The twenty-odd spirit stones Fan Jiushe pulled out truly hadn’t come easily. Although the Fan brothers had accumulated quite a bit of silver over the years in Southern Capital City, spirit stones weren’t something that could be bought with silver.

As a mortal, no matter how wealthy you were, obtaining spirit stones from cultivators was extremely difficult. Cultivators possessed extraordinary abilities – they had far too many opportunities to acquire silver and simply didn’t care about it. Why would they exchange spirit stones for silver?

Fan Jiushe’s few dozen spirit stones had come through fortunate coincidence. A cultivation family happened to produce a good-for-nothing son without spiritual roots. The kid ate, drank, whored, gambled, and even owed debts.

Fan Jiulong learned about this and stepped forward to give him a large sum of money. In return, the wastrel son used a combination of deception and theft to steal these few dozen spirit stones from his family. Fan Jiushe had treasured them for a long time, always reluctant to use them. Only today, at this life-or-death moment, did he finally take them out.

Spirit stones had many uses. First, they served as currency for transactions between cultivators, used just like mortals used silver. Generally speaking, when people mentioned “how many spirit stones,” they referred to the lower-grade spirit stones like those in Fan Jiushe’s hands. One hundred lower-grade spirit stones could be exchanged for one middle-grade spirit stone, and one hundred middle-grade spirit stones equaled one upper-grade spirit stone.

Of course, that was the theory. In reality, upper-grade spirit stones were extremely rare – one hundred middle-grade spirit stones couldn’t come close to buying a single upper-grade spirit stone. As for supreme-grade spirit stones, those were divine objects. They’d practically gone extinct in this realm – no one had heard of supreme-grade spirit stones appearing in thousands of years.

Spirit stones’ second use was that many formations required spirit stones as formation cores. Simply put, spirit stones provided energy – formations couldn’t operate without them.

The third use of spirit stones was absorbing spiritual energy. The spiritual energy contained within spirit stones was extremely pure, far superior to the spiritual energy in the air. Even the most spiritually abundant location couldn’t match the spiritual energy provided by spirit stones.

Fan Jiushe’s purpose in taking out the spirit stones was this third use. While maintaining his Golden Light Body Protection, his own spiritual energy couldn’t keep up with the supply, so he had no choice but to use spirit stones to replenish his spiritual energy for a prolonged standoff with Ye Kong.

Seeing Fan Jiushe forced to use spirit stones to barely hang on, Ye Kong stolen contentlaughed mockingly. “Brother Fan, quite a few spirit stones you’ve got there. I’ll be interested to see – after you drain that handful of spirit stones, how much longer can you last!”

Fan Jiushe ignored him, sitting cross-legged in the grass, holding one spirit stone in each hand as if asleep.

Although the Golden Light Body Protection consumed spiritual power, if not under attack, the consumption was limited.

Ye Kong naturally wouldn’t let him meditate so peacefully. He went to find more rocks and continuously pelted Fan Jiushe’s body. The golden light twisted and distorted from the impacts, yet showed no signs of breaking.

After throwing rocks for quite a while, Ye Kong lost interest. Unwilling to continue wasting spiritual power on this futile effort, he simply moved a large rock over, sat down facing Fan Jiushe, and also began meditating.

“You want to wait it out? Fine. I’ve got plenty of time. After all, I’m not the one whose relatives are waiting to die.” Ye Kong smiled.

By now the sky had begun to darken. Looking up, the sun was no longer visible. The last trace of light struggled to illuminate the sky, while the spirit stones in Fan Jiushe’s hands had been mostly consumed.

Ye Kong naturally wouldn’t cultivate in front of an enemy. Looking up at the sky, he said flatly, “Fan Jiushe, it’s almost dark. How about we make a deal.”

Hearing this, Fan Jiushe opened his eyes and looked at Ye Kong, who continued, “This whole incident is purely because of your evil intentions. As long as you disperse your cultivation, hand over your cultivation technique, I, Ye Kong, will spare the lives of you and your entire family.”

Fan Jiushe listened and sneered with contempt, laughing. “For cultivators, the most feared thing is being entangled by external attachments. Go ahead and kill my whole family – afterward I won’t have to worry about them anymore. Maybe I’ll cultivate even faster.”

Ye Kong shook his head. “You heartless, unrighteous beast. Even if they die, do you think you can escape?”

Fan Jiushe smiled mysteriously. “Hard to say.”

Just as he finished smiling, Ye Kong suddenly felt something was wrong. But before he could move, the mutation occurred.

Around the large rock where he sat cross-legged, four green pillars as thick as a man’s leg suddenly sprouted from nowhere. The pillars’ surfaces were mottled and rough, as if they were trees that had suddenly grown. As the pillars rose, countless vines frantically emerged from the ground between them. These vines grew with extreme ferocity, quickly surrounding Ye Kong from all sides.

Ye Kong’s heart jumped in alarm. Not knowing what this thing was, he reached up and pulled a dagger from his sleeve, slashing viciously at the vines.

Who would have thought the vines were incomparably sturdy? One slash only cut through the vine’s skin, and from the cut, several more thumb-thick tendrils sprouted out. The more he cut, the more there were.

“Haha, stop wasting your effort!” Fan Jiushe’s wild laughter came from outside. “Boy, let me tell you – this is lower mid-grade spirit grass called Prison Cage Grass. This thing has no killing power, but for trapping people, it’s unmatched. Even a Foundation Establishment immortal would have trouble escaping!”

“You think I was meditating to waste time just now? Wrong! I was frantically absorbing spiritual energy to nourish this grass seed, which is why it suddenly grew! Fooled you, didn’t I? Little fox, you still can’t outfox an old hunter!”

Having been frustrated all afternoon, Fan Jiushe laughed like a madman. Watching the green square cage grow so densely woven that nothing could penetrate it, he circled around it, extremely gratified.

“Damn it! Fan Jiushe, let me out!” Ye Kong gave up cutting vines and stood in this one-square-meter dark room cursing. “Fan Jiushe, you coward! What kind of ability is trapping me? Can you kill me? Come on!”

“Haha, of course I visit our site can kill you! Even if I can’t kill you, you’ll starve to death!”

“Then your whole family still dies! Come kill me!”

“Like I said, let them die. I’ll avenge them later.” Fan Jiushe laughed sinisterly. “This Prison Cage Grass seed was left by that dead cultivator. Even when I was being hunted last time, I couldn’t bear to use it. Now that I’ve used it on you, how could I not reap some benefits?”

Indeed, this Prison Cage Grass seed had long been extinct. It had been passed down in that ancient cultivator’s storage pouch for ten thousand years. Fan Jiushe had truly treasured it like a precious possession, treating it as his final lifeline. If not for reaching life-or-death straits today, he wouldn’t have used it.

Since he’d used it, he absolutely had to absorb Ye Kong’s cultivation. As for his parents, wife, and children at home – he didn’t care anymore. Besides, rushing back now would probably be too late anyway. Better to absorb Ye Kong’s cultivation right here and break through to Qi Refinement Layer 4.

As for opening this cage, he naturally had a method.

The Prison Cage Grass grew into a square green cage, then stopped growing. Root after root of densely packed vines twisted and tangled together like four walls, blocking Ye Kong inside. Even the top was completely sealed by vines.

“Damn it, who knew this fatty had such a vicious grass!” Ye Kong punched with his fists, slashed with his knife, bled on it, spat on it… he tried every method he could think of, but nothing worked.

“If you’ve got guts, come in here and kill me!” Ye Kong cursed.

“Haha, don’t think I’m tricking you. I really do have a way. Once I dig a hole in this vine wall, your death will arrive!”

Fan Jiushe laughed triumphantly and slapped his storage pouch, pulling out [visit our site]that gray, dim small sword artifact. He slashed at the protruding vines.

“Snap” – a finger-thick vine broke clean off, white sap flowing from the cut.

“Just as I thought – this Prison Cage Grass can only be cut with magical artifacts or spirit tools.” Having succeeded in his test, Fan Jiushe’s heart filled with great joy.

He’d long had a plan for dealing with Ye Kong. Didn’t this brat know how to dodge? In a space this cramped, let’s see you dodge! In a bit, he’d dig a fist-sized hole, then throw Ice Bullet Techniques inside to freeze him solid, and he could capture this brat alive!

Ye Kong inside wasn’t idle either. Unable to cut the vines, he suddenly thought – dig through the ground!

But he was disappointed again. This Prison Cage Grass was truly first-rate at trapping people. The ground was even harder than the walls – the vines there were thicker and hard as iron and stone. When his dagger struck them, sparks actually flew.

Damn it, was he just supposed to wait here to die?

Hearing the scraping sounds of digging from outside, Ye Kong once again felt despair. He roared, “Fan Jiushe! Don’t you want to absorb my spiritual energy? If you push me too far, I’ll commit suicide! Then let’s see how you absorb my spiritual energy!”

“Haha, you won’t!” Fan Jiushe laughed loudly. “People like you are just like me! You absolutely won’t give up until the very last moment! And even at the last moment, you’ll still struggle desperately! People like this will never commit suicide! You… aren’t willing to accept defeat!”

Ye Kong snorted. “Damn it, you really understand me. Looks like the saying is true – the one who understands you best is your enemy.”

The sky had completely darkened. The moon hadn’t yet risen. This was the darkest moment of the day – the sky pitch black, the forest like shadowy Read on Jormuntl shapes of monsters, eerie and terrifying.

This “Prison Cage Grass” lived up to its name, truly like a prison cage. The walls weren’t ordinarily thick. Fan Jiushe didn’t light a fire, just dug inward in the darkness. Although the small sword artifact could cut through the wall formed by tangled vines, the speed wasn’t particularly fast.

But inch by inch it went deeper. The thick vine wall was finally hollowed out. Fan Jiushe stabbed fiercely once more – the sword tip pierced through with a “pop”!

“Broke through!” Fan Jiushe’s heart surged with excitement, his fingers trembling slightly.

He shouted wildly, “Boy, your life won’t last much longer! I’m about to use your spiritual energy to break through to Qi Refinement Layer 4! Then I’ll be able to use magical artifacts! Haha, let me tell you – the first person I kill with my artifact will be that ghost-faced mother of yours! Then the whole Lu family!”

Just when Ye Kong’s life seemed about to end, at this most critical moment, he suddenly slapped his forehead. “How stupid – how did I not think of this?”