“Greetings, I am Liu Xing from Purple Moon Sect. I intend to travel to Dragon Skull Forest on a mission. Would you permit me to pass?” Liu Xing clasped his hands in a respectful gesture. He knew the probability of them allowing him to pass was almost nil, but saw no reason to be impolite.


    Sensing the qi around them, Liu Xing realized that only Mo Yan was at the same cultivation stage as himself; the rest were at either the fourth or third stage.


    “What a polite fellow,” one of them said. “If only every cultivator who passed here were as polite as you. You may pass, brother, but you need to pay a toll fee. After all, the roads need maintenance. Consider the fee a donation to the local community!”


    Liu Xing glanced past their shoulders and saw a dirt road. While the path looked passable, he doubted they performed any maintenance on it.


    “Is that so? May I know how much the fee is?” Liu Xing asked.


    “It’s cheap, only 50 spirit stones per person. And since you’re polite, I’ll give you a discount. Thirty spirit stones. How about that?” Mo Yan and his two friends chuckled.


    Liu Xing considered his options. He scanned their clothes and noticed wrinkles, signifying they wore ordinary clothes, not the silky, shiny, self-cleaning ones common in sects. This indicated they were likely loose cultivators, who were generally weaker due to limited access to cultivation scriptures and techniques.


    “I’m sorry, but I’d rather not pay the fee. I’m poor,” Liu Xing replied.


    Mo Yan snorted. “Well, I guess we’ll take the fee by force. Attack!”


    Mo Yan and his gang rushed forward together. The red-haired guy brandished a dagger, the narrow-eyed one unsheathed his sword, and Mo Yan himself glowed with a yellow hue.


    A thought to fight without his gun crossed Liu Xing’s mind, a fleeting desire to test his full capability without it. But he quickly dismissed the idea. Time was of the essence, and he wanted to start hunting as soon as possible.


    Liu Xing summoned his gun and made it invisible. The process was swift, and hopefully, they hadn’t noticed. He then activated his Lightning Cloak and kicked off the ground.


    The world became a blur. In a fraction of a second, Liu Xing appeared in front of Mo Yan and punched him in the belly. The force of the blow lifted Mo Yan off the ground, and he flew like a cannonball, crashing and shattering trees before landing unconscious on the ground.


    “What’s happening?!” shouted the red-haired guy.


    The narrow-eyed guy lunged at Liu Xing, attempting to slash his neck. Liu Xing took a step, disappearing and reappearing behind him. Before the narrow-eyed guy could react, Liu Xing grabbed the collar of his clothes and threw him. He flew through the air and crashed into the cliff wall, dust falling around him.


    Realizing his two friends had been defeated in the blink of an eye, the red-haired guy’s eyes widened, and his feet trembled. “I-I’m sorry. This was all Mo Yan’s idea! Please spare me!” He knelt and began kowtowing.


    “Then go get your friends and leave. If I see you again, I won’t spare you.”


    “Thank you, senior! I, Pu He, won’t forget your mercy and will lead a righteous life from now on!” Pu He scrambled to retrieve his two friends. Despite being pale and skinny, he was still a cultivator and could carry both friends on his shoulders.


    “Oh right, Pu He,” Liu Xing called out.


    Pu He stiffened and turned around. “Y-yes?”


    “Do you know where the swamp area is?”


    “Of course! After you reach Skull Hill, just go north; the swamp is there!”This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.


    “Alright, thank you.”


    Pu He turned and started running, carrying his two unconscious friends.


    After they disappeared, Liu Xing turned and started running. He had considered killing the robbers, but decided against it. After all, he was unharmed, and he believed he had demonstrated enough power to deter them from bothering him again.


    “Spirit beasts, come to me!” he shouted with anticipation, already forgetting about the robbers.


    Now that he knew the direction he needed to go, Liu Xing could finally begin his hunt.


    <hr>


    After running for several hours, Liu Xing finally arrived at Dragon Skull Forest and was immediately struck by the bizarre surroundings.


    The outskirts of the forest had been normal, but here, the surroundings were bizarre. Mushrooms grew everywhere: tiny ones beside the path, others clinging to trees, and giant ones as big as houses dotted the landscape. They displayed a kaleidoscope of colors—yellow and white, brown and red, purple, pink, and countless other combinations. The sight made Liu Xing feel as if he had stepped into a wonderland.


    After gawking for a moment, Liu Xing jumped from the ground onto the cap of a mushroom the size of a truck. When his feet landed, it felt surprisingly soft, like stepping onto soft ground, yet it didn’t make him bounce like a rubber ball.


    Liu Xing felt a pang of disappointment. Giant mushrooms should make him bounce like a trampoline!


    After testing several mushrooms, Liu Xing decided to get serious about his mission.


    He moved swiftly from mushroom cap to branch to ground, heading directly toward Skull Hill.


    He jumped quickly, but not with the blurring speed of the Lightning Cloak. He needed to remain alert for spirit beasts, which was impossible if his vision was a blur.


    After moving for almost half an hour, Liu Xing suddenly felt a prickling sensation of qi around him. Sensing this, he closed his eyes and focused, trying to perceive the qi more clearly. The ambient qi in the area was abundant, but amidst it, Liu Xing sensed a strong, focused presence several hundred meters ahead. He couldn’t pinpoint the spirit beast’s exact location, but he was certain it possessed a cultivation stage above his own, perhaps around the sixth or seventh stage.


    Opening his eyes, Liu Xing summoned his gun and pointed it in the direction of the spirit beast. The gun became invisible, and he willed the invisibility to extend to his own body.


    This invisibility was designed to activate only when he sensed danger, but it seemed he didn’t need to directly target an enemy to trigger it; pointing in the general direction sufficed.


    Fully invisible, Liu Xing moved silently, leaping from branch to branch, mushroom cap to bush, until he finally crouched behind a large rock.


    Liu Xing sensed the spirit beast’s presence moving slowly toward him, like a lioness stalking its prey. The spirit beast had likely sensed his qi, but when his presence vanished, it began approaching cautiously, explaining its slow advance. This indicated intelligence. He hoped it wasn''t too intelligent, because while Liu Xing sometimes desired to test his strength, in this situation, he preferred to act like an assassin and eliminate the threat silently.


    After several more minutes, Liu Xing finally saw his opponent, and he immediately needed to reassess his initial evaluation.


    The spirit beast that bulldozed everything in its path was a massive black turtle, as large as a house. Each step it took made the ground vibrate, branches sway, and some of the smaller mushrooms shrink into the earth.


    The turtle possessed a menacing face with bloodshot eyes, saber-like fangs, and a long horn that extended dozens of meters from its head. Its brown shell was itself a giant mushroom, from which red, tentacle-like worms extended and wiggled in the air.


    Seeing this bizarre turtle, Liu Xing gulped. Its eyes scanned the surroundings with the keenness of an eagle, and the tentacles seemed to act as antennae, detecting vibrations in the air.


    Liu Xing held his breath and aimed from behind the rock. The creature appeared immensely powerful. As a turtle, it likely possessed high defense, but given its mushroom-worm hybrid shell, there was a chance it was softer than it seemed. Despite its size and strength, he estimated it was still within the Lock Opening realm, probably at the peak of the sixth stage.


    The tip of Liu Xing’s gun wavered, pointing at its head, then shifting to aim at the mushroom shell, and then back to its head again.


    Liu Xing didn’t know the turtle’s weakness. He regretted not having taken the time to check the library and read a bestiary. Had he done so, he might have known this spirit beast’s vulnerabilities. Still, there was no point in dwelling on what he couldn’t change. He needed to adapt to the situation or brute force his way through it.


    Liu Xing cycled his qi, channeling it to the pattern of his Exploding Fist Technique. He didn''t dare to hold back. He poured as much qi as possible into the technique, then activated it, allowing the gun to absorb and convert it into a bullet.


    Aiming at the turtle’s head, Liu Xing pulled the trigger. A blue bolt of electricity shot towards its target. The qi surrounding the bullet was so dense that both the turtle and the worms on its shell snapped their heads in Liu Xing’s direction.


    As the turtle opened its mouth, a blue fireball seed materialized within. Seeing this, Liu Xing realized the turtle possessed a breath-based attack. But before the fire seed could coalesce into fire breath, his bullet struck dead center in its mouth, impacting the turtle’s jagged tongue, and then detonated.