Chapter 436 - 35: Summon: Holy King Beast

Over hundreds of years, Funeng City had undergone several major reconstructions, leaving behind a complex, maze-like network of secret passages underground.

This provided fertile ground for the Underworld’s filth and vice to flourish.

But it also made it easy to cultivate certain unnatural beings.

SPLOOSH...

A viscous, green fluid shot out from the darkness, starting as a single glob before scattering into a rain of droplets that filled the air.

This slime could corrode anything, capable of melting through even hardened alloy pipes in an instant.

Now, a dense barrage of it was coming, flooding the entire passageway and leaving them with nowhere to run and nowhere to hide.

"Watch out!"

Cheng Rong’s expression changed drastically as she cried out in alarm.

The next moment, the incoming slime suddenly froze in mid-air before reversing course at an even greater speed.

Myriad Phenomena Celestial Attraction!

One of the Federation’s Eighteen Secret Skills.

"You should get out of here."

Zhu Ju held one hand out, and an invisible force expanded into the darkness ahead like ripples on water.

"I’m afraid I won’t be able to watch out for you in a moment."

"Hm?"

"Looks like it’s too late!"

Before the words had even faded, a tentacle as thick around as a grown man shot up from below, punching through multiple levels of the passageway to attack.

In Zhu Ju’s perception, the tentacle was slick and dense, its surface covered in all sorts of eyeballs.

As it drew closer, the eyes on the tentacle blinked, and a strange radiance silently emerged.

Fear Aura!

"Ngh!"

A muffled grunt escaped Zhu Ju’s lips, his expression turning grave.

For a fleeting moment, an involuntary impulse to shrink back and flee arose in his heart.

Fear!

Terror!

Cowardice!

...

Fortunately, while this power was bizarre, it wasn’t overwhelmingly strong. It only managed to slightly shake his mind before he suppressed it an instant later.

"Ahhh!"

Cheng Rong, behind him, clearly lacked such a powerful will. As the halo of light enveloped her, she let out a piercing scream.

She clutched her face, her eyes filled with terror. Her Skin and Flesh began to split open at a visible rate, and maggots, spiders, and other foul things crawled out of her body, taking her life force with them.

A Legendary Beast’s Fear Aura didn’t just instill fear and crush one’s will to fight; it could even cause the body to mutate, turning a person into its Puppet. The technique was simply unnatural.

"Hmph!"

Zhu Ju snorted, releasing his Divine Soul Power.

In Cheng Rong’s perception, Zhu Ju before her was like a blazing sun radiating light. The gentle sunlight instantly washed away the unnatural sensations in her body and mind, leaving her feeling warm all over.

"Something isn’t right."

Zhu Ju said, "A newly hatched Legendary Beast, even one that was force-grown, shouldn’t possess this level of power."

"Get out here!"

He made a grasping motion with one hand, and the Power of his Physical Body, comparable to a Mid-Stage Golden Core cultivator, erupted. The Myriad Phenomena Celestial Attraction acted like an invisible giant hand, forcibly dragging a life form out from the darkness.

SKREEE!

A bizarre cry shook the surroundings.

A giant squid, thirty meters long with dozens of tentacles, appeared in Cheng Rong’s line of sight.

The squid thrashed its body wildly, its eye-covered form erupting with a strange light to resist Zhu Ju’s Myriad Phenomena Celestial Attraction.

Its grotesque form was enough to make one’s skin crawl and sanity fray after just a glance.

"That’s not a Legendary Beast!"

Cheng Rong squeezed her eyes shut and stumbled backward, shouting, "A Legendary Beast is still a beast! It has a stable form. This thing... it’s a creation of an Evil God."

Exotic Beasts are still beasts.

Flying, having armor, or growing multiple limbs is all normal, but they would never give off such a twisted, insane feeling.

But this thing before them...

It was more like a monster cobbled together from various grotesque objects, completely lacking the aura of a living creature.

"Is that so?"

Although Zhu Ju had learned a great deal about this world through the internet, he was ultimately an outsider and sometimes knew far less than a ’local’. He immediately asked, "Does it have a Source Crystal in its body?"

This was his primary concern. Otherwise, he might not have been willing to come down here today.

The Source Crystal from a Legendary Beast was not only incredibly valuable, but it could also accelerate his improvement.

"Well..." Cheng Rong hesitated.

"It should, right?"

"Should?"

Zhu Ju shook his head. His gaze paused on a pair of eyes on the monster’s body, and he spoke with a hint of hesitation.

"Doctor?"

"...It’s me." The wildly struggling monster suddenly stopped moving. The surface of its skin twisted and contorted, forming a grotesque human face—it was the Doctor, one of Boss Jiao’s three former partners.

But now, the Doctor’s expression was twisted, his eyes manic. His former wisdom was long gone, replaced by the look of an unhinged madman.

He stared at Zhu Ju and grinned.

"Mr. Zhu, I bet you didn’t expect this. Besides my backup, I had a portion of my flesh and blood hidden deep underground."

"I certainly didn’t," Zhu Ju nodded.

"So the one who worshiped the Thousand-Eyed Evil God wasn’t Boss Jiao, but you. No wonder the Evil God Followers in the Underworld weren’t really affected after Boss Jiao died."

"That’s right." The Doctor’s eyes gleamed with madness.

"God is omniscient and omnipotent. He possesses boundless wisdom, the ultimate pursuit of every seeker of knowledge."

"I was originally going to sacrifice Boss Jiao to receive God’s blessing, but because of you..."

"You ruined everything for me!"

"Oh!" Zhu Ju stroked his chin, looking thoughtful.

"The methods Boss Jiao used to modify himself, did you teach him that?"

"It doesn’t matter anymore..."

"No matter the scheme, it all turns to dust when you’re dead. And right now, you’re no different from a dead man."

"You think you’ve won?" The Doctor’s face darkened as he roared, "You know nothing of God’s methods! This body of mine possesses the power of a Legendary Beast."

ROAR!

The sound manifested as a visible sonic wave, sweeping out in all directions. The surrounding rock and steel rebar were like dust in the face of this sound, easily blown away, and the entire ground trembled and shook.

But it wasn’t just the sound!

Human faces emerged from the giant squid’s body, some crying, some laughing, each with a different expression.

Without exception, they all opened their mouths, and a violent torrent of Spiritual Power converged with the sonic wave, surging forward like a thousand great hammers smashing down on one’s Sea of Consciousness.

Zhu Ju’s body swayed slightly, a trace of surprise flashing in his eyes. This power was on par with a genuine Golden Core cultivator or a Martial Saint. Moreover, it attacked the Physical Body and the Divine Soul simultaneously, and its methods were bizarre.

However...

"Too weak!"

Uranium Ring Chain Killing Palm!

Zhu Ju took a deep breath, slowly drawing his fist back to his waist. The motion seemed slow and ordinary, but it concealed a subtle transformation.

In that instant, Array, technology, the Power of his Physical Body, and his Primordial Spirit Power triggered a chain reaction within his body, erupting with a force far beyond the ordinary.

BOOM!

As his fist shot out, endless light and heat erupted from it, instantly illuminating the entire underground space.

When the all-destroying light and heat made contact with the squid’s body, the Doctor’s screams followed.

"Aaaargh!"

"This is impossible!"

The Uranium Ring Chain Killing Palm was a relatively complex nuclear-based martial art, but it wasn’t one of the Federation’s Eighteen Secret Skills.

Its power wasn’t considered exceptionally strong either.

But in Zhu Ju’s hands, this Fist Technique displayed an inconceivable ability. A punch was like a nuclear explosion.

And its power was perfectly focused.

Within a hundred-meter radius, it was as if a sun had appeared out of thin air, melting everything within.

Yet beyond that hundred meters, one couldn’t even feel a change in temperature.

The screams came to an abrupt halt.

Zhu Ju retracted his fist.

"Is it over?"

Cheng Rong instinctively took a step forward, squinting toward the ruins ahead.

"No."

Zhu Ju shook his head, a puzzled look in his eyes. "It’s a very strange thing, a mix of weakness and strength. Perhaps the Evil God’s modifications were a bit rushed."

The white light dissipated.

A few fractured bones and a scattering of grotesque eyeballs floating in mid-air were all that remained.

It seemed the Legendary Beast had been obliterated, yet some faint aura still lingered.

"How could the methods of a god be understood by a mere Mortal? Not even if you are a Martial Saint."

The Doctor’s voice rang out again, filled with madness and chaos, as the remains on the field erupted in a blinding light. "The power we have silently accumulated here for over a hundred years wasn’t just to sneak a Legendary Beast egg in."

"Oh, God!"

"Your devout follower kowtows before you, willing to sacrifice the power of an entire city in exchange for your bles—..."

"Argh!"

His voice was cut short by a force descending from above. Immediately after, countless streams of Spiritual Light appeared, converging into a complex pattern.

"This is..."

Zhu Ju’s eyes showed his surprise.

"An Array!"

’An Evil God actually knows about the Cultivation Realm’s Arrays?’

"No!"

"It’s a Teleportation Array!"

A Tier Four Teleportation Array. In the Main World, only a few of the top Major Immortal Sects had mastered them, not only because the Arrays were complex but also because activating such an Array required an immense amount of energy that ordinary Sects simply couldn’t afford.

And now, a pillar of light emerged from underground, piercing through a hundred meters of earth and rock to shoot ten thousand meters into the sky.

Underground, the complex Array slowly opened before Zhu Ju and Cheng Rong like a gateway to an Other Dimension.

At the same time, a terrifying aura began to emerge, causing Zhu Ju’s expression to turn grave.

"This aura..."

He pursed his lips and sighed with a hint of resignation. "A Holy King Beast!"

"A Holy King Beast?" Cheng Rong, still reeling behind him, was shocked to hear this. Staring at the phantom image beginning to emerge, she asked, "You’re saying a Holy King Beast is coming out?"

"That’s right."

Zhu Ju nodded. "Aside from a Holy King Beast, I can’t think of anything else that could have such a powerful, intimidating presence."

"It seems the Evil God never expected the Doctor to accomplish anything. It was just using the hatched monster as a stepping stone to summon a truly powerful being."

"Let’s go!"

He turned and started back the way they came. "This thing is not something we can handle. Hopefully, Funeng City has a way to suppress it."

"Otherwise..."

"Funeng City will become the second Safe City in the Federation to be destroyed in the last decade."

In the Cultivation Realm’s hierarchy, a Holy King Beast is comparable to a True Man who has formed a Nascent Soul. Its combat power might be slightly less, but it was definitely not something the current Zhu Ju could confront.

A timely retreat was the only rational choice.

"How could this happen!" Terror filled Cheng Rong’s eyes.

"A Holy King Beast appearing in a Safe City... it will destroy everything here."

Just then, Zhu Ju had already activated his communicator.

"Qiann Lan."

He spoke as he walked, "Notify Councillor Cao to get a Flying Artifact ready to leave Funeng City. Also, send me the locations of the major corporations."

BOOM!

Behind them, rock and debris tumbled as a terrifying behemoth leaped from the Teleportation Array, smashing through the rock and appearing in the depths beneath Funeng City.