Chapter 175: Guard

"Haha, Idiot. So weak, and you dare cultivate outside?" a woman spoke from behind Ning. Ning slowly opened his eyes and looked back at her. 

The girl was riding an elephant beast which seemed to have bonded with her. Despite the night sky being cloudy and without light, Ning had no trouble seeing the reddish-brown color of the elephants. 

'Sigh, that's just a normal Earth-Skinned Elephant. It's not even at a high cultivation base,' Ning thought. 

He looked at the woman and said, "You do know that If I kill your elephant it will die for real right? Only you will get saved, not the elephant."

"Oh, big words for someone about die," the woman said as she laughed. "Let's hurry, Tiny. We need to go kill some more."

"T-Tiny? The Elephant?" the corner of Ning's lips twitched as he forced himself to not laugh. 'What sort of psycho names their elephant Tiny?' he thought. 

Tiny walked forward and slammed its trunk on Ning. Ning didn't move however and simply stopped the Trunk with his left hand. 

With his broken ribs, he couldn't afford to move very fast. He easily stopped the trunk and grabbed it with both his hands. 

The woman was shocked at the scene. But before she could even do anything, Ning turned around and pulled the elephant by its trunk before slamming it on the other side of him. 

The woman was still on top of the elephant, so when it was slammed on its back, she was the first that would hit the ground. Just before that, however, a yellow barrier appeared around both her and her elephant, and both of them were sent outside the barrier. 

"Oh," Ning said in surprise. "So if I kill the Master, the beast follows them out, huh." He learned something new. 

He got back on the rock below the night sky to cultivate once more but no more than half an hour later, another person appeared. This time, however, Ning was pissed. He needed to cultivate properly to heal his wounds. If he didn't, it would take a really long time for them to heal. 

"F*ck," he cursed. He didn't want to have to do this, but it seemed he had to. With a flick of a hand, a golden light appeared in front of him. 

The light soon turned into a massive 3 meters tall and 2 meters wide beetle with a golden back and a horn with a trident-like tip that extended a meter more in height.

The Golden Shelled Beetle appeared. "Go kill him," Ning said. Despite being a defensive creature, the beetle's offensive abilities were nothing to cough at. 

The beetle dashed forward, without even opening its wings when its horn started lighting up with golden light. Like a golden arrow being let loose in the darkness, the beetle accurately hit the incoming man with its horn. 

If it had been any other time, the man would've been pierced through the stomach and died, but with the talisman, he was excited to the outside world. 

Ning checked his own talisman and nodded. He had expected it, but still, it was good to confirm that he didn't have to kill the participants himself to get the points. As long as the one doing the killing was refined, or bonded by him, he would get the points. 

The Beetle flew back with a little confused face. It now had enough intelligence to know that what just happened was weird, but it wasn't sure why. 

"I will cultivate, protect me," Ning said. 

The beetle nodded. Ning was a little surprised to see that. "Woah, the system did say mental strength really started at the Foundation Establishment realm, but I didn't expect it to be so intelligent too," Ning thought. 

He threw away any other thought and got back into cultivation. Throughout the night, he was brought out of his cultivation a few times, but every time the problem would be solved before he even had to say anything. 

His points continuously increased throughout the night, but he mostly remained unaware. The Golden Shelled beetle was good enough to kill most of the intruders before Ning was even aware of their presence.

Finally, morning hit, and the daylight arrived. Ning slowly opened his eyes as well as his palm. The spirit stone he had been using throughout the night had run dry, so he just threw it away. 

He had actually run dry a while before he got out of cultivation, but he never changed it because he had finally managed to hit a bottleneck. 

His second level in the Sea of Qi had been filled to the brim and he only needed to breakthrough now. However, that would take a few days, so he was in no rush.

He called the beetle back to him and looked at it. "Damn, you really are tall," the height was still a shock to him. "I can't really walk yet, so you will have to carry me for a bit," Ning said. 

The beetle understood him and nodded. It then tried to take him on a princess carry, but Ning immediately stopped it. He instead flew up to its head and sat down on its shoulders. 

"Alright, either walk slowly or fly slowly; whichever you prefer," Ning said. 

The beetle seemed to have misunderstood Ning and instead started to jump and fly a few seconds to hover and fall down to the ground before taking another leaf and hovering a bit, all while moving forward. 

It was like the beetle was taking gigantic steps. "I guess this works too," he thought and accepted what was happening. The beetle carried him until a bit further where he found a few people and entered the forest.

Once inside the forest, the beetle had a hard time maneuvering dude to its huge body and many branches, so Ning decided to store it back and walk himself. 

As he walked forward, he heard some noises up ahead. He cautiously walked there and noticed that a giant bird was fighting 2 cultivators to protect something. 

Ning looked to see what it was and thought in surprise, "Eggs?"