Pain! Intense pain! The pain was so much that Xiang Shaoyun couldn't stop himself from groaning. The injuries were already hurting badly, but after his innate purple lightning coursed through the injured spots, it felt like adding oil to fire or adding salt to a wound. The resulting pain was so intense it seemed to have drilled into his bone marrows.
Just as Xiang Shaoyun was about to withdraw the innate purple lightning, he felt a change. His pain had lessened while his clotted blood was slowly dissolving. At the same time, his vitality was increasing. It was clear he was recovering. Because of that, he allowed the innate purple lightning to stay at his injured spots, and he endured the intense pain.
This was yet another tempering, yet another rebirth he had to undergo. Lightning power was a destructive power, but it also contained a power of awakening, capable of awakening the potential of a person's life force.
A large amount of medical power was hidden in Xiang Shaoyun due to all the years his father spent boiling him in medicinal concoctions. The lightning power had merely activated the buried medical power within him, helping accelerate his recovery. As he healed rapidly, the pain he felt started waning.
He felt better as time went on, and after an unknown amount of time, he felt like his injuries had been completely healed. He no longer felt any pain, and he finally regained his clarity. He quickly ripped his bandages off and found that the newly grown flesh looked as tender as a baby's skin, and the scabs had all fallen off.
"I've recovered! I've really recovered! Haha!" Xiang Shaoyun roared with laughter. It was a bad idea to carry around a serious injury in his current environment, as danger could come at any time. But now, everything was fine. He had completely recovered. His combat strength had also grown, boosting his confidence to face whatever would come next in the competition.
Xiang Shaoyun saw Little White not far from him. Little White seemed to have recovered even earlier and was currently chomping down on a gold serpentine crocodile he had hunted earlier. Xiang Shaoyun was aware that demonic beasts healed much faster than humans, but Little White's recovery speed had still surpassed his expectation.
"Little White, are you fine?" Xiang Shaoyun asked.
"Yes, I'm all fine now, boss," Little White answered.
"That's quick! What's your current strength exactly?" Xiang Shaoyun asked curiously.
"I'm now a fourth-stage Great Demon! I had fully digested the final bit of the undigested demonic core earlier. It had increased my recovery speed and had also strengthened both my cultivation level and physical flesh," Little White answered honestly.
"What? Fourth-stage Great Demon already?" Xiang Shaoyun cried out in alarm.
"Yes. Both the demonic core and tiger's tooth I ate previously belonged to Demon Kings, and after nearly fully digesting them both, it is normal for me to reach this level," Little White said, not surprised at all.
That answered Xiang Shaoyun’s doubts. Little White had relied on digesting more of the demonic core and tiger's tooth to reach the fourth stage of the Great Demon realm. Xiang Shaoyun remembered that even before this, Little White was already capable of killing fourth-stage Great Demon gold serpentine crocodiles. Now, he would probably be able to fight gold serpentine crocodiles in the fifth or even the sixth stage.
Looks like Little White truly has an extraordinary bloodline. It's a pity his bloodline has been diluted with some other ordinary bloodline as well. If I can find him some white tiger blood, he might be able to transform into an actual white tiger, Xiang Shaoyun mused.
With both of them healed, they continued their journey. This time, Xiang Shaoyun was not going to charge on rashly like he did before. Otherwise, he might not be able to reach the place Little White was talking about earlier. He started observing his surroundings, trying to look for an alternative route to reach his destination. But all he saw were weeds and trees. He really had no idea which route would have fewer or even no gold serpentine crocodiles.
"Little White, with our strength, it will be very hard for us to reach the place you sensed," Xiang Shaoyun said with a bitter smile.
Little White did not say anything. Instead, he started roaming around sniffing at the air repeatedly. After a while, he ran back to Xiang Shaoyun and said, "Boss, we can take the route where there are no gold serpentine crocodiles."
"By relying on your sense of smell?" Xiang Shaoyun asked.
"No, by relying on my senses," Little White replied resolutely before adding, "I'm not a dog!"
"Sure, we'll give it a try. In any case, we already have a large number of points. We can focus on treasure hunting for now. We'll just have to kill more gold serpentine crocodiles when we're done." Xiang Shaoyun nodded.
Xiang Shaoyun then hopped onto Little White's back and let Little White to lead the way. He had full confidence Little White would not bring him to his death. But what Little White did next shocked him so much his heart nearly popped out of his mouth. The route Little White had selected was actually the wide canyon from earlier. Little White charged head on and jumped off the cliff.
"Little White, what are you doing?" Xiang Shaoyun nearly jumped off Little White's body. But if he did that now, he would only fall into the bottomless abyss below him. Just as his heart was pumping wildly in anxiety, a pair of white wings suddenly grew out of Little White's back.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
The sleek white wings danced in the air gracefully, moving as fast as lightning.
Xiang Shaoyun was completely stunned. He had never expected that Little White would actually grow a pair of wings. That felt like a dream.
"The legendary white tiger wings!" Xiang Shaoyun cried out in alarm when he sensed the sharp aura the wings were emitting.
In the legends, the white tigers were tigers with wings. Xiang Shaoyun was unsure if that was true, as that was something he had only seen from some ancient text. After witnessing Little White's transformation, he now believed the ancient text was right. He was also finally sure Little White's bloodline was related to the white tigers’.
Carrying Xiang Shaoyun on his back, Little White dove into the canyon and flew at a low altitude so as to avoid being discovered by other humans and demonic beasts. Since Little White was capable of flight, they could travel quickly without having to worry about being attacked by gold serpentine crocodiles. They only needed to worry about Demon Kings.
The canyon led all the way into the depths of the Golden River Valley. If they continued flying, they would be able to reach their destination. At this thought, Xiang Shaoyun suddenly grew nervous. Even if Little White could reach there safely, what could they do if there was a Demon King gold serpentine crocodile there?
"Little White, slow down a little bit. Let me think," Xiang Shaoyun said.
"Don't worry boss. I don't sense any gold serpentine crocodile around," Little White answered.
"I know, but that does not mean it will stay the same at our destination," Xiang Shaoyun said. After a pause, he continued, "How far are we from the place you sensed? And what had you sensed exactly?"
"It's right over there. I don't know what it is either. I just know it's related to my bloodline, giving me an intensely intimate sensation. Boss, I must go there. I am even willing to go alone," Little White said, a burning thirst in his eyes.
"No, it's even more dangerous for you to go alone. We will face all dangers together. Since you need to go, I'll go with you. But try to stay hidden. Don't provoke fellows we can't afford to provoke," Xiang Shaoyun said, deciding to take the chance seeing how resolute Little White was.
Perhaps an astonishing secret was truly hidden there.