Azure Fish Demon

"Holy crap, does that mean if I don't break through within thirty days, I'm dead meat?"

Lu Yuan was somewhat speechless.

It had felt great using his lifespan to exchange for experience before.

He had gone all in with a single throw.

But now, trying to exchange experience back for lifespan was impossible.

This was even more ruthless than a pawnshop!

"How does martial cultivation in this world break through?"

Lu Yuan asked the system again.

As for the martial path in this world,

he only had a vague understanding of it.

The martial artists under heaven were divided into nine ranks, with First Rank at the bottom and Ninth Rank at the top.

Right now, he was an ungraded Mortal Realm cultivator.

The yamen had symbolically issued him incomplete, commonplace manuals like the Basic Demon-Slaying Saber Technique and Wild Bull Force.

It was not that techniques like the Basic Demon-Slaying Saber Technique and Wild Bull Force were useless.

They were simply far too difficult to break through with.

Unless one was a child of a great clan, possessing complete manuals and a place to gain experience hunting demons,

ordinary people found it difficult to improve.

If he did not have the system and could not level up directly,

he would probably have to cultivate this martial technique until the Year of the Monkey and Month of the Horse.

"First Rank through Fifth Rank are Houtian Martial Artists. Through arduous training, tempering the body, and refining flesh and blood, one can gradually solidify the foundations of the physical body and break through. First-Rank Martial Artists temper the skin, Second-Grade Martial Artists temper the flesh, Third-Rank Martial Artists temper the tendons, Fourth-Grade Martial Artists temper the bones, and Fifth Rank Martial Artists temper the organs."

After saying that, the system fell silent.

"Holy crap, explain it properly! How do I temper my skin?"

Lu Yuan truly did not understand the slightest thing about advancing realms.

"Spend 50 experience to answer the host's question."

"Fuck me, you damned bastard, you..."

Lu Yuan was so furious that he burst into profanity.

A profiteer. This dog system was absolutely a profiteer.

He had worked his ass off killing demon beasts for only 150 experience points, yet it wanted 50 experience just to answer one question.

Was it butchering him like a pig?

"Reminder to host: insulting the system may result in experience points being deducted."

The system's voice rang out.

Lu Yuan had no choice but to shut up.

There was no helping it. For now, he could only continue killing demon beasts and obtaining resources.

Then turn those resources into money.

After that, improve the quality of his food.

Only then could he temper his body and strengthen his physical form.

Only then could he ultimately break through.

Using the location where the pig demon had appeared as his starting point, Lu Yuan searched the surrounding five kilometers, yet did not find a single demon beast.

"Could the demon beasts appearing in Azure Cloud Mountain have been an accident?"

"They aren't from the same group as that Gray-Skinned Rat Demon?"

Lu Yuan shook his head and could only return the way he had come, preparing to leave Azure Cloud Mountain.

However, as Lu Yuan followed his earlier path,

and arrived at the five-way fork halfway up the mountain,

he glanced toward the path leading to the Cold Pool.

"Hmm!" With that glance, he spotted a half-eaten sorghum bun lying on the ground.

A familiar sour scent of sweat still lingered in the air.

"Lu An!"

Lu Yuan's heart lurched, and his expression changed drastically.

Could that kid have secretly followed him up the mountain?

Cold sweat instantly drenched Lu Yuan's back.

Azure Cloud Mountain stretched for hundreds of miles. Forget running into a demon beast—even the venomous insects and wild beasts in the mountains—

if Lu An encountered them, he would be chewed up until not even dregs remained!

"You brat, nothing better happen to you!"

Lu Yuan wiped the cold sweat from his forehead.

His adrenaline surged at that moment.

Following the faint traces Lu An had left behind,

he sprinted madly toward the Cold Pool.

The so-called Cold Pool was an extension of the enormous body of water in Azure Cloud Mountain known as Jadewater Lake.

The terrain here was bizarre, like a string of candied hawthorns winding through the forest.

More than a hundred deep and shallow pits were linked together.

The shallow places only reached one's neck, while the deep ones descended over a thousand meters, dark and bottomless.

"This Cold Pool water is really freezing!"

Lu Yuan sped deeper along the clear stream overflowing from the Cold Pool.

The farther in he went, the water that had soaked through his cloth shoes

grew increasingly icy.

"Hu!!!"

Lu Yuan exhaled a breath of turbid air, which instantly turned into white mist in the air.

At this moment, Lu Yuan had reached the depths of the dense forest, a place even the village blacksmiths did not dare enter.

The grass and trees on both sides had begun to frost over.

Yet the water on the Cold Pool's surface did not freeze at all, instead giving off wisps of white vapor.

"Mm, this is from Xiao An."

Lu Yuan stopped and picked up a strip of cloth from the ground.

"Xiao An, Xiao An..."

Lu Yuan's eyes reddened as he shouted loudly.

His hand unconsciously tightened around the rusty saber.

With a wary expression, he scanned his surroundings.

Just as he was about to approach the entrance to the deepest Cold Pool in this area,

an extremely faint, intermittent cry for help

reached his ears.

"Help... help me... help..."

The voice was like a beacon in the darkness.

Lu Yuan's pupils contracted, and he charged forward.

He pushed through a patch of bushes covered in white frost.

His view suddenly opened up.

This was precisely the entrance to the deepest Cold Pool in the area.

It was an enormous pit, surrounded by a ring of massive bluestones covered in moss.

Like the giant mouth of a well shaped like a half-moon ring.

The pool water was clear, yet dark.

Clear water meant shallows, green water meant depths, black water meant an abyss.

"Xiao An!!!"

The sight on the Cold Pool's bluestone slabs made Lu Yuan's eyes split with rage.

A demon beast over two meters tall, covered from head to toe in black scales,

was lying there.

Its upper body was a huge azure fish head, its eyes bulging outward.

Its gills opened and closed like bellows,

spewing a foul, fishy stench.

Its lower body consisted of two thick human legs covered in slime.

Sharp webbed claws grew between its toes.

At that moment, the half-fish, half-human Azure Fish Demon was using its two front fins

to pin down a small, thin figure.

"Brother!!!"

The moment Lu An saw Lu Yuan, it was as though he had exhausted all his strength.

As if the fright had overwhelmed him, he fainted.

"I'm going to turn you into pickled cabbage fish."

Lu An's legs had already been swallowed into its stomach.

Only his head remained outside.

And the moment it saw Lu Yuan,

the Azure Fish Demon cast him a sideways glance with its bulging dead-fish eyes.

Like a frog feeding, it swallowed Lu An in a single gulp.

"Not bad. Human, are you here to deliver yourself as a dish?"

The Azure Fish Demon's fish mouth moved as it spoke in a human voice.

"Today, I'm eating sour fish soup..."

A rage and killing intent that shot straight to his head erupted at that moment.

He stomped down hard, and the Great Achievement Realm Wild Bull Force exploded forth.

His terrifying physical strength made him shoot toward the Azure Fish Demon like an arrow loosed from the bow.

"Another delicious two-legged sheep!"

A trace of humanlike mockery flashed through the Azure Fish Demon's bulging dead-fish eyes.

Its thick tail fin

suddenly slapped against the bluestone slabs.

Its massive body actually sprang up with astonishing agility.

Its gaping maw abruptly opened, reeking of fishy stench like a black hole, ready to devour Lu Yuan.

Just as the fish's mouth was about to envelop Lu Yuan,

Lu Yuan lowered his body.

He slid beneath the Azure Fish Demon's abdomen.

At the same time, the rusty saber in his hand moved. The Perfection Realm Basic Demon-Slaying Saber Technique swept toward the Azure Fish Demon's belly with flawless precision.