Your Head Is Worth a Lot

As soon as Ji Qingge finished speaking, she led the few young people beside her and rushed deeper into the area.

Xu Mu, however, was in no hurry at all. He didn't really care about this so-called bet.

As long as he dealt with a few at the Mortal Transcendence realm, he should be able to win the competition. Xu Mu had already stepped into the early stage of Mortal Transcendence himself.

Facing enemies at this level, he could almost kill them instantly.

The late-stage and perfected Mortal Transcendence cultivators would be a bit more troublesome, but he thought he could handle them—unless he encountered someone like Jiang Cisui, who was also a genius capable of fighting above their level.

"Brother Mu, let's head deeper too."

Chen Xuan said from the side, then pulled out his woodcutter's knife.

Xu Mu nodded, opened his perception, and surveyed everything around him.

This place was also a forested mountain, looking very primitive. There were almost no paths, so they could only weave through the trees.

Not long after they ventured deeper, Xu Mu noticed a man hidden among the branches of a distant tree.

The man wore iron armor, had long black hair, and golden eyes.

"This appearance..."

Xu Mu murmured to himself. It seemed to be the White Stone Clan he had seen before.

He remembered that he had once saved a White Stone Clan woman with strange pupils. She possessed a Level 10 Destiny.

She was the first female lead of the Evil God guy.

Whoosh!

A white light flickered in the treetops. In the blink of an eye, the black-haired man charged in front of Xu Mu and the others.

His body was enveloped in white light—clearly, he was at the Master Realm.

Whoosh!

His long sword slashed unhesitatingly toward Xu Mu's head, a ruthless move.

Clang!

The sound of metal clashing rang out, but it wasn't a collision of weapons. Xu Mu had simply grabbed the opponent's sword with his bare hand.

"Impossible..."

Before the White Stone Clan member could finish his sentence, Chen Xiu raised his woodcutter's knife high.

"Split the Mountain!"

Boom!

A golden pillar of light, carrying golden arcs of lightning, instantly engulfed the White Stone Clan member.

The ground cracked and split apart. The man's body was immediately mangled, burned into black charcoal.

Seeing this, Chen Xuan suddenly slapped his forehead. "Brother Mu, sorry—it was instinct. I stole your kill."

"People at the Master Realm mean little to me," Xu Mu said with a dismissive wave of his hand.

"That won't do. I can't let you lose the bet. How about we split up?"

Chen Xuan said to Xu Mu.

"That works," Xu Mu replied.

He took out a transfer token and handed one to Chen Xuan. "If you encounter danger, both of us can transfer to each other's side."

Chen Xuan nodded. "Then I'll go now."

"Wait, I've recently mastered a new formation," Xu Mu said.

He carved a sound-transmitting formation on the back of Chen Xuan's hand. "This formation can transmit sound. Within a ten-kilometer range, we can communicate through it."

"There's a formation this amazing? Great! We can report our encounters at any time."

Chen Xuan was a bit delighted, then said to Xu Mu, "I'm off."

"Alright."

Xu Mu replied, then headed deeper alone.

With his perception ability, this kind of deep mountain was like walking on flat ground to him. Anyone hiding in the shadows was laid bare before his eyes.

Whoosh!

Another late-stage Master Realm expert ambushed Xu Mu from the side. "Yan Huang man! Die!"

Xu Mu didn't even raise his hand. He used the White Emperor's Sacred Sword, and five blades emerged from his body, attacking the enemy from multiple directions.

The opponent couldn't even block a single hit before the swords ended his life.

Xu Mu walked over and glanced down. The dead man had no space ring on him.

So he turned and left, walking behind a large tree some distance away. He waited briefly.

The corpse at the scene was suddenly devoured by dark golden light. The Spirit Devouring Sacred Insect burrowed underground, moving toward Xu Mu's location, then crawled from the sole of his shoe into his body.

Only then did Xu Mu continue deeper.

Earlier, as he approached the corpse, he had released the Spirit Devouring Sacred Insect from his body onto the ground.

He didn't want the cleaners to know he had been letting his parasite consume the bodies. Since this took only a few seconds, it wasn't worth the trouble.

As he pressed deeper, Xu Mu noticed more and more experts around him.

Finally, within his perception range, a Mortal Transcendence realm practitioner appeared. This person wasn't from the White Stone Clan but had snow-white hair.

Xu Mu wasn't sure what race this was. He just saw two intermediate-level cleaners being beaten into severe injury by this man with ease.

Xu Mu immediately rushed over and slashed a sword energy at him from afar.

The white-haired middle-aged man saw it and dodged quickly.

Swish!

Several large trees in the distance were cut down in a row, followed by the ground shaking and countless wood chips flying everywhere.

At the same time, Xu Mu had already arrived in front of the two intermediate cleaners. "Are you two okay?"

"Be careful—he's at the Mortal Transcendence realm," one of the middle-aged men said urgently.

"I know," Xu Mu replied with a smile, looking at the other middle-aged man. "You two run. Now."

"But if we run..."

"Don't worry. I can handle him."

Xu Mu cut off their concerns.

"Alright—be careful!"

The middle-aged man supported a young man with a leg injury and hurried toward the exit.

"Heh, you lowly races, none of you will escape!"

The middle-aged man in the distance exploded with power, and his qi at the Transcendent Mortal Realm turned into a storm, ravaging everything around.

When the two janitors in the distance saw this, they quickened their pace and hid behind a large boulder.

Suddenly, the middle-aged man's eyes widened—Xu Mu had vanished right before him.

He instinctively spun around, but a sword pierced through the back of his neck.

"I wasn't behind you. I was right in front of you."

Xu Mu deactivated his concealment skill, his expression calm.

"You..."

The middle-aged man collapsed in despair.

Xu Mu crouched down, removed the spatial ring from the man's finger, and left the Devouring Sacred Gu behind.

Just like before, he then walked behind a large tree. The corpse of the Transcendent Mortal Realm cultivator was devoured in the blink of an eye, and the dark gold Devouring Sacred Gu returned to Xu Mu's body.

With his hands in his pockets, Xu Mu strolled away nonchalantly.

The two janitors hiding in the distance noticed the storm had disappeared. They peeked out from behind the rock and saw that both men were gone.

"What happened? Did they move somewhere else to fight?"

The middle-aged man shook his head. "Forget it. Let's just head back."

...

Xu Mu crossed a mountain peak and encountered several red giant wolves. Even the mutated beasts had come over from that side.

He slayed these wolves with ease.

Through his perception, he kept scanning for powerful opponents in the area, but Transcendent Mortal Realm experts were rare. He effortlessly dealt with a few Grandmaster-level opponents.

Along the way, Xu Mu also saw the bodies of some janitors. Casualties were unavoidable in battles like this.

"Mu, can you hear me?"

Just then, Xu Mu heard Chen Xuan's voice in his mind.

"Lao Chen, what's up?"

Xu Mu immediately sent a telepathic reply.

"I found a place. It seems like an endless stream of alien beings is coming out of it."

Chen Xuan’s voice continued.

Hearing this, Xu Mu took out a teleportation token, and the next moment, he appeared beside Chen Xuan. After all, the range of telepathy was similar to that of the token. As long as they could communicate, the token could work.

"Mu, take a look."

Chen Xuan pointed to a cave in the distance. Red giant wolves were emerging from it one after another, along with many high-level alien fighters.

"There should be a Boundary Fire in there. Typically, there's a top-tier expert guarding treasures like that. Lao Chen, are you brave enough to go for it?"

Xu Mu said with a serious expression.

"Mu, isn't that a stupid question?"

Chen Xuan grinned.

Xu Mu smiled back. "But first, let me win the bet this time."

He leaped down the mountain and arrived at the cave entrance. Wielding over a dozen dark red longswords, he spun them around him in a deadly dance.

Whether they were mutated beasts or alien warriors, any that came out died on the spot. In no time, corpses piled up like a small mountain.

This time, Xu Mu didn't hold back. He activated the Devouring Sacred Gu to consume all the bodies.

"This number should be enough."

Xu Mu gave Chen Xuan a look, and the two of them charged straight into the cave.

Inside, they indeed spotted the Boundary Flame. An old man stood within a twisted barrier.

The old man turned to look at Xu Mu and Chen Xuan, his face dark and sinister. "Descendants of the Yanhuang bloodline... You're Xu Mu? Your head is worth a fortune!"

Boom!

A terrifying blast of qi erupted, and in an instant, the old man appeared before Xu Mu.

"Dimension Break!"

Xu Mu’s expression shifted sharply.