Chapter 601 - 479: Earth-Born Gold
The unexpected change was within expectations, and at this moment, Ji An instead felt as if a heavy stone had dropped from his heart.
The most terrifying are the hidden enemies; as for those who reveal themselves, it’s not much of a concern.
As the Yin Soul Beast appeared, it unleashed a spiritual attack, making Ji An feel as if a massive spike had been driven into his Sea of Consciousness, the intense pain forcing him to clench his teeth.
For a cultivator, that instant when the Yin Soul Beast releases its attack is the most dangerous.
The pain from the spirit soul makes it impossible for the cultivator to release magic techniques for a short time, and their control over spiritual artifacts also weakens significantly.
If the Yin Soul Beast can seize this moment to break through the cultivator’s defenses, then it’s truly dangerous.
Fortunately, the stronger the spirit soul, the less damage it takes from the attack, allowing for quicker recovery.
The Yin Soul Beast’s sharp claws glowed with a dark light, and in its eyes, the matter was settled.
During this period, it had ambushed three cultivators without a single failure, devouring their blood and flesh divine souls, significantly enhancing its strength.
It could sense that this opponent’s vital energy was extraordinarily abundant, and their soul exuded an enticing fragrance, far superior to its previous prey.
If it could devour this one’s blood and flesh divine soul, it could reach the critical point of transformation.
Of course, Ji An was unaware of the Yin Soul Beast’s thoughts. If he knew, he would only laugh at it for being so young and naive.
At this moment, despite his injured spirit soul making it difficult to move, how could the many Tier Two defensive measures on him be so easily broken?
At the moment the Yin Soul Beast appeared, the Wuji Xinghuang Banner rippled with tens of thousands of golden flowers, and countless flickering spirit lights like yellow particles instantly filled the passageway, resembling endless quicksand that hindered the enemy’s advance.
This top-grade spiritual artifact, destined to be refined into a lifebound magical treasure in the future, was very reassuring, now providing three layers of defense methods.
The outermost golden flowers were the first layer, serving as an early warning and primary defense.
The second defense method evolved into rolling yellow sand, spinning rapidly, deflecting incoming attacks, and possessing a strong adsorption force, greatly reducing the speed of the enemy entering the spiritual artifact’s defensive range.
The third defense method was the Wu Earth Spirit Light Shell covering the body.
It could be said that his current defensive measures were not something a Chao Origin Stage-level enemy could break.
Unless an extremely powerful spiritual attack could directly incapacitate him, even a Golden Core Level cultivator might not have this ability, let alone one at the early-stage Golden Core.
In fact, if Ji An fully activated the Wuji Xinghuang Banner, the Yin Soul Beast would have no opportunity to advance close to him.
The Yin Soul Beast could become ethereal but not completely disappear, merely becoming invisible. This invisibility was quite advanced, making it undetectable even for Ji An’s eyes, which could see through mist.
However, no matter how brilliant the invisibility, it couldn’t escape the Qi mechanism sensing of the Wuji Xinghuang Banner. As long as the spiritual artifact was activated to produce more golden flowers, the Yin Soul Beast would be forced to reveal itself.
However, as the saying goes, there’s always a thousand days to catch a thief, but not a thousand days to guard against one.
If the Yin Soul Beast chose to trail from a distance indefinitely, he would have to divert energy to constantly remain on guard, so he deliberately used himself as bait to lure and kill it.
The Yin Soul Beast was trapped in the yellow sand, its speed drastically reduced. Realizing something was wrong instinctively, it prepared to turn and leave but moved slowly due to the sand’s adsorption force.
At this time, Ji An managed to recover from the spiritual attack and turned to see the form of the Yin Soul Beast.
Its appearance was like a leopard, without fur, with a toad-like skin, and a black conical horn on its forehead.
Its eyes were yellow-brown, with pale blue vertical pupils.
Their eyes met, and Ji An immediately felt a chilling aura rising in his Sea of Consciousness, as if meeting its gaze could also result in a spiritual attack.
’This is the end!’
Eyes cold, Ji An slightly parted his lips, unleashing a Spirit Roar.
This spiritual attack secret technique had an awkward point: it could only be launched from the front.
Simultaneously, the Earth-Departing Flame Banner appeared, spouting fire element spiritual energy that transformed into the shape of a Phoenix Bird.
After the Spirit Roar was unleashed, a Phoenix cry like fireworks exploding resounded, lighting up the dim passage with crimson spirit light.
Following that, the Earth-Departing Flame Banner merged in a pounce, with its transformed tail feathers flashing red, yellow, blue, and white spirit lights.
The Yin Soul Beast, hit by the dual spiritual attack secret techniques, felt as if thunder exploded in its mind.
Its cold eyes reflected the arrogant figure of the Fire Phoenix, but its body couldn’t transition from solid to ethereal in time, accepting all the attacks.
The flames engulfed it, and the skin and flesh struck directly began to melt instantly from the high temperature.
Before it could recover from the spiritual attack, a three-foot-long Silver Flying Sword, appeared out of nowhere, slashing around its neck.
Subsequently, it watched its view rotate and change, seeing below its familiar body, now headless.
Darkness swept over like a tide, as consciousness gradually faded away.
In front of the Metal Element’s extinction aura, its solid body was insignificant.
Ji An watched as the Yin Soul Beast disintegrated into ash from the outside in, with a look of wistfulness on his face.
Whether it’s a Yin Soul or a Yin Soul Beast, once killed, they turn to ash and disappear; he had killed quite a few Yin Souls these past days, with no gains.
Unless encountering an individual nurturing a soul crystal, exterminating Yin Souls yields no rewards.
Having completed a fishing expedition, Ji An activated the Soul Nourishing Pendant, a one-time spiritual artifact that could rapidly extract the mysterious substance within it by controlling its magic array, to accelerate the nourishment of the spirit soul.
Given his spiritual strength, the attack hadn’t caused significant damage, and with some rest, he would recover.