Chapter Twenty-Four: An Unexpected Encounter

  Time flies, and five days have passed in the blink of an eye.

  "Hua! Hua!"

  Two young men in the forest were fighting each other, and both of them used exactly the same moves.

  Dozens of rounds have passed and neither has emerged victorious.

  "Boom..."

  One of them was injured and increased their strength, while the other took a few steps back.

  "Luò Chéng, you're not bad at all. Nowadays, I also have to use six-tenths of my strength to beat you." Xú Huá walked over and patted Luò Chéng's shoulder, laughing as he spoke.

  Not bad, it's Luo Cheng. At this moment, his injury has healed, and he has absorbed Xu Hua's life crystal, making his power surge to nearly a thousand pounds. If he were to meet Shi Tou again, he would absolutely not be able to knock him to the brink of death with one palm.

  "Let it go, young master." Luo Cheng's face also had a bright and cheerful smile.

  Five days ago, Luo Cheng was seriously injured and on the verge of death. Xuhua gave him a whole Life Crystal, and under the massive infusion of life energy from the Life Crystal, Luo Cheng took two full days to fully recover and be able to move around.

  For the past two days, Xu Hua has been constantly operating "Life Devouring Technique" to absorb the life force of plants and trees. After all, in order to save Luo Cheng, Xu Hua directly took out the only complete Life Crystal from his body. For two days, except for sleeping, he was continuously absorbing the life force of plants and trees. Finally, another complete Life Crystal condensed in Xu Hua's body.

  After Luo Cheng woke up, Xu Hua personally read the "Lian Ti Jue" mantra to him, letting him cultivate. The life crystal contained too much life energy, so much that even after healing Luo Cheng's severe injuries, there was still some left over. In order not to waste this life energy, cultivating the "Lian Ti Jue" was a good idea.

  After getting this manual, Xu Hua read it and found that it described two realms of physical cultivation: Lian Rou (Refining the Flesh) and Yi Jin (Transforming the Tendons). As for what other realms lay beyond these, Xu Hua had no idea.

  The first level of body refinement is the meat refining period, which is divided into two small levels: meat refining and internal organ refining. The human body has 639 muscles and five internal organs, and at the beginning of body refinement, it is necessary to exercise all 639 muscles. For every muscle exercised, the practitioner's strength will increase by one degree. After tempering, they can refine their internal organs, and after completing the meat refining period, their strength can reach 9,000 kilograms, enough to defeat 99% of strong martial artists.

  The second level of body refinement is the easy tendon period, and there are twenty-four meridians in the human body. If all of them expand and condense, they can pull out the muscles throughout the body to explode with even greater strength.

  Luo Cheng cultivated the "Body Refining Technique" for only three days, and with the help of his remaining life energy, he tempered his entire body's three largest muscles, increasing his strength to a thousand jin. As for Xu Hua, during these three days, he did not cultivate the "Body Refining Technique", but instead circulated the "Life-Draining Technique" to absorb more life energy. After Luo Cheng's incident, Xu Hua realized that life energy was even more important to him, and as for the "Body Refining Technique", he would start cultivating it only after he had enough Life Crystals.

  "Sir, both the essence of life and the meat of the demon beast are useful for cultivating the 'Body Refining Technique', but the effect of the demon beast's meat is much smaller compared to the essence of life." In these few days, the two of them finished eating all the meat of that first-grade demon snake.

  Xu Hua smiled and said, "The reason why the meat of the demon beast is effective for cultivating the 'Body Refining Technique' is that it contains a large amount of life essence. Of course, it can't compare to pure life essence, but life essence is hard to come by! Now it seems that satisfying both of us won't be easy!"

  "Young master, don't worry. After you finish the imperial exam in Luocheng, we can go to the Taihang Mountains to hunt and kill demonic beasts. With the meat of these beasts, our cultivation will not be slow." Luo Cheng's current strength was already enough to single-handedly hunt and kill a first-class demonic beast, so he could naturally go to the Taihang Mountains.

  "Uh, during this period, I'll send you some life energy every day to cultivate the 'Body Refining Technique', and for the rest of the time, you can focus on cultivating the 'Breath Control Technique'! As for the 'Rock Shattering Fist', don't slack off either, after all, a good martial technique can better bring out your power." As for Xu Hua himself, he was basically absorbing life energy from plants and trees, but the life energy in plants and trees was limited. Even if he spent half a day absorbing life energy, it would only be equivalent to the amount of life energy in a first-tier demon beast's body. If he hunted down demon beasts and absorbed their internal life energy, the speed at which he condensed his Life Crystal would undoubtedly be much faster.

  Luo Cheng looked extremely pleased, completely forgetting the previous close call with death, and said: "I really didn't think that one day I, Luo Cheng, would have such power as I do now. Those young masters from Qing Shan Town, aside from the young master, not a single one of them can compare to me."

  "Your gaze should be broader, at least the entire country." Xu Hua smiled slightly, "Your strength is not bad either, it's time to settle the previous grudge."

  "What about those people?" Luo Cheng's eyes revealed a bloodthirsty killing intent.

  ……

  Outside Luocheng, there is a great mountain called Lao Tie Mountain. The mountain is several hundred feet high and reaches the clouds. It is surrounded by many small mountains that stretch for hundreds of miles. The roads are rugged and winding, with bandits' dens scattered all over. However, there is a main road leading to Luocheng, so many people still pass through here despite knowing that it's infested with bandits.

  At this time, at the foot of Iron Mountain, a small merchant team was moving quickly along the main road to Luocheng.

  "Everyone, keep a close eye on me, don't give those horse thieves any chance." A robust middle-aged man shouted at the front of the team.

  This small merchant team has three horse-drawn carriages, each with two horses pulling in front. Obviously the goods are very heavy, and there are more than twenty strong men guarding the horses around the carriages.

  "Don't worry, boss, my eyes are sharp, I won't let a single horse thief get away." A man with a sly and cunning appearance stood out among the crowd.

  "Haha! With Xiao Anzi around, nothing bad will happen!" Several big men nearby laughed.

  The middle-aged man in front looked at Xiao Anzi and also showed a faint smile.

  "Someone!!!"

  Suddenly Xiao Anzi stared fixedly at the woods on the left and shouted.

  "Everyone, get your gear!" the leader shouted immediately.

  "Whoosh..."

  Clang, Clank

  A group of big men immediately drew out their respective weapons from horseback, although many warriors didn't use weapons. After all, ordinary weapons had no effect on them, but for these people who were escorting the convoy, having a weapon made them feel more at ease.

  These men, led by the leader of the guards, were all looking very nervously at the dense forest to the left of the merchant group. The leader even shouted out: "Is there a hero on this road?"

  What the escorts said was just a polite phrase, although they didn't fight with these strong men and horse bandits, but after all, their own lives were more important. Sometimes, if they couldn't win, relying on these polite phrases might allow them to save their lives. After all, not all strong men and horse bandits liked to kill.

  It seemed as if there was no one in the forest, and yet it also seemed as though the other party had ignored him. The only sound was the rustling of leaves, which made this group of burly men feel a chill run down their spines.

  Suddenly, two young men emerged from the forest and walked slowly towards them. One of them said, "Uncle, there are no heroes here, only a scholar and a book boy."

  Upon hearing this, the men finally exhaled heavily and jeered: "It's just a couple of young whippersnappers, look how scared you are."

  "You're still the same, just now I saw your face turn pale, even the hands holding the knife were trembling..."

  The bandit leader took a deep breath and asked the two of them: "How did you two little rascals come from the forest?"

  Although they were just two young men, the leader of the escorts did not relax his vigilance. The world was too dangerous and would not allow him to be careless.

  "We two were originally from Qing Shan Town, planning to go to Luo Cheng for the imperial examination. However, it was our first time out, and we didn't expect to get lost on the way, entering the forest. Now that we've come out, may I ask, sir, where is this place, and how far is it to Luo Cheng?"

  These two were Xu Hua and Luo Cheng, after several days of cultivation and rushing on the road, the two finally walked out of this forest, unexpectedly just encountering this group of people, and their horses also got eaten because they were too troublesome in the forest.

  "It turns out it's a young scholar going to take an exam. But isn't it a bit early for someone so young to be taking the exam?" said one of the escorts.

  Someone immediately retorted: "You can't say that, maybe he's a young genius."

  The bandit chief dismounted his horse and greeted the two of them saying: "I don't know whether to say you're lucky or unlucky!"

  "What did he say?" Luo Cheng asked with some confusion beside Xuhua.

  Bao Tou smiled and said, "Good luck, I mean you can walk out of the forest by yourselves, and coincidentally met us here. Moreover, it's not far from Luo City, we can arrive in seven or eight days; bad luck, little brother, do you know about Lao Tie Shan?"

  Xu Hua and Luo Cheng exchanged a glance, they of course knew that the Black Robe was on this Iron Mountain. The two had already understood the meaning of the wanted poster. On Iron Mountain, bandits were rampant, if one didn't have some self-defense capabilities, they would definitely be at a disadvantage here.

  "I didn't expect we'd already arrived at Lao Tie Shan," Xu Hua said calmly, which made the leader of the escorts somewhat surprised, feeling that these two master and servant might not be simple.

  "Little brother, aren't you worried about running into a powerful person?"

  "Worrying is useless, what's meant to happen will happen, and what's not meant to happen won't. Besides, we're not without the power to protect ourselves." Xu Hua said calmly, Luo Cheng also remained calm, but a hint of bloodlust flashed in his eyes, however, the leader of the escorts and the group of escorts didn't notice.

  "You little guy is really bold, other scholars would be trembling with fear if they heard the word 'Iron Mountain', but I like it, haha. It's fate that we met, if you don't mind, let's travel together, we're also heading to the city, it's good to have someone to look out for each other." The leader of the escorts had a good impression of the two little guys and decided to bring them along for a while.

  Xu Hua's face showed a slight smile as he thanked him with a laugh: "Thank you, Uncle, for taking care of me. I'm sorry to trouble you."

  "Go sit in the carriage, although it's full of goods, there is still room on the side."

  The two men sat in the first carriage according to the meaning of the leader's words and followed the merchant team forward.

  "Devouring the Heavens" latest chapter is released by Yunqi Book Club, the fastest and most popular online release site! (This site provides: traditional pagination, waterfall two modes, can be selected in settings)