by Translator: BornToBe; Author: Ordinary Magician (平凡魔术师); Licensed From: 17k
He was appalled to realize that the Xuantian Monastery was more than ten thousand miles away, and it wasn’t even a direct path!
There were several mountain ranges shown on the map, and all kinds of high rank Magical Beasts appeared there. In other words, if Long Chen didn’t want to feed himself to them as dinner, he would have to detour around them!
Long Chen was absolutely livid. Tu Fang, that old bastard, had truly conned him. He wanted a Blood Condensation youth to travel this great of a distance? Wasn’t that just sending him to his death?
What Long Chen didn’t know was that the Xuantian Monastery had extremely strict rules, and their selection of disciples was also extremely stringent.
Long Chen had no Spirit Root, and so he fundamentally did not have the qualifications to be even tested. For Tu Fang to let him come like this was already an exception.
In order to explain himself to the monastery, he made Long Chen travel this ten thousand mile journey through the wastelands on his own. If he did that just to obtain the chance to take the test, others wouldn’t be able to say anything in objection.
Long Chen calculated how long it would take. He would need to travel at least four hundred miles a day in order to make it to the Xuantian Monastery within a month.
If that was just on a flat, empty road, it would be nothing with Little Snow’s speed. But within the wilderness with all kinds of crazy terrain, their journey would be much more difficult. Furthermore, they also had to be on guard against the attacks from Magical Beasts.
After only traveling for a week, Long Chen had already experienced several large battles. There were quite a few Magical Beasts blocking their way, and they had all been killed by Long Chen.
In this one week, he had traveled over fifteen hundred miles. That speed was far from meeting his requirements. That completely infuriated Long Chen, but he was completely helpless.
...
A blazing fire crackled. That fire rose over three meters into the air as it brightened the surroundings.
Beside the fire was a large snake over a dozen meters long. Its scales and skin had been peeled off and it was currently on a stick, roasting.
Long Chen and Little Snow barely waited until it was cooked before they devoured it. Long Chen didn’t eat that much normally, but by gorging himself, he felt as if he was relieving at least a bit of that suppressed anger inside of him.
Little Snow was wildly devouring his food far faster than Long Chen. Long Chen had only eaten a dozen pounds before the remaining meat all entered Little Snow’s stomach.
Generally, starting a fire and cooking food in the wilderness was an extremely dangerous action. All kinds of vicious Magical Beasts would be attracted over.
But now Long Chen no longer cared that much. Time was pressing. He needed to use the least amount of time to hurry on his way. He would rush all day and cultivate during the night.
As a Magical Beast, Little Snow’s powerful physical body meant he could travel for several days and nights without pause so he didn’t need to worry about this pace being too tiring. Furthermore, Little Snow didn’t need to cultivate as long as he had enough meat.
In any case, Magical Beasts were everywhere along their journey. They would just randomly choose one to eat. After eating, Long Chen would begin cultivating while Little Snow would curl up around Long Chen and doze.
Little Snow ate his fill every day. With each day, his body grew.
The current Little Snow had grown to become around five meters long and was now the same height as Long Chen, making him appear even more formidable than ever.
Furthermore, each day his speed and power would evolve to a new level. That definitely surprised and excited Long Chen.
As a Magical Beast that would be at the third rank once he matured, Little Snow was still growing. He grew stronger with each passing day. But with his current speed, they probably wouldn’t be able to make it.
However, as he matured, his speed increased greatly. To reach the Xuantian Monastery in a month shouldn’t pose much of a problem.
Long Chen was filled with gratefulness towards Meng Qi. Sending Little Snow to him had been an enormous help.
With Little Snow guarding him and his keen spiritual perception, no Magical Beasts could sneak up on them without them knowing. That was why Long Chen could cultivate in peace.
Long Chen slowly closed his eyes, and in just a few breaths, his spirit and heart entered a state of emptiness. Even in this kind of environment he was able to enter a perfect state of meditation.
The three hundred meter divine ring appeared behind him. A huge whirlpool of spiritual qi appeared as he greedily absorbed it into his body.
The spiritual qi entered his FengFu Star, which would then slowly circulate and compress the spiritual qi that was absorbed from heaven and earth, making it even purer. It would then slowly merge into Long Chen’s body, entering his blood.
And once that spiritual qi entered his blood, that slowly flowing blood would begin circulating quicker. Loud explosive rumbling like a flash flood would ring out.
Following the permeation of the spiritual qi, his blood’s impurities were incessantly being forced out of his body. Those impurities would flow out like sweat, bringing with them an unpleasant stench.
This was blood condensation. Condense the blood into its purest form, forcing out all the impurities. With such pure blood nourishing the physical body, it was as if the body would be reborn and become even stronger.
Boom!
With a loud explosion, the veins in his body widened and Long Chen laughed. After exhaling a mouthful of turbid air, he opened his eyes.
The white color of dawn was already starting to rise in the east at this time. Rubbing the jade pendant in his robes, a trace of warmth arose in his heart.
This was the only possession his parents had left him. This piece of jade was absolutely magical and mystical, allowing him to eliminate his impurities at a shocking pace and letting him enter his meditative state almost immediately. That caused his cultivation efficiency to multiply several times.
He didn’t even sense the passing of time. He felt as if he had just closed his eyes when the sky had brightened. However, he could sense the changes in his body.
He punched out, causing space to shake. The wind from his fist directly knocked down a huge tree.
“My physical body has once more strengthened. Even without using Battle Skills, I already have such power. The Blood Condensation realm truly is unfathomable.” Long Chen tightly clenched his fists, a passionate fire burning in his heart.
He had now purified the blood in his body four times, causing his physical strength to explode to a point where even he was frightened.
But the Blood Condensation realm wasn’t the same as the Qi Condensation realm. After purifying the blood once, it would require a period of time to let the body form more blood. The purified blood would be stored properly while new blood refilled the veins to their old capacity. Only then could you refine the blood again.
Ordinarily, that would require half a month’s time. But for Long Chen, he didn’t know whether it was because of the Nine Star Hegemon Body Art or not, after his first blood condensement, he had only required several hours before his blood had replenished.
The second time it had required a full day, and the third time two days. This was currently the fourth time, and Long Chen estimated it would take four days before he could do the next blood condensement.
But in any case, the current Long Chen was now already an expert at the fourth Heavenstage of Blood Condensation.
“Ao!”
Suddenly, Little Snow let out a howl and Long Chen hastily put away his smile. “Fine, fine, let’s go.”
Little Snow had seen that Long Chen was just foolishly laughing and smiling, and so he had to urge him into motion. Little Snow shot forward like a ray of white light, rushing on their way.
“Haha, Little Snow, your speed is even faster than yesterday,”
praised Long Chen excitedly. Little Snow’s speed had once more advanced, and in the future, they wouldn’t have to rush as fast as they were.
“Ao!”
“What? If you continue eating enough meat, you’ll be able to keep increasing your speed? Ok, then let’s see if we can kill a third rank Magical Beast today to get a good meal for you,” laughed Long Chen.
Continuing forward, the dense forest thicket faded away, revealing a barren land that stretched for thousands of miles. There was nothing that broke the unending field of yellow dirt, and the air was filled with a desolate feeling.
Long Chen hastily checked his map and nodded. They were still on the right path. This barren land was something they had to pass through.
Carefully looking at the map and then using a piece of grass as a scale, he measured the distance of this desert and sucked in a cold breath of air.
“Little Snow, this barren land continues for fifteen hundred miles, and there’s one section of it that is a true desert without a drop of water. We won’t be able to run fast on the sand, so we’ll probably need four or five days to walk straight through it. Can you handle it?” Long Chen was a bit worried.
The desert sand was too soft and so Little Snow’s speed would sharply decline. Furthermore, it would cause even more exhaustion which was extremely disadvantageous for them.
“Ao wu!”
“No, no, just saying there shouldn’t be a problem is no good. We have to be absolutely sure that it’ll be fine. We can’t do anything we aren’t sure of.”
Little Snow said he probably could do it, but Long Chen didn’t dare risk it. Not eating for five days wasn’t much of a problem, but to rush through a desert for five days with the sun beating down upon you without a single drop of water for relief was too dangerous. Even a Magical Beast’s body would be unable to endure it.
Long Chen thought about it, and they returned to the forest. Long Chen was planning on chopping down a couple of large trees and cutting out buckets from them.
But Long Chen’s luck was pretty good and he saw a field of bamboo trees. He didn’t know what breed they were, but they were very long and as thick as a person’s waist. Each stalk was over a meter tall, and they were practically the perfect water buckets.
Long Chen cut off forty of them in a single breath. Near there, he found a clear pool of water and filled the bamboo rods to their tops, then placed them in his spatial ring.
A spatial ring’s inner space was completely still and he didn’t need to worry about jolting the water out along the way.
After preparing this, Long Chen felt much more at ease. With water, even if they didn’t have food, they would still be able to support themselves for a long time.
As they traveled across that barren land, the vegetation became even sparser until there was not even a single blade of grass and everything was just yellow sand.
Waves of heat battered them, not much inferior to being within a blazing fire. In front of such heat waves, perhaps only pill cultivators, who were used to fire, could ignore them.
“Little Snow, are you alright?” asked Long Chen.
Little Snow didn’t reply to him. He roared and sped along.
As expected, Little Snow’s speed was greatly limited by the sand. His current pace was at most seventy or eighty percent of what it had been in the forest.
Furthermore, the soft sand exhausted even more of his stamina. When night fell, he had only traveled two hundred fifty miles. And that was because part of the way had still been dirt. Tomorrow it would all be sand, so they definitely wouldn’t be able to go as far as today.
The night within the desert was an icy cold that pierced the bones, a complete opposite of the day. The most helpless thing was that within the desert, Long Chen could absorb only next to no spiritual qi. He directly gave up cultivating and just lay on Little Snow’s body and slept.
“Ao!”
Late into the night, Little Snow suddenly roared, rousing Long Chen awake.
Chapter 120 Giant Desert Scorpion
Long Chen’s eyes popped open. Although the night was pitch-black, he could still see a huge silhouette from the feeble starlight.
Sending out his Spiritual Strength, he used his divine sense in place of his eyes. When Long Chen saw what that huge figure was, he couldn’t stop himself from gasping.
That huge figure was over ten meters long. Two large pincers angrily snapped like the Grim Reaper’s sickle, and behind it was a long tail with a stinger which was raised and pointed at Long Chen.
Its two eyes were locked onto Long Chen. Obviously, it already considered Long Chen and Little Snow its food.
“Giant Desert Scorpion!” Long Chen’s heart beat wildly as he recognized this desert overlord.
The Giant Desert Scorpion was also called the Violent Desert Scorpion. It was a second rank Magical Beast, but even third rank Magical Beasts would quickly retreat when they met it in the desert. One mistake and their lives would be lost.
That was because the Giant Desert Scorpion was a killer that concealed itself extremely well. Its speed was incomparably quick within the desert.
It had absolute supremacy in this kind of terrain. The soft sand might be a hindrance to Long Chen, but to the Giant Desert Scorpion, the sand was like water to a fish.
Even though its body was huge, the soft sand concealed any noise it made. Furthermore, its six legs made it so that it could travel even more noiselessly, approaching its prey without them sensing it. By the time they did sense it, the prey would already be dead.
Its silent methods, powerful body, explosive tendencies, and invulnerable defense meant that within the desert, it was an absolute overlord.
But the most frightening thing about it wasn’t any of those. The most terrifying thing about it was its huge stinger. If you were stung by it, its poison would immediately infect your body. Even a third rank Magical Beast wouldn’t be able to survive it and would immediately die.
The Giant Desert Scorpion was also an extremely rare kind of Magical Beast that could fight across ranks. If it weren’t for the fact that it only existed in the desert, its fame would not be inferior to the Scarlet Flame Snow Wolf.
Even though Little Snow’s extremely sensitive nose had managed to sense it, it was only sixty meters away now. That was how stealthy it was.
All the fur on Little Snow’s body stood on end as it angrily snarled. Little Snow immediately entered his battle state.
“Ji!” The Giant Desert Scorpion let out a strange cry as it charged forward at Little Snow. Despite its huge body, it was extremely nimble. Furthermore, its speed was even more inconceivable. A pair of large pincers cut towards Little Snow. Obviously in its eyes, Long Chen wasn’t even worth looking at.
Little Snow angrily roared and suddenly spat out a crescent wind blade. With its rapid revolving speed, it was just like a sickle that whistled towards the enemy.
The current Little Snow was much stronger than he had been back in the capital. His wind blades now had a length of over three meters.
Ding.
However, what was shocking was that Little Snow’s powerful wind blade, which could easily kill Blood Condensation experts and was even a threat to Tendon Transformation experts, was easily caught in the Giant Desert Scorpion’s pincers, simply emitting a light metallic ringing.
The Giant Desert Scorpion was only slowed down slightly before it once more sped up, not injured at all.
“What sturdy defense!” Long Chen was amazed. It really was worthy of being the overlord of the desert. This kind of defense was something even Tendon Transformation experts would find difficult breaking.
“Breaking Wind Fist!” Long Chen charged forward as Little Snow’s second wind blade shot out.
Although Little Snow was also a second rank Magical Beast, Long Chen knew that this kind of armored Magical Beast had a definite advantage over furred Magical Beasts. In front of the Giant Desert Scorpion with its weapons and armor, Little Snow was unable to
cause any real injuries.
BOOM! Long Chen’s fist was originally aiming for the Giant Desert Scorpion’s head, but it was extremely crafty and used its pincer at this critical moment to block.
Sand flew out as Long Chen’s fist struck its huge pincer. Long Chen’s physical body had reached an inconceivable level, so that Giant Desert Scorpion was smashed deep into the sand. The ground seemed to become water with ripples flowing out.
“Not good!” Seeing that Giant Desert Scorpion disappear below ground, Long Chen immediately let out a startled cry and jumped up. His feet had only just left the ground when a huge stinger shot out of the sand. A single step later and he would have been pierced.
The sand shook and began to ripple.
“Little Snow, be careful! It’s hiding underground!” Long Chen’s expression was extremely grave. This second rank Magical Beast was as fast as the wind with incredible defense. Furthermore, they were fighting on its battlefield. If it continued on like this, Long Chen would find it extremely difficult to fight it.
Little Snow was a beast suited to earthen land. He was unable to use his full force here. As time progressed, they would end up at a disadvantage. If they were hit by that stinger, it would definitely be over for them.
They had to force it out!
Long Chen’s divine sense spread out, hoping he would be able to pinpoint its location.
But Long Chen was disappointed. That Giant Desert Scorpion was like a fish in the water, silently moving under the sand without a trace. Long Chen’s divine sense might have a range of three hundred meters in the air, but within the sand, he could only send it in about a meter, which was essentially useless.
Long Chen now understood just why it was called the desert’s overlord. In its specialized battlefield, even a third rank Magical Beast would suffer a loss.
“Dodge, Little Snow!” Long Chen suddenly shouted. Little Snow and Long Chen’s spirits were connected, so as soon as he shouted, Little Snow immediately jumped to the side.
A stinger shot out from underground and then once more retracted. The sand then returned to calm again.