For three days, Marvin pursued and searched for Austin, but his quarry seemed to have just
disappeared. No one had seen him either.
And the thought of some two dozen earth spiritual fruits made Marvin mad.
The young disciple, who was head of the practicing group, looked at the portrait of another young
follower of the Sun Sect in the paper and shook his head.
"I've never seen this disciple before. Everyone, come and have a look. Has anyone ever seen him?"
He was replying to Marvin and addressing his group members.
A slender girl with a lovely face came over and picked up the paper to look at the picture. Others also
checked it out carefully.
After looking, they all shook their heads to indicate they had never seen the young man before.
With a forlorn expression, the group's leader returned the paper to Marvin and said, "Sorry, but none of
us have seen him." Though sad to not be of help, secretly he was in awe of the unknown disciple.
His remark left Marvin looking sullen, his face long.
At the look on Marvin's face, the group was worried that he would be unhappy with their reply.
All five members of the group were well aware of Marvin's strength.
In case the two sides clashed, it was highly possible that Marvin would defeat their group, even if they
had five members going against just one.
And with them in the Beast Mountain now, Marvin could beat the group for no reason at all and still be
blameless.
Without saying anything, Marvin stared at the five people before him.
"Remember the face clearly, and help me tell other outer disciples in the Beast Mountain about him. If
they find the man, they must report it to me.
I will offer a reward of five hundred vital energy crystals for any information on his whereabouts,"
Marvin declared.
That said, he handed the paper back to the leader of the group.
The group was startled by a loud thud as a black bag landed in front of their leader.
"This is thirty vital energy crystals. It will be yours if you help me spread the word to others. Otherwise,
you know what can happen to you," he threatened.
There was a feeling of great relief after the five heard Marvin say he was not inclined to fight against
them.
The relief was quickly replaced by glee.
Five hundred vital energy crystals as a reward!
Most outdoor disciples in the Beast Mountain fought against level one diabolic beasts and demonic
beasts to get beast cores.
Only a few with great power ever attempted to destroy level two beasts.
The price of a level one beast core was usually ten or a dozen vital energy crystals.
It boggled their minds how many level one beasts they had to kill to earn five hundred vital energy
crystals!
When they finally realized what Marvin was offering, they became excited. To earn five hundred vital
energy crystals, all they had to do was to find one person.
That should be much easier than killing powerful beasts.
It took a split-second for the five to read each other's minds after looking at one another.
They had decided to actively search for the young disciple of the Sun Sect whose picture was on the
paper.
Examining his face closely, they noted he was about the same age as them.
They surmised he was probably also an outer disciple at a low level, based on his age and
appearance.
To their thinking, there was no danger in looking for a disciple.
"Marvin, believe me, I will tell others about this man.
And I give you my word that all of us will go all out to help find him."
Although his heart was thudding, he looked Marvin in the eye.
"Good. The sooner the better," Marvin said.
After saying this, he left without delay.
The person Marvin had asked help in seeking was Austin.
Three days later...
In the deep recesses of Beast the Mountain was a site beside a cliff, densely covered by vines.
There were birds hopping on tree branches and sometimes scrounging between leaves for food.
No one expected a cave camouflaged behind it where a figure sat on his feet quietly.
In his bid to escape Marvin, Austin kept walking deep into the forests of the Beast Mountain until he
stumbled upon the secluded cave.
While fleeing from Marvin, he managed to secure a good number of beast cores.
To make the most of his limited time, he opted to attack all the beasts by sneaking upon them.
This strategy enabled him to defeat most level one or two beasts easily using his Wind-commanding
Skill.
He thought it would be more advantageous not to fight face-to-face but through sneak attack tactics.
This way, he spent less time to kill his prey.
The most precious among his kills were three beast cores of level two magic foxes.
Magic foxes were level two demonic beasts that did not possess the powerful ability to fight.
They were innately charming and good at distorting their appearances and misleading others with their
unique mental powers.
But the mere mention of level two magic foxes had most of the practicing disciples turn pale in terror.
This fear is understandable, given that some disciples outside had been trapped by the magic arrays of
magic foxes which eventually led to their death.
Their mental power actually equals to the spiritual sense of humans.
However, it was Austin's luck that he had a much stronger spiritual sense than those of the three level
two magic foxes he encountered.
It helped Austin in easily overcoming the three foxes as they were performing their magic arrays.
All he did was to walk over and kill each one just by waving his sword once.
It was much easier than killing other beasts.
The beast cores of magic foxes were always used as materials for array masters to make arrays.
It was also a great help for cultivators who practiced illusion skills.
It was common knowledge that magic foxes were difficult to kill and their beast cores had a variety of
uses.
Therefore, the beast cores of the magic foxes were ten times more powerful than that of others in the
same level.
Three days later Austin escaped to the deep area of the Beast Mountain and happened to discover the
secret cave.
He was elated by the find and immediately went into hiding.
Since he had recently fought against beasts and managed to elude Marvin, Austin was spiritually
exhausted.
His efforts required the use of a great amount of vital energy which made his body weak.
Thus he sat on his feet as soon as he entered the cave to recover lost vital energy.
It only took half a day for all disciples in the Beast Mountain to hear of the news about the search for
Austin.
The news was Marvin Su, who ranked fifth of all the outer disciples, was hunting for another outer
disciple named Austin. He was offering a reward of five hundred vital energy crystals in exchange for
information about his quarry.
For most outer disciples, this was a huge fortune. Very soon all disciples in the Beast Mountain had
become interested.
It seemed every disciple in the Beast Mountain had started looking for this young man who had
angered Marvin.
It didn't take very long for Austin's name and description to spread among disciples in the Beast
Mountain.
Had Austin known this, he would have sighed at how quick he became famous.
Inside the secret cave beside the cliff, Austin suddenly opened his eyes after sitting still and cultivating
himself for some time.
His vision became very clear. Apparently, he had completely recovered.
Stretching himself, Austin thought about his previous experience of being chased by Marvin like a
homeless stray dog, and this made him slightly furious.
He vowed to someday make Marvin pay for all he had done to him.
Still, Austin believed all his hardships seemed to be worth it.
The young man became excited at the thought of the two dozen earth spirit fruits.
As he focused on this, he controlled the space ring that enabled the earth spirit fruits to fly out of the
ring and stand in front of Austin. The fruits were round and milky white.
He counted the fruits and there were twenty-three of them.
Examining the fruits, Austin noted a soft luster in its surface.
A natural fragrance also pervaded the cave's interiors.
There was extremely dense vital energy beyond the fruit's surface that came to Austin.
Sensing the dense vital energy from the earth spirit fruits, the young man was encouraged to indulge in
them.
His body accidentally absorbed some of the vital energy it gave off. It seemed equivalent to the vital
energy he usually absorbed for five days.
Austin was in awe and could not help acclaim the fruits in his mind.
'The earth spirit fruit truly deserves the reputation it enjoys.'
And because of this, Austin vowed not to waste it especially because of the great effort he exerted to
obtain them.
He waved his hand and the motion made twenty-two fruits return to his space ring.
He then opened his mouth and popped the one fruit left inside it.
What followed was a wonderful burst of flavor in his tongue.
The taste was superb. Austin had never eaten a fruit as wonderful as this one he had sampled.
It just wasn't the taste that amazed Austin.
Because just as he was savoring the fruit, he suddenly felt vital energy flows oozing out of the fruit as it
went down his throat. And the energy flows were twice as potent as the Energy-boosting Elixir.
The vital energy flowed like a great river inside his body and soon they permeated every cell of his
body.
At the same time, Austin felt pain as if the vital energy flowing inside him was too much for his body to
channel, and it seemed as if these channels were stretching.
It was unexpected that the earth spirit fruits should contain such strong vital energy.
Austin certainly didn't expect it and was greatly frightened. But he quickly sat on his feet and got ready
to absorb the vital energy seriously.
He started the Purple Yang Formula to its maximum and tried to direct the vital energy flows inside his
body.
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