Chapter 66: Taking the Sutra as Compensation

For an ordinary person, that sword strike would have disemboweled them. But for Xu Ganglie, it merely grazed his skin, leaving his bones untouched! His physique was astonishingly robust.

Xu Ganglie wiped the blood from his chest, finally enraged. "You dog, how dare you wound me?" With a powerful push from his legs, he bounded forward, pouncing with a sudden burst. From a distance, he resembled a giant toad. Jiang Fan had no time to dodge.

Yet, he remained calm and once again executed 'Seven Stars to the North.' Xu Ganglie roared, "Die!" Ignoring the pain, he lunged, grabbing the wooden sword with both hands. Unbeknownst to him, Jiang Fan had been waiting for this exact moment. Without hesitation, he activated the wooden sword's electric shock effect. Sizzling sounds filled the air as a continuous current surged into Xu Ganglie's body. He convulsed violently, stiffened, and then dropped from mid-air, lying motionless on the ground, truly resembling a toad.

What made Jiang Fan's scalp tingle was that the same current which could paralyze an ordinary person for several seconds only immobilized Xu Ganglie for a brief moment before he recovered! Furious, he scrambled to his feet, snapped the wooden sword in half with both hands, and hurled the pieces at Jiang Fan's feet. "You little beast, this time you're dead, aren't you?" he snarled, then rushed towards Jiang Fan, a mere blur.

To Jiang Fan, it felt as though not a person, but an entire mountain was hurtling towards him. The old man cried out in despair, "Get out of the way!" He could almost envision Jiang Fan's grim fate, knowing he would be reduced to a bloody mist upon impact.

Jiang Fan's heart tightened; this was his last chance. He quickly drew the purple sword from his back, not even pausing to remove its cloth wrapping. He swung it through the air towards the charging Xu Ganglie. His movements were clumsy and slow, drawing a sneer from Xu Ganglie. "You can't even hold a sword steady, and you think..." Xu Ganglie trailed off, suddenly freezing. He realized that the distance between himself and Jiang Fan had stopped closing. Then, in his vision, he saw only the lower half of a body, still rushing forward towards Jiang Fan by inertia, before finally toppling to the ground with a thud just before reaching him.

Meanwhile, he himself abruptly dropped to the ground. He looked down at his own body. His lower half was gone! A moment later, a searing, agonizing pain ripped through him, making him shriek in a horrific, desperate wail: "Ah! Ah! My body, my body..." *Thud* — He didn't suffer long. Jiang Fan, without hesitation, thrust his sword through Xu Ganglie's throat, ending his life. Until his last breath, Xu Ganglie never understood what had just happened.

"That was close," Jiang Fan murmured, wiping sweat from his forehead, a look of relief washing over him. If he hadn't acquired the purple sword, he surely would have perished there today. "What a shame about the Thunder-Patterned Spirit Wood Sword," he lamented, carefully picking up the two broken pieces. It had been with him for so long, helping him escape danger countless times, only to be needlessly destroyed in this fight.

The disheveled old man approached, offering an apology. "I'm truly sorry, young hero. I didn't intentionally lead him to you; it was purely instinct for survival." He added, "How about I compensate you with some silver?" Jiang Fan glared at him coldly. "Who cares about your silver? My life was almost lost because of you. Do you think a simple apology is enough?"

Suddenly, he remembered the *Iron-Blood True Scripture* that Xu Ganglie had mentioned. "Copy me a version of the *Iron-Blood True Scripture*, and we'll call it even!" The old man's lips trembled. After a brief consideration, he gritted his teeth and agreed, "Very well. A life-saving debt should certainly be repaid."

The old man had been unwilling to hand over the *Iron-Blood True Scripture* to Xu Ganglie because he knew that surrendering it would lead to his death. Jiang Fan, however, didn't appear to be a cruel or vicious individual. So, he retrieved an iron scroll, densely inscribed with characters, revealing it to be a body-refining technique.

Jiang Fan's eyes widened as he read. "A Profound-grade, Low-tier Body Tempering technique?" As the old man squatted to transcribe it, he spoke with a touch of pride. "This is the Giant Sect's most advanced body-tempering method. Only elders and the sect master are allowed to study it. Why else do you think Xu Ganglie pursued me all the way from the Giant Sect to Azure Cloud Sect territory?" Jiang Fan, however, caught the hidden meaning. "Study? What, does no one actually cultivate this body-tempering method? Is there a problem with the technique itself?"

What puzzled him even more was why such a top-tier technique would be allowed to be taken out by an outsider. The old man's face stiffened; this young man was truly perceptive, immediately sensing something amiss. He sighed helplessly. "There's nothing wrong with the technique itself. It's simply that there aren't enough resources to support its cultivation. See for yourself what's required just for the first level."

Jiang Fan gazed intently at the text, a strange expression on his face. "Four-grade Spirit Pills, ten Tiger Strength Pills." The old man elaborated, "Now do you understand why no one cultivates this technique? Tiger Strength Pills can only be refined by a Four-Star Soul Master! But where can you find a Four-Star Soul Master? Not even the Giant Sect, let alone the Heavenly Secrets Pavilion, has one. So, this technique is essentially useless; it's only for studying!"

The old man recalled his ordeal of being relentlessly pursued. "I must have been senile," he said with a sigh, "to think of offering this as compensation. You can't even cultivate it, and it only led to a chase that almost cost me my life. Young man, just take it and read it; don't try to cultivate it. Without Tiger Strength Pills, any effort would be futile."

Jiang Fan stroked his chin thoughtfully, remaining silent. Others couldn't refine Tiger Strength Pills, but he could! He was perfectly capable of cultivating this technique! Suppressing his excitement, Jiang Fan casually began to search Xu Ganglie's body.

He found several items. Since Xu Ganglie specialized in body tempering, there were no cultivation manuals or foundation-building pills. However, a pouch filled with glistening crystals caught his eye.

"Wow! Xu Ganglie had quite a fortune—a hundred mid-grade crystals! That's equivalent to a thousand low-grade ones!" The old man glanced over and swallowed enviously. "Crystals?" Jiang Fan asked, looking at the old man in surprise, who in turn seemed taken aback. "Young hero, doesn't your Azure Cloud Sect use crystals? Among the Nine Sects, silver is no longer adequate for measuring the value of various high-grade rare materials. Thus, crystals are the universal currency."

Jiang Fan simply uttered, "Oh," and slipped the crystals into his pouch. Soon after, the old man finished copying the technique. He checked it meticulously, ensuring every character was accurate, before putting it away. "Farewell," he said, then stood up, ready to depart.

However, he suddenly swayed, his vision went black, and he collapsed to the ground. Jiang Fan stopped. "What's wrong?" he asked. "Just... just an old ailment, nothing serious..." The old man struggled for breath, reaching into his robes for a medicine bottle, only to discover, upon touching it, that its bottom had broken.

All the pills inside had fallen out during his frantic escape, causing him to instantly panic. Jiang Fan frowned. Deciding to help him completely, he stepped forward to check the old man's pulse and sniffed the empty medicine bottle.

"It's a meridian problem," Jiang Fan concluded. He rummaged through the old man's belongings, finding the necessary ingredients. Shortly after, he refined several pills. He gave one to the old man and placed the remaining ones beside him.

When the old man finally awoke, Jiang Fan was nowhere to be found. "He saved me? But all my spirit pills were gone; where did he get these?" he wondered aloud. "Spirit pills can only be refined by Soul Masters." Then, his gaze fell upon the spirit pills beside him. His pupils instantly contracted in shock!