Chapter 281 - 278: G.S.T, Three Beasts
ROAR!!!
Wei Wuyin’s every breath carried with it a devastatingly ferocious and lofty True Dragon’s roar. While his Bloodline Source was exhausted, this merely limited his ability to activate the inherent potential within his bloodline, but its strength and benefits were still present. It manifested itself in his Draconic Force.
His centimeter-sized Astral Core throbbed with endless power, suffusing his fleshy body with draconic might. Similar to Eden Force that was concentrated on the Mind Dao, Draconic Force took to the extreme of physical force. It could amplify one’s physical body to the utmost, even be used to execute rare Martial Arts.
The surrounding Gold Starred Beast felt the overwhelming dominating presence emitting from Wei Wuyin’s body and responded with a fearless exertion of their own auras, causing the world to become a whirlwind of pressure. Qing Qiumu felt an unfathomably heavy strength press against her body, seeking to crush her into meat paste.
She grew ashen. Her strength was nothing but a loose-leaf against this hurricane. She could do nothing to resist. Fortunately, Wei Wuyin was mindful and his draconic force shrouded her, protecting her body from the immense clash of auras and pressure. This action had saved her from her dreadful fate, allowing her ragged breath to leave her chest and regain normalcy.
Qing Qiumu’s emerald eyes were focused on Wei Wuyin. A light of thankfulness flashed across her eyes, but it was accompanied by still-incoming shock. Wei Wuyin’s Astral Core was one centimeter in size! This size wasn’t minor. In fact, it was vast beyond imagination.
The average size of Sky Ruler Astral Cores was about half a millimeter, and his current size was about twenty times that. Her heart was raging with boundless shock at this discovery. The Astral Core was the reflection of one’s Astral Force quantity and quality, its size meant its World Sea’s size within and the outer shell was a direct correlation to physical, mental, spiritual, and essence energies within.
To clarify, essence energies were the ambient energies of the world. This included elemental energies, jade-attributed energies, demonic energies, even sword energies. They were all classified as ’essence’. A cultivator absorbed these energies and refined their Astral Core, physical body, sea of consciousness, or other qualities through exquisite methods.
She had never heard of an Astral Core being a centimeter in size. In fact, the largest Astral Core known in this era was the legendary purist, a pure-blooded elf from the Sacred Light Palace was the best foundation in the Tri-Vision Era. He was seen as the one with the highest chance to advance to a Realmlord but fell short, his life extinguished by the ruthless and relentless Seventh Astral Tribulation.
The size of his Astral Core had been half a centimeter, and he was at the Sixth Stage of the Astral Core Realm, a purist on top of that which focused on their innate foundation, and a thousand years old. That was a thousand years of raw effort to achieve that size!
To see something twice that size on someone who just entered the Astral Core Realm a year or so ago felt insane. She couldn’t even imagine how that was possible.
Wei Wuyin didn’t care about his foundation being known, nor did he give it much thought. He had already reached a point in his cultivation where he could protect his life. That being said, if it wasn’t for Kratos’ pride, he would’ve kept his cultivation level a secret until it was absolutely required. Furthermore, it wasn’t just Kratos who was one centimeter in size...they all were.
He had long since prepared enough eighth-grade Great Astral Sea Pills, the advanced version of an Astral Sea Pill, to cultivate after reaching the Sky Ruler. While his limit in the World Sea Phase had been four millimeters, when he ascended to the Sky Ruler, this limit had changed. It was now one centimeter and with six months of consuming a variety of eighth-grade products, they easily reached their newfound limits.
If it wasn’t for him lacking a crucial understanding of the Soul Idol Phase, he would’ve already tackled the next phase. Unfortunately, cultivation wasn’t that simple.
He didn’t know the current limits of his strength, but if he added his highly unusual Sky Pressure and his Astral Force, he felt he could whittle down and drown even the toughest opponents in a battle of attrition. With Permanence, unless they obliterated his astral force until it unraveled entirely, they would truly have to deal with endless attacks.
But the three beasts didn’t care about this. They were provoked, and they acted without care of his strength. The White-Blaze Tiger acted first. Its immense body was swift like a white flash. In the blink of an eye, it was already before Wei Wuyin and smashed its paw towards his head.
Wei Wuyin faintly smiled. If it came to raw strength, he would never shy away. While he wasn’t very experienced in hand to hand combat, he had some knowledge towards it. With a firm stance, he outstretched his palm to meet the tiger’s paw.
Boom!
The resulting impact caused the nearby trees in several miles to be uplifted and fly in the direction away from them. A clearing was formed in an instant. Qing Qiumu was the sole figure untouched, a ward of protective draconic force withstood the forceful wave of power.
Wei Wuyin, with his palm facing the sky, his right arm outstretched, held the White-Blaze Tiger’s paw and halted its movement. Beneath his legs, cracks spread out endlessly and nearly caused its collapse. The sheer strength needed to damage a planet’s surface was massive, but the White-Blaze Tiger didn’t lack ferocious strength.
Alas, it met Wei Wuyin. His power was that of a True Dragon! In terms of the physical body, Wei Wuyin exceeded the White-Blaze Tiger by a few levels. This was greatly attributed to Kratos’, his Draconic Void Soul, exceptionally powerful physical energies. Of course, the innate energies that flowed through and ceaselessly strengthened his body by the other three souls couldn’t be underestimated.
"My turn," Wei Wuyin pushed slightly upwards. The White-Blaze Tiger’s paw and body were lifted off the ground as waves of draconic force battered its body. Pain wreathed its entirety as it shrieked horribly. It clearly hadn’t expected this counterattack.
Wei Wuyin’s wave of draconic force was like endless oceanic waves that crushed against the tiger’s body. It continued to lift into the air as its form twisted and fought against the overwhelming surging waves of pure draconic power. Even its bloodline was suppressed.
It tried to ignite its white fur in flames, the unique bloodline ability that allowed it to rival Spatial Resonance experts, but it kept getting snuffled before it could. Without it, it could only accept the power smashing it with merely its physical body.
CAW!
The Three-Eyed Tenebrous Crow was only idle for a moment. The plight of the tiger bore no importance to it, but it was an unconventional beast that attacked the opponent’s sea of consciousness and influenced their combat strength before eliminating them, feeding on their eyes and brains.
Its three eyes turned into swirls of endless darkness as it shot rays of black light towards Wei Wuyin. This was a dual-fold attack, physical and mental. It twisted away from the surge of draconic power and hit Wei Wuyin nearly instantly. Wei Wuyin’s sea of consciousness was currently defended, halting the black light at his glabella, but his skin seemed to have a living shadow within. It moved eerily.
The darkness power was attempting to affect his physical energies, infiltrating his cells, and insidiously infect them with its influence. This method of attack was strange and exceptionally difficult to defend against. The speed of it was incredible as well. Darkness, just like light energies, was at the top in terms of speed in the cultivation world.
Wei Wuyin clenched his dark fist, causing the draconic force to concentrate on it. A faint image of a dragon appeared behind him as he kicked off, punching towards the tiger’s belly. He ignored the influence of the crow and decided to deal with the tiger first.
A harsh impact of flesh meeting flesh resounded followed by a heart-rending howling shriek from the tiger’s throat. Wei Wuyin’s fist met its stomach and sent it rocketing a kilometer upwards and away. The display of physical strength was incredible!
Wei Wuyin turned his eyes towards the crow that seemed to have three eyes of pure darkness swirling endlessly. It flapped its wings from a safe distance, nearly touching the first sky layer. While it seemed to be fearless, its current distance only proved its intelligence and fear.
Crack!
Wei Wuyin was just about to take to the skies, eliminating this crow, when the ground beneath his feet cracked even more. His eyes widened slightly as he jumped upwards. An explosive eruption occurred beneath his feet as a large swath of earth was consumed by the giant gaping maw of the Titanic Mudworm Snake!
It pierced towards the sky as it tried to consume Wei Wuyin’s fleeting form. It snapped as it reached him, consuming him. When it had done the deed, it twisted its body and pulled its entire body from the earth. A wisp of pride and excitement as devouring its prey was within its reptilian pupils.
But when it tried to exert its unique digestive abilities, it realized there was nothing substantial within its body. Confusion followed within those recently excited pupils.
"I couldn’t even sense you traveling through earth. You’re quite sneaky," Wei Wuyin’s voice resounded. The Titanic Mudworm Snake was even more confused as he realized the sound was above it. Lifting its head, it found nothing.
"I’m on you. You’re a semi-decent mount. But I like the tiger a bit better." Wei Wuyin’s voice resounded again, and the snake finally realized his location. Atop its head! That pesky human had settled itself directly on its head!
Wei Wuyin shook his head, "Sneaky, but a little slow." The snake had consumed his afterimage. The moment he moved, he had already left its range of attack. Seeing it experience the joy of its false triumph was quite interesting.
Anyways, he clenched his fist. The faint image of a true dragon, colored grey, flashed behind him as he exerted his full strength. It was about the same size as him, but it contained a spirituality that was fantastical and mystical. It was a primary Soul Idol, an indication of Wei Wuyin’s close comprehension of spiritual strength and traits of a Soul Idol.
With his clenched fist, he drilled it downwards like a crushing meteor crashing into the earth. He was ruthless, holding nothing back. The snake couldn’t react before it impacted its cranium. This power was immense and normally this would’ve killed any normal creature, but its scales glimmered with faint light as the power was redistributed and sent into the earth, its flexible body seemingly acting as a medium for it.
This startled him as the snake lost consciousness. While it didn’t have its head explode into mush, it had survived this lethal strike. He was lucky as well. If the snake had died, his points would’ve been negative to the limit.
BOOSH!!
The descending body of the White-Blaze Tiger now met the hard ground, causing catastrophic earthquakes to ravage the surrounding greenery and trees. An outline of its body was etched into the ground. It, too, was unconscious.
Wei Wuyin floated in the sky as two of his foes had lost all battle potential. He lifted his eyes and saw the Three-Eyed Tenebrous Crow. It shrieked at his fierce gaze. Instinctively, it realized it was in deep shit and booked it. With a flap of its wings, it retracted its darkness power and shot off into the distance.
Wei Wuyin felt the connection of the eerie shadows beneath his flesh weaken and, with a little push of his draconic force, depart from his body. It was as if he had temporarily become a ghastly ghost of black mist as it did. This darkness power was quite insidious.
"Impressive ability. I can’t imagine many defeating it. Even I couldn’t extricate it from my body with just Kratos’ strength. You must be amongst the strongest of the star beasts in this trial." His eyes brightened as this came to his realization. Furthermore, as he spoke, the crow displayed exceptional talent in fleeing as it crossed a hundred miles in a moment. Within three, it was near the horizon.
He swept his gaze at the two unconscious Gold Starred Beasts. An excited gleam emerged within his eyes. With a flick of his finger, two Spiritual Seals were embedded into their sea of consciousnesses. With that, he turned to Qing Qiumu and said lightly, "I’ll be right back."
The ambient mana in the world cheered as he removed the subtle barrier he kept between it and him. It swarmed towards him like a greedy child needing attention and affirmation. It still felt somewhat weird to him, but he fully utilized this and took flight. In this state, he could fly numerous times faster.
He vanished before Qing Qiumu’s eyes.
She was barely capable of following the swift actions and sequences of the fight with her cultivation base. While it took a long time to describe, the events had happened in a few consecutive blinks of a mortal eye. It was simply too fast to follow.
"How..." As a self-imposed question was about to leave her mouth, an avian cry filled with despair and unwillingness screeched through the air. She turned her head and saw a black shadow approaching at a swift speed. In a few blinks, a large body violently crashed to the ground with a contorted and odd posture.
It was clear this body belonged to a creature that recently lost its consciousness. Wei Wuyin floated above the three beasts, slowly descending with a faint smile plastered on his face. Towards Qing Qiumu, his mood was always warm and good.
Furthermore, he had just obtained three pets. How could he not be?
"Sorry, that took a little longer than I expected. The little birdie was quite slippery." Wei Wuyin chuckled as he dusted himself off, walking towards Qing Qiumu and releasing his protective ward. With her movements unhindered, she couldn’t help but stare at Wei Wuyin with those emerald eyes of hers.
"You’re...strong." Qing Qiumu’s words trailed with layers of disbelief.
Wei Wuyin had already reached a few feet from her, a good distance to hold a casual chat. "Of course I am! Look at these mountains! Bigger than Mount Tai!" His eyebrows lifted several times with playfulness. He pumped up his two arms in a flexing posture, revealing the exceptional contours of his arm muscles. He kissed both arms with an exaggerated smooching sound.
Qing Qiumu’s shock and disbelief were eaten away by an unintended laugh. The pressure she felt and the layers of shock and disbelief dissipated as she did.
Wei Wuyin laughed along. In a matter of moments, a battle of titans had devolved into a casual exchange between a joker and a lovely lady.