Chapter 58: First Encounter (1)

Actually, the Skull and Ghost herbs were not hard to grow, they were only rare and unrecognizable to most precisely because of how they were grown. They required a certain amount of fresh corpses, negative energy and spiritual power. That has largely been interpreted like the mound they happened upon, killing people, more specifically cultivators. The easiest and only known way to grow Skull and Ghost herbs was to kill people. Cultivators, being immortal and righteous abhorred hurting the innocents on the surface, and perhaps scared for their own lives, denounced anyone known to grow them. That, however, didn't mean no one was growing them, they just either haven't been found out or persecuted yet. The two types of herbs can be used to concoct all kinds of medicine, some life-saving. However, only certain parts of it can be used for medicine. For the Skull herb, only the leaves are medicinal, everything else was highly toxic, especially the skull fruits which stored most of the plant's toxins. The Ghost herb didn't bore fruit and only it's stalk could be used in medicine, the rest also contained the toxins of the plant, taken in from the negative energy.

These two types of plants were perfect for Shen Tianyu. She could give the medicinal parts to Luo Shue and keep the poisonous parts to concoct her poisons. Thinking about this, she started humming quietly to herself, despite the heavy rotting stench permeating the air. This created a beautiful yer disturbing scene and anyone that stumbled upon it would probably be scared out of their wits. 'You're humming so happily in this kind of a hellish place, are you a lunatic?!'

They came across another mound of corpses further down the road and stopped. Rong Jian looked at her in question. She turned to him.

"By the way, there are supposed to be demonic foxes living here that attack intruders right? How come we still haven't encountered one?" She asked with a slight smile on her lips.

Before Rong Jian could respond, a growl sounded from their right a few steps ahead.

"Speak of the devil and the devil will come." Shen Tianyu commented as she reached her hand into her magic pouch and took her sword out of her space.

...

In a tree nearby, a hint of surprise and amusement flashed in the eyes of the resident. The man was dressed completely in black with a silver mask, painted with spider lilies, covering his face, revealing only his eyes and cherry red lips. He had been following Shen Tianyu and Rong Jian since they entered the forest, thinking it interesting a couple would come out all the way here to such a dangerous place. In addition, the disparity in strength between the man and woman. He thought it'd be a good show to see a pampered Miss throwing a tantrum here of all places. Who would have thought that she was ready for battle at the first sign of danger instead of hiding behind someone else?

'This kind of reaction reminds me of her...' he thought to himself.

...

The sword in Shen Tianyu's hand looked quite different from the normal swords. There were various diagonal, distinct cuts within the blade of the sword that went down to the middle of it. The tip itself seemed separated from the rest of the blade in that there was only one cut going all around the tip. The tip that should have been shining silver was, instead, showing off a dull purple. The handle was simply wrapped in red while the guard was a simple circular metal, with no emblem or decorations. (1)

Rong Jian looked at her sword and frowned. "Wifey, are you sure your sword is able to handle a fight?" The various cuts in the blade made it look like it was about to fall apart, even if the sword itself does not show any wear or tear.

Shen Tianyu grinned without looking at him. "You'll see." This was one of her proud creations she'd worked tirelessly on with some of the elders and blacksmiths.

Rong Jian worriedly backed off a little, giving the floor to Shen Tianyu. She started a staring contest with the creature that had come out of the bushes. It was actually quite beautiful. The fox had snow white fur, pointed dark grey ears, and shining golden eyes. The only obvious way it looked different from a normal fox was that normal foxes did not have three red-tipped tails. It looked silently at Shen Tianyu, neither backing off.

'Whoa... It's pretty...' Shen Tianyu thought in her heart.

The demonic fox suddenly raised it's head and howled like a wolf. A bloodthirstiness shone in it's eyes as it opened it's mouth to reveal sharp, triangular teeth. It growled as it lunged towards Shen Tianyu. Before Rong Jian could go up to try to protect her, she swung her sword.

'What! It's still one Zhang(2) away! The sword won't reach it! Did she panic?!' Rong Jian thought she had panicked since her sword wouldn't be able to reach the demonic fox.

However, the sword stretched. The blades started detaching at the diagonal cuts and soon, it was mostly a whip, with small blades attached to it on the sides. The blades that reached the demonic fox slashed at it before returning back into sword form.

Rong Jian stood there, mouth agape in amazement. The man in the trees also widened his eyes in incredulity. Something like this, that combined a whip and sword, was never rarely heard of before! Almost no one ever combined weapons! The closest weapon to that was barbed whips and flexible swords that could bend. They reckon, even in the strongest continent, there was no one who even possessed this kind of blade, much less wield it. The biggest problem was that it was extremely difficult to make! The blacksmith had to attach the blades firmly to the whip , but they must be firm and strong enough that they won't break upon contact but not be too heavy as to weigh down the whip. Not to mention, Shen Tianyu's blade just now, stretched one zhang! That was way further than the whip should have been!

Actually, that wasn't too hard to explain. The hilt of Shen Tianyu's sword had a special function. She had an elder make a dimensional space within the hilt, the same kind of thing used to make magical pouches. In that dimensional space, was a mass of leather and blades, the rest of the "whip" of her sword. In actuality, her sword could extend much further than 1 Zhang.