Chapter 858: Indispensable Divine Artifact

These pills, distributed by the Heavenly Palace, were potent and dangerous. They could extract all vital energy in a short time, making the user appear incredibly valiant. However, once the effects wore off, individuals would collapse, utterly drained. Even if they survived, their bodies would be gravely weakened, requiring at least two or three years to recover.

He Jing glanced at the last remaining attendant, feeling a surge of irritation.

Only three of the four child-devouring Ghoulish Beasts he had brought had emerged; the most powerful one still hadn't moved. Otherwise, the current battle wouldn't be so passive.

At his urging, the Crimson Tiger launched a furious, all-out assault on the King of the Que Beasts, even disregarding its own safety.

Its claws and teeth were astonishingly sharp, capable of gouging through even the King of the Que Beasts' icy, hardened armor. It was thrown off several times, but each time it instantly returned, pouncing back. Its jaws never strayed from the King of the Que Beasts' neck and chest, and it could also spew black flames.

Twice, the King of the Que Beasts was nearly pierced through the chest by its spiked tongue. In a fit of rage, it roared several times, and its left palm began to condense ice, as if a weapon was taking shape.

However, the Coiling Dragon Secret Realm was a desert climate, not its natural icy habitat, so the ice condensed slowly.

The Crimson Tiger seized the opportunity, spewing black flames and blinding its opponent's left eye!

The King of the Que Beasts cried out in pain, clutching its eye as it stumbled back two large steps.

With the King of the Que Beasts distracted by the Crimson Tiger, the pressure on the Heavenly Palace team's front line suddenly decreased, and they immediately surged towards the tomb.

Eight zhang left.Six zhang.Every inch gained came at the cost of human lives.

He Jing wiggled the ring finger of his left hand. His storage ring had an immense capacity; it could easily hold several tons of supplies, and absorbing that massive ice block would be no trouble at all.

He just needed to push back the swarming beasts in front to get close enough.

Just then, the King of the Que Beasts' icy weapon had finished condensing in its left hand: a massive battle-axe!

Although its design was very primitive, it was larger than a normal door and indeed possessed a sharp blade!

The Crimson Tiger pounced and bit again, but the King of the Que Beasts ripped it off. Disregarding the large chunk of flesh torn from its own neck, it swung its ice-axe with its left hand and brought it down ferociously!

It pressed the Crimson Tiger down into the Heavenly Palace team's formation, directly crushing a guard.

The ice-axe smashed into the Crimson Tiger's ribs, and everyone heard a crisp cracking sound.

It was unclear how many of the Crimson Tiger's ribs had broken.

But its outer shell was truly hard; despite the King of the Que Beasts' strength and the ice-axe's sharpness, it still couldn't be split open immediately.

The King of the Que Beasts' fury flared instantly. It swung its axe, smashing it down furiously.

Seizing this chance, He Jing finally darted to the edge of the tomb, disregarding the surging beast horde around him.

He placed one hand on the massive ice block and silently muttered, "Collect!"

The next instant—there was no next instant. The massive ice remained utterly still.

Sweat instantly streamed down He Jing's forehead.

He tried twice more, but the ice block and its contents remained in place, unmoving.

It wouldn't go in! Why? It wasn't overtly wide or heavy!

Wails of agony erupted behind him; two more guards had fallen. In his desperation, He Jing suddenly recalled something:

Storage rings typically couldn't absorb living creatures, though trees and unhatched eggs were exceptions.

Could the Great Square Urn be a living entity?

Or perhaps its contents were too vast or too profound, exceeding the storage ring's capacity?

The most terrifying reality now was that he would have to physically grab the urn to take it with him!

Just then, the two monstrous beasts' battle reached this spot.

He Jing sidestepped out of the way, and the Crimson Tiger's back slammed into the solid ice. With several broken ribs, it was far less agile than before. Before it could get up, the King of the Que Beasts' ice-axe came down in a swift, downward chop.

With a dull thud, a wound half a palm wide appeared on the Crimson Tiger's neck. Black blood splattered everywhere, hissing as it sprayed onto the ice.

The black flame energy in the blood had a corrosive effect on the solid ice.

Finally, its armor was breached, and blood drawn. The King of the Que Beasts' spirits soared. It pinned the Crimson Tiger down with its massive foot and swung the great axe three more times in quick succession.

Each strike was more brutal than the last, landing precisely on the Crimson Tiger's neck wound.

Other Heavenly Palace guards furiously attacked it from behind, but it ignored them.

The final axe strike finally severed the Crimson Tiger's neck bone, and its residual force left a four-foot-deep axe mark in the solid ice behind.

The victorious King of the Que Beasts let out a triumphant roar, pulled its great axe from the ice, and swept it towards the battle formation.

The most powerful opponent, the Crimson Tiger, was dead; the remaining enemies seemed like easy prey, easy to swallow whole.

The Ghoulish Beast resembling a pufferfish continually spewed venomous fire at it to attract its attention. Only then did the King of the Que Beasts bother to acknowledge it.

Recalling how this creature had also been lurking in mid-air, launching sneak attacks during its fight with the Crimson Tiger, fury flared in the King of the Que Beasts' heart. It raised a hand and sent several ice projectiles towards it. The pufferfish quickly dodged, but with a casual wave from the King of the Que Beasts, a powerful gust of wind swept it directly in front of the giant snowman.

With a *splat*, the King of the Que Beasts grabbed and crushed it!

The explosion was violent but localized. It was unclear if the pufferfish had self-destructed, but it unexpectedly blasted the unsuspecting King of the Que Beasts more than ten zhang away.

He Jing seized the opportunity to gesture to his disciple, Fu Liang, who pulled out an explosive arrow and, following He Jing's direction, shot it into the ice crack.

The King of the Que Beasts had carved a large crack in the solid ice itself, and the Crimson Tiger's black blood had flowed into it, corroding it deeper and deeper until it became a pit. Seeing that the corrosion was more than halfway done, He Jing naturally wouldn't let this opportunity slip.

The arrow was precise, flying straight into the ice pit.

A thunderous explosion followed, but the upper layer of solid ice remained completely intact.

Hard. The King of the Que Beasts' ice was truly solid; even explosives couldn't budge it.

Everyone's hopes plummeted at the sight.

He Jing had no choice but to throw out two Divine Fire Talismans.

The Heavenly Palace's talisman masters sealed a wisp of true flame from Shanze Jujiu within these talismans for combat. They were highly effective, but the finished products were too few.

He Jing had already used four or five against the beast horde moments ago; these were his last two.

The reason the Heavenly Palace team could withstand wave after wave of beast attacks, apart from their formidable individual strength, was that they also had an endless supply of magical artifacts, elixirs, talismans, and puppets aiding them. This perfectly demonstrated what it meant to be truly wealthy and powerful.

From a distance, He Lingchuan watched with covetous eyes.

However, even the most ample reserves would eventually be depleted in high-intensity combat. With He Jing's own treasures nearly used up, the Heavenly Palace team was naturally stretched to their limits.

It had to be said that Jujiu's creations were as reliable as ever. The true flame from the earth's core could burn through anything, and with two Divine Fire Talismans activated, the solid ice melted at a visibly rapid rate.

This was a contest of ice and fire.

The King of the Que Beasts, having just struggled back to its feet, naturally wouldn't stand by and let him set fires and cause explosions. It surprisingly gouged out its own left eye, which had been mangled by the Crimson Tiger, and slapped it onto its great axe.

The great axe immediately turned a brilliant, translucent ice-blue.

It then swung the great axe, striking the ground three times in a row.

Centered on the point of impact, each strike caused thick layers of ice to expand rapidly in all directions.

The Que Beasts were in their element, while everyone from the Heavenly Palace paled.

In Beijia territory, such a large-scale, indiscriminate divine attack, while impressive, would have little effect on them. But this was the Coiling Dragon Secret Realm in the western Iris Kingdom, where their numbers were few and their primal energy exceptionally thin, rendering it insufficient for self-protection.

The Northern Imperial Kui Star Battle Formation bore the brunt; when the first wave of icy impact from the King of the Que Beasts arrived, three Kui Star Stones shattered instantly.

By the end of three rounds of impact, only two Kui Star Stones remained intact.

This formation had defensive capabilities; it blocked seventy percent of the icy impact's power, but the remaining thirty percent still landed on the Heavenly Palace guards.

Two of them were too exhausted to react. Their protective artifacts shattered, and they froze solid into ice sculptures within two or three breaths!

The King of the Que Beasts itself wasn't faring well either. After these three powerful axe strikes, its body had visibly shrunk by two sizes, it was bleeding profusely, and faint glows seeped from its mouth and nose, being drawn into the Great Square Urn.

It then swung its great axe and swept it across the Heavenly Palace members.

The Divine Fire Talismans hitting the solid ice had also expended their power.

After all, they were only talismans, not Jujiu himself.

But a large hole had been burned into the solid ice, revealing General Hong's shoulder armor.

Hope! Ignoring his own injuries, He Jing lunged forward, raised his heavy mace, and began hammering away at the ice.

At this critical moment, he forcefully gathered his primal energy, unleashing his full strength.

Even He Lingchuan, from afar, could hear the astonishing sound, which surprisingly rivaled the icy impact of the King of the Que Beasts.

With a rattling clatter, shards of ice fell, and General Hong's armor was half-exposed, past the ribs.

He Jing was about to raise his mace for another strike when he suddenly felt his heart race and his breath grow short, and with a *thump*, he spat out blood again.

This time, the blood was dark and clotted, mixed with bits of flesh.

The backlash from the Lamp Spirit's dissipation was still lingering, he had expended a great deal of primal energy fighting the beast horde earlier, and now, having mustered his last reserves of courage, these few strikes aggravated his internal injuries. The pain caused his vision to blur, and he nearly fainted.

But he couldn't afford to slacken at this crucial moment. He Jing forced a breath of primal energy, struck two more times, and finally—

the Great Square Urn was also revealed.

Overjoyed, He Jing grabbed the urn's spout.

He tugged, but it didn't budge.

He tugged again; still, it didn't move.

What was going on?

He looked down along the urn's body and discovered that not only was the Great Square Urn encircled by General Hong's armor, but its gauntlets were also clutching it tightly.

What was stopping him from taking the urn...? Was it the solid ice or the armor?

He couldn't tell clearly, because General Hong's gauntlets were indeed still frozen in the ice.

Seeing the King of the Que Beasts turn towards him, He Jing grew both anxious and furious, and furiously hammered his heavy mace onto General Hong's gauntlets.

With a few *thwacks*, shattered ice flew everywhere.

With such force, let alone breaking ice, even fine steel would have been chipped away.

Yet he neither dislodged the gauntlets nor the Great Square Urn.

Instead, ice began to form on the urn again.

The King of the Que Beasts' ice essence possessed the ability of automatic growth and repair.

After the Divine Fire Talismans' effects wore off, this entire massive ice block would regrow completely in less than a minute.

He Jing's only chance was to dig out both the armor and the urn and take them away together.

Just then, with a *crack*, the last two Kui Star Stones shattered, and the Northern Imperial Kui Star Battle Formation was breached by the beast horde!

The Heavenly Palace team was struck with terror.

Their means were almost exhausted. Only four members of their team remained (not including the unconscious attendant), while there were still at least 140 Que Beasts. Most despairingly, the King of the Que Beasts was still alive.

He Jing suddenly turned his head and threw a copper talisman to his disciple: "Activate the Small Mountain-Moving Formation."

The terrain was often complex during battles, so the Heavenly Palace's Small Mountain-Moving Formations were not drawn on the ground but rather inscribed on refined copper talisman plates. Each set contained two.

This was also why the Heavenly Palace team dared to venture deep into enemy formations. After all, they always had a retreat path; if they couldn't win, they could always escape.