Chapter 70: Novice Village Max Level

After Old Deng finished speaking, he reached into her hair again and hurried over.

He walked to the black horse, reached out and touched the horse's mane, and said with a smile: "Young man, your horse is really good. How is its leg strength?"

Li Wuxiang smelled a very faint odor in the horse's mane, mixed with the smell of the horse. If it weren't for his keen senses, ordinary people wouldn't be able to smell it.

But the smell had no effect on him at all. He recalled the night when Zhao Qi cast a spell to summon a big ghost to investigate him - at that time he thought he was poisoned by the incense, but now he thought that maybe it was all the effect of the talisman paper.

He smiled and said, "Not bad."

"Hmm." Old Deng followed beside him for a while, frowned, and sniffed hard, "Is there any smell? Young man, do you smell anything?"

After saying that, he quickly jumped two or three steps in front of the horse and shook the sleeves of his Taoist robe vigorously: "Is it the smell on me?"

This time it was from his sleeves, a slightly fishy, slightly cold smell. Li Wuxiang sniffed hard and felt a slight itch in his eyes, eyebrows, and hair, but it was fleeting.

He said, "It shouldn't be. Didn't you guys soak in the water all night last night?"

Old Deng looked back at him, hesitated for a moment, and then said, "Hmm... that makes sense."

After thinking for a while, he turned around and walked to the horse: "Speaking of this, young man, you saved us this morning, and I haven't thanked you yet. It's not easy on the road of martial arts, more friends mean more ways - I got this thing a few years ago, it's a good thing -"

He took out a piece of wood from his bosom. It looked ordinary, as if it had just been rubbed smooth in his hands. "Smell it, it has a strange fragrance. Some say it is dark wood, some say it is ambergris, I don't understand. I see you have traveled a lot, can you help me see what it is?"

He handed it over as he spoke. Li Wuxiang took it, loosened the reins, and fanned it from a distance to smell it first - his nose felt slightly numb and his throat felt slightly itchy, as if he had been choked by smoke.

He waited for a moment, and seeing that he was not abnormal, he brought it closer and sucked it gently. The itching and numbness turned into a slight pain, as if he had accidentally swallowed a mouthful of slightly hot water. The white beard on the inside of his neck danced violently, and then a small piece withered. But as soon as he moved his energy and the power of his will went through his skin, he recovered.

This should be the most impressive thing that Old Deng has. From this point of view, many medicines are effective for ordinary people, but have little effect on me.

He tossed the thing in his hand and smiled: "It looks like a death warrant to me."

Old Deng was stunned. Li Wuxiang reined in his horse and looked sideways at Old Guo behind him: "It can be seen that your friend has tried very hard. Why don't you take action?"

The wind was still for a moment.

The next moment, Lao Deng turned around and ran away!
But Li Wuxiang raised his hand to wipe his hair, and flicked his fingers - two needles immediately shot into Lao Deng's ankles. He screamed and fell to the ground. He rolled on the ground and tried to get up again, but screamed again, so he could only lie on his back and pulled out the sword in his hand.

But what he pulled out was not an iron or steel sword, but a brown wooden sword. He held the sword upright in front of him, holding the hilt with one hand and stroking the blade with the other hand, looking at Li Wuxiang on the horse in horror, chanting a spell with trembling lips.

Li Wuxiang placed his arms on the saddle and waited patiently for a while. After taking three or four breaths, Lao Deng finally finished reciting the curse, pointed the wooden sword diagonally upward at Li Wuxiang, and shouted, "Go!"

It seemed as if a gust of wind came, but then it didn't. Li Wuxiang felt a chill on his body, as if the surroundings had suddenly become cold. But the cold wind dissipated as soon as it touched his skin. He waited for a while, and then he saw Lao Deng lying on the ground holding a sword, staring at him with wide eyes, gritting his teeth, and trembling.

"That's all?" Li Wuxiang frowned. "What the hell? Is there anything else?"

Old Deng was stunned for a long while before he coughed and exhaled: "No...no more..."

"Yes." Li Wuxiang nodded, "Let me do the math. You touched my horse, which was drugging me. You ran to the front and suddenly fanned your sleeves, which was also drugging me. You let me smell this thing, which was also drugging me... That's three times of drugging, right?"

Old Deng glanced around, looking at Old Guo, then at Li Wuxiang: "Yes... yes... I am blind..."

Li Wuxiang glanced at Lao Guo from the side and said, "I didn't count wrong, it was three times, right?"

Lao Guo held the sword, stood three steps behind the horse, and coughed: "Yes, um... three times, young man, you are really good--"

"What a pity, there is no such thing as a third time." Li Wuxiang suddenly raised his hand, and the long sword hanging on the horse's back clanged and instantly returned to the sheath. A flash of light flashed, Lao Deng's eyes blinked, and his head fell to the ground. Lao Guo slowly opened his mouth, looked at the head on the ground, which blinked several times before slowly closing, and then looked at Li Wuxiang. A chill instantly climbed up his spine to the back of his head - he was like a young boy who knew nothing about the world the moment before, and the next moment he drew his sword and killed people!
"You...you..." He couldn't help but take a half step back, but immediately stood still and didn't dare to move any further, "Why did you kill him?"

Li Wuxiang frowned and thought for a while: "Oh? Shouldn't he have been killed? Ah, I don't really understand the rules of your martial arts world. How do you usually deal with this kind of thing?"

Lao Guo stared at him for a long time before he was sure that he was not joking. He then slowly let out a few breaths: "Young man, you...well...don't be angry. I really offended you just now. I didn't mean to hit you. This is what happened...those of us who travel the world, alas, have narrow horizons and always want to take advantage of others. When we meet, we think we have figured out the other party's background, so we can't help but want to take advantage of them..."

Li Wuxiang hummed: "When you say taking advantage, you mean trying to kill someone, right?"

Lao Guo smiled bitterly: "That's true, but there's nothing we can do about it. You don't know what other people are thinking. This is how the world works. But if you are more capable and neither of you gets any advantage, then the matter can be over... There's no need to kill anyone..."

Li Wuxiang jumped off his horse and walked to the dead body of Old Deng: "Think about it, your rules are really weird. You want to kill me as soon as you meet me, as if you are all vicious. But if it's like what you two did last night, you couldn't do anything to each other, and you immediately laughed it off today. Okay, I understand, I've seen this kind of thing so many times that I don't take it seriously anymore."

While he was touching the body, he turned to Lao Guo and gave him a thumbs up: "You are all desperate criminals."

"Last night?" Lao Guo was startled, and after a long while he forced a smile, "Well, well, young man, then I will first..."

"No, we still have to go to Ranshan. Please tell me more about the rules on the way." Li Wuxiang picked up the wooden sword and looked at it carefully. He saw that there were talismans painted on it. He couldn't make it out clearly, so he raised his hand and threw it to Lao Guo, "Can you tell what he did with this thing just now? Tell me too."

Lao Guo took the wooden sword and said with a bitter face: "Okay... OK."

When they were on the road again, Li Wuxiang asked the horses to go slower so that the swordsman Lao Guo would not breathe too hard while talking. While he was counting the various pills he had looted from Lao Deng, he listened to him talking about the wooden sword.

There were thirteen kinds of pills, powders, etc., and Lao Guo could tell that four of them were medicines for curing diseases and saving lives, and the remaining nine were all poisons. Li Wuxiang estimated the strength of the medicine based on whether he felt uncomfortable after smelling it, and quietly stored them in his chest and abdomen.

As for the sword, Lao Guo could tell its purpose. He said that there were evil soldiers and horses raised in the sword - perhaps little ghosts, or some insignificant monsters. After casting spells and performing magic, the monsters would be driven to possess human bodies. Depending on the strength of the opponent, he would either injure the opponent's vitality or destroy his cultivation.

Lao Guo wiped his face and said, "He actually had this thing. I was lucky last night. Fortunately, I acted quickly. Young man, you see, it's not my fault before... Alas, you didn't want to hurt others, but you were hurt by someone without paying attention."

Li Wuxiang just smiled.

From this perspective, the Yin soldiers and horses in this wooden sword are probably because Zhao Kui refined the body of the sword, so they are useless. As for Old Deng...

"What level do you two have in this martial arts world?"

Lao Guo sighed in his heart - this is really a rookie. But this rookie is really too difficult to handle!
He already knew that this person's temper was not as good as it seemed, so he thought about it quickly and answered whatever he asked, just to make him happy first.

"Alas, what can we count for? We are all blessed by our ancestors' graves, and have cultivated for several lifetimes. We got a mental method that can be practiced without cheating others, and we have figured out and overcome one obstacle after another. After all, we have built a foundation and can live a few more years and make a living by our own ability."

"If you are luckier, born with good aptitude and born into a family with a little heritage, and can practice the skills from beginning to end smoothly, then they are all heirlooms. With such achievements, you can go to a big city, find a temple, and exorcise evil spirits for people."

“If I were a bit more fortunate and could join a sect, even if I didn’t learn anything in the end, I would be able to practice the techniques properly without worrying about any mistakes or harm. If I could find a village to worship, I wouldn’t have to worry about my life, and I could even think about living to be a hundred years old!”

Li Wuxiang waited for a while, and when he saw that he stopped talking, he asked, "Does this sect refer to the thirty-six sects or something like that?"

Lao Guo smiled bitterly, "How dare I think about that? It's very rare for a sect among the thirty-six sects to decline like Ranshan. Even so, before everyone has left, the nearby sects dare not openly cause trouble. The sects I'm talking about are these kinds of independent cultivators... As for the thirty-six sects, and even the eight mysterious sects, they are all in heaven in the eyes of people like us."

"Oh, those big families who practice seclusion are naturally in heaven. Who would dare to imagine that there are people who don't want to be in the world, just like you, young man!"

Li Wuxiang suddenly felt like laughing.

He thought he had just left the Novice Village, but if 50% of what Lao Guo said was not an exaggeration...

So am I really strong now?
(End of this chapter)

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