Chapter 159: Top of the Rankings (1/2)

”He ran away! You guys leave first, I'll be right behind.”

After kicking the young man into the fog, Jiang Li left behind this sentence before his feet followed into the fog.

”Senior Brother Jiang, be careful!”

Shenshan Qiuhua also wanted to chase after them to help, but due to the two injured people in her hands, she could only put them back to the ground before riding her flying sword into the fog.

However, with Jiang Li's speed, she could no longer see where he was after a few seconds of delay.

...

At this moment, Jiang Li had already entered the coffin space.

Inside, the young man who had been kicked in was beaten up by eleven sect disciples as soon as he entered.

He was already heavily injured and his spiritual qi was exhausted. How could he be a match for these elites?

Not long after, he lay on the ground with a bloody nose and a swollen face. All his artifacts had been stripped off. In order to prevent him from hiding any more treasures, he was not even left with a pair of underpants. Then, he was tied up by the spiritual root clone with vines.

When Jiang Li entered, he saw a tied-up man who was being judged by eleven cultivators.

He looked frightened and somewhat in shock. It seemed that he had never expected to be treated like this.

He still spat out some threatening words, trying to use the influence of the faction behind him to scare others.

”How is it, friend? Who is regretting it now?”

The spiritual root clone and Jiang Li's minds were connected, and it immediately sent the young man to Jiang Li's feet as the latter stepped ruthlessly.

Needless to say, it was purely humiliation.

Where did this guy get his courage from? From the beginning to the end, he looked at them with disdain, as if he was superior to them.

When facing Jiang Li's two fellow disciples, he did not hold back at all and attacked with his killer moves.

Jiang Li felt that this guy had to learn the reality of the world.

The youth looked at the foot that stepped on his body, his expression contorting in shock as he felt intense anger and humiliation.

However, he was at the mercy of someone after all. He no longer had any ability to resist, so he could only forcefully calm down and speak to Jiang Li.

However, it was still not begging for mercy, but offering a deal.

”Take your filthy foot off me! Let me go!”

”I am from the Immortal Ascension Pavilion's headquarters. If you kill me, you will suffer endless retribution.”

”Believe me, your sect won't offend us for a mere Qi Refinement realm disciple like you.”

Jiang Li looked at the person under his feet in surprise.

Although his voice was trembling as he spoke, under such circumstances, it was already quite difficult for him to clearly analyze the consequences.

He did not refute the guy. Why would the Immortal Ascension Pavilion attack the Scripture Storage Valley for a Qi Refinement realm cultivator? From this guy's artifacts, it could be seen that his identity was definitely not ordinary.

Jiang Li did not reply and gestured for the other party to continue.

When this young man saw Jiang Li's reaction, he thought that his threat had succeeded, and he immediately became excited while his tone became much more smooth.

”Let me go. As compensation, I can give you all the artifacts in my possession. That's five Profound-rank artifacts and a storage artifact. They're priceless! It'll absolutely satisfy you!”

”Moreover, don't worry. I can guarantee that this is a fair trade. After this, I definitely won't take revenge on you.”

The youth knew that he did not have much of a chance to bargain. Since the artifacts had already been snatched away, it was impossible for this guy to return them. It was already a blessing if he could use such a guarantee to exchange for a way out.

As long as he could leave this place alive, with the Immortal Ascension Pavilion backing him, he would be able to take back everything.

In his mind, he was already planning how to continue bargaining after Jiang Li rejected him. As long as Jiang Li became greedy and took the initiative to ask for the ransom from the Immortal Ascension Pavilion, he was confident that he could be sent back to the elder.

”Oh, really? Since you plan to give me these things, introduce them to me first.”

However, Jiang Li was unexpectedly easy-going. After hearing his suggestion, he did not show any interest, but he did not refuse either.

After removing the foot that was stepping on the guy, he inspected the row of artifacts on the ground under the young man's introduction.

After being robbed, he still had to explain the stolen items. This feeling made him feel a little strange.

However, he had no choice but to bow his head. As long as he could return alive! As long as he could return alive!

This time, Jiang Li's spoils of war were extraordinarily abundant. When he was fighting with his opponent, he specially avoided these artifacts and allowed them to be preserved intact. At most, they would be slightly out of spiritual qi.

The two Dark Red Walnut Redwood Beads were a low-grade Profound-Rank wood attribute long-ranged artifact.

The emerald green short staff, Tiger Staff, was a medium-grade Profound-rank wood attribute main combat artifact.

The pair of sapphire earrings were both low-grade Profound-rank water attribute healing and defensive artifacts.

The Pure Spiritual Jade Token was a medium-grade Profound-rank spiritual qi support artifact without any attribute.

In the end, he even had a spatial pouch that was two cubic meters in size.

Each of these items was a treasure, and all of them were top-tier among items of the same grade. Even Jiang Li could not help but feel a little tempted when he saw them.

These artifacts would be of great help to him.

”Your Immortal Ascension Pavilion is really rich. You're actually willing to put all these artifacts on a Qi Refinement realm cultivator. Aren't you afraid that others will snatch them away?”

”Or is it that after taking your things, we will suffer some terrifying revenge, so you're not afraid of being targeted?”

Jiang Li picked up the tiger staff and waved it twice in his hand. It was rather refreshing. Speaking of which, he was a Yin-Wood attribute cultivator, but he had never used an artifact that matched his attribute. It was quite strange.

The young man instantly panicked when he heard Jiang Li's words, and he hurriedly explained.

”Our Immortal Ascension Pavilion has always valued honesty. Even under such circumstances, we will never go back on our words. You can rest assured about this. If you don't believe me, we can sign the contract…”

After all, his life was still in someone else's hands. If the other party was afraid of revenge and directly killed him, then how regretful would he be?

This youth did everything he could to stabilize Jiang Li and make him believe the words so that he could live.

However, contracts were only useful to low-level cultivators without strength or background.

There were more than one way to break the contract for high-level cultivators and sects. His words were actually not very convincing.

”Sign a contract? No, no, no, there's no need to go through so much trouble. I believe in you. You definitely won't betray me…”

”You just need to eat this.”

The spiritual root clone stretched out a vine. On it hung a spiritual root seed without any skin or flesh.

Jiang Li removed the seed, then very kindly brought the seed to the other party's mouth, indicating that he should eat it directly.

”What's this? You don't have to do this. I really won't take revenge.”

The young man did not really want to eat such strange things, but Jiang Li just smiled at him and completely ignored what he said.

Obviously, even if it was poison, he had to eat it.

”Then… alright.”

The youth put the seed into his mouth, still thinking of hiding it in his mouth to try to bluff his way out.

Furthermore, even if he was discovered, he could just eat it. With the standards of the Immortal Ascension Pavilion's medical cultivators and alchemists, they could resolve any slow-acting poison.

Trying to use poison to control him was laughable.

The youth had a good plan. Since the other party had even taken out poison, it was obvious that he did not want to kill him. Otherwise, there would be no need for so much trouble.

Therefore, he did not resist much and put the seed into his mouth.

However, as soon as the seed entered his mouth, an extremely tempting and sweet taste surged forth. He could not help but grunt as he swallowed it.

'Eh? I clearly didn't want to swallow it.'

Once the spiritual root seed entered his stomach, it was already too late to spit it out.

The seed disappeared without warning in his stomach. Immediately, the youth's consciousness became more and more blurry, and he slowly closed his eyes.

When he opened his eyes again, the fear in them had completely disappeared. The spiritual root clone controlled the vines to release him. The young man turned around and knelt on one knee in front of Jiang Li.

The other eleven disciples knelt down and shouted in unison.

”Master!”

Jiang Li nodded in satisfaction. Through his spiritual root clone, he could clearly sense their loyalty. He then picked up the few artifacts on the ground.

”Oh right, what's your name again?” Jiang Li asked the youth.

”Master, my name is Huangfu Tai.”