Killing Intent!

At the moment Su Ming looked up, his eyes were suffused with bloodshot veins, and his entire body flickered with a frenzied, bloody radiance, casting the interior of the Fire Lava Cave in a crimson hue.

His body trembled incessantly. As his blood circulated, his heart hammered faster and faster, as if it were about to burst, causing Su Ming's expression to twist even further.

He was at the most critical juncture and could not afford to stop abruptly, yet he was acutely aware of the Little Monkey's shrill, miserable cries and everything that had just transpired.

He had watched helplessly as the Little Monkey, in order to protect him, had charged out alone to lure away those two outsiders.

In all his life, Su Ming had never felt such madness as he did now. The Little Monkey was his only friend in this jungle; over the years, he had come to regard the creature as family. This current frenzy caused the veins across Su Ming's body to bulge, and a dull, booming roar echoed within him.

The five blood lines manifesting on his body now emitted a blinding light. Amidst this red glow, a sixth blood line, which had been on the verge of fully coalescing, seemed to struggle as if trying to break free from a cocoon.

"Damn this second layer of the Blood Condensation Realm!!" Su Ming roared, his eyes bloodshot. His previous attempts had been gentle, ensuring that even if he failed, it would not cause physical harm.

But now, with the Little Monkey's fate unknown, every passing second burned Su Ming with anxiety. He threw caution to the wind, driving his bloodline with reckless abandon, forcing all the blood in his body to surge toward that faintly emerging sixth blood line according to the methods of Barbarian Cultivation.

With a boom, blood spilled from the corner of Su Ming's mouth, and his face turned pale as his body shook. Such a reckless act was a major taboo in Barbarian Cultivation. Practitioners, especially those in the Blood Condensation Realm, were expected to advance steadily and never act rashly.

The booming sound did not seem loud to the outside world, but to Su Ming, it felt like the heavens collapsing and the earth rending, with echoes reverberating endlessly in his mind.

"Damn it!!!" Su Ming stared fixedly at the exit ahead, as if he could see the Little Monkey's panic, fear, helplessness, and resolve.

Without hesitation, Su Ming drove all the blood in his body once more, launching a second assault!

More blood trickled from the corner of his mouth, dripping down his chin onto the ground...

A third time, a fourth, a fifth!!

The instant he drove his blood to surge in reverse for the fifth time, Su Ming spat out a large mouthful of blood, his face instantly turning deathly pale. Yet, his expression was filled with monstrous killing intent, which, combined with the blood at his lips, made him look truly grim.

He rose abruptly from his cross-legged position. The moment he stood, a thunderous roar erupted within him, and the sixth blood line fully coalesced.

With the formation of the sixth blood line, an aura entirely different from the first layer of the Blood Condensation Realm exploded within Su Ming, causing his hair to dance without wind as the six blood lines slithered rapidly across his skin like living things!

Blood Condensation Realm, second layer!

Before this second layer could even stabilize, Su Ming swayed, moving twice as fast as before. He snatched up the bow, arrows, and bone horn nearby, and dashed straight toward the exit, vanishing in the blink of an eye.

He quickly squeezed out of the small cave. When he emerged, snow was falling heavily in the distance, and the setting sun was about to dip below the horizon; it was the hour of dusk.

"One at the second layer of the Blood Condensation Realm... one at the third..." Su Ming's eyes were filled with bloodshot veins, and a cold light flashed through them. Despite the strength of his enemies, there was no fear in his eyes—only pure killing intent!

He had long since forgotten terror. The moment the Little Monkey was snatched away, those two Barbarian Warriors from the Black Mountain Tribe became his mortal enemies!

Either they died, or he, Su Ming, would perish!

Even if it were a moth flying into a flame! But how could outsiders know the cause and effect of the story between the moth and the fire? It was persistence, a struggle for life; either the fire was extinguished, or the moth was consumed!

Su Ming did not hesitate for a moment. He shifted and broke into a full-speed sprint. As a member of the Barbarian Tribe, he had played and gathered herbs in these mountains since childhood; he was intimately familiar with the terrain and skilled at finding answers from the slightest traces.

As he sprinted, he watched the ground while quickly wiping the blood from his mouth and hands. A moment later, his eyes flashed as he spotted some messy marks on a patch of withered grass ahead. He picked up a broken branch, examined it closely, and his killing intent deepened. He tossed it aside, changed direction, and vanished in a flash.

Along the way, Su Ming pushed his speed to the absolute limit, utilizing his agility to the fullest. During his pursuit, he found numerous clues and even discovered a pool of blood.

In that blood were a few red hairs—they belonged to the Little Monkey!

However, the blood was already showing signs of drying, clearly indicating that the captors had seized the Little Monkey here and had been gone for some time.

"I can't catch up..." Su Ming's expression was somber. He clenched his fists, his eyes once again revealing that look of madness.

"They are people of the Black Mountain Tribe; they must be returning to the Black Mountain Tribe... If that is the case, then there is a shortcut from here to the Black Mountain Tribe!" Su Ming turned and took a step, his figure nimbly disappearing into the snow-covered jungle.

"Faster!!" Su Ming sped through the jungle as if flying, yet he still felt his speed was too slow. As he moved, a trail of footprints was left in the snow. Just then, as Su Ming leaped and landed again—

Suddenly, the snow ahead shifted. A small beast, looking like a fox but covered in snow-white fur with deer-like antlers on its head, leaped from the snow. Its speed was so fast that it was upon Su Ming in the blink of an eye.

"Diao Li!" Su Ming did not slow down. The instant the beast leaped from its hiding place, he raised his right hand and threw a punch with a thunderous roar.

Had it been the Su Ming of before, this punch would surely have lacked sufficient force. But now, as a Barbarian Warrior at the second layer of the Blood Condensation Realm, he possessed six blood lines. The sheer magnitude of his surging blood and energy meant that not only his speed but his strength had increased several times over.

The punch landed squarely on the Diao Li. The beast shrieked, its eyes narrowing as it twisted its body in mid-air to evade, but Su Ming lunged forward. His left hand, holding the bone horn he had drawn at some point, grazed the beast, and the horn sliced its body wide open.

Blood splattered. The small beast let out a shrill, miserable cry as it struggled on the snow, staining a large area red.

Clean and efficient. Su Ming paused, looked down at the dead Diao Li, and his eyes flickered. He crouched down, raised his right hand, and took a deep breath, circulating the blood within his body. Immediately, his entire frame radiated a bloody light, appearing to merge with the blood on the ground. Under that glow, the six blood lines manifested on Su Ming's body.

He slowly placed his right hand on the dead beast, his eyes gleaming with a strange light. One of the blood lines on his body twisted eerily, slowly spreading along his right arm to his palm, and seemed to merge into the beast's body.

The dead beast's body trembled bizarrely; its fur fell off, and its frame withered rapidly, turning into a skeleton in the blink of an eye. Simultaneously, wisps of white vapor rose from it, condensing into the shape of the creature as it had been in life, though it was slightly blurred, as if it would scatter at a breath of wind.

This was the first time Su Ming had performed the Spirit Devouring Barbarian Art. The cultivation manual he had obtained provided a detailed introduction to this technique, noting that it usually required time to cultivate one's essence before one could devour, but Su Ming did not have that time. He opened his mouth wide and inhaled the white vapor-formed beast. Immediately, the creature turned back into wisps of white mist and was sucked into Su Ming's mouth.

Su Ming's body jolted. He clearly felt that he had gained some extra power, though this added strength was rapidly dissipating; he feared it would return to normal before long.

He moved his feet, quickening his pace to race ahead. This time, he was slightly faster than before, flickering through the forest like the wind, moving ever faster.

The wailing wind whistled past his ears. The only thought in Su Ming's mind was to catch up, intercept them, and save the Little Monkey.

As for the method, he was no hothead; he had long since made preparations.

Half an hour later, the extra power within Su Ming had long since dissipated, but it had bought him some time, and he finally arrived outside Black Flame Peak, near the territory of the Black Mountain Tribe.

This was a small hill, looking much like a mound of earth. Standing here, one could see quite far, and the view was relatively wide.

Approaching this spot, Su Ming's eyes grew sharp and glinted as he stared fixedly toward the direction of Black Flame Peak in the distance. Soon, at the edge of his vision, two extremely fast figures appeared. One of them was holding the motionless Little Monkey!

Su Ming stood there, his right hand reaching into his robe to retrieve a small bottle containing a single red Medicine Stone. Ensuring there was no blood on his hands, Su Ming took the stone and gripped it tightly in his palm.

This Medicine Stone was his trump card!

He steadied his breathing and gripped his bow and arrow, his eyes filled with a deathly stillness. The two figures in the distance were drawing closer, now less than a few miles away, close enough for them to notice one another.

Both men were burly and appeared quite robust. The large man carrying Little Monkey wore only a thin animal hide in the dead of winter, his upper body exposed, emitting waves of white steam as if his very blood and vitality alone were enough to melt the winter frost.

But Su Ming only glanced at him before fixing his gaze on the other man. This person was also burly and carried several spears on his back, though he was slightly shorter in stature. Yet, to Su Ming's senses, the sheer magnitude of the blood and vitality within this man far exceeded that of his companion, and was even further beyond anything he himself could compare to.

This was a powerhouse!

Su Ming's pupils constricted, but he raised the hand holding the bow and pointed a finger at the large man.

As Su Ming looked at him, the large man also spotted Su Ming, a cold, somewhat ferocious glint flashing in his eyes.