Volume Five: First Signs of Brilliance Chapter Ten: You’ve Picked a Fight with the Wrong Person

The beast is very smart! Li Chengzhu had only enough time to make this judgment before turning around abruptly in mid-air to evade the lightning crackling from its horns. At the same time, he flicked his hand, scattering the Nine Heavens Great Luo Cauldron and summoning seven hundred and twenty flying swords that whistled and clanged around him.

Before Li Chengzhu could even catch a breath, the second bolt of lightning struck right before his eyes.

The giant thunder beast preferred to take a direct hit from Yuan Mu just to drag Li Chengzhu down with it.

However, this immensely powerful immortal beast had underestimated human cunning and agility.

The seven hundred-odd flying swords looked formidable, but the moment they collided with that bolt of lightning, they were swept away and utterly destroyed like withered weeds and decaying wood. Likewise, the lightning bolt was completely exhausted, failing to inflict even the slightest scratch on Li Chengzhu.

A look of disappointment flashed through the giant thunder beast's turbid eyes, as it hadn't expected its supposedly fatal blow to be blocked. At the same time, a sharp pain shot through its head as Yuan Mu broke through its defense, his hula hoop smashing fiercely against its protruding skull.

Not daring to pause for even a second, Li Chengzhu immediately replenished the flying swords of the Nine Heavens Great Luo Cauldron. He was deeply shocked; he had assumed this thunder beast would be comparable in strength to the one he encountered previously, but the reality gave him a bitter lesson.

Was this thunder beast merely a hundred times stronger than the one he had met before?

The Nine Heavens Great Luo Cauldron was, after all, a second-grade immortal artifact. Although Li Chengzhu could not unleash its full power, even if Qiu Feng were to attack, he probably couldn't shatter more than seven hundred flying swords all at once, right?

With just two bolts of lightning, this giant thunder beast completely shattered Li Chengzhu's preconceptions about it.

On the other side, seeing his attack land successfully, Yuan Mu steadied his mind, thinking to himself that this immortal beast was nothing special after all. He settled down, ready to smash this brute to death with his hula hoop.

However, the giant thunder beast, pushed to the absolute limit of disappointment and fury, finally regained its wits, completely disregarding its aging, frail body and its nearly depleted spiritual energy reserves. From the top of its head and from its mouth, it continuously unleashed lightning bolts at the two men. At the same time, a flash of halo illuminated it as the giant thunder beast hastily erected a protective barrier around itself.

The fierce and rapid attacks sent Yuan Mu and Li Chengzhu scrambling frantically up and down, left and right, to dodge the onslaught.

To stop a war by means of war—if the thunder beast understood such tactics, it would simply be too intelligent.

Dodging the lightning bolts left Li Chengzhu and Immortal Yuan Mu with no spare moment to mount a counterattack.

Boss Li felt utterly humiliated. It had been like this last time, and it was still like this now—did they really have to wait until it exhausted its own strength to claim victory?

Yuan Mu hopped about while panting heavily, "Why don't we run? What's the point of fighting it out?"

"Bollocks!" Li Chengzhu cursed angrily. "A true man should never bow to coercion! Facing a mere immortal beast, what dignity would there be in running?" At the same time, he thought to himself: The immortal core inside this fellow's body is probably quite large; its strength is far greater than the last one's.

Yuan Mu's weathered face flushed. He was, after all, an immortal in the late stage of attainment. His temper flared; no one who survived the Red Rock Plateau had a mild disposition.

He had seen countless comrades fall by his side and countless enemies drop before his eyes—who knew if he would be the next? Having lived on tenterhooks for so long, his nerves were perpetually sensitive. To be bullied to this extent by a mere immortal beast made Yuan Mu grind his teeth until they clicked. All previous fear vanished entirely, leaving only boundless killing intent.

Finally, as the density of the dense lightning-bullet barrage began to wane, Yuan Mu unleashed his fury.

Earlier, dodging the damage had left him unable to counterattack, but now that the intensity had dropped, Yuan Mu launched his hula hoop once more.

Seeing an opportunity, Li Chengzhu split off half of his flying swords to intercept an incoming bolt of lightning, while the Meteor Sword and the remaining half of the flying swords struck simultaneously. He also casually flicked out the colored glass needle.

With Boss Li unleashing all three of his major magical treasures at once, how could their combined might increase by merely a single fold?

The colored glass needle arrived first despite being cast later, piercing straight into the protective barrier of the giant thunder beast. Channeling his spiritual energy in secret, Li Chengzhu formed hand seals; to maximize the power of the glass needle, he had to resort to a manipulation technique he hadn't used in a long time.

True to its reputation as a magical artifact specifically designed to breach protective spiritual Qi and the like, the colored glass needle proved equally effective against the guardian barrier, which likely functioned similarly to protective spiritual Qi. Touched by this nemetic bane, the barrier immediately showed signs of disintegration.

Though vast, the giant thunder beast lacked stability; its massive body actually worked against its own defense, leaving flaws everywhere across its protective barrier, making it effortless for the glass needle to pierce right through.

Immediately afterward, the immortal artifact attacks from Li Chengzhu and Yuan Mu arrived. Nearly four hundred flying swords and two immortal artifacts struck the giant thunder beast's fragile, unarmored snow-white belly simultaneously, sending it leaping several zhang into the air.

*Bang!* Dust billowed as the giant thunder beast's massive body crashed down, crushing several towering ancient trees.

With a fierce look in his eyes, Yuan Mu frantically formed spiritual seals with his hands, commanding the hula hoop to slam relentlessly into the giant thunder beast's body, battering it from side to side. Li Chengzhu eagerly followed up to beat the fallen dog; after being driven to such miserable straits by the lightning earlier, if he didn't take his revenge now, when would he?

The giant thunder beast let out a series of mournful shrieks, wheezing heavily from its enormous mouth. Within moments, streams of blood began to flow, and even its two upturned nostrils were dripping with crimson.

Its thick limbs slowly buckled. Yet, its unyielding gaze stared fiercely at the two tiny creatures before it, mirroring the eyes of a revolutionary facing the cruel suppression of invaders.

Li Chengzhu felt a twinge of guilt. He glanced sideways at Yuan Mu, only to find the immortal looking ferocious, whipping and hammering the giant thunder beast's body as though he had gone mad.

"Enough!" Li Chengzhu suddenly bellowed, startling Yuan Mu out of his frenzy.

Yuan Mu took a deep breath, calming the agitation within his heart.

For reasons unknown, seeing this immortal beast's formidable strength reminded him of the Thousand-Spirit Crane, which in turn brought back memories of his three sworn brothers.

"Hoo-hoo~~~~" The giant thunder beast blew heavily through its nose, glaring unyieldingly at Li Chengzhu. A bright light flashed atop its head, gradually forming a tiny vortex where wisps of lightning slithered about like fangs of a serpent. Suddenly, the giant thunder beast staggered; its thick limbs could no longer support its colossal body, and with a heavy *thud*, it collapsed to the ground, ultimately failing to unleash its final bolt of lightning.

"This is a brave immortal beast," Li Chengzhu sighed insincerely after a long silence.

Yuan Mu cast a cold glance at him and rubbed his own forehead. They had both attained immortality, yet they still grew angry so easily. Could it be that slaughtering too much was causing him to lose his Dao heart?

The spiritual pressure radiating from the giant thunder beast before them was slowly dissipating, and the warmth of its body was fading away. Neither Li Chengzhu nor Yuan Mu spoke; one was awed by that unyielding gaze, while the other worried about his own precarious situation. Yuan Mu simply sat down flat on the ground, raising his head to gaze through the layers of leaves at the pale sky.

Li Chengzhu could not understand why Yuan Mu wore such a sorrowful expression. Just as he was about to offer a few words of comfort before taking the immortal core, his heart suddenly skipped a beat. The bronze-gong-sized eyes of the giant thunder beast beside him snapped open, and it abruptly rose to its feet, letting out a roar toward the heavens.

"Awoooo~~~~" What kind of desolate yet awe-inspiring roar was that—resonant and powerful.

This sudden turn of events frightened Li Chengzhu and Yuan Mu so much that, abandoning all dignity, they hurled their immortal artifacts once again, frantically battering the already mangled body of the thunder beast until it was completely unrecognizable.

*Bang!* The giant thunder beast's body crashed to the ground once more, its unyielding eyes refusing to close as they glared angrily at the two men, as if mocking them.

Li Chengzhu and Yuan Mu exchanged glances, utterly at a loss.

Only then did Li Chengzhu remember to release the little creature from his spatial ring, instructing it to dig the immortal core out of the thunder beast's body.

*Thump, thump... thump, thump!* Like war drums beating against their hearts, the ground began to tremble slightly. The rhythmic pounding caused a flicker of panic in Li Chengzhu's chest.

"What is going on?" Yuan Mu asked, swaying unsteadily on his feet.

"I don't know." Li Chengzhu reached out to take the immortal core from the little creature's embrace, shoving it straight into the Azure Blood Ring. He then summoned rainwater to wash away the blood all over the little beast, placed it on his shoulder, glanced at Yuan Mu, and drove his immortal sword up into the sky.

Yuan Mu followed closely behind, a growing sense of unease welling up in his heart.

However, before a single thought could fully form in his mind, he looked down in sheer horror to see four or five bolts of lightning hurtling toward them from below. Panicking, he twisted mid-air and narrowly dodged them.

Just as he was about to question Li Chengzhu and raised his head to look, his jaw dropped wide enough to rival a yawning hippopotamus.

Down in the jungle, countless giant thunder beasts were surging toward this direction. The earth thundered with every step they took, and those seemingly impossibly thick trees snapped in half the moment a single beast stepped on them.

The dense forest obscured just how many giant thunder beasts were rushing toward them, but the swaths of collapsed trees conveyed this undeniable truth to the two men. As far as their vision could reach, trees were being pushed over. Some giant thunder beasts were even taller than the one they had just slain; even separated by a considerable distance and dense foliage, the two could still clearly see the greenish gullies running along the beasts' backs.

One giant thunder beast? Li Chengzhu and Yuan Mu didn't fear it. Two? It didn't matter. But countless numbers of them? Remembering the overwhelming sea of lightning that swept across the land like a plague of locusts, Yuan Mu felt his scalp tingle—being roasted alive certainly wouldn't feel pleasant.

The two men exchanged a single glance, reading a unified message in each other's eyes: Run!

Was this truly the Immortal Forbidden Land? A trace of sorrow welled up in Yuan Mu's heart; he was, after all, an immortal in the late stage of cultivation, yet he was being forced to flee in panic by a pack of immortal beasts.

However, Li Chengzhu cared nothing for such thoughts. Locking onto a direction where the fewest trees had collapsed—and thus deemed the safest route—he grabbed Yuan Mu and charged straight ahead.

Yet, this safety was purely relative, measured only against the other directions!

Boss Li had already mobilized his nascent immortal spiritual energy, forming a roaring circle of eight hundred golden flying swords that enveloped the two of them. Guided by Li Chengzhu's will, the swords moved in tight synchronization with their footsteps.

They had truly kicked an iron plate this time, and a massive one at that! Li Chengzhu thought with bitter despair.