Chapter 5: Desolate Mountain Range (Vote for tickets, collect)

  Shen Cong's eyes narrowed, and the Nourishing Life Scripture inside him began to vibrate. The Nourishing Life Scripture was relatively weak in combat, but that was compared to other Heart Methods on the same level, such as the Middle Grade Heart Method of the Five Elements. If others practiced it to the fourth layer, they would definitely be much stronger than Shen Cong's fourth layer.

  At present, Shen Cong's Nourishing Life Classic is at the peak of the fourth layer, while Lu Ming and Zhang Ku's heart methods are stuck in the third layer, or even lower, and are definitely not middle-grade heart methods. In this case, the shortcomings of the Nourishing Life Classic are not so obvious, and it even has a slight advantage. Moreover, don't forget that Shen Cong has a strong physique that can withstand the combined forces of the second rank without being at a disadvantage.

  "What are you three doing here? Have you finished today's task?" A loud shout came from afar, and an old man walked over with someone behind him. It wasn't Qin Wu, who else could it be? When Qin Wu saw Shen Cong, he even winked at him on purpose.

  "Li is in charge!"

  Upon seeing the old man, Zhang Ku and Lu Ming's faces changed involuntarily, and they hastily paid their respects. The old man was one of the caretakers of the outer sect of the Luo Shui Sect, whose authority wasn't great even within the sect. In fact, any inner sect disciple didn't need to pay much attention to an outer sect caretaker. However, just because inner sect disciples didn't need to care about them didn't mean that outer sect disciples didn't have to; as long as you were still an outer sect disciple, you had to be under their supervision.

  "You're all stuffed and idle here, with that free time you'd better practice more, in the trial a month later, you'll be able to make a name for yourself, otherwise you'll be an outer door disciple for the rest of your lives!" Li shouted loudly, it's hard to imagine that such a loud voice could come from an old body.

  "Li said we're leaving now!" Lu Ming put on a hypocritical smile, glanced at Shen Cong with a slanted eye, then lowered his head and walked past Shen Cong's side. "Kid, you're lucky this time. Next time we meet, I hope you still have such good luck!"

  Shen Cong didn't get any answer, and it's still unclear who had the good luck this time. But if they really meet again next time, Lu Ming and others probably won't have such good luck. A war of words is meaningless; what this world truly relies on is still strength, a point that Shen Cong has deeply understood long ago.

  Qin Wu ran to Shen Cong's front, saw that Shen Cong was not injured, and a smile appeared on his face. "Just now, I saw from afar that they had you surrounded, so I knew it wasn't good. I wanted to rush up but felt my strength was insufficient, so I went to fetch Li the manager over. Fortunately, we made it in time and didn't let you suffer a loss!"

  "Thank you!" Whether Qin Wu was helpful or not, this intention was genuine, and Shen Cong naturally felt grateful.

  "Haha." Qin Wu patted Shen Cong's shoulder and laughed loudly.

  "From now on, I'll make a detour when I see those two, I'm not always free!" Li Guanshi glanced at Shen Congyi, if it weren't for some connections with Qin Wu's family, he wouldn't have come over specially.

  "I understand, I'll be careful next time!" Shen Cong nodded and watched Li Guan Shi walk away. Qin Wu didn't leave, seemingly afraid that Lu Ming would come over to cause trouble later, so he stayed behind to do the task with Shen Cong instead. Anyway, his task for today wasn't finished yet. Shen Cong felt a bit helpless about Qin Wu's actions, but in his heart, he was touched - often times, friendships are formed this way.

  "Lu Shixiong, can't we just let that little brat Shen off the hook like this? If Li Guanshi hadn't shown up earlier, I would have taught him a good lesson! Zhang Ku said with unrelenting anger, thinking about Shen Cong's calm demeanor and feeling uncomfortable in his heart. Why wasn't he panicked or even begging for mercy?"

  "This time it was a bit miscalculated, I didn't expect Shen Cong's cultivation to have already reached the first stage of the peak phase! This cultivation is not high, but it's not too bad either!" Lu Ming said in a low voice.

  "Can't we just leave it like this?" Zhang Ku said discontentedly.

  "When did I say it's settled like this? Daring to refuse us in person and even daring to resist, he has already crossed my bottom line. Without giving him some lessons, it is impossible for him to understand!" A sly smile appeared at the corner of Lu Ming's mouth.

  "That's right!" Zhang Ku shouted in satisfaction, "Then we'll immediately go back and kill him. That Li must have left by now. We can definitely teach that little brat a lesson and vent our anger."

  "There's no rush now, going back to beat that kid up would be the most we can do, just this one point is not enough, if we want to teach him a lesson, we'll teach him a harsher one!" A cold glint flashed in Lu Ming's eyes. "One month later, the Outer Sect's Grand Competition will take place, and that kid's cultivation has reached this level by then, he definitely won't let go of this opportunity. The Outer Sect's Grand Competition, some injuries are unavoidable, when we meet him at that time, even if we inflict serious injuries, no one will blame us for it, isn't this a wonderful thing to do?"

  As time passed, the Losu sect seemed to have become more lively, but this liveliness was only for outer door disciples. The Outer Door Grand Competition was not a chance to leap into the dragon's gate, but at least it was a rare opportunity for advancement. Not to mention becoming an inner door disciple afterwards, with all sorts of privileges, just having access to even more profound martial arts secrets was a temptation.

  All the disciples who joined the Luoshui Sect were those who wanted to go further on their cultivation path and would not miss such an opportunity. Those who thought they had some strength were all thinking of ways to enhance their own advantages, and the shadows of outer sect disciples could often be seen in the town at the foot of the mountain, where pharmacies and weapon shops could be found.

  For this trial, Shen Cong naturally also put it in his heart, a way to make himself stronger, Shen Cong would put it in his heart. However, now that the computer's battery is insufficient, in order to reserve enough energy to maintain the skin-changing function, Shen Cong could only stop using the time-accelerating method to cultivate.

  According to Shen Cong's plan, if he had time to accelerate his cultivation, one month would be equivalent to eight months for others, and his cultivation would definitely make further progress. It was possible that he could even break through the fifth layer of the Nurturing Life Scripture, so in the outer door trial, it would be almost a sure win.

  Now that the plan has fallen through, Shen Cong can only start from other aspects, such as his own combat ability. At the same time, Shen Cong is very poor, and with limited cultivation resources being consumed at eight times the speed, no matter how much he has, it will be depleted. Therefore, Shen Cong decided to go into the mountains to kill some demon beasts, not only can he temper his own combat ability, but also exchange the demon beasts he killed for money, which can be used to buy some elixirs or equipment that can be used in the current stage.

  Of course, it's mainly for the sake of combat experience. Two people with the same cultivation level, one who has been through a hundred battles and another who is just a newcomer, the outcome of their battle is self-evident. Moreover, the demonic beasts in the forest live a life of pure survival of the fittest, that kind of aura may be stronger than humans from birth, if you can ignore the demonic beast's aura, then when resisting human aura, not to mention completely ignoring it, at least you won't be so flustered.

  Out of the gate, finding the right direction, Shen Cong accelerated his pace. There were no familiar faces on the road, and Shen Cong also showed off his true speed, with his strong physique and impressive cultivation, making him even faster, if someone who knew Shen Cong saw this scene at this moment, they would probably be stunned.

  It was noon when Shen Cong finally saw the desolate mountain range in the distance, and there were almost no people on the road. The desolate mountain range was full of ferocious beasts, and ordinary people who came here were simply looking for death. Even those experienced hunters, if they didn't have any cultivation on their bodies, coming here would be a dead end.

  In the outskirts of Luoshan Mountains, only some first-class demonic beasts appeared. Dealing with these demonic beasts was naturally a piece of cake for Shen Cong, after all, the strength they possessed was not on the same level. However, even though these weak demonic beasts were no match for him, Shen Cong did not show any sign of underestimating them. Compared to those old hands, Shen Cong's understanding of demonic beasts was limited to what he had read in books, but real-life battles required him to use his own body to remember the characteristics of these demonic beasts.

  All the way to kill, Shen Cong quickly figured out the characteristics of a first-level demon beast. Then Shen Cong didn't continue to find trouble with these low-level demon beasts, as long as those first-level demon beasts didn't come to die on their own. Suddenly, Shen Cong stopped his footsteps, and a dense fighting sound came from afar.

  "Someone is there!"

  Shen Cong glanced in the direction of the sound and then walked straight over. Within a distance of about half a mile, the scene ahead appeared before Shen Cong's eyes. A group of people were surrounding and hunting a second-level primary demon beast, and the battle was nearing its end. Although the demon beast was still struggling desperately, it was clearly already hopeless.

  "Soulbreaker!"

  A shrill cry, a figure transformed into an illusion and charged towards the demon beast. A cold gleam flashed in the air, and in the next second, the gleam disappeared, and the demon beast also stiffened on the spot. The demon beast's breath was declining at an alarming rate, and it vanished completely in just a moment.

  "Good, Shidi's Bao Hun Gun has grasped the essence, and among those of the same level, perhaps no one can try its edge!" Someone on the side shouted in praise, and that previous shot indeed deserved such an evaluation. Without a certain level of power, how could a second-level demon beast be killed with just one shot, even if it was already at the end of its road?

  "If it weren't for letting everyone gain more practical experience, I alone could have killed this inferior beast!" The gun-wielding youth looked very proud, and his words didn't leave any room for sentiment, causing the faces of several people around him to turn slightly red, but they couldn't refute anything.

  "Let's hurry up and get rid of this demon beast, lest the smell of blood attracts more trouble!" One of the women hastily intervened.

  "You guys hold on, I'll recover for a bit, and then we can take down that poisonous spider!"

  "Uh, for that second-tier top-notch poisonous spider, we've been preparing for so long, and indeed can't afford to make any mistakes. Everyone should take a short break too. However, just now Li Shidi and Zhang Shidi were both injured, which added some variables to dealing with that poisonous spider." The leader said hesitantly.

  "This is indeed a trouble!" Others were somewhat hesitant, the gun-wielding youth's strength was higher than each of theirs, but the impact of two people being injured couldn't be offset. That poisonous spider had a second-tier top-notch level, equivalent to the peak of human second-stage combined force, making it quite difficult to deal with.

  "Add me one how?" Shen walked over slowly.

  "Who!" The armed youth who had just sat down suddenly stood up, his eyes revealing a murderous aura.