It was a rare scene of primeval slaughter. The law of the jungle was merciless. Within the territory of the Eight-Armed Evil Dragon, the number of beasts was small, and no overlords like beast kings prowled nearby; otherwise, the carnage would have been even more savage and cruel.
Blood soaked the ground. The beast corpses littering the area were shocking to behold. They seemed to have been fighting over an ancient cave, for most of the dead were piled before its entrance. It appeared that the cave had long been sealed. The boulder blocking it had gradually cracked over the years. Today, the ancient cave saw daylight once more, luring the beasts into mutual slaughter.
The final victor was a divine wolf. Its blue fur shimmered with an ethereal radiance, flowing with a strange energy, as if carved from a piece of blue divine stone. It was over three meters long and about one meter six or seven tall—small compared to the other beasts—yet it exuded a soul-shaking ferocity and a fierce, bloody aura. The most wondrous feature was its pair of blue wings, which stretched over five or six meters, glowing even brighter than the rest of its body. Moreover, this wolf had three eyes. The vertical third eye on its forehead gleamed like a blue gem, but with a sinister light that immediately gave one a sense of extreme danger.
Surviving such a brutal battle among many fierce beasts was proof of the divine wolf's viciousness and terror.
It had already pushed aside the rock blocking the cave and was about to enter, but suddenly seemed to sense something. It turned its gaze toward Xiao Chen's hiding place. Its cruel eyes flashed with bloodlight, and the blue light in its forehead vertical eye leaped—a surge of murderous aura spread out.
Danger enveloped Xiao Chen. But when the wolf turned, he saw a terrible wound on the left side of its neck. Apparently, during the fight, it had been severely injured. A huge bloody gash ran from its neck down to its chest and abdomen. One blue wing hung low, nearly torn off. White bone was exposed on its chest and stomach, and strange blue blood pooled on the ground.
"Aoooow..."
The strange wolf raised its head and howled, then turned into a streak of blue light charging at Xiao Chen, carrying a violent bloody smell. But as it leaped and landed, its body trembled and it nearly collapsed on the forest floor.
Xiao Chen relaxed. The divine wolf was merely a spent force. When the wolf opened its huge maw, revealing dagger-like fangs, and pounced on him, Xiao Chen left a residual image in place, dodged, and swept his right leg out, striking the exposed white bone of the wolf.
The divine wolf was truly fierce—its body merely shook, not stepping back, let alone falling. Xiao Chen's leg, strong enough to split rock or shatter stone, could not break the exposed wolf bone. How hard were its bones?
"Ow...aoooow!"
The three-eyed wolf gave a shrill howl. The extreme pain fully awakened its ferocity. Every blue hair on its body stood on end, and a deep blue light burst forth, flickering eerily. It lunged again at Xiao Chen, now incredibly fast, moving like a flash of blue light. But mid-leap, it seemed to lose all power and suddenly dropped.
Truly a spent force. After a final flash of life, before it could display its might, it completely gave out. A shattered blue heart fell from its mouth.
Xiao Chen was secretly alarmed. If the divine wolf had not been gravely wounded, it would not have been something he could handle.
Looking at the blood-drenched forest, the beast corpses, and the drifting bloody mist, Xiao Chen walked toward the ancient cave entrance. He wanted to see what secret had made so many beasts fight over it.
Inside, the cave was vast and spacious. If the entrance were fully opened, even a massive beast like the Eight-Armed Evil Dragon could crawl in. Suddenly, Xiao Chen's expression froze. In the faint light at the entrance, he saw something—indeed, a huge figure seemed to be crouching deep in the cave.
Looking closely, he saw a white, gleaming mass—a giant skeleton.
Relieved it was not alive, Xiao Chen moved forward. The huge skeleton was like a mountain of bones. It must have been the remains of a fierce dragon, for no other beast could be so large. The complete skeleton was over forty meters long, resembling the stegosaurus described in ancient texts—a ferocious type among dragons.
A faint light flickered deep in the cave. As Xiao Chen approached, he found it was a dragon crystal—as large as a human head. Even the dark cave could not dim its radiance. Xiao Chen was astonished; compared to ordinary crystals he had seen, this one was enormous.
The dragon crystal was translucent, glowing with divine light. The deeper he went, the brighter it became. It shone like rainbow-hued divine clouds. Without doubt, this was the finest of treasures.
The many beasts must have been fighting over this dragon crystal. This was the tomb of a primeval dragon.
Xiao Chen quickly left the dragon cave, wanting to leave as fast as possible. Walking on the blood-soaked ground, he picked up a dozen or so ordinary beast crystals from the torn corpses, then darted away.
Ordinary beasts did not have crystals inside them—only rare, powerful beasts did. From the dozens of corpses, there should have been dozens of crystals, but Xiao Chen had no time to collect them. The dragon crystal that many beasts coveted might cause another slaughter if other forest monsters sensed it.
Wrapping the glowing dragon crystal in a cloth, Xiao Chen hurried back to the stone cliff where he was temporarily staying.
About half an hour later, roars came again from that area. Xiao Chen saw several flying beasts heading toward the blood-soaked forest.
Among them was a divine wolf—its body about five meters long, close to three meters tall. Blue light shimmered all over. Its blue wings stretched twelve or thirteen meters, stirring up gusts of wind. On the center of its forehead was another blue vertical eye, even more cold and sinister.
This one was twice the size of the wolf that had attacked Xiao Chen! Terrifying howls filled the sky, rolling like thunder. It was probably the leader of some forest region.
The dead beasts became food for later arrivals. It was not until dark that the area gradually quietened, but many white bones remained.
When all was silent, Xiao Chen sealed himself inside a stone cave with a large boulder. Holding the huge, translucent dragon crystal in both hands, he began to circulate his mysterious art, absorbing the pure dragon essence with the Heaven-Bestowed Qi-Refining Diagram.
If anyone had seen this, they would have been astonished. The huge crystal needed both hands to hold. Radiant light of a thousand colors filled the cave, dazzling.
The rainbow light seemed alive, continuously surging into Xiao Chen's body, while the massive crystal slowly shrank. It was an exciting harvest. Pure and vast dragon essence flowed ceaselessly into him.
Brilliant light swirled in the cave like water waves, all converging on Xiao Chen. After one night, the crystal had shrunk by more than half, and Xiao Chen was enveloped in a hazy glow.
By noon, the dragon crystal had shrunk to the size of a fist, emitting thousands of auspicious rays, illuminating the cave brightly. After another hour, it became as small as a pigeon's egg, a translucent bead.
Only then did Xiao Chen stop and open his eyes.
As expected, the vast dragon essence had all gathered into the Shangqiu acupoint of his other foot. Only when the dragon crystal was nearly depleted did the acupoint become saturated, giving birth to a tiny, radiant point.
The light point perfectly fused with the acupoint—acupoint and light point were one, as if completely deified. Compared to other acupoints, it was like a bright lamp in the dark night.
A rare dragon egg had deified Xiao Chen's left foot's Shangqiu point; a rare dragon crystal deified his right foot's Shangqiu point. He deeply felt the profound mystery of his Qi-Refining Diagram. Such vast power had all been absorbed into just two acupoint light points.
The human body has three hundred and sixty-five main acupoints. If every main acupoint could condense a light point, if all three hundred and sixty-five acupoints were completely deified, what would happen? Xiao Chen eagerly looked forward to that day.
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