Chapter 2: Golden Jasper Stone (Part 2)
Juxi Dragon always seemed excited whenever it came out, and this time was no exception. After letting out a roar, it spotted the mutated giant brown bear at the foot of the mountain. Without waiting for Guo Shier to give orders, it charged over excitedly. Instinctively, it thought the bear was just a meal—a highly nutritious one.
This was the difference in levels. Juxi Dragon was a mutated spirit beast on the verge of reaching level nine, while the giant brown bear was only a level seven mutated talisman beast. There was a huge gap between them. The mutated giant brown bear was only a few hundred meters away from Juxi Dragon when it suddenly heard its roar. It didn’t even have the courage to confront it and immediately turned to flee.
Although Juxi Dragon wasn’t as large as before, it was still dozens of meters long. With each step, it covered a hundred meters, and it only took a few steps to reach the bear.
After taking two steps, the mutated giant brown bear realized it couldn’t escape. It howled and turned to attack back.
Juxi Dragon showed no fear and charged at it, causing a loud crash. Guo Shier quickly flew into the air, while Xuan Ai was slower and fell to the ground. He cursed angrily, “Damn it! It’s shaking the ground… Do you want to kill me?”
Eagle Demon laughed, “Can’t you fly?” He hovered a foot above the ground—a skill that was much more difficult than flying fast.
Xuan Ai still hadn’t gotten up. Sitting on the ground, he stared in shock ahead and muttered, “Damn… Is that still Juxi Dragon?”
Juxi Dragon knocked the mutated giant brown bear over with a headbutt, then spun around. Its entire body moved like a windmill as it spun half a circle on the ground, its thick tail swishing violently. Even Guo Shier had to squint at the sight—it was terrifying. The thick tail made a sharp whistling sound as it swung.
Just as the mutated giant brown bear managed to turn over and lift its head, Juxi Dragon’s thick tail struck its body.
Whoosh! Boom! Whoosh…
Howl! The giant brown bear, over thirty meters long, was flung into the air by Juxi Dragon’s tail strike and crashed directly into the cliff at the foot of the mountain. The hundred-meter-high cliff shattered under the impact, with countless rocks falling along with the bear. Juxi Dragon pounced forward, its thick front claws gripping the bear’s shoulders, then roared triumphantly.
Xuan Ai said with a bitter smile, “Shier, your Juxi Dragon is too insane!”
Guo Shier had already flown into the air, hovering above the battlefield between Juxi Dragon and the bear. He didn’t dare stay above the fighting parties either. Eagle Demon followed closely behind and asked, “Shier, do you want to intervene?”
Guo Shier said, “No need yet. Let the Giant Perch Dragon fight! We can just watch.” He controlled the Dark-Winged Demon Scorpion to prevent the ancient scorpion from advancing. In a fight between talisman worms and talisman beasts, the worms would be at a disadvantage. If the giant brown bear managed to slap it, although the Dark-Winged Demon Scorpion wouldn’t be destroyed, it would surely turn into a mass of essence, which would cause great harm to the Essence Worms.
Seeing the Giant Perch Dragon pounce on the giant brown bear, Guo Shier was also speechless. The dragon swung its thick tail, grabbed the bear’s shoulders with its front limbs, and roared triumphantly with its head held high—its appearance quite vile.
The mutated giant brown bear also roared, but fear was clearly evident in its voice.
After roaring, the Giant Perch Dragon tilted its head to look at the bear beneath it, then lowered its massive head, opened its huge mouth, and bit down on the bear’s neck in one bite.
Xuan Ai widened her eyes in disbelief and said, “This is too easy!”
With just one bite, it pierced through the bear’s neck, and a gush of blood sprayed out, which the Giant Perch Dragon absorbed directly. The grunting sounds emitted by the dragon made Guo Shier shudder. He shook his head and said, “The Giant Perch Dragon is about to advance… Fine, let it have this giant brown bear. If it can advance, our strength will also increase greatly.”
Eagle Demon agreed, “Yes. If the two of us joined forces, even with Xuan Ai, it would take at least half a day to kill this mutated giant brown bear by sheer exhaustion. There’s no way it could be killed so easily like that by the Giant Perch Dragon.”
Guo Shier said, “It’s because the mutated giant brown bear was already timid. Otherwise, it wouldn’t have been defeated so easily by the Giant Perch Dragon.”
Xuan Ai flew over to Guo Shier and said, “This is way too easy! Sigh, if only I had such a beast talisman, I’d be a fortune teller! But even if I did have one, I doubt my own talisman book could handle it.” She still envied Guo Shier, not understanding why he could wield such powerful beast talismans without suffering any countereffects—it was truly strange. Even the Great Sage couldn’t control as many beast and worm talismans as Guo Shier.
The Giant Perch Dragon suddenly swung its massive head, flinging the giant brown bear into the air. Its body traced a half-circle before crashing back to the ground with a loud thud. Then the dragon bit again, this time at the back of its neck, and with a crack, it actually snapped the bear’s cervical vertebrae.
The mutated giant brown bear had almost no chance to fight back and was mercilessly slaughtered by the Giant Perch Dragon.
The Giant Perch Dragon was about to roar triumphantly again when Guo Shier stopped it, saying, “Enough! Stop acting crazy… If you attract a level-9 mutated talisman beast in a moment, I wonder if you’ll still be so proud?”
Xuan Ai dug hard at his ears and said, “Shier, if you scold it… can it understand? Uh…” What he saw next left him completely speechless.
The Giant Perch Dragon seemed shy, forcing back its roar and emitting an unpleasant gurgling sound. The Eagle Demon laughed loudly, “Why hold back? Just roar! Haha!”
The Giant Perch Dragon shook its huge head and snorted at Guo Shier in an attempt to please him. A powerful gust of wind knocked Guo Shier, the Eagle Demon, and Xuan Ai off their feet. Fortunately, all three had good control skills and managed to steady themselves before hitting the ground.
Guo Shier shook his head, realizing the Giant Perch Dragon had no ill intentions, and said, “Alright, stop trying to please me. Go over there.”
The Giant Perch Dragon walked away dejectedly. Its thick tail accidentally drew a circle in the ground, almost killing Guo Shier with laughter. Xuan Ai and the Eagle Demon were confused.
Guo Shier smiled and said, “Let’s get to work. I’ll extract the spirit of the giant brown bear first.”
They were already very familiar with this process. First, they extracted the spirit of the mutated talisman beast to refine it into a spirit bead, then purified it into a blood bead, followed by extracting the blood itself. After that, they would skin and bone the beast, collecting everything step by step. With the help of virtual talismans, they didn’t need to use knives to skin it, as that would be exhausting. A giant mutated brown bear was extremely large, and without virtual talismans, it would be impossible to start even.
Even with the help of virtual talismans, the three of them were busy for several days before finishing the task.
Guo Shier casually rewarded the Giant Perch Dragon with the spirit of the giant brown bear, having it swallow it before storing it in a beast talisman. He knew the Giant Perch Dragon was about to level up, and it wasn’t appropriate to leave it outside at that time. It had to level up inside the beast talisman, which would also improve its quality.
If the Giant Perch Dragon leveled up outside, the beast talisman might not be able to withstand it and shatter, ending the dragon’s life. Although Guo Shier might gain many spirit beads, this sentient Giant Perch Dragon would disappear completely—a loss too great for him to accept.
Half a year passed, and Guo Shier was now seventeen years old. In his own words, he had finally become an adult. His appearance was no longer that of a youth; though he still seemed a bit immature, he was undeniably an adult. During this half year, he, along with Xuan Ai and Ying Mo, had hunted numerous Level 7 mutated rune beasts, a few Level 8 mutated rune beasts, and one Level 9 mutated rune beast—which they managed to kill only with the help of the already Level 9 Giant Nest Dragon to hold them off.
During this time, the three of them returned to Qingcheng once before going back out to hunt. The Dark-Winged Scorpion also successfully advanced, becoming a Level 8 mutated Soul Insect. The Blade Shadow Mantis consumed plenty of Blood and Soul Essence, showing obvious changes in speed, though no other changes were noticeable yet.
The most unfortunate one was the Ancient Flame Finch, as without Rune Fire or a scorching environment, it found it difficult to advance.
There was no Rune Fire area in the exclusive secret realm—perhaps one existed, but Guo Shier and his companions hadn’t discovered it. One day, Xuan Ai said, “Shier, we can go back now. We’ve already exceeded our mission goals, and you two have accumulated enough points to use the Sea Gate’s Soul Altar for a chance at inheritance.”
Guo Shier shook his head. “I’m not in a hurry to accept the Sea Gate’s inheritance. Hehe, you know… I advanced too quickly some time ago and need time to digest and absorb it. I also need a lot of practice. Rushing to get the Sea Gate’s inheritance now wouldn’t be good.” After learning more, he realized that as a wandering professional, accepting the Sea Gate’s inheritance would only grant him some basic skills, lacking many important ones, so he wasn’t very interested.
Xuan Ai said regretfully, “Then forget it. I know you’re proud and disdain to accept our Sea Gate’s inheritance. Hehe, it makes sense… You became a Junior Rune Spell Sage at fourteen, and even now you refuse to advance further. Hehe, you’re truly unique.”
Guo Shier smiled faintly. Li Ran and Chou Mo had pushed him too hard, subtly raising his standards for himself. This time, entering the exclusive secret realm, he had obtained a large number of Soul Bead and Vitality Bead, solving the problem of food needed for the Soul Beasts and Soul Insects to advance. Next, he planned to refine his own Life Sword Rune again.
He had gathered quite a bit of material, though still lacking some, but he was confident he could obtain them. He asked, “Your Sea Gate has a trading market. Take me there; I want to exchange for some materials.”
Xuan Ai nodded. “No problem. Actually, some materials can be obtained with points as well.”
Guo Shier said, “Then fine. Let’s go back.”
The three of them flew low over the ground toward Qingcheng. A few days later, they saw the city walls of Qingcheng. Guo Shier said, “It’s still faster to return. Hehe, no need to deal with those low-level mutated beast tokens.” After returning the hunting token cards, all three received a large amount of sect points. When they returned to Xuan Ai’s courtyard in Qingcheng, as soon as Luo Zhan saw Guo Shier, he exclaimed, “Oh, you’re finally back… I was waiting so anxiously!” Guo Shier quickly asked, “What’s the matter?”