Chapter 48 – The Land of the Unliving

At dawn the next day, Lynn Naya followed her three neighbors to the edge of the safe zone.

Each land-clearing team consisted of ten people. Xue Yong had learned that the six people he worked with at the market had also chosen to clear land, so the two sides hit it off and immediately formed a land-clearing team. They submitted their list of names to the supervisor in charge of assigning land and only had to wait for their names to be called.

While waiting, Xue Yong took everyone to a quiet place and introduced Lynn Naya to the group of six.

“We know her. It’s Talisman Master Lynn,” the six people said, already familiar with Lynn Naya. “When Brother Qingtook us to the Talisman Academy to get talismans, Talisman Master Lynn was the one who helped us. You probably haven’t been outside much, Talisman Master Lynn. Don’t worry, if anything happens, we’ll pull you and run.”

The six people didn’t know that the Qi-Blood Pills was something Lynn Naya had told Scarface Qing to give them. They only knew that this talisman master was on good terms with Brother Qing, so they had to take care of her, if only out of respect for him.

“That’s great,” Lynn Naya said. She also remembered them. Since they were all on the same side and this was their first official meeting, she gave each of them a Light Body Talisman. “I look forward to working with you.”

Although the group of six received monthly dividends from the market, their cultivation expenses were very high. Even though a Light Body Talisman wasn’t particularly valuable, it was still worth a lot in their eyes.

After accepting the talisman, their impression of Talisman Master Lynn improved greatly, and they became much friendlier with her.

While they were talking, a voice called out, “Ding 39, Ding 39!” Xue Yong quickly replied, “Coming!” and led the entire team to the steward’s office.

After their names were written down, Xue Yong followed behind the team of Ding 38 and walked out of the safe zone.

Lynn Naya walked in the middle of the team. The moment she stepped out, her hand instinctively reached for her storage bag. Inside were the one hundred Five Thunder Talismans she had saved up over the past three months. They were her biggest trump card.

The only thing she didn’t know was the highest level of evil cultivator they could deal with. After all, the last evil cultivator’s aura felt like a second-layer Qi Condensation, but that guy had obviously concealed his aura just like her. She still didn’t know what his cultivation level was.

After about ten miles, Lynn Naya and her team arrived at the land they were to clear.

The area they were assigned was a forest full of ancient trees that had been growing for at least a few hundred years. If ordinary people were to do this, it would probably take them a year to finish.

“The steward said each team is responsible for an area five hundred paces wide and to keep pushing forward, as long as we don’t cross the river,” Xue Yong said. “As for all the items on the cleared land, they will belong to the land-clearing team. The other things are fine, but how do we plan on splitting the loot?”

The other things might not be worth much, but the wood and herbs inside were quite popular in the market. They could be sold for some contribution points.

“We’ll split the valuable things evenly. As for the rest, whoever wants it can have it. Do we really need to be strangers?” The person who spoke was Qi Guangzong, from the group of six. He had a younger brother named Qi Yaozu, who had already broken through to the second layer of Qi Condensation, so everyone gave him a lot of respect.

“Okay.”

After they had finished talking about the distribution of the loot, Lynn Naya brought up the topic of keeping watch. “I learned a martial skill called Eagle Eye. It allows me to see farther than the average person. How about I take on the job of keeping watch? If anything happens, I’ll let you know in advance.”

“That’s fine.” Qi Guangzong said, having no objections.

But Qi Yaozu asked, “How many big branches are on that camphor tree two miles away?”

While they were friendly, no one dared to be careless about this.

Lynn Naya understood his intention. She looked into the distance and said, “Eleven big branches and one hundred and sixty-one small ones.”

Upon hearing this, Qi Yaozu immediately flew two miles away. A moment later, he returned and nodded. “Alright, we’ll leave the lookout to you, Talisman Master Lynn.”

“Good.” As she spoke, Lynn Naya took out a whistle, confusing everyone. “You know, this area is pretty big. If we’re too far apart, you might not hear me. So we’ll rely on the whistle. If I find something, a long whistle means to come find me. A short whistle means to run. No sound means to stay put. Understand?”

Everyone thought about it and nodded. “That works.”

Only Qi Guangzong laughed. “Talisman Master Lynn, you even prepared a whistle. Did you know you would be the lookout before you even came?”

Lynn Naya smiled a little bashfully and continued, “To prevent any accidents, we can’t spread out too much. Everyone should stay within a range where at least one person can come to their aid at any time. It’s better to clear the land slowly than to lose your life here.”

“Also, who doesn’t have a Light Body Talisman or a Spring Recovery Talisman? We should have at least one of each. If you don’t have them, you can take them from me for now. You can either pay me back with talisman materials or spirit stones later.”

Lynn Naya rattled off a bunch of details and things to pay attention to. The others didn’t feel impatient at all. After all, their lives were on the line. There was no harm in being more careful.

After Lynn Naya finished speaking and everyone went to clear land, the others who were still standing there looked at each other. Finally, Qi Guangzong spoke. “What do you all think?”

Qi Yaozu said, “She’s reliable.”

“Definitely.” the others nodded in agreement.

Because there were so few talisman masters, they had a relatively high status. They were a little worried that Talisman Master Lynn would be arrogant and difficult to get along with. Now, it seemed that they were lucky and had found a treasure.

“Our Naya is the most reliable,” the others said. Lin Qingwan and the others knew this from experience, but they couldn’t share the details. They could only remind them, “Just listen to Naya. You’ll be fine.”

“Oh?” The Qi brothers heard the hidden meaning in their words, but unfortunately, Xue Yong and the other two had already gone to clear land after they said that.

Clearing land wasn’t too difficult for cultivators who were already at the first or even second layer of Qi Condensation. Cutting down the trees was a bit of a hassle, but they could manage with a few more swings of their swords. After cutting down the trees and digging out the roots, they would use their swords to flatten the wild grass, thorns, and vines, and then use their spiritual energy to eradicate them before burning the area.

The morning quickly passed. At noon, they found a place sheltered from the wind to make a fire and cook. Lynn Nayawatched the smoke from the fire rising and clinging to the nearby trees.

The snow that had fallen a few days ago hadn’t completely melted. In the distance, the snowy mountains and the withered forests were intertwined. The wind carried a shrill howl from the forest, adding a chill to the air.

Lynn Naya wrapped her leather coat around her and continued to use her spiritual sense to observe her surroundings while eating her roasted bread.

With her high cultivation, her spiritual sense could reach far. She could even sense the other two teams to her left and right. Unlike them, one of the other two teams seemed to be fighting over a spirit ganoderma, while the other was quietly eating dried food without even making a fire.

Lynn Naya only glanced at them with her spiritual sense. She stayed calm and waited. As she was halfway through her roasted bread, she suddenly felt that something was wrong.

The snow was moving. It wasn’t a small beast. She would have sensed the aura of a small beast. The movement of the snow was very small and slow, as if something was slowly approaching their campfire.

Lynn Naya’s eyes narrowed. She had sensed it. Someone was underground!

The person had only a second-layer cultivation. Based on the aura, it should be an evil cultivator.

She picked up a snowball from the side and threw it into the campfire. The people around the campfire were startled and immediately became alert without showing any signs.

This was the secret signal they had agreed on.

When the pile of moving earth was about a hundred paces from Lin Qingwan and the others, Lin Qingwan and Qi Yaozu, who had already found his location, attacked at the same time. The flash of their swords shot out and forced the person underground out.

The evil cultivator, who had planned to ambush them, was caught off guard and counter-ambushed. He let out a roar and released a puff of green poisonous mist, trying to get back underground and escape.

At this point, Lynn Naya had confirmed that this person’s cultivation was only at the second layer of Qi Condensation. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be holding back in a fight. She immediately summoned her flying sword and, without any extra flourishes, struck the evil cultivator with all her might.

The moment half of the evil cultivator’s body was in the ground, the flying sword arrived. The spiritual energy-filled blade easily cut off half of his head.

The evil cultivator didn’t even have time to scream before blood splattered all over his body, making the people who had come up from behind turn their heads away.

When they realized that the sword had been thrown by Lynn Naya, they all looked at her.

Didn’t they say that talisman cultivators were not as good as other cultivators in martial skills? This one doesn’t seem to be the case at all.

Lynn Naya knew what they were thinking. Her combat experience was sparse. Before she could fight with ease, she could only give it her all. Fortunately, this evil cultivator was only at the second layer of Qi Condensation and was already injured. It was entirely possible for a first-layer Qi Condensation cultivator with some skill and a good weapon to kill him.

“Don’t look at me.” She walked forward and deliberately pulled the sword out of the ground in front of everyone. “I just wanted to ambush his back. Who knew this sword was so sharp? It’s like it can cut through steel as if it were mud. Forget about that for now. Let’s search this person’s body and get out of here. Who knows if there are any other evil cultivators nearby.”

Her reminder made the others stop thinking about other things and excitedly begin to deal with the body.

They had only killed a limited number of evil cultivators before. When they were with the immortal cultivators from the Dao Palace, they usually only got a very small share of the loot. This was the first time they were splitting the loot themselves. The storage bag alone was very valuable.

The two Qi brothers pulled the evil cultivator’s body out of the ground. The others stripped the evil cultivator of everything on him. Then, one person took out a bottle of powder from his clothes and sprinkled it on the evil cultivator. The evil cultivator’s body melted into a puddle of blood like ice and snow melting.

Lynn Naya noticed this great item for destroying bodies and decided to ask the person where he got it. She needed to keep some in her bag.

After dealing with the body, everyone returned to the campfire and excitedly opened the storage bag.

Unfortunately, the evil cultivator’s cultivation was not high, and there was not much in his storage bag. There were only thirty-something spirit stones and three broken weapons. There was nothing else of value.

“At least there’s a storage bag.” A storage bag costs at least two hundred spirit stones in the market. They had already made a good profit today just from this.

When it came to distributing the loot, Qi Guangzong held the items and said, “Talisman Master Lynn contributed the most, so according to our rule, she gets half. Yaozu and Qingwan were the ones who forced him out, and we didn’t do anything. So they get half of the remaining half, and we’ll split the rest. Does that work for everyone?”

He was specifically asking Lynn Naya.

“That works.” Lynn Naya didn’t say anything about splitting it evenly. Distributing it based on contribution was the most fair.

“Alright. I’ll sell the weapons tonight, and as for the storage bag…” He paused. “If one of us wants it, we can have priority to buy it. Does anyone want it?”

“We… we can’t afford it,” they said, a little disheartened. They wanted it, but two hundred spirit stones was a huge amount of money. It was not something they could afford to think about right now.

“Okay, then I’ll sell it, and we’ll split the money later.”

After splitting the spirit stones, Lynn Naya didn’t want the rest of the things. But when they were calculating how much their earnings would be, she added, “That’s pretty good. I’ve earned back the cost of this sword.”

Sword?

Everyone’s eyes fell on her sword.

From the outside, the sword looked very ordinary. Only the sharp edge showed a hint of a cold glow.

“Is that… a magical sword?” After staying in the market for so long, they had a little bit of a discerning eye. QiGuangzong suddenly remembered and said, “I heard that a lot of good-quality weapons appeared in the black market during the first month. Did you buy this sword there?”

“Yeah. It seems the money was well-spent.”

“You’re so lucky. If this sword were in the market, it could sell for a hundred spirit stones,” Qi Yaozu said with a hint of envy. “I also went when I heard the news, but I wasn’t that lucky.”

“It’s alright. We can just take it from the evil cultivators. Maybe we’ll find something even better than mine.” Lynn Nayasaid with a smile.

“You’re right. As long as our cultivation goes up, there’s nothing we can’t get.”

Everyone was excited from their small victory. They didn’t rest much at noon and continued to clear land.

In the afternoon, two more low-level evil cultivators sneaked in. The two of them were likely a pair and were both at the second layer of Qi Condensation.

With Lynn Naya and Qi Yaozu as the main force, the two evil cultivators also fell under their blades.

But after killing three low-level evil cultivators in a row, Lynn Naya found it a little strange. Logically, it should be easier for high-level cultivators to break through the defenses. So why were all the ones who managed to get through low-level evil cultivators?