Chapter 46
Roar!
The sound rocked a hundred miles in every direction.
For the first time, Lysara felt cowed by the aura of a Spirit avatar, words tumbled out in panic.
"The blood essence and Spirit soul resentment of the Ice Heaven Alluring Fox merged into this fox avatar, it can’t come out, but its aura pours straight through the stele."
"Master, please..."
"Please be extremely careful."
She stalled a beat before finishing, for a split second she felt she was playing the role too deep, genuinely worrying over Soren’s life.
He looked as if the avatar’s aura meant nothing at all.
Is that the confidence of a Middle-Tier Demon Emperor? No, that can’t be it, she didn’t fully understand Soren, but she could read an aura.
The fox’s aura was immense, even filtered through the stele’s barrier, it gave nothing away to the Upper-Tier Emperor realm, and this was only an avatar, condensed from bloody intent and soul resentment.
Which meant the Ice Heaven Alluring Fox expert who left this seal must have stood beyond an Upper-Tier Spirit Emperor, a cold premonition crawled up her spine.
Then she watched Soren reach his hand toward the Dragon-Suppressing Stele.
The instant he touched it, red flames whooshed alight on his fingertips.
The flames were a piece of the fox avatar itself, it couldn’t leave the stele, but whoever touched the stone from outside was tainted by bloody intent and soul resentment, body and mind eroding fast.
Lysara stared at the red fire chewing up his wrist and forearm, her brow knotting, the flame radiated a violence like nothing she’d felt, a Middle-Tier Demon Emperor could not put that out.
"While it hasn’t spread to the heart and Dantian, cut off that arm, now, master might still keep his life!"
Her reaction was fast, the answer she offered was the only one an ordinary cultivator could reach on a few seconds’ notice, had the flames caught her instead, she’d have had no other choice.
"Making a fuss over nothing."
A thought flipped the Strategy Encyclopedia into Six Paths Form Diagram mode, and Soren activated Devour.
The red flames shredded into wisps and vanished down his hand in under a second, the strange energy fed straight back into his soul, a pity there was so little, his soul strength barely moved, he shook his head.
That calm expression left Lysara stupefied, it had never occurred to her that he could devour a thing others fled from like the plague.
What kind of monster is this? Can his body truly take it?
Soren flipped the Form Diagram again, and finer information on the stele and the fox avatar rolled down the panel.
[The Spirit fox avatar is an integration of bloody intent from blood essence and remnant thoughts born of the Spirit soul.]
[Judging from its formation, it is over ten thousand years old.]
[The seal of the Dragon-Suppressing Stele has now loosened, the Heaven-Robbing Black Dragon beneath the mountain will soon wake from its slumber.]
[To halt the loosening and reinforce the seal, two steps are required.]
[Step one: eradicate the Spirit fox avatar.]
[Step two: extract the blood essence of an Ice Heaven Alluring Fox clansman who has broken through to the Ancestor Realm, and inject it into the stele to repair the damage.]
Soren stared at the panel.
"Ancestor Realm."
"There are rumors such a realm exists."
"Anyone who breaks through to it is the Chosen One of their entire race, someone like that might not appear once in tens of thousands of years!"
"The last of the demon race to reach it was Nythera, first master of the Heavenly Resentment Demonic Sword."
"As far as I know, the strongest cultivator on the whole Exalted Continent today is no more than Upper-Tier Emperor Realm, break through to the Ancestor Realm, easy as that!"
"To think keeping this seal stable demands the blood essence of an Ancestor Realm fox."
"Damn it, when will they ever produce one? That’s harder than me breaking through myself!"
Even Soren had to curse a little reading that.
In plain terms, devouring the whole avatar and returning it to blood and soul would only stop the seal from loosening further.
The damage already done required fresh Ancestor Realm blood essence, without it, the Heaven-Robbing Black Dragon below would still wake one day and shatter the seal.
Reinforcing was impossible, abandoning Black Dragon Mountain was too great a waste, Soren turned it over, then changed his mind entirely.
He set his sights on the Heaven-Robbing Black Dragon itself.
The instant his target shifted, new lines surfaced on the Strategy Encyclopedia.
[The Ice Heaven Alluring Fox who sealed the Heaven-Robbing Black Dragon was a terrifying entity who broke through to Lower-Tier Spirit Ancestor.]
[But the Heaven-Robbing Black Dragon it sealed is more absurd still.]
[Its realm is Middle-Tier Spirit Ancestor.]
[The strategy method will unlock once Master makes contact with the Heaven-Robbing Black Dragon.]
That the dragon surpassed the fox surprised him not at all.
Had their strength been equal, the fox would never have needed to spend every drop of blood essence and its entire Spirit soul on a seal that bought nothing more than a deep slumber.
He decided to see the dragon in person before deciding anything, the Strategy Encyclopedia supplied the way down.
The seal wraps all of Black Dragon Mountain, ordinary methods cannot penetrate its depths.
The only path beneath the mountain runs through the Dragon-Suppressing Stele.
This requires entering the world within the stele, which carries risk.
The Spirit fox avatar will savagely attack anyone who enters, its strength is no less than an ordinary Upper-Tier Emperor Realm expert’s.
Ordinary Upper-Tier Emperors had stopped concerning Soren some time ago, Grant made a fine example.
The trip was worth taking, conquer the Heaven-Robbing Black Dragon, and he gained a monstrous asset while neutralizing the mountain’s eventual rampage in one stroke.
Anyone else, hearing Middle-Tier Ancestor Realm dragon, would feel their legs turn to water, Soren had the Strategy Encyclopedia, everything had a solution, forget afraid, he couldn’t wait to start.
If the seal couldn’t be fixed, then fix the thing being sealed, a sealed dragon should be that much easier to conquer.
"Follow me." He leaped, and plunged into the Dragon-Suppressing Stele, the mirror-smooth screen of light rippled outward in rings.
Lysara stared at the spot where he vanished, her face frozen. Is he... insane?