His surroundings were pitch-black, and after he had been walking for some time, his field of view finally opened, and Tang Jie found himself in an empty forest.

This place was rich in spiritual energy. After all, this was the Langya Blessed Land. Cultivating here for a day was worth several days on the outside.

But this wasn’t the most important thing about this land.

Tang Jie saw Mandarin Duck Flowers growing not far from him, each one with enormous pink petals. The size of the corollas indicated that they ranged from six hundred to seven hundred years old. The Mandarin Duck Flower’s roots were an extremely valuable herb, and if he were able to gather them all, he would be able to get quite the nice sum.

But Tang Jie didn’t plan to pick them.

The rules the Wandering Palace had set down decreed that the students could only collect twelve kinds of resources in the Langya Blessed Land, regardless of age, and they only gather up to three of the same kind of resource, and these resources could not be discarded once gathered.

In other words, all the students could, at most, gather thirty-six herbs in the Langya Blessed Land, and once they made their choice, there was no changing it. After all, it wasn’t like they could put back the herbs they had picked.

While Mandarin Duck Flowers were nice, Tang Jie didn’t consider them worth it.

What he didn’t know was that almost every student had been teleported near a rare herb.

While some students ignored these herbs and left, others fell to the temptation.

Of course, it was fine to pick them so long as one kept to the rules, but there were some people who immediately broke the rules and seized large handfuls, not caring at all about the rule that restricted them to only three per type. They looked around, and when they confirmed that no one was around, they patted themselves on the back.

They didn’t know that the esteemed masters outside were seeing their repulsive attitude, the flames of anger burning in their hearts.

Xie Fengtang slapped his armrest and grunted, “Bastards, idiots, good-for-nothings!”

The Basking Moon Sect was, unfortunately, no exception to playing host to rulebreakers, and the rulebreaker was none other than Wei Tianchong.

This stubborn fatty had been teleported near some Violet Thorns, which had a wood that was as tough as metal, making it ideal for making puppets and also as a support for cultivation. Upon seeing these treasures, he took out his axe and immediately cut down six, angering Xie Fengtang so much that he wanted nothing more than to pick Wei Tianchong up and give him a good beating, asking him if he had ever taken the advice of his seniors to heart.

But all six major sects had some good-for-nothings among their ranks, and nobody was laughing at anybody else. Moreover, the competition had just begun, and breaking the rules didn’t mean losing your chance. To tell the truth, all the rules were merely used as reference material for the Wandering Palace. So long as the Wandering Palace wished it, nobody could say anything, even if their little palace lord chose a student that had destroyed the entire Langya Blessed Land as her groom.

As for the loss sustained by the Wandering Palace because of the rule-breaking, the six major sects would naturally pay compensation. But those students couldn’t hope to get off scot-free. No matter which goodies they got now, they would have to hand it all over at the end, perhaps even losing out on what should have been their share.

“At least those kids didn’t show any weakness.” Xie Fengtang glanced at Peng Yaolong, Tang Jie, and the others, sighing in relief.

This was also true for the other five sects. Their elite students had not broken the rules.

This didn’t mean that they were of better character. It was just that they had the best chance of getting into the top ten, and though they didn’t know that they were being observed, they didn’t want to lose their chance for the sake of some meager profit.

The higher one went, the more cautious one had to be.

Ignoring the temptation of the Mandarin Duck Flower, Tang Jie continued forward, activating his Celestial Eye to search for treasures. Actually, he would have had a much easier time finding the ten treasures if he used the Illuminating Eye, but that spell’s use was too obvious to observers. Although the Wandering Palace had said that nobody could look inside, Tang Jie did not dare to place his hopes on his opponents. Thus, he did not dare to use this spell.

An eight-hundred-year blessed land was an eight-hundred-year farmland. Together with the accompanying landscape, the Langya Blessed Land occupied quite a large area. In no rush, Tang Jie walked for half a day without running into a single student.

As he strolled through the forest, he heard a howl, and then a pungent wind assailed him.

His face tightened as he pulled out the Heartbreak Saber. A moment later, a large snake slithered out of the distance.

The snake was pure white and more than a hundred feet long. Its body was as thick as a barrel, and its wide-open eyes were staring at Tang Jie. Suddenly, it hissed and lunged at Tang Jie.

Tang Jie raised his saber to block. The snake ran its head right into the blade, and with a bang, Tang Jie went flying.

The white snake continued forward, rushing at Tang Jie. Thankfully, Tang Jie managed to activate the Violet Lightning Lunge, and he instantly accelerated to avoid the white snake. The white snake slammed into the ground, digging out a giant hole.

The giant body lifted up, and the white snake angrily hissed at Tang Jie. A fiendish wind stirred up, blowing Tang Jie back several steps with its force.

The white snake used this chance to swing its giant tail at him.

Unable to dodge, Tang Jie activated the Formless Golden Body and Aquagel Shroud to take the blow. A moment later, Tang Jie was slapped around like a basketball, but at least he had become more skilled in the Formless Golden Body now and managed to endure the blow.

Not giving him a chance to stand, the fiend snake rushed at him with a hiss, its scales erupting out and turning it into a saw. Just a brush past would cut Tang Jie in half at the waist.

Tang Jie hastily backed away while extending one hand. A large flock of Blazeravens erupted from the Blazeraven Ring to assail the fiend snake.

The fiend snake hissed in pain from the burns, but this only provoked it further. It began to swing around its large body like a giant cudgel.

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Just when it seemed like the snake would slam into Tang Jie, Tang Jie disappeared like a ghost, and when he next appeared, he was behind the fiend snake.

“The Chaoswind Step!”

“It’s Master Ming’s Chaoswind Step!”

Outside the Langya Blessed Land, a group of spectating Basking Moon students cried out in recognition of the foot technique that Tang Jie was using.

“I didn’t think he would master it so quickly,” a student said in shock.

The Chaoswind Step was used rather elegantly, putting Tang Jie right behind the snake. The moment Tang Jie appeared, he swung his saber with a great bellow.

Thousand Rupture Slash!

The power of this Thousand Rupture Slash was not to be underestimated, the blade sinking into the snake’s body. The white snake let out a long hiss and turned to face Tang Jie.

Tang Jie once more blinked away, appearing where he had been before.

“So he could only move between two stars,” someone noticed, sighing in relief.

The 27 Star Chaoswind Step was simply 27 special star coordinates in a certain region that the cultivator could freely and instantly move between. The stronger one was, the greater the range that could be covered by the star coordinates.

Tang Jie had only mastered 2-star movement, meaning that he could only move between two fixed points, which was the simplest level of the Chaoswind Step. A cultivator would easily be able to realize this and exploit it to deal a blow.

But 2-star movement was enough to deal with a brainless fiend beast.

After getting behind the white snake again, Tang Jie fired off an Energy Needle.

The needle jabbed into the white snake’s wound, causing it to turn around once more, upon which Tang Jie once more went behind it.

The pattern continued, like the white snake was a plaything in Tang Jie’s hand. It began to weaken, Tang Jie’s repeated attacks having almost cut its enormous body in two.

The white snake could no longer resist and finally moved to the side, its body flashing with red light. This was its fiend pellet activating, beginning to heal the wound.

But the fiend snake was planning to run.

Tang Jie obviously wouldn’t let it escape. According to the rules set by the Wandering Palace, when encountering a fiend beast, there were four things that were not allowed. The first was looting the nest. Under no circumstances was one allowed to attack a fiend beast’s den. The second was killing the young. The killing of juvenile fiend beasts was forbidden. The third was poison. When facing fiend beasts, it was not permitted to use poison in any way. The fourth was extermination. When facing packs of fiend beasts, one had to preserve a breeding stock.

So long as a student did not break those four conditions, they could hunt and kill as they pleased.

Since there was no limit to the number of fiend beasts that could be hunted, Tang Jie naturally wouldn’t let any go.

As the fiend snake fled, he activated the Violet Lightning Lunge and unleashed a Windcleaver Saber at the snake’s wound, almost cutting it in half. He followed it up with a punch at the glowing red spot.

It was a well-placed blow, scattering the red light. At the same time, Tang Jie made another Thousand Rupture Slash, and these two savage blows finally managed to cleave apart the snake.

Not even the fiend pellet could heal this, and the two sections of the snake’s body crazily convulsed on the ground. One section struck Tang Jie and sent him flying as he threw up blood.

Wiping away the blood on his mouth, Tang Jie blinked again, once more moving to a star coordinate. He stabbed the Heartbreak Saber down and then dragged it along the length of one half of the snake’s body. Without the defense of the scales, the white snake’s body was extremely soft and vulnerable around the wound. Tang Jie’s saber sliced along the length of the body, and Tang Jie himself ended up inside the snake, finally erupting out from the head.

The snake let out one last hiss before dying.

Tang Jie finally had time to breathe.

While the spectating Basking Moon students outside cheered, those who knew Tang Jie, like Xie Fengtang and Cai Junyang, frowned.

Though Tang Jie had killed the white snake, it was clear that it hadn’t been easy.

He had used almost everything he had: both techniques from the Divine Firmament Sword Classic like the Formless Golden Body, Violet Lightning Lunge, and Divine Court Thousandshift; and the Chaoswind Step, which no one knew that he had learned yet. He had been forced to use what should have been his trump card.

This shouldn’t have happened for someone of Tang Jie’s strength.

Cai Junyang was particularly suspicious. As someone who had clashed with Tang Jie countless times, he was well aware of how strong Tang Jie was.

But in today’s battle, Tang Jie had seemingly become another person. Putting aside the fact that he had been knocked away by the snake, he had taken seventeen blows to take down that white snake. While this was normal for other people, it was extremely unusual for Tang Jie. This was no longer the Tang Jie that he knew.

Is this guy pretending? Cai Junyang couldn’t help but think.

But he didn’t know that he was being watched from the outside, so who was he pretending for?

Yes, this guy has always been very crafty. He must have guessed that something like this could happen, so he’s acting, Cai Junyang couldn’t help but think.

In the blessed land, Tang Jie was strenuously dismantling the snake.

It was only when one lost something that one realized how precious it was. Without the powerful constitution granted by the Parting Classic, Tang Jie now realized how weak he was. He once had the strength to brutalize a lower-grade Mind Opening fiend, but he now found it hard to deal with a single upper-grade Spirit Sensing one.

In other words, with his avatar, he had lost the ability to fight above his level.

But in this blessed land, the vast majority of students had already entered the Mortal Shedding Realm.

Unless he entered the Mortal Shedding Realm himself, it was basically impossible for him to get anything from this battle.