Martial Immortality: Starting with the Spirit Beast Scroll

"Congratulations on making it to the top eight, Senior Brother Zhao."

"Senior Brother Zhao, you were magnificent..."

Zhao Lin walked back to his seat, welcomed by the congratulations of the disciples from Great Yue.

Several Sect Leaders and elders were also smiling. Zhao Lin’s victory secured a spot in the top eight for Great Yue, a result no worse than the last tournament.

The elders from the other nations, however, looked displeased. One spot in the top eight wasn’t what bothered them; the key was Zhao Lin’s age.

Making it to the top eight at only twenty years old meant he had immense potential for growth. It meant he could still participate in three more tournaments.

Who would be able to stop him in the future?

Looking at it now, what Huo Shan had done, while out of line, was understandable. It was a shame he had failed...

The third match was between Bolta and Huang Guanglie.

Bolta cultivated an Earth-attribute technique, while Huang Guanglie’s was Wood Attribute.

Wood overcomes Earth, so in theory, Huang Guanglie should have had an advantage in terms of technique. But in the face of absolute power, elemental counters had a very limited effect.

Huang Guanglie didn’t resort to clever tactics like flanking or evasion. Instead, he squared up for a direct confrontation with Bolta.

Bolta had the body of a giant, but he was far from clumsy. Huang Guanglie used every trick he knew but was defeated after holding out for just over ten breaths.

After that, Mai Kun, Li Taiqing, He Liancheng, Muheli, and Su Mu also defeated their respective opponents. The top eight were decided.

Wuzhu, Weizi, and Great Yue each held two spots, while Wuche and Xiuzhao had one each.

When the matches ended, no one was in the mood to linger, and they all quickly left the training grounds.

Back at the courtyard estate, the elders began their customary analysis of Zhao Lin’s and He Liancheng’s opponents.

Zhao Lin’s first opponent tomorrow was Muheli of Wuzhu. If he won, his second match would be against the winner of the fight between He Liancheng and Bolta.

The best outcome, of course, would be for the two disciples from Great Yue to meet in the semifinals, but everyone knew the chances of that were slim to none.

He Liancheng was only a sliver stronger than Huang Guanglie, and Huang Guanglie had been easily defeated by Bolta today.

As they walked out of the main hall, He Liancheng suddenly called out to Zhao Lin. "Tomorrow, I’ll do my best to draw out the fight with Bolta and force him to show his true strength."

Zhao Lin knew he was doing this to help him. "Thank you, Brother He," he said gratefully. "But please be careful. Bolta’s fists are heavy."

He Liancheng nodded. "I can handle myself."

...

Night fell, and the moonlight was as cool as water.

Zhao Lin sat in the courtyard, his mind on the next day’s matches.

As he continued to advance, the opponents he faced grew stronger and stronger.

His first opponent tomorrow, Muheli, would be tough, but Zhao Lin was confident he could win.

But Bolta was another story.

So far, Bolta hadn’t revealed his true power.

Publicly, Bolta’s signature techniques were the Heavy Mountain Fist and the Gathering Body Skill, but Zhao Lin suspected he had an ace up his sleeve.

’If I were in his shoes,’ Zhao Lin thought, ’cultivating an Earth-attribute technique and with such a massive body, I would definitely train in an Armor Protection Skill as well.’

Although every attribute had its own armor-type techniques, the Earth attribute’s were undoubtedly the most effective.

This wasn’t just a wild guess; it was a conclusion reached through martial deduction.

It was the same with Basang. The intelligence reports said he knew a martial art called the Sealing Wolf Slash, but he had yet to use it.

Zhao Lin was deeply wary of these two.

’Even though my physical abilities far exceed an ordinary person’s, thanks to the Spirit Beast Scroll, I’ve only been training for a little over three years. I don’t have enough accumulated experience.’

’Maybe I can make it to the finals and win it all. Or maybe I’ll stop at the semifinals.’

In his heart, Zhao Lin naturally hoped for the former.

It was best to make a name for yourself early; who knew what would happen three years from now.

If he won the championship, the cultivation resources he would obtain would be practically inexhaustible, allowing him to enter the Primordial Realm much sooner.

As he thought of this, Zhao Lin’s fingers unconsciously traced a line of text left on the back of the chair by his senior, Lu Yuanxiu.

_I must win this tournament..._

"Senior, please bless me. Let me be like you, win the tournament, and then cultivate all the way to the Innate Realm."

Just then, a commotion came from the front gate of the estate. From the sound of it, several Sect Leaders were speaking with an outsider. He thought he also heard the voice of Elder Ruan from the Lotus Sect.

’What could be happening this late at night?’

Zhao Lin found it strange and strained his ears to listen.

The courtyard was quite far from the main gate, but out of habit, he sent out ultrasonic waves every few breaths to probe his surroundings, which was how he’d noticed it.

"Sect Leaders, my apologies for the disturbance. A Gold-devouring Rat from our sect has escaped and seems to have run into this estate. Might we be allowed to enter and search for it?"

At the estate’s gate, Elder Ruan spoke with an apologetic expression.

"A Gold-devouring Rat? How could it have run all the way here?"

Lu Chaohuan frowned, his face full of suspicion. The Sect Leaders of the Li Yang Sect and the Southern Suppression Sect also looked displeased.

’The quarterfinals are tomorrow. For a strange beast to run out at this exact moment... are they here to cause trouble?’

Elder Ruan gave a wry smile. "Sect Leaders, you all know that we from Xiuzhao only have Li Taiqing in the top eight. His opponent is Mai Kun from Weizi."

"Even if we were deliberately trying to stir up trouble, we would be bothering Weizi’s camp. Why would we come here? One of our sect’s Gold-devouring Rats really did run over here."

Lu Chaohuan was still half-believing, half-doubting. "That Gold-devouring Rat travels underground. How do you know it ran here?"

Elder Ruan sighed softly, shook his sleeve, and released a white-furred Big-eared Fox. The fox’s body was small, but its ears were like two fans.

"This Big-eared Fox can hear sounds from underground and has an extremely keen sense of smell. We tracked it here using this..."

’A Gold-devouring Rat?’

Zhao Lin shot up from his chair as an idea sparked in his mind.

The Gold-devouring Rat was a small exotic beast, named for its love of eating metal ores.

Its name included the word "gold," so those who didn’t know better assumed it was a metal-attribute beast. In fact, it was an Earth-attribute one.

Having absorbed so many beast Essence Souls, Zhao Lin had gradually figured out their hierarchy.

Generally speaking, exotic beasts were stronger than ordinary wild animals, and exotic beasts with attributes were stronger than those without.

’Every slot in the Spirit Beast Scroll is precious, but absorbing an Earth-attribute Essence Soul is worth it.’

’The key is that it can raise my cultivation level—a tangible benefit!’

’With the quarterfinals and semifinals imminent, absorbing the Essence Soul of an exotic beast to improve my cultivation would undoubtedly increase my chances of victory.’

At this thought, Zhao Lin stopped listening and leaped onto the roof. His larynx vibrated as he activated his full hearing.

Ever since absorbing the Silver-Winged Bat’s Essence Soul, his hearing had improved dramatically. No sound within the entire estate could escape his ears.

His ultrasound couldn’t penetrate the earth, but the faint sounds from underground could travel up to the surface and be picked up by his ears.

Contrary to a normal person’s intuition, the speed of sound through a medium like soil was much faster than through air. In stone, it could even reach ten times the speed of sound.

From underground came rustling, gnawing, snoring...

Zhao Lin was long familiar with these sounds; most were just burrowing animals. But one particular sound put him on alert.

A living creature was moving at an incredible speed about a hundred feet underground.

’The Gold-devouring Rat has a spindle-shaped body, tough fur, and sharp claws, allowing it to rapidly dig through the earth. That has to be it!’

Zhao Lin followed the sound with his gaze, looking toward the southwest corner of the estate.

’It’s about to escape!’

He immediately jumped down from the roof, vaulted over a courtyard wall, and ran after the sound.

He chased it toward the outer wall, and after confirming no one was around, he leaped into the air and flew over.

Once outside the estate, Zhao Lin worried that the Gold-devouring Rat would hear his footsteps on the ground. He took flight, skimming low over the ground while scanning his surroundings with ultrasound to avoid being seen.

In the deep of the night, man and rat—one above ground, one below—headed toward the mountain.

The Gold-devouring Rat ran underground for about half an hour, then suddenly stopped, perhaps tired.

Zhao Lin slowly descended and surveyed the area. He saw that the ground was bare, with only some scattered rocks of various sizes. Beside it was a forest, and the moon had already climbed above the treetops.

Zhao Lin tiptoed behind a large boulder and waited patiently.

It was cool, damp, and stuffy underground; the Gold-devouring Rat would have to come up sooner or later.

After another long while, the Gold-devouring Rat finally moved. The sound of digging started up again.

But this time, it wasn’t digging horizontally underground, but up toward the surface.

Zhao Lin’s spirits lifted. He lowered his body and stared at the ground without blinking.

To his surprise, the Gold-devouring Rat was extremely cautious. When it was about ten feet from the surface, it suddenly stopped digging upward and began digging horizontally in a circle.

Zhao Lin surmised that because the rat couldn’t see the surface, it was uneasy about the situation above. It was scouting from below, and if it heard any movement, it wouldn’t come out.

’Exotic beasts really are different, so cautious in their actions.’

Zhao Lin couldn’t help but gain a new level of respect for the Gold-devouring Rat. He began to plan how he could securely harvest its Essence Soul.

The Gold-devouring Rat dug three circles underground. Hearing no movement from above, it finally started digging its way to the surface slowly, less than ten feet from where Zhao Lin stood.

Zhao Lin regulated his breathing and gathered his energy, making a fist with his left hand and holding his right hand up like a blade. He just had to wait for the Gold-devouring Rat to show its head to attack.

THUD.

The Gold-devouring Rat reached the surface. There happened to be a bowl-sized rock right above its head, so it pushed the rock aside with force. It poked out the top half of its head and looked around.

Zhao Lin had already retreated behind the large boulder. The Gold-devouring Rat looked all around, saw no danger, and slowly climbed out of the hole.

A large rat with golden fur, a pointed head, and a spindle-like body emerged from the ground and exhaled toward the moon.

Just then, Zhao Lin shot out from behind the boulder like an arrow and threw a Celestial Frost Fist.

Startled, the Gold-devouring Rat recoiled and turned to dive back into its hole. But it immediately realized it was too far away and began digging at the ground with its two sharp foreclaws.

Dirt flew everywhere, and in an instant, half its body was already underground.

A wave of cold energy washed over it. The Gold-devouring Rat’s body stiffened, its movements slowing for a beat.

That single-beat delay cost it its life.

Zhao Lin’s left hand threw the Celestial Frost Fist. After pausing for only half a breath, his right palm swung out, unleashing a Sky-splitting Slash.

The force from his palm was like a blade, sending the Gold-devouring Rat flying.

Zhao Lin couldn’t yet use two techniques simultaneously, but after long practice, the interval between them was now extremely short.

The Gold-devouring Rat ate ore, and its fur was as tough as iron; one or two hits probably wouldn’t kill it. That was why he had to first paralyze it with the Celestial Frost Fist before landing a heavy blow with the Sky-splitting Slash.

Otherwise, once it burrowed underground, even a Primordial Realm martial artist would be helpless.

Though struck by a heavy blow, the Gold-devouring Rat tumbled twice in the air and was still very much alive.

Zhao Lin didn’t stop. He unleashed another palm strike, then snatched a nearby rock and viciously smashed it down on the rat’s head.

Still not feeling assured, he lifted the rock and continued to smash it relentlessly.

A moment later, a pale yellow Essence Soul rose up.