Although he felt that with his current strength, traversing the marketplace alone shouldn't result in any trouble, Zhou Chun didn't entirely let his guard down and do nothing.
He still had that Red-Beaked Sparrow, which he had trained for years, scouting ahead, while keeping the black Iron Shield Dharma Tool in hand, ready to be activated for protection at any moment.
Thanks to the early warnings from the Red-Beaked Sparrow, Zhou Chun didn't encounter any cultivators along the way.
However, just as he was about to leave the Hongyan Mountain Range, a sudden distressed cry for help reached his ears—a pleasant-sounding woman's voice.
"Help, is there any fellow Daoist who can save this humble girl?"
The soft, sticky voice of the woman calling for help echoed through the mountains, startling countless birds into flight.
Zhou Chun paused slightly when he heard this voice.
He looked in the direction of the sound and quickly shook his head, choosing not to pay any attention to it.
Such cries for help occurred frequently in the Hongyan Mountain Range, some real and some fake.
Some were genuinely desperate and cried out for help as a last resort.
Others were bandit cultivators who deliberately exploited the compassion of others to set up a trap.
But for Zhou Chun, whether the person calling for help was truly in danger or was baiting a trap, he didn't want to get involved.
"Do what you're capable of," that was Zhou Chun's principle in life.
His cultivation level didn't allow him to rescue others carelessly.
This was the Cultivation World; failing to save someone could easily cost him his own life.
Yet, as Zhou Chun continued on for a distance, his expression changed abruptly, and he swiftly waved the black Iron Shield Dharma Tool with one hand and quickly cast spells with both hands, adding a tier one low-grade spell—the Earth Spirit Cover—to protect himself.
Only after doing all this did he look ahead with a somber expression, toward the empty forest, and shouted, "Come out now, your tricks are obvious!"
However, his shout was met with no response, only the rustling sounds of the branches swaying in the mountain wind and the chirping of insects in the wilderness.
Yet Zhou Chun seemed very confident in his assessment and, seeing that the person hiding in the shadows refused to appear, he coldly said, "If Your Excellency enjoys playing such hide-and-seek games, then please continue. I, Zhou, will not keep you company!"
After saying this, he stretched out his hand to tap his Storage Pouch, conjuring a Bamboo Leaf Flight Artifact, and stepped onto it.
Just then, a streak of red light suddenly pierced through the forest, aiming directly for Zhou Chun's head.
With a clang of metal meeting metal, a black Iron Shield suddenly appeared in front of Zhou Chun, deflecting the incoming fiery red spear-shaped magic artifact.
"Finally willing to show yourself?"
Zhou Chun sneered coldly, promptly retracting the Bamboo Leaf Flight Artifact and reaching for the Spirit Beast Pouch at his waist, releasing the Rock Earth Turtle into action.
From the direction the fiery red spear-shaped artifact had come, a man with triangular eyes dressed in green leapt out from the underbrush and called back his failed attack artifact.
Then, with a dark look on his face, he said to Zhou Chun, "Young man, how did you detect Yang's presence? Yang believes his disguise, though not flawless, shouldn't have been noticed by a cultivator without even the full Qi Refinement cultivation level!"
He couldn't understand how his tenth layer Qi Refinement cultivation level, combined with a disguise and breath-hiding technique that had never failed before, could be discovered by a mid-stage Qi Refinement cultivator like Zhou Chun.
Zhou Chun heard this and coldly chuckled, "Your disguise technique was indeed flawless, but you just had to gild the lily, drawing my attention with a cry for help."
"From where I heard that voice to here, it's been well over a hundred feet; then why has that voice suddenly ceased completely?"
No sooner had he spoken these words than a giggling voice suddenly rang out from behind him in the forest.
"Hehehe, turns out it was this servant who was exposed, eh? Thank you, young sir, for pointing out this servant's flaw. Next time I will definitely correct this mistake and will not repeat it!"
As the coquettish words echoed, a seductive woman dressed in sparse, red gauze appeared, blocking Zhou Chun's path of retreat.
However, compared to the triangular-eyed man, this red-dressed woman's cultivation level was quite a bit lower, only on par with Zhou Chun, also at the eighth layer of the Qi Refinement Realm.
After listening to Zhou Chun's words, the triangular-eyed man's expression actually improved a bit.
At the very least, this proved that his disguise had no issues, and the problem did not lie with him.
But he hadn't forgotten his own role, and now, with a cold gleam in his eyes, he said to Zhou Chun, "You do have some skill, young man, but you're unfortunate to have encountered us today. If there's a next life, remember not to go out alone again!"
Before his words had finished, he shouted, "Attack!"
Then with a wave of his hand, the fiery red spear-shaped artifact shot towards Zhou Chun once again.
Following that, he patted his Storage Pouch, took out a crimson copper gourd artifact, and tossed it above his head.
With mana coursing through, the lid of the gourd burst open on its own, and from within, tongues of flame erupted, immediately spitting six or seven fist-sized fireballs at Zhou Chun.
Meanwhile, the woman in red veil who had appeared behind Zhou Chun also sneered coldly, raising her sleeve; a water-blue longsword Magic Artifact shot towards Zhou Chun's back.
Faced with the pincer attack from both front and back, Zhou Chun's expression was grave, but his heart was eager to try.
In just over a month, the dueling event held by the five major Cultivation families would begin, and he would inevitably face off against late-stage Qi Refinement Cultivators from those families.
As outstanding clan members of the younger generation from each Cultivation family, their strengths were certainly no weaker than that of the man with triangular eyes before him.
And today was a good opportunity for him to use this couple to test his own strength and see just how powerful he had become.
"Stone..."
With just a thought, the Rock Earth Turtle beside him understood his intention. Opening its mouth, it hissed lowly and spat out a swath of earthy yellow light, instantly pulling up an earth-yellow stone wall with both length and width of about two zhang in front of Zhou Chun.
Zhou Chun himself, with another thought, began manipulating the black Iron Shield Dharma Tool, blocking the water-blue longsword Magic Artifact that was stabbing towards his back.
At the same time, he slapped his Storage Pouch at his waist and a silver-black circular Flying Artifact emerged, which he grabbed in his hand.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Explosion sounds rang out consecutively, shaking the stone wall before Zhou Chun intensely, covering it in cracks.
Despite the Rock Earth Turtle's Stone Wall Technique being a mid-tier rank-one defensive spell, the man with triangular eyes controlled a fiery-red spear-shaped Magic Artifact and a bronze gourd Magic Artifact that were also mid-tier rank-one artifacts. Managing to block this wave of attacks was already quite good.
Seizing the moment before the man with triangular eyes launched his second wave of attacks, Zhou Chun threw the silver-black circular Flying Artifact into the air. Propelled by Mana, it burst into silver radiance, streaking towards the man like a silver meteor.
"A rank-one high-tier Magic Artifact!"
The man with triangular eyes cried out, having recognized the high grade of the artifact through the powerful influence unleashed by the "Moon Blade Meteor Wheel".
Then his face soured considerably.
With a thought, the fiery-red spear, originally poised to attack Zhou Chun again, suddenly burst into a ring of fiery brilliance, swiftly meeting the silver meteor head-on as it flew towards it.
At the same time, he clapped his hands on his Storage Pouch, swiftly producing an earth-yellow circular shield Magic Artifact that began circling around him and slapped a "Vajra Shield" Talisman onto himself.
Just as the pale golden Protective Barrier rose around him, the silver meteor and the fiery spear collided in mid-air.
What made the man with triangular eyes' eyes twitch was what happened next.
The two Magic Artifacts clashed in the air, and in less than a breath's time, the fiery spear was blasted away by the silver-black circular Flying Artifact.
The man with triangular eyes could even sense through his Divine Sense that the blade and shaft of his spear were now cracked in several places.
This Magic Artifact, which had accompanied him through the defeat of many powerful foes, was likely to be completely retired after this encounter!
After blasting away the fiery spear, the silver-black circular Flying Artifact still had plenty of force left and continued spinning, striking the earth-yellow circular shield.
This time, the circular shield managed to fulfil the man with triangular eyes' wish, successfully blocking the attack of the silver-black circular Flying Artifact.
However, seeing the sharp Moon Blade cuts on the shield, the man with triangular eyes felt no joy whatsoever.
He was very clear that facing the attacks of a rank-one high-tier Magic Artifact, his two mid-tier rank-one defensive Magic Artifacts might withstand one or two hits, but they definitely couldn't sustain three or four!
Now he was left with only two choices: either to retreat immediately from the battlefield or to defeat Zhou Chun before his Magic Artifacts were completely destroyed.
The first option had only just emerged in his mind when it was immediately dismissed by the man with triangular eyes.
Putting aside whether Zhou Chun would allow them to retreat from the battlefield, he himself was not willing to let go of Zhou Chun, this "fat sheep".
For a mid-stage Qi Refinement Cultivator to venture out alone with a high-tier rank-one Magic Artifact was such a "good fortune" that if missed, he might guard the Hongyan Mountain Range for years without encountering such an opportunity again.
So, he quickly made his choice, and immediately shouted, "Enough with the stinginess, wife, don't hold back any more!"
Before the words had settled, taking advantage of the fact that Zhou Chun had not yet infused Mana into the "Moon Blade Meteor Wheel" for a second strike, the man with triangular eyes clapped his Storage Pouch again, taking out a shining first-tier high-grade Talisman.
Injecting Mana into the Talisman, and then flinging it towards Zhou Chun, the burning Talisman instantly transformed into a fiery serpent about a zhang long that shot towards Zhou Chun. It was a first-tier high-tier "Fire Serpent Talisman".
Behind Zhou Chun, the woman in red veil, upon hearing the man's words, also continued to entangle her blue longsword Magic Artifact with Zhou Chun's black Iron Shield Dharma Tool.
She followed suit by producing a first-tier high-grade "Golden Spear Talisman" which she activated, instantly forming a golden spear that thrust towards Zhou Chun.
With pincer attacks from front and back, both employing first-tier high-tier Talismans as offensive means.
It wasn't just Zhou Chun, a mere mid-stage Qi Refinement Cultivator, who was at risk; even a general late-stage Qi Refinement Cultivator, without a high-tier rank-one defensive Magic Artifact in hand, would not escape death or severe injury.
The man with triangular eyes was very confident of this.
But the next instant, Zhou Chun's response caused his face to change drastically, and he was left dumbfounded.