Cultivation: I Can Steal Lifespan from Spirit Beasts

Chapter 169: Confrontation!

Astral winds howled across the sky.

Li Qu stood atop his Flying Artifact, constantly questioning the Musk Dog at his feet.

“Woof! Woof!”

Hearing the dog’s confirmation, Li Qu exhaled a breath of relief, a look of delight spreading across his face.

“Good. He hasn’t left yet!”

He immediately poured more Qi into the vessel beneath him. However, as a Low Grade Second-Rank artifact, its speed was capped. It was fast, but not fast enough to quell the urgency burning in his chest.

“Damn this junk,” Li Qu cursed inwardly. “It’s dragging me down. If I had a High Grade Second-Rank artifact last time, that kid would already be in my bag.”

His eyes narrowed as he calculated. “That kid… he was definitely using a High Grade artifact. When I catch him, I’ll block his retreat first. No talking. Just a lightning-fast strike. Once I cripple him, I’ll seize his vessel so he can’t run again.”

He ran through the plan again, his greed sharpening his focus.

“I’ll strip his Storage Bags. Demonic cultivators are paranoid; they don’t trust banks or vaults. Whatever treasure Lin Xiwen valued most is definitely on him.”

“Then, I kill him and leave… No, wait.” He corrected himself. “I can’t kill him yet. If the Heavenly Gate Sect investigates and finds a corpse, it’s trouble. Better to capture him alive, smuggle him out of the State of Yan, and sell him to other demonic cultivators.”

“Perfect. Two birds, one stone.”

He replayed the simulation in his mind, ensuring no variables were left unaccounted for. After all, his target was a Foundation Establishment cultivator from the Heavenly Gate Sect. Even if the target was a rookie, Li Qu dared not underestimate him.

Boldness tempered by caution—that was how a nobody Rogue Cultivator like him had survived long enough to reach this realm.

Ahead, a desolate mountain ravine came into view. Just past that ridge lay his prize.

Faint rumbles of thunder rolled in from the horizon.

Li Qu ignored them, driving his artifact swiftly over the ridge. In the distance, he saw a cluster of dark tribulation clouds dissipating, and beneath them, a tiny black dot.

“There!”

Ecstasy surged in his chest. He immediately dipped the nose of his artifact, hugging the terrain to mask his approach, and shot toward the black dot like a viper in the grass.

“Thunderclouds again?”

A streak of sword light ground to a halt in mid-air, revealing Zhao Feng’s puzzled face.

He looked toward the southwest. Although his eyes couldn’t perceive the details, his body’s sensitivity to the Heaven and Earth Qi picked up a faint, anemic heavenly pressure from that direction.

What confused him was the rhythm. This Heavenly Thunder Tribulation was bizarre. It would strike two or three times, then stop. Then start again.

It felt… constipated. Or like a man with a prostate issue urinating intermittently—sputtering, halting, and deeply uncomfortable to witness.

Moreover, the intensity didn’t feel right for a Golden Core tribulation. He had seen the elders of the Eastern Sage Sect transcend their tribulations; the pressure then had been majestic and continuous.

Originally, he had hoped to gain some enlightenment by observing the lightning. Now, he was just driven by sheer confusion.

Who is transcending a tribulation out here? And what in the world are they transcending?

Unable to suppress his curiosity, Zhao Feng circulated his Soul Qi. He transformed into a streak of sword light once more, effortlessly tearing through the astral winds as he whistled toward the southwest.

Moments later, he crossed a turbulent river crashing down from the highlands. Without pausing, he sped toward the dissipating clouds on the horizon.

“Here.”

The sword light dissolved, revealing Zhao Feng again. He peered down curiously, but his expression instantly froze.

Not far below the fading clouds, he saw a familiar black dot.

“Junior Brother?!”

For the first time, genuine astonishment broke through Zhao Feng’s stoic mask. But before he could process the shock or the joy of finding Wang Ba, his spiritual perception screamed.

Inside his body, the Soul Nurturing Pearl spun violently.

His Sword Eyes narrowed, piercing through the miles of distance. He saw it clearly: a slightly plump figure skimming the ground, moving with the predatory stealth of a seasoned killer, rushing straight toward the unsuspecting Wang Ba.

And Wang Ba was still standing there, completely unaware.

“Mid-Foundation Establishment!”

“Damn it!”

Zhao Feng didn’t think. He became the sword, shooting forward with a desperate burst of speed.

Wang Ba looked down at Wu-Five, who was currently pinned firmly to the dirt by the Mountain Moving Ape King.

He sighed. “Why do they always do this?”

These apes had watched their predecessors get beaten into submission, yet without exception, the moment they survived the Minor Heavenly Thunder Tribulation, their egos inflated, and they tried to rebel. It seemed every Mountain Moving Ape believed it was the chosen one—that it alone could do what others couldn’t.

Wang Ba glanced at the charred remains of another ape nearby, regret flickering in his eyes.

Despite tuning their bodies to perfection, the Heavenly Dao was unpredictable. The tribulation had evolved. What used to be a single lightning bolt had become three, and the power had spiked. One of the female apes hadn’t survived the intensity; her soul had been scattered, her body ruined.

This failure extinguished Wang Ba’s hope of finding a “loophole.”

The Heavenly Dao was vast; it wouldn’t leave such obvious gaps. As the Mountain Moving Apes grew stronger, the tribulation scaled up to match them. It was a test written into their bloodline. Wang Ba could optimize their chances, but he couldn’t lower the exam difficulty.

This made him worry about the Mountain Moving Ape King.

Wu-One and the others were merely Low Grade, yet they faced three bolts. The Ape King had been nurtured to Second-Rank Middle Grade. Its tribulation would likely be terrifying.

Wang Ba hesitated. Should he wait? Prepare more?

But waiting wasn’t an option. Even if he stopped feeding it Lifespan, the King would reach maturity soon enough, triggering the lightning regardless.

He tossed a Spirit Beast Collar onto the defeated Wu-Five and threw the ape into his Storage Bag. Then, he pulled out a small jar of Spirit Poultry Essence and fed it to the Ape King to replenish its stamina.

Suddenly, the Yin Spirit Power inside his Yin Spirit Abode began to spin frantically.

Danger!

Wang Ba’s hackles rose.

His Divine Sense exploded outward, covering a radius of several hundred meters. His eyes darted around the desolate landscape.

Nothing.

“A passing high-level cultivator?” he wondered.

Then, his Divine Sense caught it—a blur of motion hugging the ground, shooting toward him like an arrow. The figure’s face was distorted by magic, but the aura was unmistakable.

“Him! The cultivator from the market!”

Wang Ba recognized the slightly plump man he had encountered in both the Exquisite Ghost Market and the Nixia Market. He didn’t know the man’s name, but he remembered the feeling of being watched.

How did he find me?

The thought barely formed before Wang Ba discarded it. Reason didn’t matter; survival did. He didn’t waste a breath asking questions. He summoned his Flying Artifact instantly.

Bang!

The warning formation he had set around the perimeter shattered as the plump cultivator smashed through it. Wang Ba used that split second to jump onto his vessel.

But then, the sky went dark.

A massive Web Artifact descended from above, shrouding Wang Ba and cutting off his escape. The web wasn’t invincible, but it was sticky and resilient. It would take time to cut through—time Wang Ba didn’t have.

“Damn it!”

“Haha! You can’t escape!”

The plump cultivator’s laughter boomed. “I’ll break your wings first!”

A Hammer Artifact flew out of the attacker’s sleeve, expanding in the air and smashing down toward Wang Ba and his fragile vessel with crushing force.

But just as the hammer descended, a shadow moved.

Faster than the eye could follow, a figure leaped in front of Wang Ba. It raised two deceptively slender, furry arms and shoved its palms upward.

BOOM!

The hammer, carrying the weight of a mountain, slammed into the palms. The ground cracked. The air exploded.

But the hammer stopped.

The Mountain Moving Ape King stood there, its knees bent, its arm bones groaning under the pressure, but it held the line.

The plump cultivator’s eyes bulged. He stared at the ape in disbelief. It caught the hammer?

Wang Ba didn’t freeze. He ignored the Ape King’s injuries, gritted his teeth, and seized the opening. He summoned Alpha-Fifteen and Alpha-Sixteen. The two mutated chickens immediately began tearing at the Web Artifact with their beaks and claws.

“You have a beast like that?!”

Shock turned to greed in the plump cultivator’s eyes. “A Second-Rank Middle Grade spirit beast! A Heavenly Gate Sect disciple actually has such a treasure!”

“Haha! It’s all mine!”

Laughing maniacally, the cultivator flicked his wrist, releasing two Heavenly Thunder Pearls.

Bang! Bang!

Explosions engulfed the Ape King. Its fur scorched, flesh tore, and blood misted the air, yet the beast refused to budge, acting as a living shield for its master.

Seeing this, Wang Ba’s expression went cold. He reached into his Storage Bag and pulled out a gruesome object.

The Human Skin Drum.

He channeled every ounce of his soul power and struck the drum’s surface.

DONG!

Ideally, the drum made no sound in the physical world. But in the plump cultivator’s mind, it was a nuclear detonation.

His movements froze instantly. His eyes glazed over, terror flashing through his consciousness.

A soul attack?!

He hadn’t expected this rookie, this cowardly Foundation Establishment fledgling, to possess such a rare and vicious art.

He bit the tip of his tongue violently. The sharp pain cleared his Divine Sense.

Shaking off the dizziness, he hurriedly tried to recall his Hammer Artifact to bypass the ape and crush Wang Ba directly.

But what greeted him was not a cowering victim.

It was a beautiful, shimmering curtain of water droplets, shooting through the gaps in the spider web like a swarm of jade bullets.

“Petty tricks!”

The cultivator sneered. He raised a barrier of Qi, confident it would deflect a simple water spell.

But the moment the droplets touched his barrier, his face drained of color.

“Fuck!”

“It’s a heavy water technique!”

The droplets were incredibly dense and heavy. They shattered his barrier instantly. Panic seizing him, he frantically activated his defensive Magical Artifact.

The water droplets hammered against the artifact’s shield, dimming its luster with every heavy impact. It was a Second-Rank Middle Grade defense, and it groaned under the strain, barely holding the water at bay.

Finally, the last droplet shattered.

The plump cultivator opened his mouth to laugh, to mock the futility of the attack.

But the laughter died in his throat.

From the mist of the shattered water droplets, something else emerged.

Whoosh!

Twenty-eight Iris Formless Needles, hidden inside the water like assassins in the fog, shot forward.

The defensive artifact was already spent. The barrier was gone.

The needles met no resistance.

Silence fell over the ravine.

The plump cultivator stood there, staring at Wang Ba. He saw the look on Wang Ba’s face—a look of lingering fear and profound relief.

Li Qu opened his mouth. His eyes were wide, filled with a chaotic mix of unwillingness, confusion, and betrayal.

“You… why did you run before…”

He hated it.

You’re this strong! You have a Second-Rank beast! You have soul attacks! You have high-level techniques! Why did you run like a rabbit when you saw me before?!

Are you sick in the head?!

You misled me! It was a trap!

He wanted to scream, to curse the unfairness of it all. But his vocal cords refused to obey.

The twenty-eight Iris Formless Needles exited his body from the back, carrying away the last of his life force. His bones seemed to dissolve, and he collapsed into a heap of soft flesh.

The light in his eyes faded, leaving only a final, frozen look of accusation.

Whoosh.

A sword light descended from the sky and landed in front of Wang Ba.

The light receded, revealing Zhao Feng. His usually stoic face was twisted in absolute, jaw-dropping shock.