"Do you think everyone's like you, treating those lousy mountain herbs as treasures?" Fang Ruolan said with a laugh.

"That's true!" Ye Chen chuckled.

Having explored the mountains all day, Ye Chen had reaped a bountiful harvest of rare and precious herbs. With just a few more days of perseverance, he would be able to gather enough herbs to refine many extraordinary elixirs.

"Fang, is your master really going to come and kill me?"

After a moment of silence, Ye Chen suddenly asked a very serious question that truly troubled him.

"I will plead for mercy on your behalf!" Fang Ruolan said.

"Your master really intends to kill me!" Ye Chen's face fell.

If Fang Ruolan said she would plead for him, that meant her master indeed harbored the intention to kill him.

"You bullied me, so it's only natural that my master would want to avenge me!" Fang Ruolan claimed matter-of-factly.

"How did I bully you?"

"You whipped me with that powerline pole!"

"..."

"Your master is a Land God, how could she stoop so low as to bully me, a junior?" Ye Chen lamented.

"You bullied her most beloved disciple!" Fang Ruolan said.

"Then, what if I marry you?" Ye Chen asked.

"..."

Ye Chen's casual remark caused Fang Ruolan's heart to flutter—was Ye Chen actually proposing to her?

"Heh, I'm just joking!"

Fang Ruolan, appearing as if she were considering it, frightened Ye Chen into hastily changing his statement.

If Ye Chen married Fang Ruolan, this Miaojiang Sacred Maiden would surely cause havoc in the battle for favor among his other wives, perhaps even resorting to using gu poison on Su Binglan and the others.

"Heh, I know," Fang Ruolan said. "However, the Sacred Maidens of Miaojiang throughout history could never marry!"

The title of Sacred Maiden implied purity and flawlessness—how could such beings marry and be defiled by men?

"..."

The atmosphere suddenly grew a bit awkward. After spending the day together, the conversation between Ye Chen and Fang Ruolan had somehow become more restrained.

"Boom!"

Just then, from a nearby copse came a commotion as if a peerless savage beast was rampaging inside.

Subsequently, the copse shook violently, signifying that Grandmasters were fighting fiercely within.

"We've already lost seven Grandmasters, but we've finally managed to grievously wound this beast; we must not let it escape!"

"There aren't many treasures left in that cave, and they're all quite ordinary. In the end, only this one treasure chest remains!"

"This chest was enshrined in the cave; it absolutely contains some rare and precious treasures!"

"It's an embarrassment to say, but we almost had our hands on the chest until a savage beast appeared out of nowhere and snatched it away!"

"Haha, the appearance of this beast is timely. Those weaklings wouldn't have died if we hadn't decided to finish them off ourselves!"

"That's right, they were too weak to share the treasures with us, those men deserve to die!"

Several peaks of Grandmasters continuously roared within the copse as they battled an unknown savage creature, startling both Ye Chen and Fang Ruolan.

Ye Chen and Fang Ruolan stealthily crept closer to see exactly what was happening within the copse. Should a highly valuable treasure really emerge, they too were ready to seize the opportunity.

"Roar!"

Under the assault of several peak Grandmasters, the savage beast, wounded repeatedly, began to let out angry roars, shaking the copse.

The monstrous beast's eyes glimmered with a ghostly light, and its mouth bristled with fangs like a wild boar. However, its stature was massive, about seven to eight meters tall, and its body was covered with terrifying spikes—a kind of beast unknown to all.

The beast's vitality seemed boundless, and its strength was immense; it collided with tree after tree, an embodiment of sheer terror.

Nevertheless, the beast's situation was dire. The peak Grandmasters relentlessly attacked it, and it was now gravely injured and on the brink of death.

Eventually, the beast let out a roar of unwilling rage as its enormous body thunderously fell to the ground.

"The treasure chest was snatched away by this beast, and now that the beast has been killed, the chest must be inside its mouth!"

"This chest is extremely extraordinary, attracting the beast to fight over it—the treasures inside must be incredibly divine!"

"Quick, find the chest so we can divide the treasures within!"

"..."

After the beast was slain, four peak Grandmasters appeared. They surrounded the beast's colossal corpse, conversing cheerfully with each other, discussing the distribution of the treasures.

By chance, they had found a cave filled with many treasures, Spiritual Medicines, weapons, precious artifacts... However, these items were of little value, mere trifles.

But the treasure chest, like the moon surrounded by stars, was enshrined in a place of pilgrimage, superior to all other treasures!

Moreover, the fact that the chest could provoke such a fierce beast to covet it meant there definitely were treasures of great importance inside!

Even in this first-level realm, they were convinced that the chest would contain world-shaking treasures, no less valuable than those in the second or third-level realms!

"I acquired this great sword from that cave; let's now test its sharpness and see if it can cut open the beast's mouth!"

One of them, holding a great sword, pried open the beast's mouth, searching through the blurry flesh and blood.

"How is it, have you found it?" someone asked the one wielding the sword.

"Not yet, let me look more carefully!" he responded.

"Hmm!"

The Grandmaster peeled back the flesh of the beast, searching for the treasure chest in its mouth while the other three Grandmasters waited silently.

"Huh!"

A flash of cold light suddenly appeared as the person searching for the chest abruptly sprang into action, raising the longsword in his hand and slashing at a Grandmaster beside him.

"Hiss!"

With a swift cut, the man's neck sprayed blood, his face filled with shock as he fell into a pool of blood.

This man was a peak Grandmaster, but he had just finished fighting the beast and was exhausted, unguarded against his companion's attack—a single blow slashed open his throat.

"What are you doing, you killed him?!"

The remaining two Grandmasters were shocked, their faces filled with disbelief. A moment ago, they had been fighting side by side, and now one of them suddenly turned to murder—it was a betrayal that filled them with both rage and horror.

"There's only one treasure chest but four of us—how do we divide it?" said the Grandmaster who had suddenly slain the other, lifting the treasure chest in hand.

The chest was not large, only about twenty or thirty centimeters in size, its body displaying a dark brown hue; it was unclear whether this was its original color or stained by the beast's filthy blood.

"You beast!"

"Bastard, I'll kill you!"

The other two Grandmasters were furious beyond bounds, the ruthless betrayal deeply jarring them.

They had just been fighting as allies, and in good spirits, yet for the sake of the treasure, this person had abruptly turned and killed a comrade. His cold-blooded brutality was simply unbearable.

"Could you not be so naive?" laughed the murderous Grandmaster. "We were mere acquaintances, not even knowing each other's names, united only for the sake of the treasure. Now that it's in our hands, of course, we become enemies!"

"You demon, you have not a shred of humanity, I..."

"Swish!"

Just then, another flash of cold steel and the Grandmaster, who was in the midst of his outrage, was impaled through the chest by a longsword.

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