C46

From Lu Que's point of view, he could see the cave not far away. It was just that the distance was a little too far and with his current eyesight, he couldn't see it clearly. Only the outline of a cave was visible. However, from Lu Que's experience, this cave should not be very deep because if it was very deep, it would look like a pitch black cave entrance. However, the cave that he saw now seemed to only be a little deep inside the mountain.

Lu Que looked around the cave again. This cave was about two to three meters away from the top of the cliff. There was a waterfall a few meters away, but it was not covered by the waterfall. The surrounding cliffs were as smooth as a mirror, as if they were chopped by knives or axes. There was almost nothing that could be borrowed.

"This is going to be troublesome. How do we get to the cave?" This cave was not connected to the top of the cliff or the bottom of the valley. There was no need to worry about the attack of wild beasts, just pay attention to whether there were large birds of prey in the sky or not. More importantly, there was a water source not too far away, which could help them avoid many of the dangers of getting water. If not for the fact that the entrance to the cave was shallow, it would be a natural place to live.

"Whatever, let's go take a look first." Lu Que took out the spearhead from his chest and untied the dragon-like branches from his waist. With a shake of the wind, the dragon-shaped branch, which was originally as thick as a thumb, transformed into a spear shaft in the blink of an eye. Lu Que placed the spearhead on the tree trunk in his hand and paused for a moment before feeling more at ease.

The Dragon-coiled Wood was an extremely rare species, and its rarity was comparable to that of heavenly and earthly treasures. For example, the Dragon-coiled Wood Spear in Lu Que's hand was usually tied to his waist like a ribbon. However, when used, it could be transformed into a spear shaft with just a thought. Its quality was hard, flexible, and tough. It was hard to injure with blades and axes, impervious to fire and water.

And the spear in Lu Que's hand was the Dragon Bramble Spear that Lu Chun had used to conquer the world. This spear had gone through countless battles with Lu Chun and was stained with the blood of countless enemies. Under the might of this spear, the Qing Yang Empire, which had an earth-shattering might back then, and the Great Wastelands Temple, which was renowned throughout its history, were all annihilated. Although it had gone through many battles, the spear was still as bright and clean as ever. There wasn't even a scratch on the shaft of the spear.

When Lu Que was only twelve years old, his father Lu Chun had given him this Dragon Bramble Spear, which symbolized countless military achievements, as a gift and also taught him the Twelve Longevity Spear Arts.

The Twelve Longevity Spear Arts was a set of spear arts created by Lu Chun based on the twelve circulation of the five elements. It had a total of twelve moves, with ten moves for each move, for a total of 120 moves. The five elements of postcelestial were within it, evolving into the great fortune of heaven and earth.

With the spear in hand, Lu Que's entire aura had changed. There was a hint of iron-bloodedness in his entire being. Lu Que held his gun and walked towards the direction of the cave. He did his best to choose places with rocks and dirt on them. This was to avoid making too much noise while stepping on dead branches and leaves, alerting strange beasts that had no idea where to rest.

The reason why Lu Que was so careful was because he was not familiar with the forest. He had just seen the tiger chasing the wild boar, and logically, the area within ten miles should be the tiger's territory.

However, this was, after all, a small world within the Mountain Sea Painting, and in the past, there had even been records of Earth Rank beasts appearing here. However, this was, after all, a small world within the Mountain Sea Painting, and there had even been records of Earth Rank beasts appearing here.

The biggest difference between wild beasts and strange beasts was their intelligence and intelligence. For example, the tiger that was over three meters long was not necessarily weaker than the beast, but it was far less dangerous.

In the Greenwood Continent, strange beasts were divided into Heaven, Earth, Profound, Yellow, and Fourth Ranks. Each rank was further divided into upper, middle, and lower rank. The Yellow Rank beast was roughly equivalent to the Foundation Establishment Stage and the Blood Eye Stage, the Profound Rank was equivalent to the Qi Resisting Realm and the Spiritual Altar Stage, and the Earth Rank was equivalent to the Great Calamity Stage and the Human Stage. As for the Heaven Rank beast, it was an existence from legends, and there were only a few records about it in the "Secret History of the Green Wood".

However, Lu Que knew that there were quite a number of Heaven Stage strange beasts in the Unreturning Mountain. There were even quite a number of Divine Beasts that surpassed the Heaven Stage, such as Little White, the Divine Beast that had grown up with him, and the other mysterious existences from the Eight Peak Ten Valleys, such as Brother Lu.

Lu Que carefully walked for more than an hour before finally arriving at the top of the cave. He wiped the sweat off his forehead and heaved a long sigh of relief. Although this wasn't much for him, seeing a giant bear sleeping soundly in a tree hole on the way made his heart tighten.

In the place where the tigers roamed, there were also huge bears. Either this was the border between the two beasts' territories, or the beasts' territories in this forest were not very strong. If it was the latter, then the danger in the forest would increase exponentially, because you didn't know where, but you would encounter a wandering beast.

Looking at the sun in the sky, it was already noon. While rubbing his rumbling stomach, Lu Que could not help but let out a wry smile. At this moment, he felt the difficulty of surviving here for fifteen days. In less than a morning, he had encountered a fierce tiger and a giant bear. If it wasn't for his bad luck, then this forest was full of ferocious beasts.

He wasn't afraid of one or two of them, but what if the sounds of fighting alerted the other beasts? On the way there, Lu Que did not see any edible fruits, so he could only hunt by himself and then make a fire to roast them. But if that was the case, then when the aroma of the roast meat spread out, who knows how many ferocious beasts it might attract?

Lu Que picked up the water bag on his waist and drank some water. He looked around him and upon seeing that there was no danger, he took a few deep breaths and ran a few steps. He kicked a nearby tree and leaped into the air.

Placing his hands on the vine to test its tenacity, Lu Que nodded his head in satisfaction. He twirled one end of the vine around a tree near the cliff and made two deadlocks. The other end was thrown down the cliff. He followed the vine and arrived at the cave he had just seen.

It was at this moment that Lu Que discovered that there were two floors inside the cave. The outside was the place he had seen just now, like a platform that was two meters deep into the mountain wall. There was a gap for people to pass through on the other side of the platform.

"It doesn't seem to be naturally formed." Lu Que passed through the crack in the wall and arrived at the cave. He frowned as he observed the situation within the cave. If one were to say that the outside platform was formed by the collapse of the mountain rocks, then the caves inside were definitely man-made. Although they were old, one could still see the marks of the sharp blades cutting into the mountain rocks.

The person who created this cave should have been avoiding something, which was why he chose to open a crack on the outside of the platform, and then took out a piece of space like this. The one meter thick mountain rock between the inside and outside of the cave was like a stone screen that separated the cave from the platform.

Lu Que walked around the cave walls and continuously knocked on the walls with his spear. The sounds came back to him and it was clear that there were no holes in the cave walls and it was obvious that the mountain walls were surrounded by solid mountains. He was finally able to relax.

Lu Que walked back to the platform from the cave. Looking down, he saw a pond that was formed by the impact of the waterfall, the water continuously flowing out and forming a river. He raised his head to look at the direction of the river, and right in front of him was the valley that was between the two mountains.

According to the records in the book, there were three mountains and two rivers and one lake in the Temple of Phoenix Cry's Mountain Sea Painting. This lake was located in the center of this small world, and after estimating the distance between the lake and himself, he estimated that he was about a dozen miles away. Compared to this small world that had a circumference of a thousand miles, he was now considered to be in the center of this small world.

Previously, he had made arrangements with Duanmu Ye, Zhuge Yan, and Lin Qingyu to gather in the center as much as possible, provided that he was able to ensure his own safety. According to the relevant records, the Earth Stage strange beast guarded this small world and frequently roamed the periphery. Thus, it was safer in the middle.

"I wonder where they are, and how they are now." Lu Que looked into the distance worriedly. Among the three of them, the one he was the most worried about was Zhuge Yan. This close friend of his had probably never experienced such hardships since he was young. He wondered if he would encounter any danger and be eliminated early on.

After thinking for a while, Lu Que heard the rumbling sound of his stomach. He felt sour in his stomach. He quickly picked up the water bag and drank a few mouthfuls. Only then did he manage to suppress the sour taste in his mouth. The Blood Eye Realm originally needed a lot of food to maintain their vital energy and blood. Since the academy was willing to leave them here without food, it was a test of everyone's skills.

Previously, the first person, Luo Canglan, had said that the first stage was only when they were surviving here for fifteen days. This was because the sixty-four people that came in were the best in the academy, and not many would be eliminated in fifteen days. Now, it seemed that that was not the case. Whether it was hunting or lighting a fire, the smell of blood and meat would attract more beasts, making the situation even more dangerous.

Understanding this, Lu Que couldn't help sighing in his heart. Those elderly students from the academy who were usually friendly and smiling really did take everything into consideration. Merely eating was enough to scam all the students.

He tied them to different trees and hung them over the position of the platform. He wanted to be on the safe side, but in the event that the original vine was broken by an animal, he would have other vines to climb up to the top of the mountain. Moreover, he tied a lot of dried branches on each of the mountain vines, which was used to light the fire at night.

After finishing his preparations, Lu Que tightened his grip on the spear in his hands and walked along the river flowing towards the waterfall. He needed to find something to eat before nightfall, at the very least.

Lu Que walked very slowly. Every time he walked a certain distance, he would look around and make a mark on the tree beside him. Whether it was putting a small rock between the branches or imitating a tiger's scratches with the tip of his spear, the forest was simply too dense. When he looked up, he could no longer see the sun, so he could only make some markings to prevent himself from getting lost.

Although he could follow the river back to the waterfall, he couldn't be too careful now that he was alone. Although there were three experts secretly protecting the safety of the group, that was not an absolute safety.

In the afternoon, Lu Que had only caught one pheasant. However, he had set up many traps in the forest beside the river. He should be able to find something tomorrow morning. Since tigers and giant bears existed in this mountain forest, there was bound to be food for them to live on.

Seeing that it was getting late, Lu Que did not intend to continue searching for food. With this pheasant, he could finally survive today. Lu Que went to the riverside and filled the water bag with water. He then took out a carving knife and used it to clean up the Mountain Chicken. After doing all this, Lu Que stood up and stretched his body before taking another sip of water.

However, the moment the water entered his mouth, he felt that something was wrong because there was a hint of blood in the river. Lu Que had now broken through the Heart Flame's seven orifices, Spleen's five orifices, and the heart's tongue and spleen's five orifices. Therefore, his sense of taste had improved by a lot as compared to before.

"There are wild beasts fighting upstream. Should I go take a look?" Lu Que hesitated for a moment and decided to go upstream to see what had happened. He needed to collect large amounts of food to survive the next fifteen days.

After turning a bend in the river, Lu Que discovered that there were several tributaries upstream where the river intersected. Carefully identifying the smell of the water, Lu Que discovered that the smell of blood was coming from the left branch.

This was a tributary river with a gentle flow of water. Not even a mile away, there were a few goats' corpses floating in the river, and each of them had a crocodile eating them. It was obvious that a group of goats had come to the river to drink, and had been attacked by these crocodiles.

Lu Que was overjoyed to find that one of the crocodiles had climbed onto the shore and was biting on a goat with the intention of dragging it into the water. Looking at the still struggling goat, Lu Que couldn't help swallowing his saliva.

After speeding up and running two steps, he leaped up and exerted all his strength into his arms. The spear in his hands smashed down onto the head of the crocodile. With a muffled "poof" sound, the crocodile was smashed to the ground and its body tilted. The scales on its head had been shattered by the spearhead, and blood continued to pour out.

The crocodile seemed to have been knocked unconscious by the spear. It shook its head for a while before finally regaining consciousness. However, the goat in his mouth whined when the crocodile continuously shook its head. No one knew if it was bleeding out too much or it was in pain.

At this moment, the crocodile had also noticed Lu Que, the uninvited guest, and no longer cared about the dead goat. A pair of bloodthirsty eyes stared at Lu Que. With its bloody mouth wide open, it approached Lu Que step by step.

Lu Que took two steps back with his spear in his hand. With a movement of his feet, a pebble by the river was picked into the crocodile's mouth. Just as the crocodile's mouth closed, the spear in his hand flashed and pierced towards the crocodile's eyes.

The crocodile seemed to sense the danger and turned around, flapping its thick tail at Lu Que.

"Die!" Lu Que roared. He moved his feet and dodged the crocodile's attack. With another thrust of his spear, the tip of the spear pierced through the crocodile's weak eyelid and into its skull. Seeing that the attack had succeeded, Lu Que quickly pulled back his spear and retreated.

However, the crocodile didn't die immediately. It was like a madman, sweeping the pebbles by the river and continuing to climb towards Lu Que.

Lu Que did not continue attacking the crocodile. Instead, he kept changing positions and waiting for the crocodile to die.

After a while, the crocodile exhausted its last bit of energy and lay still on the riverbank.

Lu Que saw the crocodiles in the river. After the crocodile died, they all swam towards the river bank. He picked up the goat that had just died, picked up the pheasant that fell from the river during the fight and ran towards the waterfall.

He held the Dragon-Twisted Thorn Spear in his hand. Carrying the goat on his shoulder, Lu Que felt as if he had returned to the days of hunting in the mountains of no return with his father. In his heart, he was still extremely excited. As for the crocodile, he did not take it seriously at all. Although the battle just now had seemed dangerous, Lu Que had full confidence in his victory.

In the water, Lu Que might not be able to defeat the crocodile, but on land, it also encountered an all-conquering thorny spearhead. The crocodile's scales were useless, so it could only die in Lu Que's hands.

Lu Que came to the river bank not far from the waterfall and rearranged the goat in the river. He then returned to the cave that he had found at noon.

In the blink of an eye, it was already nighttime. In this small world, one could not see the usual stars or moon outside. The pitch-black sky shrouded the entire forest, and the howls of wolves, tigers, and unknown beasts could still be clearly heard amidst the rumbling sounds of the waterfall.

Every time he heard a roar, Lu Que would look in that direction. In his mind, he would constantly simulate the movements and hunting ranges of these ferocious beasts.

The mountain chicken had already entered his stomach. The reason why he wanted to continue roasting the goat was because Lu Que did not have any way to preserve the quality of the meat and could only roast it. This way, he would be able to eat it for a period of time.

"I wonder how many people there are around me. Will anyone see the fire coming?" Lu Que thought to himself as he looked at the dark night.