by Translator: Pokka; Author: 我本纯洁 (I Am Pure); Licensed From: Migu
The purple barrier blocked the sword, creating a crisp clang.
"Shaped energy? So what? Break!" Sun Songli could sense the change, but he yelled and pushed himself over the limits, unleashing 120 percent of his might and concentrating it into his sword. He could not allow his attack to fail.
Xiang Shaoyun started retreating with the sword on his forehead. Cracks were already appearing in his barrier. The sword only needed to go a tad bit deeper, and it would be able to penetrate his forehead.
Under pressure of death, Xiang Shaoyun completed the final step of his breakthrough. His strength reached a brand new level. With nothing to distract his focus, he managed to lean to the side and avoided the sword before raising his unbroken hand and pointing it at Sun Songli.
Sun Songli was right in front of Xiang Shaoyun. Thus, the moment Xiang Shaoyun leaned to the side to avoid his sword, he swung his sword to the side, attempting to follow up with a slash.
He could sense how powerful Xiang Shaoyun was. If he couldn't kill this opponent as soon as possible, he would no longer have a chance. He was right. But unfortunately, he had misjudged Xiang Shaoyun's strength.
His slash landed on Xiang Shaoyun's energy barrier and was able to slightly penetrate the barrier to wound Xiang Shaoyun's shoulder. Even that was only possible because Xiang Shaoyun's activation of Star Destroying Finger had weakened his own energy barrier.
Bang!
Sun Songli had been focusing too much on killing Xiang Shaoyun and had not expected such a speedy counterattack. The attack opened a bloody hole in his body, causing him to wail in pain. The attack had been mixed with Xiang Shaoyun's innate purple lightning. Thus, it was dreadfully destructive.
Sun Songli was completely helpless against the innate purple lightning invading his body. The innate purple lightning proceeded to destroy his organs, and his vitality rapidly dropped.
"Say it! Why are you trying to kill me?" Xiang Shaoyun asked, ignoring his own injuries.
Sun Songli stared at Xiang Shaoyun in disbelief, blood spilling from his mouth without stop. With great difficulty, he spoke his last words: "T-the Bl-Blackhill Sect will not spare..."
He breathed his last before completing his sentence.
"Blackhill Sect? One of the top 10 academies?" Xiang Shaoyun frowned. He did not have the time to ponder. He snatched Sun Songli's jade plate and transferred all the points to his plate. With that, he now had over 1,000 points. What a great gift this Sun Songli had given him.
Now, Xiang Shaoyun definitely had one of the highest points in the competition. But he did not seem to care much about the points. Rather, he was more worried about the injuries he and Little White had sustained. Although he had entered the eighth stage, his injuries were too severe. Moreover, he had suffered excessive blood loss. He had to find a safe place to heal himself.
Fortunately, the gold serpentine crocodiles in the area had all been killed. This place would be temporarily devoid of gold serpentine crocodiles. Moreover, it was rather out of the way, and it was unlikely that someone else would come here. Thus, he selected a random spot in the vicinity and hid himself.
He then took out a low-grade spirit medicine—a blood mushroom—and fed it to Little White to help replenish his vitality. He also directly consumed a blood ginseng stored within his astral cosmos sea to replenish his own vitality. At the same time, he took out a large number of old medicines and mixed them together before using them to treat his and Little White’s external wounds.
They had both suffered terrible injuries and would not be able to fight for a short period of time. Even worse was the fact that one of Xiang Shaoyun's arms had been broken. It was not easy to recover a broken arm. He had to first mend his displaced bone before his arm would start recovering.
"It won't be hard to realign the displaced bone if there is someone else here. But looks like I can only rely on myself now." Xiang Shaoyun sighed. From the moment he decided to move alone, he had expected to encounter numerous difficulties. He did not regret his decision as his heart grew even more resolute. He was now at the eighth stage. Thus, with the abundant energy in him, his recovery speed had also increased.
After one day, he felt much better. His fast recovery was mostly attributed to the blood ginseng and his recent breakthrough. In a much better condition now, he walked to a boulder, stuffed his broken arm into an opening, and twisted his body.
Crack!
Just like that, he forced the displaced bone into its rightful position. Beads of sweat formed on his forehead, and an expression of deep pain covered his face, but he did not make a sound.
"I can finally meditate normally now." Xiang Shaoyun heaved a sigh of relief. He returned to his previous spot, ate some dried meats, and started meditating. Circulating his Heaven Conquering Overlord Manual, he sent his energy coursing through his injured spots to help them heal faster.
He did not notice that by his side, the sleeping Little White had a layer of faint golden radiance around his body. His injuries were healing rapidly and even his demonic aura was growing increasingly strong.
This is too slow. If this continues, I will only fully recover in like 10 days or half a month. At that time, it will be too late to do anything for the competition. I need to think of something, Xiang Shaoyun pondered.
Then, his inner gaze landed on his lightning bone. The lightning bone had an innate purple lightning, a destructive power that nobody at his cultivation level could hope to block. Moreover, this bone also had the magical ability of devouring lightning energy to grow itself.
I'll have to give it a try, Xiang Shaoyun hesitated before activating the lightning bone. Strains of lightning energy started coursing toward his injured spots.
Bzzt! Bzzt!
Instantly, a numb sensation filled his body while an expression of pain covered his face.
Chapter 125: The Legendary White Tiger Wings
Pain! Intense pain! The pain was so much that Xiang Shaoyun couldn't stop himself from groaning. The injuries were already hurting badly, but after his innate purple lightning coursed through the injured spots, it felt like adding oil to fire or adding salt to a wound. The resulting pain was so intense it seemed to have drilled into his bone marrows.
Just as Xiang Shaoyun was about to withdraw the innate purple lightning, he felt a change. His pain had lessened while his clotted blood was slowly dissolving. At the same time, his vitality was increasing. It was clear he was recovering. Because of that, he allowed the innate purple lightning to stay at his injured spots, and he endured the intense pain.
This was yet another tempering, yet another rebirth he had to undergo. Lightning power was a destructive power, but it also contained a power of awakening, capable of awakening the potential of a person's life force.
A large amount of medical power was hidden in Xiang Shaoyun due to all the years his father spent boiling him in medicinal concoctions. The lightning power had merely activated the buried medical power within him, helping accelerate his recovery. As he healed rapidly, the pain he felt started waning.
He felt better as time went on, and after an unknown amount of time, he felt like his injuries had been completely healed. He no longer felt any pain, and he finally regained his clarity. He quickly ripped his bandages off and found that the newly grown flesh looked as tender as a baby's skin, and the scabs had all fallen off.
"I've recovered! I've really recovered! Haha!" Xiang Shaoyun roared with laughter. It was a bad idea to carry around a serious injury in his current environment, as danger could come at any time. But now, everything was fine. He had completely recovered. His combat strength had also grown, boosting his confidence to face whatever would come next in the competition.
Xiang Shaoyun saw Little White not far from him. Little White seemed to have recovered even earlier and was currently chomping down on a gold serpentine crocodile he had hunted earlier. Xiang Shaoyun was aware that demonic beasts healed much faster than humans, but Little White's recovery speed had still surpass
ed his expectation.
"Little White, are you fine?" Xiang Shaoyun asked.
"Yes, I'm all fine now, boss," Little White answered.
"That's quick! What's your current strength exactly?" Xiang Shaoyun asked curiously.
"I'm now a fourth-stage Great Demon! I had fully digested the final bit of the undigested demonic core earlier. It had increased my recovery speed and had also strengthened both my cultivation level and physical flesh," Little White answered honestly.
"What? Fourth-stage Great Demon already?" Xiang Shaoyun cried out in alarm.
"Yes. Both the demonic core and tiger's tooth I ate previously belonged to Demon Kings, and after nearly fully digesting them both, it is normal for me to reach this level," Little White said, not surprised at all.
That answered Xiang Shaoyun’s doubts. Little White had relied on digesting more of the demonic core and tiger's tooth to reach the fourth stage of the Great Demon realm. Xiang Shaoyun remembered that even before this, Little White was already capable of killing fourth-stage Great Demon gold serpentine crocodiles. Now, he would probably be able to fight gold serpentine crocodiles in the fifth or even the sixth stage.
Looks like Little White truly has an extraordinary bloodline. It's a pity his bloodline has been diluted with some other ordinary bloodline as well. If I can find him some white tiger blood, he might be able to transform into an actual white tiger, Xiang Shaoyun mused.
With both of them healed, they continued their journey. This time, Xiang Shaoyun was not going to charge on rashly like he did before. Otherwise, he might not be able to reach the place Little White was talking about earlier. He started observing his surroundings, trying to look for an alternative route to reach his destination. But all he saw were weeds and trees. He really had no idea which route would have fewer or even no gold serpentine crocodiles.
"Little White, with our strength, it will be very hard for us to reach the place you sensed," Xiang Shaoyun said with a bitter smile.
Little White did not say anything. Instead, he started roaming around sniffing at the air repeatedly. After a while, he ran back to Xiang Shaoyun and said, "Boss, we can take the route where there are no gold serpentine crocodiles."
"By relying on your sense of smell?" Xiang Shaoyun asked.
"No, by relying on my senses," Little White replied resolutely before adding, "I'm not a dog!"
"Sure, we'll give it a try. In any case, we already have a large number of points. We can focus on treasure hunting for now. We'll just have to kill more gold serpentine crocodiles when we're done." Xiang Shaoyun nodded.
Xiang Shaoyun then hopped onto Little White's back and let Little White to lead the way. He had full confidence Little White would not bring him to his death. But what Little White did next shocked him so much his heart nearly popped out of his mouth. The route Little White had selected was actually the wide canyon from earlier. Little White charged head on and jumped off the cliff.
"Little White, what are you doing?" Xiang Shaoyun nearly jumped off Little White's body. But if he did that now, he would only fall into the bottomless abyss below him. Just as his heart was pumping wildly in anxiety, a pair of white wings suddenly grew out of Little White's back.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
The sleek white wings danced in the air gracefully, moving as fast as lightning.
Xiang Shaoyun was completely stunned. He had never expected that Little White would actually grow a pair of wings. That felt like a dream.
"The legendary white tiger wings!" Xiang Shaoyun cried out in alarm when he sensed the sharp aura the wings were emitting.
In the legends, the white tigers were tigers with wings. Xiang Shaoyun was unsure if that was true, as that was something he had only seen from some ancient text. After witnessing Little White's transformation, he now believed the ancient text was right. He was also finally sure Little White's bloodline was related to the white tigers’.
Carrying Xiang Shaoyun on his back, Little White dove into the canyon and flew at a low altitude so as to avoid being discovered by other humans and demonic beasts. Since Little White was capable of flight, they could travel quickly without having to worry about being attacked by gold serpentine crocodiles. They only needed to worry about Demon Kings.
The canyon led all the way into the depths of the Golden River Valley. If they continued flying, they would be able to reach their destination. At this thought, Xiang Shaoyun suddenly grew nervous. Even if Little White could reach there safely, what could they do if there was a Demon King gold serpentine crocodile there?
"Little White, slow down a little bit. Let me think," Xiang Shaoyun said.
"Don't worry boss. I don't sense any gold serpentine crocodile around," Little White answered.
"I know, but that does not mean it will stay the same at our destination," Xiang Shaoyun said. After a pause, he continued, "How far are we from the place you sensed? And what had you sensed exactly?"
"It's right over there. I don't know what it is either. I just know it's related to my bloodline, giving me an intensely intimate sensation. Boss, I must go there. I am even willing to go alone," Little White said, a burning thirst in his eyes.
"No, it's even more dangerous for you to go alone. We will face all dangers together. Since you need to go, I'll go with you. But try to stay hidden. Don't provoke fellows we can't afford to provoke," Xiang Shaoyun said, deciding to take the chance seeing how resolute Little White was.
Perhaps an astonishing secret was truly hidden there.
Chapter 126: One Howl to Shake Mountains and Rivers
The Golden River Valley wasn't large, neither was it small. With Little White's flying speed, they would be able to reach their destination in half a day. Their journey had proceeded smoothly; they hadn’t encountered even one Demon King on their way. But the peace caused Xiang Shaoyun to feel more uneasy. There must be a reason for the abnormal peace.
But since they were already near their destination, he couldn't exactly make Little White turn back. Thus, he started observing his surroundings vigilantly. A gold radiance could be seen flickering not far ahead of him. The gold radiance was incredibly bright, to the point it was hard to look directly at the source of the radiance.
The rocks, flowers, grasses, trees, and everything there were gold in color. They all looked extremely sinister and odd, giving an impression that there was definitely something hidden within the Golden River Valley. Otherwise, why would there be a world of gold here? Many experts had explored this place before. Unfortunately, none of them had found anything, and they had eventually moved on. They had all concluded that the color might be a result of a dense concentration of metal energy due to the condition of the soil and river here.
Xiang Shaoyun fully activated his gift of instincts; his gaze tore through the layers of radiance to see that below them, a large number of gold serpentine crocodiles were lying dormant. If it wasn't for his impressive eyesight, he would have thought that the dormant gold serpentine crocodiles were actually rocks.
Now that Xiang Shaoyun saw them for what they were, his hair stood on end. There were tens of thousands of gold serpentine crocodiles. Even a King Realm cultivator would flee at this sight, much less Xiang Shaoyun who was only an eighth-stage Astral Realm cultivator. On the contrary, Little White was getting more and more excited as he dove straight to the ground.
"Slow down, Little White. If we go down like this, we will both die," Xiang Shaoyun cried out.
"Boss! I can sense it! It's really my clan's bloodline! It will be greatly beneficial to me! I must go down!" Little White said in excitement. So excited was he that he disobeyed Xiang Shaoyun and continued diving straight down.
"We're screwed! We're screwed!" Fear was the only thing Xiang Shaoyun felt right now.
No matter how arrogant he was, he was not arrogant enough to believe he would be a match for so many gold serpentine crocodiles, especially when there were Demon Kings among them.
Swish! Swish!
Sure
enough, as Little White dove down with Xiang Shaoyun, several thick and solid figures dashed upward from below. Five Demon King gold serpentine crocodiles! Each was about seven or eight meters in length, and they were as wide as massive pillars with numerous sharp spikes running along their skin, giving them a fearsome appearance.
"Any human who dares to intrude upon our domain shall die!" shouted one of them.
After that shout, one of them attacked.
Swish!
An over 10-meters-long golden energy blade appeared and glided across the air toward Little White and Xiang Shaoyun. This was the might of a King. Killing could be accomplished in the blink of an eye.
"It's over!" Xiang Shaoyun's mind went blank. He still had a lot of things to do. He was definitely unwilling to die now, especially not here trying to get something that he knew nothing about. He started regretting his rashness. If he hadn't thoughtlessly agreed to Little White's request, he would never have taken a risk like this. He had always been a cautious person.
Right this moment, an earth-shattering roar came out of Little White's mouth. One roar to shake the mountains and rivers! This was the roar of the king of beasts, the essence of a tiger's roar. It tore through the skies, forming a resonance with some sort of natural power.
Even that couldn't stop the gold serpentine crocodile's attack. After all, the gap between their levels was too large. Just as the attack was about to hit them, an incorporeal power suddenly descended from the skies above.
Rumble!
The incorporeal power blocked the incoming attack before sending five separate attacks toward the five gold serpentine crocodiles. Before the five gold serpentine crocodiles could even react, they were all slashed into two. Sparkling drops of blood rained down upon the earth below, painting a picturesque scene.
Xiang Shaoyun was completely stunned. He had not expected such a dramatic change. Before he and Little White could react, they were shackled by some incorporeal power that proceeded to drag them down.
Apart from that, a dreadful sound wave appeared out of nowhere and surged into the sky above before it erupted and rippled throughout the Golden River Valley. This sound wave was much more powerful than Little White's roar. It directly killed swathes of gold serpentine crocodiles below, while the survivors started fleeing for their lives.