The Sword God of the Universe

A short while later, several figures emerged from the woods and approached the spot.

It was apparently a hunting group of five: four men and one woman.

"It looks like a tough fight's just taken place here," said a tall and thin warrior. He looked around with his eyes narrowed, noting the faint smell of blood in the air.

"There's the dead body of a Spiritual Beast over there." The only woman in the group focused her gaze on the skinned Shadow Gale Wolf.

"Since the Spiritual Beast is dead, let's not waste more time here. We should keep going deeper into the mountains," said a man in a blue gown, furrowing his brows.

They didn't plan to linger in the foothills of the mountains.

"Let's go!" The man who was obviously the leader waved his hand.

"What?" Just as they were about to leave, the leader's eyes widened slightly. His gaze had landed on the body of the Shadow Gale Wolf.

"It's a Shadow Gale Wolf!" When they got close enough to the lifeless body to get a good look at it, the leader recognized it at once.

"What?"

"A Shadow Gale Wolf?"

"No way! We're still in the outskirts of the Blackrock Mountains. How could there be Shadow Gale Wolves hanging around?"

A slightly chunky warrior checked on the Shadow Gale Wolf's body, and his eyes began to blaze. "No kidding! It really is a Shadow Gale Wolf! Brother Qi was right!"

The Brother Qi he mentioned was the leader. His name was Lin Qi.

In fact, the group of five was from the Lin Clan of Dong Lin City. They were all disciples of the family. They teamed up to kill Spiritual Beasts to exchange for Spiritual Stones.

The Lin Clan was one of the Four Legendary Families in Dong Lin City.

All five of them had pretty good cultivation levels. The leader, Lin Qi, was at the Sixth Heaven. The other four were all at the Fifth Heaven. A group like that, as long as they were careful enough, had enough power to brave the middle areas of the Blackrock Mountains.

After he carefully investigated the scene, Lin Qi narrowed his eyes and said, "Judging from the footprints left behind, it's unlikely that a group of warriors did this. It's possibly a solo hunter."

"A solo hunter?"

"Someone killed a Shadow Gale Wolf all by himself? Was it a High-ranking warrior?" The tall and thin warrior sounded alarmed. His eyes flashed briefly with shock.

It had to be at least a High-ranking warrior, if not a group, to be able to kill a Shadow Gale Wolf.

"Hard to say. It's a shame that we got here too late. It was a Shadow Gale Wolf for heaven's sake. It would have been worth several hundred Spiritual Stones, at least." Lin Qi shook his head with regret.

"D*mn it! That lucky b*stard! He got to catch a Shadow Gale Wolf all the way out here." The chunky warrior ground his teeth. "If only we'd gotten here sooner! D*mn! Even if he was a High-ranking warrior, if we came across him, we could definitely take some of the loot that he got from killing the Shadow Gale Wolf!"

"Okay. Let's not worry about that. Whoever did this has already left. We couldn't catch him even if we wanted to." Lin Qi waved his hand dismissively, and the group of five soon vanished back into the woods.

…

On a cliff in an outer area of the Blackrock Mountains.

"This place will work!"

Jing Yan walked back into a cave in the cliff. It had taken him some time to find it. The cave wasn't very deep, and he had checked every corner inside very carefully to make sure no humans or Spiritual Beasts had been living there or using it.

Jing Yan planned to use the Soul Crystal he'd just taken from the Shadow Gale Wolf. His cultivation was only at the Fourth Heaven, which still wasn't good enough, but the Soul Crystal he'd just been lucky enough to obtain should help increase his rank.

Although he had made sure that there were no other people or Spiritual Beasts around, Jing Yan still set up some simple traps outside the cave. They were more meant to alert him than to stop anyone or any Spiritual Beasts from entering. Jing Yan would be notified as soon as anything got too close, which should give him enough time to prepare.

In a place like the Blackrock Mountains, it paid to be extra cautious. And considering that Jing Yan's plan was to improve his rank via cultivation, he needed to be even more careful.

"Let's get started!"

After he got ready, Jing Yan picked a random spot inside the cave. With his eyes highly focused, he took out the glowing Soul Crystal.

This Soul Crystal was a Low-ranking one, of course, yet it was still valuable enough to make a lot of warriors go crazy for it.

Jing Yan held the Soul Crystal in his hand. He started taking light inhales, nostrils flaring slightly. Something intimidating flashed in his eyes.

As the Arch of Heaven began to flow, the Vital Qi inside his body started to move in response. The glowing yellow crystal began to flicker.

If there had been a High-ranking warrior witnessing the whole thing, he would have been able to tell that Jing Yan was inhaling part of the faint yellow light coming from the Soul Crystal.

"Nice! This thing is worthy of its fame!" Jing Yan almost shouted as he absorbed the energy from the Soul Crystal. It felt incredibly good.

Compared to Soul Crystals, Spiritual Stones were like garbage. Even Legendary-grade Spiritual Stones were far inferior to Low-ranking Soul Crystals.

"It's so good! So powerful!"

"It's too bad that Soul Crystals are so rare. If I could get ahold of more Soul Crystals, it probably wouldn't take long to return to Precelestial Rank." Jing Yan's flow of Qi was long and thick. After pausing briefly to consider the situation, he put his full concentration into absorbing the energy from the Soul Crystal.

As he absorbed more and more energy from the Soul Crystal, the Vital Qi inside Jing Yan's body was surging more and more dramatically.

Time went by, but Jing Yan barely noticed it. The first rays of morning sun sifted in from the entrance of the cave, signaling that a new day had come.

At that moment, Jing Yan was surrounded by a thin layer of mist that was continually rising and swirling. Jing Yan's face was flushed red.

Bang!

Instantly, like a quiet pond into which a giant rock had just been dropped, Jing Yan's Vital Qi raged and surged as if it were alive.

Suddenly, Jing Yan opened his eyes as his face lit up with a smile.

"Haha, the Fifth Heaven rank!"

"Wait, what? It's day time already?" Jing Yan noticed the sun outside.

"One night has passed. Haha! It only took me one night to break through to the Fifth Heaven from the Fourth Heaven. That feels d*mn good!" Jing Yan straightened his back and sprang to his feet.

His body was filled with inexplicable power that swept through him and pounded inside him.

Jing Yan could feel that the Vital Qi inside him had become several times stronger than when he was at the Fourth Heaven. If he came across another Shadow Gale Wolf, as long as the wolf dared to sneak up on him, he was confident he could kill it with one strike.

After spending some time exploring the sensation of his new strength, Jing Yan gazed at the yellow Soul Crystal in his hand. It hadn't faded away yet, but it had gotten a lot smaller. Obviously, Jing Yan had absorbed a lot of its energy.

"I just leveled up a rank, so I need time to consolidate my power. I can't get too greedy. Okay, I will stop absorbing energy for now." Jing Yan carefully put away the Soul Crystal. He then took a sliding step and came to the entrance as fast as lightning.