

The abandoned mall returned to dead silence once again, leaving only the messy rubber on the ground and a few drops of cat blood that had not yet dried.