Chapter 22: Stirring Up a Hornets' Nest?

  Jiang Hao's horse galloped non-stop, while his Wind Chasing Steps continued to cultivate, becoming more and more proficient. As he cultivated the Wind Chasing Steps, his soul power also slowly increased. Generally speaking, ordinary people who want to cultivate their soul power must have a strong Sea of Consciousness. It is almost impossible for someone like Jiang Hao to enhance his soul power through martial skills training. Jiang Hao had no idea how precious this auxiliary skill was; if it were to be revealed outside, it would definitely attract the envy of some top-notch experts.

  At night, he rested and during the day, he rushed on his journey. Unknowingly, several days had passed. Jiang Hao was now numb to seeing bandits. Without saying a word, he would attack them because he found that these bandits were only of two kinds: those who plotted for wealth and killed, and those who only plotted for wealth. Jiang Hao didn't bother with idle chatter and directly took action. After dozens of battles big and small, Jiang Hao's level hadn't made much progress and was still at the five-star warrior rank. However, his actual strength had increased significantly, making his moves more cunning, causing those bandits who had ideas about him to lose their wives and soldiers.

  The blue waves were like ripples, and the gentle breeze was no match for the scorching heat. As time passed, Jiang Hao drew closer to the heart of the grasslands. At this point, the number of bandits decreased, but their strength increased. After half a month of arduous training, Jiang Hao had reached the pinnacle of a five-star warrior, and each battle brought him immense benefits. It was strange that in the past month, Jiang Hao would encounter bandits almost every day, but magical beasts were rare, as if they had been cleared out by humans. It seemed that these bandits had swept away the lower-level magical beasts to better utilize the grasslands. Jiang Hao understood this point and was delighted by the peace, otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to handle even more magical beasts.

  "Hey, I'm telling you, master, can't we take a break on this hot day? We haven't encountered any bandits for two days and I'm starting to feel a bit unaccustomed." Jiang Huan wore only his upper garment, walking slowly across the grassland with an airy gait, drifting left and right.

  "What? You're still addicted?" Looking closely, on Jiang Hao's left side was a figure in white clothes, it was actually Shi Tian. "Have you forgotten that two days ago you were chased by a war master and ran away?"

  "Well, what can I do? The War Master's physical strength is just too strong. Although I'm not bad either, but I'm not arrogant enough to confront a War Master head-on. What if I don't run?" Jiang Huan muttered to himself.

  "Hmph," Tian Leng coldly snorted, "You coward, you can't even win a fight and yet you ran away with your tail between your legs. You've disgraced me completely."

  "My mother once said that in this world, there is no eternal winner, and learning to escape is also a skill." Jiang Hao said with a sly smile.

  "I... " The words got stuck in his throat, and he stood there, stunned.

  "I'm telling you, whatever I say happens, and it really doesn't seem like I'll get a break." Jiang Huan's spiritual awareness could now detect movements thousands of miles away, and he could clearly see that several people were approaching his location from hundreds of miles away. Needless to say, it was another group of bandits. Jiang Huan let out a low cry, not caring about the heavens, and released all the energy in his body, with a fierce aura surging forth.

  Since entering the grassland, Jiang Hao has been acting low-key, always wanting to understand his opponent's strength before deciding whether to take action. However, those bandits were always elusive and unpredictable, and with himself being exhausted from rushing on the road for a long time, he was really powerless despite having the heart for it. So he simply let go, whatever comes will come, Jiang Hao also stopped pretending anymore.

  That group of people seemed to have sensed their own momentum and came straight for them.

  "Jiang Hao, be careful, there are quite a few demonic beasts' auras around us." Zi Tian withdrew his divine sense and said calmly.

  "Hmm, Master, I've also sensed it. It's strange, we haven't encountered any magical beasts for so many days, I thought they were all extinct in this grassland. Good that you're here." Jiang Huan's eyes flashed with a hint of sharpness as he smiled.

  Within a radius of thousands of miles, Jiang Hao keenly sensed numerous auras. These auras seemed to be extremely regular, and if not for Jiang Hao's cultivation of soul power, he might not have sensed them at all.

  "Hiss!"

  The grass in front of Jiang Hao was suddenly pulled open, and several figures appeared on the empty ground before his eyes. A strong bloody smell began to diffuse in the air, making it difficult for Jiang Hao to breathe. He slowly released his own spiritual power, only feeling a little better.

  Appearing in front of Jiang Hao were five people dressed in black, four men and one woman. The strong smell of blood was emanating from their bodies, no need to say more, these five people must have gone through a bloody battle.

  Slowly scanning the five people in front of him, Jiang Huan was shocked to find that he couldn't see through their strength at all. To think that his cultivated battle skills had the effect of enhancing soul power, so Jiang Huan could sense strengths several levels higher than himself. The current situation can be explained by the fact that the five people in front of him were likely all high-level masters of the War Master level.

  "Damn it, I'm so unlucky, running into five bandit regiments. Master, what should we do now?"

  "Hmph, you didn't work hard to cultivate usually, now you're anxious, let's see the situation, if it really doesn't work out, then prepare to run." Zi Tian hummed and began to scold Jiang Huan.

  ········

  "Big brother, it turns out he's just a little brat, I thought he was some kind of expert. What should we do now?"

  One of the five people in between whispered, but was still heard by Jiang Huan.

  "Yes, big brother, let's hurry up and escape. If we don't, once they surround us, we won't be able to get away." The only female among them also cried out urgently.

  The man at the forefront slowly shook his head and muttered: "It's too late!"

  As soon as he finished speaking, Jiang Hao suddenly discovered that the surrounding hundred miles had burst out with a large number of demonic beasts' auras, and based on his judgment, there were no less than a thousand.

  "My god, so you guys were being chased and got yourselves killed." Jiang Hao was stunned for a moment before suddenly reacting and shouting.

  "Hey, kid, can't you speak more clearly? We sensed your obscure aura and rushed over, thinking you were a master or something." The woman said.

  "Alright, no more talking, little brother. It's our fault, but now we're surrounded. Looks like a fight to the death is unavoidable." The leading man said with a clenched fist.

  "Hmph, you're all experts, my estimation of a warrior's strength isn't even enough to fill the gaps between teeth. At least you should let me know what's going on, where did so many demons come from and why are they chasing you?" Jiang Huan asked several questions in one breath.

  "Ah, it's like this, we unintentionally killed a third-order fire rock snake and encountered the pursuit of the snake group."

  "Damn it, a third-tier demonic beast." Jiang Huan rolled his eyes, somewhat speechless.

  "Hmph."

  Sounds kept coming from the grasslands all around, as if iron blocks and rocks were rubbing against each other, growing louder and louder.

  In the blink of an eye, several giant red snakes emerged from the grass thicket. The snakes were over seven feet long and emitted a red glow all over their bodies. Under the red glow, there was a thick, earthy yellow color with faintly visible cracked patterns, which suggested that they had very strong defenses.

  A continuous stream of fire-rock snakes emerged from the bushes, surrounding Jiang Hao and the other six people in the middle of the empty space.

  "Everyone be careful, this little brother, the Fire Rock Snake's entire body is hard as steel, only its eyes are its weak point. Also, beware of its flames." The man who was at the forefront burst out with an extremely strong aura and pushed Jiang Heng into the protective circle of the crowd.

  "Gentlemen, it's time to fight to the death!" He clenched his fist and in the next second, his figure had already flashed out, and the fierce battle aura bursting forth shattered several snakes around him into pieces.

  The other four people also used their own methods, and for a time, the explosive sounds of the battle on the empty ground came one after another. The fire rock snakes were constantly being killed, but most of them were only first-stage in strength, with the strongest being second-stage, so it wasn't difficult to deal with them. Jiang Huan swung his dagger and split open a fire rock snake that had snuck up on him from behind, right between its eyes.

  The ground around was already littered with snake corpses, and yet more fire-rock snakes kept emerging from the underbrush, it was unclear when they would ever be finished off.

  At this time, Jiang Hao discovered that the strength of the Fire Rock Snake was getting stronger and stronger. The first stage was almost invisible, and now they were all some second-stage ones, which rushed towards Jiang Hao and his party with a fierce and fearless attitude, bringing greater pressure to everyone.

  ;