Chapter 10: The Iron-beaked Owl and the Snow Sculpture (Part 1)

The four of them emerged from the dense forest. Guo Shier smiled and said, “This is a treasure land. In a few hundred years, perhaps a Soul Vine tree will grow here again. If we’re lucky, it might even mutate once more.”
Li Ran said, “There won’t be any more Soul Vine trees.”
Fan Zhen Tong asked, “Is it because of the Soul Spring?”
Li Ran replied, “Yes. If I take away the Soul Spring, no more Soul Vine trees will grow here. Even if they did, their quality wouldn’t be high. Without the nourishment of the Soul Spring, the Soul Vine trees can’t grow large, let alone mutate.”
Guo Shier sighed, “What a pity.”
Li Ran said, “There’s nothing to regret. Mutated plants have inherent flaws. Even if I hadn’t taken them, someone else would have taken them eventually. It’s better for me to keep them in a sealed secret realm so they can continue to survive.”
Guo Shier flew high into the sky and said, “We can’t fly too high in the dense forest—it chokes me!”
The old man said, “Stop complaining. I’m already swamped with work. Instead of flying high, help me sort out the materials. Damn, we’ve really struck gold this time—we found plenty of materials to upgrade to the ninth-tier altar!”
Guo Shier was stunned for a moment before exclaiming in surprise, “Could it be the materials for Lang Zhongping’s upgrade? Wow, haha, that’s amazing!” He laughed happily. With Lang Zhongping’s upgrade materials taken away, it would be extremely difficult for him to gather more—meaning he’d struggle to reach the ninth-tier altar again.
Li Ran, Yang Miluo, and Fan Zhen Tong also flew up. Li Ran asked, “Shier, why are you laughing?”
Guo Shier grinned and said, “Nothing, just happy, hehe.”
Li Ran shook his head and stared in the direction they came from. “More and more professionals are arriving. Hehe… Don’t they know how dangerous this place is?”
In the distance, flashes of light could be seen from time to time—clearly the magical lights of professionals flying.
Fan Zhen Tong said, “We need to hurry, or we’ll be overtaken.”
Guo Shier replied, “It doesn’t matter if we get overtaken. Who knows what dangers lie ahead? There aren’t just powerful mutated magical beasts here; even some naturally formed threats are enough to endanger them. Like the wind blades in the forest sky—no one knows how they form. Professionals with weaker abilities simply can’t survive.”
Li Ran said, “It’s not surprising. We’ve already reaped great rewards just by arriving here. Other continents and secret realms don’t have such abundant resources. Professionals fight over resources—that’s a truth you’ve understood long ago.”

Guo Shier immediately fell silent. He had understood this principle in his past life—once resources were involved, the struggle would never stop, and this world was no different, even more cruel. Professionals relied entirely on accumulating resources; without them, they couldn’t advance. Applied to individual professionals, no one could remain indifferent to resources.

A group of professionals flew in from afar, passing a few hundred meters in front of Guo Shier and the others. They were professionals at the fifth or sixth level of the altar, led by a master at the seventh level altar, totaling about seventeen or eighteen people. When they saw Li Ran and the three others, surprise clearly appeared in their eyes.

This group was much smarter than the people from the Gulang family. Although they couldn’t tell Li Ran’s level, they understood that four professionals who could hover high in the sky without hesitation must be extremely powerful. The leader of the group turned around and waved at the four of them as a greeting.

Guo Shier couldn’t help but smile and say, “Smart guys.”

Li Ran also smiled and asked, “Are you a little disappointed?”

Guo Shier protested, “Hey, big bro, I’m not really a bandit. Why judge people like that?”

Yang Miluo and Fan Zhen finally realized what was going on, feeling a chill in their hearts. These two guys were too evil. They finally understood that Guo Shier and Li Ran would never take the initiative to provoke others. As long as the other side was friendly, they would act like kittens tucking in their claws, appearing cute and friendly. But if the other side showed hostility, they would show their claws, and the other side would immediately face retribution.

The group of professionals quickly disappeared into the horizon.

Li Ran said with a smile, “Actually, I don’t object to your approach. If no one bothers me… I won’t bother anyone either, you know!” He even winked.

Guo Shier pretended to be clueless and said, “I don’t know! Let’s go quickly; there’s another group coming!”

Li Ran looked back and said, “Indeed, another group. Hehe, I wonder how many families have come this time. It’s not easy to see even one altar-level professional usually, but here they appear in groups.”

Guo Shier said, “If half of them die…”

Li Ran laughed, “If half of them die, that would be tragic. Let’s go!” He flew quickly in the direction of the movement. The talismanic lights on the four of them flickered, leaving trails of light in the air.

Guo Shier then realized that there were indeed many professionals, all flying in the same direction as him—toward the source of the fluctuations. He said, “They’re heading in the same direction as us… Damn, what are those mutated birds?” Suddenly, a dense swarm of mutated birds rose from the ground ahead. Due to the great distance, they could only see them as dark lines connected together.

Li Ran stared ahead and said, “Let’s slow down a bit. They’re probably not ordinary mutated birds. Hopefully, they’re not mutated symbol worms—those things are even harder to deal with than mutated birds. You can’t kill them all… and you can’t get rid of them either.”

The four of them slowly approached, slowing down further.

Gradually, they could see clearly that they were a group of mutated iron-beaked owls, each dozens of meters long—not particularly large. In this world, animals could easily reach hundreds of meters in length, so dozens of meters wasn’t considered huge. However, these mutated iron-beaked owls were of high rank, mostly between level 10 and 12, with a few at level 13 or 14. Because of their large numbers, any group of professionals would rather not provoke them.

Groups of professionals in the vicinity fled one after another, and soon the air was filled with their strange screeching noises.

The large swarm of mutated iron-beaked owls split into several groups, chasing after those professionals separately.

While Guo Shier was counting how many there were, Li Ran shouted, “Let’s go… stop standing around like idiots!” He grabbed Guo Shier and quickly flew away. It wasn’t that he couldn’t defeat these mutated iron-beaked owls, but he didn’t want to get entangled. With so many professionals flying toward the source of the fluctuations, it would be unwise to fight here.

The air was filled with screeching sounds. One group of professionals was fleeing desperately behind Guo Shier and the others. They were truly running for their lives—once caught, although they wouldn’t be wiped out entirely, it would be normal for a few professionals to die.

As he flew, Guo Shier said, “Why run? There are so many mutated symbol beasts; we can collect lots of souls from them.”

Li Ran laughed and scolded, “You little money-grubber! Stop thinking about such things. Hurry up, keep going!”

Although Guo Shier muttered that it was a shame, his flying speed didn’t slow down at all. The four of them were already at some distance from the mutated iron-beaked owls, and with their fast flight, they quickly got away from the large swarm. But there was still a group of professionals following them, and those professionals were followed by a smaller group of mutated iron-beaked owls.

Yang Miluo cursed, “These bastards! Why are they flying after us?”

Fan Zhen said, “Flying after us means they won’t get lost in the chaos… It’s not hard to understand.”

Yang Miluo replied, “But they’ve also brought the mutated iron-beaked owls with them.”

Fan Zhen Tong said with a smile, “This exactly suits their wishes. The more people dragged down, the better—more hands mean more strength.”
Guo Shier sighed and said, “Old Fan is right… Lao Yang, it’s easy to get rid of them.”
Old Fan? Lao Yang? Guo Shier would often say something baffling. Yang Miluo asked, “How can we get rid of them?”
Li Ran said, “Enough, Shier, don’t come up with bad ideas.”
Guo Shier laughed and said, “If Brother Li Ran disagrees, then there’s nothing we can do. Let’s go quickly, hehe, hurry up.” Only then did they realize that as long as Li Ran exerted his spiritual pressure, those people would be frozen in place, unable to move. In just a few dozen seconds, they would be caught up by the Iron-beaked Owl. By then, they wouldn’t be able to escape and would have to fight to the death against it.
Yang Miluo said, “Shier, that’s too cruel.”
Guo Shier snorted and said nothing. Fan Zhen Tong said, “Yang Miluo, you probably rarely go out on adventures, right? You stay in your family… guarding a continent or the headquarters?”
Yang Miluo nodded and said, “Yes, what’s wrong with that? My strength hasn’t declined.”
Fan Zhen Tong said, “When venturing outside, either you trick others or you get tricked. Do you prefer to be tricked or to trick others?”
Yang Miluo dismissed it, saying, “It’s not that serious…” He held a high status in his family, so no one dared to trick him or show disrespect to him, which fostered his current confidence. Unfortunately, the world wasn’t as he thought—it didn’t mean no one challenged him at home that no one would do so outside.
Fan Zhen Tong and Yang Miluo were completely different. He had spent his entire life exploring the outside world, knowing a lot and having seen much, so he agreed with Guo Shier’s approach.
The four of them quickly left the nest of the mutated Iron-beaked Owl and turned to fly in the direction of the disturbances. The group behind them also changed direction.
Guo Shier said, “See? They’re catching up, hehe.”
Li Ran said, “The Iron-beaked Owl is so vengeful. It’s still chasing them after coming this far. What exactly did they do to make it so angry?”
Guo Shier laughed and said, “It’s probably because they killed an important Iron-beaked Owl or stole its eggs.”
Li Ran said, “Stealing eggs is impossible. It must be that they killed some important Iron-beaked Owl. Never mind, I don’t want to deal with it. Let’s keep flying.”

After flying about a thousand kilometers, they were still on the periphery of the Great Abyss Pool—the area was simply too vast. The surrounding mountains were even more steep, and vast glaciers could be seen; as they flew over them, massive avalanches were triggered. The noise attracted some mutated birds or beasts, which launched attacks, but the four of them were extremely fast, zipping past so quickly that those attacks usually hit the people behind them, much to Guo Shier’s amusement. Yet those professionals seemed determined to pursue them, refusing to give up. The four turned around a huge mountain base. “Damn…” That wasn’t Guo Shier’s exclamation but Li Ran’s outburst of surprise. Guo Shier looked up and couldn’t help cursing as well: “What the hell is that?” Li Ran promptly ordered, “This way!” He changed direction and flew to the right. Guo Shier and the others didn’t dare delay and immediately followed. Ahead was another swarm of mutated birds—this time, thousands of mutated snow eagles, covering the sky and circling in the distance. Only a fool would fly in that direction. Li Ran said, “No wonder only high-level professionals can enter. I realize even highly skilled professionals can get into trouble here; this place is utterly abnormal.” Guo Shier added, “This is still just the edge area. If we enter the core zone, I guess only you can make it. With our three’s strength, we probably won’t reach the core.” Li Ran replied, “Don’t worry, I’ll take you in.” Given his personality, he had never revealed his true strength; what he showed was just the tip of the iceberg. Those pursuers turned as well, but the cries of the mutated iron-beaked owls alarmed the distant snow eagles, and instantly, countless eagles rushed at them. These eagles were huge, over a hundred meters long with wings spanning three to four hundred meters wide—truly overwhelming, their shrill cries echoing everywhere. Fan Zhen cursed loudly, “Damn these idiots!” Guo Shier was also furious. If not for having a master above the Ninth-Level Altar among them, they would have been killed by those pursuing them. The loud cries of the eagles caused chaos among the mutated iron-beaked owls, and the professionals also panicked, rushing forward desperately. Guo Shier couldn’t help but laugh: “This is fucking exciting!”

The swarm of snow sculptures chasing behind made Li Ran’s scalp tingle. He wasn’t afraid of the snow sculptures themselves; rather, seeing them flying in overwhelming numbers instilled an instinctive sense of danger in him. He said, “Faster! Snow sculptures fly very fast. If we don’t want to engage in a battle with them, we must get away as soon as possible.”
Roar!