Chapter 105 - 95: Fatty’s Compromise, Meeting the Nanling Group Again

Chapter 105: Chapter 95: Fatty’s Compromise, Meeting the Nanling Group Again

One fleeing and the other pursuing, the two dragged out their chase for a full month, yet neither could gain the upper hand.

While Fatty was shocked, Jiang Hao was equally astonished. Whether in endurance, cultivation, or raw strength, his opponent was not the least bit inferior to him. They were perfectly evenly matched.

"Dead Fatty, are you ever going to stop?" Jiang Hao glared at Fatty, who was still in relentless pursuit. He himself was exhausted beyond belief. If the opportunity arose, he genuinely wanted to cleave the man in two with a single sword strike.

The moment Jiang Hao’s words fell, Fatty roared back, "God damn it! I’ve told you eight hundred times, the thing I hate most in my life is people calling me Dead Fatty! Do you really think I can’t kill you?"

"I’ve called you Dead Fatty eight hundred times by now. Come on then, kill me!" Unwilling to back down, Jiang Hao immediately fired back.

Sure enough, those words sent the Daoist-robed Fatty into an instant frenzy. Shouldering his iron rod, he chased after him like a madman.

RUMBLE!!!

Another fierce battle ensued.

Half an hour later, inside a certain valley, both men stood rooted to the spot. They were bent over, hands on their knees, gasping heavily for air.

"Dead Fatty...?"

"You’re still calling me that, damn it?"

"Alright, alright, I’ll stop, I’ll stop. Brother Daoist, you’ve already been chasing me for a month. What’s the point? Aren’t you tired?"

Hearing this, Fatty panted heavily, struggling to lift his head and look at the ghost-faced mask. "I’m tired. Even more tired than you." Fatty reasoned that since he was carrying so much extra weight, there was no way Jiang Hao could be as exhausted as he was.

"This can’t go on," Jiang Hao said. "If we run into another expert of the same level, we’ll both be dead meat."

"Then tell me, what should we do?" Fatty seemed to have compromised. He couldn’t do anything to Jiang Hao, and Jiang Hao couldn’t do anything to him.

Jiang Hao pondered for a moment before replying, "Don’t you just want the complete Imperial Extreme Technique?"

"You’re willing to hand it over?" Fatty’s eyes lit up.

"You wish. But it’s somewhat along those lines. I won’t just hand it over; we’ll exchange."

"Exchange?"

"Exactly. You obtained half of the Cultivation Technique, and I got the other half. If we exchange them with each other, won’t we both have a complete copy?"

Fatty fell into deep thought. After a short while, he looked up. "Tell me, how do we exchange?"

"Fifteen minutes. We will both study the half of the Cultivation Technique we currently hold for fifteen minutes. After that, we exchange them, take them with us, and from then on, we go our separate ways."

"Fine. When do we start looking at our respective halves?"

"Now."

"Holy shit."

With that, the two frantically took out their halves of the Cultivation Technique and began rapidly scanning through them. However, just five minutes later, both of their lips curled into faint smirks as they looked up at almost exactly the same time.

"That fast?" they blurted out in unison, before glaring at each other with extreme displeasure.

"It seems fifteen minutes was too much time. Let’s exchange."

Fatty held up his half of the Cultivation Technique, but he hesitated, unwilling to throw it over. Naturally, Jiang Hao wasn’t about to toss his over easily either. One look at this Dead Fatty and it was clear he wasn’t someone who kept his word; otherwise, the incident back at the Divine Mountain wouldn’t have happened.

Eventually, the two agreed to place their respective halves on the ground and then walk toward each other. This way, neither would have the chance to play tricks.

After putting down the texts, the two walked directly forward, moving further away from their own halves and closer to the one their opponent had set down. When they met in the middle, both suddenly accelerated, lunging toward the Cultivation Technique behind the other person.

The exchange concluded flawlessly. After storing Jiang Hao’s half of the Cultivation Technique into his Spatial Ring, Fatty slowly turned around to look at him.

"A pleasure cooperating with you."

"A pleasure."

"Why don’t we become friends? If fate permits in the future, we can cooperate again."

"Forget it. You’re too shady for my tastes, Dead Fatty. Let’s never meet again."

"God damn it, you’re still calling me that?"

The two fell silent. A moment later, Fatty was the first to speak. "Cao Wusheng. And you, brother?"

Jiang Hao sneered inwardly, but he still replied, "Sword Unrivaled."

"That doesn’t sound like a real name at all."

"Right back at you."

"Alright then. Until we meet again, Brother Wu Shuang."

"Until we meet again."

With that, Fatty immediately soared into the sky and departed. Jiang Hao cupped his fists in a matching salute before flying off in the opposite direction.

"Meet again my ass, Dead Fatty. Don’t let me run into you again, or I’ll beat you until you’re looking for your teeth all over the ground."

The moment Jiang Hao’s voice fell, a voice echoed back from the empty space behind him.

"Brother Wu Shuang, when we meet next time, we’ll see who’s looking for their teeth."

Hearing that voice, Jiang Hao immediately sped up, instantly disappearing into the mountain range as he hurriedly activated his Concealment Art to make his getaway.

Not long after he left, Fatty indeed returned to the spot.

"What a terrifying hiding technique. The Gu Family’s Concealment Art? Could he be someone from the Divine Pill Pavilion?" Muttering to himself for a while, Fatty saw that tracking him was fruitless and turned to leave.

Hidden in the jungle, Jiang Hao only exhaled a breath of stale air after watching the Dead Fatty leave for the second time, turning and vanishing from the area.

Another month passed.

Jiang Hao, having discarded his black robes and mask, slowly awakened in a desolate, uninhabited mountain range. His cultivation had advanced significantly once again; he had even reached the Three Transformations of the Four Meridians.

"The Imperial Extreme Technique is truly terrifying. To think I could make such a breakthrough in just one short month? And this is without the blessing of the Spirit Pool. It’s completely absurd."

Not only that, but as one’s cultivation progressed, it became increasingly difficult to advance. Yet, Jiang Hao already showed faint signs of stepping into the Spirit Transformation Sixth Stage. At this moment, he finally understood why so many people had fought over it like madmen. Such a Heaven-defying Technique was simply unbelievable—so terrifying it made one’s scalp tingle.

He reasoned that there was little point in blindly cultivating bitterly; he still needed to continue searching for fortuitous encounters.

Jiang Hao stood up immediately. After casting the Concealment Art to hide his cultivation at the Spirit Transformation Second Stage as a precaution against unforeseen circumstances, he began flying aimlessly through the ancient ruins.

He had reaped a rich harvest from the battle at the Ancient Emperor Sect, so naturally, he didn’t want to miss any possibility of growing stronger. Moreover, as far as he knew, to prevent them from being completely plundered, every ancient ruin had a time limit. For this one, it was three years. They had already been inside for over a year and a half. In just over a year’s time, the reformed sky canopy would forcibly expel them. Therefore, quickly searching for the next land of opportunities was of utmost importance.

One day, as Jiang Hao—who had limited knowledge of the ancient ruins—was flying at a low altitude through a valley, a familiar voice suddenly rang out from the sky above.

"Brother Jiang! It really is Brother Jiang!"

"Jiang Hao? Jiang Hao!"

Jiang Hao turned his head to follow the sound, only to see over a dozen figures tearing through the air high above. The moment they spotted him, they were all incomparably excited.

"Ji Qingxue? Ji Wufeng? It’s you?"

Seeing that it was the Southern Ridge Sect People, Jiang Hao was somewhat taken aback. He wondered if the ancient ruins were truly that small for him to run into them a second time.

"Is it really Brother Jiang?"

"Hahaha, I told you! When Brother Jiang didn’t show up at the Ancient Emperor Sect, I knew he must have left early. See? I was right!"

It was obvious that in the eyes of the Southern Ridge Sect People, Jiang Hao’s absence from the struggle at the Ancient Emperor Sect meant he had steered clear to avoid crossing paths with the peerless monster of the Celestial Sword Sect. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have appeared here ahead of them.

"Brother Jiang, why are you only at the Spirit Transformation Second Stage? Could it be that you really left the Ancient Emperor Sect early after entering the great array that day?"

Upon seeing that Jiang Hao’s cultivation was only at the Spirit Transformation Second Stage, the dozen or so figures couldn’t help but freeze for a moment before a hint of smugness surfaced on their faces. After all, almost all of them had become experts at the Spirit Transformation Third Stage.

Little did they know, the person standing before them was the very Ghost-faced Asura and Hellish Rakshasa that everyone was talking about.

Faced with their questions, Jiang Hao didn’t answer directly; instead, he looked behind Ji Qingxue and the others. He remembered that when he left the Ancient Emperor Sect, there were still over twenty Southern Ridge Sect People. Now, meeting them again, less than half remained.