Chapter 1962: Highway Robbery

As Zhao Hai was looking through the list of tasks, other people were staring at him. Zhao Hai was now considered a rich man in Hengdao City. However, people only heard of him, they haven't seen his face.

Zhao Hai didn't care about the gazes directed towards him. He continued to scan through the available tasks. Zhao Hai has now graduated from newcomer tasks. He was now looking for tasks that were intended for experienced cultivators.

Looking at the expert tasks, Zhao Hai couldn't help but nod. These tasks were much more difficult compared to newcomer tasks. Zhao Hai could even see tasks that required one to stay several days outside. To do these tasks, you would need to have a portable transmission formation or you would have to stay outside in the night, which was very dangerous.

The Tyrant Blade Sect also provides maps for some of the expert tasks. The dangers contained were also written. The more detailed the task was, the more dangerous it would be.

After looking through the list, Zhao Hai decided to take on a mining task. The ore he needed to mine this time was an advanced level ore called cloud iron ore. Cloud iron was very light but retained the tenacity of steel. To mine cloud iron ore, one would need to head 1 million kilometers northwest of Hengdao City. This wasn't a task that could be finished in one day. After taking the task, the Tyrant Blade Sect would provide a map. This task was considered as one of the more difficult expert tasks to accomplish.

Zhao Hai went to the counter and then took his jade token and disciple token out. Then he handed it over the counter and said, "Hello, I want to take on the cloud iron mining task."

Seeing Zhao Hai hand two jade tokens over, the female cultivator opposite the counter stared. Then when she took the two tokens and looked at them, she immediately understood Zhao Hai's status. She couldn't help but smile at him and said, "Please wait a moment." Then she took Zhao Hai's jade token and recorded the task on it. Then she gave the tokens back as well as a jade slip to Zhao Hai and said, "This jade slip contains the map to the task. The dangers you may encounter have also been listed. I hope you succeed."

Zhao Hai received his jade tokens and the jade slip and then expressed his gratitude towards the female cultivator before leaving. Hearing the task that Zhao Hai took, the people in the hall couldn't help but be surprised. However, nobody said anything. After all, almost everyone who took such tasks were experts. There were even some who took tasks more dangerous than the one Zhao Hai took on.

These people might be alone when they take the task, but once they head out, they would be in a group. In the Soaring Dragon Realm, there was almost no cultivator who acted on their own. No matter which task, cultivators would always do it in a group. The realm was too dangerous. Going out alone would just increase the dangers one would encounter.

When Zhao Hai left the Tyrant Blade Sect's hall, several cultivators followed him. They wanted to see who Zhao Hai would team up with to complete the task.

Zhao Hai didn't care about these people. When he left the branch hall, he immediately scanned the jade slip with his spiritual force. He made sure to memorize the dangerous areas and other important bits. Then he flew out of the city.

The cultivators who followed Zhao Hai were stunned when they saw his actions. One of them said, "Zheng Tou, do you think he's taking the task on his own? Why did he leave the city?"

Zheng Tou frowned and said, "He's going to mine cloud iron ores alone? Is he a lunatic? Go, let's follow him. If he's really alone, then we'll attack him. That guy can rent a residence in Hengdao City. He must have a lot of good things with him."

Upon hearing Zheng Tou, the faces of the others flashed with greed. At this time, one of the cultivators whispered, "Zheng Tou, we should forget it. Just now, that person gave two jade tokens to the female cultivator. I looked at it and one of them seems to be an identity token that belongs to the Tyrant Blade Sect. That guy might be someone the Tyrant Blade Sect is paying attention to. If we make a move on him, the Tyrant Blade Sect might not let us off."

When Zheng Tou heard this, he frowned slightly. Then he turned his head to the Tyrant Blade Sect's branch hall and said, "Let's leave first before talking." But the direction they were walking towards was the same as Zhao Hai.

The rest of the group didn't say anything and just followed behind. After flying a distance, Zheng Tou opened his mouth and said, "What are we afraid of? In the Soaring Dragon Realm, there are a lot of people that are being observed by the sects. Let's just make sure that nobody knows that we killed him. Worst case scenario, we can leave for another city. With what we could get from that guy, we would be able to live good lives."

The cultivators in the Soaring Dragon Realm have very hard lives. They weren't like Zhao Hai who could print money by crafting artifacts. Although all cultivators could refine artifacts, what most people could make were average ones. It was difficult for a refining master to reach the immortal stage. It was precisely because of this that there were very few people who could get a lot of impression points by crafting just like Zhao Hai.

If you can't refine artifacts and make pills, then a cultivator would have trouble making an income. Naturally, they would also have no money in their hands. Now that Zhao Hai became known as a rich person, evil people would naturally gravitate towards him. They wouldn't hesitate to rob him.

Cultivators rarely had saints among them. In order to make themselves better, most cultivators would kill and rob others. It became the norm, so people didn't feel any remorse when robbing.

Zhao Hai hadn't noticed these people, but Cai'er did. When Cai'er saw people following Zhao Hai out of Hengdao City harboring obvious evil intentions, she immediately informed Zhao Hai.

Despite hearing this, Zhao Hai didn't pay too much importance to it. It's good if they didn't come, but if they dared, then he would be impolite.

This time, Zhao Hai didn't use his divergent ability to hide. Instead, he traveled like any other cultivator. After obtaining the vermillion bird stamp and the black tortoise stamp, Zhao Hai was now more powerful than before. Even if he met Xiang Que and Hu Wang, he wouldn't be afraid to fight them.

Although Zhao Hai had yet to use the two stamps during battle, Zhao Hai was confident in their strength. After all, he became aware of their abilities when he communicated with them.

Zhao Hai also discovered something peculiar. He could absorb artifacts like liquid silver into his body, but he couldn't do the same to the two stamps. Moreover, the Space doesn't have the means to analyze them. Because the level of the two stamps was very high, the Space couldn't see through them.

Zhao Hai wasn't worried about this. He was able to communicate with the two stamps because of his divergent abilities. The scanner of the Space was different. If the Space couldn't scan it, then there's nothing he could do.

Zheng Tou and his group continued to follow Zhao Hai. They weren't that far away from Hengdao City, so there weren't many beasts around. Zhao Hai avoided a few beasts and kept advancing according to the map in the jade slip.

As they flew forward, Zheng Tou also paid attention to their distance from Hengdao City. They didn't want to wait until Zhao Hai finished his task and came back. In their opinion, if Zhao Hai went to collect cloud iron ore on his own, what were the chances of him coming back? If they didn't attack him right now, then they might not have any chance in the future.

The two sides flew for 20 minutes. Because they were traversing a forest, they didn't fly too far nor were too near to the city. It was enough distance for an attack.

Zheng Tou looked at the others in his group and said, "Pay attention to the surroundings. Make sure that there are no powerful beasts around. We must deal with that guy here." The others nodded. Then they scattered and surrounded Zhao Hai. This wasn't the first time that they did this kind of thing, so they were quite experienced.

Zhao Hai was now paying attention to Zheng Tou and the others. Upon seeing their action, he couldn't help but sneer and stopped. If Zheng Tou and the others didn't make a move on him, then he would never care about them. But now that they tried to surround him, Zhao Hai naturally wouldn't be polite.

Not long after Zhao Hai stopped, Zheng Tou and his group surrounded him. Seeing Zhao Hai stopping, Zheng Tou stared and then frowned. Then he motioned to a cultivator next to him. That cultivator retreated and looked around.

Seeing Zheng Tou's actions, Zhao Hai couldn't help but nod at his carefulness. Of course, Zhao Hai understood Zheng Tou's actions. He was trying to find out if Zhao Hai was acting as bait to lure them out.

Zhao Hai looked at Zheng Tou and said, "There's no need to look. I'm alone. There's nobody else around."

Zheng Tou stared. With a grim expression, he looked at Zhao Hai and said, "Do you know why we're here? Aren't you afraid?"

Zhao Hai laughed and said, "Afraid? You think you're enough to make me afraid? I really don't know if you have a death wish or not. None of you dared to mine cloud iron ores, but I did. If I wasn't confident in my strength, then would I dare take the task? And yet you dared to rob me. Hahaha. It's very funny."

Zheng Tou's complexion changed. Then he sneered and said, "You look too highly upon yourself. Now die." Then he waved his hand, commanding the others to attack.

Zhao Hai sneered. He waved his hand as a red and blue stamp appeared beside him. Then he pinched his fingers as he said, "Inferno, Freeze!"

Just as his voice fell, the vermillion bird stamp began to fill the skies with fire. Then the fire targeted the cultivators on the left side. On the other side, the black tortoise side emitted a white mist which attacked the cultivators on the right.

Zheng Tou was nearer to Zhao Hai's left side, so he was faced with the vermillion bird stamp's fire. He immediately opened his defensive shield to block the attack.

However, Zheng Tou underestimated the vermillion bird stamp's flames. The vermillion bird stamp produced the most powerful flames. How could ordinary things be able to block it? Although Zheng Tou was able to use his defensive artifact, as soon as it encountered the flames of the vermillion bird stamp, it immediately became molten slag. Zheng Tou was also turned into ash before he could even react.