Similar to the Mapleleaf Wolf King, the massive bald eagle was a Saint 5-dan beast. Its eyes were an eerie crimson, and its feathers were as tough as steel. They hung onto its body like Saint intermediate-tier artifacts. It would be difficult to even breach its defenses, let alone kill it.
“It’s a Bloodeye Bald Eagle!”
“Sh*t! We’re really doomed now!”
The crowd had never thought that they would be so unlucky as to encounter such a powerful enemy shortly after escaping from the Wolf King. With such a turn of events, they no longer waste any of their time making things difficult for Zhang and Wu Chen. Instead, they turned to the new foe with livid expressions on their faces.
The Bloodeye Bald Eagle enjoyed an even greater reputation than the Mapleleaf Wolf King. It was not that it was stronger than the latter, but it had the vicious reputation of torturing its victims before killing them.
In other words, even if it could kill its prey in a single move, it would choose to inflict minor wounds all over its prey to gradually weaken it until it finally died of blood loss. Without a doubt, this was an extremely vicious way of hunting, aiming to prolong the agony of the victim for as long as possible.
Furthermore, it was extremely agile and skilled at maneuvering in the air, making it difficult to avoid its attacks or escape from it. As such, most cultivators would rather encounter ten Mapleleaf Wolf Kings than be faced with this fellow.
Even if ten Wolf Kings encircled them, with sufficient luck, they might still be able to get away. However, against the Bloodeye Bald Eagle, their fates were pretty much sealed!
“We’ll just have to fight for our lives!” Wu Kuang said grimly as he clenched his fists so tightly that his fingernails sunk into his palms.
It was as if they had brought the God of Misfortune along with them. Most adventurers were able to travel through the Subterranean Gallery relatively safely and return to the surface with many treasures in hand. Yet, who could have known that within less than two hours of entering the area, they would have already met with two waves of powerful beasts?
“We can only hope for the best…”
The crowd muttered as they whipped out their weapons and got into defensive positions.
The Bloodeye Bald Eagle could sense the anxiety among the crowd, and a hint of derision surfaced in its crimson eyes. With a flap of its massive wings, a furious tempest immediately whipped up in the surroundings. Countless rocks, both large and small, were swept into the air, and they shot toward the crowd like cannonballs.
Ding ding ding ding!
The crowd was caught off guard by the attack. They hurriedly brandished their weapons to deflect the incoming rocks, but they were only just able to stand their ground. Their hands were bleeding from the powerful impact against the rocks, and their arms had gone slightly numb.
Retreating a few steps back, despair could be seen reflected in the eyes of the crowd.
If the Bloodeye Bald Eagle was able to harness so much power with just a casual flap of its wings, it was likely that they would be completely helpless if they confronted it directly. They could not see any way that they could possibly make it out of the situation alive.
“It looks like we are really cornered now. We should have backed out when we had the chance,” Wu Kuang muttered in desolation.
They had been lucky enough to have a wandering elder save their lives the first time around, but they would be naively hopeful if they thought that it would happen again. After all, experts of that caliber could not possibly be so bored as to follow their group around.
“At the very most, I’ll just implode myself. There’s no way I’ll allow a darned bald eagle to humiliate me…” Knowing the cruel tendencies of the Bloodeye Bald Eagle, Wu Kuang took a deep breath as he channeled all of his energy to his dantian, intending to kill himself together with the enemy. At the very least, he would be able to preserve his dignity that way.
However, before he could do it, the duo whom they had just accused of not contributing anything to the group suddenly walked out from the crowd.
Seeing that there were still two humans who dared oppose it, the ruthless eagle flapped its wings once more, intending to crush the wills of the two challengers. However, the silhouette of the young man of the duo suddenly flickered. In the next instant, the young man was already standing right before the Bloodeye Bald Eagle, directing a powerful kick right toward its face.
Peng!
The Bloodeye Bald Eagle shot right into the ground, tearing a long and narrow gorge along the hard floor.
Pilipala!
Even though the Bloodeye Bald Eagle was already grounded, the young man did not seem to have any intention of letting it off easily. He darted toward the Bloodeye Bald Eagle and launched a barrage of punches and kicks against it.
A short moment later, when the Bloodeye Bald Eagle finally recovered from the pummeling and stood up once more… it could have just been the crowd thinking too much about it, but they could have sworn that they saw deep tenderness in the crimson eyes of the beast that was known for its savagery.
Back when Zhang Xuan was dealing with the Mapleleaf Wolf King, his cultivation had only recovered up to Saint 3-dan, so it would have been difficult for him to match it in a proper fight. Thus, he could only scare it away with his soul energy. However, in the past hour of traveling, he had managed to recover up to Saint 4-dan, which meant that Saint 5-dan opponents no longer posed any threat to him.
“Let’s go!” Zhang Xuan said nonchalantly before climbing onto the Bloodeye Bald Eagle together with Wu Chen.
After which, he turned to the crowd one last time and bade farewell. “We still have some matters to attend to, so we’ll be taking our leave now. If fate allows it, we’ll meet once more!”
The Bloodeye Bald Eagle began flapping its wings to rise into the air before gliding swiftly into the distance. It did not take long before the trio disappeared into the horizon.
“…”
“He’s actually that powerful?”
“I tried driving him away earlier…”
Everyone’s throat went dry as slightly dumbstruck looks surfaced on their faces.
All along, they had felt that the two of them had been dragging them down, but who could have known that they were actually powerful experts in disguise!
To be able to pummel a Saint 5-dan beast and tame it right away… what in the world was with that mystifying capability?
“If that’s the case, they’re likely the ones who drove the Wolf King away earlier!” Wu Kuang suddenly spoke up.
Hearing those words, the crowd was rendered speechless.
In truth, the very moment that they saw the young man make his move, they had already made sense of the situation.
Who else could the ‘elder’ who had saved them possibly be other than him?
Despite having saved their lives, they were actually so brazen as to demand that the other party leave their group. They were ingrates for treating their benefactors in such a manner.
All of a sudden, they felt deep regret for their actions.
…
Oblivious of the thoughts of others, Zhang Xuan sat down on the back of the Bloodeye Bald Eagle and told Wu Chen, “I’ll leave it to you to navigate the way. I need to cultivate a bit more in order to recover my strength.”
The urgent matter at hand was for him to recover his strength as quickly as possible.
Wu Chen nodded in agreement before relaying some instructions to the Bloodeye Bald Eagle.
Ten days later, the Bloodeye Bald Eagle lay weakly on the ground, too exhausted to even take a single step further. Thus, Zhang Xuan tamed a Saint 9-dan beast before moving on.
Five days passed, and Zhang Xuan tamed a Great Sage 2-dan beast to ferry them around.
Another five days later, Zhang Xuan relished in the immense might pulsating in his body and heaved a sigh of relief.
“My cultivation has finally recovered…”
A month had passed since he had ended his life at the Master Teacher Pavilion. Due to his humongous collection of treasures and the ingenious Heaven’s Path Divine Art, he had managed to cultivate back to his peak. Not only so, perhaps because his foundations were much more secure this time around, it seemed like his strength had been considerably enhanced.
The Library of Heaven’s Path still hasn’t opened yet? What’s going on in there? Zhang Xuan immersed his consciousness into the Library of Heaven’s Path, only to see its massive gates still tightly shut. A deep frown appeared in between his eyebrows.
The Library of Heaven’s Path had been upgraded in the past, but the longest downtime that he had experienced was only three days. He did not think that it would remain closed even after the passing of a month. This left him feeling deeply bewildered and worried.
Zhang Xuan continued studying the Library of Heaven’s Path for a moment, but he was unable to make sense of this anomaly. Heaving a deep sigh, he decided to put this matter aside for the moment.
Forget it! Since the Library of Heaven’s Path is closed at the moment, this is a good opportunity for me to push to Great Sage 3-dan Intuitive Impulse realm! he thought.
He had already accumulated enough to push for a breakthrough at any moment, but the very nature of the Library of Heaven’s Path prevented him from attempting a breakthrough to the Intuitive Impulse realm. Since its doors were tightly shut, this might be best moment for him to attempt a breakthrough.
Closing his eyes, he flicked his wrist and took out a droplet of Ancient Sage blood.
Due to his massive accumulation, ordinary herbs and pills were of limited effectiveness to his cultivation. Ancient Sage blood seemed to be the only thing that he had at the moment that could allow him to swiftly raise his cultivation.
The Ancient Sage blood that he had taken out this time around came from an Ancient Sage 1-dan Bloodline Continuance realm cultivator. Tapping on it lightly, the energy harnessed within the droplet of blood swiftly gushed into his body through his acupoints. He channeled the energy around his body and turned it into his own zhenqi.
Hong long!
Without any hesitation, he began driving his zhenqi to its maximum capacity as he tried to tear down the bottleneck that limited him from reaching higher realms.
There were no specific cultivation techniques for one to follow to reach higher grounds for Great Sage, but having been through the mountain of books and ocean of learning, he had already gained a thorough understanding of the cultivation realms of Great Sage. He had simulated his future breakthroughs so many times that he could not have been any more familiar with them than he already was.
With everything required in place, in less than ten minutes, Zhang Xuan could already feel a mini explosion going on in his dantian as it expanded once more. He had successfully surpassed the bottleneck of the Aureate Body realm to reach the Intuitive Impulse realm!
The first thing that he felt upon reaching that realm was a heightened sensitivity to his surroundings. It was hard to describe it, but it felt like if he focused his attention, he could simulate in his mind what would happen around him in the near future.
Knowing that the act of attempting to peer into the secrets of the heavens would cause a backlash from the Library of Heaven’s Path, Zhang Xuan did not dare test the ability too much. Instead, he took out another droplet of Ancient Sage blood and swallowed it.
Intuitive Impulse realm primary stage!
Intuitive Impulse realm intermediate stage!
Intuitive Impulse realm advanced stage!
…
By the fourth hour, he had already reached Intuitive Impulse realm consummation!
Alright! After I reinforce my cultivation a little, I should be able to push for a breakthrough to Great Sage 4-dan Sempiternal realm! Zhang Xuan thought with gleaming eyes.
He was just about to take out another droplet of Ancient Sage blood and continue cultivating when he felt a jolt in his head. Alarmed, Zhang Xuan hurriedly immersed his consciousness into his mind in order to see what was happening. Standing before the Library of Heaven’s Path, he saw a crack opening in between the tightly-shut massive doors.
After a month of rest, the Library of Heaven’s Path had actually finished upgrading shortly after he achieved a breakthrough to Intuitive Impulse realm!
