Chapter 128: Return of The Colossal Beast, Maxing Out Saber Art

Beneath the pitch-black depths of the deep sea, the Sword Armored Fiery Beast, its body adorned with black scales and crimson patterns, elegantly waved its tail. With astonishing speed, it ascended toward the surface, leaving a trail of wildly retreating frigid water in its wake.

Its claws held onto the battered body of the mutated fish. However, rather than consuming it immediately, the beast remained alert, vigilantly scanning its surroundings.

Just as the Fiery Beast approached a depth of three hundred meters, a black shadow suddenly lunged from its left side.

Splurt!

In the darkness, the water parted, and the black shadow was instantly pierced through by the Fiery Beast's slender tail, what was now a carcass being pulled along as the beast continued to rise toward the surface.

Bang!

The surging waves on the surface exploded into splashes, and the ferocious black-colored mutated beast’s head emerged from beneath.

Based on the direction, swimming speed, and time it had taken following the orca’s guidance, the Fiery Beast estimated that it was currently over eight hundred kilometers away from the coastline. This time, however, it had gone in a different direction from where it had initially encountered the deep-sea colossal beast.

With a pensive air, the Fiery Beast dipped its head back into the water, glancing back over its shoulder.

The creature dangling from its tail was a grotesque mutated creature eight meters long. It slightly resembled a snake in body shape, but it was lacking scales and a distinct head, sporting only a mouth full of sharp teeth.

The Fiery Beast glanced at the strange creature and then promptly grabbed the blue-furred mutated fish, starting to devour it. It had gone two days without a meal, but it certainly hadn’t been expecting a mutated fish to come knocking at its door as soon as it tried to leave.

Through the energy contained within the flesh, the Fiery Beast estimated that this formidable mutated fish had been around the late stage of level 5. On top of that, its mutation ability had been quite strong. It could unleash all of the icy energy within its body through the blue fur on its surface, carrying a destructive power comparable to that of an ordinary level 6 mutated beast.

Before long, the Fiery Beast devoured the remaining half of the blue-furred fish, its massive body visibly expanding in mere moments.

Following that, the Fiery Beast turned slightly, extending its right claw and swinging its tail around. It caught the other mutated fish with a swift motion, giving it a gentle tug with its claws to tear it into two segments.

Hmm!

The Fiery Beast's gaze fell upon the center of the fish meat in its left claw, where a crystal shimmered with a brilliant light.

A Level 3 Life Crystal.

The Fiery Beast's grim mouth curled into a smile as it carefully plucked out the crystal, slowly placing it into the snakeskin pouch hanging around its neck. With its current strength, even a slight misstep could crush the Life Crystal to powder just like that.

Chen Chu had been back in East Xia for three or four days. During this time, the Fiery Beast had hunted and devoured numerous mutated fish, but very few of them had contained Life Crystals within their bodies. Even though it had only found two Level 3 Life Crystals, however, that was still quite profitable, equivalent to 80 contribution points.

The unexpected harvest put the Fiery Beast in a good mood. It took a delighted bite out of the fish, devouring the entire thing with a series of crunches.

Just as it had barely satisfied its hunger, the sea erupted in splashes in the distance. A black shadow tore through the waves, charging towards the Fiery Beast.

Once it got close enough, the Fiery Beast suddenly struck, its massive right claw sweeping with enough force to obliterate the water along with half of the approaching fish’s head.

Boom!

The water exploded, shooting up over ten meters high. Simultaneously, the body of a nine-meter-long mutated shark soared into the air before crashing back into the sea with a loud thud. Fresh red blood gushed from the shattered head, staining the surrounding water crimson.

After casually swatting down another attacking mutated fish, the Fiery Beast grabbed the food that had just been delivered to it, a faint sense of seriousness appearing in its eyes.

The Blood Crystal was in the snakeskin pouch, completely out of sight, and yet these mutated creatures could still sense its presence, its strong allure completely irresistible to them.

It seems that I need to get rid of this thing in advance.

The Fiery Beast's massive body dove down, reaching a depth of twenty meters and then starting to speed toward the coastline.

These resources for evolving bloodlines held too much temptation for these mutated beasts, especially considering that the water seemed to have an effect of making scents spread.

So far, the beast had been lucky, only encountering attacks from two level 3 mutated fish and gaining an easy meal in the process.

That luck could very easily turn, however. What if it attracted level 7 or even level 8 mutated creatures?

***

At five in the afternoon, as the bell rang to signal the end of classes, Chen Chu and Luo Fei walked out of the school together. After parting ways halfway home, Chen Chu took out his phone and dialed Chen Hu's number.

"Ah Hu, tell Mom that I won't be coming home for dinner tonight. A classmate’s invited me to their house as a guest, and I'll be staying overnight there."

"Oh, okay, Bro," Chen Hu on the other end replied without much thought.

𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

During the first few days after his return, Chen Chu had already mentioned some of the things that had happened in Kyrola to them, including his good relationships with classmates like Xia Youhui and Liu Feng. There was no need to worry about his safety, either; with his mighty cultivation currently at the Third Heavenly Realm, would there really be any issues?

After hanging up the phone, Chen Chu hailed a passing taxi and said, "Sir, to the express train station, please."

"Alright, please buckle up.”

The express train was similar to the high-speed rail in Chen Chu’s previous world, but due to the presence of mutated beasts, it only connected major bustling cities, skipping over smaller towns and more remote areas. With the higher occurrence of mutated creatures, the infrastructure damage they incurred made maintenance excessively costly.

Wujiang City was eighty kilometers away from the nearest coastal city, which was the city where the Fiery Beast had initially set out from. The express train would take just over half an hour to get there.

At six o'clock in the afternoon, Chen Chu blended into the crowd as he walked out of the station, pausing on the steps to curiously survey the city named Linchuan.

Compared to its neighboring city, Linchuan seemed slightly less bustling, and the buildings appeared to be shorter overall, likely as a precaution against typhoons.

"Thank you. Please give me one of these, and also this one..." Chen Chu pointed at several appetizing snacks at the roadside stall outside the station, signaling to the vendor to pack them.

As the vendor packed the snacks, he warmly remarked, "Hey handsome, from your accent, I’m guessing it's your first time in Linchuan, right?"

Chen Chu smiled faintly and replied, "Yes, it's winter break, so I thought I'd come out for a stroll."

With his height of 1.85 meters, erect posture, and a handsome yet composed face, Chen Chu appeared like a typical university student right now. No one could imagine that he was just a high school freshman.

"Here you go, handsome. That'll be eighteen yuan in total."

"Alright." Taking the bag, Chen Chu scanned the QR code to make the payment before hailing a cab by the roadside.

"Sir, please take me to the estuary."

Chen Chu stood on the embankment overlooking the vast estuary with his hands behind his back, feeling a sense of tranquility as he watched the roaring sea breeze and rolling waves.

Despite having wreaked havoc in the sea as a mutated beast for a long while, it was his first time standing at a high vantage point and admiring the boundless ocean from a human perspective.

At the same time, in the Fiery Beast’s perception, it was still over three hundred kilometers away from here, estimated to return by evening. However, this timing worked out perfectly; he didn't dare to let the Fiery Beast appear in broad daylight, especially now that he knew about the martial arts schools all having lightwave sensors.

At 12 A.M., in the pitch-blackness of the seaside and accompanied by howling winds, Chen Chu's figure flashed as he circled the high points in the vicinity, double checking to make sure no one else was around. He then landed on a rocky outcrop that rose several meters high on the rugged beach, his gaze fixed forward.

In the dim night, a row of sharp fin-like structures resembling long swords pierced through the water, followed by the heavy, metallic gleam of black scales that emitted a dim red glow between their crevices.

Bang!

The sea exploded as a black mutated beast, standing at four meters tall with a body length of over twelve meters, emerged from the depths.

The rolling water cascaded down its body, and some of it slipped through the gaps in its scales, only to evaporate into white steam upon contact with the high temperature emanating from its surface, filling the air around it with a misty haze.

The dragon-like head, shrouded in the black outer armor, bore three pairs of red feathered horns on each side that emitted flickering flames, lending it a majestic and ferocious demeanor.

The Sword Armored Fiery Beast emitted steam and intense heat from head to toe. With each step, its colossal form left deep footprints in the sand, marking its heavy and intimidating presence on the beach.

The density of the Fiery Beast's body was simply through the roof. That normally wasn’t noticeable, thanks to the buoyancy of the seawater, but it was a different story entirely on the land, which trembled with every step.

The beast approached Chen Chu with heavy footsteps. Its massive black head rose to a height of just over five meters, level with its body.

Scorching heat rushed toward Chen Chu, and he suddenly felt a strong sense of oppression stemming from the disparity in size. Twelve meters long and four to five meters tall didn’t sound exaggerated at first, but when faced with it up close, one could feel its indescribable density.

Even though the Fiery Beast was himself, it still seemed as though it could swallow Chen Chu in one bite, just by slightly opening its mouth.

Chen Chu looked at the beast, and the beast looked back. The sensation of both perspectives scrutinizing themselves made him feel very peculiar.

Looking at the enormous and ferocious black mutated beast in front of him, Chen Chu felt somewhat emotional. Who could have imagined that just three or four months ago, this beast had only been a palm-sized six-horned salamander?

Looking at his own majestic and imposing self, even he couldn't help but feel handsome.

The inspection was brief, however. Chen Chu extended his hands, and at the same time, the Fiery Beast also slightly leaned its head closer, allowing himself to grab and open the snakeskin pouch hanging under its neck. Chen Chu reached into the water still inside and took out two Life Crystals and the Blood Crystal.

Roar!

Accompanied by a dignified growl that sounded tiger-like, the massive beast stirred up a whirlwind as it turned and departed. As it left, its tail swept across the sand, erasing its footprints from the beach.

Bang!

Accompanied by a shower of water droplets, the Fiery Beast vanished back into the water, moving quickly to avoid being discovered by the strong cultivators who would likely arrive later.

Although Chen Chu had searched the surroundings to ensure there was no one before the Fiery Beast showed up, the martial arts high schools had lightwave detectors, so the avatar couldn't linger on the shore for too long.

Some secrets were only secrets precisely because no one knew about them.

Once the Fiery Beast had swum several kilometers into the sea, Chen Chu finally withdrew some of his attention, lowering his head to look at the Life Crystals in his hand as his thoughts resonated in his mind.

Convert to attribute points.

"You have converted two Life Crystals, gaining 36 and 38 attribute points."

Compared to the crystal from the Golden-Backed Rampage Ape, these crystals, both from ordinary peak level 3 mutated beasts, held much less energy. However, they still gave Chen Chu a combined 74 points, adding to the original 8 points to form a cumulative total of 82.

Such a significant number of attribute points excited Chen Chu, but instead of immediately enhancing anything, he summoned the attribute page and focused on the data below the Sword Armored Fiery Beast's information.

"The avatar’s Flame Blaze ability requires 100 attribute points to enhance. Insufficient attribute points."

Even the most basic level of the Flame Blaze ability requires a hundred points. No wonder I never got a prompt about the other abilities, even with them having those plus signs. I wonder what the requirements for each of them are?

In a thoughtful tone, Chen Chu's voice echoed in his mind.

Consume 50 attribute points to enhance the Insightful Blade to maximum level.

Boom!