I Outworked the Entire Cultivation World

Chapter 267: Chapter 234: Unexpected Gains

Inside the Maze.

Jiang Yuebai used a blade to search through a pile of bronze debris and found two boxes. She picked them up and opened them.

”Fire Crystal Stone and a Replenishing Essence Elixir, and just one? Is this it? Why is all this trash thrown into the maze?”

Jiang Yuebai smelled the elixir, sensing it was expired, and summoned the Five Elements Lotus Platform, casually tossing the items in to refine them into Five Elements Essence Qi.

”Lotus Platform, oh Lotus Platform, how much trash have you eaten already? When will you finally produce the Five Elements Origin and give birth to a small world?”

The bronze puppet beasts here lacked spiritual wisdom and were identified solely through sight. Although their strength was about at late-stage Foundation Establishment, as long as their sight was avoided, they were easy to handle.

Jiang Yuebai was about to collect the fragments of the bronze puppet beasts and leave them to the Lotus Platform for refining when the fragments suddenly began vibrating and were swiftly absorbed into the bronze wall, disappearing inside.

”Is this... recycling?”

After a moment, Jiang Yuebai indeed heard subtle assembling sounds coming from behind the wall.

Jiang Yuebai’s face fell. ”Isn’t this cheating?”

She struck the wall with full force, the blade scraping a string of sparks on the bronze wall, leaving only faint knife marks.

”Lord Insect King, please endure some trouble.”

The Ice Armor Beetle King flew out from the Cold Jade Pendant, adhered to the bronze wall, and swiftly froze the wall centered around it.

Jiang Yuebai flexed her wrist, a Black Python shadow wound around her arm, and let out a low yell, punching forward.

Buzz!

A tremendous force countered, sending Jiang Yuebai flying into the wall behind her, merely shattering the ice shell on the front wall, while the bronze wall remained intact.

”It seems breaking through the wall isn’t feasible, better to honestly search for a way.”

Summoning the Shadow Moon Mother and Child Blades to protect herself, Jiang Yuebai decisively chose a direction and dashed forward.

The maze was vast, the passageways deep. Along the way, every bronze puppet beast encountered was slain by Jiang Yuebai, only to find some low-level talismans, minerals, and expired elixirs.

However, after slaying the bronze puppet beasts, she would immediately collect the fragments for refining, leading to noticeably fewer encounters with bronze puppet beasts thereafter.

After sprinting for half an hour, the path remained endlessly long, silent and empty, leaving Jiang Yuebai feeling rather depressed.

After advancing hurriedly for a while longer, the wind stirred up dust, and muffled sounds echoed again, as the bronze walls twisted and shifted.

Standing in place, Jiang Yuebai saw the path ahead being blocked, while two paths emerged on either side.

”Choosing soldiers and generals, choose who will be the generals! This way!”

After a careful decision, Jiang Yuebai entered the right passage but had only taken a dozen steps when the mechanisms behind the walls clicked, and a dense array of spears shot out, charging straight toward Jiang Yuebai.

With a thought, Jiang Yuebai sent out the Shadow Moon Mother and Child Blades, cutting against the spears with a crisp sound.

Though the spears did not break, the blades rebounded back.

Crunch!

The bronze giant walls on either side began compressing inward, the spears’ speed increasing.

”Going to die!”

Jiang Yuebai cursed under her breath, casting Sky-Breaking Flash paired with Cloud Stepping, racing away.

In just a dozen breaths, the passage narrowed to barely let one person through, with overlapping spears threatening her from behind. Jiang Yuebai used Sky-Breaking Flash but ended up wedged between the walls, unable to move.

The immense pressure caused the bones in Jiang Yuebai’s arms to creak under strain as a spear fiercely thrust out.

Jiang Yuebai jerked her head back, the spear brushing past her throat, leaving a white mark on her neck.

Seeing herself about to be crushed into pulp, Jiang Yuebai gritted her teeth, forcefully channeling spiritual energy into her Feather Scale Armor.

Sky-Breaking Flash!

Boom!

The walls slammed shut, dust billowing in the air. Jiang Yuebai crashed joltingly onto a stone platform, a delicate bronze box fell from above, landing directly in her arms.

”Cough, cough!”

As the dust gradually settled, Jiang Yuebai leaned against the stone platform holding the bronze box, seeing a male and female cultivator at late-stage Foundation Establishment standing apart with intense hostility, surrounded by battle scars.

Clearly, the male cultivator dressed in Noble Family disciple attire and the loose female cultivator were previously contending for the bronze box on the stone platform before Jiang Yuebai unexpectedly interrupted them.

”This is a... misunderstanding!”

Before she could finish her sentence, two spells shot towards Jiang Yuebai.

Jiang Yuebai’s eyes widened, quickly dodging, she threw out the Condensing Light Mirror.

Instantly casting Talisman Treasure Ice Hornless Dragon Sword!

A dragon’s cry resounded, as the Mystic Ice Hornless Dragon charged forth from the Condensing Light Mirror, its presence overwhelming.

The two cultivators were dumbfounded, surprised that Jiang Yuebai unleashed such an extravagant attack. They had no time to react before being engulfed by the Mystic Ice Hornless Dragon, vanishing from sight.

Hoo~ That was close!

Jiang Yuebai climbed up from the ground, clutching a bronze box, with the Condensing Light Mirror hovering in mid-air. She deftly activated the Talisman Treasure Ice Hornless Dragon Sword.

This place was a crossroads with a total of four different paths, but, as before, there were only dust and massive bronze walls with no special marks to be found.

After completing the activation of the Talisman Treasure, Jiang Yuebai resealed it within the Condensing Light Mirror.

With the Condensing Light Mirror placed within her collar, serving as a Heart Protection Mirror, Jiang Yuebai picked up the bronze box for inspection.

”Intentionally placed on a stone platform, it’s surely not another batch of expired Elixir, right?”

Jiang Yuebai cautiously opened the box, with a slight tremor in her pupils.

”Isn’t this a Soul-Shaking Stone?”

Previously, when she practiced the Divine Soul Birth Thought Technique, the Soul-Shaking Stone in her hand was only enough to split one portion of Divine Thought. Later, she searched for Soul-Shaking Stones or similar items everywhere she went but always found nothing.

Unexpectedly, she found a Soul-Shaking Stone here, which was truly a delightful surprise!

”It seems a bit small, I’d need another one to split another portion of Divine Thought. Utilizing three tasks at once for cultivation, studies, and alchemy would triple the efficiency, wouldn’t it?”

Jiang Yuebai instantly brightened, reaching out to pick up the Soul-Shaking Stone.

At that moment, a strong suction was emitted from beneath the Soul-Shaking Stone, and Jiang Yuebai opened her eyes wide in shock, her whole body being drawn into the bronze box.

The same dizziness experienced when entering the maze hit her again, as Jiang Yuebai was tossed heavily to the ground, clutching tightly onto that Soul-Shaking Stone.

”Grassland?”

Jiang Yuebai stood up, holding her shoulder, and saw the entire area covered with interwoven and entangled tree vines, forming a massive and sturdy vine wall.

Thick weeds grew densely on the ground, without any trace of being tread upon.

Jiang Yuebai looked up, and above her was an endless canopy of banyan trees, with tens of thousands of tree vines hanging down, taking root on the ground and forming the walls of a maze.

”Could this be a labyrinth formed by a single tree—that would make it one enormous tree!”

This area was still beyond the portion of the maze map she had mastered, and Jiang Yuebai felt she was extremely unlucky.

She parted the weeds and walked forward, where the ground was covered with tree vines thicker than a wrist, crisscrossing everywhere.

The paths were winding, and her view was obstructed by weeds taller than a person, prompting Jiang Yuebai to draw the Evil Wind Saber and strike out with Earth Evil Fire.

The weeds flared into roaring flames, while a rustling sound entered her ears, and the surrounding tree vine leaves seemed to perceive pain, shaking uncontrollably.

Pa!

A tree vine detached from the wall and fiercely lashed down at Jiang Yuebai!

Jiang Yuebai turned around and sliced with the saber, while more tree vines struck from above and below with electrifying speed.

The Fire Ring expanded, the flames became armor, and Jiang Yuebai spun upward, wielding two Evil Wind Sabers that unleashed layers of fiery waves, setting the vine wall ablaze.

Broken vines scattered across the sky and ground, while the vines in the wall kept twisting, soon extinguishing the Earth Evil Fire.

The vines seemed endless and had a certain resistance to Earth Evil Fire, continuing would merely deplete her Spiritual Energy.

”Little Green, burn for me!”

Little Green shot out from Jiang Yuebai’s forehead, charging at the front. The Earth Evil Fire pulsated from the lantern’s sides, burning out a fiery path.

Wearing Flame Armor, Jiang Yuebai cut through the surrounding vines and immediately escaped along the road burned open by Little Green.

After running for a short distance, Jiang Yuebai saw countless vines tightly binding Little Lantern, rendering it immobile.

[Help!]

The tree vines shot out, forming an airtight spherical formation, constantly compressing inward, leaving Jiang Yuebai with no escape.

The small Lingzhi on her head trembled, and Jiang Yuebai had a flash of inspiration.

”There’s no way out, huh? Fine, let’s see who’ll laugh last!”

Jiang Yuebai pulled out the jade hairpin, letting her black hair cascade freely, revealing two tiny Lingzhi glowing with white luminescence on her head.

Without the hairpin blocking the small Lingzhi, she could unleash her full power!

Pa!

She clasped her hands together, her ten fingers dancing, as the four Leaf Hands in her Sea of Consciousness moved in unison, emitting streams of air with a unique rhythm dispersing from Jiang Yuebai’s body.

Plunder!

The air stagnated, and in the next moment, powerful suction erupted simultaneously from Jiang Yuebai’s palms and forehead as if two black holes had formed on her body, frantically absorbing all surrounding Grass and Wood Essence Qi into the small Lingzhi.

[The mouse dropped into a rice jar, by utilizing the Grass and Wood Scripture you plundered the Grass and Wood Essence Qi of the Ancient Rong Demon, Immortal Grass Scripture skill level +100]

[The Ancient Rong Demon is very shocked. Obviously, you’re the one who burned it first!]

[...Immortal Grass Scripture skill level +100]

[...Immortal Grass Scripture skill level +100]