Chapter 208: Demons and Divine Blood (II)

Sitting cross-legged in the tree hole, Chen Chu put away his halberd, then took out a large piece of spicy mutated beast jerky and a bottle of water, slowly enjoying his dinner.

By now, the sky had turned completely dark, and the desolated forest suddenly came alive.

Roar! Roar! Roar!

Roars echoed in the distance, shaking the mountains and forests, followed by loud noises from intense battles. The energy fluctuations and violent auras emitted made many mutated creatures panic.

Howl!

The tree Chen Chu was in and its neighbors trembled. The auras of a level 3 and level 4 beast exploded as they roared repeatedly.

The howling wind swept through the sky, and powerful mutated avians flew low overhead, their massive wings stirring up waves of air that even Chen Chu could sense.

Boom!

During the night, the depths of the Yunwu Mountains became even more dangerous. With the Insightful Eye Realm, Chen Chu occasionally sensed the auras of level 3 and 4 mutated creatures passing by. There were also numerous level 2 ordinary mutated creatures, seemingly dancing like a group of demons.

In an environment like this, cultivation couldn’t be done casually, as the fluctuations from absorbing the surrounding transcendent energy would easily attract the attention of mutated creatures.

So, after allocating a portion of his focus to remain vigilant of his surroundings, Chen Chu shifted his attention to the Thunder Fiery Colossal Beast.

After forming their squad, the three colossal beasts had begun to roam the deep sea.

However, to Chen Chu's disappointment, the Single-horned Kun's talent for resource hunting was not as strong as he had imagined. After wandering for a whole day, they hadn't found any natural treasures. This was completely contrary to his expectation of finding resources as soon as they entered the open sea, then proceeding to kill and eat along the way.

Over four hundred meters beneath the sea surface, the Thunder Beast let out a deep roar.

Roar! Big Horn, we've been wandering all day, and still haven't found anything good?

Squeak, squeak, squeak! Thunder Fiery, you need to be patient. It usually takes me a long time to find anything worthwhile when I go out. It won't happen so quickly,

the Kun explained

Roar, roar! Thunder Fiery, don't be impatient. I'm not even in a hurry.

After giving his advice, the Dragon Turtle let out another low roar.

Roar! Big Horn, do you...

Roar! Baxia, shut up and be quiet.

Thunder Fiery interrupted with a low roar, and the Dragon Turtle immediately withdrew its head slightly into its shell in slight offense. It looked toward the Kun on the other side, hoping it would help defuse the situation, but the Kun quickly turned its head, pretending not to see.

Ever since they had set out as a team, the Dragon Turtle had been incessantly roaring and chattering, spewing out an endless stream of words.

No matter how good-tempered the Thunder Beast was, it could only bear so much. It finally slapped its paw on the turtle's shell, sending it plummeting to the seafloor and putting an end to its chatter.

The three colossal beasts continued to roam the depths of the sea, and in the blink of an eye, a whole night had passed.

The next morning, the sunlight pierced through the clouds, casting its golden rays upon the mist-covered mountains and bringing a hint of life to the shrouded landscape.

With a loud bang, the tree door was kicked open, and Chen Chu, who had been meditating quietly all night, slowly emerged from the hole. His black-red crystal armor shimmered, radiating a dazzling red light in the sunlight that gave off a majestic and domineering aura.

Standing on the thick branch, Chen Chu looked around, pondered for a moment, and then burst out explosively, leaping high into the air toward the southeast and disappearing.

The roar heard from that direction last night had been the strongest. Chen Chu felt that the mutated beast he’d been hunting for was most likely located there. However, it was still easier said than done. Chen Chu traveled about thirty kilometers before finally making a discovery at the foot of a hill.

𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂

Footprints. Each of them were about five meters long, spaced over ten meters apart, and penetrated the ground by over a meter, indicating that the mutated creature was massive and agile.

In addition, the footprints moved one by one from left to right. Chen Chu’s spirits lifted as he speculated that the mutated beast might be an ape, then followed the direction where the footprints disappeared.

Of course, such large footprints could also be left by a larger level 6 mutated creature, so he proceeded with caution.

However, as he pursued, the footprints became increasingly shallow and scattered, sometimes even separated by hundreds of meters. Instead, now there were signs of disturbance in the towering trees nearby.

Chen Chu also discovered many large bloodstains along the way, along with remnants of flesh scattered all around. This was evidence of the battles fought by the mutated creatures the previous night.

After crossing two small hills and a canyon, Chen Chu finally found his target. Under a large tree, a giant ape-like mutated beast sat on the ground. Even in that position, it was already over ten meters tall, as it gnawed on the carcass of a mutated creature nearly twenty meters in length.

Unlike ordinary ape-like mutated beasts, this one had no scales on its body. Rather, it had brown fur two meters long, especially on its pair of massive claws that reached down past its knees. When spread out, one set covered an area almost as wide as half of its body.

The Long-haired Rampage Ape had likely been feasting for quite some time now, as only a small portion of the level 4 mutated beast's body remained. The blood flowing out of the torn corpse had almost dyed the ground red, and it pooled in the lower areas, creating a strong scent.

Hundreds of meters away, Chen Chu concealed his aura as he stood behind a tree in the shadows. He didn’t want to take any direct action just yet.

Just then, rustling sounds came from behind him, as a colorful snake over five meters long slowly winded toward him. Its vibrant colors showed how deadly the snake’s venom was, and wherever it passed, leaves would turn black.

As the colorful snake approached within two meters, ready to attack, Chen Chu stretched out his left hand and made a pressing motion in its direction.

The snake was silently crushed into a pulp by a heavy force.

The special characteristic of the Fourth Heavenly Realm was the outward projection of true power, which was capable of emitting blade qi. However, the emitted true power would generally disperse and vanish after about ten meters.

On the other hand, the special characteristic of the Fifth Heavenly Realm was the integration of willpower into blade qi, which would double its power and make it capable of reaching up to twenty meters.

The willpower could also be materialized and combined with true power to interfere with matter, as Chen Chu had done just now.

When a cultivator broke through to the Sixth Heavenly Realm and their will merged with true power to form the flame of true power, the cultivator's strength underwent a significant increase. Currently, those third-year geniuses were all stuck at this step.

After crushing the snake, Chen Chu continued to observe the ape. After thirty minutes, it finally finished eating and drinking, leaving behind only a small portion of the corpse as it stood up.

The mutated beast stood twenty-five meters tall, as high as an eight-story building, and its massive body exuded a formidable pressure.

Roar!

After letting out a roar, the Long-haired Rampage Ape walked away. Wherever it passed, trees shook and branches broke, leaving behind a wide path. It climbed over half of a nearby mountain, then vanished into an area shrouded in swirling mist.

A minute later, a figure flashed down the path in pursuit. As Chen Chu stood in front of the mist that never seemed to disappear, a faint smile appeared on his face.

He sensed strong spatial fluctuations ahead.

Chen Chu took a deep breath, then stepped into the mist. Instantly, a strong sense of spatial distortion came from all directions. This lasted for about a minute before Chen Chu felt a lightness.

Suddenly, a canyon appeared before his eyes, one filled with dozens of rugged rocks that stood hundreds of meters high. The area was teeming with chaotic and violent energy; serenity could never be found here. There was also no sign of life here, no vegetation, no creatures, giving an air of desolation and oppression.

Occasionally, a pitch-black spatial rift would appear out of nowhere, silently tearing through the hard rocks, with pieces of debris falling and making crackling sounds.

This was a distorted spatial zone similar to a hidden realm, one that was very dangerous.

Chen Chu followed the shadows of the chaotic rocks deep into the depths. After about a kilometer, he found the mouth of a cave under a cliff wall, thirty meters high and stretching for hundreds of meters. It was wide at the mouth, but narrowing further in.

The Long-haired Rampage Ape was lying at the mouth of the cave, sleeping soundly. The dense and violent transcendent energy there had formed a vortex, which the ape breathed in and absorbed.

Only these physically robust mutated beasts could absorb such violent energy. Human cultivators could absorb it, too, but because of the need to refine and purify it, the efficiency wasn’t as high, so it usually wasn’t worth the effort.

As for the resources that Li Fei had mentioned might exist, there was no trace of them—or at least, Chen Chu didn't sense any aura of natural treasure, and he hadn't found any special minerals along the way, either.

However, there seemed to be something behind the Rampage Ape...

Suddenly, Chen Chu's gaze sharpened. He looked past the ape into the narrow cave, and spotted some broken stones mixed with milky-white pure crystal deep within.

It seemed to be an Ethereal Crystal, one containing spatial energy.