Chapter 91: Devouring

While Pei Zhenxiu was preoccupied with the unicorns, two Silver-backed Iron-armored Bears approached her.

She did not panic. Her body floated up, avoiding a cone of ice cast by one Silver-backed Iron-armored Bear. In mid-air, she transformed her flying sword into a vast sword shadow, sending it hurtling towards the bear.

Though it appeared cumbersome, the Silver-backed Iron-armored Bear was deceptively fast.

The colossal sword shadow was easily repelled by the bear’s magical silver shield. The shield crisscrossed with cracks from the blow, but this did nothing to impede the bear’s advance.

“Unbelievably troublesome!” Pei Zhenxiu couldn’t help but frown.

The innate defensive abilities of the Silver-backed Iron-armored Bears were even swifter than human cast spells. Moreover, if a single strike failed to shatter its silver shield, the barrier would rapidly repair itself within moments.

It was unacceptable to let a Silver-backed Iron-armored Bear get close; their true terror was their devastating close-quarters assault.

At that moment, the other Silver-backed Iron-armored Bear attempted to flank her, aiming to prevent her from retreating back into the formation.

With a light flick of her fingers, two talismans transformed into golden beams, hurtling towards the two Silver-backed Iron-armored Bears.

The Silver-backed Iron-armored Bears sensed the potency within the golden light and raised their silver shields as barriers.

As the golden light collided with the silver shields, it was halted in its tracks. To the naked eye, the golden light resolved into a slender golden needle.

This was a second-order spell, its power a chasm apart from the Golden Edge Technique used by Qi Refining cultivators to emit similar golden needles. While the latter could only dispatch spirit insects, this advanced gold-themed spell was a specialized tool of Pei Zhenxiu’s cultivation method. With formidable armor-piercing capabilities, it was precisely designed for combating foes with exceptional defenses.

Although the silver shield before the Silver-backed Iron-armored Bears showed little visible damage, the creatures became even more cautious. Within the shield, the golden needle was relentlessly drilling forward. A momentary lapse could spell disaster—the needle would breach the barrier and strike their true forms.

They ceased their charge instead, pouring additional energy into fortifying their silver shields.

Pei Zhenxiu, too, understood the limitations of her two second-order talismans. Alone, they couldn’t slay the Silver-backed Iron-armored Bears; her goal was merely to prevent them from drawing near.

She recalled the flying sword and, in a swift motion, expelled a concentrated burst of gold-themed spiritual energy from her mouth. Within this stream of power, cryptic runes flickered faintly visible.

After this exertion, a trace of exhaustion visibly washed over her features.

The flying sword, now vastly empowered, swooped down once again towards the nearest Silver-backed Iron-armored Bear.

At this moment, both bears had exhausted their second-tier talisman shields against the golden spears. Pei Zhenxiu’s flying sword arrived just in time.

As the sword struck, a hole appeared in the shimmering silver shield, swiftly beginning to mend itself.

With a sharp crack, the flying sword pierced through the hole. Following the existing opening, the silver shield shattered completely.

Unstoppable, the flying sword continued its trajectory towards the rear bear.

Sensing imminent danger, the bear roared, its fur shifting from black to a brilliant silver, transforming it into a luminescent ursine sentinel.

The flying sword gracefully evaded the bear’s clawed strike, slicing into its left shoulder with precision.

The silver fur offered no resistance as the sword cleaved through the bear’s defenses, sinking deep into the flesh and bone.

Having severed the shoulder bone, the flying sword finally lost its sharp edge.

Before the wounded bear could grasp the flying sword, it transformed into a streak of light, soaring back to its master.

Pei Zhenxiu had retreated behind the safety of the great formation. By rescuing her comrade and gravely wounding two second-tier monsters, she had demonstrated a terrifying force in battle.

The cultivators within the city walls erupted in cheers, their morale soaring. This was precisely the effect she had hoped to achieve.

“It’s been a while since we’ve seen Fellow Pei in action,” Yu An remarked to Pei Zhenxiu as she returned to his side. “Your strength has significantly improved!”

“I can’t breakthrough in swordsmanship, so I have to rely on secret techniques. It’s not the true path of a cultivator!” Pei Zhenxiu shook her head.

“You set your standards too high!” Yu An said.

Indeed, to single-handedly face off against three same-rank monsters and grievously wound two of them—what more could one possibly ask for in terms of combat prowess?

What Yu An didn’t know was that Pei Zhenxiu was thinking about Li Zhen’s ‘Sword Force Thunderclap’.

Pei Zhenxiu possessed an exceptional golden spiritual root talent, and she had wanted to pursue the path of sword cultivation. Unfortunately, she couldn’t overcome the final hurdle: comprehending ‘Sword Force Thunderclap’.

If she were a true sword cultivator, she could have slain the Silver-backed Iron-armored Bear outright with a full-powered sword strike, rather than merely wounding it.

This was also why she had gifted Li Zhen the first-order high-grade Pine Sword, cherishing his innate swordsmanship talent.

Outside the city walls, the injured Silver-backed Iron-armored Bear didn’t dare linger. As it retreated, it tried to harness energy to seal the wound on its shoulder. If such creature could simply seal its wound so easily without dealing with the lingering spiritual force, that solution would have been perfect.

Yet this wound was not so easily sealed, for within it remained a mouthful of meticulously refined golden spiritual energy from Pei Zhenxiu.

Without expelling the residual golden spiritual energy, the wound would not heal.

The Silver-backed Iron-armored Bear employed the most direct method, pressing down on the wound with its other claw.

The monsters that had triggered this onslaught were of low caliber, allowing this second-rank beast to remain lucid. Despite its diminished strength from injury, it chose to retreat.

Finally, the lone Silver-backed Iron-armored Bear that had escaped unscathed cast a reluctant glance at the city wall before following the others in their withdrawal.

As for the first-rank beasts they had brought, they remained in a frenzy, attacking until their dying breath.

Li Zhen maintained his Heavenly Thunder Magic. Realizing the second-rank threat had vanished, he redirected his focus back to the Dragon Heart Space.

Having made up his mind, he issued a consumption command to the space.

The leg of the Unicorn Wind Wolf within the Dragon Heart Space began emitting light, which the space absorbed continuously.

Li Zhen felt a surge of warmth throughout his body, as if he had ingested some profoundly nourishing substance. Every cell seemed to leap and celebrate.

He hurriedly opened his identity bracelet and checked his current attributes.

Li Zhen looked at the data displayed on his retinal implants with scarcely concealed disbelief. He hadn’t expected that consuming just one leg of a second-order monster, the Unicorn Wind Wolf, would have such a profound impact.

Firstly, his wind elemental spiritual roots now had a value of 31, which was on par with his lightning elemental roots as xenogenic spiritual roots. Now, wind became the strongest amongst all his elemental spiritual roots. He suspected that if the Dragon Heart Space were to consume the entire carcass of a Unicorn Wind Wolf, his wind elemental roots might leap directly to 40, reaching the maximum limit for mid-grade spiritual roots.

Secondly, there was a significant surge in his body’s tempering. This was a new feature he had discovered about the Dragon Heart Space.

By consuming the physical body of powerful creatures, one could enhance their own strength. However, it was puzzling why it took this specific instance for him to discover this functionality. It wasn’t like he hadn’t tried before, attempting to devour entire first-order monsters without any success; otherwise, he would have figured it out sooner.

His body enhancement was now complete, granting him terrifying power with a single wave of his hand. He had achieved the peak of body tempering for the Qi Refining stage, making him invincible against enemies without access to powerful magical artifacts.

In particular, tournament matches ensured absolute fairness by prohibiting the use of magic artifacts beyond the Qi Refining stage. In effect, the only talismans allowed during the battles were those drawn by hand on the spot by the participating cultivators before the match.

These rules allowed all contestants to fairly showcase their prowess. Without them, cultivators from influential clans would have held a truly unfair advantage.

Li Zhen reached a conclusion: to increase his physical strength using the Dragon Core Space, he needed to consume monster corpses significantly higher than his current rank.

He let out a bitter laugh; even obtaining a single leg from a second-rank monster was pure luck, stolen amidst the chaos of battle.

As a small cultivator at only the fourth level of Qi Refining, even if he had resources to trade, he would have no way of accessing a second-rank spirit creature.

Sighing heavily, Li Zhen took the chance while inside the Array’s heart to familiarize himself with his newly enhanced physical abilities. Any accidental misuse of his newfound power in the outside world would surely lead to disastrous consequences.