Seeing this, Long Huang's expression changed, and he quickly used the trees to dodge and evade the Metal Pecking Eagle's talons. He then escaped toward the heart of the Sky Cloud Forest.
Although Long Huang had hit the target, it did not strike any vital parts, as the eagle's flying speed and defense far surpassed those of normal wild beasts, rivaling even demon beasts. Consequently, the branch itself did not cause any life-threatening damage. However, the poison from the golden striped snake was soon set to take effect.
"Fuck! Just my lucky day," Long Huang exclaimed, feeling the pressure of the situation.
Long Huang moved like an agile bird as he flew through the forest a midst the tree, his eyes locked onto the eagle.
Shou——
Soon, another branch was shot out. This time, it hit the eagle in the eye, but it continued to chase him. He then threw out another branch, which struck a vital part—the throat—but failed to pierce through, as most of the force was absorbed by the eagle's feathers.
"The throat is usually the weakness of normal beasts. The fact that it did not pierce right through shows just how insane the defense of this eagle is," Long Huang noted.
He stalled for a bit and then saw the Metal Pecking Eagle fall toward the ground. The branch he had shot contained poison, which had now spread through the eagle, ultimately killing it. "Finally, that took forever to kick in! I almost died," he thought as a deep breath of relief escaped him, revealing happiness on his face. The Metal Pecking Eagle was worth eighty gold notes—equivalent to 8,000 silver coins.
Adding in the golden striped snake, Long Huang's wealth now exceeded 100 gold notes. He had never encountered such wealth in his life.
"However, the gold notes I'll get from selling are still not enough for me to buy a good weapon and some pills."
Though excited, Long Huang quickly regained his composure. Noticing he was close to the heart of the forest, he checked the area for wild beasts or demon beasts but found nothing. He decided to camp there for the night. After setting up the tent from his camping kit, he sprinkled beast-repelling powder around it and went out to gather twigs for a fire to keep warm. He made the fire inside the tent, where there was a section with a cutout and a vent nearby to help pull the smoke out, minimizing the smell and smoke to avoid attracting beasts. "This kit shows its worth; money well spent," he remarked.
Reaching into his storage pouch, he took out the corpse of the golden striped snake to cook some of the meat, seasoning it with salt and some spices from his kit. "Mmm, this one is delicious snake!" he said as he took a hearty bite. As he savored the snake meat, a sizzling sound beneath his skin signaled that he had broken through to the 7th stage of the Skin Tempering Realm due to the spiritual energy in the snake meat.
Realizing his cultivation had been neglected due to other distractions, Long Huang resolved to cultivate throughout the night. As the sun rose the next day, he was found sitting cross-legged, the shadow of a miniature, child-like version of the Massive Ancient Chaos Battle Dragon he had seen in his soul realm casting over him. Using the Chaos Battle Dragon breathing technique, spiritual energy was absorbed into Long Huang's body like a black hole. This alarmed the nearby beasts, but they dared not approach; to them, something that absorbed so much spiritual energy must be powerful.
"From the dragon legacy, I've learned that most cultivators stop at the 9th stage of each realm, whether due to limited resources, cultivation techniques, or talent. This is usually the limit. However, there's a layer above that called the Extreme Realm, which adds three stages to most realms,but for the Meridian Tempering Realm, which depends how much pain you can endure most stop at the 9th level. For it was no longer a competition of just talent and resources but also willpower. The Chaos Battle Dragon breathing technique introduces a 13th stage called the Flawless Realm. I eagerly anticipate reaching the Flawless Realm and discovering its significance," Long Huang mused.
Afterward, he got up and emerged from the tent, beginning to practice the Wind Deer Steps and Ocean Wave Fists.
For the next three days, Long Huang's body could be seen moving swiftly through the Sky Cloud Forest. Wherever he went, a scream of pain soon followed, along with a fallen beast.
"Green Wind Iron Bird—strength around the peak of the Skin Tempering Realm. Worth 90 gold notes…"
"Seven Treasure Poison Centipede—extremely poisonous. It can be used to make wine and strengthen one's body. Worth 100 gold notes…"
"Red-Spotted Wild Boar—strength approaching the mid-stage Meridian Tempering Realm. Tusks can be used to make weapons. Worth 400 gold notes…"
To maximize his kills, Long Huang utilized the Wind Deer Steps and Ocean Wave Fist Art to their fullest potential. Through these efforts, both techniques were honed to perfection.
Long Huang could not help but think that he was a born hunter. If he were to face the Metal Pecking Eagle again, he would only need one hit to kill it. For the last few days, he had gained a lot. He had killed another two Metal Pecking Eagles, as well as seven to eight other different beasts.
"The beasts I now have are, in total, are worth around 1500 gold notes."
Long Huang had a satisfied expression on his face as he organized his storage pouch. On the way back, he still used his eyes and tall trees to hunt prey instead of fighting them head-on while on the ground. This was because his vision was blocked by trees, so he could not guarantee that there weren't any targets that he would miss when searching for them on the ground. Just then
Roar!!!————
At this moment, a powerful roar came from the north side of Sky Cloud Forest. This roar could make any normal ear burst with pain, but after hearing the dragon talk, Long Huang was barely affected by the powerful sounds.
"What kind of beast is this? It sounds like a tiger and a powerful one at that; I hope it's the Red Tiger," thought Long Huang as he had not forgotten the reason he came to this place.
Long Huang quickly focused his eyes and saw that, 7 or 8 miles away, there was what seemed to be a five-meter-long Green Eyed Tiger King.
The Green Eyed Tiger King was bigger than most normal tigers by half its size and gave off a devastating aura. Its roar caused all the animals within a ten-kilometer radius to tremble with fear.
Five or six youths, who had cultivations between the Early stages and Late stages of the Meridian Tempering Realm, were running away in fear.
"Everyone run in different directions!"
The leader of the group was a youth who had a scarred face. He seemed to be fifteen or sixteen years of age, and one had reached the peak of the Meridian Tempering Realm. He held a long sword that could easily cut a tree in half to stall the tiger.
Boom!
The tiger waved its paws, and the tree shattered.
"The strength of demon beasts is so dangerous," Long Huang thought. Once a wild beast entered the ranks of a demon beast, only martial artists of the Bone Tempering Realm or higher could fight them. The strength of the tiger king could flatten two or three Long Huang with one paw.
"Xin Fei! Watch out!" Some of the youths yelled.
The Green Eyed Tiger King was heading straight towards the scarred-face youth, who had the strongest strength.
"They're surnamed Xin? Are they disciples of the Xin family, which is also one of the top three families of Blossom City?" Long Huang then saw the symbols on their clothes, which confirmed his guess.
Boom!——
Everywhere the Green Eyed Tiger King passed, destruction soon followed, as if nothing could withstand its might.
Normal cultivation learners would probably have died due to fear. Long Huang, however, realized that this "Xin Fei" was extremely strong. He had learned a knife-throwing skill as well as a footwork skill, and they were both high-level Mortal grade combat arts.
"Xin Fei's knife can easily slice through trees. His strength is probably double that of normal cultivators in the Meridian Tempering Realm. He is probably even stronger than the inner disciples of the sect."
"Quickly! Save Xin Fei!"
Two other disciples of the Xin family took out their bows and attacked the Green-Eyed Tiger. However, all their attacks did was stall and disperse the tiger's concentration.
The tiger's defense was stronger than the Metal Pecking Eagle's by three to four times, so all the attacks that came from cultivators beneath the Peak of Meridian Tempering or Bone Tempering Realm only felt like a tickle.
"If I can kill this Green Eyed Tiger King, it will probably be worth around 8000 gold notes, which is the worth of around 17 beasts," said Long Huang as greed flashed in his eyes as he thought out a dangerous plan.
Teng! Teng! .....
He immediately used Wind Deer Steps and closed in towards the place of the incident. As Long Huang arrived, the six disciples of the Xin family were under great pressure.
" Wind Breaking Sword!"
Xin Fei's eyes flashed as he used his long sword to stab toward the forehead of the tiger. "What a dangerous sword!" Long Huang saw the entire process of the sword; its power could instantly kill two normal cultivators of the Peak stage Meridian Tempering Realm two times over. Not even he would be able to block it.
He also felt he saw the faint green aura on Xin Fei's body. This was the sign that Inner Strength was formed and that he was approaching the Bone Tempering Realm.
Shuah——
The sword was able to cut half an inch into the Green Eyed Tiger King's head, but the force of it made Xin Fei vomit blood. That sword's strength came close to the damage dealt by a Bone Tempering Realm cultivator. It was even able to hurt a demon beast!
Roar!!
The Green Eyed Tiger King howled and then moved towards Xin Fei at an even greater speed. Xin Fei had reached the peak of the Meridian Tempering Realm and, by using his high-level Mortal grade combat arts skill, he dodged the attack. However, his sword attack also used up a lot of energy, almost fell victim to the tiger's counterattack.
" Wind Breaking Sword!"
Covered with blood, Xin Fei once again used the same move and left another bloody mark on the tiger's forehead. His body was once again sent flying. The green-eyed tiger king opened its jaws and leapt towards Xin Fei. The latter was exhausted and could not dodge.
"Xin Fei!"
The other disciples screamed, but just at this moment.
Sou—–
Suddenly, a branch whipped through the air, straight through the branches and leaves, hitting the tiger.
Roar!!!
The tiger mournfully howled. At that moment, every living thing trembled. The Xin disciples looked on in a daze as one of their eyes had been struck by a branch. Although the defense of the tiger was strong, its eyes were its weakest part, like the eyes of anyone. Because the tiger turned around to find the "culprit," Xin Fei was able to escape.
However, as it surveyed its surroundings, where was the sign of the culprit?
"So close!"
Long Huang hid behind a towering, ancient tree, which was only one hundred meters away from the tiger.
As the tiger was trying to find the culprit, the Xin family disciples started to run. However, since the tiger could not find its target, it started to attack in a more frenzied manner.
"Ahhhhhh..."
There was a scream as one of the youths was ripped into shreds. This view made Long Huang, who wasn't far away, feel cold. Just as another of the Xin family disciples was in danger...
Sou———
Another branch came flying through the air, piercing towards the tiger's other eye.
Roar!
The tiger roared and then closed its eyes; the branch was barely able to scratch its eyelids.
"Ai..."
Long Huang sighed as he shook his head. It wasn't that his aim wasn't high enough; it was because the tiger was on guard, making it hard for the same trick to succeed again.
"Wind Breaking Sword!"
Using the short time gap, Xin Fei quickly powered another sword attack and hit the same spot as before.
"Good chance." said Long Huang, his eyes flashed as he drew more branches and threw them. Every time he threw a branch, it would hit the injury on the tiger's forehead.
Eventually, the tiger's attack rate slowed down. Firstly, it was because it was severely injured. Secondly, there was poison in the branches.
At this point, the tiger turned and ran towards the deeper sections of Sky Cloud Forest.
"Follow!"
The Xin disciples bit their teeth and vowed to kill the tiger to avenge their peers. Although the tiger was severely injured, its speed was not something that cultivators of the Meridian Tempering Realm could catch up to. Only Xin Fei was barely able to catch up, but as he was exhausted, he did not have much spare energy.
"Hahaha! What a good chance.... Where are you going to run huh big guy?"
Long Huang laughed as he used Wind Deer Steps to easily catch up to the tiger. In his eyes, the tiger represented an enormous wealth of 8000 gold notes.