Chapter 87: Surviving in the Mountain Range
Looking at the thumb sized monster core, Jian Chen couldn’t help but smile, “It really was a Class 2 Monster Core; look at the purity of the energy inside! Not only that, this Class 2 Monster Core is much better than the ones I found at Kargath Academy. It really is true that the magical beasts in the Magical Beast Mountain Range are stronger than the ones in the Kargath forests.”
After collecting the monster core, Jian Chen lowered his head to look at his body that was now dark shade of green. However, his body wasn’t injured at all. Since he had been refining his body since he was young with the special techniques from Azulet Sword Law, his physique was really strong. So even though the poison caused his body to feel some pain, it couldn’t get past his skin and enter his body. The majority of the damage was being counteracted with his inner Saint Force. So while his entire body was tainted with a green poison, the only symptom he felt was a slight burning sensation.
Jian Chen looked around himself and listened attentively, “There probably isn’t a water source here, so I won’t be able to to wash this off. I guess I’ll have to handle this roughly.” Plucking a few tree leaves, he began to wipe off the excess venom while pulling out a new change of clothing from within his Space Belt. Although this place was extremely large and there wasn’t be anyone around, Jian Chen had no hobby of walking around naked.
After changing his clothes, Jian Chen walked away from where the carcass of the scorpion lay without a care at all for it. Although magical beasts had many important parts that could be harvested and sold off for a high price, this scorpion was just a Class 2 Magical Beast. If he were to sell this, he wouldn’t be getting much since it wasn’t a precious type of material, plus, Jian Chen had plenty of Purple Coins to spare, so the him today did not care for such a little sum of money.
While the beasts that were born and grew in the Mountain Range of Magical Beasts were much more powerful than those in Kargath Forest, they were much rarer than the ones in Kargath Forest. After all, while the Mountain Range of Magical Beasts may not be the largest in the Tian Yuan Continent, it was still vast in its own right. The magical beasts in the mountain range were all scattered about, so meeting a magical beast was not impossible, but rather quite rare.
For the entire day Jian Chen slowly walked deeper into the mountain range. By nighttime, he had only seen two magical beasts, excluding the previous Class 2 Poisonous Scorpion, these two were both Class 1 Magical Beasts.
The moon was hanging high up in the sky and basked the earth with its lunar glow. However it did not reach into the forest where darkness reigned supreme, so one couldn’t even see their fingers if they stretched out their hand in front of their faces. With the abundant amount of leaves covering the forest, the weak lunar lights wouldn’t be able to penetrate through onto the ground below.
Meanwhile on a flat piece of ground, a large bonfire burst into life and lit up the night with its dancing flames.
Jian Chen knelt by the bonfire with a stick in his hand as he slowly cooked a piece of meat that was speared through. Slowly, the meat began to caramelize as the fat began to slowly drip off onto the fire below, sputtering it out.
After eating his fill, Jian Chen pulled out a unique smelling herb from his Space Ring and sprinkled it on the surroundings. This herb was one of the few things that every mercenary entering the forest would need to prepare. Before resting, if one were to sprinkle this herb in his surroundings, it would be able to repel the majority of poisonous creatures from disturbing him. Of course, this medicine was only useful towards normal animals, and had no effect on magical beasts.
After using the herb, Jian Chen immediately leapt onto a nearby tree. Sitting cross legged on a slightly flatter branch, Jian Chen took out another faintly sweet smelling herb from within his Space Ring and started to sprinkle it on his body. This white colored herb was very effective in suppressing one’s Qi, preventing his qi from escaping which might attract any kind of wild beasts while he was sleeping at night. After all, both the wild animals and the magical beasts in this mountain range had extremely acute senses of smell. Although this powder wouldn’t be able to completely hide Jian Chen’s Qi, it could at least conceal it from the senses of normal animals.
The mountain range had many magical beasts as well as wild animals. The reason why wild animals were called so was because they had no monster core within their bodies. Wild animals were also not as strong as a Class 1 Magical Beast, similar to humans that hadn’t yet manifested their Saint weapons.
Although the wild animals weren’t strong and anyone who dared to enter the Mountain Range of Mystical Beasts could easily kill them, when it came to cultivating or sleeping at night, no one would want to be bothered by a wild animal. Therefore, practically every mercenary who entered the mountain range or slept outdoors overnight would be prepared, and bring a good amount of this type of herb.
After the safety preparations were complete, Jian Chen took out a big handful of monster cores and distributed them between his two hands. Jian Chen slowly closed his eyes and began to absorb the energy from the monster cores.
The energy from the monster cores started to flow out at an extremely terrifying speed towards Jian Chen, before funneling into his body via his pores and nostrils crazily. This absorption rate naturally placed a slight burden on Jian Chen, causing his pores to feel a slight ache from expanding. Throughout his entire body, there was no area that did not hurt.
Although it was aching a little, this was not enough for Jian Chen, who had a strong willpower, to mind it much.
The energy of the monster cores had a berserk element to it. If it weren’t for Jian Chen using the World Essence to strengthen his body since he was young which meant that his internal organs and his fundamentals were made to be a lot stronger than most others, he would have been heavily injured alone by the berserk element contained within the energy of the cores, nevermind the fact that he was absorbing the energy into his body so crazily.
Following the absorption of the large amount of energy, the berserk element accumulated inside Jian Chen’s body. When the berserk element reached a certain point, a large absorption power started to surge from Jian Chen’s dantian, pulling these elements continuously towards the dantian, before finally being absorbed by the two glows of azure and violet.
On Tian Yuan Continent, if a practitioner wanted to rely on the monster cores to cultivate, then they would need to clear away the berserk element within the energy and absorb the pure energy remaining. Just removing that element from the energy would take a lot of time, and even then, the berserk element wouldn’t be completely removed, and would leave behind some harmful effects within the body. So while there were many people who relied on using monster cores to cultivate, not many would continue down that path. Every so often, a person would need to stop using monster cores and completely refine the energy absorbed, in order to not suffer from any negative effects.
Though with Jian Chen, he could absorb and refine the energy from the monster core without fear of the consequences which was possibly due to the glows within his dantian. The moment the energy entered his body, the berserk element would immediately be absorbed by them. allowing for Jian Chen to absorb the energy from the monster cores without fear. This was why Jian Chen had such a large advantage over the other cultivators.
Following the steady absorption of the monster cores, Jian Chen could clearly feel the Saint Force slowly growing larger and larger in his dantian. Although it might look slow to the naked eye, Jian Chen understood that this speed compared to others was really fast. At this rate, it would not be long until he would breakthrough to become a Great Saint.
On the second day, when the sunlight passed through the small chinks between the dense tree leaves, Jian Chen, who was sitting cross-legged and cultivating, slowly opened his eyes. He then flipped in the air, jumping down from the tree, and smoothly landed on the ground below.
Jian Chen stretched his body for a bit. After consciously feeling his inner Saint Force, he couldn’t help but smile. He could clearly sense that his current Saint Force was much more powerful than when he had first condensed his Saint Weapon. Based on his calculations, his current strength was most likely already at the level of a Middle Saint.
Although he was only a Middle Saint, it had been less than a month since Jian Chen had first condensed his Saint Weapon and broken through to Sainthood. If anyone else heard that Jian Chen had managed to become a Middle Saint only less than a month after, they would definitely find it hard to believe.
After eating some food to fill his stomach, Jian Chen once again continued on his journey.
…….
Time quickly passed by. In the blink of an eye, a month had already passed. at the foot of the Magical Beast Mountain Range, a youth wearing a coarse set of clothing was currently facing a pitch-black, panther-type magical beast that was a meter tall and three meters long.
The youth held a long, thin, silver sword. He stood tall and straight, seeming to be as immovable as a mountain. His face was brightly colored by mud and dust, making it impossible to make out any of his facial features.
The panther-type magical beast was glaring at the youth opposite of it with a ferocious glint in its eyes. It roared deeply, and began to fall into a crouching position. Its hind legs firmly planted into the ground, preparing to attack at any moment.