Only six Silvermoon Wolfkings had been born over the last eighty thousand years. Over time, all six had become arcane dao immortals or stronger—proof of the bloodline’s potency. And yet, Qing Han was treading the seventh Wolfking underfoot! A great existence, destined to become an arcane dao immortal, was being used as a human’s steed!
The old wolf inside Destiny City howled to the sky.
“I don’t care who you are, Qing Yu! You’re as good as dead! Your humiliation of the Silvermoon Wolfkings shall not go unpunished! Even if the nine celestial emperors stand in my way, I will tear you limb from limb!” its voice thundered across the metropolis.
Many immortals cowered instinctively in fear.
The wrath of an eight-fruit arcane dao immortal was frightening. Even the humans who’d bickered with monsters earlier chose to stay quiet; the Silvermoon Wolfkings were strong enough to vie against the nine celestial emperors.
Qing Han looked completely unaffected by the threat. She made silly faces at Lu Yun instead, evidently quite proud of her accomplishment.
“I’ve been mad at this thing for a while. It was nearby when I came in, so I subdued it.” She grinned merrily as the wolf approached Lu Yun’s side.
“Yeah, the same thing happened to me. This gorilla even had the guts to attack me.” Chuckling, Lu Yun stamped a little on the silverback beneath him.
Neither youth noticed the gorilla brighten at their conversation, sweeping away its previous dejection. In fact, it was pleased enough to puff out its chest in pride. A silverback gorilla was a pretty ordinary monster spirit, so when there was a Silvermoon Wolfking to share its plight, being a mount for others didn’t seem so bad any more.
The Wolfking wanted to cry. It was pretty obvious what the gorilla was thinking. Alas, there was nothing it could do—Qing Han had just taught it there were things much worse than death.
The Path of Ingress was very long; no one knew where it ended. As time passed, more and more cultivators grew used to the path’s pressure and began zipping along at much greater speeds.
The fights between the competitors became bloodier. It was quite normal to see cultivators fighting and eliminating each other from time to time. Here and there, alliances and cliques formed for mutual protection and support.
Oddly enough, Lu Yun and Qing Han remained the only two with mounts. They had to fend off would-be assailants countless times along the way, although anyone who died on the path was disqualified and returned to their real bodies instead.
……
“Stop!” Lu Yun called out suddenly. The gorilla and wolf both slid to a halt.
“Why are we here? Do we have to ford this part too?” Qing Han exclaimed.
It wasn’t just them. Many of the cultivators who’d arrived earlier had stopped here as well, unwilling to blindly set foot on the section ahead. The path before them had turned from gold to crimson. The sky overhead was a similar shade of bloody scarlet; through the void, Lu Yun could see the crash of bloody waves.
The Blood Sea!
This was where the Path of Ingress led?!
The bloody path teemed with an uncountable number of the sea’s denizens. Having clambered onto solid ground, they now blocked the way forward.
“Most cultivators will have no problem reaching the end of the path in three days. After getting used to the pressure, traveling along it is a piece of cake. This place… is where the first trial actually is,” Lu Yun murmured.
He could see corpses strewn about in the mass of monsters. Some belonged to cultivators, while others belonged to the sea creatures. Evidently, the former belonged to intrepid adventurers who’d already forged ahead.
“Hold on a second, you two!” Eight cultivators approached them with a polite salute. “The way forward is perilous. It would be very hard for two people to make it alone. Why not team up with…”
“There’s four of us!” the silverback gorilla beneath Lu Yun’s feet huffed, while the Silvermoon Wolfking covered its face with a foreclaw. Its joy at having slipped past unnoticed had been rudely shattered by a gorilla’s shout. Now everyone was staring at them!
“That’s a Silvermoon Wolfking, a fabled beast of legend. I know of six in total, all of them unparalleled sovereigns… but this one is being ridden!” yelped someone who was keen enough to recognize the wolf for what it was.
“Who are these two? Why are they riding a Silvermoon Wolfking?!”
The Wolfking wanted to smack the blabbering gorilla into the ground, only for the silverback to thrust out its chest.
“Look closely, kid! There’s four of us!” the silverback gorilla corrected indignantly.
“Um…” The human cultivator blinked. “Yes, I suppose so.”
Qing Yu and Sidekick were pretty famous, but all thirty million cultivators hardly knew them in person.
“What faction do these rich kids belong to? Bringing in a Silvermoon Wolfking like this…” a girl muttered among the eight.
The Wolfking wanted to riptearkillRAGE!
“Fine,” Lu Yun coolly acquiesced to the request.
“Come on, then.” Qing Han spurred on the Wolfking underfoot.
“You sure we shouldn’t call for a few more fellows?” another piped up worriedly.
“No need,” Qing Han shook her head. “You eight plus us four is enough. Too many would only paint a bigger target.”
Soon, the boy, girl, gorilla, and wolf began plodding on ahead again. The bloodstained path didn’t daunt their progress. However, the eight cultivators behind them hesitated.
“Should we… follow them?” the girl who’d spoken earlier ventured carefully.
“Those two good-for-nothings have only come this far because of their mounts.” The leader snorted derisively. “If they want to show off, they can go right ahead to their deaths. We should keep waiting here. We’ll need at least a hundred to have a chance at traversing the Blood Sea.”
Thud!
A violent boom interrupted his speech. Having pulled out another staff from who knew where, the silverback gorilla was brandishing it around wildly. Several crimson creatures had been sent flying by its swings.
“The pressure here is three times greater than outside!” The Wolfking gasped as it tore a creature to shreds.
“There’s only five hundred kilometers left. The road ahead is the real trial… the stretch so far was just a warmup,” said Lu Yun. “Open your mouths.” He tossed two pills into the compliant beasts’ maws.
New sources of energy bubbled into the two monster spirits and they jumped back into the fight with the sea monsters with renewed vigor. Lu Yun and Qing Han remained unaffected astride their mounts.
“They really are loaded! They’ve got mounts and pills and everything. Do they have stronger treasures, too?” The cultivator group looked on at the pair ahead of them with envious eyes. They almost regretted staying back. If the two youths ahead weren’t strong enough, so what? They had plenty of treasures to make up for it.
“Why is this Sovereign Ranking so different from the one in Dusk Province? Shouldn’t this be a tournament between cultivators? What’s with this road?”
This rather salient question popped into many participants’ heads.
