“I doubt so,” Zhang Xuan replied awkwardly.
Possessing both the Pathos of Heavens cultivation technique and sword art, he could defeat even middle-tier Gods easily. However, it would not be as easy for him to deal with a high-tier God.
Not to mention, the other party was a powerful divine beast!
Of course, his goal was not to kill the Phosphor Armored Beast but to acquire some of its blood. Through the abilities of the Library of Heaven’s Path and his persuasive speech, he was confident that he could convince the other party to give its blood or even submit to him!
After all, the key to his beast taming skills had never been his fighting prowess but the overflowing charisma dripping from him!
Well, in the very slim chance that his charisma failed to work its charms, it was always possible to make a trade using God Essence Pills too. He had plenty of it anyway.
Given that the mountain valley was lacking in spiritual energy, the Phosphor Armored Beast should be more than glad to make a trade with him.
“You sure are brazen, aren’t you? Despite not being all that confident, you still dare to come all the way here…” The young man shook his head and sighed. “There’s also another thing that bewilders me… You claim that you want to obtain the Phosphor Armored Beast’s blood, but do you even know where it stays and what kind of form it takes?”
“I figured that as long as I’m able to find a high-tier God realm divine beast possessing exceptional defense, that should be it,” Zhang Xuan replied.
The manager had told him that the Phosphor Armored Beast was in the Valley of Falling Clouds, but when he tried to probe further, it turned out that the other party did not know too much about the matter. He had heard about it from another person, so he was not well informed.
Thus, his plan was to quickly tame one of the divine beasts in the Valley of Falling Clouds so that he could gather some information from it, but who would have thought that despite walking around for hours, he still had not found anything at all!
As a result, he had not been able to acquire the critical intelligence that he needed.
That being said, there was only a single path through the valley. As long as he continued walking down this path, he was confident that he would eventually find the Phosphor Armored Beast.
“So, you are planning to bank entirely on luck? Don’t you think that you are taking the issue too lightly?”
The young man leaned leisurely against the cliff as he looked at Zhang Xuan playfully.
“Well, I have tamed quite a few beasts before, so I know their temperaments quite well. I am confident that I’ll be able to convince it to heed my words once I meet it!” Zhang Xuan replied with a wave of his hand. “Thanks once more for the fine wine and meat. I don’t have much time to waste, so I really must leave now. Otherwise, I won’t be able to get back before dawn…”
After saying those words, Zhang Xuan began making his way deeper into the valley.
“What a naive little boy…” The young man got to his feet and said, “Forget it! Since you saved my life today, I’ll help you look for the Phosphor Armored Beast!”
“That would really be imposing too much on you,” Zhang Xuan replied with a shake of his head. “I know that you are strong, but the Phosphor Armored Beast is a divine beast known for its defensive capabilities. I reckon that even you will face difficulties trying to deal with it. I don’t think that I should put you at risk over my own personal issues.”
“It’s fine, it’s fine. I’m free at the moment anyway. What kind of person would I be if I nonchalantly watched as my benefactor dived into danger? Besides, I reckon that you won’t be able to find the Phosphor Armored Beast before dawn given how you are fumbling around the place.”
Picking up the half-filled gourd of wine beside him, the young man walked up to Zhang Xuan.
It was only at this moment that Zhang Xuan noticed that the young man was extremely tall, towering at a height of more than two meters. His height, paired with his powerfully-built body, gave him a very strong presence.
“Since that’s the case, I’ll accept your goodwill graciously then. Of course, it wouldn’t be right for me to engage your help without giving you anything in return. Here are five God Essence Pills. Treat it as compensation for your help!” Zhang Xuan said as he tossed a jade bottle over.
He did not like to owe others favors.
Since the young man was insistent on helping him, he would just have to make sure he rewarded the young man accordingly.
Even for a high-tier God, five God Essence Pills could be considered a relatively hefty sum.
“Oh?”
The young man was slightly surprised by the offer. He took the jade bottle from Zhang Xuan’s hand and uncorked its lid.
There were indeed five God Essence Pills inside.
He picked one up and sniffed it to ensure that it was indeed a real God Essence Pill before his eyes lit up in delight. “Thanks!”
Popping it into his mouth, he felt warm spiritual energy flowing through into his meridians, nourishing his body. With a satisfied smile, he stowed the remaining God Essence Pills into his pocket before walking toward Zhang Xuan. “Come, follow me. I’ll bring you to the Phosphor Armored Beast!”
Zhang Xuan followed him, and together, they headed even further into the valley.
Due to the unique terrain of the valley, the wailing of the wind grew louder and louder the deeper they proceeded.
The two of them continued walking for almost an hour before the young man finally stopped before a pitch-black cavern and said, “We’ve arrived. The cavern over there is the home of the Phosphor Armored Beast!”
The entrance of the cavern was incredibly tall, the height of ten humans. At the same time, its interior was completely dark, making it impossible to discern what was within from the outside.
“That’s it?” Zhang Xuan asked in confusion.
It appeared that the Phosphor Armored Beast was larger than he thought. Otherwise, there was no way it would have been able to create such a massive cavern to use as its lair.
“Yup. You wish to capture it, right? Go in then. I’ll be right behind you, so call out to me if you really need help,” the young man said.
“Alright then.” Zhang Xuan nodded.
He took a deep breath before discreetly flitting toward the cavern. The young man quickly followed him.
It did not take them long to arrive before the entrance of the cavern.
Zhang Xuan activated his Eye of Insight before heading into the cavern. To be safe, he made sure to walk alongside the walls of the cavern.
Soon enough, the passageway opened up, revealing an empty clearing. A hint of light could be seen from the empty clearing.
“It should be there,” the young man told Zhang Xuan through zhenqi telepathy.
Zhang Xuan raised his head and saw a massive divine beast sleeping atop the stone pedestal within the clearing. It was roughly seven meters in length, and its body was covered in grayish fur.
“Why does it look more like a wolf to me?” Zhang Xuan frowned.
No matter how he looked at it, the divine beast before him clearly resembled a wild wolf.
The Phosphor Armored Beast was rumored to possess unparalleled defense. It was hard to imagine that the fur was so resilient as to provide ‘unparalleled defense’.
“That fellow is definitely it. I come here often, so there’s no way I can be wrong,” the young man replied with a nod.
“I understand,” Zhang Xuan replied solemnly.
Taking a deep breath, he took out a sword and released a barrage of sword qi.
Before the barrage of sword qi could strike the Phosphor Armored Beast, the latter seemed to have already noticed the presence of intruders and swiftly rose to its feet. With a sweep of its thick tail, a ferocious gale was whipped up within the cavern.
“It’s indeed a high-tier God!” Zhang Xuan remarked as he dodged the attack with a grim look on his face.
Knowing that it would be dangerous for him to hold back against an opponent so much stronger than him, he chose to use his strongest technique without any hesitation.
“A Heart of Intertwined Threads!”
In an instant, his sword qi swiftly intertwined together to form something reminiscent of a fishing net as it fell upon the Phosphor Armored Beast.
“What a formidable sword art!” the young man behind Zhang Xuan exclaimed in wonderment.
He had been wondering what kind of trump card Zhang Xuan had that allowed him to confidently confront the Phosphor Armored Beast despite the obvious gap in their fighting prowess. Upon seeing the sword art, he realized that even though Zhang Xuan was only a low-tier God, his true fighting prowess was comparable to most high-tier Gods!
Roar!
Trapped by the fishnet made of sword qi, the Phosphor Armored Beast released a ferocious roar as it clawed at the net furiously. Through its devastating might, it was able to free itself within seconds.
As soon as it regained its mobility, it immediately charged at Zhang Xuan with terrifying momentum and tore its claw down upon him wrathfully.
Having seemed to have foreseen its attack, Zhang Xuan calmly took a step back to dodge the claw swipe. At the same time, he turned to the young man behind him and said, “I need your help.”
“Sure. That’s what I’m here for, right?”
The young man seemed to have been waiting for those words. He propelled himself forward with a powerful forward leap to send a punch right into the guts of the Phosphor Armored Beast.
At the same time, Zhang Xuan executed a sword art to assault the other party’s weakness.
Peng!
The Phosphor Armored Beast was caught off guard by the young man’s sudden gut punch, and he was slammed right into the wall of the cavern, leaving a huge depression behind him.
Zhang Xuan quickly rushed forward to follow up with a barrage of sword qi, determined not to give the Phosphor Armored Beast any time to catch its breath.
The young man was also thorough in his attacks as well. He released a series of swift punches toward the Phosphor Armored Beast to overwhelm it, to the point that it seemed as if his two fists had multiplied into eight.
On top of that, his body was also surprisingly resilient.
In the midst of its desperate struggles, the Phosphor Armored Beast struck the young man twice, but it actually did not even leave a scratch on the latter.
Within ten breaths, the Phosphor Armored Beast realized that there was no way it could win the battle. After spurting out a puddle of fresh blood, it rushed out of the cavern and disappeared into the darkness of the night in the blink of an eye.
“Great!”
Seeing the puddle of blood that it had left behind, Zhang Xuan heaved a sigh of relief and hurriedly stored it into a jade bottle.
After he was done, he turned to the young man and clasped his fist. “Thank you for your help earlier on.”
“There’s no need to thank me. Since I offered you my help, I expect to receive compensation in return. Just give me another fifty of the God Essence Pills you gave me earlier, and we’ll call it quits!” the young man said with a grand wave of his hands.
“Fifty God Essence Pills?”
Every single God Essence Pill was worth one Divine Coin, and they were not that easy to procure on the market. The young man’s act of demanding fifty of them in exchange for his help was no different from ripping him off.
Who could have thought that the young man would have this greedy side to him?
“Yep. If I hadn’t helped you earlier, you definitely would have been killed. Don’t you think that your life is at least worth fifty God Essence Pills?” the young man asked.
“I am just an ordinary cultivator, so how could I have that many God Essence Pills on me? How about this? I’ll give you all ten God Essence Pills I have with me at the moment…” Zhang Xuan said.
“You are saying that you only have ten God Essence Pills? Well, shall we check that out?”
With a wave of his hand, the young man swiftly sealed the surroundings with his divine energy, making sure that there was no way Zhang Xuan could get away from there.
“What are you trying to do?” Zhang Xuan frowned in displeasure.
“Nothing much. I am just returning the favor to you. Since you came here to kill me, isn’t it only fair for me to do the same to you as well?” the young man sneered coldly.
“Kill you? What do you mean by that? I saved your life earlier!”
“Saved my life? Hahaha!” The young man burst into laughter. “Didn’t you mention earlier that you came here to hunt the Phosphor Armored Beast?”
Zhang Xuan nodded in response.
The young man harrumphed coldly. “I am the Phosphor Armored Beast!”
In the next moment, his body began to distort, and in a few moments, he had already turned into a massive divine beast covered in scales.
“You are the Phosphor Armored Beast?” Zhang Xuan was stunned. “You have already learned transmogrification?”
He knew that divine beasts were able to transmogrify into humans, but he did not think that it would be to the extent where even he was unable to distinguish the difference!
“That’s right. You tried to kill me, so I made the first move to kill you first. Isn’t that fair?” The Phosphor Armored Beast laughed gleefully.
“Those who choose to hunt should be aware that they could be hunted as well. It’s indeed fair.” Zhang Xuan nodded in response. “However, did you think that I wouldn’t put up my guard against someone who dares to cook and drink alone in the forest at night? Not to mention, your body is actually resilient enough to grab a middle-tier God sword directly without sustaining any damage…”
“I have already seen your strength and your trump cards. There’s no way you could have any other cards in hand!” the Phosphor Armored Beast sneered.
The reason it had brought Zhang Xuan over to fight the divine beast earlier was to see how powerful Zhang Xuan was. After seeing that the latter did not have anything much other than his swordsmanship, it heaved a sigh of relief and decided to make its move.
“I don’t deny that I don’t wield the strength to defeat you, but it’s unfortunate that you ate something that you shouldn’t have a moment ago,” Zhang Xuan said as his lips curled up mysteriously.
Peng!
The next instant, the Phosphor Armored Beast suddenly widened its eyes, and cold sweat began dripping down its forehead. An excruciating pain coming from its stomach caused its massive body to tremble uncontrollably.
