Chapter 41: Secret Realm of the Divine Mist (04)

"K-Kael! Don’t rush in like that—spirit beasts are much more powerful than human cultivators!" Seraphine shouted, her voice coming out higher-pitched than she would have liked.

There was a reason the sect allowed pairs in that place. One of the greatest dangers in that secret realm was precisely the spirit beasts.

While they were inside, disciples who had not yet reached the Golden Core Realm always formed groups, because only then could they hunt these beasts with any confidence.

A spirit beast—especially one as powerful as that serpent—would normally require at least three or four Foundation Establishment Realm cultivators to be slain safely, without anyone sustaining serious injuries.

Seraphine clenched her teeth and lunged forward, her boots sinking into the damp earth as she ran to catch up with Kael. Her sword slid free of its sheath with a sharp metallic scrape.

Fortunately, that wasn’t necessary.

She stopped mid-stride.

Her pupils contracted, and her breath caught in her throat.

Kael’s spear struck the beast squarely on the forehead, one of the toughest areas of its scales.

An attack like that, against a beast of that size, should have ricocheted. The only way to kill it was to aim for its weak spots.

Even so, Kael seemed to encounter almost no resistance.

The seven claws he had formed with the Spear Art of the Seven Flaming Claws fused into a single enormous claw, slamming into the scales half a second after the tip of the spear.

The black scales shattered instantly with a sound like cracking stone. The beast’s nearly boiling blood exploded in all directions, sizzling as it splashed onto the surrounding leaves and rising in wisps of smoke.

The spear sank all the way to the hilt, drawing a pitiful hiss from the serpent, which was clearly unprepared to feel its defenses fail like that.

The flaming blade continued to gnaw through the scales, cutting deeper and deeper, the heat it released cooking the serpent’s organs from within. The stench of charred flesh spread through the clearing.

Kael smiled, feeling the exact moment the spearhead pierced the brain.

Without hesitation, he planted both feet against the serpent’s head and used the momentum to leap backward, the spear sliding out of the wound with a wet, sucking sound.

The instant the weapon stopped stemming the flow, blood gushed out even more forcefully, soaking the forest floor and making the earth bubble and steam.

The beast, its brain seared by Kael’s fire Qi, could only thrash about.

Its nearly ten-metric-ton body toppled trees for dozens of meters as it writhed, the crack of snapping trunks echoing through the woods and scattering birds in the distance.

Soon the terrible poisonous Qi began to seep out, a greenish mist rising from the carcass.

Kael wasted no time and wrapped an arm around Seraphine’s slender waist, feeling the warmth of her body through the thin fabric of her robe.

He retreated another twenty paces, pulling her along until they were both well clear of the mist-covered area.

"Your husband is amazing, isn’t he? You don’t need to worry about my health." Kael gave a soft chuckle and a light slap on Seraphine’s butt.

Honestly, he’d already expected a result like this, since his base attributes totaled more than double what a cultivator of his level should normally have.

Still, killing a creature of that level with a single blow exceeded even his expectations.

"Humpff, you got lucky!" She crossed her arms, looking away and puffing out her cheeks in an adorable display, though the faint pink on her ears gave her away.

"Do you know how to clean this thing? I’ve taken classes on how to clean beasts, but nothing this big..." she said after a second of silence, eyeing the serpent’s massive body, which was still twitching in the distance.

Kael thought for a brief moment.

Obviously, he had never touched a spirit beast before, but luckily, the former owner of that body—precisely because he was so weak—loved to read.

One of his main interests, in fact, had been the handling of spirit beasts, including how to deal with their carcasses.

That serpent was one of the species the former owner had studied most closely, even though the one lying there was a variant.

Its body offered five main resources.

The eyes, venom, and blood were top-grade materials for alchemy and array creation, highly coveted by every alchemist and array master in the sect, who would pay a fortune for them.

The fangs and scales were extremely useful for crafting armor, artifacts, weapons, and other items that required high durability, although they were worth far less than the other three.

The meat was practically useless, since eating it was a sure way to die, the poison dissolving the body from the inside out.

As soon as the beast stopped moving completely, Kael launched a direct attack at its neck, decapitating it just to be sure. The massive head rolled to the side with a dull thud.

An hour later, the poisonous Qi dissipated, and he got to work.

While Kael was already reaping the first rewards of the secret realm, about two hundred kilometers away, two figures stood motionless on a beach, the salty wind whipping against their faces and the waves breaking just a few meters from their feet.

"What’s going on, you good-for-nothing? Tell me," David demanded in a cold voice, watching the dying figure of Lucian Purewind kneeling in the wet sand.

His cultivation hadn’t declined, yet he was so much weaker, so pathetic.

He could barely move.

"I-it’s nothing," Lucian sighed, forcing himself to stand, his legs trembling and his knees caked in sand.

"Come on, I’ll use the artifact to find Sol. After that, I can try to track down that damned Kael... Seraphine will be by his side."

Lucian stayed on his feet, still shaking, cold sweat trickling down his temples and stinging his eyes.

He swallowed a Qi recovery pill, and the warmth that spread through his chest made it far easier for him to walk.

Honestly, he didn’t know what was going on.

Twice in a row, his cultivation had suffered terrible damage, to the point where he thought he might die at any moment.

The elders of his family had inspected every inch of his body but found nothing out of the ordinary.

It was truly strange, and if it weren’t for his desire to see Kael dead, Lucian would never have dared to enter that secret realm.

Just imagining Kael being torn in half by David brought a thin smile to his pale face.