80 Army of Beasts
The blood Qi on his fist hit the river, it created a strange ripple. The water plunged. Then, a huge current rose!
Jiang Ming was drenched!
Jiang Ming withdrew his fist and stood still, but he could not care about his wet clothes. He could not help but let out a long roar, causing the birds in the forest to fly away.
“I’ve finally comprehended the true meaning of the Flowing Cloud Technique!”
Jiang Ming laughed. His eyes flashed with excitement that could not be concealed. He could now be considered a proper first-class martial artist.
With the Vitality-Snatching Technique, it was not a problem to improve his strength to the first-class realm. A few months after Jiang Ming reached the peak of the second class, he used his blood Qi to temper his bone marrow, successfully stepping into the first-class realm.
However, if he only had the strength of a first-class martial artist without comprehending the true meaning of martial arts, his strength would be superficial. It would be difficult for him to exert the true power of martial arts. He could only rely on brute force to deal with the enemy.
“I’ve surpassed 90% of first-class martial artists by becoming a first-class martial artist in a mere three years,” Jiang Ming muttered to himself. After all, no one else could practice the Vitality-Snatching Technique daily. Jiang Ming estimated that this technique was only used to train cannon fodder in the Liang family. The real Liang family probably did not practice it.
After all, it was something that could shorten one’s life, so its value was greatly reduced.
“Next, I just need to hone my bone marrow step by step and cultivate to the peak of first-class!”
With the help of the Vitality-Snatching Technique, this was not a problem.
Jiang Ming had not gotten a decent magic art for the Dao Master realm yet. Thus, he had to put aside his plans of being a Dao Master for now.
“The Shi family are just dogs to the Liang family. They’ll wither in less than two years, so it’s normal that they don’t have master-level magic arts. However, the Wang family and other forces with long histories might have a few!”
The first-class forces in Great Cloud City had been in power for many years. Naturally, they would try their best to get their hands on master-level magic arts.
In Tiger Hunting Village, Jiang Ming also inquired about Guan Feng while drinking, and the answer he got was that the master-level magic art of Tiger Hunting Village was passed down by the family of the village master and would never be passed on to outsiders.
“It seems like Tiger Hunting Village’s ancestors were once rich!”
Jiang Ming no longer considered the Tiger Hunting Village an option. After all, he could not just carry a blade and rob the place.
“There’s no need to rush.” If he waited patiently, he would always find an opportunity. “The fall of the aristocratic families… the change of the dynasty… anything is possible.”
On the riverbank, an extremely fat white Rabbit served tea and made a few cute sounds.
Jiang Ming wrung the water from his clothes and walked ashore. He took the tea and drank it all in one gulp before asking, “Master Si, have you compiled all the information from the past few days? Are there any new discoveries?”
The fat Rabbit quickly shook its head, its ears shaking wildly. Its little fat paws wrote on the mud, “Three new caves! Already investigated! No abnormalities!”
Jiang Ming glanced at it, nodded, and wiped the words with his foot.
In the past three years, he had continuously released his blood to refine the secret beast-taming medicine and finally controlled a large number of wild beasts in the mountains. He had several of each species.
Jiang Ming did not bother to deal with the venomous snakes, however. His purpose was not to deal with enemies, but to explore the area.
However, most of them were only fed the medicine three to five times and were used by Jiang Ming as tools. Only a few beasts that performed well went on to be trained by Jiang Ming.
Even Master Si’s mount, the fat tiger, had drunk no less than a dozen bowls of medicine. Its intelligence was now no different from that of a teenager.
With these beasts that he had been continuously cultivating as the leaders in charge of all the other beasts, Jiang Ming had gradually spread out an intelligence network in the Cloudy Dream Mountain Forest. They explored the entire forest for him, and Jiang Ming had made some small headway in the past three years.
At the very least, he managed to find quite a few copper coins, silver pieces, and other valuables.
What was more valuable were the magic arts and weapons left behind by some martial artists. Most of them were incomplete. Occasionally, he had obtained a few sets of fist techniques and sword skills, but he had never found the thing he was looking for.
“Do we really have to explore the forbidden zone?” Jiang Ming asked in a low voice. During the initial exploration, he divided the Cloudy Dream Mountain Forest into three areas.
The safe zone was a place where ordinary herb gatherers would appear. Even if they encountered wild beasts, they were ordinary wild beasts.
The danger zone was where Guan Feng and the other martial artists from the Tiger Hunting Village ventured deep into. The wild beasts there were already extraordinary and could even hurt second-class martial artists. They had thick skin and immense strength, just like monsters.
The forbidden zone was the deepest part of the Cloudy Dream Mountain Forest. All the beasts sent to explore it were unprepared. They could not find anything and did not even come back.
Jiang Ming raised his head and looked at the lofty mountain range in the depths of the Cloudy Dream Mountain Forest. His eyes flickered. It seemed that the ultimate secret of the Cloudy Dream Mountain Forest was there.
“But it’s impossible to go there yet. I’ll just keep sending cannon fodder to test it. Let’s see if the forbidden zone is a match for my immortality.”
Jiang Ming snorted, turned his head and picked up a short blade as black as ink from the river, and continued to practice his swordsmanship.
This was a weapon he picked up from the mountains. It had no other characteristics except that it was indestructible, and it was small enough to hide, which was exactly what Jiang Ming wanted.
The short blade danced, and Jiang Ming used the Blood-Burning Saber Technique.
However, the Blood-Burning Saber Technique that Jiang Ming was practicing now was completely different. It was like an upgraded version of the Blood-Burning Saber Technique. Even its creator would probably be dumbfounded after seeing it.
This was the new technique that Jiang Ming had formed after he had studied and practiced the Wave-Swallowing Saber Technique and had spent more than a year integrating it with the Blood-Burning Saber Technique.
The essence of the Blood-Burning Saber Technique was only one move. The most important thing was how to circulate the blood Qi and how to burn the blood Qi. The move itself was very crude.
However, the Wave-Swallowing Saber Technique was an extremely exquisite blade technique that made up for this flaw, making it a complete set of blade techniques.
However, this kind of swordsmanship could only be created by Jiang Ming. After all, even the original creator could not make dozens or hundreds of strikes in a row to study it. Perhaps this was the reason why the Blood-Burning Saber Technique’s moves were crude.
“The Blood Wave Saber Technique! That’s its name!” Jiang Ming casually came up with a name.
“The Blood Wave Saber Technique is my trump card. It can both attack and defend, and its power has been increased by several times. I’ll exhaust the enemy to death.”
Of course, if the enemy was ridiculously strong and countered his attack, then he would pretend he did not say anything!
“The only thing left is to find an escape technique. Even if I can’t win, I need to be able to escape. That’s the perfect plan!” Jiang Ming muttered to himself. He could now resist and fight. If he could also escape, it would be perfect.
He was practicing hard, and it was already evening. Master Si suddenly rushed to the river and began to cry.
“What’s going on?” Jiang Ming quickly put away his short blade and rushed to the shore.
Master Si had already written a line of crooked words on the ground.
“The danger zone… A stone tomb…”