Watching Xie Yuxing’s team gratefully accept the “free gift” of Revitalizing Pills, Qi Yuan nodded with satisfaction. He felt he had once again successfully stoked the enthusiasm of his “employees.”

With these recovery pills, this team of laborers would have the strength to generate more points. As the saying goes: without sowing, how can there be a harvest?

Although he possessed the ability to slaughter all the demon beasts in the surrounding area in a very short time, doing so would immediately expose his true strength and arouse enormous suspicion later on.

As the saying goes: rather than exhausting yourself, exhaust others. Wouldn’t it be better to hire some workhorses to earn points on his behalf?

Of course, to avoid over-exploitation—killing the goose that lays the golden eggs, or in this case, breaking this excellent team of employees—Qi Yuan decided to recruit a few more teams later.

Everyone could happily farm points together. While he was at it, he could let the natives of this world experience the “blessings” of the 996 work culture…

These three had rested long enough; it was time to get back to work.

A faint smile curled the corners of Qi Yuan’s mouth. He slowly retrieved an exquisite jade bottle from his robes and opened the lid. A peculiar medicinal fragrance wafted out, spreading through the air.

This top-grade Pei Ling Dan was a reward from the system for completing the last mission. Also known as the Beast Spirit Pill, it could rapidly increase a demon beast’s cultivation rank. To demon beasts, it was an absolutely irresistible temptation.

Top-grade Pei Ling Dans were even rarer and harder to come by. This pill emitted a unique medicinal fragrance that only demon beasts could smell. If this scent spread, demon beasts within a radius of several miles would follow the trail in no time. It was truly a monster-pulling artifact.

[System products are always top quality.]

Before long, a pack of Qi Refining realm Golden Mastiff Lions came charging frantically toward the area. From not far away, the angry roars of Xie Yuxing and his two companions rang out:

“Damn it! Is there no end? How come more demon beasts are coming? I just finished killing a batch!”

“Motherf*cker! If this goes on, we’ll be exhausted to death. Where are all these demon beasts coming from?”

“You ask me? Who should I ask? Just fight them. They’re all points anyway…”

After confirming that his employees were capable of killing this group of demon beasts, Qi Yuan re-sealed the jade bottle. With a flicker of movement, he silently vanished from the spot.

The next day.

The Grand Competition area.

A party of five walked listlessly through the forest, frustration written all over their faces.

Swish!

The disciple in the lead drew his longsword and angrily slashed through the vines blocking their path, gnashing his teeth.

“What on earth is going on with this Outer Sect Grand Competition? It’s been a whole day, and we haven’t even seen a shadow of a demon beast. It’s nothing but trees and more trees. If this continues, what’s there to compete for? I’m about to go crazy.”

A disciple beside him was equally troubled.

“I’ve participated in three Grand Competitions, but this is the first time I’ve encountered such a situation. Where have all the demon beasts gone? Did the Internal Affairs Pavilion forget to release them?”

At that moment, the only female disciple among the five timidly spoke up.

“Elder Yang said collecting rare treasures also counts for points. Should we split up and search?”

As soon as she said this, she drew immediate rebuttals from her companions.

“Elder Yang was probably just saying that. Where would there be so many rare treasures? In previous Grand Competitions, disciples who found rare treasures were few and far between. If we really had that kind of luck, we wouldn’t have failed to encounter even a single demon beast.”

Just then, the faint sounds of fighting drifted over from the distance. Due to the range, they couldn’t make out exactly what was happening, but it was clearly cultivators fighting demon beasts.

“Listen! There’s movement.”

“Let’s go check it out. Even if we can’t snatch the demon beasts, grabbing a few jade tokens would be good too.”

Everyone’s eyes lit up. They exchanged glances and then each activated their movement techniques, eagerly rushing toward the direction of the fight.

When they arrived, everyone froze, staring dumbfounded at the scene ahead as countless curses flashed through their minds.

In the clearing before them lay piles upon piles of demon beast corpses; a rough count suggested at least two or three hundred. Several cultivators were just finishing off a group of Silver-Armored Boars, expressions of pain and exhaustion on their faces.

After dispatching the beasts, the cultivators wore numb expressions of utter despair. They didn’t even bother wiping the blood from their weapons or paying any attention to the newcomers. They simply sat down cross-legged and began meditating to recover.

Witnessing this scene, the newly arrived disciples stiffened with shock, rendered speechless.

What the hell!

It was truly a case of some dying of thirst while others drowned in a flood! They had searched all day without encountering a single demon beast… while these guys were practically vomiting from killing so many…

Although they watched with burning envy, once they saw who was leading the cultivators, they immediately extinguished any thoughts of snatching jade tokens and stood there resentfully.

They recognized him: the leader of that group was none other than Lu Kuang—the top favorite to win this Outer Sect Grand Competition.