The Great Ruler (Web Novel)
The Great Ruler (Web Novel) - Chapter 113: Targeted

In the ancient forest, giant trees towered into the sky. The thick branches and leaves grew outwards and gave the impression that they were covering the sky. Moreover, shocking roars would bring about powerful Spiritual Energy fluctuations when they were heard from time to time in this boundless forest.

Roar!

Currently, somewhere within the forest, Mu Chen was staring in surprise at the Spiritual Beast in front of him. The Spiritual Beast’s body was covered with a golden color. It had a shape similar to a cow and even had a golden horn on top of its head. However, its tail was close to a crocodile’s tail and had many sharp spikes. As it swung around, it caused the wind to whistle and the air seemed to be torn apart.

Golden Crocodile. Middle Rank Spiritual Beast. It had strength comparable to a Spiritual Rotation Stage Late Phase. Furthermore, the golden scales that covered its body made it impregnable.

Beside the Golden Crocodile, there was a giant black tiger as well. Although it was not as bold and powerful when compared to the Golden Crocodile, it still possessed the strength of the Spiritual Rotation Stage Middle Phase.

“Leave this big guy to me. You can deal with the other.”

Mu Chen pointed at the Golden Crocodile. Although he had the ability to resolve the situation by himself, this would not benefit Mo Ling. Since everybody required honing their abilities to improve, it would not be beneficial for him to protect Mo Ling too much. Otherwise, it would limit the latter’s progress.

“Okay.” Mo Ling nodded. He also understood that he could not rely on Mu Chen for everything. If he didn’t improve his strength, he would only be a burden to Mu Chen.

Seeing this, Mu Chen no longer said anything. He immediately lunged over towards the Golden Crocodile. As he extended two of his fingers, the fingertips shone a golden light. An extremely sharp and overbearing aura emitted from them.

Roar!

The Golden Crocodile roared as it noticed Mu Chen rushing over. It lashed its tail, which was strong enough to crush boulders, fiercely towards Mu Chen and appeared to hit him. However, its tail mysteriously passed through Mu Chen’s body, for little did it know, the thing it had hit had actually been an afterimage.

“Up here.”

Mu Chen moved swiftly and appeared above the Golden Crocodile’s head. He smiled slightly, and his Spiritual Energy erupted out. The energy forcibly made the Golden Crocodile collapse on the ground. Then, his fingers stabbed mercilessly into the Golden Crocodile’s head .

Clang!

Sparks burst out. Mu Chen’s fingers, that were hardened like tempered steel, actually penetrated through the Golden Crocodile’s tough golden scales. Fresh blood instantly sprayed out.

Roar!

The Golden Crocodile instantly entered a frenzy due to it being severely injured. However, no matter how it struggled, it failed to touch Mu Chen’s phantom-like figure. With the latter’s strength, it was quite easy to deal with a Spiritual Rotation Stage Late Phase Spiritual Beast.

In two short minutes, the Golden Crocodile was completely covered with its own blood. Finally, it stopped struggling and crashed onto the ground, which instantly shook due to the impact.

Mu Chen clapped his hands and squatted down. He extracted a Spiritual Beast’s Soul Essence, which was shining a golden light, from the Golden Crocodile’s head. As the Spiritual Beast’s Soul Essence emerged, a faint golden light shot out and entered the symbol on Mu Chen’s forehead. The dark red symbol instantly brightened up.

“This item created by the Northern Heavens Spiritual Academy is quite unusual.” Seeing this, Mu Chen frowned. He could detect that the golden light was quite subtle, thus, it did not affect the Spiritual Beast’s Soul Essence overall. Moreover, it seemed that the symbol would actively absorb any Spiritual Energy nearby that was not bound to a Spirit Beast in order to achieve the effect of ranking up.

Furthermore, the symbol rejected the Spiritual Aura within a human’s body. In other words, it was ridiculous for anyone to use their own Spiritual Energy to increase the symbol.

Mu Chen held onto the Spiritual Beast’s Soul Essence. A Middle Rank Spiritual Beast’s Soul Essence wasn’t something he would care about. But just when he was about to place it inside his Mustard Seed Bracelet, he detected a black light surging through the center of his palm and held onto the Spiritual Beast’s Soul Essence. Then to Mu Chen’s dismay, the Spiritual Beast’s Soul Essence quickly turned dim. With a banging sound, it scattered away into lights.

After the black light absorbed the Spiritual Beast’s Soul Essence’s energy, it returned back into Mu Chen’s body.

Mu Chen stared dumbfounded at this scene. He immediately recovered from the shock. It was the Nine Netherbird!

“The Spiritual Beast’s Soul Essence has a small effect of helping me recover. In the future, you should hunt more and speed up my recovery.” The Nine Netherbird’s thoughts was conveyed in Mu Chen’s mind.

“You’re really rude.” Mu Chen curled his lips and spoke.

“If it wasn’t for you borrowing my strength last time, I wouldn’t be in such a weak state in the first place.” The Nine Netherbird replied coldly.

“Okay, I’ll try my best.” Mu Chen shook his head helplessly. It really wasn’t great to owe the Nine Netherbird a favor. If it was before, he could ignore it. But now, he could deal with a bit of exploitation. Besides, if the Nine Netherbird recovered quickly, he would have an ultimate life-saving measure, even if he did not want to utilize this power.

“Since I’ve benefited from you a bit, I’ll be kind and tell this to you. You’ve already been targeted.”

“Oh?”

Mu Chen’s eyes narrowed. He immediately smiled as he looked behind him at the forest. These people were quite fast. It seemed that his Rank 3 Symbol was quite attractive.

Mu Chen stopped his conversation with the Nine Netherbird and turned his gaze over towards Mo Ling. For Mo Ling, his strength was close to the black tiger Spiritual Beast. Therefore, it would be quite difficult for him to deal with it. As they clashed against each other, injuries appeared on his body. However, it was evident that the black tiger Spiritual Beast suffered far worse injuries.

The battle between the man and the Spiritual Beast lasted for a while. The black tiger Spiritual Beast finally couldn’t bear it and struggled as it collapsed. Then, Mo Ling rushed over and delivered a heavy blow. He killed it completely.

Mo Ling sat on the corpse of the black tiger Spiritual Beast and wiped the blood off his face. He directed an embarrassed smile to Mu Chen for delaying them for so long here.

Swish.

At this moment, numerous black lights suddenly stormed out from the forest and shot off towards Mo Ling’s vital points.

This attack was too swift and abrupt. Therefore, Mo Ling failed to perceive it and could only watch as the black lights grew larger within his eyes.

Boom!

But just when the black lights were about to hit Mo Ling’s body, a golden light flew over and appeared in front of Mo Ling. It allowed the black lights to hit it.

Clang Clang!

The golden light was really the Golden Crocodile’s corpse. As the black lights made contact with the corpse, they bounced off while making clanging sounds.

Mo Ling’s face instantly changed. He hurriedly stood up and stared fearfully into the forest. If it wasn’t for Mu Chen, he would have probably been injured heavily.

“Who’s there!” He stood up and shouted out angrily.

Mu Chen frowned and said: “You’ve sneakily followed us for so long already. Yet you’re reluctant to reveal your appearances?”

“Ohoho, as expected for a person, who obtained a seeded entry. You’re indeed quite capable.”

From the forest, sounds of laughter rang out. Then, three figures rushed out and landed on a branch. They stared down at Mu Chen and Mo Ling with gazes as if they had spotted prey.

Mo Ling was shocked when the three figures revealed themselves. This is because these three individuals came from the same Escort Platform as them. In addition, they were all at the Spiritual Rotation Stage Late Phase!

“3 Spiritual Rotation Stage Late Phase!”

Mo Ling’s heart sank. These three individuals were in no way inferior to Liu Mubai. If it was only one person, it would be easy to deal with them. But with all three of them, even Mu Chen would find it quite troubling.

Although Mo Ling knew that Mu Chen had once killed a Heavenly Fusion Stage powerhouse in the Northern Spiritual Realm, it was still just a rumor. That strength might not have belonged to Mu Chen. Therefore, it was uncertain if Mu Chen could use that strength a second time.

Thus, with Mu Chen’s Spiritual Rotation Stage Late Phase strength, it would be easy for him to deal with one person who was at the same level as him. But if it was three…

“Brother Mu.”

Mo Ling approached Mu Chen and his voice was filled with worries. He knew that it would be simple for Mu Chen to leave by himself even if all three joined forces. However, it would be troublesome if Mu Chen had to bring him away as well.

“Brother Mu, why don’t we go our separate ways?” Mo Ling gritted his teeth and said in a low voice. He felt slightly uncomfortable for being a burden to Mu Chen.

“With the current situation, there’s no need to do so.” Mu Chen directed a smile at Mo Ling. If they thought three people at the Spiritual Rotation Stage Late Phase were able to force him to abandon his companion and escape, then they were underestimating him.

“This friend over there. I’m Ge Qing. Ohoho, we’re quite interested in your Rank 3 Symbol. Why don’t you hand over the symbol to us and we’ll let you leave? This way, everybody will be happy and it’ll be better for both of us, don’t you reckon?” Among the three individuals, a boy in grey clothes smiled at Mu Chen.

The other two boys at Spiritual Rotation Stage Late Phase stared mockingly at Mu Chen. It was evident that they did not believe Mu Chen had the ability to escape from their hands.

Mu Chen stared at the three of them. A hint of sharpness flashed through his eyes. He knew that these fellows followed him because of his Rank 3 Symbol. Furthermore, there were still a few people sneaking around behind them.

It was obvious that there were many people targeting him. After all, who told him to have a Rank 3 Symbol? Also, his companion was much weaker than the other 3 Seeded Entry candidates.

A person like him was the easily viewed as the weakest target.

“Mo Ling, stand back.” Mu Chen said softly.

Hearing this, Mo Ling’s face changed. Does this mean Mu Chen is planning to fight? But there’s a total of three people on the opposite side… Although he was slightly concerned, he still nodded and retreated cautiously.

“Oh, not bad…Does this mean he’s planning to fight all three of us by himself?” Seeing this, the three individuals let out a mocking smile.

“How arrogant.”

Ge Qing also let out a faint smile. The eyes he used to stare at Mu Chen turned cold. He immediately waved his hand and said: “Since this friend has so much confidence in himself, we should entertain him for a while. This way, we can prevent people from acting this arrogant just because they obtained a seeded entry…”

The other two also grinned and clenched their palms. A powerful Spiritual Energy fluctuation erupted out. Then, the three of them exchanged gazes before charging over at the same time.

As the trio swooped down like a hawk, violent Spiritual Energy enveloped Mu Chen completely.

They wanted the boy in front of them to know that he couldn’t act arrogant here just because he obtained a seeded entry!