Seeing that the fat man's breathing was becoming unstable, Li Nanzhu began to throw out one fire lotus after another with even greater speed.
The more unstable an opponent's emotions were, the easier it was for them to expose flaws.
This was Li Nanzhu's only chance to kill him.
However, the flaws he had exposed so far weren't enough to give her the confidence for a one-hit kill.
At the same time, another green-thorned vine pierced through Li Nanzhu's calf, causing her movements to become sluggish.
Seeing this, the fat man waved his hand, sending a thicker green branch directly toward Li Nanzhu's heart.
Li Nanzhu instinctively twisted her body, narrowly avoiding the attack, though this time a large gash was torn into her arm.
However, it was this very dodge that gave Li Nanzhu a counter-strategy.
Like her, the opponent was a cultivator with triple spiritual roots, though his were water, wood, and earth.
During their exchange, Li Nanzhu had noticed that the fat man was not skilled at switching between different types of qi. Every time he attacked, he could essentially only use one attribute; switching to another took him about two breaths of time.
In her case, perhaps due to her cultivation technique, it was easy for her to use three types of qi simultaneously or switch between them instantly. This was her advantage.
And the fact that she shared his wood spiritual root was her opportunity.
Because the fat man primarily used wood-attribute attacks, he often failed to notice plants around him that showed no hostile intent.
He would subconsciously ignore them.
This was why, among the attacks Li Nanzhu had landed previously, aside from the fire lotuses, were occasional leaf-projectile strikes.
His current state of fury, combined with his subconscious contempt for Li Nanzhu, meant she was destined to succeed.
Li Nanzhu began to lead the fat man in circles around the area. Every time her feet touched the ground, she left behind a trace of life force controlled by her Wood Vitality.
Because this was pure life force unmixed with anything else, the fat man failed to notice.
When Li Nanzhu finally returned to her starting point, her sudden halt caused the fat man to land exactly in the center of the trap she had designed.
"You're out of qi, you brat! Watch me kill you!"
But before he could strike, countless green vines suddenly erupted from beneath his feet, coiling around him layer after layer until he was tightly bound.
The fat man's face paled with shock. He had just used an earth-type attack, and he couldn't switch back to the wood attribute quickly enough to control the plants.
In those two breaths of time, Li Nanzhu used all her remaining spiritual power to manifest a massive fire lotus. It instantly ignited the vines, and the excruciating pain of being burned alive caused him to briefly lose all ability to act.
Li Nanzhu lunged at the fat man, pulled out a dagger, and drove it hard into his heart.
The fat man twitched twice before his life faded away.
On the other side, Scarface had long since been driven into a corner by Duan Xianxing. A single sword strike slit his throat.
Watching the unwavering Li Nanzhu, Mu Wenyan and Duan Xianxing felt both happy and conflicted.
They were happy that their junior sister had actually killed a Foundation Establishment cultivator, but conflicted because they hadn't expected her to kill humans with the same clinical efficiency she used on demonic beasts.
Normal people usually had some reaction after killing someone for the first time. It might be different if one had been raised within a sect's rigid education, but their junior sister was not originally from the cultivation world. Yet, she showed no reaction after the killing, and she didn't look like she was forcing herself to stay calm.
It wasn't that they thought their junior sister was cold-blooded; rather, they feared she might have some psychological discomfort and hoped she would speak up if she did.
Seeing that she seemed no different than usual, they breathed a sigh of relief.
The man with the buzz cut, who was being suppressed by Mu Wenyan, couldn't believe his eyes.
A brat at the Qi Condensation stage had actually killed a Foundation Establishment cultivator?
From the moment he was suppressed, the buzz-cut man knew that the person in front of him was definitely not just at the Foundation Establishment stage; he was at least at the Golden Core stage.
He had harbored a sliver of hope, but now that his two companions were dead, he couldn't even summon the thought of resisting.
"Have mercy, seniors! I'm willing to hand over all my possessions! Just spare my life!"
Li Nanzhu, having recovered slightly, walked over to the man.
Mu Wenyan hadn't killed him initially because he was afraid the other two would be scared off if he acted too quickly. Just as he was about to strike, Li Nanzhu stopped him.
"First Senior Brother, I have questions for him," she said, then looked at the buzz-cut man.
"How did you know we had good things on us? Tell the truth, and I'll let you go."
The buzz-cut man had just watched Li Nanzhu kill a man; he no longer dared to underestimate this Qi Condensation cultivator. Furthermore, seeing that the Golden Core senior brother actually listened to the young girl, he answered honestly for fear she might change her mind.
"It was a female cultivator from the Sword Heart Sect at the Qi Condensation stage. We overheard her talking. We knew you had at least mid-grade artifacts and high-grade spirit stones. She only mentioned two people, though. We didn't expect there to be someone this powerful among you."
Li Nanzhu let out a cold laugh. It was just as she had suspected.
No one had tried to rob them for days, so why the sudden encounter today? To be able to accurately identify them, there was no way Cang Dongqing hadn't described their appearances in meticulous detail.
However, Cang Dongqing likely didn't know their First Senior Brother was with them; she probably thought it was only the two of them.
Although she didn't know how Cang Dongqing knew they had come here, since the woman had already tried to have her killed, she wouldn't blame Li Nanzhu for striking back.
Li Nanzhu always believed she could find her own way to death, but she would never die due to someone else's schemes. That would make her look too stupid, especially if it was because of someone she despised.
"Fine, you can go."
Li Nanzhu turned around, preparing to clear the battlefield.
The buzz-cut man found he could move. Just as he was about to run, a cold longsword pierced through his chest in the next second.
"My junior sister agreed to let you go, but I didn't agree not to kill you."
Those were the last words the man heard before he died.
Gentle yet freezing cold.
"It was that Cang Dongqing again?"
Duan Xianxing had already moved to Li Nanzhu's side. Li Nanzhu picked up the fat man's storage bag and answered casually.
"Who else could it be? She's the only one I have a grudge with."
"It doesn't matter. She's definitely still in the secret realm. When we run into her, we'll give her a harsh lesson. With First Senior Brother here, we have nothing to fear!"
Mu Wenyan nodded, indicating he had no objections.
However, after the battle, Li Nanzhu's spiritual energy was completely drained and needed to be restored. The three of them decided to count their spoils.
Scarface's storage bag contained various spirit stones and ores, as well as several large sabers. The buzz-cut man had various offensive and defensive talismans, while the fat man had various types of pills. The rest was just miscellaneous junk.
After a quick tally, the three of them combined actually had seventy or eighty high-grade spirit stones. It seemed they had committed many robberies; they deserved their deaths.
Li Nanzhu rummaged through the fat man's storage bag again and found a peculiar brush.
She called it peculiar because there were strange patterns on the brush that didn't look hand-carved, but rather naturally formed. However, it lacked any trace of spiritual energy and looked quite ordinary.
The three of them took turns studying it, even injecting different attributes of qi, but the energy vanished without a trace, like a clay ox entering the sea.
Seeing that they couldn't figure it out for now, Li Nanzhu tucked it away. She would show it to Feng Yi when they returned to the sect to see if he knew what it was.
After packing their things, the three continued north. They were getting closer and closer to the profound light glazed wood.
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