The burly man, upon hearing Yuan Ming's words, was somewhat stunned and for a moment could not decide what to say.

He had originally thought that Yuan Ming was just an ordinary Loose Cultivator who had strayed from his group, so he had followed him along with three others, planning to kill Yuan Ming and snatch the three hundred Spirit Stones given by the White Night Alliance.

But the situation before him was completely different from what he had expected. Despite Cha Ha's use of the Earth Travel Talisman in a sneak attack, there had been no sign of him, yet there was Yuan Ming appearing unharmed. The burly man began to think of retreating.

The red-clothed woman felt the same, fear creeping into her heart.

"What are you two afraid of? With three against one, surely we won't lose? Boy, smartly hand over your storage magic tool, and you can keep your entire corpse!" the cold young man said aggressively, though he was green and inexperienced as a calf not fearing a tiger.

"Idiot!" The burly man was startled and cursed under his breath, but it was too late to stop the cold young man.

"So, the three of you are after those three hundred Spirit Stones? Since you want to kill and rob, you must have prepared yourselves to be killed," Yuan Ming said calmly.

"Kill us? Based on you, a waste of the Qi Refining Ninth Level?" The cold young man laughed wildly, already producing a green round bead magical artifact with which he aimed directly at Yuan Ming's heart, fast as an arrow released from its bow.

With things having reached this point, the burly man clenched his teeth and had no choice but to take action, flipping his hand to bring forth a yellow casting hammer, half a zhang in length, with a head as large as a millstone, which he swung toward Yuan Ming's head with impressive force.

Seeing the other two engage, the red-clothed woman also took out a blue feather fan and waved it ferociously at Yuan Ming.

Whoosh whoosh whoosh!

More than a dozen sharp ice cones formed out of thin air and shot out, aiming at various parts of Yuan Ming's body.

The combined force of the three was extraordinary, and the Qi Force they unleashed pushed back the surrounding Poison Miasma for several zhang.

Yuan Ming, remaining calm, formed a hand seal and with a point of his finger, a flash of golden light passed by as the gold-plated gauze emerged, wrapping around his body in several layers to form a thick golden gauze curtain.

The green flying sword, the yellow hammer, and sharp ice cones hit almost simultaneously, causing ripples of vibration on the golden gauze curtain which immediately returned to stability.

"How is this possible!" The three observers, including the burly man, were dumbfounded; despite their full force, they couldn't ruffle Yuan Ming's defense!

Yuan Ming looked at the unusually stable gauze curtain and remained expressionless, quite satisfied internally.

He had intentionally used the gold-plated gauze to receive the attacks of the three to see the extent of the gauze's defensive power, pleased that the gold-plated gauze did not disappoint him.

"Haste!"

Yuan Ming raised the Cold Star Sword and pointed at the green flying sword and the yellow hammer outside the golden gauze, doing so in mid-air.

Around the two artifacts, a significant chill surged as a large block of white frost formed out of nothing, freezing both artifacts within it.

The expressions of the burly man and the cold young man changed drastically, their connection to their magic artifacts suddenly interrupted, rendering them unable to control them momentarily.

Neither had ever encountered such a situation and immediately panicked. The burly man, with higher cultivation, forced himself to remain calm and raised his hand to summon another magic artifact.

Just then, the ground beneath him cracked open and a purple-black vine shot out, instantly entwining his legs.

The burly man's heart chilled as he violently leaped backwards, desperately trying to break free from the vine's hold, but the exceptionally tough purple-black vine did not break and instead dragged him to the ground.

A white light shot out from the front, reaching the burly man in an instant, faster than anyone's eyes could follow, and with a "puff," penetrated the burly man's body. It was the Cold Star Sword.

The fierce cold burst forth, the burly man's body freezing into an icicle, his life cut off in an instant.

The burly man's cultivation, strongest among the four, could not even withstand two moves under Yuan Ming.

The cold young man and the red-clothed woman, already horrified, turned and fled in different directions.

Yuan Ming formed a hand seal and from his sleeve shot a blue and a black spirit light, directly chasing after the red-clothed woman; they were the Shuiyun Banner and the One-eyed Woman's black wooden hairpin.

Meanwhile, the white light of the Cold Star Sword passed through the body of the burly man, pursuing the fleeing cold young man.

"Stop, stop! I am a member of the Eastern Domain Xue Family Castle, you can't kill me..."

The cold young man, sensing the Cold Star Sword approaching from behind, screamed in terror, continuously running forward while frantically throwing talismans behind him.

More than a dozen spells including Fireball, Wind Blade, and Water Arrow appeared, all aimed directly at the Cold Star Sword.

Yuan Ming remotely activated the Gale Rune within the Cold Star Sword, causing it to become elusive and its speed to increase sharply, easily avoiding the attacks of fireballs and wind blades and catching up with the cold young man in the blink of an eye.

A jade pendant hanging at the young man's waist suddenly shone brightly with white light, forming a semi-transparent white glow that enveloped him.

"Bang!"

The Cold Star Sword struck his spine, blocked by the white glow, but the powerful impact still sent the cold young man stumbling, causing him to fall forward to the ground.

Before the young man could react, a fierce burst of icy Sword Qi rolled down, freezing the cold young man along with the protective white glow into ice.

The sword then fell, chopping the young man along with the ice into pieces.

Almost simultaneously, a piercing scream came from the other side, only to soon fade into silence.

Yuan Ming removed the storage magic tools from the burly man and the cold looking young man, and walked towards the red-clothed woman, quickly reaching her side.

The red-clothed woman's legs were also entangled by purple-black vines, and a huge wound gaped open on her chest and abdomen, seemingly slashed by a sharp weapon, and a black wooden hairpin was also thrust into her heart—she was dead beyond any doubt.

Yuan Ming picked up the blue feather fan and the red-clothed woman's storage bag that had dropped beside her, then turned and headed back to the cave.

Looking at the Cold Star Sword in his hand, a hint of a smile appeared on his face.

The strength of the burly man and others was not weak, but the reason they fell like dominoes today was mainly because the Cold Star Sword could freeze other people's magic artifacts, temporarily wresting control from their owners.

Ordinary frost-infused artifacts couldn't achieve this; at most, they would affect the mana within the artifact, unable to influence the trace of divine soul housed inside. But Yuan Ming's Cold Star Sword was forged from Yin Jade, which could attack the divine souls of people. By freezing the two men's magic artifacts, it also cut off their divine senses.

A Qi Refining Stage Cultivator, who lost their handy magic artifact, would naturally become flustered and thus were easily slaughtered.

Yuan Ming activated his divine sense to inspect the three artifacts.

The blue feather fan, the green round bead, and the burly man's yellow hammer were all low-grade magical artifacts. The runes inscribed within the blue feather fan, which he had seen in the Black Wood Handbook, were called "Ice Cone" and could emit ice cone attacks.

Although the cold young man's round bead artifact was green, it was made of metal, small in size, yet weighing a hundred pounds.

As for the runes inside the green round bead, Yuan Ming didn't recognize them, but judging from the effects of the green round bead, they were impact-type runes.

The runes inside the burly man's yellow hammer, also mentioned in the Black Wood Handbook, were called "Vibration," which could transform strength into vibrations. The golden gauze had earlier rippled with waves, which were the attack effects caused by this yellow hammer.

"I already have one casting hammer, but I didn't expect to acquire an even bigger one today. It seems I have a fate with hammer-type artifacts. Oh, this hammer has a name..." Yuan Ming gently swung the yellow hammer, his gaze falling on the handle's end.

Engraved there were the words: Mountain Shaking Hammer, three characters.

"Mountain Shaking Hammer, the name is indeed fitting," Yuan Ming said with a slight smile on his lips.

Of these three artifacts, only the Mountain Shaking Hammer caught his eye. The hammer, forged from a specific metal, was extremely heavy, even heavier than the green round bead and Master Hei Mu's casting hammer. Combined with the Vibration rune, its attack power was exceptionally formidable, especially suitable for close-hand combat.

If he were to use the White Ape Transformation and wield this Mountain Shaking Hammer, the effects would complement each other perfectly.

Yuan Ming stored the three artifacts and then inspected the storage bags of the three individuals.

The red-clothed woman's storage bag contained a few spirit stones, some ordinary materials, and a very poor-quality low-grade magical artifact, inferior even to the black wooden hairpin.

However, the cold-faced young man's storage bag contained over two hundred spirit stones, including one mid-grade spirit stone, along with two low-grade magical artifacts of fairly good quality.

Yuan Ming finally opened the burly man's storage magic tool, and was immediately taken aback.

This storage bag contained only a small amount of spiritual materials, the remainder being a large quantity of talisman paper, a golden pen with a white tip, several bottles of talisman painting liquid, and a thin booklet.

"This burly man, so rough and large, turned out to be a talisman master," Yuan Ming said with a look of surprise.

The talisman paper, talisman pen, and spiritual liquid all disclosed the burly man's identity.

Yuan Ming counted the talismans inside the storage bag, finding thirty-two completed talismans, all low-level ones like Fireball, Wind Blade, Water Arrow, etc., without a single mid-level talisman.

"It seems his talisman-making skills were just average," Yuan Ming muttered to himself, picking up the thin booklet and flipping it open.

The booklet was something similar to the Black Wood Handbook. The first few pages recorded the burly man's cultivation career, insights, and so on, while the last three pages depicted six talisman runes: Fireball, Wind Blade, Water Arrow, Rock Piercing, Wooden Thorns, and Earth Travel.

The first five talismans were low-grade, but the Earth Travel was mid-grade.

"So that yellow talisman is called Earth Travel," he noted.

The effects of the Earth Travel Talisman were clearly written next to it in the talisman classics. It allowed one to move freely underground for a short period, akin to swimming in water, superior to common Earth Tunneling Techniques.

Regrettably, the burly man had only managed to produce one Earth Travel Talisman.

Yuan Ming silently lamented, then stored the booklet and other items into his storage ring without any intention to try drawing talismans himself.

While he was learning Artifact Refining in Biluo Cave, he had heard discussions about talismans and had a basic understanding of drawing talismans.

Talisman Masters were a profession that extremely consumed resources and time, burning through money. To master a single talisman, one must experience hundreds, if not thousands, of failures, consuming countless materials and energy, gradually accumulating experience to improve success rates.

For those with slightly less talent in drawing talismans, the number of failures could increase by two or three times the norm, and adopting a new talisman meant starting from scratch all over again.

To raise a qualified Talisman Master, there's no other way but to spend countless resources over the years.

Moreover, drawing talismans was extremely draining on one's energy, inevitably affecting cultivation. Any cultivator with ambition wouldn't be distracted by learning this.

Yuan Ming didn't have the resources, nor the spare energy, so naturally, he would not attempt to learn how to draw talismans.

Biting off more than one can chew!

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