Chapter 26: Holy Rank

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The Heavenly Ridge Mountain Range, though not very wide, stretched extremely long. Within it, dragons and snakes were mixed together, and various dangers were countless.

If there were no special circumstances, no one would think of risking a passage here. Although Lei Qing had been mentally prepared that the mountain range would be difficult to cross, it was only after truly suffering that he realized how correct the golden words of his predecessors were.

Inside the mountain range, Demonic Beasts ran rampant, and there were many desperate situations. For example, places with miasma and poison were manageable; one could detour upon seeing the danger from afar. However, there were also many places that looked safe but actually concealed huge dangers.

Two days ago, Lei Qing and Zuo Qianqian almost suffered a great loss. It was a Cold Pool hidden in a valley; the water was clear and transparent, quiet like jade. The scenery was very beautiful.

The two, tired from walking, were overjoyed. Just as they were preparing to set up camp by the pool and enjoy the water and scenery, they saw a elk drinking by the Cold Pool suddenly get ambushed and dragged into the water. The elk, weighing several hundred jin, did not even have a chance to struggle.

Lei Qing saw that scene clearly. It was a monster that looked like a snake or a flood dragon, as thick as a large water barrel, and who knows how many zhang long. Its body was covered in scales that flashed with a cold light, looking like gold or iron. Above its hideous snake head, a single horn faintly grew. Its indifferent eyes looked over from afar, causing the chill in Lei Qing’s heart to increase greatly.

Although he did not know the exact strength of that giant snake in the Cold Pool, that invisible sense of pressure and intuition told him that thing was definitely not an existence he could afford to provoke. Let alone bathing in the Cold Pool, he did not even dare to fetch water. It was better to honestly continue looking for small springs in the mountain streams. Lei Qing sheepishly dragged Zuo Qianqian and ran away.

In addition, Lei Qing had once seen a Golden-Winged Great Eagle fly past like lightning in the sky. That powerful and suffocating aura also made Lei Qing hurriedly take Zuo Qianqian to hide.

The Heavenly Ridge Mountain Range was indeed worthy of being called an extremely ferocious place. Only after Lei Qing went deep into it did he feel the true danger within. Fortunately, although Zuo Qianqian’s strength was not great, her wilderness survival ability was even stronger than Lei Qing’s. In particular, she was skilled in hunting since childhood and was best at distinguishing the traces of various beasts and Demonic Beasts. Her Da Hei was also not bad; although it did not have much combat power, its sense of smell was sensitive. Often, it could smell the scents that some powerful Demonic Beasts deliberately left to mark their territory.

Various studies and signs had long shown that Demonic Beasts generally had their own territories. Unless they were Demonic Beasts existing in clans or partner relationships, it was difficult for Demonic Beasts to coexist peacefully with each other.

In this way, Da Hei was needed to constantly judge how powerful the Demonic Beast was from the scent messages it left. The more powerful the Demonic Beast, the stronger the aura it would leave behind. When encountering some powerful Demonic Beasts, Lei Qing and Zuo Qianqian very sensibly detoured.

As for weaker Demonic Beasts, they would carefully and cautiously cut through their territory. In this way, some small-scale encounters were naturally unavoidable. Lei Qing was also very glad that he had brought Zuo Qianqian and her dog on the journey. Otherwise, running around blindly in the Heavenly Ridge Mountain Range, there was no telling when he would be eaten by a powerful Demonic Beasts as a delicious meal.

After walking and detouring like this for more than ten days, the originally planned route had deviated who knows how much, but it seemed they had only crossed a little more than half. This also made Lei Qing sigh with emotion; the difficulty of crossing horizontally was really not small.

But since they had already walked half the way, how could they turn back? Thus, having walked until now, the two had no choice but to continue moving forward. Although the journey was difficult, it was not without gain. At least, during this process, Lei Qing learned a wealth of wilderness survival knowledge together with Zuo Qianqian. In addition, Lei Qing rested at night during these ten-plus days. Through that Thunder Element Crystal Core, he continuously tempered his body and meridians. After one Thunder Element Crystal Core was completely used up, Lei Qing had made great progress in his cultivation level. The spirit, energy, and spirit of his whole person were obviously a step stronger. He was only half a step away from the last hurdle of the Bronze-rank, the Bronze-rank peak.

This also made him feel greatly surprised. It seemed that the life-and-death battle with the One-Horned Tiger was not fought in vain. The suffering was not eaten in vain either. Relying on the great terror at the moment of life and death, he stimulated his life potential, and then relying on the Crystal Core, he made further progress. Moreover, it had been less than two months since Lei Qing’s last breakthrough.

Lei Qing believed that if he had not suffered hardships outside and experienced life and death situations, but instead squatted at home, let alone two months, even if given more Crystal Cores, he would not have found the threshold to advance again in a year or half.

However, going out for adventures was also full of dangers. One moment of carelessness or bad luck, and one would be completely finished, and would also implicate one’s companions.

Because of this, Lei Qing became increasingly cautious. When encountering unpredictable dangerous places, he would rather take a detour. Just when Lei Qing and Zuo Qianqian both judged that a mountain stream was safe and were preparing to fetch some water and cross it to save a dozen li of distance…

A furious shout suddenly came from afar: “Leng Yuewu, you shameless bitch, slut! I fuck your ancestors for eighteen generations. I have no grievance or enmity with you, yet you, this slut, have chased me for more than three thousand li like a lingering ghost. Is there no end to it?”

“Situ Nan, relying on your high cultivation, you come and go without a trace, roaming the Three Southern Kingdoms and the Northern Alliance, committing countless crimes. How many women’s innocence have you ruined?” An icy voice, cold to the bone, drifted over coldly: “What’s more hateful is that you even dare to touch people from the Moon Cold Palace outside… Hmph~ Don’t think that your high-level movement technique can let you escape from Ben Gong’s palm. Go to death~”

If it were some inexperienced people who had just debuted, they might have looked out of curiosity. But Lei Qing reacted immediately. He picked up Zuo Qianqian and ran towards a pile of rocks by the mountain stream, covering her mouth tightly and whispering in her ear: “Circulate Nether Fighting Qi and restrain your aura.”

Zuo Qianqian did not understand why, but she listened to Lei Qing’s words very much and did as she was told. Seeing this, Lei Qing also breathed a slight sigh of relief. He prostrated himself behind a huge rock, circulated his Fighting Qi, and sealed his pores. Even his breathing became weak and inaudible. In his heart, he was praying that Leng Yuewu and Situ Nan, if they wanted to fight, should run further away to fight. Your Young Master Lei has a weak body and thin arms; he cannot withstand the ravages of the two of you.

On the continent, anyone with a little general knowledge would have heard some familiar names. Those were the so-called famous people. Those famous people were either hegemon-level figures controlling a region, or super experts who had cultivated Fighting Qi to the peak and dominated the world.

Let’s talk about that Situ Nan first. He called himself the Saint of Thieves. He was best at sneaking, tracking, and crimes like burglary, but don’t underestimate him because of that. Many important figures had records of him sneaking into their bedrooms and taking things away. In other words, as long as he wanted, he could transform into a peerless assassin at any time and easily take the heads of those so-called important figures.

However, this person had a huge flaw, which was being lecherous. Originally, this was not a big problem; men more or less had this problem, and spending some money to solve it in brothels would be fine. But this Situ Nan liked to steal. In his own words, it was called stealing jade and fragrance, but in reality, he was a flower-plucking thief.

Because he was powerful and belonged to the level of a top assassin, ordinary people could not catch him. Even if many experts chased him, they usually could not find his tracks. Because of this, he had always been at large, with a tendency to become more and more rampant.

But for some reason, this person ate the heart of a bear and the guts of a leopard, and dared to provoke the Moon Cold Palace? The Moon Cold Palace was one of the Fighting Qi Holy Lands, with a transcendent status, and there were many experts in the palace. It also had extensive connections. It was far from something Situ Nan, a lone thief, could fight against.

And that Leng Yuewu was the Palace Master of the Moon Cold Palace. Her cultivation strength was counted among the best experts on the entire continent, a Holy Rank Grandmaster-level powerhouse. Situ Nan was simply looking for death.

However, in his heart, Lei Qing was cheering for Situ Nan. Saint of Thieves, oh Saint of Thieves, you have run for three thousand li. Keep running, run further away. So as not to get us involved.

Unexpectedly, Situ Nan suddenly shouted in grief and indignation: “Leng Yuewu, you are pushing me too far. I will fight you to the death.”

……