The legendary warrior

Ricky immediately jumped down from the huge tree and swung his arms before sidling up to Heather. He looked into her eyes which were wide open in shock and said smugly, "Hey, cutie, how do you like me now? I must be the man of your dreams."

"Dream on!" Heather said disdainfully after hearing what Ricky had said.

Despite her retort, the shock wouldn't vanish from her heart in a short time. He was right that she was becoming more attracted to him, but she wasn't about to let him know that.

She knew that Ricky had been at the seventh grade of Skin Refinement. She wondered about how he broke through the seventh and reached the eighth grade of Skin Refinement in only a few hours. Even the most talented genius couldn't do that.

'Maybe he hid his strength before. Father once told me that some special medicine could hide the true ability of a warrior, ' Heather guessed.

Then they left the swamp with Ricky still building himself up and Heather responding coldly from time to time.

Ricky didn't talk about parting with Heather, and neither did Heather. They sparred, training for the Iron Blood Trial together. And they got closer while doing so.

Ricky had killed the Anaconda-tailed Tiger and taken the black dots from Finn and Waylon, so he had nearly seven hundred black dots on his ironwood. There was no point in continuing to hunt down fierce animals.

But once he found out about the secret of his Blood Zone, Ricky started hunting fierce beasts again.

Before they finally left the mountains, Ricky had killed five more ferocious beasts—all of them at the eighth grade of Skin Refinement.

Each time, Ricky snuck into the place where he killed the beasts and dragged the corpses into the Blood Zone. He didn't let Heather know about this.

Ricky's strength reached the peak of the eighth grade after he refined three beasts at the eighth grade of Skin Refinement.

And Ricky figured that he could make breakthroughs by refining a certain number of ferocious beasts using the Blood Zone.

But Ricky decided to hold off on that for a while. Instead, he focused on honing his technique. Using the Blood Zone, he didn't need the Body Refining Pill to eliminate the impurities inside his body. But there was a price.

'So using the Blood Zone isn't foolproof. It doesn't provide a solid foundation for improving my strength. That will become a problem later on, ' thought Ricky.

take some time and spar more, then maybe I can get

Blood Zone to make breakthroughs and then eliminate this

end of the Iron

Ricky decided to look for Jim.

always hiding from Jim because he knew he was no match for the warrior. But things were different now. He was at the peak of the eighth grade of Skin Refinement. He should be able to go toe-to-toe

had guessed correctly. Apparently Jim had summoned several disciples from the Snow Sect, intending to hunt Ricky down. Many warriors who attended the trial knew his name, if nothing else.

......

it easy

in the trial, but he didn't take their ironwood nor kill them. He just told them to let everyone

you probably need to get out of here before long," Ricky told

kind of girl who would leave a friend in the lurch?"

get it. This is a personal beef between the disciples of the Snow Sect. You shouldn't get involved. What if you being here causes them to go

that, Heather

Lion King Castle was nowhere near a match for the Snow Sect. What if they were destroyed in the

alone!" Heather made up her mind and took a

you say things like that and still deny you're in love with me."

Aside from his father and his mentor Grace,

you as a friend!" Heather said shyly, her cheeks

"Ha ha!"

bashful Heather was, Ricky chuckled.

......

hidden, so she could help if

......

was a contestant in Iron Blood Trial. The other two were either from the Casting

maliciously, glaring at Ricky. Anyone could tell that he wanted to kill the

waiting for?" Ricky