Climbing Mount Thundersea

Chu Feng and Wu Zhen slowly ascended the mountain, not stopping even when it was dark. As they continued to ascend, they started meeting stronger beasts along the way. It seemed that the path to the mountain was not only time-consuming but also perilous.

Still, at least there were things to do and people to talk to. That last month in the void had almost made him go insane. Things were relatively calm as they climbed the mountain, they didn't understand why submitting this mountain would be hard, except surviving the frequent thunderbolts. Even then, that was incredibly far up and they didn't need to worry about it for now.

Eventually, Chu Feng needed a break. After all, he hadn't practiced body refining and therefore didn't have as much stamina as Wu Zhen. As they sat down, Chu Feng started to practice body refining and screamed in pain.

"AHHH! My god, that hurts!", Chu Feng screamed out loud.

"Of course it hurts! No pain, no gain!", Wu Zhen replied, smirking.

In the next moment, his smirk turned to a frown instantly as a great roar emanated throughout the cave.

"Run! Get up and run!", Wu Zhen shouted as he hurriedly put on his sandals and sprinted away.

Behind him was Chu Feng, and behind Chu Feng was a monster. A big one at that. To be precise, a giant bear!

They ran as fast as they could, racing through the forests and treading through everything, from mud to moss. If that bear caught up to them, they'd be dead! Wu Zhen might be strong, but a giant bear would be stronger. Not only was the bear huge, but he could also sense qi inside it. In other words, this bear was a cultivator. Every beast they'd fought before had just been unusually strong, but none had known how to cultivate qi. A beast that knew how to cultivate was known as a demon. Right now, they were facing off against exactly that.

Although the bear had the same cultivation as them, it had tens of times more strength due to its naturally strong physical body. Any demon at the same level as a cultivator would easily rip apart the cultivator in a fight, except if the cultivator was an exceptionally strong body refiner.

They ran uphill, hoping to get an altitude advantage. They couldn't just keep running, eventually, they would have to rest. The best option would be to kill this bear right here, while they still have most of their qi and are in their best condition.

Wu Zhen suddenly dashed forward, activating Storm Cloud palms. When his palms hit the bear, the electricity seemed to reflect right off its fur, straight back at him. Fortunately, he was relatively shock resistant from refining his body. Unfortunately, however, the bear was getting ready for its move. Its huge palms began to turn electric, the effects were quite similar to Wu Zhen's Storm Cloud palms.

Wu Zhen was shocked, figuratively and literally. Storm Cloud palms was a technique he had created after watching an expert kill a demon invading his village with lightning emitting from his palms. Although it wasn't exceptionally powerful or detailed, it was still his self-created technique, even if it was copied from an expert. This was one of the things he was most proud of.

As the bear's palms hit him, he prepared for pain, but then he realized, what was he so scared of? He had been tempering his body with lightning for a month now! He had no reason to be scared of this bear's imitation of an imitation!

Even though its lightning did minimal damage, the sheer force of a bear's palm broke a rib or two at least. Wu Zhen screamed in pain, but he knew he had to kill this bear somehow.

"Think, think, think, think. Wu Zhen, you're smart, there's a solution to this!"

If its fur was resistant to electricity, he had to choose a place without fur. The only easily accessible place without fur... was the mouth.

Wasn't that practically suicide? Which idiot would put his arms in a bear's mouth? That's practically begging for the bear to nibble on them! Still, it was the only place where his attacks would be effective, so he had to try it, even if it was risky. He could just hope that he could shock the bear before it ate him. He jumped up and activated Storm Cloud palms while shoving his palms into the bear's mouth. The bear looked at him like he was a moron. Was he just ending his life because he knew he would die anyway?

The bear would soon find out this wasn't the case through the form of an electrical shock.

"Ooh, now you're feeling the shock aren't you?"

While the bear managed to hang on, it was paralyzed for a few seconds due to the electric shock. It was the perfect time to land a killing move. It was almost like the words "Finish him!" popped up above the bear's head.

"Alright, here we go, my ultimate move, Storm Cloud's thunder!"

The lightning in his palms condensed together into a ball before shooting out, frying the bear from the inside out. It slumped back, before falling and creating a loud thump as its body hit the floor. It was positively dead.

Wu Zhen had done it again, he'd survived! They quickly skinned the bear as its fur had electricity-resistant qualities which might be useful in the future. Afterward, they both went back to their campfire and began roasting the bear meat. They still had to eat after all. Although it didn't have any seasoning, it was still the first time Wu Zhen had eaten meat in a month. He only got vegetarian meals back in his room. Complaining about the taste wouldn't get him anywhere either.

After they ate, they set out again to cross the mountain again. How many days could they go on like this?

As they ascended, it became steeper and rockier. Soon, it would be close to a sheer cliff. They decided to stop and cultivate to get stronger before continuing to climb.

3 weeks passed. They had already adapted to the rough environment of the mountain, where many demons were wandering about, searching for prey. For food, they would hunt herbs and animals, which they would roast on sticks and eat. It was not the best food they had ever eaten, but it was enough. Maybe life on Mount Thundersea wasn't that bad after all.

Wu Zhen's cultivation was growing rapidly. In the three weeks they spent on Mount Thundersea, he had already broken through to Qi Condensation 4. Now, most demon beasts were easy to defeat since they were only Qi Condensation 3. Chu Feng was bewildered by his big bro's speed. How come he wasn't this talented back when he was in the village? Was he just holding back?

He had also found out an interesting thing about demons, they had dantians too. Not only that, they tasted sweet and had similar properties to the Qi Nourishing bead. Perhaps pills were refined out of demon dantians.

This day, in particular, they were out hunting for herbs in locations with dense qi. Another thing they'd found out was that rare herbs usually grew in places with dense qi since herbs grow faster in areas with more qi they could absorb.

Chu Feng came running to Wu Zhen, rambling on about some cave with an extremely dense amount of qi inside of it. This was already the second time Chu Feng had came to him rambling about a mysterious cave, and the last time he did it, they ended up in this place. Still, he decided to follow him. If it was true, they might harvest some rare herbs. It couldn't possibly be worse than this right?

Whenever that thought appears in one's head, you know that it's going to get worse.

Both of them ran back to the cave, and it turns out that it indeed did have extremely dense amounts of qi within it, but was that all there was to it? He doubted it. It was too good to be true.

They cautiously began exploring the cave, heading deeper into it. Eventually, they came to a place where the cave split up into 2 parts. They both agreed not to split up since they didn't know what was in this place. They walked in the darkness of the cave until the passageway suddenly opened up to a large glowing lake. Wu Zhen stepped forward and touched the lake when he suddenly realized that the entire lake was imbued with qi, making the rate of cultivation in the lake faster than the outside.

They had found a treasure! A really good one! Wu Zhen immediately dived in and signaled for Chu Feng to follow him. He began to cultivate inside the lake, absorbing the liquid qi around him. Chu Feng entered the pool and began cultivating as well. If he could use this lake for a couple of weeks, he would probably be able to break through to Qi Condensation 4.

While they were cultivating, a certain demon lying deep within the pool was rudely awoken from its cultivation. Which demon dared to enter into this great Snake Lord's territory? It could easily sense their cultivation. Qi Condensation 3 and 4? It had absolute certainty in crushing them, but what fun would that be? It wanted to play around with them for a bit. It had been a long time since the snake had met humans after all.

"You humans dare to enter my territory? I will make sure you die a painful death!"

A deep voice came from deeper within the lake, frightening Wu Zhen and Chu Feng. Had they stepped into a trap in their excitement of finding a treasure?