Chapter 294: Refining Beast Land

The White Crane of Shushan Sword Palace had no idea who the traitor was, but someone was leaking information to the sea race. This treachery was fatal, causing the land-based masters to feel constantly at risk.

They didn't know who among them was the source of the betrayal.

Consequently, even when encircled and hunted, the experts found it difficult to unite against their enemies. Instead, they remained secretly on guard, fearing an attack from someone nearby.

Chu Feng frowned upon hearing this; it was not good news.

He then thought of the Peacock King, the Golden Crow King, and the Xingyi Boxing Grandmaster Xu Qing, all of whom he harbored suspicions about.

Especially Xu Qing, who wore white, had previously met privately with Qian Yue, a powerful three-eyed sea race expert, and their close association made him the prime suspect.

“The Peacock King escaped with severe injuries,” the White Snake interjected. “He nearly died, his heart was torn, and he had been struck by a deadly blow from a powerful sea race weapon.”

The White Snake spoke, her condition far from ideal; her body had been severed in two and was now only forcibly rejoined. Full recovery would take at least several days.

Even those who had broken through the sixth shackle, possessing abundant vitality, couldn’t recover as quickly as Chu Feng with his miraculous healing abilities. Most couldn't return to their original state in a short period.

“As for the white-clad Xu Qing you mentioned,” said the White Crane from Shushan Sword Palace, “he didn’t come to Longhu Mountain; we didn’t see him at all.”

Even if the youngest Xingyi Grandmaster Xu Qing had arrived, he wasn't with the main group, making it impossible for him to know about their plan to confront the sea race.

The Northeast Tiger grumbled, “They tried to lure the sea race into the domain, but ended up being counter-attacked and killed? That’s utterly humiliating.”

“The situation was critical at the time,” the White Crane explained. “If we hadn’t attacked, the sea race would have ambushed us anyway. Our preparations were too rushed, and coupled with the leak, we suffered severe losses.”

The White Crane of Shushan Sword Palace had been struck by the “Divine Flood Dragon Paper,” nearly dying on the spot and barely escaping with its life.

The old Grandmaster of Wudang Mountain, the Mastiff King, and others suffered similar fates, all gravely injured by the terrifying weapons wielded by the sea race. Otherwise, they would never have been reduced to such a state.

Chu Feng prepared to act, intending to kill the sea race experts and rescue the land-based masters.

He had come at Lu Tong’s request and genuinely wished to repay their favor by rescuing the three grandmasters from Jade Void Palace, Eight Views Palace, and Biyou Palace.

As for the old Grandmaster from Wudang Mountain and others, rescuing them was an imperative, a matter of clear duty.

The White Snake and the Master of Shushan Sword Palace advised Chu Feng on what to watch out for, informing him which sea race members were formidable and which wielded powerful weapons, so he would be prepared.

Chu Feng nodded; this information was crucial to him.

“You should all leave,” Chu Feng said. “The depths of this space are too dangerous.” Everyone present was severely wounded and unable to continue fighting.

“Alright, take care!” the Northeast Tiger replied with surprising readiness.

The Great Black Ox glared at the tiger, accusing it of disloyalty, then told Chu Feng, “I’ll go with you. At a crucial moment, I can wield the monk’s staff and deliver a fatal blow.”

“I’ll go too; I can also swing the staff once,” the Yellow Ox nodded, unwilling to depart.

“Woof, woof, I’ll go with Brother Tiger and won’t be a burden to you,” the old Donkey yelped, then dashed off into the distance.

The Great Black Ox stared, and the Yellow Ox also threatened the Donkey, insisting it come along, stating that it too could wield the staff once for a crucial, fatal blow to an enemy.

The monk’s staff was a peculiar weapon; each use drained the wielder’s physical energy until they were utterly exhausted.

The Yellow Ox, the Great Black Ox, and the Donkey King could all severely wound or even kill masters who had broken through the six shackles by wielding it.

If Chu Feng were to use it, the power would undoubtedly be greater, but he would also be instantly drained of energy!

In the end, the Northeast Tiger dejectedly returned; it genuinely didn’t want to remain in this space, finding it too dangerous.

The Golden Eagle King was severely wounded and unfit to follow. Chu Feng gave it a crystalline gourd seed and instructed it to leave with the White Crane and the others, exiting the area first.

Chu Feng found the black spear in the mountains and set off with the Great Black Ox and the others.

“Don’t worry,” Chu Feng told the Northeast Tiger. “If there’s danger, I can put you inside my spatial bottle. As long as I’m alive, you’ll be safe.”

In truth, this particular tiger was a master. After cultivating the Xingyi breathing method, he could even fight two incredibly defensive sea turtles at once. However, his nature was hard to change; he always preferred to flee and avoid danger. As he put it, “Can bravery feed you? Only a fool risks his life when there’s no real need.”

His words left the others speechless, all of them wanting to punch him.

“Yellow Ox, do you recognize this fruit?” Chu Feng asked, taking the stone-like fruit from his spatial bottle. A rich, overpowering fragrance instantly filled the air.

Everyone was surprised and turned to look.

The stone fruit was about the size and shape of a peach, but it was entirely grey and stony, with cracks revealing its vibrant red flesh within.

“How strange! Let me taste it!” The Northeast Tiger immediately extended a paw, only for Chu Feng to swat it away.

“Where did you find it?” The Yellow Ox’s face tightened in surprise, becoming very serious as he pressed for details.

Chu Feng recounted the entire process in detail.

“Oh no, we need to leave quickly after we rescue them!” The Yellow Ox said with a hint of nervousness, looking around repeatedly.

“What’s going on?” Chu Feng asked, puzzled.

The others were also suspicious, wondering if a mere fruit warranted such a reaction.

“This is a Demon Refining Fruit!”

Worry etched on the Yellow Ox’s pretty little face, he kept surveying their surroundings as he explained the fruit’s origin to the others.

In ancient times, powerful evolutionaries like Taoist true immortals and Buddhist golden arhans would subdue anomalous creatures and suppress them within special domains for refinement.

The Yellow Ox suspected this was a demon-refining site, with powerful demons suppressed beneath the ground.

The fruit itself was a product of this refining process. Powerful ancient anomalous creatures, particularly great demons, were incredibly difficult to kill. Their overflowing vital energy would seep out and form these Demon Refining Fruits.

“Could that be true?!” The Donkey King’s fur bristled as he nervously looked left and right, fearing a great demon might suddenly burst forth from underground.

The Yellow Ox nodded. “In the outer realms, many powerful orthodoxies possess demon-refining sites to cultivate Demon Refining Fruits.”

“Longhu Mountain is the ancestral Daoist ground on Earth,” Chu Feng commented. “Ancient Celestial Masters frequently subdued demons here, so it’s normal to have so-called demon-refining sites.”

This was Longhu Mountain, a place where Celestial Masters—some of the most formidable ancient evolutionaries—had continuously been stationed during certain periods.

“Based on your description,” the Yellow Ox continued, “this Demon Refining Fruit wasn’t intentionally cultivated. Rather, it grew naturally due to cracks appearing in the domain, allowing the great demons’ vital energy to leak out.”

According to the Yellow Ox, this was an alarming sign.

If those great demons had long perished over the ages and been completely refined, then all would be well.

However, if any still held a breath of life, not truly dead, and were to break free, this entire area would likely become utterly terrifying.

Trapped in the demon-refining site for so long, even creatures that were once normal would likely be driven insane upon escaping, potentially triggering a bloody catastrophe.

Such incidents were not uncommon in some major realms.

Even from the demon-refining sites of powerful orthodoxies, ancient demons had sometimes escaped, wreaking havoc across entire regions. Those who escaped were invariably mad.

Having been imprisoned for so many years, their minds would be unhinged, and fueled by hatred and a desire for revenge, they would become even more dreadful.

“The more you talk, the creepier it gets,” the Tiger King grumbled. “Should I consider heading west and renaming myself the Siberian Tiger?”

He bristled slightly at the thought, sensing that Longhu Mountain was too dangerous and that disaster was imminent. Staying in the East, he felt, would put his life at risk.

The Yellow Ox said, “Ancient Celestial Masters, as powerful beings, wouldn’t have left themselves without a failsafe. I believe the mysterious weapon we saw last time can likely suppress these demons.”

He was referring to the weapon that had obliterated the flying saucer, creating a golden mushroom cloud with a manifesting dragon and tiger, a truly astonishing sight.

“However, we still need to leave this place as soon as possible,” the Yellow Ox added.

That weapon was suspected to be buried beneath Longhu Mountain itself, not within this particular space. They would need to escape this area to be safe.

The Yellow Ox speculated that if the domain shattered and any great demons, not yet deceased, escaped this space, they might be suppressed and slain by that mysterious weapon.

Everyone grew serious, increasingly convinced they couldn’t linger much longer in this space.

“By the way, what’s this fruit for?” the Great Black Ox asked.

“It’s a healing treasure, replenishing vital energy,” the Yellow Ox explained. “The highest grade of these fruits can even revive the dead and regrow flesh on bones, provided there’s an incredibly terrifying ancient demon suppressed beneath the demon-refining site.”

It was obvious: the more formidable the demons beneath the demon-refining site, the more astonishing the fruits they nourished would be.

Chu Feng handed the stone fruit to the Yellow Ox, urging him to recover his vitality. The little ox had pushed himself too hard, attempting to break his shackles independently; though his foundation wasn’t damaged, he was severely wounded.

The Yellow Ox accepted without hesitation, knowing that failing to heal quickly might lead to unforeseen complications.

As they traveled, he absorbed the vibrant red pulp from the stone fruit. Its fragrance was intoxicating. This was a substance grown on stone trees, born from the essence of ancient great demons, and for beings of their cultivation level, it was nothing short of a healing panacea.

Before long, his depleted vital energy was fully replenished.

“That’s incredible?!” The others stared in astonishment.

More than half of the fruit remained; the Yellow Ox hadn’t used it all.

“You all have injuries,” Chu Feng said. “Try it now.”

“Alright!” The Northeast Tiger immediately extended a paw.

The Great Black Ox was also quite eager; he had broken a horn and suffered greatly, so he truly needed some healing now.

Soon after, the Northeast Tiger and the Donkey King both yelped in surprise. They felt their bodies tingle as some wounds visibly twitched, rapidly healing and expelling the strange energies left behind by their enemies. Their injuries completely vanished; the recovery was astonishingly fast.

The Donkey King’s tail was slowly regrowing, likely to fully recover.

The Great Black Ox also mooed loudly as his gravely injured body rapidly healed. Even the base of his broken horn felt a tingling sensation, brimming with vitality, and a small segment of it began to grow.

He knew that with a period of peaceful recovery, his horn would certainly return to its original state.

“This effect is incredibly powerful,” Chu Feng said, astonished.

“Naturally,” the Yellow Ox replied. “Otherwise, why would those powerful orthodoxies all have demon-refining sites? Demon Refining Fruits are simply too important for a sect.”

“Wouldn’t this easily lead to chaos?” Chu Feng asked. “The masters of powerful sects go to subdue demons and cultivate Demon Refining Fruits, but those anomalous creatures would surely resist and fight back.”

“There are restrictions,” the Yellow Ox clarified. “Only creatures guilty of grave sins are permitted to be suppressed.”

However, the others could still sense that there must be loopholes. Wars were inevitable in the outer realms; even under the brilliant facade of those sacred lands, bloodshed must have occurred.

“Demons from the outer realms live such miserable lives,” the Great Black Ox grimaced, feeling that those places were truly perilous.

“Beneath the demon-refining sites, all sorts of beings are held, including fierce human demons; they aren’t all actual demons. It depends on who did the suppressing. It’s rumored that ancient records speak of a certain Demon Saint’s demon-refining site containing Celestial Masters and even Bodhisattvas among evolutionaries.”

The others listened, utterly dumbfounded.

They gained a profound sense of the outer realms’ power and grandeur.

After journeying further, they ventured into the deepest part of this mysterious space, which was not as vast as they had imagined.

Upon arriving, they heard sounds of battle.

They saw indistinct figures and surging sword energy, realizing a fierce battle was underway, leaving bloodstains across the ground.

Most astonishingly, the ground in this area had fractured open, revealing a gigantic green gourd, as tall as a mountain.

The gourd appeared to have just recently emerged from the earth, and wisps of vital energy, resembling blood, emanated from its mouth.

Even more strikingly, numerous stone trees grew near the gourd’s mouth, each bearing fruits of varying sizes, their fragrance wafting through the air.

Upon seeing this, the Yellow Ox’s scalp tingled. “The demon-refining site’s domain has shattered,” he exclaimed, “and the core artifact for refinement has emerged!”

“Kill!”

In mid-air, golden light exploded as a winged sea beast soared to fight a blood-soaked Golden-Winged Great Roc.

“Boom!”

On the other side, a silver-scaled sea beast resembling a crocodile was engaged in a decisive battle with the Master of Biyou Palace.

This entire area was being devastated by the incredibly fierce combat.

Other powerful sea creatures were circling the green gourd, attempting to claim it for themselves.