Chapter 196 – Thundercrash Mountain
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The Vermillion Bird was about 50 feet long. It had the head of a pheasant and a long scarlet neck like a snake. Its body was covered in feathers and burning flames shrouded its body. As it flew, it shed sparkling red lights that sprinkled down onto the world. It was beautiful like an exquisite dream.
Although he was very far away, Lin Ming could still feel the Vermillion Bird emitting a vast pressure that made his heart skip.
Under the suppressive nature of this aura, Lin Ming’s speed dropped. He glanced backwards at the little flame boy to see if he had caught up. However, he hadn’t expected the little flame boy was even worse. It had actually stopped and was staring with both eyes at the flying Vermillion Bird. Fear filled its face.
Lin Ming paused. Mm? Was it afraid?
At this moment, the Vermillion Bird bowed its head downwards, overlooking the little flame boy. The little flame boy was scared out of its wits. It gave a miserable scream before turning tail and running!
The speed of the little flame boy was much faster than when it had been chasing Lin Ming! It had turned into a bright red light, and in just a few breaths of time it had already reached the jungle and vanished out of sight!
Lin Ming was baffled, why did it run away?
Looking at the Vermillion Bird again, it seemed to be hesitating for a moment. Then, it no longer bothered with the little flame boy and continued to fly forward.
The way it flew through the air was filled with a majestic elegance. Although it didn’t flap its wings very fast, its speed was actually incomparably quick. In just a few blinks of the eye, it had already flown beyond the horizon and turned into a small red shadow.
Lin Ming was a bit confused. The little flame boy was obviously afraid of the Vermillion Bird
Could it be…
Of course, the Vermillion Bird was a fire-attribute Saint Beast. The reason that Chi Guda had been searching the Blackwater Swamp was to look for some feathers or flames that the Vermillion Bird had left behind so that they could be refined into the eternal flame’s Flame Essence.
But in reverse, the eternal flame’s Flame Essence could also be considered a good refresher for the Vermillion Bird.
The Flame Essence feared that it would be eaten by the Vermillion Bird, hence it had turned around to escape.
Understanding this, Lin Ming laughed. He launched his movement technique and followed in the direction that the Vermillion Bird went in.
The Vermillion Bird was extremely quick, Lin Ming was much slower. After an incense stick of time, the Vermillion Bird had already vanished past the horizon.
Lin Ming feared that the Flame Essence boy would return, so he launched forwards at full speed and stayed close the ground. He continuously changed directions mid-flight and slowly descended into a thick patch of bushes in the swamp.
The thick grass of Blackwater Swamp was around 10 feet tall, it wasn’t much shorter than a normal tree. Once a person hid inside, it was similar to a stone being dropped into the sea. It was simply impossible to know where to start looking.
Lin Ming found a relatively safe place in the high grass, took out a true essence stone, and began to meditate while he restored his true essence.
He converged all of his breath within himself and completely hid from the world. Even a martial arts master who probed with soul force would find it difficult to discover him.
After a couple of hours passed, night began to fall. In Blackwater Swamp, the nighttime was the most dangerous period. Lin Ming had to restore his strength as soon as possible.
One hour later, there was the sound of an explosion as the true essence stone burst apart. Lin Ming opened his eyes from his meditation. His power of thunder and fire had been restored, and he had also recovered his true essence.
As the dark night fell upon the world, poisonous insects and snakes began to crawl up from Blackwater Swamp’s grass. But since Lin Ming could fly, he didn’t care too much about these.
He estimated that he was in the central zone of Blackwater Swamp.
Blackwater Swamp was a thousand miles long and wide. If Lin Ming retraced his steps, he could return to Blackmarsh Tribe. If he continued forward, then he would reach Thundercrash Mountain in another 8 or 9 hundred miles.
Originally, Lin Ming had planned to go to Thundercrash Mountain after killing Chi Guda, in order to see if there was anything of interest there.
Na Yi had said that Thundergrass grew on Thundercrash Mountain. Century old Thundergrass was worth quite a bit of money. But, even a Houtian realm master would not dare to rashly climb the mountain. They would only search around the periphery of Thundercrash Mountain.
Lin Ming didn’t believe that his own power surpassed that of a Houtian master. If he went to Thundercrash Mountain, it would also be to search round the edges. Unless he wanted to explore the secrets of Thundercrash Mountain, there was no reason to scale the mountain.
The dark night was like a curtain that was illuminated by the bright moon. Lin Ming ran atop the tips of the grass with quick steps, soaring a hundred feet with each tap of his foot.
When he was a few hundred miles from Thundercrash Mountain, Lin Ming could already see a massive shadow being illuminated by the pale moonlight. It was just like a titanic giant.
At the peak of the highest mountain, white light constantly flared. This was the countless flashing of thunder.
At the very summit of Thundercrash Mountain, the thunder would never stop falling! Not even in 10,000 years!
Thundercrash Mountain was the highest mountain within the Southern Wilderness. Its most famous peak was over 100,000 feet high and pierced straight through the sky. This peak was higher than the clouds and experienced rain and snow all year round.
Sky Spill Continent’s heavens were divided into six layers. The layer under the clouds was called the Skyvault Heavens. Here is where rain, snow, and hail formed. There was nothing special about the Skyvault Heavens. Besides it being a bit cold at the higher locations, anyone could survive in the Skyvault Heavens.
9000 feet above the clouds was the Calmstream Heavens. Here, strong heavenly winds blew endlessly. Even a Heavenly Wind Eagle would find it difficult to fly in the Calmstream Heavens.
30,000 feet above the clouds was the Primal Chaos Heavens. Here, the elements of metal, wood, water, fire, earth, thunder, and wind existed in their complete and vibrant states. It was an incomparably oppressive place. Even a Xiantian realm martial artist, if exposed to the Primal Chaos Heavens, would be killed by deadly origin energy.
Thundercrash Mountain’s peak altitude of 100,000 feet approached the Primal Chaos Heavens. Because the summit was comprised almost entirely of magnetic ore, it was able to draw in the power of thunder from the Primal Chaos Heavens, and thus form endless clashes of thunder.
This is why Thundercrash Mountain was named so.
Lin Ming guessed that since thunder endlessly struck the peak of Thundercrash mountain, there was a high possibility that there existed a Thunder Soul there. But even a Houtian master could only crawl up the mountainside at their own peril. Since his strength wasn’t at the level of a Houtian master, there wasn’t any hope in obtaining the Thunder Soul!
Even so, Lin Ming still wanted to take a trip and see what was so terrifying about Thundercrash Mountain, and see if there was any possibility of obtaining a Thunder Soul.
Two hours later, Lin Ming arrived at the base of Thundercrash Mountain. He discovered that there was actually a tribe here.
Although there wasn’t much light at this time, the tribe’s people had already begun waking up to prepare for their day of work. The farmers carried their tools and the merchants shouldered their wares.
“They say that there are Thunder Lizards everywhere on Thundercrash Mountain. Aren’t they afraid that a vicious beast flood might erupt at any moment?” Lin Ming wondered. He looked for an inn so that he could take a rest and ascertain the situation before deciding whether he wanted to climb up the mountain.
After entering the inn, Lin Ming swept out with his soul force. To his surprise, he found that there were many martial arts masters in the inn. Even the innkeeper had a cultivation of the First Stage of Body Transformation.
These people, were they here for the Thundergrass?
“Young Hero, are you here for Thundercrash Mountain?” The innkeeper smiled as he asked Lin Ming.
“Mm.” Lin Ming nodded. He had already taken off his face cover and had lowered his cultivation to the Viscera Training stage. This was the cultivation that a genius at Lin Ming’s age should have.
Even if the Fire Worm Shaman came here, he wouldn’t be able to find him.
“Ah, heroes truly come from the youth. Young Hero is so young but has already reached the Viscera Training stage. Impressive, impressive. But, it is dangerous to go to Thundercrash Mountain at only the Viscera Training stage. Going for a little experience is fine, but if you wish to pick some Thundergrass, it might be a little too much.”
Hearing these words, Lin Ming was happy. He was lacking some information on Thundercrash Mountain, but it seemed the innkeeper was knowledgeable about it.
He asked, “What use is there for Thundergrass? Why do so many people risk their lives to adventure up the mountain to pick it?” In Lin Ming’s opinion, Thundergrass should be valuable for thunder-attribute true essence martial artist. But this sort of martial artist was very rare, and demand for Thundergrass shouldn’t be so high.
The innkeeper was surprised, his cheeks filled with an odd color. This little kid was quite interesting. He didn’t know anything yet he still came to Thundercrash Mountain.
He said, “Thundergrass contains the power of Thunder. They can be refined with secret techniques and turned into Thunder Beads that are used to injure others. The power of Thunder Beads made by 50 year old Thundergrass is quite considerable. The power of Thunder Beads made from 100 year old Thundergrass is even more amazing. In the Southern Wilderness there are constant wars caused by the instability and chaos. Militaries are willing to acquire a large range of Thunder Beads in order to equip the army, they are comparable to the most powerful arrows.
“So it’s like this…” Lin Ming muttered as he learned.
The innkeeper said, “I have a pamphlet here that tells you about the basics of Thundercrash Mountain and notable places. Young Hero may buy one for 50 gold.”
“Alright!”
Lin Ming was quite happy to pay the money. He received the introduction pamphlet to Thundercrash Mountain. The Southern Wilderness didn’t have any universal woodblock printing process, so the pamphlet was handwritten.
After Lin Ming read the book, he finally understood why even Houtian realm masters only stayed at the bottom of the mountain.
In the final analysis, the reason was because of Thunder Lizards.
It wasn’t an exaggeration to say that the Thunder Lizard was the fiercest vicious beast of the Southern Wilderness!
A lizard was known as a four-legged snake. As the saying went: A snake born with four legs is a flood dragon! A flood dragon with two horns is a dragon!
Lizards did have similarities to flood dragons. And Thunder Lizards also had possessed the bloodline of flood dragons!
The power of a vicious beast with the bloodline of a Saint Beast could be imagined.
At the base of Thundercrash Mountain there were very few Thunder Lizards, and of the few there were, they only had very thin and impure bloodlines. These lizards were covered with white scales and they spat white lightning. Their strength ranged from the Altering Muscle stage to the Bone Forging stage.
The higher up one went, the more formidable the Thunder Lizards became. On the side of the mountain, the Thunder Lizards’ scales began to turn red. These Thunder lizards spat out red lightning. The Red Thunder Lizard’s strength was equal to a Pulse Condensation Period martial artist.
Higher up were the Blue Thunder Lizards. Their strength was equal to the Houtian realm.
It was said that at the summit, there existed a Purple Thunder Lizard, whose strength was equal to a Xiantian realm martial artist!
Seeing this, Lin Ming gasped. He had never seen a Xiantian realm martial artist before. He hadn’t thought that on Thundercrash Mountain, there would be an existence that was equal to a Xiantian realm martial artist.
If there really was a Purple Thunder Lizard, then the lightning they could bring down might even turn a Houtian realm martial artist directly into ashes!
Thinking this, Lin Ming frowned.
Compared to an ordinary martial artist, he had an advantage. This was because he had a Thunder Soul within him, so he didn’t fear thunder too much.
But just because he didn’t fear too much didn’t mean he was completely without fear.
Just several hours ago, Lin Ming had faced off against the little flame boy. The little flame boy’s fire was capable of injuring him. This was because the enemy also had a Flame Essence within them, and it was a Flame Essence that was stronger than the one within Lin Ming’s Heretical God Seed. Therefore Lin Ming had been unable to control the enemies flame.
“In Thundercrash Mountain I have a much higher ability to survive than a normal martial artist. But if I want to rush to the peak, there is still too far a distance…”
“First I’ll go to the base of Thundercrash Mountain. Afterwards, I’ll see how high I can climb.