Chapter 28: The Rock Beast

After entering the Dimensional Sphere, Qu Yi lay down on his soft chair.
“Artificial God, I originally planned to use the people of the Nine Alliances to help me search for the Soul-Bound Ones. Now, they’ve been severely injured by three of them. Even that powerful combined formation can only assemble ten formations. I guess the Nine Alliances’ desire to search for the Soul-Bound Ones will greatly diminish from now on,” Qu Yi said calmly.
Ten Five-Element Heavens-Formations could still hold off one Soul-Bound One, but facing two at once would pose a huge challenge for the combined forces of the Nine Alliances.
The Artificial God stopped pretending to sleep, opened his eyes, turned over, and looked at Qu Yi, saying calmly, “Qu Yi, you’ve only seen the weakening of the Nine Alliances’ strength, but you haven’t considered the desires of their nine leaders. For them, as long as they can obtain a divine artifact, they’ll do anything—even sacrifice all their subordinates and forces—without hesitation. So, the cooperation among the Nine Alliances will continue.”
Qu Yi stared at the Artificial God and nodded.
“Artificial God, you’re indeed perceptive. Well, these nine leaders are more ruthless than me. No wonder they reached their positions. It seems I can still rely on the power of the Nine Alliances to continue fighting the Soul-Bound Ones and obtaining divine artifacts in this Ruin Realm Divine World,” Qu Yi said happily.
Although Qu Yi already possessed many powerful divine artifacts, he never seemed satisfied.
The Artificial God shook his head, looking disappointed, before saying after a while, “Alright, the cultivators of the Nine Alliances have gone underground and are chasing after the three Soul-Bound Ones. You just need to keep the Dimensional Sphere floating in this valley.”
Qu Yi nodded; that was indeed what he was doing.
Suddenly, the Artificial God cried out, “Qu Yi, I’ve sensed that there’s a rare beast lurking underground on this planet—the Rock Beast. This beast is born within rock layers. Although it grows over time, it’s always oppressed by those layers. Now that the cultivators of the Nine Alliances have broken through the rock layers while chasing the Soul-Bound Ones, the Rock Beast is finally about to emerge.”
Hearing this, Qu Yi showed surprise. There were such beasts born in this world?
“What’s special about this Rock Beast?” Qu Yi asked, very interested.

The Spirit Tool immediately nodded and smiled, saying, “Qu Yi, release Wu Yuan now and tell him to transform back into his beast form so he can fight the Rock Beast that has emerged from the ground. If Wu Yuan kills the Rock Beast, he will obtain its life essence core, which can be used to defend him when attacked in the future.” Hearing such a favorable opportunity, Qu Yi hesitated no longer. With a single thought, he sent Wu Yuan, who was about to fight against a powerful Heavenly Soul Immortal, out of the Dimensional Ball. Wu Yuan appeared at the bottom of the canyon, confused, before realizing he had been sent out by Qu Yi. “Ugh, this isn’t fair! That heartless guy can fight to his heart’s content—why were I sent out?” Wu Yuan cried out in frustration. At that moment, Qu Yi came out. “Wu Yuan, stop shouting. I’m giving you a task—go and kill a powerful beast. Oh, don’t look at me like that. You’ll understand soon. A very fierce beast will appear. Transform back into your beast form now and use your greatest strength to kill it,” Qu Yi said with a smile. Before Wu Yuan could ask further questions, Qu Yi returned to the Dimensional Ball. Wu Yuan opened his mouth but realized complaining further was pointless, so he reluctantly transformed back into his beast form. With a dragon’s head, a horse’s body, roc’s wings, a phoenix’s tail, and turtle-like patterns, Wu Yuan’s beast form was truly magnificent—over a kilometer tall, exuding awe even before battle. Just then, the entire bottom of the canyon shook violently. In no time, a long crack appeared, and a huge black rock surged upward from the ground. The rock was tens of thousands of meters wide and moved effortlessly despite the resistance from the ground, landing with a loud thud. No, it wasn’t a rock—it was actually a beast disguised as one. Its back was shaped like a square rock, with four limbs that moved like machinery. Its head was round, about a hundred meters in diameter, with just one eye in the center, black and matching the color of the rock, making it hard to distinguish at first glance. This was the Rock Beast. Standing at a kilometer tall, Wu Yuan no longer had any sense of superiority in the face of this rock beast, which was both tens of thousands of meters wide and tall—he could only feel inferior. But Wu Yuan wasn’t about to give up so easily. “What kind of beast are you? Name yourself. After I kill you, I’ll carve your name on your rock backshell,” Wu Yuan shouted arrogantly.

Wuyuan was very clear about his intentions. Since Qu Yi had said he wanted him to kill this Rock Beast, he surely knew there must be some advantages to it, so he challenged it without any hesitation. The Rock Beast didn’t understand Qu Yi’s words—after all, it was born from rock layers and had grown up in them, knowing nothing about the language of the cultivation world. But not understanding Wuyuan’s words didn’t mean it couldn’t detect his tone. The beast spoke in a domineering tone, unfriendly toward me—that was the Rock Beast’s feeling at that moment. Bang! Bang! Instinctively, the Rock Beast flailed its limbs and rushed toward Wuyuan, using its head as a spearhead to charge straight at him. For the Rock Beast, if someone was unfriendly, they had to be killed, so it launched an attack first. Wuyuan spread his roc wings, and his massive body moved nimbly into the air above the canyon. Then his dragon head roared, “Ugh, you vicious beast! How dare you attack me first? I’ll tear you to pieces!” After shouting, Wuyuan swung his dragon head and spat out a golden sphere containing the six spatial laws of metal—firmness, sharpness, solemnity, pressure, contraction, and restraint—all of which struck the Rock Beast’s back shell. The Rock Beast was extremely clumsy and slow, so it naturally couldn’t dodge the speed of the golden sphere. Ding, dang, cha… The golden sphere hit the rock shell, producing countless strange sounds, but the shell was so hard that only slight scratches appeared. Clearly, for the Rock Beast, this was barely a tickle. Though slow, the Rock Beast had an inherently powerful defensive body. “Ugh…” Wuyuan flew in the air, finding it hard to believe what he saw. Just now, he had used his most powerful spell, one that had once killed millions of cultivators, but now it had failed utterly, leaving him completely disheartened. After launching one attack, he no longer had the will to attack further. As for the Rock Beast, though angry and ferocious, its heavy body prevented it from flying into the air to attack Wuyuan, so it could only stamp its feet on the ground, unable to strike back. ※※※ The two hundred cultivators from the Nine Alliances entered the planet’s core and finally found three soul bodies with exhausted divine elements. At this moment, these three soul bodies had no divine elements nor any divine artifacts to rely on. Upon discovering the powerful warriors from the Nine Alliances pursuing them underground, they couldn’t afford to rest and could only move around underground to evade their pursuit.

With the strength of their soul-bodied forms, they moved swiftly through the underground realm—using merely the force of their legs to travel as fast as rats in rocks. Even the strongest warriors from the Nine Alliances couldn’t gain an advantage here; their immortal energy, demonic energy, and fiendly energy could only protect their bodies from harm from the surrounding environment, leaving the task of clearing paths to their magical artifacts. Thus, it took time for these warriors to catch up to the three soul-bodied figures. Yet, given the situation, they would eventually succeed, so they persisted in pursuing them with relentless determination. Forced into a corner, the three soul-bodied figures continued rising from the planet’s core toward the surface. Coincidentally, when they emerged from the ground, they found themselves back in the southern Global Grand Canyon. Even more coincidentally, as soon as they appeared, their bodies collided with a Rock Beast that was raging on the surface. Wow… The Rock Beast let out a agonized cry as its lower abdomen was struck by the soul-bodied figures, seemingly hitting a vital part of its body. The three soul-bodied figures were also frustrated—they had only sensed the powerful aura of the Five-Element Fiend Beast underground and mistook the Rock Beast’s aura for mere rocks, so they rushed out without thinking. Although they hurt the Rock Beast, they suffered too; its lower abdomen, though softer than its back shell, was still extremely hard, not much softer than their own bodies. As a result, they immediately felt dizzy. The Five-Element Fiend in the air noticed them, quickly flapped its wings, creating a gust of wind that lifted the three soul-bodied figures into the air. Then, its five red feathers on its tail swished rapidly, unleashing five types of flames that burned the three soul-bodied figures to ashes in no time. Within moments, they were completely destroyed, leaving only three soul orbs: a soul gold orb, a soul green orb, and a soul blue orb. The Five-Element Fiend sucked them into its mouth with a gulp and let out a joyful, eerie cry. At that moment, the warriors from the Nine Alliances also rushed out of the underground realm and arrived at the canyon’s surface, witnessing the Five-Element Fiend’s actions. The three soul orbs had been swallowed by this fiend beast! The warriors stared in shock, forgetting to attack the Five-Element Fiend for a moment.

The nine alliance leaders saw Wu Yuan in the air at this moment, yet they showed no sign of anger, as if the three soul beads no longer held their interest. The nine alliance leaders stared at Wu Yuan in surprise, their faces filled with confusion, as if they had seen him before.
“This demon beast seems quite familiar!” Chang Xin, the leader of the Immortal Realm’s Jin Xuan Alliance, said softly at that moment.