Astral Apostle
chapter-175

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

The wind raged.

In the steep mountain range surrounded by clouds, a blue-black flying dragon with a wingspan of more than ten meters circled around the mountainside. From time to time, it would flap its wings and dive down, like blue lightning striking down from the sky.

Its head connected to its sinuous neck bit at the few figures that were agilely jumping like apes halfway up the mountain, but it always missed. Its mouth full of sharp teeth could only crush the mountain rocks with a bang.

The huge dragon rushed past with the wind. The few figures hurriedly grabbed onto the rocks tightly and lowered their heads to resist the subsequent wind pressure. Their clothes fluttered in the wind, but their bodies seemed to be embedded in the mountain wall and could never be blown down.

Cole watched as the flying dragon circled around and turned around to charge at the hunter team again. He shouted out,

“Jace, it’s time. It’s up to you!”

The wind tore his voice apart as the flying dragon approached again. Cole and the other hunters hurriedly dodged the flying dragon’s dive.

The flying dragon’s attack missed again, and it flew along the mountain wall as usual. However, at this moment, its body suddenly sank as a heavy object landed on its back.

Where it wasn’t paying attention, Jason’s figure fell from a higher cliff and jumped onto the dragon’s back. His timing was extremely precise. If he was faster or slower, he would directly pass the dragon and fall off the cliff.

Jason’s eyes were bright as he moved. Zhou Jing had personally descended onto this apostle.

Stepping on the dragon’s back, Zhou Jing changed the frequency of his breathing and switched to a new Hunter’s Breathing Technique. His muscles instantly swelled up, and using the momentum of his fall, the two blades in his hands stabbed into the dragon’s scaley back.

Splat!

......

He could feel the feedback from the blade. It had directly broken through the sturdy dragon scales and pierced into the tough flesh, stuck in the gap of the dragon spine.

The wind pressure engulfed him, pushing against his eyes. Zhou Jing lowered his body, bent his waist, and contracted his abdomen. He held the two blades and nailed them firmly to the dragon’s back as if he was controlling the wild dragon currently struggling in pain.

Sizzle—

Electric currents suddenly surged on the dragon’s body. Blue and white lightning chains were activated, jumping along the spines as if they were lightning rods. In an instant, they struck Zhou Jing, who was on the dragon’s back.

Crackle crackle crackle!

There was the crisp sound of an electric shock, but the expected effect did not appear. Zhou Jing’s body trembled slightly, but he stood bathed in the electric light as if he was not injured or even sent flying.

“Your electricity… is too weak!”

Zhou Jing’s eyes flickered with lightning as he released the bioelectricity in his own body. Then, he switched to another Hunter’s Breathing Technique and suddenly entered a high-speed state. The two blades in his hands spun like the wind, bringing him along the dragon’s back to the base of the dragon’s neck.

The two blades stabbed out repeatedly, quickly finding the spine. Zhou Jing cut it off without hesitation.

A furious and miserable dragon roar resounded through the sky, but the flying dragon’s body fell uncontrollably towards the forest range.

Pi la pi la… The flying dragon crashed through the canopy of branches, breaking trees along the way before crashing to the ground.

Boom!

A huge crater formed in the ground. The flying dragon lay within it, struggling with all its might. It could not stand up again, only stirring up the soil and dirt around it.

Thick blood kept flowing out of the dragon’s mouth. Blood sprayed out from the wound on the dragon’s back, soaking the soil and dyeing the surroundings scarlet.

Dozens of meters away, there was another small pit. Zhou Jing, who was covered in branches and leaves, crawled up and could not help but vomit a mouthful of blood. He felt as if someone had beaten his organs heavily, as if they were about to crumble together.

The dull pain of falling from a high altitude tore at his nerves. If not for the fact that he had already expected such a situation to happen, he would have already fallen apart.

Even so, he was still seriously injured.

Zhou Jing wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and strode to the half-paralyzed flying dragon with his saber. Without a word, he pierced through the other party’s scarlet dragon eyes and into its brain, finally stopping the dragon’s death throes.

“Phew… Phew, I finally killed this dragon.”

Zhou Jing took more than 10 steps back to create a safe distance before sitting on the ground, panting heavily and sweating profusely.

Not long after, Cole and the others rushed down the mountain and immediately surrounded them.

“Jace, are you okay?”

“If you stop asking such nonsense, I’ll be fine.”

Zhou Jing replied angrily as he coughed out another mouthful of blood.

Cole patted his shoulder, then looked at the huge dragon corpse and heaved a sigh of relief. “After chasing this Cloud Spine Dragon for half a month and fighting three to four times, we’ve finally eliminated this threat.”

The Cloud Spine Dragon was a Fatal-risk beast. It could fly in the sky and often circle in the clouds. In addition, it could control a certain amount of electric current. Because it would rarely land in battle, it was very difficult to deal with.

Cole’s hunter team had been chasing after this particular dragon for many days. Most of the time, they were covered in dust and had moot to show for their efforts. It was only today that they had dealt with their target. It was all thanks to Jace.

Because Jace possessed electric resistance, he was in charge of carrying out the dangerous mission of riding on the Cloud Spine Dragon. If the other hunters in the team jumped onto the dragon, they would be blown away by the electric current in minutes and unable to stand at all.

Zhou Jing propped himself up with the blade and felt his injuries. Although they were not light, with his current physique and Resistance, he was still far from death.

A new achievement popped up on the interface: [First Kill of a Mutant Beast – Fatal Risk]. It gave him 2,000 Astral Points, a coupon each for Physical Fitness and Resistance increase (Small), and a coupon each for Physical Fitness and Resistance increase (Slight).

The progress of the [True Mutant Beast Killer] milestone also smoothly increased to 4/5.

“I’m still missing the final Mutant Beast King before I can complete this milestone.”

Zhou Jing rubbed his aching chest and muttered to himself.

It had been more than a month since Bill was chosen to study the new blood potion. He was buried in research on core technology in a secret empire workshop at the moment.

The development of the new blood potion was more complicated than Zhou Jing had expected. Even with Bill’s talent and support functions, there were no results for a while, and the progress was slow.

However, this was only what he felt. In the eyes of others, since Bill’s participation in the research, the new blood potion had been progressing without any hitches. With some sort of advancement, it was already a pleasant surprise.

Because Bill would not be able to settle it, for the time being, Zhou Jing placed himself on Jason during this projection cycle.

Jason’s synchronization rate was already very high, so his intelligence during the placement cycles was quite reliable. However, since this was the first time he was hunting a fatal-risk mutant beast, Zhou Jing decided to personally participate. He followed the team and chased after a Cloud Spine Dragon that had attacked the village for food.

This place was not close to the capital, and there were no workshop members following them. The hunter could only deal with the Cloud Spine Dragon’s corpse themselves.

Zhou Jing followed his companions and collected the most valuable materials. Then, he cut down the tree and made a simple large cart to load the entire dragon corpse on.

According to the habit of hunting in the wild, everyone would first send the corpse to the nearest city workshop for emergency treatment. If the situation was good, they would then transport the dragon corpse back to the capital.

The group packed up their spoils of war before pulling the handcart along.

As a hero and an injured person, Zhou Jing was asked to sit on the cart and rest.

His head was resting on his arm as he watched Cole and the others pulling the carriage. His thoughts gradually drifted away.

Over the past few months, Zhou Jing had mainly used Bill’s body for projection. Jason was mainly put on placement, but his cultivation did not fall behind. He had already learned most of the 18 Hunter Breathing Techniques accumulated by the Empire’s Hunters.

He had mastered a total of 15 Hunter Breathing Techniques to at least Lv4 Proficient. It was only three of the techniques that had limited improvements and were not very useful that were left at Lv4.

Other than the [Hunter’s Breath·Forging] that he had first learned from Barong, the other attributes of the breathing technique did not increase much towards his attributes. Most of them were basically techniques to be used in combat. There were even some breathing techniques that did not increase attributes even after reaching the proficient stage. Overall, the more than 10 breathing techniques that he had learned later had increased his Physical Fitness by 5 points, Resistance by 3 points, and Perception by 2 points.

The biggest change was still his actual combat strength. Although he could only use one Hunter’s Breathing Technique at a time, he had already greatly shortened the time needed to switch to another technique.

When faced with different situations, he could quickly switch to the corresponding breathing. It was equivalent to quickly receiving bonuses for all kinds of actions, raising the relevant attributes to their peak state.

When he was hunting the Cloud Spine Dragon, he had used three types of hunter breathing techniques in a row. When he jumped into the dragon, he increased his dynamic vision and reaction speed. When he fixed himself on the dragon’s back, he increased his strength. Finally, he used the breathing technique of acceleration to quickly give his prey a fatal blow.

“In my current state, I can almost undergo my fourth enhancement when I return.”

Zhou Jing lay on the cart and casually looked at the sky through the gaps in the canopy. He was slowly calculating in his heart.

As long as the effect this time was similar to his Third Enhancement, his physical attributes would be able to reach the limit of the Second Order. His single attribute would reach a level comparable to a Fifth Enhancement Mutant Blood Warrior.

This way, his combat strength would be close to or even reach Keriber’s level, officially becoming one of the top combat forces of this world’s hunters.

However, now that he had discovered Roman’s background, he knew that five enhancements might not mean that he was the strongest in the world. There might be someone stronger hiding somewhere.

Furthermore, it was impossible to know a person’s specific abilities just by looking at their attributes. Zhou Jing also did not know what kind of superpower system Roman was using.

The only advantage he had was that his mutant blood strengthened his physique, which far exceeded Roman’s. In terms of hand-to-hand combat, he had an 80% advantage.

“If I launch a sneak attack, it might not be so difficult to kill Roman…”

Zhou Jing grumbled to himself.

Although he had decided to bet on both sides, he could not be completely unguarded. He had to always be mentally prepared that he could become enemies with them one day.

Besides… Roman was Bill’s good brother. What did he have to do with Jason?

Zhou Jing sat on the rickety cart and let his imagination run wild.

After a few hours, they finally reached the main road.

After walking along the main road for a long time, they finally arrived at a city late at night. The entire city looked as if it was built on a mountain.

“We’re here. This is Deep Rock City, a fortress city. We can go in and rest.”

Cole picked up the stone and threw it at Zhou Jing.

“We’re finally here. My waist is almost stiff from sleeping.” Zhou Jing smacked his lips.

“Then why don’t you come down and pull the cart?”

Cole replied in an annoyed tone.

“I’m a seriously injured person. Do you have to do this?”

Zhou Jing replied casually. With a backflip, he easily got up, looking at Deep Rock City.

Deep Rock City was brightly lit at night. Even from afar, the light could be seen clearly.

“As expected of a big city. It’s still so bright at this late hour. Even the capital city isn’t so prosperous…”

Cole subconsciously praised the city, but his voice suddenly became softer and softer.

Everyone was silent for a while.

Then, someone spoke carefully.

“… Is the city on fire?”