Chapter 347 – Bait
Below the magma, the pale golden ancient hall was falling apart. Huge boulders collapsed one after another, and large pieces of debris plummeted, turning the place into ruins. Shi Hao soared up rapidly.
He had mastered the Kun Peng’s precious technique!
Shi Hao was excited and filled with joy. This divine ability was extremely complicated and profound, taking him quite a long time to comprehend it. It was something he found incredibly difficult to cultivate, and never would he have thought that he would be able to completely master it today.
He could sense a destructive power just by circulating its power a bit. The precious technique of one of the archaic vicious ten had been successfully brought back to this world!
As Shi Hao tried it out, a tremendous power rapidly swept across the withered land. Stretches of scarlet-red magma erupted in tidal waves and white smoke rose in succession. Even the land itself was even cracking apart.
His body was shaking violently, causing him to stop performing the precious technique in haste. This was not only because of its frighteningly destructive power, but also because the precious technique was using up too much energy and exhausting his body.
“It seems I need to hurry and improve my cultivation realm. The higher my cultivation level is, the better I will be in exerting the power of precious techniques; otherwise, the power of one of the divine abilities of the archaic vicious ten would be severely constrained.”
It would become his deadliest weapon, a power he believed would allow him to roam this world freely in the future. As long as his cultivation was deep enough, he would be fearless of anyone no matter where he went.
Having mastered the technique, Shi Hao felt that it was time to promote his cultivation realm again. Only by doing that could he achieve an overall improvement in all aspects.
Fortunately, by cultivating in that pale golden hall, he was able to lose much less time. The opportunity was a godsend, for it would have taken him several months to accomplish what he had without it.
“Is this it?” Shi Hao walked the magma land as he murmured to himself, feeling as if everything felt somehow unreal. After thinking about it in his head, he felt that the praying mat must have played an important role in his success.
His forehead flickered with light, and a symbol with primitive simplicity emerged that was filled with the aura of heavenly dao. It demonstrated that he had mastered the Kun Peng’s precious technique and fully understood the real meaning of this primordial symbol.
“I have to earnestly cultivate and improve my strength.”
Somewhere deeper in the ancestral grounds.
Flames were springing up within an expanse of hills. The temperature was even higher here, almost melting down the ground itself. Mighty creatures had occupied this area.
With a kacha sound, a white pangolin smashed open a giant rock and seized a crimson stone from within. It then swallowed the crimson stone at once.
Not far from it, there were a few mighty experts that emerged, their eyes burning with eagerness. They charged forward, moving into action almost simultaneously. Having summoned their respective weapons, they struck at that white pangolin.
Qiang
Sparks flew off in all directions as the pangolin shone brightly. Its skin was tougher than iron and stones. Rows upon rows of symbols lined its white scales, knocking away all the weapons.
Pu
Meanwhile, it opened its mouth and spat out a streak of white light. It pierced through two people and killed them on the spot.
“It’s so powerful!” Many people went pale with fear.
“Everyone, there is no need to be afraid. It had just devoured divine substance. Its movements will only become increasingly sluggish, so we need to use this opportunity to kill it.” There was someone who tried to boost the team’s morale.
With the mention of the divine substance, the crowd felt their eyes burning with desire again, since it was extremely rare and precious. A divine substance as big as the one the pangolin swallowed was even harder to come by.
Generally speaking, divine substances were contained in magma, soil, or rocks, which were then consumed by creatures living in this area. By accumulating the divine substances in their bodies over many years, these creatures were able to reach an advanced cultivation level.
The divine substance it swallowed was quite large. If it was refined, then a fortune could be made by selling it.
A treasured artifact swept across the sky. However, the pangolin jumped up and immediately smashed it into pieces, making the party’s faces go pale. Its gaze even revealed ridicule.
Xiu!
In the split second that followed, the pangolin’s movement exceeded everyone’s expectations. It turned into a streak of white lightning, unleashing slaughter. Its speed was absolutely ridiculous as it moved in midair.
Pu, pu…
The pangolin was not even a big one, stretching only a bit more than a meter in length. One could even describe it as rather small. Once it turned into the white light, the remaining people were also impaled.
Not a single individual survived its attack, leaving corpses strewn across the ground.
Splatter
After everything quieted down, the pangolin spat out the strange red stone. It didn’t actually swallow the stone earlier! The previous act was only bait, and only now did it hold the stone between its paws, choosing to refine it instead of consuming it.
“That thing was pretty cunning.” In the distance, the young lady with large eyes whispered. She and several teenage boys were accompanying Shi Hao in search of savage beasts in this fiery domain to use as bait for catching the Yang Fish.
“So that’s the White Armored King. It is indeed a savage animal,” Shi Hao nodded.
According to legends, this creature was incredibly evil and aggressive. Wherever it went, it would completely wipe out all living creatures without leaving a single one alive. Despite its small physique, its fighting prowess was extremely great.
Although they were known as White Armored Kings, this one could not be considered a king yet. Its cultivation time was only long enough to take it to the late stage of the Engravement Realm.
Of course, to people like the teenage girl with large eyes and her companions, this creature was definitely a huge threat. Had they ran into it on their own, there was no way they could make it out alive.
Shi Hao was not afraid of it at all. He stepped forward alone, making no attempt to hide his whereabouts. This attracted the savage beast’s attention immediately. It gave Shi Hao a malicious look as wisps of divine light surfaced from its eyes.
Sensing the approaching threat, it hunched down. Following that, it rushed towards Shi Hao rapidly like a white-staffed spear with a chi sound.
Dang
Shi Hao remained where he was and smacked down with his palm, smashing the pangolin to the ground. Its scaled skin cracked apart, and blood oozed out. The pangolin was now rolling around on the ground in great agony.
All of a sudden, light radiated from its entire body, spreading out like ripples. They turned out to be waves upon waves of radiating blades, and they were hacking towards Shi Hao murderously.
A ring of halo emerged, covering Shi Hao from head to toe. Although he was only in the middle stage of the Engravement Realm, making his cultivation level inferior to the pangolin, his fighting prowess exceeded that of the pangolin’s.
The rippling halo was like a protective divine ring that could block anything. All the blades of light were shattered and pushed outwards.
Peng
The pangolin shook violently, and numerous scales were shed from its body. With the sound of broken bones, it was blasted outwards.
Behind them, the big-eyed girl and her companions cried out in surprise. A White Armored King as powerful as this one did not even have a chance to strike back before it was severely injured.
“Hou…”
The pangolin roared and went completely mad. Its body ignited into flames as symbols surfaced one after another. A wave of malicious energy was emitted from its body, indicating that it was now going to fight to the death.
Following a hong sound, symbols began to spread out with astonishing divine might. The White Armored King brought with it with boundless fluctuations, turning itself into an incomparably sharp white blade.
Shi Hao took a step forward at its direction with a strange power emanating from his entire body. Golden symbols flickered, faintly revealing a screeching divine bird.
Activating part of the Kun Peng power in him, Shi Hao struck out with his palm. It shattered the White Armored King’s precious technique before striking down on its body. The pangolin screeched loudly as its bones continuously released cracking sounds.
Finally, it fell down motionless on the ground. All symbols disappeared with its defeat.
What kind of power was that? The big-eyed girl and the others were utterly shocked. With a flash of the golden symbols, all of the pangolin’s bones were shattered. The effect was too overbearing.
Shi Hao lifted it up by its tail. He had obtained another important prey.
He now had several powerful creatures in his heaven and earth pouch, such as the Crimson Mastiff and the Dark Rhino. All of these were essential prey.
The scripture he obtained had explained how to catch the Yang Fish. By following its instructions, one could create an incredibly effective bait by cooking and refining multiple powerful creatures together.
It would work much better than catching a few powerful creatures separately and collecting their bone marrow.
Shi Hao went through all kinds of hardships in the past two days and finally managed to capture a few. By now, he had more or less gathered the creatures he needed.
They arrived at a great valley and discovered a Flame Bear after some searching. Despite its incessant flames and vicious might, the bear was still ultimately killed.
They came to a mountainous region a day later and detected the smell of blood from far away. Body remains were scattered along the road, all of them belonging to human beings.
It was clear that this place was the territory of a powerful creature, and all those who trespassed here were killed.
Chi
A streak of light suddenly darted out of the mountains, cutting two mighty experts in half at their waists. The two shrieked miserably before dropping dead.
“What was that? Could such a creature really exist?” The teenage boys accompanying Shi Hao were all astonished.
They had asked around and paid a lot of money for this piece of information. They were told that a terrifying creature known as a Silver Winged Mantis was residing here.
She Hao told the rest of the team to stay where they were before marching forward alone. Just as he arrived at the bottom of a low hill, an incomparably sharp and dazzling light sliced over.
Dang
He raised his hand to fend off the blade. Upon turning his head, he discovered a creature on the rocky mountain. It was silver white in color with a body that was shiny and full of luster. At this moment, it was giving off a ferocious aura.
It was a mantis at least five zhang in length. Its body was translucent and sparkling with a splendid silver light. A frightening aura was being released from its body.
Its forelimbs looked like a pair of great knives, snow white and terrifying. Numerous symbols covered the forelimbs, indicating that they had been transformed into the Silver Winged Mantis’ precious artifacts.
Those silver wings were bright and clear. A metallic colliding sound was made as they knocked against each other.
“Once I defeat this mantis, I’ll be able to lure out a lot of Yang Fish.” Shi Hao spoke to himself as he stared at that savage creature. He instinctively knew that this was not a creature to be trifled with!
Although he was still two to three prey short, Shi Hao didn’t think that those would be found easily. As long as he could catch this mantis, it would be enough for his purpose.
Chi!
A shiny silver blade swept across the air. It was enormous and seemed unstoppable.
Shi Hao moved swiftly, abruptly lifting up a gigantic boulder weighing hundreds of thousands of jin in weight before chucking it at that long silver blade.
Ka
The silver knife sliced the boulder in half with a single sweep. Its sharpness was unparalleled, with seemingly nothing that could withstand that blade.
She Hao was surprised. A black fish emerged from his palm and fingers, revolving with a lunar force. It brought with it surging black tidal waves as it struck into the heavens, trapping those blades.
Chi
With its blade being frozen, the Silver-winged Mantis flew over to Shi Hao itself. It released numerous symbols, blotting out the sky and covering the earth. The creature was indeed incredibly furious.
Shi Hao attacked continuously and fought fiercely against it without activating the Kun Peng’s divine ability. This Silver Winged Mantis had an extremely high cultivation level and was quite terrifying.
In the end, Shi Hao managed to suppress and kill it. He captured this bizarre creature.
…
The magnificent magma lake was so vast that it almost seemed to stretch to infinity. The crimson color was boundless. As waves of heat roiled about, even the sky seemed to turn red.
“This is the place. Apart from that unique forbidden land in the deepest corner of the ancestral grounds, this magma lake is the largest.”
The big-eyed girl and her companions led Shi Hao to this location. It was much more convenient to have someone familiar with the ancestral grounds lead the way. Of course, these people made their way here after following their predecessors, and so they knew much more than Shi Hao about this place.
Shi Hao was very cautious. He flew high up into the sky and sprinkled down a small amount of bait. He dared not throw it in all at once, fearing that he might waste it.
Leading the rest of the team, he then fell back and hid by the shore while keeping a close eye on the lake.
Before long, the lake surface rippled, and a dazzling golden light gleamed in the distance, giving the entire lake a resplendent look.
“There are too many of them!” Those teenage boys were dumbfounded.
Schools of golden Yang Fish swarmed towards the lake in dense numbers. The scene was somewhat frightening.
Shi Hao watched the fish with utter joy. If he could catch them all, how much divine liquid could he refine out of them? It might be enough for him to break into the late stage of the Engravement Realm!