Chapter 31: Have Only Himself to Blame
Translator: Panda_Penn Editor: Chrissy
The 300 steeds marched on in the wilderness, sending repercussions through the ground. The blizzard had ended for some time now. Even though not all snow had melted yet, there was not much covering the ground. Plus, the road was constantly travelled on, so it was not much of a problem for people to walk on it.
After only four hours on the road, Lu Li had gained full control of his horse. Along the way, he had been observing what the other warriors of the Liu Family ahead of him were doing and learning at the same time, trying to master the tricks of horse riding.
To ride a horse, one could not use all his strength in a brute way, but must utilize his forces with flexibility. It was not only a process of letting the horse to work with the person, but the other way around as well. In this way, the horse would not be so strenuous when running, and would approve the new master on its back.
By noon, the troops stopped next to a dark forest to take some rest. Warriors of the Liu Family started some fire to roast meat respectively. Lu Li was not familiar with them, nor did anyone actually acknowledged his existence. Lu Li had to chew on the dried meat Lu Ling had prepared for him while sitting underneath a tree.
In the distance, Liu Yi was surrounded by a group of people, much like a myriad of stars surrounding the moon. Liu Yi shot a glance towards Lu Li, however, she didn’t invite him over to eat either. Lu Li knew it was not his place to interfere, so he sat alone, chewing the dried cooked meat and listening to some warriors chatting away nearby.
“We are screwed up so badly by the Big Families this time…”
“Sure, yes. They want to get the original blood and essence of the Xuan Beast King, but have led disasters to us. My third brother had died during battle on the Frigid Cloud Mountain!”
“Xuan Beast King is a match for the powerful warrior of the Human Sovereign Realm. Sure, the Beast King had just given birth and is moving closer to its final days, but it still has terrifying power. I’m afraid this time, many lives are also lost in the Super Families. They still cannot kill the Beast King after such a long time…”
“There is no way to find out when the Beast Upheaval can be suppressed down. If we go on taking risks like this, resources accumulated by the Families in the Wu Ling City will be all gone!”
“…”
Lu Li had gathered quite some information from listening to them talking in a low voice, and understood now the reason for the occurrence of this Beast Upheaval.
According to these warriors, a Beast King inside the Ice Abyss was on its death bed. It so happened that it gave birth to an offspring, which hurt its Yuan Qi greatly.
When the Super Families came to know this news, they swarmed towards the Ice Abyss, all trying to get the original energy and qi and precious materials for beast core from the body of the Beast King.
Yet they had underestimated the power of the Beast King and were defeated for several times, suffering great casualties. The Beast King was enraged. It called on numerous Xuan Beasts to strike which lead to the Beast Upheaval.
Although many were sent by the Super Families, but none of them could contain or deter all those Xuan Beasts. As such, they had to rely on the families in the Wu Ling County, big or small. All Families in the Wu Ling County had taken action, including adult males from tribes. All of them currently had formed several lines of defense on the Frigid Cloud Mountain to withstand the impact of the Beast Upheaval.
“Beast King…”
Lu Li sighed with emotion. The Beast King was a Xuan Beast of the Seventh Rank. Maybe one simple strike from it would destroy the entire Wu Ling County. The scene of powerful warriors from Super Families to fight against the Beast King, how grand and shocking that scene must be.
…
After an hour’s rest, the troops started off again. This time, they did not stop until dusk.
A huge mountain blocked their way like a natural moat. According to the warriors of the Liu Family, this was the Frigid Cloud Mountain. It would be the territory of the Ice Abyss on the other side of the Frigid Cloud Mountain.
Ta, ta, ta.
Several Silver Wolves came back from the distance, and the warriors spoke with Liu Yi. Liu Yi waved her hands and announced, “Move to the Frigid Cloud Valley. Our mission this time is to guard at the Valley for half a month.”
Leading the troops, Liu Yi started moving forward along the meandering mountain trail. When the night had fallen completely, the troops had made it to the outside of the valley. Inside were quite a number of tents and warriors of the Liu Family.
Horrifying and tragic!
Lu Li looked around against the light and felt terrified. Blood and skeletons of Xuan Beasts were scattered all around, and scratch marks were everywhere on the boulders and grounds and the entrance of the valley. All these indicated that there were countless brutal battles here. Many warriors inside the camp all had severe injuries or even broken limbs...
Of course, naturally, someone was sent to make arrangements for the warriors of the Liu Family. Lu Li was brought into a big tent. Pungent smell of herbal medicine filled the room. There were five wounded lying there. None of them paid any attention to Lu Li; they were all just resting.
Lu Li had eaten some prepared food. Now he did not have the time to worry about all those things. He sat down on his bed with his legs crossed to start his cultivation. For him, every single second of every minute was of value. Every time he could enhance his combat capacity, he would be more likely to survive.
Lu Li fell deeply into sleep after cultivating through half of the night. At daybreak, there came some noises from outside with roars of Xuan Beast accompanying that.
Lu Li got up to take a look and saw more than 20 warriors of the Liu Family at the entrance of the Valley trying to block the roaring Xuan Beasts dashing towards them.
Lu Li was not one of the members of the army forces of the Liu Family yet. He was just there to complete his quest so nobody asked him to participate. Lu Li gave it some thought, then he carried his Heaven Kylin Sword and charged towards the entrance of the Valley after he hastily took some dried cooked meat.
The quest for him was to kill one hundred Xuan Beasts of the First Rank or one of the Second Rank. Clearly, this time, all the Beasts were of the First Rank. Lu Li could slaughter them easily.
Danger might appear at any time outside. Who could say for sure no accident would happen? Lu Li just wanted to finish his task as soon as possible.
He quickly made it to the entrance and found Liu Yi and Patriarch Hong were all there along with a middle-aged powerful warrior of the Liu Family. Judging by his qi and energy, Lu Li could tell that he should have reached the Spirit Sea Realm. However, none of them took any actions; they were just observing from a distance.
“Lady Yi, I want to go to the front!”
Lu Li went over to ask for Liu Yi’s permission. The latter nodded in consent and Lu Li ran towards the entrance of the valley like a ferocious tiger.
“Howl, howl~”
The Valley was not a wide one. Only more than a dozen Xuan Beasts could make it through at a time. Looking from afar, the Valley was full of Xuan Beasts—all of them were gigantic black wolves.
These wolves were different from regular ones in that the former had sharp horns, spurs on their backs, extremely long tusks, and twice the size of regular ones. They could be a match for the Silver Wolf Liu Yi was riding.
Iron Spur Wolf!
This kind of Xuan Beast was common. Lu Li had seen them before. Of course… he would flee as soon as he laid eyes on them when he ran into these beasts.
The reason was that, as long as Iron Spur Wolves set out, it would be at least more than 100 in number. In the old days, he would be dead with his combat capacity at the previous level.
Lu Li rushed over there and made his way into the crowd. Seeing an Iron Spur Wolf charging towards him while howling, he mobilized his Xuan Energy and cut towards the head of the wolf with his Heaven Kylin Sword.
“Bang!”
Lu Li already had strength of more than 11,000 pounds. Now that he used his Xuan Energy, he had gained another several thousand pounds. Besides, the Heaven Kylin Sword weighted more than 2000 pounds. As such, his move was so powerful that he smashed the wolf away. The wolf’s head was halved in the middle and turned into a puddle of goo.
“Nice!”
A warrior of the Liu Family nearby cheered. He himself was in the middle stage of the Xuan Wu Realm, but he was struggling in dealing with the Iron Spur Wolves. Lu Li had just gotten here and already killed one. It was no doubt that a powerful reinforcement had come and made the warrior much relieved.
Liu Yi and the rest noticed what was happening here. She and Patriarch Hong all sighed. The External Clan Patriarch of the Liu Family who was in the Spirit Sea Realm asked with a frown, “Lady Yi, this young man’s strength is enormous, and he is in the middle-stage of the Xuan Wu Realm. He can be made into something good. Why not recruit him into the External Clan?”
“More than good.”
Liu Yi shook her head. “I figured that it only took him less than a month to make it to the middle-stage of the Xuan Wu Realm. His gift is astonishing.”
A faint light flickered in the eyes of the External Clan Patriarch, and he became even more confused. Patriarch Hong explained, “It is not that Lady Yi did not want to recruit him. It’s just that he was only willing to join the Guest Clan. We’ve persuaded so many times but failed…”
“He doesn’t know to appreciate the kindness!”
The light died out in the eyes of the External Clan Patriarch as he sighed. “What kind of future will he have without the resources and training of a family even with his gift? This bloke is incredibly stupid.”
Spirit Sea Realm, Soul Pond Realm, Fate Wheel Realm, Eternal Realm!
Any advance in a big realm was hard. Take condensing Spirit Sea as an example. With the help of a big family to acquire precious herbs and pellets, the speed of condensing would be much faster.
On the other hand, if one were to rely on himself to gather these mysterious materials it would be rough, so would condensing Shen Hai without the supplements of these mysterious materials.
There were actually quite a number of warriors in the Xuan Wu Realm in tribes, but there were very few powerful warriors in the Spirit Sea Realm. For example, there was only one warrior of the Spirit Sea Realm in Di Long Tribe, Di Ba. The reason for that was the lack of resources.
Why would Di Ba join the Zhao Family and listen to their orders? It was also because Zhao Family owned resources that Di Long Tribe did not have. The resources would help him to speed up in his cultivation and get stronger.
“Stupid indeed!”
Liu Yi sighed in agreement and continued, “If he wants to take his own course like this, I will mind him no more. If he were to be assassinated by Di Ba, he would only have himself to blame.”
…