The call lasted over a dozen minutes.

  After Three Blades Lin hung up, he turned and flew back to Lake Kanas.

  Up in the air, he saw the group of people having a grill session.

  There was another fire started beside the grill rack, and Chen Jingzhou was seated beside it, baking a huge meter-long fish that he skewered on his S-grade alloy longsword.

  “Tut, tut.”


  Three Blades Lin could not help chuckling as he landed. “The higher-ups intend for you people to train yourself a little when they told you to cross the wildlands towards the Tantra Secret Realm, but you people turned this dangerous journey to a picnic.”


  Nearby, Cheng Dongfeng was squatting beside the lake and washing a red bass over a meter long.

  An S-grade alloy dagger in hand, he was scaling, gutting and dicing the fish…… and he done it masterfully and in a single breath.

  The title of Wildlands Master Cheng was not undeserved.

  “Oh, blame Jiang He. Would there be any actual sense of danger when you travel with that kid?”


  Cheng Dongfeng sighed even as he cut the fish into thin slices. “Huh! You don’t even need to say it, but having a grill session in Lake Kanas. This red bass especially has evolved to a rank-three Feral, having few bones and bountiful meat—most importantly, the meat is fresh and scrumptious.”


  Beside him, Zhou Rui was holding several steel skewers, skewering the meat slices.

  At the same time, Yang Chengwei was in charge of the grill.

  Three Blades Lin gave the youth a look and said, “This is the first time you’re grilling meat, aren’t you? Look at you—the way you’re oiling and sprinkling cumin is clearly incorrect……”


  Chuckling, he joined the ‘picnic force’ too.

  Soon, the dozen or so skewers were cooked.

  Chen Jingzhou, Cheng Dongfeng, He Litong, Zhou Rui and Yang Chengwei each had a skewer, while Three Blades Lin picked up the remaining ten skewers alone, took out a bottle of Maotai and started eating.

  Even so, he kept feeling that something wasn’t right inwardly.

  “Could I have sprinkled too little salt when I cooked the meat?”


  “But this is the right amount of saltiness……”


  As he had alternated between mouthfuls of meat and Maotai in pleasure, he abruptly rose to his feet even before he finished the second meat skewer, exclaiming in shock, “Where’s Jiang He?”


  No wonder he kept feeling that something wasn’t right.

  Where had Jiang He gone?

  He had been here for a dozen minutes but did not see Jiang He at all!

  “Jiang He?”


  Cheng Dongfeng, who received the ‘grand mission’ of cooking Three Blade Lin’s skewers replied, “He said that he had an errand to run, and told us to rest for now—he would come back around four hours.”


  Errand?

  “Did he not mention what it is?”


  Three Blades Lin’s voice became rather hoarse.

  A sense of foreboding arose in the bottom of his heart, and Three Blades Lin abruptly found the meat in his hand not that tasty now.

  He had given Wang Hou his assurance just a while ago—could that brat had gone off to start trouble again?

  “He didn’t say.”


  Cheng Dongfeng continued grilling the meat without looking up, grinning, “I know the kid, he’s never resting even for an instant. He might have gone off to hunt after developing a craving for game.”


  Three Blades Lin’s expression relaxed considerably and returned to his meat, laughing while he ate, “Game is alright. With Jiang He’s current abilities, he could strut over four hundred kilometers around Lake Kanas.”


  “My lord!”


  That was when the black panther who kept lurking in the forests beside the lake poked its head out and communicated meekly to Three Blades Lin through spirit voice, “My master isn’t going to hunt; he is going to get payback.”


  Three Blades Lin turned towards the black panther and asked in surprise, “The area three hundred kilometers around Lake Kanas is uninhabited wildlands, and Jiang He had never been to the Western Frontier, yes? Why would he have enemies here?”


  “My master’s enemy is not human!”


  The black panther replied, tilting his head in thought. “I remember Master mentioning that his enemy resides at Mount Tian, and it seems to be a big bird.”


  “Mount Tian?”


  “Big bird?”


  Three Blades Lin had not realized it immediately.

  Nearby, Chen Jingzhou who was cooking a fish shuddered, and turned towards Three Blades Lin with wide eyes as he exclaimed in shock, “Could it be the Golden-Crowned Black Eagle of Mount Tian?”


  “Yes, yes, yes!”


  The black panther’s eyes lit up as it nodded, and continued to communicate in spirit, “That’s more or less what’s it called.

  “.……”


  What the heck!

  Three Blades Lin was left dumbstruck.

  He threw his grilled meat and Maotai on the floor and promptly rose to his feet again, bounding towards Mount Tian as fast as lightning, his enormous spirit scanning the mountain forests beneath him.

  “Even if he’s a match for divine-tier being in fighting ability, he is a rank-nine novice and can’t fly, so he wouldn’t be that quick.’


  “Lake Kanas is almost eight hundred kilometers away from Mount Tian. I should be able to get to him at full speed!”


  Three Blades Lin’s head was swimming.

  The Red Toad King was dead regardless.

  And according to Wang Hou, the Red Toad King did not have many connections. There were just two Feral Toad Kings across the globe, and the other one—the Gold Toad King was in the distant lands of the Amazon.

  Even Feral Kings would try to cause trouble by using that excuse, the two Feral Emperors in the Hua Nation would not dare to be reckless now that the five Holy Grounds and the government had an accord.

  But the Golden-Crowned Black Eagle King was a different matter.

  The Feral Eagles were too powerful.

  These creatures were the tyrants of the skies even before the Revival of Qi, standing atop the food chain of avians as they nested on the loftiest precipices of the mountains. Moreover, after the Revival of Qi and the mutation of most animals, as well as how natural treasures easily manifest at old mountains and ancient forests, a new generation of powerful Feral Eagles were born unto this world.

  One such example was the Golden-Crowned Black Eagle King of Mount Tian.

  It was a top Feral King alongside the Violet-Crowned Golden Eagle King, and both of them were ranked amongst the most powerful Ferals in the world.

  In fact, the most powerful Feral Eagle was a golden eagle that dubbed itself the Golden-Winged Roc King, which was also one of two Feral Emperors of the Hua Nation, residing at the uninhabited zone of Bukadaban summit in Kekexili, just next to Mount Kunlun.

  And if Jiang He did kill the Golden-Crowned Black Eagle King, the Golden-Winged Roc King would go on a rampage too.

  Feral Emperors were horrific beings that could match Void-tier Ferals, and not even Wang Hou might be able to stop them.

  “Hold on……”


  “Why am I so sure that Jiang He could kill the Golden-Crowned Black Eagle King?”


  “That beast is just a class above the Violet-Crowned Golden Eagle, which I am an equal match against…… Jiang He only killed the Red Toad King by chance, so wouldn’t it be a pipe dream for him to kill the Golden-Crowned Black Eagle King?”


  Three Blades Lin was a little calmer at that thought.

  Moreover, he was flying at twice the speed of sound, and he would definitely get to Jiang He before he reached Mount Tian.

  ***

  “My Royal Sword Flight is still too slow!”


  Jiang He landed beneath Mount Tian, put away his Scarlet Flame Sword with a wave of his hand and shook his head. “The Scarlet Flame Sword is a premium soul weapon and would be buffed in flight speed to a certain extent, but I’m just a Qi-Refinist at the moment and a novice in immortal arts. Even at full power, I’m just moving at two point five times the speed of light.”


  In fact, 2.5 times the speed of light was actually too quick.

  It was difficult for ordinary divine-tier elites to even reach twice the speed of sound.

  Even so, Jiang He was very dissatisfied.

  After all, he was about to face the Golden-Crowned Black Eagle King, and records show that that the Golden-Crowned Black Eagle King’s top speed was three times the speed of sound…… Even Jiang He had a hunch that the beast would surpass that when it fleed for its life.

  And how could he catch up at 2.5 times the speed of sound?

  “Actually, I think it would be more practical if I came for my payback after ascending to Golden Cinnabar.”


  Withdrawing his aura, Jiang He strode up the mountain.

  After all, the uniqueness of sword training would not really manifest on Qi-Refinist tier.

  Nonetheless, his ability would definitely shoot up once he reached Golden Cinnabar. When the time comes, his flight speed would definitely shoot up as well, and he could chase down the Golden-Crowned Black Eagle King even if he gave it a head start of several thousand meters.

  “However……”


  “I’m still far from reaching Golden Cinnabar!”


  “Even after I earned a ton of Farm Points, going off to the Tantra Secret Realm and going back to Lingzhou City, and then come back when I’m Golden Cinnabar…… it would take over half a month!”


  And half a month was too long!

  It was the sixth of October today, six whole days since that Golden-Crowned Black Eagle King shot a golden ray at him.

  Jiang He felt that it was too much compassion letting the vermin live six more days.

  “Compared to Golden Cinnabar, I have a more practical solution!”


  “I will pretend to be weak, and take it down with a single strike!”


  “After all the Golden-Crowned Black Eagle King wouldn’t flee at once when it sees me since I’m just rank-nine novice…… When that happens, I could just burst forward, unleash by Scarlet Flame Sword and cut it down without giving it a chance to escape. That way, I certainly wouldn’t have to worry about catching up.”


  Jiang He’s eyes lit up when that idea came to mind.

  That plan……

  Was perfect!

  At that thought, Jiang He did not bother to hide his aura at all.

  He merely released a fraction of this rank-nine novice aura, and soon caught some Ferals’ attention.

  Drawing out his Dragon-Slaying Saber, he slaughtered his way from the foot of the mountain halfway up the peak, where he slew a rank-nine Feral with some ‘difficulty’ in a bloodbath……

  Screech!

  A sharp cry resounded over the peak—the Golden-Crowned Black Eagle King stretched its great wings atop the stark-white peak, circling the sky once before diving down upon Jiang He.

  Delight showed on Jiang He’s face.

  It’s here!

  The vermin was finally alerted……

  He wouldn’t be able to keep pretending if it hadn’t come, since acting ‘weak’ was very difficult, and it took a lot for him to engage a rank-nine Feral in a bloody battle when he could cut it down with a single strike.

  What if the Golden-Crowned Black Eagle King was frightened off when that happened?

  “Human!”


  The Golden-Crowned Black Eagle King dove down at him and landed on a giant boulder fifty meters away from Jiang He, leveling its dark-golden eyes on Jiang He and laughing when it recognized him. “Human,” it spoke, “You really have a death wish—you had Wang Hou protecting you back at Jiangnan, but now…… who could save you?”


  Jiang He: “.……”


  He did a double take.

  Why were the Feral Kings all acting all civilized when he met them, speaking with such culture—leaving aside your increased intelligence after you evolved, could you have gained self-taught knowledge as well?

  He smiled and strode towards the Golden-Crowned Black Eagle King, the silhouette of six suns appearing behind him, with a dragon and an elephant circling between them.

  Dragon-Slaying Saber in hand, Jiang He laughed. “Golden-Crowned Black Eagle King, when you attacked me on that day, did you consider that you would be the one dying because you failed to kill me?”


  “Hahahaha!”


  Golden-Crowned Black Eagle King was most amused.

  It was at first shocked that a rank-nine martial artist could unleash such a powerful aura, but that bit of strength would never match him.

  There was mockery in the Golden-Crowned Black Eagle King’s dark golden eyes as it laughed, “Since you wish to die, this king shall humor your wish.”


  Whoosh!

  Spreading its ink-dark wings that were as tough as steel and kicking up a hurricane the instant it did. However, even as the Golden-Crowned Black Eagle King was about to take to the skies, it saw Jiang He suddenly swinging his blade at itself from less than thirty-meters away!

  “Vermin!”


  “Eat my blade!”


  Boom!

  A thirty-meter thunder slash erupted.

  At the same time……

  Shiiing!

  The hum of a sword echoed.

  After the thunder slash, a sword radiance blazing with scarlet flames grew larger and larger in the Golden-Crowned Black Eagle King’s vision……

  In the end, thirty-meters was too close.

  The Golden-Crowned Black Eagle could only shriek deafeningly once, before……

  Shunk!

  Sword light pierced through its skull.

  Boom.

  And the Golden-Crowned Black Eagle landed on the ground.

  Extending his hand to withdraw the Scarlet Flame Sword, Jiang He came beside the corpse of the Feral King and couldn’t help chuckling.

  “As I’ve thought…… my idea was just too solid.”


  “Running from me when I could instakill you?”