Chapter 312 One Step Too Difficult
The contest for prized magical treasures and herbs had just turned into a race up the rock.
Even at mid-hill, the invisible pressure weighing on his shoulders made every one step too ineffably difficult that he could barely utter a word.
Not far below, Zang Fengling and Pan Chengfeng were busy with their own struggles as well. While Chu Xun needed to contend with the gigantic python hot at his heels, they had a huge tiger eager to catch up to them.
The climb might be just as hard and strenuous for other explorers, but they could well breathe easily without having ferocious beasts chasing from behind.
“Go for it, Liu!” Yan Wushuang cheered from below.
Chu Xun could only manage a weak smile. With so many pairs of eyes watching him, he could not use any of his Hong Meng Immortal Qi, so the toil was turning understandably difficult.
“For Heavens’ sakes, Snake, I only hope you’d stop and take a rest,” he kindly reminded.
For every two meters he climbed, the python covered more than five to six meters; it was closing in fast with double or triple his speed.
“ARRGGGHHH!” Chu Xun threw back his head and let loose a guttural howl. Every part of him glowed with light and inside him, he could feel his insides shaking and resonating as one and his heart drumming loudly in his ears.
Carrying the massive weight threatening to crush him, he pushed on stubbornly, smashing countless stones and little rocks under his feet as he moved.
“Just use your True Energy,” persuaded the purple-haired woman using telepathy.
“It’s fine. I can do it,” Chu Xun replied, “Or, you can help by singing me a song.”
“Oh, shuddup!” her snap came brusquely.
Chu Xun began shouting, “Run, Master Sexual Dysfunctional! Look, the tiger’s going to bite your arse!”
Down below, everyone reeled with speechlessness – even in such dire straits, this oaf could still find time to tease Zang Fengling.
“Wait, Master Sexual Dysfunctional! The tiger might be coming to give you its phallus!”
“Oh, just shut up your foul mouth,” growled Zang Fengling from below, exasperated.
“Go, Tiger! Go! Little tiger, little tiger. Run so fast, run so fast...” Chu Xun began yelling a string of cheers to spur the monster tiger.
Ironically, the tiger stopped suddenly.
Huh?!
Chu Xun could not quite believe what he saw.
Zang Fengling saw it too and broke into fits of laughter. “Look, you bumpkin oaf! That’s what you get for being a loudmouth!”
Annoyed, Chu Xun scowled, “Some tiger you are! You’re more like a sickened cat to me!”
“Maybe you should just focus on climbing, Liu,” Yan Wushuang pointed out wearily, “It’s now coming your way.”
Chu Xun jerked his head around and saw the monster tiger with its blood-red eyes fixed on him, veered off its original course, and was climbing his way.
“Dammit, you rabid cat! Go away, or I’ll batter some manners into you! I’ll cut off your phallus and sell it to Master Sexual Dysfunctional below!”
That seemed only to serve the adverse effect of fueling its anger – the tiger began barreling uphill straight at Chu Xun, overtaking even the gigantic python.
Chu Xun could only groan at his own folly. His knees were shaking from the great weight pressing down on him, yet, he did not neglect to pluck whatever magical herbs and shrubs that came his way.
The more he climbed, the greater the pressure became.
It was only getting harder for Chu Xun – his skin was boiling as if it was going to rip open. With an agonizing groan of pain, he pressed on tenaciously.
The staggering pressure never once stopped, and if he ever paused just one step, he knew he could very well crumble.
Sweat mottled his brows, and blood webbed the pupils of his eyes. He would never have been able to reach this far without having infused the bones of the Ancestral Dragon inside himself and bathed himself in dragon’s blood.
Meanwhile, just barely ten paces behind, the monster tiger was drawing dangerously nearer.
What kind of race is this when the beasts get an easy path to the finishing line?! Chu Xun thought it was unfair.
At long last, the monster tiger reached mid-hill, lashing at Chu Xun with an orotund roar with malice gleaming in its bloodshot eyes.
Yet it only just placed its paw beyond the mid-hill mark and an invisible force slammed down on it, pressing it to the ground.
Roar!
With a defiant roar, the tiger’s back emitted the same surge of iridescent glow from before, radiating like waves as it slowly pushed up to its feet.
Boom!
It tried to take another step, but just as its paw came down, the ground cracked, and the entire opened fan-shaped rock shook.
That delighted Chu Xun. It would appear that the invisible force that began weighing down on anyone passing mid-hill was the same to everyone alike, even beasts too.
Chu Xun had scaled almost two-thirds of the rock’s height with the rest of the others reaching the mid-hill mark.
That was where the race uphill turned into another kind of hell. While explorers climbing up the bottom half of the rock have to weather the incessant drubbing from the countless waves of golden sparkles, those passing the mid-hill mark would have to endure the powerful, invisible pressure squashing down on them.
Bang!
The entire rock tremored, and Zang Fengling and Pan Chengfeng collapsed in unison at the invisible force, their faces smashed into the rock that it split beneath them.
“Hahahaha,” Chu Xun guffawed upon seeing that. Despite the pain and soreness now stinging at every bone of his body, he could not hold back laughing.
“Wow, Master Sexual Dysfunctional, looks like your skin is so thick that even rocks pale in comparison.”
Below him, both Pan and Zang could barely breathe at their lungs being crushed, let alone yell any response to Chu Xun’s barrage of slurs.
“Wait down there, Yan!” Chu Xun yelled, “Wait for me down there.”
In fact, Yan Wushuang knew he would be no better than Zang Fengling and Pan Chengfeng if he really went up. He responded a wordless reply and began parrying away any waves of gold that came his way as he circled around the lower regions of the rock to pluck whatever herb and shrub he could find.
Everyone else refused to give up climbing. Understandably so, given the magical properties of the magical pear fruits hanging off the boughs of the tree on the crest of the rock, which would undoubtedly ensure a great boon to them.
Nevertheless, their hopes were similarly dashed when they reached mid-hill where they were also crushed by the invisible force like Zang Fengling.
Right at that very moment, everyone began comprehending Chu Xun’s astounding toughness and endurance.
The monster tiger retreated downhill.
The giant emerald-cyan python wandered around the slopes, hoping vainly to find any other way to worm its way up.
Only the gigantic ape with scarlet-red fur managed a few steps before it began coughing blood and that was the last straw that compelled it to abandon its hopes.
No man nor beast could ever hope to withstand the staggering pressure.
Except for Chu Xun, he doggedly persisted with his climb, no matter how heavy the force was and how much pain he felt.
Cough!
Chu Xun choked once, and blood escaped his lips. The pressure bearing down on him was making his blood literally churning inside him and it was indescribably torturous.
Crack!
As he paced, more cracks split open under his feet, and blood began dribbling out of the pores of his skin.
“ARRRGGGHH!” Chu Xun gave a deafening roar. It was just too painful, even with the bones of the Ancestral Dragon now infused into him. But the staggering force now trying to squash him seemed to also affect his soul, in addition to the numbing pain now stinging all over him.
Puff!
More blood spewed out of his mouth like a fountain, drenching the front of his robes red.
“Come down, Liu! Let’s just leave it!” persuaded Yan Wushuang.
“Come down, Master Liu! There’s always another chance! This might not be our time yet!” added his Human King retainers too.
The purple-haired woman bit her lip. Somehow, she felt unbearably mournful watching Chu Xun suffering.
“Do you not value your life?” she urged using telepathy, “Come back down!”
“This could be a form of training – a tempering of sorts for my physical body. I have seen much increase in my magic, but the toughness of my physical body has yet to improve.”
Zang Fengling and his men looked up with grudge and jealousy, hoping that Chu Xun might just die up there.
Rumble!
Everything around him went dark for one split-second as Chu Xun felt the pressure was making him feel giddy. He bit his tongue and felt the metallic saltiness of his blood filling his mouth and that helped to keep him awake.
Ten more meters to the magical pear tree.
Crack!
The granite beneath his feet split again. He dug his fingers deep into any crevice he could find, steadying himself as he crawled slowly up.
He lifted one leg with much difficulty and slowly took another pace.
More blood escaped from virtually every pore on his skin as if the gargantuan pressure was trying to squash every drop of blood out of him.
Puff!
Another mouthful of blood poured out of his mouth, trickling from the corners of his lips.
Crunch!
He could feel his bones groaning with pain inside him. The bones of the Ancestral Dragon might not break, but it nevertheless was being subjected to an invisible and powerful force he never before endured. If he were any lesser man, he would have long been dead and his bones shattered into innumerable splinters and pieces.
Thump! Thump!
The beating of his heart began to slow.
Wispy webs of blood vessels coursing like red rivulets stood out against the whites of his eyes, and his entire back was soaking with sweat. He looked absolutely miserable.
But he knew he needed to go on, and to do that, he needed to stay awake despite the overwhelming pressure bringing down darkness upon his consciousness.
“Talk to me,” he uttered via telepathy.
“About what?”
“Anything – let’s start with whether you are Jing Hong. What brought you to Earth, and how did you learn to use the Demon-slain Finger?”
“Like I said before, I don’t know and I’m not Jing Hong.”
“....”
Blood never stopped flowing out of his mouth, and his clothes clung to his back, sweat and blood-soaked, and everywhere he walked, he left a trail of blood in his wake.
One meter.
Three meters.
Five meters.
Like a pig wallowing in mud, Chu Xun was utterly covered in his own blood. His face was contorted with pain and his expression dismal if not grotesque.
Dammit, how could he be not dead yet, Zang Fengling cursed under his breath from below.
Every pair of eyes in the dome of gold was trained in on Chu Xun as they gasped at his unbelievable endurance.
Chu Xun felt like going to fall. He began to dread and could even barely keep his eyes open. A good sleep was all that he ever wanted at this moment.
“Wake up, Chu Xun! Chu the Devil! Remember your parents! Remember the lass Little Wu still waiting for you in her ice casket!” the woman’s voice echoed in his mind.
Little Wu? Chu Xun floundered with bewilderment at the love name of his beloved.
Teetering off the brink of awareness, he was going to fall when the mention of his precious Little Wu’s name brought back a sparkle into his eyes.
Right! She’s waiting for me! I cannot fall! How could I!?
He pressed on – with every step taking almost a half-hour.
Seven meters!
Eight meters!
Ten meters!
He made it. He felt his fingers grazing the hard, uneven bark of the magical pear tree.
But he began spiraling into a long fit of coughs that resulted in him throwing up blood again and again.
“How are you?” the woman asked again, her voiced distressed and concerned.
But Chu Xun wore a wry look as he grinned suddenly.
“Actually, I feel fine.”
He stood up straight suddenly, his hand caressing the trunk of the magical pear tree.
Everyone below gaped with their jaws hanging wide, especially Zang Fengling. He was on the edge of becoming mad; he could swear on his own life that he saw Chu Xun very near to losing his life.
But how?! How did he manage to stand up!?
As it turned out, when Chu Xun first managed to touch the trunk of the tree, the invisible force which had been trying so vehemently to squash him into a pulp had vanished in the blink of an eye like a receding tide.
The sudden relief and repose allowed him to cough out as much blood as possible.
Overjoyed, he grabbed a handful of spiritual herbs that would replenish his blood, stuffed them into his mouth, and began chewing.
The magical fruits of the pear tree shone with a soft, supple luster of silver that only made it more mysterious and divine.
Chu Xun wrapped his arms around the tree and began yelling loudly as he started to pull.
Everyone below was stunned. Is he trying to uproot the entire tree?!
“That’s rather rapacious of you, my friend,” an ancient voice reverberated in Chu Xun’s mind.
Realizing that it was not the purple-haired woman’s voice, Chu Xun staggered backward with horror and wariness. Who was that?! That was definitely telepathy!
“WHO GOES THERE!?” Chu Xun roared. Not using any telepathy at all, he yelled directly to no one in particular.
Strange looks hung from the faces of everyone below. Who is he shouting at?!
“What’s wrong with you?” the purple-haired woman asked using telepathy.
Chu Xun recounted to her what happened.
“Could there be other cultivators here?” gasped the woman with shock.
“I’m not sure,” said Chu Xun, “But Taoists too have telepathic magic of their own. Voice transmission through the mind is not something that only cultivators can do.”
“Pick the magical fruits, my friend. It is time I was on my way too,” the same deep voice rumbled again.
Chu Xun jumped. Despite his use of special magical means, he failed to trace the origin of this voice, or rather, his sensory magic was disrupted before he could pick up any trace of this unknown stranger and this was testament enough to his terrifying strength and powers.
Knowing better than to misbehave anymore, he leaped up the tree and began plucking off seven magical fruits and securing them with a magical seal.
Rumble!
The entire opened fan-shaped rock began trembling and boulders rolled off its side as dust and dirt were kicked into the air.
Frightened, the panicking warriors all rushed down the rock and fled.
With absolutely zero intention to delay, Chu Xun sped down the rock too.
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