The mysterious burly man was of course Su Zimo.
Upon returning to Great Rock Forest, he reverted to his appearance and wore his green robes, looking like a scholar once more as he sped towards the core region.
The decision to change his appearance was one Su Zimo made after a lengthy consideration.
Even though it was true that Zhou Wei’s gang was there to cause trouble for him, something like that was difficult to explain to the sect. If all five of them were to deny it, he could do nothing about it too.
Instead, he might even be the one punished for injuring them so badly.
At the same time, Su Zimo’s ace in the bag was his strength at melee combat and he did not wish to have it revealed so early.
Furthermore, all he had to do was change his appearance and identity and that would be reason enough for him to loot their spirit stones and elixirs entirely.
While they might feel wronged about it, they would have nowhere to complain.
After all, the mysterious burly man did not exist in this world.
As he approached the core of the forest, Su Zimo kept his flying sword and landed on the ground.
Danger lurked all around within the forest and Su Zimo was much more agile on the ground than the flying sword. If he met with any danger, he would be able to dodge it at the first instance.
Along the way, he could sense the auras of spirit beasts.
However, Su Zimo did not engage in battle and instead chose to avoid them, sprinting towards the core region of Great Rock Forest.
There was a forest of ores not too far away.
There, pure gold laid abundantly on the ground and shimmered brightly as Su Zimo tread over carefully.
He could sense a hint of danger within the forest.
There was definitely some extremely strong spirit beast or demon reigning over the area!
Within the middle of the forest beside a large pure gold ore, a spirit beast with a thick armor sprawled on the ground. Its armor shone with a luscious shade of gold, covering its neck and limbs while its tail was filled with spikes.
Goldeater Beast!
Surviving by devouring all sorts of spirit materials and ores, it possessed a cruel nature and an immense strength. Invulnerable to weapons, there was almost no weakness to it.
It was clear that the Goldeater before them was almost at the realm of a spirit demon!
This was troubling.
Su Zimo frowned.
If it was any other spirit beast, he had the confidence of killing it there and then. However, he had no way of dealing with this Goldeater at all.
Suddenly, the Goldeater which was initially fast asleep opened its eyes and glared at Su Zimo sharply with an immense killing intent!
“Roar!”
Rising in the blink of an eye, it hollered in the direction of Su Zimo and sprinted over.
Narrowing his gaze coldly, Su Zimo pushed his feet and activated the Plow Heaven Stride. Instantly, two deep ravines appeared beneath his feet on the ground as the mud flipped over.
Against the pounce of the Goldeater, Su Zimo held his ground firmly as his aura began to rise. Right after Plow Heaven Stride, he leaned forward with Mountain Reliance!
Bang!
The man and beast had collided into one another!
Su Zimo was knocked half a step back while the Goldeater was sent flying away, only stopping after crushing through a number of gold ores.
“Haha!”
Su Zimo burst out in laughter.
It was at that moment that he realized his physique had evolved to a terrifying degree after he tempered it using spirit qi with the foundation of The Mystic Classic of the Twelve Demon Kings of the Great Wilderness.
Even the Goldeater’s strength was not enough to withstand an impact against him!
A trace of fear flickered through the Goldeater’s eyes.
Activating Divine Steed Fleeting, Su Zimo appeared before the Goldeater in the blink of an eye as he retrieved the Cold Moon Saber from his storage bag and slashed towards its head.
Clang!
Sparks flew everywhere.
The Cold Moon Saber rebounded and the Goldeater was totally unharmed.
At the same time, it shook its spiked tail and swept through the air, landing squarely on Su Zimo’s chest.
With lightning speed, Su Zimo mentally cultivated his Body Petrification, causing his flesh to expand and his muscles to harden.
Bang!
Su Zimo fell over, slamming onto the biggest pure gold ore in the middle of the forest, causing cracks to form densely on it.
The Goldeater glared at the ore behind Su Zimo and looked a little unnerved.
Rubbing his chest, Su Zimo kept his Cold Moon Saber.
The Cold Moon Saber was no longer useful – Su Zimo could only use his own strength to fight against the Goldeater!
Once more, the man and beast fought to a corner.
Opening its mouth, the Goldeater chomped at Su Zimo, aiming for his neck.
Without fear, Su Zimo suddenly reached out with both hands and grabbed the upper and lower jaws of the Goldeater, yanking it with ferocious force!
Psst!
Heaving a deep breath of air, mighty as the Anaconda Eclipse, his chest puffed up robustly as he spun around mightily. It was a frightening sight as green veins popped up all over his arms like snakes coiling around it.
“Open up!”
With a holler, Su Zimo continued to tear.
Shing!
Blood filled the entire place as organs fell to the ground, creating a foul stench all around.
The Goldeater was torn into half by Su Zimo!
Breathing heavily, he tossed the corpse of the Goldeater away casually and began collecting the gold ores around.
“Mmm?”
Su Zimo’s eyes lit up.
Within a shattered pile of gold ores stood a large Pure Gold Crystal; it illuminated with a mysterious gleam and was almost transparent.
“Pure Gold Crystal!”
Su Zimo exclaimed.
A Pure Gold Crystal was an extremely rare item amongst gold ores and was hard to produce. At the same time, it was a crucial material for the refinement of middle or even superior-grade spirit weapons.
“I’m going to be rich!”
His head went into a frenzied excitement as he kept the Pure Gold Crystal that was around the height of an average man in his storage bag.
Su Zimo then shattered all the other gold ores around but he found no more Pure Gold Crystals.
Even then, his reward for this trip was far more than he had imagined.
After collecting all the gold ores around, he turned around to leave.
Before long, a green robed scholar carried a spirit tiger on his left arm and a spirit leopard on his right, walking out of the forest.
…
At the same time, the spirit crane that Guo Chong sent back to Spirit Peak caused quite a stir.
An elder of Spirit Peak headed towards Great Rock Forest personally with a group of disciples.
Weapon Peak.
Out of extreme boredom, the disheveled old man was out roaming around the top of the peak. Arriving at the mission stele, he raised his head and remarked in soft surprise, “The mission for Great Rock Forest’s given out? Do we have such promising disciples that would head there?”
Elder Liu beside the mission stele opened his eyes lazily and harrumphed, “Some brazen lad at Level 5 Qi Condensation went there alone. I had to give him a spirit crane in case he gets into trouble.”
“Level 5 Qi Condensation?”
The disheveled old man frowned. As though he recalled something, he suddenly yanked Elder Liu’s wrist. “What’s the name of that lad?”
“Su Zimo or something.”
Piak!
The disheveled old man slapped on the desk heavily, scaring Elder Liu so badly that he woke up right away.
“Are you crazy?! What’s with that?!” Elder Liu glared and scolded.
“You’re the crazy one!”
The disheveled old man yelled back, “That lad’s the only one in Weapon Peak that can cultivate a Level 3 Spirit Fire but you bloody let him go to Great Rock Forest alone?! I’ll kill you!”
“He’s the one that cultivated the Level 3 Spirit Fire?” Elder Liu was stumped too.
With a grim expression, the disheveled old man exclaimed, “Sleep, sleep and sleep! That’s the only thing you know to do day and night! That lad’s our only hope for Weapon Peak! If anything happens to you, I’ll never let you off!”
Stunned for a moment, Elder Liu leapt to his feet and urged, “L-Let’s not waste anymore time! Hurry to Great Rock Forest and save the lad!”