7 Dead or alive

So after he found a cave, he looked for the closest stream, he washed the bloody clothes he was wearing and bathed Huqia there then he ran back to the cave and Haoyun followed suit

When Haoyun came in, he pushed the boulder which he found a few meters away to block the entrance of the cave since it was only about three meters above the ground

Then he brought out a light ball, switched it on and it floated to the center of the cave and lit the whole cave up

Junfang sat down tired and in pain too then placed Huqia on the blanket he had spread on the ground when he brought Liwu out, she noticed the claw marks on his shoulder which was still dripping with blood and the long gash on his thigh which almost revealed his bones

She started crying profusely and tried to use her dress to cover up the wound "D-daddy, what happened? Why are you bleeding so much! Waa!"

Junfang smiled faintly and patted her head "Don't worry, Daddy will be alright"

Liwu cried even more and almost balled her eyes out while Haoyun was weeping in the corner, she couldn't bear seeing her master injured but she had helped all she could and didn't know what to do anymore

Junfang took out all the cores he collected today and started absorbing them one by one by starting from the first tier ones

As he ate, his wounds healed little by little, when he ate the third first tier core, the blood had stopped. When he ate the fifth first tier core, the wound had started closing up and when he ate the second tier core, both wounds had closed completely with no scar.

Liwu was overjoyed when she saw this "Waa, Daddy isn't injured anymore, Yay!!"

Haoyun was astonished when she heard that and flew towards Junfang then saw that his wounds had disappeared although she didn't know but it didn't matter as long as her master was alright "Master, you made me all worried for nothing. I even cried, aii, wasted a few tears which I was gonna save for my wedding day, so unfair. Master should compensate me"

Junfang smiled and waved for her to nearer then he stroked her head for a while

Then he said to both of them "Now go sleep, it's not good for children to be up at night too late"

Liwu went to sleep obediently but Haoyun grumbled as she folded her wings and walked towards the blanket "How am I a child, am already ten years old, huff"

Junfang asked "When were you born?"

Haoyun said proudly "seventy nine years ago"

Junfang almost hit her head "You don't even know your age, you're seventy nine but with the mind of a ten year old"

Haoyun who had dodged his hand said "Well, am a big girl and I know that"

Junfang then asked "How do you level up?"

Haoyun scratched her head awkwardly "I don't know, no one told me cause a year after I was born when I could fly by my own, my parents left me to fend for myself, I had just been eating whatever could find and as for how I reached second tier even I don't know"

Junfang held his chin "Well, your parents specie are Water Wyvern and Sonic Hawk, right?"

Haoyun happily said "Yes"

Then Junfang searched on the net for the evolution material needed to raise the tier of the hybrid of the Water Wyvern and Sonic Hawk.

After the search results came out, a bunch of nonsense first appeared so Junfang just skipped those and subsequently, he finally found what he was looking for.

He enlarged the picture on the screen and asked Haoyun "Have you eaten this Wind Water Betta before?"

Haoyun shook her head "Those fishes are too aggressive and big because when I tried to take one, they all lashed at me even though they were a tier lower than me"

Then he inquired "You at least know where it is located here, right?"

Haoyun bobbed her head in confirmation

Then he said "Go to bed, You'll be leading the way tomorrow"

Haoyun happily went to bed afterwards.

Junfang then took out the core he got from the beast Huqia's group killed and he noticed that it was a third tier core.

(Do note that whatever core he uses for healing won't aid him in leveling at all)

He absorbed the third tier core immediately and his body grew again. His muscles started showing and his leg strength became stronger. He felt that he could run faster than before.

Then he checked the amount of energy that it provided him and he realized it was equal to ten second tier cores now it only remained just three first tier cores for him to level up or he could just get a second tier core instead and sprang straight up into E-rank.

But then, he had a thought 'Most of the novels I read always talked about having a stable foundation in each level and suppressing the expanse energy then breaking through limits in a battle and speedy levelling is not good and is unstable but my energy channels are very stable no matter how many cores I take at once which means I don't even have to experience hard battles either! Haha!

But for the next one and a half year, will I just be monotonously hunting beasts only. Well it won't be monotonous if I scavenge every part of this place. I will definitely find some things which others did not and when I reach the peak of D-rank then I'll leave the space crack and sell other beast cores also go register as an assassin since am already pretty good at sneaking around'

After resting for a bit more, he started making clothes for Huqia to wear the next day

Whirrrrrr!! Whirrrrrrrrr!!!

The next morning, a loud alarm sounded out through the whole realm which woke Junfang and the other people up, those more experienced mercenaries knew what the alarm was for and started shouting to everyone they met as they ran back to the crack

Some even went ahead to use expensive sound amplifiers to make sure others heard

And what was being spread around was that

"Everyone no matter what you are doing or where you are right now! Run for your life! That alarm is a warning signal that a beast of the middle level has been discovered rampaging in the realm! Get out of here now!!"

Junfang overheard that and quickly woke up then noticed that Huqia had woken up and was staring at him weirdly

She said softly "Who are you? Who am I? And what was that loud noise?"

Junfang said while caressing her head dotingly so his lie could be more believable "Suxi, it's me. Your older cousin Junfang and I came to find you and your parents because they sent a message to me that they we're in trouble but they had died before I had arrived and I found you instead but it seems like your memory had already gotten erased by some beast but regardless of that fact, I still brought you back because you're the only family I have left"

She pointed at herself and asked "My name is Suxi? And you're my cousin? My parents are dead? What about yours?"

Junfang sighed in remorse "You truly have forgotten everything, mine already died five years ago"

Suxi felt bad and hugged him "Don't worry, brother. We have each other now"

Junfang nodded and hugged her back as he thought 'I guess I could teach her the contract thingy since there is one type Mum gave me which ordinary people could use but told me to only give those I trust and since she'll be my sis, I should teach her for her own safety'

Whirrrrrr!! Whirrrrrr!!!

The alarm sounded again and Suxi was scared then Junfang said as he carried Suxi on his back "We have to get out of here quickly, it's dangerous now! Haoyun! Liwu! Wake up now!"

Haoyun quickly woke up and Liwu wobbly dragged the blanket to give Junfang

Then he took the blanket and threw it into the void space also brought out a shirt of his and the dresses he made for Liwu and Suxi which he gave to Suxi but she didn't collect and was shocked, he knew she had a lot of questions to ask so he said

"Yes, am a Cerulean and these two are my beasts, I'll teach you how to contract yours later on, okay?"

Suxi nodded excitedly and collected the clothes then she wore for Liwu first and wore hers while Junfang was busy rolling the boulder away from the entrance

Then Junfang had a fleeting thought and asked Haoyun "What's the distance from here to the Sly Stone tree and what's the distance from here to the Wind Water Carp abode?"

Haoyun replied swiftly "The Sly Stone tree is not that far anymore just a few hundred meters east. Once you seen a blue crystal cave then that's where it is and the Wind Water Carp is located tens of meters to the north"

Junfang thought hard then hung a large sack under Haoyun's wing and told her "You go for the Wind Water Carp, get as many as you can and make sure you fill that sack before I notify you but when I do notify you, regardless of whether it's filled or not. Come meet me at where I tell you to also if you finish filling it up before I notify you, tell me, you get that?"

Haoyun agreed then asked "Master, you're going for the Sly Stone fruit, right? What about the.."

Junfang waved his hands, brought a scarf out and covered the lower half of his face "The beast the alarm is warning us about is definitely that beast you told me was guarding, there will definitely be no other beast. I'll take all the Sly Stone fruit I find and notify you when am on my way to where you are"

Haoyun bobbed her head in agreement and flew off.

Junfang then said to Suxi who was carrying the still sleepy Liwu in her hands. He brought out his backpack and Liwu's backpack. He placed Liwu in her backpack and placed Suxi in his backpack as he used his scythe to cut a hole in it so she could breathe in the bag "Suxi, you hold on to Liwu like that and don't pop your head out or say anything until I tell you to, okay?"

Suxi nodded obediently and held onto Liwu tight as he zipped the bag and carried it onto his shoulder, it was a bit heavy since he was carrying two people but he could manage since his body was already stronger than before and he was close to E-rank but also possessing strength of E-rank peak Cerulean.

He opened the bag again and placed two containers of food and two bottles of water along with the ball of light which was switched off with Suxi "If you get hungry, eat and when she wakes up, tell her to eat too"

Then he zipped the bag after Suxi agreed.

Junfang looked around to make sure he forgot nothing then set off.

He ran as quickly as he could towards the east and after a few minutes, he saw the crystal cave just a few meters away, he focused on the hearing of his surroundings and suddenly realized it had increased to a whole freaking kilometer and he can focus on five hundred meters around him for as many times a day he wants which meant his constitution had really improved by ten times.

He noticed only a few animals scampering away and some mercenaries running to the south where the portal was located. After confirming the sounds he heard, he entered the crystal cave quickly.

But when he stepped foot into the cave, the gaze he felt on him when he entered the first time fell on him again but this time he knew what it was. It was the middle level beast which was rampaging in the realm.

And as the gaze was drawing closer and growing stronger, he felt it would take roughly ten to fifteen minutes for it to reach his side so he only had less than ten minutes to go in, get what he wanted and get out.

He saw the tree after running in the cave for about twenty meters and noticed only eight fruits on it. He grabbed them all and threw it into his void space but as he was about to leave, he noticed a sparkling silver fruit hanging on the other side of the tree. He didn't even bother to know what it was and just threw it into his void space.

He wanted to take the tree but did not have enough space then he decided to just take a quick look around the tree in case he missed anything

At the back of the tree in between the roots were three eggs but one was already squished, one was deformed and the third one was fine, he threw a few empty containers and stuff he didn't need then threw the deformed egg and the egg which was alright into his void space.

After he did that, he saw a small bundle and just threw it also into his void space then he ran off without checking the rest of the cave cause he felt that the gaze was closer and would only need three minutes to reach him

He notified Haoyun to fly away to the portal quickly and hide on the other side of it to wait for him then he ran as fast as he could in a random pattern but still felt the gaze on him so he leaped onto tree tops and started jumping from one tree to another

He started seeing the portal after a while as it was only a hundred meters away but the beast which was just twenty meters away struck then he felt a force directed towards his back where Suxi and Liwu were thus he forced himself to turn so he could receive the strike on his chest which propelled him forward by eighty meters but when he was about to hit the ground.

He forced his injured body to land on the chest he was struck so that his little girls wouldn't get hurt.

If he hadn't gotten injured internally and externally, he would have suspected that the beast was helping him as it only remained twenty meters for him to reach the portal which was already about to close

The beast was rushing towards him and the portal was closing but his body was without strength however he forcefully tried to stand up so that he could get out and as he pushed his body to the limits, he broke through to E-rank but there wasn't a hint of joy on his face because he still couldn't stand up and the shadowy beast already appeared then kicked his body upwards with another stronger attack.

As it was about to strike him again, a red shadow suddenly appeared to take the hit for him. When he looked up, he saw Haoyun with blood dripping from her beak as she said "Hehe, master, I helped you this time, you owe me compensation"

Another strike hit them but Haoyun dodged in time then carried him and flew out of the realm just before the portal closed.

However when they got out of the space crack, Haoyun crashed into the forest which was opposite the defenders base

Others only saw a red light flash by when the space crack was closed and just thought it was a phenomenon

Haoyun's body broke a few trees as she crashed into an underground hole seven hundred meters deep.

Junfang was terrified when they landed but he could only roll off Haoyun's back to relieve her pressure a bit though she had fainted already as there was a long gash from her right wing to her tail bleeding seriously.

Junfang cried tearfully "Haoyun! Haoyun! Wake up! No! Y..you can't leave me like this! Ahhh! You stupid bird! I told you to hide on the other side!! Why did you come! I could have still taken that hit! I could still take it!! Why did you block with your body!! Don't you leave me alone!! Haoyun!!!!"

When he felt himself getting weaker, he used the last bit of his strength to open his bag so Suxi and Liwu could get out then he also lost consciousness.