Chapter 3: Escape (Part 1)

Boom!
Those hiding in the gaps of the scale armor were thrown around by the force, forcing them to link together with virtual talisman chains. Before they could stabilize themselves, the surroundings suddenly darkened as thick mist appeared, instantly blinding everyone. Li Ran said in a deep voice, “Stay steady… we wait!”
No one dared move or go out to investigate. The wind was as sharp as knives, and it was unclear just how fast the giant beast was to generate such fierce winds. With no other choice, they activated their sacrificial treasures for defense. Fortunately, they were inside the gaps of the scale armor; if they had been on the surface, they likely wouldn’t have been able to stay at all and would have been blown away long ago.
As the wind grew stronger, even the virtual talisman chains became difficult to control. Guo Shieru raised his hand and unleashed a moon blade, cutting a hole directly into the scale armor.
The moon blade formed a drill bit, cutting in from the side of the armor and instantly penetrating it. Guo Shieru exclaimed happily, “I thought it would be much harder. It’s actually quite loose. Let’s go in!” Everyone immediately started making holes. After all, they all possessed immense combat skills and terrifying sacrificial treasures, so creating holes was extremely easy.
Soon, they gathered inside the scale armor and jointly created a hall hundreds of meters square. Halechi said, “I thought it would be so difficult. Turns out this scale armor isn’t that impressive.”
The scale armor was actually as hard as steel and highly resilient. Without the extreme sharpness of their sacrificial treasures, it wouldn’t have been easy to penetrate it. But thanks to their ingenious methods, they were able to break in so easily.
However, advancing further downward became difficult. After going a few hundred meters deep, neither Guo Shieru’s moon blade nor anyone else’s sacrificial treasures could move quickly downward—the resilience of the scales grew stronger. Guo Shieru realized that they couldn’t progress even a few meters in ten minutes and understood that the moon blade couldn’t pierce the scale armor.
Qi Wuzhen glanced over, snapped his fingers, and a flame descended. With a crackling sound, the resilient scale armor turned to ashes layer by layer. Guo Shieru praised, “Ah, this method is great!”
Since entering this world and discovering this infinitely large giant beast, everyone had been somewhat terrified, too afraid to act recklessly and only thinking about leaving as soon as possible. But with Qi Wuzhen’s single flame, their confidence returned, and the giant beast no longer seemed so terrifying.
Gradually, they understood one thing: they were so insignificant that the beast could completely ignore them. Even if the beast wanted to attack them, it might not be able to detect them. By the standards of this beast, they weren’t even worth mentioning as dust.

No living being would be interested in dust, not even the most powerful kind. As the flame burned, it quickly pierced through the scales—scales that were thick enough, at least a kilometer or more. Looking at the bottomless hole, Qi Wu Zhen couldn’t help but shake her head. She said, “Fighting such a giant beast is simply impossible. Even if we had extraordinary abilities, it would be hard to compete with something like this.”

Guo Shier said, “No matter what kind of creature it is… once it reaches a certain size, it becomes invincible.”

Li Ran said, “Get some blood.”

Guo Shier cheerfully replied, “Let me try!” With that, his Moon Blade flew into the deep hole, instantly passing through the scales and cutting into the beast’s flesh. Without the protection of the scales, no matter how tough the flesh was, it couldn’t withstand the Moon Blade’s cut. Blood gushed out violently, as if an oil well had been drilled open.

The entrance to the hole wasn’t large, with a diameter of just over two meters, but the amount of blood that flowed out was enormous. It almost instantly spilled over, spraying upward and hitting the hollowed-out ceiling. Li Ran said, “Everyone take turns collecting it!”

Guo Shier retracted his Moon Blade, and a talisman bottle appeared in his hand. He cast a series of spells, and the blood flowed into the bottle. It was a large-capacity talisman bottle that could hold several tons of liquid. There was no time to purify the blood, so using a talisman bottle was the fastest method. All nine of them began collecting it at once.

Ezek and Meili were different—they both lay on the ground, revealing their true forms, and sucked the blood.

After a moment, the nine of them were stunned. The amount of blood was simply too much; they couldn’t possibly collect it all, and it kept gushing out at an incredible speed. Li Ran frowned slightly and cast more spells. One after another, runes appeared, quickly suppressing the flowing blood and sealing off the hole.

The group took a slight breath of relief. Then Li Ran unlocked another seal, and a stream of blood as thick as a bucket sprayed out. This amount was enough for the nine of them to share.

Li Ran controlled the flow of blood, allowing them to collect it more easily. They all knew that this amount of blood was nothing to the giant beast—likely, it hadn’t even realized it was losing blood.

Everyone knew the purpose of Vital Blood Beads, especially since they were used to craft Blood Talisman Pills. Vital Blood Beads, full of life force, were the main ingredient. In the world of spells, collecting blood from high-level mutated or alienated spell beasts to create Vital Blood Beads was a necessary task, a skill that every practitioner must possess.

Everyone was striving to collect the blood, using different methods. Guo Shier used five large talisman bottles to collect it in turns, quickly putting the filled bottles into the altar. The old man lifted the bottles into the air and then sent them out again at great speed. Ezekiel and Beauty simply drank it directly, opening their mouths wide and swallowing it; soon they stored the blood in spaces within their bodies.

The most skilled were Li Ran and Qi Wu Zhen. With a single grab, they condensed it into drops of essence blood, each the size of a fist. They could grab and collect them instantly, with unparalleled speed.

The others were slightly slower, especially Halechi, who was sweating profusely from anxiety. He knew very well that this was a rare opportunity. Although he had large talisman bottles, there were only a few, and they were already full from the start. Without the help of a sacrificial spirit, he could only refine the blood on the spot, but lacking the advanced skills of Li Ran and Qi Wu Zhen, his speed was much slower.

Guo Shier smiled and said, “This can be considered a gift for us… We didn’t come here in vain.” He could already sense the extremely powerful vitality of the blood—no wonder such creatures could grow so massive.

Li Ran said, “We’re lucky this time. I thought we’d arrived in a lifeless small world. Who would have thought there would be such monstrous giants? Hehe, we’ve made a fortune.” He had never seen life of this level even in the larger worlds; perhaps only the legendary starbeasts possessed such terrifying strength and size. Without testing, he knew this giant’s power must be unparalleled.

It was like ants, which can lift weights several times their own, but such weights seem insignificant to humans. It was similar to Li Ran and the others’ situation—they were like ants, possessing mysterious talismans and spiritual powers, but still far from having absolute strength.

Li Ran and the others could carry out some small maneuvers, but they must not disturb the giant. Of course, it would be difficult for them to do so even if they wanted to, unless they used extreme tactics like fire sacrifices or sky burials to possibly alert such a giant. As top-tier experts, none of them were fools—they would never make the stupid mistake of provoking such a creature.

As everyone busily collected the blood, Li Ran suddenly exclaimed in surprise, “Huh? What’s that?” The flowing blood suddenly slowed down and then stopped. Beneath the seal, a bright red object pushed against the outlet, blocking the flow of blood.

Qi Wu Zhen reached out and grabbed it, pulling out a bright red mass the size of a human being, which immediately lunged at him.

“Stabilize!”

A talisman was cast, and the bright red mass was suspended in midair, allowing everyone to take a closer look. It resembled an egg in shape, about the size of an ordinary person, and kept writhing. No one could guess what it was, but it emitted a faint fishy smell—likely something that lived in blood. After observing it for a while, Guo Shier said, “Whatever it is, I’ll refine it first!” A talisman fire flew out and quickly wrapped around the bright red mass. Moments later, a fist-sized bead of refined blood was produced. Guo Shier reached out to grab it and couldn’t help but exclaim, “It’s beautiful… Uh, this bead of refined blood is a bit different!” Li Ran said, “Let me take a look.” Guo Shier threw it to him, and Li Ran examined it. It was a bead of refined blood that resembled a ruby, with a glowing aura—truly extraordinary. He exclaimed, “This is an elite bead of refined blood! Excellent!” Everyone took turns looking at it, praising its beauty. More of them appeared! Continuously, such strange things tried to block the gushing wounds. Realizing these were valuable items, everyone seized the chance to collect them one after another. Within a few days, they had reaped a great deal. On the fourth day, Li Ran said, “That’s enough. We don’t have time to keep collecting. It’s time to leave.” Everyone stopped. Soon, the gushing wounds were blocked by the bright red masses, which gradually solidified, their color turning dark brown. Guo Shier smiled and said, “It’s a shame… If we could go deeper into the giant beast’s body, we might find more valuable things.” Zhen Wuji shook his head and said, “It’s not hard to go in deep, but… there’s likely a powerful defense system inside the giant beast.” Guo Shier thought for a moment before nodding in agreement. After all, every living creature has its own defense system. For smaller creatures, this system isn’t very noticeable, but when it comes to giant beasts, their defense systems become terrifyingly strong. Although Guo Shier and the others were top-tier professionals, compared to giant beasts, they were like bacteria and dust. Once inside such beasts, their defense systems would surely launch a counterattack—definitely not a fun experience. Ezek and Mei Li looked at it with some regret. The two had swallowed countless amounts of giant beast blood, but not much of it had actually entered their stomachs; most of it had been stored in their own internal spaces to be consumed when needed. Even after swallowing just a small amount of blood, they both felt a sense of expansion. Their bodies underwent changes—their energy became more vigorous, and their vitality increased. They both showed signs of advancing in level.

Such gains were beyond the two of them’ belief; it could be said that no one else present had achieved as much as they had. This extremely massive life energy entering their bodies immediately transformed their physical constitutions and vitality, greatly enhancing their strength. At present, the improvement still has certain limits, but things will be completely different in the future. Once they absorb all the blood from those giant beasts, they might truly be able to advance.