Refining the Mountains and Rivers

Chapter 368 –The Monster Beast King as Sacrifice

Below the skies, a shadow whistled through. The space around it was distorted and all fluctuations of strength were absorbed, all of this happening without a single sound. And within that shadow, a massive pair of eyes was filled with anger.

As a newly ascended King of the monster beasts, Dotonata had his own name and title. He was honored as the Flying Skyking and ruled a territory of 300,000 miles.

After breaking through to the King level he had gone into seclusion to consolidate his new boundary. Normally, this seclusion state would continue for a hundred years, but a mere 13 years in, Dotonata had no choice but to interrupt his cultivation.

After killing and swallowing two subordinates that dared to disturb him, Dotonata was finally in the mood to find out what was happening.

Then, the Flying Skyking was thoroughly enraged!

As a newly ascended King, he initially possessed a territory of 300,000 miles, but now a third of his land had been swept away. All of his subordinate monster beasts had completely vanished without a trace. Although Dotonata didn’t care about these ordinary monster beasts, this concerned the honor and face of a King.

Dotonata vowed that whoever was responsible for this would pay a heavy price. The dignity of a Monster Beast King could not be provoked by anyone.

After coming out from seclusion, he flew all the way here. When he entered the involved region, Dotonata’s killing intent grew increasingly heavy. Originally, he assumed that his subordinates had been exaggerating, but as he approached, he found that all the monster beasts in the area had indeed vanished. He didn’t sense any of them at all.

At the same time, Dotonata started to feel a bit of dread growing in his heart. Whoever could do this in just several days was surely no trifling enemy. But the more it was like this, the more this enemy had to die. As the first challenge he faced ever since becoming a King, he had to deal with this cleanly and beautifully. He needed to teach those old fogies in the tribe that he, Dotonata, was a true, genuine King!

“Mm? A fluctuation of aura?” A sharp light flashed in Dotonata’s eyes. His massive body vanished from the skies and a cold and gloomy youth appeared in his place, a pair of wings growing out from his back. Although these wings had shrunk, each feather shined with a metallic luster, causing one to feel a cold chill in the air.

The Flying Skyking’s wings were not used for flying alone!

Shua –

In several flickering steps, the Flying Skyking appeared on the bough of an ancient tree. He could see the mass of ruined thorns in the distance. Along the way, all the tracks and traces left behind by monster beasts led towards this place.

Then this wasn’t wrong.

An ominous light flashed in his eyes. The Flying Skyking flapped his wings and a strong wind howled, condensing into countless feather phantoms, each one like a sharp arrow. Then, they all howled towards the mountainside. As a Monster Beast King, he had an intelligence that was in no way inferior to humans’. Since this enemy was likely to be incredibly formidable, he would take the initiative and launch the first blow!

In an instant, the entire mountain for hundreds of miles around was covered by phantoms of feathers. There was a brief second of peace. Then, a deafening explosion occurred as the mountainside collapsed into countless pieces of crushed stone that tumbled down in all directions.

The Flying Skyking revealed a puzzled expression. The aura he sensed had disappeared; could that mysterious enemy already have been killed?

At this time, his pupils contracted. He flapped his wings and disappeared, just as a scaled fist struck the empty where he had been. A loud hollow boom like thunder followed and space rippled. Countless tiny cracks appeared, like indifferent eyes opening in the void.

The Flying Skyking shouted out, “Devil!”

His eyes revealed a dignified look as well as a bit of bewilderment. No wonder all the monster beasts within a 100,000 mile region had been killed off; it was the power of the devil!

But soon, the Flying Skyking’s eyes filled with an ice cold killing intent.

It wasn’t just the immortal and demonic paths and the great empires that loathed the devils. The monster beast races also abhorred them. After all, a devil that lost all rationality and began to slaughter and destroy everything around it wouldn’t care if they killed a human or a monster beast.

He licked the corners of his lips and smiled. While the devils were terrifying, if this person didn’t have any consciousness and only relied on their instincts to kill, then eliminating them with his King level strength wouldn’t be difficult.

To kill a devil was enough to have Dotonata’s reputation resound loudly throughout the entire monster beast tribe!

“Then with your blood and death, become a stepping stone for this King’s dignity!” The Flying Skyking instantly vanished, reappearing right behind the devil and punching out a fist.

The devils were said to possess incredibly potent mortal bodies. Even after receiving severe injuries they would be able to regenerate themselves in a short period of time. In order to truly destroy them, one had to crush the nucleus hidden in the devil’s heart.

“Die! You mindless killing machine!” The Flying Skyking roared, a confident expression on his face.

But at this time, a deep roar echoed in his ears. This sound seemed to shoot straight into his heart, shaking and frightening his soul.

The Flying Skyking’s movements paused and the devil’s body suddenly contracted. In the face of imminent danger, the Flying Skyking dodged by a hair’s breadth. But when he turned around, he found that a pair of ice cold and indifferent eyes had locked onto him.

Dotonata’s heart skipped a beat. This glare...when a devil’s consciousness perished and all that was left was its cruel and bloodthirsty nature, how could it still have such calm eyes?

Something was wrong. This wasn’t an ordinary transformed devil, but the descent of an abyssal devil into a person’s body. It was no wonder that all monster beasts within 100,000 miles had vanished without a trace. In order to smoothly descend, this devil must have utilized some terrifying secret technique.

Thinking of this, Dotonata’s blood nearly froze over. All living beings within the Land of Divinity and Demons detested and shunned the power of the abyss, trying to kill it off whenever possible. But even after countless years passed, devil apostles still existed. This point alone was enough to prove how terrifying the power of the abyss was.

In the legends, a true devil possessed a horrifying strength comparable to the Calamity Immortal realm. Even an avatar had a strength considered strongest below the Calamity Immortal realm.

That was the strongest below the Calamity Immortal realm; in other words, the might and energy to completely overwhelm any Blue Sea. A Monster Beast King might be powerful, and once they made a breakthrough they could easily cut down human Blue Seas, but Dotonata was newly ascended and had only been a King for several years. He didn’t possess the strength to contend with a true devil avatar.

Run!

At this time, this was the only thought left in Dotonata’s heart.

He didn’t think this was shameful at all. Even the most powerful Kings amongst the monster beast races might not be able to oppose a devil avatar. Thus, it was normal to choose to flee.

Moreover as long as he survived, he could spread news of the devil avatar to his tribe, allowing them to reduce their losses as much as possible.

After all, this was the wilderness, the territory that belonged to the monster beast races!

Dotonata turned and left. He launched his wings. He didn’t dare to use teleportation because the strength of the devil was far too terrifying. Who knew whether or not this enemy had the ability to interfere with teleportation?

And if an accident occurred during the transmission process, it would be hard not to die.

Fortunately Dotonata was honored as the Flying Skyking. When it came to speed, there wasn’t any problem at all. In several breaths of time he could flee to a safe distance and then leave using teleportation.

His wings rose and fell.

Faint ripples appeared in the space around the Flying Skyking. This was one of his natural inborn powers. It could cause spatial ripples to appear and counterbalance any aerial resistance.

In this state, his flight would be infinitely close to flying through a vacuum, allowing his speed to reach the peak.

Suddenly, a shadow appeared. The Flying Skyking was stunned for a moment before he forcefully restrained his fear. This devil even had helpers. Luckily, he had responded quickly and decided to flee as soon as he realized that something was wrong, otherwise he really would have died here today.

The shadow suddenly raised the plain bronze mirror in its right hand. A beam of light struck the Flying Skyking. Then, from the widened eyes of this King of the monster beast races, endless fear began to gush out.

He discovered that he couldn’t move. A strange strength had imprisoned his soul. Although he could feel that this strength would collapse in the blink of an eye, in a slaughter where even a tenth of a breath of time mattered, this was enough for someone to kill their opponent.

As expected, that devil came at him!

The Flying Skyking wildly struggled. Though his soul rampaged about, he still wasn’t able to break the shackles on his soul before the devil arrived.

Bang –

The devil’s fist drove into his chest. His powerful beating heart was easily crushed by sharp claws.

Shua –

A translucent reduced version of the Flying Skyking escaped from the shell of its dead mortal body. A Monster Beast King could similarly condense a soul just like a human cultivator. When it came to the soul, although monster beasts were a realm slower usually, when the soul was nourished by a formidable mortal body it could also become incredibly powerful.

“You are not a descended devil!” Although the fist had torn through his body, this also allowed Dotonata to clearly assess the devil’s strength. If it were the avatar of a true abyssal devil, then the normal strength contained in its fist would be more than enough to annihilate his soul.

Dotonata felt incomparable regret and anger that he had scared himself with his wild assumptions. Otherwise, how could his mortal body be so easily killed off? With his strength, he even had the chance to kill this enemy!

But it was too late for all of that. All that was left over was his soul. He needed to flee immediately, find a new mortal body, and seize it.

“You damned devil, I swear I will kill you!”

With a hatred-filled roar, Dotonata’s soul violently flapped its wings.

Puff –

With a dull sound, like a leather water bag being torn open, Dotonata’s soul looked down in a daze to see a black short sword piercing through its chest.

The other end of the short sword was grasped by some strange creature that had no face. Then, endless pain and weakness tore through Dotonata’s fading consciousness.

Bang –

Dotonata’s soul shattered into countless blocks. They tumbled about before being absorbed by the Soul Burying Flag. The surface black flag became much deeper in color, almost taking on a metallic sheen.

As the devil roared, Dotonata’s corpse rapidly withered away. Rich blood energy howled out, all of it pouring into his body. The black scales, the horn on his head, the blood red eyes…all of this seemed to melt away like snow beneath the summer sun.

With the blood essence of a Monster Beast King as a sacrifice, the Demon Body backlash finally diverged!

Qin Yu’s face paled. With a thought, the Demon God Armor automatically reappeared and transformed into black robes. His eyes glanced down, a profound expression on his face.

The summoned life form bowed. “There was no other choice. I ask my master for forgiveness. The sword, bronze mirror, and black flag are all here.”

The shadow had no face and naturally couldn’t make any expressions, but from its tone of voice, it seemed sincere.

Qin Yu fell silent for a long time. “Since it suits you, keep it.” He waved his hand, ending the conversation.

The summoned life form seemed to be a little surprised, but it clearly relaxed a little. After noticing that there wasn’t anything else to do, the three treasures vanished and it stepped forwards, melding into Qin Yu’s shadow.

Within the soul space, Spirity frowned and hesitated. But in the end she didn’t speak. She turned and also disappeared.

Shua –

Ripples appeared in space. Qin Yu stepped within, directly teleporting away.

Two hours later, Qin Yu stepped out from space. His face was several degrees paler. He swept his divine sense around. When he discovered there was nothing but wind and grass in the surrounding 1000 miles, he stepped forwards again, engulfed by ripples once more.

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