A long fang stabbed through Feng Hai’s body. He looked in disbelief at the end of that fang protruding out of his abdomen.

He roared, slashing his longsword behind him with his full force.

It went without saying that Feng Hai was incredibly powerful. A single slash of his broke apart the Stony Devil Spider’s fang, allowing him to escape.

But then he was appalled when it then opened its mouth and shot a net of web that enveloped him.

That net was dozens of meters long, and even Long Chen was caught in it.

But since he had only been on the fringe and since he hastily dodged at the first moment, he just managed to get out.

“AHHH!” Feng Hai let out a mournful cry as he was tightly wrapped by that web. He was just like a fish caught in a net, unable to escape.

The Stony Devil Spider then reeled in its web. In an instant, Feng Hai’s legs were caught in its mouth. Intense pain and terror caused him to scream.

Even Long Chen’s hair stood on end when he saw this scene of him being eaten alive.

“Die you damn brute!” Feng Hai roared. Everything below his waist had already entered its mouth. With his last energy, he slashed his longsword down on its head.

“Cliffbreaking Strike!” Terrifying Sword Qi directly sliced apart its head. He had managed to kill this third rank Magical Beast in a single blow.

But he hadn’t managed to save himself. Half his body had disappeared into its body, and his stomach had already been pierced by the Stony Devil Spider’s poisonous fang. He was already on his deathbed now.

Long Chen sighed and walked up to him. “Why did you bother with this? Why did you come to such a dangerous place to kill me? What was more important than your life?”

Feng Hai’s vitality was rapidly fading. He knew he would definitely die.

“Why did I bother? Sigh, Long Chen, you’ve won.”

Long Chen shook his head. “I didn’t win. You just lost to your greed.”

After coughing painfully a couple of times, Feng Hai’s face became black as well. The poison had already spread throughout his entire body.

“Since I’m about to die, I’ll tell you it was Elder Sun who told me to come kill you. He wanted me to bring back your spatial ring and to seal your spirit in the Soul Locking Pearl. If you want revenge, go find him…” Those were Feng Hai’s final words.

One of the senior disciple level experts of the monastery, an excellent mid Tendon Transformation expert, had died miserably here. That really was regretful.

Taking off Feng Hai’s ring, he took out a fist-sized pearl. Looking at it, Long Chen’s mood sank.

This was definitely a Soul Locking Pearl. It was an extremely sinister tool that could capture a person’s soul.

After sealing a person’s soul into the pearl, you could use all kinds of methods to torture that person’s soul. That person wouldn’t even be able to die on his own.

“You old bastard, you really are vicious. You actually wanted to imprison my soul; you’re definitely after the Nine Star Hegemon Body Art.”

Long Chen ground his teeth. As expected, his suspicions had been correct. No matter where you went, there would always be evil people.

“Feng Hai, although I didn’t know you, I know you only said that so I’d go find Elder Sun for revenge.

“Whether I die or Elder Sun dies, you’d at least get revenge on one. Who would have thought you’d be so smart right before dying?

“But you’ve succeeded. Not long from now, I’ll definitely send him to accompany you. I hope you train hard on the other side; don’t let that old bastard bully you once I send him your way. I actually hope you’ll be able to bully that old bastard around in death for me.”

He also took Feng Hai’s longsword. Although it wasn’t a heavy weapon, it was made of excellent material. With just a single slash, it had managed to break apart the Stony Devil Spider’s hard fang. It was definitely extremely sharp.

Currently, his flame blade wasn’t strong enough. Using it to display Split the Heavens wouldn’t be as good as using a real weapon. This sword would increase Split the Heavens’ power even more.

Of course, Long Chen was a thrifty person and also gathered the Stony Devil Spider’s essence blood as well. Unfortunately, it didn’t possess much essence blood at all.

After he finished gathering the essence blood, he looked at Feng Hai’s corpse. Hesitating for a few moments, he still decided to dig a grave for him.

No matter what, they were all from the same sect. Once a person died, the hatred and enmities relating to him also concluded. He didn’t want to leave his corpse out in the wilderness.

After gathering everything, Long Chen carefully returned back to his own encampment.

Three days later, Long Chen had fully recovered and began to crazily start hunting again. Now that Feng Hai had died, the crisis had temporarily passed.

But Long Chen had seen just how great the difference was between him and his senior apprentice-brothers. He was almost unable to withstand even a single blow.

Previously, when he had fought with Wu Qi, he had realized that his senior disciples were incredibly powerful. But he had still not thought that they had reached such a level.

As a small squad leader of the law enforcers, Wu Qi’s cultivation base should definitely be excellent even amongst his peers.

After being punished by Elder Tu Fang, he had lost a great deal of prestige. Long Chen had no idea when he would come for him for revenge.

So before he did that, he would have to increase his strength as much as possible. Otherwise, he could only suffer. But of course, that inner will refused to allow him to suffer loss like that. He could only rapidly increase his strength.

So from that day onwards, Long Chen began to hunt Magical Beasts even faster. With that longsword, Long Chen could now kill mid third rank Magical Beasts much easier.

Furthermore, he had found an even more efficient method to kill them. First, he would use his full force with Split the Heavens. As long as he shot one poison arrow into the wound formed by Split the Heavens, all he had to do was dance around until they died to the poison. He began to hunt Magical Beasts en masse.

These Magical Beasts were all extremely tyrannical with low intelligence. As long as he didn’t encounter any of them that were stronger than him, it was guaranteed that he would be able to escape at least.

With that kind of hunting method, Long Chen’s efficiency went from one Magical Beast every two days to two Magical Beasts every day.

Three days later, Long Chen had absorbed seven Magical Beasts’ essence blood, allowing him to advance to the ninth Heavenstage.

After reaching the ninth Heavenstage of Blood Condensation, Long Chen’s strength grew even more. But unfortunately, without a heavy weapon, he was unable to truly bring out the full potential of his powerful body.

Long Chen swore to himself that once he returned, he would definitely obtain a heavy weapon. Otherwise, he would be unable to properly use his strength, no matter how powerful he was.

Now that he had reached the ninth Heavenstage, Long Chen had the confidence to hunt even more and faster without needing to be so careful.

As long as it wasn’t a late third rank Magical Beast, Long Chen would be able to defeat his opponent without a problem with his poison arrows.

As time passed, the Magical Beasts around him gradually grew sparser. Long Chen had no choice but to increase his range.

The rubble wasteland had ended up becoming a youth’s hunting ground. Occasionally, the roar of a Magical Beast would echo out.

Time passed quickly. On this day, Long Chen had just finished absorbing essence blood when his blood began to surge. A whistling sound came from his body that could be heard clearly even from a mile away.

BOOM!

A terrifying wave of qi shot out along with an intense pressure. The current Long Chen looked like a divinity disdainfully looking down on all.

“Haha, I’ve finally reached the Tendon Transformation realm!”

Long Chen laughed crazily atop a huge boulder. Feeling the surging power within his body, he had an urge to tear apart heaven and earth.

“Oh, wait a sec… I haven’t reached Tendon Transformation yet. My tendons haven’t changed at all and they aren’t even being nourished.”

Long Chen suddenly realized that something was off. He realized his blood had once more returned to its depleted state. That was the situation that would occur every time he advanced Heavenstages in the Blood Condensation realm.

Each time he advanced, his body’s blood vessels would widen slightly, increasing his blood capacity.

So once the vessels were enlarged, even though he didn’t lose any blood, he would not be at his max capacity any longer.

That would occur every time he purified his blood and advanced. But this was the tenth time now.

In other words, normally he should have reached the Tendon Transformation realm. But seeing what was going on, his heart began to pound.

“Could it be the Nine Star Hegemon Body Art’s Blood Condensation realm also has thirteen levels?”

Long Chen couldn’t help but be stupefied.

In order to advance out of the ninth Heavenstage, he had killed a total of thirty-seven third rank Magical Beasts. Only then had he gathered enough essence blood.

He had basically killed all the Magical Beasts he could within a range of hundreds of miles. Then according to the Nine Star Hegemon Body Art’s increase in difficulty, wouldn’t he need to kill seventy third rank Magical Beasts to reach the eleventh Heavenstage?

Then the twelfth Heavenstage would require one hundred forty Magical Beasts, and the thirteenth Heavenstage would require two hundred eighty. Counting on his fingers, Long Chen’s excitement rapidly deflated.

He would need to kill at least five hundred third rank Magical Beasts before being able to reach the Tendon Transformation realm. Five hundred! Those weren’t five hundred hogs for the slaughter! Wasn’t this just a joke?!

The level of difficulty for a Blood Condensation rookie to kill five hundred third rank Magical Beasts was essentially impossible. He would need to hunt forever to do that.

Long Chen angrily cursed. He had no Spirit Blood, Spirit Bone, or Spirit Root, so the Nine Star Hegemon Body Art was his only option. After cursing for a while, he had no choice but to accept his fate.

“Oh wait, my blood has changed color? There’s a bit of gold to it now.”

Long Chen suddenly paused. When he had examined his inner body, he saw that specks of gold had appeared in his blood, looking like golden sand.

“This Nine Star Hegemon Body Art really is strange. Ugh, might as well keep hunting.”

Cursing and cursing, Long Chen once more began to explore. But when he killed another third rank Magical Beast and began to absorb its essence blood, he found that the energy from that essence blood almost had no effect on him.

“What’s going on?” After absorbing that energy, all that had happened was that the golden sand within his blood had increased ever so slightly. The effect was very low, almost imperceptible.

“Damn, damn, this time I’m screwed. Perhaps to advance I’ll need fourth rank Magical Beast essence blood!” Long Chen’s heart grew cold.

According to the normal increase in difficulty of the Nine Star Hegemon Body Art, his hypothesis was most likely correct.

Magical Beasts below the mid third rank were probably almost useless to him now. At the very least, he would need to kill late third rank Magical Beasts.

But most likely only fourth rank Magical Beast essence blood would really let his cultivation base explosively grow again. But fourth rank Magical Beasts? Long Chen could only laugh at that. He didn’t want to become a snack for a Magical Beast.

“Ok, whatever. I’ve already been away for a month. It’s time to return. Although I haven’t broken through to the Tendon Transformation realm, with my current power, it should be enough to handle them.”

Long Chen stood atop a tall boulder and looked towards the south. That was the direction of the monastery. It was time to return home.