An hour later, the young martial artists from the nine counties in the western part of the ridge all entered a mountain range that was full of crises, and even though it was only the outskirts of the Heavenly Demon Ridge, the howls of savage beasts could still be heard at any time.
The 1,537 young martial artists were like a handful of sand scattered into the sea, and after a moment, they all disappeared.
“You’re at the cultivation level of the Xuanji Realm’s Small Extreme Position, and you must hunt and kill forty second-order inferior savage beasts before you can pass the first round of exams. Aren’t you in the least bit anxious?” Zhang Ruochen carried his hands behind his back and stepped on the fallen leaves as he glanced towards Zixi who was walking ahead.
Zi Xie’s tall stature, her hands clasping her ancient sword, her eyes staring at the surrounding sky-high ancient trees, said, “Hunting forty savage beasts, how tiring would that be? Wouldn’t it be faster to hunt those young martial artists from the Four Direction County Kingdom and snatch their beast eyes?”
Zhang Ruochen stared Avray at Zixi and said, “You have to realize that this mountain range covers a rather vast area, and all the martial artists are divided in all directions, so how easy is it to find the martial artists of the Four Directions County Kingdom?”
Zixi said, “I have my own way!”
Suddenly, Zixi’s ears twitched slightly.
With a swish, she transformed into a purple residual shadow and swept out, crossing a distance of more than thirty feet.
“Wow…”
Her arm shook, and a sword light flashed out from her hand, violently stabbing into the ground.
Underground, a miserable cry of a savage beast was emitted.
A fountain of blood, gushed up from the ground.
Just as the blood was about to stain her arm, her five fingers turned, moving her pace, and with the speed of a traveling cloud, she retracted her sword back into its scabbard again.
The entire process happened in a flash of lightning.
Striking the sword, stabbing the sword, and retracting the sword, all in one go, without any flourishes, not dragging her feet in the slightest.
Zhang Ruochen’s eyes narrowed as he stared at Zixi, and in his heart, he secretly said that she had already cultivated her Sword Intent to the Sword Follows the Heart Middle Stage Realm, and it seemed that she was not far from even the Sword Follows the Heart High Stage!
“Boom!”
Zhang Ruochen stomped his foot on the ground, calling true qi into the ground through his foot, and with a loud bang, the earth and rocks cracked, and the corpse of a faceplate-sized Iron Armored Man Eater Rat was shaken out of the ground.
Iron Armored Man-Eater, a second-order lower class savage beast, its entire body was covered in scales, and its teeth were up to three inches long, so sharp that they were like blades. Because of its great appetite, it could eat a living person in one go, therefore, it was known as a cannibal rat.
If an ordinary early Xuanji Realm martial artist encountered an Iron Armored Man-eater, it was expected that before he could react, he would be attacked by the Iron Armored Man-eater sneaking in from the ground and biting off both of his legs.
A martial artist who had both of his legs bitten off would basically be dead, and it would be impossible to escape.
Zixi’s sword just pierced through the Iron Armored Man Eater’s neck artery, precise to the extreme.
“Miss Zi has such a great sense of hearing, the Iron Armored Man Eater can’t hide from her ears even when it’s more than thirty feet away in the ground.” Zhang Ruochen indeed felt incredulous and was secretly wary in his heart, Zi Xi’s origin seemed to be unusual, definitely not a casual martial artist.
Without rigorous training, it was impossible for a martial artist of the Xuanji Realm’s Minor Extreme Position to have such a powerful sense of hearing.
“Everyone has their own secrets, it’s nothing remarkable. Your Highness the Ninth Prince, but you were able to catch even a poisonous bee needle, so surely you must have a secret that is unknown to you as well?” Zixi asked tentatively without leaving any traces.
Zhang Ruochen naturally couldn’t possibly tell the secret of the Spatial Domain, and just gave a faint smile and nodded gently.
“Swish!”
Zixi held her battle sword and with a wave of her arm, she gouged out the two eyeballs of the Iron Armored Man-Eater. She used a half-foot long box to put away the two eyeballs.
It was important to know that martial artists in the Xuanji Realm’s small extreme position had to hunt and kill forty second-order inferior savage beasts before they were considered to have passed the exam.
It was impossible for a martial artist to take away all forty barbarian beasts’ corpses, so they could only dig out the eyes of the Iron Armored Man-Eater as proof that they had hunted and killed the barbarian beasts.
Zixi also dug out a small piece of walnut-sized spirit meat from the body of the Iron Armored Man Eater.
That piece of spiritual meat, only weighing one or two, was snow-white and crystal clear, without the slightest smell of blood, but instead emitted a faint fragrance.
Holding the spirit meat in her hand, she glanced towards Zhang Ruochen and asked, “My cultivation has already reached the Xuan Extremity Realm’s Minor Extremity Position, eating one or two more pieces of spirit meat won’t help me raise my cultivation by much, so let’s give it to you!”
After saying that, she threw the spirit meat in her hand, to Zhang Ruochen.
Zhang Ruochen was not polite and caught the spirit meat and swallowed it directly.
After taking the spirit meat, it was quickly and completely digested.
Zhang Ruochen felt that his spirit became very full, his entire body was filled with strength, the meridians in his body were completely stretched out, even the speed of the flow of true qi was a few points faster.
Zixi walked ahead, saying as she walked, “A martial artist who has just entered the early Xuanji Realm will be able to break through to the mid Xuanji Realm after taking almost three pounds of spirit meat.”
“You were able to become number one on the Yellow Ranking in the Yellow Extreme Realm, your martial body must be far beyond that of a martial artist in the same realm, and it would take more resources to break through the realm. You’re estimated to have to eat five pounds of spirit meat before you can break through to the middle Xuan Polarity Realm.”
Zixie thought that Zhang Ruochen had just cultivated to the early Xuanji Realm, but she didn’t know that Zhang Ruochen had already reached the peak of the early Xuanji Realm.
Zhang Ruochen predicted that even at his current realm, he would need to eat at least ten pounds of spirit meat before he could break through to the middle Xuan Extreme Realm.
His martial body was even more powerful than Zixi had imagined.
Suddenly, Zi Xi stopped her steps, crouched down slightly, stretched out her two slender jade fingers, picked up a broken leaf, put it to the tip of her nose and gave it a slight sniff, her face revealed a joyful look, saying, “It’s the scent from a martial artist from the Four Direction County, a quarter of an hour ago, he passed by here. This piece of leaf, was crushed by him.”
Zhang Ruochen asked, “You have learned the Secret Art of Tracking?”
“Learned a little.” Zixi said.
Zhang Ruochen added, “How did you know that it was the scent from a martial artist from the Four Direction County Kingdom?”
Zi Xie said, “Last night, when you guys were practicing in the martial arts field, I infiltrated among the martial artists of the Four Directions County Kingdom and recorded the scent of all six hundred and sixty-seven people from the Four Directions County Kingdom.”
“All six hundred and sixty-seven people’s breaths, and you were able to distinguish them all clearly? Even a Heavenly Extreme Realm martial artist doesn’t have such an ability.” Zhang Ruochen said.
Zixi said, “You don’t believe me?”
Zhang Ruochen said, “Unless you are a descendant of a Saint, with the bloodline of a Saint flowing in your body, and have gone through rigorous training in the afterlife, it is possible for you to have such a powerful sense of hearing and smell.”
Zixi said, “You are really right, one of my ancestors was once a Saint. It’s a pity that after the death of my ancestor, the family rapidly declined, and now, the entire family would be left with just me.”
Zixi said half-truthfully.
“I see.” Zhang Ruochen nodded gently.
If Zixi was truly a descendant of a Saint, it was indeed possible that she could cultivate a special physique, and it would not be surprising that she possessed some strength that surpassed normal people.
Zi Xi and Zhang Ruochen sped up and chased towards the front to catch up with that one martial artist from the Four Direction County Kingdom.
Zixi was at the cultivation level of the Xuan Extreme Realm’s Minor Extreme Position, so her speed was naturally very fast, reaching thirty-six meters per second.
What she didn’t expect was that Zhang Ruochen’s speed wasn’t much slower than hers, reaching about thirty-four meters per second, following closely behind her.
“Amazing, only at the early Xuanji Realm cultivation level, he is so fast. If he reaches the Xuan Extremity Realm Minor Extremity Position, his speed will definitely be even faster than mine.” Zixi’s heart secretly said.
The speed of an average Xuanji Realm Minor Extreme Position martial artist was almost thirty-six meters per second. However, Zixi was much faster than the average Xuan Extreme Realm martial artist, only that she had reservations in front of Zhang Ruochen and did not use her full speed.
Soon, they caught up with that one young martial artist.
That one young martial artist was fighting a second stage inferior savage beast.
Zhang Ruochen stopped his footsteps and looked into the distance, “Sure enough, it’s a martial artist from the Four Direction County Kingdom, his cultivation should have reached the late Xuanji Realm, he’s definitely a strong one.”
Zhang Ruochen had some image of that one young martial artist, it was one of the young experts among the martial artists from the Four Directions County Kingdom.
Zixi’s five senses were indeed very powerful, far beyond normal people.
Zhang Ruochen could only compare himself to her by utilizing the power of his Martial Soul and executing a Spatial Domain.
The battle ended quickly, as that one young martial artist from the Four Directions County Kingdom chopped the neck of the Second Stage Write Class Savage Beast Silver Dragon Lion with a single slash, and gouged out the two eyeballs of the Silver Dragon Lion.
That one young martial artist from the Four Directions County Kingdom pinched the two eyeballs, his face was tinged with joy as he muttered to himself, “Collecting two more eyes, together with this Silver Dragon Lion, I’ve already decimated three Second Order Lower Grade Savage Beasts.”
Suddenly, as if he had noticed, he quickly put away the two barbarian beast eyeballs, lifted his Third Grade True Martial Treasure Artifact grade battle sword, and said in a deep voice, “What kind of person? Why don’t you roll out immediately?”
Zhang Ruochen stepped out.
When that one martial artist from the Four Direction County Kingdom saw Zhang Ruochen, a look of ecstasy appeared on his face as he laughed, “The Ninth Prince of the Yunwu County Kingdom? Haha! That’s great, I didn’t expect my luck to be this good.”
Zhang Ruochen said, “Do you need to be so happy to see me?”
“Your Highness the Ninth Prince, you don’t know it yet! Prince Huo Xing has already offered a price, so as long as he kills you and carries your head, he can go to him to exchange it for a Fifth Order True Martial Treasure Weapon. You now know how valuable your head is! Do you now know why I’m excited?” That one martial artist from the Four Direction County Kingdom laughed.
Zhang Ruochen frowned slightly and said, “Are you that confident that you can kill me?”
That one martial artist from the Four Direction County Kingdom laughed even louder and said, “You can defeat Shen Mengxi in one move, but I can kill Shen Mengxi in one move. You should know that I am a late stage Xuanji Realm martial artist.”
Zhang Ruochen said, “In that case, let’s battle!”
“You’re actually not running away? Since you’re so confident, then I’ll come and let you know just how big the gap between the early Xuan Extreme Realm and the late Xuan Extreme Realm is.”
That one martial artist from the Four Direction County Kingdom injected his true qi into the battle sword in his hand, immediately activating the five inscriptions in the sword, and above the body of the sword, a layer of red fire-colored flames emanated.
He swung the battle sword around, and a heat wave surged out from the blade, rolling up the fallen leaves on the ground.
“Giggle!”
Those fallen leaves, unexpectedly, burned automatically, as if they were a rain of fire suspended in the void.
A single flaming leaf converged together, forming a fire dragon that surged towards Zhang Ruochen.
Zhang Ruochen had one hand behind his back, while the palm of his other hand condensed thick true qi and slapped out, striking an invisible wave of qi.
“Barbarian Elephant Returning to the Field!”
Dragon Elephant Prajna Palm, the third palm.
Under the influence of the palm force, the fallen leaves on the ground also flew up, swirling in the air. Hundreds and thousands of leaves, converging into the shape of a five-meter tall barbarian elephant, surged wildly towards the opposite side.
