Eternal Heavenly Emperor

There were no suns or moons in the mountains, and time flew past like a shuttle, and in the blink of an eye, four months had gone by.

"Huff! Huff! Huff!" Heavy breathing resounded as a rock as tall as a man actually floated in midair, moving very swiftly!

The scene was frightening enough!

But upon closer inspection, one would find that there was a pair of legs beneath the large rock—not that the rock had sprouted legs, but that someone was carrying it on their back, showing only their legs!

The weight of this big rock was at least 60,000 pounds; what terrifying strength was required to carry such a heavy stone and run with it?

Bang!

The large rock suddenly fell, hitting the ground and causing it to tremble violently. Tiny rocks were shaken up to half a meter high before they finally rustled back down.

Chu Hao wiped the sweat from his forehead, a confident smile on his face.

160,000-pound strength!

He had advanced to the Eighth Tier Great Mahayana Realm!

It was time to go back!

Chu Hao thought to himself, he was always holding back the urge to give Chi Zhong a good beating, which was one of his motivations for his grueling cultivation.

However, before going back, he had to complete a mission first.

Eradicate Seven Wolf Stockade!

With his current strength, he should be able to easily wipe out this gang of bandits, but the problem was, where exactly was the Seven Wolf Stockade?

The bandits were very cunning; they would send scouts to investigate their targets before robbing them, ensuring their strikes were fatal and leaving no survivors! Hence, apart from a few leaders, the others were like shadows; even if they stood right in front of you, you wouldn't take them for bandits!

——You would at most feel they had a deep banditry aura, but there were plenty of rogues in the city too!

What to do?

Chu Hao suddenly had an idea, his eyes lighting up.

"Flying Fire, let's go, we're leaving this place!" Chu Hao snapped his fingers, and a gust of wind blew past; a two-foot-long leopard instantly leapt over, its body fiery red as if aflame.

Little Leopard had also reached the Fifth Tier Great Mahayana Realm by now, a definite return to its ancestors, though its limits were yet unknown.

There wasn't much luggage to pack, all his valuables were in the Mustard Seed Ring; Chu Hao wore the Red Shadow Sword at his waist, donned the Tortoise Shell Armor, and set off towards the mountains with Flying Fire.

Three days later, they arrived at Yue City.

However, when entering the city gates, Chu Hao was stopped by the guards and was thoroughly questioned before they let him in.

Chu Hao only reacted later that he had been in the mountains for six whole months, his clothes were tattered, and with his unkempt hair and because he had been continually battling ferocious beasts, his eyes were fierce, and his aura was like an unsheathed sword, extremely daunting!

Plus, he was accompanied by an imposing leopard, no wonder they interrogated him!

Luckily, he had the identity token from Thousand Winds Academy, and after parting his hair to get a better look, his face was indeed young, with merely light fuzz for a beard.

Once in the city, the first thing Chu Hao did was to buy a new set of clothes and tidy up his appearance, then, looking in the mirror, he transformed back into a handsome young man. However, his months of living in the wilderness had completely erased the immaturity from his face, adding firm lines and defined edges, naturally emanating an oppressive force.

He enjoyed a satisfying meal; for six months, he could only eat roasted meat, and that too of the tough meat of ferocious beasts, which he almost vomited! The ordinary meat could hardly fill his stomach, he almost overate, yet still felt unsatisfied.

This was only the Eighth Tier Great Mahayana Realm, what would happen if he reached the Tenth Tier Vajra Realm? Would he have to eat and eat every day?

After the hearty meal, Chu Hao went to the town center square where many people were shouting to recruit teams for bounty missions outside the city.

Chu Hao waited for two days and finally saw the team he was looking for.

——A team heading to Blackwood Forest for herb collecting.

Seven Wolf Stockade loved to raid such teams, so rather than wandering outside hoping for luck, it was better to join a team that interested Seven Wolf Stockade, wait for them to come to rob, and then counterattack; capturing one alive to lead the way to Seven Wolf Stockade's hideout was the plan.

"This time we'll go deep into Blackwood Forest, aiming for Nine Cloud Grass, Purple Jade Fruit, and Bitter Gall Ganoderma!" one trading team member in charge of recruitment said, "We need five guards, requiring Middle Mahayana Realm cultivation or higher combat power, the base fee is 200 Silver per ten days.

If you manage to collect the aforementioned herbs, you can sell them to us, and we're willing to negotiate a good price!"

Chu Hao glanced around, this mission's reward seemed quite tempting, attracting over 30 people to sign up, and because they only needed five guards, it meant there would be fierce competition.

"To save time, let's not go through an arena battle one by one, here, I'll draw a circle, everyone stand inside, and once I say start, you can start attacking!"

"Stepping out of the circle or falling to the ground and losing combat ability will result in elimination, the last five standing will be the guards hired by Luo's Trading Company for this operation!"

"Begin!"

More than 30 people entered the circle that had just been drawn; the circle was not very large, so the fight was bound to be intense.

Chu Hao frowned slightly; human life really was cheap, the other party only mentioned how to be disqualified, but didn't say what would happen if anyone got injured. In other words, if injured, it was for nothing; if maimed, it was for nothing as well!

"Hahaha, if you don't want to get hurt, then hurry up and get the hell out of here!" a middle-aged man wielding a large blade exclaimed, slicing the air, creating terrifying sounds that demonstrated his formidable strength.

Strength couldn't be directly seen with the naked eye, but it could be judged through certain details, such as the sound of this blade.

"Fourth Tier Middle Mahayana realm!"

"So powerful, not to mention being slashed by him, just being grazed by the blade energy is enough to cause injury!"

"Forget it, this is too dangerous, let's go find another team!"

Frightened by Blade Man like this, immediately about a dozen people backed out, but those who remained were naturally stronger, at least not afraid of the Fourth Tier Middle Mahayana realm.

"Tch, do I really have to make a move myself?" Blade Man spat disdainfully, swinging his blade towards the nearby people.

Ding! Ding! Ding!

The person nearby drew his sword to parry, and after just a few moves, he screamed in agony as he was sent flying out of the circle, a spray of blood blossoming from his chest.

"Hahahaha, too weak! Too weak!" Blade Man laughed loudly.

The other people in the circle were also fiercely battling, as long as the fight boiled down to the last five, they could pass, even if they could not defeat Blade Man.

However, some people did not engage, like Chu Hao, and another young man of similar age, who carried a long sword on his back, his arms folded across his chest, looking extremely cold and detached.

Bang!

With a casual punch, Chu Hao sent someone attempting to sneak attack flying out of the circle, given his current strength, even if everyone in the circle ganged up on him, he could still easily win; the gap was simply too big.

"Kid, will you roll out yourself, or shall I have to send you flying?" Blade Man confronted the sword-bearing youth.

The sword-bearing youth looked at him coldly and said, "Do you have a death wish to speak to me like that?" Murderous intent boiled in his eyes as he burst out with formidable power.

Blade Man's momentum faltered involuntarily, the fierce glance of the opponent like that of a ferocious beast from the Great Mahayana realm, which chilled him to the bone! He quickly buoyed his spirits, saying, "Kid, you insist on ignoring the easy way out for a harder one, take this!"

He swung his great blade towards the sword-bearing youth.

The youth's lips curled into a cold smirk. He did not draw his sword but waited until Blade Man's blade cleaved down, then he spun quickly, throwing a fierce punch.

Ding!

The great blade struck the pavement, bouncing up more than a foot high, while the youth's fist solidly hit Blade Man's abdomen.

"Wow—" Blade Man couldn't help but gape, saliva spraying chaos as the clothing on his abdomen burst open, and he was forcefully blown away, landing heavily on the ground, his head wobbling a few times before falling back heavily, blood leaking from the corners of his mouth.

Such powerful strength, such precise accuracy!

The others all felt a chill, this youth had completely anticipated Blade Man's attack, managing to dodge at the last fraction of a second and counterattack with a punch! His punch was also brutally forceful, enough to incapacitate Blade Man in one blow!

Expert!

The sword-bearing youth chuckled lightly, folding his arms once more, still looking utterly cold.

Such a strong show-off spirit.

Chu Hao swept his gaze around, only seven people were left in the circle now.

Bang! Bang!

Just then, two more were swept out of the circle, leaving only five.

Could any of these four be undercover agents from the Seven Wolf Stockade?

Chu Hao looked at the four, apart from the sword-bearing youth, the other three were all adult males, one about 30 years old, the other two looked to be about 25 or 26. But just from appearances, it was really hard to determine if they were bandits.

"Congratulations to the five of you for qualifying!" said someone from the trading caravan, "Now go and prepare yourselves, we'll gather outside the North Gate in an hour and then set off!"

Chu Hao returned to the inn, took Flying Fire, checked out, and headed directly to the North Gate of Yue City.

Though he didn't waste any time, he wasn't the first to arrive—the three guards and the sword-bearing youth were already waiting there.

Since they would be spending several days together, they introduced themselves to each other.

The three were called Shi Huan, Kong Pengfei, and Cao Yang, all of ordinary origins, so they wanted to earn as much money as they could while young, to marry beautiful wives and raise families later.

This medicinal herb gathering team, besides these four, also included eleven herbalists with rich experience in identifying medicinal herbs. However, they had little combat power, hence the need for guards.

After about ten more minutes, a young man and woman arrived from afar. The woman was truly beautiful, with a slender and curvaceous body; her ample chest drew the gaze of many men who couldn't look away.

The man was none other than the previously cold sword-bearing youth, who now seemed none so cold, following the beauty and likely uttering pleasing words, yet she was giving him the cold shoulder.

Chu Hao's face twitched involuntarily, pulling his collar up to cover his mouth.

He recognized this curvaceous beauty! Not only did he recognize her, he had even seen her chest!

Luo Zixian!

Luo's Trading Firm? Wow, what a coincidence!

(Huhuhu, kneeling for recommendation tickets~)