Why are you wet?

"A big mission?" Kloss scratched his head, asking in confusion, "What big mission?"

"Like a mission that can directly promote me to Gold Rank," Jiang Mian said. "Preferably one that can be completed in one go."

Kloss asked, "You're not thinking of participating in the Hero Competition, are you?"

"The strength of two people is always greater than one," Jiang Mian said, shaking his fist and smiling. "Brother, I want to help you with this."

"Thank you so much." Kloss clasped his fists together and said solemnly, "Jiang Mian, with those words from you, if you ever get into trouble in the future, just say the word, and I'll definitely help."

"You're just hoping something happens to me," Jiang Mian punched Kloss in the chest, smiling. "Let's not waste any more time. When is your Hero Competition?"

"Less than a month left," Kloss said, counting on his fingers. "We can take on an Emerald Rank mission, and that will directly advance us to Gold Rank."

"Why are we downgrading?" Jiang Mian asked.

"There are two of us," Kloss smiled. "Naturally, the rank of the mission obtained will be halved."

"So that's how it is." Jiang Mian suddenly understood. After Kloss exchanged the bounty list for his rank, the Adventurer Guild awarded Kloss a silver-white medal.

This medal represented that Kloss was already a Silver Rank Adventurer Warrior.

"Did you just start accumulating adventurer ranks too?" Jiang Mian asked out of curiosity. "With your strength, you should have become Silver Rank a long time ago."

"That's right," Kloss nodded. "I left the old man's side half a month ago."

"I knew it," Jiang Mian couldn't help but complain inwardly. So this guy was an inexperienced rookie who didn't understand the ways of the world. Otherwise, how could he have casually told Jiang Mian the secret? Jiang Mian initially thought he was being honest, but he didn't expect him to be ignorant of the dangers of the world.

"Do you know if there are any Emerald Rank missions?" Jiang Mian asked. "Let's hurry up and do it."

"This kind of thing depends on luck," Kloss explained to Jiang Mian. "We have to see if there are any villages offering Emerald Rank missions before we can accept them, but there are basically no bounties for Emerald Rank."

"Why?"

"First, the bounty is expensive, and ordinary villages can't afford it."

"Second, Emerald Rank missions usually involve extremely ferocious spirit beasts. They won't appear in human areas because the places where we humans live are protected by deities. If those spirit beasts appear, they will be driven away and hunted by the deities."

"I see." Jiang Mian had already deduced the general information from Kloss's words. This meant that Emerald Rank and above would not appear on the village bounty boards; most of them were trials bestowed by deities for adventurers.

If Jiang Mian wanted to increase his rank, would he have to accumulate it step by step? That would take ages!

"Where is Jiang Mian?"

In the Extreme North, the Ice Empress and the Auspicious Beast sat facing each other. They disliked each other and didn't even speak.

The atmosphere only slightly eased when Di Tian arrived with the King of Ten Thousand Demons.

Di Tian had left Bi Ji and Zi Ji in the Star Dou Great Forest to guard their home, preventing any other spirit beasts or spirit masters from harboring ill intentions.

"He was sucked in by the spatial turbulence," the Auspicious Beast smacked its lips, seemingly complaining that Di Tian was too slow. "But he should still be out of danger."

"Where are Bear Lord and Crimson King?" Di Tian's expression was stern, clearly showing some anger. "Are they idiots? Why didn't they follow Jiang Mian?"

"Jiang Mian didn't bring them with him when he came," the Auspicious Beast stood up and said, "Di Tian, the immediate priority is to find Jiang Mian."

"I'll try," Di Tian suddenly released his Soul Power. His Soul Power surged like the tide hitting the shore, and even the Ice Empress instantly felt an irresistible pressure.

The Auspicious Beast stood behind Di Tian, looking proudly at the Ice Empress. The King of Ten Thousand Demons guarded beside the Auspicious Beast, afraid that something might happen to the Auspicious Beast too.

The suction force of the spatial turbulence surged. Di Tian stood in front of the turbulence without moving. He commanded, "King of Ten Thousand Demons, watch these two. I'm going in to find them."

"Be careful," the King of Ten Thousand Demons instructed. He protected the Ice Empress and the Auspicious Beast. Di Tian nodded and slowly walked into the spatial turbulence.

"Is this Di Tian's strength?" The Ice Empress was somewhat incredulous. Although the suction of the spatial turbulence was far less powerful than the first time, Di Tian's performance was too easy, as if he were strolling leisurely.

Was the gap between herself and Di Tian really this large?

"Are these several spaces gathered together?" Di Tian walked in the spatial turbulence. He looked at the more than ten small spaces around him, his brows furrowed. "Why would so many spaces be superimposed like this?"

"Why isn't there any sense of direction?" Di Tian walked with his hands behind his back, slowly heading towards the nearest spatial gate. "I can only search them one by one."

"Kill." As soon as Di Tian entered a space, he heard a deafening roar of killing. He looked towards the source of the sound and saw a city wall soaring into the clouds, where many giants with golden light emanating from their bodies were defending the city.

Below, attacking the city were lava giants with molten rock flowing from their bodies, ice giants covered in frost, and some wizards radiating green light.

"A war?" Di Tian looked at the giants that resembled spirit beasts, but he felt they were not. He intended to release his Soul Power to sense Jiang Mian's location. After all, Jiang Mian had the Auspicious Beast's attributes, and Di Tian was closely related to the Auspicious Beast, so he could use this as a medium to sense Jiang Mian.

As soon as he released his Soul Power, a giant hailstone suddenly flew from a distance. Di Tian dodged it sideways, and an inexplicable anger rose in his heart.

He was already anxious about finding Jiang Mian, and on top of that, there were no creatures that had dared to fight Di Tian for many years. How could these giants be so blind? Di Tian suddenly felt that it was not too late to deal with these crawling insects before looking for Jiang Mian!

A dragon's roar descended from the sky. Instantly, many lava giants and ice giants were blown into powder upon hearing the dragon's roar.

The human giants who were struggling to defend the city saw this and then looked at the small figures that suddenly appeared on the battlefield. They exchanged surprised glances, and their gazes finally fell on the officer.

"I don't know either," the officer shook his head, indicating he didn't recognize the person either.

"Thank heavens for blessing us!" The soldiers understood what was happening at a glance. They all knelt down, kowtowed three times to heaven, and then knelt facing Di Tian, as if Di Tian were the embodiment of heaven!

"What's going on?"

In a short while, the lava giants and ice giants were all cleared out by Di Tian. The commander behind the scenes, seeing that the situation was not right, immediately ordered a retreat.

Di Tian glanced at the giants surrendering to him in the distance, and without any hesitation, he turned and left that space.

"Kloss, look at that." Jiang Mian and Kloss were walking on a deserted path. They were heading towards a big city to try their luck, hoping to find a higher-ranked mission. Jiang Mian's eyes were sharp, and he spotted a notice board in the distance, which seemed to have something written on it.

"Fifty miles ahead, Desolate Beast Wasteland, Crystal Emperor Lion sighted. Diamond Rank bounty, reward of 300,000 gold soul coins, and the title of Earl."

"Crystal Emperor Lion?" Jiang Mian took down the bounty plaque and held it in his hand. "Kloss, shall we go try it?"

"Are you sure?" Kloss's eyes widened in surprise. "This is a Diamond Rank bounty, practically a mission bestowed by the gods."

"What's the problem with that?" Jiang Mian spread his hands. "When we win first place in the Hero Competition, won't we be taking on missions like this anyway?"

"I don't mind, I'm just worried you'll get hurt," Kloss said bluntly, his confidence in his own strength evident.

"Joking, brother, dealing with it is more than enough for me," Jiang Mian said dismissively.

Silver Rank corresponded to Soul Elder, Gold Rank to Soul Ancestor, and so on. This Diamond Rank only corresponded to Soul Emperor. He had just killed a Soul Emperor before arriving here.

"Then let's go." Kloss shouldered the bounty plaque and led Jiang Mian towards the Desolate Beast Wasteland. What Diamond Rank? I'll smash whatever Diamond Rank comes my way.

The fifty-mile journey took Jiang Mian and Kloss only two hours to reach their destination. But the vast Desolate Beast Wasteland spanned thousands of kilometers. Finding this Crystal Emperor Lion was like searching for a needle in a haystack.

Kloss gathered a pile of firewood and lit it using the most primitive method of drilling wood. Jiang Mian took out the rations he had bought and shared them with Kloss.

Scattered clouds dotted the sky, and the wind seemed to howl.

"Something's coming!" Kloss suddenly crouched on the ground, listening to the vibrations from below. Jiang Mian, needless to say, had already extended his Soul Power and sensed the approaching entity.

The ground suddenly split open, and a large, brown Earth Rat burrowed out from beneath Kloss. Fortunately, Kloss was agile and jumped aside just in time, preventing the beast from successfully ambushing him.

"Soul Rock Rat." Kloss immediately recognized the type of Spirit Beast. "These beasts are carnivorous, often preying on humans, and are classified as Gold Rank."

"Mm." Jiang Mian nodded. He looked at the Soul Rock Rat without much concern. It hadn't even reached ten thousand years in age, and it was already Gold Rank?

Then again, the people here were primarily body cultivators, lacking special techniques. Therefore, the beasts that burrowed underground, swam in the water, or flew in the sky were generally rated higher.

Jiang Mian yawned. With a casual wave of his hand, five pure claw blades flew towards the Soul Rock Rat. The unfortunate beast didn't even have time to react before being sliced into bloody pieces by Jiang Mian's Sky Rend Claw.

Sky Rend Claw was Bear Lord's signature move. Even Di Tian had been injured by it in the past, let alone this little rat.

Jiang Mian's current strength wasn't enough to unleash the full power of Bear Lord's Sky Rend Claw, only about one or two-tenths of it. Even so, it was far more powerful than these fools who only practiced physical training.

"Can you use Wizard magic?" Kloss clenched his fist and punched forward with all his might, trying to achieve the same effect as Jiang Mian, but it was in vain.

"Is Wizard magic as strong as mine?" Jiang Mian had basically figured out what kind of world this was. Most people here were warriors, relying solely on close combat. A few talented individuals would become Wizards and could cast magic.

Above them were the Deities living on the divine mountains, whose physical bodies and magic were both incredibly powerful, much like the Spirit Masters in the Douluo Continent world. Deities also had different ranks. The easiest way to become a Deity was to participate in the Hero Competition, where one could make a request to a Deity and become one oneself.

Each Deity had their own territory and was responsible for protecting the safety of the people within it. According to Kloss, the Deities with territories were the highest-ranking ones, with thirteen in total. They usually resided on the divine mountains and only descended to the mortal realm on special days and occasions.

"Hmph." Jiang Mian had the utmost disdain for these high-and-mighty Deities. What Deities? They looked like trouble from the start. I'm here for three things: fairness, fairness, and damn it, fairness!

"Soul Rock Rat meat is delicious, want some?" Kloss casually broke off a small tree branch as thick as his wrist and sharpened it with a dagger, skewering the meat like a kebab and placing it over the campfire to roast.

"My god, such a big skewer." Jiang Mian's eyes widened at the skewer, which was longer than his own, and he couldn't help but swallow. This was going to be satisfying to eat, filling him up in just a few bites.

Sizzling sounds came from the skewer as Kloss turned it back and forth, occasionally sprinkling a mysterious seasoning on it.

Jiang Mian was enveloped by the rich aroma, a pure scent of meat with no artificial additives.

"Give me a piece." Jiang Mian unceremoniously used Sky Rend Claw to tear off a large chunk of the roasted rat meat and began to devour it, his mouth greasy.

Whether it was naturally delicious or due to Kloss's mysterious seasoning, Jiang Mian found the meat to be the most exquisite he had ever tasted. The texture was firm, and with each bite, the juice exploded in his mouth, a flavor so fresh it was indescribable.

Jiang Mian devoured the meat portion, which was as large as a washbasin, in a whirlwind fashion. He patted his bulging stomach with a look of utter satisfaction.

Kloss ate even more heartily, his table manners resembling those of a wild beast, completely lacking any elegance.

"Delicious." Kloss lay down next to Jiang Mian and laughed heartily. "Master really didn't lie to me."

"Who exactly is that old man?"

After spending these past few days together, Jiang Mian felt that the old man Kloss mentioned was incredibly profound. He seemed to know everything, making Jiang Mian extremely curious about his identity.

"You'll know when the time comes." Kloss was usually carefree, but whenever Jiang Mian asked him about this, he would brush it off and refuse to elaborate.

"This guy, outwardly carefree, but actually quite thoughtful," Jiang Mian mused, stroking his chin as he observed Kloss, who had already fallen asleep.

He looked up at the starry sky, lamenting another sleepless night. It wasn't that Jiang Mian didn't want to sleep; it was just that the Soul Power in this world was too dense. Meditating and cultivating here allowed for a speed of improvement several times faster than in the Douluo world.

Jiang Mian now felt he was on the verge of advancing from level fifty-two to fifty-three. He had only been here for a few days, and at this rate, he might even break through to level sixty by the time he left.

The night was more than halfway over, and Jiang Mian got up to relieve himself. The Desolate Beast Wasteland was devoid of light at night. The bright moon was obscured by dark clouds, plunging the world into complete darkness.

"Kloss, don't touch me." Jiang Mian felt something poking him from behind. Thinking Kloss had also gotten up to use the restroom, he casually reached behind him. "Hey, why are you wet?"

"Something's wrong!"

If you like this book, remember to add it to your bookshelf so you don't lose it next time.