Earth Ranking Spirit Beasts

"See you on the Final Spirit Road. When the time comes, don't turn down my offer to work together again."

Mu Chen waved to Luo Li. Without waiting for her response, he stepped forward and vanished into the gate of light.

Luo Li stood where she was, gazing in the direction where Mu Chen had disappeared. The lingering glow of the gate reflected in her glass-clear eyes. She pressed her lips together, her thin, soft lips almost forming a straight line.

What a strange person... but not an unpleasant one.

Light and shadow shifted, and the sensation of warped space gradually faded.

The sky was a washed-clean blue, clear and vast. A few wisps of cloud hung lazily on the horizon, and sunlight spilled down unhindered, carrying a pristine, primordial air.

As he had expected, his surroundings were empty and silent, without another person in sight.

He looked around. Distant mountains rose and fell in dark, sweeping ridges, while lush vegetation flourished nearby and ancient trees towered into the sky.

Streams murmured and birdsong drifted faintly through the air. Had he not known the truth about this place, he might almost have mistaken it for an untouched paradise hidden from the world!

But Mu Chen knew very well that beneath this peaceful facade lurked dangers far deadlier than those on the outer Spirit Road... though, for him, they hardly qualified as deadly.

According to the information in the blood-red token, the Final Spirit Road contained large numbers of high-tier Spirit Beasts, including some powerful enough to enter the Earth Ranking.

Far from putting him under pressure, this made his blood, which had lain quiet for so long, begin to boil.

His fourth-grade spirit body had stagnated for some time. The soul essences of ordinary Spirit Beasts had barely any effect on him. To advance further and break through his shackles, he needed stronger soul essences and spiritual treasures!

"Earth Ranking Spirit Beasts..." Mu Chen murmured, an eager smile curling his lips. "I hope you won't disappoint me."

He leaped into the crown of an ancient tree dozens of yards tall and gazed into the distance.

The course of the mountains, the winding rivers, the distribution of forests... the broad lay of the land spread out before his eyes.

Dropping lightly from the treetop, Mu Chen chose a direction and set off.

He had not gone far when a gust of rank wind burst from the bushes at his flank!

It was a pitch-black, leopard-shaped Spirit Beast. Moving as fast as lightning, it thrust its sharp claws straight toward the back of Mu Chen's heart.

Mu Chen did not even turn around. He merely struck out casually with his palm!

"Yowl-"

With a brief, piercing howl, the sizable black leopard Spirit Beast was hurled like a punching bag into the trunk of an ancient tree so thick it would take two people to encircle it.

Crack!

A teeth-grating sound of breaking bones rang out. The black leopard Spirit Beast's spine twisted at a grotesque angle, and it died on the spot.

"A mid-tier Spirit Beast. Better than nothing." Mu Chen absorbed its soul essence with his token, shook his hand, and continued onward.

Along the way, attacks came from almost everywhere, and the Spirit Beasts were of all kinds.

Venom-Kissed Crocodiles lurked in the swamps; Ironwire Snake Swarms disguised themselves as vines; Iron-Feathered Fierce Birds swooped from the treetops; and Red-Eyed Fierce Wolves roamed in packs...

There were plenty of high-tier Spirit Beasts as well: Phantom Cats, Thick-Earth Mountain Boars, True-Fire Beasts...

For an ordinary participant in the Spirit Road Trial, this might have been a tremendous ordeal. To Mu Chen, however, these attacks were mere child's play!

His movements were concise and efficient. Often, the battle was already over the instant a Spirit Beast lunged out.

Fists, palms, fingers, elbows, knees... his distinctive fighting techniques, paired with exquisitely precise control over his terrifying strength, let him effortlessly reap the Spirit Beasts along his path.

As the soul essences continued to accumulate, he actually advanced to a fifth-grade spirit body!

Yet Mu Chen's brows gradually began to knit.

The improvement he gained from slaying these Spirit Beasts grew weaker and weaker, like thin streams trickling into a deep pool, scarcely stirring a ripple.

Not enough. Still not enough!

"Earth Ranking Spirit Beasts... where exactly are they?" Standing beside a stream, Mu Chen washed the traces of beast blood from his arms, his gaze sweeping the vast mountain forests in the distance.

Throughout his journey, he had deliberately slowed his pace and widened his search, even seeking out places with fierce auras. Yet the strongest creatures he encountered were only top-tier Spirit Beasts approaching the threshold of the Earth Ranking, far beneath true Earth Ranking creatures!

Just as he was beginning to grow irritated, a towering, continuous shadow at the edge of his vision caught his attention.

It was an exceptionally majestic mountain range, its main peak soaring into the clouds. Even from so far away, he could feel its immense grandeur.

Faint clouds and mist wreathed the sky above the range, shimmering with a strange, pale golden luster in the sunlight.

What stirred him even more was the faint sense of pressure his spiritual perception detected from that direction, utterly unlike anywhere else!

"I'll take a look over there!" Mu Chen's eyes brightened. A place where so much spiritual splendor gathered was bound to harbor something extraordinary.

Without further delay, he moved, his speed suddenly surging. He became a blurred black streak, sweeping through mountain forests and across streams as he raced straight toward the thousand-yard-high range.

The closer he drew, the clearer that pressure became. Mu Chen selected the highest peak and began climbing!

The steep rock faces were as easy as level ground beneath his feet. Occasionally, venomous insects and strange snakes dwelling in the crevices attacked him, only to be casually dispatched.

Roughly an hour later, he stood on the mist-wreathed summit.

The fierce wind whipped his black robes.

Standing there, he found his view suddenly opening up, with most of the mountain range's magnificent scenery spread beneath his gaze.

Peaks rose and fell, forests rolled like a sea, and clouds and mist flowed slowly around the mountainsides, dreamlike and illusory.

He calmed his mind and breathing, narrowed his eyes slightly, and carefully extended his senses in search.

The auras of ordinary Spirit Beasts were like scattered fireflies; those of slightly stronger ones resembled flickering candles; and the powerful creatures hidden in caves or deep pools burned like blazing torches.

Suddenly, as his perception swept across the northern foothills, it caught sharply!

An aura of life dwelled there, as searing and immense as the sun, brimming with ferocity and majesty!

Mu Chen followed his senses, crossing the ravines in a few leaps. Upon a dark boulder like a small hill, he saw an enormous creature lying in a light doze.

The beast was as large as several giant elephants, its entire body covered in palm-sized, diamond-shaped scales. Those scales were a weighty, regal dark gold, gleaming cold and hard beneath the sunlight filtering through the mist.

Its body resembled a fierce tiger's, but its head was closer to a dragon's, with two short yet sharp dark-gold horns atop its skull and curling whiskers beneath its jaw.

A long tail covered in bone spurs rested loosely on the rock. Every occasional, unconscious sweep left deep furrows in the hard stone.

Merely lying there, it radiated the mountain-like, terrifying pressure of a king of beasts...

Golden Armored Dragon Tiger Beast!

Mu Chen silently recited the Spirit Beast's name, and a brilliant light instantly flared in his eyes.

An Earth Ranking Spirit Beast! I finally found one!

Without the slightest hesitation, Mu Chen drew a deep breath. Even the fierce wind on the summit seemed to pause as he lightly tapped his toes against the rock.

Crack!

The mountain rock beneath his feet fractured.

The next instant, he became a black meteor tearing through the sky, diving from the thousand-yard-high summit toward the boulder at the northern foothills!

His robes snapped in his rapid descent, while the flames in Mu Chen's eyes burned ever brighter.

The excitement he had suppressed for so long erupted like a volcano. This was the opponent he needed!