Three months later.
A sudden earth-shattering beast roar echoed through a valley on the back mountain of Canaan Academy, followed by a furious shout: "You little dwarf, I let you escape yesterday by accident, but today I will definitely eat you!" A massive white giant ape, standing three to four zhang tall, emitted a fierce icy aura as it roared angrily at a petite figure in the air ahead—it was the fifth-tier magical beast, the Snow Demon Sky Ape.
"Bah! A stupid giant thinks it can eat me and dares to call me a little dwarf? Today, I will flatten you!" Ziyan shouted back, raising her small fist and fearlessly charging toward the giant ape, whose size was completely disproportionate to hers.
The two figures instantly clashed, their powers colliding with thunderous sounds.
About a few hundred meters away from the battle between Ziyan and the Snow Demon Sky Ape, Lin Yuan's expression turned serious as he held an energy longbow, aiming at the combat area. His fighting spirit transformed into flames, continuously rotating and compressing, gathering into a solid blue arrow on the energy longbow in his hand, the energy at the tip condensed to the extreme, as if it could pierce through space.
Lin Yuan focused on three things: first, preparing a lethal strike; second, using his soul power to isolate and seal off the surrounding space to prevent the energy fluctuations from being detected; and third, monitoring the battle situation with his soul perception, waiting for the right moment to unleash his deadly attack.
In the valley, Ziyan was facing off against the Snow Demon Sky Ape, exchanging blows. After dozens of rounds of hard combat, the Snow Demon Sky Ape, not gaining the upper hand, became impatient. It let out a fierce roar, and suddenly, a wave of icy energy rippled out rapidly. Some boulders along the way were instantly turned into blocks of ice upon being hit by the icy ripple.
Seeing this, Ziyan executed a perfect evasive maneuver, dodging the icy energy like a cloud dragon flipping over, showcasing the results of her recent training in the Cloud Dragon Dance.
The Snow Demon Sky Ape, realizing its attack was ineffective, flashed a fierce look in its eyes and began to activate its berserk bloodline.
Meanwhile, Lin Yuan, sensing the Snow Demon Sky Ape's energy rapidly increasing, narrowed his eyes and thought, "Now's the time," releasing the long-prepared attack.
"Heavenly Fire Calamity, Setting Sun Divine Shot!"
The rapidly spinning blue arrow shot out at high speed, instantly piercing through the stone wall and hitting the Snow Demon Sky Ape from behind, which was unable to dodge in time as it activated its berserk bloodline. The icy energy on its surface and its sturdy body were instantly breached, and the blue fire arrow penetrated into the Snow Demon Sky Ape's body.
After the blue arrow entered the Snow Demon Sky Ape, the soul power attached to the arrow dissipated, and the energy of the arrow, composed of flames and fighting spirit, exploded within the Snow Demon Sky Ape. The intense energy instantly destroyed the magical ape's body from the inside, and its rising aura abruptly ceased, killing it on the spot.
Then, Lin Yuan flew out from behind the concealed stone wall, took out a long sword from his storage ring, and swiftly decapitated the Snow Demon Sky Ape before beginning to examine its corpse. He noticed that the area where the arrow had struck had been transformed into a hollow with a diameter of one meter.
Looking at the Snow Demon Sky Ape's corpse, Lin Yuan wore a somewhat inexplicable expression, "Charging up for a transformation on the battlefield is quite dangerous!"
In the distance, Ziyan also flew over, glancing at the Snow Demon Sky Ape's corpse and wounds, unable to help but click her tongue. She looked at Lin Yuan and said, "Although it's not my first time seeing it, your move is really impressive. This big guy died in one shot! Can you teach me?"
"I would be willing to teach you, but this kind of move isn't suitable for you. It requires strong soul abilities and excellent control over fighting spirit, while your body is that of a magical beast, which naturally has a shortcoming in soul power," Lin Yuan casually replied while cleaning up the Snow Demon Sky Ape's corpse.
Heavenly Fire Calamity—Setting Sun Divine Shot was the result of Lin Yuan's continued development and refinement of the Dan Fire technique after becoming a Dou Wang. It was a complex ultimate skill that combined the Dan Fire techniques of the alchemy system, the fighting spirit compression control techniques of Spiral Force, Lin Yuan's own fire control methods, and several archery-related fighting techniques.
This ultimate skill was extremely difficult, requiring powerful soul perception and excellent control over fighting spirit and fire. It was currently Lin Yuan's proudest achievement. Although it couldn't draw upon the energy of heaven and earth like earth-tier fighting techniques to create massive destructive power, its pinpoint power was not inferior to that of ordinary earth-tier fighting techniques, and its energy consumption was much lower.
"Oh! But your fighting style is really different from others. It always feels dangerous to fight you," Ziyan said, not dwelling on the previous topic but instead sharing her impressions of Lin Yuan's combat style.
Lin Yuan smiled but did not explain further. He indeed had a very different fighting style compared to others. While many pursued higher-level fighting techniques, he placed more emphasis on the compatibility of fighting techniques with his own combat style. His combat style pursued three points: speed, precision, and effectiveness. Therefore, most of his battles involved careful planning, with minimal movement but extreme danger. However, there was no need to explain this to Ziyan; everyone has their own suitable fighting style, and his style was not suitable for her.
After a while, Lin Yuan finished cleaning up the Snow Demon Sky Ape's corpse and waved to Ziyan, "Let's go, we need to get the Earth Core Body Refining Milk."
The two of them flew deeper into the valley, where they could see some exposed magical beast bones on the ground, likely from magical beasts that had fought over the Earth Core Body Refining Milk.
Upon reaching the end of the valley, they saw a pitch-black cave. Lin Yuan used his soul perception to probe the cave and, finding no danger, led Ziyan inside. The white fur similar to that of the Snow Demon Sky Ape confirmed that this was indeed its lair.
"The Earth Core Body Refining Milk is born beneath the earth, formed from the pure power of the earth compressed over time, so it must be underground. Now, where is the passage leading underground..." Lin Yuan released his soul perception to search for the passage. "Found it!"
Lin Yuan walked to a spot piled with white fur and gently brushed it aside, revealing a strong wind that blew the pile of white fur away.
With a flick of his sleeve, a whirlwind of fighting spirit swept up the sand hidden beneath the white fur, causing a storm of wind and sand to rise in the cave. Lin Yuan opened a fighting spirit shield to protect himself and Ziyan from the sand.
Before long, a dark entrance leading underground appeared in their line of sight. After confirming there was no danger with his soul perception, Lin Yuan jumped into the cave with Ziyan.
Once inside, Lin Yuan conjured a ball of blue flame to illuminate the dark cave. The passage inside was surprisingly spacious. He used his soul perception to probe ahead while quickly moving along the winding underground passage with Ziyan.
After walking for nearly ten minutes, a faint white light appeared at the end of the dark passage. Lin Yuan quickened his pace, and as they got closer, the white point gradually enlarged until it transformed into a glowing white cave entrance.
Passing through the entrance, Lin Yuan and Ziyan were greeted by an underground world filled with stalactites. As far as the eye could see, milky-white stalactites stretched endlessly, emitting a soft white light that dispelled the darkness. Stalactites grew everywhere, some hanging from the ceiling, with some even reaching lengths of over a hundred meters. The sight was breathtaking, with massive stalactites towering everywhere, occasionally dripping drops of white liquid that splashed onto the ground, creating milky-white water splashes.
What a magnificent underground world.
Looking at the vast expanse of identical stalactites, Lin Yuan turned to Ziyan and said, "Ziyan, can you sense where the treasure is?"
"Just watch me!" Ziyan replied confidently, patting her chest. She closed her eyes to sense for a moment, then opened them and pointed in a direction, "Over there, follow me!" With that, she walked in the direction she pointed, and Lin Yuan followed her.
The two of them navigated through the stalactite world for nearly ten minutes before stopping in front of a massive stalactite. This stalactite connected to the ceiling above and hung straight down, its enormous size measuring over a hundred meters long and about as thick as two people could embrace. A soft white glow surrounded it, making it look like a crystal pillar, the largest one in this underground world.
As Lin Yuan's gaze shifted downward, he noticed a large green stone beneath the stalactite, with more than half of it buried underground. At this moment, there was a shallow groove less than half a foot deep at the top of the green stone, perfectly aligned with the tip of the stalactite above. Inside the groove was a two-inch-deep milky-white liquid, with a faint mist hovering above it.
Ziyan's eyes were fixed on the milky liquid in the groove, her throat involuntarily swallowing. Lin Yuan, noticing Ziyan's dazed expression, waved his hand in front of her face, "Ziyan, snap out of it! Wipe your drool. I'll collect this first, and when we get back, I'll make you something delicious with it. There's even better stuff!"
He then took out several jade bottles and, under Ziyan's eager gaze, filled them with the liquid from the groove. Afterward, he spread his fire wings and flew upward, continuously using his soul perception to sense the gathering of earth energy around them. Finally, at the point where the stalactite met the ceiling, Lin Yuan sensed a massive amount of earth energy.
"I found it!" Lin Yuan took out a piece of jade, melted it into a pure jade small sword, and carefully cut out a palm-sized circle. Upon removing the fragments, he discovered a viscous liquid of emerald color slowly flowing within the stalactite. Sensing the extremely pure and immense energy contained in the viscous liquid, Lin Yuan exclaimed with delight, "This is indeed a treasure! The harvest this time is quite good."
He took out a jade bottle and a jade spoon, carefully scooping up the "Earth Core Body Refining Milk" and placing it into the jade bottle, leaving a small amount behind. He then reattached the stalactite fragment, and the strong light gradually diminished, returning the stalactite to its previous calm appearance.
Looking at the bottle of "Earth Core Body Refining Milk" in his hand, Lin Yuan let out a long sigh of relief. After so much hard work, he finally obtained this item.
Turning to Ziyan, who had been staring eagerly at the "Earth Core Body Refining Milk," Lin Yuan smiled and pinched her cheek, "Don't worry, your share won't be less."
Upon hearing this, Ziyan's face lit up with joy. She grabbed Lin Yuan's hand and shook it, playfully saying, "Thank you, Brother Lin Yuan! I knew you cared about me the most!"
Lin Yuan rolled his eyes; he had become immune to this form of address. This little girl usually called him Lin Yuan casually, but when she wanted something, she sweetly called him Brother Lin Yuan.
After continuing to explore the underground world with Ziyan for a while and confirming there were no other opportunities, the two of them left the vast underground world.
After exiting the underground world, Lin Yuan, under Ziyan's puzzled gaze, directly collapsed the cave of the Snow Demon Sky Ape, completely covering the passage leading to the underground world. He thought to himself, "This underground world is quite hidden; it might come in handy in the future, so I'll remember it for now!"
Looking at the collapsed cave, Lin Yuan waved to Ziyan.
"Let's go, Ziyan, back to the inner courtyard."
(End of Chapter)