Chapter 23: Iron-Clawed Black Crow
A three-star Tianpo Monster-level beast, along with a four-star Tianpo Monster-level beast, attacking a three-star Tianpo Monster-level Golden Claw Crab—there’s no need to guess the outcome.
That Golden Claw Crab leader was instantly knocked unconscious and collapsed on the rocks.
“Master, he’s unconscious,” Lei Ling said as he flew into the air, laughing and claiming credit.
Soon after, Lei Kong, Shui Kong, and Cang Yang also arrived in the air, looking at Qu Yi with energetic expressions.
Qu Yi flashed forward and put the Golden Claw Crab leader into the Dimensional Ball before ascending into the air.
“Good. A three-star Tianpo Monster like this will be useful to me,” Qu Yi praised.
What the five of them accomplished in the blink of an eye left the 100 million Golden Claw Crabs on the coast completely unprepared. In an instant, the leader was knocked out, disappeared, and the crabs, lacking intelligence, lay scattered on the ground.
“Leader! Where is our leader?”
“You five, release our leader right now!”
“Something’s wrong! Strong Tianpo Monsters are coming—everyone, hide quickly!”
…
Soon, the 100 million Golden Claw Crabs reacted differently, and the entire coast became chaotic.
Qu Yi shook his head slightly, glanced indifferently at the 100 million crabs below, then turned to Lei Ling and said, “It’s too noisy here. Give them some electricity.”
Lei Ling perked up, activated the lightning symbol on his forehead, and shot a bolt of lightning.
The lightning spread everywhere, turning the Golden Claw Crabs within a hundred meters to ashes. Without stopping, Lei Ling’s lightning continued to sweep across the coast, destroying rows of crabs after rows of them.
Whoosh…
The Golden Claw Crabs in the distance were highly sensitive to fear. Seeing their kin dying in large numbers, they didn’t dare stay on the coast and immediately burrowed underground or fled into the sea.
Soon, not a single Golden Claw Crab remained on the coast.
Seeing this, Qu Yi nodded gently and smiled, “Lei Ling, Lei Kong, Shui Kong, Cang Yang—you four, keep moving.”
With that, Qu Yi entered the Dimensional Ball. Naturally, the ball had already attached itself to Lei Ling.
The four of them didn’t dare stay and immediately flew deeper into the land.
※※※
Inside the Dimensional Ball…
The Golden Claw Crab leader landed on a patch of grass and had already regained consciousness, looking around frantically.
“No need to look. Your death is near,” Qu Yi’s voice echoed softly before he appeared.
When Jin Yuan saw Qu Yi, without hesitation, he knelt down immediately and pleaded loudly, “Elder, please spare my life! I’ll do whatever you want from now on…” Qu Yi gently shook his head and said indifferently, “If I say you must die, then you must die.” Hearing this, Jin Yuan quickly stood up and rushed at Qu Yi, shouting with a fierce expression, “If you want me to die, then I’ll die with you!” Unimaginable madness. Unfortunately, within the Dimensional Sphere, Qu Yi was the ruler. Jin Yuan tried to fly, but he was frozen in mid-air, unable to move forward no matter how hard he struggled, his face once again filled with utter fear. “Elder, please! I’m willing to become your pet beast and serve you from now on,” Jin Yuan pleaded loudly again. Qu Yi chuckled, then with a thought, fixed Jin Yuan to the grass before walking up to him. “Ah, it’s all fate. Who told you to encounter me? And now I urgently need the Soul Flower,” Qu Yi sighed. Suddenly, Jin Zun appeared. “Jin Zun, go and take his Soul Flower,” Qu Yi said calmly. Jin Zun nodded and immediately went to Jin Yuan’s side, placing his right hand on Jin Yuan’s head and activating the “Soul Refining Technique.” In an instant, a golden light appeared on Jin Yuan’s head—the Soul Flower with three layers of petals. Soon, Jin Yuan’s Soul Flower shattered into fragments, like grains of gold, forming a stream that flowed toward Jin Zun’s head. At the same time, Jin Zun also brought his own Soul Flower to his head, beginning to sift through Jin Yuan’s fragments. Some fragments were thrown away, while others merged into Jin Zun’s Soul Flower, disappearing, making it seem much stronger. In fact, it took little time before Jin Zun consumed Jin Yuan’s Soul Flower. “I need to meditate for a while,” Jin Zun said softly, storing his Soul Flower back in his spiritual space, looking somewhat tired. Qu Yi nodded. After all, Jin Yuan’s Soul Flower wasn’t something Jin Zun had discovered on his own. So after consuming it, Jin Zun had to personally examine and gradually understand the new insights from the Golden World energy to truly make it his own. This was similar to how the Artifact God taught Qu Yi the formation techniques—although the techniques were directly imprinted into Qu Yi’s soul, he still had to personally scan and comprehend them to truly master them.
Qu Yi returned to the soft chair and looked at the Artifact God beside him, smiling and saying, “Artifact God, the Soul Refining Technique is truly powerful. It can directly extract someone’s Soul Flower and then shatter and absorb it. With this technique, there’s no need to worry about reaching the soul realm of the Five Sovereigns.”
Hearing this, the Artifact God turned to look at Qu Yi and said indifferently, “The Soul Refining Technique only works on the Soul Flowers of Heavenly Soul Immortals. When you reach the rank of Lower Heavenly Soul Immortal, it will be of no use to you.”
Qu Yi was shocked and immediately asked, “Why?”
The Artifact God chuckled and replied lightly, “Because at the level of Heavenly Soul Immortal, your Soul Flower in your planet’s world needs to create a spiritual body. Never mind, even if I explain it now, you won’t understand. You’ll realize it when the time comes.”
Qu Yi scratched his head, admitting that he still didn’t understand. What was a spiritual body? What was its connection to the soul realm?
“Time to sleep. Stop making noise,” said the Artifact God as he lay down.
Qu Yi also lay down straight.
※※※
Lei Ling, Lei Kong, Shui Kong, and Cang Yang were flying in the air. By now, they had ventured 10,000 miles deep into the Wind Pavilion Continent. Along the way, no powerful monsters had appeared to block their path, and they didn’t bother to harass them either, continuing to fly at high speed.
Their destination was the Primordial Heavenly Veins in the central region of the north side of the Wind Pavilion Continent.
When they reached the sky above an ancient forest, the four of them suddenly stopped in their tracks.
From within the forest, four giant blue birds flew out. Each bird’s wings, when spread out, were a kilometer wide—quite terrifying.
Lei Ling and the others sensed that these four blue birds possessed the cultivation level of four-star Heavenly Soul Demons. Moreover, their flying patterns were extremely uniform, indicating that they had lived together for a long time.
The four of them began to observe the blue birds closely. Their feathers were all blue, their claws were dark, sharp, and hooked, and their tails had four colorful feathers that were as long as ten meters.
“What kind of monsters are you? Why do your auras differ? How did you dare invade our territory of Iron-Claw Blue Crows?” one of the blue birds shouted angrily.
It turned out that these four blue birds were actually Iron-Claw Blue Crows.
“Haha… This is your territory. What right do you have to stop us four from entering this forest?” Lei Ling called out mockingly.
Of course, after sensing that the four Iron-Claw Blue Crows were only at the four-star Heavenly Soul Demon level, Lei Ling and the others wouldn’t compromise. They immediately engaged in combat.
The four Iron-Claw Blue Crows sensed that Lei Ling and the others were slightly stronger than themselves and quickly realized their true cultivation levels.
“Don’t think just because the three of you are at the level of Five-Star Heavenly Soul Demons and one of you is at the level of Four-Star Heavenly Soul Demon, you can ignore us four brothers. Since you’re so stubborn, then accept the punishment from us four brothers,” the lead Iron-Clawed Blue Crow shouted angrily once again.
Lei Ling, Lei Kong, Shui Kong, and Cang Yang all looked stunned. These four Iron-Clawed Blue Crows clearly knew their own strength levels yet still acted so arrogantly, even threatening to attack them—it was truly infuriating.
However, the four immediately grew serious. Since these Iron-Clawed Blue Crows had a foothold in the Wind Pavilion Continent and dared to speak so boldly, it meant they must possess some special abilities.
“Show us your tricks then—hurry up! We still need to keep moving,” Lei Ling said calmly and seriously.
As soon as he spoke, the four Iron-Clawed Blue Crows suddenly flapped their wings, stacking them in the air side by side, then vibrating their wings simultaneously while spewing out demonic essence.
“You four, brace for our Four-Star Combined Attack!” the lead Iron-Clawed Blue Crow sneered as it spat out the demonic essence.
The four blue demonic essences, like four blue balloons, flew toward them at once. In mid-air, they rapidly expanded, connecting like strings of lanterns, eventually forming overlapping illusions of four planets, each filled with the power of the World of Curvature, and shot rapidly at Lei Ling and the others.
“Damn, these planets can even overlap! These four idiots really have talent.”
“Stop talking! This Four-Star Combined Attack has the power of a Six-Star Heavenly Soul Demon. Let’s combine our forces to defend!” Lei Ling, Lei Kong, Shui Kong, and Cang Yang shouted urgently, gathering together and each emitting a demonic essence to form four planetary worlds, collectively resisting the attack.
At the same time, lightning flashed on Lei Ling and Lei Kong’s foreheads, Shui Kong waved his left hand, creating a vacuum in the air, and Cang Yang’s body vibrated, generating countless phantom versions of himself in the air.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
The Four-Star Combined Attack struck the spells of the four of them at once, resulting in a fierce clash of planetary illusions with continuous explosions. Soon, the planetary illusions of Lei Ling and the others were shattered. Yet, the remaining energy from the attack was dissipated into the air as wood-element energy under the attack of their innate abilities.
“That’s impossible…” the four Iron-Clawed Blue Crows exclaimed in surprise. They had used this spell to claim a forest territory and could even fight against some of the Six-Star Heavenly Soul Demon beasts in the Wind Pavilion Continent, yet they hadn’t managed to harm Lei Ling and the others—this was beyond their expectations.
“Nothing is impossible. You four fools dare to stand in my way? Then take my sword!” Suddenly, Qu Yi appeared in front of Lei Ling and the others, holding the Haotian Sword.