Chapter 65 - 64: Giant Crocodile and the Eerie Divine Temple

Despite the shock in his heart, Xu Guang decided to cross the swamp. Judging by the crocodile’s size, it shouldn’t be his match. His reputation as Invincible in Bone Forging was no empty boast.

He drew his Hundred-refined Long Saber from his clothes and chopped out two large wooden boards, increasing his surface area to prevent himself from sinking into the mire. As he stepped onto them, the boards abruptly sank a few inches. Relying on these two boards, he trudged across the swamp with great difficulty. He stopped from time to time to observe his surroundings. Perhaps because the two boards looked quite large, the predators in the swamp remained cautious and chose not to attack him.

About fifty meters ahead, he spotted a patch of dry land roughly a hundred square meters in size. It was like an oasis in a desert, and the Five Spirits Grass was growing right on it. Xu Guang’s face lit up with excitement; he hadn’t expected things to go so smoothly.

Meanwhile, in a place he couldn’t see beneath the swamp’s mud, a colossal crocodile suddenly opened its eyes, its vertical pupils filled with icy murderous intent.

BOOM!

Xu Guang felt his scalp tingle. Endless mud exploded into the air before his eyes, and the wooden boards beneath him began to violently rock, as if they could be overturned at any moment. The giant crocodile’s emergence felt like it overturned heaven and earth. The moment it appeared, it transformed into a Black Shadow, biting toward Xu Guang amidst splattering mud and howling winds. Its massive maw seemed to possess Heaven-Devouring power, pitch-black as if leading to an unseen Different Dimension Space. Its teeth were like sabers, gleaming coldly and striking fear into the heart.

The scorching sun couldn’t penetrate the dense forest. In a mere instant, Xu Guang felt his entire body go numb; the sensation of his Life being threatened was far from pleasant. Fortunately, he remained ever vigilant and kept his cool at this critical moment. The long saber in his hand drew an arc, stirring up a shockwave in the air as it slashed viciously against the giant crocodile’s head.

CLANG!

It felt as if he had struck some kind of hundred-refined steel. The massive recoil left the webbing between Xu Guang’s thumb and index finger completely numb. However, his goal had been achieved. Using the momentum from this strike, he managed to briefly break free from the giant crocodile’s ambush. His figure surged forward. Disregarding the swamp mud, he stimulated the power within his blood and bones. Executing the Golden Willow Step to ride the wind, his legs became a blur, consuming a massive amount of stamina as he fled across the muck. The swamp was not his battlefield. On land, he wouldn’t necessarily fear an aquatic crocodile.

The giant crocodile relentlessly gave chase. Its enormous body moved through the mud like a swimming dragon, startling countless birds foraging in the marshland. The mud parted like flowing water, surging past both sides of the beast’s body. Xu Guang finally reached the shore, and the giant crocodile stopped at the water’s edge as well. Its dark golden vertical pupils surfaced, as if observing Xu Guang’s every move. It was wary. This was an Exotic Beast capable of rivaling the Refining Viscera Realm. Fortunately, it was only an Exotic Beast and not an Alien Species; otherwise, Xu Guang might have truly met his end just now.

Pale-faced, Xu Guang raised his long saber. The nearly fifty-meter explosive sprint had consumed a tremendous amount of his stamina. Under the sparse sunlight, the blade flashed with a chilling gleam. Man and crocodile stared at each other across the bank for a long time. Finally, the giant crocodile’s surfaced head slowly vanished as it sank back into the water.

Xu Guang let out a heavy sigh of relief. After resting for a moment, the accumulated Essence Blood in his Blood Eye circulated through his entire body, rapidly restoring his stamina. He turned around and walked toward the location of the Five Spirits Grass indicated by the Searcher.

Despite its name, the Five Spirits Grass was actually a fleshy shrub that resembled a peanut and was accompanied by a foul stench. At the center of the small island, Xu Guang discovered the Five Spirits Grass, and in no small quantity. Perhaps this area was exceptionally suited for their growth, as every single one was quite large. They were Treasures at least fifty years old, capable of aiding someone in Refining Viscera. The largest one was fully the size of a human palm.

Enduring the stench, Xu Guang crouched on the ground and carefully used his long saber to slice open the rhizomes of the Five Spirits Grass. A stream of black liquid flowed out. Since the Five Spirits Grass grew on the ground, it naturally had ways to protect itself; the foul odor emitted by its flowers was one, and the deadly poison in its roots was another. To harvest it properly, one had to endure the stench and drain the poison to obtain an intact specimen. To ensure that all the venom was purged, Xu Guang waited for about an hour before finally harvesting them. A total of six stalks of Five Spirits Grass, all over fifty years old, were carefully wrapped in waterproof leather.

As Xu Guang prepared to leave, a new dilemma arose: how was he supposed to get back? The giant crocodile was still in the swamp. Leaving would definitely alert the massive creature. Could he just break through to the Refining Viscera Realm right here? But breaking through to Refining Viscera wasn’t something that could be achieved overnight.

Suddenly, an idea struck him. He threw a Flying Saber, striking a bird, then sliced open his own palm to force out a drop of Essence Blood. Roaring twice at the swamp, he watched as ripples appeared on the water’s surface. A hideous, bumpy crocodile head surfaced like a piece of broken wood. A smile crept onto Xu Guang’s lips as he tossed the dead bird over. Sensing the scent on the bird, the giant crocodile actually leapt up from the swamp, splashing mud everywhere. It let out an excited grunt, sounding much like a pig.

Xu Guang’s lips curled up. The Blood of Transformation was useless to humans, but it was a great boon for Exotic Beasts. Seeing that the murderous intent in the giant crocodile’s eyes had somewhat faded as it lingered near the shore, refusing to leave, Xu Guang wasn’t in a hurry. He repeated the same process, tossing out another bird before stopping all movement. The giant crocodile looked warily at the shore and grunted a few times. Once it realized Xu Guang was done feeding it, it sank back into the water.

Just a moment later, a massive commotion erupted in the distant swamp. Countless birds shot into the sky as if possessed, squawking weirdly as if cursing. The giant swamp crocodile had never eaten birds before—why was it acting crazy today, snapping at every bird in sight?

Xu Guang watched the scene with amusement. Finally, the giant crocodile realized the difference between the birds it caught and the ones Xu Guang had offered. After hesitating for a long time, it began pacing near the shore again. At a certain point, unable to suppress its deep-seated craving any longer, it crawled onto the bank. Xu Guang remained completely still. It wasn’t until the giant crocodile’s ten-meter-long body had fully emerged onto the shore that he let out a wicked laugh and charged forward. He thought, "In the swamp, I was the one taking a beating, but on land, it’s your turn!"

Xu Guang slapped his palm onto the crocodile’s head, forcibly clamping its jaws shut with both hands. It was common knowledge that a crocodile’s mouth was both its greatest hunting weapon and its weakness. If one got bitten, even ten thousand pounds of force might not be enough to break free. However, holding the jaws shut required merely a thousand pounds of strength. With his fists acting like hammers, Xu Guang battered the giant crocodile, which was completely devoid of its swamp agility, sending it reeling from side to side. With its snout pinned shut by Xu Guang’s hand, it was practically defenseless.

After delivering a thorough beating, Xu Guang fed it another bird stuffed with his own blood. The giant crocodile calmed down considerably; it seemed to finally understand his intentions. After swallowing the bird, it clamped its mouth shut and curled up its body, assuming a posture ready to take a beating, as if telling Xu Guang to hit it again.

Speechless, Xu Guang noted that crocodiles were cold-blooded creatures with unsurprisingly low intelligence. Even an Exotic Beast comparable to the Refining Viscera Realm could be this stupid. He stepped forward, stood on its back, and signaled for it to start crawling. After multiple attempts to synchronize, the giant crocodile finally managed to understand some of his basic commands.

Looking at the giant crocodile he had preliminarily tamed, Xu Guang wore a satisfied expression, a surge of excitement rising in his heart. Through his two-pronged approach, he had actually managed to tame such a terrifying beast. His reason for taming it wasn’t just to find a way out. He had realized that this swamp was incredibly vast. Even with his Celestial Eye, he couldn’t see its boundaries; it had to be roughly a hundred miles in circumference. The eerie Divine Temple was highly likely located somewhere within the swamp. To avoid putting himself in danger in the water, he decided to borrow the giant crocodile’s strength. After all, it was a Refining Viscera Realm Exotic Beast—a local overlord of the swamp.

Standing on the giant crocodile’s back, Xu Guang felt high-spirited. Pointing in a specific direction, he commanded, "Go!"

The giant crocodile remained completely motionless. Only after Xu Guang fed it another bird did it finally begin to swim.

One man and one crocodile traveled together through the desolate mountains and ancient forests. The swamp was massive and dotted with many small islands. Every time they passed one, Xu Guang would signal his mount to stop so he could go ashore and search. Since this area had been unvisited by humans for years, there were bound to be Treasure Medicines or similar items around. Unfortunately, the swamp was teeming with Exotic Beasts, and most of the Treasure Medicines on the islands had already been dug up and eaten. It was only thanks to the foul stench of a Treasure Medicine like the Five Divine Fruits, coupled with the fact that they grew in the territory of this stupid giant crocodile beneath his feet, that they had survived. Xu Guang had to admit he was quite lucky.

To Xu Guang’s surprise, as they progressed, a faint, hazy red mist began to rise over the swamp. Even though the trees here were no longer dense and the blazing sun hung high in the sky, the red mist persisted. The giant crocodile’s speed in the water was not slow, and they soon covered nearly ten miles.

From afar, through the red mist, Xu Guang spotted a massive, incomparably majestic Divine Temple. The Divine Temple stood deep within the swamp like a work of uncanny craftsmanship. Massive wooden crossbeams suspended in mid-air, and the exquisitely detailed roof tiles didn’t seem like objects belonging to the mortal realm. Blood-red clouds roiled above, instantly blotting out the light between heaven and earth, while waves of a ghastly, terrifying aura permeated the surroundings. Through the half-open temple doors, a peerlessly majestic idol caught Xu Guang’s eye. The statue appeared to extend out from the void, looking just like a living creature trying to shatter the world’s barrier from an unseen realm to descend into reality. Hideous streams of blood mist shot up into the sky from the Divine Temple, carrying a tragically vibrant shade of red. There was no sound at all—it was a world of deathly silence.

The idol was roughly two hundred feet tall, its entire body as black as ink, with a pair of hideous, blood-red wings growing from its back. Around it, one could almost see a vast expanse of bones paving a sea of death—a sea of blood! The moment he laid eyes on the idol, Xu Guang felt as if struck by lightning. His Blood Eye abruptly clamped shut. Threads of blood slowly seeped out, turning into clear water in the blink of an eye.

Xu Guang couldn’t help but clutch his head, collapsing onto the giant crocodile’s back, trembling uncontrollably. His spirit was unprecedentedly withered. The vitality and blood surrounding his body seemed to connect to an invisible Different Dimension Space, siphoning away his energy in a bizarre manner. The dense cluster of Essence Blood in his Blood Eye was vanishing rapidly.

Just what kind of existence was this? A single glance was enough to almost drain his Life. Within it, he seemed to have witnessed... another world!

Having stolen only a brief glimpse, Xu Guang violently severed the image from his mind. The Essence Blood within his Blood Eye returned to normal. Panting heavily, Xu Guang desperately urged the giant crocodile to turn around. Right at that moment, a spine-chilling, bizarre knocking sound echoed in reality from the distant Divine Temple, and an invisible wisp of mist merged into Xu Guang’s body. The giant crocodile seemed paralyzed by fear. Under Xu Guang’s relentless urging, it finally realized the gravity of the situation. Spinning around, its comically short limbs began paddling frantically to flee.