Chapter 1022: Attaining the Core

To Jiang Yi, breaking apart the Ice Beast King’s belly was a piece of cake. Years ago, he was able to even destroy the protective layer around the top-grade Heaven Fate Ship with just one round of Astral Wind Blades. Defeating this Ice Beast King was nothing to him.

Flames continued to surround the Ice Beast King’s body. Yet, Jiang Yi did not even bother about it. The Fire Spirit Pearl was the strongest fire-resistant treasure around. Even the Purgatory Ruin’s lava lake was not able to destroy the pearl, much less these ordinary flames.

After he rushed into the Ice Beast King’s belly, he closed his eyes and charged forward. Using his divine senses, he located a ball of meat as big as an immortality peach near the beast’s heart. He could clearly feel strong and pure energy coming from the ball of meat. That was the Ice Beast King’s core.

“Wu wu~”

The Ice Beast King’s aura slowly faded away. In its final moments, it realized that someone was inside its body and was heading toward its internal core. Thus, it let out an indignant cry. However, Jiang Yi was already using his Astral Wind Blades to crush the beast’s soul into pieces. He was running out of time. Jiang Yi could not afford to be careless. If the Ice Beast King caused its own core to explode, its entire body would definitely be blown to pieces.

Swish!

At top speed, Jiang Yi grabbed the beast’s inner core and put it inside his Ancient Divine Essence Ring. Then, he activated his divine senses to scan the outside.

“Your reaction is so quick!”

Just one scan caused his expression to fall. More than twenty warriors of the Fire Chi Race were headed toward him. They were about a mile away from him now, and each were summoning balls of flames that filled the sky. A couple of frightening dao patterns was headed straight toward him as well.

“Run—”

His expression hardened as he summoned his own astral winds to form a divine shield. Aiming downward, his body shot through an underground tunnel. Thankfully, there were many more passages nearby. These had probably been dug up by the Heaven Devil Race in the past. This was good—there was no need for him to dig tunnels for himself now.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Since Jiang Yi had already taken the beast’s core, those of the Fire Chi Race no longer had any qualms about going after him. They were now activating their most ferocious dao patterns. The Ice Beast King was dead by now, and its defense was at its weakest. Immediately, it exploded into four or five huge pieces. The flesh seemed to cover the sky momentarily. Then, more dao patterns appeared. The Fire Snakes’ attacks caused the land where the Ice Beast King lay to explode. Immediately, inches of soil from the ground filled the air, forming a pit about three inches deep. The Ice Beast’s corpse was now reduced to smithereens.

“He’s not dead? How can it be?”

After the explosion, countless divine senses scanned the area. Yet, none of them detected Jiang Yi’s corpse. Instead, when they looked underground, they found a black figure heading north.

“Is he from the Tiger Subdue Sect?”

Someone sensed the plum flower mole on Jiang Yi’s temple. Jiang Yi was heading north where Cao Duantian and the others were hiding. As more and more people sensed this, they became convinced that Jiang Yi was from the Tiger Subdue Sect.

“These people from Tiger Subdue Sect are bullies!”

One of the people from the Fire Chi Race shouted. If those from the Tiger Subdue Sect could snatch their things in broad daylight, perhaps they would not have said anything. Instead, they spent half a day fighting. Just when they seemed to be winning, this person from the Tiger Subdue Sect dropped a peach out of nowhere. Anyone would be mad at this outcome.

“Ancient One, what should we do?”

The Fire Chi Race’s Elder groaned deeply. The rest of them turned to look at the wrinkled elder whose eyes were filled with hatred. Waving his hand, the elder said, “Ten of you, go and chase after him. The rest of you will come with me to talk this out with Cao Duantian. Their Tiger Subdue Sect might be big and strong, but our Young Clan Head died by this Ice Beast King. More than three hundred people have died in this battle as well. They must not be doing that much better! That Curmudgeon Cao has not shown up until now. He must either be at Tiger Subdue Mountain or in isolation. Otherwise, the Ice Beast King would have been killed much earlier. There’s no reason to be afraid!”

“Alright!”

Ten of the four- or five-star formidable martial artists chased after Jiang Yi and formed ten beams of light along the path. They were not of the Heaven Devil Race—they did not know how to dig tunnels. Thus, the entire sect would have had to squeeze through the passageways if they went through the underground passages. It would be much more efficient for them to surround Cao Duantian. Once they did that, there would be nowhere left for the Tiger Subdue Sect’s disciple to run.

“Go!”

The other thousand-plus martial artists of the Fire Chi Race no longer were concerned about the three races’ battle with the Mantis Blade Sect not far away. Instead, all of them headed north, ready to surround Cao Duantian. Given that Cao Duantian was there and given that the man who stole the Ice Beast’s core was a disciple of the Tiger Subdue Sect, the elders of the Fire Chi Race were certain that Cao Duantian was responsible for this entire thing. Otherwise, how would a mere disciple of the Tiger Subdue Sect dare to do such a thing?

“Where are they?”

Then ten formidable martial artists of the Fire Chi Race went underground and activated their divine senses, but no matter how far they tried to look, Jiang Yi was nowhere to be found. They had no choice but to rush toward the north angrily. They decided to try their luck and see if they would be able to catch up to him.

In reality!

Cao Duantian was extremely confused. He had his divine senses locked in on the situation over there. After all, the Ice Beast King belonged to him originally. He saw Jiang Yi snatch the beast’s core away. Immediately, he turned to the elder behind him, but he found that none of them had instructed him to go and snatch the beast’s core.

“Could he have been sent by the ancestors?”

A thought flashed across Cao Duantian’s mind. He became excited immediately. The more he thought about it, the more unlikely it seemed. A disciple from the Tiger Subdue Sect would not dare to do something like that without having received orders. That man looked like a stranger, but his plum flower mole was unmistakable. Everyone in the Stellarsky Domain knew that the mole was a mark of disciples in Tiger Subdue Sect. There was only one explanation—that man was a spy sent by Cao Peiwen.

“The ancestors favor me indeed.”

Cao Duantian looked unbelievably thankful. The Ice Beast King’s core was the key to his breakthrough to become a Demigod. In order to break through to Demigod, one not only needed to realize dao patterns and train their essence force; but one also needed to solidify their spirit. This Ice Beast King’s core would aid significantly in the solidification of one’s spirit.

Cao Duantian was not even thirty years old, and yet he already had the powers of a Heaven Monarch in the peak stage. He already realized a couple three-star dao patterns. In the Snow Region, he had the highest chance of becoming a Demigod. He was extremely confident in himself. This was a goal that he would definitely be able to achieve in this lifetime.

“Good! Fourteenth Uncle, bring your people to go and receive that disciple. Be careful to bring back that core to the Tiger Subdue Mountain without any damage.”

He rubbed his hands together eagerly. In his heart, he knew that the core was more or less his given that Cao Peiwen had acted. His confidence had just been given a large boost.

His plan to attack Jiang Yi had failed this time. However, one Ice Beast had caused the various races to go into battle and suffer huge losses. What’s more, he got to keep the Ice Beast’s core in the end. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise.

Swish! Swish!

They heard the sound of something breaking through the silence in the south. The elder beside Cao Duantian suddenly looked very serious. “Young Clan Head, the people from the Fire Chi Race are coming this way now. Things don’t look good.”

“Stop them. Buy us some time. Never admit that it was one of ours who stole the core! Hmph, how do these people of the Fire Chi Race dare to come over and wage war against us of the Tiger Subdue Sect?”

Cao Duantian waved his hand aggressively. The hundreds of people behind him charged past him and spread out like a fan. One of the elders rushed forward and prepared himself to buy them more time. Cao Duantian, however, remained behind. He was unwilling to show his face. It was as if he believed that the people of the Fire Chi Race would really not dare to make any moves.

The Fire Chi Race really did not have the guts to start the fight. When both sides met, the tension ran high. The representatives of both sides sounded angered. After listening for a while, however, Cao Duantian decided to tune out. Instead, he focused his energy on the ‘one of their own’ who stole the core. He kept sending people to go out and seek information on his whereabouts.

“The Mantis Blade Sect has withdrawn from the battle. They don’t want to be wiped out so they have surrendered.”

At this time, a loud shout came from the south-west region. Three people broke through the silence—they were the three Demigods, Qiu Shan and the others. The three generals of the three races also called out excitedly at the same time. The Mantis Blade Sect had been defeated.

“Uh…”

Cao Duantian wondered if he had been mistaken. On further thought, he realized that this made sense. The three Demigods had combined forces. The Mantis Blade Sect did not even have the Shield of the Earth, the eight-star dao pattern. How could they not be defeated?

At this exact moment, one of the elders of Fire Chi Race called out, “Everyone, listen: Fight! Take down Cao Duantian and wait for the elder to fall!”

The three Demigods defeating the Mantis Blade Sect gave the Fire Chi Race warriors renewed confidence. They took action immediately.