Chapter 57: Heavenly Treasures, Cultivators of Mount Kunlun?

The figure slowly raised a hand, gathering a point of golden light at its fingertip.

“I don’t know what you ate, but after seeing me, you still finished all the remaining fruit.”

“You should have prepared for death.”

“Of course, even if you gave it to me, you’d still die.”

He whispered, the golden light at his fingertip growing brighter.

“Roar!”

The mutated Zangma bear let out a low growl, turning to flee—but the next second—

“Shhh!”

A blade of light slashed through, splitting the massive body of the mutated Zangma bear cleanly in two; Qin Yue didn’t even see how the attacker moved!

Coincidentally, Ye Xuan had originally planned to take back the mutated antelope that had eaten the “Elephant Fruit: Ancient Type: Mammoth Form” from Captain Jack, after restoring his depleted Qi.

But on the way back, he suddenly sensed a concentration of Qi—not just strong, but far greater than that contained in Spirit-Energy Tonic—so he went to take a look.

There he saw the enormous mutated Zangma bear continuously devouring fruits growing on an unknown medicinal herb.

Each fruit was the size of a pearl, glowing like a ruby.

Ye Xuan had already decided to kill the mutated Zangma bear and examine what medicinal herb it had mutated from—but before he could act, the bear, upon seeing him, unhesitatingly uprooted the entire herb and swallowed it whole.

What the hell!

Ye Xuan was stunned.

From the [Fogveil Mountains] near Hangcheng to the depths of Mount Kunlun, he had encountered countless mutated beasts—each either attacked him, stared curiously, or fled at the scent of him;

This mutated Zangma bear was the first he’d ever seen that clearly thought he was here to steal its treasure.

True, he had intended to do exactly that—but that’s no reason to rip it up and swallow it whole!

Perhaps sensing his emotions—or realizing he was not to be trifled with—the mutated Zangma bear fled immediately after swallowing, moving with surprising speed.

Maybe the substance it ingested had begun activating within its body, enhancing its strength and speed as it ran.

Noticing this, Ye Xuan temporarily abandoned the idea of killing it outright; instead, he began harassing it, forcing it to keep running, forcing it to absorb the medicinal power of the heavenly treasure as it neared death.

The treasure was already inside it—killing it now would be useless. Better to let it fully absorb the power, then butcher its flesh for cooking, using the mutated herb as seasoning.

He now killed it without mercy because the mutated Zangma bear had nearly exhausted the medicinal power; some residue might remain, but he was too impatient to wait.

After slaying the mutated Zangma bear, Ye Xuan turned his gaze toward Qin Yue nearby.

“That—”

Sensing the gaze, Qin Yue felt his breath catch; instinctively, he opened his mouth to speak.

But the moment he began, the other man had already looked away.

The man casually lifted the mutated Zangma bear’s corpse; a flash of sword-light, and his figure became a streak of light, racing deep into Mount Kunlun’s snow-covered wilderness, vanishing in moments.

Qin Yue’s mind, still formulating words, suddenly went slack; he exhaled deeply and collapsed onto the snow.

A mutated Zangma bear impervious to bullets. A human who killed it with a single motion.

If not for the sword cuts still etched into the ground and the scattered bear blood, he might have thought it all an illusion.

Even now, he wondered if he was dreaming—just an unusually vivid dream.

“Has the world changed this fast?”

“Were there cultivators in this world before the Qi resurgence?”

“Sword-flight through the heavens...”

“Are there true cultivation sects in Mount Kunlun?”

Qin Yue kept replaying what he’d just witnessed, but his thoughts kept circling back to cultivators.

He couldn’t help it—the man’s techniques, the sword-flight, the golden light radiating like sword intent that pierced straight through the mutated Zangma bear’s bulletproof body—everything screamed legendary sword cultivator.

Though he automatically thought of Shu Mountain when hearing “sword cultivator,” weren’t the Kunlun cultivators famous too?

What if this man had been hiding in Mount Kunlun long before the Qi resurgence?

“Captain Qin, are you alright?”

The familiar voice snapped Qin Yue back to reality—he realized his team, who had been ordered to retreat, had returned, staring in shock at the direction Ye Xuan had vanished.

“Who was that guy?”

“He just one-shot the mutated Zangma bear?”

Bai Xiao’s voice trembled with disbelief.

Had the world evolved behind his back? Was this not the dawn of the Qi resurgence, but already one or two years into it?

Otherwise, how could a bulletproof mutated Zangma bear and a swordsman who killed it with one slash both exist?

This made no sense.

“He’s probably a holder of a Celestial Treasure—no one else could possess such power at this stage.”

“And that mutated Zangma bear? It wasn’t ordinary either.”

“By the way, Captain Qin—did that man say anything?”

Lin Rui didn’t doubt the possibility of a cultivator; he believed the man was likely a Celestial Treasure holder, and now turned to Qin Yue, hoping for answers.

“He did say—huh?”

“Why are you asking me? Didn’t I order you to retreat? Why did you come back?”

Qin Yue, about to answer automatically, snapped back to himself, his expression stern as he stared at the four.

He’d told them to leave—why had they returned?

What if that man hadn’t shown up? Wouldn’t they have just walked back to die?

“...”

He was met with the team’s blank, unimpressed stares—making Qin Yue suddenly doubt himself.

Had he asked something stupid?

“Captain Qin, you might’ve lost track of time during the fight.”

“In truth, you bought us less than a minute. Then that expert appeared and one-shot the bear.”

“In that time, even if we ran full speed, we’d only cover a few hundred meters.”

“We saw the commotion from far away.”

Lin Rui and the others thought Qin Yue had gotten overconfident—he’d bought them less than a minute against the mutated Zangma bear. How far could they run in a minute?

(End of Chapter)