Translator: CinderTL
As the Thunderlight faded, the monster's protective shield had dwindled to a paper-thin layer, as fragile as a stack of eggs.
Song Wen, wielding the sun-chasing spear, thrust it fiercely into the monster's abdomen.
The creature didn't evade. Its blood-red maw gaped wide, emitting a series of piercing wails as its long tongue shot out like a spear, aimed directly at Song Wen's face.
A bowl-sized Blood-colored Tentacle suddenly erupted from Song Wen's head, intercepting the tongue.
The monster's wails caused only a slight stinging sensation in Song Wen's Sea of Consciousness, inflicting no real harm.
Meanwhile, the sun-chasing spear effortlessly pierced the crumbling protective shield.
With a flash of its tip, the spear plunged into the monster's abdomen.
Yet, contrary to Song Wen's expectations, he felt no resistance as the spear pierced the monster's flesh. Instead, it felt as if he were stabbing into empty space.
The monster's abdomen suddenly turned translucent, revealing a basin-sized void. The sun-chasing spear slid into the void without obstruction.
At that moment, the monster's tongue collided with the Blood-colored Tentacle.
Song Wen felt an immense force strike him, sending him flying backward several dozen meters.
But instead of being alarmed, he was delighted. The monster had also been forced back, retreating over sixty meters.
The monster's physical body was far weaker than he had imagined, barely comparable to a mid-to-late fifth-tier demon beast.
Yet its piercing shriek could make even Void Refinement Stage cultivators pale with fear.
This was a demon beast with formidable divine sense but a relatively frail physical form.
Song Wen moved swiftly, closing the distance once more.
The sun-chasing spear in his hand seemed to ignite with the blazing sun, its tip spitting out blindingly bright spear light.
Simultaneously, the Blood-colored Tentacle above his head rose high like a long whip, lashing out fiercely at the monster.
The monster dared not meet the attack head-on, instantly conjuring a Source Qi Shield before it.
The sun-chasing spear and the Blood-colored Tentacle struck the shield in quick succession.
Despite the overwhelming power of these attacks, their ability to suppress Primordial Qi was clearly inferior to the domineering force of thunder magic.
The Source Qi Shield trembled violently but remained unbroken.
However, the combined force of the sun-chasing spear and the Blood-colored Tentacle sent the monster staggering backward, its retreat clumsy and undignified.
The protective shield remained intact, but a phantom shadow shot out from within, moving with blinding speed. In an instant, it pierced Song Wen's skull.
Everything happened too quickly; Song Wen seemed completely caught off guard.
Yet his face showed no trace of panic. Instead, a sinister grin spread across his lips.
"Since you're here, you won't be leaving!"
The phantom shadow that had pierced Song Wen's skull was the monster's elongated tongue, now in its ethereal form.
The tongue plunged deep, heading straight for Song Wen's Sea of Consciousness.
However, the scene within the Sea of Consciousness was unlike any other it had encountered before.
A colossal Black Hole hung high in the Sea of Consciousness, resembling an endless, fathomless night sky. Its boundless expanse radiated an irresistible pressure, instantly immobilizing the tongue, freezing it in place.
Outside the Sea of Consciousness, the monster within the Source Qi Shield clearly sensed the anomaly within Song Wen's Sea of Consciousness.
Its tongue thrashed wildly, yet it remained trapped, unable to break free from the Sea of Consciousness's binding force.
Song Wen watched the trembling phantom shadow of the tongue before him, his hands rapidly forming a seal.
In an instant, overwhelming heavenly might surged forth from above.
Boom!
A bolt of violet-gold lightning descended from the heavens, striking the Source Qi Shield.
Instantly, the entire shield was enveloped by countless violet-gold lightning serpents.
The Primordial Qi dissipated, and the protective shield gradually weakened.
A cold glint flashed, and a spear surged forward with unstoppable momentum, its sharp point piercing through the already weakened Source Qi Shield.
The spear pierced through the shield, revealing the monster still thrashing its head, desperately trying to retract its long tongue.
Undeterred, the spear continued its trajectory, aiming directly for the monster's head.
The monster's body rapidly began to fade, transforming into a phantom shadow in an instant.
The spear pierced through the phantom shadow as if striking empty air, encountering no substantial resistance.
"Courting death!" Song Wen snorted coldly, Thunderlight crackling across his palm.
The Thunderlight surged from his hand, racing along the spear toward the monster's phantom shadow.
The monster panicked, but its long tongue remained suppressed by the Black Hole in Song Wen's Sea of Consciousness. Even its ability to extend and retract its tongue seemed to be suppressed. Trapped and unable to escape, it could only watch helplessly as the Thunderlight surged along the spear, invaded its phantom shadow, and erupted within its ethereal form.
In an instant, thunderlight erupted, illuminating the phantom shadow with blinding intensity.
The phantom shadow began to tremble violently, countless fine cracks appearing across its surface.
Suddenly, the monster solidified, its entire body becoming tangible.
The spear remained embedded in its skull, thunderlight still raging within its form.
Its long tongue had snapped in two.
The portion that had burrowed into Song Wen's Sea of Consciousness remained in phantom shadow form, while the severed tail end solidified along with the rest of its body.
The monster's aura instantly weakened, and its body plummeted from mid-air.
Song Wen unleashed a surge of spiritual power, lifting the critically wounded, dying creature and speeding toward the Primordial Qi Death Zone's exit.
Before long, he emerged from the Death Zone and found a nearby mountain. At its base, he carved out a cavern a hundred zhang wide and entered.
After setting up the Heavenly Mechanism Concealment Formation, Song Wen began to scrutinize the monster he had tossed onto the ground.
Though a fist-sized hole had been punched through the monster's skull and its body had been ravaged by thunder, it stubbornly clung to life, struggling desperately on the brink of death.
Remarkably, not a single drop of blood seeped from the wound in its skull.
Moreover, its internal structure differed drastically from that of ordinary demon beasts. Instead of flesh and blood, it exhibited a wood-like composition.
"What kind of demon beast is this?" Song Wen wondered inwardly.
His curiosity about the monster stemmed from two reasons:
First, the shadow void within Jiang Yushan's Sea of Consciousness. If Jiang Lanruo successfully hatched the shadow void, she could obtain a medicinal pill to aid her advancement to the Body Integration Stage, highlighting the monster's rarity.
Second, the severed tip of the monster's long tongue, which had been swallowed by the Sea of Consciousness Black Hole, possessed a soul comparable to that of a fourth-tier demonic beast.
Additionally, he was intrigued by the monster's ability to shift between corporeal and incorporeal states.
After scrutinizing it for a long time, Song Wen could discern nothing particularly unusual about the monster's appearance.
He raised his hand and patted the Spirit Beast Pouch at his waist, and the Nether Fox materialized.
The Nether Fox's soul had sustained severe damage, rendering it unconscious.
Its condition was critical; prolonged exposure to this state risked the complete dissipation of its soul.
Song Wen flipped his hand and produced a jade bottle, from which he poured out a medicinal pill and placed it in the Nether Fox's mouth.
This pill was called the Divine Soul Restoration Pill, and as its name suggested, it was specifically formulated to heal the divine soul.
Due to the Black Hole in his Sea of Consciousness, Song Wen rarely suffered injuries to his divine soul. Even when such injuries occurred, he could repair them by devouring other souls. Consequently, he had no need for such pills, and this one was certainly not something he had purchased.
In truth, even if he had wanted to buy it, obtaining the Divine Soul Restoration Pill would have been nearly impossible.
These pills were exceedingly rare and prohibitively expensive, making them inaccessible to ordinary cultivators.
He had acquired these pills after slaying Chi Pei, obtaining a total of three.
The Divine Soul Restoration Pill was a human-made remedy, and Song Wen had no idea whether it would be effective on the Nether Fox.
But with no other options available—he couldn't immediately procure spirit grass or medicinal pills specifically for treating demon beast souls—he had no choice but to take the risk and try it.
(End of the Chapter)
Translator's Corner
Massive Content Drop! 💥
(Across Cinder & Anubis)
I've uploaded 300,000 words in just seven days—that's a staggering 42,000 words every single day. We're talking roughly 230 NEW CHAPTERS(@1300 words/chapter) ready for you to binge right now.
🔥 Bonus: Every single premium chapter of Firearms Fantasy is now totally FREE!
🔓 𝐰𝐰𝐰.𝐜𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐭𝐥.𝐜𝐨𝐦 — 13 Series (7 Ongoing) | 14+ New Chapters Daily | 7,200+ FREE