Interested in this rank-7 beast, Chaos Tiger, Long Ren decided to travel a bit more to the top to take a quick glance.
The journey to the top proves to be more treacherous than Long Ren would've liked it to be. Several rank-6 beasts could catch up to his speed, forcing him to take detours along the way.
Though he would like to ambush them, their senses are just way too keen.
Most of them discovered Long Ren whenever gets to a certain range. Even if they did not, fighting would've been risky.
If he fought one of them and created a disturbance, whether in the form of the surrounding qi, sound, or area, other beasts will quickly surround his location.
How did he know? Let's just say he shot a pig, did not kill it and got surrounded.
'Damnit! How did the pig even survive the bullet! I know its not charged but it's aimed at his head!' Long Ren exclaimed in his head as he ran away from the multiple beasts chasing him.
What was weird though, is that the beasts are somehow coordinating with each other. They did not attack one another even once.
Long Ren speculate that above rank-6 beasts possessed some semblance of intelligence.
Knowing that they are trapped in a mountain and the only danger to them are humans, they put out their differences onto the common enemy.
Either that or Long Ren's body looks so juicy for them to chase other pieces of meat. He prefers the first option to be true.
Anyway, three days had passed since that incident and Long Ren is now at the top of the mountain. Apparently, he missed the Chaos Tiger's den, because it was not located at the peak.
He needs to back down and search for the den, but for now, Long Ren decided to enjoy the view from the top.
Sitting upon the peak, Long Ren shivered slightly. He brought out a fire runestone to keep him warm. The gentle breeze from below had turned into an erratic one, rushing through his face. Luckily, his qi barrier was there to prevent them from making him uncomfortable.
He gazed upon the far away horizon and took a deep breath. The view imprinted itself on Long Ren's mind. He took a deep breath, and shouted whatever words that came to his mind.
"FUCK GACHA RNG!!!! GIVE ME SOMETHING GOOD YOU PIECE OF SHIT!"
His words trailed off into the horizon, only to be reflected by the echoes of the mountains.
…
"I WANNA WATCH SOME P*RN!!!"
…
"MAY THE STARFORCE BE WITH YOUR ASS!!! COPYRIGHT WOULD LIKE TO KNOW YOUR LOCATION!"
…
…
After a few more cringey lines he thought he would never utter, a wide satisfied smile appeared on his face. Letting out his pent-up emotions seems to have worked wonders for him.
Shouting a couple of frustrations he had on this world helped cleared his mind, albeit just a bit.
Taking it out on something seems to be a good way to relieve himself, thankfully this time, its not physical.
He took out and grilled some of the Mountain Carps he caught, and his eyes opened wide when he took a bite of it.
It's skin crunched at every bite, even grazing them causes melodic sounds to form. It's meat, oh so tender, it melted right as it touched his tongue.
He only brought the basic salt and pepper with him, and yet they were enough to bring out so much flavor from the fish.
It tastes just a bit better than the demon rabbit's meat, but that's probably because there was no guilty conscience to haunt him after every bite.
As he munched on the fish, he noticed several other mountains in the horizon, surrounding this one.
All of them are bigger and taller than the next. Mountain 3 all the way to Mountain 9. He had made them his goal.
With a clenched fist and eyes full of determination, he decided to climb all the mountains and taste each carp in their ponds.
Cultivating without a goal, though fine for Long Ren, isn't really a good motivation factor.
Since he had no goal, other than just to get stronger for the sake of getting stronger, he decided to give one himself.
It is a long goal, full of many dangerous beasts, unexpected dangers, and exhilarating unknowns to explore.
But, sooner or later, Long Ren will fulfill this goal of his and come out even better, stronger, and hopefully, by the end, he had resolved his internal mental conflict.
…
..
.
.
*GRrrRrrrRrrr*
…
*grRrrRRr*
…
Up on top of a pitch-black tree, stands Long Ren, observing a Tiger with a majestic fur, sleeping.
The Tiger is big, very big. Its height roughly reached 3 meters while its body is roughly 5 meters long.
Every part of the Tiger that comes in pairs, ie ears, eyelids, paws, legs, and tails, are of a different color. Black and White
Its base body color is pure white, while its stripes are pitch void black.
Each part of its body seems to exude a different kind of aura, clashing with one another, yet intertwined at the same time. It sends shivers down to Long Ren's back as he stares at the sleeping menace.
'This Tiger is so…unique? I don't understand how its qi can exist like that! How is this only a rank-7 beast! This should be at least a primordial being or something!' Long Ren said in his mind, with a bit of panic.
He expected a rank-7 beast's aura to intimidate him a little since some rank-6 beasts almost intimidate him, but this, this is on a whole nother level!
His body was shaking just from glancing at it, sweat begins to drip from his forehead as he cleaned them with his robes.
For the first time in his new life, He felt afraid. He could see the ferociousness of this Tiger just by gazing at it from afar, imagine if it focuses on him. Just the thought of it made him shudder.
Thankfully, the beast was fast asleep, not noticing Long Ren's presence. Or it did, but could not care less.
As Long Ren was about to leave, wanting to be done with the pressure he was receiving, a hand patted his back.
"How was it? Oh? Your back is drenched!"
…
"AGH FUCK!" Long Ren shouted. He reflexively used space step, bringing him away from the hand yet closer to the Chaos Tiger, and shot five spatial bullets towards his previous position.
"Hm? What a unique skill you have there. I wonder where Xing Lao got it." The hand owner, the shack Old Man said, as he waved his hand and dissipated all the bullets before their portals even appeared.
He closed the portals before they could even manifest…
'What the fuck?!' Long Ren shouted in his mind. He felt dumbfounded, how could the old man close the portal without using any space elements!
Long Ren landed upon another tree branch, 10 meters away from the Chaos Tiger, and stood his ground. The Tiger no longer occupied his mind, instead, the Old Man in front of him did.
Though he knew the old man is leaps ahead of him, the way he nullified his attacks intrigued Long Ren. He wants to know how the old man did it.
He readied his hand and shot another 5 bullets towards the old man, now each from different directions, as far as possible from one another.
An instantaneous five-pronged attack!
The old man, seeing Long Ren attacking once more chuckled and grazed his beard. Without even waving his hand like before, the portals and bullets disappeared.
This time, it was even more confusing for Long Ren, as the bullets disappeared right as it shoots off from his fingers.
He did not feel satisfied, he loaded up another five bullets, but this time, he charged it at full capacity. He charged it for a full 10 seconds before releasing it, increasing its power by 900%!
The old man let Long Ren charge his bullet up and smiled. He opened his eyes wide for but a second when he saw Long Ren's fully charged bullet.
They were strong, too strong to be a rank-4's ultimate attack, but in the end, it still only came from a rank-4 cultivator.
The bullets were 3x bigger than the previous ones and went into the portal a bit slower than before.
Long Ren hoped the sheer amount of power in it would at least make the old man use a different move, something like a barrier.
But alas, the old man once again waved his hand, and poof. The bullets disappeared.
Seeing this, Long Ren's shoulder slumped. He still could not figure out how the old man made his bullets disappear not even a single hint of it.
As he was about to approach the old man and ask how he did it, he heard a husky yet gentle voice from behind.
"Brat! Stop disturbing my sleep!"
"..." Long Ren
…
"Heh?"