First Steps into Yushan Great Wilderness Marsh, an Appetizer!

Whoosh~~~

The surrounding space rippled.

When the scene before him became clear, Xia Manggan looked around.

Including himself, the sixty-seven of them had already appeared within a small teleportation formation roughly a hundred zhang tall.

Farther beyond the teleportation formation lay a vast wilderness marsh, with endless mountain ranges stretching beyond sight.

"Everyone, come out."

"Move it."

An aged voice rang out.

Two gray-robed old men standing outside the teleportation formation were urging them on.

"Listen carefully, all of you." A slightly plump old man with graying hair shouted, "This is the only safe place for you in all of Yushan Great Wilderness Marsh! Yinglong Guard members are stationed here year-round, and great formations have been set up around it. No one would dare invade this place."

Hearing this, everyone looked around and immediately discovered that the teleportation formation had been built atop a mountain peak.

Around the mountain were other clusters of immortal cultivators' cave estates, seemingly housing quite a few people.

"There are a few more things I need to tell you."

The plump old man continued, "First, you may not return here within the next three months. If you come back here to take refuge, you will be considered to have failed."

"Second, when you roam Yushan Great Wilderness Marsh, you must be extremely careful. Never remain in one place for too long."

"For example, staying somewhere for a month. You must understand that there are far more monsters than humans in Yushan Great Wilderness Marsh. They are also much more familiar with this place than you are. If you stay in one location for too long, it will be easy for those great demons to join forces and surround and kill you. Of course, stopping for a day or half a day to rest occasionally is fine."

"Third, although the great demons within Yushan Great Wilderness Marsh are dangerous, the environment of Yushan Great Wilderness Marsh itself is even more dangerous. Some places may contain shattered space. With one careless step, you might leave this major world. By then, with your level of strength, death would be inevitable..."

Everyone listened intently.

These were all experiences that could save their lives.

To join the Yinglong Guard, one had to survive for three months in Yushan Great Wilderness Marsh and bring back the head and corpse of a Wanxiang Great Demon.

Compared to obtaining the head and corpse of a Wanxiang Great Demon, the hardest and most dangerous part was actually surviving three months in Yushan Great Wilderness Marsh.

Xia Manggan, however, had already learned all this in advance from the various intelligence reports prepared by Immortal Lianshan.

Thus, as he looked over the surrounding mountains, comparing them with the detailed map Immortal Lianshan had given him and the distribution of great demons, he considered which direction to take.

According to the markings on the map, this "safe zone" where the teleportation formation stood was merely on the outskirts of Yushan Great Wilderness Marsh. Wanxiang Great Demons were relatively common here.

To find Primordial Spirit Great Demons, one would have to venture at least a million li deeper, into the heart of Yushan Great Wilderness Marsh.

That was an extremely dangerous region generally only dared to be explored by Primordial Spirit Daoists of Anchan Commandery, or even Earth Immortals and Loose Immortals.

"Around Demon Lotus Mountain, roughly a hundred thousand li to the northeast, more than a hundred Wanxiang Great Demons are entrenched. The strongest is a Dragon Whale Great Demon..."

Xia Manggan nodded slightly. That's where I'll go.

Ah Huang had yet to arrive. If he went too far, it would take even longer for them to meet up.

He would use this time to kill some Wanxiang Great Demons and get some practice, while also preparing some blood food for Ah Huang.

Once Ah Huang arrived, he could devour those great demons.

In particular, the Dragon Whale Great Demon of Demon Lotus Mountain was a Wanxiang Great Demon who practiced Fiendgod Body Refining. Its divine body was several thousand zhang long—enough for both him and Ah Huang to break through their current Fiendgod Body Refining cultivation.

"Hm?" Xia Manggan sensed something and suddenly looked toward a spot in the crowd.

Lie Longqi of the Lielong Clan happened to withdraw his gaze.

Beside him stood four others, including Sheng Xuan of the Heavenly Saint Sect.

Judging by the way they had gathered together, they seemed to have already formed an alliance.

Such a situation was actually very common in past Yinglong Guard examinations.

Fellow disciples, friends who had known one another beforehand, or even people who simply spoke on the spot—so long as they reached an agreement and swore a Heavenly Dao Oath together, they would become a team during the examination and jointly hunt Wanxiang Great Demons.

At the same time, this could improve their chances of surviving in Yushan Great Wilderness Marsh.

But Lie Longqi, Sheng Xuan, and the others were already among the strongest Wanxiang Daoists participating in this examination.

For people of their strength to still need an alliance—and for him to sense that faint killing intent from them earlier—

The prey they intended to hunt might not be as simple as Wanxiang Great Demons...

"Young Master Xia Mang, which direction are we heading?" Jiu Lian asked.

"That way." Xia Manggan raised a hand and pointed northeast. "There is a Demon Lotus Mountain there. The Heaven and Earth essence energy is particularly dense, so there are many monsters and treasures. It is perfect for tempering ourselves."

"Alright."

Jiu Lian nodded and took out her sailboat magic treasure.

"Let's ride my sailboat. It has an Origin-Gathering Rune Formation within it, so ordinary flight does not require its controller to expend additional Origin Force."

"Alright." Xia Manggan agreed and boarded the sailboat with Luo Qing.

Very soon.

A streak of light shot out, heading northeast.

Not long after they left, a dark gray streak of light first flew northward.

After flying several thousand li, the dark gray streak then turned eastward in a curved arc...

A green sailboat about ten zhang long flew through the clouds high in the sky.

Xia Manggan, Jiu Lian, and Luo Qing stood at the bow, looking down at the boundless wilderness below.

"This mountain will do." Xia Manggan signaled for Jiu Lian to slow the sailboat magic treasure.

"This one?" Luo Qing peered downward.

She saw a majestic and bizarre mountain rising directly into the clouds. From high above, the naked eye could see tens of thousands of monsters on the mountain.

Some of the monsters had taken human form and were drilling like an army.

The flamboyant banners and sky-piercing killing aura made them seem even more imposing than the garrisons of many cities in Anchan Commandery.

"Within ten thousand li, this mountain should be the strongest force around," Jiu Lian guessed.

"Mhm." Xia Manggan nodded. "Three Wanxiang Great Demons, over a thousand Purple Mansion monsters, and tens of thousands of Xiantian lesser demons. We'll use them as an appetizer and loosen up first."

His Divine Sense was no weaker than that of an ordinary Void Return Earth Immortal, and he had internal Yinglong Guard intelligence supplied by Immortal Lianshan. Naturally, he knew the monster forces within Yushan Great Wilderness Marsh like the back of his hand—at least within a million li of the garrison's "safe zone."

"How should we proceed? Please make the arrangements, Young Master Xia Mang," Jiu Lian said.

If it had only been her and Luo Qing, they naturally would have stayed as far from a monster mountain of such strength as possible.

But with Xia Manggan at her side—the man who had defeated Slovenly Senior Brother in a Dao debate—she felt much more confident.

"What arrangements are needed for a few little demons?" Xia Manggan said with a smile. "The two of you just stay on the sailboat and keep watch over the surroundings."

As he spoke, Xia Manggan moved and leaped from the bow.

Then, under Jiu Lian and Luo Qing's watchful eyes, Xia Manggan's body suddenly emitted dazzling golden light as he began to grow larger and larger.

His powerful body, like that of a demon god, made the air around him explode with rumbling sounds like thunder.

When they looked again, Xia Manggan had transformed into a giant roughly twelve zhang tall, as tall as a building of more than ten stories on Earth.

Then the giant Xia Manggan's upper body swayed slightly, and two more heads and four more arms sprouted from him. He transformed into a three-headed, six-armed Fiendgod giant and charged howling toward the majestic mountain below.

"Law of Heaven and Earth, Three Heads and Six Arms." Luo Qing cried out in shock. "Isn't Young Master Xia Mang's Crimson Bright Nine Heavens Map only at the ninth level, barely comparable to the early Wanxiang Realm of ordinary Myriad Phenomena God-Demons? And he has only cultivated these two divine abilities for such a short time. How can their might be so much stronger than when many senior brothers use them?"

She did not follow the body-refining path, but she still knew that Law of Heaven and Earth and Three Heads and Six Arms were the most basic and common great divine abilities of body refiners. Anyone with even a little strength or background would generally know them.

But actually practicing them was far from simple.

Ordinary Purple Mansion Fiendgods could begin cultivating them, but at most they could only enlarge themselves to three or four zhang tall.

Wanxiang Realm Fiendgods were stronger, but they generally only reached seven or eight zhang tall.

But Xia Manggan?

Twelve zhang tall—an entire thirty-six meters!

He was four or five zhang taller than other Wanxiang Realm Fiendgods, like a small mountain in human form.

One had to know that this was not merely a change in size.

His divine body, divine power, strength, speed, and even the toughness and defensive power of his body's surface would all rise explosively along with it.

With a divine body of such size, ordinary Myriad Phenomena God-Demons would be crushed merely by the suppression of his bulk, strength, and speed.

"Perhaps there is something special about Young Master Xia Mang's divine body," Jiu Lian said, staring at Xia Manggan, who resembled a true Fiendgod and carried an overwhelming aura as he smashed toward the majestic mountain like a massive meteor.

Buzz~~~

Layers of multicolored light barriers lit up above the mountain.

They were the various mountain-protecting formations laid down by the Wanxiang Great Demons occupying the peak.

But the Fiendgod giant Xia Manggan showed no hesitation and directly raised his leg before stomping down—

Crack!

Crack!

Crack~~~

Amid a rapid series of crisp sounds like eggshells shattering, Xia Manggan's foot smashed through layer after layer of light barriers and landed atop the summit of the towering mountain that pierced the clouds.

Boom!

Crack!

Under Jiu Lian and Luo Qing's stunned gazes.

The enormous mountain peak, more than a hundred zhang tall, split apart directly down the middle, then crashed with countless rocks and fragments toward the monster cave estates on the mountainside below.

"Th-this is practically a humanoid earth-ranked magic treasure," Luo Qing muttered.

Jiu Lian said nothing, but the brilliance in her eyes was incomparably radiant.

Then—

"A human immortal cultivator practicing Fiendgod Body Refining? You dare come to the lair of us three brothers, Single Horn Peak? You are courting death!!"

Rumble~~~

One enormous star after another appeared above the mountain, while a bright moon floated amid the sea of stars.

Within the phenomenon of the Star-Moon Dharma Image, three massive four-legged beasts appeared in midair.

"Divine beasts, Moon-Worshipping Single-Horned Rhinoceroses?"

Xia Manggan smiled. "Hand over your horns!"

The second update is here. More will continue tomorrow morning at 11:45. Please vote and keep reading. Gentlemen, be sure to scroll to the end and don't forget to give the characters a little red heart. Suifeng offers his thanks.