by <unknown>
Chapter 247: Plundering Inner Cores |
Lian Xin’s mortal body was too huge, the bisected snake body slammed onto the ground and shook the earth. At the back of her snake’s tail, a man was standing with blood all over his body, dripping down like streams of water.
“Small,” Zhong Yue said as he was coughing out blood.
The huge three thousand foot sword shrank down to only three feet long, and he placed it in the light wheels behind him. All of a sudden, the halved giant python’s tail suddenly lashed out and slammed onto his body, Zhong Yue spouted a mouthful of blood and was sent flying for dozens of miles, falling onto the ground where he couldn’t get up anymore.
The lotus python was cut in half and was convulsing on the ground continually, wrecking a thousand miles of land around. After a long time, the giant python finally stopped moving, all of the blood finished trickling out from its body, and every single strand of its muscles and nerves had died away.
Snakes have an incredibly strong and vibrant life force, more than any other monsters. They would still live for a few moments even after their heads were cut off, and would only truly die when they lost all of their blood, and all of their muscles and nerves had died.
In the Great Wilderness, it wasn’t rare at all for severed snake’s heads to leap up and bite humans despite being exposed to the sun for hours.
The joy that had glutted him when he had killed Lian Xin sent him through the roof with joy… which made him forget about her death spasms and ended with him taking a full blow in the face.
All of the bones in his body were nearly crushed, he was on the ground in a very peculiar posture, parts of the crushed bones even extruded from his wounds, embellishing his body that was covered in red blood with specks of white.
Not only that, there was also a huge bloody hole on his chest, created when Lian Xin pierced through his chest with her snake spear.
Although Zhong Yue was in the form of the giant Xiang Dragon, Lian Xin had launched the strike aiming for his heart. However, the position of the heart was different in the Xiang Dragon and human forms, and using Zhong Yue’s attainment in the ways of Martial Masters, he had momentarily shifted his heart away to evade that deadly blow. Even so, that last lash on him by the python’s tail nearly crushed his heart anyway.
None of his skins and bones were in good condition, his muscles were crushed into mashed meat, his internal organs were grievously damaged, and there was even a huge indent on his skull!
If it was other Qi Practitioners, they would have died in such a grievous condition, and yet, Zhong Yue was still breathing.
His chest was like a broken bellows, and he sounded like one when he breathed. As time passed his breath grew weaker, and his chest was moving slower. His vision blurred as his life force slipped away from his body.
Lian Xin was after all, a Heavenly Dharma expert. Even a single strike from her dead body was not something he could withstand; that strike didn’t only heavily wounded his mortal body, but it had also inflicted damage to his Yuan Shen, causing a huge impact on his soul!
The wounds were deadly, and his five Yuan Shen secret realms were on the verge of crumbling with their powers slowly ebbing away. Even his spirit was slowly disintegrating, it would disappear anytime now.
The psyche in his psyche ocean was depleted, and his consciousness was fading away.
If my consciousness fades away, then I won’t be able to come back to life anymore….
Zhong Yue was muddleheaded, his vision was darkening and in no time, he would plunge into the dark abyss of death with no return. Exerting himself, he forcibly mustered a slight strand of psyche, piercing it at the beast god inner core in his psyche ocean. Immediately, the beast god essence erupted out and filled every corner of his body. His body started to change from the human form to a hundred foot long Xiang Dragon!
The beast god essence gushed out waves after waves of essence, stimulating dragon scales to grow on his body, covering the broken skin beneath. The beast god essence flowed into his heart that was dried of blood, replenishing his life force, and the nourished heart started to pump blood again.
The beast god essence flowed through his wounds, stimulating them and opening up the wounds once again so that they could be regenerated. The meat of his flesh started to regrow, his tendons grew back, and the broken muscles, nerves, and tendons started connecting back together.
After a long time, Zhong Yue’s overcast eyes started to regain a glimpse of life. But, he still couldn’t move at all, not even to lift a single finger! He could only arduously control his internal body structures and put them in place so that they could recover faster.
The night had fallen and the moon rose, moonlight shone down on the wrecked battlefield along with the mist in the air. Little by little, the moonlight was absorbed into his forehead and nourished his Yuan Shen that was on the verge of crumbling.
---
By the middle of the night, Zhong Yue’s Yuan Shen had finally stabilized, his life force stopped leaking away from him, and his five Yuan Shen secret realms had also stopped losing power.
A miniature bright moon emerged from his forehead and revolved around him.
He changed back from the Xiang Dragon to human form, he was now able to move his right hand. A series of bone-racking sounds could be heard as he held onto his left hand’s bones and pushed them back in place, cold sweat dripped down his forehead like a water pipe let loose, the overwhelming pain nearly tossed him into a swoon.
Zhong Yue grit his teeth and continued doing the same for his other body parts. When the first light of sun shone down onto the ground, he had finally finished reconnecting all of his broken bones.
---
Time passed and it was already midday, the sun dangled high in the sky, showering its sunlight like fire. Zhong Yue was sprawled out on his back while bathing himself in the sunlight that gathered together around him, it was condensed into fire and slowly entering his forehead!
For a dozen miles in radius, there were no other sunlight at all other than the beam of sunfire centering around him!
After a long time, a miniature scorching sun leapt out from his forehead, the sun and moon both revolving around him, nourishing and healing his mortal body.
Almost …I nearly died…
Zhong Yue sat up, he was coughing up clotted blood and every breath of air felt like as if he was breathing fire in his chest, while his lungs felt scratchy and abrasive. It felt like he might just die due to coughing.
All of the clotted blood was accumulated in his body when his internal organs were grievously wounded, and were now cast out by the【Sun Moon Prodigious Emanation Art】, coughing them out from his body.
There were also dried black scabs all over his body, this was the dead blood extracted out through the pores by the【Sun Moon Prodigious Emanation Art】.
Not only that, but his Yuan Shen was also getting nourished. The five Yuan Shen secret realms, although still in a broken state, were much better than before. His arcane energy was also replenishing, and the depleted psyche in his psyche ocean was also recovering… everything was stabilizing.
However, his bones were still newly fixed, they were still weak and fragile. Zhong Yue didn’t dare to stand up, afraid that using too much strength would break them again.
Using the restored Shen Cai Secret Realm full of life force, his mortal body was recovering at an incredibly fast rate!
Zhong Yue heaved a breath of relief, and thought, The life force of Qi Practitioners is really incredible after the opening of the Yuan Shen secret realms, being even able to survive such deadly wounds.
To be honest, even he thought that he would die for sure, stimulating the beast god inner core in attempt to save himself was only a living being’s natural reaction. Who knew that he would really survive due to that, and save himself from dying!
His Yuan Shen was also slowly recovering. However, it would still take weeks for him to get back to his peak conditi
on.
And it would take even more time if he wanted to fully recover without leaving any hidden injuries behind!
---
When the sun set, Zhong Yue could support himself, and he finally stood up. Taking a piss on the spot, even his pee was the dark bad blood, and he also felt immense pain in his genitals.
Putting on new pants, he cast out the five light wheels behind him and put the soul weapons around him into the secret realms.
“Who is the earliest to wake up? Only I would know. What a good sleep I had!”
All of a sudden, Zhong Yue heard a familiar voice in his ears; the little flame in the tattered copper lamp lit up and came out from the lamp. Walking into Zhong Yue’s secret realms as if he was an officer patrolling the camp and seeing the secret realms in a devastated state, Xin Huo asked in shock, “Brat Yue, why are you so grievously wounded?”
The little flame flew out from the Yuan Shen into the psyche ocean, still saying in shock, “What bad stuff did you do? Why are you battered to such a state? Even your psyche ocean is nearly destroyed! Tsk tsk, not to mention the dreary state of your mortal body…”
Hearing his words, Zhong Yue could not help but burst out in anger, “XIN HUO! Do you remember throwing me into the middle of the ice layers, leaving me behind to face the Kun Peng Race experts and their godly spirit?”
Xin Huo was shocked, he quickly said, “What, what? Are you still at at that iceland? Ey, this doesn’t look like it either, aren’t you standing on solid land right now? Where are we?”
He looked through Zhong Yue’s eyes and observed the surroundings, sniffing in the air like a dog, he said, “So many corpses! The smell of the monsters, hmm, there’s also the air of the Xiao Mang Celestial Race! What has happened here?”
In an unfriendly manner, Zhong Yue told Xin Huo everything that happened during his absence. Xin Huo was thrilled and hopped around in the air, said, “What? This is so fun! What a shame, how pitiful that I was asleep all this time!”
Zhong Yue was speechless. He fought with his life, missed death by a fine line, and yet, Xin Huo said that it was fun?!
“Xin Huo, there’s so many nice soul weapons here. Quick, think of a way and see if we can plunder them all!” Zhong Yue regained his composure and continued as he pointed at the soul weapons, “Some soul weapons are too big, my Yuan Shen secret realms can’t contain them. Can we store them in your copper lamp?”
“Nope.”
Xin Huo inspected the soul weapons and then looked at the broken Divine Wing Saber. He shook his head and said, “There is a saint weapon, the Divine Wing Saber, in the copper lamp. We can’t store these soul weapons together with it, its godly aura would crush these soul weapons away.”
Zhong Yue was stunned, he then frowned, “Then how can I bring them along?”
There were tens of Xiao Mang Celestial experts, with each and every one of them having one or even two soul weapons.
There were also quite a few Heavenly Dharma level soul weapons: the Wu Yang River and bright crescent; Lian Xin’s snake spear, snakeskin whip, and poison sack; and also Chi Liannu’s soul weapon, the thin chiffon.
Other than the thin chiffon, Chi Liannu also had two other soul weapons of high quality.
Furthermore, there were also countless medicinal pellets and rare materials, piling up like a little mountain.
Although Zhong Yue’s Yuan Shen secret realms were not small, they couldn’t contain so much stuffs. The Inner Core and Atman Body cultivators’ soul weapons could be stored in the secret realms, but the Heavenly Dharma level soul weapons were all huge and gigantic. That Wu Ying River alone was already hundreds of miles long, and also incredibly heavy!
“If you can refine these soul weapons, then you can control them and make them smaller. But looking at them, they are still too strong for you to refine…”
Xin Huo furrowed his brow and said, “Well then, this is an issue. Hmm, you can visualize the Jiao Dragons, probably a thousand or two Jiao Dragons will be enough to drag them away with you.”
Zhong Yue suddenly felt a surge of dizziness striking him, he then rested for another night to recover more arcane energy. The next day, he visualized the Jiao Dragons, and one after another, the visualized-dragons emerged beneath the Wu Yang River, five hundred Jiao Dragons carried it on their back and marched away.
The bright moon was also a hundred mu in size, requiring three hundred Jiao Dragons to carry it.
In turn, Lian Xin and Chi Liannu’s soul weapons were not that huge, but they were still incredibly heavy. Zhong Yue visualized another thirteen hundred Jiao Dragons to carry them and all the medicinal pellets and materials.
“Brat Yue, have you plundered the inner cores?” Xin Huo suddenly asked.
“Plunder… inner cores?” Zhong Yue was stunned.
While Xin Huo continued, “Qi Practitioners of the level of Inner Core would condense their prowess into their inner core, a core that contains their arcane energy and essences, exactly like the beast god inner core. In the ancient eras before this, the celestial races would usually serve a few plates of monster god inner cores to their guests.”
Chapter 248: The Dead Cannot Testify |
Zhong Yue was speechless. Treating their guests with monster god inner cores was just way too sumptuous. He needed such a long time to digest only a portion of a monster god inner core. Just imagine how long it would take for him to digest all the inner cores served on a plate!
Xin Huo smirked and said, “Those invited for a feast by the Fu Xi Celestial Race were huge figures, what’s wrong with treating them to a few plates of beast god inner cores?”
Zhong Yue then asked, “Do the celestial races have inner cores?”
“No matter what race you are, as long as you reach the level of Inner Core, an inner core will automatically form in your body. Then, as you progress, the inner core will become better and better. The same applies to humans as well.”
Xin Huo continued, “The inner core usually resides in the psyche ocean, and after the owner died, one can easily extract it with his or her psyche.”
Zhong Yue walked towards Lian Xin. He was unsure if her inner core was still there as he split Lian Xin apart and crushed her skull.
His psyche gushed out. He was stunned when he searched around her crushed head, as he really did find an inner core to extract from her head. This inner core was not big at all, only the size of a grape, but it contained immense energy that was several times stronger than Zhong Yue’s power!
He then looked around, and retrieved the inner cores of the four Xiao Mang Celestial Race’s Qi Practitioners that had died as soon as Lian Xin and the old man fought. The inner cores of the four Qi Practitioners were even smaller than Lian Xin’s, as their cultivation bases were lower than hers.
Then, he went for the Heavenly Dharma old man’s inner core, only to discover nothing but pus water. The old man’s inner core had been dissolved along with his body by Lian Xin’s deadly poison that could corrode anything it touched.
Seems like there’s only five inner cores… Oh yeah, almost forgot about the body of Chi Liannu!
Zhong Yue then quickly found the body of Chi Liannu. When he used his psyche to check for her inner core, he discovered and retrieved Chi Liannu’s inner core, which had escaped the fate of dissolution by Lian Xin’s poison.
Two Heavenly Dharma level and four Inner Core level inner cores, not bad!
Zhong Yue was satisfied by his gains. He summoned his Six-Eyed Starry Toad Yuan Shen to carry him back to the city, moving along with the thousands of Jiao Dragons formed by his psyche, each of them carrying various loot he had obtained from the battle.
The loot was so heavy that it greatly slowed his speed, causing him to only arrive at the Gu Xia City four days later, traveling for three thousand miles each day!
(Ed. Note: The hell. The border was a million miles from the city? I think the author has math problems)
When he arrived at the city, he saw the city were shro
uded by colorful rays emitted by various totem carvings on the city walls, while the watchtowers along with the cannons were ready to fire, making the situation tense and appearing incredibly intimidating.
The beast god statues standing on the city walls felt like they would come alive at anytime, along with the colorful totem carvings moving all around the statues’ surfaces. Then, the statues suddenly turned around to face the city with their backs pointed towards the outside. The spikes on their backs were standing up, their claws raised up high, ready to strike their foe down at anytime!
Long ago, Zhong Yue knew that this city was also a war machine, and when it entered its defense mode, lots of lives would need to be sacrificed before taking down this fortification!
However, this was his first time seeing the castle in this mode, which was incredibly terrifying.
Other than that, he even saw a huge godly spirit standing in the middle of the city. It was about a thousand feet tall, and emitting a majestic aura as it stood there.
This godly spirit was a spirit with bird’s head, human body and two pairs of wings, which made it look similar to the Yuan Shen of Gu Hongzi... except it was a hundred times stronger! This godly spirit was the spirit of Gu Xia City, the one that Gu Hongzi and everyone else in the city worshipped!
In Gu Xia City, both the godly spirit and the citizens relied on each other. The citizens prayed and worshipped the spirit, using their power of belief to sustain the spirit, and preventing it from fading away. The godly spirit played the role of its worshippers protector, keeping them from harm.
When Zhong Yue looked at the godly spirit, he realized that the spirit was staring at a certain position in the city as if there was an enemy there.
What happened? Are there enemies around?
Zhong Yue was confused. He thought, Even when the four young aces of Swords Gate came, the godly spirit was not summoned. But since it was summoned out this time, could it be that the enemies are even stronger than the four of them?