Chương 341: Joining a team

Qiu Yushi held a gourd of wine in his right hand and took large gulps down his throat every few minutes while he ran. Chasing closely behind him were dozens of wild beasts, each of them emanating auras of peak Imperials. Leading them was a reptile wild beast at the early stage deity realm. Their roars were deafening as they chased him closely, all of them oozing with great murderous intent. Qiu Yushi nimbly ran away, occasionally gulping his wine or looking back to confirm they were still pursuing and taunt them.

"Ah. Life without some excitement is really boring. These beasts aren't enough to excite me. Oh how great would it be if dear Zijun and Situ Hong both chase after me? Now that's my definition of excitement!" He sighed as he ran, swallowing another mouthful of wine and wiping the sides of his mouth with his sleeves.

"The opportunities here aren't really enough to interest me. I've heard that the actual serene heaven inheritance ground is rather intriguing. I guess I'll check it out. If I clear it, then perhaps I can breakthrough this damn bottleneck that have troubled me for the past year and reach the next level." He added with some expectation in his eyes. Qiu Yushi was the strongest outer peak disciple and everyone feared him, but few actually knew his story. He was from an ordinary family of mortals in the eastern region.

In fact, he was the first in his family to become a cultivator in the last hundred years. His talent was anything but good. When his talent was tested, it wasn't even a mortal grade talent. He was even below the imperial grade talent; merely a spirit grade. He only became a supreme heaven sect disciple due to some circumstances and the help of a benefactor. His age was also beyond normal geniuses. He was already twenty six years old. With his cultivation, even three star forces would hardly accept him.

In the mainland, it was an unspoken rule that anyone who reached thirty years of age would not longer be considered among the younger generation, and he was approaching that limit. Compared to Bai Zijun who was at the same level while being only twenty one years old, the difference in talent could be seen. But Qiu Yushi was still stronger due to his his superior age. He had spent longer cultivating and he often had to put thrice the effort to raise his strength compared to others.

He was the definition of hard work beat talent, but there was a limit to that. The bottleneck he faced at each cultivation level was enough to make others feel despair. While others would need months to make a breakthrough, he might need a year and even more. He became a deity over a year ago, when the top ten outer peak disciples were still only peak Imperials, but he hadn't been able to reach the mid deity stage untill now. Even Bai Zijun only became a deity a few months ago.

But the fact that his bottleneck was hard to breach also meant that he spent much longer than other geniuses in a level. Combined with his hard work, he was often stronger than other geniuses at the same level due to his comparatively stronger foundation. Of course, that wouldn't matter when he was surpassed by everyone.

If Bai Zijun and Situ Hong progressed and became late stage deities and maybe even peak deities while he was still an early stage or mid stage deity, then they wouldn't deem him worthy of their time. They wouldn't even bother to remember that he ever existed as he wouldn't be their opponent again. That Qiu Yushi's greatest fear, and also the reason he pushed himself to his limits while cultivating. He had gone through that feeling before, watching those he suppressed slowly surpass him.

In fact, some of the inner peak disciples used to be outer peak disciples and he was usually stronger than them, until they all grew stronger than him. Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings. Now, a few of them might have already become late stage deities. His feelings were indescribable as he could only watch all these without being able to do anything. Even with all the effort he was putting in, he knew deep in his heart that it wouldn't be enough.

He was already hitting his very limits. It was likely that he would never surpass the mid stage deity realm in his life. Many disciples knew this as well, and none of them actually respected him. In their hearts, they looked down on his talent. They were all sure that it wouldn't be long before they surpassed him. In the mainland, one's talent was basically the measure of one's future achievements and the respect one would earn.

Even mortal grade talents weren't enough to earn respect from the masses, not to mention a mere spirit grade. He and Long Feng could be considered unique in the sect; they were the only ones with such shocking talents in the whole mortal heaven sect. Qiu Yushi unknowingly slowed down as he thought of all these. He even lost focus temporarily. The deity level reptile quickly closed the distance and opened it's jaws, about to snap Qiu Yushi's legs apart. Qiu Yushi immediately regained his focus.

He glanced behind him and slammed his fist at the head of the reptile. A ridiculous force surged through his arm and flowed into the head of the reptile. There was not even time for the reptile to twitch; it's head directly exploded, and the body also burst into a puddle of blood soon after. The other beasts pursuing from behind all came to a screeching halt at this. Wild beasts weren't intelligent, but they weren't stupid.

Witnessing their leader, a deity losing it's life to a single fist without being able to react, they didn't dare to move even a step forward again. Qiu Yushi casually glanced at them and sighed.

"Eh, there goes my excitement. Oh well. I'd better hurry to the serene heaven inheritance ground before I'm too late." Shrugging his shoulders, he sped away on his foot, each step crossing several tens of meters. He vanished into the distance within a few minutes.

Two days passed and Long Feng still hadn't figured out anything. The mystic realm was too large; without specific directions, he wouldn't know where he was headed. He was already frustrated and annoyed during the past two days. His flight had been anything but peaceful. Several wild beasts had attacked him, and most of them were at the imperial realm. Although peak imperial level beasts were quite troublesome, he was able to defeat them. But he once mistakenly flew into the territory of a deity level beast.

It had great power, but luckily, it's speed wasn't up to par. Long Feng was able to escape in a sorry state after fleeing for an hour. Since then, he had raised his caution, trying not to enrage any deity level beast. At the same time, his frustration reached the peak. Now, he simply flew ahead with no direction, a dull expression on his face. He was soon got sore from flying and after much thought, he flew down and continued on his feet while watching out for any wild beasts. Nearly an hour passed.

He was still moving ardously when suddenly, he paused. His soul power bagn to pick up several fluctuations of energies from the ground around him. He immediately lost interest. Since the fluctuations were coming from underground, that meant it couldn't be another human. It could only be wild beasts. Indeed, a few seconds later, the earth began to vibrate and dozens of wild beasts dug out of the ground and surrounded him. Long Feng's eyes twitched when he saw these beasts.

"Ants? Are you kidding me?" They were all ants, but compared to the tiny ants usually seen, they were much larger. Each of them was nearly as large as a child and their auras were also powerful. Their strengths ranged from rank four and five Imperial realm to the peak Imperial realm. After confirming that there was no deity level beast among them, Long Feng relaxed slightly.

"Three are peak Imperials… fighting would be draining and I might lose. Better to bail out!" He decided. Circulating his energy according to the Nine Firmament Steps, he shot into the sky at a great speed stirring up a cloud of dust on the ground. His speed alone would render nearly all peak Imperials helpless before him, but he was still a level beneath deities. After easily escaping the colony of ants, Long Feng slowed down and continued his flight in frustration. A few minutes later though, he paused again.

A short while later, three auras approached, revealing three youths flying together. All of them were extremely powerful peak Imperials and they had obviously teamed up. Against the three of them, even Long Feng would have to escape if he didn't use the heaven firmament skill. With his speed though, he was confident in escaping safely so he patiently waited for them to arrive first. But he did withdraw all of his energy into his body and hid his cultivation.

Before he reached the spirit realm, he had a special ability to perfectly conceal his cultivation from others unless they were over a full realm stronger than him. That obviously stopped working when he reached the spirit realm back then due to his unstable foundation. Concealing his energy then was impossible. But after he reached the Imperial realm and fully perfected his spirit cyclone, it became possible for him to conceal his cultivation at will once again.

He merely hadn't bothered to do so untill after his recent encounter with Yu Xiang. He didn't want these group of three to annoy him with their disdain once they sensed his cultivation; he normally wouldn't care, but right now, he was feeling extremely frustrated. The slightest thing could piss him off. The trio all stopped some distance away and began to scrutinize him, but they couldn't sense the slightest energy from him. It was like he was a complete mortal who had never cultivated.

Confused, they all tried again, going as far as to blatantly use their perceptions on him, but they still sensed nothing. Long Feng didn't mind. He simply stared at them calmly and let them do whatever they wanted. The trio exchanged glances and frowned before turning back to Long Feng.

"Hey, where are you headed?" One of them asked loudly. Long Feng shrugged.

"Nowhere in particular."

"What do you think about joining us? We're heading to the spitting dragon fountain and we're forming a team. That way, we'll all be able to gain more than we will on our own." The same youth continued. Long Feng's eyes immediately narrowed slightly. He didn't know what this spitting dragon fountain was, and what really got him was the idea that these disciples knew exactly where they were headed. Could they have a map or something? He decided to ask them directly.

"What is the spitting dragon fountain? And do you guys have like, a map or something?" The three youths exchanged confused glances at his question, then one of them replied.

"The spitting dragon fountain is a famous place in the serene heaven mystic realm. It's a dragon mouth shaped fountain, but what comes out of it isn't water. Instead, different treasures can appear, and sometimes it could be just a useless stone. From martial skills to cultivation manuals, weapons and pills, all have been confirmed to have appeared there before. This time, we hope a few true essence pills would emerge and we can fight for them. Those are the only way for us to quickly reach the deity realm."

"As for your other question, yes. We all have a general map of the mystic realm. Don't you have one?" Long Feng shook his head.

"I don't. Where did you all get the map from?" The youth who spoke smiled.

"The maps are for sale in the shops. Many of previous generations have entered the mystic realm. They mostly came out and joined their experiences together to form maps of the realm. There's even descriptions of the different places in the mystic realm. We all bought them in the shops." Hearing that, Long Feng blinked several times, completely lost for words. He simply stared at the three youths blankly for a few seconds before he sighed with a bitter expression.

"Oh. I see…"