I Can Devour Spirits

Chapter 209: Mountain Demon

Duan Rong decided to practice here on the cliff, employing the cultivation method he unexpectedly grasped while carrying large chests on Wild Boar Mountain.

Duan Rong chose Gu Mountain because it was the closest cliff to Xianggu County, a mere thirteen miles away, reachable on horseback in half an hour.

The whole Yuanyang Prefecture is a basin, surrounded by mountains, with a flat plain in the middle.

Xianggu County is situated on the southeastern outskirts of Yuanyang Prefecture, where there are more mountains and less land, making transportation difficult.

Gu Mountain is characterized by granite, with sparse vegetation, but many low sour jujube trees grow here.

Even the relatively easier-to-climb south slope rarely sees tourists, making it an excellent place for martial arts training.

Duan Rong untied a gourd from his waist, uncapped it, and gulped down a large mouthful of the broth inside.

After swallowing, Duan Rong exhaled and reattached the gourd to his waist.

Duan Rong’s eyes focused, his Inner Breath infused, and suddenly he bent down. With one hand under and the other grasping the edge, he held his breath, exerted strength, and hoisted the stone coffin onto his shoulder.

The granite was hard, far heavier than ordinary rock, and the stone coffin was three to four times Duan Rong’s size.

With the stone coffin pressing down on his shoulder, Duan Rong’s waist and shoulders sank suddenly. His gaze was cold as his Inner Breath surged. He steadied the stone coffin on his shoulder with both hands, performed the Cloud Serpent Step, and lightly leaped to stand, slightly tilted, on a protruding part of the steep rock face.

Duan Rong had to maintain balance while ensuring the stone coffin on his shoulder didn’t tilt. He couldn’t use his eyes to see the path, but through Divine Sense Projection, his perception was far clearer than sight.

Despite using Divine Sense Projection, carrying such a massive stone coffin and climbing a sheer cliff, even with his Cloud Serpent Step having reached the Minor Success Realm, it was still no easy task.

Duan Rong’s posture was somewhat uncanny at the moment. He stood on one foot on the rock’s protrusion, balancing like a golden rooster, shouldering the massive coffin with a slight lean...

He almost reached the finesse of balancing within the Lightweight Skill, maintaining this posture for several breaths...

It took Duan Rong several breaths to finally determine the spot for his next leap.

The cliff was a natural barrier, with few suitable landing spots.

Even though Duan Rong counted among the martial artists with some cultivation success in the Mortal World, carrying the stone coffin and attempting to traverse such a natural barrier was indeed not easy.

Duan Rong’s shoulder trembled slightly, controlling the stone coffin to tilt slowly. As it tilted to a certain angle, Duan Rong’s body began to tremble slightly. At this moment, he suddenly leapt, both man and stone, a dark silhouette in clothes, landed on a higher sloping rock protrusion.

Duan Rong, upon landing, instantly adjusted his balance, standing firmly with the stone coffin, breathed a long sigh. The leap had already greatly exhausted him.

And this Gu Mountain was nearly a thousand meters high. Who knew when he would reach the top?

Fortunately, he had drunk ample amounts of the green potion he brewed before climbing, otherwise, with such significant Inner Breath consumption and no replenishment, he wouldn’t have made it to the top before his Inner Breath depleted.

From the mountainside to the summit, the south slope of Gu Mountain was covered with low sour jujube trees!

The sour jujube is a type of wild jujube, with a large pit and thin flesh, capable of growing in barren rock crevices.

It was midsummer, the season for sour jujubes to ripen. However, the trees were not only low but sparsely fruited, with only a few fruit on each.

It was now dusk, the remnants of the red sunset painted the western sky like a wound.

Three small figures ran up to the mountain top.

They were thin, dressed in patched coarse linen shirts, running with their hands cupping the lower hems of their shirts in front of them.

Their bundled clothes bulged with the sour jujubes they picked along the way.

"Over there, there’s a big tree on that cliff top. I picked a lot there last year!" one of the children said while running.

The other two children, hearing him, their eyes gleamed with anticipation, sprinted towards the cliff top with all their might.

The three children indeed found a sour jujube tree far taller than usual, heavy with fruit, the red and white interlaced fruit shimmering enticingly under the sunset.

Bright-eyed, the three children hurried over to pluck the fruits.

"See? Told you I wasn’t lying!"

"Look, these fruits are bigger than the ones we just picked!"

"Hurry, pick them!"

Just as the three children eagerly picked the fruit, a giant black shadow suddenly leapt up from the cliff below.

It seemed to be a massive stone coffin!

The three children were startled, but the next moment, inexplicably, their vision darkened, and they suddenly fainted!

As one boy fell, Duan Rong unexpectedly rushed out from behind the stone coffin, enveloping the child, preventing him from striking a jagged rock behind as he fell, which would likely have resulted in severe injury.

Duan Rong, drenched in sweat, looked lethargic.

He had noticed the children at the top of the cliff with his Divine Sense, not wishing to frighten them, but after a thousand-meter ascent, his Inner Breath was nearly depleted, and with the stone coffin weighing on him, he could no longer hold out without leaping to the cliff top in front of the children.

Duan Rong placed the child down, looking around to see the three frail-looking children lying like they were asleep under the twilight of the setting sun, with the sour jujubes they gathered scattered across the ground.

Duan Rong picked up a few sour jujubes, popping them into his mouth. His lips were chapped, throat parched, and the tart, meaty fruit was refreshing, prompting him to eat several more.

After consuming the jujubes, Duan Rong rested a while, sitting atop the mountain, watching the sunset gradually descend. Rising suddenly, he untied the gourd at his waist, tipped his head back, and drank deeply, before retying the gourd to his waist.

After drinking the broth, with a slight circulation, he felt his Inner Breath gradually returning with vigor...

At that moment, Duan Rong suddenly waved his sleeve, a mist sprinkling around the trio of unconscious children.

Duan Rong swiftly appeared by the stone coffin, hoisted it onto his shoulder in one motion, and with his Divine Sense extending, leapt with the stone coffin from the cliff top.

Not long after Duan Rong leapt, the three unconscious children began to awaken, standing up, perplexed...

"What happened... why are we asleep at the summit?"

"Do you remember... I think I saw a huge stone coffin flying up from below the cliff..."

"Yeah! I saw it too, it landed right there!"

"What massive stone coffin are you talking about..." one child asked, puzzled. He was facing away from the cliff when picking fruit, not seeing the stone coffin fly up!

"What’s this? Did any of you eat jujubes?" one child suddenly asked, pointing fearfully at the jujube pits scattered on the ground.

"No..." spoke the trembling child.

"We started picking fruit as soon as we got here, no time to sneak a bite!

"Let’s go! It’s a mountain sprite! Mountain sprites eat children!"

The three kids hastily gathered the scattered fruit, stuffing them into their clothes and hurriedly ran down the mountain...

Behind them, the summit was already cloaked in twilight, and a long shadow from a sour jujube tree, taller than usual, stretched across the cleared ground littered with wild fruits...