Chapter 9: Fighting the Giant Lizard

But just as he was about to leave, Wang Chong's heart suddenly skipped a beat.

"Not good!" He rolled on the spot.

Someone who has constantly lived on the edge of life and death possesses a special instinct for danger.

"Boom!"

A powerful fluctuation suddenly erupted from the ground where Wang Chong had just been standing, and a black shadow actually burst out from beneath the earth.

Wang Chong hurriedly stepped back several paces.

By this time, he also saw clearly that it was actually a giant lizard, its entire body purple-black, covered with sturdy scales, looking at a glance like something not easy to deal with.

"Roar~"

The giant lizard, having missed its strike, let out a furious roar that formed a hurricane within dozens of meters around it.

For a moment, flying sand and rolling stones blinded Wang Chong so he could not open his eyes; he could only use his hands to shield himself from the wind and sand.

Just as Wang Chong reached out to shield himself from the wind and sand, the giant lizard shot forward and pounced on Wang Chong.

Its speed was extremely fast, and the flying sand obscured its form; by the time Wang Chong noticed, the giant lizard was already before him, opening its blood-filled maw to bite down on Wang Chong's head.

"What a cunning beast!"

Wang Chong was greatly alarmed, and his great sword instantly appeared in his hand.

He could only raise the sword vertically, gripping the hilt with one hand and bracing the tip with the other, blocking it in front of him.

"Bang!"

The giant lizard's attack collided with his sword; the tremendous impact force sent him flying backward, his two feet leaving two furrows in the ground.

The giant lizard, completely taking advantage of its momentum without sparing anyone, refused to give Wang Chong a chance to catch his breath, and immediately swept its long tail over.

"Hmph! Do you really think I, your brother, am easy to bully? Today I will use you to test the results of my cultivation these past few days!" Wang Chong let out a loud shout, his body launching out like a bullet, his entire body's qi mechanism having completely locked onto the giant lizard.

"Mountain-Collapsing Strike!"

Wang Chong descended like a heavenly god, his great sword in hand smashing down viciously at the giant lizard.

Even though the giant lizard's body was massive, under this strike, it was actually knocked flying backward, a wound carved into its back.

"Roar, roar, roar..."

The giant lizard, in pain, jumped up and down, roaring uncontrollably.

"Take advantage of your sickness to take your life! Go to your death!"

As the giant lizard leaped into the air, Wang Chong arrived beneath it, executing an upward slash that carved a gash across the giant lizard's belly, slicing all the way up to its neck.

"Go to your death!"

"Thrust!"

"Upward Slash!"

The giant lizard's body was lifted high into the air; Wang Chong immediately followed up with a Sky Strike, a set of basic sword techniques he executed to perfection.

"Awooo~"

The giant lizard let out a reluctant death cry, its breath completely extinguished. A black shadow shot into Wang Chong's body and was absorbed by his Ghost Hand.

"Hahaha... So satisfying! So incredibly satisfying..."

Looking at the giant lizard, which he had hacked into a shape barely recognizable, Wang Chong shouted in sheer delight.

"Huh? What is this?" He suddenly saw a crystal within the giant lizard's corpse; the crystal's shape was very irregular, yet it was crystal clear.

"What a strange sensation."

When Wang Chong held the crystal in his hand, he could feel the energy contained within it.

"This must be the core of a demonic beast? The shape of this core is so irregular; it must not have fully formed yet. It seems this giant lizard had reached the critical point for completing its first transformation."

Wang Chong had once heard Xixi introduce demonic beasts, knowing that demonic beasts, like cultivators, possess different ranks.

Ordinary demonic beasts have strength comparable to ordinary martial artists, but a demonic beast that has completed its first transformation reaches the Warrior realm; a demonic beast that has completed its second transformation has strength comparable to a Martial Master expert, and so on.

"Truly lucky. If this giant lizard had completed its first transformation, I might not have made it back today." Wang Chong secretly rejoiced.

When Wang Chong returned to his dwelling carrying the giant lizard, several goblins stood there stunned.

Wang Chong ignored them, returned to his small courtyard, closed the bamboo gate, and took out that core to examine it.

The core emitted a faint earth-gray luster and a slightly warm aura.

"The core is the essence of a demonic beast. With such abundant energy, what would happen if I ate it?"

In fact, Wang Chong had always believed in the saying that eating something supplements that same part of the body.

With this thought, he no longer hesitated and directly tossed the core into his mouth.

The core looked hard, but the moment it entered Wang Chong's mouth, it instantly became like flowing magma, carrying a scorching aura that rushed toward Wang Chong's limbs and bones.

"Ah!"

Wang Chong let out a painful death cry; he felt as though his body was about to explode, as if a stream of fire was about to pierce through his entire body.

"I was careless..."

Wang Chong regretted it.

He fell heavily to the ground, his consciousness gradually fading, his body already beyond his control.

Just at this moment, his Ghost Hand suddenly began to stir as well. A dark red bloodline traveled along his arm, entered his body, and began to devour that stream of fire.

The stream of fire, as if encountering its natural enemy, began to flee in all directions. The remaining demonic beast's vicious qi originally lingering in the core was entirely devoured by the Ghost Hand; the remaining energy became purer and even more gentle.

Wang Chong was overjoyed; he never expected that misfortune would turn into a blessing, and that the Ghost Hand would possess such an effect.

His body quickly regained sensation. He sat cross-legged, circulated his spiritual power, and completely transformed this external energy into his own use.

That spiritual power circulated freely within his body, scouring his tendons, meridians, and bones. Cracking sounds like popping beans erupted from his body.

"Just a little bit more! This core actually directly brought my strength to the peak of the Warrior realm!" Feeling the increase in his strength, Wang Chong was filled with uncontainable joy.

The next day, Wang Chong went out hunting again.

He had originally wanted to set aside more time for cultivation, but after absorbing the giant lizard's crystal core, his strength had increased significantly; he must quickly adapt to his current abilities, and combat is the best method to adapt.

As soon as Wang Chong's figure vanished from the Thunder Swamp, several goblins appeared outside his small courtyard, peeking and prowling.

"Big Brother, won't he discover us if we do this?" one goblin seemed somewhat guilty.

"Rest assured, he has gone far away. Besides, we are nearly starving to death; where can we worry about so much! Whoever is afraid can leave right now." Sona looked at the other goblins.

"Big Brother, we all listen to you; we do not want to starve to death."

"No need to worry. In a moment, I will go in and take some; you wait outside. He has so much meat; if we take a little less, he won't notice."

After Sona finished speaking, he climbed over the fence and entered Wang Chong's courtyard.

Wang Chong had set up a rack in the courtyard; the giant lizard meat had been cut into pieces by him and hung on the rack to dry. This was originally meant to deter gentlemen, not petty men.

Wang Chong, of course, would not know these things happening at this moment; he was hunting in the Thunder Swamp.

Unfortunately, his luck was bad today; as soon as he entered the Thunder Swamp, he encountered a cat demon.

Although the cat demon was not large in size and its strength was slightly inferior to that of the giant lizard, it was an agile beast; relying on its flexible body, even beasts stronger than it were often unwilling to provoke it.

The one Wang Chong encountered today was no weaker in strength than the giant lizard from yesterday, and its speed was fast. In a place like the Thunder Swamp, others were restricted, but it had little effect on the cat demon.

After a fierce battle, Wang Chong gained nothing today and was scratched by the cat demon in several places.