Her body plummeted down, falling at such height, even if her body didn't shatter to pieces, her skull would definitely be crushed.
Hua Qian Gu could only hear the wind whistling in her ears, even in such a critical time, her mind was clear. She tried to use countless spells and formulas she learned in the past, but this was the savage wilderness, she wouldn’t be able to fly on a sword or ride the wind.
Her robe fluttered as she fell, the speed she fell never decreased.
Zhu Ran stood there quietly, watching below, even though the bottom was pitch-black, with his eyesight, he could see everything clearly. He pushed her down to test her, but if she were going to die so easily, then keeping her would not be much use to him.
But seeing as she plummeted down and no miracle had happened, there was an inevitable disappointed look in his eyes. Just when he was about to give up on Hua Qian Gu, he saw her body halt in mid air, for about a second, and continued to fall straight down to the bottom.
The fall greatly hurt her internal organs as she coughed up blood, Hua Qian Gu turned over and got up, she didn't understand why Zhu Ran suddenly wanted to kill her. She looked up and could only see the dusky sky.
Suddenly, she heard a frightening muffled cry, so stunned that the hair on her body stood up.
She couldn't help but take a few steps back, looked around, and saw two round flaming blazes float in mid air. Something was definitely wrong, a pair of blood-red eyes filled with greed and desire glared at her. Hua Qian Gu took a deep breath, looking at the beast that was many times bigger than Snorting Beast, its majestic form coming out from a corner. Its pace was slow, calm and elegant. The beast had long golden hair, every strand was very distinct. Its pure, golden color could be compared to the most beautiful sunrise she had ever seen.
Ya Zi Beast, according to ancient history, it was one of the top ten beasts. It was vicious, liked to eat brain juice, fought over the smallest trifles, loved to compete, and would fight until death. It was extremely territorial and had the appearance of a king. Consuming it can advance a hundred years of immortal strength. Therefore in the earlier years, the six realms hunted it to near extinction.
Hua Qian Gu recalled reading from The Book of the Six Realms, in it was a list of demon beasts, this beast was number three.
I’m finished, it's going to eat my brain.
She felt fortunate that Snorting Beast wasn't with her, otherwise in order to save her, they would have a fierce battle. Even though Snorting Beast was also very strong, but to win against Ya Zi Beast, it would be difficult.
Ya Zi Beast let out a snort, shook its sparkly golden fur. Its eyes bright as it took a few steps, sizing up Hua Qian Gu. It had a very picky taste, only eating the heads and internal organs, usually preying on other beasts or those exiled to the savage wilderness. In the savage wilderness, Ya Zi Beast didn't have a lot of rivals, it was very easy to hunt for food, right now it had eaten and was very full. This little thing that fell from the sky into its lair, usually it wouldn't even bother looking at it. But it smelled an intriguing and tempting aroma from her, its vein pumping with bestial desire and hunger.
Hua Qian Gu was too afraid to move, fearing it would suddenly attack. Ya Zi Beast faintly sensed the hidden immense power in her body, slightly afraid, it did not rush forward. One human and one beast stood there facing each other for a long time.
Hua Qian Gu's hands and feet were ice-cold, but she was sweating on her forehead. Finally, Ya Zi Beast started to lose patience, growled, and raise its large paw, slashing at Hua Qian Gu with vigorous strength.
Even though she lost her power, but all those years of cultivation couldn't be forgotten. She made a swift jump and easily avoided the attack.
Ya Zi Beast growled and immediately, the valley was swept with fierce wind. Hua Qian Gu stood firm, avoiding the middle of the valley where numerous rocks shuttled back and forth.
Ya Zi Beast's body was extremely tall and sturdy, but it didn't have the agility to deal with the little Hua Qian Gu. So it used its tail, with momentum like thunderbolt, repeatedly sweeping at Hua Qian Gu, causing a whirlwind in the valley.
Hua Qian Gu could faintly feel a heat surging in her muscles and veins. She became more nimble compared to before, quickly getting up.
Her injury seemingly almost recovered, in such a critical moment she didn't have time to be happy, just jumping again and again to escape Ya Zi Beast's deadly attack. Hua Qian Gu dodged from left to right, but the place its tail swept across caused wind strength like a knife, giving her a gash on her leg.
Ya Zi Beast smelled her blood, both eyes becoming even more crimson. It looked up at the sky and let out a roar, becoming even more brutal and fierce.
"Bam," she heard something fall on the ground, Hua Qian Gu looked, it was Zhu Ran’s dagger. She couldn’t help but furrow her brows, so he purposely pushed her down to the beast's lair, in order to see her and the beast fight.
She quickly picked up the dagger, scurried under Ya Zi Beast's body, attempting to stab the softer part of its belly with the dagger, but it was like stabbing a iron wall, the dagger bounced right back.
The valley's sand swirled all around from all the commotion, she climbed onto Ya Zi Beast's back, attempting to cut off its relatively soft horns, but Ya Zi Beast ran about wildly, wanting to toss her down, she could only tightly gripped onto Ya Zi Beast's neck's golden fur.
Ya Zi Beast couldn't take it anymore and used its huge tail like a whip, wanting to smash down on Hua Qian Gu, but she dodged it and rolled off its back. Its tail harshly crashed onto its own body, it roared furiously from the pain.
The roar echoed through the valley, startling the demon bird beasts in the forest to flee in chaos. Zhu Ran watched the bottom, overflowing with interest, a wonderful smell of blood was flowing in the air.
Hua Qian Gu got back on its back, but its thrashing was too fierce, she couldn't even touch its horns, she cut its neck a few times, but that was not useful in the slightest. All of a sudden, she remembered her blood might be of use, she ran her hand on the blade, immediately the dagger shined. She struck down on it and finally deeply pierced its flesh, pulling out from a big opening, blood gushed out.
Ya Zi Beast never suffered such injury, it looked up at the sky and roared, shook its fur, finally throwing Hua Qian Gu on the ground.
Hua Qian Gu knew it would rage at her, she quickly got up and ran toward the cliff.
Ya Zi Beast took a few jumps and was already behind her. There were no more paths in front, she saw it charging toward her at top speed, she rolled to the side, then heard a startling "dong" as if the earth shook.
There were no more sounds behind her, Hua Qian Gu got up from the ground, turned around to look, and couldn't help but laugh. Ya Zi Beast used all its strength to charge at her but instead struck its head on the cliff. She wanted to laugh out loud, but nothing came out.
She held onto the dagger and walked before it, Ya Zi Beast glared at her, wanting to bite her to death, but it could only weakly lay on the ground gasping for air, the top of its head grew a huge lump.
Hua Qian Gu hesitated for a moment, should she kill it? Ya Zi Beast would seek revenge for every little thing, a characteristic of it. But in the end she just let out a sigh, survival of the fittest, was the savage wilderness's established rule. But it was her that disturbed its lair, provoked it, would it be justified to kill it? It was a demon beast, so it wouldn't understand reasons, surely this didn't mean she should be like that…
Hua Qian Gu reached out her hand to touch its wet nose, it was soft and fun to play with. It actually wasn't much of a difference from Snorting Beast, whatever happens here on out she would deal with it later.
But Ya Zi Beast growled angrily in protest, Hua Qian Gu curiously stretch her hand out and touched its two holy horns. (Ya Zi Beast thought to itself: I, one of the most dignified beasts, actually got touched by a human, and it has to be such an ugly human, humph humph…)
She turned around and looked at the steep cliff, how would she get out?
Before when she was falling from the cliff, she definitely was able to use her power that stopped her in mid air. After the fight with Ya Zi Beast, although her injury wasn't light, she felt her skills were gradually recovering, and her body strength improved a lot.
Should she try again to use her power to fly up?
Then she started to recite a formula under her breath again and again, but it was like something heavy was restraining her, seemingly not letting her internal energy free.
It seemed like she was just lucky before, she finally declared that she would give up, she tore a strip of cloth from her robe, tied the dagger firmly to her hand, then she slowly started to climb up the cliff.
Her lips were so dry they cracked, body, hands and legs were covered in blood. From time to time she would slip and fall, fortunately there was the dagger to hold onto. When she was tired, she would step onto rocks that stuck out to take a rest, taking a little nap. When hungry or thirsty, she would bite on moss and grass roots on the side.
Zhu Ran waited for a long time, seeing that she had climbed halfway, he impatiently went back and took a nap, returned and saw that she was still climbing, she looked so tired like she almost didn't have any strength, but she still slowly climbed upward.
What should he do? Throw a rope down to pull her up? Didn't she pass the test already?
He suddenly laughed at his idea, coldly snorted, then furrowed his eyebrows.
This woman!!!
……
Hua Qian Gu finally reached the top, she didn’t know her body was able to hold on this long, her hands and legs had gone numb, no longer obeying her command, only moving like a robot.
She heaved a sigh of relief when she stretched her bloodied head out of the horizon, both hands embracing the ground, wanting to kiss the exposed ledge. She raised her eyes and saw Zhu Ran sitting in front of her, head slightly lower, his face was shadowed, she couldn’t see his expression clearly.
Maybe he would give her an explanation as to why he pushed her down, Hua Qian Gu thought, if he wanted to harm her, he wouldn't have saved her in the first place.
Zhu Ran reached his hand out to her, Hua Qian Gu looked at his hand, which was covered with a layer of blue scars. But the appearance of his hand was still slender and beautiful.
Hua Qian Gu held onto his hand, taking one final step —— suddenly, Zhu Ran took the dagger from her hand, and again, from the top of the cliff, he harshly pushed her off.
Hua Qian Gu didn’t have enough time to react, with eyes wide open, she stared at Zhu Ran, there was no emotion in his eyes.
Again, she quickly dropped down, Hua Qian Gu was so tired she was about to faint, this time she didn't even have enough strength to even think of spells/formulas.
She thought, this time she would really die, watching helplessly as she was about to hit the bottom, then something soft suddenly caught her body. Like a miracle, she was quickly rising up.
Surprised, she looked down from her body, grabbed onto its golden fur, unexpectedly it was Ya Zi Beast, it carried her little body, took a few jumps and landed on the top of the cliff.
Ya Zi Beast shook its golden fur, majestically roared loudly at the mountains, strong gusty wind swept through the forest. Everyone was shocked to see Hua Qian Gu riding Ya Zi Beast.
The demons and beasts that followed them were slowly coming out from the dark forest. They gazed at Hua Qian Gu and Ya Zi Beast for a long time, and then one after another falling on their knees, bowing.
Snorting Beast woke up, changed into its gigantic form, then quickly got to where Hua Qian Gu was. It watched thousands of demons/beasts respectfully fall on their knees like birds paying homage to a phoenix, shocked at the grand sight, then slowly snapped back to reality and bow down in front of Hua Qian Gu.
Zhu Ran stood there staring in a daze, his eyes filled with bewilderment and he could not believe it. Then his expression changed to respect and acknowledge of allegiance, slight bend, exposing his squinty eye smile, he explained to Hua Qian Gu : "I guessed right, your body really possesses the Demon God's power. Now that thousands of beasts surrendered, we are one step closer to leaving the savage wilderness."
Hua Qian Gu silently watched him, his laugh gave her chills. The first time may be an experiment, but the second time, she was sure, he wanted to kill her for real.