On a red hill littered with rocks, a pair of red eyes swept out from one of the crevices, a savage look within them as they locked onto a young figure seated at the top of the hill.

It stealthily moved from shadow to shadow, gradually approaching the figure. In the end, gruesome red fangs were suddenly revealed as it shot forth like a bolt of lightning, leaving a stench in its wake.

Ch!

However, it was met by a sharp brush tip. The snow-white hairs were bunched together like the tip of a spear, ripping apart even the air as Genesis Qi flowed along it.

Plop!

Genesis Qi swirled around the sharp brush tip as it instantly pierced the giant creature’s head. Fresh blood flowed out, the beast already dead before it could let out a single cry.

Zhou Yuan turned his head and looked at the giant beast behind him. It was a giant lizard fully encased in a shell of red armor, a searing and savage aura spreading from its body.

This was a Heavenly Flame Lizard.

A grade 4 Genesis Beast that was native to the essence flame vein, which was no weaker than an Alpha-Origin practitioner.

However, it does not pose much of a threat towards Zhou Yuan.

Zhou Yuan rose to his feet and dug out a red crystal from the lizard’s head. Inside the crystal, the silhouette of a lizard could be seen.

It was a Beast Spirit Crystal.

Zhou Yuan placed the grade 4 Beast Spirit Crystal on the Heavenly Yuan Brush. Light began to emerge from the brush as it forcibly extracted the lizard silhouette inside and devoured it.

The crystal soon began to dim, before shattering.

To Zhou Yuan’s surprise, the mottled body of the brush seemed to become a little brighter after absorbing the Beast Spirit Crystal as a faint buzzing noise emerged.

A feeling akin to desire suddenly spread from the Heavenly Yuan Brush.

Zhou Yuan was stunned, before a look of joy appeared in his eyes.

He could not help but blurt out in happiness, "The fifth rune is about to awaken!"

After awakening the fourth rune, Zhou Yuan had continued to nourish the brush with Beast Spirit Crystals everyday. However, there had been no response from the fifth rune all this time.

He never imagined that it would suddenly begin to stir today.

Normally speaking, the brush would only be able to absorb a limited number of Beast Spirit Crystals everyday. Only when a rune was close to awakening would it turn into a starving beast that would devour Beast Spirit Crystals without restraint to build up its energy in preparation to awaken the next rune and evolve to the next level...

"The Heavenly Yuan Brush is currently a high grade Black Genesis Weapon. If the fifth rune is awakened, it may rank up to the Heaven tier!"

Zhou Yuan’s stared at the brush with glowing eyes. For Genesis Weapons, the Heaven tier was huge leap. Every Heaven Genesis Weapon possessed power that far surpassed those of high grade Black weapons.

Back when king Qi had attacked the city in the Great Zhou Empire, Su Youwei had borrowed the power of the Heaven Genesis Weapon in her body to slay a second layer Alpha-Origin expert.

What’s more, she had merely been at the Qi Nourishing stage.

Of course, though a Heaven Genesis Weapon was alarmingly powerful, it was also extremely valuable. Even in a place like the Cangxuan Sect, only a tiny handful of disciples would own one.

As such, if Zhou Yuan’s Heavenly Yuan Brush could evolve to become a Heaven Genesis Weapon, his battle power would undoubtedly be greatly boosted.

This was the main reason why Zhou Yuan had been so happy.

"But all my Beast Spirit Crystals have already been used up..."

Zhou Yuan stood up, his burning gaze sweeping across the hundred mile district as he tightly grasped the Heavenly Yuan Brush. Fortunately, there were quite a number of Heavenly Flame Lizards in the essence flame vein. He could take their Beast Spirit Crystals to nourish the Heavenly Yuan Brush to complete its awakening and evolution.

"It just so happens that I’ve nothing to do now. Guess I’ll be borrowing all of your Beast Spirit Crystals."

Although many fights had broken out in various spots in the essence flame vein, it was currently still peaceful here. Hence, he could make use of this time to hunt the Heavenly Flame Lizards within a hundred mile radius.

Zhou Yuan immediately got to work, his Spirit vibrating as his senses spread.

In a split second, he found a somewhat berserk Genesis Qi undulations in the ground nearby.

"I’ll start from you guys."

Zhou Yuan’s body leaped into the air, before hurtling back down like a cannonball. His slammed into the ground, causing it to crack open as several angry Heavenly Flame Lizards charged out roaring, their giant mouths snapping at Zhou Yuan.

Bzz!

With a shake, Genesis Qi flowed along the brush’s snow-white hairs as it fearlessly clashed with the Heavenly Flame Lizards.

𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

Zhou Yuan spent the next incense stick of time as a god of slaughter, rampaging through the hundred mile area he had been tasked with securing. Even the Heavenly Flame Lizards hidden deep in the ground were found and killed.

When he was done, he found himself with a few dozen grade 4 Beast Spirit Crystals.

All of these crystals ended up being absorbed by the Heavenly Yuan Brush.

However, Zhou Yuan was beginning to realize that there was a problem. Even after absorbing so many Beast Spirit Crystals, the brush was still giving off a strong feeling of desire.

The amount of energy needed to reach the Heaven tier clearly exceeded Zhou Yuan’s estimation.

"How troublesome..."

Zhou Yuan’s looked at the pulsing Heavenly Yuan Brush in his hands. The fifth ancient Genesis Rune was blinking, evidently in the process of accumulating that last bit of energy needed for its evolution.

"It’s like a bottomless hole..." Zhou Yuan let out a bitter laugh. Practically all of the Heavenly Flame Lizards in this hundred mile distract had already been exterminated by him. He would likely have to leave this area to hunt more of them.

But this was the area he was supposed to occupy. Once he left, the other factions would surely swoop in.

As such, Zhou Yuan found it rather difficult to leave.

He fell into thought for some time, before ultimately making his decision.

"I’ll do another sweep of this area before heading to other places to hunt the Heavenly Flame Lizards. If someone else dares to occupy this area while I’m gone, I’ll just return to kick them out after the Heavenly Yuan Brush has evolved."

Hence, Zhou Yuan hesitated no further as his figure shot forth once again.

However, after half an incense stick of time, only about ten Beast Spirit Crystals had been collected when he was half way through...

He could only helplessly shake his head at this outcome.

"Looks like I’ll have to go somewhere else once I’m done here." Zhou Yuan sighed softly. However, his eyes suddenly narrowed at this moment as he lifted his head, only to find several glowing figures approaching in the air.

In the end, these figures intruded into Zhou Yuan’s hundred mile territory.

Zhou Yuan slowly rose into the air with narrowed eyes, stopping the intruders.

He looked at the figures and slowly sadi, "This area is already occupied, I hope that you guys can withdraw."

These figures were clearly part of the same faction. They looked towards Zhou Yuan, bewilderment flashing across their eyes when they saw the token hanging from his waist.

"Oh, it’s brother Zhou Yuan from the Cangxuan Sect..."

They exchanged a look, before cupping their fists together with a smile. "We are truly sorry to have made this mistake. We’ll be leaving now."

After speaking, they turned and left.

Zhou Yuan frowned slightly at their decisiveness. He had a sinking feeling that something was amiss. After pondering about it for a moment, he landed next to the giant flag and decided to wait here for a while.

A hundred miles from Zhou Yuan’s territory.

Several glowing figures landed on a certain hill.

"Brother Su Duan, the rich vein area in front is indeed being guarded by Zhou Yuan from the Cangxuan Sect." The figures looked towards the to of the hill where another figure was standing with his hands behind his back. It was the junior sect master of the Flame Cauldron Sect, who had played a game of flame rock gambling with Zhou Yuan a few days ago, Su Duan.

Su Duan nodded as a cold smile was revealed on his face. "The other members of the Cangxuan Sect are fighting in the core region, while Zhou Yuan has been sent all the way out here. It seems that his strength is quite lacking."

One of the figures asked with some hesitation, "Brother Su Duan, are you really going to seize that rich vein from him? Though Zhou Yuan is not useful to them, he’s still a disciple of the Cangxuan Sect. If we take it from him, won’t we making the Cangxuan Sect look ugly? I’m afraid that their Chosens won’t let the matter rest when that happens."

"Humph, the Chosens of the Cangxuan Sect are currently being kept in check by the Chosens from the Sacred Palace, and have no time to deal with other matters. How can they possibly come all the way to the outer area for this small matter?" Su Duan icily snorted.

However, he was not a brainless fool after all. His eyes narrowed slightly as he fell into thought for a moment, before he said with a smile, "Moreover, we do not need to personally deal with that brat..."

"What do you mean?"

With a wave of his sleeve, a bottle appeared in Su Duan’s hand. He gently dusted it off as he said, "This is a bottle of Flame Lizard Saliva that is extremely enticing to the Heavenly Flame Lizards in this essence flame vein. You guys only need to sprinkle it in the area Zhou Yuan is at, and then we’ll go stir up the Heavenly Flame Lizards and draw them towards him."

"When that happens, we would not need to do anything. Can a fourth layer Alpha-Origin withstand a beast wave of that level?"

"He will surely be forced to flee. After he’s gone, we’ll exterminate the beast wave and occupy that area... we won’t be taking it from him, but from the mouths of the Heavenly Flame Lizards."

"This will show how useless Zhou Yuan is, and even the Cangxuan Sect can’t place the fault on us. They can only berate Zhou Yuan for being useless."

The eyes of the others immediately brightened when they heard this, before raising their thumbs to Su Duan. "Su Duan’s ideas are amazing. Zhou Yuan is really going to suffer this time."

Upon hearing the encouragement from the group, Su Duan softly chuckled. His eyes narrowed slightly as his cold gaze turned towards a certain distant location.

"Zhou Yuan... since you humiliated me in the fair, I will make sure to pay you back in full today!"

"So what if you’re a disciple of the Cangxuan Sect. I still have ways to deal with you if I want to!"