The old pavilion master could not move. His dark eyes trembled as the terror of death rapidly hijacked his mind.
Suddenly, a vine that had reared up to chase a spurt of fresh blood happened to block the space between the thrusting sword and the old pavilion master's heart.
"Ha!"
The old pavilion master, his eyes now half-open, roared with wild laughter in his mind.
This invisible little thief was indeed terrifying, but his luck was just a bit lacking.
Aside from being impervious to water and fire, his Dragon Scale Vine boasted incredibly formidable defense.
Earlier, the thief had struck with this exact weapon and failed to sever even his thinnest vine—let alone the one-chi-thick main vines guarding his body!
But before his triumph could even reach his eyes, an immense, unstoppable aura of metallic sharpness pierced straight through his vine. It drove into his heart, flooded his veins, and ultimately blew a massive hole through his back.
The stone and dirt wall behind him erupted with a deafening boom, like an earth dragon turning over or the heavens and earth tearing apart.
How could there be such a terrifying strike? Who... who exactly is he—
The old pavilion master's thoughts abruptly broke off.
Death had arrived a step ahead of his rebirth.
"Hah, hah—"
Li Ban panted heavily, his chest heaving.
In the final second before his invisibility faded, he had unleashed the full-power strike of his Iron-Eating Sword!
That all-out blow, capable of piercing city walls, had blasted a gaping hole straight through the old pavilion master's chest.
The hole was so massive that it practically cleaved the man in two.
The residual force tore through his ancient body, shredded several vines behind him, and slammed into the cavern wall.
The entire cave trembled, shaking down a shower of dust.
Of course, the momentum wasn't actually the world-destroying apocalypse the old man had perceived in his final moments.
That was merely his dying shock and despair exaggerating his sense of the strike.
With the old pavilion master dead, the thick vines that had been swarming to attack Li Ban instantly fell still, dropping lifelessly to the ground like a corpse's limp arms.
Having just erupted with his full strength, Li Ban had exhausted a tremendous amount of energy.
However, the moment he caught his breath, he sprang back into action.
He first looted the old pavilion master's corpse.
Perhaps because the body was too badly mangled, he only scavenged three waste elements; there was no sign of any others.
Yet, surprisingly, one of those three waste elements was the very vine that had grown on the old man's body.
Li Ban bared his teeth in regret. "Extracting elements bare-handed still carries a really high failure rate."
Given how powerful it was, the vine was highly likely a superior-grade element.
But to guarantee his assassination strike succeeded, Li Ban couldn't afford to hold back against it.
His hopes of obtaining a superior-grade element had gone up in smoke.
Furthermore, the waste element it turned into wasn't called the Dragon Scale Vine, but the Blood Demon Vine.
Could an element's name change based on its state?
Recalling Lady Hua's final words before she died, Li Ban had a vague sense that there was something highly abnormal about this vine element.
Whatever, it's better that it became a waste element. It saves me trouble if there's something wrong with it.
Not every gift falling from the sky was a blessing; some were traps.
Besides, right now Li Ban was more in need of waste elements to replenish his massive deficit of spiritual rhinoceros.
Without any hesitation, he absorbed all three waste elements. Then, he moved on to loot Lady Hua's corpse.
Because he had absorbed the Blood Demon Vine, over half the vines in the cavern had vanished.
Only the branches severed from the main body remained, but those fragments couldn't be absorbed.
In this regard, the Blood Demon Vine was entirely different from the Cyan Silk Algae.
Li Ban easily located Lady Hua's body among the remaining debris.
Searching her over, he actually found an intact element on her torso.
[Mortal-grade energy element detected: Alluring Fragrance. Fuse?]
Li Ban chose not to fuse.
He had already fused with plenty of elements.
Counting the newly integrated Iron-Eating Sword, his body in the Wizard World now housed eight elements.
Normally, only an 8th Tier spirit practitioner would have this many elements to train.
Yet he was only at the 3rd Tier. Cultivating every single element to maximum spiritual rhinoceros would take a massive amount of time.
Unless there was an emergency or a uniquely suitable element, Li Ban wouldn't undergo any more fusions.
Even after scavenging so many waste elements and adding in his previous cultivation, Li Ban had only managed to max out three of his eight elements: the Blazing Flame Art, Flute Sound, and Shadow Meld.
The Blood Demon Vine couldn't be fragmented. Even though Li Ban fed it entirely to an element with zero progress, it still resulted in a minor waste of energy.
This time, however, Li Ban finally saw clearly that the wasted spiritual rhinoceros had actually flowed into the thin mist within his consciousness.
It made the cloud of mist slightly denser.
Can Priests also absorb waste elements? No, if that were the case, waste elements in the Wizard World wouldn't be completely ignored by everyone.
But the mist can grow heavier by absorbing spiritual rhinoceros. Does that mean a Priest can independently absorb more spiritual rhinoceros through the mist? Just like how I use spiritual rhinoceros through the mist in the Shadow World?
Li Ban had practically grasped the most unique aspect of the Priest identity.
They likely possessed methods to directly absorb spiritual rhinoceros without needing elements.
If ordinary spirit practitioners used elements to channel spiritual rhinoceros—much like people in a technological world using firearms to kill enemies—then Priests wielding spiritual rhinoceros were more like supermen with laser eyes.
Still, realizing the excess spiritual rhinoceros hadn't been wasted, but had instead entered his Wizard Embryo Fragment, Li Ban was quite pleased.
"Though, after becoming a Priest, will I have to cultivate all my elements and my spiritual rhinoceros simultaneously?" Li Ban shook his head; the task had just grown even more daunting.
Setting down Lady Hua's torso and finishing his search of her belongings, Li Ban scanned his surroundings but found no other special items.
Just as he prepared to leave through the tunnel Lady Hua had entered from, he suddenly noticed a severed vine limb twitch.
Li Ban immediately raised his Iron-Eating Sword, his free hand simultaneously preparing to unleash the Blazing Flame Art.
A small tree branch poked out from under the vine. It tapped and felt around the ground, like someone testing the temperature outside their winter blankets.
Next, a tiny wooden stump crawled out from beneath the vine.
Miaomiao's eyes were still closed. After sitting up, it stretched its branch-like arms and let out a massive yawn.
Because the old pavilion master didn't truly care for Miaomiao, he hadn't kept it on his main body. Thus, tucked away in the corner, Miaomiao had actually escaped disaster.
The old man had originally intended to use Miaomiao's body for his rebirth, but ironically, his vines had inadvertently shielded it.
"I hope you can truly stay out of danger from now on."
Spotting the black spots on Miaomiao's head, Li Ban paused and glanced into his Cubic Heaven and Earth.
Within his Cubic Heaven and Earth, the Cyan Silk Algae seeds had yet to form a Bud Embryo.
Seeing Miaomiao rubbing its eyes, right on the verge of waking, Li Ban turned and melted into the shadows, moving toward the exit tunnel.
Upon opening its eyes, the newly awakened Miaomiao jumped in fright at the scene before it.
The ground was littered with gore and severed branches.
Miaomiao looked left and right. Not seeing anyone familiar, it felt a little like crying.
But the moment it opened its mouth, it caught a whiff of a delicious aroma.
It dropped to the ground, stared at a curled-up vine, and suddenly took a loud, crunching bite.
With just one bite, Miaomiao's tiny, upright eyes lit up. It buried its head and began gnawing furiously.
Meanwhile, its little twig-like feet were still planted in a pool of blood.
And at a visible rate, that pool of blood was shrinking.
By this time, Li Ban was already heading up the tunnel.
Though he remained cautious, he moved at a brisk pace.
Without the 5th Tier pavilion master and the 4th Tier Lady Hua, no one left in the Hundred Flowers Pavilion was Li Ban's match.
However, after walking for a while, a fork appeared in the path ahead.
One route continued upward, likely the exit, while the other was a flat path. Not far down the latter, a large door blocked the way, bearing a familiar keyhole.
Rather than leaving immediately, Li Ban chose to walk up to the door.
He raised his hand, pulling out the ring of slender keys he had just looted from Lady Hua's corpse, along with two silver hairpins he had plucked from her hair.
Whether it was the long brass keys or the silver hairpins, their ends were identical in shape. Both were pointed at the front and tapered at the back.
However, there were four brass keys. Adding the hairpins meant he essentially had six keys.
Li Ban looked down at them, then simply sped up his movements and began trying them one by one.
His luck was average; it wasn't until he tried the fourth brass key that the heavy door finally unlocked.
A heavy grinding echoed from behind the door. After a moment, it cracked open to reveal a narrow slit, and Li Ban pushed his way inside.
Upon entering, Li Ban realized he had actually returned to the hidden chamber hallway.
However, the massive boulder that had smashed down earlier was now back in its original position.
"There are—five hidden chambers here?" Li Ban's eyes lit up slightly.
Aside from the chamber holding the Art of Awakening Life, which he had already emptied, the other rooms likely contained more treasures.
Li Ban hurried to the nearest hidden door. Recalling that he had triggered a trap when he opened a door with a silver hairpin earlier, he decided to test the remaining three brass keys first.
But the moment he inserted a key, a sudden rumble echoed. Sensing something was wrong, he immediately retreated three steps.
Nothing changed in the hallway; the noise had come from behind the hidden door.
He walked over and knocked on the door. The sound was incredibly muffled—a solid, thick wall now stood directly behind it.
"This—using the wrong key permanently seals the chamber?"
Looking at the three remaining chambers and the six keys in his hand, Li Ban felt a headache coming on.
There was a high probability he'd be returning empty-handed from this trip.
The keyholes on the doors were only the size of a finger. Li Ban didn't possess any advanced lockpicking skills, and he certainly didn't think he could brute-force the Hundred Flowers Pavilion's security mechanisms.
"Finger-sized?"
Suddenly thinking of something, Li Ban raised his hand and summoned the Silver Kingfisher.
"Silver Kingfisher, go inside the keyhole and take a look. Can you tell which key corresponds to this lock?"
This command was a bit complex. Li Ban had to gesture three times before the Silver Kingfisher finally understood and groggily squeezed into the second chamber's keyhole to inspect it.
Its tiny head bobbed in acknowledgment before it flew back out, landing on one of the silver hairpins in Li Ban's hand.
"This one?"
Li Ban was a bit nervous, but lacking any better method, he inserted the silver hairpin the Silver Kingfisher had chosen into the lock of the second hidden door.
A moment later, the door parted down the middle and slid into the walls.
Seeing the contents of the chamber, Li Ban inhaled softly.
It felt just like desperately craving something, assuming it was impossible to get, and then suddenly having it drop right into your lap.
He saw a room completely filled with Cyan Silk Algae main stems!
Three large crates—identical to the ones he had seen during the escort robbery.
Li Ban immediately rushed in. To prevent any further traps from triggering, he absorbed the main stems in all three crates as fast as he could.
Three crates of Cyan Silk Algae almost completely filled his remaining elements.
Only one element, the Sea Bream Gills, was left roughly half-empty of spiritual rhinoceros.
And when he stepped back out, no new traps sprang from the floor beneath his feet.
The previous traps must have been manually operated by Lady Hua.
With no time to celebrate, Li Ban immediately sent the Silver Kingfisher to inspect the keyhole of the next chamber.
The Silver Kingfisher cheerfully and decisively picked out one of the brass keys.
Li Ban slid the key into the lock—
Boom!
Wrong key. The chamber sealed itself permanently.
Li Ban stared at the Silver Kingfisher in his hand and sighed helplessly. "So you were just guessing earlier too?"
There was now only one final hidden chamber left.
Li Ban thought it over and decided to let the Silver Kingfisher try again anyway.
After all, the bird had succeeded once.
This time, however, the Silver Kingfisher selected the exact same brass key as before.
Without a shred of hesitation, Li Ban decisively jammed the key into the lock.
Click!