Chapter 45: Volcanic Region 3, and Oh Fuck.

Chapter 45: Volcanic Region 3, and Oh Fuck.

Xue Tie rests and recovers over the course of these 2 days. He also spent a bit of time testing out his new abilities. He made a few discoveries.

1: The external spirit bone helmet can have it's laser beam be concentrated which is how he may replicate the proper laser of the Drake instead of just a single beam like some sort of plasma rifle from halo or star wars.

2: The drake bone provides a bit of mental defense and this is seemingly enough to nullify a bit of the 'backlash' from Xue Tie's first spirit skill of his trident, Refinement. The backlash in question is the mental illusion where he lives the life of a beast from it's ring (his own not others) or bone he refines.

He learned this when he tried refining the right arm bone of the harpy he got from Spirit Hall. He had already raised it quite a bit before and since skull bones are great for mental defense, He was worried that the external bone factor would somehow nullify this benefit but he was wrong and as such is no longer tormented by the visions.

3: Spirit bones seem to have a limit that they can be refined. The arm bone was 23k years old when he first got it. Yet he has to stop at 53k years old as the bone seems to have developed a crack on it. All of it's essence has been dragged out. But still, 30k years is still a good quality bone for any individual, even Titled Douluos. He also refined the scorpion leg bone to 50k years old from it's original 20k years.

4: he can refine his skull bone even though it already scales with him. He can have it's base state be even better than him and then still scale with him. He was very happy when he tried that out. Until he fell under the illusion of the 77k year old drake's life. So while he was able to raise it up to 85k years old. He also suffered a massive headache as he spent a few hours living a long life as that drake.

"AUGH, fuck. That shit hurts. Not doing that again unless I can get a proper Spirit skull bone and absorb it in the hopes that it can counter me refining the external bone. Maybe it will evolve into a proper Dragon skull bone if I can elevate it's base age past 100k but that is for the future me and not now. My head hurts now, Ill finish my rest soon and then head out.

(This works because tang san has his external spirit bones and then later in life absorbs the chest piece from the 1m year old Demon Whale)

5: Xue Tie spends the rest of his resting period refining his spirit rings again, Having His purple rings break-through into black and adding a qualitative boost to his abilities. Bringing a smile to his face. He was even successful at refining his own refinement spirit skill. How that works, he has no clue but it's a spirit ring, but just one that is active. Since it's already a black ring it is a long way from reaching red but he can tell that his refinement ability has gotten stronger but he doesnt want to experiment anymore while he is at Mt. QiXiao.

Xue Tie exits his personal cave after equipping his robes and taking flight. From his recon, he already knows where a 100 thousand-year-old beast is. He had long found a 117k year old Evanescent Phoenix. The only thing he is sad about right now is that there are no 90k year old beasts that he could refine into 100k year old. If he could then his life would be easier but the phoenix is the weakest amongst the 100k beasts he found. There are a total of 5 of them living very close to the Evanescence Flame that serves as the final core spot of the Volcanic Region. But he hasn't found any of the 100k-year-old-beasts getting closer than they already are. Equally spaced out like the standard pentagon.

This works to Xue Tie's advantage as he spends a few hours stalk..ahem, observing his prey. He quickly locates it's nest, which is situated high in the adjacent mountain top.. He approaches it when the phoenix is away, gathering food. He hides against some of the rocks, his black and gray with red highlights, martial spirit robes should allow him to slightly be able to hide due to the dark rock and the red hot lava. As such, as long as the phoenix isn't suspicious of any intruders. He should be very close. Granted he plans to finish the fight quickly.

When the Phoenix approaches back to it's home to rest and cultivate. Xue Tie springs into action. WIth Slaughter Assault activated and honed in on the phoenix. Xue Tie gains a speed and power boost. He then brings out his external bone, 6th ring from his robes-Primal Burst 2x.

"NIHIL" With all these boosts, he then releases a Nihil to get the pre-emptive strike off. With all his boosts, he is able to unleash more than 40% of the target's vitality. And that is without the blood trace rings boosting the damage.

"SKAW" the phoenix screeches as it takes a massive hit. But Xue Tie isn't done. He activates his 5th spirit skill of his robes and summons the tornado around him. It destroys the nest and the wind begins ravaging the phoenix who releases a burst of fire around it that knocks Xue Tie away.

As he is blasted off the mountain top, he takes flight and with Slaughter Assault's speed boost, he turns to the nest. He takes out his trident and tests out his first skill as offensive as well as his second. He stabs the phoenix on it's wing and it releases another screech before the veins spread on it's body and it's body begins shaking as to strengthen a spirit beast, they have to develop far more than Xue Tie did. Due to this, it is experiencing plenty of pain from the refinement and the evanescent fire coating his trident. Just because it's species name includes Evanescent in it. Doesnt mean that they are outright immune to it. As otherwise one of these beasts would have laid claim to the flame core in the center of the mountain.

The veins spread throughout it's body as it seems the focus of the refinement is it's skin. The pain increases the more it spreads, especially since it's an outsider's energy flowing through it's body as compared to it's own. Xue Tie changes his domain to Armament state and activates Immutable as well. Increasing his weight further (currently 8x. Just now updated it as I forgot to last chapter)

He sets up the 4th ring, Blood trace on the phoenix 3 times in quick succession as the phoenix is pinned under his weight and trident. It's trying to force him off but he got the Fat suit on and keeps it down.

To finish it off, He takes out his trident and releases one last Nihil to take down the phoenix and it explodes blood everywhere. He then stabs the juicy red ring and quickly absorbs it within 3 minutes and gets a right leg spirit bone for his troubles. He transitions to Slaughter Assault and flies away from the scene of the battle in case the other 4 100k-year-old-beasts come by for snacks.

He retreats to his cave once to properly digest the rampant energy in his body caused by his wanton absorption of the spirit ring. He now has 3 rings for his trident and his spirit power is increased to 67 and is on the verge of reaching 68 not too soon. But he has a goal and it's more rings. But he knows that the rings will be more useful at later levels.

So he spends the rest of the day settling his cultivation and by dawn he reaches 68. Now there are 2 actions he can take. Either hunt down another 100k year old beast and reach level 70 or absorb a bone, reach level 70.

After some thought, he decides to go for the beast as once he reaches level 70, he will need to get another ring for his armor to progress. There are only 4 beasts left here so unless he extends his vacation to get a 7th ring and thus unbalance his body again. Going against the balance that Mohg told him about.

He shakes his head and thinks that he would rather contain the energy within himself and achieve a major burst of levels once he gets his 7th ring.

With a plan settled, he stocks up on some more healing bottles of blood before heading out once more into the fold. As he flies over back to the core again, he knows that he won't be able to get another sneak attack again as the other 4 surely have investigated it and will be wary for a few days. So to solve this problem, he will target the ones who can't fly. Specifically the 150k year Evanescent gravity Tiger and the 190k year old Evanescent Eclipse bull.

The third beast is a 200k+ years old frog and while he could go for it instead of the bull, The frog can jump up to minimize the distance and spit out pure evanescent flames which can make it quite deadly even if he stacks up flight with speed. The 4th is another flying type beast, a fire dragon at that. And also the oldest amongst these beasties. Meaning that it's a creature he does not want to tangle with.

He makes his way over to the lair of the tiger, except he doesnt. It seems the beasts are more wary then he expected and that they were even actively looking for him even after a day passes. Which doesnt make sense as most spirit masters leave after getting one ring. They could surely tell that he was alone from the battle traces. Unless the wind, flight, and other aspects couldn't be related to one person or so they thought. The tiger is standing before him. 50 ft tall, 20ft wide. Each one of it's claws is half the size of Xue Tie. Luckily he encountered it outside of the core region so he isn't as pressured in regards to cooling himself down right now.

"Human, you shall pay" The tiger roars out.

"How much? I have plenty of money. Can even get yourself some kibble with the spare change" He mocks the tiger who roars in response.

"Your insults shall be repaid with blood."

"Oh goody, im quite skilled in that department. Let me show you. Nihil" Xue Tie mocks once more and uses a sneak attack to give himself an advantage before rising up into the sky.

Xue Tie really likes fighting stronger foes because their own strong bodies go against them.

"AROOOOO" the tiger yells out and xue tie can only say. "Your a tiger, not a wolf, why are you howling like…" his words are cut short by a wad of fire smacking into him from the side. Sending it spiraling down onto the ground. Xue Tie coughs up some blood while groaning from the pain of his back. He quickly chugs down a bottle of blood before noticing that the frog beast is also here. It had been in hiding, working alongside the tiger to catch him off guard.

This is precisely why he had been hunting them down one at a time, because even if he boasts about his defense, before a 100k beast, it's but nothing more than tinfoil before their concentrated attacks. Xue Tie quickly gets up even with his back still burning. Luckily it's his martial spirit that has wings and not him as otherwise he would not be able to rise into the air.

"With two against one, I have to be more careful. I should take down the tiger quickly since it's still injured. Then ill take down the frog" he murmurs to himself but his thoughts are once again interrupted by a something directly colliding with his back again. Luckily he was able to activate Immutable in time to tank most of the collision but that doesnt stop him from falling onto the ground along with whatever hit him.

"Gagagaga" A snort and laugh is heard above him and Xue Tie can directly imagine that it's the 100k year old bull. He looks and yup, it's a bull right there. And he just so happens to be wearing red. He repositions himself once more as the Bull is about to charge but it doesnt and instead Xue Tie sees a large fireball come at him from above as another figure goes flying by.

"Well, thats not fair at all" He mocking says to himself as he activates immutable once more to tank the attack. As he does, the bull hits him scare in the chest and he is sent flying even with all his added weight.

He lands in the middle of a strangely flat area that is quite wide. As all 4 100k year old beasts take their positions around Xue Tie in each of the cardinal directions.

"Ah fuck" he complains mentally before changing his tone to a different one while drinking a blood potion.

"Howdy fellas. Are you all feeling nice and energetic today?" he says with a teasing tone