"Just in time—"
With a long howl, Liu Chengfeng charged into the Earth Jackal pack like a猛虎 descending the mountain, his momentum like a rainbow.
There were thirty or forty Earth Jackals, each a meter tall and three meters long, baring their fangs with a terrifying, vicious air.
The pack's fur bristled, and the sound of blood qi roaring around them filled the air.
The Earth Jackals ranged from a hundred to three hundred years old.
As exotic beasts, they could fight tigers and kill leopards with ease. The three-hundred-year-old Earth Jackals were especially strong, possessing the strength of two thousand jin.
Liu Chengfeng charged into the pack like a tiger among sheep.
His blood qi roared like a ferocious beast descending the mountain.
The Red Iron Sword in his hand swept up like a blood-red wave, carrying five or six thousand jin of force.
No matter how ferocious the Earth Jackals were, beneath Liu Chengfeng's Red Iron Sword, they were lambs.
In the blink of an eye, the pack was routed. Its three-hundred-year-old leader turned and fled.
Liu Chengfeng had been cultivating in Little Meng Mountain for half a year, training as he traveled. His strength had already reached the fourth stage of the Blood Sea Divine Treasury, and his blood qi was immensely powerful.
At the fourth stage of the Blood Sea Divine Treasury, the limit was traveling a thousand li in a day and wielding ten thousand jin of force.
Liu Chengfeng cultivated the Innate Heart Method. His speed and strength were far beyond traveling a thousand li in a day or wielding ten thousand jin.
With a mournful cry, the three-hundred-year-old Earth Jackal leader died beneath Liu Chengfeng's sword.
Before Liu Chengfeng could draw its true blood, a foul wind suddenly rushed at him from behind. A flash of cold light followed as sharp claws slashed toward his head with a whistle through the air.
Liu Chengfeng bent sharply and sprang backward. Though he was incredibly fast, his bare upper body was left with a wound, flesh torn and bloodied.
At that moment, Liu Chengfeng looked like a wild man. He wore nothing on his upper body, and crisscrossing scars still marked his skin.
These were the wounds he had sustained over half a year of cultivating and killing exotic beasts. They healed, only for him to be injured again, over and over.
A low growl rumbled. A Cloud Leopard stood not far from Liu Chengfeng. Gold threads ran through its fur, and its enormous body was five or six meters long.
As it bared its teeth, a foul wind swept over him.
The six-hundred-year-old Cloud Leopard was incomparably stronger than the Earth Jackals. Its ambush on Liu Chengfeng had failed.
With a roar, the Cloud Leopard pounced like lightning, crushing stones beneath its feet and snapping trees as its claws pierced rock. Its furious bellow pierced the ears.
"Two-Husband Fierce Man Slash—"
Facing the pouncing Cloud Leopard, Liu Chengfeng advanced instead of retreating. He gripped the Red Iron Sword with both hands. The blade flashed like a rainbow as he cleaved down with the force to split a mountain.
The sword strike boomed through the air, and his blood qi surged wildly.
The sword fell, spraying blood. The Cloud Leopard charged forward with a mournful cry, then collapsed at Liu Chengfeng's feet.
No matter how ferocious it was, Liu Chengfeng had slain it with a single sword strike.
Liu Chengfeng immediately took out a bottle and deftly collected its true blood.
Exotic beasts acquired true blood once they reached three hundred years old. Their innate true blood was essential to divine cultivators.
The fourth stage of the Blood Sea Divine Treasury required drawing an exotic beast's true blood into the body to reach perfection.
The greater an exotic beast's lifespan, the more precious its true blood.
To exotic beasts, a divine cultivator's blood qi was also the finest nourishment.
All along, exotic beasts and divine cultivators had been enemies, hunting one another.
After collecting the true blood, Liu Chengfeng leaped into a deep pool, washed himself, and changed his clothes.
"Maybe I should kill a few bigger ones."
Liu Chengfeng couldn't help looking toward the depths of Little Meng Mountain.
Little Meng Mountain was a range stretching hundreds of li in every direction, with countless peaks and deep valleys.
For the past half year, Liu Chengfeng had cultivated in Little Meng Mountain, starting by hunting ordinary exotic beasts and then those three to five hundred years old.
He had cultivated and hunted at the same time, rolling through danger and staring death in the face.
One battle after another had made Liu Chengfeng's command of his heart method and swordplay ever more perfect. Each move and stance had reached the pinnacle.
After half a year of blood-soaked training in Little Meng Mountain, Liu Chengfeng had learned the lay of the land and the habits of its exotic beasts.
Little Meng Mountain had six or seven exotic beasts approaching a thousand years old. Divine cultivators at the Blood Sea Divine Treasury stage could no longer kill them.
On the contrary, when they encountered an exotic beast nearing a thousand years old, Blood Sea Divine Treasury cultivators became a tasty morsel in its mouth.
Apart from those thousand-year-old exotic beasts, Little Meng Mountain had one most powerful beast.
Liu Chengfeng estimated it was probably three or four thousand years old.
Liu Chengfeng couldn't stop thinking about it. He had already reached the fourth stage of the Blood Sea Divine Treasury.
To reach perfection and break through the Blood Sea Divine Treasury, he needed to draw true blood into it.
He had already outgrown exotic beasts of three to five hundred years.
"Time to pay my respects—"
Liu Chengfeng set aside the thought of killing exotic beasts for their true blood. He hadn't forgotten the other reason he had come to Little Meng Mountain—to pay tribute to the corpse.
Ever since his last conversation with the corpse, it had never appeared again.
Even Little Meng Mountain had fallen silent, unwilling to guide Liu Chengfeng, as though it feared something.
Even so, after half a year of scrambling through Little Meng Mountain, Liu Chengfeng had found some leads.
He had asked the birds and beasts, streams and old trees of Little Meng Mountain for clues. Putting their answers together, he had worked out the approximate location of Xiaozhou's corpse.
After winding his way around, he eventually reached a deep valley.
Inside the valley, he saw a ferry landing. A river flowed across his path, shrouded in mist so thick he couldn't see its surface.
The place was utterly silent. Under the perception of the Heavenly Mound, he couldn't hear a single insect or blade of grass, as though this were a world of silence.
"It's right here."
He walked in and immediately saw a small boat moored at the landing, with a corpse lying on board.
There was no mistake. This was exactly what had appeared in his mind.
In the depths of the valley, before the mysterious ferry landing, the eerie scene made the place seem like the entrance to the underworld.
Liu Chengfeng took out the Water Caltrop Zongzi and Yellow Rice Wine he had prepared in advance and set them before the corpse.
Then he lit the Sandalwood Incense and bowed.
He turned the Heavenly Mound in his mind and called out to the corpse.
"Water Caltrop Zongzi, Yellow Rice Wine, one stick of incense to the end of the crossing."
"Water Caltrop Zongzi, Yellow Rice Wine, one stick of incense to the end of the crossing."
After Liu Chengfeng sang the words, the corpse sang them too. Then the corpse on the boat sat up.
It picked up the Water Caltrop Zongzi before it and began to eat, smacking its lips. Then it gulped down the Yellow Rice Wine.
The corpse had been dead for who knew how many years, yet it had sat up to eat. What a terrifying, bizarre sight.
After eating and drinking its fill, the corpse faced the curling incense smoke and drew it in with a single breath. The Sandalwood Incense burned out in an instant.
"Tastes like childhood."
The corpse smacked its lips in satisfaction and looked at Liu Chengfeng.
Its pitch-black eye sockets fixed on him, sending a chill down his spine.
"Lie down."
The corpse picked up a bamboo pole and pushed the boat away.
Without a second thought, bold as the heavens, Liu Chengfeng lay on his back in the boat.
The little boat glided silently into the river. The river was so quiet, it seemed to be the only thing in all heaven and earth.
Mist shrouded the river, making it impossible to tell which way the boat was headed.
Liu Chengfeng lay in the boat, gazing at the mist in the sky.
He didn't know what sort of place lay at the end, but he was still willing to take a gamble.
The boat glided on for an unknown time. The river remained quiet, but mountains began to appear on either side.
In the next instant, Liu Chengfeng sensed something was wrong. These were no mountains, but enormous ribs, each like a mountain peak, piercing the sky.
Liu Chengfeng looked again and again to make sure that what appeared on either side wasn't mountains, but giant bones.
The river was shrouded in mist, and he couldn't tell how wide it was. Yet enormous skeletons appeared across its surface.
He couldn't tell how deep the river was, either. The bones lay in it, with only a small part of each skeleton exposed.
One enormous skeleton after another appeared on the river. Each stood thousands of meters tall.
One was a giant bone like that of an Earth Dragon, its three- or four-thousand-meter skeleton sprawled across the river, mouth agape and lava still pouring from it.
One was a Giant Ape's skeleton, eight thousand meters tall, standing straight and reaching into the sky. It leaned on a giant sword three thousand meters long, wreathed in divine light.
One was an Ancient Elephant's skeleton, ten thousand meters tall, clad in hard armor.
If it charged, it could knock one mountain after another flying.
There were also giant bones of Divine Birds, flames wreathing their bodies.
The power and divine abilities radiating from these giant bones could destroy ten thousand li of land. They were terrifying.
Fortunately, Liu Chengfeng lay in the little boat and wasn't harmed.
As one enormous, terrifying skeleton after another streaked across the sky, Liu Chengfeng couldn't help but shudder.
His instincts told him that these giant skeletons had belonged to exotic beasts.
Even ten-meter exotic beasts were powerful. But what of these giant beasts, thousands or even tens of thousands of meters tall?
How powerful and terrifying had they been in life?
Amid so many enormous skeletons, the little boat seemed utterly insignificant.
As it sailed into this world of giant bones, a chill crept over him.
"What place is this—"
The corpse steering the boat didn't answer. It simply pushed onward.
Perhaps Liu Chengfeng's arrival had disturbed the giant skeletons from their deathlike slumber.
Suddenly, roars rang out.
The river surged, and water fell like a rainstorm. As the skeletons awoke, one giant after another seemed to come back to life.
A strange sight unfolded. Flesh and blood appeared on them, and they all sprang into motion.
An Earth Dragon several thousand meters long roared and charged into the sky. Lava streamed from its mouth as it melted everything in its path into a barren wasteland.
A Giant Ape thousands of meters tall pounded its chest with a thunderous "boom," then shattered the void with a single step. Its giant sword rose skyward and slashed straight into the heavens.
The roar of a dragon shook heaven and earth. A Frost Dragon spread its wings and soared into the sky, exhaling a breath of extreme cold that froze ten thousand li.
In an instant, a scene of unimaginable terror unfolded. Skeleton after skeleton came alive, restored to the forms they had possessed in life, and charged into the sky.
They roared and howled, trying to tear the sky apart. Their most hated, most enraging enemy was up there.
They would shatter the heavens and destroy nine lifetimes if that was what it took to kill their foe in the sky.
As enormous exotic beasts awoke, their terrifying power threatened to destroy the entire world and overturn the whole river.
Yet the little boat continued its peaceful passage along the river.
With a thunderous boom, golden light exploded in the sky. A terrifying, peerless divine might pierced the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths.
At that moment, Liu Chengfeng saw a figure of supreme majesty.
The supreme figure stood above the nine heavens, protected by divine rings and surrounded by heaven and earth. With a single disdainful glance, he had myriad worlds beneath his feet.
That figure was invincible through the ages. He tore dragons apart with his hands and shattered divine lions with his fists.
As he attacked and slaughtered in every direction, he shattered heaven and earth and cut down ten thousand beasts. His black hair whipped wildly as he stood alone, invincible.
Mournful cries rang without end. Blood dyed the blue sky as, beneath the divine rings, that figure slew one giant exotic beast after another.
"Who is that—"
Seeing such an invincible figure, Liu Chengfeng couldn't help but shout.
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