Proofreader & Editor: Lotas
Dice after dice fell around the Flame Crow, most of them landing on the same feather, likely similar to Su He's external storage space ability.
The Flame Crow was dead, and the object was akin to an ownerless storage bag. Su He's true essence surged through it… but it didn't open.
There were restrictions on it, but with the owner thoroughly dead and no one in control, although Su He couldn't understand the restrictions, he ground away at them bit by bit. In less than half a day, he managed to break through the feather.
The space opened, and he tipped it over, spilling out a pile of items.
World-Breaking Pearls x2
These were treasures, designed to shatter the barriers of worlds. If the toad had these back then, it could have forcefully escaped from the White Spirit's minor world.
They were also effective against certain suppressive and sealing formations. However, they were generally too precious to use, akin to using a cleaver to kill a chicken.
Spiritual Fields x3, now he had six mu.
The Flame Crow was a birdbrain, why would it carry this around? These were top-grade spiritual fields, refined and shrunk to the size of a book, ready to be expanded for use.
But the Flame Crow was a bird, why would it bother farming instead of catching insects? It wasn't focusing on what mattered!
Su He stored the spiritual fields in his external space. Just the space of six books, his external space was still vast.
The external space was born after last year's hibernation, initially only three meters in diameter, and by the time Su He took on his master, fitting three large demon turtle shells over three meters each was the limit.
This size lasted until he crossed the tribulation and became a Dragon Turtle, when the space suddenly expanded to a diameter of sixty meters. It was the size of a small soccer field.
Since then, it had been slowly expanding. Now it was about seventy-five meters.
The main advancement of the external space still depended on carrying mountains. But Su He's time in cultivation was too short, and the energy drawn from carrying mountains was barely enough to enhance the strength of the external Turtle Mountain and the Mountain God Seal, let alone the external space.
It was still in a state of self-growth.
After storing the spiritual fields in the external space, Su He looked again at the treasures that had burst forth from the Flame Crow.
Primordial Stones x3
Great stuff! Su He was overjoyed. These were the real treasures for Divine Beasts.
Divine Beasts open the heavens, and the advancement of their inner worlds either relies on the Divine Beast slowly breathing and grinding away time, piling up their inner world over time.
Or they draw from the world's primordial source, which only comes from two sources: completely annihilating a world to extract its source, or breaking through the chaos on the periphery of a great world, refining the chaos, and collecting it in the newly formed land.
As for the primordial source that forms the tribulation of Divine Beasts, that stuff is useless. Only the Divine Beast undergoing tribulation can absorb it; for other Divine Beasts, it's not exactly poison, but it's still trash.
Like Gu Luo and the others, they would set up formations and talismans in their suppressed territories, refining the chaos to generate Primordial Stones.
For Divine Beasts, Primordial Stones are like spirit stones to cultivators.
The top-notch kind.
Just as he was worrying about the primordial source in the Heng Gua inner world running out, the Flame Crow delivered a pile to him.
What a good friend! Su He looked gratefully at the Flame Crow's corpse and plucked two more feathers from it.
The Flame Crow's appearance was similar to a red-crowned crane, but instead of a fleshy crest, it had a crown of three feathers. These were treasures too, which could be used to sacrifice and refine artifacts.
Dragon Turtles were not adept at refining artifacts or pills, but he could ask Ji Feixue for help when the opportunity arose.
There were also many spirit stone crystals, but these were not very useful to him, so Su He casually tossed them into the external space.
There were some heavenly materials and earthly treasures that Su He didn't recognize. He only identified a Six-Turn Fire Mother sealed within a special crystal. The Fire Mother was a flame form, but actually a type of plant.
The Fire Mother grew in the polar regions, flowering and fruiting once every ten thousand years. When the fruit ripened, the seeds directly absorbed the nutrients from the mother plant, grew in place, and as the new plant grew, the mother plant withered. After four or more such cycles, the flame form would appear. The highest was nine turns, and after nine turns, it would burn itself out and disappear.
For fire-attributed Divine Beast cultivators, it was an absolute treasure. There were even rumors that at nine turns, it had the ability to be reborn from fire.
But that was just a legend.
Then there was the Flame Crow's corpse and that bead that made Su He's heart palpitate. The dice on the bead were spinning.
Quality x5
Su He didn't act rashly. He hadn't figured out why the Flame Crow didn't immediately use this bead upon meeting him. Even if it hadn't increased in quality, it should have been able to harm him. Used properly, it could even achieve great feats, delivering a fatal blow.
The Flame Crow was brainless!
Dragon roars came from the horizon, and amidst the wind and clouds, two golden dragons descended from the sky, landing beside Su He. Looking at the Flame Crow's corpse on the ground, both dragons fell silent.
They had sensed the great battle here and hurried over, but obviously, they were too late.
Meng Xuan looked at the Flame Crow's corpse on the ground and raised an eyebrow, "When did this thing get in?" If she remembered correctly, the Flame Crow didn't enter the Dragon Gate.
"Disguised as Mu Yin," Su He said succinctly.
Meng Xuan nodded.
One Flame Crow killed, although the aftermath was troublesome, that was the elders' concern. Moreover, this was within the Dragon Gate, and as long as the dragon clan didn't cooperate, no one could find out.
And even if they did find out, so what?
Disguising as another Divine Beast to enter with impure motives, perhaps intending to ambush the Dragon Turtle but instead getting killed. Who would be the one in trouble?
It's a pity that the Dragon Turtle clan had no elders present, otherwise they could have directly thrown the Flame Crow's corpse at its elders.
Meng Xuan didn't care about these things, her entire body coiled on the other golden dragon, but she lowered her dragon head to look at the round bead on the ground, "Yo! Isn't this the Heavenly Thunder of Senior Shen Chen? It actually ended up as the Flame Crow's treasure?"
Seeing Su He's confusion, she laughed, "That's an interesting human senior from Aunt Qian Jiang's Xuan Realm. Although a solitary cultivator, his cultivation level is extremely high. The key is that he loves refining artifacts, but unfortunately, nine out of ten times, they explode. Once you enter, you'll know, the fellow daoists in Qian Jiang are very interesting. Much more interesting than the dragon clan's Xuan Realm where no one speaks for decades."
In the dragon clan's Xuan Realm, no one spoke at all, only the two golden dragons of similar age would chat across worlds.
Even that stupid red dragon rarely spoke, only three thousand years old and already acting old and jaded, as if life was boring after living so long.
Su He nodded.
He had heard about Qian Jiang from the toad, but he hadn't had the chance to enter yet. As soon as his consciousness returned, he had been in seclusion to consolidate his realm.
Meng Xuan picked up the bead, flipped it with her claw, and the dragon she was coiled around, Meng Zhen, immediately changed color, darting out from her coils and hiding behind Su He.
Senior Shen Chen was a well-known figure. Even a flying sword meant for messaging could turn into an explosive artifact. More than one recipient had been blown up by a messaging flying sword and bedridden for a hundred years, which had become a long-standing news in the cultivation world.
Now, anything produced by Shen Chen was avoided by all who knew his name, let alone his explosives specifically designed for explosions like Heavenly Thunder.
Meng Xuan snorted disdainfully.
Senior Shen Chen's refinements were unreliable, but his explosive artifacts were the most reliable.
She tossed the Heavenly Thunder towards Su He, stabilizing it in front of him. Su He instinctively stepped back two paces, as the sense of danger on the Heavenly Thunder intensified.
"Coward!" Meng Xuan snorted, not caring at all, and with a flick of her tail, she sent the Flame Crow's corpse flying.
That thing was an eyesore!
If it weren't for the Dragon God Sacrifice, if it weren't for everyone watching, the day it went to attack Su He with its mantle on, she would have plucked its feathers to make a platter.
With a flick of her tail, the Flame Crow was sent flying, but at that moment, a flash of light appeared on the Flame Crow's body, and a larger silhouette of the Flame Crow emerged.
It was an existence similar to a consciousness avatar.
As soon as it appeared, it spread its wings and cried out, "Who dares harm my Flame Crow offspring?"
It looked down at the turtle and two dragons opposite, "The proud children of the dragon and Dragon Turtle clans…"
It paused for a moment, then said, "I do not know where my Flame Crow has offended the three of you, but could you spare its life? The Flame Crow clan will surely repay you handsomely."
Meng Xuan was silent for a moment, seemingly considering the Flame Crow's proposal, but then suddenly she whipped out the Heavenly Thunder in front of Su He and smashed it towards the Flame Crow, while simultaneously curling up Meng Zhen and retreating behind Su He.
"Destroy it!" Meng Xuan transmitted.
"The Dragon Gate blocks it; this Flame Crow's consciousness can't connect to its main body. It's also suppressed by this territory, slow to react, and must not be allowed to leave the Dragon Gate."
The Dragon Gate territory retained the Dao Rhymes of the Dragon Ancestor, and any adult Divine Beast here would be suppressed, which was the root reason why adult Divine Beasts didn't enter the Dragon Gate to seek treasures.
Outside, the Flame Crow's near-death consciousness would have been immediately activated. But in the territory of the Dragon Gate, the consciousness was too slow. The Flame Crow was already dead and cold before it appeared.
But the consciousness was only slow to appear, not stupid. The moment it appeared, it must have known the Flame Crow was dead. It was either trying to deceive them to launch a sneak attack or trying to escape to send a message to its main body.
"Destroy it! It's faking!"
"Roar!" Su He roared with divine might. At the same time, the external Turtle Mountain appeared, with defenses at their maximum.
The Flame Crow opposite, seeing the reaction of the three, lowered its eyes slightly and let out a light cry, flapping its wings and charging at the three young beasts.
It didn't dare to hunt down the young of the Dragon Turtle and dragon clans at the same time, but capturing them and suppressing them for ten thousand years was not impossible.
If they killed my Flame Crow, I reckon neither the Dragon Turtle nor the dragon clans would be able to speak out. Repel the three and immediately break out of the Dragon Gate, merging with the main body.
It was just a thought form, and while it was possible to suppress three nascent Divine Beasts with just a thought form, it was risky. Who knew what life-saving measures these top Divine Beasts had left for their offspring.
Perhaps they could destroy this thought form.
The Flame Crow dodged the Heavenly Thunder thrown by Meng Xuan, flapped its wings, and charged at the three young beasts.
But the Heavenly Thunder exploded behind it.
Boom!
A mushroom cloud rose into the sky, and the sound of the explosion followed.
The Flame Crow's eyes were filled with shock as it looked back, only to be blinded by a bright light, and its entire consciousness was torn to shreds.
Meng Xuan was dumbfounded.
Senior Shen Chen's Heavenly Thunder could at most severely injure a Divine Beast of the third heaven. When did it become so powerful?
She and Meng Zhen roared together, their tails slapping up shield after shield in front of the three.
Su He roared, his claws striking the ground, and the vast sea unfolded, sinking the three beasts to the ocean floor, which then instantly froze over.
A shockwave passed through, shattering the pure ice sea reinforced by the power of the world, and the shield mountain formed by the shields only blocked for a moment before being smashed against Turtle Mountain. The external Turtle Mountain held for two breaths before breaking, and the Dragon Turtle was slammed into the two golden dragons, flying out together.
This strike had at least the power of a fourth heaven-opening Divine Dragon.
Had Senior Shen Chen's Heavenly Thunder reached this level?
Before losing consciousness, Meng Xuan had only this thought. She glanced at Meng Zhen, who had already completely passed out, with dragon blood seeping from her seven orifices. Beside her, Su He, the entire turtle, was curled up in his shell. Although the shell hadn't cracked, he looked severely injured.
Not dead, but at a great loss!
Without the Heavenly Thunder, the three beasts could have resisted the Flame Crow's consciousness form if they fought to the death! At worst, they could use the life-saving measures left by the dragon clan.
More powerful and wouldn't hurt themselves.
She would go to Senior Shen Chen for compensation later.