“Calm down. You look like you’re being blackmailed to do something bad, so there may be some misunderstandings here. The letter isn’t something that’ll get you in trouble. As long as you can pass for an orthodox cultivator, you should be fine to just deliver it.”

Li Lang maintained eye contact with Liang Po and examined him for some time. He saw no deception in his eyes, but it was still hard to take his words for it.

“I can attempt to deliver it but no guarantees. If I feel like it’ll be dangerous, I’ll just turn back or throw it away. So if it’s something time-sensitive, forget it.”

“Truthful, I like that. That’s no problem. I don’t plan to send the letter right away, anyway. I’ll contact you when it’s ready and you can send it when you can.”

Liang Po’s words put a lot of trust in Li Lang. He didn’t even specify the timeframe it had to be delivered. However, since he was allowed to abandon the errand, he chose to entertain him.

“Deal.”

The two young men shook hands and Liang Po threw over the net. Li Lang took his time examining the net. It was made of a grey material that felt like plastic. It was smooth and light. His antics didn’t escape Liang Po’s notice.

“No need to keep staring. It’s made from basilisk bones.”

“Interesting. Has the bones been treated in any way at all?”

“Beats me. I just received it. I didn’t ask any questions.”

Seeing how Liang Po didn’t say anything further, Li Lang took his leave. He was able to just slide down the pillar this time, making it easier and more graceful than his trip up.

The first thing he did was to practice with the net. He didn’t want to fail in his attempt to ground the Steel Sparrows and be chased off. He wanted to get it right on the first try.

While he practiced, he even tried to cut off a tiny piece from the net so he could feed it to Ruby. However, no matter how hard he tried, his mundane knife wasn’t able to slice through.

That was until he requested help. He now had an on-demand secretary at all times, so he made full use of it.

“Blue, can you help me cut off a part of this?”

The blue lights gathered and turned into the familiar girl once more. Her expression was still neutral despite being summoned again and for a small matter this time. Thankfully, she was too afraid of Ruby’s appraisal to voice her discontent.

She simply nodded and did as requested.

Her hand made a slicing motion from the distance, and blue lights flashed past Li Lang. The breeze accompanied it and before he knew it, a small piece of the net had been sliced. It was such a small piece toward the edge that one would be hard-pressed to notice it.

With that done, he quickly got Ruby to analyze the material as he continued his practice.

The next morning, he ventured outside after accepting the next round of his trial.

He made his way away from the others and searched for a good place to set up. The forest was quite dense with trees and foliage, so there were many promising spots. It took no time at all for him to finish laying the trap.

Then came the hard part. He had to get lucky and find a flock of Steel Sparrows nearby. Otherwise, he would have to uproot his trap and move shop.

He had to do exactly that three times.

On the third time, he finally spotted three Steel Sparrows resting on a tree. They chirped joyfully as they nuzzled up against each other. They weren’t big, only the size of an adult’s palm. Their shiny steel beaks glistened in the sunshine and complimented their yellow feathers well. They gleamed with a metallic sheen, so it was hard to miss.

Li Lang cautiously approached, but the alert birds were easily able to spot him. However, they tolerated his existence as they didn’t deem him a threat yet. Li Lang made sure to swiftly change that impression of him. He grabbed a handful of rocks and threw them at the Qi beasts.

Instantly, they vanished from sight, reappearing high in the sky above Li Lang. The three of them made threatening noises at their assailant as they hovered above him. The threats quickly turned to action, as one of them dove down toward Li Lang.

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It moved quickly, dead set on piercing through the young boy with its beak.

Li Lang was prepared for this moment. He knew their greatest asset was in their speed. However, their agility department fell behind. Li Lang made sure to have trees and other obstacles blocking the path as he sprinted away.

Seeing this, the two other Steel Sparrows soon joined the chase. They charged in a linear path, attempting to skewer their victim. They only knew to charge together in a straight line, but their superior speed meant they were slowly gaining on their target.

Unfortunately for the Steel Sparrows, before they succeeded, a large net suddenly fell down from one of the trees.

They chirped violently at the abrupt development, but it was now inevitable that they had been caught. They could only stare with hatred at their target.

Li Lang stared down at his trapped targets, who tried their best to break free. However, no matter what they did, the net hindered them from flapping their wings at full power.

If Li Lang wanted to end this in the most efficient way, he could simply attack his now-trapped targets. The spear tip of his weapon may have trouble fully piercing through the small mesh size of the net, but he could use the flat end to bludgeon the birds.

However, he stuck with the sharp end of his spear instead. That was because he needed to employ his poison in some way so the artifact spirit could select his desired reward. He was able to easily stab into the sparrows and inject poison into them. The wound may be shallow, but it got the job done.

In a way, this acted as another test. A test to see if he could kill the Qi beasts by relying on the quantity of poison alone.

His action made the Steel Sparrows cry out loudly, and their movements visibly dulled.

Ten seconds, twenty seconds, thirty seconds, and the scene continued. The cries of the wounded sparrow weakened along with its slowed movements, but it lived.

One minute, two minutes, the results were still the same despite more poison constantly being injected.

After five minutes, Li Lang had to refill the poison in his spear before he could resume.

It was only ten minutes after the start of the entire ordeal that Li Lang gave up. Instead of the bird’s condition worsening, it stabilized. Li Lang could tell it had reached an equilibrium, where the beast kept cleansing the new toxins as they entered its body.

Okay, this is not an effective way to kill at all. Its body size is already so small, and it survived even after I used an equal amount of poison to its body weight.

Li Lang repeated the test and received similar results with the other two sparrows. After he was done, he couldn’t help but feel a little guilty. His impromptu test felt like torture instead. His drive for data propelled him to continue, but it didn’t make him feel good about it.

He prayed that he would receive a fitting cultivation manual that had more effective poisons, so his future test subjects wouldn’t have to suffer for as long.

His prayers were not needed as Orange materialized the moment the trial was deemed complete. He appeared in place of the lights that usually displayed the results.

“Umm, Greetings, Li Lang. I am responsible for the martial trial, so I can help you. I assume you won’t be continuing on to the next round, right?”

Orange still spoke timidly, though he sounded much more relaxed when it was just the two of them. Perhaps he didn’t do well with numbers or he didn’t find Li Lang to be intimidating with his cultivation. Either way, Li Lang was glad they could communicate clearly with each other.

“That’s correct.”

“Uh, okay, I have an idea of what you want, but just to confirm, tell me exactly what type of reward you’re looking for. I’ll try to search for it.”

“A way to create deadly Qi poisons, and ideally includes the underlying mechanics of how to create them and how it works. It should allow me to create my own poisons in the future.”

“Understood. Let’s see what I can find.”

The boy in orange robes before him only closed his eyes for several seconds. Then he blinked rapidly.

“So, I think I found something that will satisfy your requirements. I assume you’d prefer the one that goes more in depth on how Qi poisons work rather than the more powerful one?”

“I’m guessing I can’t have the best of both worlds?”

“Sorry. That would count as two rewards, and we can’t do that. You’re only entitled to one. These techniques vary a lot in quality since their authors are all different, but I think these ones I have for you are okay.”

“Understood. Get me the one with a more comprehensive explanation of the mechanics of Qi poison then.”

“Coming right up! Oh, please give my regards to the esteemed Ruby for me.”

Before Li Lang could respond, the orange boy disappeared into the lights and flew away. In his place was a manual floating in the air. Li Lang quickly grabbed it and began transcribing it into his lab within Ruby.

When he relayed Orange’s words to Ruby as he typed, he could hear its voice tinged with indignation at the indecisiveness of the three artifact spirits.

“It’s been days, Master! Those three haven’t decided yet and are only trying to appease us with useless pleasantries. Let me talk to them again and I’ll put them in their place!”

“Calm down. We both know they’re the ones in a hurry, and not us. I’d rather not act hastily and reveal that we can’t actually do anything to them. It’s not like you can proactively attack them, right?”

“If you step into the Foundation Establishment realm, I might—Oh no, I didn’t mean to say it was your fault, Master. I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine. No offense taken. But you say you can do it once I break through into Foundation Establishment? Really?”

“Hmm, I can feel myself getting stronger after each of your breakthroughs, Master. I should be able to project my aura far for a short distance by the time you advance an entire major realm.”

“Well, I look forward to it.”

In the meantime, I look forward to learning about Qi poison. Let’s see what I’m missing here.