Chapter 182 - 181: Golden Immortal Beast
The air in the canyon remained thick with the residual crackle of the Heavenly Thunder Break. Faint arcs of purple lightning still danced across the jagged rocks, casting eerie, flickering shadows over the devastation left behind by the battle.
Chu Ying and Chu Yan lay completely unconscious, but a few dozen yards away, the nightmare was far from over for Jin Rou.
The Golden Diting cultivator writhed violently on the ground, his screams reduced to wet, agonizing gurgles. Thousands of blood-red insects remained burrowed deep within his flesh, their serrated mandibles locked onto his spiritual pathways as they ravenously drained the last flickering remnants of his Middle Nascent Soul cultivation. His body trembled uncontrollably as his spiritual energy continued to fade. If he were left in this state for another sixty seconds, his Spiritual Sea would collapse completely, leaving behind nothing more than a dried, lifeless husk.
Lin Yuan walked over to the convulsing cultivator, his robes gliding silently over the ruined earth. He stopped beside Jin Rou and looked down at the swarm of demonic insects still burrowed deep within his body. To an ordinary cultivator, removing them would require the careful application of fire or ice, and even then, the violent process could easily kill the host from the shock.
Lin Yuan, however, had no intention of using such crude methods. He simply raised his right hand, his palm facing the writhing mass of beetles, and calmly activated the divine ability, [Devour Heaven, Swallow Earth].
It was an extremely overbearing devouring art. The space between Lin Yuan’s palm and Jin Rou’s body violently warped as a localized, pitch-black vortex materialized in the air. It radiated a terrifying gravitational force that did not affect the surrounding stones, the air, or even Jin Rou’s flesh. Instead, it precisely targeted the demonic Qi within the swarm.
The corpse beetles instantly shrieked. They desperately tried to dig deeper into Jin Rou’s flesh, but the devouring force was simply too powerful. One by one, then hundreds at a time, the blood-red beetles were forcibly ripped from the Golden Diting cultivator’s body. They were drawn upward, spiraling helplessly into the black vortex hovering above Lin Yuan’s palm, where they were instantly crushed, dissolved, and converted into harmless energy before dissipating into the surrounding sky.
In less than ten seconds, the horrifying swarm was completely eradicated. Not a single beetle remained.
Jin Rou gasped, his back arching as the agonizing pressure vanished, leaving behind hundreds of bleeding, puncture wounds. He was hovering on the absolute brink of death, his face ashen, his breathing shallow and erratic.
Lin Yuan lowered his hand, the devouring vortex snapping shut. He then stepped closer and knelt beside the ruined cultivator.
Raising two fingers, Lin Yuan pressed them directly against the center of Jin Rou’s chest. He simply channeled an incredibly gentle stream of his own Spirit Severing Qi directly into the man’s failing meridians.
The effect was instantaneous and miraculous. The mist of Lin Yuan’s Qi flooded Jin Rou’s spiritual sea within his dantian, forcibly stabilizing the collapsing Nascent Soul. The bleeding from the puncture wounds stopped immediately, the damaged tissue knitting together at a visible rate.
Jin Rou’s eyes fluttered open. He stared up at the silver sky, then turned his head, his gaze locking onto the calm serene face of Lin Yuan.
He remembered the lightning. He remembered the arrogant Chu cultivatiors falling from the sky. And he realized that the agonizing pain eating him alive had vanished.
"You... you saved me," Jin Rou whispered, his voice incredibly weak but thick with overwhelming emotion. He struggled to push himself up on his elbows, ignoring Lin Yuan’s silent gesture to remain still. Jin Rou forced himself into a kneeling position, bowing his head so low it nearly touched Lin Yuan’s boots.
"I... I am Jin Rou, of the Golden Diting Province," the cultivator choked out, tears of gratitude mixing with the dried blood on his face. "Senior Lin, you have pulled me back from the gates of death! This Jin Rou shall never forget such action. I swear upon my Dao Heart that from this day onward, my life belongs to you!"
He lowered his head further, his voice trembling with sincerity.
"Should Senior Lin ever have need of me, even if I must cross mountains and seas, this Jin Rou will not retreat a single step!"
Jin Rou slowly rose to his feet, swaying slightly as his newly revitalized Qi settled into his meridians. He looked at Lin Yuan with absolute reverence.
"When this tournament ends, Senior Lin, you must come to Golden Diting Province!" Jin Rou declared, his chest swelling with fierce pride. "You must visit my Jin Clan! Our clan has a heritage that has stood for countless generations, and our foundation is no weaker than any great power beneath the heavens. Within our territory, there are countless high-tier Golden Immortal Beasts!"
His eyes shone with excitement and reverence.
"Among our golden immortal beasts, there are some that have reached Rank 8! Senior Lin, if I return and report everything that happened today to our Patriarch, telling him how you saved my life and crushed the arrogance of those Chu Province cultivators, he will certainly be moved!"
Jin Rou’s voice grew increasingly passionate.
"At that time, the Patriarch will surely offer you a Rank 8 Golden Immortal Beast as your mount and companion! Such a beast is a priceless existence, and offering one to an honored guest is the highest courtesy my Jin Clan can extend!"
He clenched his fists, his expression filled with absolute certainty.
"Senior Lin, as long as you are willing to accept, my Jin Clan will ensure that you receive the respect you deserve!"
Lin Yuan’s eyes flickered with genuine interest. A Rank 8 Golden Immortal Beast was a prize that could shake continents. But he filed the invitation away for the future. The immediate matter required his absolute focus.
"I appreciate the offer, Jin Rou," Lin Yuan replied, his tone remaining perfectly level. "But before we discuss the future, we must address the present. Why, specifically, were the cultivators of the Chu Province chasing you with such desperate malice?"
Lin Yuan already possessed a very good idea of the truth, having deduced it through Fu Lang’s survival days ago. But in the ruthless world of cultivation, assumptions were deadly. Hearing it directly from Jin Rou’s mouth was the only way to solidify the narrative and weaponize it.
Jin Rou’s expression darkened instantly. The zealous pride vanished, replaced by a deep, harrowing sorrow and a burning, helpless rage. He looked at the unconscious forms of Chu Ying and Chu Yan, spitting a glob of bloody saliva onto the floor near them.
"They were chasing me because of the beasts," Jin Rou hissed, his fists clenching so tightly his knuckles turned white. "When Elder Xuanji read the rules of the Void Ascension Battlefield, he made the conditions absolute."
The Chief Adjudicator’s voice echoed in Lin Yuan’s memory: ’Contestants may fight with full lethal force. You may use any weapon, any artifact, and any method at your disposal.’
"Because of that rule," Jin Rou explained, his voice trembling with anger, "several of my fellow cultivators brought Golden Immortal Beasts into the pocket realm. They were meant to be our ultimate aids, a means to score through the preliminary round against the overwhelming odds of the Upper Division. The Chu cultivators quickly realized this. But they did not want to fight the beasts. They wanted something else."
Jin Rou took a ragged breath. "A few days into the preliminary round, the Chu cultivators stopped hunting for Dao Tokens. They began exclusively, and indiscriminately hunting any Golden Diting cultivator they could find. They captured my brothers and sisters alive. And then... they forced them to reveal the hidden locations of the beasts."
"To harvest the cores," Lin Yuan stated, his voice devoid of shock, merely confirming the grim situation.
"Yes!" Jin Rou cried out, his expression turning solemn. "They intend to harvest the cores! To forcefully extract the pure Immortal Energy contained within them and use it to strengthen their own cultivation! But Senior Lin, you must already know this. In the Central Continent, harvesting the core of a Golden Immortal Beast is considered a capital offense! Anyone who dares to do such a thing is sentenced to death!"
Lin Yuan nodded slowly, though a trace of surprise flashed through his eyes. He knew that Golden Immortal Beasts were incredibly rare divine creatures, among the very few natural entities in the Nine Provinces capable of refining Immortal Energy. He also knew that their existence was precious beyond measure. However, he had never known that the Central Continent had gone so far as to make harvesting their cores a capital offense. This was knowledge he had simply never encountered before.
It seemed that the Central Continent valued these creatures far more than he had realized. Their ability to refine pure Immortal Energy made them akin to living conduits of ascension, and because of their profound rarity, the Central Continent had long ago decreed that anyone who deliberately killed one for its core would be sentenced to death.
"Only the most depraved rogue cultivators and the darkest demonic sects ever dare to harvest a core," Jin Rou said, his voice dropping to a whisper. "Doing so ruins a cultivator’s integrity, destroys their face, and invites the wrath of the Emperor. Yet Chu Kuang... that absolute monster... he is doing it openly within this pocket realm!"
Lin Yuan felt a cold, predatory delight bloom within his chest.
This was the absolute leverage he needed. Chu Kuang was not just playing a brutal game; he was actively committing a capital offense right under the nose of Emperor Tianxu. Chu Kuang completely understood that what he was doing was wrong, and that it could cost him his life and his entire standing in the Central Continent if discovered. The Chu heir was desperate, gambling his entire existence to push his cultivation over the edge.
"If Chu Kuang is committing a capital crime," Lin Yuan pressed, his gaze piercing Jin Rou, "how does he plan to deal with the fallout? When this thirty-day battlefield ends, you and your brothers will simply report his atrocities to the Emperors seated in the Grand Court."