Li Jing was not a heartless man but he knew that sparing an enemy would only cause him problems in the future. In this kind of ruthless world, if one showed mercy to their enemies, they would always regret it.
He approached the shaking captain of the Black Tiger and pierced his heart with his dagger, giving him a quick death.
[Host has killed a cultivator in the Qi Gathering realm: XP + 150.]
Before absorbing the soul of the captain, he first absorbed the seven souls of the men he killed earlier one after the other.
[Host has absorbed the soul of 7 cultivators in the Qi Gathering realm: Strength + 35 Jin, Soul Strength + 35.]
As expected, their memories were useless but he was not surprised by this. These men were weak and were more interested in stealing people to gain money rather than increasing their cultivation or training… The only thing interesting in their memories was that they traveled a lot and knew well almost every place in the Sky Jade kingdom.
[Host has absorbed the soul of a cultivator in the Qi Gathering realm: Strength + 5 Jin, Soul Strength + 5.]
When Li Jing absorbed the soul of the captain, a large smile appeared on his face. Not only this man knew where to find their hideout but he was also in possession of a Low-grade Mortal Cultivation method of the Light element called 'Mantra of the Six Perfections'!
A couple of years ago the captain, whose name was Ming Chen, attacked with his group some disciples of the Bhikkhu Monastery.
The Bhikkhu Monastery was a buddhist monastery with a power equivalent to a rank-3 sect that was located in the southern part of the kingdom. A rank-3 sect was weaker than a major kingdom so they couldn't do anything against the Black Tiger.
On one of the disciples of the monastery he attacked, he found the Shield of the Four Truths technique and the Mantra of the Six Perfections method. However, Ming Chen couldn't cultivate the Mantra of the Six Perfections method because to absorb and contain Light Qi inside one's dantian, one needed to have a pure heart.
Of course, this restriction didn't apply to Li Jing because he didn't absorb the Qi inside his dantian while cultivating.
Even though this cultivation method was less powerful than his Unholy Dark Art method and even less powerful than his clan's method, it was still worth learning it because it would immediately unlock the Light elemental affinity.
Light Qi was mainly used to use and create defense and healing techniques, so it was always useful to have this element.
After Li Jing finished assimilating the soul of the captain, he took the spatial ring that the man wore at the index finger of his right hand and inspected its content.
Inside, there were around two thousand Spirit Stones, fifty Qi Gathering Pills, some Healing Pills and medicinal plants, the jade slip containing the Cultivation method 'Mantra of the Six Perfections', and a Monk Staff that was actually a Low-grade Mortal spiritual weapon.
Li Jing also noticed that the man wore a saber at his waist. Since it was a Yellow-grade spiritual weapon, he took it and after storing it in his blood ring, he transferred all the content of the captain's ring into his own blood ring.
'Not a bad harvest for just a captain.' He thought.
Next, Li Jing inspected the eight tents and found around three hundred Spirit Stones, some pills, and normal weapons.
Now, he was finally ready to find the Black Tiger's hideout. It was located in the southwest of his current position and would take him a couple of hours to go there.
The bandit's hideout was a huge cave hidden in the depths of the Relentless Mountain but its entrance was hidden by an Illusory Array Formation. Therefore, it was not possible to find the entrance of this cave without knowing its exact position or being able to see through the Illusory Array Formation as Teng Fen did in the web novel.
This cave was actually made by the powerful cultivator who failed to ascend to the Immortal World a few thousand years ago, it was there that he hid his egg. A few years ago, when the Black Tiger bandits settled in the Relentless Mountain, they found the entrance of this cave by chance and made it their hideout.
…
Two hours later, Li Jing was standing in front of the entrance of the cave.
On the way, he had to kill eleven bandits and some beasts. The entrance of the cave was not kept by anyone, probably to not attract attention to it and the Illusory Array Formation was doing an amazing job, it really looked like there was no entrance at all!
Li Jing wanted to try if he could see through the array and after focusing for a few minutes, he was actually able to see some flaws in it. However, it was only because he knew that there was an Illusory Array Formation in this place, otherwise it would not have been so easy.
Anyway, he didn't need to see through the array formation to enter the cave, he just needed to walk through it.
When he entered it, he noticed that the whole cave was lit by Spirit Crystals and he could hear a lot of people discussing or laughing.
He knew from the web novel that the cave was divided into five levels of depth. The first four levels were each guarded by a Black Tiger commander while the fifth level was guarded by the chief, Yong Zhen. The egg of the Demonic Beast, for its part, was buried below the fifth level.
He walked casually through the first level of the cave. It looked like a long, wide corridor with several cavities on the sides that served as rooms for the bandits.
Li Jing wasn't careless due to arrogance but because he was convinced that no one at this level could hurt him…
"Who is there?"
"How did this kid found the entrance of this place?"
"We must capture him alive to know who he is and where he comes from!"
Many bandits spotted Li Jing and ran towards him before surrounding him.
Seeing the six men around him, Li Jing took out his daggers, and without a word, he started to kill them.
He rushed towards the man in front of him and slice his throat. Then, he switched to the man on his left and stabbed his stomach.
[Host has killed 2 cultivators in the Qi Gathering realm: XP + 300.]
The four remaining men were very surprised to see how fast the young boy in front of them killed two of their comrades but they were experienced fighters so they immediately attacked him.
However, when they were sure that they cut him with their swords they suddenly noticed that it was only his after image!
Since Li Jing had reached the Large Success Stage with his technique Instant Flash Step, he was now able to create an after image when he used it.
He reappeared behind the four men, injected his Lightning Qi inside his daggers, and slashed their back before they had time to turn around.
[Host has killed 4 cultivators in the Qi Gathering realm: XP + 600.]
Li Jing decided that he would absorb their souls after he killed the commander of this level.