What do you mean take care?We are here away from danger while you yourself will enter the eternal maze! It is you who should take care instead!
Hais.. that brat!
"Alright, let us leave! I dare not linger around this place for too long now!" said the princ.i.p.al as both w.a.n.g Guozhi and Ling Yu nodded.
Somehow, perhaps due to their realm, they are much more sensitive towards the intricate fluctuations of the mystical elements in their surrounding. This cave was giving off the kind of vibes that their instinct couldn"t understand. Thus, it would be better for them to leave if there was nothing else to do.
After all, if the vortex decided to act up all of a sudden and suck them in too, that would be the kind of situation where they can kiss goodbye to their life.
The princ.i.p.al then chanted a teleport spell as their teleport stones glowed brightly, after which they immediately disappeared from where they stood.
Whoosh!
...
Inside the Eternal maze...
Woonggg!
Ohh?
Duan Li raised his left sleeve over his face as the scene in front of him had suddenly turned blindingly bright right after he flew through the vortex.
He halted his flight as he floated mid-air and turned around to look at his surroundings with squinted eyes.
Holy cow!
"Whoa.. is this really the inside of the eternal maze?" said Duan Li looking stumped at what he was seeing.
This is because the inside of the Eternal maze was far beyond his expectations!
To think that an entire ecosystem was present here! From small hills, forests, rivers, to birds and gigantic long neck monsters roaming freely around! The entire area also seemed to be quite vast as it stretches far beyond before he can see a staggering line of long and tall walls that jutted up across the sky marking the end for this region.
In Duan Li"s memories, when he was at the pinnacle of the nascent soul realm before when he came here, that region he was in was completely different than this region here.
That place was extremely desolate and full of aura of death that lingers even on the ground itself. Terrible monsters and all sorts of fiendish beings littered practically everywhere as they fought one another to the death. If it was any other person that went there other than him, their little life could be considered as forfeit. But with Duan Li"s battle prowess that had already reached the pinnacle of the nascent soul realm, he naturally just threw one big slap towards them all one after another to clear the path straight to the One Hundred Thousand Graveyard lake, almost unhindered.
This is because there were still behemoths and colossal monsters which he dared not provoke. Those kinds of supreme beings in this eternal maze wasn"t something a human could beat, at least not before he ascended to the immortal ascension realm anyway.
At that point, even the nine hermit kings had eventually fallen before him, not to mention them.
However, one thing was for sure is that, compared to that chaotic place, this region here could be seen as a paradise instead!
"According to the difficulty for my level, the strongest monsters here should be at the pinnacle stage of the Qi condensation realm... " thought Duan Li.
Eventhough he knew that he could just spam his fist around like what the princ.i.p.al said before, only savage lunatics would do such a thing. Thus, he decided to sneak around silently and avoid any monsters if he could like a civilized man.
Tiptoeing his way around a few bush, Duan Li squatted down to hide behind them as he spotted a monster five meters away from him. He then took out the monster guide.
Flip!
Flipping through several pages, he finally found a drawing that has similar depictions of the monster in front of him.
"Hmm... this monster here is called the Ankylosaurus... Level 3 of the Qi condensation realm." Duan Li continued to read its description.
According to the monster guide, the Ankylosaurus is a carnivorous monster with its entire top side being heavily protected with thick, bony and oval plates embedded in its leathery skin that form an armor coating. It has a club-like tail which it uses to defend itself against predators. However, the Akylosaurus gets intimidated very easily and will run away once it senses threat.
"Interesting... It seems that the monster core is located at the end of its tail... " Duan Li contemplated for awhile as he cupped his chin.
To attack or not?
Its not that he didn"t know how beneficial a monster core is for speed cultivating. But each monster cores have their own elemental attributes to them. Furthermore, he has one of those rare body const.i.tution, attributeless.
Back then when he tried to cultivate using these monster cores, his body had rejected all the five great elemental attributes.
These five great elemental attributes are wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and water. Each elements generates interaction to the next one in a cyclical manner. In addition, each element could overcome one another. Wood would overcomes Earth and Earth could overcomes Water. Water would overcomes Fire and Fire could overcomes Metal. Finally, Metal overcomes Wood.
When he discovered that his body would not accept spiritual Qi from any monster cores, he had given up altogether and just practiced the breathing method normally.
However, when he pondered upon it deeply, ever since the moment he encountered that mysterious pearl, his body had undergone many unexpected changes including some bizarre abilities that was added to him.
"Maybe I can cultivate using monster cores now?"
He decided to just find out the hard way. If he could cultivate using the monster core, good. Otherwise, its still fine too as he would not lose anything. Duan Li pointed his index finger forward from inside the bush.
Pew!
BAM!
The tail got cut off from the unsuspecting Ankylosaurus after Duan Li uses his Qi beam, the inferior version of the One Finger Starlight Slash skill.
ROAARR!
The Ankylosaurus got startled and groaned in pain due to the sudden attack that tore off its tail. Realizing its weapon to defend itself was no longer there, it quickly ran away.
Duan Li then walked forward to pluck out the monster core from the tail.
"Hmm... so this monster core has an Earth elemental attribute. Let"s see if I can cultivate it... " he said as he sat down cross-legged to cultivate the monster core.
Pshiingg!
EH?
Duan Li was truly startled by now. He was just trying to see if he could cultivate the spiritual Qi inside the monster core. Yet, to think that the monster core would get absorbed into his body instead?
Did my stomach grew a mouth somewhere without me realizing?
Then suddenly, he could feel something was forming within his body. Specifically, inside his dantian! He immediately closed his eye to see just what was going on as he panicked.
Shiiinggg!
The All-Seeing eye activated as he drove his consciousness straight away into his dantian on the lower region.
"T-that is..!"
Inside his dantian, the surrounding area was just pitch black with a pool of spiritual Qi spiralling around in it. He actually had 9 of these Qi pools, but because he suppressed himself all the way to the level one of the Qi condensation realm, only one Qi pool was forming right now.
However the Qi pool wasn"t the one that caught his attention, it was instead a singular object that was floating above it!
The monster core!
"H-how does it gets here?" exclaimed Duan Li.
After circling around the floating monster core several times inside his dantian and checking that nothing was wrong with it nor does it causes trouble, Duan Li opened his eyes as he exhaled out in relief.
"Well... Since its not causing me trouble at the moment, I guess its fine..."
At first, he was afraid that his body would undergo some bizarre transformation. If it turns out that he had grown out a tail of the Ankylosaurus on his bottom, that would be a tragedy indeed.
But, just what is the purpose of the monster core being absorbed into my dantian? He thought.
Unable to satiate his curiousity, he went around the forest until he encountered another Ankylosaurus again.
Before the Ankylosaurus could even react to seeing him, a fist was already coming straight to its face.
BAM!
Thud!
The Ankylosaurus was knocked unconscious by Duan Li"s fist. He then pointed out with his index finger to cut off the Ankylosaurus tail.
Pew!
BAM!
Forking out the monster core, he immediately sat down cross-legged again to cultivate it. With no surprises, the monster core was absorbed yet again.
Pshiingg!
Duan Li then drove his consciousness inside his dantian and found out two identical monster cores of the Earth elemental attributes floating together side by side as they revolved around one another.
But just as he was about to contemplate the meaning of this phenomena, the two monster cores clashed with one another as a bright light followed. And then, a new monster core was formed.
The same monster core with the same Earth elemental attributes, just bigger. In fact, two times bigger!
Holy moly!
Is it what I think it is?
Duan Li opened his eyes in a daze, before a thought struck at him.
"That must be it!" he exclaimed happily.
Duan Li then immediately bolted to the sky as he scanned the area for more Ankylosaurus.
As of this moment, all the Ankylosaurus that was roaming around the region stood still as their instinct sensed an impending threat looming over them.
...