Plundering the Heavens

The vicious ape was an existence different from ordinary beasts, called a “peril beast”. In the ancient past, such peril beasts were able to rule over the world with their extremely tough physiques and extraordinary innate strength, enough so that even humans with high levels of cultivation were unable to be their opponents. When the heavens and earth later changed, however, the humans dominated the world and these peril beasts became less common, with the tribes that were left behind falling into sharp decline.

The dragons were also a kind of peril beast, but they were different from the others. They’d studied the mannerisms and etiquette of mankind which allowed them to form intelligence, and—with the help of a few human saints—the dragons’ studies became very profound. They gradually adapted to the new rules of the heavens and earth, and not only did they not go extinct, they emerged as one of the most powerful clans of the present day.

According to rumors, aside from a few old ancestor-level peril beasts slumbering in the nests of beast tribes or the occasional demon clan in Godaniya who had a complicated relationship with some ancient peril beast, there were almost no peril beasts currently existing in this world. Fang Xing hadn’t expected to witness a monster that existed only within legends after entering the Guixu Ruins.

Fang Xing was a little frightened. These peril beasts were so extremely powerful, this vicious ape was millions of times stronger than the golden crow. In Fang Xing’s eyes, this ape’s battle prowess was so great it would actually be able to physically fight off against Golden Cores. It was fortunate he had this stray-dog-like crazed dragon with him right now to fight on his behalf, or else things would have been really bad. “Dammit, this Guixu Ruins is indeed not a good place. That crow was quite clever to flee, leaving me here in such a dire state….”

Fang Xing sat down next to a coconut tree, kicked it until a coconut fell, and then began drinking its milk while watching the crazed dragon fight. The thought of going out to help didn’t even cross his mind, and he even began cheering while treating it as though it wasn’t any of his business. “Go, bite him dammit! How dare you sneak attack me, bite this damned turtle bastard to death!”

With Fang Xing cheering it on, the crazed dragon became even more excited and began shaking its head and tail. The crazed dragon’s battle prowess was truthfully much, much higher than the vicious ape’s, but its large size caused it to be struck by a great number of lightning bolts when it first entered the Guixu Ruins. Its wounds were rather heavy and only ten percent of its power remained, extending the fight between it and the vicious ape for so long. The dragon still held the upper hand regardless, however, and its excitement caused it to bite and tear with even greater strength until the ape screamed out in pain.

After a few rounds had passed like this, the ape realized the crazed dragon was simply too powerful, so it rolled over between two giant trees and tried to escape. It even left behind its club as it jumped away, and in the span of only a few breaths, it had managed to jump over two mountains and disappear into the distance.

The crazed dragon wanted to give chase to continue the fight, but it remembered Fang Xing just as it was about to fly off. After some hesitation, it turned around towards Fang Xing with an ingratiating expression and placed its head right next to Fang Xing’s.

Fang Xing saw the dragon’s tongue about to start rolling out and quickly ordered, “Stop!” The crazed dragon stopped, and its large eyes looked at Fang Xing with anticipation. Fang Xing raised a large coconut in his hand with the intent to smash it against the red dragon’s head, but after some hesitation, he smashed it at the ground instead and pointed at the dragon while cursing, “How could you be so useless as to let that big monkey escape?”

The dragon seemed a bit frightened by Fang Xing’s anger, and it quietly shrank back a bit.

‘Hehe, this little bastard seems to be a little scared of me….’ Fang Xing was quite joyful after confirming this, and he pointed towards his feet before shouting, “Come over here!” The crazed dragon looked at him, and its body moved forward a little until its large head rested just next to his feet. After toughening his heart, Fang Xing jumped atop the red dragon’s head and commanded, “Fly!”

The dragon interpreted Fang Xing jumping on top of its head to be an attempt to get closer to it and it began flying with joy and delight, but Fang Xing actually wasn’t relaxed at all and was inspecting the dragon quite closely. The sudden appearance of that vicious ape had caused him a great deal of alarm, and he’d already started to wonder if this Guixu Ruins was filled with more of these kinds of terrifying peril beasts. With his battle prowess as limited as it was, it would be incredibly difficult to survive alone and it would be more reassuring if this dragon followed him wherever he went. He had to make sure this dragon was truly as obedient as it seemed; if it ended up going mad from time to time, killing it now would still be the best choice.

For this reason, Fang Xing began testing the crazed dragon. First he checked whether the dragon truly listened to him, and then he tried to find out why it would be so obedient and close with him. He realized that whenever he used the unnamed technique to cover his aura, the crazed dragon would become the same as when he first saw it—a mindless gaze without any signs of intelligence, and a bloodthirsty madness that would want to destroy anything it saw. Whenever he activated his Qi, however, the crazed dragon became much more docile and its eyes would show intelligence once more.

‘It has to be related to how I swallowed that dragon bead…’ 

Fang Xing concluded to himself. It was very obvious; the only possible explanation as to why this dragon would want to get close to him without any reason would be the dragon bead. The fact the dragon bead was able to break the formations within the Colored Glass Palace meant it was a rare find, indicating at the very least that it had the same origin as the dragons and enough quality to be superior to the dragon girl. Thinking like this, it wasn’t difficult to explain why the dragon was acting with such familiarity towards him.

Fang Xing became even more curious, however. When he’d originally appraised the bead using the Book of Revelation, all he’d found out was that it was called “Water-Avoiding Bead”, without anything too special. He didn’t know why it was so useful, nor had he imagined it would bring him so many pleasant surprises.

Of course, Fang Xing wasn’t someone who’d place his entire life on a mere bead—he didn’t trust anyone other than himself. When dealing with this dragon that couldn’t be reasoned with and would be extremely terrifying if it went mad, he naturally had to pay extra attention. He observed carefully for some time and noticed the two beaded needles stuck in the dragon’s head, but he didn’t know what they were and didn’t dare to touch them.

After rummaging through his storage sack for a while, Fang Xing was quite pleased to find an item that was particularly useful right now. It was nothing less than the icy and shiny iron chain that could be extended to any length—the Overcast Iron Lock he’d taken from the Yin-Servants of the Chu Royal Clan. The chain’s abilities were limited and it hadn’t been useful to him in the past—especially since he had the Immortal’s Snare he’d taken from Tie Rukuang—so he’d never really used it much, but this Overcast Iron Lock had been crafted from steel refined a thousand times, making it extremely sturdy. He’d kept it rather than toss it out, and now he raised it up while glancing at the dragon a few times with a smirk.

The dragon subconsciously felt a bit afraid when it saw this and its body shrank back as though it intended to flee, but Fang Xing narrowed his eyes and the dragon no longer dared to move.

The Overcast Iron Lock contained the word “lock” in its name because the end of the chain was a lock that could be half-opened. In order to make his job easier in the future, Fang Xing first calmed the red dragon down before aiming at its nostrils and viciously clamping the lock through. The dragon shivered in pain and its body violently shook as though it was about to flee in terror, but Fang Xing quickly shouted and extended his aura in an attempt to calm it down. It took some time, but the dragon did eventually calm down even though it gave Fang Xing an unhappy look.

“Hehe, big doggie, don’t blame your little grandpa here. It’s just too scary when you go crazy, so I had to give you a ring….” After speaking, he picked up the steel chain and looked around, feeling considerably more comfortable now. Farmers in the ordinary realm would attach a ring to the noses of wild oxen when trying to domesticate them, and Fang Xing estimated it would work for this crazed dragon as well.

Now that the dragon was sorted, Fang Xing finally had enough time to start checking out the Guixu Ruins itself, and he couldn’t help but feel shocked even with just a quick look. He’d heard the Guixu Ruins were the ruins left behind by the ancient Taishang Daoism branch and had assumed it was the size of an ordinary sect, but when he saw it now, it was actually so large it left him completely surprised.

Fang Xing sat atop the dragon’s head and looked down at the land, yet even after flying for over an hour, the area was still filled with layers of mountain ranges. Between these mountain ranges were broken walls with yellowed soil, as though it had once been the location of countless palaces and buildings that were struck by heaven’s thunder until the original appearance was gone. It was even possible to guess what spots had been struck, as those places were completely burned away. Now that thousands of years had passed, the Guixu Ruin’s vitality had started to return and numerous green plants could be seen breaking through the soil to the surface.

In the distance was the same vast sky, the same sunset, the same twinkling stars, but occasionally there was the howling of peril beasts, enough to cause terror in men and affirm Fang Xing’s assumption there were indeed many vicious peril beasts within this Guixu Ruins. He’d already seen more than half a dozen after flying for an hour, and each of them had great battle prowess no lower than a human Golden Core.

‘Thank god this crazy dog is here with me. If I came here alone, I would definitely live like a loser….’ Fang Xing felt somewhat fortunate. Before he entered, he’d only really thought this place would be difficult to leave and hadn’t imagined there’d be so many peril beasts on par with Golden Cores. He thought he’d wind up in a small place with only a few powerful beings and that he’d be able to do whatever he pleased, but it looked as though things were far more complicated. The golden crow said there were also human tribes within the Guixu Ruins, but for them to be able to cohabit with these peril beasts, it could only mean these human cultivators weren’t weak, either. He certainly wouldn’t be able to do whatever he wanted with his late-Foundation Stage cultivation.

After flying around a bit, Fang Xing understood the basic layout of the land within a thousand-mile radius. He wasn’t in a hurry to go somewhere else; he and the red dragon had both been wounded when entering the Guixu Ruins, and although his injuries weren’t so bad, the red dragon’s were quite heavy. It wouldn’t be easy to resolve things if they came across any big problems, and he needed some time to sort through all the loot he’d gathered from the Colored Glass Palace regardless.

With these thoughts, Fang Xing found a cave of a fierce multi-colored tiger, and after the crazed dragon killed the tiger with only a single bite, Fang Xing took over the tiger den and made it into a simple cave estate. After tasking the red dragon with guarding outside and placing many layers of formations in the cave to guard against the red dragon itself, Fang Xing finally began his seclusion to heal and improve his cultivation.

His time in the Colored Glass Palace had brought him a large amount of gains and huge accumulations. Not even he knew how much he’d be able to improve or what stage he’d reach.