It was only when Joe Di approached Owen Tao with his flying sword that Owen finally snapped out of his daze and cried out in panic, "Joe Di, you can't kill me! My uncle is Owen Murphy, the master of Goldpeak at Starstream School. If you kill me, he'll know immediately, and even if you flee to the ends of the earth, you'll be hunted down!"
Joe Di hesitated. He had originally planned to ask Owen Tao a few questions and then kill him. But now, Owen's words gave him pause.
"That's true..." Joe Di murmured, deep in thought.
Hearing Joe Di's tone soften, Owen Tao quickly added, "It's true! If I lie to you, may I die a terrible death!"
Sensing Joe Di's killing intent fading, Owen Tao grabbed a jade bottle from his storage pouch. Before he could open it, Joe Di's flying sword began to hum threateningly. "Are you trying to send a message back?"
"No, no! I'm just taking a healing pill..." Owen Tao stammered, his hand trembling in fear.
He had never experienced anything like this before. Since joining Starstream School, Owen Tao had always been the one threatening others—when had anyone ever dared to threaten him?
"Go ahead, take it. Afterward, I have a few questions for you," Joe Di agreed to let Owen Tao take the pill.
Owen Tao quickly swallowed the pill. "Ask me anything, I promise to answer honestly. We're fellow disciples, after all. Even if there are misunderstandings, we can clear them up by talking."
Sensing that Joe Di seemed reluctant to kill him, Owen Tao's nerves eased slightly.
"Alright, but by rights Senior Sister Sherry Jing left before you—how do you know which direction she went?" Joe Di asked with a sly smile.
If Owen Tao said he tracked Sherry Jing by her assigned task, Joe Di wouldn't hesitate to teach him another harsh lesson.
"I placed a Spirit Tag on her storage pouch," Owen Tao confessed, not daring to hide anything.
"What is this Spirit Tag thing?" Joe Di worried Owen Tao was lying and casually tossed the Rootling out from his ring. "Rootling, what is a Spirit Tag?"
"Big brother, have we finally left Skystar Palace?" Rootling exclaimed excitedly as soon as it appeared.
Joe Di slapped him. "Enough nonsense. Just tell me, what is a Spirit Tag?"
Only then did Rootling remember that his big brother could be temperamental. The man lying on the ground had his legs chopped off—clearly an example.
"Big brother, Spirit Tag is actually a kind of restriction..." Rootling had only just begun to explain before Joe Di understood.
"I have a jade slip with a Spirit Tag on it. I can show you," Owen Tao said, reaching for his storage pouch.
Without hesitation, Joe Di slapped Owen Tao unconscious and took his storage pouch.
"Joe, I never thought you were so good at fighting! And what's that Rootling thing?" Garrett finally snapped out of it, speaking excitedly.
Joe Di raised his hand and cast another fireball, burning away the remaining traces. He dug a pit and buried the residue, saying, "I've spent years getting into fights every now and then—it's all about experience. Also, this isn't a place to linger. Let's find somewhere more secluded before we talk."
"What's your name?" Rootling was talkative and, seeing Garrett following his big brother, couldn't help but ask.
"My name is Garrett Lance, but Joe thought it didn't sound good and shortened it to Garrett. Why do you look like a tree root?" Garrett replied honestly, saying whatever came to mind.
Rootling snorted, "What do you mean, tree root? I'm a transformed immortal tree."
Garrett was startled by Rootling's words and didn't know what to say, when Rootling added, "Your name isn't that great either..."
Halfway through, Rootling remembered that Garrett's name was chosen by his big brother, and quickly added, "Big brother's name is great. My name, Rootling, is second only to big brother. I suggest you call yourself Joe Ten from now on. Joe Ten is just about passable."
Garrett scratched his head, unsure how to respond, when he saw Owen Tao being dragged into the grove by Joe Di. "Joe, why bring along a burden instead of finishing him off?"
"He might have been telling the truth. We're close to the sect, and if I kill him, his uncle might come after us. Let's wait here for a bit while I check what's in his storage pouch," Joe Di explained casually.
Owen Tao's storage pouch was locked with a restriction, but to Joe Di, a level-four formation master, these restrictions were nothing. He opened the pouch in just a few breaths.
"We're rich! This is a real windfall." Joe Di laughed heartily; he had never seen so many spirit stones before. Owen Tao's storage pouch contained at least four or five hundred spirit stones, and more than ten of them radiated even denser spiritual energy—Joe Di guessed those were mid-grade spirit stones.
"Big brother, let's keep getting windfalls like this!" Rootling had spent many years on Celestia and could sense this place wasn't Celestia anymore. He didn't know how they'd gotten here, but he still wanted to flatter his big brother.
Joe Di slapped Rootling again. "A real man knows what to do and what not to do. Owen Tao tried to kill us, so I fought back. But robbing people for no reason—then we'd be bandits."
As he spoke, Joe Di suddenly remembered something and sneered at Rootling, "I forgot, you're someone who kills the innocent. How many innocent people did you kill in your old lair?"
"Big brother, I don't drain blood anymore now that I'm following you..." Rootling muttered timidly.
"Joe, that's a good point. I understand now," Garrett said, though he still didn't fully grasp the meaning of good and evil.
Joe Di took everything out of Owen Tao's storage pouch: a mid-grade magical Arcane Pike, and together with his own top-tier Starblade, he now had two magical weapons. There were also several bottles of pills, which he sniffed and guessed were for cultivation.
Joe Di had never learned alchemy, but he could still tell that these pills had many impurities.
What delighted Joe Di most was a tiny flying ship—it was definitely a magical flying vessel.
Flying magical treasures are among the rarest of all magical items. The materials required to craft them are much harder to find than ordinary ones, and the standards for a craftsman are much higher—making flying magical treasures very scarce.
"I'm going to refine this flying ship right now. Wait a moment," Joe Di signaled to Garrett and Rootling to wait as he began refining the vessel.
In just over half an hour, Joe Di finished refining the ship. With a thought, the vessel expanded to nearly twenty feet long and ten feet wide, floating in front of him.
"This is great!" Rootling exclaimed, recognizing the flying magical treasure.
"Get on board, let's go." Joe Di dragged Owen Tao onto the ship and called for Garrett and Rootling to join him.
The ship was much faster and steadier than a flying sword.
"Joe, where are we going now?" Garrett felt the ship picking up speed and grew a little uneasy—not because he was with Joe Di, but because he couldn't cultivate.
Joe Di had just finished looking through the jade slips from Owen Tao's storage pouch and had made up his mind. "We're heading to Swampsea Woods first."
Swampsea Woods was quite far from Starstream School. Traveling by ship would take three days to reach a small trading post, and from there they could teleport to Swampsea Town.
Swampsea Town was the nearest gathering spot to Swampsea Woods. Many cultivators trained in the woods and returned to Swampsea Town to rest and resupply.
After a day of flight, Joe Di tossed Owen Tao into a small grove. He didn’t kill Owen Tao outright, but severed his vitality meridian—Owen Tao would die on his own in a day. Joe Di didn’t need anyone to teach him such things; he was a master of medical arts.
He would never show mercy to anyone who tried to kill him.
...
Four days later, Joe Di and Garrett stepped out of the teleportation array.
It was Joe Di's first time teleporting, but his spiritual sense was so strong he barely felt anything. Garrett, tall but lacking cultivation, started vomiting as soon as he exited the array. As for Rootling, Joe Di didn’t let him out, keeping him in the Spirit Herb Garden ring.
Luckily, there were plenty of people like Garrett, so no one paid much attention.
After arriving in Swampsea Town, the first thing Joe Di did was buy a map jade slip and an introduction jade slip for Swampsea Woods. These items were available in any shop in town; every cultivator visiting Swampsea Town had to buy them, and they were cheap. The simplest map and introduction together cost just one low-grade spirit stone.
Joe Di bought a slightly more detailed version, and the two items together only cost three spirit stones.
No one here knew him, so after finding a place to stay, Joe Di immediately reset the restrictions on their residence. This made him even more determined to collect a huge amount of crafting materials in Swampsea Woods and learn to make all kinds of formation flags.
He was a level-four formation master, but his skill with formation flags was only at the level of a level-two formation master.
"Joe, I can't cultivate. Coming here is just dragging you down..." Garrett said worriedly once they were settled in. He'd been troubled by this for days.
Joe Di waved his hand. "Don't worry. If you really couldn't cultivate, Elder Yu wouldn't have let you join Starstream School. Once I've checked out Swampsea Woods, I'll see if you can cultivate like I do."
He still had a gray stone in his sea of consciousness, and Joe Di planned to use it to help Garrett. If the stone didn’t work, he’d search for ways to cultivate with a Dissolute Root to help Garrett.
"But that's Senior Sister Mo Shuang..." Garrett trailed off, seeing Joe Di already studying the jade slip.
He couldn’t cultivate, but he knew plenty of theory. After a few days of lessons, he naturally understood that jade slips contained all sorts of information.
Soon Joe Di put down the jade slip—he now had a general understanding of Swampsea Woods.
Swampsea Woods was called a forest, but that wasn’t entirely accurate—it was an interwoven region of forest and swamp. Many marshes were deadly if you stepped in by accident, and even Golden Core cultivators weren’t immune. Where there’s danger, there’s opportunity, and with its vastness, countless low-level cultivators from the Northern Domain came here to train.