If one were to observe from the sky, they would see great changes and many weird buildings added to the fort on the Twin Dragon Mount.
“It’s so hot!”
The door and windows of Ji Ye’s room were tightly closed. The temperature around it was much higher than the environment.
“Master is exercising. Nobody is to disturb him!”
Two seasoned soldiers, who were wearing full gray wolf armor and who were Ordinary Rank-8, were both sweating hard, but they stuck to their posts.
In the room, Ji Ye was sitting cross-legged on the ground. His body was mostly uncovered because hot air was popping up from his every pore.
The hot air had even gathered into a mass above his head.
Thankfully, the underwear made from the Blue Wolf covered his private parts even under such circumstances because of its special material.
Hum!
Suddenly, the steaming paused, and Ji Ye opened his eyes.
Next, an intense wave of heat that anybody could sense spread out, shaking the windows and the door. Even the fallen leaves outside the room were blown away. The temperature in the room was raised by more than ten degrees!
“I’ve finally reached Extraordinary Rank-5!”
Ji Ye breathed out a mouthful of air, which made the air in the room even hotter.
Extraordinary Rank-5 was more significant than the previous ranks.
Take the “Nine Yang Divine Art” for example, from Acquired (0), Basic Mastery (1), Mastery (2) to Greater Mastery (3 and 4), the previous four ranks were all about the accumulation of inner strength.
But there would be a quantitative change on Extraordinary Rank-5 because once the “Nine Yang Divine Art” reached the level of “Adept”, the inner strength would be able to be transformed into True Qi.
Theoretically speaking, it was already possible for him to unleash his inner strength!
Sizzle!
Ji Ye extended his hand and patted the floor where a bear fur was placed. When he lifted his hand, a clear black fist mark had been left on it.
“When I slap the enemy and blow the True Qi into their body in a battle, their internal organs will probably burn. It will be enough to kill the Mirage Monsters even though they’re protected by their shells. The ghosts will find it even harder to resist!”
Ji Ye evaluated the power of the True Qi of his duplicate “Nine Yang Divine Art”. He believed that it was as good as the original version.
Also, since he could release such immense heat, he was naturally resistant to heat too. Theoretically speaking, he could also hold a cannon and fire it like Ling Zhen did. Furthermore, because his body was stronger, he would be absolutely steady under the recoil.
It had been eight days since the advantage-taking battle.
After devouring the Sludge Monsters’ settlement core, the Twin Dragon Mount fort leveled up to Extraordinary Rank-3 five days earlier.
This time, it didn’t receive a Soul of Civilization as it did during the first advancement, but after the advancement, the Red Pip fruits, the Stone Milk, and even the Soul Jade in the Soul race’s territory were all growing and condensing at a much higher speed.
Clearly, a settlement would have greater and greater advantages after each advancement. It was safe to say that, apart from the settlement of the Eagle Men who completed their advancement two days earlier, the settlements of other species had lost the qualification to compete with human beings!
“Master, you’re out!”
Seeing Ji Ye walking out of the room, the two seasoned Rank-8 soldiers immediately paid their respect with admiration and delight.
“Where are the chiefs?” Ji Ye asked them.
In order to reach Extraordinary Rank-5, he had been training in seclusion for two days, and he didn’t know what happened around him.
“Chief Wu is staying outside of the Metal Men’s territory with some men, and Chief Lu and Chief Ling are fighting the Forest Monsters!” replied one of the guards respectfully.
When he stood outside the room just now, he sensed the astonishing heat from inside.
After the master walked out of the room, he felt that the master was even more intimidating than Lu Junyi, the Jade Qilin that was known as the best martial artist in the Liangshan Marsh, in his memory.
“Well… It’s about time to take care of the Forest Monsters.
“You should come with me. Maybe I can try it on the battlefield!”
Ji Ye thought of something after hearing that. He nodded, fetched a few items from his room, and went down the mountain!
…
To the east of the Twin Dragon Mount was a special forest where the trees had smooth surfaces and were almost a hundred meters high. They were extremely thick too.
Above the trees were vines that stretched out to every place!
On the ground, it was similar to the environment in a rainforest, with mud and swamps everywhere.
“Wula!”
“Wula!”
At this moment, some weird creatures were hanging from those vines.
They were aliens that looked like gorillas, except that they didn’t have any fur on their skin, which was green and sticky like that of a frog. They had four thick arms on their shoulders, and they were all swinging among the vines and roaring like Tarzan!
“Master!”
When Ji Ye arrived with the two guards, Lu Zhishen was standing next to Ling Zhen. Behind them were almost a hundred fully-armed soldiers of the Twin Dragon Mount.
Two Heaven Shaking Thunder cannons had also been set up and aimed at the Forest Monsters’ territory.
However, the two parties hadn’t started a battle because a “duel” was going on at the border of the two settlements.
“Wula!”
A green-skinned Forest Monster roared and charged at the human beings with a thick stick-like weapon in each of its four arms.
“Come on!”
On the monster’s opposite side was a human being.
The Ordinary Rank-7 Elite of the Twin Dragon Mount, who was fully armored and holding a shield and a single-hand saber, had a battle with the four-armed Forest Monster.
According to the Twin Dragon Mount’s plan, they were ready to attack the Forest Monsters and the Metal Men after the settlement reached Rank-3.
However, the scouts who were sent to collect intelligence were unexpectedly surrounded by a particularly tall and strong “Forest Monster King” along with a bunch of other Forest Monsters from the vines.
Instead of killing the scouts, the Forest Monsters sent them back and rumbled “wula, wula” at human beings at the edge of the forest.
Understandably, the human beings didn’t realize the Forest Monsters’ intent until they invited Elder Meng, who had a “Universal Translator”, to the front line.
As it turned out, the Forest Monsters demanded ten duels with human beings. The victors could fight on, and the losers could admit defeat and leave.
If human beings turned out to be the final winner, they would voluntarily give away their settlement.
Otherwise, human beings would suffer greater losses if they were to wage a war, because the Forest Monsters would destroy all the resources before their defeat!
It was definitely a rare thing for the aliens to discuss with human beings about the way of warfare.
After all, the Eagle Men, the Soul race, and even the Sludge Monsters and the Mirage Monsters all attacked human beings the moment they engaged. Those Forest Monsters who looked reckless and short-tempered, however, chose to communicate and even negotiate with human beings first.
Naturally, the decision-making circle on the Twin Dragon Mount saw through the Forest Monsters’ intent easily.
Those creatures who were smarter than they looked knew better than other tribes that they stood no chance against human beings whose settlement had been upgraded to Rank-3 in a head-on clash. However, they might have a chance if they could buy themselves more time.
After some discussions, the human beings chose to accept the duel proposal.
It was partly because the scouts found that the Forest Monsters’ settlement was located in a place that was even easier to defend than the Mirage Monsters’.
It was impossible for humans to climb the round trees that were a hundred meters tall and had a smooth surface.
Once the enemy hid among the trees, it would be barely possible to attack them without cannons. It wouldn’t be easy to eliminate them.
The second reason was that it was an opportunity for human beings to train their troop.
After all, while the soldiers of the Twin Dragon Mount were well trained and even had battle memories from the Liangshan Marsh, they had never been faced with intelligent aliens. They had only dealt with only human beings or monsters. They would get more experience after the battle with those intelligent aliens!
If they could learn the way of how the Forest Monsters fought, they would be prepared for the general attack later.
That’s right. Human beings had always been determined to destroy the Forest Monsters’ settlement, whether they won or lost the duels!
However, to their decision-making circle’s surprise, they neither won nor lost the duels.
They tied in the duels for four days in a row.
That was because whenever human beings won five rounds, the Forest Monster King would personally join the battle.
Then, human beings could secure no more victories.
Even Lu Zhishen had been defeated in the fight against the Forest Monster King.
According to Li Qing’s Combat Ability Detector, the Forest Monster King was Extraordinary Rank-5, a phase of qualitative changes.
That was definitely unbelievable.
After all, even the Mirage Monsters who had abundant resources only had Commanders who were Extraordinary Rank-4.
However, the reason was pretty clear considering that no other Forest Monsters were Extraordinary at all.
It was obvious that all the Extraordinary resources had been claimed by this Forest Monster King. As a result, not only did it reach Rank-5, but it had also got a set of luxurious equipment.
The protective gears he was wearing and the weapons in its four hands were all Extraordinary items.
They were not even Common Extraordinary items!
Lu Zhishen only had two hands and one Frost Metal Meditation Staff, so it was really hard for him to defeat the monster.
“Wula, wula…”
At this moment, the Forest Monsters were suddenly rumbling even more loudly from the vines.
That was because the Rank-7 Elite soldier had been blown away with blood dripping out of his mouth and nose on the battlefield. His arm was twisted, and his shield had been dropped.
Meanwhile, the Forest Monster on his opposite side, who had been stabbed in its abdomen, completely ignored its wound and simply walked to the soldier, before it smashed the stick in its hand heavily.