Wherever the black pot passed, not a blade of grass survived.
Clang!
A dull impact rang out.
An Ironclad Beast weighing a thousand pounds never even managed a howl. The enormous black pot smashed its head straight into its chest.
Its massive body flew sideways, knocking over two unlucky wolves.
Shi Hou did not stop.
His legs hammered the earth like mad, blasting two deep craters into the ground with every stride.
Blood and qi surged through his body. At that moment, he was a tireless humanoid bulldozer.
He did not need to watch the road.
The fellow sitting on the pot's rim was a human radar.
"On the right! That red-haired monkey's about to breathe fire!"
Shi Hao pointed with his little hand.
A green gleam flashed.
The Red-Fire Ape had just puffed out its cheeks when a chill pierced its throat. The flames it had yet to spit out exploded inside its mouth. Black smoke billowed as it toppled stiffly to the ground.
As Shi Hou passed, he scooped it up with his left hand.
The Red-Fire Ape vanished into thin air.
This whole routine of "killing monsters and looting bodies" flowed so smoothly that Shi Linhu and the others behind them felt their scalps prickle.
Children?
These were clearly two ruthless bandits let loose in a buffet.
Beasts roared to shake the heavens all around, yet a bizarre vacuum had formed ahead of the black pot.
Wild beasts had keen instincts.
That thing was too black, too hard. Whoever touched it died.
They were charging along at full tilt.
Suddenly, a dazzling mass of silver light shot out of the woods to one side.
Several lavishly dressed youths stood on a silver beast-hide carpet floating three feet above the ground.
Their leader was eleven or twelve, holding a feather fan, his face brimming with arrogance.
Seeing the mud-covered Shi Hou sprinting along behind a black pot, he knitted his brows into three deep vertical lines.
"Where did this savage come from? Get lost!"
A genius from Luofu Marsh.
He did not regard these mountain villagers as human at all, casually flicking the feather fan in his hand.
A hurricane rose from level ground.
Wind blades swept up shattered stones, howling as they tried to overturn this "obstacle."
Shi Hou did not even lift his eyelids.
Make way?
Does your family own the Great Wilderness?
He drove his feet down hard, instantly caving in the ground.
Bracing the enormous black pot ahead of him, he accelerated straight into the hurricane.
"That's... Young Master Jiao Peng's Hurricane Technique! That brat's dead!" a retainer on the carpet sneered.
The next second.
The sneer froze on his face.
The black pot struck the hurricane.
A hurricane powerful enough to sweep up boulders was brutally smashed to pieces by that black pot!
A black figure burst through the wind barrier in an instant, blotting out the sunlight in Young Master Jiao Peng's fear-widened eyes.
"You dare..."
"Trying to stage an accident and shake me down? Off you go!"
Shi Hou dropped his shoulder, slamming the edge of the black pot viciously into the silver beast-hide carpet.
It was like a heavy truck at full speed rolling over a child's tricycle.
Boom!
Silver light shattered.
The beast-hide carpet disintegrated in midair.
Those lofty Luofu geniuses did not even have time to scream before the tremendous impact sent them flying like rag dolls.
Young Master Jiao Peng fared worst. He ended up draped over a crooked tree, his feather fan nowhere to be seen, his fate unknown.
Shi Hou never broke stride.
Without even looking back, he plowed straight through.
Only a casual warning remained in the gale:
"Check your almanac before going out next time. Don't mess with someone driving a big rig."
Behind him.
Shi Yunfeng's hand trembled around his walking stick.
That was Luofu Marsh...
Forget it.
With enough debts, you stop worrying; with enough lice, you stop itching.
Watching the genius twitching in the tree, the old chief found the corners of his own mouth rising despite himself.
That felt good.
The deeper they went, the greater the resistance became.
The once-surging beast tide began to jam up.
Ahead lay nothing but mountainlike rumps, packed so tightly that not even water could slip through.
Shi Hou stopped.
His chest heaved violently, sweat running down his dark, tough skin.
The relentless collisions had left his muscles aching and swollen.
The pig at the bottom of the pot was completely out of commission, all four legs in the air and its tongue hanging far out. No amount of jostling got a response.
That last saturation attack had overdrawn its vital essence, and it had stuffed itself besides. The creature was now doubly unconscious.
"We can't get through."
Standing on the pot's rim, Shi Hao rose onto his tiptoes and peered ahead.
Descendants of primordial remnants filled every inch of the way ahead, some radiating utterly terrifying auras.
By the time they forced their way through, even the daylilies would have gone cold.
In the distance, the golden light marking the Suanni's body was rapidly fading.
"Skinny Monkey, that old lion's about to breathe his last!"
Shi Hao grew frantic, his little hands gripping the pot's edge tightly.
Shi Hou wiped the mud off his face.
"Then we'll run over their heads!"
He was just about to crouch and toss Shi Hao upward.
Screee!
A bird's cry that could pierce metal and split stone suddenly exploded through the air.
A fierce wind rose.
Ancient trees thick enough to encircle with both arms swayed wildly, while countless savage beasts flattened themselves against the ground, trembling.
The sky darkened.
Green scales gleamed coldly. Wings spanning dozens of meters blotted out the sky and sun.
The Green-Scaled Eagle!
The undisputed overlord of the outer mountain ranges!
"Auntie!"
Shi Hao's eyes lit up, and he waved his little hands.
The enormous bird overhead had clearly heard him.
She circled once, folded her wings, and landed thunderously before Shi Hou amid a terrifying rush of air.
Several Dire Wolves that failed to dodge were instantly reduced to pulp.
The Green-Scaled Eagle lowered her proud head.
She glanced at Shi Hao, her gaze gentle.
Then her enormous head drew close to Shi Hou, and she affectionately rubbed her hard-scaled neck against the black pot on his back.
She recognized this pot.
Traces of her children's presence remained inside it.
Scrrrape!
Scales scraped against the Stone Pot, sending sparks flying.
The shove forced Shi Hou back two steps.
"Stop, stop, stop!"
Shi Hou braced a hand against that enormous bird's head, his face full of distaste.
"Don't try buttering me up! Friends or not, debts still have to be settled!"
He reached back and patted the black pot, looking pained over his losses, then pointed at the Green-Scaled Eagle's nose and began tallying the bill:
"Do you know how much capital I spent hatching those three eggs?"
"Fifty thousand!"
"A full fifty thousand blood and qi!"
"How many cattle would I have to kill? How many pots of meat would I have to stew to make that back?"
"You brought plenty of food, sure, but it wasn't enough."
The more Shi Hou spoke, the angrier he became. His finger nearly jabbed into the Green-Scaled Eagle's nostril.
"For Little One's sake, I'll let it slide this time."
"But if we don't get anything good, you'll have to give me two pieces of treasure bone to cover the debt. Hear me?"
Dead silence fell all around.
The Broadsword slipped from Shi Linhu's hand, and he did not even feel it strike his foot.
That was the Green-Scaled Eagle!
A savage bird whose very name struck terror into people's hearts!
Other people would fall to their knees and cry for their mothers at the sight of her, yet Skinny Monkey was pointing at her nose and demanding repayment?
The Green-Scaled Eagle tilted her head.
Her golden eyes were filled with almost human bewilderment.
She seemed to be pondering what exactly "fifty thousand blood and qi" meant, and whether it was edible.
But she could sense no malice in the human before her.
Only a... pure, miserly resentment.
"Coo..."
The Green-Scaled Eagle gave a low call and extended one wing, forming a boarding ramp.
"Skinny Monkey, quit nagging!"
Seeing the golden light about to disappear, Shi Hao stamped his feet in anxiety.
He grabbed Shi Hou's ear with one hand and the unconscious Black Pig's hoof with the other, dragging and hauling them up onto the bird's back.
"Auntie's taking us to the heart of the battlefield! Hurry!"
Shi Hou stumbled under the tugging, still muttering:
"A ride cancels the debt now? Fuel might be expensive these days, but it still doesn't cover fifty thousand..."
The two boys and one pig scrambled onto the bird's back, using hands and feet alike.
Once Shi Hao had settled flat against her back, he turned and waved at the people standing dazed on the ground.
"Grandpa Chief! Uncle Hu! Go back!"
"It's too dangerous in there. Skinny Monkey and I will go!"
Shi Yunfeng came to his senses. Looking at the enormous creature poised to launch, he felt a hundred emotions mingle in his heart.
The battlefield ahead was no longer somewhere ordinary blood moving realm cultivators like them could intervene.
That was a stage for monsters and heaven's chosen.
"Be careful!"
The old chief shouted with all his strength:
"Skinny Monkey! Watch Little One! Don't get so caught up collecting things that you forget!"
"Got it!"
Shi Hou's voice drifted back from afar, torn to shreds by the gale.
Screee!
The Green-Scaled Eagle beat her wings.
A tornado rose from the ground.
Her enormous body shot into the sky, instantly clearing the congested beast tide. Like a sharp green arrow, she plunged straight toward the heart of the battlefield deep in the mountains, where everything was about to boil over.
On the ground.
Shi Feijiao tilted his head back, watching the black speck rapidly shrink, and nudged Shi Shoushan beside him, whose face wore a complicated expression.
"Brother Shoushan."
"Are we really getting old?"
Shi Shoushan slid the Broken Sword back into place on his back, pulled a half-eaten carrot from inside his clothes, and took a savage bite.
High above.
Fierce winds howled, lashing their faces painfully.
Shi Hou clung tightly to the Green-Scaled Eagle's feathers, looking down at the mountain forests racing backward beneath his feet.
The Rocky Forest flashed past in an instant.
The golden light faded.
Greed and killing intent pierced the clouds.
"Skinny Monkey, ready?"
Shi Hao lay flat beside him, his little face taut.
Shi Hou tightened the black pot strapped to his back.
He glanced at Black Pig, still drooling in the pot, then rubbed his own dark face, harder than iron.
His lips spread into a grin.
Against that pitch-black face, he bared a mouthful of eerily white teeth.
"Ready?"
"I'm going to stock up, not hand out gifts."
Before you continue