Chapter 120: Dragon Elephant’s Domination, Eight Desolations Purgatory (I)

Due to living on the outskirts of the city, Chen Chu’s house was the first one they arrived at.

"Old Xia, Luo Fei, Lin Xue, everyone, I'm getting off first. See you at school the day after tomorrow."

After saying goodbye to everyone, Chen Chu picked up his luggage and walked off the bus. He stood by the roadside, waiting for the bus to leave before preparing to cross the street. It was already past ten in the morning, and there was still some distance to Chen Chu's house from the bus station.

Before he could even reach his house, however, a neighbor who was working on something in the adjacent yard had already spotted him and couldn't help but shout, "Zhang Xiaolan, your Chen Chu is back!"

After two months, Chen Chu's height had reached 1.85 meters, standing tall and straight. Coupled with his handsome military uniform with a black base and red trim, he was quite conspicuous as he walked along the road.

The first to rush out was Chen Hu. This guy had grown another inch or so himself, standing at about 1.78 meters tall. His physique was even more robust and imposing. If Chen Chu didn't know that this guy was only thirteen years old, he would have suspected that he was a disguised fitness trainer.

Excitedly, Chen Hu approached him and took the suitcase from his hand. "Bro, you're finally back!"

"Ah Hu, aren't you supposed to be in school?"

"It's winter break, Bro."

"... It's already winter break?" Chen Chu paused slightly, then realized it was indeed already January 2nd.

Chen Hu nodded eagerly. "Yeah, there's only half a month left until the Lunar New Year. It's a good thing you came back in time. Otherwise, the house would feel a lot emptier this year."

As they spoke, Zhang Xiaolan also walked out, looking a bit excited.

As soon as he saw her, Chen Chu's gaze softened. "Mom, I'm back."

Zhan Xiaolan carefully examined Chen Chu, relief filling her face when she confirmed that he was uninjured and looking energetic."It's good that you're back, it's good that you're back.”

After two months had passed, Chen Chu's somewhat youthful face had matured significantly. There was a resolute expression in his brows, making him look full of vigor and determination.

While she was somewhat proud of this change, Zhang Xiaolan also felt a twinge of heartache.

Back home, Chen Hu bombarded Chen Chu with questions about the trial. Chen Chu picked out some details to share with him, but glossed over the fighting and battles. At the same time, he gave them the gifts he had brought back.

"Oh right, Ah Chu, your birthday is in ten days."

At the dining table, Zhang Xiaolan suddenly spoke, her eyes lighting up with anticipation. "I heard from Little Hu[1] that you've made some good friends at school, and there's a girl named Luo Fei who is very pretty. Should we invite them over for dinner one day?"

"

Cough!

....No, there's no need for that. It's just a regular birthday, nothing special. Just eating an egg will do." Chen Chu almost choked on his food, before giving a hasty shake of his head.

It's just a regular birthday, there's no need to bother with hosting a dinner.

Zhang Xiaolan looked a bit disappointed. "I see. I was thinking of inviting your friends over to liven things up on your birthday. Just so you know, I got a promotion last month, so my income has increased a lot."

Chen Chu shook his head decisively. "Let's wait until I turn twenty before considering that. It'll be more meaningful that way."

"Okay."

After dinner, Chen Hu resumed the barrage of questions. In the end, Chen Chu only managed to get them to stop by saying that he needed to practice cultivation

He sat cross-legged on the backyard veranda. The majestic Dragon Elephant True Power within him began to circulate, and immediately, he could feel the dense transcendent energy surge towards him.

Huff! Huff!

As Chen Chu started to absorb the transcendent energy, half of his consciousness went to the Sword Armored Beast.

The golden sunlight pierced through the seawater, illuminating the underwater world and making the hundred-meter deep seabed appear colorful. A ten-meter-long black exotic beast lay lazily in the coral reef.

The Sword Beast had just finished a hearty meal and was resting, taking the opportunity to relax its mind and appreciate the scenery before it. After all, it was still a living being.

The fierce and savage aura emanating from the Sword Beast had subsided, making it appear harmless and docile. Even in this state, however, no fish dared to approach.

With a ten-meter-long body, it inherently possessed an intimidating presence. Its ferocious head and the blood-red feathered horns on its sides only served to accentuate its fierce and terrifying appearance.

Suddenly, the fish ahead scattered in disarray, and countless fish swam swiftly past the Sword Beast.

Seeing this, the Sword Beast fully opened its eyes, revealing cold glints in its pale golden pupils. This situation indicated the presence of a powerful mutated beast.

Sure enough, after a short while, a massive black figure appeared in the distance. Its limbs, as thick as pillars, were covered in scales, and its heavy brown shell was adorned with sharp spikes resembling diamond-shaped thorns. Its head, fierce like that of a dragon, completed the intimidating appearance.

Most importantly, this mutated giant turtle measured twenty-six meters in length and stood ten meters tall, exuding a heavy and imposing aura.

This turtle was formidable. Even the Sword Beast felt a strong sense of danger when facing it, causing its gaze to sharpen instantly.

Roar!

The Sword Beast rose slightly, emitting a low warning growl. The resonating sound waves traveled far underwater, causing many small fish to roll belly-up from the shock.

Although there was a huge difference in size between the two, the Sword Beast wasn’t afraid. With its speed, it could easily retreat if necessary.

The massive turtle, however, simply cast a cold glance at it before continuing to move past.

The Sword Beast had been prepared for battle, not for being completely ignored. As it watched the turtle crawl across the seabed with a trail of rolling mud and sand, it suddenly had a thought. The turtle seemed to be heading directly into the territory of the Crystal Horn Fish.

After returning from the distant sea, the Sword Beast had been hunting near the fish’s territory. It wasn't going to let this many mutated fish with such rich energy slip away, and the glowing corals around the volcano were also a mystery that still piqued its curiosity.

After hunting all of the smaller ones, however, it was unable to deal with the remaining fish, the ones that each measured dozens of meters in length. One on one, the Sword Beast was confident that it could kill a fish without any problem; its size increasing to ten meters had increased its strength many times over.

Unfortunately, as it had killed off the smaller ones, these creatures had learned to gather in groups and not stray too far from the volcano. Even with its speed, the Sword Beast couldn’t kill three of them at once, and the freezing rays of light they emitted from their horns were too powerful when there were several at once.

It hadn’t wanted to risk potential injury just for a few bites of mutated fish meat, but now....

The Sword Beast's tail moved slightly as it followed far behind the giant turtle.

As beast and turtle advanced, the seabed ahead gradually descended, reaching depths of one hundred and fifty meters, two hundred meters, and eventually to the murky depths of four to five hundred meters.

Here, it was pitch black, and even the Sword Beast couldn’t see anything, only able to rely on its horns to vaguely sense its surroundings, including the massive figure hundreds of meters in front of it.

Soon, however, a faint light appeared in the distance: the habitat of the Crystal Horn Fish.

Boom!

Just as the turtle approached within a hundred meters, the group of Crystal Horn Fish suddenly erupted into agitation.

It seemed like there was some enmity between the two sides. The hidden Sword Beast watched as the three largest fish suddenly lunged toward the turtle, accompanied by six ten-meter-long fish.

As they approached, nine blue beams, six as thick as a thigh and three a half-meter thick, burst out, instantly freezing the seawater into ice pillars wherever they passed with their terrifying chill.

Crack! Crack! Crack!

The imposing icy light enveloped the turtle, and its figure instantly halted. In the blink of an eye, both it and the surrounding water was covered in a layer of blue ice over two meters thick.

Such formidable energy. The Sword Beast’s gaze sharpened as the iceberg towered over ten meters high.

Suddenly, the ice started cracking, followed by a loud bang as it exploded, revealing the unharmed turtle inside.

Layers of earthly ripples flowed on the giant turtle's body, emitting a heavy and unshakable aura like a mountain as it resumed crawling towards the volcano.

The scene reminded the Sword Beast of Xia Youhui, strong in defense but lacking in offense.

Seeing the turtle continue its movement, the fish became even more agitated. The blue crystals on their heads lit up once again, and more beams of blue icy light burst out.

Pew pew pew!

Under the terrifying cold energy, the turtle was once again frozen into a thick iceberg.

𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

This time, the fish didn’t stop, and the blue ice on its body continued to thicken. Gradually, a towering iceberg over fifty meters high and over a hundred meters wide appeared at the bottom of the sea.

In such a situation, even the giant turtle couldn't move under the weight of tens of thousands of tons of ice, firmly held in place on the seabed.

The fish couldn’t keep it up forever, however. Soon, the beams from the six ten-meter fish began to dim, emanating an aura of weakness as they quickly came to a halt.

As time passed, the beams from the three largest fish, each measuring fifteen, twenty, and twenty-three meters in length, also began to gradually weaken.

Wuuu!

Beneath the iceberg, a long, horn-like wail suddenly echoed, causing the dense brown aura around the turtle to tremble and sending ripples through the surrounding seabed.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Under the raging shockwaves, an endless amount of sediment was stirred up, the sea roiled, and cracks appeared on the heavy iceberg, constantly shattering with a popping sound.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The heavy ice blocks smashed into the seabed, causing slight vibrations, while some smaller fragments floated up to the sea surface.

Amid the rolling broken ice and bubbles, the turtle slowly emerged, completely ignoring the fish as it continued to crawl towards the volcano crater.

As the turtle climbed halfway up the mountainside, the mutated fish became increasingly agitated. One of them, measuring ten meters in length, couldn't restrain itself and charged forward, attempting to knock it aside.

It slammed into the turtle with a loud thud, but the turtle didn’t budge in the slightest.

Compared to the twenty-six-meter-long turtle, which had a heavy body supported by four limbs on the ground, the ten-meter-long fish was as feeble as a baby.

Boom! Boom!

Two more fish also charged forward, slamming hard into the turtle, but the attacks merely felt like an itch to it.

Bam!

Just then, the sea exploded as the turtle’s head whipped around with terrifying speed, resembling a phantom as it bit down on the nearest fish.

The turtle's mouth, filled with sharp teeth, clamped tightly onto the middle of the fish's body, ignoring its struggles. The sharp teeth tore through the fish scales, and then...

snap!

With its terrifying biting force, the turtle directly severed the fish into two halves. Its ferocious mouth tore at and devoured both halves, as blood mixed with flesh and residue diffused into the water.

Upon seeing this, the other fish immediately panicked and scattered, including the three giant ones, which only swam away and didn’t dare to approach.

It seemed like they had witnessed this scene several times before.

Soon, the turtle finished devouring the fish. With the others no longer hindering it, it quickly climbed up to the volcano crater, where it opened its massive mouth to begin devouring the glowing coral reefs with a crunching sound.

Seeing this, the fish swimming around became even more agitated. The three largest fish shot out beams of freezing icy light, but still couldn't stop the turtle.

The turtle already boasted terrifying defense, and the thick aura emanating from its yellow-colored halo, seemingly connected to the earth, allowed it to completely ignore the freezing beams.

Every time a one-meter-thick layer of ice covered its back, the yellow aura trembled, shattering the ice and leaving the fish despaired.

In the darkness, the Sword Beast’s eyes narrowed slightly as it started to consider whether to intervene and stop the turtle.

It was evident that those coral-like entities might be some sort of precious natural resource; otherwise, the fish and the turtle wouldn't be contending for them. It also seemed that this situation had occurred more than once.

After a moment of silence, however, the Sword Beast suppressed the urge to intervene.

Chen Chu estimated that the Sword Beast’s current level among mutated beasts should be at the peak of level 4. With its three major physical abilities, it could easily annihilate ordinary level 5 beasts, even some level 6 beasts, such as the largest Crystal Horn Fish. The Sword Beast was confident it could hunt those down one-on-one.

This mutated giant turtle, however, seemed to be at the peak of level 6. Its flawless defense made the Sword Beast feel like a mouse, unable to find any way to attack.

Exhausting its energy and then killing it wasn’t a good idea, either. The Sword Beast had noticed that this turtle’s abilities were likely related to the earth. As long as it could stand at the bottom of the sea, its defense and regenerative capabilities were both formidable.

The main issue, once again, was that the Sword Beast lacked energy-based abilities, which limited both its offensive and defensive capabilities

In this situation, Chen Chu became increasingly hopeful for his avatar’s fourth evolution. He wondered how much the Sword Beast’s combat power would increase after gaining energy-based abilities.

1. Little Hu is a nickname for Chen Hu. They often add the word ‘Little’ before names to show endearment ☜