Two months later.
Hokkaido.
In a dense forest, a fiercely ferocious brown bear, over five meters long, was sprinting at full speed. Ahead of it were a man and a woman, both looking utterly terrified.
Both were in their twenties, college students from a school in Tokyo. Having just broken through to E-rank, they thought they had some strength and came here to explore. But they never expected to encounter a giant brown bear that had evolved due to the spiritual energy recovery. They thought they could just waltz through here without a care, but who knew that a casual swipe from the bear could snap a tree that would take two people to wrap their arms around? This left an indelible scar on their fragile little hearts.
So what’s the point of fighting?
Just run!
The bear was incredibly fast, but it didn’t rush to catch and eat them. Instead, it stayed close behind, almost like it was toying with them—sometimes speeding up, sometimes slowing down, making sure they kept running at their fastest.
Maybe it pushed their bodies to the limit, because they ran for over two hours straight before they were completely exhausted.
Just as the bear lunged to finish them off, a pleasant whistling sound rang out. The bear immediately changed direction and bolted away, as if afraid it would be too slow.
Not far away, a tall woman in a windbreaker was sitting on a giant boulder with her legs crossed. Watching the bear charge toward her, she smiled and called out, “San Pang, come here!”
The bear, named San Pang, dashed over in a few big strides and, with its massive body, surprisingly lay down smoothly, rolling around on its back with all four paws in the air.
The woman was none other than Su Mo. He chuckled lightly and hopped onto San Pang’s belly.
San Pang immediately stopped rolling, afraid that Su Mo might fall, and instead started paddling its short, thick legs in the air, looking utterly fawning.
Su Mo leaned down, patted its belly, and said in a teasing tone, “You’re the king of this place, you know. Can you at least act like one?”
Then he jumped off.
San Pang flipped over, shook off the dust, and gently nuzzled Su Mo with its head, as if to say, “I’m your little brother, how dare I act like a king?”
What else could it do? This seemingly weak human had come here over a month ago and, right in front of all its underlings, slapped it down with one paw. From that moment on, it was no longer the king—it was the most loyal sidekick to its master: San Pang.
Luckily, the master was pretty decent. He found spiritual herbs and fruits in the forest that San Pang could never get before, and he always shared a lot with it.
So gradually, San Pang accepted its new boss. If it could talk, it would definitely say, “San Pang is willing to go through fire and water for you, boss. Please accept my knees!”
Su Mo patted its thick fur and said, “Thank you for guarding me all these days. Now I’ve successfully built five snow mountains, greatly increasing my strength. That gives me a bit more confidence for the trip to the Temple Secret Realm.”
This time, he built the snow mountain of desire—Chòu Fèi (Putrid Lungs)—combined with the technique he learned from Frost: the Heavenly Demon Eye. With the help of the desire energy he’d absorbed earlier, building this snow mountain wasn’t too difficult.
Besides that, he used the fire-attribute spirit stones from the volcano ruins to completely convert ninety percent of his dark fire into black. He also set aside some spirit stones to take back to Beidou to help other fire-attribute transcendents grow stronger.
For example, Sun Yuchen.
He didn’t slack off on cultivating the Seed Jade Art either. The fourth jade seed—the earth-attribute spleen jade seed—has already taken initial shape.
While practicing the Seed Jade Art, he noticed something strange—this technique seemed to have a lot in common with the ninja inheritance of the Warrior Sect, specifically the Five Elements Art. So he tried merging the two techniques to see if one plus one could be greater than three.
The result? Well, let’s just say his attempt to merge them successfully failed…
That doesn’t mean his idea wasn’t feasible, though. Su Mo thought he could wait until he fully mastered the Seed Jade Art before trying to merge them again. Who knows? There might be unexpected benefits.
The reason is that the Five Elements Art focuses on using the rules of mutual generation among the five elements to make one particular element stand out, while the Seed Jade Art cultivates all five elements together. Although it doesn’t have the elemental control ability of the Five Elements Art, the physical boost it provides is quite impressive.
Su Mo now has three jade seeds. The Tetanus Blade, which weighs several hundred pounds, feels as light as a feather in his hands. He can easily wield it with two fingers like holding a pen—that’s how easy it is. No wonder he could slap San Pang silly with one hit.
Not all of that is thanks to the Seed Jade Art, but it definitely played a huge role.
His vision for the new technique is this: using his incredibly strong body to control the five elements—metal, wood, water, fire, and earth—while slicing through enemies like a hot knife through butter. Yeah, just imagining it gets him excited.
Over these two months, not only has his strength grown significantly, but his mindset has also changed a lot.
After the disaster before, he was stuck in a slump of guilt and self-blame, unable to pull himself out. Thanks to Ye Qingyi coming specifically to keep him company and help him work through it, he’s finally emerged from that emotional fog.
Instead of continuing to spiral downward, he decided it’s better to focus on what’s right in front of him and use his actions to make up for his mistakes—even if those mistakes are so huge they might never be forgiven.
He silently made up his mind: once this business is over, he’ll head straight to the Tianjiao Camp and fight alongside the young geniuses from around the world to protect humanity.
The light in Su Mo’s eyes grew brighter and sharper than a blade, scaring San Pang into stillness.
He suddenly patted San Pang’s body. “I have to go now. From now on, you’re the king here again. Next time I come, I’ll bring you some specialty snacks from my hometown.”
San Pang froze for a moment, then its eyes filled with deep reluctance.
“Woooo—” It howled at the sky, as if trying to get Su Mo to stay.
“Sigh, you’re the most sensible one, San Pang. At least you’re trying to keep me here. Alright, I’ll bring you double the snacks next time.”
San Pang: “Woof woof woof… (You’re the best, boss!)”
Su Mo tilted his head, thinking about what he should bring.
Potatoes? Eating those raw might make you sick.
Apples? San Pang’s probably tired of them by now—there are plenty in the forest.
Suddenly, a childhood memory popped into his head, and for some reason, he thought of Sichuan peppercorns. That stuff ruled his entire summer vacation.
Yeah, that’s novel and pungent enough. Even an animal of San Pang’s size would definitely kick its legs in pure bliss after a big bite…
San Pang nudged him, as if asking what he was thinking about.
Su Mo rubbed his nose sheepishly and said warmly, “I’m just thinking about what tasty treats to bring you.”
San Pang’s eyes welled up with tears…
“Alright, I really should get going. Since I ran into those two people earlier, do me a favor and let them go.” Su Mo instructed, then patted San Pang’s thick head again. Just as he was about to leave, San Pang tilted its head toward its own back, hinting for him to hop on.
Su Mo knew it wanted to give him a ride, so he didn’t refuse. He climbed on and said, “Let’s go!”
“Woooo—”
The Temple, here I come!
