Chapter 255: Chapter 254: Strength Skyrockets!

Translator: 549690339

Du Gang stealthily made his way through the jungle area near the middle lane, ceaselessly advancing before finally stopping at the edge of a bush near the river.

As he got closer to such places, he became more wary, on guard for any members of the Demon Clan hiding in the bushes.

He would rather waste a little time, keep his eyes peeled, than be discovered rashly. Using the Jie-Character Secret only as a last resort.

“Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!”

The forest was silent except for the sound of fallen leaves, making it seem quite tranquil.

Nevertheless, Du Gang remained still, crouching in the grass. His eyes and ears were on high alert, observing any movement within his surroundings.

Time passed slowly, and the forest’s silence made it seem as if he were the only person there, creating an illusion that he was acting out something that he himself didn’t know about.

Just as Du Gang was about to get up, he noticed a slight movement in a bush roughly two to three hundred meters away.

Something’s up!

Du Gang suddenly held his breath, staring attentively at that spot.

“Ugh!”

A low sound rang out, and the figures of five members of the Demon Clan appeared. One after the other, they crept out of the bush.

A murmuring amongst the Demons was heard, and even though it was quiet, their discussion was deep. Eventually, the leading demon gave an order and the others fell silent.

Then in an orderly manner, they started marching towards the jungle region of the human clan.

Luckily for Du Gang, they did not cross his path.

However, Du Gang did not let his guard down. He kept his spirit highly strung.

He didn’t know if the enemies had noticed him, but he dared not move. He could only wait.

Soon, the five Demons bypassed him and kept on heading towards the jungle.

Relieved, Du Gang took a deep breath but stayed put in the grass, patiently waiting.

About half an hour later, another group of Demons crept out of the bush.

“Sure enough!”

Du Gang sneered inwardly. These Demons were not as simple as they had previously appeared.

These Demons didn’t know if anyone was hiding nearby. So, the first group of Demons stood up as a decoy, telling anyone lying in ambush that they had left and it was safe to emerge.

But in reality, the real ambush was the second group of Demons!

With just a slight sense, Du Gang knew that these Demons were Controllers with impressive power.

The Demons in this group wasted no time and proceeded towards the deep areas of the human jungle.

“Any more?”

Du Gang looked puzzled.

After a pair of Demon attacks, he became dubious, unsure if there was a third group of Demons.

Maybe… wait some more?

Let’s wait. There is too much grass here. There could still be others hidden.

Anyway, after more than a year, it wouldn’t hurt to wait for another day.

And so, Du Gang waited again.

Three hours later, as he expected, another group of Demons crawled out.

Damn, who the hell are these guys waiting for?

A twitch formed at the corner of his mouth. From his vantage point, he could only see himself here, but three groups of Demons had been lurking and more could potentially still be in hiding.

After the third group of Demons left, Du Gang didn’t give it much thought. He just wanted to see how many more were hiding, so he kept on waiting.

It’s just a matter of time, right?

Am I not capable of outlasting you?!

“Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!”

After waiting for a while, he was surprised to see a group of human soldiers crawling out of a bush about three to four hundred meters away.

He was quite sure that they were not recent arrivals. They must have arrived much earlier.

This group of humans did not head towards the river. Instead, they followed the earlier Demons and disappeared into the direction they had gone.

Approximately five minutes after they left, two more groups of Demons appeared from the bushes, following them.

It was a shock for Du Gang.

Just like a Mantis stalking a Cicada, unaware of the Oriole behind, how many layers were these guys playing down?

One layer after the other, what did they hope to achieve?

Not long after these two groups of Demons left, “whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!”

Three more squads of human soldiers emerged from the bushes and without wasting any time, chased after those ahead.

“Swish, swish!”

After which, two more groups of Demons crawled out and chased after them.

Looking at the ambush groups coming out one after another, Du Gang was dumbfounded.

“Is that the last of them?”

There must be nearly a hundred who had slipped away in total.

He waited some more, but no new figures appeared. Simultaneously, a strong pressure was perceived in the distance. It seemed that the battle had started.

“Since they have started fighting and no one has appeared here, there shouldn’t be anyone left.”

Concluding this, Du Gang finally emerged and ran towards the river.

“Who wins and who loses has nothing to do with me. I am a lone wolf. I can’t help anyway…”

Rushing along the way, he finally reached the river. Without any hesitation, he plunged headfirst into the water.

Upon entering the water, Du Gang kept swimming forward without stopping. He dove deeper as it seemed safer than staying near the water’s surface.

However, he took out a telescope and kept an eye on his surroundings to ensure his safety.

After reaching the bottom, he found himself in complete darkness, and his visibility was limited to a few meters.

Even with the telescope, he could only see a few dozen meters ahead.

“No problem. If I cannot see, others won’t be able to see me either, so there’s no need to panic…”

While moving forward, Du Gang suddenly sensed a intense danger approaching from an unseen creature rapidly advancing in his direction.

A river monster?

Jie-Character Secret!

Tenfold Strength!

Without hesitation, Du Gang triggered the Jie-Character Secret.

In such a situation, there was no room for ambiguity. Indeed, a water jet attack, quite forceful but somewhat concealed, was blasted towards him.

In his line of sight, a strange large-headed fish with sharp teeth charged towards him, opening its bloody maw, reminiscent of a predatory shark.

“Kill!”

With a soft growl, Du Gang’s body transformed into a bolt of lightning in the blink of an eye, moving instantaneously.

“Boom!”

Executing his Drunken Monkey Divine Fist, Du Gang, barehanded, smashed the monstrous fish to death with a direct punch.

Disengage the Jie-Character Secret!

Having got the upper hand, Du Gang rapidly disengaged the Jie-Character Secret.

His energy was limited, only allowing him to activate the Jie-Character Secret for 10 seconds per day, so he saved it when he could. Luckily, he had prepared a strategy earlier, and this sneak attack and counter-kill occurred without any accident, even better than he had expected, only using up two seconds of the Jie-Character Secret!

“Thump, thump, thump!”

As the monstrous fish died, its body slowly dissipated. Meanwhile, five essence cores appeared one after another as if they were game loot.

Witnessing this, Du Gang quickly approached and collected them.

“I’ve got half of the Naer Divine Power!”

He laughed heartily, sitting cross-legged on the spot and starting to absorb the energy of the essence cores.

He chose to do so because these monstrous fishes usually have clearly demarcated territories, each having its own independent domain, so they refreshed separately during respawn.

It didn’t take long to absorb the essence cores, roughly one per minute, so in just five minutes, he had completely absorbed all five of them.

But just when he was about to leave, five men suddenly appeared out of nowhere.

These five men were also startled when they saw Du Gang, holding various weapons in their hands.

Du Gang was first taken aback, then quickly realised that these five were from the human race.

“Did you kill the monsters here?”

The leader of the five frowned and asked.

Du Gang nodded and said, “Is there a problem?”

His words stirred the five men’s excitement, “My friend, this territory belongs to us…”

“Yours?!”

Du Gang narrowed his eyes and sneered, “What? Do you want to extort me?”

Upon hearing this, the five shook their heads hastily. The leader explained, “No, no, what we mean is, given your great strength, why not go further into the central river?”

“This area near our human wild region is usually where we hunt. We need five of us to deal with one monster fish, so…”

So, the strong should yield to the weak?

Du Gang was rather puzzled, but his Jie-Character Secret time was limited, wasting it on these men was meaningless, so he didn’t argue further and simply walked away.

Seeing Du Gang disappear into the distance, the five heaved a sigh of relief.

“Thank goodness he left!”

“Yeah, otherwise the water dragon fruit would have had nothing to do with us…”

While talking, they turned around and headed back.

What they didn’t know was that Du Gang was quietly following not far behind at this moment.

Water Dragon Fruit?

Du Gang had a sudden realization on his face.

This fruit randomly grows in the river of the upper wild region, it’s another way to increase one’s divine power. Its effect is even stronger than the second grade essence cores.

Following the five men for a while, he arrived at a water cave close to the riverbed. This cave was very concealed, if not for these five men leading the way, he would not have known about its existence.

Clearly, these five men were guarding the water dragon fruit here. They were alerted to the distant surge of power and went for a look.

Inside the water cave, on a cliff, like a vine, a green plant was growing on the wall. On it dangled several luminous fruits, shimmering.

But judging from the shapes of these fruits, they hadn’t fully formed and were still growing.

According to its feature of growing in rivers and being functionally equivalent to essence cores, the more energy a mature fruit provides, the less a immature one does.

These fruits had remained here for so long because these people were not willing to eat them yet, hoping to wait until they were fully matured.

“The water dragon fruits should ripen in at most one day, and given their current state, it should be more than half a day by now. This means they’ll mature soon…”

Quietly pondering, Du Gang thought, “Should I get involved and take away these fruits?”

At this moment, just the fruits he saw from outside were about four or five, he wondered if there were more inside.

“Whoosh!”

Just then, a dull sound approached rapidly from afar.

An ambush!

Du Gang instantly reacted and quickly turned around. To his surprise, two figures appeared behind him–they were two of the five men he followed earlier.

Hadn’t these guys gone into the water cave?

“Whoosh, whoosh!”

No sooner had he thought of this, than three more attacks launched from the direction of the water cave.

These bastards had planned this!

They’ve found my location!

“Gods!”

The Divine Beings of the five men appeared out of nowhere, launching their attacks at Du Gang.

Seeing this, Du Gang was startled. He instinctively activated his Jie-Character Secret and summoned his own Divine Being.

“Kill!”

Without a hint of hesitation, his Divine Being unleashed slaughter in the blink of an eye.

At this point, it was better to kill mistakenly than to let go!

He had only 8 seconds left for his Jie-Character Secret, he had no time to delay with them!

“Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!”

Five blasts echoed in succession.

“Pu~!”

All five of them spat out blood at the same time, faces filled with shock, “How is this possible?!”

They couldn’t believe that their Divine Beings were killed in a fraction of a second.

“Die!”

Not showing any mercy, Du Gang moved like lightning, swaying left and right.

“Bang, bang!”

His fists kept hammering, and in an instant, he blasted away the bodies of all five men.

Simultaneously, the five divine thoughts, devoid of any physical or divine protection, were left bare in the open.

“Collect!”

Devoid of bodies and Divine Beings, their divine thoughts, deprived of divine power and ability, couldn’t resist at all, and were almost instantly grasped by Du Gang.

“Unlock!

After doing all this, Du Gang’s Jie-Character Secret only took 4 seconds, but the enemy had already lost. Not only was their divine deity destroyed, but their bodies were also destroyed, leaving only their Divine Thoughts barely surviving.

Du Gang controlled the five Divine Thoughts and said calmly, “Tell me why you ambushed me?”

Only then did the five realize they’d messed with the wrong guy!

We’re doomed!

The leader quickly pleaded, “Mercy, Brother! We thought you were going to swipe the water dragon fruit, so we wanted to drive you away. We didn’t mean to kill you…”

“Yeah, if we’d known you were this powerful, we wouldn’t have dared to make a move!”

Stammering, the five could hardly complete their sentences, their Divine Thoughts trembling.

Du Gang chuckled, uttering, “A twist in the tale?”

At these words, the Divine Thoughts of the five shook violently again. They had already been very cautious, but their Divine Thoughts couldn’t lie. Their current behaviour was like someone dodging their eyes when their lies were exposed.

As I thought!

Du Gang sneered internally, “I was thinking, with such close proximity, if you guys wanted to show up, you would have done so in the five minutes when I was absorbing the essence. But you showed up only after I had finished absorbing it…”

“After showing up, there were no other actions, just driving me away. And even pretending the likes that the five of you could hardly fend off a monster fish…”

“Moreover, interestingly, I had only left for a short time when you guys mentioned the water dragon fruit, wearing a look of relief…”

Du Gang laughed, “Perhaps an ordinary person would be deceived by your lies, but not me. I could instantly tell you were lying, deceiving me, setting a trap!”

“Big Brother, we…”

Just as the others tried to explain, Du Gang gestured and uttered nonchalantly, “Enough with the unnecessary crap. Just hand over all the valuable stuff you have…”

The group exchanged glances, somewhat puzzled, somewhat nervous.

Du Gang continued calmly: “We’re all of the same race. I can’t be bothered to argue with you. Hand over your life-saving money, and I’ll spare your lives. But I’ll only give you one chance. If it’s not enough, then so be it…”

The leader hesitated slightly, finally voicing, “Big Brother, can you assure us that you won’t kill us after we give you the money?”

Their intention was clear, they had come to kill Du Gang. Perhaps they were the ones previously hiding in the bushes, following him all the way down.

Or maybe they were already stationed here, just happened to take on the contract to assassinate Du Gang.

Upon hearing this, the corners of Du Gang’s mouth rose slightly, “I swear if you give enough money, I’ll spare you…”

Upon hearing this, the five no longer hesitated, pulling out their own life-saving funds.

As Du Gang deduced, each had roughly ten thousand and a few hundred Divine Crystals.

He knew that these ten thousand crystals were definitely given to them by the people of the Demon Realm, while the few hundred Divine Crystals were their own.

In this abyss, the biggest benefit is the essence dropped by wild monsters. Hence, compared to Divine Crystals, this amount is fairly normal!

Over fifty thousand Divine Crystals, Du Gang didn’t hesitate and pocketed them straight away.

“Big Brother, you are a man of your word, please let us go!”

The five held on to a glimmer of hope, thinking Du Gang did not know why they attacked him.

Du Gang scoffed, “Do you guys want to stay alive?”

“Sorry, I won’t let you live. I lied!”

Tired of their shocked reactions and impending protests, Du Gang waved his hand, wiping out the last of the five’s Divine Thoughts.

Whether these five guys were previously trailing him from the land or were really just guarding the water dragon fruit, their actions at this moment proved that they had dealings with the people of the Demon Realm, they accepted the Demon Realm’s money!

These people came with the intention of killing him!

“So, the guys from the Demon Realm probably hired a lot of people, didn’t they?!”

He had underestimated the demon realm. Initially, he assumed they would quietly target small groups, but now it seemed that the demon realm had targeted quite a few teams.

Furthermore, as more newcomers entered or returned, their numbers would steadily increase.

This implied that, after some time, numerous human squads in the first abyssal layer would want to kill him!

“I really should be more cautious in the future,” he thought.

Du Gang sighed, but he didn’t mind. Being targeted was inevitable. Money attracts greed, and he himself was worth ten million divine crystals.

Apart from people of the ancient city, other races didn’t care if you were a descendant of the Ancient God. If they had to kill, they would.

“It’s not just people from the ancient city…”

Du Gang frowned. His existence was, in fact, somewhat insignificant to the ancient city.

The attitudes of many people towards him were complicated, to say the least.

Though the upper echelons required impartiality, the allure of money might induce some to betray him.

“Considering the current prices and power offered by the demon domain, once I leave this place, there’s a high chance they’ll bribe some people from the ancient city!”

“There are undoubtedly God Spirit Level individuals, and a large number at that… As for True God Level…”

Du Gang was torn, unsure whether True God Level beings would betray him for money.

“They probably would. Ten million divine crystals have already been offered. Even True God Level beings might find it hard to resist this temptation?!”

He recalled when he possessed merely 7 billion saint crystals, both Qingyu and Lord Meng appeared. The latter was, after all, a True God Level being.

7 billion saint crystals were equivalent to 700,000 divine crystals. Just 700,000 divine crystals drew out Lord Meng. Although there were considerations of forming beneficial relations with the Ancient God, it still showed that 700,000 divine crystals was not a negligible sum for a True God Level being.

And now, the demon realm had set his bounty at a whopping ten million divine crystals!

“So, within the first abyssal layer, I might only encounter enemies at First Tribulation God Spirit Level, but once I leave this place, it’s a different story…”

“Hold on!”

Du Gang suddenly recalled that the first abyssal layer was not solely inhabited by First Tribulation God Spirits. Within the Demon Suppression Army’s defense towers, there were stationed nine Third Tribulation God Spirits and ninety-nine Second Tribulation God Spirits.

“Could these beings be bought too?”

It’s not certain!

He was always wary of the power of money, so he didn’t harbor any naive thoughts. Any negligence could cost him his life!

“However, generally, these Second or Third Tribulation warriors only leave when their shifts change—giving me some short-term security.”

He pondered over it. The Demon Suppression Army within the first abyssal layer changed shifts after a significant length of time.

“Since their last shift change…”

His mind went back to what the uncle of Little Hawk King had said.

“So, a month from now, these Second and Third Tribulation God Spirits, and even those from the Demon Suppression Army, could be bribed by the enemy?”

The demon domain, with its ability to hide its headquarters for such a long time, and to grow into an organization capable of rivaling two divine clans, was not something Du Gang could underestimate.

“In any case, I need to be more careful. The demon domain won’t back off that easily.”

Du Gang exhaled deeply, reminding himself once more, to be cautious.

He speculated that the recent group of five had acted on the spur of the moment. Recognizing him, they might have been hoping to take advantage of the situation.

And their choice to strike at the location of the water dragon fruit…

“Was it due to this hidden path?”

Looking at the tunnel beneath the cave where the water dragon fruit was located, Du Gang pondered thoughtfully.

“This place could serve as my temporary base!”

“I can hide here after hunting!”

His Jie-Character Secret could only be used for a limited time each day, requiring him to rest. He had wanted to find a place to set up a base, and now, this water cave was just right!

If one wasn’t specifically looking for it, they might pass by without ever noticing this cave’s existence.

He didn’t rush to pluck the water dragon fruit, but instead, crawled down the tunnel.

Around four or five hundred meters in, he emerged from a coral reef.

“This is the second exit, quite convenient!”

Du Gang carefully concealed the exit before crawling back in.

Not long after he returned to the water cave, the water dragonfruit on the vine began to ripen.

Without another word, Du Gang plucked the ten fruits and swallowed them one after another.

“Boom!”

A burst of pure energy exploded inside him instantly.

At the same time, Du Gang quickly sat cross-legged, opening his divine orifices and began absorbing this energy like a whale swallowing krill.

“Hum!”

At that moment, his divine orifices started to fill rapidly, and his Divine Power began to grow by the Naer unit.

What surprised him was that a single water dragon fruit carried a full Naer of Divine Power. Ten of them increased his Divine Power by ten Naer!

His Divine Power ceiling of 70 Naer was directly increased to 80 Naer!

This meant that if he acted swiftly and could guarantee a fatal blow, he could kill a water monster without using the Jie-Character Secret.

“But it’s still not enough, will have to wait until my Divine Power increases in the later stages!”

At this stage, the Jie-Character Secret is still the primary tool.

Du Gang did a quick calculation. He needed to increase his Divine Power to at least 500 Naer before he could stop using the Jie-Character Secret, because at that point, the cost-efficiency would have increased greatly, and even without the Jie-Character Secret, his Divine Power would increase considerably.

“No matter what, let’s use this place as a base and start hunting the surrounding water monsters!”

After making up his mind, Du Gang didn’t rush to leave, but instead found a clean place, sat down cross-legged, and began to rest.

After the two previous outbursts, he had used his Jie-Character Secret for 7 seconds, almost draining half of his strength and wasn’t in a condition to go out.

He set a limit for himself on the usage of the Jie-Character Secret.

Namely, when there were only 3 seconds left of the Jie-Character Secret’s usage time, he shouldn’t use it anymore and save it for later, in case of a situation like the one just now.

No matter whether he could fight or not, at the very least, he should be able to run away!

Next, Du Gang stayed there and began his hunting.

Just as he had planned, he maintained a frequency of hunting three times a day. His Divine Power increased steadily, gaining about one and a half Naer of Divine Power daily.

Within just a month, Du Gang’s Divine Power limit had reached 125 Naer, and his Divine Power skill limit was 80 Naer.

Initially, he thought that his Supreme Technique would allow him to deal a 100 Naer attack.

However, when his Divine Power actually reached that level, he discovered it couldn’t!

The Supreme Technique meant that his single attack could only reach about 75. To reach 100 Naer, he would need to cultivate the World Creation Technique to one percent.

He had always thought he had achieved one percent, but in reality, he hadn’t. He might have only achieved two percent of a thousandth.

There was still a distance of three-quarters to reaching one percent.

“By the looks of it, Yang Jun being able to cultivate ‘The Prophecy’ up to two percent is really something!”

Du Gang felt somewhat emotional. He hadn’t felt much about the two percent before, but once he started cultivating himself, he realized the gap was substantial.

“It’s rumored that among the God Spirit Level, there are students at the Holy Confucian Academy who have attained up to five percent. I wonder how terrifying the added strength must be…”

At this thought, he couldn’t help but feel a longing in his heart.

What does it mean to cultivate the Supreme Technique?

The normal God Clan, as well as some powerful Holy Clans, including these 45 powers, all possess the Supreme Technique!

Therefore, these sons of Holy Lands will certainly have the Supreme Technique.

What decides the differentiation?

“It’s the ability to understand the technique!”

Du Gang was filled with emotion. At the stage of Divine Power and Divine Power Technique transformation, the stronger the ability to comprehend the technique amongst beings of the same level, the stronger the strength.

“But it’s alright for now, I can cultivate Divine Power while practicing the technique…”

Du Gang was satisfied with his current environment and situation.

When his physical strength has recovered, he will go hunting and bring back some essence.

Then he can begin to cultivate the technique. In this way, his Divine Power and Combat Power are growing at the same pace.

At the same time, as time went by, his combat power became stronger and stronger. Initially, he could only hunt down three water creatures per day. Later on, it became six per day.

This meant that in a day, he could increase his Divine Power by 3 Naer. This time, after four months, his Divine Power limit reached 500 Naer, and the limit of Divine Power Technique reached 90 Naer.

“Almost there, it’s time to head toward the center of the river…”

One day, after Du Gang had regained his strength, he didn’t continue to hunt, but started to re-plan.

He realized that the frequency of water creatures appearing in this marginal area and their number are too low. Hunting six a day was already the limit.

Not because he lacked strength, but because there weren’t enough water creatures.

Water creatures are very strong, their attacks are almost comparable to the Controllers. The power of their single release attack reaches 75 Naer Divine Power. Some stronger ones even have 80+ Naer Divine Power.

However, these water creatures have mediocre defense power. As long as you withstand the first hit, you can almost instantly kill them without much effort.

Therefore, when his Divine Power reached 500 Naer, even without using the Jie-Character Secret, he could hunt four to five water creatures in a while. Of course, scientifically, steadily, and safely, he could hunt three!

Just like preserving the usage time of Jie-Character Secret, he needed to save some Divine Power for emergencies.

After all, it’s not his backyard pond. It’s not just Demon Clans here, there are also some unpredictable humans!

However, even three is better than here!

His Jie-Character Secret is basically at the level of killing one water creature per second. According to the three-second reservation calculation, he could hunt 7 water creatures with the Jie-Character Secret, and 3 with his own Divine Power. This means that when he arrives at the area where water creatures are concentrated, he can hunt ten per day!

“Ten per day, compared to when I first came here, is ten times more efficient, meaning I can increase my Divine Power by 15 Naer per day. In a hundred days, I can increase by 1500 Naer Divine Power, enough to absorb the essence dropped by a level two water creature to the limit!”

“In that case, let’s get going!”

Du Gang didn’t have much to tidy up. After he ate the water dragon fruit, the vines in the water cave withered. The only valuable thing was the cave itself, which could serve as a temporary base.

So after he left, instead of rushing off, he searched for a large rock to block the cave entrance before leaving satisfactorily.

Unlike when he first arrived at the river, Du Gang was much more relaxed now, and his steps were much quicker.

In the past, whenever he went hunting, he would always use a telescope to scrutinize his surroundings.

But now, he only needed to make sure there were no enemies right in front. As for the other directions, he didn’t bother much.

His strength allowed him to do so!