Chapter 53: Near-Death Experience

Stealing the Taixuan Ice Soul Sword was like cutting off Ye Rong’s path forward for a very long time. It was cutting him off from his source of income!

“You dare steal my money? You… are… dead!” Ye Rong hissed through gritted teeth, his eyes bloodshot. Anyone who stood in the way of his well-laid plans would be kicked aside.

However, Ye Rong’s situation was indeed grim. Because he had to worry about not straying too far from the Taixuan Ice Soul Sword, even his dodging paths had to be calculated in advance; he couldn’t just move freely.

His movements were confined to a circle, centred around the Taixuan Ice Soul Sword, forcing him to circle around the point nonstop.

If he could only kill one of these two mountain trolls, the remaining one wouldn’t be much of a threat. The problem was, he only had one Flying Sword in hand; he couldn’t possibly conjure two.

Fighting barehanded against a mountain troll in the midst of a monstrous strength surge? It was impossible. The monster’s Strength attribute had likely already surpassed 50 points at this moment.

Among the five Innate Attributes, Strength was always the most overlooked.

And truly, in terms of importance, the Strength attribute paled in comparison to several others. Nobody had heard of any Sect recruitment setting special Strength requirements. At most, certain unusual Flying Swords might require a Player to have a minimum Strength score to wield them later on.

But right now, faced with this mountain troll of boundless strength, capable of tearing tigers and leopards apart with its bare hands, Ye Rong could only stare in silent despair.

“My only chance is to risk it all!”

He sprinted forward recklessly, dashed to the Taixuan Ice Soul Sword, and gripped it with his hand. Pulling hard felt like wrenching a sword deeply embedded in the ground; immense resistance met him. Green light pulsed on his hand as he pushed the Qingcheng Qi Refining Method to its utmost limit. Although the Taixuan Ice Soul Sword wasn’t forged with the Qingcheng Heart Method and wouldn’t gain special bonuses from it, as a Divine Weapon perfectly suited to Taoist disciples, under the impulse of the Qingcheng Qi Refining Method, it could still manifest its full power. It forcibly shattered the mottled, impure yellow light.

After all, this yellow light was merely the mountain troll’s innate magical ability. Its purity and its application held far less profundity than actual sacred lights from the Buddhist School; they only shared a superficial resemblance in their innate properties.

Faced with powerful external resistance, it unsurprisingly couldn’t hold. The mottled, impure yellow light instantly fell apart completely.

With his sword finally in hand, Ye Rong closed the distance with the troll. Pinpricks of cold starlight aimed straight for the creature’s eyes and the tip of its nose.

The light emitting from the Flying Sword in his hand pulsed, flickering short then long, making it impossible to tell if this strike was a feint or a genuine thrust. Its movements were unpredictable.

The mountain troll lifted both front paws to shield its face. Ye Rong swept his Sword Light across them, leaving a cross-shaped wound. Even a Third-Grade Immortal Weapon couldn’t pierce clean through the troll’s thick, tough hide; it only broke the surface skin.

“Running away?”

Ye Rong was stunned. The injured mountain troll’s decision to retreat caught him completely off guard. This didn’t fit its known temperament of being volatile, prone to extreme rage, and highly aggressive to anyone nearby.

Behind him, the second mountain troll rumbled forward like a heavy tank. Ye Rong nimbly rolled, dodging it, and immediately pursued the fleeing troll.

He was starting to understand. The power of that mottled, impure yellow light far surpassed other ordinary magical abilities mountain trolls possessed. To maintain balance, a troll blessed with such an innate magical ability must have had its close-combat strength significantly weakened. Otherwise, the Level of such a troll should have been much higher.

A mountain troll weak in close combat? That was exactly the kind Ye Rong preferred to fight. Right now, it seemed much easier to deal with than the big brute chasing him.

Even with another troll hot on his heels, Ye Rong handled the Flying Sword in his hand with incredible precision. He pressed his attack relentlessly, denying the troll any chance to spit that yellow light. Wounds multiplied all over its body, covered in bloody gashes that oozed a bizarre, faint blue liquid.

“Slash!”

The Taixuan Ice Soul Sword flew from his hand. At an astonishing speed, it slashed the troll’s back three times in rapid succession. The final strike finally cleaved it cleanly in half at the waist.

This Sword Flight technique pushed the attack speed to the absolute maximum his Flying Sword could achieve, but its energy cost was horrifying – triple the consumption under normal circumstances. Ye Rong just managed to swallow a Qi Recovery Powder, bringing his nearly depleted Qi Value up a bit, when he felt like he’d been struck by lightning. The force sent him flying forward like a sandbag.

“Oof!”

It felt like every bone in his back had snapped. It wasn’t just excruciating pain; he briefly lost all feeling, going completely numb. After several breaths, agony deeper than his marrow, like his body was breaking inch by inch, flooded in. The Qingcheng Taoist robe over his chest had a patch stained dark red, soaked through with his own blood.

Ye Rong understood these injuries weren’t something a few pills could instantly cure. Like a severed limb, the only solutions were either to die once to reset all negative statuses, or to find a rare spiritual elixir capable of regenerating lost limbs.

His internal organs felt completely displaced. He recalled a fifth-grade pill in the sect’s alchemy hall that supposedly cured such injuries. If he didn’t want to spend the gold, he’d be stuck in bed for three or four days, completely unable to hunt monsters or level up.

But more urgently now, Ye Rong had to deal with the culprit behind his condition: that mountain troll of immense strength.

“The Golden Daily Quest… lives up to its difficulty,” Ye Rong managed a bitter smile. Resistance seemed futile now; he was mentally preparing to surrender his first character life in Far Shore to these mountain trolls.

He didn’t regret accepting this Golden Daily Quest, however. If he always played it safe, prioritized security first… how could he ever truly stand out among nearly a hundred million Players?

After flinging Ye Rong away, the mountain troll bared its fangs in a gruesome show of dominance. Astonishingly, its glossy black fur abruptly lost its sheen. Its body size visibly shrank, as if drained of water. Its previous aura of boundless ferocity vanished completely. All aggression gone, it slumped weakly onto the floor, only managing to glare at Ye Rong hatefully with its eyes.

“This is… the backlash after the innate ability’s effect wore off!” Ye Rong exclaimed, excitement replacing despair. While prepared for death, it didn’t mean he welcomed it. Survival was definitely the best outcome!

Too bad he truly had zero capacity for a counter-attack now. Otherwise, this would have been the perfect moment to finish the troll off.

He had no idea how long this backlash would last. Groaning, Ye Rong crawled laboriously a few feet, scooping up the items dropped by the first slain mountain troll. The instant he was flagged ‘Out of Combat’, he ripped open the Verdant Leaf Talisman.

The Sect-specific Teleportation Talisman activated instantly. Enveloped inside a giant, cocoon-like talisman of cyan light, Ye Rong vanished in a flash, reappearing back within the safety of his Sect grounds.

Quickly downing two Blood Restoration Pills, Ye Rong topped his Health Points. Finally able to stand, he could walk around now, no longer feeling like a cripple… mostly.

Just climbing a few steps sent sharp agony stabbing through his chest, pain that pierced right to his core. Breathing became labored, and even walking was an arduous effort. In this state, Sword Flight was impossible. Normal monster hunting and leveling were completely out of the question.