Sprawled Every Which Way

In the dense forest of a barren mountain range, two figures darted and leaped through the trees. Their blood and qi surged as their speed abruptly increased, carrying them swiftly toward their destination.

Before long, they entered the heart of the forest, and the daylight grew brighter.

In the distance, winding, towering mountains came into view. The two men's eyes burned with excitement. With a flash, their speed increased by another great deal.

Terrifying blood and qi erupted from their bodies, blasting out waves of air as they charged straight toward the mountains.

"Three... cough, Old Liu, are you sure we've got the right place?" One of them continued speeding along, lowering his voice. "Why haven't we run into a single person this whole way?"

"Those guys have no reason to be slower than us, right?"

The other checked their direction, then looked at the mountain. "The location is right..."

"Maybe we haven't seen anyone because they're coming from a different direction."

"That makes sense..." Yi You nodded. The forbidden-land opportunities set up on Trial Star were all in different locations, but their distances from the mountain were the same.

Perhaps those people were approaching from the other side.

Or maybe there really was no one else coming from their direction.

Liu Yue slowly regulated the circulation of his blood and qi. Without slowing down, he continued charging toward their destination. He did not care in the slightest whether those people had arrived or not.

It would be best if they had not. Better yet, they could arrive only after the two of them had passed the trial.

That way, before Su Bo arrived, they could free up their hands to intercept those experts and knock every last one of them out.

Then, when Su Bo finally arrived, they could let him take one spot.

Body Realm cultivation involved tempering the body. Every refinement required enough blood and qi to temper the body to completion.

Especially for someone as terrifyingly extreme as Su Bo, who tempered his body with nine strands of blood and qi during every refinement.

That required a very, very, very long time...

Liu Yue and Yi You had already made their plans. If Su Bo had not arrived yet, they would not mind being overbearing for once and playing the role of roadblocks.

Because they now had the strength to do so!

The two had spent two months in seclusion. Not only had their strength broken through its limits and brought their nine body refinements to completion, they had also used the opportunity to rebuild their foundations.

Originally, six strands of blood and qi had been the limit of their potential in each refinement of the Body Realm.

Soul Vine's immense vitality and soul power had not merely opened their divine apertures and awakened their innate divine abilities. It had also cleansed their bodies once.

It had unleashed even greater physical potential.

So the two gritted their teeth, exhausted all the resources they had saved up, and purchased another batch of resources from their followers at considerable cost.

While in seclusion, they tempered their bodies anew and forged stronger foundations.

For the first seven body refinements, they used seven strands of blood and qi to retemper their bodies. For the eighth and ninth refinements, they used eight strands of blood and qi.

Now, the power of their blood and qi in the Body Realm had reached a full sixty-five strands. Their strength had become incomparably greater than before.

Even without opening divine apertures or awakening innate divine abilities, they were confident they could contend with first-tier sequence geniuses.

And if their divine apertures and divine abilities were included...

Yi You could most likely fight the most elite first-tier sequence prodigies, while Liu Yue was slightly weaker but could still rank in the upper-middle tier among first-tier sequences.

By the time the two reached the mountain before their eyes, more than half a day had passed.

They had also encountered other people.

However, something seemed just a little off.

At the foot of the mountain, people were strewn everywhere...

A large group lay sprawled in every direction. Quite a few had even been planted headfirst into the ground, their legs sticking out and swaying in the air.

They looked like they were just a little bit dead.

"What happened here?" Yi You arrived in a blur and instinctively stopped. "Did the rules of the Star-Climbing Platform and Martial Ascension Gate change, or was there some kind of accident?"

"Hey... huh, isn't this my dear... dear, dear cousin?"

"What, is the ground so comfortable that you don't want to get up?"

"Yi You, you..." Yi Feng lay sprawled on the ground. Just as he was about to retort, his expression abruptly changed. He actually felt instinctive fear from Yi You.

As archers, their Intent had a special mutual resonance that allowed those of the same lineage to easily...

Sense whether the other was strong or weak!

In the past, he had always been the one who pressured Yi You so hard he could barely breathe.

"How is this possible?" Yi Feng refused to believe the change his Intent had sensed.

"Hmph." Yi You sneered. The other man could sense his strength, and he could likewise clearly sense Yi Feng's current weakness...

As well as that exceedingly feeble Sun-Shooting Intent within him.

So weak. It was only a tiny bit stronger than Yi You had been two months ago.

If he fought Yi Feng now, he would most likely crush him completely, suppress him until he could not even fire an arrow, then kill him with a single shot.

But for the sake of his eldest uncle and cousin, who had treated him fairly well...

He would not bother arguing with this weakling cousin...

"Quit chatting and ask around..." Liu Yue had gone ahead to scout the way and discovered that the mountain path was littered with people who had been beaten flat.

This style of beating people up felt familiar... yes, incredibly familiar!

Liu Yue touched his handsome face. Faintly, he seemed to still feel the pain from that punch.

Yi You curled his lip and kicked Yi Feng in the butt. "Hey, tell us. What happened?"

"You..." Yi Feng's face was full of fury.

But after seeing the malicious look in his cousin's eyes, his gaze immediately cleared, and the anger vanished from his face without a trace.

Arrogant as he was, he was not an idiot.

He was terribly weak right now. If he butted heads with Yi You at a time like this, he would definitely get punched in the face until he was swollen.

"A ruthless guy came. He beats up everyone he sees..."

"Heh." Yi You sneered, staring at his cousin darkly. "Yi Feng, tell the truth. Don't force me to beat you up right here."

"Your friends are all here. Don't refuse a kindness when it's offered."

"Tell me. One of you must have provoked him to bring down this beating, right?"

Yi You was even less likely to be an idiot. Just from the way these people had been beaten, he had guessed that Old Su had arrived here before them.

And while he was at it, he had beaten up everyone trying to climb the mountain.

Based on what Yi You knew of Su Bo, if his cousin and these people had not offended him, Su Bo could not be bothered to pay attention to a bunch of weaklings.

These trash must have offended Old Su, which was why they had been beaten up so badly.

Looking at Yi Feng's injuries, compared to those people planted headfirst into the ground along the way, he could practically be considered lightly injured.

It was probably because of his red hair, which revealed that he was from the Yi Clan.

Su Bo had guessed that Yi Feng was connected to Yi You, so he had held back a little and not hit him too hard.

"Him?" Yi Feng's face turned red.

"Yi You, that Ancient Human Race guy is your friend?"

Yi You ignored him and turned with a grin. "There we go. We were worried about Old Su, but he got here before us."

"And he even took care of our trouble for us!"

"We owe him another favor." Liu Yue spoke helplessly.

Among the people sprawled around and planted headfirst in the ground, many were formidable rivals of Liu Yue and Yi You. All of them had reached the peak of the ninth body refinement.

Though the two did not fear these people.

There were only so many spots at the Star-Climbing Platform and Martial Ascension Gate.

If these people completed the trial before they arrived, climbed the Star-Climbing Platform, and crossed the Star Gate, then no matter how strong they were, they would still be unable to leave.

They could only remain on Beast Planet and wait for the Starry Sky Trial to end.

"Hey, hey, hey..." Yi Feng snarled under his breath...

"Answer me, you two."

Whether it was Yi You or Liu Yue, both had been defeated by him before. Yet after only being apart for a while...

Their strength had actually surpassed his by quite a lot.

How the hell was that possible?

Did Beast Planet have some terrifying opportunity or heavenly treasure?

Impossible. Impossible, absolutely impossible. If there really were an opportunity capable of completely transforming someone, Beast Planet would never have been left for them to undergo trials on.

It would have long since been claimed by those first-tier sequences.

The two merely glanced at him and had no intention of wasting more words.

They turned and shot straight toward the mountain peak...

Climbing the Star-Climbing Platform and crossing the Star Gate were what mattered most!