Chapter 452: Scarlet Vine Fruit Ripens
Translator: AstralGhost Editor: Kurisu
With the three shouts, the lava python's blood, flesh and Demonic Dan all disappeared in a black fire, transforming into a special power that was imprinted onto the lava python's soul!
Bei Feng's body sank and he retreated repeatedly. At this moment, the strength of this lava python soul was already infinitely close to a Transcendent realm cultivator!
"Four - Soul Ignition!"
The lava python's soul rippled intensely, and a dreadful shriek rang out. Bei Feng's mental power trembled intensely and he hurriedly retreated further.
Black flames abruptly burst into life on the tail end of the lava python. As it did so, a black gold lock appeared on the little snake's tail, securely locking it to the spot.
Following the crazed roar of the lava python, the black flame burnt even brighter, and the tail of the lava python began to disappear inch by inch!
"Clang!"
The lock around the lava python's tail slowly broke apart and fell to the ground.
After so many years, the lava python had finally escaped from its shackles! However, the price for doing that was extremely heavy. This was the dumbest and most direct method of removing the chains. The act of burning its soul was enough to bring the spirit and will of the lava python to the very brink of collapse!
"Hou!"
With the chains gone, the lava python immediately stopped the technique with a forceful roar. But despite that, a third of its soul had already been burnt away by the black flames!
The lava python's soul shook heavily and exploded abruptly, turning into a bunch of grey smoke which burst outwards and reformed again.
"Flood Dragon Claw!"
The current lava python was only half a meter long now. Its aura had dropped rapidly from before it ignited its soul. But although a great half of its strength had been spent on breaking the chains, the remaining energy was enough to raise its overall power to two or three times its peak!
A greyish energy formed with soul power gushed forward and congealed into a dragon's claw, swiping towards Bei Feng!
At this time, the lava python's mind was extremely foggy, but its will to kill Bei Feng was resolute. By pure instinct, it disregarded all costs and directly attacked!
Bei Feng's body shook, and his strength doubled explosively yet again. At this moment, there was only two minutes left of the 10 minutes duration on the Mixed Yuan Body!
The dragon claw was only about one meter long, but the attack congealed with soul power was incomparably powerful!
Its speed was extremely quick, and although Bei Feng was able to see the attack with his mental power, he wasn't capable of reacting to it!
This was an attack with the soul, and physical defenses were useless against it!
Bei Feng's face was emotionless as a jade palm appeared in his sea of consciousness, smashing forward to meet the claw!
The Mixed Yuan Body secret art did not only increase one aspect of his strength. It was an improvement on all his attributes! Naturally, his mental power was included!
Mental power and spirit power was different. Spirit was actually the main source, while mental power was a supportive strength. Properly speaking, mental power was an auxiliary power utilized by the soul to attack, while the soul was the main source of its power!
Both Bei Feng's soul and his mental power was extremely powerful when under the effect of the Mixed Yuan Body secret art. His Moon Grade mental power had far exceeded the limits of a Controlled Dan Heavenly Expert. With it being multiplied several folds now, he did not fear anything!
The two attacks collided together, generating electricity sparks from thin air. Although the entire clash looked simple and harmless, it was actually extremely dangerous!
If mental power was likened to a weapon, the soul would be the controller of the weapon. If one side's mental power was damaged, the other side could naturally directly launch an attack on the soul!
A blast that can only be heard by the soul rang out in his sea of consciousness, causing blood to flow out of all his nose, eyes, mouth and ears (seven apertures). His mind felt like it had been pricked with countless needles!
The lava python which only have its soul left, and no physical body to protect it was in an even worse state. Its spirit body trembled violently, and wisps of grey mist rose out of it continuousy, dissipating into the air.
"Chop!"
Bei Feng bit the tip of his tongue resolutely and forcefully stabilized his soul. After that, a palm sized sword flew made of mental power flew out of his body and slashed towards the lava python's spirit body!
What was the speed of a thought? It was impossible to comprehend such a concept. At the instant that his thought formed, the palm sized sword was completely formed and had appeared right beside the lava python spirit!
"Pu-chi!
A small grey mist shield completely made out of mental power materialized to block in front of the lava python's head. The palm sized sword flashed past, and returned back to Bei Feng's sea of consciousness.
Bei Feng's body swayed unsteadily, but his eyes shone with a never before seen brilliance. Although this battle had been very intense and dangerous, it'd revealed a whole new world to him!
At this time, the mental power shield above the lava python began to crack apart and dissipate. A faint line had also appeared on the lava python's soul, and the soul writhed and trembled, attempting to mend itself. However, the edges of the soul was already turning more and more illusory.
"How could your soul be so strong?!"
The lava python shrieked in an unreconciled manner. It'd paid such a large price, and even escaped from its shackles. But in the end, it'd still fallen at the last step.
By the time the lava python's last words rang out, its soul had completely fell apart.
Bei Feng swayed heavily on the spot. The duration of the Mixed Yuan Body secret art had expired, and the huge amounts of energy in his body had all disappeared completely. At this moment, his knees buckled and he nearly collapsed to the ground.
"My internal injuries are too heavy. Furthermore, the side effects of the Mixed Yuan Body secret art is here."
Bei Feng felt extremely weak in this moment. Losing such a large amount of energy in a short time felt very uncomfortable for him. Fortunately, his mental fortitude was strong, and the feeling only lasted briefly. With a thought, two high grade spirit stones appeared in his hands.
As he rotated his blood and Qi, the incomparably pure lingqi from the spirit stones flowed into his meridians and nourished his wounds.
"Sou, sou!"
A series of high speed sounds rang out, and Bei Feng put up his defenses in a hurry again. He was in his weakest state at the moment, and even a random Xiantian cultivator would be able to kill him.
Turning around, he saw countless roots shooting out of the lava lake and stabbing into the soul-mist that was the lava python. In just an instant, the soul remnants was sucked clean.
Bei Feng stood far away, looking at the vine warily. From the way it sucked the lava and swallowed the lava python's soul, it didn't seem like a nice plant.
Bei Feng couldn't be blamed for being cautious. If the vine ended up as the final victor after his and the lava python's intense fight, that would be the most tragic ending.
Luckily, this plant did not have any such actions. At the bottom of the lava lake, there was a layer of milky white lava about 10 meters thick. The heat of this lava was terrifying, and was at least several thousand degrees hot!
But from the top, Bei Feng could see countless roots extending into the milky white lava. It did not seem to receive any damage from the heat, and instead looked as if it was enjoying a nice hot bath. The vine absorbed the lava happily, allowing it to nourish its fruit.
The lava pool was surrounded by a special kind of black metal. The metal did not seem to display any changes even though it was surrounded by the several thousand degrees hot lava. Its melting point was high to a scary degree!
Bei Feng placed a portion of his mental power around him as an alert system, and sat down to concentrate on his injury.
Each high grade spirit stone was only able to endure his absorption for a few minutes before shattering into powder. Large amounts of Heaven and Earth Lingqi flowed into his body, and his injuries began to heal at a rapid speed.
Time flowed by, and about 90 percent of his injuries had been healed. The remaining 10 percent required a large amount of time to deal with.
"My cultivation has increased a little bit, but the side effects of the Mixed Yuan Body secret art hasn't worn off yet. But even if I only have half of my stats and cultivation, I still don't need to fear a middle stage Controlled Dan Heavenly Expert!"
Bei Feng slowly stood up and spat out a dull black blood mist. His pale complexion had also turned much rosier.
But although his body's injuries could be easily managed, it was a different case for his mental power.
The mental power in his head felt like a plate of sand. A prickly sensation constantly plagued him, as though someone was using a long needle to poke his brains.
"I'll need to recuperate for at least half a month for my mental power to recover."
Bei Feng murmured. Still, this could be considered as great luck in the midst of misfortune. Over straining his mental power was not a huge deal. As long as he had enough time, it would recover by itself. There were even special pills meant for nourishing mental energy that could help expedite this recovery.
However, the soul was different. It was the core of a human, and was even more important that the body's essence blood. Once the soul received any damage, if it was light, one would fall into a confused state of mind. But if it was heavy, their souls would be dispersed. Apart from that, it would be impossible to breakthrough in their cultivations forever.
Although there were treasures that could treat or nourish the soul, none of the them were not heavenly treasures. It was incredibly difficult for normal people to see one, and even in the most powerful and vast cultivation worlds, these treasures were extremely rare. Most of them were claimed by the large powers and sects.
Bei Feng raised his head and looked at the vine. At this moment, the temperature in the underground space had returned to normal. All the heat had been absorbed cleanly by the vine.
The vine swayed gently, and countless patterns appeared on the surface of the fruit. Its color kept flickering unsteadily, and a thick fragrance lingered around it, causing one's cells to feel incomparably hungry.
On the outside, Mystic One and the rest looked at each other, not knowing what to do. The commotion in the underground had stopped half an hour ago, and the silence was deafening.
"This won't do, I'm going down to take a look."
Worry flashed in Mystic One's cold eyes. With a light leap, she jumped back down into the cave.
Bai Xiang and the Cerberus also followed after her without hesitation. Very quickly, the few of them landed at the bottom.
A huge scarlet lava pond laid before their eyes. Everything was calm, as if the violent tremors from before was only an illusion.
The black platform had disappeared, only leaving a broken stump of a pillar as evidence of what happened earlier.
"Is this really something that can be done with the strength of a human?!"
Mystic One and the rest were incomparably shocked. The further in they went, the more their surprise grew. The entire place was thrashed, as if countless bombs had been set off in here. The cave was collapsing in many areas, and a thick crack had appeared on the stone wall.
It was precisely because they were all the peak level characters of the world that they could understand even more clearly, how much power one needed to have to cause this amount of damage!
"Boss! Are you fine?"
Mystic One saw Bei Feng standing in midair and joy flashed across her face.
"It's no big deal."
Bei Feng shook his head absentmindedly as he looked excitedly at the vine a distance away. Wisps of fire attributed stellar energy floated before him.
A layer of light had appeared around the Scarlet Vine Fruit. It looked rather illusory, and countless amounts of fire energy gathered continuously around this fist sized fruit. The energy contained inside it was completely terrifying!
As he watched, the entire vine began to wither from the roots, and the crystalline scarlet roots started to turn dull and dry. In contrast, the energy on the fruit began to grow increasingly resplendent!
Soon, a layer of red light appeared around the fruit, like a planetary ring!
Nine layers of different colored rings quickly formed around the fruit and in a short time, the entire vine had withered, only leaving the fruit floating in midair!
The rings around it were resplendent with myriad colors, and extremely eye catching. As time passed, the rings disappeared into the fruit, turning into ring patterns.
Finally, all the rings around it disappeared completely and a grey rock-like fruit was revealed, dropping to the ground.