In the world of martial arts, one works tirelessly to attain enlightenment.

Chapter 175, Subduing the Fiery Bird

"Humans, hand over my descendants!"

The golden giant bird stared at Lin Ran with its crimson-gold eyes. In its perception, this human was the strongest. Although his aura was not quite the same as the one it had been tracking, the two auras were connected, and he also had the aura of a descendant on him.

Looking at the giant golden bird, Lin Ran suddenly had an idea: he seemed to be missing a mount!

The golden giant bird stared at Lin Ran and suddenly sensed a malice coming from the human in front of it.

"Humans!"

The golden giant bird was furious and spat out a pillar of crimson-gold fire, completely engulfing the shuttle.

Lin Ran raised his hand, and crimson fire spirit energy appeared, blocking all the flames of the golden giant bird. When the two sides made contact, a large amount of crimson-gold flames were devoured by the fire spirit energy.

The golden giant bird noticed the situation and immediately withdrew its flames.

It flapped its wings, and countless golden feathers appeared out of thin air, rushing towards the flying shuttle.

Lin Ran opened her hand, and a translucent, earth-yellow cube appeared in her palm.

The cube jumped upwards and immediately expanded to thousands of times its original size, completely enveloping the shuttle.

ding ding ding...

Countless golden feathers struck the cube, producing a sound like metal clashing. The feathers shattered and disappeared, while the cube remained unharmed.

The giant golden bird retracted its wings, a look of solemnity flashing in its eyes.

Although it was just a test, the fact that it could so easily withstand its attack suggests that this human's strength is likely superior to its own!

Lin Ran suddenly took a step and appeared outside the cube.

He waved his hand, and the cube connected to the shuttle, immediately retreating hundreds of meters.

Lin Ran looked at the giant golden bird and spoke.

"What race are you? I haven't seen any information about you before."

"In your human language, my name is the Fiery Bird."

The Fiery Bird made a sound, and its hundred-meter-long body, excluding its tail, floated slowly, surrounded by countless golden and red light spots.

Lin Ran activated the Truth Eye Technique, seeing through the golden and red light spots. These were two techniques mastered by the Fiery Bird: fire and gold.

After a brief silence.

Lin Ran smiled.

"I see you're quite capable. Become a mount for my team; that way, I won't have to worry about your descendants, and you'll have the chance to join the human race, receive the clan's blessing, and advance your bloodline. What do you say?"

"...Human, you are courting death."

The voice of the Fiery Bird was not angry, but calm, and it looked at Lin Ran as if she were a dead man.

Lin Ran smiled, guessing the reaction of the Fiery Bird.

"Whether you're courting death or not, you'll soon find out."

As soon as the words were spoken, a cold, grand, and indifferent voice rang out from behind.

"Cursed Fire!"

"Curse Gold!"

"Curse!"

Three halos appeared out of thin air; the gold and red halos descended upon the Fiery Bird, ignoring the crimson-gold flames burning on its body, and merged into it.

Instantly, the aura of the Fiery Bird dropped significantly, by about 30%!

A stream of black energy flowed into Lin Ran's body, turning his skin a black-gold color and greatly enhancing his defense and attack power.

With a thought, Lin Ran activated the Eight Gates Formation, opening all seven gates simultaneously. A surge of powerful qi and blood flowed out, spreading outwards and driving away the flames, creating a vacuum in the fire.

"Humans! What kind of methods are these?!"

The Fiery Bird sensed Lin Ran's presence, a flicker of panic flashed in its eyes, then quickly disappeared, leaving it staring intently at Lin Ran.

Lin Ran smiled slightly and raised her fist to smash the Fiery Bird.

When the Fiery Bird saw Lin Ran raise his fist, it suddenly felt a strong sense of crisis and immediately flapped its wings to retreat, but as soon as it made the flapping motion, it felt a pain on its face.

Then, an irresistible force surged forth, shattering the spiritual energy shield, penetrating the skull, and rushing into the soul, causing a momentary blankness in the mind.

boom!

The Fiery Bird, with its body over a hundred meters long, flew out horizontally. The aftershocks spread out, extinguishing the flames within a radius of dozens of miles in an instant, creating a rare open space.

Golden light flashed from Lin Ran's knees, and then his body seemed to cross space, appearing above the Fiery Bird's head, and he threw another punch.

boom!

The Fiery Bird was blasted into the ground, shattering the earth within a radius of three to four hundred meters. Most of its pale golden feathers were also blown apart, but its dozen or so tail feathers still maintained their luster.

Lin Ran was about to make a move when she suddenly tilted her head back.

The next moment, a long tail fin passed right in front of him, and the space seemed to distort where it passed.

Lin Ran stretched out her right hand and reached forward, a dark glint flashing in her eyes.

boom!

Space froze for a moment, the tail fin stopped abruptly, and then Lin Ran grabbed it. The golden blood energy flowed up his arm and extended to his five fingers. The burst of blood energy crushed the tail fin!

The Fiery Bird regained consciousness and let out a painful cry. All the golden feathers on its wings turned into golden light and rushed towards Lin Ran. Then, the remaining tail feathers, carrying different kinds of radiance, followed closely behind.

A sound came from afar, cold, grand, and indifferent.

"curse!"

Instantly, the Fiery Bird slowed its movements, and countless human faces sprouted from its body, devouring spiritual energy and power, multiplying in a disorderly manner. Sorrow, howls, pain, despair... countless emotions rushed into the Fiery Bird's mind.

Lin Ran's lips curled up, and all her golden energy was drawn back to the surface of her body. Then, countless feathers struck her main body.

Ding ding ding ding...

Amidst the clanging of metal, Can Jin's vital energy flickered slightly, and all the feathers instantly shattered.

The tail fins, carrying different forces, struck Lin Ran. The forces from the tail fins complemented each other, causing the lethality to surge several levels.

However, when faced with the defensive layer formed by the concentrated golden blood and qi, it only caused the light to dim slightly before exhausting its power.

Lin Ran couldn't help but marvel at how powerful the defensive capabilities of the View Gate were even before it was fully opened. It was hard to imagine just how strong the combat power would be once all eight gates were opened.

He raised his fist, creating afterimages as he swung it, and slammed it down hard on the head of the Fiery Bird.

boom!

"Should I?"

boom!

"say!"

boom!

"With so little strength to resist, have you not eaten?"

boom!

The earth shattered, and the Fiery Bird's body was repeatedly slammed into the ground. Its head was buzzing, and then it was awakened by its rapidly depleting life force. If this continued, it would really be beaten to death!

Boom boom boom...

After hundreds of punches, the Fiery Bird was powerless to resist. Its body was bare, its long tail was dull, and its heterochromatic golden and red eyes were dim. Countless human faces devoured its life force.

As it gradually slid towards the abyss of death, the Crimson Bird finally chose to compromise.

"Human, I surrender and will become your mount."

Lin Ran threw another punch, but the curse had failed to activate.

boom……

After another barrage of extremely brutal punches, Lin Ran stopped.

The fiery bird lowered its head and accepted the curse.

Then a flash of light, and Lin Ran felt the ground beneath her go empty.

The hundreds-of-meters-long fiery bird transformed into a human form—a woman whose figure and appearance were no less stunning than those of Nangong Yu and the others.

The feathers that used to be its clothes are now completely gone.

Lin Ran frowned and slapped her round and perky breasts.

"Change back to normal!"

(End of this chapter)