Chapter 48: Encounter Battle

The terrain ahead began to grow increasingly complicated. This was originally a sheer cliff, but during the fifth trial, it had been shattered by the roar of some unknown demon, leaving the area littered with massive boulders and collapsed rock faces—there was simply no path forward.

“Wei, let the two of us go first. We both have +4 Thunder Rings,” Liu Sui spoke up. Having cultivated the Violet Mist for forty years, he was quite agile—certainly more so than those with the Mountain-Moving profession. Even if something unexpected happened, he’d be able to respond in time. The other scouting teams were arranged similarly.

“No,” Wei Cheng refused flatly. “I’ll go first. You all stay behind me.” The terrain here was treacherous. If anything went wrong, Xu Shan, with her fifty years’ worth of Swift Swallow cultivation, could escape in time; Liu Sui might not be so lucky. The risk was that any damage exceeding a certain threshold could mean instant death.

Did they really think this was some game, where opponents’ stats were conveniently balanced for you?

Liu Sui and Xu Shan were better suited to circumstances where their strengths could truly shine.

Though surprised, Liu Sui and Xu Shan didn’t object, obediently falling in line.

Wei Cheng surged ahead. Although his profession was Mountain-Mover, his mastery of the Mountain-Moving Inner Strength, reforged through the second tier of the Mountain-Moving Method, made him anything but clumsy. He could vault over cliffs more than ten meters high with ease.

In truth, the inner strength he’d rebuilt was not only twice as potent as before, but its effects radiated even further. Where once he’d have needed vast amounts of energy to execute high-mobility maneuvers—making up for speed with sheer force—now he could achieve the same with only a fifth of the effort.

So when Liu Sui and Xu Shan watched Wei Cheng move with the grace of a swallow, lightly scaling collapsed cliffs and scattered boulders as if walking on level ground, their amazement was only natural.

Still, there were scoffers behind them.

“A Mountain-Mover playing scout? Has he lost his mind, or does he have more inner strength than he could ever use?” A burly man beside Zhou Wu sneered. He was the real backbone of Zhou Wu’s team, having cultivated Mountain-Moving for seventy years and mastered the Mountain-Moving Visualization Diagram. He was certainly qualified to comment.

He could do what Wei Cheng was doing, but it would burn through his inner strength at an alarming rate. Even Zhou Wu, with eighty years of cultivation, faced the same limitation. Different professions had different roles; you couldn’t just improvise as you pleased.

Given the tangled terrain, the team’s progress slowed. The collapsed cliffs seemed endless—one after another, nothing but steep drops and broken stones.

Wei Cheng dared not relax or let his mind wander. He felt as if his mental energy was a blazing fire, burning ever brighter—a curious sensation. This fire illuminated everything within a hundred meters, even crevices in the rocks invisible to the eye. He sensed it all.

Who needed specialized scouts when sheer force of will made the best one?

“Wei, are we stuck in a ghost loop or something? Feels like we’ve been climbing these cliffs forever,” Xu Shan called out from behind. In fact, many were beginning to wonder the same—the stretch of cliffs they’d traversed seemed interminable.

“It’s not a ghost loop,” Wei Cheng answered with certainty. His mental acuity told him so. Among everyone present, his spiritual strength was unmatched—even Zhou Wu fell short.

After rounding yet another cliff, the terrain finally opened up a little. But at that very moment, a chilling sense of impending doom made Wei Cheng’s skin crawl.

Without hesitation, he activated the Immovable Golden Bell. A radiant bell of golden light instantly materialized, its sudden weight—fifty tons—distorting the air itself.

Almost simultaneously, a bizarre, rune-engraved fireball hurtled toward him, smashing into the Immovable Golden Bell with an ear-shattering blast.

A thunderous explosion, shockwaves sweeping hundreds of meters in every direction.

Liu Sui, trailing dozens of meters behind, was swept off his feet before he could react, crashing heavily to the ground.

Xu Shan, relying on her fifty years of Swift Swallow training, tried to flee. But she’d only managed to sprint a second before the shockwave overtook her, tossing her aside and injuring her badly despite only catching the edge of it.

The others, following at a distance of over a hundred meters and able to duck behind the cliffs, were mostly unharmed.

Cracks spider-webbed across the Immovable Golden Bell before it shattered and vanished—but Wei Cheng had withstood the blow. The second tier of the Mountain-Moving Method had saved him; the first would have failed.

A shimmer of golden light, and a secondary, weaker Golden Bell shield rippled around him. Its defense wasn’t as strong, but it didn’t hinder his movement—so Wei Cheng charged like a wild bull.

There was no room for retreat.

Atop a rise ahead stood a squad of monsters.

At their head was a demon with stag antlers, followed by five purple-skinned fiends, a hulking boar demon, five iron-tower-sized black apes, and at least thirty giant wolves.

This was clearly a more formidable squad than any faced in the fifth trial.

But the greatest threat was that stag-antlered demon. It no longer had the petrifying human-head or needed a special jar to cast fire spears, but now wielded a burning seal, from which it hurled devastating fireballs. The force of one could have blasted the insides out of even Zhou Wu, the eighty-year Mountain-Mover.

Wei Cheng knew: even with his second-tier Mountain-Moving Inner Strength, he could only endure three such fireballs at most.

So if not now, when?

While Wei Cheng charged, the others hesitated, still stunned by the fireball’s destructive power.

Only when Liu Sui staggered to his feet, blood foaming at his lips, did he bellow—ignoring his wounds—“Charge!”

“Charge, my foot! Flank them, flank them!” Wei Cheng shouted furiously. Liu Sui seemed reliable—refined, even courageous—but how had he made it this far? This was the time for Mountain-Movers to advance; other professions, even the weaker Mountain-Movers, couldn’t push through here.

In this moment, Xu Shan alone showed exceptional battlefield awareness. As soon as the shockwave passed, she sprang up and, with a few agile leaps, covered hundreds of meters to circle the rise where the monsters stood—like a sharp, curved blade slicing into their flank.

This was the correct move.

“Cover Liu Sui! Use the terrain to get close—then unleash everything at point-blank!” Wei Cheng shouted, nearly nonstop.

By then, the stag-antlered demon was already conjuring a second fireball. By his count, the cooldown was only three seconds.

“Liu Sui, with me!” Cheng An called, diving toward a rocky outcrop. Liu Sui snapped out of his stupor and followed. Yu Liang and Wang Wei dashed in different directions, grasping Wei Cheng’s intent. Mei Renli lingered at the rear, ever cautious, ready to duck for cover. Han Dong, eyes conflicted, kept to the second-to-last position—he knew he’d fallen out of favor and needed to keep an escape route open.

The very next second, Han Dong realized he’d made the right bet: the stag-antlered demon unleashed another massive fireball, half the size of a water vat, which hurtled toward Wei Cheng like lightning.

“Get down!” Wei Cheng roared, unleashing the Immovable Golden Bell just in time to absorb the impact. The shockwave swept over a hundred meters, but things were different this time.

Xu Shan, having completed her flanking maneuver, sprang forward the moment the blast passed. Like a swallow in flight, she broke through to the monsters’ rear, her dagger flashing in the air—one wolf after another fell before her. For these beasts, the Swift Swallow profession was their bane.

Cheng An, shielding Liu Sui, charged the other side—but the boar demon, bellowing from above, came crashing down.

“Run!” Cheng An shouted, erecting his own Golden Bell shield to block the boar. He was sent flying dozens of meters, blood spraying like a fountain, but Liu Sui slipped past, finally understanding what was required. He zig-zagged at full speed, while Yu Liang and Wang Wei, twenty meters apart, covered him from either side.

The boar demon, unable to stop, crashed headlong into a boulder and died on the spot.

Even Mei Renli now glimpsed hope for victory.

Both sides were racing against time—if they could just withstand a third fireball.

“Charge!” Mei Renli shrieked like a rooster, chasing after Liu Sui.

They had to get Liu Sui onto that monster-held rise; then victory would be within reach.

The four black apes roared and barreled down like living juggernauts—one straight for Wei Cheng, who knocked it flying with a single punch; the other three for Liu Sui, Yu Liang, and Wang Wei. The four purple-skinned demons at the rear watched, waiting for their moment.

Yu Liang was the first to clash with a black ape. Though outsized, his Golden Bell shield let him hold his ground for now. Wang Wei fared similarly.

Liu Sui, meanwhile, unleashed his Swimming Dragon Palm. Purple shadows flashed as he landed more than a hundred blows in an instant, the third black ape’s chest caving in under the onslaught—its iron-hard body shattered utterly.

And this was only the power of forty years’ cultivation!

But they were still a moment too slow. The stag-antlered demon had already conjured a third fireball, which howled down at the closest target—Wei Cheng.

Flames and explosions rocked the mountainside, the shockwave howling like a hurricane.

Wei Cheng—surely there’d be nothing left of him now?

Many thought so, including those lagging miles behind, like Zhou Wu and his group. It wasn’t that they didn’t want to help; they simply couldn’t arrive in time.

As for sending all their fragile Swift Swallows ahead? That would be sheer madness.

“Prepare for battle!” Zhou Wu shouted. He was still confident he could finish the fight—after all, he was an eighty-year Mountain-Mover.