Volume V: Emerging Prominence - Chapter XIII: Beastly Roar

Li Chengzhu was struck dumb with astonishment.

The energy contained within this celestial core was not merely massive; it was unimaginably vast, far exceeding even the potency of superior-grade celestial mechanism spirit stones. When energy reaches a certain degree of intensity, it becomes internalized, leaving no external trace—much like the Wood Essence in his own hand, whose surging spiritual power remained imperceptible unless one employed inner vision.

"Damn," Li Chengzhu muttered a single word, then tossed the celestial core to Yuan Mu.

Yuan Mu caught it and swept his divine sense over it, instantly realizing that Li Chengzhu had spoken the truth. Silently, he tossed the celestial core back. Without needing Li Chengzhu's command, the little creature burrowed straight into the body of the thunderous behemoth, dug out its celestial core, and held it up proudly.

Upon comparing the two, Li Chengzhu discovered a world of difference between these seemingly identical celestial cores. Not only did their volumes differ by severalfold, but the spiritual qi contained within them differed by countless orders of magnitude.

How could a mere ordinary celestial core ever compare to the Heart of the Beast King, which held the accumulated spiritual power of countless generations of beast kings?

"What do we do now?" Yuan Mu asked foolishly, his hands twitching as he gripped the Long Rainbow Rope. He was still eager to test the might of his newly refined celestial artifact.

Li Chengzhu shot him a sidelong glance, weighing the two celestial cores in his palm, and smiled coldly. "Sit on the mountain and watch the tigers fight!"

Not far from where the two men stood, another massive beast carcass lay stretched across the ground. The gaping wounds on its body bore witness to a battle of extreme brutality and ferocity.

The earth trembled, giant trees swayed, and the howling wind whistled through the air. Two thunderous behemoths glared at each other with bloodshot eyes. In the recent earth-shattering collision, one of the behemoths had one of its twin horns snapped clean off. Blood erupted like an unstoppable fountain, drenching its entire head and face. Even its opponent, standing a short distance away, was splattered with a few drops of blood. Stimulated by the scent of blood—their own and each other's—the behemoths' eyes grew even redder, crimson enough to drip blood.

Their hind legs bent slightly, eyeing each other with deep hostility, they snorted fiercely. Fallen leaves were kicked into the air by the rush of expelled breath, swirling and fluttering to form a barrier between them.

Before the leaves could even settle to the ground, the first thunderous behemoth made its move. Its bent hind legs kicked forward with explosive force, its head lowered slightly, pointing its sole remaining golden horn. Its massive body shot forward like an arrow released from a taut bow, charging viciously at its opponent.

*Boom, boom... boom, boom...* Like the beating of war drums or the charge of ten thousand galloping horses, the ground itself seemed to cave in beneath its heavy tread.

Its opponent refused to show any weakness. Seeing the charge coming, it too launched its massive frame forward. The distance between the two heavily armored, tank-like beasts shrank rapidly.

*CRASH!*

Li Chengzhu felt his body jolt, and the giant tree concealing them shook violently. It felt as though someone had struck the base of the tree with a ten-thousand-jin sledgehammer. Withered leaves drifted down from above. Meeting the gaze of Great Immortal Yuan Mu, who stood on the opposite branch, both men wore looks of utter shock.

The sheer force generated purely by the collision of their physical bodies was staggering. These thunderous behemoths were opponents no one could afford to take lightly.

"Awoo—!" "Awoo—!" Two furious roars erupted simultaneously. Neither of the colliding behemoths gave an inch. Head against head, horn against horn, each strained with all its might to force the other back.

The thunderous behemoth with the broken horn was at a severe disadvantage. Finding it difficult to support itself with just a single horn, it had already felt cracks forming in its remaining horn during the previous head-on clash. Furthermore, the blood flowing from its broken horn finally streamed down into its eyes, blurring its blood-red vision. It blinked its copper-bell-sized eyes frantically, trying to clear the blinding crimson liquid away. But its opponent granted it no such mercy.

As it blinked, silver light flashed between its opponent's horns, accompanied by crackling sounds. Within moments, a bolt of lightning formed.

With a deafening *crack*, the lightning bolt struck true, aiming straight for the house-sized head of the thunderous behemoth.

"Awoo!" With a roar of bitter frustration, the single-horned thunderous beast was struck dizzy by the hidden attack. Losing control of its body for a split second, its head jerked upward, and its forelegs lifted off the ground.

Even though thunderous behemoths were masters of electricity, even though their hides were thick and tough, and even though both were now at the end of their rope, taking such a close-range strike while completely devoid of spiritual energy was more than their bodies could bear.

With no protective spiritual qi shielding their bodies, and their once-bundant vitality drained by days and nights of ceaseless combat, this blow truly hurt. The beast could even feel that a large hole had been torn open in its forehead, letting in a chilling draft of air.

Before its lifted body could fall back down, its opponent's long, sharp golden horn drove upward.

For any creature, the underbelly facing the ground is always its most vulnerable spot—just like a tiger's stomach.

Propelled by the brute strength of the thunderous behemoth, the dull, rusted-looking golden horn pierced effortlessly into the thick of the rival's uplifted neck. Refusing to stop, the victorious beast pushed its opponent forward until they slammed into a giant tree, snapping the trunk clean in half. Pinning its adversary against the broken tree, it finally halted, yet still shoved its golden horn upward one last time for good measure.

Blood splattered everywhere. The blood of its former companion instantly drenched it from head to toe, turning it into a creature painted entirely in crimson.

Gurgling sounds emerged from the throat of the pinned thunderous behemoth. Its massive body went through its final spasms, its front paws clawing desperately at its opponent's torso while its hind legs scraped furiously against the earth in a vain bid to escape its agony. Ultimately, it failed.

The breath of life slowly ebbed away. After a long moment, the victorious thunderous behemoth finally took a step backward and shook its head, freeing its rival's corpse from its golden horn.

Only then did the blocked wound truly erupt like a geyser, instantly staining the earth below red with fresh blood.

"Awoo—!" The victor let out a sky-ward howl, relishing the sweet taste of victory.

Suddenly, another thunderous behemoth surged out from the shadows. Before the victor could react, it slammed fiercely into it, sending it flying. Trees snapped, and the massive beast tumbled through the air.

Already utterly exhausted, the victor lay flat on the ground, its thick eyelids fluttering weakly. It wanted to catch a glimpse of the familiar land it had inhabited for decades, but its vision was filled only with the image of another companion charging toward it like a runaway juggernaut, the earth trembling beneath its thunderous hooves.

Li Chengzhu swallowed hard. Though he had heard tales of herd animals engaging in merciless, unfeeling slaughter among themselves to determine a leader, witnessing it firsthand was entirely different.

The thunderous behemoths had fallen into this tragic state precisely because they lacked a leader. Surrounded by enemies on all sides, constantly on guard, Li Chengzhu and Yuan Mu had already witnessed several similar scenes. Every single victorious thunderous behemoth would inevitably be ambushed and sent flying by a suddenly charging companion, only to be tormented to death in turn.

Beast madness! Li Chengzhu could conclude with certainty that this phenomenon was none other than beast madness. He simply had not expected such a thing to occur among celestial beasts in the immortal realms.

Among such centralized herd animals, if a leader died suddenly, the organized group would typically engage in combat to select a new one. However, if the group lacked organization or if their social structure was shattered, beast madness was entirely possible.

These vicious creatures were not kind by nature; every single one harbored ambitions for the leadership position. If a drop of blood was spilled to further stimulate them, it would inevitably trigger a riot—a blind frenzy where they killed every living thing in sight until only the last soldier remained. This was what was known as beast madness. Li Chengzhu had once heard whispers of such esoteric phenomena during his days as a reporter. Legend had it that deep in the grasslands of Inner Mongolia, a wolf pack numbering over four hundred had once wreaked havoc across the region, raiding sheepfolds and attacking herdsmen, keeping the local populace in a state of constant terror.

Then, one night, the howls of wolves echoed across the encampments, raging continuously for days and nights before finally subsiding. When brave herdsmen finally ventured out to investigate, they discovered that over half of the four hundred wolves were dead, while the survivors lay gasping on the verge of death.

The locals called it beast madness. With the alpha dead, the pack turned on one another. The scent of blood drove them into a mindless, indiscriminate slaughter until their sanity was completely lost, leaving nothing in their eyes save the urge to kill.

Li Chengzhu had originally dismissed these accounts as mere rumors, never believing such an absurd thing as beast madness could truly exist.

Yet the scene unfolding before his eyes left him no choice but to accept this conclusion, further solidifying his deduction that the very first thunderous behemoth he had slain was indeed the pack's leader. Only by losing their leader could these thunderous behemoths have fallen into internal chaos, leading to strife, mutual slaughter, and ultimately, the complete loss of their sanity.

Li Chengzhu rubbed his chin with a faint smile. He had originally thought that the first thunderous behemoth was merely comparable to the ones he had previously encountered, never imagining it would be many times stronger—let alone that it was the undisputed king of the thunderous herd. No wonder its dying roar had summoned countless thunderous behemoths to hunt down him and Yuan Mu.

There were simply too many unexpected twists. Causes and effects intertwined; had the leader not died, the thunderous behemoths would never have turned on each other, beast madness would not have broken out, and neither he nor Yuan Mu could have sat back and calmly watched the show.

Down below, the battle between the two remaining thunderous behemoths had reached its conclusion. The one that had already fought a previous match now lacked any ability to retaliate. When Li Chengzhu and Yuan Mu had first arrived, these thunderous behemoths could still hurl lightning and attack one another from afar; but now, utterly drained of strength, they were reduced to tearing each other apart with raw physical might.

The thunderous behemoth lying on the ground still kept its eyes wide open, panting heavily. Perhaps sanity had finally returned to it in the moments before death, but what good did it do? The companion looming over it remained trapped in the intoxicating throes of slaughter. Lowering its head, it drove its horn forward once more, sending its rival flying with another brutal charge, before lifting its head to roar in triumph.

Yuan Mu had initially watched the mutual destruction of the giant beasts down below with great excitement, eager to descend and scavenge the battlefield afterward, but eventually, he had grown thoroughly bored. The Long Rainbow Rope had proven completely useless here, leaving him somewhat frustrated. Furthermore, since the little creature handled the collection of spoils, there was no need for him to lift a finger. Bored out of his mind, he had eventually dragged Li Chengzhu along to hunt for stray targets.

They would seek out isolated thunderous behemoths to practice their moves. As soon as the Long Rainbow Rope was cast, those already exhausted behemoths were instantly trussed up like zongzi, left to await the endless, grinding attacks of the Nine Heavens Great Luo Cauldron.

The Long Rainbow Rope held the reputation of a fourth-grade celestial artifact. Capable of extending or contracting at will, it could bind even behemoths as massive as the thunderous beasts tightly, rendering them completely incapable of movement.