Chapter 252 - 251: Venturing Alone into the World of Giant Beasts

The slain Giant Ape was quickly dragged away by the Heavenly King Group.

The scholars from the Research Institute immediately rushed over with various types of equipment to carry out all sorts of tests.

Within an hour, Li Jing received confirmation from the Research Institute.

The power within the Giant Ape was of the same nature as the Giant Worm they encountered before, having a mass many times higher than Spiritual Qi.

Besides, following a comparison between the energy densities contained within the flesh and blood tissues of the two giant beasts, a biologist expert came up with a conclusion.

The main reason why the Giant Ape and the Giant Worm grew so large was because the mass of the power within their bodies was too high to be compressed. Therefore, they needed a massive physique to bear this power.

This is exactly why the physique of the Giant Ape is much smaller than the Giant Worm.

The Giant Ape, being in the late Six Realm, has a high enough cultivation level to compress the power within its body more efficiently.

The Giant Worm, on the other hand, only exists in the Four Realm and thus has no choice but to keep growing.

In simple terms, the higher the cultivation level of these giant creatures possessing special power, the smaller their physical form becomes.

Of course, this "small" is all relative.

Based on this, the Research Institute put forth a hypothesis.

This Big Secret Realm used to belong to the giant beasts.

For some unknown reason, the giant beast species declined and turned into what they are now.

More giant beasts of the same kind are still hidden somewhere in this Big Secret Realm.

At some point in time, a certain disaster occurred in the Secret Realm, causing these once prosperous creatures to disappear and become a lot more scarce.

After confirming from Li Jing, Yulian, and Jiu Li that the Giant Ape was being threatened by some existence, the members of the Research Institute dared to speculate even more.

Behind the upcoming spatial passage, there is likely to be a living space belonging to the Giant Beast Civilization.

They are highly intelligent evacuees and the true natives of this Big Secret Realm.

To them, the Giant Ape is just like a gorilla kept in a zoo.

This speculation excited Li Jing.

He didn’t care about the civilization of giant creatures.

What he cared about was how many health bars were behind that passage.

There’s no doubt that giant beasts like the Giant Ape are powerful.

But that’s about it.

The power within their bodies is indeed unique, but it only gives them a massive body and nothing more.

Take the Giant Ape as an example.

In terms of physicality, it’s only slightly stronger than a monster within the same realm.

If it wasn’t for its berserk talent, the trio of Li Jing, Yulian, and Jiu Li would have taken it down long ago.

Overall, it’s not very different from subduing a Great Demon with special talents in the Late Six Realm.

Furthermore, based on the conclusion drawn by the Research Institute that the special power within the bodies of giant beasts causes their species to be generally big, the physical strength of the Giant Ape is stronger than that of regular Great Demons simply because its massive size allows it to hold more power.

Compressing the power within the body to make its density higher is not a particularly unique way to get stronger.

Not only are the monsters of this world doing it, but human cultivation through refining cultivation levels is also essentially an increase in power density in various ways.

However, human cultivation and monster cultivation are about refining external power by continuously absorbing external Spiritual Qi for compression.

The giant creatures do the opposite.

They constantly compress the special power within their bodies to improve themselves.

Where this special power comes from, whether they were born with it or acquired it through some channel, is hard to say.

What can be stated for sure is that the difference between giant beasts and monsters is simply the different nature of the power within their bodies leading to different cultivation methods.

The fact that a larger physique can contain more power is the difference between them and the monsters, and it is also the essence of why they appear stronger than the monsters.

...

In the blink of an eye, more than five hours had passed.

The night was over and it was getting light.

In just over five hours, the Heavenly King Group has flattened and cleared a large area of forest facing the direction of the spatial passage, established a temporary camp, and began to layout various defensive works urgently.

Known as base construction maniacs, Hua Country People are surprisingly efficient in this respect.

By now, a large artillery position capable of holding more than 400 energy guns has been built and evenly distributed around the camp.

However, on the issue of defense, only one artillery position is far from enough.

High-precision dynamic detection and other supporting facilities need to be set up around the area. There also need to be defensive kits around the positions in case of direct attacks so as not to lose their ability to counter-attack.

Objects such as defense formations and remote-control landmines need to be deployed around the temporary camp.

Although it’s just a temporary camp, there are still a lot of things to consider.

Assuming that a terrifying beast from the late sixth stage may cross the boundary at any time, no one in the Heavenly King Group dare to slack off. The layout of the camp’s defensive works is always of the highest standard.

The more than 10,000 people in the Heavenly King Group were busy trying to complete the layout before the Secret Realm passage opens.

Meanwhile, Li Jing guarded the location where the Giant Ape was killed to ensure the safety of the rear and patiently waited for the Secret Realm passage to open.

More than five hours have passed, and nothing new has appeared in the putative spatial distortion. But Li Jing wasn’t in a hurry. In another few hours, the passage would be fully open and stable.

If nothing comes out, he could go in.

Just as he patiently waited, Yulian flew over with a gloomy face and landed beside him.

Seeing this, Li Jing blinked and pulled out a stool.

"What’s wrong? Did the experiment fail again?"

"Don’t mention it."

Yulian sighed, pulled the stool over and sat down.

"We both used our Fox Fire, but we still couldn’t cook it."

Looking at Yulian’s worried face, Li Jing chuckled and gave her a look of helplessness.

After the Research Institute had released the analysis report on the flesh and blood of the Giant Ape, he had Spirit Weapon Qingfeng cut two solid chunks of the Giant Ape’s abdominal muscles and gave them to Yulian and Jiu Li.

There was more than 10,000 pounds in a piece of abdominal muscle.

At the time, the two women were ecstatic but the reality was harsh.

It seemed that the Giant Ape had a strong resistance to heat. After studying for a while, Yulian and Jiu Li found that even if the Giant Ape was dead, its flesh could not be properly cooked no matter how it was grilled, fried in oil, or boiled in soup.

The key was that it could not be cooked throughly.

Which was, quite tricky.

Eating it raw, they weren’t so casual about it.

The meat that can’t be cooked and served raw, certainly gets stuck in the teeth.

If it’s swallowed whole, it might result in indigestion.

As female demons, Yulian and Jiu Li don’t have equivalent moral concepts as humans, but they do appreciate the "refinement" that comes with being female.

This surprised Li Jing somewhat.

The taste of the giant ape’s flesh wasn’t a consideration.

At the very least, it was real flesh and blood.

It might be said that the giant worm is flesh and blood, but the taste could not compare to the creature’s body tissue.

However, the fact that the giant ape’s meat couldn’t be properly prepared was something unexpected for him.

But thinking about it afterwards, he felt relieved.

The giant ape was ultimately killed by his Five Thunder Righteous Method, which was a fire thunder attack, and moreover a fire thunder attack with magic critical hit.

Even if a lively Six Realm great demon were to take one hit, it wouldn’t necessarily result in death by serious injury, but at the very least it has to recover using its Demonic Qi after being cooked one or two percent.

If the giant ape’s flesh could be properly prepared, then the thunder that killed it should have roasted it completely, instead of just scorching off its hair and leaving the body unharmed.

Seeing Yulian sitting there looking upset, Li Jing didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

Whether in private or in public, Yulian rarely shows her true emotions.

This is a sign of her mature nature.

But this time, Yulian fully displayed her inner little woman.

Her face was full of unhappiness, her face was written with the words "who will comfort me".

Frankly, seeing her with her natural charm at this moment was somewhat vexing.

Just looking at her made people involuntarily want to flatter her.

Could one not be annoyed?

After a moment of thought, Li Jing spoke.

"Xiaoyu, why don’t you two return those two pieces of abdominal muscles to the people from the Research Institute, the spatial passage will be open in about an hour, there must be plenty of similar giant beasts inside. Let me go in and take a look, I’ll kill a few and bring them out, then I’ll give you more later?"

At these words, Yulian’s eyes brightened.

Li Jing had said beforehand that when the spatial passage opened he would go in alone to take a look. This wasn’t simply to explore the way, Yulian understood this perfectly well.

Wherever King Li has been, all that could be killed has been killed.

When he takes action, there is no ambiguity.

Unless, you don’t show any malice.

Having had a giant ape come out with malicious intent already, no matter what the situation is behind the passage, Li Jing would certainly have a "bloodbath" after going in.

The passage isn’t necessarily just full of monkeys, right?

Looking at Li Jing who was clearly accommodating her, Yulian somewhat awkwardly opened her mouth.

"What if it’s still not cooked?"

"Then just as we agreed before we came to the Secret Realm, we’ll charge it to your account."

Li Jing shrugged, saying.

"After we go out, I’ll exchange for the flesh of a Six Realm great demon with my merits or purchase twenty thousand jin for you from the market."

Hearing this response, Yulian looked happy at first, then put on a reluctant expression.

"Alright, later I’ll talk to Jiu Li and give those two pieces of abdominal muscle back to the people from the Research Institute."

Having said that, she coughed once, shifting the topic.

"Later when you go into the passage alone, be sure to be careful. At the moment, we can only guess what’s behind the passage, nobody can be sure what exactly exists behind it."

"Don’t worry, I have it under control."

Li Jing said, looking towards the direction of the camp, before turning back to ask.

"Where’s Brother Jiu?"

"She’s still trying."

Yulian answered, saying.

"Let her try, we’ll talk about it later. Maybe she’ll figure out a way to prepare the meat, and then we won’t have to go through so much trouble."

"That works."

Li Jing nodded, and stopped worrying about it.

It’s strange.

Perhaps it was because Jiu Li, who looked like a little girl, was too violent, or it was because they had come to understand her true nature, but Chen Yuran didn’t show any enthusiasm when she saw her.

On the contrary, now that Li Jing has taken away the Linglong Tower, without Linglong to hold and play with, she was somewhat unsatisfied.

Regarding this, Li Jing didn’t know how to evaluate it.

But there was one thing he was sure of.

Chen Yuran, who seemed not picky, was actually quite fussy.

...

While chatting with Yulian intermittently, an hour passed unconsciously.

Seeing that it was close to the time the Research Institute predicted for the opening of the passage, the distortion in the distant space became more frequent. Li Jing focused on the direction of the passage and pressed the communication earpiece.

"Yuran, how’s the defensive arrangement around the temporary camp?"

"Almost done."

Chen Yuran replied, saying.

"Some people are finalizing the setup outside the camp. When they come back, it’ll be done."

"Alright."

Li Jing responded, saying.

"When the spatial passage opens later, I’ll go in directly. The outside is up to you."

Saying this, he instructed.

"If I don’t come out within an hour, you take the team and retreat immediately, without worrying too much. I can ensure my own safety, you should prioritize ensuring the safety of the Heavenly King Group."

"Understood."

Chen Yuran responded, then said.

"Take care of yourself. Don’t be too reckless when you go to the other side of the passage."

"Understood."

Li Jing laughed, cutting off the communication.

With Chen Yuran in charge outside, he was assured.

She was always meticulous in dealing with serious matters.

Even if he didn’t return on time, with his instructions, Chen Yuran would act accordingly.

Even after the deed is done, there will inevitably be a host of complaints to deal with.

Ending his communication with Chen Yuran, Li Jing looked to Yulian, sitting next to him, and said,

"Xiaoyu, once I enter the passageway, take good care of the Heavenly King Group with Brother Jiu."

"Mhm."

Yulian nodded, her face breaking into a smile.

"I’ll await your good news."

...

Soon, twenty minutes had passed.

The encampment was fully set up, but the passage had yet to open.

Having finished commanding work at the encampment, Chen Yuran and Jiu Li, who had given up on cooking the flesh of the Giant Ape, both came forward to wait with Li Jing and Yulian.

The temporary encampment behind them was standing ready.

The more than 400 energy cannons surrounding the encampment were all aimed at the distortion in space, ready to fire.

Time was slipping away, minute by minute, second by second.

At last, with several more minutes gone by, the distortion in the distance suddenly erupted in a brilliant silver light. A silver fissure quietly appeared in mid-air and stabilized there.

Seeing this, Li Jing’s spirit lifted.

At the same time, Shen Zhiwen from the Research Institute spoke in his communication earpiece.

"Counselor Li, the passage is stable. You can enter now."

"Understood."

Li Jing responded to the communication with a raised hand, then looked at the three women waiting nearby and said, "Let’s go," transforming into a bolt of lightning on the spot.

Having waited this long, with the passage finally opening, he was impatient to enter.

Once he enters and secures the entrance, nothing from within can come out.

Seeing that he turned into lightning and dashed into the passage without a word as soon as the Research Institute gave the go-ahead, the faces of Chen Yuran and the others were filled with complex emotions.

Despite their confidence in Li Jing’s strength, as friends, his approach was rather difficult to accept.

Even the rather careless Jiu Li couldn’t help but feel a hint of concern.

The Big Secret Realm was already fraught with countless dangers.

The risk of choosing to venture alone into the spatial passage existing within the Secret Realm was self-evident. But, without any hesitation, that’s exactly what he did.

What a reckless guy, they thought.

Warn him to be careful not to act rashly, and it was as if they hadn’t said anything at all.

How could they not be worried for him?

...

But let’s leave the anxious trio and the Heavenly King Group aside for now. Like a bolt of lightning, Li Jing shot into the spatial passage, passing through in the blink of an eye to a space filled with greenery and nearly indistinguishable from the overall environment of the Big Secret Realm.

The difference was that here, the trees and the landscape were incomparably tall.

Any of them stood at least one thousand meters high.

Placed here, the Giant Ape that had been slain in the Big Secret Realm last night seemed like a tiny speck.

The exit of the passage was high in the sky.

Li Jing hovered at the exit, glancing left and right with a peculiar expression on his face.

Nothing was waiting for him in the high altitude location of the exit.

Looking down, a forest dense with skyscraper-sized trees blocked a significant portion of his view from the sky.

To his eyes, this seemingly natural scene somehow felt unnatural.

From his vantage point, Li Jing couldn’t see what was hidden amidst the countless towering trees.

But he could clearly see that amid the branches and leaves of the giant trees, health bars flickered in and out of sight.

Truthfully, this scene was somewhat absurd.

Knowing in advance that the Giant Ape had somewhat been forced by an intelligent being to act as a vanguard in the Big Secret Realm, he had already prepared himself for an ambush on arrival.

With the aggressive Giant Ape acting as a precedent, he never expected the opposition to be friendly.

However, their laughable attempts at cleverness were not something he had anticipated.

Hiding in the shadows of the giant trees, they thought they were invisible, ready to launch a stealth attack?

Well then.

If it were someone else, perhaps they might be genuinely fooled.

Unfortunately, he could see the health bars.

What’s more unfortunate for the enemy was, the size of the health bar corresponded with the size of the creature. The larger the creature, the thicker their health bar appeared.

In the forest below, most of the health bars were considerably larger than the one that had been on the Giant Ape’s head. Some were even more than ten times thicker.

If the Research Institute’s conclusions were correct, then the lower the realm of these giant beings, the larger their bodies.

The gargantuan size of those health bars starting with a 4 was even more outrageous than the Giant Worm he’d previously encountered. Those thick bars floated there, completely undiminished by the towering trees with their sprawling branches and leaves.

Those health bars starting with a 4 most likely belonged to three realm beings.

If one were to reference the terrifying body length of over eight hundred meters of the late four-realm Giant Worm, those three-realm guys down there might have body lengths that soar into the sky...

Hovering in the sky eyeing the area below, Li Jing couldn’t help but ponder.

They hid so painstakingly; should he play along and act clueless?

On second thought, he decided against it. He didn’t want to waste time.

The presence of hordes of giant beasts hiding in the forest below the entrance indicated their readiness to pounce at any moment; they intended to completely annihilate the Heavenly King Group.

Right now, he was the only one to have entered. If they decided to wait rather than attack, wouldn’t that be perfect?

Glancing back at the exit just beyond his reach, Li Jing called out softly.

"Linglong."

"Humm!"

The Linglong Tower appeared above his head, expanding at his command to match his height, shielding him.

The Linglong Tower’s capability was to expand to over a thousand meters in height.

However, in the current scenario, it seemed more appropriate to keep it the same size as himself.

Li Jing had faith in Linglong Tower’s defensive capabilities, but he didn’t know how many giant beasts were hiding below, or how many were high-realm beings with comparatively smaller bodies, or whether a Seventh Realm being was among them.

Among the group of giant beasts, each one was larger than the last.

If the Linglong Tower was expanded to the limit, it would be too big a target for them.

Small enough to render them helpless.

You must know, these giant beasts are body refiners...

They don’t know spells, they only charge forward using their fists and bodies...

With the protection of the Linglong Tower, Li Jing locks onto a health bar that he can see and whose value is the highest.

8274.

Mid-six realm.

It’s you I have decided on!

Without any hesitation, Li Jing raises his hand and forms the handprint of the spell.

The world seems to darken the moment the handprint takes form.

Endless dark clouds cover the sky, spreading out indefinitely, ominously heralding the descent of heaven’s might.

Just as heaven’s might descends, the otherwise peaceful space immediately takes a turn for the chaotic. Among the forest populated with towering trees, a group of giant birds big enough to block out the sky take to the sky in terror.

Now that’s a sight to behold.

At the same time, the giant beasts hiding below the entrance take notice of the situation.

The forbidden skill, they are unfamiliar with.

But sensing the celestial might, they instinctively know that something is very wrong.

"Roar!"

A furious roar, similar to that of a tiger, suddenly resonates throughout the forest.

The trees below the entrance to the secret realm collapse instantly, and one after another, the giant beasts of considerable size reveal themselves and roar to the sky.

Li Jing looks down for a glance.

My, oh my!

This kind of number...

At first glance, there are thousands of gigantic beasts, each one larger than the last, standing on the ground and roaring at the sky.

As if to say:

Ant in the sky!

What’s so impressive about your magic skills?

Come down and face us one on one!

Will Li Jing pay them any attention?

Of course not.

Constantly making handprints, Li Jing scans over more than a dozen figures in the giant beast cluster that are no more than fifty meters tall and narrows his eyes slightly.

These figures, with human faces and a pair of black wings on their backs.

A combination of giants and bird people...

Compared to the on mass roaring giant beasts, their individual shapes are too delicate. They hold various enormous weapons that are clearly made from forging and emit powerful waves, their cultivation level doesn’t seem to be very high.

About ten or so bird people, all in the late-Fifth Boundary, not even one has entered the Six Realm.

On the contrary, there are quite a few giant beasts on the scene that are in the Six Realm.

It is clear that these bird people are the intelligent civilization controlling this space and leading everything.

Their size is also considerable, but there is a big difference compared to the giant beasts whose size is linked to their realm.

According to the standard of giant beasts, their fifty-plus-meter-high bodies should be multiplied by several times at least.

A more important point is that they have weapons forged by hands in their hands.

Even though these weapons are quite crude in style, since they are forged, they are far better than being barehanded!

With this assumption in mind, one of the bird people in the late fifth realm gives a roar and without looking back, flaps its wings and flies away.

The rest of the bird people immediately follow suit as they see this.

The giant beasts scatter like birds when they see this, taking heavy and fast steps to escape the entrance like a wave.

Seeing this, Li Jing raises his eyebrows slightly in intrigue.

So these bird people are the ones leading the charge.

The intelligence of these bird people isn’t too low, they know that under the protection of the Linglong tower, no matter how many or how powerful the giant beasts are, they can’t harm him, they choose to retreat decisively.

But even with the situation at this point, can it be resolved by them running away?

"Qingfeng."

With a soft call, the spirit weapon Qingfeng appears.

"You stay and guard the entrance, don’t let any giant beasts get out. You just need to hold them off, you don’t have to worry about killing."

Li Jing instructed, said.

"Pay attention to the coverage area of my World Thunder Punishment, and notify me immediately if the coverage area doesn’t include the entrance."

After saying this, Li Jing, who is making the handprints of the forbidden skill and following the direction of the giant beasts’ retreat, quietly changes the target of the forbidden skill to the bird person who just gave the command.

What was it that they said?

The one that sticks its neck out always gets shot first.

The bird person who led the escape was targeted and immediately had a terrible feeling.

However, the magic skill system is obviously a blind spot for him.

He only vaguely feels as if he has been targeted. He, who is merely at the Fifth Boundary, feels an explosion of danger and flees even faster by flapping his wings.

He runs fast, and the other bird people and the clustered giant beasts also speed up along with him.

"Boom Boom Boom!"

The giant beasts’ hands and feet land on the ground, their heavy and chaotic footsteps cause the earth to tremble wildly.

Trees that tower above them are one after another being savagely broken and knocked down by their enormous bodies.

This scene is indescribable.

The kilometer high giant trees crashing down to the ground is truly a splendid sight.

Li Jing follows the massive beast troops at a leisurely pace, and soon, he completes more than half of the spell formula for the forbidden spell, then quietly slows down the speed of forming the handprints.

At max level, the construction of the spell formula for the forbidden spell in his hands has been compressed to just over two minutes.

At max level, World Thunder Punishment could cover about two countries, about four times the size of Jianghai.

He is not in a hurry to release the forbidden spell.

Not until the maximum coverage area includes the spatial entrance.

Since there are bird people leading the way now, maybe he can follow them to their base, right?

If he can wipe them all out at once, wouldn’t that be great?

Seeing that the highest cultivation level among the bird people is no more than the Fifth Boundary, and the giant beasts are capped at the late-Six Realm, with no Seventh Realm, he is quite at ease.