Chapter 1 Raging Wind

Hoo-hoo-hoo…

The wind howled.

Amidst the cloud-shrouded, treacherous mountain peaks, a blue-black flying dragon with a wingspan of over ten meters circled a mountainside, occasionally flapping its wings and diving, like bolts of blue lightning striking from the sky.

The dragon's head, connected to a serpentine neck, repeatedly snapped at several figures leaping nimbly across the mountainside like apes, but always missed, its mouth full of sharp teeth only managing to shatter the rocks with a crash.

As the massive dragon body rushed past, carrying a gale, the figures hurriedly gripped the rocks tightly, burying their heads to resist the subsequent wind pressure. Their clothes fluttered wildly in the wind, but their bodies seemed to be embedded in the mountain wall, never blown away.

Cole watched the flying dragon circle once, then turn its head and charge toward the hunter team again, shouting loudly:

"Jess, seize the opportunity, it's up to you!"

His voice was torn apart by the wind. The flying dragon approached once more, and Cole and the other hunters quickly dodged, avoiding the dragon's dive.

The flying dragon's attack missed again, flying past the mountainside as usual. However, at that moment, its body suddenly sank as a heavy object landed on its back.

Where it hadn't been paying attention, Jesson's figure fell from a higher part of the mountain wall, jumping onto the flying dragon's back. The timing was extremely precise; any faster or slower, and he would have missed the dragon and fallen off the cliff.

Jesson's eyes were lively, carrying Zhou Jing who had personally descended.

His feet landed on the spiky dragon back, Zhou Jing switched the frequency of his breathing, changing to a new hunter breathing technique. His muscles instantly bulged, and with the momentum of the fall, he slammed the double blades in his hands into the scale-covered dragon back.

*Puchi!*

He could feel the feedback from the blades, piercing the solid dragon armor, penetrating the tough flesh, and lodging in the gaps of the dragon's spine.

The violent wind pressure hit him head-on, almost blinding him. Zhou Jing lowered his body, hunching over and drawing in his abdomen, gripping the double blades firmly on the dragon's back, as if riding the struggling, pain-stricken dragon beneath him.

*Zi-zi-zi*—

Suddenly, electricity surged through the dragon's body. Blue-white lightning chains burst forth, jumping along the spines, as if dancing on lightning rods, instantly striking Zhou Jing in the middle of the dragon's back.

*Pi-pa, pi-pa!*

There was a crackling sound of electric shock, but the expected effect didn't occur. Zhou Jing's body trembled slightly, and he stood there bathed in electric light, as if unharmed, not even thrown off.

"Your electricity... is too weak!"

Zhou Jing's eyes flashed with electric light as he released the bioelectricity in his body. Then, he switched to another hunter breathing technique, and his entire body suddenly entered a high-speed state. The double blades in his hands spun like the wind, like climbing axes, carrying him quickly along the dragon's back to the base of its neck.

The double blades stabbed rapidly, quickly locating the cervical vertebrae. Zhou Jing snapped it without hesitation.

An angry and shrill dragon roar echoed through the sky, but the flying dragon's body fell uncontrollably, crashing toward the continuous mountain forest.

*Shua-la-la*... The flying dragon crashed through the canopies of trees with sprawling branches, breaking tree after tree, then crashed to the ground with a deafening sound.

*Boom!!*

A large pit of upturned earth was created on the ground, and the flying dragon lay struggling within, unable to stand up, only stirring up the mud.

Thick blood flowed continuously from the dragon's mouth, and the wounds on its back sprayed jets of blood, soaking the soil and dyeing the surroundings a crimson red.

Dozens of meters away, there was a small pit. Zhou Jing, covered in branches and leaves, staggered to his feet, unable to resist spitting out a mouthful of blood. He felt as if his internal organs had been hit hard, as if they were about to shrivel up.

The dull pain of the high-altitude fall tore at his nerves. If he hadn't anticipated this situation and jumped off the dragon midway, spreading his arms and using the leather triangular wings specially added to his armpits to glide horizontally for a distance before landing, he would probably have fallen apart.

Even so, he was seriously injured.

Zhou Jing wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, picked up his blade, and strode to the half-paralyzed flying dragon. Without a word, he pierced its scarlet dragon eyes, plunged it into its brain, and gradually stopped the dragon's struggle, finally falling into silence.

"Hoo... hoo, killed this dragon."

Zhou Jing retreated a dozen steps to a safe distance, then sat down on the ground, panting heavily, sweat pouring down like浆.

Not long after, Cole and his team followed the trail down the mountain and rushed over, immediately surrounding him.

"Jess, are you okay?"

"I'd be even more okay if you didn't ask such nonsense."

Zhou Jing responded unhappily, coughing up another mouthful of blood.

Cole patted him on the shoulder, then looked at the huge dragon corpse, breathing a sigh of relief, "We've been chasing this Cloud Spine Dragon for half a month, fought it three or four times, and finally eliminated this threat."

Cloud Spine Dragon, a Lethal-level Exotic Beast, capable of high-altitude flight, often circling in the clouds, and able to control a certain degree of electricity. Because it rarely landed during combat, it was extremely difficult to deal with.

Cole's hunter team had been pursuing it for days, mostly ending up dirty and fruitless, until today they finally eliminated the target, thanks to Jess.

It was because Jess had resistance to electricity that he was responsible for the dangerous mission of getting on the dragon. If the other hunters in the team jumped onto the dragon, they would be blasted away by the electricity in minutes and unable to stand firm at all.

Zhou Jing used his knife to support himself as he stood up, feeling the injuries. Although they were serious, with his current physique and resistance, he was far from death.

A new achievement popped up on the panel [First Kill of an Exotic Beast - Lethal], granting 2000 Star Realm Points, as well as small aptitude improvements to physique and resistance, and micro improvements to physique and resistance.

The progress of the [True·Exotic Beast Killer] milestone also smoothly increased to 45.

"Still need the final Exotic Beast King to complete this milestone achievement."

Zhou Jing rubbed his aching chest, muttering to himself.

More than a month had passed since Bill was selected to research the new Exotic Blood Potion, and he was currently buried in a secret imperial workshop, studying core technology.

The development of the new Exotic Blood Potion was more complicated than Zhou Jing had expected. Even with Bill's talent and assistance functions, there were no results for the time being, and progress was slow…

But that was just what he thought. In the eyes of others, since Bill participated in the research, the progress of the new Exotic Blood Potion, which had been stagnant, had finally begun to advance, which was already a surprise beyond words.

Because Bill's side couldn't be settled for the time being, and there was no danger, Zhou Jing placed himself on Jesson for this transit cycle.

Jesson's synchronization rate was already very high, and the idle intelligence was quite reliable, but this was the first time hunting a Lethal-level Exotic Beast, so Zhou Jing participated personally, following the team to hunt down a Cloud Spine Dragon that had attacked villages in search of food.

This place was not close to the royal capital, and no workshop members followed, so the hunters could only handle the Cloud Spine Dragon's corpse themselves.

Zhou Jing followed his companions and skillfully collected the most valuable parts of the material, then cut down trees and made a simple large cart to bind the entire dragon corpse to it.

According to the habits of wilderness hunting, the group would first send the corpse to the nearest city workshop for emergency treatment, and if the condition was good, they would transport the dragon corpse back to the royal capital.

The group packed up their trophies and set off together, pulling the cart.

Zhou Jing, as the hero and wounded, was asked by the team members to sit on the cart to rest.

He rested his head on his arm, watching Cole and the others pull the cart with effort, and his thoughts gradually drifted away.

Over the past few months, Zhou Jing had mainly used Bill's body to transit, with Jesson mainly being left idle, but his cultivation had not fallen behind. He had learned almost all of the eighteen hunter breathing techniques accumulated by the empire hunters.

In total, he had mastered fifteen hunter breathing techniques, the worst of which had also been raised to the Lv4 proficiency level. Only three techniques had limited improvement and were of little use, so there was no need to learn them.

Apart from the "Hunter Breathing·Forge" that he first learned from Barron, the other breathing techniques did not add many attribute bonuses. They were basically combat techniques, and some breathing techniques did not add attributes even at Lv4. Overall, the dozen or so breathing techniques he learned later increased his physique by 5 points, resistance by 3 points, and perception by 2 points.

The biggest change was still his actual combat power. Although he could only use one hunter breathing technique at a time, with his deliberate practice, he had greatly shortened the switching time, and they were all connected smoothly.

When facing different situations, he could quickly switch to the corresponding breathing technique, which was equivalent to quickly gaining bonuses for various actions, and increasing his relevant qualities to the peak state.

When he hunted the Cloud Spine Dragon, he used three hunter breathing techniques in succession. When jumping onto the dragon, he improved his dynamic vision and nerve reaction force, when fixing himself on the dragon's back, he strengthened his strength, and finally, he used the acceleration breathing technique to quickly give the prey a fatal blow.

"With my current state, after returning, I can probably carry out four enhancements."

Zhou Jing lay on the cart, looking casually at the sky leaking through the gaps in the canopy, calculating in his heart.

As long as this effect is similar to the three enhancements, his physique attribute should be able to reach the second-order limit, and a single attribute would be comparable to the level of five enhancements.

In this way, his own combat power would be close to or even reach Kreber's level, and he would officially become one of the top combat forces in this world's hunter group.

But now that he had discovered Roman's details, he knew that five exotic blood enhancements were not necessarily the true strongest level in the world. Maybe there were even more powerful guys hidden somewhere.

Just looking at the attributes, it was impossible to know a person's specific abilities. Zhou Jing didn't know what form of super-power system Roman had.

If he had to say his only advantage, it might be that his exotic blood-enhanced physique far exceeded Roman's. If it came to hand-to-hand combat, he would probably have the advantage, but each had their own strengths.

"If I could launch a sneak attack, killing Roman might not be that difficult…"

Zhou Jing muttered to himself.

Although he had decided to bet on both sides, he couldn't be unprepared, otherwise, if he became an enemy one day, he wouldn't have any psychological preparation.

Besides… Roman is Bill's good brother, what does it have to do with me, Jesson?

Zhou Jing sat on the swaying cart, just thinking wildly all the way.

After a few hours, the group finally saw the main road.

Walking along the road for a long time, they finally arrived at a city at night, which seemed to be built on a mountain.

"We're here, this is Deep Rock City, a fortress city. We can go in and rest."

Cole picked up a stone and threw it at Zhou Jing to remind him.

"We're finally here, my waist is stiff from sleeping." Zhou Jing clicked his tongue.

"Then why don't you get down and pull the cart?"

Cole said unhappily.

"I'm a seriously injured person, can you bear it?"

Zhou Jing responded casually, rolled over, and looked at Deep Rock City.

Deep Rock City was brightly lit under the night, and the light could be seen clearly even from the distant plain.

"As expected of a big city, it's so bright even so late, even the royal capital isn't this prosperous…"

Cole praised subconsciously, but his voice gradually became smaller.

The group was silent and looked into the distance for a while.

After a while, someone finally spoke cautiously:

"... Is the city on fire?"