Mountain Monster Essence

At that moment, Zhang Yang was not actually within the Soul Force Field he had released, yet his Soul Force Field seemed to have transformed into reality, close enough to touch.

The sensation was utterly different.

For a brief moment, he even felt as though his soul had broken free of his body and was observing the world from an independent perspective.

Of course, it was only an illusion.

The next instant, all of Zhang Yang's senses settled upon the long saber.

The first thing it brought him was a surging tide of blood qi. Reflected within the Soul Force Field, that blood qi was like rivers and dark clouds, vast and mighty.

However, the overwhelming blood qi did not shock Zhang Yang very much. His condensed and compressed Soul Force Field possessed even greater control. With merely a thought, the blood qi on the long saber was dissected open.

What was revealed was the furious roar of the Black-Skinned Mountain Monster. Zhang Yang was not unfamiliar with that voice at all—it was precisely the voice he had heard when he used the Mountain Monster Spirit to strengthen the Four Berserker Bears.

"Interesting. Can my compressed Soul Force Field actually analyze things to this level?"

Zhang Yang continued analyzing and exploring downward because he felt that his Soul Force Field still had strength to spare.

This time, however, the scene he sensed was incomparably magnificent. It was as though he were standing in a boundless desert, where countless black grains of sand had piled up, along with many enormous black rocks standing in bizarre shapes. It was a completely unfamiliar world.

Zhang Yang was astonished. The next second, his Soul Force Field suddenly collapsed—it had exhausted all his Soul Power.

Leaning against the Wood Demon Tower and gasping for breath, he remained puzzled. It was not until more than ten minutes later, when a flash of inspiration passed through his mind, that he suddenly realized what he had seen!

"Damn!"

"Damn!"

Zhang Yang let out a wild cry. He was so excited that he wanted to roll around on the ground. He was no top student, so he had not realized it immediately, but it was not too late now that he had recalled it.

"Could it be that, through my compressed Soul Force Field, I saw iron ions? No, no. Duan Kuan's long saber had long since surpassed alloy steel in hardness, and its special sharpness was also different from the steel materials of Earth that I knew. It was as if some wondrous, even more complex metallic bond had been reassembled. Sigh, if I had known this would happen, I definitely would have studied math, physics, and chemistry properly back then."

Zhang Yang quickly calmed down from his excitement. As a poor student—and a poor student whose intelligence was not especially high—even if he could see iron ions through his Soul Force Field, so what? Even if he could see those special metallic bonds, so what? He still understood nothing. Therefore, he could only use the most primitive method he himself could understand to nurture the long saber.

"But my Soul Power isn't enough. Even if I compress my Soul Force Field to that degree, I can only tear through the first layer of blood light and the second layer of Mountain Monster Spirit on the long saber before reaching its source. By then, I'm already powerless to change anything. At most, I'll last a few seconds before my Soul Power runs dry and I'm forced out. How could I nurture it? This is far more difficult than nurturing Ironwood."

"Looks like I'll have to find a way from another angle—for example, magic power, or the Mountain Monster's vital essence blood."

Zhang Yang became interested instead, tossing his original plan to study the Iron Wall Battle Rune far beyond the ninth heaven.

An hour and a half later, after recovering with the Wood Demon Tower's help, Zhang Yang was once again full of energy. This time, he set the long saber aside and instead took out one unit of Mountain Monster vital essence blood.

One unit was a full kilogram. When Zhang Yang wrapped the Mountain Monster vital essence blood in his Soul Force Field, he immediately sensed an enormous vitality. It was completely different from Azure Wolf Demon blood. The level difference was simply too great: the two were not only eighteen levels apart, but also separated by the gap between ordinary and hero-grade.

If Zhang Yang's control over his Soul Force Field had not become extraordinary, this unit of Mountain Monster vital essence blood would certainly have broken free on its own, allowing the Demonic Energy inside to escape directly.

"Sure enough, this is a good thing."

After exclaiming in admiration, Zhang Yang continued compressing his Soul Force Field. He was very curious to see what the inside of the Mountain Monster vital essence blood would look like.

Several seconds later, as the Soul Force Field compressed to a diameter of one meter, this unit of Mountain Monster vital essence blood was compressed into something the size of a ping-pong ball. Yet it became increasingly wild, bouncing around incessantly inside the Soul Force Field.

The scene was bizarre beyond words.

But Zhang Yang remained calm. Pressing forward step by step, he continued compressing it. He followed the method he had gained from analyzing the long saber and separated the Mountain Monster vital essence blood layer by layer.

At last, when the unit of Mountain Monster vital essence blood had been compressed to the size of a button, it reached its critical point. In Zhang Yang's perception, he could no longer see the button-sized ball of blood. Instead, it became scene after scene—the Black-Skinned Mountain Monster growing from childhood to adulthood.

Zhang Yang was not surprised. He had the experience of the Azure Wolf Essence before him, so he knew he was moving in the right direction.

After another dozen seconds, the scenes became clearer and clearer, and Zhang Yang felt increasingly immersed in them. Then he suddenly discovered that he had transformed into the Black-Skinned Mountain Monster—

This was a pitch-black mountain. Pitch-black rocks with sharp edges were everywhere. There were no flowers or grass, no trees, and even the sky was pitch-black. The entire world held nothing but shades of gray and black.

There was nothing around him. Only himself remained, climbing ceaselessly.

Why was he climbing? He did not know.

Why did he refuse to stop? He still did not know.

The only powerful obsession left in his heart was to keep climbing without end.

But the mountain was far too steep. Even with his sturdy body, he could not avoid falling again and again, rolling back down again and again.

His entire body was covered in scars. New wounds covered old wounds, and old wounds covered even older ones.

Yet he still did not stop—not even to turn his head and look back.

Step by step, never ceasing.

Until the moment he climbed to the mountaintop, he suddenly looked back. No—the Mountain Monster suddenly looked back and let out a roar that shook heaven and earth!

That single roar jolted Zhang Yang awake. He immediately realized that he was in an extremely dangerous predicament. The Mountain Monster's will—or rather, the Mountain Monster's essence—was frantically fighting for control of his soul!

Of course Zhang Yang resisted with all his might, but the Mountain Monster's essence was astonishingly tenacious. Even with Zhang Yang's B-Grade Soul strength, he was suppressed until he could barely struggle.

The terror he felt at that moment was indescribable. He was practically powerless to call for help. In a battle on the level of the soul, no one could help him!

The only thing Zhang Yang could do was hold the line, endure, and never submit!

As for counterattacking, he had no strength to do so at all.

He did not know how much time passed. Perhaps a thousand years, perhaps ten thousand—he had no idea. Zhang Yang felt as if he were on the verge of rotting away, yet he still could not see the slightest hope.

Even his consciousness seemed about to sink completely into an endless abyss.

It was at that very moment that an Azure Wolf running beneath the moon burst out of the darkness. It instantly merged with Zhang Yang's consciousness, and that savage power transformed into blazing flames and erupted directly. In that instant, Zhang Yang seized back control.

When he opened his eyes, he was still inside the Wood Demon Tower. The sunlight outside was bright, and Duan Kuan was still standing guard nearby. It seemed that not much time had passed.

Yet it felt as though Zhang Yang had lived through an entire lifetime, experiencing the great terror of life, death, and reincarnation.

His entire body was drenched in sweat.

He lay motionless where he was for a full half hour before recovering all his consciousness and memories, finally able to recognize clearly that what had just happened was merely a nightmare.

But it absolutely had not been a nightmare. The power contained within that Mountain Monster Essence was simply terrifying.

For the first time in his life, Zhang Yang also realized that dangers on the level of the soul were actually no simpler than fighting to the death with one's physical body.

"I absolutely can't do this again in the future. This was simply the fearlessness of ignorance. How could a level-one Azure Wolf Essence possibly be compared with a level-nineteen hero-grade Mountain Monster Essence? Fortunately, I only took out one unit of Mountain Monster vital essence blood. Otherwise, I would already have become the 982nd village chief to die on the Village Building Order."

With a self-mocking smile, Zhang Yang finally examined his gains again.

That was right. This life-and-death cycle naturally had its benefits.

He had absorbed and fused with the Azure Wolf Essence, while also absorbing and fusing with the Mountain Monster Essence. The two had transformed into his Soul Power, so his Soul strength had unknowingly risen another level. It had advanced from B- to B.

The attributes displayed on the Village Building Order had also changed.

Name: Zhang Yang (Village Chief bound as the 982nd holder of the Village Building Order)

Age: 19

Strength: D+

Agility: F+

Defense: F+

Soul Strength: B

Acquired Soul Trait: Keen Perception, passive. Allows the early detection of certain approaching dangers. An innate trait of B-Grade Souls, with no consumption.

Acquired Soul Trait: Wildness, passive. Greatly increases soul tenacity. Specifically, when suppressed by a soul one level higher than one's own, there is a high chance of immunity.

Acquired Soul Trait: Tenacity, passive. Greatly increases Soul strength. Even when suffering severe injuries or massive depletion, it will not cause overly serious damage.

Constant Spell Mastered: Bind. Description: This spell has no level, no proficiency, and no priority restrictions. Its power and casting distance depend on the strength of the soul.

Constant Spell Mastered: Soul Force Field. Maximum coverage: 100 meters.