"Do you two want to stay by my side? A few lizards may come up and attack us, but you won't be in range of any of the nests if you stay on the path."
I shrug. "Yeah, that's good enough for me."
The grey-haired man shivers and nods hurriedly while looking over both his shoulders into the mist.
Lin Fang knocks on the back of his tortoise puppet's shell, and its large legs move forward, moving across the ground at a fast human's walking pace.
I follow and examine the interesting artifact. It looked much more lively while sitting still. Now that I can actually see its mechanical movements, it's far more clear that this is a puppet.
Though, there is a strong aura pouring off of it. It is pure qi alone, but it feels strong enough to be an 8th or 9th level qi refiner.
The black material it's made of bends when it steps forward, but looks as hard as black jade at rest. It is kind of similar to my emerald swallow, but far less intricate.
I walk beside it on one side, while the nervous old man follows on the other.
For the most part, we stay silent, traveling down a compacted dirt path that appears to have been traveled plenty of times before.
A faint echoing sound of metal on metal clangs out deep in the mist, but it's too far away to really sense.
I pull out my bow and quiver of mostly mid-grade silver arrows. There are a few perfect grade mixed in leftover from the war.
We walk past the large boulders, dark green trees, and eventually some craters and weapon marks in the earth that must be from battles of the past. Just as I examine one on the edge of my spiritual senses, a few small rocks are knocked over in its vicinity.
The head of a dark brown lizard comes into view, its dark black eyes watching us from a distance, and the instant it feels my gaze, the creature becomes fierce, scuttling our way on all fours, leaving claw marks in the rocky ground with every step.
A system scan triggers in my inner ear, showing that it's nothing but a level 4 armored lizard with no physique, and 8th grade roots.
I pull a mid-stage arrow back, wait for it to come within 10 meters of the path, and shoot it through the forehead, all within a few seconds.
It slides to a stop by my feet, and I examine the two-meter-long lizard with a rocky coating on its skin. It's hard to the touch. I pull out a low-grade dagger and test its strength; only light dinging sounds come back, and it doesn't leave a scratch on the corpse.
"Interesting…" I murmur and pull it into my storage, then run to catch up with Lin Fang on his tortoise. He didn't even bat an eye, like this was as normal as swatting a fly.
A grin appears on my face as a subtle counter ticks up on my side quest.
Over the next few hours, the black tortoise walks down a winding dirt road.
We trek through a valley, over a small mountain, and through a far more heavily tree-dense area.
There is one constant. Every ten to twenty minutes, another armored lizard wanders onto this path.
A few are level 5, but the majority are level 4.
I can kill them with nothing but a single mid-grade arrow.
[Ding!]
[Congratulations! Side Quest Complete: Kill 5 Mid Stage Spirit Beasts (5/5)!]
[Collect Your Rewards!]
[YES][NO]
I collect my three upgrade cards and a minor lottery draw with ease, and a new side quest appears, to kill 5 late-stage spirit beasts next.
There's no sign of any beasts like this on the route we're headed. Though, I do sense the white mist we're in grow slightly denser the further we walk inward.
It becomes warmer too, and I try to cycle it with a passive use of my Jade Purity Soul Scripture, however it doesn't really work. I expected it to act similarly to soul metal, the fragments I found on a blood demon and the phantom lord.
Yet, the particles of mist in the air will not be absorbed and refined. No matter how many times I try to cycle them through my body, they flow out in the same shape. All these failures do is fatigue me slightly; the main benefits it has are just from existing inside it. It has a passive invigorating nature, which must be what the spirit beasts are attracted to.
I don't aggressively jump to kill every armored lizard in my spiritual senses after killing the five I needed for my quest. Some just watch from afar and let us pass, while others run forward, and I let the old grey-haired man kill a few.
He uses a beaten-up mid-stage axe, and can kill most of his targets in a single hit. Though, for some reason, he gets more and more nervous the further we walk into these woods.
Eventually, a team of three come out of the forest after a few hours hunting alone off the trail.
"Senior Lin, take a look at these!" the strongest 7th level cultivator of their party yells.
He pulls out a collection of four dark brown eggs.
The tortoise stops moving, and Lin Fang jumps down off it to look at what they've found.
"Not bad… Each of these could be traded in for at least 200 contribution points each. It must have been a pretty sizable den."
The man smiles and points back to the other two that explored with him; they hold up at least a dozen smaller and lighter-colored eggs.
"Sure was! We managed to find a few lesser earth lizard variants too. I'm sure the sect will pay 30 to 50 contribution points for them to grant to a few stewards. There were three level 6 armored lizards guarding it, all of them had an initial stage heavy mountain physique. I would have been able to kill them in one strike if they didn't."
I raise an eyebrow and look over while scrolling through my system scans.
The darker eggs they were so excited about are 8th grade eggs. They are spirit beasts that have the potential of turning into these very same mid-stage lizards attacking us on the trail. One contribution point is worth about 5 spirit stones, so each one of these eggs is worth at least a thousand stones.
The wide smiles like they just hit a jackpot on all three of them makes more sense now.
The lighter ones are all 9th grade lizards, most likely never to reach past the initial stage of qi refinement.
"Good find. It's a shame there were no mystery eggs in your batch. A few of the teams I've been bringing out here have found armored lizards hoarding eggs from other territories and bringing them to their nests. One last week found a 7th grade black serpent egg."
Lin Fang hops back on his tortoise, slightly disappointed, and continues moving forward down the trail.
The team of three look up at him with ambitious eyes, and run off back into the mist together with their grey wolves.
I follow along and ask, "Are there ever any late-stage spirit beasts that wander onto this trail?"
He shrugs. "So far, there have been none. I always stop and turn back before the mist gets too thick. As an escort mission from the sect, these are my orders. Though, if there was one, it wouldn't be much of a problem."
At the same time, I notice the grey-haired man's nerves hit their peak. He stops following us, shaking, and pulls out a communication talisman just as his figure disappears into the mist.
The tortoise doesn't stop; we just walk further and further away, deeper into the misty forest.
Over the next hour, pretty much only level 5 lizards attack. By the time Lin Fang stops, I get my first sighting of a level 6 armored lizard.
It has the exact physique that late-stage cultivator mentioned.
[Acquired Heavy Mountain Physique][Initial Stage - Mortal Grade]
It has an 8th grade earth spirit root, and is 57 years old. Humans with 8th grade roots would have a hard time reaching this qi refining level, but almost every spirit beast I've come across has only one element root. It makes it far easier for them to progress.
The lizard is over three meters long, and its claws dig much deeper into the rocky ground. The subtle weight of its physique does make a difference, but our strength gap is still too wide.
I pull out a perfect grade arrow, and easily kill it just as fast as any other lizards in the past.
Lin Fang's gaze studies the arrow that split through the heavy rock armor, but he doesn't comment on it. Instead, he turns around in a wide circle on his tortoise.
"I'll be heading back now, and most likely repeat this route five or six more times. Do as you please."
As his tortoise makes its first heavy step forward, the outline of the grey-haired old man comes running back toward us down the trail.
He doesn't look as nervous; instead, there is a devious grin on his face.
A notification rings in my inner ear, and I soon understand why.
[Ding!]
[A more valuable secret within the target has been located. Old data overwritten.]
[He has just received a long-range communication from Feng Minshun, directing him to lead the Host to a place in the Misty Forest called the Pit. It is said to be full of late-stage beasts, and no one that has fallen in has ever made it out alive.]
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Author's Note:
One chapter of Five Element Overlord will be posted every weekday: M,T,W,TH,F.
If you'd like to support me, and read 30+ chapters ahead of the public release schedule, my patreon is linked in my bio:)
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