The roar of the fierce beast from the earth’s core shook Nie Tian to the point that he spat out blood, while his head rumbled continuously.
Terror started to appear in his eyes. Subconsciously, he took a few steps back, moving slightly further away from the huge hole. He stood there bbergasted.
With merely one roar, it managed to cause slight damage to his physical body, even though he considered himself to be stronger than average. This had put a bit of fear in him.
He couldn’t imagine just how strong the blurry fierce beast was, which moved about under the magma.
He also noticed that when the fierce beast vaguely showed itself moments ago, the ancient magical symbols that flowed within the crystal-like ribbons, suddenly became dazzling and bright.
He remembered clearly that during the three times when the me Dragon Armor had attempted to dive into the magma, only a small part of the magical symbols within the ribbons had lit up.
He suddenly came to a realization that the real purpose of the ribbons was to stop the fierce beast from escaping and rushing out from the earth core.
ROOOOAR!
Once again, a heaven-shaking, earth-shattering roar burst out from the boiling magma within the earth’s core. This time, Nie Tian, who had prepared in advance, circted his spiritual energy and tightly shielded his internal organs and eardrums. Only in that way did he manage to resist the damage.
He saw that within the magma in the huge hole, a giant blurry figure with three long tails seemed to have swam by.
“It lives in the earth’s core magma, and it has three tails!”
He tried his best to calm himself and recall the formidable spiritual beasts that his master had imparted to him. Suddenly, he had an epiphany.
“Earth me Beast! It’s an Earth me Beast!”
Wu Ji had once told him that there was a unique kind of spiritual beast that resided in the middle of the magma of the earth’s core, and was therefore known as the Earth me Beast.
They were fire-attributed spiritual beasts that were by nature extremely vicious and violent. It was said that they possessed the bloodline of me Qilins.
Their growth, cultivation, and advancements all greatly relied on the magma in the earth’s core.
Once they had found a suitable magmake in the earth’s core, they would make it its habitat and spontaneously gather me power from the surrounding areas, and merge it into theke.
Whatever ce Earth me Beasts inhabited, even if it were once damp and rainy, with their arrival, the ce would slowly be hot and dry, with the formation of volcanoes that frequently erupted.
As long as they lived there, the me energy nearby would be absorbed by them and slowly flow into the magmake in the earth’s core where they resided.
Over a long period of time, the mountains within their habitat would turn into volcanoes one after another, and as they cultivated and condensed more me power, the volcanoes would be more active and erupt more frequently.
“Can it be that... this Earth me Beast has made the Scarlet me Mountain Range what it is now?”
Looking at the numerous crystal-like ribbons, Nie Tian’s eyes flickered. Suddenly, he came to a realization that the most powerful experts of the Spiritual Treasure sect must have been aware of the existence of the Earth me Beast for a long time.
Otherwise, the crystal-like ribbons wouldn’t have extended so far that they covered the entire Scarlet me Mountain Range.
He assumed that a founding expert of the Spiritual Treasure sect must have only built their sect in the Scarlet me Mountain Range after discovering the Earth me Beast underneath it.
As long as the Earth me Beast was there, the magmake deep within the earth’s core would forever gather me energy, causing the three volcanoes to never go extinct.
Qi warriors of the Spiritual school, who cultivated with the spiritual Qi of Heaven and Earth, and equipment forgers of the Treasure school, who refined spiritual tools, were mostly reliant on the zing me energy.
The existence of the Earth me Beast had caused the spiritual Qi of Heaven and Earth shrouding the Spiritual Treasure sect to carry rich me power.
The fierce me from the earth’s core could be drawn out for many uses. Some of it would be used to form the grand Heaven Burning Earth me formation, while some would flow into the caves to allow the equipment forgers of the Treasure school to refine spiritual tools.
However, the me power at earth’s core wasn’t infinite. Normally, the me power on thisnd would have beenpletely used up after hundreds of years of consumption by the numerous Spiritual Treasure sect disciples.
But the Earth me Beast could change that!
It could unceasingly draw me power from the vicinity of the Scarlet me Mountain Range and channel it into the magmake.
Its existence would ensure that the Spiritual Treasure sect thrived among the Scarlet me Mountain Range, with an infinite supply of me energy to be used for their cultivation and equipment forging.
ROOOOAR!
While Nie Tian was pondering such matters, the Earth me Beast within the magma once again let out mad roars. It seemed to be attempting to break away from the restriction of the crystal-like ribbons and burst forth from the magmake in the earth’s core.
“It must have also noticed the damage to the grand Heaven Burning Earth me formation and want to seize the opportunity to get out. That’s probably the reason why it’s so violent and restless.”
Shortly after everything had started, the dome of the grand spell formation had been torn open. Later on, seeing the losing momentum couldn’t be reversed, Fang Hui deactivated the defense to give the mass disciples a chance to live.
Fang Hui’s decision hadpromised the formation, which gave the Earth me Beast within the magmake a sign of hope.
WHOOSH!
At that moment, the me Dragon Armor, which had remained silent for a while, once again flew out.
“Will you stop messing around?” With a bitter smile, Nie Tian said, “Even that beast can’t burst out of there, so please stop wasting your energy.”
From Nie Tian’s point of view, all the ancient magical symbols within the glittering ribbons had now turned dazzling and bright because of the frantic behaviors of the beast.
Compared to before, the restrictive force of the of crystal-like ribbons must have also multiplied by who knew how many times.
If the me Dragon Armor were to give it a try now, not only would it not stand a chance, it could also use up its own me power. It might as well wait quietly for the Earth me Beast to rush out of its bindings.
It seemed as if the me Dragon Armor had heard his call, and this time, it actually did not make another rash attempt, but rather floated motionlessly half a meter above the crystal-like ribbons.
At that moment, he faintly felt that an odd aura started to ripple outwards from within the Blood Core on the me Dragon Armor, quietly flowing downwards like a mist.
He realized that the me Dragon Armor was trying to determine a path with the help of its aura.
Even though Nie Tian could feel the aura, he still didn’t understand its true significance.
However, the Earth me Beast, that had previously swam away with its three tails, appeared to have noticed the strange aura that came from the me Dragon Armor.
It immediately stopped its frantic roaring and started to circle back towards the source of the aura.
Nie Tian looked over with rapt attention, and found that the Earth me Beast seemed to be concerned with the formidable power of the crystal-like ribbons sealing the magmake, and didn’t dare to rise to the surface.
Therefore, Nie Tian could only see an enormous, vague shadow, but couldn’t get a clear look of its appearance.
He only saw the Earth me Beast swimming back deeply under the magmake; then it stopped directly below the me Dragon Armor as if it was sensing the the aura of the Blood Core.
Cut off by the thin but giant crystal, there was no way that Nie Tian’s psychic awareness could perceive what it was doing under there. But, he was aware that the Earth me Beast and the me Dragon Armor weremunicating in a way that he could not understand.
Nie Tian stared nkly at them.
It seemed that the Blood Core in the me Dragon Armor and the Earth me Beast hade to some kind of agreement aftermunicating for a while.
In the next moment, Nie Tian saw a perilous, raging wave rising in the magmake.
Apparently, some kind of strange maic field was forming inside theke, changing the flow of the spiritual Qi of Heaven and Earth in the surroundings.
The Earth me Beast was channeling me energy into the magmake, causing the magma in the earth’s core to be even more vigorous.
By that point, the Earth me Beast appeared to have activated the talent that had been hidden in its bloodline.
Very quickly, Nie Tian noticed that pure and rich spiritual Qi of Heaven and Earth, which contained copious me power, started to flow down along the stone tunnel to where he was.
As soon as the threads of me power reached the end of the tunnel, they swarmed into the Blood Core within the me Dragon Armor.
Although he couldn’t get a clear look, he was sure that the blood drop within the Blood Core must be gradually strengthening.
It had only been a short while, but arge amount of the pure spiritual Qi of Heaven and Earth had already filled the space where Nie Tian was standing, and the rough stone walls around him started to gradually heat up.
The me aura stored within the spiritual Qi was being absorbed by the Blood Core. However, there was an evenrger amount of heaven and earth energy were floating in the stone tunnel, congealing into clusters of milky-white clouds.
Nie Tian was seized by the amazing scene. Then, he felt that every breath that he took made him increasinglyfortable and rxed.
Without thinking, he sat down on the ground and started to practice the Qi Refining Incantation. Immediately, he felt his spiritual sea start to ripple and soon be violent and chaotic.
His expression flickered. “The excessively rich spiritual energy seems to be pushing me to break through the bottleneck and enter the Lesser Heaven stage!”
The extremely thick spiritual energy, the maic field formed by the Earth me Beast, and the changes urring to the me Dragon Armor, coupled with Nie Tian’s special mental state, all seemed to be working together and causing Nie Tian’s spiritual sea to reform.
Just like his mental state, his spiritual sea could no longer stay calm, as if it was being warped by a strange maic field.
He immediately understood that the bottleneck that had been holding him back was being ovee with the help of an number of extremely unusual factors. Now, it had reached a point where he simply had to break through.
All these years of unyielding cultivation in the Qi Refining stage, apanied by his umtion of spiritual energy, were like a volcano that had been continuously storing me power.
By the time it had reached a certain extent and met a perfect opportunity, the volcano would need to erupt.
If it couldn’t erupt from the top, it would explode underground, giving vent to the violent power surging inside of it.
Simrly, if he didn’t break through at that moment, then it was possible that his spiritual sea would explode!
After realizing that, even though Nie Tian knew that it was not an ideal time to break through, he had no other choice.
He forced himself to calm down, ignoring the increasingly hot stone tunnel, the changes urring to the me Dragon Armor, as well as the existence of the Earth me Beast, going all out to break through his bottleneck.
Meanwhile...
Near the mouth of the stone cave, An Shiyi and the others were waiting anxiously. Suddenly, a look of amazement shed across her eyes.
“Did you feel anything?” asked An Shiyi.
One after another, they all stopped their cultivation and nodded their heads. Pan Tao said, “The spiritual Qi of Heaven and Earth of the entire Scarlet me Mountain Range seems to be converging towards us.”
“And the spiritual Qi of Heaven and Earth contains rich me power.” An Shiyi practiced fire-attributed spiritual incantations, so she had a more acute perception of me energy. “We all know that the reason why our sect chose the Scarlet me Mountain Range as our base was mostly because of the rich spiritual energy here and the intense me aura in the spiritual energy.
“But it’s absolutely not normal for the flow of the spiritual Qi of Heaven and Earth to undergo such a big change.
“Now I can sense that the me aura within the entire Scarlet me Mountain Range is mixed in the spiritual Qi, and madly rushing towards us!”
While speaking, they had also felt that the stones that they had been sitting on were slowly warming up.
If they were to walk out of the stone cave at that moment, they would have found that the short mountain that they were at was gradually turning red, as if someone was painting it.
After hearing An Shiyi’s words, Pan Tao focused his attention to feel the changes. A momentter, he asked with a puzzled face, “Where the hell is Nie Tian?”
“Could it be Nie Tian who triggered the changes to this ce?” An Ying said in a low voice.
“It’s impossible!!” Pan Tao shook his head. “What stage is he in? He’s far from reaching the point where he can interact with the spiritual Qi of Heaven and Earth like this. If he already could trigger such a huge change to the flow of the spiritual Qi of Heaven and Earth while only being in the Qi Refining stage, wouldn’t the life-long cultivation of elder Fang Hui and his master Wu Ji have be a joke? Wouldn’t they have trained so long for nothing?”
Worried about Nie Tian’s safety, An Shiyi rose to her feet. “You guys stay here, I’ll head down there and take a quick look!”
She practiced fire-attributed spiritual incantations, and had the highest cultivation base among everyone present. If they were to send out one person to get a clear grasp of the situation, she would be the best choice.
“Be careful, sis!” An Ying felt a bit worried. “My right eye usually twitches in response to omens (see note 1); I have the feeling something big is about to happen.”
“I also have the feeling that something isn’t right,” said Jiang Lingzhu. “My Qi and blood aren’t flowing smoothly, and my chest feels as if it’s being pressured by a big stone.”
“Keep your guard up. I’ll go take a look at what Nie Tian is doing, and urge him to leave!” With these words, An Shiyi went down the deep, gloomy stone tunnel, in an attempt to find Nie Tian.
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Note:
1. The following is a Chinese folk story rted to eye twitching:
<i>There was once a schr who was heading to the Imperial City for an imperial examination. Upon arrival to the city, he found an inn where he could spend the night. He studied the whole night in his room, and was feeling confident about the exam. Before long, it was already dawn. The schr quickly left the inn to join the other schrs at the exam site.</i>
<i>However, to his surprise, he realised that the questions were of a different topic than what he studied the night before. He became really worried. Due to theck of sleep the night before, his right eye started to twitch. Even though he tried his best to finish his exam, he failed.</i>
<i>So he returned home disappointed. He wanted to have a few drinks, but he had no money. He decided to go to his father to borrow some money. Surprisingly, his father willingly gave him money for alcohol. At that moment, his left eye twitched.</i>
<i>After a year, he took the exam again. This time, he sessfully passed the exam. He was given a government position, and he started to spread the story of his experience to the public.</i>
<i>Hence the saying, "The twitching of the left eye signals wealth; the twitching of the right eye signals hazards."</i>