“I’ve handed over everything, please spare my life, hero!” The man in the brocade robe looked at Lin Yun in terror.
Blood from his shoulder had soaked his robe red, mixed with dirt, and with his dishevelled hair, he looked utterly wretched, a stark contrast to his earlier appearance.
He was completely subdued now.
“You need to understand, people like you, without your background and support, you’re nothing but a waste. So, don’t be too arrogant, got it?” Lin Yun shouted down at him.
“Got it, got it, got it!” The man nodded repeatedly.
“You brought this on yourself. If this were me in my younger days, you’d already be dead!” Lin Yun said coldly.
Then, Lin Yun held him at swordpoint, lifting him from the ground.
“Next, you’re coming with me for a bit longer!”
After the high-speed chase and battle, Lin Yun feared the old man from the Tongtian realm might hear the commotion and come.
So, Lin Yun planned to keep him hostage and travel further, the safest option.
Lin Yun was being quite cautious now.
Thus, holding him captive, Lin Yun hurriedly travelled for over two hours before stopping.
“Now, you can get lost,” Lin Yun said, sheathing his sword.
“Yes, yes, yes!”
This time, the man in the brocade robe dared not say anything reckless. After being released, he quickly fled.
Lin Yun watched him disappear from sight.
Lin Yun knew full well that, even if the man said nothing this time, he must hate him to the core, likely wishing to tear him apart. Once he returned, he would surely plot revenge.
But there was no helping it. In the martial world, one’s fate was not always in their own hands. Some things Lin Yun could not avoid.
Choosing to come to the border mountains meant inevitably facing such situations.
It wasn’t that Lin Yun sought to provoke them; they were the ones who tried to rob him and use him as a scapegoat. What choice did Lin Yun have?
Lin Yun knew that if he didn’t resist and went with them, his life would likely be toyed with until death. They only saw him as a tool.
Not resisting could mean death; resisting meant offending them. Lin Yun had to make a choice.
To these powerful groups with strong backgrounds, his resistance was the original sin. Only letting them slaughter him was deemed natural.
Such was the law of the jungle!
For the weak to dare resist the predation of the strong was considered a mistake, laughable and ironic, yet it was reality.
So, wherever Lin Yun went, he climbed desperately to become stronger, to avoid such injustices.
“Right, let’s see what’s in this guy’s storage ring.”
Curious, Lin Yun took out the man’s storage ring and probed it with his divine sense.
The storage ring had a vast space, containing a huge number of Haoyue crystals. Lin Yun scanned it with his divine sense: eleven million Haoyue crystals!
“Damn, no wonder he’s from a wealthy family. An early Saint realm cultivator carrying so many Haoyue crystals,” Lin Yun licked his lips, eyes gleaming.
Though he had thoroughly offended the man’s group, such a haul was extremely satisfying.
Eleven million Haoyue crystals. It would take Lin Yun ages to earn that much on his own.
Besides that, there were other items.
There was an escape artifact, the same one the man had used earlier.
“Hm? What’s this?”
Lin Yun flipped his hand, pulling a map from the storage ring.
“This is… a map of the border mountains,” Lin Yun said, opening it to examine.
A point was marked on the map.
The marked location was deep in the mountains, quite far from here. The border mountains spanned the human and demon territories, their vastness unimaginable.
“If I’m not mistaken, this marked spot is their destination, the location of the heavenly treasure they mentioned,” Lin Yun murmured.
He was almost certain of it.
“Didn’t expect that taking his storage ring would also get me a map to the heavenly treasure,” Lin Yun said with a smile.
However, he hesitated.
A heavenly treasure that excited this group was undoubtedly valuable, no question about it.
With the map, Lin Yun could easily find it.
Without it, even having overheard a few words, he wouldn’t have located it in the vast border mountains.
The problem was, that group would definitely go there too. If Lin Yun went and ran into them, how could he handle it?
They had a Tongtian realm cultivator!
Earlier, Lin Yun had escaped by holding the man hostage.
Normally, facing a Tongtian realm cultivator, even escaping would be futile. The gap between him and the Tongtian realm was still too vast.
If Lin Yun tried to snatch the treasure, he would surely be exposed. Never mind the difficulty of taking it from a Tongtian realm cultivator.
Even if he miraculously succeeded, he couldn’t escape a Tongtian realm pursuer.
“Forget it, I’ll keep it for now.”
Lin Yun stored the treasure map.
He continued inspecting the storage ring, finding a secret manual, some miscellaneous items, and things he didn’t care for.
Besides these, there was the Saint-grade sword. Even if Lin Yun couldn’t use it, he could sell it for a good sum.
This haul was, without a doubt, the richest since Lin Yun arrived in the ancestral land.
Then, Lin Yun took out the two magic crystals he had reclaimed from the Tongtian realm old man by holding the man in the brocade robe hostage.
“No time to waste. I need to absorb them quickly,” Lin Yun said, looking at the crystals.
The priority was to use these two crystals, as their energy would gradually fade over time. The later he absorbed them, the more energy he’d lose.
Lin Yun quickly left, found a secluded spot, and began absorbing the energy from the two magic crystals.
…
Meanwhile, elsewhere.
After escaping Lin Yun, the man in the brocade robe didn’t dare pause, fleeing at full speed.
Without the protection of his group of strong allies, how could he feel safe in the border mountains?
Over an hour later, he finally reunited with the Tongtian realm old man and his group.
“Young Master!”
Seeing the man return alive, the old man sighed in relief. If the man had died in the mountains, how could he explain it back home?
While Lin Yun held the man hostage, the old man had been extremely worried, fearing Lin Yun might actually kill him.
