Before this massive treasure, the Rank 2 Yin Gathering Spirit resting quietly inside his soul felt like a cheap childs plaything.
"This is a Jade Spring!" Ji Ma Ko gasped, his knees hitting the dirt. "Is this how heaven is blessing me for all the injustice I have faced!"
Stories passed down through generations spoke of fortunate spirit masters stumbling upon Jade Springs and eventually shedding their mortal limits.
While a Jade Spring itself could not directly elevate a spirit master’s cultivation base, its pure essence acted like a supreme magnet. It attracted countless wild spirits to the surrounding area, creating an absolute paradise perfectly suited for a spirit master to develop, gather resources, and build a clan.
Right now, the Ji Ma Ko was kneeling and staring at exactly that kind of heaven defying treasure.
He had followed the thick scent of blood all the way up the mountain to this exact spot.
He knew whoever slaughtered his vanguard pack of wolves had to be hiding nearby. Therefore, he had sworn to himself not to let his guard down for even a single second.
But honestly, what man could maintain his absolute composure before a giant treasure like this? His life and the potential would be unimaginable with this.
"Wait, why is it red?" Ji Ma Ko muttered to himself, his eyes narrowing in suspicion. "A Jade Spring is obviously supposed to be jade colored. This feels incredibly weird."
He stood up and shook his head, quickly discarding his passing doubts. The world of cultivation was vast and endless. There were always strange mutations and rare variations that ordinary spirit masters had never even heard about.
"Who cares about the small details!" Ji Ma Ko laughed loudly, throwing his arms wide open to the sky. "This Jade Spring belongs to me! This will be the glorious start of my great legacy! The great Ji Ma Ko will rule this region and show those fools who this great Ji Ma Ko is!"
He was absorbed in his own thoughts and dreams when, suddenly, his spirit beast, the massive blood wolf, leapt directly in front of him. A heavy thud echoed through the clearing as the giant beast took a vicious blow meant for its master, letting out a painful whimper.
"Who dares ambush me!" Ji Ma Ko roared, fury replacing his joy.
He snapped his head around, seeing nothing but the dense shadows of the forest.
Without warning, the howling wind shifted from another direction. A second attack flew violently toward his head. The blood wolf moved in a rapid blur, throwing its massive body into the path of the strike once again to protect Ji Ma Ko.
Ji Ma Ko completely tore his attention away from the crimson Jade Spring.
He activated his Rank 2 Wolf taming spirit, instantly linking his vision with the enhanced senses of his blood wolf. The forest illuminated in bright shades of red, blue and yellow, and he finally spotted his hidden attacker.
It was a man. A heavily injured young man wearing a torn, filthy robe that barely covered his groin, frantically running around the trees.
"Who is this brat?" Ji Ma Ko sneered in absolute contempt. "I have never seen this person in my life. He only radiates a pitiful Rank 1 cultivation aura! How did a weak spirit master like this slaughter my wolves?" Find the original chapter at novelping(.)com.
Ji Ma Ko scoffed, quickly rationalizing the situation. "Well, it was only ten mortal wolves. It is not completely impossible for a desperate rank 1 spirit master with a good rank 1 spirit."
Ji Ma Ko grabbed the thick fur of his blood wolf and vaulted onto its back. "Chase him down!"
The young man tried to strike again with his weird pole that Ji Ma Ko had no idea where it came from, but the blood wolf easily dodged. Following the heavy scent of human blood, the giant beast tracked the hiding youngster in mere seconds.
"Identify yourself, youngster!" Ji Ma Ko shouted, his arrogant voice echoing through the dense woods. "This is your Senior Ji Ma Ko speaking! Surrender your life now!"
Ji Ma Ko found the entire situation very strange.
Why was this young man throwing away his life to protect a useless mortal village? Also, where did the mortals go? He felt it was weird that he had not seen a single mortal villager along his way up here.
The young man did not bother to answer. Instead, he swung his blunt, what looked like a meat pole over a thick tree branch, hooked his legs around it, and vaulted high into the canopy. Like an agile monkey, he began jumping from tree to tree.
Down below, Ji Ma Ko smiled a cruel, mocking smile.
By now, his ordinary wolves had completely surrounded the entire perimeter.
Ji Ma Ko did not have a single worry in his heart about winning this fight. He was a mighty Rank 2 spirit master. This naked monkey in the trees was merely Rank 1. There was absolutely no way he would lose with a whole major rank difference between them!
"Chase him and kill him!" Ji Ma Ko ordered his mount.
The blood wolf was a superior beast. It had the raw strength to easily topple down a giant tree with its huge body, and the agility to climb steep obstacles that normal wolves simply could not handle.
But what Ji Ma Ko absolutely did not expect was for his mighty blood wolf to suddenly let out a miserable whimper and fall over completely.
"What is wrong with you?" Ji Ma Ko yelled, jumping off. "Get up! Get up!"
He looked down and noticed that thick, dark blood was pouring out from the wolf’s snout. The two blunt strikes it took earlier to protect him had caused massive internal bleeding. The beast was effectively incapacitated.
Ji Ma Ko glared up at the injured spirit master in the branches. His eyes burned with a deeply hateful look. He realised his moment of carelessness earlier had just cost him the greatest loss of his entire life so far.
Meanwhile, high up in the dense branches, Hua Ke was carefully observing Ji Ma Ko and his wolves. He knew these ordinary wolves did not have any ranged attacks and could not climb trees from his earlier encounter with them.
"Lucky," Hua Ke muttered, wiping the sweat from his bleeding face.
He was incredibly lucky that the blood wolf suffered internal bleeding.
This massive stroke of fortune greatly reduced the chances of him being instantly killed by Ji Ma Ko. However, the situation remained extremely grave for Hua Ke. There were simply too many wolves waiting below. This story is hosted at NovelPing.
"Should I go inside the cave?" Hua Ke asked himself. "No. If I do, Ji Ma Ko will definitely know about this hidden Inheritance. He is a demonic cultivator, but that doesn’t mean he won’t bring more spirit masters here. I have to finish him quickly."
Hua Ke gritted his teeth, his mind flashing back to how he managed to beat the ten wolves earlier. He had stayed behind to let the mortals escape, purposefully taking all the attention of the wild beasts onto himself.
He had fought like a demon, managing to kill four wolves with his heavy blunt attacks. But the beast pack was relentless, and he ended up severely injured. The wolves had even savagely bitten his penis more than three times!
If not for the extra, steel-like strength his Boner Spirit gave to his nether region, his manhood would have been severed, and he would have already been dead in the dirt.
After surviving that onslaught, he had climbed a tree, exactly like he was doing now.
Every single time the wolves tried to abandon him and chase the fleeing mortals, Hua Ke simply took their attention back by flexing his Boner Spirit. He had waited up in the branches for a whole hour without any option to escape.
He knew he could just jump from tree to tree and escape right now. But the moment he did, these wolves would immediately chase those mortals. With the terrifying speed of the wolves, the mortals and their slow donkeys would never be able to outrun them.
Hua Ke stared at the corpses of the four wolves he had killed earlier.
Suddenly, a brilliant flash of inspiration struck his mind.
Even though he had handed over the Ballsack Spirit to Cui Cui, he had meticulously read and memorized every single recipe for refining spirits that was recorded inside it. Which is why it was better in Cui Cui’s hands rather than his.
And within those recipes, a specific spirit recipe surfaced perfectly in his mind.
Rank 1 Yang Spirit.
It was a highly adaptive spirit. It required fusing the innate Yang energy of a male spirit master combined with another wild spirit to create a rather versatile result.
Depending on the refinement process, it could become an attack type, a defense type, a movement type spirit or a storage type spirit.
Hua Ke looked intently at the dead wolves below. He looked at the faint, dissipating spirits lingering inside their fresh bodies.
A wide, wild smile spread across his bruised face as he muttered to himself softly.
"This might actually work."