Translated by XephiZ

Edited by Aelryinth

The Sand Howl Tiger was surprisingly brawny. Even when its limbs sank into the Flowing Mud from Zhang Xiaohou's Soul Seed, it still managed to leap into the air and landed on top of the Rock Barrier...

The Rock Barrier was ten meters tall and jagged in an irregular pattern. The Sand Howl Tiger was standing atop it, its eyes fixed on Zhang Xiaohou. who was the closest to it.

It leapt from the high ground, its figure still covered in a thick blood shadow. Mo Fan was rather familiar with the power from that layer of crimson shadow, as the might from his Blood Tabi was fairly similar to it.

The shadow granted the Sand Howl Tiger formidable strength. Normally, demon beasts like it could utilize its strength better on the sturdier ground of the Gobi Desert. The creature was most likely starving if it came all the way to these sandy hills searching for food.

The jagged Rock Barrier served as a perfect springboard for the Sand Howl Tiger. It lunged forward swiftly and fiercely: Zhang Xiaohou had once again underestimated the creature's speed!

He was already in the midst of casting the Spells, yet neither the Wind Track or the Earth Wave was quick enough to escape from the Sand Howl Tiger 's pounce.

The Sand Howl Tiger was inches away. Zhang Xiaohou could see the fangs in its giant mouth, and a foul stench swept in his direction, with an overwhelming sense of fear.

"Light Protection: Sacred Shield!"

Zhang Xiaohou, who was standing not far away, reacted quickly. His Light Element Spell immediately formed extremely sturdy-looking shields surrounding Zhang Xiaohou.

The Sand Howl Tiger slammed into the Sacred Shield, and it felt like it had crashed into a metal ball. It knocked Zhang Xiaohou a distance back, while shaking its head on the spot, like it had a concussion.

Zhang Xiaohou was perfectly unharmed. He cast a grateful look at Zhao Manyan, who responded by patting his chest, signaling him: Go ahead and do whatever you want, I'll look after your safety.

Zhang Xiaohou nodded, and was convinced that everyone that Mo Fan had assembled was an elite among Magicians. They knew how to work together without unnecessary signaling, which relieved him greatly.

The truth was, Zhang Xiaohou did not have any offensive capacity. His main role in the army was the vanguard in charge of disrupting the enemy's tempo.

In simpler words, he was in charge of 'aggroing the mobs'!

As the demon beasts put their attention on him, it would allow the other Magicians to cast their spells without being interrupted.

With Zhang Xiaohou as the vanguard, Mo Fan and Chen Yi immediately cast their Intermediate Spells. The Sand Howl Tiger, still dizzy from the previous collision, immediately faced two powerful attacks, which it dodged in a panic.

The Sand Howl Tiger's evasion was fairly outstanding. Out of the two Intermediate Magicians, only Mo Fan's relatively swift Thunderbolt was effective, knocking the Sand Howl Tiger back into the quicksand that Zhang Xiaohou had set up. Half of the Sand Howl Tiger's body sank into the sand before it could recover and crawl out from the pit.

The sand had a high viscosity, mainly because of the Earth Element Soul Seed they had obtained from the Xizhao Valley.

The Sand Howl Tiger was unable to move freely, as half of its body had sunk into the sand. It was like a beast captured in the trap set up by Hunters. No matter how fierce it was struggling, it made no difference, as the more it struggled, the faster it was sinking into the sand.

"Giant Shadow Spike!"

Mo Fan had no intention of hiding his strength, and immediately cast the Shadow Element Spell.

The Giant Shadow Spike nailed the Sand Howl Tiger's struggling shadow. A dark energy transformed into a binding gas, chaining the Sand Howl Tiger's shadow.

The Sand Howl Tiger could no longer move, only watch its own body sink slowly into the sand.

The quicksand pit and the Giant Shadow Spike were a perfect combo. The muscular Sand Howl Tiger had no chance of utilizing its strength, and was soon eliminated by the party.

"It seems like the infamous Dunhuang Demon Tiger isn't as terrifying as I imagined," Zhang Xiaohou smiled.

"The sand here is soft, so your Earth Element Soul Seed's power is significantly increased. The Sand Howl Tiger was kited to its death before it could utilize its full strength," agreed Lingling.

"Let's see if the Sand Howl Tiger had some kind of rare boned or skin, those are the valuable things," Mo Fan said with gleaming eyes.

Mo Fan had killed lots of demon beasts, thus he was not as pleased as Zhang Xiaohou after eliminating a Warrior-level creature. He was more concerned about money.

Unfortunately, the Sand Howl Tiger did not have what Mo Fan was looking for. Even its soul was only an ordinary Soul Remnant.

He stored the Soul Remnant inside the Little Loach Pendant, treating it as a raw material to refine Soul Essences, as he was aiming to improve his Shadow Element Basic Spell to the fourth tier.

"Say, Mo Fan, why didn't you try improving your Basic Spells to the fifth tier?" asked Zhao Manyan, raising his eyebrows.

Chen Yi, who was standing beside them, opened her eyes wide. The fifth tier?

-Does that mean this guy has already improved his Basic Spells to the fourth tier?-

The Zhao Family was considered a famous business-renowned family in the Magic Community. One could find marketplaces that belonged to their family in most cities across the provinces, thus many people referred to their family as a Tuhao.

{TN reminder: Tuhao means the same as silkpants, nouveau rich, idle wealthy, spendthrift useless fop, etc}

Despite that, she had never seen any renowned family that was willing to invest in improving someone's Basic Spells to the fourth tier, let alone the fifth tier, which was basically a fantasy!

"Screw you, leveling up a Basic Spell from the fourth tier to the fifth tier requires a total of seven Warrior-level Soul Essences. Give me the money, and I'll improve them right away!" cursed Mo Fan.

Zhao Manyan had made it sound easy, but if the higher tiers only needed Servant-class Soul Essences, he would actually consider living deep in the woods for a while, improving his Basic Spells further. However, the resources needed for the fifth tier were too dumbfounding. Seven Warrior-level Soul Essences would sum up to more than a hundred million, which was enough to get himself the Wing Magical Equipment for Xinxia!

On top of that, the odds of finding a Warrior-level Soul Essence were a lot lower. Even if Mo Fan managed to collect over a hundred Warrior-level Soul Remnants, it was not enough to refine a complete Soul Essence. Improving his Basic Spells to the fifth tier was a strenuous commitment!

"Let's move on, stop wasting time here! You'll have plenty of work to do at the Drifting Sand River!" emphasized Lingling.

The most dangerous part of their adventure was the Drifting Sand River. Even though they had brought Xinxia the Psychic along, it did not guarantee that they could cross the place unharmed!