The man and woman, left with no choice, gave up the thunder fruit tree to the panther.

“Ok, now how many spirit stones did the mission pay?” Shen asked once more.

“Seven hundred mid-grade spirit stones…”

Shen took out some spirit stones and gave them to the couple.

“……” The man just stared at the spirit stones floating in front of him without a word.

The woman snapped back to reality and took them into her bag of holding quickly.

“Thank you, thank you…” She repeated thanks with tears. The man also gave sincere thanks.

“My name is Sun De and this is my sister Sun Su. Please come see us in Blue Cloud city if you have time. We would like to treat you to a meal. Thank you very much for your help.” Sun De gave a deep salute.

The couple also expressed their apology to the panther before flying away towards the city. They still had not understood the reason why the strangers had helped them but they did not have any time as their companion was waiting for them.

“Now you’ve got your tree back. It should be ok, right? A more powerful cultivator would have just killed you and took the tree after all.” Xue’er spoke to the panther.

“You are right. Thank you for getting the tree back for me. I might not have been able to get it back if they got back to the city.”

“Ok, you can scram now. We’ve got something to do in the mountains.”

The panther froze once more and turned towards the source of the voice. There he noticed a small white fox that had the same cultivation base as himself.

He had not noticed Little White due to her small stature as well as being overwhelmed by Xue’er. He was rather angry at Little White for being impudent but it dared not speak out due to remembering Xue’er’s terrifying aura from earlier.

After the panther clad in lightning had left, Shen asked Xue’er. “Ok, shall we proceed? We’ll have to go visit them when we get back. They promised a free meal after all. Hahaha!”

“Big Brother Shen!” Xue’er chased the laughing Shen as they raced into the trees.

At the beginning, there were no monster beasts and very little spirit herbs. Occasionally, there were other cultivators flying overhead to go to their destinations.

After around ten hours of walking, they started to sense Nascent Soul stage magical beasts. Little White had gone off somewhere to play around. Since the area was still somewhat safe, Xue’er had let the fox go reluctantly.

“Hmph, wait till I grow up, I’ll show that fox who’s boss!” Xiao Yan and Little White always argued and fought each other. Little White especially made fun of Xiao Yan just before she left to play.

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“Xue’er. Can you sense any earth type magical beasts?”

“Not yet, Big Brother Shen. Let’s keep going for a bit more.” It was not as if Nascent Soul stage magical beasts were everywhere. Each had their own small territory and had some distance between each other.

The couple ventured around in the Nascent Soul stage magical beast area for a few more days. Sometimes, a magical beast would chase them for intruding into their territory. Shen would try fighting them off most of the time.

However, they would run away or deter the beast by releasing Xue’er’s aura when it was a late Nascent Soul stage magical beast or stronger.

After half a month of travelling east along the Nascent Soul magical beast territories, they had finally encountered a bear type beast that was of the earth element.

Currently, they were half a mile away on top of a small hill that could oversee the valley in which the cave that the bear was sleeping in. Shen’s divine sense could not be detected by others; therefore, the couple had found the bear without alarming it.

Shen had limited his abilities to that of an early Nascent Soul stage cultivator, by purely using spiritual power. Naturally, the range of his divine sense would be reduced as well.

“Xue’er, wait here with Little White and Xiao Yan. The bear is only mid Nascent Soul stage. I should be fine by myself.”

Shen proceeded to approach the cave while holding the flying sword in hand. Being a Nascent Soul stage magical beast, the bear had detected Shen when he was a few hundred feet away from the cave.

A large roar sounded out from inside the cave. The bear warned the intruder to leave its territory quickly.

After a while, a large form standing the height of at least two men came out from the cave. Shen charged towards the bear. The bear roared once more and took a swing with its powerful arms towards Shen.

*Ding*

The claws of the bear and the flying sword struck against each other. The bear, being an earth element beast, naturally had powerful defence.

Five spears made from hardened earth rose up and shot towards Shen. While Shen was avoiding the spears, the bear matched the timing to strike consecutive swipes with its claws.

Shen was reduced to defending against the physically powerful bear.

‘I really should find a set of magic arts to learn!’ Shen was upset that he could only swing his sword against the bear. However, his energy was seemingly limitless due to his chaos body.

Therefore, Shen started playing the endurance game with the bear. The bear quickly discovered this, however, it was powerless to do anything since Shen was adamant on harassing it.

Every time it attempted to escape, Shen would furiously slash the bear. The bear could not outrun Shen due to its slower speed.

The battle went on for over two days. Shen’s clothing had long been reduced to rags. Shen only had minor injuries as his chaos body was very tough, despite not using chaos power specifically.

The bear’s actions were slow and it had blood stains all over. Its left eye had been slashed by Shen and its fur missing patches here and there.

Xue’er had wanted to help Shen but Shen had expressly forbidden her.

The bear was on its last legs as it stumbled. Shen did not miss the chance and slashed its legs. The bear finally fell face first on the ground. It was too exhausted to manipulate the earth by now.

Shen jumped on its back and drove the sword into the bears heart.

“Phew…That was an experience…”

Xue’er flew over from the hill. She has been watching the battle without taking a rest for the last two days.

“Big Brother Shen! Are you ok?” Xue’er had hugged Shen and felt his body all over to check for wounds.

Shen felt warmth from her actions. Although, they were in a rather ambiguous position currently, Shen felt that he needed to clean up and change clothes.

“Xue’er, I’m alright. Only scratches. I do need to clean up. Your clothes are dirty too now.” Shen chuckled towards his beautiful companion.

“Ah!” Xue’er gave a cute scream and let go of Shen with a flurry. Little White just rolled her eyes while Xiao Yan was giggling at the two.

“Ok, let’s take the bear’s body and leave. Other beasts nearby should have heard the battle. I don’t want to fight another one for a while.”