Chapter 465 - 434: Atavism

Chapter 465: Chapter 434: Atavism

WHOOSH—

The White Jade Gourd flew over silently. While the mortals couldn’t perceive it, the eyes of the Golden Core True Master immediately narrowed.

He didn’t know which Golden Core master was hiding here.

But one thing was certain: none of the Cultivators who participated in that great Golden Core battle were weak. Without the slightest hesitation, he brought his hands together as if Returning to the One. A black porcelain fish and a white porcelain fish immediately flew out from his palms.

They instantly merged, transforming into a Yin-Yang Diagram.

The diagram radiated a vast divine might, as if it could suppress heaven and earth. The moment it appeared, the space and time within a radius of several thousand feet froze solid.

At the same time, he shouted:

"I am Che Yuantong, and I have only come seeking fortune. You are a renowned senior, fellow Daoist. Let’s be civilized. Don’t struggle like a dying dog..."

His voice boomed with absolute confidence.

Though he had only achieved Core Formation a little over twenty years ago, his foundations were solid. The black and white porcelain fish, in particular, were powerful items he had obtained from the tomb of a Golden Core master. Factoring in the Foundation Establishment Great Cultivators from his family, hunting down a single, heavily injured Golden Core master was more than achievable.

Even if he was outmatched, he was confident he could retreat unscathed.

Worst case, he could call a few more Golden Core masters for backup. It would just mean sharing a bigger piece of the prize.

"Haha!"

"We finally found him!"

The accompanying Foundation Establishment Great Cultivators all beamed with joy. They simultaneously formed Seal Techniques and quickly summoned their Magical Artifacts.

In an instant.

The grand hall surged with the light of swords, bolts of lightning, and the Spiritual Light of Magical Treasures. At the same time, everyone rose into the air and flew toward the manor.

"No matter who’s here, they’re dead meat."

One of them, a Foundation Establishment Great Perfection Cultivator, couldn’t hide his delight.

The Che Family was no obscure minor clan. The very fact that they could dispatch one Golden Core master and six Foundation Establishment Great Cultivators for this mission showed that their family’s foundation was comparable to even the Ye Clan.

’If we kill our target today, we might gather enough resources to produce a second Golden Core master for the family.’

But the smile had barely formed on his face before it froze solid.

BANG!

Before everyone’s horrified, incredulous, and utterly shocked eyes,

With a CRACK, the two porcelain fish shattered upon impact with the Gourd, exploding on the spot. Then, with a sickening THUD, the Gourd, its momentum unchecked, smashed directly onto Che Yuantong’s head.

His head instantly burst like a watermelon, splattering red and white matter all over the ground.

BOOM!

The Gourd crashed to the ground, the sound echoing like a sudden clap of thunder!

The entire hall sank abruptly as the ground cracked and shattered, revealing a thousand-foot-deep crater. A massive fissure snaked from the Gourd to the edge of the palace, leaving the whole structure on the verge of collapse.

All of this took longer to describe than it did to happen. The slowest of the six Foundation Establishment Great Cultivators had barely lifted his feet off the ground.

"Run!"

After a brief moment of shock, the joy in their eyes instantly turned to terror.

Someone shouted, and the group scattered like birds and beasts, fleeing madly toward the exit.

But at that moment, a gentle breeze wafted silently into the hall.

The breeze was so faint it was almost imperceptible. But as it passed over the Foundation Establishment Great Cultivators, it was as if a Body Fixing Technique had been cast. All six of their bodies seemed to weather away in an instant.

Their clothes, bodies, and Magical Artifacts all turned to dust in a flash, scattering silently to the ground.

Everyone stared, dumbfounded.

The seven Upper Immortals... had vanished just like that?

"Upper Immortal...!"

As the breeze swept past, Li Cang was jolted from his daze.

Terrified, the crowd dropped to their knees, a dark mass of prostrating figures.

Then, before the crowd’s stunned gazes, the Gourd that had crushed the head of the Golden Core ’Upper Immortal’ slowly floated up as if it weighed nothing. As it rose, the collapsed ground silently closed, and the tilted palace seemed to be righted by a pair of invisible hands.

The blood, the dust, every last trace of the battle vanished in the blink of an eye, as if the entire scene had been nothing but an illusion.

"No one is to speak of what happened today! Anyone who violates this order will have their nine familial generations exterminated!"

A moment later, Li Cang was the first to stand. He bowed deeply in the direction of the manor, then turned to the civil and military officials, his gaze burning.

Ever astute, he had already guessed that Chen Che and Xiao Chan were most likely seeking refuge from some calamity in the Mortal World.

But this was a conflict between Upper Immortals.

He was a mere mortal, an ant. He dared not get involved, nor was he qualified to. But at the very least, the two Upper Immortals in the manor seemed far more benevolent.

...

"That mortal is quite sharp."

Chen Che retrieved his Gourd, feeling increasingly satisfied with the power of the reforged Yellow Gourd. ’I only used thirty percent of my strength just now, and it was enough to smash a newly formed Golden Core master to death. If I were to use my full power, even a Cultivator of the Same Tier would be coughing up blood.’

"That Golden Core master called himself Che Yuantong. Where was he from?"

"Never heard of him. He was probably a Golden Core from some other faction. There are seven or eight major Golden Core powers near Faqian City. It’s not just the Primordial Sect, the Star-Picking Sect, and the Mist Rain Tower; there are always some hidden Golden Core Races."

Xiao Chan looked nonchalant, then glanced toward the Imperial Palace.

"Indeed. That’s also why I chose to stay here."

But as he said this, he couldn’t help but frown.

"However, the fact that a Golden Core master found us means that others will come looking in the future."

"It’s fine. As long as no one on Yu Zhen’s level shows up, I can deal with them easily," Chen Che said nonchalantly, toying with the Gourd. "My injuries are already thirty percent healed."

...

Sure enough, just as Xiao Chan had predicted, a second wave of Cultivators arrived three days later.

After all, there were far too many Cultivators searching for them.

In just seven or eight days, several thousand Foundation Establishment Cultivators could turn a radius of thousands of miles around Faqian City upside down, not to mention the Golden Core True Masters mixed in among them. It wasn’t impossible for them to search even farther out.

And those who had managed to reach this Realm of Cultivation were no fools.

After their grid-like search yielded no results, many Cultivators began to reconsider. They reasoned that the targets, having been injured in a major battle, might not have been able to escape very far in a short amount of time.

Therefore, while some persistent Cultivators continued to search farther out, another group stopped and began to search backward, trying to avoid missing their hiding spot by overlooking what was right under their noses.

However, they had missed the optimal window.

With each passing day, the duo’s strength was continuously recovering. Even when small groups of Cultivators managed to find their way to the White Lion Dynasty, there was no need for either of them to act personally.

This was exactly the case with one of the new Golden Core masters.

This master arrived high above the White Lion Imperial City, but instead of landing immediately, he began to scan the area with his Divine Sense. But before his Divine Sense could even cover the manor, he saw a Demon Beast with a wingspan of over three hundred feet soaring up to meet him.

And then... there was no ’then’.

"That Spirit Pet of yours is no ordinary creature!"

Watching the Little Chick swallow the Golden Core True Master in one gulp before leisurely flying back to perch on Chen Che’s shoulder and preen its Feathers, Xiao Chan couldn’t help but exclaim again, "But I’ve noticed it seems to have grown quite a bit recently. Could it be starting to undergo atavism?"

"CHIRP!"

Hearing the praise, the Little Chick puffed out its chest and raised its head proudly. Its full coat of Feathers had grown in on the second day, and it now carried itself with a majestic air.

But the second half of the sentence startled it. It spread its wings in surprise, repeatedly looking its own body over.

"Mm."

Chen Che nodded slightly as he stroked the Little Chick’s head. "There’s an eighty percent chance."

Setting aside external factors like species,

there are generally two factors that influence the size of a Demon Beast: its Cultivation Realm and its age. In other words, the higher a Demon Beast’s Cultivation and the older it is, the larger its body will be.

The intricacies of this were complex enough to be the subject of several major research projects for a Nascent Soul True Monarch on the Earth Element Star.

Generally speaking,

The Little Chick was only seven years old, but even having just reached Core Formation, its size was already comparable to some Flying Great Demons that had been at that stage for centuries. When it fully activated its Demon Qi, its body could expand to over three hundred feet.

And the most direct manifestation of atavism is a body size far exceeding that of its peers, along with the appearance of certain traits from its ancestors.

For example, the enormous size of the Wangxian Monarch and the three heads of the Three-Headed Fierce Flood Dragon are both results of this phenomenon.

As for why atavism occurs, there are currently many different theories.

The most likely possibility is that the latent power within its bloodline is awakened during a promotion in Realm.

In any case, for Chen Che, this was definitely not a bad thing.