Xuanwu War Sovereign

RUMBLE!

Deep within the vast mountain range, violent clashes of Qi Force echoed, accompanied by the mournful roar of a beast. A gust of pitch-black wind swept through the forest.

In its wake, within a radius of hundreds of yards, countless ancient trees were obliterated, turning to dust and vanishing as if they were rotted wood.

The scene was utterly shocking.

BANG!

With the sound of a heavy object crashing to the ground, a crater over ten feet deep blasted open in the earth.

A figure shot out of the crater, landing with a THUD. His body trembled, and he was clearly struggling.

HUFF! HUFF!

Beside the crater, Qin Feng knelt on one knee, his chest heaving violently. Sweat poured down his face like rain. His clothes were in tatters, his face was grimy with dust, and bloodstains had dyed his black robes red.

The slightest movement from Qin Feng sent a searing pain through his abdomen.

"Argh!"

Gritting his teeth against the agony, Qin Feng looked down and lifted his clothes. A mangled claw mark had torn open his abdomen, so deep that his internal organs were faintly visible.

’I almost died!’ A flicker of lingering fear crossed Qin Feng’s eyes. If his True Qi hadn’t blocked part of the force at the last second, that Fierce Beast would have ripped his heart out with a single claw!

Qin Feng’s gaze shifted to the ten-foot-wide crater beside him.

GURGLE!

Inside the crater was a mangled mess of flesh, hot blood still steaming from the wounds.

The body of a mottled, black-and-white creature was gradually growing cold.

It had a slender, graceful body, resembling a cross between a cat and a tiger, with triangular ears, a short tail, and chillingly cold eyes.

Anyone with extensive knowledge would have immediately recognized this dead Barbaric Beast. It was a powerful Level One Barbaric Beast, the Howling Wind. This type of beast was born with control over a black Wind Power, possessed incredible speed, and moved silently on all fours. Furthermore, it was cunning, cruel, and vengeful by nature, making it extremely difficult to deal with.

Its fur was pristine, but its head was twisted around at an unnatural angle.

Someone had crushed its skull with sheer brute force.

It was hard to imagine anyone twisting the head off a Barbaric Beast renowned for its strength using pure brute force.

The one who had accomplished this feat was none other than Qin Feng.

He took out a cup of Seven-Star Dragon Spring Water and gulped it down. To the naked eye, the wounds on his body began to heal.

A cool sensation spread through his wounds, soothing the burning gashes. Qin Feng lay on the ground with his limbs splayed, so comfortable that he couldn’t help but squint his eyes.

The Spirit Water washed over his flesh and cleansed his soul. Every one of the eighty-four thousand pores on Qin Feng’s body seemed to open in relief.

Using Seven-Star Dragon Spring Water, which could extend one’s lifespan, merely to heal injuries was an act of extreme extravagance. Qin Feng was likely the first person to ever do so.

If other experts were to witness this, they would probably be heartbroken enough to kill him for the waste.

A moment later, Qin Feng flipped over and stood up, his expression calm. He extended a hand, and a pure, flawless White Lotus floated out, hovering above the slain Howling Wind Barbaric Beast. A moment after that, the beast’s enormous body in the crater turned to ash.

This was the second Barbaric Beast Qin Feng had killed.

The second petal of the snow-white White Lotus began to open, its crystalline, gentle luster so tender it seemed to drip with light.

At the same time, a stream of exceptionally pure Barbaric Beast Essence surged into Qin Feng’s body.

As the searing Barbaric Beast Essence poured into him, a glint of joy flashed in his eyes. Qin Feng sat down cross-legged and focused all his effort on the Refinement of this Essence. A short while later, his Primordial Star True Qi, already at the Late Stage of Martial Arts Twelve Heavens, surged majestically, rumbling as it crested its peak and broke through the limits of that stage.

The twenty-eighth wave of the Primordial Star True Qi tide!

Qin Feng’s aura surged, and from within his body, one could faintly hear the sound of a great ocean tide.

SWOOSH!

Qin Feng rose to his full height. With a slight wave of his arm, he could feel that his True Qi was now nearly ten percent stronger than before.

He had taken another small step toward the Condensing Vein Realm.

Squinting slightly, he focused on the changes within his body. Qin Feng could clearly feel that after the White Lotus Mark had bloomed to the Second Grade, the Barbaric Beast Essence it fed back was more than three times what he received at the First Grade.

Moreover, Qin Feng had a peculiar feeling: the Essence obtained from hunting Barbaric Beasts seemed more potent than what he got from killing Martial Artists of an equivalent level in the Condensing Vein Realm.

Comparing them at the same level, it was more than twice as potent.

He suppressed the joy of his newfound strength.

’Which direction should I choose next?’

Lifting his gaze to the mountain forest, Qin Feng pondered.

Qin Feng had gradually familiarized himself with this stretch of forest.

This area was near the center of Heaven-Reaching Ridge, where the Spiritual Qi was abundant and filled with the auras of many powerful Barbaric Beasts.

Among them, a few miles to the east in the Poison Dragon Pool, lived a Little Qiu Dragon.

It was a First-level Barbarian Beast, a Single-Horned Black Serpent on the verge of evolving into a true Qiu Long. The serpent was highly venomous. Qin Feng had once watched from a distance as this Single-Horned Black Serpent single-handedly killed a Mammoth Giant Elephant that had tried to challenge its status as Lord of the territory.

That Mammoth Giant Elephant had been just one step away from advancing to become a Level 2 Earth Mammoth.

Qin Feng estimated that even if he used all his trump cards, combined with a sneak attack, he still might not be able to defeat the Single-Horned Black Serpent.

If things went badly, he could very well end up losing his own life.

Qin Feng’s gaze turned in another direction. Seven or eight miles to the south was a very good target: a pregnant Lightning Leopard.

The Lightning Leopard was a powerful Barbaric Beast at the Peak of Level 1. It was as fast as the wind and could even command thunder and lightning. Ordinarily, Qin Feng would never dream of targeting it. However, it was currently pregnant, and its strength was greatly diminished, giving him a chance to kill it.

After a moment of consideration, he decided to give up on the Lightning Leopard as a target.

Perhaps he could consider it later, making the Lightning Leopard his second target.

Qin Feng set his primary target on a group of Barbaric Beasts on a nearby mountain peak.

The Red Fire Fierce Apes!

The Spiritual Qi on this mountain peak was exceptionally rich, and many Half-Spirit Ancient Trees grew there. A troop of Red Fire Fierce Apes had taken over the area.

A few days ago, when Qin Feng passed by, he saw the mountain was full of Spirit Fruits. He had wanted to go up and pick some to satisfy his craving, but he accidentally alerted the troop of monkeys and was chased for dozens of miles.

Qin Feng had long wanted to get his revenge.

Of course, getting revenge on these monkeys was only one reason.

The biggest reason was that Qin Feng suspected there might be a Spiritual Root on the mountain peak.

The value of a single Spiritual Root was simply immeasurable.

On the price list of Points issued by the Contribution Hall, even the most Low Tier Yellow Tier Spiritual Root was worth over a thousand Points.

It was well known that among Spiritual Objects of the same tier, a Spiritual Root was worth more than ten times as much as other Spirit Medicines or Spiritual Objects.

His eyes swept around, glancing at the bloodstains on the ground. Qin Feng paused in thought for a moment, then with a great sweep of his sleeve, a fierce gale kicked up.

All traces and scents were turned to dust by the violent wind, completely annihilated.

With a stomp of his foot, his figure flashed, and the black-robed youth vanished into the forest like a wisp of a gentle breeze.

「Two hours later.」

Two figures appeared like flashes of lightning in the now-barren stretch of forest. They silently surveyed the large patch of woods that had vanished into thin air.

These two pursuers were none other than the experts from the Yiyue Team who had been tracking Qin Feng.

"The trail’s gone cold. It seems he sensed we were tracking him. All traces of his aura have been deliberately erased!"

The cold, arrogant young man’s sinister gaze swept the area. His nostrils flared slightly, a chilling glint in his eyes.

A trace of crimson thunderbolt flashed in the eyes of the pink-clothed young woman before vanishing. After a moment, she asked, "Can you still track him?"

"Don’t worry. Even though he erased all his aura and scent, as long as he was here, he left a trace. My ’Heaven and Earth Searching Technique’ is no joke. If he was here, he can’t hide from my senses!"