Chapter 89: Dragon Elephant Tyrant Body

It was hard to say whether Chen Chu's luck today was good or bad.

At the entrance to the base, he encountered Liu Feixu, who had also just come back. She glanced at the monster corpse being unloaded from the truck in surprise. "There was actually a defective one here."

"Defective?" Chen Chu, who had just jumped out of the truck, looked puzzled.

"The cult’s Blood Seeds are divided into three levels: low level, high level, and top level,” Liu Feixu explained. "Those who absorb the low-level blood seeds are called Blood Cultists, which are the kind you have been killing recently. They’re very weak; even if they are left to grow, they will at most reach the Second or Third Heavenly Realm and have average combat power in that Realm.

“But a Blood Emissary, someone who absorbs a high-level Blood Seed, is different. Their growth limit is generally to the Fifth or Sixth Heavenly Realm, and the seeds contain an essence of the nine-headed blood python that gives them a non-human combat form. Their power is at least equal to that of an ordinary cultivator of the same Realm, if not greater.

“The higher ups that we killed in the attack on the Blood Cult’s stronghold were Emissaries who had absorbed high-level seeds, along with some members that they call Divine Blood Emissaries. However, just like people will have different physiques, how well you absorb Blood Seeds will also differ. It looks like this one had been unable to break through to the Fourth Heavenly Realm even with a high-level seed.

“We originally thought we had gotten all of the high-level Blood Cultists here, but that apparently wasn’t the case. This one was probably in charge of spreading the Blood Seeds, and we missed him because of how weak he was.”

"Um..." Chen Chu was somewhat surprised by this information. He had originally gone out hoping to find an ordinary cultist, only to end up killing the last remaining leader of the Blood Cult in Kyrola by sheer chance.

He then spoke with some regret. "Unfortunately, these guys seem to be brainwashed. As soon as I try to interrogate them for information, they'll go mad."

Earlier, when he had tried to press this foreign trade manager, Chen Chu had intended to capture him alive by severing his limbs. The moment he tried to ask about the cult, however, the manager had instantly gone crazy, burning his essence and blood in a full on attack and forcing Chen Chu to kill him with all his might.

"Because once they have assimilated the Blood Seeds, there is usually a weak but dormant subconsciousness planted in their minds," Liu Feixu replied. "If someone tries to coerce them for information, that subconscious will activate, influencing their will and forcing them to fight to the death.

"In such a situation, only high-level cultivators, Seventh Heavenly Realm or above, can dispel that subconscious and interrogate them. This is why we order you to kill them on the spot as soon as you discover them."

Liu Feixu then looked at Chen Chu with a smile before suddenly asking, "When did you break through to the Third Heavenly Realm?"

Chen Chu knew he couldn't avoid it, so he cleared his throat and said, "I broke through this morning. I went out to find a Blood Cultist to test my skills, but I happened to run into this guy."

As long as cultivators didn't actively emit their true power, others couldn’t discern their actual Realm, only vaguely sense the strength of their aura. If an ordinary cultivator faced a high-level cultivator, the normal cultivator would feel a sense of invisible pressure—an obvious hint of how strong their opponent was—while the high-level cultivator wouldn’t sense much at all.

And Chen Chu didn't lie to her; he did indeed break through to the third stage of his saber art this morning.

Liu Feixu paused for a moment, and then casually said, "Your talent is good. By the way, I remember you cultivate the Dragon Elephant Art, right?"

"Yes, ma’am." Chen Chu nodded.

Liu Feixu smiled and said, "Our school has a set of secret scriptures for the Dragon Elephant Tyrant Body Art, a high-level art by the creator of the Dragon Elephant Art after he broke through to the Seventh Heavenly Realm.

“Keep it up, young man. You deserve to have that art. Upgrading to that from the Dragon Elephant Art would not only increase its power, but also save time on switching cultivation methods.

“Talents should be showcased. In the Federation, there is no suppression of geniuses. On the contrary, the stronger the talent, the more attention and resources you'll receive."

After saying that, Liu Feixu left with her hands behind her back, leaving Chen Chu pensive.

"The Dragon Elephant Tyrant Body Art." Chen Chu shook his head slightly.

Exchanging for a high-level art required 300 contribution points, which didn’t sound like much on paper. When converted, it was just three hundred thousand yuan, about the same as what Li Hao had transferred to him. But the problem was that contribution points were hard to earn and hard to save.

300 points. Killing all of the Blood Cultists in Leisteru City now might not even be enough for that, unless he found a way to make some extra points.

On top of that, under normal circumstances, the exchange for highl-level arts was reserved for the second year of high school.

By that time, almost all those with exceptional talent, and who had cultivated high-level arts, would have broken through to the Third Heavenly Realm or would be at the peak of the Second, allowing them to participate in the mutated beast trials.

As long as they killed about a dozen level 3 mutated beasts, or forty to fifty level 2 beasts, they could exchange for a complete, six-stage high-level art.

But that was under normal circumstances. Who would have thought that Chen Chu would break through to the Third Heavenly Realm so quickly, even before the end of his very first semester in high school?

It was simply unfortunate that breaking through to the Fourth Heavenly Realm would require almost over a year, even for geniuses. Thankfully, Chen Chu wasn't in a hurry.

Let's go out again and accumulate a few more points. Even without high-level arts, it's not impossible to break through,

Chen Chu thought.

𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

With that in mind, he summoned the attribute page, looking at the Dragon Elephant Art and the Third Stage breakthrough in the Insightful Blade, only to notice the same + sign still present.

When his attention fell on the Dragon Elephant Art, transparent text appeared in front of him.

"50 attribute points are required to perform a maximum enhancement of the Dragon Elephant Art. Current attribute points are insufficient."

What was the maximum enhancement? Could it be that the Dragon Elephant Art could break through to the Fourth Heavenly Realm through attribute enhancement, or would there be a qualitative change? The discovery left Chen Chu pondering.

***

During dinner that evening, when Xia Youhui and the others heard that Chen Chu had killed another Third Heavenly Realm Blood Cultist, netting himself 10 contribution points, they were all very envious. They had wandered around all day today, and only one of them had been lucky enough to encounter a Second Heavenly Realm Blood Cultist.

Since Chen Chu already had a history of directly killing Third Heavenly Realm cultists, Xia Youhui and the others didn't think much about it, assuming that today's opponent had also been of average strength.

Chen Chu worked hard for the next three days. Unfortunately, other than discovering a First Heavenly Realm cultist who hadn’t done a good enough job hiding their tracks, he didn’t get any results. As he and the other students continued to hunt, the remaining cultists became even more cautious in response.

While Leisteru City was relatively calm, thanks to the annihilation of the local rebels and Blood Cultists, other places were still hot spots, including the city where Lin Xue and her companions were located.

If it wasn't chaos here, it was ambushes and counter-ambushes elsewhere, or the rebel army attacking a small town, or the Blood Cultists killing numerous people.

Gurgle! Gurgle!

Bubbles churned, and beneath the surface of the river, the black mutated beast, now grown to 2.8 meters, slowly swam in search of prey to hunt.

With how difficult it was becoming to find Blood Cultists, more of Chen Chu’s attention instead went to the armored beast.

As time passed, the armored beast grew larger and larger in size, and the accumulated evolution points were gradually reaching the threshold of the third evolution. Chen Chu predicted that when the armored beast underwent its third evolution, even if he hadn't broken through in his cultivation, his strength would still reach the Fourth Heavenly Realm.

With the armored beast’s daily hunts, the mutated fish population in this vast estuary had become sparse. After swimming for about twenty minutes, a five-meter-long mutated fish with a two-meter-tall flag-like dorsal fin appeared.

Boom!

The armored beast swung its tail with force, and the water behind it exploded as it rushed toward the fish.

Due to the difference in size between the two, the mutated sailfish, who had just finished hunting itself, didn't immediately react, simply watching the rapidly approaching armored beast with some surprise in its cold eyes.

Boom!

The armored beast's sharp and heavy claw swung out, causing the surrounding water to explode as it landed on the head of the sailfish with indescribable force.

Bang!

Half of the sailfish's head collapsed, and thick blood gushed out, dyeing the surrounding water red.

Although the armored beast was only 2.8 meters currently, its weight had exceeded five tons due to its sheer density. Thanks to its innate ability, it could now exert hundreds of tons of force in a claw strike.

In the bloody water, the armored beast opened its big mouth and bit into the fish, tearing off kilograms of flesh at a time and swallowing the chunks whole.

The taste was delicious. After all, what could compare to killing and eating fresh food?

However, if this fish were sold on the market, it would be worth at least several thousand to tens of thousands of yuan. The armored beast needed to eat at least several of this kind of fish every day; wouldn't that mean it was eating tens of thousands of yuan’s worth in a day?

Thinking of this, Chen Chu couldn't help but feel fortunate that he had chosen to release it when he did. Even the landlord's family couldn’t afford that kind of budget.