Episode 16: Blackstone Mountain Forest

  As for registering to become a bounty hunter, apart from earning money, he wants more - to hone his actual combat skills! Duan Yue naturally has his own plans in mind. Although his cultivation speed is astonishingly fast, if he hasn't gone through battles and the baptism of blood, how can he fully grasp his own powers?

  One-sided training is not enough to make oneself a true strongman, so it's necessary to increase actual combat experience and hone high-level enemy skills, only then can one fully utilize their own advantages.

  However, actual combat is not that easy to train for. He still bears the title of a super big waste material and cannot have family elders accompany him in training like those legitimate sons do, openly challenging others, let alone engaging in life-or-death battles. Although the gap between the cultivation of legitimate sons and ordinary clan members may not be large, when it comes to actual combat, even if an ordinary clan member's cultivation is equal to that of a legitimate son, they will still lose after just two or three moves. This is the difference between having and not having actual combat experience.

  Fortunately, it's not necessary to fight with people to achieve the effect of actual combat. This world has demonic beasts that can cultivate actively or passively. When the demonic energy in their body reaches a certain level, they will undergo mutations and evolve to higher levels.

  For countless years, the people of the Divine Martial Continent have classified the demonic beasts into different levels. First-level demonic beasts correspond to Qi Refining Realm warriors, second-level demonic beasts correspond to Acquired Realm warriors, and third-level demonic beasts are comparable to Innate Realm experts. As for fourth-level or higher high-grade demonic beasts, they are comparable to Dan Stage Masters, extremely rare, and can only be found in extremely dangerous places or deep within ancient forests.

  Fighting a demonic beast is no different from fighting a human, and in fact, apart from being slightly weaker in terms of spiritual intelligence, a demonic beast of the same level as a human is often superior to humans in terms of aura and strength. A ferocious beast that has slaughtered countless animals and humans appears before your eyes, its gaze alone can make your scalp tingle with fear, and you can only exert 50% of your true strength.

  So, Duan Yue specially accepted a few tasks to hunt and kill demonic beasts in the Black Stone Mountain Forest outside the city. The Black Stone Mountain Forest is one of the largest forests in the Imperial Empire of Submerged Dragons, with deep and treacherous terrain that is notorious throughout the entire Divine Martial Continent. Even just the outer periphery often has low-level demonic beasts appearing.

  He quickened his pace, and after leaving the city, he directly accelerated to full speed. In a moment, Duan Yue had arrived at the outer edge of the Black Stone Mountain Forest. Here, some first-class ferocious beasts began to appear. This place was so perilous that ordinary foundation-building warriors didn't dare enter. Although Duan Yue was a preeminent expert, in terms of actual combat experience, he was merely a novice. Therefore, he also had to be cautious, taking out the Qingfeng Treasure Sword and carrying it on his back, with his hand constantly placed on the hilt, ready to strike at any moment if danger arose.

  Hei Shi Shan Lin, although notorious on the outside, was just a peripheral area. As Duan Yue journeyed forward, he didn't encounter any high-level demonic beasts. Occasionally, he would meet a few second-grade demonic beasts, but they were only equivalent to low-level mortal warriors. Under Duan Yue's sword, they had no power to resist. With one strike, it was a fatal blow!

  After advancing for dozens of miles, Duan Yue had killed dozens of second-level demon beasts, but due to the wrong type, he only completed a small part of the task. Just as he was getting frustrated, he suddenly stopped in his tracks, released his mental power, and his hearing expanded tens of times in an instant, spreading outwards.

  "There's a fight!"

  One of the biggest differences between a master of innate boundaries and an ordinary acquired martial artist is the production of mental power. No matter how strong the five senses of an acquired martial artist are, even if they have been enhanced with true energy, there is still a limit. However, a strong innate practitioner can use mental power to replace auditory power, greatly increasing their five senses. The stronger the mental power, the stronger the five senses, which is almost limitless.

  At this time, Duan Yue was using his own mental power to increase his hearing, so he could clearly hear the larger movements more than ten miles away and distinguish their sources.

  "It's interesting." Having been in this world for a full month, he still hadn't truly witnessed the struggle of the world's warriors. Unable to hold back his curiosity, he quietly followed the sound and hurried over.

  He had no reservations at this moment, and his strength was fully displayed. His speed was astonishingly fast, and he could cover a distance of over ten miles in just a short while. Ahead of him was a dense forest, where human figures were faintly visible, darting back and forth. In addition to that, there were also intermittent angry roars of beasts.

  Still fifty or sixty paces away from the battlefield, Duan Yu exerted a slight force under his feet and leaped onto a big tree, looking down at the scene in front of him with clarity.

  In the nearby small woods, there was a vacant lot of about ten to twenty square meters in size. At this time, it was occupied by four or five young men holding blades and surrounding a giant monster. The monster was over one meter long, shaped like a fierce tiger, with silver-white fur, its mouth open, revealing a bloody tongue that moved back and forth, dripping sticky and smelly liquid, its teeth were white and sharp, emitting a faint pale light, its claws were three feet long, sharp and curved, shining with blue light.

  This is a second-level top-notch demonic beast, the Poisonous Tiger. Although it doesn't seem to be fully grown yet, its strength is enough to rival that of a high-ranking martial artist at the 9th level of the Acquired Realm. Moreover, its body contains potent venom; if one is poisoned, their wound will fester and they will suffer unbearable pain, requiring an antidote to cure. Otherwise, once the poison reaches the heart, even a Heaven's Chosen expert would find it difficult to treat, making it quite troublesome.

  He took a closer look at the young men and noticed the blue water droplet emblem on their sleeves, and the name of a certain well-known sect in Blackstone City immediately came to mind.

  Shuiying Gate, located in a mountain valley west of Heishi City, is led by Liu Yi Feng, a master of the Five Elements and a high-ranking expert. In his early years, he traveled alone through Jianghu and was said to have visited countries outside the Qinglong Empire. After returning, he founded Shuiying Gate, which has over a hundred disciples and is considered a powerful force in Heishi City.

  At this moment, there are four disciples of the Water Shadow Gate who are besieging the Poisonous Tiger, three men and one woman. Although the strength of the four is not high, their coordination with each other is quite tacit, obviously, this should be the result of the four coming from the same school and having a long time to hone together, with a lot of cooperative experience.

  Several sword lights attacked the poisonous tiger, and the attacker was a green-clothed girl, only 16 or 17 years old. She had clear eyebrows and eyes, wielding a slender and delicate sword. Her cultivation was roughly at the fifth layer of the acquired stage. Next to her, a sturdy youth holding a giant club swung it around, occasionally shouting loudly to suppress the beast, using his physical strength to force the opponent to be unable to move forward.

  Although these two were working hard, the main force in hunting down the poisonous tiger was not them, but another two people.

  Among them, a robust young man in gray clothes wielded a thick and heavy long spear over two meters long, which looked quite weighty. Every time the poisonous tiger was about to threaten others, he would swing his spear with incredible ferocity to push it back, and take the opportunity to leave a blood mark on its body.

  But what surprised Duan Yue the most was another young man in black, who was about twenty years old. Although he had a long sword hanging from his waist, he didn't use it, but his attacking power was the strongest among the four of them. Every time he made a move, he would bring up a fierce gust of wind with his palms, and even the large and powerful Poisonous Tiger Beast would be shocked and retreat repeatedly.

  Duan Yue's eyes sparkled with a hint of surprise, and he quickly discerned that the black-clad youth was actually a high-ranking martial artist at the ninth layer of the acquired realm. With his extraordinary vision as a first-rate master of the innate second heaven, Duan Yue could clearly see that the youth's palm wind contained true energy that could harm people from a distance. Of course, this power was naturally far inferior to the external release of true yuan by an innate realm high-ranking master; otherwise, the not yet fully grown Poisonous Tiger Beast would have been killed by him long ago.

  There are many types of demonic beasts, some have great strength, some are quick and agile, and some are cunning. However, even for a massive demonic beast like the Poisonous Demonic Tiger, which is known for its boundless strength, there will eventually come a time when it exhausts its energy and reaches its limit.

  With the cooperation of the four, their goal was very clear. Killing this second-level demon beast was not an easy task for them, so they deliberately consumed the poisonous tiger's physical strength. By now, the poisonous tiger was covered in wounds all over its body and was extremely exhausted. With a fierce pounce, it forced open the black-clothed youth who was leading the charge, turned around and tried to escape.

  "Where is he going?"

  Following several angry shouts, the green-clothed girl, the sturdy youth and the grey-clothed youth rushed forward together, their long sword, club and spear all striking out at once, completely blocking the Poisonous Tiger's path.

  The poisonous tiger's eyes saw the road being blocked, and with a loud roar, it wanted to break through the siege. However, it was really exhausted, and one fierce charge couldn't get through, and it was again pushed back alive.

  The young man in black had caught his breath, and this time he didn't hold back. A cold light flashed, a sharp sword forced its way through the swirling sword aura, slashing down at the side of the Poisonous Tiger Demon.

  "Whoosh!" A burst of bloody light flashed, the black-clad youth moved with his sword, raised his hand and struck a palm on the Poisonous Tiger's body.

  "Roar!"

  The Poisonous Tiger Beast let out a mournful howl, its massive body was slapped flying by the black-clothed youth with one palm, like a broken sack it crashed two or three zhang away, fresh blood flowing from its mouth, seeing more air going out than coming in, it was already done for.

  "Lu Shixiong, you're so amazing!" The green-clothed girl wiped the sweat from her brow, turned around, and gazed at the black-clothed youth with a look of admiration.

  The young man in black said calmly: "What's so great about me? In a few years you'll be able to catch up."

  "It's nothing special, I've already entered the seventh layer of the acquired realm and will catch up with you in a few months." The young man holding the gun looked dissatisfied.

  "I'll be waiting with bated breath." The young man in black heard this, but didn't think much of it.

  The green-clothed girl pouted, seemingly disliking the gray-clothed boy's arrogant personality. The sturdy boy squatted beside the corpse of the Poisonous Tiger Beast and burst into a hearty laugh: "This time we hit the jackpot! This Poisonous Tiger Beast actually had an internal elixir condensed within its body!"

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