In the Hinterland of the Hundred Thousand Great Mountains

"Roar!"

Amidst the snow-capped mountains, a tiger's roar echoed through the forest.

Zhang Xuezhou saw the snow on the mountain peaks shatter as it trembled, and several demonic birds took flight in fright.

"It must be that scoundrel Tiger Strength Demon King yelling nonsense!"

Zhang Xuezhou had no choice but to spread his bronze wings, trying his best to minimize his presence.

But when a black crow, about half a person's height, flew past him in a panic, Zhang Xuezhou felt that things were taking a very bad turn.

"Wah la wah la qua qua qua!"

He tried his best to imitate the cawing of a crow, and then made a hand gesture to indicate that the roar of the Tiger Strength Demon King had nothing to do with him.

"Out... out... someone's here!"

Zhang Xuezhou's bird language skills were clearly inadequate. When the crow began to utter hesitant human-like sounds, Zhang Xuezhou reached out and slapped it downwards.

Zhang Xuezhou grabbed a fist-sized rock that had turned soil into stone and smashed it towards the crow.

"Quack!"

The noisy shouts were like a giant megaphone, causing several wildly flying demonic birds to turn around and look.

Zhang Xuezhou felt that, apart from the Golden Crow Great Emperor, he had little affection for crows.

"Go away, go away! I'm just here to find someone, don't yell!" Zhang Xuezhou shouted. "Listen to my voice, this is perfect Sacred Land Mandarin!"

"Caw? Someone's killing a bird!"

Zhang Xuezhou's explanation was of little use; the crows' cawing remained loud and clear.

As a demonic bird guarding the 365 peaks of the Hundred Thousand Great Mountains, strength is secondary; a loud voice is essential.

The crow might be a guardian somewhere, or a backup for a guardian of some strange peak.

The other person isn't particularly intelligent, but their shouting is clearly impressive.

Zhang Xuezhou had no choice but to flap his wings vigorously, trying to get away from the loudspeaker as soon as possible.

He flew over two mountain peaks, and when a biting wind blew, his body tumbled, while the crow was flung away and disappeared, leaving only a pile of feathers flying wildly in the wind and waves.

"The Hundred Thousand Great Mountains are indeed not suitable for flying and traversing!"

After barely managing to steady himself and land, Zhang Xuezhou noticed the layers of white frost covering his wings.

Unlike the fleshy wings of demonic birds, the Law Treasure wings of this artifact clearly had some unique features. When the wings retracted, Zhang Xuezhou did not feel any erosion or damage to them.

The cold wind howled and whistled, and Zhang Xuezhou's heart sank even lower.

He thought Li Guang had secretly entered the Xieluosi River Holy Land, fired a couple of arrows, and then stopped, but he didn't expect the other side to cause trouble in such a short time.

This didn't give him much of a buffer at all.

He trudged along the ground, his footsteps muffled by patches of snow, having little confidence that he would be able to return to Shanggu County safely.

After walking two miles, Zhang Xuezhou saw the crow he had encountered in the air earlier lying in a pile of rubble, covered in blood and with most of its feathers gone. There was also a snow-white demon bird hopping around nearby.

As soon as Zhang Xuezhou's gaze swept over it, the demonic bird flapped its wings and took flight.

"Gibberish gibberish..."

The cry of the demon bird was thin but sharp, and it could be heard over a very wide area.

Zhang Xuezhou desperately hoped that another gust of demonic wind would come and sweep the bird demon along with it.

"Oh dear, Brother Crow, you died a terrible death!"

Seeing the demonic bird's wary report, Zhang Xuezhou abandoned his method of attacking the bird with stones and instead began to wail in despair.

This instantly calmed the demon bird's hostility.

"Black Fur must have been caught in a high-altitude gust of wind, that's why he died so tragically," the demon bird spoke in human language. "Are you Black Fur's brother?"

"I'm its distant cousin, and I came here specifically to find him. I never expected that Brother Crow would die so quickly!" Zhang Xuezhou made up.

"Black Hair used to brag to us, saying that his ancestors were the Great Sun Golden Crow, with an ancestor who understood the workings of heaven and earth. Is that really true of your Lineage?" the demon bird asked.

"Long ago, our ancestors had ten great demons, but unfortunately, nine of them were shot dead. The remaining one is our ancestor," Zhang Xuezhou said. "Our ancestor had high levels of profound cultivation and spiritual power, but the only problem was that he didn't care about us!"

"Blackie said the same thing, sigh!"

The demonic bird nodded regretfully, then hopped and skipped around on the ground as it approached Zhang Xuezhou.

This made Zhang Xuezhou repeatedly consider whether his close combat skills were enough to subdue his opponent instantly.

He pondered the matter repeatedly, his right hand moving again and again, but after much deliberation, he felt it would be difficult to achieve perfection.

This is not much different from an ordinary person catching a small bird on the ground. Even if the bird's wariness is lowered, the chance of missing when suddenly lunging to grab it is still relatively high.

"My poor brother Ya!" Zhang Xuezhou cried, "Now we can only take his body back to the ancestral temple for burial!"

"Did your ancestor live far away?" the bird demon asked.

"It's about 30,000 li!"

"It'll be quite a hassle for you to take it back!"

The bird demon chirped and twittered, clearly showing great sympathy for Zhang Xuezhou.

After tilting its head for a while, it flapped its wings and flew away.

"This is simply..."

Zhang Xuezhou shook his head, and seeing the demonic bird fly away, he immediately dropped the crow's carcass and jogged away.

Regardless of whether he can escape the Hundred Thousand Great Mountains, he has to give it a try.

"Wow! The Lark Messenger from Peaks Two, Seven, and Eight is dead!"

The sharp, delicate voice of the demonic bird reached Zhang Xuezhou, who realized that the news of Li Guang's continuous shooting and hiding could no longer be kept secret.

"They didn't even give me half a day!"

If he could leave the Hundred Thousand Great Mountains quietly, Zhang Xuezhou felt that the matter had nothing to do with him, but if he was caught in the act, it would be hard not to imagine what would happen.

Given his current situation deep in the Hundred Thousand Great Mountains, Zhang Xuezhou felt that being arrested was only a matter of time.

If you were to ask him why he was so certain, it would simply be because when he, along with Zou Bugui, Golden Toad Dharma King, and others, roamed the Hundred Thousand Great Mountains, they were all captured, and none of them escaped.

"I need to think of something, otherwise this will definitely lead to my arrest!"

Zhang Xuezhou glanced at the sky and thought about his plan to travel day and night without stopping, only to realize that his plan was far from keeping up with the changes.

Li Guang solved the problem with one arrow and cleared a whole route, but he ran into trouble on the peak where the Swan Demon.

As a collaborator, he had to come up with a plan for a safe retreat.

"Croak, someone's here!"

Zhang Xuezhou had a premonition that he wouldn't be discovered for long. In the dim light reflected from the snow and ice at night, Zhang Xuezhou heard the screams of the demonic birds, accompanied by a voice that he recognized very well.

Dozens of green eyes flew rapidly from afar, causing Zhang Xuezhou to abandon his plan to continue running.

"It's my cousin with the black hair!"

As soon as the recognition sound finished, Zhang Xuezhou raised his hands.

The white-haired demon bird's body, which was diving downwards, quickly began to spin.

"Cousin, where's Blackie?" the demon bird cried out.

"I figured I couldn't carry him on my back, so I decided to find some wood and make a frame to lift him up..."

What are you yelling about here?

Zhang Xuezhou tried to fool the silly bird as usual, but before he could finish speaking, a giant demonic crane fell from the sky, making it impossible for him to use the black-feathered crow as a shield any longer.