“Long Chen, this is the rubble wasteland. I’m only in charge of sending you here. Everything else will be up to you. I hope you can return to the monastery alive.”

That Elder patted Long Chen on the shoulder and jumped back onto the Hawk Eagle, flying back to the monastery.

This wasteland was tens of thousands of miles wide. Huge ragged stone mountains were the only things that stood out in this wasteland. The unbroken weeds that covered the land made it appear exceptionally desolate.

From the bottom of a huge stone mountain, Long Chen watched as that Elder left. He was still extremely grateful to him.

Beside Long Chen was a silver-colored centipede. It was completely motionless, already having been cut in two. 

That Elder had done that for him. This area was this Silver Centipede’s territory. Having killed the Silver Centipede, this place should be relatively safe for a while.

That Elder had clearly taken special care of Long Chen by killing this Silver Centipede for him. It was an overlord at the peak of the mid third rank, making it very powerful.

Few Magical Beasts would dare to intrude upon its territory. So, Long Chen had enough time to probe his surroundings.

Walking over to the centipede’s corpse, he used a blade to pry open its head and took out its two, huge poison sacs.

Other than the Silver Centipede’s hard shell, the most terrifying part about it was its toxicity.

The poison mist that it could spit out would immediately cover an area of at least a mile, and most frightening of all, that poison possessed an extremely powerful corrosive strength. Other than crustacean Magical Beasts, almost nothing else was able to resist that corrosion.

After taking out the two poison sacks, Long Chen also took out a large bucket and began to collect the Silver Centipede’s essence blood.

Unfortunately for him, this Silver Centipede didn’t possess very much blood essence. Long Chen only managed to collect less than fifty kilograms. 

Although that wasn’t much, Long Chen was already satisfied since his main goal had been its poison.

He had searched for it for a long time before pointing it out to that Elder. The Elder had merely slashed with his sword, sending a ray of Sword Qi that had easily killed that powerful Silver Centipede. Upon seeing that kind of strength, Long Chen had been extremely envious.

He gathered all of its essence blood into his bucket, but in actuality, that still wasn’t true essence blood. He still needed to process it further.

Taking out a medicinal pill, he threw it into the bucket. The blood inside the bucket immediately began to boil with countless bubbles popping up.

Vapor streamed into the air, releasing an unpleasant smell. But the poison within the Silver Centipede’s essence blood wasn’t very strong, and so all it would do was cause someone to be a bit dizzy. Just consuming a simple antitoxin pill was enough.

It took an hour for the essence blood to stop boiling. Once there was no more steam coming out of it, the blood had become much more viscous.

“Hehe, it’s good now.” Long Chen smiled and took out a bag that was filled with medicinal powders. Those were the ingredients of the secret formula he had refined prior to coming here, the Xuantian Monastery’s secret Ten Thousand Beast Essence Blood formula.

When the medicinal powder fell into the essence blood, a crackling sound came from the bucket. The scent of blood became even denser.

Long Chen knew that it was the effect of the medicinal powder. It would invigorate the essence blood’s life energy. Two hours later, the blood once more stilled.

“Time to begin.” Long Chen took a deep breath. Although he was very confident in his Pill Sovereign memories, he was still a bit nervous about this Ten Thousand Beast Essence Blood that he had manufactured himself.

“I must succeed, so I’m relying on you. If this fails, I really will die here.”

Long Chen said a prayer and then stuck his hand into the bucket. His spiritual qi began to crazily absorb the essence blood.

He was like a whale absorbing water. All the essence blood in the bucket immediately disappeared into his body, beginning to crazily transform.

“Hahaha, it’s the exact same effect!” Long Chen was absolutely delighted and relieved. The Ten Thousand Beast Essence Blood he had created was the exact same as the monastery’s. He had succeeded in replicating the formula.

After expelling the impurities from the essence blood, what remained was completely activated essence which he devoured.

Long Chen had only just reached the seventh Heavenstage of Blood Condensation. According to his normal cultivation speed, he would require at least another two months before his blood reached saturation again.

But with this method, Long Chen’s cultivation speed would greatly increase. As long as there was enough Ten Thousand Beast Essence Blood, he could continuously advance straight through to the Tendon Transformation realm.

Long Chen let out a breath, sensing the blood inside his body.

He smiled, “Hehe, this one bucket of essence blood was equivalent to half a month’s cultivation.”

That filled Long Chen with excitement. This would greatly cut down on his time between advancements, saving him precious time.

After absorbing it all, he found a huge cave at the bottom of the stone mountain. That was naturally the old lair of the Silver Centipede. Now it had become Long Chen’s habitat.

He knew that a third rank Magical Beast’s territory would be extremely large. Most likely there would not be a single other Magical Beast within dozens of miles. He could definitely live here safely for now.

Luckily, this cave was rather clean without much excrement. It appeared that the Silver Centipede preferred a cleaner environment.

After walking into the cave, Long Chen first set up a tent. That was something he had taken from that person who had tried to rob him on his way to the monastery.

He had already thrown out all the mattresses and bedding he had had, but he had kept this luxurious tent.

After tidying up and resting for a bit, Long Chen looked up at the sky. It was currently noon. He set up a large pot outside.

He placed one of the Silver Centipede’s poison sacks into the iron pot. A corrosive smell immediately filled the air. Just smelling it caused him to feel like his respiratory tract was being corroded.

Tightly holding his nose, Long Chen lit a fire beneath the pot. He also placed over a hundred arrowheads into the poison before quickly backing away.

He only began breathing again once he was a mile away. The Silver Centipede’s poison really was too terrifying.

But he had already prepared enough wood under the pan to keep the fire burning for a long time. As the arrowheads simmered within the poison, they would easily begin to absorb that poison.

Now he didn’t need to do anything. He just patiently waited here. He currently didn’t dare go exploring further.

All the land bordering his little territory had to be controlled by at least a third rank Magical Beast. The current him wouldn’t even have a good chance of defeating an early third rank Magical Beast.

And if he ran into a mid third rank Magical Beast, then it wouldn’t be about his probability of beating it, but the probability of fleeing.

By the time the fire burned away all of its fuel four hours later, the poison had already all boiled away. A disgusting smell still lingered in the air. He had over a hundred poisonous arrowheads now that had been dyed black by the poison.

Long Chen had only just picked one up when suddenly the entire pot exploded, giving Long Chen a fright. He hastily jumped away. If he ended up pricked by one of these poison arrows, there really was a possibility he could die.

That Silver Centipede’s poison was just too powerful. That iron pot had been corroded to the point that it was now as weak as glass.

Long Chen excitedly stared at those pitch-black arrowheads. With these poison arrows, he would be much more confident in killing third rank Magical Beasts.

Seeing that the sky was already starting to darken, Long Chen returned to his tent to rest. He didn’t even feel like cultivating. He set up a couple of traps around with the poison arrows and then slept.

The next day, Long Chen collected his traps and carefully began traveling south. Having just flown over this area on top of the Hawk Eagle yesterday, he still remembered that there was a third rank Magical Beast here: the Shadow Devil Leopard.

The third rank Shadow Devil Leopard’s speed was incomparably fast, and it was exceptionally fierce. But unlike other Magical Beast leopards, it preferred to hunt during the day.

Magical Beasts weren’t like humans. They didn’t need to cultivate. They used flesh and blood to increase their own cultivation power.

As for the Shadow Devil Leopard, its most terrifying aspect was how it could almost completely camouflage itself. Although it was a furred Magical Beast, its fur could actually change color in accordance with its surroundings.

If it was hiding within some grass or against some rocks, it was practically impossible to see it. Sometimes, Magical Beasts would walk right past it without knowing that they had walked right in front of death.

After traveling over fifty miles, Long Chen slowed down. This was around where it had been.

Spreading out his divine sense, Long Chen noticed a lazy figure sunning on top of some rocks.

Resting on those stones, its color had become the exact same as that of the rocks. If Long Chen hadn’t noticed it yesterday jumping out of some rocks to roar at them in warning, he really wouldn’t have imagined that a Magical Beast would be able to camouflage itself so well.

“This distance should be about right.” Long Chen looked around. There was a natural pathway here. It was a perfect place to set up a trap.

Originally, Long Chen had been planning on digging some pitfalls, but thinking of how powerful the Shadow Devil Leopard’s body was, he decided against it. The odds of that working were too low, and it was also too much work to dig here.

He then considered making a trigger trap like the one he had used against Marquis Ying. But then he still shook his head.

That kind of trap would require him to lure the Shadow Devil Leopard there. If he was careless, he might trigger his own trap. Perhaps in his death, even the Shadow Devil Leopard would laugh at him.

After pondering over it for a long time, Long Chen took out six longbows, setting up six spots along the path from which he could shoot a poison arrow.

Fully nocking the bows, Long Chen placed a dagger on the bowstring to prevent it from shooting. As long as that dagger was moved even the slightest, the bow would immediately shoot out its poison arrow.

All of the six bows were set to the sides of the small path. They were all less than a couple of meters from each other. With its huge body that was over twenty meters long, the Shadow Devil Leopard would very likely be hit if it walked here and all six arrows were shot at once.

As long as one arrow hit, that would sharply decrease its power. Then, he could kill it much more easily.

Once more going over the six bows and confirming everything was perfect, Long Chen slowly crept over to the Shadow Devil Leopard.

When he was two miles from it, he stopped. If he got any closer, that would put it on guard.

After weighing an egg-sized stone for a bit, he then used his full strength to throw it at the Shadow Devil Leopard’s head.