Chapter 60: Only With Power Comes Respect
Mo Wuji was completely drained, and the four paddling the boat was not really better off. Seeing that Mo Wuji was unable to strike back, Ji Guang and the others paddling with greater fervor.
Even though the rubber dinghy had a certain level of resistance against lightning attacks, but with the sheer number of attacks absorbed, its structure was close to giving way. Moreover the whole fiasco was going on in the rain.
At least after Mo Wuji killed 10 over lightning crocodiles, there were only two to three chasing after them. More importantly, these few crocodiles had serious injuries inflicted by Mo Wuji.
As Mo Wuji stopped his assault, the rubber dinghy quickly accelerated and left the critically injured crocodiles in its wake. Without the boat in sight, the crocodiles soon lost any reason for their rage.
Lightning crocodiles were rather peculiar demons as they bore grudges. The greater the grudge, the greater their vitality, offensive strength, and explosiveness. They would also recognise targets too. Unless faced with overwhelming attacks that left them with no way to fight back, they would not retreat.
Around two hours later, the storm ceased, and they arrived at a small island barely five hundred metres wide. Mo Wuji had recovered some energy, but on the other hand Ji Guang and the three others were overcome with fatigue.
"Brother Mo, we owe you big time for this. We'll be going up to rest for awhile, so please drag the boat up and hide it in the reef." Ji Guang was the first to climb up onto the island, and began to refer to Mo Wuji as Brother Mo out of nowhere.
Despite serious injuries and a tearing sensation all over, Mo Wuji remained the strongest within the group.
"Wuji, I don't know how you do it." Ding Bu'Er teetered and tottered but somehow managed to climb up, barely able to lift his arms at all. Both Gao Juan and Sun Liyan looked at Mo Wuji with awe, and any dismissive thoughts had already vanished completely.
While they were totally drained, it was only due to intense physical activity. Mo Wuji actually acted as their shield. If it were not for him blocking all attacks from behind, the lightning crocodiles would surround the rubber dinghy and trap them all.
"Brother Ji, right here?" Mo Wuji saw a rugged island in the distance, but he could only see about a hundred metres out.
Mo Wuji did not elaborate much about how he resisted the lightning crocodile's attacks. In reality, even if he did not engage those demons, Ji Guang and the others might not necessarily have been stopped by them. But of course there was still the possibility of that happening, so he still played a crucial role in their survival.
"That's right, this is the place. I've been here once before. Not many people know about its existence. Wuji, this time your contribution has been the greatest. However, we did not manage to recover a single lightning crocodile's body as the boat was moving too quickly. How about this, as long as we find more that two Winged Sea Leopard's eggs, you'll get one first." Ji Guang spoke with sincerity, a 180 degrees change in the way he treated Mo Wuji.
No one disagreed with Ji Guang's proposal, because power was everything. With the ability to block lightning crocodiles all the way way while killing over 10 of them, Mo Wuji appeared to be stronger the Ji Guang himself. This strength won the respect of everyone in the team.
Mo Wuji naturally had no objections. He was here neither to harvest ingredients from lightning crocodile's bodies, nor to search for Winged Sea Leopard's eggs, but to utilise the attacks of the lightning crocodiles to burst open his meridians. Now that his primary objective had been achieved, it didn't hurt to get a few Winged Sea Leopard eggs.
"My suggestion is for us to set up camp for the night, then leave at dawn tomorrow." Everyone was fatigued with little to no sleep, and Mo Wuji knew that. To search for Winged Sea Leopard's eggs in this sort of situation would be suicide, even for him. Moreover, he had similarly heavy injuries which required at least a night to recover.
Gao Juan nodded, "I agree with Brother Mo's plan. Let's rest here for the night before doing anything else." Although Ji Guang really wanted to set off earlier, but Mo Wuji had spoken and Gao Juan agreed to it, so he went along with Mo Wuji's plan
...
The raging storm finally calmed down, and all that was left was the unrelenting waves that beat on the shores of the island continuously. In the team, other than Ding Bu'Er, the other four people were cultivators. Hence, while Ding Bu'Er lay down in a cave to sleep, the rest of the team sat cross legged to circulate their spiritual energy. Now with 27 meridians open, Mo Wuji's cultivation speed increased exponentially. Even without a high density of spiritual energy in the area, there was an invisible stream of spiritual energy around him.
Upon waking from a night's rest, Mo Wuji felt totally refreshed. Not only had the state of his injuries improved, but his strength also increased significantly. "Brother Mo, could it be that you are cultivating with the ?" Once everyone was awake, Ji Guang was the first to speak. He was a lowly cultivator and could not sense any movement from Mo Wuji as he cultivated. But from his posture, Ji Guang could guess that Mo Wuji was a practitioner of the .
"Yes indeed. It's because I can't afford other cultivation techniques." Mo Wuji laughed it off.
Ji Guang replied in a serious tone, "Brother Mo, with your ability, you definitely can obtain a much higher quality cultivation technique. The price of a lightning crocodile is actually very high, so next time you could just find a team, rent a boat, and sail out to sea to hunt Six-footed Lightning Crocodiles. Before you know it, you'll be able to afford a decent mortal grade cultivation technique. The has too slow a cultivation speed, and also requires a large amount of resources for cultivation. It's not worth it to continue using such a technique."
Mo Wuji replied indifferently, "It's a miracle that I can even cultivate at all, as my spirit roots are really lousy. I don't really care how good or bad my cultivation technique is either. Moreover, my cultivation technique has a really bombastic name too, . How impressive does that sound?"
"Hahaha..." Ji Guang and the others doubled up from laughing, not knowing how to respond to what Mo Wuji just said. It was the first time anyone disregarded his future progression just because the name of a cultivation technique sounded impressive.
"Wuji, you can cultivate now?" Ding Bu'Er asked softly. Mo Wuji patted Ding Bu'Er while replying, "Once we return, you can also start cultivating with the . My spirit roots are of very low quality, to the extent that they almost do not exist. Since I still managed to cultivate, why don't you give it a try too?" Mo Wuji decided that he would help Ding Bu'Er find a way to open his spirit channels after he had firmed up things on his end.
"I really can cultivate?" Ding Bu'Er eagerly inquired. Immortal Masters were existences that were completely out of his reach. Thus, since Mo Wuji said that he could cultivate too, wouldn't he be overwhelmed by excitement?
Ji Guang smiled and spoke as well, "As long as you have some spiritual nature in you, even with the poorest quality spirit roots, you can still cultivate. The only difference is how far you can go on the path of cultivation." Hearing this, Ding Bu'Er's became invigorated with energy. He might have a wee bit of spirit roots! What's different about his situation from Mo Wuji's was that he did not have the chance to take the test properly yet. Nine thousand nine hundred and ninety nine out of 10 thousand people have mortal roots, hence for someone of low status, whose ancestors all have mortal roots, he would most surely have mortal roots too. However his thoughts about this issue differed from Mo Wuji: he did not care. Only when he went to the Royal Capital, where there were large swaths of people who possessed spirit roots, did his burning spirit get ignited. The sight of mortals being bullied strengthened his resolve to become strong.
"Let's go." After a night of rest, everyone had recovered to a certain extent. With a wave of his hand, Ji Guang led the team to set out.
On the greatly spacious island, the five men trekked for over two hours, weaving in and out of the oddly shaped reefs and rocks. "Carrying on like this won't get us anywhere." Mo Wuji thought. He intended to ask Ji Guang if how he was navigating about, but he suddenly heard a blood-curdling scream.
Mo Wuji was the first to drop to the ground, at the same time scanning around to identify the source of the scream: Sun Liyan, who had been quiet all this while. A large gaping hole which bled profusely could be clearly seen on his right shoulder
"No one move, it's an Arrow Shooting Beast. The arrows shot from one has corrosive effects, once you're hit by one, the wound will give you extreme pain. It'll make you suffer." Ji Guang immediately shouted out, simultaneously passing a pill to Sun Liyan.
Other than the scream after getting hit by the arrow, the rugged Sun Liyan did not make a single sound. He swallowed the pill Ji Guang gave him, and took out some medicinal powder to apply on the bleeding area before bandaging it up. The powder was highly effective, stopping the bleeding instantly.
The five of them regrouped , and Ding Bu'Er asked softly, "Where are the Arrow Shooting Beasts? Why have I not seen a single one?" To that Ji Guang solemnly answered, " Arrow shooting beasts are highly skilled in camouflage. Sometimes when it disguises itself as a rock, you can't even differentiate it from an actual rock. Most of those who die here searching for Winged Sea Leopards don't get killed by the Winged Sea Leopards, but by these Arrow Shooting Beasts." Everyone instinctively scrutinised all rocks around them, but another scream sounded out once again. This time the five of them were aware that it did not originate from any of them.
"There's someone else here." Just as Gao Juan's words left his mouth, two shadows were seen dashing out from the corner of the reef ahead. A large black silhouette followed closely behind them with its mouth opened up wide, gobbling up one of the two in one bite.
"That's the Winged Sea Leopard?" Ding Bu'Er asked, shaking in fear. He saw that the black silhouette that swallowed one of the guys had the head of a leopard. The only difference was that this aquatic animal had a much larger mouth, and had an additional pair of black wings on its back.
Mo Wuji was also paralysed by fear. Who said that the Winged Sea Leopard's offensive strength was low? This one ate a person in one bite, how is it weak?