Chapter 34: Casually Hunting For Monster Cores
Looking at the detached head spin through the air as the body spasmed spraying blood, Tie Ta’s face was full of alarm. At this moment they had easily killed a Class 1 Magical Beast, allowing himself to feel more confident about his strength. The cyan colored viper hadn’t even made Tie Ta expend a great amount of his energy at all.
Jian Chen slowly separated the body of the viper from the iron rod and wiped the blood onto the surrounding grass. It had actually been Jian Chen who contributed the most in killing the Class 1 Magical Beast; if it were not for his lightning quick thrust through the viper’s body and dealing it a huge wound as it was pierced, then Tie Ta’s battleaxe would not have been able to sever the snake’s head.
Recollecting his battleaxe, Tie Ta’s face looked at the detached head proudly while stepping on the viper’s dead carcass. “Changyang Xiang Tian, this is a Class 1 Magical beast? How weak it was!”
Jian Chen laughed as he heard Tie Ta, “It’s not that the magical beasts are weak, it’s because us two combined are too strong. Besides, this Class 1 Magical Beast wouldn’t give much trouble for even a person who just recently broke through to becoming a Saint.”
Tie Ta returned Jian Chen’s smile and wiped his battleaxe dry from the blood. Bringing it to his shoulder, he let loose a laugh and said, “If you say that, then doesn’t that mean we can casually walk around and kill Class 1 Magical Beasts?”
It looked as if Jian Chen had came to a realization as his face revealed a joyful smile, “Not bad, with our two strengths, even if we were to fight against a Class 1 Magical Beast by ourselves we would be able to kill it easily. But if we were to join together, then no magical beast in the 2nd region would be able to bring us trouble. The magical beasts here aren’t strong because the academy had meant for them to be for students to help pick up battle experience. There won’t be any strong magical beasts here, except…” He trailed off in thought.
Jian Chen’s silence caused Tie Ta to pause, “Except what…”
“Unless we come across a group of magical beasts. However, we still don’t know what’s here or not.” Jian Chen’s face was serious as he spoke. With his strength, Jian Chen would not find any problems if he came across a Class 1 Magical Beast, but if he came across a whole group of them, then there would be no way at all.
Tie Ta wrinkled his eyebrows together and said uncertainly, “That shouldn’t be likely. I’ve been in the forests many times and never saw a whole bunch of magical beasts together.”
“It’s not for sure we won’t, I’ve read up in the library on books pertaining to magical beasts. There are a few types of magical beasts that all live in a group together. Together, their power is strong and very rarely do they travel by themselves.” Jian Chen walked over to where the decapitated snake head was and only then did he realized that the viper was only 6 to 7 meters long. Using the iron rod to cut 7 meters in, he took out the rod from the viper’s body to reveal a bloody crystal.
Within the Tian Yuan continent, there were many different types of monster cores, while their monster cores were not at all like each other. Some magical beasts had their monster core in the head, some in the pit of their stomachs, and some in their abdomen. The viper for example had its monster core within it’s tail, but Jian Chen had already known that a long time ago.
“Peng!” Tie Ta brought down the battle axe on his shoulder into a tree. It sunk into the tree as smoothly like water in a bucket before he cried out loudly, “If there really are magical beasts that are in a group, I Tie Ta will definitely kill them all!”
Jian Chen held the monster core he got from the cyan viper and rubbed it clean of blood with the nearby grass. Throwing it to Tie Ta, he said, “Alright, there’s no need to yell. There’s a lot of magical beasts that travel in herds in the Tian Yuan continent, but it doesn’t mean we’ll meet up with one for sure. Nothing is for sure, after all, this is the magical beast forest.”
Tie Ta snatched the monster core thrown at him and looked at Jian Chen weirdly, “What are you doing giving this to me?”
Jian Chen laughed, “The viper was slain by you, so this monster core is yours by rights.” Seeing Tie Ta trying to find a way to find a reason against this, Jian Chen continued to say, “This monster core is yours, don’t say otherwise. Just take it. After all we still have 3 more days, at our current rate we’ll definitely be able to get a lot more, so I don’t really care for this one monster core.”
“Haha, okay then. I’ll be taking this monster core. The next monster core will be yours no matter who kills it then.” Holding the bloodstained monster core high up in the air, Tie Ta was extremely happy. Though that was for sure since this was the first monster core he had gotten after killing a Class 1 Magical Beast.
Afterwards, the two of them continued on their way. Now that he knew that Jian Chen had an acute sense for detecting danger, Tie Ta had simply handed the patrolling duties to Jian Chen. On the other hand, he began to ceaselessly hack at the grass in front of them to clear their path. Although constantly waving the heavy battleaxe around expended a great amount of energy, it was as simple as eating a meal to Tie Ta, who had godly strength. To him, this action wasn’t the slightest bit taxing; after all, his strength was great enough to frighten others, and he seemed to have infinite amounts of energy as well. Thus, it was impossible for him to become exhausted in a situation like this.
Not long after the two had left, Jian Chen’s ears twitched, and his footsteps came to an abrupt halt. He stretched his hand out towards Tie Ta, who was currently slashing at the grass in front of them, and gestured at him to be silent.
Tie Ta intuitively understood the situation, and stopped his attempt at hacking through the weeds. Tightly gripping the battleaxe, he returned to Jian Chen’s side, and stood shoulder to shoulder with him. Tie Ta’s eyes flashed, as he inspected their surroundings with caution.
Their breathing became very faint, as their expressions were filled with caution. The difference between the two was that Tie Ta was constantly looking around, while Jian Chen had gently closed his eyes in attempt to sense everything around them.
It was currently extremely difficult to discern anything among the grass. Even if there really was an unknown danger lurking around, it would unfortunately not be something that one could use the naked eye to see. Thus, Tie Ta could not discover anything despite sweeping his gaze around all four corners for a long period of time.
Jian Chen lightly closed his eyes, his keen ears twitching periodically as they tried to catch all noises coming from his surroundings. At the same time, his consciousness also reached new heights, and he used his powerful “Soul” to reach out and sense the world around him.
At that moment, Jian Chen could not help but recall one of his fights against Dugu Qiubai. Eventually, just as he was about to die, his powers had suddenly broken through and reached the Realm of the Sword God. At that moment, his “soul” had became incomparably strong and could even manifest it outside his body into the surrounding air. Whenever he spread his “soul” out into an area, then there would be no way anyone or anything inside would be able to escape his perception.
However, what made Jian Chen feel regret was that after entering this world, although his soul was extremely powerful, he could no longer extend it outwards. Otherwise, this dense forest would not give Jian Chen any difficulties at all. Searching for a hidden magical beast would be extremely easy.
Jian Chen’s soul densely concentrated together, and he exerted all his efforts to sense his surroundings. Slowly, his spirit entered a unique state; although he had not extended his soul, at that instant, his soul seemed to have established a subtle relationship with the various plants around him, fusing together. This feeling was extremely mysterious.
However, as soon as Jian Chen entered this state, he senses immediately shot up to new levels. Finally, a barely discernable breathing sound entered his sensing range. The breath was so faint that even if one stood next to it, one most likely wouldn’t have been able to hear it.
In an instant, Jian Chen’s opened his eyes, and in a flash, he had already disappeared from his original location, and was flying towards the side at high speeds. While moving, Jian Chen constantly twisted and adjusted his body to evade the branches obstructing his path.
In an instant, Jian Chen had already crossed over a distance of 10 meters. He quickly thrusted out the iron rod in his hands at lightning fast speed, silently cutting away the surrounding leaves and weeds, the tip aimed towards the the black figure hiding within the grass.
“Ao!”
A shriek of pain suddenly rang out, as a dark shadow jumped out from the grass, leaping towards Jian Chen with its ferocious mouth wide open.
This was a black panther, around 2 meters long. Its head had an open wound where fresh blood was pouring out from. The blood flowed down through the black fur on its face, intensifying its fierce appearance.
Jian Chen’s gaze was as sharp as a sword as a sneer began to form on his face. He shook his arm, and once again lashed out with the iron rod in his hand at an unfathomable speed, his objective being the black panther’s neck. Up until the end, the black panther had absolutely no time to react, as the iron rod’s sharp point plunged deeply through its throat. In addition, since the black panther’s body was currently lunging in the air, its heavy body quickly dropped downwards, pushing the iron rod deeper and deeper through its neck. Eventually, the point had drilled a hole directly through, and the end had come out of the other side.
This time, the black panther didn’t even have the time to cry out before it had already died. It fell to the ground with its eyes wide open, grief instilled in its gaze.
At that moment, Tie Ta finally caught up from behind. When he looked over at the ground, he saw the corroded iron rod pierced through the black panther’s throat. Immediately, his eyes widened in extreme shock.
“Changyang Xiang Tian, this….this….did you kill this?” Tie Ta’s voice was trembling in shock. Even though he had witnessed the moment that Jian Chen’s weapon had pierced through the black panther’s throat, he still couldn’t believe the scene no matter how hard he tried. That was because the period of time that had passed was way too short; when Jian Chen had charged over, Tie Ta had already followed behind at his fastest speed. However, by the time he had caught up, all he saw was the Class 1 Magical Beast dying by Jian Chen’s hands. The amount of time that had passed was definitely not even long enough to take a breath, or even half a breath.
Being able to kill a Class 1 Magical Beast in half a breath’s time was natural for some professionals. However, Tie Ta clearly knew that Jian Chen’s abilities had not yet reached Saint level. Moreover, the weapon he was using was a mere corroded iron rod.
Jian Chen placed his foot on the black panther’s head, and gradually pulled out the iron rod. As if nothing had happened, he said, “That’s right, I killed it. However, it was just a coincidence. Originally, there was no way it would’ve died so quickly. However, it kept approaching my weapon, and in the end, its life was extinguished before it could even cry out in despair.”
Hearing this, Tie Ta rubbed the back of his head, and doubtfully glanced at Jian Chen’s indifferent face. In disbelief, he asked, “Is that true? You’re not lying to me?”
Jian Chen laughed, “Of course it’s true. Why would I lie to you?”
Seeing Jian Chen’s sincere expression, Tie Ta was beyond puzzled, and muttered, “Do such stupid magical beasts really exist, to actually give itself up to a weapon?”