Chapter 436: The Arrival of an Old Friend

　　The creature that was fighting with Huang Jing was a Hedgehog Beast.

　　Its body was covered with long spines like those of a hedgehog, and it barked like a dog.

　　The name Hedgehog Ridge came about because of the existence of these beasts.

　　Currently the Hedgehog Beast was furious because the Mine of Life had been plundered; it howled dismally. It no longer cared about battling Huang Jing and instead turned to run back to its lair.

　　Huang Jing’s expression changed slightly, and the Celestiality surrounding him wove together like a web, forcefully pulling the Hedgehog Beast to a stop.

　　“Retreat!”

　　Huang Jing called out to Fang Ping with a low shout that carried a great distance; this was to call Fang Ping’s attention to the presence of the beast.

　　Hedgehog Beasts were Middle-stage Rank-7s, which were not too far removed from Huang Jing’s abilities.

　　The Hedgehog Beast was extremely angry; Huang Jing was not sure if he could restrain it. Once the creature returned to its lair, Fang Ping was as good as gone.

　　That was not the only thing Huang Jing was worried about; the Hedgehog Beast’s howl sounded like it was calling for backup.

　　The Hundred Beasts Forest was more than two hundred miles away from here; it stood to reason that the Hedgehog Beast’s howl would not be able to carry that far. Two hundred miles was not a short distance either; Rank-7 creatures would not be able to perform such a feat.

　　Even if a fight broke out, even a powerhouse would have to be within a 20-30 miles radius to feel the violently fluctuating energy.

　　The confrontation between two Rank-7s was not considered to be all that powerful. Only a top-notch Rank-9 paragon powerhouse would have been able to sense the energy fluctuations from afar.

　　Regardless of what he thought of, Huang Jing still did not dare to act carelessly.

　　There were still some middle-ranked beasts in the Hedgehog Ridge.

　　It was likely that the Rank-7 beast before him was the king of Hedgehog Ridge. Even if it could not call for reinforcements from the Hundred Beast Forest, there were still a lot of middle-ranked beasts in Hedgehog Ridge which could give Huang Jing a lot of trouble.

　　‘This beast…won’t be easy to kill.’

　　It was extremely difficult to kill a creature of the same rank!

　　Human powerhouses were fairly strong; these people had fought numerous battles throughout their lives and they were not afraid of beasts of the same rank. Huang Jing was confident that he could defeat this creature. However, defeating and killing were two entirely different things.

　　‘Has that little brat Fang Ping escaped already?’

　　Huang Jing thought about it as he expended energy to tangle with the Hedgehog Beast.

　　Huang Jing initially intended to drag things out for a while but expression suddenly changed, and he cursed, “Nothing good can come from this; I’m going to die because of you two!”

　　Right at that moment, Fang Ping popped his head up from the tunnel below and shouted, “I’m not done with the digging!”

　　“Digging my *ss!

　　“Run!”

　　Huang Jing shouted, “Don’t show your head, just run now!”

　　Fang Ping was slightly doubtful Huang Jing seemed like he had the upper hand. The monster was no match for him as it was being thoroughly overpowered.

　　“A Rank-8 beast is coming…No!”

　　Huang Jing’s face turned pale and he said in dismay, “There are 2 Rank-8s and one Rank-7! Run, you idiot!”

　　He was extremely aggravated with Fang Ping and Qin Fengqing!

　　They said there would be only one beast!

　　They said it would not be a big problem!

　　Fang Ping’s expression changed drastically as well. At that very moment in the depths of Hedgehog Ridge, a wave of pressure rose into the air and from several dozen li away, a golden light flew rapidly toward them.

　　It was not a beast from the Hundred Beasts Forest; there was a Rank-8 beast residing in Hedgehog Ridge!

　　Fang Ping was so frustrated he could spit blood. That bastard Qin Fengqing had said that Hedgehog Ridge did not have any high-ranked beasts

　　Even if there were, at most it would be a beast guarding the mine!

　　Qin Fengqing was not the only one; even in human records of Hedgehog Ridge, there were no mentions of high-ranked beasts, just a few Rank-6s.

　　Now, however?

　　Now that the Rank-7s guarding the mine had come out, there were still Rank-8 beasts in the depths!

　　Not only that, Huang Jing had said that there were more than one—a Rank-7 and a Rank-8 swiftly on their way. Fang Ping had not sensed it, but he believed that Huang Jing would not lie about something like this.

　　“Vice-chancellor, you run too!”

　　Fang Ping shouted, and without another word he vanished below ground and began running.

　　There was no point digging in the remaining low-grade mines, right now they needed to get out.

　　If he did not leave, Huang Jing would find it hard to leave as well.

　　Once he left, Huang Jing would then have a chance to escape.

　　By the time Fang Ping had hurried off, in mid-air, Huang Jing’s expression was already extremely unpleasant to look at.

　　Earlier he had had the upper hand, but the Hedgehog Beast could now sense the arrival of reinforcements. It had changed its strategy and was now trying to make sure that Huang Jing could not leave.

　　Beasts did have their fair share of intelligence.

　　This Hedgehog Beast loathed the fellow who had plundered the Mine of Life, but it could not sense his whereabouts after he had shown his face and then escaped .

　　Since that was the case, it decided to entangle this other fellow who had lured it out. After it killed him, it would then go after the thief!

　　Huang Jing saw that the golden light within the depths of Hedgehog Ridge was getting closer; the aura of the Rank-8 beast was also gradually approaching. He gritted his teeth and growled, “You asked for it!”

　　The Hedgehog Beast was determined to keep him occupied him. He would be in trouble if he did not make his getaway now.

　　Huang Jing had been looking to kill the beast with a single attack, but the opportunity had not presented itself. At present, he no longer cared about whether or not he could kill the beast. Even if he could, he would not be able to take its corpse with him when he left.

　　Once he had come to this point in his considerations, Huang Jing no longer hesitated. He bellowed loudly.

　　Right at this moment, the Hedgehog Beast’s expression changed instantly. The next instant, knew it, the beast’s body quivered and numerous long spines pierced through the void, flying toward Huang Jing in the blink of an eye.

　　The long thorns were the beast’s last resort.

　　Each of the long spines had undergone countless honings, and they were almost as razor-keen as the Chaos-vanquishing Saber. Hundreds of long spines were violently ejected from its body!

　　The long spines contained Life Force; just a single spine would be enough to kill a Rank-6 martial artist.

　　With hundreds of spines flying toward one the same time, even a Rank-7 powerhouse had to be careful so as to not be severely injured.

　　Huang Jing gave a cold snort. This was the opportunity he had been waiting for.

　　It was a pity that the beast had not done that earlier on, but it would not have made a difference anyway.

　　The Hedgehog Beast reacted in such a manner because it felt threatened, not because it meant to kill Huang Jing.

　　A golden short sword appeared out of thin air in front of Huang Jing at the same time as the long spines shot out.

　　The short sword was about 30 cm; it was more like a blade without a hilt.

　　The second the short sword appeared, the void trembled slightly. Huang Jing’s face instantly turned pale as countless quantities of Celestiality poured into the dagger and rapidly vanished.

　　Everything happened at the speed of light. Before the long spines could strike, a powerful burst of momentum erupted from the short sword in the next instant.

　　In the distance, the golden light—a little over ten li away away—shuddered slightly and slowed down. It seemed to be hesitating.

　　Huang Jing paid no attention to this and suddenly gave a ferocious bellow!

　　“Charge!”

　　The short sword instantly shot forward. Hundreds of long spines, originally extremely tough and durable, turned to dust as soon as they crossed paths with the short sword. The remaining spines lost their power and dropped from the air.

　　The Hedgehog Beast gave a dismal roar; it felt the threat to its life!

　　Whoosh!

　　Before the Hedgehog Beast could escape, the dagger penetrated right through its head!

　　Huang Jing’s face was pale. He gritted his teeth and focused his Mentality. The next moment, the short sword flew back, dropped in front of him, and disappeared on the spot.

　　‘Old Wu refined too much. This isn’t my Divine Weapon so I can make one attack!’

　　Huang Jing cursed to himself. Everything had been so nicely planned in the beginning; his confidence that he could kill a Rank-7 beast stemmed from that.

　　Now however, he would never trust Fang Ping and Qin Fengqing ever again!

　　His mind must have really been addled to believe what Ping and Qin Fengqing said. Did he have water on the brain?

　　At present, he could not be bothered to be angry with the two young men anymore. Looking at the tiny hole in the head of the Hedgehog Beast in front of him, Huang Jing wanted to retrieve its brain and heart cores. However, the golden light nearby seemed to be able to sense that something was wrong and was now rapidly coming closer.

　　Huang Jing was somewhat aggravated, but he knew that he had no time to retrieve anything.

　　‘If I had known, I would have showed my full strength from the beginning…’

　　Huang Jing might have had these thoughts now, but the Hedgehog Beast had still been at full strength earlier and it might not have been possible to kill it with a single blow. If he had not been able to kill it, the situation would not be much better than it was now.

　　If he had lured the Rank-8 beast out of its lair earlier, Fang Ping might not have been able to dig up any energy stones.

　　After all, Huang Jing was not a young man any longer. Currently, he merely thought about these things even as he continued with what he was doing.

　　The moment the short sword was retracted, Huang Jing quickly fled south and did not bother looking back at the dead Hedgehog Beast!

　　Right now the Hundred Beasts Forrest was to the east of him; there were Rank-8 beasts in the north of Hedgehog Ridge and he could sense the aura of a Rank-8 beast in the west. South was the only way out!

　　“Hopefully those two can sort themselves out!”

　　Huang Jing honestly had no time to worry about Fang Ping and Qin Fengqing right now. Not only that, he was on the surface. If these high-ranked beasts wanted to pursue anyone, they were most likely to go after him.

　　Hopefully these two bastards would be able to find an opportunity to escape. If not, they would be in trouble.’

　　…

　　The moment Huang Jing killed the Hedgehog Beast with one explosive attack.

　　Within Hedgehog Ridge.

　　Qin Fengqing was hiding in a small gap in the mountains; he swallowed hard and thought to himself: ‘You really can’t blame me for this!’

　　Under normal circumstances, no one would expect more than one high-ranked beast on a mountain top like this.

　　One mountain could not hold two powerhouses, just like the Jiao’s Forest, which only had one high-ranked beast. It would be difficult for the Jiao tolerate another high-ranked beast in its own lair.

　　He had not expected that there would be a Rank-8 beast in Hedgehog Ridge!

　　As he watched Huang Jing rapidly fleeing in the distant sky and the beast dropping from mid-air, Qin Fengqing wanted to go and help him. However, he saw that the golden light was already nearby and in a blink of the eye, it had already arrived. It let out a mournful howl and took off in pursuit of Huang Jing right after. Qin Fengqing was dismayed.

　　“The Rank-8 beast is going after Huang Jing! He’s in danger!’

　　Qin Fengqing felt helpless. He had already seen countless middle and low-ranked beasts converging in the direction where the beast landed, but he was unsure if they were there to protect or to devour the corpse.

　　‘Damn it, I’m too late. I can’t help Huang Jing now…hopefully, he’s able to escape.

　　‘That’s right…’

　　Qin Fengqing’s eyes suddenly lit up. Opportunities came from taking risks!

　　A moment later, Qin Fengqing’s gaze came to rest upon a location dozens of li away. That was in the depths of Hedgehog Ridge!

　　‘Earlier on that Rank-8 beast flew out from there! There should be no other monsters where a Rank-8 beast lives. Now that it is going after Old Huang, doesn’t it mean…’

　　With that thought, Qin Fengqing gritted his teeth. This trip to the Catacombs, he had yet to gain anything whatsoever.

　　At present, Huang Jing was on the run, and he had no idea where Fang Ping was.

　　Whether or not Fang Ping had managed to dig anything out of the Mine of Life, that was also hard to say.

　　If Qin Fengqing wanted to achieve a breakthrough, he could not do so without a massive amount of resources.

　　He believed that there had to be something good in the lair of a Rank-8 beast. If that was not the case, a Rank-7 beast would not even be able to occupy a mine.

　　‘I’m going to do it!’

　　Once he had thought up to this point, Qin Fengqing no longer hesitated.Taking advantage of the large number of beasts moving toward the area of the large gorge, Qin Fengqing kept close to the ground and swiftly made his way toward the depths of Hedgehog Ridge.

　　Hopefully there was something good in a Rank-8’s lair.

　　He hoped that Huang Jing could hold out for a while longer and lead that Rank-8 a merry dance far away, otherwise he would be as good as dead when the beast returned.

　　…

　　Qin Fengqing had not fled but had gone into the depths of Hedgehog Ridge, seizing the opportunity to plunder the lair of a Rank-8 beast.

　　Fang Ping, who was hidden underground, could sense the energy fluctuations from Huang Jing’s escape.

　　He could also sense that the Rank-7 beast’s aura was slowly disappearing.

　　Just as the Rank-8 beast went in pursuit of Huang Jing, a head popped up from the weeds near the edge of the gorge.

　　Fang Ping felt conflicted as he looked at the corpse of the defeated beast hundreds of meters away.

　　‘Should I take the corpse?’

　　This was a Divine Weapon!

　　Fang Ping was extremely surprised that Huang Jing was able to kill the Rank-7 beast so quickly.

　　He had not even seen how Huang Jing took the beast down. Huang Jing probably had something up his sleeves to be able to kill a beast the same rank as himself in such a short time. For the moment Fang Ping had no way of guessing, but overall he had some conclusions.

　　The beast was now dead anyway, if he were to run off now, would it not be a waste?

　　It was extremely rare to be able to kill a Rank-7 beast within seconds without even giving the other party an opportunity to self-detonate, while keeping the brain and heart cores preserved. Most of the time, even when Rank-8 and Rank-9 powerhouses killed these beasts, when the creatures realized that they could not win, they would choose to self-detonate as well.

　　‘It’s rare to come upon a complete corpse!

　　‘Old Huang must have paid a great price to kill this beast…I can’t waste it!’

　　Fang Ping hesitated no longer after considering this. He burrowed into the ground and tunnelled toward the place where the beast had fallen.

　　‘The monster is about 5 meters long, 3 meters in height, and 2 meters wide. If I were to take the entire corpse with me, I would need a space of 30 cubic meters… No wonder it’s rare to see someone bringing back a high-ranked beast. Usually, it’s brain cores, heart cores, blood, and the like.

　　‘They’re just too big!’

　　The average person would definitely not be able to carry away such a big creature. Even if an ultimate powerhouse killed the monster, they would only retrieve the valuable parts to bring with them.

　　Fang Ping, however, intended to take the entire corpse away.

　　In truth, he had no time to dissect it anyway.

　　Huang Jing chose not to cut the corpse up because he had no time.

　　‘I don’t have a storage space that big. I would need to expand the space by at least 26 cubic meters, and I have to adhere to the creature’s shape. It would cost me more than 13 billion. Is it worthwhile to bring the beast back?

　　‘It’s worth it!’

　　Fang Ping pondered these matters while digging his way toward the beast.

　　The complete corpse of a Rank-7 beast was extremely valuable.

　　If nothing else, a fully whole Rank-7 beast would be equivalent to a complete Divine Weapon. Selling the flesh, blood, bones and other parts in exchange for other supplemental material would be more than sufficient.

　　Any Divine Weapon, even at the lowest grade, was frighteningly expensive.

　　Not many Rank-7 and Rank-8 martial artists had Divine Weapons.

　　Even for a Rank-9, their Divine Weapons were not necessarily Rank-9; it was normal for these weapons to be perhaps only Rank-7.

　　From this it could be seen that Divine Weapons were indeed rare.

　　Currently, Fang Ping’s Wealth was close to 17 billion.

　　Fang Ping did not bother considering any further. He frantically began to expand the surface area of his storage space.

　　His Wealth kept going down 500 million at a time. In no time at all, he had spent over 10 billion in a flash!

　　This was probably the only time that Fang Ping had depleted his Wealth so fast.

　　For the sake of bringing back this beast, however, Fang Ping kept at it.

　　The moment the storage space finished expanding, Fang Ping’s head appeared a few meters away from the beast’s body.

　　Currently, other low and middle-ranked beasts had yet to arrive.

　　However, Fang Ping could already see the figures of these monsters.

　　Without bothering about these other creatures, Fang Ping wormed his way out of the hole and quickly closed in on the body of the Hedgehog Beast. In the blink of an eye, the body disappeared on the spot.

　　Some of the beasts that had hurried here from a distance were dazed when they saw the body disappear suddenly.

　　How come it was not there any more?

　　Fang Ping could care less about that. He was relieved and extremely satisfied when he ran an eye over his well-filled storage space.

　　This trip, the rewards were huge!

　　Right now, the only other thing to worry about was whether Old Huang would be able to escape the Rank-8 beast pursuing him.

　　He thought about that and also about what Huang Jing previously said—two Rank-8 beasts!

　　Fang Ping slanted a glance in the direction of the Hundred Beasts Forest out of the corner of his eye. Had his presence already been discovered there?

　　Was there another Rank-8 beast on the way?

　　Fang Ping did not bother any more as he had not seen any golden light yet. He decided to escape first.

　　Fang Ping quickly wriggled into the hole. Just when he was about to tunnel through, he seemed to sense something and could not help turning his head to look.

　　As he glanced behind him, in the distance he could see a golden light soaring through midair in a most leisurely and carefree manner.

　　Fang Ping’s face instantly filled with dread!

　　This absolutely had to be a joke; why did the figure enveloped within that golden light look so familiar?

　　It was more than 600 miles from the Jiao’s Forest to here!

　　‘I must have been mistaken!’

　　Fang Ping shuddered. He had to have been mistaken; he dared not take a second look—not that he had the luxury of time to do so anyway. He quickly burrowed into the ground. Whether or not it was the Jiao, it was better to run!

　　What in the world was this!

　　The Hundred Beast Forests was 200 miles away from than place and the beasts from there had not even shown up yet—but the Jiao from 600 miles away was on its way!

　　This was no time for jokes; he was certain that the golden light had been too dazzling and that he had been mistaken.

　　‘I definitely was mistaken!’

　　Below ground, Fang Ping’s expression betrayed his consternation. He would not be afraid if it were any other beast.

　　He concealed his aura as he hid underground, hoping that the enemy would not find him.

　　Unfortunately however, this Jiao was far too familiar with him!

　　He could hide his aura, but what about his scent?

　　A moment later, Fang Ping began to undress underground.

　　He had to be very careful. The Jiao had consumed immeasurable volumes of his Vitality. Out of all the Catacombs powerhouses and beasts, the one that was most familiar with him was the Jiao.

　　‘Don’t scare yourself… If even a Rank-9 beast can’t find me, that Jiao certainly can’t.”

　　Fang Ping kept praying in his heart. He did not show his face on the surface anymore, but swiftly dug a hole to the bottom of the mountain to hide.