Million Dragon Lizard Hide

The number was Su Jin's.

"Missing me already?" Li Zhengyang answered.

"I've got a job. Interested?" Su Jin's voice was flat, unreadable.

"Depends how much interest it pays."

"One million."

Li Zhengyang had been half-reclining. The moment he heard those three words, his back straightened on its own.

One million, ten thousand points of Blood Qi.

"Talk."

"There's a Fourth-Rank Magic Beast in the depths of West Mountain, a Darkscale Dragon Lizard. I need materials from it."

Fourth-Rank.

Li Zhengyang's brow immediately furrowed.

A Fourth-Rank Magic Beast matched Martial Spirit-level combat power. He was currently a Seventh-grade Grand Martial Master, with an entire major realm between them.

A Great Martial Master fighting a Martial Spirit was just delivering himself in a box.

"Can't do it. Bye."

"Why are you in such a hurry when I haven't finished?" Su Jin's pace did not change. "This Dragon Lizard happens to be in its once-in-ten-years shedding period. All its scales have fallen off, and its strength will drop to Great Martial Master level."

Great Martial Master level.

That changed things.

"And you don't need to kill it," Su Jin continued. "The old hide shed by a Darkscale Dragon Lizard is naturally suited to become Martial Spirit-level armor. If the entire hide is intact, it's worth a great deal. Just go in and take it."

Take the hide, don't kill it.

Not bad.

"Then why not send one of your own people to pick it up?"

"A Dragon Lizard in its shedding period has a worse temper than you. Whoever reaches into its nest, it fights them to the death." A trace of amusement entered Su Jin's voice. "No Great Martial Master under me is willing to take that risk."

The meaning was obvious. It was not that she could not find Great Martial Masters; no one dared to go.

A Magic Beast shedding its skin was like a tigress in confinement. Try to steal its protective shell, and it would be strange if it did not fight for its life.

"How much time?"

"The shedding began at dawn yesterday and lasts forty-eight hours in total. Thirty-two hours have passed. You have sixteen hours left. Once that window closes, its new hide will grow in, and it will recover its full Martial Spirit-level strength."

Sixteen hours.

Li Zhengyang glanced at his phone. Nine in the morning.

He had to get it done before one o'clock tomorrow morning.

"What about the deposit?"

"I'll transfer three hundred thousand first. Once you have the hide, I'll make up the remaining seven hundred thousand. If you die in there, you don't need to return the three hundred thousand. Consider it my treat for a day trip to West Mountain."

"Deal."

A deposit notification sounded. Three hundred thousand yuan.

After hanging up, Li Zhengyang stared at his bank balance for half a second.

He did not hesitate.

He pulled up the System Interface and entered 300000 in the top-up field.

Confirm.

[Top-up successful!]

[Blood-Qi Value obtained: +3000]

[Current Blood-Qi Value: 25628]

[Blood-Qi Value threshold detected]

[Realm breakthrough: Seventh-grade Grand Martial Master → Eighth-Rank Great Martial Master!]

Blood Qi surged through his meridians, and his bones swelled with a sour ache.

Raising ranks within the Great Martial Master realm was not as violent as crossing a major realm. It was more like tempering and solidifying Blood Qi.

The range of his projected Astral Qi expanded by another half meter.

An Eighth-Rank Great Martial Master against a shedding Dragon Lizard reduced to Third-Rank strength.

This was in the bag.

Li Zhengyang sprang off the bed and put on his shoes. His spear was leaning beside the door. He slung it over his back and left.

He called a car, destination: West Mountain.

West Mountain was far wilder than North Mountain.

North Mountain at least had mineral veins and abandoned tunnels. Occasionally, one could run into a few independent cultivators doing jobs.

West Mountain was different. Magic Beasts there generally started at Third-Rank and above. The government did not even contract it out anymore, simply hanging up an iron sign reading "No Entry Zone."

The driver refused to go any farther when they were still two kilometers away.

"Brother, last month, a five-man team went in. When they came out, only two were left. One was missing an arm, the other a leg."

"They weren't skilled enough."

"You may be skilled, but I'm not. If I go any farther, my legs will turn to jelly."

Li Zhengyang paid the fare, got out, and continued on foot.

At the entrance to West Mountain stood a rusted sheet-metal sign: "Entry Strictly Forbidden in Dangerous Area."

Someone had added a line beneath it in paint: "Don't blame us for not warning you."

Li Zhengyang went around the sign and opened the coordinates and briefing Su Jin had sent.

The Darkscale Dragon Lizard's nest was in an Underground Dark River cave deep within West Mountain. The entrance was located on a cliff halfway up the mountain.

The briefing highlighted two key points.

First, the Dragon Lizard was eight meters long and curled up beside a pool at the deepest part of the cave while shedding.

Second, the shed hide floated on the water's surface. It covered approximately fifteen square meters and had to be retrieved whole.

Li Zhengyang had a plan now.

Go in, steal it, then run.

After walking for forty minutes, he reached the cliff.

A two-meter-wide opening split the cliff face, slanting downward inside. Moist air billowed out of it, carrying a thick, fishy stench.

Li Zhengyang squeezed in sideways, spearpoint lowered.

The cave was much darker than the mine tunnels. His phone's flashlight only illuminated three to five meters ahead.

The ground was slick, and every step had to be planted firmly.

Two hundred meters down, the slope gradually leveled out.

The sound of water came from ahead.

An underground river.

He switched off the light and, using the faint glow of minerals in the cave walls, slowly approached while pressed against the rock face.

The instant his view opened up, he saw it.

A pool.

More than thirty meters across, its surface was black as ink, its depths unfathomable.

A huge black shadow lay curled beside it.

Its six-meter body was coiled in a ring. Scales across its body had split open, and transparent mucus seeped from the gaps where old and new scales overlapped.

The Dragon Lizard's head rested on its tail. Its two eyes were half-closed, covered by a membrane.

Its old hide was peeling away from its spine. More than half had already come off, spread along the edge of the pool and faintly gleaming with metallic luster in the dim light.

Li Zhengyang held his breath.

Its length seemed different from the briefing, but whatever—he would take the million first and worry later!

Cloud-Shocking Steps.

His feet touched down, and his body slid silently sideways along the pool's edge.

Ten meters, five meters, three meters.

The Dragon Lizard did not move.

Li Zhengyang crouched down. His left hand reached toward the water, his fingertips touching the edge of the Dragon Lizard hide.

Ripples spread across the surface.

The Dragon Lizard's eyes snapped open.

A savage gleam burst from its murky pupils. Its eyesight might have been poor, but the tremor in the water could not deceive it.

Li Zhengyang did not hesitate in the slightest.

His left hand seized the hide and yanked hard.

The entire hide lifted from the water, flying up in a spray of droplets.

The Dragon Lizard exploded.

Its six-meter body launched into the air, tearing apart the remaining scraps of old hide. It opened its mouth full of jagged teeth and lunged down at Li Zhengyang.

Even with Third-Rank strength during its shedding period, it was still terrifying.

Li Zhengyang held his spear in his right hand. Collapse Formula.

The spearpoint met the Dragon Lizard's lower jaw head-on, Astral Qi erupting.

That massive head was forced back. The Dragon Lizard crashed into the pool, throwing up a two-meter column of water.

Li Zhengyang did not pursue.

He already had what he came for. There was no need to linger in battle. He turned and ran.

The pool behind him erupted into chaos. The Dragon Lizard rolled out of the water, its body slamming against the rocky ground as it released a heart-rending hiss.

The sound waves ricocheted through the sealed cave, making his scalp tingle.

The Dragon Lizard's speed had indeed dropped considerably during its shedding period. It crawled out of the pool sluggishly, its new scales still unhardened, several patches of tender pink flesh exposed across its body.

But its Fourth-Rank foundation was still there. The moment it got up, it gave chase, its four short legs clawing at the ground with the rumble of a bulldozer.

Li Zhengyang charged fifty meters toward the cave entrance. A glance from the corner of his eye showed the Dragon Lizard had chased thirty meters and was accelerating.

This damned cave was narrow and slippery. The sideways advantage of Cloud-Shocking Steps could not be used, and his straight-line speed was not much better than the Dragon Lizard's.

Another hundred and fifty meters, and he would reach the entrance.

He could get away.

The instant that thought crossed his mind, the ground trembled beneath his feet.

It was not the vibration of the Dragon Lizard catching up.

It came from ahead.

From the direction of the cave entrance.

Something was walking into the cave.

Li Zhengyang sharply slowed, his foot grinding to a halt on the slick stone floor.

An aura poured in from the cave entrance.

Intense.

Its oppressive force was on an entirely different level from the shedding one behind him.

Damn it.

Another one.

The light at the cave entrance was blocked by more than half. A black shadow larger than the one behind him plugged the exit.

Its scales were completely intact, each one gleaming with metallic luster. Sunlight shone in from behind it, outlining its body like a black mountain.

A Fourth-Rank Magic Beast.

Martial Spirit level.

In perfect condition.