Chapter 59 Gathering in the dark
''Quickly, lead me there!'' Shun Long said in a slightly anxious tone.
Now that little Black was inside the 'Stone of Time's' space, Shun Long could directly use his spiritual strength to communicate with him.
The reason that he was so anxious wasn't to save those disciples or the 'earth bear' but instead to obtain the 'Profound earth fruit'.
There were 3 different ways for Shun Long to advance his 'Monarch's Eternal body'.
The first way was to consume the flesh of higher rank magic beasts. The flesh rank 2 magic beasts or the rank 3 'double-headed fish' inside the 'Stone of Time' was one such example.
The second way was to directly consume rare herbs or fruits like the 'Profound earth fruit' or the 'Blood Vermilion fruit'. Although a big part of the fruit's medicinal efficacy would be wasted this way, it was still more than 100 times faster compared to slowly strengthening the body by eating magical beast's flesh.
However, there was an even better and faster way to advance. That would be by first refining the fruits into pills and then consuming them. Although it would be possible for a rank 3 bronze grade alchemist to refine something like the 'Profound earth fruit' into a pill, the same would be absolutely impossible if we swapped the 'Profound earth fruit' with a 'Blood Vermilion fruit'.
Although both fruits were rank 3 medicinal ingredients, the 'Profound earth fruit' needed at least an alchemist at the rank 3 bronze grade to be refined into a pill, while the 'Blood Vermilion fruit' needed at least a rank 1 silver grade alchemist to succesfully refine it into a pill.
And so the third way was the most uncommon of them all.
Following little Black's directions, Shun Long soon arrived at the place where the battle was taking place.
There were 5 disciples banded as a group, all of them fighting the 'earth bear'. Of those disciples, 2 of them wore the 'floating cloud sect's' robes while the other 3 were dressed in brown robes, indicating that they were disciples of the 'Iron-hardened sect'.
''It's him'' Shun Long thought while he was sitting at the top of a tree watching the fight.
One of the 2 disciples that were dressed in yellow robes, was short and had red hair. He had left an impression on Shun Long when he had asked Elder Lu earlier about the first place reward. This person was Guan Hong, the peak rank 3 earth grade expert. The other disciple of the 'floating cloud sect' was at the middle stage of rank 1 in the earth grade, while from the 3 disciples of the 'Iron-hardened sect' two of them were at the middle rank 3 while the only woman in the group was at the early rank 1 in the earth grade.
Shun Long wasn't going to let these people take the 'Profound earth fruit' now that he knew about it, but the problem was how to take it. Everyone, including the 'earth bear' and the 5 people in their group, were paying attention to the 'Profound earth fruit' even while they were fighting.
Shun Long could use his teleportation ability to take the fruit and then leave, but he didn't want to expose himself just yet. All of a sudden little Black's voice was heard in Shun Long's head
''Master, don't be anxious to make a move yet.''
''Did you discover something?'' Shun Long asked
''Mm. There is a rank 2 'iron-winged eagle' 300 meters away from our location and it has set its sights here''
''Of course it has. The 'iron-winged eagle' is a natural enemy of the 'earth bear'. Now that someone has come to find trouble with it, how could it let this chance go?''
''Aside from the 'iron-winged eagle' there are also 2 little girls who are approaching, around 1 mile away from our east. They will surely stumble upon this fight and I doubt that they will let the 'Profound earth fruit' go like that. One of them is at the peak of rank 3 in earth grade while the other one is in the middle rank 3.''
If the fight kept going for much longer, the number of people who would find out about the existence of the 'Profound earth fruit' would increase over and over.
Meanwhile, in the fight happening in front of the cave, the two middle rank 3 disciples of the 'Iron-hardened sect', as well as Guan Hong, were fighting the 'earth bear' head-on, while the girl from the 'Iron-hardened sect' and the other disciple from the 'floating cloud sect' were providing support from the distance.
The 'earth bear' was very tough as both its offense and defense were balanced. Everytime that Guan Hong's group attacked it, it defended back with its sharp claws, and every attack that the bear sent, would prove life-threatening if their group didn't dodge in time.
''Shi Qiang, Shi Shan, if you keep holding back, more and more people will gather after they notice our fight, and taking the 'Profound earth fruit' then will be much more difficult then.'' Guan Hong shouted at the two 'Iron-hardened sect' disciples that were fighting with him.''
These 2 were a pair of brothers, called Shi Qiang and Shi Shan. Although they weren't the strongest in the 'Iron-hardened sect', when the 2 of them were fighting together, they were even slightly stronger than Guan Hong.
The elder brother of the two, Shi Qiang who was using a long saber snorted as he responded
''Are you trying to say that you have been going all-out by now Guan Hong? If you want us brothers to use our strength for you to take the 'Profound earth fruit' for yourself you must think that we really are naive. After all, even if we brothers used our full-strength, we still wouldn't be able to kill this 'earth bear' just by ourselves, or else why would we fight together with you then?''
The spear-wielding Shi Shan nodded his head and Guan Hong just snorted but he knew that everything Shi Qiang said was the truth.
His eyes had turned determined as he looked at the 2 brothers and said
''Distract the 'earth bear' for 10 breaths of time. I need this much time to activate my martial skill. When I use it, you better not hold back either because that will be our only chance to kill this beast, or else forget about the 'Profound earth fruit'.''
As Guan Hong finished speaking, he took out a dagger from his robe and started infusing his qi in it.
Meanwhile, a pair of girls dressed in blue robes had also arrived at the scene, their eyes fully focused on the 'Profound earth fruit'.