I Just Wanted to Live, but I Somehow Became Better Than the Main Character

Long Tian masked his presence as he cautiously walked toward the place where he heard the fighting sounds.

Long Tian saw a cave. There were a few corpses of Foundation Establishment Realm cultivators outside of the cave. Inside the cave were two Crystallization Realm 6th layer cultivators fighting a Crystallization Realm 8th layer wild snake.

The wild snake was overpowering the cultivators, and the cultivators were focusing on dodging and protecting a young male at the Foundation Establishment Realm.

A Crystallization Realm layer 8 spiritual beast wasn’t something that Long Tian could defeat, so Long Tian didn’t intend to help. However, he found a white plant inside the cave, which seemed to be the white jade fungus that he needed.

Seeing the wild snake about to kick the cultivators out, Long Tian knew he needed to do something as there was no way for him to take care of the snake by himself. As such, Long Tian shouted, “Fellow Daoist! I don’t know what you need in the cave, but I need the white jade fungus. If you promise to let me have the white jade fungus, I can stun the wild snake to give you an opportunity to kill it, but there is only one chance. I hope that you can make use of it.”

The two Crystallization Realm cultivators immediately turned their heads to look at the man they were protecting. The man was about 20 years old and was pretty handsome. However, because too many of his underlings had died and because the wild snake was extremely ferocious, his face didn’t look very well. He didn’t even hesitate and immediately nodded, saying, “We agree.”

It would be too humiliating for him to just go back without accomplishing anything. As long as he was able to kill the wild snake, then all the underlings that had been killed wouldn’t matter anymore.

“I hope that you will keep your word and not go against your Dao Heart,” Long Tian said. He would rather not trust strangers, but he had no choice as he didn’t have the strength to take care of things by himself. However, he was confident that he would be able to escape if they went back on their words as the two Crystallization Realm cultivators had already used most of their spiritual energy, and killing the wild snake would make them use even more spiritual energy.

Long Tian took out the beast-avoiding incense and charged into the cave while the wild snake was attacking the cultivators.

As the wild snake was already in the 8th layer of the Crystallization Realm, it had some intelligence and completely looked down on Long Tian. It was pissed as it thought that Long Tian, an ant in its eyes, was trying to steal something from its home. As such, it turned its head and charged toward Long Tian.

That was exactly what Long Tian wanted. Long Tian waited for the wild snake to get close and then immediately threw out the beast-avoiding incense. Spirit beasts hated the beast-avoiding incense, and the wild snake wasn’t an exception. It subconsciously dodged when it smelled the beast-avoiding incense.

“Now!”

The Crystallization Realm cultivators weren’t combat rookies and didn’t let the opportunity go to waste. Both of them instantly sacrificed their weapons to use their strongest killing move.

The wild snake was too confident in its defenses and had its back turned toward the two cultivators when it charged at Long Tian. Because of this, the two cultivators’ attack went straight to the wild snake’s heart.

The unbeatable wild snake let out one final hiss before it fell to the ground.

The two cultivators were both extremely tired as the wild snake’s defenses were too strong. Its cultivation was also two layers above them, so trying to kill it head on was impossible. They would have left long ago if it wasn’t because their young master didn’t want to leave.

“Thank you for your help, fellow Daoist,” the two cultivators said, saluting.

The man that had been protected looked much better now that the wild snake had been killed. However, he didn’t thank Long Tian. “You did a good job. What’s the red powder you just threw out?”

“It’s a beast-avoiding incense that I managed to get by chance,” Long Tian said. He didn’t say that he had made it himself as he was afraid that they would get greedy and try to get him to hand over the recipe.

“The beast-avoiding incense that you have seems to be different. Do you have more? I can buy it from you.”

“That was all I have left.”

“Then how come you came all the way here by yourself? You’re just in the Foundation Establishment Realm.”

Long Tian frowned. He didn’t understand why he had to be interrogated by the man that he had just saved. However, even though he was unhappy, he still answered in order to get the white jade fungus. “I’ve already said earlier. I just need the white jade fungus and nothing else. I hope that you, fellow Daoist, won’t go back on your word.”

“Look at you? Would I, Ye Mao, be greedy for your white jade fungus?” The young man was Ye Mao of the Ye Family. He couldn’t break through to the 4th layer of the Foundation Establishment Realm, so when he heard that there was spirit energy grass here, he immediately brought over two Crystallization Realm cultivators and a few Foundation Establishment Realm cultivators to look for it. However, he had underestimated the strength of the beasts in the Spirit Phantom Mountains, and he had lost 5 out of the 10 Foundation Establishment Realm cultivators that he had brought with him.

But since he had killed the wild snake and got the spirit energy grass, Ye Mao was confident that not only would he not be punished, he would also be rewarded when he got back. It was only if he had gone back without getting anything would he be punished. This was because the Foundation Establishment Realm cultivators were his father’s underlings. Sure, the Ye Family might have a ton of underlings, but it wasn’t good to make underlings lose their lives for nothing. Besides, it was Foundation Establishment Realm cultivators this time. Then what comes next? Crystallization Realm cultivators?

But killing a higher realm spirit beast was different as it could be said that the men that had died were a result of strategic sacrifice.

“Ye Mao?”

Ye Mao was a little upset when he saw that Long Tian didn’t seem to have heard of him. “There’s actually someone in the Great Zhou Dynasty that doesn’t know about my Ye Family?”

“So you’re the Young Master of the Ye Family. My respects.” Long Tian was displeased with Ye Mao’s attitude. I just saved you. Why are you showing off your family to me? If it wasn’t because Long Tian lacked both strength and background, he would have slapped Ye Mao.

“Alright, go and get the white jade fungus that you want. Don’t touch anything else.” Ye Mao could feel that Long Tian was different from the people that tried to curry favor with him. As such, Ye Mao was no longer interested in talking with Long Tian anymore and casually took out a bag of spirit stones. “There are about 100 low-grade spirit stones in here. Consider this your payment for helping.”

100 low-grade spirit stones was nothing to Ye Mao, but it was a considerable amount of wealth to Long Tian. Long Tian was confident that he would be able to break through to the 5th layer of the Foundation Establishment Realm in a month (3 months in the jade pendant).

Long Tian went into the cave, and sure enough, the white plant that he had saw was the white jade fungus that he had been looking for. He put away the white jade fungus and saw several spirit energy grass inside the cave.

If he had those spirit energy grass, he was confident that he would be able to break through to the 7th layer of the Foundation Establishment Realm with Fallen Immortal Elder guiding him to use the medicinal power of the spirit energy grasses to their full potential.

But because he had said that he only wanted the white jade fungus and because Ye Mao had two Crystallization Realm cultivators, Long Tian didn’t take them. Sure, they might have consumed a lot of spiritual energy, but difference in cultivation was too much, and Long Tian wouldn’t be able to fight them head on. He could always get resources later, but he only had one life. Long Tian left without any hesitation.

The two Crystallization Realm cultivators thought pretty highly of Long Tian when they saw him leave.

“Being able to not get greedy upon seeing the spirit energy grass and not shamelessly ask for it and being able to be so calm while in front of a Crystallization Realm wild snake, and at such a young age too, he’s really good.”

“Yeah. His cultivation does seem to be a bit odd. It feels like he’s at the 2nd layer of the Foundation Establishment Realm, but it feels a bit higher. Our cultivation is obviously higher, but we can’t see through his cultivation.”

“Tsk. What future can a rogue cultivator have?” Ye Mao didn’t know why, but he just didn’t like Long Tian and hated that his underlings were praising Long Tian. “After I absorb these spirit energy grass, I will be able to break through to the 5th or even the 6th layer of the Foundation Establishment Realm and surpass Qin Shi Meng of the Qin Family. Then that little bitch may be impressed with me, and I will even be able to surprise everyone at Heavenly Luo Sect’s recruitment test.”

“It’s as you say,” the two cultivators nodded in agreement.

In fact, it wouldn’t be difficult for Ye Mao to get spirit energy grass with Ye Family’s financial power. What he needed was to prove to the elders of his ability to get their approval. Now that he got the wild snake in addition to the spirit energy grass, Ye Mao could only think about how bright his future would be, and he smiled happily.

Translator’s Notes:

I guess I should mention this. So there are “突破到” and “突破”. What’s the difference? The first phrase is “break through to” while the second phrase is “break through”. Confusing? Here’s an example. If a cultivator breaks through to (突破到) the 5th layer of the Foundation Establishment Realm, it means that he was at the 4th layer and just got to the 5th layer. However, if he breaks through (突破) the 5th layer, it means that he was at the 5th layer and just got to the 6th layer. I don’t know if there’s a rule for when you should use one instead of the other, so I’m just following what the author does.

You know what, I’ve already screwed over the translation schedule, so I’m not following it this week. Will just do whatever amount of chapters I can.