Chapter 335: Hunting Sea Beasts
Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
The location of the cave Mo Tiange chose was in the depths of the Eastern Sea. Sea beasts wandering about here were mostly of the fifth or sixth rank or occasionally of the seventh rank. Fifth-or-sixth-rank sea beasts were equivalent to cultivators in the early or middle stage of the Core Formation realm, while seventh-rank beasts were equivalent to the late stage—suitable for Mo Tiange.
Of course, she was deep in the Eastern Sea. Fighting with sea beasts in the sea might be more difficult than on land, but cultivators were originally stronger than demonic beasts in fights of magical power, so it should be the same with demonic beasts in the sea. As long as she didn’t encounter a herd of sea beasts, Mo Tiange thought she could deal with them by herself. Even if she was defeated, she could run.
After making up her mind, Mo Tiange began to make some preparations. For example, what if she got besieged? Also, what if she encountered eighth-rank sea beasts?
Theoretically speaking, Mo Yaoqing’s valley was the best place to hide. With such powerful restrictions, even eighth-level sea beasts couldn’t get in. However, as Mo Tiange came out of the Cultivation Room, the restrictions were restored immediately, along with the Seven Extremes Formation. She would be required to break the formation again if she wanted to enter.
Mo Tiange began to rethink how to resolve the problem again. At first, she tried to open another road from the valley, but it turned out that the restrictions set by Mo Yaoqing were so strong that they were very difficult to break even from inside. Later, after thinking that she could modify the Seven Extremes Formation, Mo Tiange went into the Seven Extremes Formation again. But surprisingly, she found that she could come and go through the formation freely!
Why did that happen? The formation had indeed recovered and the spiritual aura in it was as chaotic as when she entered the first time. Mo Tiange tried to figure out the reason. Finally, she realized that it was because she had the Eight Diagrams Pattern of Tai Chi on her.
In that case, she didn’t need to break any restrictions or the Seven Extremes Formation at all. Mo Tiange was so overjoyed.
The mere Eight Diagrams Pattern of Tai Chi was so powerful, so how astonishingly powerful would that Soul-Frightening Bell be? It was Mo Yaoqing’s natal magic weapon! Mo Tiange couldn’t help imagining the magic weapon’s power. Unfortunately, Mo Yaoqing had died and her natal magic weapon must be destroyed.
Nevertheless, Mo Tiange’s own natal magic weapon also wasn’t bad. Her Heaven and Earth Fan had just been in Mo Yaoqing’s imagination, and Mo Yaoqing spoke highly of this magic weapon. Mo Yaoqing didn’t produce the Heaven and Earth Fan because the required materials were too difficult to find, but Mo Tiange had accidentally obtained the bones of the Divine Dragon, a divine beast from the distant past era.
After laying out some defensive methods, Mo Tiange stepped and rose on some clouds and circled around this small island several times.
Originally, the small island had little spirit veins and it was then sealed by Mo Yaoqing with restrictions, so there was only very thin spiritual aura floating around it. Ordinarily, only common sea beasts would swim around here and demonic beasts were a rare sight. Mo Tiange went a little farther only to find some sea beasts above the fifth rank.
When she found the sea beasts, Mo Tiange showed no mercy at all. Whenever she encountered no more than two sea beasts under the sixth rank, she’d take their lives directly with her Heaven and Earth Fan and flying sword then captured the beast cores.
Sea beasts under the sixth rank were no match for her at all. The reason why demonic beasts were strong and violent was because of their strong bodies. Human cultivators’ bodies were weaker than demonic beasts’, but they had the wisdom to create magic weapons with powerful arts of tool-refining, which were stronger than the bodies of demonic beasts.
The Illusory Formation of her Heaven and Earth Fan was the perfect nemesis for demonic beasts. They weren’t intelligent enough to distinguish reality in the Illusory Formation, and under the power of Heaven and Earth Fan, they bumped into it like turtles in a jar.
The more Mo Tiange killed, the more skillful she became. Gradually, she mastered all usages of the Heaven and Earth Fan.
Two months passed quickly. During this time, she killed a sea beast daily on average and had accumulated fifty or sixty beast cores. But gradually, she couldn’t find any more sea beasts to hunt. In the last few days, she had flown far away from the island, yet she still found no traces of sea beasts.
She couldn’t have killed all the sea beasts around here, could she? Mo Tiange was confused. The sea was so much larger than the land. How could there be so few sea beasts?
It seemed she was right. However, she forgot that the sea beasts she killed were all high-level sea beasts. Even though the sea was huge, there wouldn’t be an endless stream of high-level sea beasts for her to kill in the nearby waters.
But Mo Tiange seemed to have formed an addiction to killing. In order to find sea beasts, she searched further and further.
Stepping on her Cloud-Treading Boots, Mo Tiange stared at the calm sea and suddenly saw a spray of water blossoming out. With her sharp eyes, she found a dark blue tail, so she immediately strengthened her divine sense. Sure enough, there was a sea beast diving into the sea as fast as it could. Judging from the spiritual aura all around its body, it should be a fifth-rank demonic beast.
A flying sword appeared in her hand swiftly and she swung her sleeves. The flying sword then plunged downward with lightning speed and struck the dark blue tail on the sea’s surface with spiritual aura surging.
“Aww!” There was a dull cry of pain, and the sea beast darted out of the water, gliding with its tail and trying to shake off the flying sword.
“Sea Dragon?” Upon seeing the sea beast’s appearance, Mo Tiange was slightly surprised. Sea Dragons weren’t real dragons, of course. They were just a group of sea beasts. They were much shorter than real dragons, had short wings, were better suited for swimming in the water, had no horns, and had sharp teeth. They were covered with dark blue scales, very much like a dragon.
Although they weren’t real dragons, Sea Dragons were also very useful sea beasts. According to historical records, Sea Dragons’ skin and bones were very tough and were good materials for refining tools. However, Sea Dragons were very rare among the sea beasts. Mo Tiange had been here for more than two months and had only seen one Sea Dragon, yet that one had escaped.
Now that there was a fifth-rank Sea Dragon before her, so she definitely wouldn’t let it escape. Mo Tiange unfolded her Heaven and Earth Fan and suddenly rushed downward. With the Fan spreading, mountains and rivers pressed down on the Sea Dragon.
The Sea Dragon’s tail was still nailed by her flying sword, so it had nowhere to hide and was covered up tightly.
Upon seeing this, Mo Tiange shook her arm and took back her flying sword. Then she waved it forward to kill the Sea Dragon.
Right at that moment, a wave suddenly came from the deep sea and a powerful spiritual aura rose from the bottom. At the same time, the nearby waters surged and waves rose fiercely.
Mo Tiange frowned and turned to look around. Had some kind of powerful sea beast showed up?
As the spiritual aura fluctuated more and more obviously, Mo Tiange could confirm that it was a seventh-rank sea beast!
A seventh-rank sea beast. It would be difficult to fight, but at least she had the ability to fight. Mo Tiange thought about it for a little while and decided to handle the Sea Dragon first then fought the seventh-rank sea beast.
But just as she was about to throw out her flying sword, there was a voice in her mind: “Stop!”
Mo Tiange was surprised. It was a voice transmission through divine sense! The sea beast could understand human language?
The sea waves rose high in midair, and Mo Tiange had to fly higher to avoid them. The Sea Dragon she had trapped, however, growled and writhed with excitement.
Then a sea beast came out of the water.
It was also a Sea Dragon, but it was much larger than the fifth-rank Sea Dragon she had trapped. It had blue scales all over which glowed with a slight golden light, with a pair of long and thin eyes looking at Mo Tiange deeply.
In that instant, Mo Tiange dimly felt that this pair of eyes contained endless pieces of life and wisdom.
Theoretically speaking, sea beasts of the seventh rank were supposed to have very low intelligence, and when they reached the eighth rank, their intelligence was comparable to that of humans.
“Human!” Staring at the Sea Dragon’s eyes, Mo Tiange heard the voice in her mind again. “Don’t hurt my offspring!”
Mo Tiange narrowed her eyes slightly while looking at the Sea Dragon. This was the first time she had talked to a demonic beast.
“Who…are you?” she asked tentatively.
The Sea Dragon floated in midair, gently wagging its tail, and communicated with her by his divine comprehension again. “I’m the ancestor of Sea Dragons in this area.”
“Oh…” Mo Tiange nodded. “You understand human language?”
The Sea Dragon looked at her and opened its mouth. “I have lived for nearly ten thousand years. In the early years, I was a powerful cultivator’s spiritual beast, so I understand human language.”
“A cultivator?”
The Sea Dragon shook its head and looked as if it was nodding. “Right. The cultivator has long sat waiting for his death. After that, the spiritual beast contract between him and I became invalidated and I was free. Since then, I’ve lived here for thousands of years.”
Upon hearing this, Mo Tiange squinted. Thousands of years, powerful cultivators, spiritual beasts… Was it Mo Yaoqing’s spiritual beast? Mo Tiange couldn’t help thinking this. But she didn’t ask that immediately and put it in another way instead: “You’re just a seventh-rank demonic beast. How could you have lived so long?”
The Sea Dragon answered, “We Sea Dragons have the bloodline of Dragons, a divine beast from the Distant Past era. We’re naturally different from low-level demonic beasts.” It said this very proudly. “Demonic beasts’ lifespans are originally different from humans, not to mention that us Sea Dragons have a lifespan that’s much longer than common demonic beasts. It’s typical for us to live for thousands of years or even tens of thousands of years.”
“Oh…”
The Sea Dragon looked at the young sea dragon which was still trapped in Mo Tiange’s Heaven and Earth Fan. “Human, you’ve been here for months, and in those months, you’ve killed most of the high-level demonic beasts in this area, and you almost killed a member of our Sea Dragons family. If you go on like this, you will kill all the high-level demonic beasts in this area, then you will bring yourself great misfortune!”
“What great misfortune?” Mo Tiange asked. The relationship between human beings and demonic beasts focused on killing and being killed, so she wasn’t constrained by morality and didn’t feel that she was in the wrong.
The Sea Dragon said, “In our sea beast family, we have a batch of seventh-rank sea beasts that haven’t showed up. Your behavior has angered us, and if things go on like this, we will take action and beseige you.”
Upon hearing this, Mo Tiange smiled. “If you can kill me, just do it.”
The Sea Dragon blinked its eyes angrily. “Don’t you go too far! We demonic beasts are no match for you humans in fights of magical power, but you’re just equivalent to a sixth-rank demonic beast. If over ten seventh-rank demonic beasts surround you, are you sure you can escape?”
Mo Tiange paused for a moment. Her smile disappeared slowly and she swept her gaze around the Sea Dragon. “So what do you want? You’re not just here to warn me, are you?”
“Warn you? Kind of,” the Sea Dragon said. “But I’d rather reach an agreement with you.”
“Oh? What agreement?”
The Sea Dragon continued when staring at the young Sea Dragon below. “Let it go. From now on, you can’t kill any sea beasts in this area.”
Mo Tiange was unmoved. “So what will I get?”
“If you don’t kill any more, we won’t take action and beseige you. Besides, I’ll tell you a secret in return.”
“A secret?” Mo Tiange thought for a moment and smiled again. “If you’re strong enough, would you be afraid of my killing? You even want to exchange your lives for a secret?”
Upon hearing this, the Sea Dragon became angrier. It scolded with a deep voice: “Human! We don’t want to fight you because you’re strong. Even if we could surround you and kill you, we would be making sacrifices of our demonic beasts. Us sea beast families have lived here in peace and quiet for many years, and we don’t want to get involved in the killing. But that doesn’t mean we’re afraid of you!”
Mo Tiange was silent. She knew the Sea Dragon was right. Surrounded by a dozen seventh-rank sea beasts, it would be very dangerous even if she could escape. Besides, she had taken advantage of everything, and if she didn’t stop, she would be pushing her luck.
However, although Mo Tiange had these thoughts in her heart, she couldn’t show weakness in her words. So, she smiled and looked into the Sea Dragon’s eyes without fear. “Fine, well, I admit you’re right, and I don’t want to fight a dozen seventh-rank sea beasts. But I’d love to hear the secret you mentioned. Is it worth it for me to stop?”