The night was deep now, and the inner disciples walking on the road gradually grew fewer.
Zhang Ergou ambled towards a more open area, where inner disciples usually frequented.
"Eh? Zhang Ergou!" a surprised voice suddenly rang out. Zhang Ergou recognized the speaker as an inner disciple from the Beast Forest trial.
Seeing Zhang Ergou appear alone, this disciple, though not as indignant as Jiang Tian, looked at Zhang Ergou with ill intent.
"Heh heh, Senior Brother, how have you been?" Zhang Ergou chuckled, then turned and bolted.
The inner disciple froze for a moment, then quickly realized Zhang Ergou was alone. Without time to call for other senior brothers, he chased after Zhang Ergou.
"Zhang Ergou, you brat, don't run!"
Recalling his own ordeal in the Beast Forest, the inner disciple's anger surged. If he hadn't seen Zhang Ergou, it would have been fine, but now that he did, how could he let this brat escape?
Zhang Ergou had almost become a public enemy in the hearts of all inner disciples who had been sent to the Beast Forest.
He was practically being hunted by everyone.
For some time now, inner disciples who participated in the inner sect's Beast Forest trial would visit the foot of Lingyu Peak regularly.
Their sole purpose was to catch Zhang Ergou, the culprit.
But in recent days, they had made no progress whatsoever.
Since entering the inner sect, Zhang Ergou had not left Lingyu Peak.
Furthermore, Zhang Ergou's daily running and training route was in a different direction, information that those inner disciples who had been sent to the Beast Forest did not know.
They had only heard that a newly recruited inner disciple this year had a peculiar cultivation method and ran every day. They had not realized that this peculiar disciple was Zhang Ergou.
Thus, these disciples spent their days loitering around the front of Lingyu Peak, never searching in other directions.
"Zhang Ergou, you little rascal, stop running!" the inner disciple pursued Zhang Ergou relentlessly.
However, Zhang Ergou's recent training, coupled with his natural agility, allowed him to stick to his pre-planned route.
Zhang Ergou ran towards a dense and lush forest.
The inner disciple didn't suspect anything, assuming Zhang Ergou was simply afraid of him.
He followed closely behind Zhang Ergou.
Suddenly, he saw Zhang Ergou stop and turn around, but the inner disciple still didn't suspect anything.
Looking at Zhang Ergou, who had stopped, the pursuing disciple's face twisted slightly: "Zhang Ergou, you brat, why aren't you running anymore? Weren't you quite good at it?"
"Heh heh, Senior Brother, you should worry about yourself. Look behind you!"
Zhang Ergou flashed a mischievous smile, his face filled with mockery as he looked at the grimacing inner disciple chasing after him.
"What do you mean?" The disciple instinctively looked back.
A massive hammer, like a sky-covering canopy, descended from above. The disciple didn't even have time to scream before Xiao Qingyu knocked him unconscious with a single blow.
"Hmph, so easily knocked out. It seems the skill level of inner disciples isn't that great either!"
Xiao Qingyu retracted his giant hammer. The disciple's forehead was bleeding profusely, and he had already collapsed to the ground, unconscious.
Familiarity breeds expertise. With their previous experience robbing Jiang Tian, the four wasted no time. They stripped the inner disciple of everything he had, then relocated.
That night, Zhang Ergou and his companions initially targeted only the inner disciples who had participated in the Beast Forest trial.
However, they soon discovered that the disciples who had gone through the trial were poorer than the last; some didn't even possess a spatial ring.
After deliberation, they shifted their target to isolated inner disciples, no longer focusing solely on those who had grudges against Zhang Ergou.
Shortly thereafter, in the rear mountain forest of the inner sect, lone disciples were frequently lured into pre-prepared ambush spots by Zhang Ergou and his group.
That night, the entire inner sect was in turmoil. Screams of agony could be heard from different directions intermittently.
The screams were extremely brief. Before people could pinpoint the source, they would cease, leading many to believe it was just someone playing pranks.
Therefore, the commotion that night did not draw much attention.
When daylight broke the next day, the inner disciples who had been knocked unconscious emerged from various corners, looking at each other's battered states.
They then realized they had all been tricked by the same group.
Meanwhile, the culprits behind it all, Zhang Ergou, Lin Yichen, Xiao Qingyu, and Wang Teng, were holed up in a secluded cave dividing their spoils.
After a night of surprise attacks, the group had reaped substantial rewards. Each of them was rolling in wealth.
Clearly, this method of robbery was incredibly lucrative.
"Heh heh, Ergou, you're the clever one. You've got so many brilliant ideas. Now our pockets are bulging," Wang Teng said with a grin, looking at the contents of his spatial ring.
His joy was evident. Lin Yichen and Xiao Qingyu weren't far behind in their happiness.
In recent days, they had been beaten by Jiang Tian and Zhuge Wen, and robbed by them too. They were truly impoverished.
Now, with this windfall, it was like rain after a long drought. For the three of them, these spirit stones were like charcoal in winter.
"Heh heh, Senior Brother, don't say that. Tonight's prosperity is everyone's contribution; it can't all be attributed to me,"
Zhang Ergou said humbly. He didn't want the bad reputation for himself.
He aspired to be a righteous cultivator, and while he could do these underhanded deeds like deceiving and ambushing, he absolutely wouldn't admit to them.
Lin Yichen and the other two exchanged glances, then looked at Zhang Ergou. They nodded, quite understanding his little schemes.
"Brat, what about that matter I mentioned to you last time?"
After dividing the spoils, Lin Yichen pulled Zhang Ergou aside and said mysteriously.
"What matter?" Zhang Ergou didn't immediately recall.
"What other matter could it be? Of course, it's about you agreeing to refine pills for me!" Lin Yichen playfully smacked Zhang Ergou's back.
If he hadn't needed Zhang Ergou's help, Lin Yichen would have given him a good beating. He had met unreliable people before, but never someone this unreliable.
To think he hadn't taken the task he was given to heart.
With Lin Yichen's reminder, Zhang Ergou suddenly remembered. He recalled that during the outer sect's grand competition, Lin Yichen had asked him to refine pills.
At the time, he had used the excuse of being busy and his pill-refining skills being rusty, claiming he couldn't refine second-grade pills.
Nearly three months had passed. Hearing Lin Yichen bring it up, Zhang Ergou felt a bit embarrassed.
However, with his thick skin, he naturally wouldn't admit that he had forgotten and hadn't prioritized refining pills for Lin Yichen.
"Senior Brother Lin, you're talking about this matter? How could I forget it," Zhang Ergou mused for a moment. "I've also taken time to improve my pill-refining skills during this period. Isn't it precisely so that I can refine pills for you, Senior Brother Lin, at the earliest opportunity?"
"Hush! Someone's coming!" Suddenly, Xiao Qingyu, who was peeking from the cave entrance, called out.