Chapter 793 - 455: Breeding Farm?

It seemed they were treating the spatial rifts as feeding troughs. Like livestock waiting to be fed, they stood dumbly at the rifts, almost entirely motionless. Judging by its mangled remains, the human-headed serpent monster Zou Feng had just blown up from the inside was likely the largest one in the vicinity. Yet, even though the biggest among them had just perished, the other serpents remained entirely indifferent, maintaining their expectant postures. Not a single monster even bothered to pay Zou Feng any attention.

To Zou Feng, these creatures were weak and severely lacking in Spiritual Wisdom, making them no cause for concern. Since they possessed no venom or any other valuable materials, there was not even a need to kill them.

Looking around, he noticed more than just one spatial rift nearby. A rough count revealed at least a few dozen rifts—or rather, a few dozen feeding troughs for the serpent monsters. This made Zou Feng suspect that back in the most densely clustered area of spatial rifts, even if he hadn’t followed Zhao Feixiong’s guidance and had simply chosen one at random, he still would have arrived in this Outer Realm. Curiously, however, there was no trace of Zhao Feixiong anywhere in the vicinity. Given Zhao Feixiong’s strength, even if he had been swallowed by one of these serpents, he should have easily escaped. Could he have already moved on ahead?

After observing and sensing his surroundings for a while without finding any trace of Zhao Feixiong, Zou Feng decided not to waste any more time. Instead, he set off in the direction the serpents had their backs turned to. The monsters remained utterly indifferent to his departure, rigidly holding their feeding postures. Glancing back at them one last time, Zou Feng suddenly felt that this Outer Realm was far more bizarre than he had initially anticipated.

As Zou Feng ventured deeper, he could distinctly sense that the Rules of Heaven and Earth in this Outer Realm strongly rejected him. Being repelled by the Rules of Heaven and Earth meant enduring a constant, invisible, and unavoidable suppression that severely discounted one’s strength. But this was not a major issue. As an existence that had already touched upon the Power of Cause and Effect, a slight suppression from the Rule Power was of no real concern to Zou Feng. Besides, Gongyang Wuji would be subjected to the exact same suppression in this Outer Realm. At this thought, Zou Feng suddenly frowned. He realized that if Gongyang Wuji had chosen this place to wreak havoc, the man likely possessed some method to bypass the suppression of the Rules of Heaven and Earth.

He hurried along his path, passing by all sorts of grotesque creatures. Just like the serpents from earlier, none of them were particularly strong or aggressive. They merely sat or lay about lazily, resembling livestock that had long grown accustomed to being fed on schedule, spending the rest of their time sleeping and fattening up. This place was looking more and more like a breeding farm deliberately constructed by some mighty figure.

No sooner had this thought crossed Zou Feng’s mind than a massive hand suddenly reached down from the sky above. The hand was large enough to blot out the sun, reaching downward as if searching for something. Zou Feng’s eyes narrowed. Although he was not within the hand’s area of coverage, he immediately retreated just in case. Just as he backed away, the palm of the giant hand slammed into the ground. Then, with a swift sweeping motion like scooping up fish, it grabbed a handful of the earth.

In an instant, dozens of monsters that had been lounging lazily in that area were snatched up. Seemingly satisfied with its harvest, the giant hand did not linger. It quickly retracted and vanished above the clouds. Watching this scene, Zou Feng could not help but feel a lingering sense of dread. He wondered what would have happened if he had been right in the center of the giant hand’s grasp.

Even if he could have dodged in time, if the hand had sensed him and decided to relentlessly pursue him, it would have been disastrous. Perhaps his earlier guess had been completely accurate—was this Outer Realm truly a breeding farm for one, or perhaps several, Stellar Giant Beasts? Did these Stellar Giant Beasts just reach in and grab a handful of food whenever they felt hungry?

The reason this Outer Realm had so many unstable spatial rifts was likely to increase the amount of available ingredients, while also serving as a way to conveniently feed the livestock here at any time. Back when Zou Feng was still in the Pinnacle Celestial Immortal Sect, he had naturally learned about these so-called Stellar Giant Beasts. In truth, as long as one’s Cultivation reached a certain height, there was no need to fear these creatures—but the prerequisite was reaching the Nascent Soul Realm first. With Zou Feng’s current strength, he could attempt to fight against these Stellar Giant Beasts, but he would likely exhaust himself completely just to injure them, and the actual extent of the damage he could inflict was highly uncertain.

Naturally, Zou Feng was not going to try it now. A battle with Gongyang Wuji was imminent; if he got entangled with a Stellar Giant Beast at this critical juncture, the consequences would be dire. The reasons behind Gongyang Wuji choosing this Outer Realm to wreak havoc were becoming increasingly clear to him. The fact that Stellar Giant Beasts could pop up at any moment to "scoop up food" meant that this place was under the constant threat of a terrifying Celestial Calamity. If someone was unlucky enough to be right in the center of a Stellar Giant Beast’s hunting grounds, even if they managed to escape with their life, they would undoubtedly pay a heavy price. However, since Gongyang Wuji considered his own Luck to be invincible, he naturally had no such concerns.

Thus, by using himself as bait to lure Jiang Wanzhao and the other two Immortal Sect True Inheritors into pursuing him, he remained completely unfazed. He was even certain he had the three of them dead to rights. As he pondered over all this, Zou Feng did not stop moving and continued his advance. Not long after he set off again, another giant hand—or rather, a massive claw—reached down from the sky.

This claw looked noticeably different from the previous hand, confirming Zou Feng’s earlier suspicion that there was more than one Stellar Giant Beast. This time, although Zou Feng was not in the center of the giant claw’s coverage, he was right on its edge. Faced with the claw sweeping down to "catch fish," Zou Feng hastily flew backward. Unexpectedly, even though the claw had already scooped up its food, it clearly sensed Zou Feng’s presence and immediately swiped down for a second grab. Seeing that the claw was actually targeting him, Zou Feng scoffed coldly. In an instant, he unleashed hundreds of palm strikes, all of them landing squarely on the giant claw’s fingers.

The strikes appeared to lack destructive force, but as soon as the toxic burst took effect, the giant hand began to spasm uncontrollably, trembling like a leaf. Having learned its lesson, the beast seemed frightened by the sudden sting; it didn’t dare attempt another grab and hurriedly withdrew. In truth, this wouldn’t cause it any major harm; it was akin to a person getting pricked by a fish fin while trying to catch a fish barehanded.

To avoid being pricked again, it was unwilling to struggle further with these "ingredients." Zou Feng’s sudden counterattack had been a spur-of-the-moment experiment. Now, it seemed that while these Stellar Giant Beasts were incredibly powerful, they were also subject to significant restrictions. First of all, it was certain that they could not fully descend into this Outer Realm; they could only slip a part of their bodies inside. Put simply, the Outer Realm was like a tiny cage. A person’s body would be too large to enter, so they could only reach their hand in through the gaps.

But that wasn’t the only piece of information Zou Feng had gleaned. Through their brief "exchange," he had successfully caused that Stellar Giant Beast’s name to appear on his roster. Its name was Ao Chi. The brightness of its name was quite considerable, yet it still did not outshine Marquis Gongyang. This gave Zou Feng a slight pause; he never would have thought that Brother Gongyang was even stronger than a Stellar Giant Beast. Still, since Ao Chi had made the list, he could certainly try to toy with it for a bit.

He didn’t expect the side effects to cause Ao Chi any severe injuries, but making it feel a little unwell—perhaps giving it an upset stomach or something similar—shouldn’t be a problem. Thinking of this, Zou Feng attempted to transfer some of his Cultivation side effects over to the beast, as he still had quite a bit stockpiled from before. It was worth mentioning that Zou Feng had previously been trying to torment Gongyang Wuji with these same side effects. However, likely because that guy possessed far too many Elixirs and Magical Treasures, or perhaps because he was accompanied by subordinates with extraordinary medical skills, any slight discomfort he experienced was immediately alleviated and purged.

Because his battle with Gongyang Wuji was fast approaching, Zou Feng was reluctant to use a side-effect Critical Strike just yet, leaving him no choice but to let the man keep prancing around for now. Just as Zou Feng was about to resume his journey, he suddenly sensed something.

"Who is it?"

As he shouted the demand, Zou Feng spun around abruptly, hurling a palm strike behind him.

"Ah... Fellow Daoist, wait!" a person who had appeared out of nowhere behind him cried out in alarm, frantically dodging Zou Feng’s palm strike.