Chapter 56: Chapter 56: North Mountain Map
Wang Wu was overjoyed.
He never expected that this branch bloodline talent would be even more powerful than he imagined.
Especially the ability to increase concealment effect by 10% and to use the scents of surrounding plants to obscure his own scent—it’s simply amazing.
It’s important to know that Wang Wu has always insisted on bathing in the stream and using the creek for relieving himself, not because he loves cleanliness, but to reduce his body odor.
If his body odor were too strong, even with Level 8 Passive Concealment, he would still have a big flaw, prone to being caught by those with keen senses like cats and dogs. Now that weakness is covered.
Next, Wang Wu looked at the remaining Devil Vine roots and chose not to chew and consume them. He currently had 178 Life Value remaining, which wasn’t very safe. He needed more satiety to restore life.
However, this valley should have turned barren by now, without a single blade of grass; where could he find food?
A thought crossed his mind to move to the end of the valley to the north, to the North Mountain Root, where vegetation is still intact and the ecosystem hasn’t been destroyed.
However, the Little Demons there are certainly extra powerful.
With this thought, Wang Wu squeezed out of the rock crevice, found some rocks that the Devil Vine had unearthed, and pressed them down on the Devil Vine roots to cover them, finally sealing the entrance of the rock crevice.
There were no other Little Demons left in the valley, so there was nothing to worry about.
Besides, even if an unfortunate Little Demon found it and consumed it, the effect would be different from his. The Devil Vine is extremely poisonous—it can directly erode 100 Life Value. Without sufficient resistance and a strong enough healing talent, it’s practically asking for death!
At this moment, Wang Wu headed straight for the stream in the center of the valley.
The entire valley seemed like it had been plowed by a diligent farmer, with black soil everywhere, and no sign of any vegetation. The shrubs had long disappeared, and even the six big trees that were once occupied by the Little Red Bird group had vanished without a trace.
They survived the ravages of the Iron-Teeth Flying Locust Legion but didn’t withstand this wave.
Wang Wu felt complicated inside; the Cultivation Realm was truly too deep.
Who would have thought that locusts could cultivate, let alone grow to a level equal to those Great Demons.
And this time, the red ants in the Devil Vine—it’s unclear if the ant colony controlled the Devil Vine or if they were mutually parasitic.
In any case, everything in the world has opportunities to evolve and cultivate under the nurturing of Spirit Essence.
It’s a complete scramble.
"Wait a minute?"
Soon, Wang Wu arrived at the location of the stream but was shocked to find that the stream, which was so abundant with water yesterday, had dried up?!
Had it all been absorbed by the Devil Vine?
The scorched earth policy of the imps was no less than this.
Wang Wu looked around blankly and walked upstream for several hundred meters, only to discover that the stream had not really dried up but that its original course had been altered, now spreading out all over the place.
He hurriedly walked further upstream, found a still relatively clear section of stream, drank a good amount to reach 50 points of satiety, and activated the Level 6 Healing Talent to restore as much life value as possible.
After finishing these tasks, he looked up and saw that the sky was already dimly lit, with the eastern horizon beaming with a thousand rays of auspicious light, heralding the arrival of sunrise.
Should he stay in the valley to bask in the sun and absorb Spiritual Qi, or seize the opportunity at sunrise to sneak to the foot of North Mountain?
Wang Wu hesitated only for a second before making his decision.
"Go!"
He immediately dashed upstream of the valley, the safest option.
If he missed this moment, he’d have to wait until sunrise again tomorrow.
In a flash, Wang Wu’s short legs were moving rapidly, maintaining a speed of 8 seconds per hundred meters even though the valley’s ground had been ravaged by the Devil Vine beyond recognition.
However, his physical strength was depleting rapidly.
He ran for about a kilometer at one stretch, collapsing on the ground as his Physical Strength was exhausted. At this time, the golden sunlight was threading through the land in a myriad of strands as the Purple Gold Three Minutes was about to begin.
Wang Wu lay splayed out, watching the mysterious giant net sweeping across the sky, witnessing several Great Demons taking turns to use their divine techniques to scoop up large amounts of golden particles into their pouches.
It’s hard to imagine how powerful they are with so much spiritual energy augmented.
Did the Human Race cultivators create that mysterious giant net?
If so, it’s no wonder the Human Race cultivators are so powerful.
If not, could it be done by Immortals?
Wang Wu mindlessly entertained these thoughts, quietly waiting for his strength to recover.
Physical Strength is quite a peculiar attribute, quickly recovering after depletion, and it doesn’t stop recovering just because satiety is low.
Wang Wu conducted an experiment last winter.
Even without eating for three days, Physical Strength wouldn’t change much, at most its upper limit would slightly reduce.
Sure enough, when the Purple Gold Three Minutes entered the second minute, Wang Wu’s Physical Strength smoothly recovered to 230 points.
He jumped up and started running again, getting closer and closer.
Ahead lay the valley’s end, the North Mountain Root area, lush and distinct from the valley side, a stark contrast.
This North Mountain was even more massive and towering, although far inferior to the distant towering snowy mountains, yet compared to the small valley, it was truly a lofty peak.
Wang Wu estimated that it had at least a thousand meters of elevation relative to the sea level.
Lush ridges, rolling hills, towering ancient trees, rugged giant stones painted the landscape of a famous mountain.
In comparison, the so-called low hills in the valley were mostly only a few dozen meters high, merely extensions of the North Mountain’s outlying branches.
Therefore, North Mountain surely housed remarkable Little Demons and was likely the territory of a certain Great Demon, seeing that even the Iron-Teeth Flying Locust and Devil Vine dared not enter.
To some extent, without leveraging the Purple Gold Three Minutes opportunity, Wang Wu wouldn’t dare to approach.
For instance, at this very moment, even before reaching the North Mountain Root, his Level 6 Danger Perception had captured at least fifty to sixty extremely unfriendly gazes.
Furthermore, a chilling sense of crisis fleetingly crossed his heart.
At any other time of day, even at night, many Little Demons would rush at him mercilessly.
Yes, nighttime too; don’t think that the darkness can cover up— the stronger the Little Demons, the less affected they are by darkness.
The only factor preventing them from acting instantly is cultivation, those precious golden particles.
Now is the first minute of the Purple Gold Three Minutes; no Little Demon would want to waste it.
Wang Wu smiled slightly, his eyes quickly sweeping across, and formulated his plan.
Ignoring those perilous gazes, he swiftly dashed towards the slope containing the richest essence, the direction that had given him the most deadly, hair-raising feeling before.
The slope was essentially the root of one of the valley’s numerous low hills, considered part of North Mountain’s larger foothills.
With a height of about two hundred meters and a relatively gentle eastern slope, it holds a large sunny hillside, populated with a moderate number of trees but diverse types. Among them were over a dozen suspected fruit-bearing trees, their blossoming flowers sending fragrant scents with the breeze, heart-refreshing.
Moreover, the hillside was rocky, describing it as filled with rugged stones would not be an exaggeration.
The most prominent and tallest of these rocks was a towering twenty-meter giant stone shaped like a rhinoceros horn, undeniably the landmark of this hillside, impossible to ignore.
At this moment, an even larger Big Mountain Cat than Wang Wu stood upon the stone, draped in golden glow, clearly possessing a high Spiritual Essence Level, at least Level 2 Spirit Essence.
The feeling that brought Wang Wu a sense of lethal danger was from this familiar-looking Big Mountain Cat—was it the same Big Mountain Cat from the valley last year?
If so, its strength had indeed risen rapidly.
He had no doubt that the creature could kill him with a single swipe.
Honestly, Wang Wu felt uneasy, this Big Mountain Cat invoked such terror in him, he constantly felt an urge to turn and flee.
But eventually he restrained himself and, according to his plan, shot towards the bottom of the hillside beneath a giant stone.
At this moment, the killing intent from all directions almost became tangible, startling over a hundred Little Demons.
This place was truly a den of dragons and tigers!