Days Entering the Mountain Range

Deep in the old forest, silence reigned. Sunlight struggled to pierce the canopy, leaving the area dark, damp, and covered in patches of lingering snow.

The silver-haired snake-man and the black-clad youth both held their weapons, moving with extreme caution.

"Uncle Zong, we've been in here for nearly half an hour and haven't encountered a single Magic Beast," Dongbo Xueying said in a low voice. He felt a hint of nervousness, but also an eagerness to test himself; after all, his strength had surged, and he hadn't yet been able to fully unleash it.

"You," Zong Ling shook his head helplessly. Though his nephew appeared mature, he still possessed the spirit of a youth. He whispered, "We have just entered the mountains; this is the outermost fringe, so Magic Beasts are naturally scarce. The deeper we go, the easier it will be to find them! When that time comes, it will be up to your strength."

"Mm."

Dongbo Xueying nodded gently.

"Sshhh~~~"

At the faint sound, Dongbo Xueying's ears twitched. He immediately reached out to block Zong Ling beside him. Zong Ling's heart tightened instantly; although he hadn't heard anything, Dongbo Xueying's hearing and vision had become incredibly sharp since awakening his Primordial Bloodline.

"Over there!" Dongbo Xueying stared toward the front left.

Zong Ling fixed his gaze in the same direction.

From the thickets in the distance, a distinct rustling sound gradually emerged, and one by one, lean, black, four-legged figures slowly stepped out. They resembled wolves in appearance, but were a size smaller. They were gaunt and black, their bodies covered in dense, overlapping black scales, and their dark red eyes burned with coldness. They simply watched the two humans with calm indifference.

"Black-scaled Jackals?" Both Dongbo Xueying and Zong Ling felt their hearts tighten. The Magic Beasts they had encountered upon first entering the Destruction Mountain Range were already proving difficult to handle.

Black-scaled Jackals were Tier 3 Magic Beasts.

They were incredibly calm and vicious, skilled at coordinating their attacks, and their sharp claws and teeth were coated in deadly poison!

What did Tier 3 mean? It meant that their individual strength was equivalent to a Heaven-rank Knight! They lived in small packs, and the large group emerging from the thickets numbered at least thirty-five. Even a single Tier 4 Magic Beast would be torn to shreds by such a pack.

"This is trouble," Zong Ling said, feeling tense. "Xueying, be careful."

"Mm, Uncle Zong, protect yourself. Leave them to me."

Dongbo Xueying took a deep breath, his respiration becoming steady and powerful as he stared at the large pack of Black-scaled Jackals.

The pack naturally began to spread out, forming a fan shape to surround the two of them. Being stared at by so many dark red eyes simultaneously... even Dongbo Xueying felt his heart tighten! His willpower was formidable and his spear technique was excellent, but this was the first time he had faced such a formidable opponent.

"Roar~~~" A low, grating sound erupted from a Black-scaled Jackal at the very back.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!!!

All the Black-scaled Jackals lunged simultaneously from all sides. Being besieged by so many Heaven-rank Knights at once would overwhelm even a Meteor Knight.

"Die!" The spear in Dongbo Xueying's hand moved.

Shing!

The spear moved like a bolt of lightning, swift and sudden.

The moment the spear thrust out, countless snowflake petals appeared, creating a scene of breathtaking beauty.

The Black-scaled Jackal targeted by the attack immediately swung its claws to parry. Chhh~~~ The moment the spearhead was blocked, the entire shaft suddenly rotated, the rotational force snapping the claws aside. Puchi! The spear tip instantly pierced the jackal's lower jaw and punched through the back of its skull. The Tier 3 Magic Beast twitched once and went limp.

The moment he killed it, Dongbo Xueying retracted his spear and struck again with lightning speed!

A pull and a thrust, like a viper flicking its tongue.

Puff!

Another Black-scaled Jackal died on the spot.

These Black-scaled Jackals were all seasoned killers, but the spear technique Dongbo Xueying had honed through ten years of wind and rain was simply too formidable.

"Roar, roar, roar~~~" Amidst the low growls, the Black-scaled Jackals continued their assault without the slightest hesitation.

In that brief moment, Dongbo Xueying had only managed to kill three jackals before he was swarmed by eight of them leaping at him at once.

"Get lost!"

The spear became a blur, lashing out with rapid strikes.

Just as he had spent long days frantically striking at alchemy dummies, Dongbo Xueying's swing sent four of them flying, and a follow-up reverse sweep sent another four tumbling away! In terms of raw strength, Dongbo Xueying held the absolute advantage, but as the saying went, two fists could not fight four hands; the terror of a Black-scaled Jackal pack lay in their relentless, fearless, mass-coordinated assault.

"Xueying, speed, speed! If you can't block them, run!" Zong Ling, perched on a high branch of a large tree, had his tail wrapped around the trunk. His speed and agility were the reasons he had survived his previous trips into the Destruction Mountain Range.

"I know."

Dongbo Xueying's focus was at its peak.

His spear technique was at a high level, but under the pressure of life and death, it was still being affected. Furthermore, the muscles and scales of these jackals were incredibly tough; the time required to pierce and retract the spear was slowing his technique down.

"I must keep moving; I cannot let them surround me." Dongbo Xueying gradually began to apply the sparring techniques he practiced in the castle. In the castle, he often had a large group of soldiers surround him, relying on his footwork and spear technique to dodge and weave. Of course, during those spars, the weapons were blunted.

Hoo, hoo...

Dongbo Xueying gradually learned to move simply, reducing the number of jackals he faced at any one time. He made the pack's assault lose its target, ensuring he only had to face at most three jackals at once!

"Puff, puff, puff." Snowflakes drifted as blood splattered, and one jackal after another fell.

"Thud, thud."

Dongbo Xueying became increasingly natural and fluid. He lashed out with his spear, the immense power coursing through the shaft, slamming into a jackal. The beast's body twisted unnaturally, its bones shattered into countless pieces, and it collapsed on the ground, twitching and vomiting blood.

High up in the tree, Zong Ling looked down and revealed a look of joy.

"He's adapting quite quickly, faster than I expected. Under this life-and-death struggle, he is finally able to unleash his true strength," Zong Ling nodded slightly. "In another two or three days, I expect he will be fully adapted."

"Roar!" A short, terrified cry erupted from the pack, and the remaining Black-scaled Jackals immediately turned and scattered in flight.

Dongbo Xueying stopped after killing two more.

Phew, phew.

Dongbo Xueying finally let out a breath, his breathing a little heavier, his blood flowing much faster.

"How was it?" Zong Ling jumped down from above.

"It's indeed different," Dongbo Xueying nodded lightly. "Three years ago, when I fought to the death with a prisoner from the territory, I felt this same tension. But that was one-on-one! This kind of encirclement and fight for survival... it's given me more ideas about using my spear techniques."

A high level of spear technique mastery merely represented reaching an extremely high realm of skill.

But in actual combat, how were moves combined? How did footwork cooperate? These were all practical combat experience!

"Moreover, during life-or-death struggles, the whole body's blood boils, and strength surges. The control over the entire body's strength becomes more refined!" Dongbo Xueying said.

"This is the instinct of living beings... under the threat of death!" Zong Ling said.

"My spear techniques might break through even faster." The blood deep within Dongbo Xueying's heart was ignited. Ten years of hard practice, honing astonishing skill... in this Destruction Mountain Range, wasn't this the perfect place to display it?

"Let's go quickly, the smell of blood here is too strong, it will soon attract more Magic Beasts," Zong Ling urged.

"Mm." Dongbo Xueying nodded.

Neither of them cared about the corpses of the third-tier Magic Beasts. Although third-tier Magic Beasts had some small value, how many could the two of them carry away? The value was too low to be worth it! As for storage artifacts, the space within Dongbo Xueying's storage artifact could probably barely fit one Black Scale Beast; the space was too small!

Upon arriving in the Destruction Mountain Range, Dongbo Xueying was like a dragon entering the sea. His practical combat experience accumulated continuously, and his spear technique skills were honed.

Every night, the two of them had to return immediately, returning to the camp outside!

One was of Snake-man Race royalty, and the other had awakened an ancient bloodline. Their walking speed was very fast. They could easily maintain a speed of two hundred li per hour when darting back through the Destruction Mountain Range! They were slow when exploring, but fast when returning along the original path.

They still had to spend the night in the camp, after all, they needed to rest properly. Spending the night in the mountains was too tiring.

Time passed day by day.

Dongbo Xueying's progress made Zong Ling gasp. He could see Dongbo Xueying becoming more and more seasoned. Every time they fought, Dongbo Xueying would ponder and learn lessons, making himself perform more perfectly next time.

"He understood how to think and summarize from a young age, even in combat, he summarized every time. No wonder his spear techniques are so formidable!" Zong Ling muttered inwardly. He had always felt Dongbo Xueying's intelligence was very high.

He also considered himself very smart.

He understood how to learn from past lessons; in fact, many people understood this principle. But Dongbo Xueying's thinking was more unique, and the efficiency was clearly higher! For example, when he was young, ordinary children reading biographical novels would only remember the exciting stories of many Transcendence knights. But Dongbo Xueying discovered the growth patterns of these Transcendence knights—

For instance, nearly ninety percent had never entered an academy.

For instance, the brief mentions in biographical novels revealed that many of them placed great importance on fundamentals, leading Dongbo Xueying to also practice the fundamentals of spear techniques to a monstrous degree.