Chapter 398: Overtaking Chen Chu, the Attack of the Colossal Beasts

Boom boom boom boom!

In the depths of the North Lin Battlefield, flashes of thunderbolts rained down from the sky and struck Li Daoyi violently. Remnants of electricity from the bolts crackled around him and shattered the surrounding rocks.

Under the shower of heavenly bolts, his aura grew stronger and stronger, and the lightning around him gradually formed a twenty meter tall phantom behind him.

Boom!

The moment the phantom condensed, the dark clouds above Li Daoyi roared and surged, unleashing purple thunderbolts that the phantom absorbed. Surrounded by endless flashes of lightning, the radiant phantom exuded a divine and imposing aura, as if it were a deity in command of thunderbolts.

After completing the mission to protect Yan Ruoyi, and through over a month of intense cultivation, Li Daoyi had finally broken through from the middle stage to the late stage of the Sixth Heavenly Realm.

Upon returning to the Northern Battlefield, Li Daoyi went into seclusion to cultivate a secret scripture that was currently untitled. Today, he had finally taken half a step into the Seventh Heavenly Realm, successfully evolving his innate thunderbolts into runic phantoms.

Li Daoyi slowly opened his eyes, lightning dancing within them, and said, "This isn't enough. So much time has passed, that monster must have already broken through to the Seventh Realm.

"This won't do. I need to cultivate even harder." With this thought, Li Daoyi closed his eyes again as he continued to absorb and refine the power of the heavenly bolts.

He was an Innate Awakener, yet his cultivation speed was surpassed by a mere genius. Unforgivable.

The ancient ruins were about to open, and before that happened, he had to break into the Seventh Heavenly Realm.

Since the True Martial Phantom was a natural evolution of Li Daoyi's Innate Thunderbolts and had perfect compatibility with him, he wouldn't need to go through adjustments or optimizations after breaking through to the Seventh Realm.

When the time came, as long as he had enough Tianyuan Stones, which he could refine at the rate of one every three days, Li Daoyi was confident that he'd be able to break through to the Eighth Realm within three months.

That monster, Chen Chu, would still need time to reflect and adjust the rune structure of his True Martial Phantom after creating his own secret scripture and breaking through to the Seventh Realm.

When that time came, it would be Li Daoyi's chance to surpass Chen Chu.

If he was lucky enough to obtain some law fragments containing thunderbolt attributes in the ancient ruins, he could even break through to the Eighth Realm faster than expected, leaving his competitor far behind.

When that time comes... Hmph! I’ll be the one showing off in front of him.

Li Daoyi had been working hard to stay ahead of Chen Chu. In fact, without access to the internet in the North Lin battlefield, and the resulting difficulty of communicating with the outside world, he had also conveniently quit his addiction of chatting up beautiful women.

***

"Ah Chu, come down for breakfast."

“Coming.”

In his room, Chen Chu slowly opened his eyes, a look of relief in them.

After a night of cultivation, he had finally finished upgrading the core runes for his five major abilities, but at the last moment, the battle phantom showed some unstable fluctuations.

The top-level abilities were too powerful. Even upgrading just one was intense, not to mention the staggering load for upgrading all five.

It was fortunate that Chen Chu used the innate spatial rune as the structural foundation of the battle phantom's body, or it would have been truly risky this time.

Chen Chu went down and had breakfast, and after Zhang Xiaolan left for work and Chen Hu went to school, he sat down on the wooden veranda in the backyard, preparing to continue cultivation.

Now that the core runes had completed upgrading, the next step was to cultivate the eighth stage of the War God Body art.

With this thought, Chen Chu activated his mind, and once again consumed 1,000 attribute points to enter the epiphany state. Simultaneously, the attribute points in his system dropped to 2,682.

This time, a second phantom, formed through his vitality and completely simulating his physical data, appeared alongside the battle phantom.

Under normal circumstances, a Seventh Heavenly Realm cultivator would make gradual adjustments and integrations as they cultivate.

However, in the epiphany state, Chen Chu’s mind functioned as if it had been developed to its utmost limit. With powerful computational capabilities in his sea of consciousness, he could completely simulate the data of his physical body.

Bang!

Just as the two phantoms drew close and overlapped, three rune sequence chains positioned on the second phantom’s right arm clashed with his meridians and violently exploded.

In the blink of an eye, seventeen solutions for optimizations appeared in Chen Chu’s mind.

Within the epiphany state, the phantom formed from vitality and the battle phantom continuously merged, collapsed, and exploded, only to immediately restore themselves and repeat the process.

Each time the phantoms disintegrated, it would consume Chen Chu’s spiritual force and some of his vitality. However, his body was so powerful and robust that he didn’t care about the slight consumption of vitality at all, directly using his strong physical constitution to push the art to progress rapidly.

This session lasted until dusk, when it finally came to a gradual end. Chen Chu opened his eyes, a trace of exhaustion visible in them. After being in seclusion for one day and one night and entering the epiphany state twice, even his strength couldn’t quite hold out. He needed to catch his breath and rest a while to recover.

This fatigue wasn’t caused by cultivation, but from the strain on his spiritual will. After all, even a supercomputer running at maximum capacity for too long would need to stop and cool down.

Either way, Chen Chu had gained a lot from this session. He estimated that after entering the epiphany state two more times, he would be able to complete the deduction of the War God Body up to the Eighth Heavenly Realm.

In other words, aside from the 2,000 attribute points needed to further transcend the core runes of his top-level abilities, he would only need to consume 3,000 points to advance the War God Body to its eighth stage.

When adding it all up, the total consumption was similar to directly enhancing the art to the eighth stage. After all, upgrading the seventh stage of the art had already consumed 2,000 points.

Next, Chen Chu just needed to absorb the energy of the Tianyuan Stones to solidify his True Martial Phantom and break through to the Eighth Heavenly Realm. This should take about a month. Of course, he could also break through without using Tianyuan Stones, but purely relying on absorbing transcendent energy would significantly slow down the process.

Right now, he had just over 2,000 attribute points left. It was enough to complete the deduction for the War God Body, but he still had a small gap to fill for the Space-Time Summoning secret art.

Thinking about this, Chen Chu felt that the consumption of attribute points at the higher stages was immense. Thousands of points gone at a time, and that didn’t even include the top-level ability enhancements, which were estimated to cost tens of thousands at the very least.

However, it was worth it. Although the consumption was huge, his strength had also advanced at a rate beyond anyone’s imagination.

As he thought about all of this during his rest, Chen Chu activated his mind and shifted his focus over to the deep sea.

In the pitch-black depths was a colossal beast standing at 152 meters tall, covered in a menacing black and red hue, exuded an intimidating aura. Golden flames danced across its body, emitting light and heat that dispelled the darkness around it.

As it looked at the various colossal beasts in the distance, each emanating powerful auras, the Thunder Fiery Dragon Emperor nodded in satisfaction.

After two days, these creatures had almost finished digesting their meals.

After devouring the flesh and blood of the level 9 king-level Blue Kun, along with some of its private stash from its small spatial pocket, the Silver Colossal Dragon had grown to a length of 105 meters and reached the late stage of level 8.

Additionally, stimulated by the king-level flesh, its bloodline underwent further purification, making its form even more powerful and domineering.

Compared to the Silver Dragon, which had received special treatment, the Single-Horned Kun only grew to ninety-four meters and remained at the middle stage of Level 8.

However, since it had consumed the flesh of a similar Kun-type creature, and a level 9 king-level Kun at that, it experienced significant growth and physical transformation. The black scales covering its body became thicker, and the rows of triangular dorsal fins extending from its back all the way to its tail turned sharper and more menacing.

Even the single horn on its head became more robust and sharp, radiating a sense of immense power. When it slightly opened its ferocious mouth, a vortex could be seen swirling inside.

With this bloodline purification, its external gravitational vortex ability had undergone evolution, finally beginning to show the traits of a Kun that could swallow the heavens and devour the earth.

The rest of the Kun family also seemed unusually active. The female orca had also awakened devouring and crushing abilities, and the youngest orca had inherited the same ability, too.

Besides the Silver Dragon and the Kun, the female orca and the Blue Giant Crab, which had already regrown three legs now, had the most significant growth.

Thanks to the energy and stimulation from the flesh of a late-stage level 9 colossal beast, these two beasts, which were originally at the late stage of level 7, had now reached the brink of breaking through to level 8.

The bloodline auras in their bodies were boiling. All they needed was a slight nudge from the Thunder Emperor to enter a deep slumber and complete their breakthrough.

In particular, the female orca, which had consumed the Blue Kun’s flesh, also began showing signs of transformation into a Kun. Once it broke through, the Thunder Emperor would be able to guide its bloodline and help it transcend its current limits.

As for the three young orcas, they had grown to the middle stage of Level 7. This was also the result from consuming the flesh of the level 9 colossal beast

Among these colossal beasts, the Thunder Emperor held the highest regard for the Silver Dragon.

As a king-level creature, it was formidable in its own right, and it had now devoured the flesh of two other king-level creatures, both at level 9: the Black Tortoise[1], and the Blue Kun. It had also experienced the dragon emperor's might from the Thunder Emperor, activating its bloodline as a result.

Once it reached level 9, and once the Thunder Emperor stimulated its bloodline again, it would have close to a hundred percent chance of awakening a second top-level ability. With two such abilities, the Silver Dragon's strength would soar to the heights once achieved by the Thunder Fiery Colossal Beast.

Just as the Thunder Emperor was deep in thought, the distant Silver Dragon instinctively covered its neck, showing a wary look as it let out a low growl.

Roar! Batian, the great Saixitia has nothing left for you to eat.

The Thunder Emperor snapped out of its reverie and let out a sigh, a hint of exasperation flashing in its golden slit-pupils. Did it really look like the kind of monster that would steal candy from kids?

Curious, the Thunder Emperor let out a low roar.

Roar! Saixitia, is your reverse scale space a natural ability?

The Thunder Emperor had always been somewhat envious of the Silver Dragon’s storage space. It wouldn’t have to keep making leather pouches if it had that convenient ability.

Hearing this, the Silver Dragon lifted its head slightly.

Roar! The reverse scale space was refined by Saixitia. It’s very large, very large, and can hold many things.

Roar! Saixitia, you’re amazing! You actually managed to refine a storage space on your own,

the Thunder Emperor growled.

Immediately, the Silver Dragon’s tail perked up like a little dog being praised, and it responded happily.

Roar! The great Saixitia has always been formidable!

Roar! Saixitia, can you teach me how to refine a storage space? Or let me study the structure of your reverse scale?

With its previous contemplation of the innate spatial rune and the ability to enter an epiphany state, the Thunder Emperor was confident that, if it were to study further, it could open up a storage space on its own reverse scale.

However, as soon as it finished speaking, the Silver Dragon's eyes showed a hint of wariness. It took two steps back.

Roar! I can teach you, but you can’t look at my reverse scale.

Saixitia knew all too well that the Thunder Emperor had always been interested in its little “treasure vault."

If Thunder Fiery were to study Saixitia's reverse scales, it would discover all of the delicious treats that were hidden within. With Thunder Fiery's cleverness, it would definitely find a way to coax these goods away from Saxitia.

Furthermore, this was its reverse scale, which its mother had said not to allow other dragons to casually touch.

Roar! Don’t worry, I won’t touch your reverse scale.

The Thunder Emperor growled softly, its gaze flickering.

Looks like this guy still has quite a few goodies hidden away.

At that moment, the Thunder Emperor turned its gaze to the other colossal beasts.

Roar! We’ll continue using the previous formation. Spread out over a distance of ten kilometers and sweep the area. Eliminate all creatures at the peak of their level and collect their Life Crystals.

Roar! You can divide any harvested resources among yourselves. I only need the flesh and blood of transcendent mutated beasts and the Life Crystals.

After two busy days and a great battle, it was finally time to reap the harvest. All of the other colossal beasts were invigorated, each letting out excited roars.

Squeak squeak squeak! Kill all those guys and get crystals for Thunder Fiery!

Gurgle gurgle! For the King! Kill and plunder everything—awesome, let’s do it!

At that moment, the colossal beasts were filled with energy and bloodthirsty intent. They were determined to work hard and earn rewards—no, that wasn’t right—they were determined to get crystals and repay the Thunder Emperor.

Even the Nine-Headed Serpent let out a chaotic roar of excitement.

Roar roar roar! For Ao Ba, kill them all—kick ass!

However, just as the Thunder Emperor and his subordinates were about to begin their sweep, a terrifying aura suddenly emerged from afar. The Single-Horned Kun and other colossal beasts’ eyes showed a look of shock.

The Silver Dragon stood up abruptly. Its wings flared open and its powerful aura erupted as it let out a low growl.

Roar! Batian, it’s the power of laws! The opponent is a quasi-mythical level colossal beast!

Golden flames blazed on the Thunder Emperor’s body as lightning crackled. It let out a deep growl.

Roar!

I know. When the fight starts, keep your distance. Ghidorah, you’re responsible for holding off that ordinary level 9 colossal beast.

Roar roar roar! Ghidorah can handle it—no problem, we’ll destroy it!

The Serpent twisted its eight intact heads, and all eight pairs of dragon eyes radiated with supreme confidence. After all, it had already slain a level 9 king-level colossal beast.

The aura from afar came from two sources. One emanated a strong yet faint feeling of the power of laws, while the other was concealed and at the middle stage of level 9.

At the Thunder Emperor’s current stage, as long as the opponent wasn’t a mythical-level colossal beast, it feared no one—not even a peak-level beast that had touched the power of laws. Even if it couldn’t kill the opponent, it could at least retreat safely.

Under the watchful gaze of the Thunder Emperor and the other beasts, a two-hundred-meter-long black python emerged from the darkness in the distance. Then, an even larger shadow appeared behind it.

It was nearly three hundred meters long, and covered in golden scales. While it was shaped like a colossal dragon, it had no wings on its back; instead, its entire body bristled with sharp bone spines.

A Sword Dragon Colossal Beast.

1. The original novel claims that the Silver Colossal Dragon devoured a “level 9 Xuanwu king,” but this is both mixing up system terms and contradicting the fact that the Silver Dragon has never encountered humans before, much less devoured one. Based on the context, we presume that the author might have been referring to the Black Tortoise, a level 9 king-level beast. ☜