The bloodstains on his white clothes had all been splashed onto him when Mu Yuan killed several low-level spirit beasts.
Several kilometers away, several Blood Pig Tigers lay in pools of blood. Most shocking of all, every one of them had had its throat slit by a single sword strike.
Recalling the scene of killing a Blood Pig Tiger with one sword strike earlier, Mu Yuan was somewhat dissatisfied.
They said Blood Pig Tigers possessed the strength of the mid-stage Spiritual Movement Realm. Their hides were thick and their flesh tough enough to withstand the full-force attack of a late-stage Spiritual Movement Realm cultivator, yet they could not block even one strike from him.
"Although my cultivation is only at the mid-stage Spiritual Movement Realm, I no longer fear even experts at the peak of the Spiritual Movement Realm. Only Spirit Wheel Realm experts can probably make me feel a little pressure."
Mu Yuan muttered to himself.
Suddenly.
Sensing a gust of foul wind behind him, Mu Yuan abruptly turned around and saw a white giant ape several hundred meters away. It opened its bloody maw and bit toward him.
"A mid-level spirit beast, the White Spirit Ape King!"
Mu Yuan's body flashed as he leaped onto another large tree, evading the bite.
However, that bloody maw bit into the tree where he had just been standing.
The tree immediately exploded in flying wood chips, crushed apart by those jaws as easily as tofu.
Judging by that force, if it had bitten him, he would likely have been smashed to pieces.
"So this is a mid-level spirit beast comparable to the Spirit Wheel Realm? It really is formidable!"
Mu Yuan let out a slight breath of relief, but inwardly lamented. Why would a mid-level spirit beast appear on the outskirts of the Northern Spiritual Plains?
Whether in speed or strength, mid-level spirit beasts far surpassed low-level spirit beasts.
With Mu Yuan's current cultivation, he could only attack targets three hundred paces away.
Yet the White Spirit Ape King could unleash a direct attack with a burst of spiritual power from five hundred paces away. It was terrifying beyond measure.
"Hm?"
The White Spirit Ape King stared at Mu Yuan. It seemed slightly surprised that Mu Yuan had dodged the attack, but a cruel smile soon appeared on its face, exposing its enormous, gleaming fangs.
The next instant, spiritual power surged forth like a flood. Its ape arm suddenly swept out, and its massive body actually took flight like a great roc.
"How is that possible?"
This completely overturned Mu Yuan's understanding. By the time he reacted, the white ape had descended overhead, its giant palm carrying a violent current of air as it clawed at him.
In an instant, the airflow around him turned into a savage vortex. His entire body was bound by an invisible force, like a small boat caught in a storm, unable to break free no matter what.
A catastrophe was about to descend.
With his spiritual power, he could not even move when facing the white ape's strike. This showed just how ferocious it was.
"Kill!"
Faced with such oppression, Mu Yuan had no choice but to fight.
The power of three Dragon Elephant phantoms, along with the spiritual power of his God Vein, was unleashed by Mu Yuan.
Golden spiritual power poured into the hand gripping his sword sheath.
"Sword Drawing Art!"
"Steel Cutting!"
Whoosh!
A golden sword shadow flashed like lightning, as though it had split apart the heavens.
The next second, with a click, the sword guard joined with the sheath, and the White Spirit Ape King's enormous body crashed to the ground, sending withered branches and fallen leaves flying everywhere!
Blood flowed out, and its aura had clearly been completely extinguished.
One strike, instant kill!
Even Mu Yuan looked stunned. Then, as though he had understood something, he smiled.
"I never expected you to become the first test subject for Sword Drawing Art: Steel Sever. That is quite an honor for you."
That was right. That sword strike had just triggered Steel Cutting's defense-ignoring effect.
Mu Yuan's Sword Drawing Art already possessed the power of the Spirit Wheel Realm. It had ignored the White Spirit Ape King's spiritual power, so killing it was only natural.
After surviving the disaster, Mu Yuan let out a breath. That had truly been dangerous.
Fortunately, he had triggered Steel Cutting's effect.
Then Mu Yuan leaped down and used his sword to cut open the White Spirit Ape King's head. At that moment, white light spread out, and a fist-sized ball of light slowly rose.
Within the ball of light, a miniature White Spirit Ape King could vaguely be seen, emitting faint yet violent spiritual power fluctuations.
This was a Spirit Beast Essence.
Mu Yuan put away the Spirit Beast Essence, sprang up into the trees, and leaped deeper into the forest with his hearing and vision fully extended.
All kinds of sounds entered his mind, almost forming a three-dimensional image.
"Hm? Such a strong smell of blood? There are dozens of spirit beasts nearby!"
Mu Yuan leaped down from the tree and charged fiercely forward.
He eventually arrived at an open area in the forest.
There, he saw more than a dozen fiery red giant wolves gnawing on several corpses.
The corpses clearly belonged to human experts, with weapons scattered nearby.
They were evidently an adventuring party that had entered the Northern Spiritual Plains to explore.
Unfortunately, they had fallen victim to the Fire Spirit Wolves.
Although Fire Spirit Wolves were not as strong as the White Spirit Ape King, they were still well-known among late-stage low-level spirit beasts.
Unlike the solitary White Spirit Ape King, they preferred to move in packs. Organized and disciplined, they came and went through the forest like the wind. Adult Fire Spirit Wolves possessed strength at the peak of the Spiritual Movement Realm.
To adventurers, encountering Fire Spirit Wolves was even more troublesome than encountering the White Spirit Ape King.
If one encountered a pack of Fire Spirit Wolves in the forest, that was the beginning of tragedy.
Sensing Mu Yuan's gaze, the ears of the more than ten Fire Spirit Wolves feeding on the corpses twitched, and they all turned their heads toward him.
Upon seeing Mu Yuan, the Fire Spirit Wolves were not alarmed. Instead, one particularly robust male wolf very humanly extended a forepaw and waved it at Mu Yuan, signaling for him to come over.
Its beastly eyes also revealed deep contempt.
The situation was exceedingly strange.
Just imagine it: a wolf waving its forepaw at you, telling you to come over, while displaying human-like contempt on its face. What kind of sight was that?
Spirit beasts had long since fully possessed the minds of adults; they simply could not learn to speak human language.
Mu Yuan was already used to such things.
"Clang!"
In response to the Fire Spirit Wolves' contempt, Mu Yuan gave the most direct answer. His thumb pushed open the sword guard, and a cold gleam shot out from the sheath.
With a bang, accompanied by withered leaves scattering behind him, Mu Yuan charged forward like an arrow released from a bow.
"Overestimating yourself!"
The particularly robust male wolf's upright crimson eyes were filled with contempt and mockery.
In its eyes, no matter how capable a mere human youth was, how powerful could he possibly be?
But it was wrong.
"Sword Drawing Art!"
The sword in Mu Yuan's hand had already been fully drawn, but the wolf had failed to notice because he was too fast.
"Ah!"
At that moment, a heart-piercing pain surged into its mind, and the Fire Spirit Wolf let out a miserable scream.
But it soon could not scream any longer.
Because it discovered in shock that the other Fire Spirit Wolves had fear on their ugly beastly faces and were backing away, clearly intending to flee.
Only then did it react. It widened its beastly eyes and looked at its own body, which had already been separated from its head.
In only five breaths, all the Fire Spirit Wolves had been beheaded, leaving corpses strewn across the ground.
A total of seventeen late-stage low-level Spirit Beast Essences fell into Mu Yuan's hands.
"Spirit beasts at this level lack too much challenge. I need to go deeper."
Of course, the White Spirit Ape King from before had absolutely been an accident.
With that thought, Mu Yuan took another step forward.
Just then.
Three figures appeared.
PS: Thank you to reader Five Travelers for the 3,100 book-coin reward, reader Heavenly Immortal for 200 book coins, reader Magic for 200 book coins, reader Clouded Wine Comforts the Dust for 198 book coins, and reader 976033712 and reader... for 100 book coins!
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