Floating Mountain Has a Beast, Its Name is Zhi

Wang Zhenguo took a deep breath and solemnly extended his finger.

The blood-red Oath Paper hovered between the two, its patterns swirling and emitting an eerie luster.

Jiang Ran lightly grazed his fingertip across the paper's surface, causing a bead of crimson blood to seep out and fall into it.

The next second, the patterns on the Oath Paper suddenly flared, transforming into two streaks of light; one dove into the center of Jiang Ran's brow, while the other burrowed into Wang Zhenguo's chest.

An invisible sense of restraint was established between the two.

The oath was complete.

Jiang Ran retrieved the Oath Paper and spoke indifferently, "Name."

"Wang Zhenguo," he replied hurriedly, his voice respectful.

Listening, Jiang Ran said softly, "After you get out, prepare an unregistered SIM card and place it in the green mailbox in front of the Old Bookstore at 37 Wutong Lane. I will contact you then."

Having said this, he turned and left, disappearing completely at the end of the street within a few strides.

This time, Wang Zhenguo did not give chase.

He stood where he was, gazing in the direction where Jiang Ran had vanished, and let out a long, drawn-out breath after a long while.

He turned and looked toward the faint lights of the Safe Zone in the distance.

In his eyes, there was no longer the panic and despair from before.

Business district.

The twelfth floor of a twenty-story office building.

Jiang Ran pushed open the door to a conference room and scanned his surroundings.

The tables and chairs were neat, the whiteboard still bore the scrawled handwriting from some project meeting, and a projector lay quietly on the table.

Relatively safe.

He locked the door behind him and took the Heavenly Net Pouch from his bosom.

With a slight shift of his intent.

Clatter...

Dozens of monster corpses appeared out of thin air, filling half the conference room.

Dark green blood spread rapidly across the carpet, and a foul, fishy stench began to permeate the air.

Jiang Ran's expression remained unchanged as he drew his tactical knife and began to dissect the skulls of these monsters one by one.

One by one, grey-white Spirit Crystal were extracted and tossed into a cardboard box nearby.

In truth, Jiang Ran had originally had no interest in signing Wang Zhenguo.

The other party had only asked him because of the rebellious psychological gap that formed when he initially refused to sign him.

This was common in psychology.

And the real reason Jiang Ran decided to sign him.

Was not because of the words the other party had spoken.

Although those analyses were correct, Jiang Ran could have thought of them himself.

What Jiang Ran truly valued was the man's courage.

To be able to make such a decisive choice immediately after narrowly escaping death, betting everything he had on a slim future.

Not everyone possessed that kind of decisiveness.

The last Spirit Crystal fell into the cardboard box.

Jiang Ran put away his tactical knife and glanced at the time on his phone.

21:47

Two hours and thirteen minutes remained until the return.

He poured the Spirit Crystal from the box in front of him and counted them roughly.

Twenty-seven.

Without hesitation, Jiang Ran gripped one in each hand, closed his eyes to focus, and initiated the Blood-Qi Circulation Method.

Cool energy surged into his body, merging with his scorching blood-qi and rushing along his meridians.

One, two, three...

Time slipped away silently during his cultivation.

When the final Spirit Crystal crumbled into grey-white powder, Jiang Ran slowly opened his eyes.

A look of contemplation appeared between his brows.

Ever since he stepped into the Blood Sensing Realm, the cultivation progress provided by these grey-white Spirit Crystal had been far less than before.

If absorbing one Spirit Crystal previously resulted in a noticeable increase in blood and energy, then now, absorbing ten barely yielded the same effect as one did before.

...There must be different grades of quality among Spirit Crystals.

Jiang Ran looked thoughtful.

Naturally, the monsters that produce these Spirit Crystals must also vary in strength.

Jiang Ran quickly established a rough ranking system in his mind.

If the Blood Sensing Realm were compared to the First Order Realm, then those ordinary monsters were likely not even worth ranking.

For him, having already stepped into the Blood Sensing Realm, the grayish-white Spirit Crystals within them no longer provided much benefit.

To continue progressing at his previous speed, he would have to hunt First Order Realm monsters.

Just as Jiang Ran was deep in thought, the roof of the building he was in suddenly shook.

Jiang Ran stood up immediately.

He rushed to the window and frowned as he looked outside.

He saw that all the Bone-Spike Cat Monsters on the street, which had been crouching or lying down, were now standing up.

They tilted their heads, their dark green eyes fixed on the night sky, and let out a synchronized hiss from their throats.

Immediately after...

A black shadow leaped from the roof of the building he was in.

It traced an arc through the night sky and landed heavily on the roof of another, taller building.

BOOM!!!

The entire building trembled slightly.

Jiang Ran's pupils constricted.

The size of that shadow was a full circle larger than the Human-Faced Spider Mother.

By the moonlight, Jiang Ran could barely make out its silhouette.

It resembled a fierce tiger, but its back was covered in hideous bone spikes, and its tail was thick and long like that of an ox.

At this moment, it stood atop the thirty-story building, looking up at the full moon in the night sky.

The moonlight bathed its dark cyan fur, which rippled in the wind.

It opened its mouth and let out a long howl...

ROAR!!

The sound wave spread out from its center.

Wherever it passed, all the Bone-Spike Cat Monsters prostrated themselves on the ground, heads bowed, as if paying homage to their king.

And that giant beast stood there on the rooftop, bathed in moonlight, like a natural overlord.

Jiang Ran watched this scene.

A line from the Classic of Mountains and Seas he had just read yesterday suddenly echoed in his mind:

"On Mount Fu lives a beast; its shape is like a tiger with an ox's tail, its sound is like a barking dog, its name is Zhi, and it eats men."

It was also at this moment that the time on his phone screen quietly ticked over to 00:00:00.

Jiang Ran's consciousness wavered for an instant.

When he came back to his senses, the scene before him had returned to his bedroom at home.

Jiang Ran took a deep breath, suppressing the sense of oppression brought by the Zhi, and immediately sat at the table to open the Classic of Mountains and Seas to the page recording the Zhi.

The sketch on the page was identical to what he had just seen.

But as he flipped further down, Jiang Ran's brows furrowed tightly.

The record in the Classic of Mountains and Seas was too brief.

Aside from its appearance and the fact that it eats men, there was no description of its habits, weaknesses, or abilities.

This made it impossible for Jiang Ran to gather any intelligence in advance.

This left him feeling somewhat helpless.

However, he had at least confirmed one thing.

The Bone-Spike Cat Monster in the business district must be a subordinate species of the Zhi.

Just as the Human-Faced Spider swarm is attached to the Human-Faced Spider Mother.

Thinking of this, Jiang Ran suddenly realized a problem.

He pulled up his phone gallery and flipped to the photo he had taken a few days ago of that Grey-Green Lizard Monster.

Based on his experience with several different monster groups so far.

The Human-Faced Spider swarm has a Spider Mother in command.

The Bone-Spike Cat Monster pack has a Zhi in command.

These monsters clearly have organization and discipline.

But what about those grey-green monsters near his home?

They are pathetically weak, their attacks rely entirely on instinct, and there is no coordination between them.

Furthermore, he had never seen any commander-level existence among them.

They are like... trash driven to the very edge of the food chain.

"Something's wrong..."

Jiang Ran's eyes narrowed.

If even First Order Realm monsters have tribes and leaders.

Then how could these unranked monsters survive on the edge of the city?

Unless...

There is something there even more terrifying than the Zhi or the Spider Mother.

So terrifying that these monsters dare not approach.

And so, they can only drive these trash monsters to the fringe areas to serve as a buffer zone?

This thought made a slight chill run down Jiang Ran's back.

He had always assumed the area near his home was the safest zone.

But now it seemed that it might actually be the most dangerous place.

What is hidden inside?

Jiang Ran shook his head, temporarily suppressing this speculation.

Now is not the time to delve into it.

The most urgent priority is how to deal with that Zhi the next time he enters the Abyssal Void.

Judging by the feedback from his Combat Intuition...

That Zhi is much stronger than the Human-Faced Spider Mother.

When he killed the Spider Mother last time, he had activated Buddha's Wrathful Vajra to tank its attacks head-on, while simultaneously using a trick to pin it down and smash it from the top floor, only then barely managing to kill it.

If he intends to target that Zhi...

"My offensive capabilities must be strengthened."

Jiang Ran analyzed calmly.

The lethality of Level 1 Dragon-Tiger Fist is still not quite enough.

And the fastest way to become stronger is undoubtedly...

Adding points.

Jiang Ran summoned his Profession Panel.

Currently, aside from the Artifact Appraiser panel, the skills closest to leveling up are the Jiu-Jitsu of the Mixed Martial Artist, which is still over a hundred experience points away, and Compound Bow Shooting, which is just over two hundred experience points away.

He has 48 hours; he must grind these two skills to the max to have a chance at attempting to challenge the Zhi.

Afterward, Jiang Ran closed the panel and looked at his computer.

He first opened Mouhu to check the trends on the forum tonight.

However, when the page refreshed, Jiang Ran couldn't help but frown slightly.

On the homepage, there were several posts hanging prominently about the Abyssal Void and the Second World.

The popularity was extremely high, with reply counts exceeding ten thousand.

More importantly...

These posts had not been deleted.

Some people even wrote in detail about what they had seen and heard after entering the Abyssal Void.

Keywords including monster descriptions, extraordinary legacies, and Spirit Crystal all appeared brazenly in the posts.

The comment section was in an absolute uproar.

"Holy crap, so I'm not the only one who got in!?"

"Is the Federation finally dropping the act? Does this mean they're going public?"

"Asking for a friend: how do you obtain an extraordinary inheritance? I've been in twice, but I just hid the whole time and didn't get anything..."

"+1 to the person above, looking for a guide too."

Jiang Ran scrolled with his mouse, skimming through the posts rapidly.

The authorities hadn't deleted these threads; instead, they had left them pinned to the front page.

This meant...

"The higher-ups are planning to gradually release information about the Abyssal Void."

Jiang Ran muttered to himself.

It made sense, though.

After all, with the number of people entering the Abyssal Void reaching the hundreds of thousands, this matter was impossible to keep under wraps.

Rather than forcibly suppressing it and sparking all sorts of speculation and panic, it was better to disclose it step by step and guide public opinion.

Let the public slowly accept the resurgence of the extraordinary and the concept of the Second World.

That way, if any unexpected situations arose later, the public's acceptance would be higher, preventing an immediate collapse.

"The tide of the era can no longer be held back."

Jiang Ran closed the forum page, looking no further.

He would leave the trends of public opinion for the Federation to worry about.

He had opened his computer this time for another reason entirely.

He logged into his long-unused QQ.

In his contact list, most of the avatars were gray.

Jiang Ran scrolled down and found a contact noted as Fatty Zhao.

The avatar was a fat cat, and the status read: "Professional matchmaking for twenty years, with a success rate as high as 7.3%."

Jiang Ran opened the chat box and typed:

"Is your marriage agency still open?"

The reply came quickly, almost instantly:

"Of course! You want to give it a try? Let me tell you, I've had some girls with excellent backgrounds sign up recently—teachers, doctors, even some who run their own companies..."