Chapter Fifty-One: The Tail in the Dark

  Time flies, ten days have passed in the blink of an eye. At this time, the public examination in Luocheng has already ended, and those who are truly talented have been recruited by various factions. Those who did not pass also left one after another, and Luocheng returned to its usual tranquility once again.

  Taihang Mountains!

  "Ah…… spare my life……” This was a Wu Wang high-ranking expert, from a small family in Luo City. He had come to the Taihang Mountains with full confidence, searching for the whereabouts of the great demon Xu Hua, hoping to capture Xu Hua before others and obtain the treasure in his hands. However, reality is always cruel. When he saw Xu Hua, he thought good fortune had arrived, but what followed was the ruthless slaughter of his tribesmen one by one. The sight left him trembling with fear. By the time he realized his mistake, it was too late. All his tribesmen were dead, leaving only him alive.

  He didn't want to die, he wanted to live. At this moment, people's hearts are always fragile, and when faced with an irresistible enemy, people can only yearn for others' forgiveness from the depths of their heart in order to survive.

  "You come or I come." Xu Hua glanced at Hei Lian beside him. For people who begged for mercy like this, he had seen many in the past few days. At first, there was still a struggle in his heart, but soon that struggle disappeared. On the contrary, if he were caught by them and couldn't hand over the treasure, they would think of ways to torture him to get what they wanted. Was he being cruel? Not at all. This was actually a kind of mercy, a mercy towards himself, which allowed him to escape danger and avoid future worries. Repaying kindness with kindness would only lead to others' recklessness.

  "This person looked at the two in horror, wanting to beg for mercy again, but Hei Lian had already made his move. A cold light flashed by, and a shallow blood mark appeared on the neck of this Wu Wang. However, a large amount of fresh blood soon gushed out. The man's pupils were congested with blood as he stared at the two, saying: "You two devils will definitely die without a burial place, I'll be waiting for you down below."

  Hmph...

  Finally, the king of martial arts fell down. As for his last words, the two were deaf to them, as they had been tired of listening all along. However, since they were still alive, they weren't afraid, let alone dead.

  "These guys just won't quit, but no matter how many more of this kind come, it's useless." Xu Hua looked around at the corpses scattered all over the ground and smiled coldly.

  Hei Lian glanced at him and smiled faintly, saying: "Your injuries have fully recovered, right?"

  Xu Hua nodded, actually he had already recovered yesterday.

  "This mission is impossible for me to complete, as the entire city of Luo is now searching for you. I won't be able to bring you back to Luo City, so the mission will inevitably fail. Since your injuries have healed and with your abilities, those people shouldn't be able to kill you. I'll also prepare to leave, it's been over ten days since we left, it's time for me to return to our master." As they were about to part ways, there was a hint of sadness, although they had only spent over ten days together with Xuhua, but they had already developed a deep affection for each other.

  Xu Hua nodded, not saying much more, and finally said calmly: "No matter what purpose you came with, I want to thank you. As for the person behind your back, if there's a chance in the future, go see him once. Remember, this is just returning a favor to you. If the person behind your back is unfavorable to me in the future, I will still kill them."

  "With me here, you can't kill him; maybe after killing me, you can kill him."

  After saying this, Hei Lian left, like a black elf disappearing into the thicket.

  At the moment she left, Xu Hua revealed a faint smile, "Interesting guy." Immediately looked around at the big trees that had grown for hundreds of years, and said: "You're gone, it's good, I can absorb the life energy without restriction now."

  These days in the Taihang Mountains, Xu Hua has been absorbing the life energy of this mountain range at all times, but due to Hei Lian's presence by his side, he had to restrain himself. This feeling made him very uncomfortable. Now that Hei Lian is gone and his injuries have healed, he can freely absorb the endless life energy in this forest.

  As for the corpses on the ground, they were also drained of their life energy by him, turning into ashes and mixing with the dust on the ground.

  These past few days, in order to repair the injuries he had suffered, Xu Hua had consumed a considerable amount of life energy. Fortunately, he had also absorbed a great deal of life energy. In recent days, the range controlled by Xu Hua's "Life-Devouring Technique" had grown larger and larger, extending to an area of forty zhang in diameter. As soon as the technique was activated, the massive life energy from the ancient trees within that range would rapidly surge into Xu Hua's body, slowly condensing into a Life Crystal.

  For several days, Xu Hua had been diligently absorbing the endless life energy in the jungle. When he was hungry, he would kill and roast some demon beasts to eat. Of course, the leftover meat of the demon beasts was all stored in his spatial ring. He had a plan in mind, which was to create a power that completely belonged to him, and this demon beast meat was the foundation of it all.

  With these demonic beast meats, cultivating the Body Refining Technique will be twice as effective. Adding the life energy he provided, it will be possible to quickly create a batch of not weak body cultivators.

  These past few days, Xu Hua had also encountered some Luo City warriors who came for the treasure, but without exception, they were all killed by him and turned into life energy. However, Xu Hua didn't feel a single bit of excitement, because he always felt that there was a pair of eyes secretly watching him. But when he activated "Life Devouring Skill", he couldn't discover anything, which made him very curious, but deep down in his heart, he became even more vigilant.

  "Roar......"

  A thunderous roar suddenly came from the dense forest ahead, startling many birds into flight. Xu Hua then heard the terrified howls of many ferocious beasts.

  "Could it be that a third-tier demonic beast has appeared in the outer circle?" Xu Hua was hesitant deep down, whether to go and take a look or keep a safe distance, but in the end, Xu Hua decided to go and take a look.

  Whoosh! Whoosh!

  Soon a figure was moving swiftly through the jungle, rapidly closing in on the source of the roaring sound.

  After Xu Hua left, a black-clothed old man suddenly appeared on a distant tree, staring in the direction Xu Hua had gone. He revealed a ferocious expression and said: "A third-stage demonic beast! And it should be one of the more formidable ones among the third-stage demonic beasts. You really don't know how to live or die. Even if you're very strong, that's only relative to humans of the same stage. Against demonic beasts, you have no advantage whatsoever. But this is also good, once you're dead, I can obtain your terrifying cultivation method."

  This man was Gai Lao, who was sent by the Wu Ding Hao Ran sect to kill Xuhua. On that day, since the City Master's mansion was quite far from where Xuhua was, when he arrived, Xuhua was already gone. Later, he heard that Xuhua had fled to the Taihang Mountains and chased after him all the way to the Taihang Mountains in search of Xuhua's whereabouts. After more than ten days, he finally discovered Xuhua's trail. Just as he was about to make his move, he saw Xuhua killing the martial artists of Luocheng again, leaving him shocked. He really didn't expect this young man to be so strong, and he himself might not even be able to surpass Xuhua, so he hid in the dark, waiting for an opportunity to strike.

  But these days of tracking had left him even more shocked, he saw that the grass and trees within forty feet around Xu Hua were withering slowly, while Xu Hua himself showed an extremely comfortable expression.

  It's really hard to believe, he was first terrified and then ecstatic. If he had killed Xu Hua and obtained his extraordinary skill, he could also absorb the life energy of plants and trees. Using this life energy to nourish his own flesh, not only can strengthen his physical body, but also extend his lifespan.

  At this moment, Gai Lao was excited. He did not intend to hand over this technique to Wu Ding Hao Ran, nor did he want to be a servant of others for his whole life. If there was an opportunity to become stronger and turn the tables to become the master, he would certainly be willing.

  However, Xuhua himself was very strong, and it would be too difficult for one person to kill him. Just as Gailao was hesitating, Xuhua actually planned to provoke the third-level demon beast. Gailao became excited, knowing that his chance had come. When Xuhua and the third-level demon beast were both injured from their battle, that would be the time for him to strike and kill Xuhua.

  Thinking of the temptation of this rare skill, thinking of the temptation of longevity, Gai Lao could no longer bear to follow Xu Hua closely.

  Xu Hua rushed for a few miles, and on the way, he found many first- and second-level demon beasts frantically running around in all directions. Some of them even attacked him, but without exception, they were all slaughtered by Xu Hua. After rushing for another two or three miles, Xu Hua looked at the scene in front of him and finally understood why these demon beasts were fleeing everywhere.

  "Roar......"

  Fifty zhang ahead, countless centuries-old trees were pressed to the ground, and many demon beasts' corpses lay among them. The surrounding area was stained red with the blood of these dead demon beasts. A three-zhang-long golden tiger was lying on top of a massive, nameless demon beast that had already died, tearing at its body with its jaws.

  "This is the Golden Tiger!" Xu Hua recognized the massive creature in front of him, having seen it before in the tribe's demon beast atlas. Immediately, he recalled some information about the Golden Tiger.

  The Golden Tiger has three-stage strength once it reaches adulthood, with extremely high growth potential. Its body is enormous, covered entirely in golden fur, and is an extremely ferocious demon beast.

  Xu Hua looked at the Golden Tiger's massive demonic body, which was leisurely tearing apart its food, and muttered: "What a huge demonic body, I wonder how much power is contained within this body. Probably an ordinary Martial King would be slapped to death by it with just one palm, probably I'm not even a match for it."

  At this moment, Xu Hua's heart wavered, as if he shouldn't have provoked the demon beast. However, the 'worm' hiding in the dark made him even more apprehensive. The demon beast was strong, but its intelligence was very low, only demon beasts above the fifth rank possessed human-like intelligence.

  To sweep away his own tail, Xu Hua decided to take a risk and fight against the Golden Tiger. Of course, Xu Hua wouldn't immediately rush out to fight the Golden Tiger, but rather slowly plot, first absorbing as much of the Golden Tiger's life energy as possible, weakening its strength, making it more manageable.

  Just as Xu Hua slowly approached Huang Jintao.

  "Crack!"

  He accidentally stepped on a withered branch, which startled the Golden Tiger. A pair of tiger eyes filled with fierce and sinister energy stared at Xu Hua.

  "Roar......"

  "Not good......" Xu Hua's heart was greatly shocked, his whole body tense, ready to meet the golden tiger's furious attack at any time.