Peacock Blue’s blades of grass penetrated into the body of Earth Elemental Mystical Armament Southern Star!

Even a barren land could not stop weeds from growing, for the Plant Element had the trait of extreme tenacity. This current situation was extremely similar to that of the natural world. Peacock Blue had broken through Southern Star’s defenses with a single move! This was because the Plant Element countered the Earth Element!

Xia Fei roared, sending enormous power through Peacock Blue into the Earth Elemental Mystical Armament, and the giant pyramidal stone was pushed away! At the same time, Xia Fei poured Primal Chaos energy into White Dragon’s Screech and swung it at Fengyu’s head!

Fengyu was flabbergasted!

Xia Fei’s three layers of defense, particularly Water Elemental Mystical Armament, were monstrous! Terror Genesis’s layer of pliable black liquid had absorbed the shock of the sonic explosion, and whatever shattered sounds managed to make it past Terror Genesis were blocked by Eagle Plume and Fiend Scar. In this way, Fengyu’s sonic attacks found it very tough to harm Xia Fei!

White Dragon’s Screech had already reached Fengyu’s head. The mystical armament and sonic attacks, which he was so proud of, were all ineffective, and he was about to be turned into meat paste!

At this moment, the Blackstar Toad in Fengyu’s hand breathed and then let out an explosive bellow!

This was a classic move to make sure that neither side won! This was akin to Fengyu holding a bomb in his hand, which he detonated in front of him and Xia Fei!

What a crazy Divine Beast! Xia Fei had not expected Fengyu’s ugly toad to be this unreasonable, attacking its master along with Xia Fei!

*Rumble!*

The immense sound ripped through dark space, causing the ground for tens of thousands of kilometers in every direction to quake!

After compression, this sound had far surpassed the limits set down by physics. The speed, the wave form, the explosive power—it was comparable to a light explosion! This was why only this sound, which had been compressed to the limit, could be called Demon Sound!

*Whoosh!*

Both men were both thrown back a far distance. Fengyu kneeled on the ground and threw up blood. As for Xia Fei, managed to stand up, though just barely, and now had a rather nasty look on his face.

The Blackstar Toad truly deserved its reputation as a top-class Divine Beast! Together with Earth Elemental Southern Star, they created a powerful combination!

Fengyu raised his head, wiped the blood from the corner of his lips, and glared at Xia Fei! “Give me back Blackstar!”

Blackstar? Was the Blackstar Toad in Xia Fei’s hands?!

Xia Fei raised his left hand, revealing that he really did have the Divine Beast!

The ugly toad was tightly bound by the Fiend Chain, Furball and Little Goldie flanking it as they howled at the creature. They were waiting for Xia Fei’s order to lunge at the toad and tear it apart!

This was absolute speed!

Blackstar’s powerful attack had thwarted Xia Fei’s plan, so as revenge, Xia Fei had captured this divine Beast using the Fiend Chain!

Avenge every wrong!

This was Xia Fei’s style!

Xia Fei felt very angry, for this strange toad had caused his second intricately planned attack to fail. Terror Genesis was now in hibernation. After all, while it had managed to stop that terrifying sonic attack, it had consumed much of its energy. Terror Genesis would be unusable for at least one hour, which was very disadvantageous to Xia Fei.

“Return it to you? Fine!” Xia Fei roared, grabbing Blackstar’s hindlegs and pulling hard!

*Bang!*

Like a balloon being stomped on, Blackstar was torn in half! Green liquid splattered all over Xia Fei!

Such cruelty!

Exotic beasts and their masters shared an extremely deep affection. If Xia Fei had watched Furball being stomped to pieces by an enemy, he would have definitely gone crazy!

Fengyu was so angry that his face turned green! Letting out crazed howls, he scratched his body. It was as if Xia Fei had not killed Blackstar but his father, instead!

Suddenly, Xia Fei had a strange feeling, as if something was drifting out of the remnants of the Blackstar Toad’s body.

Xia Fei made what seemed to him like a natural reaction, wrapping this unseen substance in spirit energy and then decomposing and absorbing it.

His eyes brightened!

His mind whirred, and he understood at once what was going on!

It turned out that the Serpent-swallowing Whale’s devouring of exotic beasts did not involve eating exotic beasts with one’s mouth like some savage; rather, it used the special Soul Mark of a Spiritualist to absorb the soul of an exotic beast, thereby strengthening oneself!

Xia Fei’s face brimmed with joy. It was not that he had not killed any exotic beasts before; rather, the Blackstar Toad was a top-class exotic beast! A peak Divine Beast!

Its soul was already ripe, like a golden fruit on a tree in autumn, so delicious it made one drool. Perhaps for this reason, Xia Fei immediately wanted to eat up this exotic beast!

It was as though there was a voice shouting in Xia Fei’s mind, ‘Eat it! Eat it and you can become stronger!’

Following the instructions of the Serpent-swallowing Whale, Xia Fei swiftly began to try it out. Devouring an exotic beast’s soul first required breaking it down. After all, an exotic beast’s energy system was different from that of a sapient lifeform. The soul must be broken down into tiny particles and then converted into energy that Xia Fei could absorb.

As for the soul itself, Xia Fei did not dare to take the risk. Only someone like Fuchen, who had a damaged seventh brain region, needed to use the soul as a restorative agent. All Xia Fei needed was to feast, to feast on energy!

Divine Beasts were Divine Beasts because of their power and because they had souls as well as intelligence. As Xia Fei absorbed the Blackstar Toad’s soul, it rampaged around in his body, leaving him in unspeakable pain.

“Withdraw!”

Xia Fei called and then swiftly retreated from dark space with Xia Guanghai.

Xia Guanghai did not understand why Xia Fei wanted to withdraw. Xia Fei had already torn Blackstar Toad to pieces, and with Fengyu robbed of his Divine Beast, this was the perfect time to kill him. Alas, Xia Fei did not seem to have a normal expression, so Xia Guanghai did not ask too many questions.

Xia Guanghai also felt baffled as to why Furball was howling at Xia Fei’s stomach.

Those of the speed type fought when they wanted to fight and left when they wanted to leave!

Fengyu chased Xia Fei like a madman, his eyes bloodshot. It appeared that the mental blow from losing the Blackstar Toad was so severe it almost made his mind collapse.

Alas, it only took a little while for Xia Fei to leave Fengyu so far behind that he could be neither seen nor heard.

The pain in his body intensified. Xia Fei needed to use the method prescribed in the Serpent-swallowing Whale so that he could digest the Blackstar Toad. After all, eating and digesting a Divine Beast were two completely different things.

After finding a floating rock, Xia Fei sat down and began to adjust his breathing and energy.

“What’s going on?!” Xia Guanghai asked.

“There’s no time to explain. I ate a Blackstar Toad, so I must digest it immediately!” Xia Fei said urgently.

Xia Guanghai swallowed and said in shock, “You ate it?! You can eat Divine Beasts?!”

…

Xia Fei had not expected that his first attempt at using the Serpent-swallowing Whale, this secret method of eating exotic beasts, would be with a Divine Beast, and a top-class one at that!

The Blackstar Toad was very wild, constantly running amok in Xia Fei’s body. The Serpent-swallowing Whale was very vague when it came to devouring an exotic beast to strengthen oneself.

The more secretive something was, the more difficult it was to completely put it down in words. This was the commonality shared between all codexes. Writing down too many details would cause a secret art to lose its air of mystery. Moreover, if everyone could understand an art just by reading about it, what would be the point of having a teacher?

Thus, secret arts were generally orally transmitted. There were few like Xia Fei who would recklessly try secret arts, but none had had their first try with a top-class Divine Beast.

Xia Fei’s powerful energy control ability played a decisive role in this, for it allowed him to break down and convert energy quickly. Thus, though he had a tough time, he was filled with satisfaction. It was as though a pipe were attached to his brain region, but instead of water, this pipe would send over the essence the Blackstar Toad had accumulated throughout its life!

An exotic beast’s soul was truly exquisite, and in the process of converting this energy, Xia Fei also honed his energy-controlling ability. Xia Fei had converted and absorbed a lot of energy in the past, but those had all been from dead creatures. That Blackstar Toad’s energy, meanwhile, was still alive! It could even resist and escape!

As such, while Xia Guanghai, Furball, and Little Goldie stood guard, they were alarmed by the energy waves coming from Xia Fei’s body. Time passed and Xia Fei eventually began to grasp the method of dealing with the Blackstar Toad. Rather than dealing with it directly, it was better to use his control over energy and to just give it an occasional stab, bleeding it out slowly.

Around half an hour later, the Blackstar Toad’s soul had become very weak. Xia Fei’s incessant sneak attacks had whittled away its resistance.

“Now is the moment!”

Xia Fei instantly changed his tactics, using spirit energy to seize the Divine Beast’s soul, crazily tearing it down!

The soul was also a kind of energy: dark energy! Blackstar was able to put up such a fierce resistance because it had been brimming with energy, but now, half of its energy belonged to him. Xia Fei had gotten stronger, while Blackstar had become weaker, so they were no longer opponents of the same level!

*Bang!*

Xia Fei’s entire body felt relaxed from the sensation of abundant energy, as though he had eaten an immortal peach. The exhaustion from creating soul weapons seven days in a row had been completely swept away, replaced with power, instead!

In these seven days, Xia Fei had been doing two things at once: forging soul weapons and cultivating his Soul Mark. This had always been his habit.

At this moment, he was bursting with energy! He even felt like he could break through the threshold at one go!

*Rumble!*

Eight Soul Marks began to revolve in dark space, flashing with all sorts of colors!

The eight Soul Marks swiftly returned to Xia Fei’s brain region, and dark space returned to normal.

Xia Guanghai came over and asked curiously, “Did I see eight Soul Marks just now? Have you promoted again?”

Xia Fei nodded, replying casually, “Yes, I had a little too much energy after eating the Divine Beast, so I decided to make a charge at the next threshold. I didn’t expect to actually break through.”

Xia Guanghai was rendered speechless. In his view, Xia Fei’s way of advancement was very strange. It appeared that Xia Fei could advance whenever, be it while fighting, eating, or even sleeping. It seemed like he existed for cultivation. In just a decade, he had done what others needed thousands of years to accomplish!

Now he had gone to the extremes of eating Divine Beasts to advance?!

“How much energy did eating that Blackstar Toad give you?” Xia Guanghai asked.

“Not much. Two hundred thousand units.” Xia Fei stood up as he gave this reply nonchalantly.