Chapter 23

As the sky was filled with the setting sun, the red sun illuminated the western sky, turning it a blood-red. On this seemingly peaceful evening, in a primeval old forest a hundred miles away from Mount Tai Xuan and Cui Ling Peak, the roar of a ferocious beast shook the heavens.

Various fierce beasts fled in panic through the forest. A young man with black hair, his body as strong as steel, stood bare-chested with a bronze-colored torso, charging through the herd of beasts like a force of nature.

Streams of blood flowed down the young man's bronze-colored body, but it was not his own blood.

The young man was like a peerless killing god, his eyes blazing with ferocity, his long hair flying wildly. He tore apart several fierce beasts in succession, and the forest erupted in a mist of blood. Then, with a loud cry, he grabbed the hind leg of a giant bear and swung it around with great force.

"Go!" The young man exhaled, and the nearly thousand-pound brown-furred giant bear was thrown like a sack of flour.

"Boom!" "Boom!" "Boom!" ...

The deafening roars continued as the giant bear, like a cannonball, crashed through dozens of towering trees, finally landing with a "bang" on the ground.

Dirt flew, trees broke, and branches snapped, causing the ground to tremble. The massive, heavy body of the brown-furred giant bear created a large pit in the ground.

The brown-furred giant bear, half-buried in the pit, was barely alive.

The trees that the giant bear had knocked down fell one after another, creating chaos. The forest was thrown into turmoil as the beasts fled in all directions.

The young man's eyes were like lightning, scanning the herd of beasts, and the aura of ferocity emanating from his body was even more terrifying than that of the beasts.

"Hmm?"

A strange creature, resembling a pangolin but as large as a lion or tiger, caught the young man's attention. This creature was covered in palm-sized green scales, and its front claws were sharp like ten small swords.

Despite its short limbs, it moved with incredible speed. Its green-scaled body, at a glance, revealed that this creature must have strong defenses.

"It's you!" The young man's lips curled into a cold smile, and he pushed off the ground with his feet, causing the earth to explode beneath him.

If he was going to kill, he wanted to kill a challenging beast!

The young man's body shot out like an arrow, flying towards the strange creature. In an instant, he was upon it. The creature turned its head and lunged at the young man with a fierce bite.

However, the young man completely ignored the creature's ferocious counterattack. With a "puh" sound, his hands, tinged with a faint five-color glow, pierced through the creature's body, its hard scales offering no resistance.

The young man's eyes widened, and he stomped the ground, causing it to crack. He then twisted his waist and exerted force with both hands, tearing the creature's body into two pieces.

Hot blood rained down on the young man's head, face, and body, then dripped from his hair, face, and body onto the ground, seeping into the soil.

The young man allowed the warm blood of the creature to spray over him, licked the blood from the corner of his mouth, and a hint of madness flashed in his eyes.

"Hmm! External training of tendons, bones, and skin, internal cultivation of the Five Elements' energy. In the blink of an eye, I've been on Cui Ling Peak for half a year, but I still can't break through to the Seventh Level of Enlightenment!" The young man muttered to himself.

This seemingly seventeen or eighteen-year-old, blood-soaked, ferocious young man was Gu Fei, who was cultivating on Cui Ling Peak. His cultivation had hit a bottleneck.

Even with the help of the yin-yang jade pendant that had merged into his body, which had increased his cultivation speed tenfold, the ancient cultivation method he was practicing was extremely difficult and obscure, and he could only advance step by step with great difficulty.

The profound martial arts principles passed down from ancient times were not so easily comprehended. Gu Fei had already reached the stage of using the sound of the heavenly drum to refine his internal organs and strengthen his tendons and bones.

Half a year ago, he had already felt that he had reached a bottleneck, but he could not take that step, break through that barrier.

Although he could not truly break through to the Seventh Level of Enlightenment, over the past half year, Gu Fei had strengthened his body to an incredible degree, to the point where even the fierce beasts in the mountains could not bite him.

Under the refinement and nourishment of the Five Elements' origin power within his body, the strength of Gu Fei's treasure body was no less than that of a cultivator's magical treasure.

He was refining his body as if it were a magical treasure!

"Alright, no more playing. What should I eat tonight?" After tormenting the herd of beasts until they were in a state of panic, Gu Fei lost interest and stopped. He rubbed his chin, his eyes scanning the fleeing beasts.

Suddenly, a silver-white shadow caught his eye, and his eyes lit up. "Got it, I'll have snake soup tonight."

The bronze-colored, demonic body left a trail of afterimages as it shot towards the rapidly fleeing silver-white shadow, a silver python about two zhang long, in the herd of beasts.

Gu Fei's movements were as swift as the wind, and in the blink of an eye, he caught up to the silver python. His right hand shot forward, and his fingers, like steel hooks, grabbed the python's vital point.

"Strike the snake at its vital point, and catch the snake at its vital point." A smile appeared on Gu Fei's lips as he tightened his grip, and the silver python immediately went limp. The snake soup for tonight was secured.

...

The sky was dotted with countless stars, and the endless starlight shone down from the heavens. In the quiet mountains, the occasional roar of a beast could be heard. In front of a cave on Cui Ling Peak, a bonfire was burning.

The firelight flickered on the stone door of the cave, and a branch with golden, oily snake meat skewered on it was roasting over the bonfire, emitting a fragrant aroma.

By the bonfire, Gu Fei's appetite was whetted. He reached out and tore off a hind leg from the roasted wild rabbit, not caring if it was hot, and took a big bite, chewing vigorously, his mouth soon full of oil.

Accompanied by the fine wine he had brought out from the cave, he alternated between sips of wine and bites of meat, and in no time, several pounds of snake meat were completely devoured.

Gu Fei belched, rubbed his slightly swollen belly, and stood up from the bonfire, looking up at the starry sky. The stars twinkled, and the moon hung high, the cool breeze bringing a refreshing feeling, making his whole body feel comfortable.

"Ha ha! Full and satisfied, what should I do next? Hmm! I'll practice my skills!" Gu Fei laughed, then threw the empty wine jar down the mountain and sat cross-legged in front of the cave, his palms facing the sky, and closed his eyes to meditate.

...

In the middle of the night, without any warning, everything seemed so peaceful, but suddenly, an endless, terrifying aura appeared in the distant sky. A vast cloud of demonic energy, which seemed to have appeared out of nowhere, rolled in and quickly covered half the sky, surging towards Mount Tai Xuan from the west.

The demonic energy moved as fast as lightning, and in the blink of an eye, the entire Mount Tai Xuan was enveloped in rolling demonic clouds. The world instantly became completely dark, with no light at all. The demonic clouds blocked out the sky, making it feel as if the end of the world had arrived, and the oppressive feeling was enough to drive one mad.

On Mount Tai Xuan, it was as if a pot had exploded. All the disciples were startled, and everyone was in a state of shock and at a loss, the powerful and terrifying aura emanating from the demonic clouds in the sky making everyone's bodies cold and their hearts filled with fear, a fear that came from the depths of their souls!

"Six-Path Demon Lord?" Suddenly, a voice as solemn as the sound of a temple bell echoed from the Tai Xuan Hall at the top of the mountain, clearly reaching the ears of every Tai Xuan Sect disciple.

This voice seemed to have a magical quality, dispelling the fear in the hearts of the Tai Xuan Sect disciples. Then, in the pitch-black world, a light shone from within the Tai Xuan Hall, and in an instant, the light illuminated the heavens, and the demonic clouds covering the sky above Mount Tai Xuan showed signs of being dispelled.