Within the golden drop of blood, it seemed as if endless, unyielding roars and howls were still hidden, battering Ethan Brooks's fragile soul in wave after wave, making Ethan Brooks wish for death.

Ethan Brooks wished he could just die, yet his consciousness remained unintentionally clear, as if the six-armed demon was determined to make him fully “enjoy” the ultimate agony of having his sinews stripped, bones corroded, and soul shrieking in torment.

He watched helplessly as the golden teardrop completely seeped into his heart, ultimately leaving only a palm-sized burn mark on his chest.

“Go…”

With a sharp grunt from the six-armed demon, Ethan Brooks was instantly flung tens of thousands of meters away, landing atop a cliff whose top and bottom were both out of sight.

At the same time, the invisible giant barrier that had blocked countless bolts of purple lightning shattered in an instant like a crystal bottle. Those massive bolts of lightning, carrying the might of heaven and earth, immediately found their true target, converging from the surrounding ridges and striking the six-armed demon’s body all at once.

No one knew how much time passed before the thunderclouds finally dissipated, leaving the sky clear and cloudless. All that remained was a scene of utter devastation, with countless mountain ridges blasted to dust, bearing witness to the fury of the heavens just moments before.

The six-armed demon lay in the valley, seemingly unscathed, but now unimaginably huge. Its body stretched head to toe for four or five hundred meters, lying there like a mountain range, unmoving for a long time.

Only then did Ethan Brooks confirm that the six-armed demon had been utterly killed by the lightning strikes. The remaining scales and armor, like rusted iron petals, peeled off piece by piece.

On the demon’s mountain-like body, the flesh quickly shriveled and sloughed away, turning to wisps of smoke as it hit the ground. In the end, only a jade-like, snow-white skeleton remained, along with black-gold colored lungs, stomach, liver, spleen, and other organs. The heart, which had been removed earlier, left a gaping hole.

A gust of wind blew by, and in the blink of an eye, the demon’s jade-like white bones and black-gold, shadowy organs weathered into the finest powder, as if eroded over millennia, and were scattered by the wind. In the end, only a few jewel-like beads, shimmering with multicolored light, were left scattered in the valley…

Just as Ethan Brooks thought everything had finally quieted down, the cloudless sky rippled endlessly like the surface of a lake, just as it had when Ethan Brooks encountered the scene at the foot of the snowy peak of Mount Sumeru. Out of nothing, endless clouds and mist emerged in the void, forming countless lotus petal-shaped cyclones, exuding an indescribable solemnity and majesty.

However, this time, no tornado appeared.

In the void above the mountain’s peak, at the center of the lotus-petal cyclone, a mirror-like opening appeared, from which a towering figure emerged, as if peering into this world from the endless void.

An infinite divine consciousness swept across a million impassable ridges in an instant, and also brushed over Ethan Brooks's seemingly insignificant body.

Ethan Brooks felt something like a ripple of water gently touch his body, and saw that the towering figure, exuding supreme heavenly might from the endless void, finally fixed its gaze on the valley where the six-armed demon had weathered away.

Was this godlike, towering figure the very “Dao Xu old man” the demon had mentioned, who would cross the endless void to utterly exterminate the demon?

Ethan Brooks forcibly suppressed the urge to prostrate himself in worship before the towering figure, and vaguely heard it muttering in the air: “A hundred thousand years of cultivation, only to grow a single horn and these hundred bone pills—no wonder it was so useless.”

After that, the mirror in the void vanished in a flash. Apart from the rolling thunder echoing unseen among the mountains, it was as if nothing had ever happened.

Ethan Brooks crawled and stumbled through the desolate mountains, braving the elements for over two months without finding a way out. In the end, he encountered a dozen or so wild men dressed in animal skins, out hunting in the mountains, and only then realized he was no longer on Earth.

Ethan Brooks left the mountains with the wild men and settled in a tribe called Wu Mang on the north slope of Mangya Ridge, where he ended up living for three years.

Chapter 002: So Hard

The torrential rain lasted for a long time before it finally began to subside.

Rocks, loosened by the downpour, kept tumbling down the cliff, striking the rock face with loud bangs, pulling Ethan Brooks out of his memories and back to the present reality.

Ethan Brooks felt a wave of frustration, annoyed that the rain had delayed him for so long. There was no longer enough time today to climb the next ridge and gather the wulingzi grass.

The cliff rocks were slick and treacherous, bringing many unknown dangers. Ethan Brooks thought he would have to wait for a clear day to go.

Though the rain had stopped outside the mountains, the distant roar of water could still be faintly heard.

Such a heavy rain would surely have caused massive flash floods in the valleys and ravines.

Listening to the sound of rushing water, Ethan Brooks thought the flood must be breaking out not far away.

He was unwilling to return to the village empty-handed, thinking that perhaps something valuable might be washed out of Mangya Ridge by the flood.

The grass and trees on the cliff were all soaked. It was not as cold now as it had been at dawn when the fog rolled in, so Ethan Brooks took off his animal-hide coat, stuffed it into his medicine basket, and went bare-chested.

When he climbed the mountain at dawn, his exposed arms had been scratched open in several places by rocks, but by now the wounds had already scabbed over. Peeling off the scabs revealed faint marks, as if they had been healing for several days.

Indeed, even the strongest warriors of the Wu Mang tribe, whose bodies were tougher than wild bulls, did not heal as quickly as Ethan Brooks. This was one reason Ethan Brooks dared to venture alone into the deep mountains in search of herbs.