Chapter 81: The Demonic Core Was Stolen (Request Subscription)

It should be far from here; it used carrier hawks to contact the Beast King of Earth… oh, to contact all parts of Earth, and promised many benefits. Whoever refuses will be killed by it in the future.

Lao Liu wrote it neatly.

"What kind of beast is that? Just sending a carrier hawk over, and the Jin Yuan believed it?" Ding Huan asked in confusion.

Lao Liu quickly wrote, "Of course not. It sent a carrier hawk with one of its scales. I think it's probably a dragon clan creature…"

Ding Huan fell silent.

The dragon clan is extinct; the last beings with dragon blood should have appeared no later than the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods.

But by then, the dragon blood was already extremely diluted, causing dragons of that era to have bizarre, varied appearances.

With Earth's environment mutating, the dragon clan has reappeared.

No wonder it could command so many ferocious beasts to act together—it's the famed divine beast. The presence of scales indicates it's a relatively pure-blooded descendant of the dragon clan.

Ding Huan glanced at the Great Wilderness Jin Yuan and said, "Your bloodline isn't inferior to the dragon clan's; you're from the same era. You wouldn't listen to some little dragon, would you?"

The Great Wilderness Jin Yuan nodded, then lowered its head again.

Lao Liu wrote, "Ah Huang knows his strength can't improve, so he believes he'll never be able to defeat that dragon beast in the future."

Ding Huan smiled, "Ah Huang, let's make a deal—I won't force you.

I'm planning to go to Kunlun Mountain to search for ancient Daoist ruins. If I find something valuable, I'll help you raise your cultivation level, enough that you won't fear that little dragon."

Upon hearing Ding Huan's words, the Great Wilderness Jin Yuan's eyes immediately lit up.

Lao Liu's eyes darted around, and he quickly wrote, "Big Brother, can you take me along to Kunlun Mountain?

Even though Earth is just one corner of the Star Cycle, I'm somewhat familiar with Kunlun—I might be able to assist you."

In plain terms, Lao Liu also wanted the opportunity in Kunlun Mountain.

"Fine, it's settled. You've got plenty of tricks—help Ah Huang organize these beast groups first. I'll wait for you at Yujiang University." Ding Huan didn't doubt Lao Liu's words; this guy was a product of the Star Cycle era.

Saying this, Ding Huan slashed the giant ape's head open with a wind blade, pulled out a white-and-gray, energy-rich demonic core, then turned and returned to Luohe City.

…

"Teacher Ding…" As soon as Ding Huan returned to Luohe, Xing Baisen, Yi Zhenjiang, and others rushed forward to greet him.

"Did the ferocious beasts retreat because you went to Luohe?" Xing Baisen asked excitedly.

Ding Huan nodded. "Correct. I made an agreement with the ferocious beasts—they're forbidden from attacking Luohe."

In truth, Ding Huan had told the Great Wilderness Jin Yuan to unite the ferocious beasts from other mountain ranges and forbid them from attacking any city.

Ding Huan also knew that the Great Wilderness Jin Yuan's current strength was still too low to influence all ferocious beasts across China.

"So can we no longer hunt ferocious beasts from now on?" Xing Baisen quickly asked.

Luohe City borders Qianluo Mountain, and many squads hunt gene-ferocious beasts. If we can't hunt them anymore, he'd need to issue a notice.

Ding Huan smiled. "How could that be? But ferocious beasts won't just wait to be killed. It'll be the same as before—just as it was, so it will be.

The ferocious beasts of Qianluo Mountain are strong. When hunting them, always consider your own strength."

"Teacher Ding, we owe you a great deal this time—why not come have a few drinks with our unit?" Xing Baisen invited willingly.

From the moment Ding Huan left, through the retreat of the gene-ferocious beast tide, to his safe return, Xing Baisen realized Ding Huan might be even stronger than rumors claimed.

He must recommend Ding Huan upward—such talent wasted outside the military would be a tragedy.

"No, I have other matters." Ding Huan was now desperately eager to strengthen his cultivation—he needed to hurry to Kunlun Mountain and find the Daoist ruins.

If he didn't raise his cultivation level, that demon dragon seeking to command the world would eventually kill him.

After all, Earth is simply too small. If it were Lao Liu's Star Cycle, perhaps there'd still be places to hide. Now, he had nowhere to run.

Seeing Ding Huan leave, Xing Baisen felt great regret but could only return to his duties.

So many ferocious beasts had besieged Luohe; outside the city, their corpses were too numerous to count.

With so many ferocious beast corpses piled here, they all had to be cleared away.

Ferocious beast meat is valuable—higher-grade meat has almost no odor and extremely high nutritional value.

After most beast tides, the meat is supplied to troops, with some entering the market.

This Luohe beast tide caused no threat to Luohe and even resulted in minimal soldier casualties.

Acquiring so much ferocious beast meat is a tremendous fortune.

…

Fei Tongtong had stayed at the entrance of Yujiang University, even as ferocious beasts were about to storm into Luohe City.

Thanks to her warning to the Security Bureau, Luohe remained orderly and calm during the siege.

After the ferocious beasts retreated, Luohe returned to normal at the fastest possible speed.

Seeing Ding Huan return, Fei Tongtong rushed forward eagerly.

"Thank you," Ding Huan said, seeing Luohe City's orderly state—he knew Fei Tongtong's message had gotten through.

Fei Tongtong hurriedly replied, "Compared to what Teacher Ding has done, what I did is nothing."

Ding Huan smiled. "What did you want with me?"

Fei Tongtong quickly said, "I need you to save my husband Zhao Quan and my friend Mu Tingyun."

As she spoke, she watched Ding Huan anxiously.

Now, the only person she knew who could save Mu Tingyun and her husband Zhao Quan was Ding Huan—indeed, she didn't even know Ding Huan personally; she only knew him because the demonic core was left in Tingyun's shop.

Ding Huan looked at Fei Tongtong in confusion. "Mu Boss runs her shop in Puhai—who could harm her? If Puhai has been taken over by ferocious beasts, I can't save her either."

Fei Tongtong's eyes turned slightly red. "Tingyun wanted to boost her shop's business, so she displayed the demonic core.

After displaying the demonic core, her business in exotic materials indeed improved, and more rare herbs and ferocious beast materials began arriving at her shop."

"Someone saw the demonic core and demanded it forcibly, right?" Ding Huan didn't need her to finish—he could guess the rest.

Such things were unthinkable decades ago, but now they're utterly normal. Think of what the Gene Alliance has done—it's all the same.

Fei Tongtong shook her head. "They didn't act so directly—they still had some face. They brought out a Starlight Blade…"

"Whose manufacturer made this blade?" Ding Huan asked.

He thought of seeing Qu Yi, wondering how her cultivation was progressing. The Qu family's cold weapons were a famous brand of Huaxia cold weapons.

Fei Tongtong froze, surprised that Ding Huan didn't know the Starry Sky Blade.

She quickly recovered and hurriedly said, "Do you know a spaceship crashed on Earth?"

Ding Huan smiled; there were too many such rumors, and even the Americans had made them sound convincing.

The most famous were the Roswell incident of 1947 and the Jin Qiao Mountain incident of 2039.

In fact, both cases were later dropped.

He didn't disbelieve in alien spaceships—he himself had reached a life-bearing planet beyond Earth, and even owned a No. 5 Star.

The No. 5 Star was also an alien spaceship, but Ding Huan knew clearly that alien spaceships could not land on Earth.

The sheer coincidence of how he arrived on Chang Yi Continent could never be replicated.

Fei Tongtong saw Ding Huan's expression and knew he didn't believe her; she spoke with grave certainty.

"It's true—it happened seven years ago. The Gene Alliance dispatched various spaceships leaving Earth, continuously broadcasting all kinds of interstellar signals, trying to find alien civilizations…"

Hearing this, Ding Huan's expression turned grave. He knew the Gene Alliance had done such bullshit things—he'd even boarded one of their spaceships and entered outer space.

Back then he was merely a test subject; naturally, he hadn't known the Gene Alliance had begun launching cosmic vessels into space long ago.

Fei Tongtong continued, "That spaceship must have received the Gene Alliance's signal and located Earth's coordinates. When it entered Earth's atmosphere, the Federation Army shot it down."

Ding Huan sighed. If this were true, Earth had brought its own doom.

If one spaceship could find Earth, a second one would come. The downed ship was certainly not a warship—it was likely a scout vessel.

Fei Tongtong didn't notice Ding Huan's change in expression and went on, "The Starry Sky Blade was discovered on that spaceship. Not only the Starry Sky Blade, but also a new method for synthesizing a material—Star Steel."

"Now, besides the Starry Sky Blade, the best blades are made of Star Steel. Blades forged from Star Steel aren't sold—they're mostly awarded to those who've rendered meritorious service on the Human Corridor Frontline."

Ding Huan frowned, "If it's truly the Starry Sky Blade, shouldn't it be far more valuable than the Golden Core I left with Boss Mu?"

In Ding Huan's eyes, a Level Three ferocious beast's Golden Core wasn't valuable at all—it was still far from a true Golden Core.

Fei Tongtong sighed, "The Starry Sky Blade that man produced was fake. Even if it were real, Ting Yun wouldn't take anything you left with her and give it to someone else."

"What happened after?" Ding Huan wasn't interested in whether the Golden Core was gone—he cared about the Starry Sky Blade.

Fei Tongtong said, "Afterward, Ting Yun and the Golden Core vanished simultaneously. Zhao Quan disappeared too, while searching for Ting Yun."

"I dared not stay in Puhai, so I came here to find you. Originally, Ting Yun and my husband told me the man who came to the shop that day might have been you."

"Do you know who did it? Was it the Gene Alliance?" Ding Huan had planned to go to Puhai anyway—now he was determined to go.

That Golden Core was still his property; he wouldn't let anyone take it for free. He'd only left it with Mu Tingyun temporarily.

"No—it was the Beast King Guild," Fei Tongtong answered.

The Beast King Guild? Ding Huan had assumed only the Gene Alliance would dare act so boldly in Puhai—he hadn't known there was also the Beast King Guild.

"The guildmaster of the Beast King Guild is Nian Jinqing, rumored to be a postnatal martial artist."

"He was originally just the captain of a ferocious beast hunting team. He kept absorbing other hunting teams until he built up his current strength," Fei Tongtong said.

"Fine. Wait here one day—we're going to Puhai." Ding Huan would wait for Lao Liu to arrive.

"If you're going to the Human Corridor Frontline, you can go to the Puhai Security Bureau. They have dedicated aircraft—ordinary people can't reach the Human Corridor Frontline…"

As if realizing she should offer Ding Huan some useful information, Fei Tongtong added voluntarily.

Ding Huan was puzzled—why would he go to the Human Corridor Frontline?

He wasn't a savior, and he had no such ability now.

Not to mention the dragon—he couldn't even handle it yet, not by a long shot.