“Long Chen, I need to see you!”

This person was just a regular Favored. Rushing up the mountain, his voice was filled with urgency.

“Don’t move, Guo Ran. I know him.” Guo Ran’s crossbow was already aimed at that person when he heard Long Chen’s voice.

While refining, Long Chen had also been paying attention to what was happening outside. Perhaps only Long Chen had the ability to refine pills this way.

When he heard that person’s voice, he realized he recognized him as the person he had saved on the outer region of the Misty Mountain Valleys.

That person had called himself Xu Yang. As thanks for saving his life, he had offered up his only treasure, a wind spirit stone. However, Long Chen had declined.

This person was a Favored and possessed wind attribute spiritual qi. Now that he was in the Bone Forging realm, his speed was shocking. He reached the mountaintop in just a moment.

As soon as Long Chen walked out of his tent, Xu Yang recognized him and urgently said, “Senior apprentice-brother Long Chen, a group of your friends is surrounded and being attacked! They need your help!”

Long Chen was startled and hastily asked, “What’s the situation?”

Panting for breath, Xu Yang reported, “In a canyon two hundred and seventy-five miles from here, there were many people besieging a group of people. One of them was a woman who was exceptionally powerful. With a wave of her hand, ice pillars soared into the sky.

“There were four men that were fighting alongside her, but they have too many enemies. When I saw them, they were being forced to retreat, over and over.

“After I asked around, I found out they were disciples from the same monastery as you. They were coming over to join you here, but somehow, they were noticed by others on the way and hunted down.

“The people attacking them are mostly from your Xuantian Supermonastery. There are three Chosen amongst them, and by myself, I couldn’t save them. I could only rush over here as fast as possible to tell you.” At this time, Xu Yang was drenched in sweat, practically on the brink of collapse. It was obvious that he had pushed his speed to his limit.

“Those idiots!” Long Chen clenched his teeth furiously. Those bastards were too hateful, to even target other disciples just because they came from the same monastery.

After hesitating for a moment, Long Chen decided to enter the other tent and awaken Chu Yao. He needed to borrow the Violet Phoenix Sparrow’s speed.

Although this would delay Chu Yao’s bone tempering, saving lives was more urgent. With Chu Yao present, she would be able to instantly heal anyone injured.

“Many thanks. You two protect this place. Chu Yao and I are going to go help them.” Long Chen thanked Xu Yang, as well as giving a warning to Gu Yang and Guo Ran.

“Boss, do you…?” Guo Ran clearly felt hesitant. Then did Long Chen really think this person was trustworthy? Could he just be luring him away?

“Don’t worry, it’ll be fine. If they dare to try and take advantage of me leaving, you have free rein to kill them all. Kill anyone that dares come up,” said Long Chen. He didn’t directly say whether or not Xu Yang was trustworthy, but his attitude already said everything.

If they really couldn’t hold out, then the worst-case scenario was that they would have to wake up Meng Qi and the others. The only problem was that when tempering bones, you usually had to temper each bone in one go. If you stopped midway, the medicinal energy would dissipate from the bone, so you would have to redo that bone, wasting your previous effort.

Tempering the first bone was the simplest and fastest. By this point, they had already reached the second bone. So now that he had awakened Chu Yao, she would have to redo her second bone tempering.

That was equivalent to wasting a few Bone Tempering Pills as well as some time. That loss was something that was recoverable.

Chu Yao called out her Violet Phoenix Sparrow, and the two of them got on its back. With a loud cry, the Violet Phoenix Sparrow soared into the clouds, disappearing from their gazes in an instant.

“Long Chen has left the mountain.” Those hidden people below the mountain were startled.

“He probably had something urgent to do. Hehe, now that he’s left, there are only some weaklings. After a bit, let’s all go up and kill them. Then those treasures lady Yin promised will be ours.”

“Not only will we slow down Long Chen’s cultivation, but we would have also killed all his friends. This way, Long Chen will definitely go crazy. Hehe, it seems our rewards will increase even more.”

“Kill these troublemakers! Each one of these people has taken the side of evil. None of them are good people, so just kill them all!”

As soon as Long Chen left, those hidden experts all jumped out. It was unknown just what promises Yin Wushuang had given them, but they now came for the tents, their killing intent surging out.

There were over sixty Bone Forging experts who came up. Amongst them were even two Chosen.

This was Xu Yang’s first time seeing such a scene, and he turned pale with fright. The sword in his hand quivered slightly.

In front of that many experts, they only had three people, while he was just an ordinary Favored. Other than specializing in speed, his combat ability was just average. But even in the face of this many experts, he didn’t flee. That was enough to prove his courage.

“Brother, you don’t have to do anything. Gu Yang and I are enough. But if we aren’t, just enter that tent and call out the ones inside. Don’t worry, there definitely won’t be any danger.” Guo Ran patted Xu Yang on the shoulder.

Although Meng Qi and the others were in a meditative state, they weren’t actually cultivating. As long as there was a threat to their lives, they would immediately sense it and come out of that state. The only damage would be that they would have to retemper the bone they were on. However, Guo Ran didn’t want to alarm them just yet.

“I’ll be the first line of defense, and Gu Yang, you’ll be second. If the two of us are defeated, Xu Yang, you awaken them.” Guo Ran was still calm and unhurried. After speaking, he didn’t even have to look. Pointing his crossbow in their general direction, he shot an arrow at those people that were charging up.

BOOM! The arrow exploded amongst them, and several people screamed miserably, blood and flesh flying through the air.

“Everyone scatter! At this distance, he can send out at most two more arrows. Once we reach him, we’ll crush him!” ordered the Chosen.

A distance of five miles could be crossed in just a couple of breaths’ time. Guo Ran couldn’t shoot many arrows in this time, and as long as everyone scattered, his arrows wouldn’t be able to kill many of them. It would just depend on who was unlucky.

As soon as that Chosen said that, a fiery arrow appeared in front of him, its speed incomparably quick.

With an icy snort, the Chosen took out a huge golden shield covered with shining runes. From the powerful pressure coming from it, it was definitely an extremely sturdy shield.

BOOM! The Chosen’s arm turned numb, and his shield almost flew out of his hand. However, he still managed to block Guo Ran’s arrow.

“Haha, die!”

At this point, people were just a couple of hundred meters from Guo Ran. At this distance, there was no way they would allow Guo Ran to fire any more arrows from his Voidbreaking Crossbow.

That Chosen was the first to charge up. At the same time, he activated a photographic jade, using it to record the image of him heroically killing a villain. This would be his proof to get his reward.

A broadsword suddenly appeared in that Chosen’s hand, and he slashed it down.

Sparks flew as that Chosen’s broadsword was caught by a metallic arm.

“What?!”

Everyone was stunned. Guo Ran had instantly turned into a metal monster, his whole body covered in a strange armor.

The most bizarre part of this image was the mask Guo Ran had put on. The mask was of a fiend with two shining horns, appearing incredibly fierce.

This bizarre armor stunned everyone. They had never seen anything so strange. Furthermore, the speed at which Guo Ran had donned that armor was too quick. In just the blink of an eye, he had turned into a different person.

“You should die instead!” With one hand holding the Chosen’s sword, the other formed a metallic fist that whistled towards the Chosen’s chest.

The Chosen had yet to recover from his shock. By the time he reacted, Guo Ran’s fist had already reached his chest, and he couldn’t dodge. The only thing he could do was focus all his spiritual qi onto his chest, forming a translucent barrier.

This defense was something that could only be formed once spiritual qi was compressed to the pinnacle. It was something only Bone Forging experts were capable of with their dense spiritual qi.

Such a spiritual qi defense had an extremely great effect on spiritual qi attacks. Other people’s fists would lose at least thirty percent of their power when striking this barrier.

BOOM!

Bones cracked as that Chosen vomited blood. He was sent flying back.

“Tch, what Chosen? Just trash.”

A metallic voice rang out from Guo Ran’s armor. That voice was full of disdain.

That kind of spiritual qi defense might be effective against others, but it was useless against Guo Ran. His attack didn’t contain any spiritual qi; it was created entirely from the armor’s power.

This armor was something he had created from the material Long Chen had gained within the ancient tomb. Although such things were all low grade in that era, their hardness was comparable to Xiantian material. It could be said that this armor was something that contained all of Guo Ran’s heart and soul.

This was also why he had been holding back from advancing to Bone Forging. He wanted to use his invention to prove his own strength to himself.

He knew that in terms of cultivation, he had no talent. His goal was to become a crafting god, so he had complete confidence in his inventions.

With a single fist, he had heavily injured a Chosen. Seeing him coughing up blood as he flew back, everyone was horrified.

“Too useless! Just die!”

That metallic voice once more rang out. Raising a hand, Guo Ran suddenly clenched a fist.

Countless black lights shot out, instantly enveloping the Chosen that was still in midair.