Chapter 126: Bull Demon Battle Body, Devouring Energy

Chapter 126: Bull Demon Battle Body, Devouring Energy

In the depths of the sea, the Sword Armored Fiery Beast, having completed its transformation, lifted its head slightly. Its eyes were icy cold as it gazed up toward the entrance of the rift, which had quieted down at some point.

The depths of the kilometer-deep ocean were incredibly dark, except for the faint glow emitted by the churning magma. Apart from the gurgling sound of bubbles mixed with gasses, it was completely silent. Follow the latest novels at novelhall.com

This kind of quiet and desolate environment would drive normal people insane after a short while, and it was fraught with danger at every turn.

I wonder if that Single-horned Orca managed to leave safely, or if it was killed by the creatures lurking in the darkness.

Thinking back to the intense battle fluctuations that had come from above, the Fiery Beast shook its head and chose not to leave. Instead, it rolled through the water down to the golden magma several hundred meters away, devouring the scorching substances contained in the water.

After its transformation, the Fiery Beast had gained the ability to consume heat energy. Now that it had completed its bloodline evolution, it was going to need a large amount of such.

Chen Chu also wanted to see if the Fiery Beast could transform the scorching substances it consumed into evolution points. If those substances could substitute for biological energy, and if the growth rate was the same as hunting mutated beasts, it could simply sleep in a magma sea and grow infinitely.

Soon, the underwater rift fell into silence...

At five in the afternoon, Chen Chu walked out of Building C, ready to go home.

The school was relatively quiet at the moment, with a winter chill blowing through. Chen Chu couldn't help but take a deep breath, instantly feeling refreshed and invigorated from head to toe.

Today’s harvest had kept him in a good mood all afternoon; there was even a small smile gracing his face still.

However, at that moment, a burly figure over two meters tall appeared in front of him, standing there silently and watching him.

Seeing Li Hao clearly waiting for him, Chen Chu suddenly remembered the topic of their previous discussion. "I almost forgot about our agreement. Shall we apply for a sparring venue now?"

Unlike the casual sparring of those in the First Heavenly Realm, battles between cultivators of the Third Realm packed much more destructive power. Therefore, for their sparring session, they had to either find an empty space outside the city or apply for a specialized venue within the school. Anywhere else, and they would be liable for any potential damages.

It was actually perfect timing. Recently, his Strength attribute had broken through five hundred, and his basic arm strength had reached ten thousand kilograms, a full ten tons.

With such monstrous basic strength, coupled with the Dragon Elephant Art, Chen Chu could unleash terrifying destructive power with every move he made.

Even in the face of this genius with innate divine power and perfect compatibility with the primary strength arts, Chen Chu didn’t feel any trepidation. He genuinely wanted to see who was truly stronger.

In contrast to Chen Chu's excitement, however, Li Hao spoke solemnly. "I didn't come today to spar with you. Instead, I want to postpone our battle."

"Postpone? Why?" Chen Chu froze slightly.

Li Hao admitted, "Because I'm not confident in defeating you right now, so I'm planning to wait until we both break through to the Fourth Heavenly Realm before giving it my all in our battle."

Back in Kyria, Chen Chu had publicly slain a Blood Emissary of the Fourth Heavenly Realm, and most students believed that that Emissary had been in the middle stage of the Fourth Realm.

Out of curiosity, however, Li Hao had examined the Emissary’s body, only to realize that something was amiss.

As a genius with innate divine power, he was very sensitive to signs of physical strength, and had been able to determine that the Emissary’s physical tempering had exceeded even the limits of the Fourth Heavenly Realm.

While the reasons Chen Chu had provided later for his victory were reasonable, Li Hao had come to know him somewhat, and knew that it hadn’t been that simple.

Clearly, during the period of silence Chen Chu had exhibited after they had slayed the Golden-Backed Rampage Ape, he had become even stronger, so strong that Li Hao didn't feel confident he could currently match it. More than anything else, he wanted a battle where both sides were evenly matched and could fight without reservation, but right now, that didn’t seem likely.

Chen Chu narrowed his eyes. He wasn’t sure if he would be able to defeat Li Hao right now, but he was confident he could do it after breaking through to the Fourth Heavenly Realm. It seems this guy is preparing some big move.

Ultimately, however, he didn’t really care. Even if Li Hao's combat power would increase explosively after breaking through to the Fourth Heavenly Realm, Chen Chu certainly wasn’t going to stay in the same place, either.

"Okay, then let's have our battle after reaching the Fourth Heavenly Realm." Chen Chu nodded.

Li Hao said, "I won't hide it from you either. After absorbing that Golden-Backed Rampage Ape’s king-level essence, I'm confident that I’ll be able to form the Bull Demon Battle Body when I reach the Fourth Heavenly Realm."

Chen Chu looked Chen Hu up and down and started to praise him. "Impressive, I didn't expect you to have a talent for fishing."

Albeit, what he was praising wasn't exactly Chen Hu's fishing ability. It was more his discipline, diligently attending school during the day, and then going fishing at night to earn some extra money for the family.

"But there's only one fishing rod. What am I going to do?"

Chen Hu grinned, saying, "Didn't I just say I made some money a few days ago? So today, I bought another rod for you, Bro. Let's go together."

"...Okay." Chen Chu nodded. He wasn’t quite interested in fishing; simply slaying a level 2 mutated beast during his ventures outside could easily fetch him a starting price of one hundred thousand yuan. On the other hand, though, he didn’t want to dampen Chen Hu’s excitement at showing off his recent achievements in front of his older brother.

As dusk settled and darkness enveloped the sky, Chen Chu arrived at the riverbank with Chen Hu, who was carrying fishing rods and a bucket. Considering what Chen Hu had said earlier, it was no surprise to see both sides of the river crowded with people indulging in night fishing, most of them middle-aged.

"Bro, there aren't many people over there. Let's set up our spot there first. I got some live bait specifically for this, and I'll watch this rod while you watch the other one..." After a month of fishing, Chen Hu displayed a very professional demeanor.

Unfortunately, whether it was due to the scarcity of big fish in this river or the abundance of people, they had only managed to catch a few ten-catty grass carp before they had to call it quits at midnight. This left Chen Hu, who had wanted to show off his skills, feeling quite disappointed.

*

Time passed quickly, and over the next two days, Chen Chu continued to go to school to eat while keeping an eye on the Fiery Beast's consumption of the scorching substances.

"Morning, Chen Chu."

"Brother Chu, I heard you've already broken through to the Third Heavenly Realm.”

“Mhmm, just lucky.”

"That's amazing. We're only at the Second Heavenly Realm."

"Li Zilong, you're doing well. You've already broken through to the Second Heavenly Realm. I'm still hovering at the peak of the First. I’m not sure when I'll be able to condense my true power."

On the third day, as Chen Chu walked into the school, he bumped into many familiar faces from his class, along with some ordinary classmates from neighboring classes whom he had crossed paths with a few times.

This time, however, everyone seemed a bit more friendly when they greeted him.

Chen Chu responded politely to each of these classmates, with absolutely none of the arrogance one would likely expect from someone whose strength far surpassed theirs.

Soon, Chen Chu found himself amid the crowd, arriving outside the first-floor lobby of Building C.

"Chen Chu, over here." Luo Fei waved to him from the steps in the distance.

Beside her stood Lin Xue and Lin Yu, while not far away were Xia Youhui, Bai Mu, Liu Feng, and Li Meng, who had arrived early and were whispering to each other.

Yi Rui was also nearby, chatting with Hong Tianyi, who was ranked third.

Among those gathered around Lin Xue were classmates with whom she had a good relationship, such as Lu Haitao, Qi Lei, and Li Wenwen. However, they seemed a bit restrained.

Chen Chu also saw many familiar faces, all of whom had participated in the trial. These people had formed small groups and were chatting among themselves.

It was obvious that they had left their classmates far behind. Upon returning from the trial, almost half of the participating students had broken through to the Third Heavenly Realm. The rest who hadn't done so were either in the late stage or at the peak of the Second Realm, ready to advance to the Third at any moment. Thanks to the battles and bloodshed they had experienced, they exuded a calm demeanor, with sharp gazes.

Compared to them, those who had remained at school or hadn't yet broken through to the Second Heavenly Realm seemed a bit immature, both in mentality and strength.

Although two months had passed, almost all of the one hundred genius students who had completed Foundation Building in a week had broken through to the Second Heavenly Realm, while a portion of the students who hadn’t been so quick, but had still built solid foundations, had gradually caught up.

With Chen Chu and others included, there were currently only around 160 freshmen at Nantian who had reached the Second Heavenly Realm or higher. The rest of the students were still struggling at the First Realm, and only a few dozen more had completed Foundation Building, bringing the total to approximately 900.

This result, however, had only been possible thanks to Lin Xiong's passionate speech at the beginning of the ranked competition, which had motivated some initially skeptical freshmen to persist and eventually succeed in their Foundation Building after three to four months of effort.