Level 5…

After getting to level 5, the progress of Ma Moxi got slower. He was forced to pause as his dantian about to burst from the intense energy from his soul. His yang essence now was as thick as Cao Mao’s life essence when the latter was still a 3rd-stage cultivator.

‘One at a time. Repair my arteries first. Then, digest…’

Ma Moxi concentrated hard. His shut eyes and a deep frown revealed the pain that he was going through.

For any cultivator, the moment of breaking through to the next stage was their most vulnerable time. If something were to happen, a disastrous backlash would occur.

White Album, who was sneaking behind Ma Moxi, almost couldn’t stop her laughter. She crept closer to him.

Then, she gathered Cao Mao’s life essence in her right arm.

VIIIING!

The four talismans in the cave flashed, and a dome barrier appeared around Ma Moxi!

‘Dafuq!?’

White Album clicked her tongue. She followed through with a hand spear attack, hoping to puncture through Ma Moxi’s back and ruin the latter’s heart.

The aura-coated hand entered the barrier array, but she got sluggish midway. Her hand failed to reach Ma Moxi’s body as the barrier dome was pushing back White Album’s hand.

BANG

The array repelled White Album away. Moreover, her right hand cracked as if her spirit was about to shatter into pieces.

Yet, White Album didn’t give up. She drew more of Cao Mao’s life essence to convert into ice element power.

The cave got frozen within a second. All moisture molecules and droplets in the interior cave turned into white ice.

White Album did not finish. She released pink gas while a hundred ice spears manifested around Ma Moxi.

Then, she ordered all spears to stab Ma Moxi from all sides!

Ma Moxi snapped open his eyes as he sensed that his array barrier wouldn’t hold. He forcefully stopped the flow of energy while he activated his life-saving skill.

Heaven and Earth Escape!

Ma Moxi’s body faded and became an invisible spiritual being, which could not be harmed by physical attacks.

BANG

BANG

BANG

The ice spears pierced nothing. They slammed into each other.

But one of them, which was made by the leftover ice element power and was thrown by White Album’s hand, grazed Ma Moxi’s right stomach in his spirit form.

Being in pain and in panic, Ma Moxi flew away from the cave at his full speed.

White Album pursued while she was reporting her deed to Cao Mao via voice transmission. The latter immediately gave a short decisive order.

[FINISH HIM!]

Hearing the order, White Album pursued. She received 10,000 liters of life essence from Cao Mao to do whatever necessary to kill Ma Moxi. She expanded her spiritual senses and traced the fleeing invisible guy.

‘Huh?’

White Album was surprised when she couldn’t sense anything other than weak cultivators in the area. She rushed outside of Ma Moxi’s cave to look around.

But she found nobody.

‘How? He’s gone!’

No blood, no aura, no trace of Qi, Ma Moxi disappeared from the mountain range.

.

.

10 meters away from the cave entrance, the invisible man, Ma Moxi, was holding his stomach.

He managed to stop the bleeding, but his blood vessels and vital organs were breaking apart because of the overflowing energy from his soul. Even his dantian was about to burst.

For the first time in this life, Ma Moxi was in despair. At this rate, his dantian might explode as it couldn’t contain overwhelming energy from the pagoda.

Still, he was an experienced hitman who had faced many life-and-death situations. He calmed down after taking a deep breath.

‘If I can’t control or tame it, I’ll just use it against that fucking ghost!’

Ma Moxi turned to White Album, who was still looking around for him. He pointed his palms at White Album, planning to unleash everything he had to kill the ghost.

However, the ghost flew away. She disappeared into the mountain.

“…”

Ma Moxi canceled his skill. While in invisible mode, he continued to use the excess energy to heal his wound. He left the mountain range and flew north, heading to a nearby forest to hide.

But he couldn’t fly far as the pain from the wounds on his intestines were killing him. He got on foot and staggered to a tall tree.

Next to the tree, an injured silver fox cub was licking its wound on its stomach while it was yipping and sobbing in pain.

It was a fox-type monster beast, which was rare on this continent. Most of the beasts were either killed or hunted by city lords or wandering cultivators for their monster cores or their corpse.

Ma Moxi collapsed on his knees next to the fox. He looked at it with a bitter smile, thinking of how their fate was similar.

‘Ah, I’m a helpless cub as well. This mysterious world is vast, and I barely get to know this region. Now, I just got ambushed by a fucking ghost when I was trying to breakthrough. I’m so fucked…’

The fox looked at Ma Moxi in wary. It bared fangs and slowly walked backward. However, the pain from the stomach wound dizzied the monster beast. It collapsed on the ground.

Growl

Not only the fox ran out of strength, but its stomach also cried in hunger.

Ma Moxi chuckled. But then, he had an inspiration.

He recalled the memory of old Ma Moxi. His grandfather used to teach him when he was young that some monster beasts could feed on a cultivator’s Qi and essence. A few rare species even proactively hunted for human cultivators as their primary food.

Thinking that this little fox cub wanted some protein, Ma Moxi grabbed the fox and transferred his excess energy to its belly.

The fox widened its eyes in shock. It struggled to free itself at first. However, when it realized that Ma Moxi was trying to help, it reluctantly accepted his Qi into its monster dantian.

With someone to shoulder excess Qi from his soul, Ma Moxi managed to catch a breath. The pressure in his dantian decreased.

The fox found the Qi delicious. It continued to digest everything as if it had a black hole in its stomach. Meanwhile, Ma Moxi got to release pending energy to someone else. They both benefited from this energy transfer.

.

.

‘Master, I’m sorry. I lost him.’

White Album reported to Cao Mao, who had already arrived at Ma Moxi’s former cave. She also transferred 10,000 liters of life essence back.

Cao Mao scanned through the cave if the protagonist hid any treasure in it. Unfortunately, he couldn’t find anything other than a secret passage to an empty room.

“It’s fine. Ma Moxi can use a stealth hax, so it won’t be easy to kill him with a simple ambush. He could have attacked you when you’re still looking for him.”

Cao Mao wasn’t angry. Rather, he was glad that White Album was unharmed.

He tried to put himself in Ma Moxi’s shoes. If he were Ma Moxi, he would have attacked White Album when he was in the invisible mode and killed her with the strongest skill.

In a way, White Album made the right decision.

Cao Mao expanded his senses to check everything in the radius of a kilometer again, hoping to find a trace of Ma Moxi.

After concentrating hard, he found Ma Moxi again in a wood area. The protagonist was doing something to a silver fox cub.

Seeing how the protagonist was still lingering in the area, Cao Mao was delighted. As long as they could coordinate their attack against Ma Moxi again, they might be able to kill the protagonist.

Cao Mao cracked his fist and was about to walk out of the empty room in the cave. But he heard faint breathing of a small creature, which was cowering in a corner, trying to hide its presence.

It was a white cat with two tails.

Cao Mao paused and glared at the cat. Just now, he spread his Qi senses everywhere, but he didn’t notice the animal.

“A cat?”

White Album inspected at the white cat for a moment before she exclaimed.

‘Ah, this is not a normal cat. It’s either a monster beast or a beastman, master!’

“A monster beast? A beastman?”

‘Yes. There are various types of monster beasts, but the most harmful ones have been eradicated long ago. Only a few tamable ones are still in the wilderness. Many cultivators these days keep them as pets. As for beast tribes, they are always captured on sight. Beastwomen are also popular in the southern continent since they are fine sex slaves with great bodies and stamina. Beastmen are also good at combat, so they are good combat slaves.’

Cao Mao snorted as he thought that keeping monster beasts or beastmen as pets was something silly. But then, he recalled that the cave belonged to Ma Moxi. If an animal was wandering around here, it might be a heavenly beast in disguise. It might even be able to transform into a peerless beauty to be his harem member.

Cao Mao also thought of a certain novel, which also featured a heroine, who disguised herself as a snow ferret as she was severely injured. The protagonist found her and healed her, initiating their relationship saga. Afterward, the ferret was revealed to be a big shot in the later story and increased the protagonist’s strength.

‘Come to think of it, Ma Moxi is a harem protagonist. No matter where he goes, he will run into celestial beauties with white-jade skin, and he will eventually yeet them all. Well, is this cat also a heroine in his story?’

Cao Mao snickered. He approached the cat and summoned a normal medium-grade healing pill.

“Here, little kitty. Are you injured? Do you want my help?”

The cat hissed and glared into Cao Mao’s eyes. It still didn’t trust him.

“Let me tell you a secret. I’m an orc.”

Like a horny bastard, Cao Mao took off his pants and revealed his erected junk. He placed his hands on his hips. Then, he waved his pole around, performing a helicopter dance.

White Album facepalmed, regretting that she had become Cao Mao’s familiar.

But Cao Mao’s next word shocked them.

“Hey, you better start talking soon. Do you know what a cultured cultivator once said [A cat is fine, too]? He said that before he started fucking the cat that refused to cooperate.”

White Album and the cat’s faces darkened, disgusted by the sicko.

Still, the cat could smell a familiar scent, and she decided to expose her identity.

“Young orc, put your pants on. It’s disgusting. Also, you have quite the audacity to do that before me. If I were in my prime, you would have been dead.”

Finally, the cat talked. It revealed a haughty woman’s voice. She also revealed the nascent soul aura and a trace of her domain power.

Instead of being intimidated, Cao Mao laughed. He put on his pants and sat down, so he could talk to the cat on equal ground.

“Well, senior, you must have been heavily injured. How can I help you?”