Chapter 34

The new book "The Great Wasteland Barbarian God" has been updated since its upload, and today marks the tenth day. In total, over 110,000 words have been uploaded, averaging more than 11,000 words per day.

This book is a transformation work for Gengsu, and I believe everyone can see the effort Gengsu has put in.

When has Gengsu ever been this diligent before?

Today, Zongheng is running a special event on the homepage to support this new book:

Brothers who support the new book with 100 Zongheng coins can draw 1 monthly ticket or 1 recommendation ticket;

Supporting with 1,000 Zongheng coins can draw 4 monthly tickets or 2 recommendation tickets;

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Brothers who participate in supporting the new book also have the chance to win custom T-shirts, USB drives, mouse pads, and iPad minis.

This is a great opportunity for us to openly brush monthly and red tickets. Please support me, brothers.

Starting from this chapter, I will update one chapter for every 500 monthly tickets until the backlog is exhausted...

Please support Gengsu, brothers...

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The iron arrow shot out and embedded itself in the stone wall, with only the feathered tail vibrating and humming.

Chen Xun, who had previously been able to shoot only half an iron arrow into the stone wall from a distance of three to four hundred meters when he pulled the iron bow with all his might, was now amazed to see the entire arrow embedded in the wall, its power doubled.

Such divine archery skills would take ordinary barbarian warriors years of hard practice to master, but after learning the techniques and controlling his spiritual senses from Su Tang, Chen Xun could achieve this in just half a day. He thought to himself, "So-called sects are truly unfathomable."

"How about it? Our Su family's Dragon Binding Arrow is pretty impressive, right? It's not too late for you to beg me to be your master," Su Tang, seeing Chen Xun standing in front of the stone wall, puzzled by the increased power of his archery, walked over with a smug look, trying to lure this young barbarian into becoming her disciple. She thought, "With Xun's high talent, the old ancestor will surely agree to take him in."

For years, she had been practicing alone under the old ancestor, and being seen as the pride of Canglan, she had to maintain a cold and frosty demeanor in front of others, which she found tiring. If Xun could accompany her in the future, it would be much more interesting.

Thinking of this, Su Tang couldn't help but feel a bit smug.

Chen Xun turned his head and asked Su Tang, "Archery is just a minor skill. Is the technique you taught me the fundamental?"

Unless he had a true divine bow, no matter how proficient his archery skills were, they could never compare to the powerful soul techniques of barbarian warriors.

The Dragon Binding technique had the wonder of cultivating and controlling spiritual senses, and Chen Xun vaguely felt that he had not yet grasped its true profundity. He thought the Dragon Binding technique must be the Su family's secret.

"Anyway, you must never reveal the technique to anyone else," Su Tang thought she could deceive Chen Xun, but he quickly figured out something was off and couldn't help but ask curiously, "I only taught you the first level of the Dragon Binding technique, which isn't particularly profound. How did you guess?"

"In the 'Residual Interpretation of Dao Essence,' Qingmu Daoist said that ordinary people have six senses: sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch, and mind. Only those who awaken their barbarian souls can open their spiritual senses, the seventh sense. Cultivating the Lingxuan technique shouldn't be as simple as just archery..."

"Really boring," Su Tang sighed, "Canglan cultivators focus on cultivating Dao Essence True Yang during their foundation-building stage, but by the fifth and sixth levels of the True Yang realm, they also practice visualization and contemplation techniques to cultivate their divine souls, which is not much different from how barbarian warriors cultivate their barbarian souls. Cultivating the divine soul generates spiritual senses, which have various wonders. After advancing to the Rebirth realm, spiritual senses become the foundation for cultivating innate qi, casting talismans, and using spells. Su family disciples are usually only taught the Lingxuan technique after advancing to the late Qingyang realm, and those with higher talent can cast some simple talismans and spells in the late Qingyang realm..."

"Can it not be taught to outsiders?" Chen Xun asked.

"In theory, that's the case," Su Tang shrugged, putting on a helpless expression, "But I had no choice, right? Besides, I only taught you the first level of the Dragon Binding technique. Even if the old ancestor finds out, he'll just scold me."

If this secret were to leak, Su Tang, as the pride of Canglan, might only be scolded, but for Chen Xun, the consequences would be far more severe.

Chen Xun thought it best to keep this secret to himself.

As for the subsequent levels of the Dragon Binding technique and how to cultivate innate qi, talismans, and spells, Chen Xun didn't ask any more.

The more he practiced now, the greater the risk of being exposed when he entered the Canglan Academy in the future.

Chen Xun continued practicing archery according to the Dragon Binding technique. Once he felt he could master it, he and Su Tang returned to the base of the two-tiered cliff.

Chen Xun climbed to the halfway point of the first tier of the cliff, stood on a protruding stone beam, and estimated that he was about 500 meters from the cliff face. He drew an iron-feathered arrow from his quiver, aimed at the stone snake lotus blooming at the cliff's edge, and shot it.

The iron-feathered arrow shot out at incredible speed, and the valley was filled with the sharp whistling of the arrow breaking through the air.

Just as the arrowhead was about to hit the stone snake lotus, a burst of golden light shot out from the stone crevice at the cliff's edge, instantly reducing the iron-feathered arrow to powder.

Even the arrowhead, made of fine iron, was obliterated, leaving no trace.

Sensing the imminent danger, Chen Xun's divine soul trembled, and he immediately flipped off the stone beam. A bolt of golden light, like a golden snake, followed him and exploded, turning the stone beam where he had stood into ashes.

Ashes!

Chen Xun and Su Tang, who were waiting at the base of the cliff, were covered in the stone ashes that rained down from the sky.

When Chen Xun jumped off the stone beam, he didn't even have time to look back. Seeing the stone beam where he had stood now empty, with a burnt smell in the air, he was drenched in cold sweat.

If his reaction had been a moment slower, his fate would not have been any better than that of the stone beam.

Su Tang was also still shaken. If Chen Xun hadn't pulled her down the cliff in the morning, the moment she touched the stone snake lotus would have been the moment of her death.

"Did you sense anything hidden in the stone wall?" Su Tang asked Chen Xun.

"No."

Before shooting the arrow, Chen Xun had extended his spiritual senses into the stone wall but found it dark and sensed no abnormal aura. When the golden light burst out, an invisible barrier pushed his spiritual senses out of the stone wall.

When the second bolt of golden light struck, Chen Xun's divine soul trembled, but he didn't sense any murderous intent.

There was definitely a powerful and strange beast hidden in the stone wall, so powerful that it didn't even need to think of killing to take a life.

After all, when an ordinary person crushes an ant, do they really think of killing?

"I didn't expect the strongest strange beast in this mountain to be hidden in this cliff wall. I didn't notice it before," Su Tang said, still shaken.

Before she was injured, she could have easily turned the stone beam into powder, but the golden bolt that turned the stone beam into ashes contained such pure divine power that even at her peak, she would have struggled to match it.

Fortunately, Chen Xun's spiritual senses were extraordinary, and he escaped in time.

"It seems to be restrained and can't come out of the stone wall. Moreover, it can't use its powerful attacks frequently, or we wouldn't have been able to climb to the first tier of the cliff so easily," Chen Xun speculated.

"The stone snake lotus is a fourth-grade treasure herb. When it blooms, we should have smelled the medicinal aura as soon as we entered the valley. But we only smelled a faint trace of the aura when we climbed to the first tier of the cliff. It seems the monster has absorbed most of the medicinal aura into the stone wall," Su Tang nodded and said.

"The golden bolt just now seemed weak but was incredibly pure, comparable to divine power. Only an extremely powerful beast could cultivate such power. This beast is so concerned about the medicinal aura that, besides being restrained here, it must be severely injured, like me..."

Although no more golden bolts came, Chen Xun and Su Tang felt it was not safe to stay at the base of the cliff and gave up on picking the stone snake lotus.

No matter what kind of restraint the beast in the stone wall was under or how severely injured it was, it was not something they could provoke at this moment.

Since the Great Solitary Peak was so rich in spiritual qi, there might be some lower-grade spiritual herbs in other places.

Stabilizing Su Tang's injuries and safely returning to Canglan was the priority.

Once back in Canglan, what spiritual herbs wouldn't the Su family have?

Chen Xun and Su Tang then bypassed the two-tiered cliff in the valley and climbed along the frozen stone stream to a higher elevation.

Climbing to a sufficient height and looking back at the valley, Chen Xun realized that the two-tiered cliff, standing in the wide and long valley, resembled a pillar supporting the sky, with a shape very similar to the Great Solitary Peak.

The mountains on both sides seemed like arms, embracing the valley within.

The dense forest covered the snow, and even in such cold weather, mountain springs flowed from the sides of the mountains, converging at the foot of the peak and freezing into extremely cold mystic ice.

This terrain, with a peak within a peak, was truly strange.

Based on the "Residual Interpretation of Dao Essence," Chen Xun had some basic understanding of "heavenly traces and earth formations" and knew that this terrain was extraordinary.

Leaving the small peak behind, Chen Xun and Su Tang climbed another kilometer-high cliff, almost reaching the summit, before the dense clouds below obscured the small peak.

"Strange, I didn't see any clouds under this high cliff when we were at the foot of the mountain," Chen Xun said, estimating the position and knowing that the small peak was just below the high cliff, even within jumping distance.

Su Tang, familiar with the art of observing the earth and its veins, saw that this terrain, with a peak within a peak, was comparable to a naturally formed array. She thought it was no wonder that a fourth-grade treasure herb could grow on the peak, as the Dao Essence spiritual qi of half the mountain converged there.

It would be strange if no treasure herbs grew here after hundreds of years without anyone passing by.

She was then curious about what kind of beast was trapped in the small peak.

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The cold at the summit was even more intense, and the azure mystic cold qi, like a transparent layer of water, floated above their heads.

The spiritual qi in this area was even more abundant, and Chen Xun and Su Tang found two Wu Yu Zhi herbs along the way.

The Wu Yu Zhi, growing in the extremely cold region, resembled orchids, with blackish-green stems and leaves that emitted a jade-like luster, as if carved from black jade.

While the Wu Yu Zhi couldn't compare to the stone snake lotus, it was still a second-grade spiritual herb, sufficient to stabilize Su Tang's injuries.

Although it couldn't be refined into a pill, its efficacy was much weaker, but when Chen Xun chewed and swallowed half a Wu Yu Zhi, the medicinal power transformed into a rolling stream of medicine, almost making his blood boil.

His heart contracted violently, and his blood flowed rapidly, releasing countless bright divine lights from his qi and blood, like clouds of mist churning violently in his soul sea.

This was the benefit of awakening a barbarian soul. If an ordinary person consumed such a powerful spiritual herb, they would usually die from the overwhelming power.

Chen Xun sat cross-legged on the mountain peak, using the purer mystic cold qi at the summit and the divine light clouds in his soul sea to temper his entire body's bones.

By the time he had completely refined the medicinal power of half a Wu Yu Zhi, it was already midnight. Feeling it was not enough, he saw that Su Tang was still silently cultivating to refine the medicinal power, so he chewed and swallowed a quantity of spiritual herbs equivalent to two bottles of Yuan Gathering Ointment.

By the next morning, not only had his bones been tempered to a new extreme, but his tendons and muscles had also been greatly strengthened, making him feel full of power.

Tempering tendons and muscles was indeed very effective.

Chen Xun really wanted to lift a huge rock to test how much his strength had increased.

"What are you looking at me for?" Chen Xun saw Su Tang's clear almond eyes staring at him in amazement.

"You look so ugly now," Su Tang said.

Chen Xun then noticed that after a night of tempering, his tendons and muscles had become thick and large, stretching his skin, which was tough like armor, and the veins were prominently visible, like intertwined snakes, forming a natural beast totem.

He looked just like the upper-class barbarian warriors like Zong Sang and Nan Liao, which was naturally very ugly.

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