Storm Emperor and the Seven True Gods (Please Follow-up Reads)

[Storm Emperor] and [Seven True Gods] (Please Follow-up Reads)

"Advanced Vibration power, hahaha, so this is Advanced Vibration."

"The first stage of Golden Cross Slash, Vibration Cross Slash—I've already mastered it."

The rush that came from this increase in strength made Levi unable to hold back a shout of exhilaration.

"With my current strength, I should be fully capable of fighting a Pre-Knight. What a pity, I don't have a chance to test it. After all, Golden Cross Slash is a killing move. Once it's used, blood must be spilled!"

Levi sheathed his sword. It had already been a year since he began practicing the Black Snake Breathing Technique, and now the Black Snake Breathing Technique was not far from the Third Order. He should be able to reach it by the end of this year.

At that time, he would be a Pre-Knight in the truest sense.

He only needed to condense a Seed of Life, and he could become a Formal Knight.

Becoming a Formal Knight meant that, in this world, he would finally have the power to protect himself and step into the ranks of the upper-middle-tier powerhouses.

Overall, the difficulty of cultivating a breathing technique was still much higher than the first stage of Golden Cross Slash.

Of course, Levi guessed that it might also be because his own talent in swordsmanship was already quite good.

"Next, I'll go all out grinding the Black Snake Breathing Technique and strive to break through to the Third Order as soon as possible."

After setting his goal, Levi once again entered grind mode.

Life as a lord was like this: repetitive, boring, and dull. But every time he saw the proficiency +1 notification, Levi felt that all of it was worth it.

Holy Radiance Calendar year 1004, Month of the Freezing Winter.

The third year after the end of the Millennial Holy War between the Emerald Kingdom and the Tuva Empire.

Although there was no longer a great war between the two countries, small-scale conflicts continued without end.

In truth, everyone knew that, at its essence, this was not a war between two nations.

It was a struggle between the churches behind them.

The Holy Radiance Church, which believed in Heavenly Father, and the Storm Church, which believed in the Storm Emperor, constantly sought to expand the range of their territories in order to increase their own influence and spread the church's influence across the entire world!

Of course, doing that was very difficult.

In today's world, there were a total of seven major kingdoms and empires. The people and nobles of every nation all had their own faith in a true god.

Open and covert struggles between the various factions never ceased. The difficulty of destroying the other six nations and churches and unifying the world could be imagined.

But since the birth of the seven great churches, their purpose and meaning had lain in spreading faith.

Therefore, in the foreseeable future, the evolution of civilization was destined to be inseparable from the struggles of these religions.

Putting aside the great wars between nations, in the vast mountains where Blackwater Valley was located, another great battle was also taking place.

In the dense mountain forest, over a hundred Mountain Sitting Wolves surrounded a silver-white giant bear that had just awakened from hibernation.

The silver-white giant bear stood a full one meter eighty at the shoulder, and its body length exceeded four meters.

This was one of the most famous beasts of the north: the Northern Giant Bear.

Once grown, it possessed the strength of a knight. The outstanding among them even had the combat power of a High-Rank Knight, and could kill a giant elephant with ease.

As for this Northern Giant Bear, its size was actually slightly on the smaller side, because it was a female bear.

If it were an adult male bear, it would generally possess the strength of a Peak Knight.

Opposite the Northern Giant Bear were wolves spread across the mountains and plains, as well as the Mountain Sitting Wolf King that led them.

Mountain Sitting Wolves were the most terrifying existence in the Black Forest. Individually, their strength was far inferior to that of the Northern Giant Bear. But their advantage lay in teamwork and sheer numbers.

Under normal circumstances, however, even a wolf pack of over a hundred rarely took the initiative to hunt a Northern Giant Bear.

It was simply because there were too many wolves, and food this year was also rather scarce.

This territory had originally belonged to the Mountain Sitting Wolf King, but this spring, the female bear had barged into its domain, competed with it for the already limited food, and from time to time hunted the wolf pack under its command.

Today, taking advantage of the female bear's hibernation, the Mountain Sitting Wolf King had pondered for a long time before deciding to deal with this female bear and have a full meal while it was at it.

Unexpectedly, this female bear was very alert. It seemed to have sensed the arrival of the Mountain Sitting Wolf pack from far away and actually tried to slip off. Of course, in the end, it was still caught by the wolf pack led by the Mountain Sitting Wolf King.

Now, the female bear, surrounded by a pile of Mountain Sitting Wolves, stopped running. In terms of speed and endurance, it could not possibly outrun Mountain Sitting Wolves.

These were the most patient hunters, one of the few creatures that could rival human hunters in endurance.

It had to end the battle quickly. It let out a great roar that resounded through the mountain forest, lifted its front paws off the ground, and stood upright like a human. Its towering body, like that of a demon god, was nearly two stories tall.

Quite a few ordinary Mountain Sitting Wolves began retreating one after another. Seeing this, the Mountain Sitting Wolf King raised its head and howled to the sky, boosting its side's morale. It was a rare mutant wolf king, an existence comparable to a knight, though in single combat it was no match for a Northern Giant Bear.

But it was no lone ranger.

Just like that, the wolves and the bear began a slaughter in the valley.

Countless Mountain Sitting Wolves threw themselves at the female bear without fear of death. The female bear slammed a paw down, and the Mountain Sitting Wolves that failed to dodge were directly turned into mush.

Forget wolves—even a knight wearing armor would not be able to withstand a blow from a Northern Giant Bear unless it was the kind of Plate Armor. And although Plate Armor could barely withstand the frontal impact, that immense force could still shatter the internal organs and bones of most knights who did not practice defensive breathing techniques.

For survival, both sides fought with everything they had.

There was no right or wrong, only the need to... live!

By the end, the Northern Giant Bear's body was already covered with Mountain Sitting Wolves. Its thick, tough fur was also riddled with wounds, and endless blood dyed the snow red.

It was already exhausted, but it did not fall. Instead, it continued fighting.

Finally, after losing a full one-third of its Mountain Sitting Wolf subordinates, the female bear was on its last breath.

Only then did the cautious Mountain Sitting Wolf King make its move. Its sharp canine teeth bit into the Northern Giant Bear's neck, while the other Mountain Sitting Wolves directly began ripping open its belly.

The Northern Giant Bear's miserable roar echoed through the mountain forest, and birds and beasts scattered.

The king of the mountain forest was about to fall as well.

In this region, there could only be one king, and that was the Mountain Sitting Wolf King.

Before long, the giant bear had no breath left at all. The battle was over.

The Mountain Sitting Wolf King enjoyed its spoils. With the corpse of this giant bear, plus the bodies of those dead companions, they should have enough to last a month.

It had no pity at all for the dead wolves. In any case, as long as there was enough food, fresh blood would soon join the wolf pack.

What the Mountain Sitting Wolf King did not know was that, in the female bear's cave more than ten li away, three cubs the size of young calves were gazing sorrowfully in the direction where their mother had died, then running aimlessly in panic.

They had been born this spring. Northern Giant Bears needed more than seven years to mature. Though they were less than a year old and seemed far from small, in reality, they had not yet learned how to hunt.

Instinct told them that perhaps only the borderland between the deep mountains and human settlements could allow little bears like them, who did not know how to hunt, to survive. There, they could sneak into human settlements at night, pick through garbage to eat, and stay far away from these dangerous wolf packs.

Of the three chubby little bears, one had a grayish body color, one was pure white and resembled their mother the most, and one seemed to have a genetic mutation, being both black and white. In short, they were plump and chubby, without any of their mother's imposing might.

The three little ones ran head to tail, stumbling toward the valley where Blackwater Valley was located. What awaited them would be an unknown new life.

Having not yet learned how to hunt, and with bodies not yet strong enough, they would most likely die young and never see tomorrow's sun. But this world was just that cruel.

Living was difficult to begin with, was it not? Thank you to Acute Brief Psychotic Disorder for the 100 tip. Thank you!