Covering the Sky: I, Wang Teng, truly lack the bearing of an emperor.

Chapter 357 The Unaffiliated Cultivator Team, Forced Joining

Before them stood another group of apes.

However, the monkeys had their backs to them and didn't notice them for a moment.

After seeing the giant ape as guided by the gap-toothed old man, the rogue cultivator Tiger was completely horrified.

"Why are there so many monkeys?" the rogue cultivator, Fierce Tiger, asked the others telepathically.

Although he didn't speak, everyone could feel the tremor in his voice even through telepathic communication.

Of course, the fact that Wang Teng and his group were able to get so close to a group of apes, yet the apes still didn't react, also suggests that these apes were only physically strong, but their spiritual sense was pitifully weak.

Even when they tried to communicate with the monkeys using telepathy, the monkeys didn't react at all.

"Judging from their movements, they seem to be hunting!" The old man with the gap-toothed tooth, being experienced, quickly figured out what the monkeys were doing.

"Hunting? What are they hunting?" Wang Teng asked.

"It's obvious! They're hunting down other cultivators!" the gap-toothed old man said.

"What? Fierce Tiger, are you going to go up and suppress them with your divine sense, or do you want to come with us and take a detour?" The gap-toothed old man asked the rogue cultivator Fierce Tiger.

"I..." The rogue cultivator, Fierce Tiger, seemed a little embarrassed, but in the end he gritted his teeth and said, "Wait for me!"

They carefully avoided the hunting monkeys.

It wasn't that they didn't want to help, but that they couldn't. From a distance, there were at least dozens of apes hunting a group of rogue cultivators, and half of them were large adult apes. If a fight broke out, their small team would definitely be no match for them in terms of their apparent cultivation and combat strength.

So they had no choice but to go around it.

In addition, this group of people did not put in any effort at work!

The old man with the gap-toothed tooth had already noticed this when they were fighting the baby ape, so he decisively led everyone around it.

Wang Teng turned his head and glanced at it before leaving as well.

Ultimately, he wasn't familiar with those people, and every rogue cultivator who entered the million-mile Qinling Mountains did so for the sake of opportunity. They should also know what kind of crises they would face after entering the million-mile Qinling Mountains. Since it was their own choice, Wang Teng had no need to interfere with other people's fate.

"Don't feel sorry, it's all a choice everyone made. Didn't we risk our lives to enter the Qinling Mountains, which stretch for millions of miles? We might be talking together right now, but we might encounter other crises the next moment. How many of us will survive depends entirely on our fate!"

The old man with the gap-toothed grinned and said, "As a rogue cultivator who actively seeks opportunities, one should be prepared to die."

The group of independent cultivators remained silent.

Perhaps the old man with the missing tooth's sentiments failed to resonate with them.

After all, of the twelve people in the group, only the one who was most active along the way, named Fierce Tiger, was a true rogue cultivator. The other eleven people had other identities to varying degrees, so they were destined to be unable to understand the plight of rogue cultivators.

After getting around the monkeys, they encountered many dangers along the way.

This is, after all, the central region of the Qinling Mountains, which stretches for millions of miles. In addition to the original inhabitants, there are also powerful outsiders who came for the top-grade dragon marrow. When the two sides meet, a fight is inevitable.

Sometimes the aftershocks of the battle could even sweep across a radius of thousands of miles, forcing their group to take detours multiple times.

Moreover, the deeper they went, the more powerful the creatures they encountered became!
After traveling 300,000 li, they encountered a late-stage dragon transformation being. It was a golden-crowned eagle with wings that stretched for tens of miles. When it flew, it blotted out the sky and cast a large shadow.

Wang Teng used his Martial Arts Heavenly Eye to take a look and discovered that the other party had a trace of Golden-Winged Roc bloodline that was so thin that it was almost negligible.

"A distant relative of that Golden-Winged Roc King..." Wang Teng couldn't help but say to himself.

When the Golden-Winged Roc King was mentioned, Wang Teng knew that the Golden-Winged Roc King was currently undergoing special training with his clan.

If he manages to survive, the Golden-Winged Roc King's future achievements will definitely be remarkable; at the very least, he could become an ancient sage, or even surpass one.

In the original story, the Golden-Winged Roc King ultimately fell during the trial, but in this life, Wang Teng planted a seed in the other's heart, and the Golden-Winged Roc King's future will change because of that seed.

There is a high probability that the Golden-Winged Roc King will reappear in the future, and it will shock everyone.

Of course, the golden-crowned eagle in front of us looks very powerful, with the cultivation of the peak of the Dragon Transformation Realm, but its potential is far from comparable to that of the Golden-Winged Little Roc King, and the little bit of Golden-Winged Roc bloodline in its body is so thin that it can be almost ignored.

So Wang Teng didn't pay much attention and turned around to follow the "rogue cultivators".

However, not long after they left, a cry that could be heard for miles around suddenly rang out, filled with anger.

Then an earth-shattering battle broke out. Even though they were thousands of miles apart, they could feel the immense pressure emanating from there. The pressure lasted for a long time and finally ended with a cry and a roar.

"A powerful expert has made a move! It should be a peak expert of the Dragon Transformation Realm, or an expert who has entered or exited the Immortal Platform Realm!" The gap-toothed old man said with a solemn expression.

Because if it were a stronger opponent, the golden-crowned eagle wouldn't have fought for so long.

"I just don't know who won," said the scarred rogue cultivator, played by a prince of the Nine Li Dynasty.

"Hopefully, the golden-crowned eagle will win. That way, we'll have one less powerful opponent in the future," said the rogue cultivator, Fierce Tiger.

They continued deeper into the Qinling Mountains, which stretch for hundreds of thousands of miles, and finally began to slow down, or even come to a complete stop.

Because the beings you encounter here are mostly powerful beings from the Dragon Transformation Secret Realm, you might accidentally run into one if you're not careful.

Moreover, most of the powerful outsiders who came here were at the Dragon Transformation Realm level. Whenever they encountered other independent cultivator teams, the gap-toothed old man would carefully avoid them and even smile as he watched them leave.

"Strange! We haven't even gone a tenth of the way into the Qinling Mountains, how come we've already encountered so many powerful figures!" the gap-toothed old man muttered to himself.

"Could this be the legendary place where top-grade dragon marrow is born?" the scarred-faced rogue cultivator suddenly asked. The gap-toothed old man glanced at the scarred-faced rogue cultivator and nodded.

“That’s possible. Others set off even earlier. Take that team from earlier, for example. If they hadn’t been made to stay here, they would have continued deeper into the Qinling Mountains. Normally, they should already be deep in the Qinling Mountains, which are worth millions of miles…” The gap-toothed old man pondered and said.

The two rogue cultivators they had just encountered were powerful, with more than twenty of them all being cultivators at the Dragon Transformation Realm. Logically, they should have gone deeper, but instead, they didn't continue to venture further, as if they were searching for something in the surrounding area.

Wang Teng also glanced silently at the scarred rogue cultivator. Seeing the expression on the face of the Nine Li Prince beneath his true form, he could roughly deduce that the top-grade dragon marrow might not be deep within the Qinling Mountains, but rather in the central region of the Qinling Mountains.

The old man with the gap-toothed tooth stopped, casually broke off a twig, and drew a series of intricate and obscure symbols on the ground. Then he muttered incantations, as if he were performing some kind of ritual.

They weren't far apart, so Wang Teng could clearly hear what the gap-toothed old man was muttering and fiddling with.

"Heavenly spirits, earthly spirits, ancient emperors, please manifest your power! The ancient emperor of Jiuli is unparalleled under heaven! The ancient emperor of Great Xia lives forever!..."

The old man muttered incantations, reciting the names of each ancient emperor of Zhongzhou, then suddenly opened his eyes and roared "Hurry!" at the complex and intricate markings on the ground.
As soon as he finished speaking, the intricate and complex markings on the ground actually changed, slowly shifting and outlining another form.

The old man with the gap-toothed tooth looked at it carefully for a moment, then stood up and said confidently, "According to the guidance of the Dragon Seeking Manual, the dragon marrow may be found if we go east."

However, no sooner had he finished speaking than the icy beauty in the crowd couldn't help but speak up, "The Dragon Seeking Manual clearly points to the northwest, so how... how did you find the dragon marrow in the first place?"

Beneath the icy beauty's exterior lies the old man, the protector of the prince of the Nine Li Dynasty, his face brimming with disdain.

To be honest, he was a little surprised when he saw that this rogue cultivator had mastered such a profound Dragon-Seeking Technique, but when the other party couldn't understand anything and could only describe the location, he felt that he had surprised too soon.

"What? Northwest?" The gap-toothed old man was taken aback. "But the divination indicates it's heading east."

"The dragon's head points east, but its tail and two of its claws point southeast. This is the 'trapped dragon' formation. When encountering this formation, one cannot judge it based on its surface divination; the position of the dragon and water should be changed..."

The icy beauty, with a look of disdain on her face, slowly began to explain to the gap-toothed old man and those around her what the divination symbols on the ground meant.

"What? Is that so? Why didn't my master teach me that back then?" The gap-toothed old man was filled with shock upon hearing this.

"There are two possibilities. It's possible that he doesn't know how, or that he doesn't want to teach you," said the protector of the Jiuli Dynasty, who was disguised as an icy beauty.

“That’s not right. How do you know about this Dragon-Seeking Technique? My master said that this Dragon-Seeking Technique has been lost for a long time…” the gap-toothed old man asked.

"I bought it. I bought 500 jin of it from an old Taoist priest," the icy beauty said.

The gap-toothed old man gasped upon hearing this, "This...this...I suspect I might have been scammed!"

"So which way do we go?" a young prodigy disguised as a rogue cultivator asked impatiently.

Wang Teng glanced at the other person. Although he didn't recognize him, it wasn't difficult to tell from his cultivation level and demeanor that this impatient prodigy was the weakest among all the hidden prodigies present.

While the cultivation level of the peak of the Four Extremes Secret Realm seems to be on par with Xia Jiuyou, in a real fight, this little guy might not even be able to withstand a single slap from Xia Jiuyou.

However, it was precisely because this young prodigy, disguised as a rogue cultivator, had the lowest strength and weakest combat power that he failed to notice that ten out of his eleven teammates were not quite right. The pride of a prodigy emanating from his very bones gave him a faint sense of superiority over these rogue cultivator companions.

"Let's listen to this young lady and head northwest!" the gap-toothed old man said after careful consideration.

They changed direction and headed northwest.

Along the way, they encountered more and more independent cultivators, and these cultivators seemed to be heading in the northwest with a specific purpose.

"It seems this young lady's skill in the Dragon Seeking Technique is indeed superb!" the gap-toothed old man said.

If he hadn't experienced anything along the way, he wouldn't be so emotional. But seeing so many people heading northwest meant that there were also strong individuals among the other independent cultivators, and that they knew some of the Dragon Seeking Technique and knew where to go to find the Dragon Marrow.

"I only know a little bit," the icy beauty said calmly.

Along the way, when encountering other independent cultivators, the gap-toothed old man would avoid them if possible. If he couldn't avoid them, he would smile obsequiously and bow his head, asking them to go first.

It was precisely because of this behavior that they did not encounter any difficulties from independent cultivators along the way.

Wang Teng was still secretly impressed by how humble the gap-toothed old man was, but some members of their team were not entirely satisfied.

"Is it really necessary? The strongest among that group was only at the third level of the Dragon Transformation Realm. Should we let them pass first just because we see them?"

He spoke with dissatisfaction towards the weak prodigy who was disguised as a rogue cultivator.

In his view, this was just a rogue cultivator at the third level of the Dragon Transformation Realm. If he used all his skills, he could defeat him.

"Then go catch up with him and challenge him. If you can win, let him stand there and watch us pass by," the gap-toothed old man said, glaring at the prodigy who had just spoken, disguised as a rogue cultivator, his words already filled with dissatisfaction.

“I…” The prodigy who was disguised as a rogue cultivator was stunned upon hearing this.

He did have the means to deal with that rogue cultivator at the third level of the Dragon Transformation Realm, but he wasn't alone. He had a team of rogue cultivators with him. Even if he had some means to fight against a cultivator at the third level of the Dragon Transformation Realm, he couldn't do anything to the others beside him.

"What do you mean, 'you'! If you can't beat them, then shut up. You've been talking the most the whole way. You're just a rogue cultivator, yet you act all high and mighty. Do you really think you're some kind of prodigy?!" The gap-toothed old man angrily rebuked the rogue cultivator who had spoken, showing no mercy.

The prodigy disguised as a rogue cultivator didn't speak again, but their commotion attracted another group of rogue cultivators not far away.

Unlike other rogue cultivators, this pair of rogue cultivators clearly came with malicious intent.

"How did you manage to get here with so many low-level rogue cultivators? Aren't you afraid of encountering any danger?" The leader was a burly man who looked at the toothless old man and the dozen or so people behind him and asked with a smile.

Before the old man with tiger teeth and the others could answer, he continued with a smile, "Why don't you join us? We outnumber you and are much stronger. Your safety will be improved if you come with us. What do you say? Do you want to come with us?"

(End of this chapter)