by Shian Jeen
Each of those fiery red bugs had sharp fangs and ugly features.
Coming across this swarm of bugs, everyone slightly tensed, realizing immediately that these were the infamous fire maggots that could sneak inside a person’s bloodstream without any signs, sucking their victims’ blood essence, bone marrows, and soul!
Huwang Xiao was breaking out in cold sweat without the others noticing.
Those fire maggots slightly resembled the Tailless Corpse Worm he encountered on the Heavenly Mountain, with undetectable presence even when they were moving. Huwang Xiao also failed to sense them with his powerful divine sense.
Fortunately, he created a protective barrier around himself using the true immortal essence fire.
Before long, they were attacked by another swarm of fire maggots.
Before entering the Fire World, the armors that Wan Long’s group prepared were specifically used to deal with these fire maggots. Thus, despite the consecutive attacks from the fire maggots, Wan Long’s group of four weren’t in any actual danger.
Half an hour later, the five of them crossed the daunting God Burial River without mishap.
Reaching the other side of the river, obvious relief could be seen on Wan Long and the other three people’s face as they wiped the cold sweat off their foreheads.
Not wanting to stay close to the river any longer, the group quickly left, flying off in the direction of the Firecloud Mountain.
As they flew closer to Firecloud Mountain, the number of fire element demonic beasts they encountered increased. Once or twice, the group was attacked by Tenth Order God Realm demonic beasts, but those only had early Tenth Order God Realm strength. Huwang Xiao didn’t even need to lift a finger, all the attacks were easily dealt with by Wan Long alone.
Another hour passed when Huwang Xiao’s stopped before an enormous mountain.
This enormous mountain had many fire-red clouds floating around it starting from its mid-height.
Hence, its name—Firecloud Mountain.
Even from where they were, endless roars of demonic beasts could be heard.
“Master, we don’t know the precise location of that Fire Scaled Beast’s cave, finding it in this situation would be quite troublesome.” Wan Long spoke respectfully to Huwang Xiao.
Huwang Xiao nodded. Quite troublesome indeed.
The Firecloud Mountain area was too big, close to a hundred thousand li, and who knows how tall its peak was, combing over such a big area would take them several days’ time. Furthermore, if they alarmed all the demonic beasts living in this Firecloud Mountain area, triggering their anger all around, as confident as Huwang Xiao was in his own strength, it was undeniably a headache as well.
Although they didn't know how many demonic beasts were living here, their number was likely to be around ten thousand by rough estimation. Demonic beasts capable of winning a territory for themselves here in Firecloud Mountain, their strength would not be lower than Tenth Order God Realm.
With the majority of these demonic beasts possessing Tenth Order God Realm cultivation, there might also be Highgod Realm demonic beasts amongst them.
An idea flashed in Huwang Xiao’s mind and his eyes lit up. They might not know where the Fire Scaled Beast’s cave was, but the demonic beasts living here in the Firecloud Mountain might know something. He could capture a few of these demonic beasts and scour their souls, perhaps he could learn some useful information.
Pondering deeper, Huwang Xiao did not order Wan Long’s group to go, instead, he told them to stay where they were and wait for news. Amongst the four, two of them were of Ninth Order God Realm, comparably weaker, and Huwang Xiao might not be able to take care of them if an accident happened in between.
Toward Huwang Xiao’s order, the four of them dared not voice any objection. Thus, they obediently waited for Huwang Xiao’s news.
In a flicker, Huwang Xiao disappeared from the spot.
When his figure appeared, he was high in the air where the fire clouds hovered. With a quick glance over the terrain, Huwang Xiao then flew toward a mountain cliff up ahead.
Somewhere up ahead on a cliff laid a demonic beast that looked like a crocodile. However, its body was covered with gray-colored dragon scales, and there was a sharp horn protruding out from its forehead.
This demonic beast was called Iron Scales Dragon Croc. A distant descendant of an ancient dragon, however, its dragon bloodline was extremely weak, and therefore it was difficult for them to advance to the Highgod Realm.
The one in front of Huwang Xiao was an early Tenth Order God Realm. Then again, an early Tenth Order God Realm Iron Scales Dragon Croc was quite rare in a lower realm like theirs.
The suction force from his hands pulled the Iron Scales Dragon Croc right in front of him. Against Huwang Xiao, the demonic beast was powerless to resist, a single slap from Huwang Xiao’s palm rendered it unconscious, and the soul-scouring began.
A while later, the soul-scouring ended, but Huwang Xiao was disappointed, for there were no clues about the Fire Scaled Beast’s cave location in its memory.
Despite his disappointment, Huwang Xiao did not kill the Iron Scales Dragon Croc, instead, he branded a soul mark into the Iron Scales Dragon Croc’s soul before throwing it into his Asura Ring.
Huwang Xiao decided to tame a herd of Tenth Order God Realm demonic beasts. Other than the Ascending Moon Old Man and Yang Yi temporarily staying in the Martial Spirit World, overall, its defense was incredibly weak.
But, things would be different with a herd of Tenth Order God Realm demonic beasts. Adding the defensive formations that he arranged, the Martial Spirit World’s, or at the very least the Huwang Clan Manor’s defenses would be impenetrable even for a Highgod Realm master.
After throwing the Iron Scales Dragon Croc into his Asura Ring, Huwang Xiao continued to search for the next target. His demonic beast targets were all Tenth Order God Realm and above.
From the information Wan Long received, that Fire Scaled Beast’s strength was between mid-Tenth Order to late-Tenth Order God Realm. According to Huwang Xiao’s line of thought, the demonic beasts that came in contact with the Fire Scaled Beast would more or less have a similar level of strength.
However, Huwang Xiao had scoured a total of thirteen demonic beasts of early and mid-Tenth Order God Realm, but still failed to find the location of its cave.
Throwing the thirteenth demonic beast, a mid-Tenth Order God Realm, into his Asura Ring, Huwang Xiao’s eyebrows rose in deep thought. Could it be there was no Fire Scaled Beast within the Firecloud Mountain area?
If there was a Fire Scales Beast living on this mountain, it was unlikely for not even one of the thirteen demonic beasts he captured to have any clues.
After a while, Huwang Xiao flew up toward the Firecloud Mountain’s peak.
In general, demonic beasts that lived higher than the mountain’s mid-point were Tenth Order God Realm strength. The higher up one went, the stronger they were.
On the peak, Huwang Xiao found a late-Tenth Order God Realm purple serpent with a pair of radiant wings next to a fire lake. It had an ancient fierce beast bloodline, Luminous Wings Flying Serpent. However, this one that Huwang Xiao found was a mutated variant, and much stronger.
Huwang Xiao dared not underestimate this Luminous Wings Flying Serpent. Concealing his aura, Huwang Xiao summoned the twin dragon martial spirits and soul transformed. Then, executing the two abilities of Space Concealment and Phantom Shadow at the same time, Huwang Xiao arrived right above the purple serpent’s head. Then, he struck down a palm, slamming on the purple serpent’s head.
The Luminous Wings Flying Serpent reacted almost immediately. Its wings spread, releasing a blinding light, but its reaction was still half a second too late.
Huwang Xiao’s palm stunned the purple serpent unconscious, however, he couldn’t afford to scour its soul at the moment. With a quick action, he threw the serpent into his Asura Ring and disappeared from the spot in a flicker.
Just
as Huwang Xiao left, echoes of demonic beast roars shook the air, overwhelming pressure was coming from many different directions.
In that split second when the Luminous Wings Flying Serpent reacted, the bright radiance from its wings alerted the surrounding demonic beasts.
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Huwang Xiao concealed his presence as he flew upward along the mountain until he arrived above a cliff. He heaved in relief after determining that no demonic beasts were chasing behind him.
He took out the Luminous Wings Flying Serpent from his Asura Ring and began soul-scouring it. When he finished, Huwang Xiao’s eyes brightened with excitement.
From this Luminous Wings Flying Serpent’s memories, he finally found the location of the Fire Scaled Beast’s cave.
However, the shocking news was, there wasn't only one Fire Scaled Beast but two. Actually, it was a pair of male and female!
More importantly, both demonic beasts’ strength was at the perfection stage late-Tenth Order God Realm!
Unlike what Wan Long said, between mid to late-Tenth Order God Realm. Huwang Xiao’s gaze grew serious after his delight and excitement passed.
Without a doubt, capturing two perfection stage late-Tenth Order God Realm Fire Scaled Beasts was harder than defeating Wan Long.
On top of that, Huwang Xiao confirmed from the Luminous Wings Flying Serpent’s memories that there indeed were Highgod Realm demonic beasts living on the Firecloud Mountain; not one, but three!
They were three Flaming Golden-Claw Great Pengs with ancient fierce beast bloodline.
The Flaming Golden-Claw Great Pengs’ greatest advantage was their amazing speed. Not to mention their claws that could crush almost anything, or their quick and sharp attacks. Huwang Xiao wasn’t very confident in being able to kill one, what more three Flaming Golden-Claw Great Pengs.
Against three Flaming Golden-Claw Great Pengs, Huwang Xiao could only hide and run.
Then again, he was unwilling to leave just like this, not when he finally found the Fire Scaled Beasts’ cave. If he could obtain both Fire Scale Beasts’ cores, Huwang Xiao could significantly increase his soul clarity.
Therefore, despite knowing that there were three Highgod Realm Flaming Golden-Claw Great Pengs up on the Firecloud Mountain’s peak, Huwang Xiao was determined to head to the Fire Scale Cave.
Half an hour later, Huwang Xiao was standing in front of the Fire Scale Cave close to the peak. The cave opening was wide and about three to four meters tall, yet hidden out of sight with tall weeds obscuring it. Moreover, a concealing formation was arranged around the entrance, making it harder for anyone to discover the cave entrance.
Huwang Xiao easily undid the concealing formation around the entrance, disappearing into the cave in a flicker.
The environment inside the Fire Scale Cave was sweltering hot and dry. Weaved between the dry hotness were scarlet spheres of energy that differed from the Fire World’s energy. Those scarlet spheres emitted a soft golden glow.
From those scarlet spheres, Huwang Xiao detected a certain scent that was similar to sandalwood, thus it wasn’t repulsive. This was probably the Fire Scaled Beast’s unique scent.
Huwang Xiao carefully spread his divine sense deep into the cave while concealing his own presence as he flew in at a slow pace.
The cave tunnel gradually led to a bigger space the deeper Huwang Xiao went, and at the same time, the cave’s temperature grew hotter.
At one point, Huwang Xiao had the feeling that he was inside a high-temperature furnace. Just this high temperature was enough to keep away most Seventh Order God Realm cultivators.
After roughly twenty minutes of flying, Huwang Xiao could hear faint groaning noises not far up ahead, sounding like a tiger yet also similar to a lion’s groan.
Suddenly, the scene before Huwang Xiao brightened, turning into a large underground space.
The walls of this underground space were like steel, with golden scarlet flames floating on their surface.
At the center of the large underground space was a formation constructed with ancient beast symbols, with two large fire element demonic beasts in the middle of the formation. Their eyes were golden-red like burning embers, as were the scales covering their bodies. They had four powerful legs, and at the corners of their mouths were two long whiskers that looked like dragon whiskers.
This two were the Fire Scaled Beasts that Huwang Xiao was searching for, but Huwang Xiao didn’t expect to see these two Fire Scale Beasts cultivating!
The two Fire Scale Beast spat out their golden red beast cores, making them spin in the air in front of them. They were bathed in their demonic qi, resonating and nurturing each other’s core.
Watching these two Fire Scaled Beasts taking out their cores for cultivation, Huwang Xiao was delighted. This actually made things easier for him in dealing with the two Fire Scaled Beasts.
That's because the bigger part of a demonic beast’s strength or force was stored inside their core, if Huwang Xiao ambushed these two Fire Scaled Beast and snatched away their beast cores, it would greatly weaken them.
However, Huwang Xiao was in no hurry to act. As a precaution, he carefully took out the God Restricting Golden Silkthread Rope, locking the whole underground cavern from the outside world.
This way, when the fighting began, the energy shockwaves wouldn't alert other demonic beasts nearby.
After arranging the ancient God Restricting Golden Silkthread Rope, Huwang Xiao no longer hesitated to attack.
With his martial spirits’ Space Concealment and Phantom Shadow abilities, Huwang Xiao almost instantly appeared above the two Fire Sale Beasts’ cores. His hands formed two claws, sucking the two hovering beast cores into his palms.
At the same precise moment that Huwang Xiao appeared, both Fire Scale Beasts opened their eyes. Two furious roars shook the underground cavern, and even the earth seemed to quake from the sound wave.
This was the Fire Scaled Beast’s innate skill, Blazing Roar.
Based on these two Fire Scaled Beasts’ strength, when they roared in fury they could shatter an early Tenth Order God Realm demonic beast to death!
But Huwang Xiao made preparations. Dragon Emperor Ao Taiyi flew out from the Dragon Pearl space, protecting Huwang Xiao with his golden dragon body. Thus, the powerful sound waves did not affect Huwang Xiao.
The suction force from Huwang Xiao’s palms wrapped around the two beast cores.
But the strong binding force between the Fire Scaled Beasts and their beast cores came as a surprise to him. The two beast cores in his hands were struggling to break free, wanting to fly back into the Fire Scale Beasts’ bodies.
Any other average perfection stage late-Tenth Order God Realm cultivator would be hard-pressed to keep the beast cores in their hands. Unfortunately, the Fire Scaled Beasts were facing Huwang Xiao.
Using the true immortal essence in his dantian churned madly, Huwang Xiao cut off the bond between the Fire Scaled Beasts and their cores.
With the two Fire Scale Beast’s cores in his palms, Huwang Xiao quickly carved a sealing formation, temporarily sealing them before throwing them into his Asura Ring.
All of this happened at lightning speed.
The moment Dragon Emperor Ao Taiyi appeared, the two Fire Scaled Beasts were pressured by his Highgod Realm dragon might, unable to react. Feeling their connection with the beast cores being cut off, angry roars resounded.
Ignoring the furious roars directed at him, Huwang Xiao reached one of the Fire Scaled Beast, swinging a punch at it.
Enraged, the Fire Scaled Beast raised its front legs, kicking Huwang Xiao.
Rumble~! A loud collision resounded.
Huwang Xiao right fist collided with the Fire Scaled Beast’s large hoof, resulting in a miserable howl from the beast. Its body flew back, crashing into the hard rock wall.
These two Fire Scaled Beasts were just a tad stronger than the average late-Tenth Order God Realm demonic beast after losing their beast cores.
&n
bsp; In their current state, they posed no threat to Huwang Xiao.
In a flash, Huwang Xiao was already in front of the other Fire Scale Beast, throwing a punch at it.
Huwang Xiao did not use his true immortal essence fire or any battle skills, purely his physical strength.
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Having snatched away the Fire Scaled Beasts’ cores, with the surrounding space being locked by the ancient divine artifact God Restricting Golden Silkthread Rope that cut off the underground cavern from the outside world, Huwang Xiao wasn't worried that the loud commotion would alert other demonic beasts. Hence, he began ‘playing’ with the two Fire Scaled Beasts.
He was competing punch for punch with the two enraged Fire Scaled Beast.
Huwang Xiao had precise control over the amount of force he used, knocking the two Fire Scaled Beast into the air or crashing into the rock walls, but not so brutal that they died on the spot.
Both Fire Scaled Beast stood up after being knocked back, then they were knocked down and stood back up again, numerous times like an endless cycle.
At the end, the two Fire Scaled Beasts started showing fear seeing Huwang Xiao approach them, their four legs trembled as they retreated away from him, even shaking their heads. Neither one of the Fire Scaled Beasts dared to attack Huwang Xiao anymore.
Just as Huwang Xiao raised both of his fists, the two Fire Scaled Beasts were down on the ground, begging Huwang Xiao not to kill them.
Considering things over, Huwang Xiao did not insist on killing the Fire Scaled Beasts. From the beginning, his goal was the beast cores, whether he killed these two demonic beasts was not important.
Hence, Huwang Xiao decided to tame the two Fire Scaled Beasts. Although their strengths had weakened without their beast cores, just their perfection stage late-Tenth Order God Realm physical prowess made them stronger than any other late-Tenth Order God Realm demonic beasts.
