Follow the path of Dao from infancy
Chapter 178: Chapter 9: Not a Blade of Grass Left (Additional updates 10-11, 7K combined into one)_3

Li Hao couldn't help but sigh, "Gaining Skill Points in the Carving Arts really is straightforward."

However, he guessed that it had something to do with the quality of the pig's tusk. If he were to carve ordinary wooden plaques, he estimated the experience points would probably only increase by 1 or 2 points.

To verify this, Li Hao paused his polishing half way through and, when reheating the pig's tusk for the second time, began carving on a tree stump seated with one hand using a beast horn.

With his second-stage Carving Arts, he was already capable of fine carving, lifelike in detail.

He carved a little figure wearing dungarees on the spot, but it only granted him less than 20 experience points.

Stinginess itself.

It seems carving really does relate to the quality of the materials, just like with his painting and fishing, the greater the difficulty, the more experience he gained.

Time quietly slipped by.

As the bonfire dimmed, Li Hao finished his third polishing, and the originally curved long pig's tusk had been honed into a somewhat sharp crescent moon shape.

But compared to a sword, it was still lacking, barely qualifying as an oversized broadsword with an extremely blunt edge.

It might not guarantee a kill if swung, but it would most likely be lethal if used to bludgeon.

At the base of the tusk, Li Hao carved out a circular hole for easy gripping in the palm.

He instructed Ren Qianqian to not wander around the campsite, and to take good care of the little white fox while he was away.

And he himself casually shouldered the crescent-shaped pig's tusk sword and walked outside the campsite.

"You're going tonight?"

Li Hongzhuang returned to the small mound, and seeing Li Hao's actions, she couldn't help but be stunned.

It was still deep into the night, the early hours of the morning.

"Better now than to let them get away," Li Hao said with a smile. For safety, he had taken the opportunity to rest while honing the tusk sword, and now he felt seventy to eighty percent recovered.

"..."

Li Hongzhuang was somewhat speechless, having not expected the young man to be more enthusiastic about slaying demons than herself.

"Then take care," Li Hongzhuang said. Li Hao had managed to slay two Great Demons and return unharmed, and although he was only in the Heavenly Human Realm, his combat ability was already at the level of the Three Immortal Realms. With Li He watching over him, she felt relatively at ease.

After all, if one in the Three Immortal Realms still needed to be looked after like a child in swaddling clothes, that would be utterly laughable.

Li Hao nodded and then leaped into the air, disappearing into the night beyond the campsite.

...

...

Rushing winds roared as Li Hao traversed mountains and valleys in the dark.

His Divine Soul burst forth from the top of his head, roving under the moonlight, surveilling in all directions.

Occasionally, when he spotted lingering lesser demons, he effortlessly struck them down.

Heading in a straight line in one direction, he left the wilderness outside the pass, crossed forests, and scaled several mountains, traveling three hundred li through the night.

Eventually, Li Hao smelled the strong stench of blood.

On the ground here, there was plenty of fresh blood, as well as the limbs of demon creatures.

He glanced at the remains where there were three bodies of slain demons, their flesh mangled and torn as if they had been injured and then devoured by their own kind.

Li Hao looked ahead, his gaze following to a mountain top surrounded by various remains, the stench of blood wafting over to him.

Without hesitation, he swiftly flew towards it.

"Madam, please restrain your grief. Mr. Black Scale has already gone to Longshan Taoist Temple."

Within the large cave hollowed out from the mountain, the light of a fire flickered, casting several ferocious shadows on the cave walls.

"Shut up, you cowards! If you had covered the retreat for our lord, how could he have died?"

A female's roar echoed from inside the cave.

A momentary silence fell within the cave.

Suddenly, a breeze brought sounds into the cave.

"Who?!"

The shadows on the cave wall were startled, and soon after, two of the shadows shrank as figures turned around the corner and approached closer to the cave walls, causing their shadows to diminish.

"To still linger here, quite brave indeed," said a calm voice.

In the moonlight at the cave entrance, Li Hao came carrying the pig's tusk sword, and behind him, bathed in the cold moonlight, was a hillside strewn with demon corpses.

Their deaths were gruesome, with their bodies split open, killed with a single strike.

"It's you!"

One of the figures, a brawny man with a leopard's tail, turned pale with bulging eyes filled with horror.

He recognized the face of the young man; their leader had been killed by him!

Flee!

After the shock, the thought to flee instantly surfaced in his mind, and his body transformed, attempting to escape to another part of the cave.

But a Sword Qi suddenly cleaved through the air, and petals seemed to materialize all around.

How could there be flowers in the cave?

Then, the body of the middle-aged figure split open, collapsing onto the ground with the petals; its body was torn to pieces in an instant.

Whoosh! A Divine Soul rushed out from its body in utter terror, but before it could escape, another Sword Qi passed by, obliterating the Divine Soul instantly.

Seeing this, the other demon didn't wait to speak, instead fleeing deeper into the cave as well.

Two minutes later.

Li Hao was sitting deep inside the cave, a giant bonfire built from several tree stumps before him.

Next to the bonfire lay four demon corpses, lifeless.

He was flipping through two Cultivation Techniques, which he recorded onto his panel, and then said to the robust woman kneeling before him:

"Got any other Cultivation Techniques?"

"No, there's no more," the robust woman trembled, revealing deep fear in her eyes.

In front of this youth, they didn't even have a chance to escape; the Sword Qi was invisible, seemingly ignoring distance, able to arrive in an instant.

"You mentioned that under the Dragon Mountain Taoist Master, there are six others with a cultivation level comparable to your lord?"

Li Hao frowned slightly. Six Immortal Realm demons, if they were to attack at the same time, Li Hongzhuang and the others would likely have been gone long ago.