Chapter 43: The Northwestern Frontier

"What weak and fragile lives!"

Without drawing his long blade, Lu Sheng felled the snow wolf before him in the blink of an eye. To him, these creatures were not even worthy of being called demon beasts—they were simply powerless. He didn’t even care about the merit gained from killing them.

Thus, he spared these snow wolves, intending to exchange them for information with the hunters.

He waited in the snowy wilderness. After some time, the group of hunters finally gathered around. Upon seeing Lu Sheng standing calmly by the fallen wolves, Eri Dun’s expression changed, and he called out from a distance:

"Honored warrior, we did not know you were here! Please forgive our offense!"

Anyone who could single-handedly defeat a dozen snow wolves must be a formidable martial artist. Judging by his bearing, he seemed to be waiting for them. This realization filled Eri Dun’s heart with apprehension.

"Hmm? The language is the same, but the accent is quite different…" Lu Sheng thought. "Better not speak, lest they notice anything amiss."

The Blackstone Island where Lu Sheng had lived lay in the southeastern sea, and his accent was somewhat similar to that of Yangzhou across the water. Although few here could likely discern his origins, Lu Sheng preferred to minimize trouble and avoid suspicion. After all, a young man arriving here out of nowhere, without any record, might easily provoke doubts.

"Better to use the Heart-Control Parasite."

With no interest in conversing, Lu Sheng willed his snow eagle, which had been circling above, to fly toward him.

"Snow eagle!"

"It’s heading right for us!"

Seeing the eagle in the sky, Eri Dun turned pale and urged his companions to hide. Yet soon enough, the snow eagle landed beside Lu Sheng and did not attack the group.

"So it’s his trained beast!" Eri Dun mused. Then, suddenly, he heard a loud roar beside his ear and fell into a stupor, collapsing to the ground.

When he awoke, the martial artist and snow eagle were gone; only the snow wolves remained, still lying in the snow.

"Fire God bless us! Not a single person died!" Eri Dun counted his companions, relieved. Encountering such a powerful figure and losing no one was a stroke of fortune; other matters hardly mattered.

However, after checking their supplies, they discovered that the stranger had not touched any of their belongings but had left behind more than a dozen snow wolves.

"What’s going on?"

"What did that warrior mean?"

The group discussed in confusion.

"The snow eagle—he came from the snowy mountains!"

"Perhaps he just descended from the mountains and wanted to gather information from us!"

"These snow wolves are his payment!"

Thinking of the snow eagle, Eri Dun seemed to have a revelation.

"Then why didn’t he ask us anything?" Hulegen wondered.

Eri Dun sighed, "A warrior of that caliber wouldn’t bother speaking to us. I suspect he has already acquired the information he needed by some means."

Having studied in the martial hall and frequently dealt with the Four Seas Trading Company, Eri Dun was more knowledgeable and understood the abilities of powerful warriors. He warned his companions:

"If any of you have secrets that might interest such a person, tell him everything—such a man is beyond our ability to resist."

Eri Dun had hidden his gold coins in several places, but judging from the stranger’s attitude, he clearly wouldn’t care about them. So Eri Dun had no worries.

He called his companions to drag the snow wolves back.

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"Snow Eagle City…"

"The far northwest of the Western Regions!"

"So I’ve come all the way here!"

Reflecting on the information he had extracted from Eri Dun and his companions, Lu Sheng was astonished.

"Blackstone Island lies in the southeastern sea, Snow Eagle City at the northwest frontier—"

"The distance between them is not just ten thousand miles!"

"I wonder when I’ll be able to return."

Though Lu Sheng no longer felt attached to Blackstone Island, he still preferred the Central Plains to this remote northwest—the familiarity of that land called to him.

"Snow Eagle City, snow eagle beasts… That flying dragon horse puppet certainly chooses its destinations well!"

"Could it be, there’s something it needs here?"

Thinking of the flying dragon horse puppet, Lu Sheng felt anger rise within him. Like Ma Buting and Ma Buti, he had thought the puppet would be controllable once it absorbed the dragon pearl.

But as it turned out—

His current strength was far from sufficient to refine the flying dragon horse puppet!

Worse still, as its energy core was not the original dragon horse’s elemental core, the puppet had activated more of its dragon attributes—

To fully awaken it, he would need elemental cores from both avian and equine demon beasts.

"Last time, it carried the Ma brothers to Dragon Mulberry Island, which bore lingering traces of flood dragon energy."

"This time, it brought me to the snowy mountains west of Snow Eagle City, where snow eagle beast energy remains…"

Having just descended from the mountains and tamed a snow eagle along the way, Lu Sheng had used the Heart-Control Parasite to search the memories of Eri Dun and his companions, learning all about snow eagle beasts.

"This flying dragon horse puppet must not be used again before I gain full control—"

"Otherwise, who knows where it will take me next!"

While he had activated some of its powers, Lu Sheng had not fully refined it; this latest journey was more the puppet’s doing than his own.

Otherwise, he would never have flown into the mountains!

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"At least, it helped me escape the deep sea!"

Thinking back on his ordeal after being swallowed by the dragon whale beast, Lu Sheng felt grateful.

That day, the dragon whale beast swallowed him and carried him into the depths of the sea. All along the way, it pressed him to hand over the flood dragon’s corpse.

Lu Sheng had already memorized the runes on the flood dragon and had no particular attachment to the corpse itself. But as his lifeline, he could not simply give it away.

Thus began a contest of wills between man and beast.

Though the fourth-tier dragon whale beast was masterful in controlling its body, it hesitated to kill Lu Sheng outright. Meanwhile, Lu Sheng relied on the restorative power of merit and managed to endure.

The deep sea teemed with powerful demon beasts, and the dragon whale’s attention could not always be fixed on Lu Sheng.

Thus, through twists and turns, Lu Sheng discovered the beast’s secret:

"So, this dragon whale beast is pregnant—that’s why it craves the flood dragon’s corpse."

"It needs the flood dragon’s blood to boost its offspring’s potential!"

The fourth-tier dragon whale beast could gain strength by devouring a flood dragon, but it could not achieve true transformation. For its unborn dragon whale calf, however, the blood could greatly enhance its potential, perhaps even granting the chance to someday become a flood dragon.

That was why the female dragon whale that swallowed Lu Sheng, and the male slain by Si Mingyue, so desperately sought the flood dragon’s corpse.

Upon catching its scent, the pair raced to Blackstone Island, hoping to give their child greater potential.

By a twist of fate, they encountered Si Mingyue, who, after becoming a grandmaster, was eager to test her abilities. After a fierce struggle, she unleashed her ultimate skill, the Sea and Moon Divine Blade, and slew one of them.

The remaining female dragon whale, skilled at hiding, barely escaped with its life.