A pinky-sized ball of pure energy hovered in Jian Chen’s hand. It was the strand of emperor’s power he had obtained from Thysnich back in the Octoterra Divine Hall. It had personally been left in Thysnich’s body by the hall master of the Serpent God Hall.
Jian Chen had stored the power in the artifact space since he had obtained it. The artifact spirit had personally watched over it. Jian Chen had only taken it out to use it once against Kaiser. After so much time, he had almost forgotten about it, and only now did he remember it.
All energies besides Jian Chen’s Chaotic Force and Tie Ta’s powers suffered restrictions in the Xuanhuang Microcosm. As soon as it appeared, the strand of emperor’s power quickly began to dissipate.
Jian Chen knew that he could not leave the emperor’s power out for too long. He looked at the region of dust caused by the writhing alligator and charged in without any hesitation. Using the senses of his soul to observe the surroundings, he immediately headed toward the alligator’s head.
The alligator seemed to sense that Jian Chen now possessed a power great enough to threaten it. It temporarily forgot about the excruciating pain of its eye and began to slowly retreat. At the same time, a clear crack rang through the air as its thick and agile tail quickly whipped toward Jian Chen.
Jian Chen’s senses had locked onto the tail’s trajectory, allowing him to agilely dodge it. With a flash, he arrived in front of the alligator’s head and struck it with the strand of emperor’s power as quickly as he could. In order to prevent the power from being wasted, Jian Chen attached a sliver of his soul to the power, so that he could control it in crucial moments.
The emperor power shot out extremely quick, targeting the blinded eye of the alligator. The beast wanted to flee, but it was unable to dodge the incoming power due to it being too slow. In the end, the valuable strand of energy struck the eye of the beast with utmost precision.
Boom!
With a heavy sound, the emperor’s power exploded in the beast’s head. The great force caused its head to jolt as bright red and white substances sprayed out from its ears, mouth, nostrils, and eyes.
If the emperor’s power had struck the body of the beast, it probably would only have left behind some shallow wounds, just like what had happened to Kaiser. However, since it hit the alligator’s weakest point, its head exploded,and it suffered fatal damage. Even with its tough body, it could not endure it.
The beast’s body froze. One of its eyes had been destroyed by the explosion of energy and its huge body seemed to have become powerless, collapsing on the ground, dead.
Jian Chen exhaled as he stood beside the alligator’s corpse. He had finally slain a Class 9 Xuanhuang beast, but Jian Chen understood extremely well that if it were not for the emperor’s power, it would have been extremely difficult to kill it even if he ended up blinding both its eyes.
At this moment, a great roar sounded out from afar. Seeing how its companion had died, the alligator fighting Tie Ta immediately charged at Jian Chen with reddened eyes. It did not even pay any attention to Tie Ta on its back.
At this moment, Tie Ta managed to get through its hide as well. He immediately hacked his axe at the flesh of the beast. Although its body was very tough, it was nowhere near as strong as its hide. Blood sprayed all over Tie Ta as soon as the axe struck the wound.
However, Tie Ta’s attack on the wound was no different than scratching an itch to the beast with its thousand-meter-long body.
Tie Ta did not become dejected at all. He had finally broken through the Xuanhuang beast’s hide after much difficulty. He immediately used the wound to his advantage as his axe shone with a golden glow. He hacked at the wound time and time again, without showing any exhaustion.
Jian Chen was the only person present in the beast’s eyes right now. It completely ignored Tie Ta, who was constantly hacking away at it on its back, as his attacks were no different from a mosquito’s sting.
The Xuanhuang beast quickly ran toward Jian Chen as a vast presence radiated from it unknowingly. It locked onto Jian Chen, making him face a mountainous pressure.
Jian Chen stood where he was, unmoving. He stared at the alligator sternly as he pondered how exactly he should deal with it. He was without the emperor’s power now, so the method he had used to deal with the first one would not work. Even if he stabbed its eye and injected Chaotic Force, it would not achieve the expected outcome.
This was because Chaotic Force became very weak against Xuanhuang beasts. Xuanhuang beasts possessed Xuanhuang Qi inside. Even if it was not particularly pure and extremely thin, it was still an energy that stood on equal level with Chaotic Force.
The Xuanhuang beast quickly arrived before Jian Chen and opened its gaping mouth to bite him. The two rows of sharp teeth shone with an icy-cold light. Just looking at them was enough to cause people to shiver.
Seeing how the Xuanhuang beast wanted to eat him, a gleam of light flashed through Jian Chen’s eyes. This time, he did not dodge. Instead, he shot into the alligator’s mouth, like an arrow, before it could bite him, carefully avoiding its sharp teeth. Before the tongue could get to him, he slid down the Xuanhuang beast’s gullet and entered its stomach.
It was pitch-black in the stomach. Jian Chen used his soul to sense the surroundings, understanding the environment he was in. He was covered in stomach acid, which made him feel a burning pain even with his body. However, his third layer Chaotic Body was enough to resist the corrosion.
Jian Chen did not hesitate as soon as he made it into the stomach. He wielded the Emperor Armament and swung it at the surroundings, using all he had to destroy the Xuanhuang beast from inside out.
This time, the Class 9 Xuanhuang beast could not just endure the attacks. It was in excruciating pain from the great wounds, which caused it to constantly wailed out. Its body writhed violently as well, almost rolling over Tie Ta who was on its back.
Jian Chen’s Emperor Armament shone brightly. With a single stroke, he could destroy all the organs within a range of four meters. He advanced through the Xuanhuang beast’s body, approaching its head. He would chop through all the walls of flesh that blocked his path.
But at this moment, Jian Chen felt an invisible force wrap around him. Just when he was about to react, he was bound by the power. It was extremely powerful, such that Jian Chen could not even struggle for the time being. He felt his vision brighten as he was vomited out by the alligator.
After learning from what had happened earlier, the Xuanhuang beast clearly was not bold enough to open its mouth again. After spitting out Jian Chen, it kept its mouth tightly.
Jian Chen quickly stabilized himself and used the same trick as before. With a sword Qi thrown at the ground, large swathes of dust were kicked into the air, which blocked the Xuanhuang beast’s vision. He erased his presence as he silently made his way in front of the Xuanhuang beast, stabbing one of its eyes with lightning-like speed.
The Xuanhuang beast could not help but wail from the pain. It opened its mouth, and Jian Chen used the opportunity to enter the beast’s body again. Without stopping at all, he continued to use the Emperor Armament to carve out a path by removing all the obstacles in his way, quickly approaching the beast’s brain.
At this moment, Jian Chen could feel the invisible force wrap around him once again. He had already arrived in the head of the beast, so he shot a sword Qi ahead of him without any second thought, targeting central nervous system.
Immediately, a small portion of the beast’s central nervous system was destroyed by Jian Chen’s sword Qi. Although it did not die, it suffered fatal damage. Painfully tearing at the sky, it swayed and almost collapsed on the ground. It had lost control over the force it had condensed in its head to deal with Jian Chen, causing it to disperse.
Jian Chen knew this was a rare opportunity, so he abruptly increased his speed. He arrived before the central nervous system as fast as he could and quickly swung out with his Emperor Armament. He created a densely-packed net of attacks from this stroke, completely and utterly destroying the beast’s central nervous system.
Boom! With its destruction, the Xuanhuang beast could not resist death no matter how vigorous its life force was. It finally collapsed on the group heavily.
Sensing the life drain away from the Xuanhuang beast, Tie Ta stopped his pointless hacking. He stared at the huge corpse on the ground and was clearly stunned. He then leaped off its body. He chuckled,
Jian Chen’s still the powerful one. Just when I got through its hide, you already killed it.
Spurt! The Xuanhuang beast’s eye suddenly exploded, and Jian Chen charged out of the socket, covered in various liquids and appearing to be in a horrible shape. He threw the bloody energy crystal in his hand at Tie Ta and said,
Tie Ta, that’s yours. It’s equivalent to a Class 9 Monster Core, so it should be able to increase your strength by quite a bit.
Tie Ta caught the thumb-sized crystal and seriously replied,
Jian Chen, you killed both of these Xuanhuang beasts, so this should belong to you. I don’t want it.
With that, he was about to through the crystal back at Jian Chen.
Jian Chen raised his hand to stop Tie Ta. He said,
The Xuanhuang beasts we’ll be coming across will become stronger and stronger. There will definitely be even more Class 9 Xuanhuang beasts waiting for us later on, and possibly even those that have surpassed Class 9, ones that have surpassed Saint Emperor. We won’t be able to get very far with just our current strength, so we need to become stronger as fast as possible. Only when we are stronger can we slay more Class 9 Xuanhuang beasts.
Jian Chen made up his mind then and there. After he collected the fifth grade Comprehension Tea Leaves and the Flamecloud Fruit, he would immediately enter seclusion to break through to the fourth layer. He did not mind even if it did take up some of the precious remaining time.
He understood that there would be even more valuable heavenly resources of higher grades later on and that probably all of the beasts that guarded them would be Class 9 or peak existences among Class 9. With just his current strength, he could not make it far at all. Only by increasing his strength could he travel further and collect even more things.
Tie Ta found what Jian Chen had said to be reasonable. He did not continue to insist after realizing that, accepting the Class 9 energy crystal.
Afterward, Jian Chen removed an energy crystal of similar size from the other Xuanhuang beast and stored it in his Space Ring. He also moved the two corpses into the artifact before using some first grade spring water to wash his body. He changed into a new set of clothes before returning to the region where the two Class 9 Xuanhuang beasts had lived.
Scarlet Gold Ore, that’s Scarlet Gold Ore. Master, we’ve found another material for forging the Azulet swords.
Before Jian Chen could collect the tea leaves, the Azulet sword spirits called out in joy right when he made it to the top of the mountain.
Jian Chen glanced over. In the pit where the two alligators had dwelled stood a golden piece of rock half a man tall, glistening like gold.
Jian Chen beamed in joy. He immediately ignored the Comprehension Tea Tree and ran toward the rock. Although the tea leaves were valuable, they were not more valuable than a material to forge the Azulet swords in Jian Chen’s eyes.
This was because he yearned for a sword that truly suited him from the bottom of his heart. At the same time, he needed to have a fated sword to comprehend the five realms of the Way of the Sword, when he would truly begin his cultivation of the sword.
