TL: Etude
Human: Ye Tian
Cultivation Talent: Extraordinary
Speed Talent: Top-tier
Blade Talent: High-level
Shadow Talent: Low
Healing Talent: Top-tier
Strength Talent: High-level
Endurance Talent: Mid-tier
Defense Talent: Mid-tier
Ye Tian gazed at the lone "Extraordinary" listed under his cultivation talent, filled with excitement. "With this extraordinary-level cultivation talent, I can become a grandmaster in no time. The chance of becoming a king-level practitioner might not be 100%, but an 80% likelihood is still significant. As long as I'm not supremely unlucky, I should be able to become not just a king-level but an even more powerful being," he muttered to himself.
Soon after, he went to the edge of a small stream and cleaned himself. Only then did he have the time to check his communicator watch. He saw two red dots on it, presumably marking the locations of him and Yue Ling. At that moment, the other red dot was slowly moving closer to him.
"This stationary red dot represents me, and the other one represents Yue Ling. Yue Ling is running towards me. I should get moving; I can't just stay idle!"
Thus, Ye Tian started moving.
Along the way, he didn't dare to run too fast and remained ever-vigilant of his surroundings. He knew very little about this secret realm, except that it was filled with numerous treasures, such as herbs that had aged for hundreds or even thousands of years. On Earth, herbs seldom exceed a hundred years in age, given that the great change had only occurred a century ago. It was only during these 100 years that the world's elemental energy emerged, leading to the growth of many herbs.
As for millennium-old herbs, those were artifacts of ancient times and incredibly rare on Earth, almost as difficult to find as fighting a king-level beast. However, in this mystical realm, he sensed it wouldn't be too hard to find herbs that had aged for hundreds or even thousands of years.
Sure enough, Ye Tian had not run for long when he sensed an object rich in elemental energy. "It's over there!" Ye Tian jogged toward it and started digging. Soon, he unearthed a ginseng root.
"A hundred-year-old ginseng!" Ye Tian joyously collected it. A hundred-year-old ginseng like this would fetch a price of 50 million dollars at the Magic Sea Base. Although he had hundreds of millions in savings, it wouldn't be enough for long-term cultivation. Now, just having entered this mystical realm, he had already reaped such rewards. He could only imagine what more lay ahead.
"No wonder those warriors from the Yue family were so opposed to me. A spot like this, if sold, could fetch tens of billions. Yet Yue Ling gave this valuable spot to me," Ye Tian mused.
He had already decided that he would do his best to protect Yue Ling within this mystical realm.
As he continued to move forward, he encountered several more valuable items along the way. Anything worth more than a million dollars, he collected. The only regret was that he didn't have a storage bag, so his load quickly became rather bulky.
Several hours passed, and Ye Tian checked his position. He was about to meet up with Yue Ling. Just then, a ferocious beast appeared before him.
Species: Blood Tiger Beast
Bloodline Talent: High-level
Bloodflame Talent: Basic
A blood tiger beast, roughly the size of a calf, glared menacingly at Ye Tian and immediately lunged at him. Ye Tian had encountered several of these vicious beasts along the way. These blood tiger beasts were high-ranking predators, but more troublesome than typical high-ranking ones, as they could ignite their own blood, even amplifying the power of their bloodline, thus momentarily unleashing an attack several times more potent. A single desperate blood tiger was capable of killing a mid-level martial warrior, or even severely injuring a late-stage one, albeit at the cost of debilitating itself.
As the blood tiger charged, Ye Tian slashed at it with his blade. With a splattering sound, the blood tiger was cleaved in half by the blade's aura, dead beyond any doubt. The blood of the blood tiger beast was valuable, but Ye Tian had no time to collect it. He couldn't carry any more of it as he had only brought a single water bottle into this secret realm.
Bypassing the corpse of the blood tiger, Ye Tian rapidly sprinted towards Yue Ling's location. A minute later, Ye Tian finally saw Yue Ling, but her condition looked grim. She was covered in wounds, her face pale, and was currently fighting a group of ferocious beasts—more blood tigers. Apparently, this region was their territory.
"Thirteen blood tigers," Ye Tian counted. Including the one he had killed, the total number reached twenty. Needless to say, Yue Ling was unlucky to have encountered so many blood tigers at once.
"Why would Yue Ling be injured? These blood tigers shouldn't be able to hurt her. Yue Ling has a secondary speed talent that doubles her speed. If she wanted to escape, these blood tigers couldn't stop her," Ye Tian thought, puzzled.
Just then, Yue Ling unleashed a powerful sword technique. "Ten Direction Blade!" Dense sword light swept across a radius of tens of meters. One by one, the blood tigers were torn apart by the sword light and fell into pools of blood.
"What a strong sword technique, likely a bronze-level one, but even stronger than the Qingfeng Slash," Ye Tian estimated. He knew that among bronze-level blade techniques, Qingfeng Slash was not particularly strong. Some complete bronze-level techniques could even increase attack power sevenfold. However, such techniques were rare and costly.
But for the Yue family, a prominent family in the Demon Sea base, obtaining such a bronze-level sword technique would not be difficult for Yue Ling. After the Ten Direction Blade move, the blood tigers were almost entirely wiped out, leaving only a few. That's when Ye Tian stepped in and instantly killed the remaining blood tigers.
"Yue Ling, how did you get hurt? These blood tigers shouldn't have been able to injure you!" Ye Tian inquired.
"Bad luck. I encountered a powerful high-ranking beast with a special talent. If I didn't have my secondary speed talent, I'd be dead by now," Yue Ling said, her heart still pounding.
Soon, Ye Tian learned from Yue Ling about the beast, a mysterious creature with a talent for eye techniques. It had a third eye on its forehead that could emit black light, which easily penetrated Yue Ling's defenses. Had she not been quick to flee, she might have died.
"Eye technique talent!" Ye Tian was very interested, but finding that beast now would be difficult, given that it could be anywhere by now.
"You rest and heal, I'll stand guard for you," Ye Tian suggested.
"Alright," Yue Ling agreed without hesitation. She sat cross-legged, took out a bottle of high-grade healing liquid from her storage bag, drank it, and began to heal her injuries.
Half an hour later, Yue Ling had recovered. Just as they were about to leave, an eerie light emanated from the sky. The light illuminated the area and also reached Ye Tian.
"That's light emitted from within a spatial rift. The source of the light is the spatial rift itself. Judging by the distance, we're not too far from it, so our luck is not bad," Yue Ling said, relieved.
If they had been unlucky, the spatial rift would have been far away, potentially consuming half their time just to get there, leaving little time for any benefits.
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