Chapter 506 - 249: Sacred Beast?
"Ganging up on a lone dragon? This king won’t stoop to your level!"
The giant beast let out a great roar and bolted toward the Moon.
Its body, already resembling that of a great dragon, snaked through the void with incredible speed, as fast as a flash of sword light.
Seeing this, Koria leaped into the air and gave chase.
"My King!"
The second-in-command of the Oran people, Turiff—the very one who had previously rebelled against Koria—stepped forward from behind him and asked the question.
While not as powerful as Koria or the man Zhao Rui had previously obliterated, he was the sharpest mind in the group.
Seeing that the giant beast’s size and abilities were formidable, he worried Koria would be no match for it and hurried forward to inquire.
Although he had once held Koria captive, their race was extremely tight-knit. Especially now, with their numbers so diminished, they couldn’t let Koria take such a risk.
"Let’s follow them."
This giant beast was, of course, the Viper King Venerable that Zhao Rui had previously defeated. Zhao Rui was curious about its actions; based on its trajectory, it was clearly headed for the Moon.
’That place is utterly desolate, with a climate of extreme heat and cold. Why isn’t it on Blue Star finding a place to recuperate? What’s it doing running all over the place?’
Zhao Rui took to the air, leading the others in pursuit of the Viper King Venerable.
The expanse of space was vast and boundless. The distance between Blue Star and the Moon was several hundred thousand kilometers.
But for a cultivator of Zhao Rui’s level, whose entire body was permeated and covered by True Qi, flight was no longer a simple matter of force acting on mass to generate velocity.
It was more like a method of propulsion based on spatial repulsion.
One’s mass, enveloped by True Qi, became practically nonexistent.
A True Qi Domain would form around the practitioner. Within this Domain, True Qi was propelled forward by their consciousness. The person became like the tip of a cone, creating a pressure differential between the True Qi in front and behind, causing them to be squeezed forward by the True Qi at their back.
In a vacuum, their theoretical speed could reach a tenth of the speed of light, or even higher.
Of course, this required an extremely profound foundation of True Qi and Power.
This True Qi was invisible and intangible, yet it truly existed. Only when channeled would it manifest in various material forms.
And in outer space, it remained in a formless, substanceless state.
Zhao Rui had long since transcended the Domain Realm, so his speed was simply unimaginable.
The group tailed it the entire way, quickly arriving in the vicinity of the Moon.
The Viper King Venerable had also spotted Zhao Rui and his followers. A wicked smirk actually appeared in its beastly eyes.
"ROAR!"
The Viper King Venerable twisted its head and spat out several blasts of arctic frost, sealing the space behind it.
It then vanished in a flash, plummeting downward.
Koria swung his fist. With a flash of light from his Armor, he shattered the solid ice in a single punch.
"That bastard!"
Koria hadn’t expected the creature to actually use its brain. It wasn’t just one block of ice, but a series of them, spaced out at intervals.
This prevented Koria from simply barreling through; he had to shatter them one by one.
By the time he had smashed through them all, he saw that the giant beast had already landed on the edge of a crater on the Moon.
Its draconic mouth hung open, as if mocking him.
Koria was enraged. His mind went blank, and he charged straight ahead.
"Koria, come back!"
Turiff, following close behind, was horrified and yelled for him to stop.
But Koria was too fast; he had already plunged downward.
Seeing this, Zhao Rui flickered and instantly appeared behind Koria, grabbing hold of him.
He brought Koria’s descent to an abrupt halt.
"My King, that crawler is infuriating..."
Koria said respectfully when he saw it was Zhao Rui.
"It’s nothing."
Zhao Rui glanced down at the Viper King Venerable, which was staring up at them with a provocative gaze, then teleported away with Koria in tow.
The Viper King Venerable’s eyes narrowed, and it let out two triumphant, mocking roars at the pair.
Zhao Rui paid it no mind and flew off into the distance.
A moment later, he returned, steering a massive meteorite toward the Moon.
The meteorite was a full ten kilometers long, its mass immeasurably great.
Zhao Rui transformed into his Purple Mansion Nascent Soul Body and, using a bit of Skillful Force, altered its trajectory.
The Viper King Venerable stared at the enormous meteorite, its draconic eyes widening into perfect circles.
"ROAR!"
This time, its roar was not one of triumph, but of terror.
’He wouldn’t!’ it thought. The Moon was different from Blue Star; its atmosphere was practically nonexistent.
If that thing hit, the entire Moon would be in turmoil for ages.
The crucial part was that Zhao Rui was using it like a missile, aimed precisely at the Viper King Venerable’s location.
’There’s no doubt about it, he’s got an ambush waiting for me here. If this thing hits, no ambush in the world will do any good.’
As the Viper King Venerable roared in fury, several bizarrely-shaped Exotic Beasts flew out of the crater.
One looked like a giant toad with a horn on its forehead. Another resembled a winged white tiger, but unlike a tiger, it had hooves instead of clawed paws.
There were several other Exotic Beasts whose appearances were so strange that Zhao Rui couldn’t immediately describe them.
"What kind of bastard are you? Have you no sense of decency? We finally get to see the light of day, and you want to smash the Moon?"
A startling Divine Soul Transmission echoed clearly in the minds of Zhao Rui, Koria, and the others.
"Oh? Wasn’t it this crawler who started the provocation?"
Zhao Rui transmitted back coldly.
"Grrr!"
"Viper, were you that bored? Why’d you go and provoke someone so powerful?"
"Chi Hu, he’s the one who injured me! This is a perfect opportunity! You have to help me get revenge."
"Oh?"
Hearing the Viper King Venerable’s words, the tiger-like Exotic Beast flapped its wings, leaped off the Moon’s surface, and flew to a spot several dozen kilometers in front of Zhao Rui.
Its tiger eyes sized up Zhao Rui from head to toe, then glanced at the Oran people beside him.
It frowned. "You and these people aren’t one and the same. They don’t have the aura of Blue Star."
Zhao Rui was taken aback. He hadn’t expected the tiger to have such an ability. He couldn’t help but smile. "What difference does it make?"
"They don’t possess the consciousness of Mother Earth! But you’re different. Your aura is rich. You’re not even from Gui Xu."
This time, Zhao Rui was truly astonished.
’I’ve never heard of that before.’
"Brother Hu, a creature as majestic and extraordinary as yourself would be called a Sacred Beast where I come from!"
"A Sacred Beast?"
A human-like expression of pleasant surprise appeared in Chi Hu’s eyes. He asked eagerly, "And what is the meaning of this word, ’sacred’?"
"To be all-knowing is to be ’sacred’! A Saint is one who is connected to all things! Heaven created the four cardinal points, and with them, the Four Sacred Beasts. They communicate between heaven and earth and suppress the primordial chaos. They are the Four Saints! And the tiger among them is none other than the White Tiger Sacred Beast!"
Zhao Rui spouted, making it all up on the spot.
"Oh, so there is such a wonderful story."
Chi Hu’s eyes darted back and forth. Suddenly, an expression resembling a human smile appeared on his face as he said:
"We are the Innate Strange Beasts of Gui Xu. It stands to reason, then, that an Innate being is also a sacred one. Therefore, shouldn’t we also have a place in this world?"
"Haven’t you always lived in Gui Xu, which is now the overlapping Pangu Continent?"
Zhao Rui asked, surprised.
He had personally experienced the Exotic Beasts rampaging across Blue Star. ’Logically,’ he thought, ’these even more powerful beasts should be lording over Pangu Continent, living freely and comfortably.’
"Bah!"
Chi Hu spat and said angrily, "That unreasonable old bastard King Zhou brought a band of experts and drove us out."
"King Zhou? Drove you out?"
Zhao Rui felt he was onto something new.
"Brother Hu, why don’t you tell me the details,"
Zhao Rui said with a smile, looking extremely interested.
Upon hearing this, Chi Hu nodded eagerly. Just as he was about to open his mouth and send a transmission, the Viper King Venerable’s enraged voice boomed from below. "Chi Hu, are you an idiot? He’s my enemy! What are you chatting with him for?"
"He’s your enemy, not mine!"
Chi Hu shot the Viper King Venerable a disdainful glare, then turned his head back and began to speak with great interest.
This act infuriated the Viper King Venerable. With a great flick of its tail, it caused one side of the crater to collapse.
"HISS!"
The Exotic Beast next to it, displeased by the Viper King Venerable’s action, bared its fangs and growled.
The Viper King Venerable was already fuming, and it instantly began brawling with the other beast.
Zhao Rui listened to Chi Hu’s eloquent explanation while watching the two Exotic Beasts battle below.
He barely managed to keep himself from laughing out loud.
’Beasts will be beasts,’ he thought. ’Even if they are Innate, nourished by True Qi, and born with intelligence, their animal nature still dominates.’
"That King Zhou is nothing special. This Brother Hu is just too small right now. Once I grow a few more dozen meters, what will I have to fear from him...?"
"It’s not that I couldn’t beat him. I just didn’t want my brothers to get hurt, so I made a temporary compromise."
Chi Hu tossed his massive head, sending saliva flying everywhere.