Chapter 172 - Five Poison Mountain Range
Thunder Freer continued speaking as he raised his head and looked at the sky, “I have stepped into the peak-level advanced Clasping Yuan Realm in my forty-six, and the Astral Reaching Realm in my fifty-six, but in the recent forty years, I have only managed to break through the peak-level early Astral Reaching Realm from the early Astral Reaching Realm. Normally, martial arts that suit Astral Reaching Realm martial artists should be in high-ranked, or even top-ranked Earth Realm, and martial arts that suit Sea of Souls Realm martial artists should be in Heaven Realm. If your martial arts couldn’t reach these basic levels by then, you would soon be surpassed by people who are as talented as you, and they would surpass you even further. Ye Chen, as a martial artist, you may give others anything but martial arts. A good martial art can save you lots of time. For example, if you have a high-ranked Earth Realm martial art, breaking through the Astral Reaching Realm from advanced Clasping Yuan Realm would take you seven to eight years; if you have a top-ranked Earth Realm martial art, that would only take five to six years; and if you have a low-ranked Heaven Realm martial art, you could do that in just two to three years. A powerful martial art is the foundation of a truly powerful martial artist, giving away a martial art is akin to giving up on a great opportunity, so you must keep this in mind.”
“I understand. Thank you, dear senior.”
Before, Ye Chen did know about the importance of martial arts, but he didn’t understand it clearly. Hearing the Thunder Freer’s words, he realised that the difference between martial artists who had powerful martial arts and martial artists who didn’t, could be enormous. It was like how a step forward meant heading towards a vast land and a step backwards, towards a dead end.
“Good, I’ve already told you everything you needed to know. From now on, you’re on your own. No one can ever help you to become a truly powerful martial artist. Before you leave the Windy Nation, I’ll be watching you from up there but you should take care of all insignificant conflicts by yourself.” Thunder Freer spoke a lot only with Ye Chen because he liked Ye Chen as a genius, he usually wouldn’t mutter even a single word to other geniuses.
Followed by a piercing sizzling noise, waves of dazzling lightning bolts bursted from Thunder Freer’s body and afterwards, he swiftly darted up into the air.
Exhaling deeply, Ye Chen murmured, “I’m still far from powerful enough!”
……
Treading across the Great Devil Grassland, what had appeared in front of Ye Chen was a boundless river called Wild Goose Falling River, which was the natural boundary between the Windy Nation and the Thousand Thread Nation.
“It’s said that even wild gooses can’t fly across this river, and will all fall into the river in mid-flight, I wonder if it’s true..” Frowning, Ye Chen searched for information about this river in his mind.
As an early Clasping Yuan Realm martial artist, Ye Chen could now basically fly in the air, but only for a limited time; he had to find a foothold to stop before his Zhen Qi runs out. Only martial artists above advanced Clasping Yuan Realm were able to do long-time flight. Apart from this, early Clasping Yuan Realm martial artists could only fly up to around one thousand meters high, medium Clasping Yuan Realm martial artists could reach two thousand meters high, and advanced Clasping Yuan Realm martial artists could fly up to three thousand meters high; as for Astral Reaching Realm martial artists, they could even go up to tens of thousands of meters high.
With Ye Chen’s current power, he could only reach about a thousand meter high, not even as high as wild gooses could; that meant he probably couldn’t fly across this river either.
“I’ll just give it a try.”
This area was totally desolate that no ferryboat was available, therefore, Ye Chen could only count on himself.
Swoosh! Ye Chen spread his wings and leapt into the air, darting out.
Flying for around ten miles, the airwaves around Ye Chen suddenly became disordered, forming into countless fierce turbulences, roaring across his body and consuming his Zhen Qi.
Ye Chen threw out a punch, shattering a turbulence and thought, ‘No wonder no wild gooses can ever fly across this river, the airwaves above this river are so disordered and fierce, even ordinary flying demonic beasts will get exhausted up here by fighting against these turbulences and fall into the river eventually, not to mention ordinary birds like wild gooses.’
Turbulences grew even greater around Ye Chen. Flying forwards by a small distance, Ye Chen even saw cyclones and waterspouts; many birds flying across this area were struck down into the water, no one knew if they could survive.
“Break!”
Ye Chen boosted his Zhen Qi and shattered a waterspout with a punch, the strong, shocking waves spreading out from his fist shook the entire area, calming down the turbulences around him.
“This won’t work, I’ve spent too much Zhen Qi and my Zhen Qi is becoming muddy already. I have to go down.” After launching another punch, Ye Chen sensed a rapidly increasing amount of muddy Qi from inside his body which was a sign of Zhen Qi disorders. If he kept staying in the air, his Zhen Qi would probably begin flowing in reverse and harm his meridians. After all, he wasn’t an advanced Clasping Yuan Realm martial artist yet, and couldn’t fly for a long period of time; besides, he had been dispersing turbulences by using too much Zhen Qi.
Nimbly descending down from the air, Ye Chen rubbed his storage ring with his right hand; following his move, a human-waist-thick tree trunk appeared in the air, falling down into the river.
Along with a loud crashing sound, the tree trunk floated on the water surface, and Ye Chen stably landed on it.
Sweeping across the surrounding area with his soul power, Ye Chen hadn’t discovered any possible danger. He took a brief break, adjusted his breath, and then boosted his Zhen Qi once again, creating a Zhen Qi motor for the tree trunk.
Treading on the water surface, Ye Chen began to quickly move forward; a strong gust of wind streamed across his face.
If any cyclone or waterspout showed up along the way, Ye Chen would immediately punch it into oblivion, and if any aquatic demonic beast attempted to attack him, he would stamp his foot against the tree trunk, release a pure and great wave of Great Mystery Zhen Qi, which would instantly spread out, shrouding the entire area that had a radius of ten meters and casting all attackers away; occasionally, one or two fifth-grade demonic beasts managed to approach him, but Ye Chen would directly chop them into pieces, the blood would always dye a huge area crimson.
“Fortunately I have this medicine that can instantly replenish consumed Zhen Qi, otherwise, crossing this river wouldn’t be so easy at all.” Clasping Yuan Realm martial artists could move at an incredibly fast speed, and could fly for two to three thousand miles by the use of their light arts. However, none of them could achieve a long-time flight, because the total amount of Zhen Qi of a Clasping Yuan Realm martial artist could only support him or her to fly for a few hours. If their Zhen Qi ran out, that would not only harm the martial artist’s body, but would also make them vulnerable when facing sudden and unexpected dangers. As for crossing the river by treading on a Zhen Qi propelled trunk, that would cost even more Zhen Qi than flying; because a light art that allowed a martial artist to fly in the air was a skillful kind of art and could save a part of Zhen Qi for the martial artist. However, propelling the tree trunk with Zhen Qi did not require any skill and was purely dependent on the consumption of Zhen Qi; additionally, the water resistance was much greater than the air resistance, and that meant a higher Zhen Qi consumption.
Luckily, Ye Chen had gained a calabash-full of magic medicine in the Heaven Dream Ancient Region that contained around one hundred pills. Normally, he would save that medicine, but at this moment, those pills had been doing an immense help to him.
Although the Wild Goose Falling River was an amazingly great river, it was not a vast ocean and still had banks to reach. Moving for seven to eight hundred miles, Ye Chen finally saw the river bank on the other side.
Looking at the deserted river bank and expanding mountain range, Ye Chen grinned bitterly and murmured to himself, “It turns out the route I chose is a bit isolated, that I haven’t seen a single person till now. Well, it’s okay though, I’m going to temper myself anyway. For that purpose, I have to adapt in all kinds of environment. I just need to get used to this lonely journey.”
Bang!
The tree trunk bumped against the river bank as Ye Chen leapt into the air at the same time.
Opening the map, Ye Chen moved his finger across a mountain range and the area around it, then said, “There are three mountain ranges in front of the Wild Goose Falling River, two smaller and one larger. If I’m right, this should be the larger mountain range named Five Poison Mountain Range which is as broad as the Silent Hills, around thousands of miles long. Demonic beasts living in this area are most highly poisonous, among them, five poisonous creatures are the most famous.”
The five famous poisonous creatures were scorpions, spiders, centipedes and bufonids. Demonic beasts that evolved from any of these five kinds of creatures were incredibly poisonous, capable of killing any ordinary Condensing Reality Realm martial artist with a single touch; therefore, martial artists who planned to travel across this area would usually carry some high-grade antidotes to prevent poisoning.
Ye Chen raised his head and gazed at the sky as he folded the map. He thought that Thunder Freer might have already left. Now, he was literally on his own. No matter how dangerous this journey would be, he had to survive in order to become a truly powerful martial artist.
In the future, he might have to face mountains of corpses and oceans of blood. He would have to step on those if he didn’t want to become a part of them. He could only reach the top step by step.
Ye Chen flew across the river bank and darted towards the mountain range.
……
Swoosh!
A dazzling stream of sword light splitted a vampire bat into two. That bat was as large as a wild dog and had sharp and thick teeth in its mouth.
“This Five Poison Mountain Range is indeed worthy of its name, seventy percent of the beasts that I encountered along the way were poisonous.” After unsheathing the Dragon Spring Sword, Ye Chen threw a miasma-proof pill into his own mouth. Many areas of this Five Poison Mountain Range were filled with miasma that wouldn’t cause any effect within a short span, but if exposed for a longer period of time, all kinds of harmful effects could be inflicted to a martial artist, and his or her power would be greatly reduced.
Ye Chen kept moving forwards into the mountain area.
In a small-scale valley.
A muddy pool was located in the middle of the valley, near a flat area.
At this moment, a group of people gathered in the flat area, in front of them was a humongous multicoloured bufonid, each malignant tumours on its back was as large as a basin. A dense, savage energy was continuously surging from the bufonid’s body, nearly suffusing the entire valley..
“Young mistress, please leave now! We’ll stall this thing!” Said a middle-aged man who seemed to be the leader of this group of people to a pretty girl behind him.
The girl’s face was now deadly pale and yet, she determinedly shook her head and said, “How can I just escape without you?! I was the one who wanted to come to this Five Poison Mountain Range in the first place!”
Hearing her, a young man standing beside her, who had a simple and honest face, spoke anxiously, “Young mistress, this Five Coloured Bufonid is a fifth level demonic beast, even a single drop of its venom can kill you immediately. You can do no help by staying here, besides, our master is still waiting at home for the Buddhist Vanilla to save his life!”
“Zheng Xuan, you shall go as well, take the young mistress back!”
The middle-aged man harshly ordered the young man to leave with the girl.
“Dad!”
The young man bellowed with a sorrowful expression. The middle-aged man was his father, and the girl was his beloved young mistress, he couldn’t bear to lose either of them.
Whoosh!
Suddenly, the Five Coloured Bufonid launched its first attack. Its tens of meters long tongue thrusted out from its mouth, immediately capturing one of the guards and swallowing him whole.
“Bastard!!”
The middle-aged man gripped his blade and launched a fierce slash.
Clang!
The blade Qi barely broke the bufonid’s defensive Qi and only made it shed a few drops of blood. The bufonid’s blood dripped on the ground, letting out a loud sizzling noise, along with a dense, pungent scent which instantly pervaded around. Two guards who stood closest to the bufonid directly fell to the ground as their mouth foamed right after inhaling the smell, and then died afterwards.
“Poisonous blood?” Seeing this scene, a human silhouette murmured to himself as he abruptly showed up at the entrance of the valley.
That was none other than Ye Chen. After travelling for several hours, he had already trodden towards the outskirts of the Five Poison Mountain Range’s middle area. Fortunately, he hadn’t encountered any high-level demonic beasts. After all, the truly powerful demonic beasts were all living in deep mountains and hardly came out.
Swish!
The Five Coloured Bufonid’s tongue was long and thin, could move swiftly that human eyes couldn’t possibly perceive its motion. This time, the fierce and slim tongue directly punctured two guards’ chests and darted towards the pretty girl.
“Get away from her!” The young man raised a long sword with difficulty, shielding the girl with his own body and intending to cut the long bufonid tongue.
Unfortunately, no matter how fast he moved, the bufonid’s tongue would always be faster than him. The long and powerful tongue nimbly coiled in the air and wrapped the young man’s arm, instantly dragging him over.
That middle-aged man was a Clasping Yuan Realm martial artist. Seeing that the bufonid grabbed his son, he rushed up and attempted to pull the young man back; however, right after he raised his blade, the bufonid suddenly exhaled a puff of highly poisonous breath into his face.
Boom!
The middle-aged man’s protective Qi got deformed by the poisonous airwave as he was sent flying backwards.
Right after striking the middle-aged man away, the bufonid directly rolled the young man up with its tongue, along with the two guards whose chests were punctured by its tongue earlier, immediately dragging them back into its gigantic mouth.
Puff!
A sharp gust of sword Qi abruptly flashed across the air. At the same time, the bufonid’s tongue was chopped off.