Chapter 87: The Scarred One-Armed Man

Gazing at the dead Kunpeng, Xu Ziyan felt a pang of sadness in her heart. She looked down at the Little Kunpeng in her arms and noticed it was no longer trying to get away. It wasn’t pecking at her hand or struggling against her hold. Instead, it nestled tightly against her chest, greedily breathing in her scent.

Turning to glance at her right arm, she discovered a new pattern etched onto her skin— the image of a Kunpeng.

“Is this Kunpeng’s Heart?”

Xu Ziyan probed it with her awareness and froze instantly. The space inside was immense. Kunpeng’s Heart was divided into nine totally separate spaces. Each space was about one and a half times the size of a real Kunpeng. Five of the spaces were completely empty. Two of the remaining four were packed full with Water Element Monster Cores. After thinking for a moment, Xu Ziyan understood these were meant for the Little Kunpeng to use as it advanced.

What filled the other two spaces made her head buzz. She nearly fell off her Flying Sword. Both spaces were crammed to the brim with Spirit Stones! One space held only medium and high-grade Spirit Stones, the other was full of low-grade stones. Xu Ziyan had no hope of counting them all; there were far too many.

Staring at the other five entirely empty spaces, Xu Ziyan couldn’t help but chuckle bitterly inside.

‘What a picky hoarder this Divine Beast was. It only wanted Monster Cores and Spirit Stones. Nothing else caught its eye. Why couldn’t it have left me even a couple of Artifacts or Magic Treasures?’

Xu Ziyan pulled her awareness out of Kunpeng’s Heart, and only then realized her clothes were gone. Her garments had been shredded into dust by the violent energy surge inside her earlier. She was stark naked. Panicked, she quickly scanned the empty snowy wilderness. Seeing no one else around, her racing heart calmed a little. She pulled out a fresh set of clothes from her Storage Pouch and dressed hurriedly. Only then did she properly turn her attention to the two massive birds before her.

She absolutely had to take the Phoenix. For a cultivator, every part of it was highly valuable. Using her Sword Flight, she approached the Phoenix. With a mere thought, the Phoenix lying in the snow vanished. It was transferred into Kunpeng’s Heart, filling one of the large spaces.

Xu Ziyan then looked back at the Kunpeng’s body, a wave of helplessness washing over her. She felt too awkward to use its remains herself. But burying something so gigantic would take enormous effort at her current Cultivation Level. She was also afraid other Monster Beasts might find the body and feast on it. After thinking briefly, she decided to store it in Kunpeng’s Heart for now and deal with it later. With another focused thought, the Kunpeng’s immense corpse also disappeared into Kunpeng’s Heart.

Next, she carefully gathered the hundreds of frozen Kunpeng tears scattered on the ground into a bottle. She stored this bottle inside Kunpeng’s Heart too. Finally, she looked down at the Little Kunpeng, still peacefully nestled against her chest. She tenderly stroked its soft white down several times. Feeling her touch, the Little Kunpeng chirped comfortingly, nuzzled its head deeper into her embrace, and fell back asleep.

Xu Ziyan felt a surge of quiet amusement. She hadn’t imagined such a huge Divine Beast could be so tiny right after hatching. Gently caressing the Little Kunpeng, she whispered softly,

“Little Kunpeng, you know what? You’re coming with me now. I need to give you a name… how about… how about…”

Her eyes lingered on the Little Kunpeng’s snowy white fuzz. She playfully flicked its head with her finger and said with a light laugh,

“From now on, I’ll call you Xiao Bai!”

The Little Kunpeng gave two soft “chirp” sounds, seeming to agree, before burrowing its head more firmly into Xu Ziyan’s clothes. A maternal softness washed over Xu Ziyan’s face. She stroked the Little Kunpeng a few more times. Then, with a thought, she moved the Little Kunpeng into an empty space within Kunpeng’s Heart. She paused, then remembered something. Moving her awareness across to the space filled with Water Element Monster Cores, she took several out and placed them into the space with Xiao Bai. Seeing the Little Kunpeng curl comfortably atop the pile of Monster Cores, Xu Ziyan finally withdrew her consciousness from Kunpeng’s Heart.

Standing on her Flying Sword in the air, Xu Ziyan cast a final look at the devastated forest below. A wave of awe filled her heart. The power of a Divine Beast like the Kunpeng was truly astonishing.

Her skin felt sticky. She followed the sound of running water until she found a hot spring. Xu Ziyan took off her clothes, slipped in, and enjoyed a thorough, refreshing wash. Changing into clean clothes afterwards, she felt energized and clear-headed.

Standing by the spring, Xu Ziyan stretched her limbs fully. Power surged through her, body and spirit. She looked up at the sky. The darkness hung like a fisherman’s net, slowly drawing closed. The world was a haze of grey. The sun hadn’t yet risen, but a pale light was starting to show on the horizon.

Deep within the Cangmang Mountain Range, cold winds whistled. The sun hadn’t risen. Though some light seeped into the sky, things were still indistinct. Everywhere Xu Ziyan looked, she saw only white. A vast, endless white. Snow and ice covered the dense forests below, making direction completely impossible.

Xu Ziyan sat down on a flat rock to wait quietly for the sunrise. In less than fifteen minutes, the sun burst up from the distant horizon in a dramatic leap. The explosion of brilliant colors touched Xu Ziyan deeply, and she sat there, emotionally moved, for a long while.

Once the sun was up, Xu Ziyan got her bearings on Zhongdu City. She rose into the air with her Sword Flight and sped off in that direction.

She was now deep in the heart of the Cangmang Mountain Range. The sheer size of the mountains was unfathomable. First, the range was genuinely vast, stretching endlessly. Secondly, the closer you got to the center, the higher the grade of Monster Beasts became. It was a Forbidden Area for humans.

Xu Ziyan kept her Flying Sword as high as possible, well away from the forest canopy below. She could sense terrifying auras emanating from the depths of the forest – auras that made her feel incredibly small and insignificant, trembling deep inside. She knew this feeling came from the vast disparity in tier levels. Right now, if any of the beasts below detected her, blocking her way, she’d have little chance of survival.

During her earlier state of Sudden Enlightenment, the moment her body merged with the world, her speed had been nothing like this laborious Sword Flight. It had been untold times faster.

She flew steadily for half a day and was still deep within the Cangmang Mountain Range. Gradually, the terrifying auras emanating from the forest below started to weaken. Xu Ziyan understood this meant she was leaving the absolute heart of the mountains. The beast tiers were lowering. She was finally out of the deadliest central zone.

Peering down, she saw endless rolling mountains cloaked in an expanse of silvery white. The gloomy clouds overhead finally scattered. Golden sunlight streamed forth, bouncing off the snowy landscape, creating dazzling flashes of light.

Xu Ziyan had flown all morning without a single meal since the night before last. Her stomach grumbled with hunger. But sensing powerful Monster Beast auras still present in the forest below, she gritted her teeth and fought the hunger. She continued flying for nearly two more hours.

By evening, Xu Ziyan finally sensed the beasts below weren’t frighteningly powerful. She guided her Flying Sword downwards, landing in a sheltered valley that blocked the wind.

Not daring to venture far to hunt, Xu Ziyan used her mind to slice off a piece of meat from the Phoenix stored inside Kunpeng’s Heart. She cleaned it in a nearby stream. Finding some dry branches, she built a small bonfire. She skewered the Phoenix meat onto a branch and propped it over the crackling fire to roast.

“Phoenix meat! I’ve never tried this before! Probably very few people in this whole world ever have?”

Xu Ziyan smacked her lips. Her eyes gleamed intensely as she stared at the chunk of meat roasting over the flames. She inhaled deeply. The rich aroma of the Phoenix meat flooded her senses, making her feel refreshed, energized, and profoundly comfortable.

She kept turning the Phoenix meat over the fire. Finally, it was perfectly cooked. Xu Ziyan was just about to cut off a piece with her sword and take a bite, when suddenly, she froze in terror. A figure had materialized directly in front of her. Her head snapped up. A man stood there, covered in scars and missing an arm. His intense gaze burned straight into her…