by Translator: BornToBe; Author: Ordinary Magician (平凡魔术师); Licensed From: 17k
After several days, those injuries had healed to fifty percent, which gratified him.
BUZZ!
Suddenly, Long Chen felt intense fluctuations, and he suddenly heard Mu Xue’s startled scream. “Watch out, Long Chen!”
He saw a red light shooting straight towards him. Long Chen couldn’t help cursing inside, “You guys can fight your battle, but mind your own business.”
He dashed to the side, and the red light pierced straight through the chair he had been sitting in.
BOOM!
That luxurious chair of his was instantly destroyed. At the same time, the mountain behind him crumbled.
This sudden change dumbfounded everyone. Why would the Ironwing Eagle suddenly set its sights on Long Chen while it was in the middle of fighting Mu Xue?
The Ironwing Eagle let out a heaven-shaking cry when it saw it didn’t kill Long Chen. Surprisingly, it gave up on Mu Xue and charged straight at Long Chen.
Mu Xue was completely shocked. The Ironwing Eagle was too fast, and there was no way she could stop it. “Run, Long Chen!”
The mercenaries all turned pale. Long Chen was in the midst of forming his meridians. He hadn’t even reached the true Meridian Opening realm. He would definitely die against a Xiantian Magical Beast.
“What are you doing?!”
Seeing Long Chen just stand there like an imbecile with this huge monster charging at him, all of the mercenaries screamed. It seemed he had lost any of his previous quick wits.
The Ironwing Eagle’s sharp beak shone with a metallic light as it ruthlessly stabbed towards Long Chen.
BOOM!
[1] This is a joke. When you say something has a feather’s use, it means it has no use. The word for feather here can also mean hair, so you may have seen a hair’s use before. Personally, I usually translate it as simply no use rather than a hair’s use.
Chapter 548 Subduing a Steed
The ground shook intensely, and dust exploded into the air.
“Long Chen!”
Mu Xue screamed with shock. She couldn’t help being dumbfounded. Why hadn’t Long Chen dodged?
With Long Chen’s speed, dodging its attack was no problem. Had he really died just like this?
“What?!”
When the dust settled, Mu Xue was filled with disbelief upon seeing that Long Chen was still there. He hadn’t budged.
Long Chen’s expression was still calm. He had one hand grabbing the Ironwing Eagle’s huge beak, pressing its head into the ground.
No matter how the Ironwing Eagle struggled, it was unable to escape from Long Chen’s hand.
Whether it was Mu Xue or the distant mercenaries, they were all dumbfounded, unable to believe this scene in front of them. That scene seemed like an ant trying to shake an elephant.
With just one hand, he managed to subdue a Xiantian Magical Beast, making it so it couldn’t escape him. Just what kind of power did that require?
“You wanted to crush the weakling first?”
Long Chen smiled coldly at the Ironwing Eagle. Even if he didn’t have spiritual qi, he still had the power of his physical body. This Ironwing Eagle was still greatly lacking if it wanted to bully him.
Buzz.
Suddenly, the Ironwing Eagle’s eyes changed color. Long Chen instantly slammed his foot onto its beak.
BOOM!
The crystal bone’s attack shot straight into the air, missing.
“Scram!”
Long Chen grabbed its beak. Using just the strength in his arms, in front of all their dumbfounded gazes, that huge body rose into the air and was then flung away.
BOOM! The Ironwing Eagle smashed into a cliff, causing half of that stone cliff to collapse onto it. When it freed itself, it charged straight at the dumbfounded Mu Xue.
“It’s time to cut off its head!” shouted Long Chen.
Only then did Mu Xue react. Right now, the Ironwing Eagle was still dizzy from Long Chen’s attack. That was an extremely rare opportunity.
A ray of sword-light slashed onto the Ironwing Eagle’s neck. Blood splashed, but Mu Xue’s attack only managed to sever half of its neck.
Due to the pain, the Ironwing Eagle awoke from being muddled, but before it could do anything, Mu Xue’s second attack arrived.
When this second attack landed on the previous injury, its neck finally severed completely and blood spurted out.
Its huge body disappeared, revealing Long Chen’s excited smile. “The head’s yours, so I’ll keep the body.”
When the Ironwing Eagle’s body landed in the primal chaos bead’s black soil, he saw that his trees all began to rapidly grow.
It seemed the stronger the body of a Magical Beast, the more life energy it could provide. The Ironwing Eagle supplied him with over ten times the energy of the Hidden Ground Spider.
Long Chen was incomparably excited upon seeing the small trees grow. This was even faster than when he used all his energy to urge on the primal chaos space.
“Thank you, Long Chen!” said Mu Xue excitedly as she put away its head.
That was no ordinary Magical Beast’s head. That was a crystal bone! Countless people would go crazy for such a treasure.
“Hahaha, Leader is too polite. We’re just splitting the spoils evenly. According to volume, I’ve gained a huge advantage,” said Long Chen.
At this time, the other mercenaries also ran over, all of them incredibly excited.
“Long Chen, how are you so strong? Tell us!” One of the women intimately wrapped her arm around Long Chen’s elbow.
“Hehe, it’s not difficult. As long as you eat enough Magical Beasts, you can also have such a strong physical body,” said Long Chen.
“How many Magical Beasts?”
“Around ten thousand. For example, poisonous snakes, maggots, rats, spiders, etc. Once you finish each one of them completely, not even leaving the bones, those juices will nourish your body-”
“Aiya… how nauseating… Don’t explain it anymore, I definitely don’t want to train like that!” That woman let go of Long Chen, running far away.
When Long Chen had said spider, it had been exceptionally disgusting. She thought of that sinister beast they had fought yesterday. Just looking at it had caused her hair to stand on end. But to eat it? Let alone a young woman like her, even the manliest man would feel their stomach heaving inside.
“That’s enough of that. It really is all thanks to you, Long Chen. Once I refine this crystal bone, no other mercenary unit will dare look down on us!” Mu Xue knew Long Chen was just making up nonsense, and she brought the conversation back to the topic.
“That’s right! Fuck their moms, they really did bully us a lot! This time, we’ll definitely have to give them a resounding slap in the face to tell them they can’t do that anymore!” cursed one of the mercenaries.
The other mercenaries were also filled with excitement. It seemed they really hadn’t had a good time in the past. Even in the mercenary world, they had been pushed around by others.
“Long Chen, how about you join our Muxue Mercenary Unit? With this many brothers and sisters together, think about how delightful that would be!” Zhang Wu patted Long Chen on the shoulder.
“Exactly! You should join. At worst, us two sisters can help wait on you.” One of the women flirtatiously pulled on Long Chen’s arm.
Hearing that, even if Long Chen’s skin was thick, his face still turned burning hot. Furthermore, the other mercenaries even began to let out wolf calls.
Although he knew they were joking, Long Chen couldn’t help but feel slightly awkward. He really did like the atmosphere in this mercenary unit, but he couldn’t stay.
“Alright, you two should stop before you go too far.” Mu Xue laughed upon seeing how awkward Long Chen’s expression was. “Since we’ve obtained the crystal core, we should hurry up and return to the city. We still have over half a month’s journey to make.”
“Wait a moment.”
Long Chen suddenly thought of
something. He looked around and then ran over to a distant lump.
His actions startled the others, and they had no idea what he was planning.
When he arrived at that lump, a head popped out of it. Only then did they remember that the Ironwing Eagle had been carrying its prey when it had returned.
They hastily rushed over to help. They saw that this Magical Beast hadn’t died. But it was on its last breaths, and it would clearly die soon.
“You want its crystal core?” asked Mu Xue.
“No, I want it to fly us back. That will save us a lot of energy.” Long Chen examined the Magical Beast’s injuries.
“Bring us back? You know beast taming?” asked Mu Xue.
“A bit.” Long Chen smiled slightly.
Mu Xue was a bit speechless. It seemed this Long Chen knew ‘a bit’ about everything. But in reality, it was never just a bit.
“This is a fifth rank Magical Beast, a Cold Water Bright Crow. Although its strength is ordinary, it’s large enough to carry us all,” explained Long Chen.
Examining its injuries, Long Chen saw that it didn’t have many external injuries. However, its internal organs had been broken, most likely from being dropped by the eagle.
Since it didn’t have many external injuries, it was very simple for him. He took out a bottle of healing pills and directly threw it into the Cold Water Bright Crow’s mouth.
An incense stick’s time later, its body quivered slightly, causing everyone to jump and take a few steps back. After all, that was a Magical Beast, and Magical Beasts were all violent, capable of injuring anyone at any time. They all wanted to see just how Long Chen was planning on taming it.
It opened its eyes, and seeing so many people surrounding it, it tried to run away. However, it didn’t even succeed in getting up, as its injuries were too severe.
“Your injuries are very heavy. Even if we don’t kill you, you’ll still die. I’ll give you two options:
“One is to cooperate with us and carry us for a bit. I will heal your injuries, and when we arrive, I’ll release you.
“The second is that you refuse to cooperate. We won’t kill you, but you’ll still die here in the end. Any other Magical Beast will eat you,” said Long Chen.
Mu Xue and the others were stupefied. This was beast taming? He was just speaking to it? If it understood the human language, would it even count as a Magical Beast?
They were unaware that Long Chen was also using his Spiritual Strength to communicate with it as he spoke. Although it didn’t understand his words, it could understand what Long Chen was trying to express.
In truth, Long Chen could directly place a slave imprint on it so that it didn’t have any ability to resist. However, he didn’t do so.
Once you placed a slave imprint, the Magical Beast would have no choice but to listen to his orders. He didn’t like such a method.
After a long moment, the Cold Water Bright Crow lightly pressed its head against Long Chen’s chest in front of everyone’s shocked gazes.
“There’s no need for a spiritual imprint. I trust you.” Long Chen smiled slightly and patted its head.
Long Chen sensed a strong desire to live from it. It didn’t want to die, so it chose to cooperate.
What Long Chen hadn’t expected was that this Cold Water Bright Crow seemed to be a relatively stronger representative of its kind, which allowed it to understand what a spiritual imprint was. However, its bloodline had already declined so much.
To use just a few words to subdue a Cold Water Bright Crow, all of them were completely shocked. But what happened next made them even more shocked.
Long Chen took out a whole bucket of medicinal pills. There had to be hundreds of pills in there, and they were all high grade healing pills.
These medicinal pills weren’t refined by Long Chen; they were his battle spoils from the Jiuli secret realm. Such ordinary high grade pills were trash in Long Chen’s eyes.
Healing pills were essentially useless to him, while the Dragonblood Legion’s healing pills were all personally refined by him and were all three-ring and above high grade pills. Thus, such ordinary pills were completely unnecessary.
After feeding the Cold Water Bright Crow this immense number of healing pills, he had it rest first. They didn’t need to rush back immediately. If nothing unexpected happened, it would heal slightly overnight and would be able to fly with them slowly.
When the day turned to night, everyone entered a cultivation state. But Long Chen was called out alone by Mu Xue.
Chapter 549 The Immortal Intoxication Pavilion’s Ladies
“Long Chen, I know you probably come from somewhere extraordinary, but no matter what power you’re in, you will have to deal with endless bullying and crowding out. Do you really not want to think about joining us? If you’re willing to join, I am willing to give you the leader position. In fact, it wouldn’t even be a problem to change the unit’s name to yours.”
Within the darkness of night, Mu Xue and Long Chen had arrived atop a cliffside. Mu Xue quietly spoke to him.
Long Chen looked at the tents set up at the bottom of the cliff and sighed, “First, I have to thank you for your care. But I really cannot join the Muxue Mercenary Unit.”
“Why not? You’re unwilling to abandon your status?” asked Mu Xue.
“I think you might have misunderstood. I am not some disciple from some powerful family. I’m just a regular country bumpkin. I have no status to lose.
“The reason I choose not to join you isn’t because I look down on you. In fact, I enjoy the atmosphere of your mercenary unit. You’re all bound by deep feelings for each other, and it’s just like family.
“It’s precisely because I like you all that I cannot join you. I’m an unlucky star, and I’ll implicate you all.” Long Chen looked up at the crescent moon, shaking his head.
“You should know there’s no coward in our unit,” said Mu Xue.
“You can think of me as a selfish person. You guys might not be afraid of death, but I am. I can’t bear that pain.
“If I join you, it probably won’t be long before the entire unit is destroyed because of me.
“You’ll all die, while I’ll have to bear the pain of being alone. Being emotionless is less painful than having emotions. Just let me be an emotionless person.” A touch of sorrow appeared in Long Chen’s eyes.
He was someone who had set himself against the entire Heavenly Daos. If someone wanted to fight with him, they needed to be strong enough first. If their lives weren’t hardy enough, they would all fall.
Back in the Righteous and Corrupt battle, there had been many high-spirited core disciples who had fought shoulder to shoulder with him.
After the Jiuli secret realm, the only ones remaining had been Gu Yang and the others. The rest had all died.
Although the path cultivators walked on was one filled with struggle, where life and death were up to the mandates of heaven, Long Chen didn’t know just how many of those dead companions had died because of Yin Wushuang’s sinister schemes. That made him feel extremely bad.
So Long Chen was being more and more stingy with his own emotions. His actions were very likely to cause other people to lose their lives.
That was also the reason he maintained a certain distance from them, especially Mu Xue and the other two women.
Although the Muxue Mercenary Unit was filled with elites who worked hard and would become very powerful, Long Chen was sincerely fond of them and didn’t want them drawn into his own maelstrom. It had been hard enough for them to find their own lifestyles, finding their own goals for their lives. It was best for them not to be caught up in his troubles.
“Long Chen, do you have an interesting story?” Seeing that sorrow in his eyes, Mu Xue’s heart shook.
“My story’s too long. It’s too long to even finish telling.” Long Chen bitterly smiled.
“Then… do you want to try telling it to me,” said Mu Xue.
Long Chen looked
at Mu Xue. “Thank you for your care. I will never forget the Muxue Mercenary Unit. I won’t forget these brothers, and I also won’t forget you.
“Aiya, it seems I forgot to feed the Cold Water Bright Crow its medicine. I’ll have to leave first, leader.”
Long Chen patted his head vexedly, saying goodbye to Mu Xue.
Looking at Long Chen’s back as he left, Mu Xue was slightly disappointed. During these years, she was the only one supporting the entire unit. She was tired, very, very tired…
...
The next day, the Cold Water Bright Crow had recovered quite a bit. Seeing Long Chen come, it slowly knelt down.
“Are you sure this will be alright, Long Chen? If it throws us off halfway, we’ll all be turned into pancakes,” said Zhang Wu worriedly.
“Don’t worry. Even if we’re turned into pancakes, you’ll definitely be the biggest one.” Long Chen looked at Zhang Wu’s bulky build.
The two women laughed in secret, but Mu Xue didn’t seem to be in the mood. She had yet to say a single word today.
“Let’s go.”
When everyone climbed onto the Cold Water Bright Crow, Long Chen gave it an order, and its two wings shook as it brought them all into the sky.
They practically soared into the clouds instantly, causing quite a few of them to turn green. At this height, there was no question they would die if they fell.
“Long Chen, can you make it fly lower?” asked one of the women, wrapping her arm around him.
“We can’t. If we fly any lower, we’ll end up attacked by other Magical Beasts. We might not be afraid of those attacks, but the Cold Water Bright Crow has only recovered slightly. If it’s attacked, that’ll be a fatal danger.
“You don’t need to be afraid. Once we fly another mile higher, you won’t be scared of this height anymore,” said Long Chen.
As he said that, they rose in the air. They really were less afraid now because the clouds below them were blocking their sight.
“The more brazen ones can enjoy the scenery; the scared ones can close their eyes and take a nap. The Cold Water Bright Crow will fly very steadily,” said Long Chen.