Chapter 42: Heaven Devouring Rat

Ka-boom!

An earth-shattering explosion roared out. A thick and dense demonic aura gushed out from the thousand feet abyss on the ground and completely destroyed everything within a thousand feet radius.

A thousand-foot-long rat appeared on the ground. Its whole body was a greenish hue, and its head was especially big. There was a “Devour” character inscribed between its eyebrows.

As soon as it appeared,

the surging demonic aura billowed skywards and blanketed the atmosphere, corroding the vitality of all living beings.

Just as the lethal cloud was about to reach Xiao Ran, his Immense Righteous Energy rallied around and surrounded him in a protective shield, blocking all the demonic aura outside.

“Eh! How long have you been hiding down there?” Xiao Ran’s eyes lit up with delight.

The Heaven Devouring Rat responded with a stony countenance. It had been evolving its skills and had reached a critical threshold. It was just one step away from breaking through to Level 3 of the Profound Realm, but all the hard work had been ruined by Xiao Ran and the others.

“I’ve been staying down there for nearly a hundred years.”

“Why are you willing to come out now?” Xiao Ran’s curiosity was piqued.

When he heard this question, the Heaven Devouring Rat became even more infuriated. It practically roared back, “I’ve already devoured all the underground Netherworld Aura. I was just one step away from advancing to the next level, but you guys ruined it all!”

“I can only say that you have really bad luck. You chose the wrong place.”

“Hmph! I originally planned to swallow Malevolent Earth and the rest after achieving my breakthrough, but you had to kill them. Fortunately, your flesh contains boundless power. Eating you is an acceptable alternative. It will definitely make up for my losses.” The Heaven Devouring Rat licked its lips in greedy anticipation.

Xiao Ran scratched his nose and asked, “Aren’t you afraid of breaking your teeth?”

The Heaven Devouring Rat sneered. “I’m a Heaven Devouring Rat. I’ve even swallowed a part of the dragon energy of the previous emperor.”

The rat’s mouth suddenly stretched wide open. It continued stretching skywards until the mammoth mouth was nearly three thousand feet in size.

The devouring power erupted and a terrifying suction force was directed at Xiao Ran.

It was as if the ground was shaved off by an invisible blade. Everything within a few hundred feet radius was sucked into his stomach.

In the face of such a terrifying suction force, in a rare moment of urgency, Xiao Ran had to take his opponent seriously for once.

“Force of the Malevolent Dragon!”

He had already attained the level of Genesis for this skill. Invoking his Godfiend power, a massive evil dragon circulated in his body, and reinforced his body with the strength powerful enough to tear heaven and earth apart.

Rip-rip!

His clothes were torn to shreds, unable to withstand this immense force.

Tens of thousands of golden beams emanated from his body and pierced through the night sky, illuminating the area and dispelling all the demonic aura.

Pow!

With a stomp of his right foot, the ground crumbled away, turning into a gigantic sinkhole. In the next second, Xiao Ran dashed across.

As he completed the first step of his Traversing the Heavens in Twelve Steps skill, he arrived above the head of the Heaven Devouring Rat.

The overpowering suction force it released was rapidly neutralized by his evil dragon’s might.

“How come you escaped unscathed?” The Heaven Devouring Rat became terrified.

“You rats are short-sighted,” Xiao Ran replied scornfully.

His right fist smashed out, transforming into a Holy Dungeon that incarcerated him.

If it could tear heaven and earth apart, a mere demon was nothing by comparison.

The Holy Dungeon crushed down and took away every ounce of his life.

On the other hand, his corpse was left intact. The body of a Level 2 Profound Realm demon was still worth something.

It was Xiao Ran’s intention all along to retain the body.

He put the corpse into his Seven Treasures Rainbow Jade Belt.

The ground suddenly exploded and cracked open for thousands of feet, forming a huge lake thousands of feet deep. Within moments, the lake was filled with water.

In the newly formed lake, residual Immense Righteous Energy, sword energy, and other forms of pure energy remained in the lake.

“Isn’t this reaction a little over the top?” Xiao Ran stood there stupefied.

He withdrew the Force of the Malevolent Dragon. He could not stay here any longer and left quickly.

Not long after he left, two shadowy figures appeared, in a visible state of excitement.

They were Wen Fuxian and that Lord Amethyst Sword.

They had initially intended to ambush Priest Wu to recover the lost treasure, the Sun Painting. However, they bumped into the Sky Devil Sect Master and were severely injured by him.

Fortunately, Xiao Ran intervened and saved them.

When they came to their senses, they remained on the spot to recover and heal their bodies.

Much to their surprise, surrounded by the martial arts aura left behind by Xiao Ran, they advanced another step and individually achieved a breakthrough to another small realm.

They had barely stepped into the capital city when they detected the commotion here and had rushed over immediately.

Wen Fuxian sniffed hard and his aged eyes lit up. “This is the aura left behind by that senior.”

The Lord Amethyst Sword nodded in agreement. “Other than this senior, who else can turn an area with a radius of 10,000 feet into such a deep lake that the bottom is not visible?”

They looked at each other for a moment.

In the next moment, they swiftly dashed across and leaped into the lake. They remained at the bottom of the lake to develop and evolve their skills .

The commotion here was so great that it even alarmed Emperor Sheng Wen.

He got up from his imperial bed in the middle of the night. After hearing the report, he immediately sent someone to investigate .

In addition to the personnel from the Imperial Palace, there were also representatives from the five major law-enforcement departments.

It was bad enough that such a big incident had happened right in the capital city. If it had been more violent, the impact could very well bring the imperial palace down. If they still didn’t find out the details, once His Majesty blew his top, they would lose their jobs and be sent packing.

The respective heads of department sent personnel to check immediately.

Xia Luoran also received the news, since she too had returned to the capital city.

She secretly deployed her own power to get people to search for the whereabouts of that senior in the kingdom of Great Xia.

At the same time, she asked her subordinates to take note of all the Profound Realm experts and to report back to her immediately if they discovered any new faces among the Profound Realm experts.

She left the palace with two palace maids and rushed towards the incident site.

When everyone had arrived, Wen Fuxian and partner were yanked out from the depths of the lake.

“What are you doing? Can’t you see that we’re developing our skills?” Wen Fuxian flew into a rage on the spot.

Someone from the Imperial Palace asked, “What’s going on here?”

He could blatantly ignore this request if it came from other people, but not if it came from someone from the Imperial Palace.

He recounted all that he had witnessed honestly.

After hearing about their fortuitous encounter, the representative from the Imperial Palace was stunned. “You were able to achieve breakthrough as well?”

Wen Fuxian did not want to talk anymore. He pulled Lord Amethyst Sword back to the bottom of the lake to continue developing their skills.

When the rest of the coterie saw them diving down, a group of big shots also decided to try it out for themselves and jumped into the lake to develop their skills.

In the end, even Xia Luoran and the two palace maids dived to the bottom of the lake as well.

The palace representative wanted to stay too, but he still had to go back and report to Emperor Sheng Wen. Reluctantly, he turned to leave with much regret.

Back home,

Xiao Ran sat on the bed with a puzzled look on his face. “How did Wen Fuxian and the others get here so quickly?”

Dismissing the incident with a shake of his head,

he focused his attention on the Golden Tome of Creation.

Three Profound Realm experts, two at Level 1 and one at Level 2. This was a bountiful harvest.

The book flipped open to three pages and all the rewards were added together. There were five items displayed: 3,000,000 Mastery points, 240 years of Martial Arts Evolution, 300 years of soul evolution, the Cosmic Precious Dragon Stone and the Vitality Restoring Fruit.

What an unexpected bonus!

He added all the 3 million Mastery points to the Nine Heavens Evil Spirit Purification Skill.

After the attributes were refreshed,

Nine Heavens Evil Spirit Purification Skill: Dominating Refinement

Purifying spiritual force increased by five times.

Even his physique had advanced another step, and it was now comparable to Level 2 of the Grand Master Realm.

In terms of Martial Arts Evolution, he was only 380 years away from breaking through to Level 3 of the Profound Realm.

His Spiritual Master Evolution achieved a breakthrough to Level 3 of the Earth Realm in one shot and was now on par with his Martial Arts Evolution.

He took out the Cosmic Precious Dragon Stone and removed the Seven Treasures Rainbow Jade Belt from his waist.

He then put the two items together.

A resplendent seven-colored light flared out. After it had completed fusing with the Cosmic Precious Dragon Stone, the belt had expanded its capacity to 500 cubic meters.

Then, he took out the Vitality Restoring Fruit, brimming with rich life force.

One Vitality Restoring Fruit could increase one’s lifespan by 300 years.

He ate it, savoring the good texture and sweet flavor. When he was done, his lifespan had also increased by three hundred years.

“It’s so much faster to reap rewards at the level of Profound Realm.” Xiao Ran mused out loud.

Elsewhere,

somewhere in the luxurious Imperial Palace,

a young man sat at the head of the table. After hearing his subordinate’s report, he was so incensed that he smashed a vase worth 200,000 taels of silver into smithereens. “After planning for so long, even the old general was killed in the process! But in the end, she ruined it all!”

An old man stroked his beard and ruminated, “There’s more than one way to get the ‘Celestial Varg Guards’ manual.”