Chapter 122 Neidan

Nine Star Hegemon Body Art

Long Chen’s sword slashed down, bringing his terrifying Sword Qi onto the Flame Salamander’s head.

But he was startled to see that his attack only caused the Flame Salamander’s head to sink slightly and was unable to split open its thick skin.

“What terrifying defense!” Long Chen’s sword was only able to leave behind a light mark on the Flame Salamander’s head.

Although the longsword was extremely sharp, Long Chen always felt that it wasn’t suitable for him. He was someone specializing in strength. This light and lithe longsword was something he was unable to use to its full potential.

As soon as his sword had slashed down, the Flame Salamander’s huge tail whipped across at Long Chen, the same move as last time.

Long Chen snorted and jumped onto the Flame Salamander’s huge head.

BOOM! Long Chen had only just jumped when that tail swept towards him. He then jumped again to avoid it, and that attack firmly slammed into its own head.

Using its own tail to whip its own head. Long Chen found that both surprising and funny. 

The Flame Salamander roared angrily. Suddenly, its stomach enlarged like an inflating ball. Opening its mouth, flames spurted out at Long Chen, immediately engulfing him.

“Pill Flame protecting the body!” Long Chen directly used his Pill Flame to protect his body, resisting the Flame Salamander’s flames. That was also the main reason why Long Chen had sent Little Snow away; Little Snow was still not yet able to resist such terrifying flames.

Despite using his Pill Flame to protect his body, Long Chen still found the scorching difficult to resist. It felt as if he were in a furnace, and his own Pill Flame began to show signs of dissolving.

Long Chen jumped out of the flames. There was no need for him to forcibly take on the Flame Salamander’s flames. When it came to their masses, the two were not just one level apart. It would be too disadvantageous for him to face it head-on.

The ground that had been scorched started to crystallize. The sand had turned into glass under the high heat.

Although he was shocked, Long Chen was also excited. It truly was worthy of being an existence on the beast flame rankings.

If he could obtain the Flame Salamander’s beast flame and refine it through his unique methods, his combat ability would definitely soar.

This was also a terrifying aspect of pill cultivators. They could draw out the power of a beast flame for their own use, and furthermore, they were able to draw out even more power from the beast flame than its original Magical Beast owner.

“I’m not gonna play around any longer.” The divine ring appeared behind Long Chen’s back, but as soon as it appeared, Long Chen put it away once more.

That was because the divine ring had its own limitations. It could draw out the surrounding energy of heaven and earth, multiplying Long Chen’s abilities.

But within this barren desert, there was not even a single blade of grass. There was basically no spiritual qi to draw out. Without any energy from the outer world to absorb, the divine ring would only be able to call forth the energy from Long Chen’s FengFu Star.

And if it was just for drawing out energy from his FengFu Star, bringing the divine ring out didn’t have any meaning. He had a method which would use his FengFu Star’s energy much better.

“FengFu Battle Armor!”

A star appeared in Long Chen’s pupils. His aura sharply increased and terrifying qi waves soared into the sky.

Seeing that the Flame Salamander was once more striking out with its tail, Long Chen roared, his voice ringing like spring thunder. He simply used his arm to grab onto the end of its tail.

“Rise!” Long Chen’s arms bulged, and that Flame Salamander’s huge body was actually lifted into the air before being viciously slammed down.

BOOM! Sand exploded out, turning the surroundings into a complete mess. The distant Little Snow quickly rushed further away, but he was still buried under a huge wave of sand.

Holding onto the Flame Salamander’s tail, Long Chen felt his body brimming with strength. That feeling of being overfilled with energy made him want to vent out his power before he exploded himself.

But the ground was too soft. Long Chen’s gaze fell on that small hill and then once more swung the Flame Salamander. Despite its struggles, Long Chen still managed to swing it around.

Long Chen began to spin, turning into a revolving top, spinning faster and faster. Suddenly letting go, the Flame Salamander was like a shooting star as it slammed into the hill.

BOOM! That extremely sturdy rock hill shook. A huge hole appeared on the side of it.

He didn’t know what rock that hill was made of, but it was strangely hard. Even the Flame Salamander’s body was still unable to smash it apart. Instead, it was its bones that shattered and its scales that fell, blood flowing out.

“ROAR!” 

But Long Chen was shocked to see that despite suffering such severe wounds, that Flame Salamander had yet to die. Dragging its broken body, it charged at Long Chen, fury blazing within its eyes.

“Hmph, then let’s try it again. I don’t believe I won’t be able to smash you to death- huh?”

Long Chen was just about to charge out when he suddenly felt a wave of weakness.

“Crap, time’s up.” Long Chen’s heart shook. He had forgotten that the FengFu Battle Armor had its own time limit. Without the divine ring’s support, that time limit was shortened even further. The star in his eyes faded away to nothing, and Long Chen’s energy once more returned to its normal level.

Seeing it charge over, Long Chen punched out.

But without the FengFu Battle Armor’s support, Long Chen’s power was not a match for the third rank Flame Salamander. He was sent flying back, sharp pains burning his abdomen. He almost vomited blood.

“Magical Beasts’ bodies are truly terrifying!” That was what he thought to himself, but if others knew what he was thinking, they would definitely curse him.

That was a third rank Magical beast. In order to match it, it would require several Tendon Transformation experts.

Furthermore, the Flame Salamander was an exceptional existence even amongst third rank Magical Beasts. Long Chen was only at the Blood Condensation realm, but he was still able to use his physical body to forcibly resist the Flame Salamander. Wasn’t his body even more crazy than a Magical Beast’s?

BOOM BOOM BOOM!

Long Chen did his best to avoid clashing directly with the Flame Salamander; however, it seemed to have gone crazy, and its wild attacks caused the land to continuously shake.

“Despite being this wounded, its power still hasn’t dropped by much!” Long Chen couldn’t help but curse. His longsword was unable to pose a fatal threat to the Flame Salamander. Furthermore, now that he had used the FengFu Battle Armor, his physical strength was starting to sharply decline. If it continued like this, he could only flee.

He could see a true treasure right in front of him, yet he was unable to obtain it. That was one of the most painful things in the world. He was starting to long for that broadsword that had been broken back then. If he had it now, he would definitely be able to cut through this Flame Salamander.

More and more sections of its scales were falling off its body, revealing its naked flesh. There was one part which had fallen off its neck. Long Chen had tried using his longsword to pierce that spot several times.

But despite the lack of scales protecting it, the flesh was still too tough and he was unable to break open a large part of it. All his thrusts did was cause it a bit of pain.

Now Long Chen’s physical strength was sharply declining, while the Flame Salamander seemed to be exploding out wildly with inexhaustible energy. There was no sign it was weakening.

“Oh, right!” Long Chen’s eyes brightened as he suddenly remembered something.

Thinking of that thing, Long Chen celebrated and focused once more. Seeing the Flame Salamander charging over again, he dodged to the right and jumped up. Touching his spatial ring in midair, a large object appeared.

That was a large tail with a stinger at its end. Long Chen concentrated his full strength into his arms and stabbed it into that opening in the Flame Salamander’s neck.

That was the Giant Desert Scorpion’s stinger. It was now firmly stabbed into the Flame Salamander’s body.

Once that stinger was thrust into the Flame Salamander, it actually began to quiver automatically, instinctively injecting its poison. Even despite leaving the body, it still possessed this instinct.

Being stabbed, the Flame Salamander crazily roared and thrashed, wanting to escape the stinger. But that position was somewhere it was unable to reach, and no matter what, it was unable to fling it off.

Long Chen could see that the Flame Salamander’s skin was beginning to blacken quickly. He hastily jumped away. His goal had already been reached. Now he just had to wait until the end. There was no need to continue foolishly fighting it.

The Giant Desert Scorpion’s poison was even more terrifying than what Long Chen had expected. Even something as powerful as the Flame Salamander was unable to bear it. In just a couple of minutes, it had already been poisoned to death.

In any ordinary fight, even a group of Giant Desert Scorpions were not a match for the Flame Salamander because they were unable to pierce through its thick scales.

However, the Flame Salamander’s tail could easily smash through their carapace. Furthermore, the Flame Salamander’s terrifying flames could immediately roast them to death.

That was why the Flame Salamander was said to be the bane of Giant Desert Scorpions. However, that didn’t represent that the Flame Salamander was undefeatable. Once it lost its defenses, the poison could steal its life.

After struggling for a while, the Flame Salamander no longer moved. However, Long Chen didn’t immediately go over. Instead, he and Little Snow waited for a full two hours before slowly approaching.

One reason was because they wanted to be careful. But the main reason was to let Long Chen recover a bit. By the time they went back at the Flame Salamander’s corpse, it had already been dead for a while.

Long Chen excavated the Flame Salamander’s abdomen. Inside, he found a one-foot-wide ball of flame. It was entirely snow-white and emitting terrifying energy fluctuations.

“Hehe, I’ve obtained the Neidan.” Long Chen celebrated, as that was the most precious portion of the Flame Salamander. 

The majority of Magical Beasts would condense all their energy in a crystal core in their heads. But there was a portion of Magical Beasts which were not the same. The most precious part of their essence was located within their Neidan. As for the Flame Salamander’s flame strength, that was all sealed within the Neidan.

Normally, when Magical Beasts went crazy, they would end up using up all their energy. By the time they died, the Neidan would no longer contain much energy.

The most exciting thing for Long Chen though was that this Neidan was still practically full of energy. That was because the Flame Salamander had only used its core flame once from the start of the battle before dying.

The more energy that was contained within the Neidan, the purer the beast flame refined from it would become. Long Chen looked upon this Neidan adoringly.

But now wasn’t the time for him to use it. In order to draw out the beast flame from within, there were still many more things he needed the assistance of. Otherwise, he would lose too much of the beast flame’s core energy, wasting this enormous treasure.

“Wu, wu…” Little Snow was incessantly crying out as he looked at the Flame Salamander’s corpse.

“Sorry! I had no choice!” Long Chen was apologetic. A perfect third rank Magical Beast’s corpse was right there, but he couldn’t eat it.

There was no other way. The poison was too vicious, and Little Snow would also be poisoned if he ate it. Such a powerful third rank Magical Beast’s flesh was wasted just like that. 

“Let’s go see its cave to see if there’s anything good in there.” 

Long Chen brought Little Snow carefully into the cave. Blazing waves of qi continued to emerge from within, causing the air to burn.

Entering the cave, they saw the inside was quite spacious. But Long Chen and Little Snow’s eyes both brightened when they saw several large eggs lying right in front of them.