Tianfeng Mountain, shrouded in yellow mist year-round, was barren and silent, with not a blade of grass growing. As far as the eye could see, there were dry, sturdy third-order scarlet paulownia wood, bare and leafless.
Just then, a lightning shadow arrived instantly, crashing heavily onto the mountain rock. With a loud 'boom', the lightning shadow blasted a deep pit dozens of feet wide, causing the entire Tianfeng Mountain to tremble.
A massive boulder rolled into the deep pit, and the next moment, a blue lightning bolt shot out from the bottom of the pit.
With a 'snap', the ten-thousand-pound rolling boulder instantly shattered, its fragments flying everywhere.
A lightning shadow flew out and slowly landed on the ground, revealing its form: a burly man over ten feet tall, with blue hair, a pair of blue vertical pupils, and a bare body with blue skin adorned with mysterious, powerful lightning patterns, and muscular limbs hinting at terrifying strength.
The completely transformed Sixth Order Blue-Scaled Thunder Lion had recovered its strength to its Peak, and its injuries were completely gone. However, after chasing that Human cultivator to Tianfeng Mountain, his aura's concealment became increasingly strong. The Azure Scaled Thunder Lion released its Divine Sense to sense him, only able to roughly detect his aura. It looked around, but for a while, it couldn't pinpoint his exact location.
After several days of pursuit, not only was the Azure Scaled Thunder Lion's strength recovering, but that Human cultivator's escape technique and his ability to conceal his aura were also rapidly improving.
Otherwise, the Sixth Order Blue-Scaled Thunder Lion wouldn't have been unable to deal with him until now.
"Roar!"
After searching for a long time and still unable to sense the Human cultivator's exact location, the Sixth Order Blue-Scaled Thunder Lion grew enraged. It let out a long roar towards the sky, and the next moment, a furious lightning Yuan gathered throughout its body and blasted outwards in all directions.
"Boom, boom, boom..." Blue lightning snakes, as thick as buckets, surged out wildly, striking in all directions.
"You're cheating! That trick again!"
Li Mu quickly escaped from the earth and flew towards the core of Tianfeng Mountain.
Sensing the overflowing magical power, the Azure Scaled Thunder Lion stopped casting spells, and its figure 'whooshed' away, following closely behind.
After escaping for over forty li, Li Mu, his face pale, hid behind a thick scarlet paulownia wood. He activated the Reversal Yuan Breath Concealment Art and Illusionary Breath Art to their extremes, merging his body with the ancient wood. His breathing was almost non-existent, and his True Yuan slowly recovered.
The Sixth Order Blue-Scaled Thunder Lion's condition was getting better and better. Under its frantic pursuit, Li Mu had no time to recover his True Yuan, and the True Yuan in his body was almost depleted.
Fortunately, Li Mu's Cultivation Foundation was extremely solid, and the Yin Yang Five Elements Scripture, a Heaven-Grade Cultivation Technique, was exceptionally effective in recovering True Yuan. As long as he could pause for a few dozen breaths, he could recover some True Yuan by absorbing the Five Elements spiritual Yuan and Yin and Yang Qi from heaven and earth.
However, that Sixth Order Blue-Scaled Thunder Lion was extremely cunning. Relying on its Yao Beast body and its high-grade abundant Yao power, it simply didn't give him any chance to recover. If it couldn't find his exact location, it would use large-scale attacks to force him to reveal himself.
They were now like playing hide-and-seek. Li Mu had to maintain a high level of vigilance and didn't dare to release his Divine Sense, otherwise, he would easily be discovered by the Sixth Order Blue-Scaled Thunder Lion.
Li Mu fled all the way towards Tianfeng Mountain, without time to use his Divine Sense to properly examine the mountain's situation.
However, he should be getting closer to the magma pit containing Spiritual Void Earth Fire. Li Mu clearly felt the fire Yuan spiritual power filling the world becoming increasingly dense.
Not long after, with a 'boom', a violent thunderous explosion erupted not far from Li Mu's position. The powerful shockwave caused the thousand-year-old scarlet paulownia wood where Li Mu was hiding to vibrate violently.
Li Mu compressed his Divine Sense to a hundred-zhang radius. He didn't detect any fatal threats, so he remained still, continuing to maintain silence, striving for every second of recovery time.
Every bit of True Yuan recovered meant an extra chance of escape.
The Sixth Order Blue-Scaled Thunder Lion's strength was too terrifying; even a Peak Nascent Soul True Lord would find it difficult to contend with. Li Mu relied entirely on the Divine Ability derived from the Yin Yang Five Elements Scripture—the Five Elements Escape Technique—to preserve his life under Golden Core Cultivation.
With a loud 'boom', an even more violent explosion occurred.
Li Mu thought the Sixth Order Blue-Scaled Thunder Lion had gone berserk again and was about to cast an escape technique to leave. However, this time the explosion's shockwave contained rich fire-elemental spiritual Yuan. The scorching fire-elemental spiritual Yuan, mixed with violent thunder Yuan, violently impacted the earth together.
Fortunately, the source of the explosion was a bit far from Li Mu's position, a deviation of four or five li. Li Mu could still withstand this shockwave.
Soon, one explosion after another continuously spread out.
High-pitched, shrill chirps and furious, violent lion roars fiercely spread, with continuous violent explosions and shockwaves growing stronger with each wave.
Li Mu's eyes lit up. The situation he was happy to see had appeared: the Azure Scaled Thunder Lion was fighting with the 6th Order Demon Sparrow of Tianfeng Mountain!
It made sense. After the Azure Scaled Thunder Lion entered Tianfeng Mountain, it wantonly destroyed the other's territory and was extremely arrogant. It would be strange if it didn't provoke the owner of this place to drive it away.
Learning from his previous surprise, Li Mu dared not release his Divine Sense again to observe the fierce battle between the two 6th Order Yao Beasts. Instead, he continued to maintain his concealed state, seizing the opportunity to recover his depleted True Yuan.
Time passed bit by bit, and in a blink of an eye, a quarter of an hour went by.
The intense collision and explosion sounds grew more and more violent. Both sides seemed to have truly ignited their rage, and the explosion source was moving farther and farther away from him. Li Mu's condition recovered to about fifty percent, but he still didn't release his Divine Sense to investigate.
Li Mu's Divine Sense entered the nine storage spiritual pearl.
The next second, a palm-sized butterfly Puppet suddenly appeared inconspicuously on the main trunk of a scarlet paulownia wood.
Li Mu attached his Divine Sense and observed the battlefield through the butterfly Puppet's 'compound eyes'.
Sixty to seventy li away, two 6th Order Yao Beasts revealed their true forms: a 6th Order Demon Sparrow with a wingspan of three to four zhang, emitting white flames that distorted the Void Realm, was fiercely battling a two-zhang tall Sixth Order Blue-Scaled Thunder Lion in the air.
The Sixth Order Blue-Scaled Thunder Lion's speed was like lightning, and the 6th Order Demon Sparrow moved through fire, its speed equally impressive. Blazing white flames burned fiercely, and thousands of thunder Dragons raged. Both sides exchanged blows, fighting intensely.
Seeing this, Li Mu couldn't help but smile: "Fight! Fight well, don't hold back."
This time, Li Mu no longer had the idea of reaping the benefits of others' struggles. After being chased for so many days, he deeply understood that a 6th Order Yao Beast was not something he could provoke at his current stage.
Li Mu planned to wait until he advanced to Nascent Soul, refine a few Fifth Order Spiritual Artifacts, and then come back to settle scores with the Sixth Order Blue-Scaled Thunder Lion.
As for now!
Li Mu planned to see if there was an opportunity to achieve the purpose of his trip: while the Sixth Order Blue-Scaled Thunder Lion was holding back the 6th Order Demon Sparrow, he would go to the 6th Order Demon Sparrow's lair and acquire a fire-elemental Spirit Beast.
Li Mu held his breath and focused, continuing to maintain his concealed state. He multi-tasked, paying attention to the battle between the two 6th Order Yao Beasts while his Divine Sense was attached to the butterfly Puppet.
With a 'whoosh', Li Mu controlled the butterfly Puppet, rapidly flapping its wings, and flew towards the 6th Order Demon Sparrow's nest.
The butterfly Puppet frequently flapped its pair of bone wings, like cicada wings, and like a ghost, it silently flew nearly a hundred li at an extremely fast speed.
An orange-red, ancient tree emitting illusory flames appeared in Li Mu's 'eyes'.
It was precisely the Sixth Order scarlet paulownia wood that Qingyang True Lord had mentioned.
At the top of the forty to fifty zhang tall scarlet paulownia wood, there was indeed a giant bird's nest built by the 6th Order Demon Sparrow. However, the huge nest was empty, with no bird eggs or chicks.
Could it be a wasted trip, returning empty-handed?
Li Mu was unwilling to give up just like that and continued to control the butterfly Puppet, flying towards the scarlet paulownia wood.
As the butterfly Puppet rapidly approached the scarlet paulownia wood, Li Mu's heart suddenly skipped a beat. He had made an unexpected discovery.