Chapter 233: The Mysterious Object in the Rock Flows (2/2)
Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh―
At first, it was low and incoherent, very hard to hear. Yet as the time went by, Junior Leopard's speed of punching became slower and slower, and the sound became louder and louder and more and more regular, just like the ebb and flow.
Wheeze, wheeze, wheeze―
At the moment, Junior Leopard seemed like he was being injected with mercury in his entire body. Every move he made seemed accompanied by the surge of his qi and blood.
At this point, he had immersed himself in an abstruse state. The Blood Evil Harden Bone Fist, the Moon-evil Painted Skin Punching Skill, as well as the other punching skills the stranger in the thunder taught him merged into one, where it was unclear where one began and the other ended. What held them together was Tai Chi Quan.
Boom, boom, boom―
He had no idea how much time has passed when a thunderous sound came out from his body. The slower his movements were, the louder the sound became.
”Ah, I can't take it anymore! But I only have a little more to go!”
Junior Leopard's moves became abruptly faster and he spread his arms like a gibbon. He made a somersault in the air as if he had no control over his body and fell with a stagger.
He straightened his body and squinted before walking toward the corner of the passageway without hesitation.
”It's not enough. Though there's a lot of Earth Fire Yuan Essence here, it's not enough to satisfy me. If I force myself to breakthrough into the Bone-Forging Realm here, it'll affect my future prospects. I need even more and even clearer Earth Fire Yuan Essence. I need to travel deeper down this passageway!”
Junior Leopard didn't relax his steps and directly turned at the corner of the passageway.
Whoosh!
A burning heat flow ambushed him, nearly sweeping Junior Leopard off his feet. He gritted his teeth and rushed in under the protection of the golden-red light.
”This is definitely it!”
Finally, he felt like a heavy burden was lifted off him after he turned the corner and passed the scorching subterranean tunnel.
He was truly lucky as the tunnel was a short one. After going through the tunnel, the passageway began head upward where the scorching heat gradually dissipated, reducing the impact on Junior Leopard. He had to turn several more corners before finally finding his target: the geocentric rock flows.
The billowing lava was as dense as pulp, exuding an overwhelming heat. Its golden-red light lit up the entire underground cavity.
This was a void underneath the stream of geocentric rock flows, smaller than the void in the main passageway leading to the geocentric fire vein but with denser heat.
Compared to tunnel earlier cramped with dense heat coming off the Earth Fire Yuan Essence, this was much better.
”I made it! I made it! I just need to―What's this?”
The overjoyed Junior Leopard was planning on using this area as his practicing spot when he suddenly stopped, stunned.
He saw something weird; there was a rock inside the rock flows!
The geocentric rock flows were like rivers on the ground. The only difference was that water flowed in rivers while magma flowed in rock flows.
Therefore, rock flows would also come across barriers. Matters that constituted magma were diverse from each other, where some may pile up with the flow like sandstones in rivers. As time passed, small islands or pebbles would also be formed in rock flows.
These islands or pebbles generally wouldn't last. No matter how hard they were, they were worn down by the rock flows day after day, year after year.
This stream of rock flow in front of Junior Leopard was narrow and its flow was also smooth. What was unusual was the small island within it. Strictly speaking, it can't be considered an island. At most, it was just a large rock and a barrier.
It was precisely this barrier that surprised him, for he sensed intelligence coming from this black and common stone.
Such intelligence! From the looks of it, this stone wasn't a dead thing at all. It must be alive! Such intelligence was denser than even the material he used to make Emerald Pearl Sword, as well as his Demon Devil Needles.
He couldn't help fawning over what a marvelous material the stone would make for refining celestial devices. If he gave the stone another thousand of years, it may develop spiritual intelligence and give birth to another Monkey King. But for the moment, it was merely a remarkable material for the celestial devices refinement.
He didn't know how long this stone had remained here, how many special materials it gained from the rock flows, or how many years it had suffered from the washing of the rock flows to cultivate such high intelligence.
Having come across such a great treasure, he surely wouldn't be soft-hearted and let it go. He raised his figures and a piece of sword qi of Extreme Yang Through Sky Sword shot out, charging at the rock flow. The sword qi violently incised on the part of the stone where he thought its intelligence first formed.
Swaaaa―
A strange sound came from where his sword qi cut the stone. He then sensed a stream of extremely overbearing power rebounding from the root of the stone, charging toward the Extreme Yang Through Sky Sword. If it was any other sword, it would have already be smashed into pieces by that overwhelmingly strong power.
”It's not a stone!”
Through this attack, Junior Leopard was sure there was an object with the high intelligence hiding inside the stone. It didn't come from the black stone itself.
His Extreme Yang Through Sky Sword was incredibly sharp and successfully cut the root of the stone despite the setback. A dazzling golden-red light emerged from the bottom of rock flows. The stone submerged in the magma and disappeared without a trace.
There was no better place than the rock flows for a stone to hide. At this time, the root of the stone had already been cut. Once it sank inside the magma, it would swim with the tide like pebbles in the river. God knew where it would be then.
Of course, Junior Leopard wouldn't allow this to happen. When he saw the stone sank into the bottom of the rock flow, he transformed his hand into a saber and slashed at where the golden-red light was gleaming inside the magma.
He used his Space Division Skill!
In a flash, that space was divided apart. Now that it was independent of its surrounding, the stone naturally had nowhere to hide.
Junior Leopard abruptly flicked his sleeves. A stone gleaming with golden-right flew out from the divided rock flows and headed in his direction. He used his sleeves flick the stone and it ripped from the surface, revealing its golden inner material with immense intelligence.
An irregularly-shaped, golden-red material, made neither of gold nor stone, emerged in front of him.
Without hesitation, he pointed with his finger and a piece of thought flickering like a will-o'-the-wisp flew toward the strange material.
That was Junior Leopard's piece of thought.
Junior Leopard was very clear that a Mysterious Object of this grade ought to be psychic, just lacking the final step. If it were given another thousand of years, it would surely develop the ability to think. But now, he had truly benefited from this.
Such a Mysterious Object that was close to developing the ability to think held no barriers against his thought. In fact, it could even be said that the object was waiting for him. As soon as his thought went in, they were in complete harmony and in sync.
Under his control, the light of the object gradually dimmed, revealing its hard shell. Its size also shrank and finally became a black, fist-sized 'stone' similar to an insensate stone.
”This is definitely good stuff but the problem is I don't know how to use it. Oh well, I'll just let it be.” The small size of the stone meant it wouldn't take up much space, so he put it away in the space he reserved for his two hammers.
Though the hammers were large enough to fill out the space, it was still enough to store a fist-sized stone.
Junior Leopard sighed with relief when everything was done. He released the Space Division Skill he performed just now and the Black Sun Fist Intent appeared behind him. Then a fist-sized bubble popped up from the bottom of the rock flows.
”Okay, it's time to practice. Let's see if I can make a breakthrough this time!”
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