Cultivation Begins From The Desert

For a demonic beast to speak human language before reaching the sixth rank is not easy. It must receive help from either a sixth-rank Demon King or a Nascent Soul Stage cultivator to refine the "Transverse Bone" within its body.

Generally speaking, only the descendants of a sixth-rank Demon King are worthy of having a sixth-rank Demon King spend magical power and time to help refine their "Transverse Bone" before the sixth rank.

The fact that Jinpeng received help from a Demon King to refine its "Transverse Bone" while at Tier Five shows it must be a trusted confidant of a certain Demon King.

This made Cao Wenjin recall a legend about the Golden-winged Thunder Eagle tribe in the Broken Cloud Mountain Range, where a certain ancestor was the royal mount of a sixth-rank Demon King.

Unfortunately, even as a Golden Core Stage cultivator, he only knew of this legend and had no knowledge of that Demon King's name, nor did he know that the Golden-winged Thunder Eagle before him had another name, Jinpeng.

His heart stirred, and he immediately asked, "Since you can speak human language, you must not be an unknown figure among the many demon beasts in the Broken Cloud Mountain Range. Why have you come all the way here to avenge two Golden-Horned Rhinoceroses expelled from the Broken Cloud Mountain Range?"

Upon hearing this, Jinpeng's golden eyes turned, and it shrieked, "Ha ha ha, why should I tell a dead person such things?"

Cao Wenjin's power, enhanced by external objects and a burst secret technique, was certainly unsustainable. Now, delaying for a moment was a victory. Jinpeng, who had always prided itself as the "wise one" among demon beasts, naturally preferred using wisdom to achieve what strength could accomplish.

However, it was still just a lowly beast that had not shed its demon form, and despite living for thousands of years, when it came to scheming, compared to someone like Cao Wenjin, who had mastered a sect for centuries as a Golden Core Stage cultivator, it was rather laughable.

Cao Wenjin saw through Jinpeng's thoughts instantly, but he did not expose it. Instead, he feigned anger and shouted along with Jinpeng's words, "You are too arrogant! Though I am not your match, I am still a Late-Stage Golden Core cultivator. Even if you can kill me, are you not afraid that I will self-detonate my Golden Core and take you down with me?"

"Self-detonating the Golden Core? This trick may work on other beasts, but do you know what kind of demon beast I am? Before me, detonating your Golden Core is just seeking death!"

An icy smile flashed in Jinpeng's eyes, and its tone was full of mockery.

Its words were by no means false!

With its speed, even if Cao Wenjin truly detonated his Golden Core, it could escape from the blast center in time, making it impossible for both to perish together.

Of course, it said this to intimidate Cao Wenjin, preventing him from actually detonating his Golden Core and fighting to the death.

One must know that while it was unafraid of Cao Wenjin self-detonating his Golden Core, it was more eager to kill Cao Wenjin and consume his Golden Core.

A human cultivator's Golden Core is a great tonic for demon beasts. If it could consume a Late-Stage Golden Core cultivator's Golden Core, its chance to advance to a sixth-rank Demon King in the future would significantly increase.

"You… you have gone too far! I am going to fight you!"

A flash of rage and shame crossed Cao Wenjin's face, seemingly genuinely angered by Jinpeng's taunts. He forcefully summoned his flying sword, transforming it into a wisp of sword silk aiming to pierce through Jinpeng.

Upon reaching a ninth-layer Golden Core cultivation, the ability of "Flying Sword Silk" was naturally grasped and used by him.

The sword silk pierced the air and instantly appeared before Jinpeng.

Unfortunately, while the sword silk was fast, Jinpeng's innate "Lightning Escape Technique" was faster.

A flash of lightning covered its figure, and it instantly vanished from its original location, reappearing thousands of feet away in another part of the sky.

Yet at this moment, something entirely unforeseen by Jinpeng occurred!

Cao Wenjin extended his hand hidden in his sleeve, producing a scroll. As he infused his magical power into the scroll, it unfolded by itself, revealing a vivid landscape painting.

"Go."

With a low shout, Cao Wenjin threw the painting towards Jinpeng, thousands of feet away.

Though the landscape painting flew slowly, Jinpeng, which was swift as lightning, found it hard to even flap its wings now.

An invisible force pinned it in place, leaving it to watch helplessly as the landscape painting descended over its head, expanded, and enveloped it into the illustration.

"It's the power of spatial confinement!"

That realization came to Jinpeng only after being captured by the landscape painting.

The power of space, or spatial laws, is the strength that only Nascent Soul cultivators have the qualification to comprehend and control.

Some of the renowned great divine techniques a Nascent Soul cultivator masters, such as "Shrinking Inches," "World in the Palm," "Universe in the Sleeve," and "Space Shifting," are only learnable after comprehending spatial laws.

The landscape painting used by Cao Wenjin is, in fact, a spatial treasure crafted by Nascent Soul cultivators after comprehending spatial laws, using special materials and methods.

This treasure is like neither a magical artifact nor spirit talisman, but a special secret treasure between the two.

Each time this special secret treasure is used, it suffers irreversible damage. Once used excessively or if imprisoning a very powerful enemy, the treasure's lifespan will greatly shorten.

This landscape painting of Cao Wenjin isn't something he obtained from a Nascent Soul cultivator, but an heirloom treasure of the Yellow Sand Sect, acquired by an ancestor in a past adventure.

Due to its immense value and high cultivation requirement for use, only a ninth-layer Golden Core cultivation can barely activate it.

Therefore, even when facing the demon Blood Nether, he was reluctant to bring out this item.

This time, he was forced into a corner and had no choice but to use it.

The Golden-winged Thunder Eagle was too fast and held a great advantage in magical combat by nature; if he didn't use such a spatial secret treasure to restrain its speed, whether he was fleeing for his life or fighting desperately, he would ultimately face death!

However, although the spatial secret treasure trapped the Golden Roc, Cao Wenjin knew from the records left by the Ancestor Master that this treasure map had only the power to trap the enemy, not to kill.

With the cultivation strength of the Golden Roc, it's feared that it won't be more than a quarter of an hour before it escapes!

"A quarter of an hour is enough! You want to kill this old man, well, this old man will clip your wings first!"

He looked at the Golden-winged Thunder Eagle flying within the landscape painting, a flash of cruelty in his eyes, and then all his magical power surged crazily into the landscape painting.

Instantly, due to Cao Wenjin's massive infusion of magical power, the power of imprisonment within the landscape painting greatly increased. The Golden-winged Thunder Eagle, previously flying back and forth inside, was suddenly as if trapped in a quagmire, slowing to a crawl.

At the same time, with a thought from Cao Wenjin, the flying sword that previously missed its mark suddenly sliced furiously toward the slow-moving Golden-winged Thunder Eagle on the landscape painting.

Crack!

Although the landscape painting was a secret treasure refined by a Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator, its material itself was not especially hard. Cao Wenjin, with his Ninth-Layer Golden Core cultivation, controlled the flying sword to attack from the outside, immediately leaving an irreparable crack on this invaluable treasure.

Nevertheless, Cao Wenjin seemed not to think this enough and continued to fiercely attack the landscape painting with his sword.

After several continuous strikes, the entire landscape painting finally exploded with a "bang".

As the landscape painting shattered and was destroyed, the Golden-winged Thunder Eagle trapped within naturally swiftly escaped.

But the cost of this rapid escape was that the Golden-winged Thunder Eagle's entire body was scraped of a layer of flesh by the rampaging spatial power, turning it into a bloody eagle.

"Human, you must die!"

An utterly furious roar echoed across the sky.

Having just escaped, the Golden Roc's sharp eagle eyes fixed firmly on Cao Wenjin, murder boiling in its gaze.

It never expected that one day it would fall into the hands of a mere Seventh-Layer Golden Core Cultivator.

Just now, when the landscape painting shattered and the spatial power ran rampant, it was nearly torn to pieces!

For a prideful being like itself, this was an utter humiliation!

Yet facing the overwhelming killing intent of the Golden Roc, Cao Wenjin laughed boisterously: "Hahaha, a beast is just a beast, even if it learns human speech, it remains a beast!"

Before his laughter faded, he suddenly spat out a mouthful of essence blood, his figure instantly transforming into a streak of blood light, vanishing from the spot.

"Where do you think you're going?"

The Golden Roc was already seething with rage from being injured by Cao Wenjin, and upon hearing his words, it was instantly filled with uncontainable fury, its golden eyes instantly clouded with a layer of red.

With an angry screech, lightning flashed across its body as it prepared to use the "Thunder Escape Technique" to pursue him.

The "Blood Escape Technique" was impressive, but it could not be used continuously, and each use significantly drained primordial Qi.

However, the "Thunder Escape Technique" was different; it only consumed its own magical power, allowing it to be used continuously as long as magical power remained.

Just as it didn't expect, after a flash of lightning, its body suddenly plummeted from mid-air, crashing headfirst into the sand below.

"Damn spatial power! I must become a Tier Six Demon King, I must master the space law!"

From the sand, the Golden Roc pulled its head from the thick sand, its eyes bloodshot, unleashing a furious roar.

In essence, any escape technique is a utilization of the space law, and the more powerful the escape technique, the more this is true.

Yet, the Golden Roc had just been injured by spatial power, and some of that spatial power still lingered in its body.

These remnants of spatial power wouldn't take its life but would disrupt its established movement coordinates when using escape techniques like the "Thunder Escape Technique," which involved traversing space quickly.

Cao Wenjin had calculated this, which was why he deliberately destroyed the landscape painting—a spatial secret treasure—to leverage the rampant spatial power from the treasure's destruction to attack it, affecting it, and creating a chance to escape.

Now with the "Thunder Escape Technique" temporarily unusable, and its wings cut by spatial power, significantly reducing its speed, even if the Golden Roc wanted to catch and tear Cao Wenjin to pieces, it no longer had the capability.

Ultimately, it could only curse Cao Wenjin bitterly, swearing heartfelt revenge once its injuries healed. Then it turned around and flew back toward Rhino Horn Continent, intending to first heal itself there before returning to the Broken Cloud Mountain Range to report to the Fire-Scaly Demon King.