Two Years Later

Two years later, deep within Bloodmoon Forest outside Starjoy City.

Boom!

A deafening crash suddenly shattered the forest's tranquility.

Jiang Feng descended from the sky with a sword in each hand, bringing both blades down hard on a giant ape over three meters tall.

Roar!

Black fur covered the giant ape's body. Its powerful frame was exceptionally imposing, its bulging muscles radiating a dense, potent aura of darkness.

It roared furiously. Its thick arms were as hard as iron, but Jiang Feng had still left two bloody gashes on them deep enough to expose bone.

Jiang Feng landed and raised both swords high. Light element immediately surged toward him.

His twin swords blazed with dazzling, incandescent white light, their sacred aura condensing. He charged at the giant ape and brought both blades down.

The giant ape's roar cut off abruptly. Two intersecting gashes appeared across its chest, then a large chunk of flesh fell away, blood cascading like a waterfall.

Jiang Feng planted his sword against the ground and caught his breath.

His opponent this time had been a mid-tier level six Mighty Demon Ape, yet the battle had lasted less than a minute before Jiang Feng finished it off. It was the third level six magical beast he had encountered that day.

Ding! Battle concluded. Calculating battle rewards.

Ding! Congratulations, host. You have received 500 system coins.

Jiang Feng put his swords and the corpse of the mid-tier level six Mighty Demon Ape into his Storage Ring, then turned and headed out of Bloodmoon Forest.

"System, open my personal panel."

Host: Jiang Feng.

Age: fifteen.

Innate spiritual power: 80.

Class: Fifth Order, rank one Earth Knight.

Spiritual power index: 2125 (internal spiritual power), 2732 (external spiritual power).

Skills: Pure White Blade (second order), Cross Slash (second order), Spirit Light Barrier (third order), Light Slash Sword (third order), Ascension Array (third order), Sunlight Slash (fourth order), Holy Light Barrier (fourth order), Holy Sword (fifth order).

Special skills: none.

Spirit furnace: none.

Special physiques: divine blessing physique, undying body lv1.

System coins: 9200.

Jiang Feng returned to Starjoy City that evening. After turning in his missions at the Adventurers' Guild, he received a reward of four thousand gold coins.

Over the past two years, he had visited the Adventurers' Guild every month to accept hunting missions, not just to earn system coins and gold coins, but also to hone his combat skills.

Even as a third-order knight, Jiang Feng had been able to hunt level five magical beasts above his own level. After breaking through to the fourth order and becoming a Grand Knight, he had gained the strength to fight level six magical beasts. As his cultivation deepened, even level six magical beasts had ceased to be a match for him.

Now, Jiang Feng had broken through to the fifth order.

With his current strength, he could put up a fight even against a level seven magical beast.

However, the Adventurers' Guild in Starjoy City offered no missions to hunt level seven magical beasts, nor were there any in Bloodmoon Forest outside the city.

The strongest magical beast in Bloodmoon Forest had been the mid-tier level six Mighty Demon Ape Jiang Feng had killed that day.

After two years of Jiang Feng's efforts, level six magical beasts were almost nowhere to be found in Bloodmoon Forest, because he had hunted them all down single-handedly.

On the Holy Demon Continent, the vast majority of magical beasts were hostile to humans. Eighty percent would attack on sight.

Thus, Jiang Feng did not consider killing so many magical beasts to be indiscriminate slaughter of the innocent.

In ancient times, humans had been among the weaker inhabitants of the Holy Demon Continent, frequently suffering attacks from magical beasts and becoming their food.

Only thirteen thousand years ago had humans gradually wrested control of the Holy Demon Continent from the Ancient Primordial Races, establishing nations and becoming the continent's rulers.

The rise of human towns and cities had confined magical beasts to primeval forests, and incidents of them wreaking havoc on human society had become rare.

Over these two years, Jiang Feng had earned a total of 10,200 system coins in Bloodmoon Forest, spending 1,000 of them on a Storage Ring.

Jiang Feng arrived at the Knight Branch Temple in Starjoy City and returned to his assigned dormitory to rest.

Half a year earlier, Yang Haoyu had left him an Inheritance Ring and departed, saying he had matters to attend to. Afterward, Jiang Feng had moved into the Knight Branch Temple to make it easier to participate in the upcoming Demon Hunt Squad Selection Tournament.

Because his cultivation had hit a bottleneck, Jiang Feng had not even had time to visit Knight Sacred Mountain to obtain a mount. He had focused entirely on breaking through the fifth-order bottleneck and had finally succeeded not long ago.

Jiang Feng sighed inwardly. If his innate spiritual power had been above ninety and he possessed the Child of Light physique, he could have reached the fifth order a little sooner. Then he would not have ended up in his current predicament, with the Demon Hunt Squad Selection Tournament about to begin and no mount to his name.

Jiang Feng could also exchange system coins for treasures in the System Shop that would increase his innate spiritual power, but he had not done so, because those coins would soon serve an important purpose.

Of course, Jiang Feng had never held much hope for Knight Sacred Mountain anyway. Hadn't even Long Haochen, the child of fortune, come away empty-handed, only to form a contract with Haoyue through the great teleportation array in the end?

Even if he went to Knight Sacred Mountain, Jiang Feng would probably find it difficult to win the favor of a top-tier magical beast.

Long Haochen was a prime example. The level eight Star Unicorn had not believed he possessed the strength to protect it. Meanwhile, an ordinary Star Unicorn's bloodline power was not strong enough, and whether it could reach the level of the King of Star Unicorn was uncertain.

Even the King of Star Unicorn, with the potential to evolve into a level nine Sacred Unicorn, would only be equivalent to an eighth-order human professional.

Perhaps such a mount could be an enormous help to Jiang Feng at his current stage, but it would not be of much use if he faced a Demon God in the future.

As for Knight Sacred Mountain's teleportation array, Jiang Feng had even less hope for that.

Not everyone could have Long Haochen's phenomenal luck, seizing a one-in-hundreds-of-millions chance to obtain a Nine-Headed Chimera.

Rather than waste time at Knight Sacred Mountain, Jiang Feng had chosen to raise his cultivation to the fifth order first. He was confident he could achieve a good result in the Demon Hunt Squad Selection Tournament.

Besides, Jiang Feng already had a plan for his mount. It was something of a conjecture, and he was not particularly certain it would succeed.

But if it did, Jiang Feng would gain a powerful mount companion with limitless potential.

For that reason, Jiang Feng was willing to take the gamble.

Early the next morning, in a quiet room at the Knight Temple's Starjoy Branch, Jiang Feng sat cross-legged on his bed, meditating.

Suddenly, a series of knocks sounded at the door. Knock, knock, knock!

A girl's voice called from outside.

"Jiang Feng, we're about to leave. Are you ready?"

"Yes, I'll be right there." Jiang Feng ended his cultivation and answered. He rose, quickly tidied up, then opened the door and stepped outside.

The girl outside wore light blue casual clothes, her silky black hair tied into a high ponytail. She was exquisitely beautiful, with skin fairer than snow and two faint dimples in her cheeks. Her smile was utterly captivating.

The girl was Jiang Xinran.

"Xinran, you came all the way to our Knight Branch Temple to find me this early in the morning. Were you afraid I'd be late?" Jiang Feng asked with a smile.