C18 Defication Severing!
The Demon Bear King had never anticipated Qin Buyi launching an attack from beneath the ground.
Qin Buyi's assault was swift and brutal, leaving no time for the beast to mount a defense.
His blade plunged into the Demon Bear King's belly, and with a firm grip on the Killing Saber, Qin Buyi thrust upward with all his might.
There was a ripping sound.
The Demon Bear King's abdomen was slashed open as if it were mere cloth being torn apart.
Blood gushed like a fountain from the creature, and the gravely wounded Demon Bear King became wildly ferocious.
One paw clutched the Killing Saber embedded within it, while the other swiped at Qin Buyi's head.
"Demonic Bear Technique: Skull Crush."
The paw inflated rapidly, resembling an expanding balloon.
"This is bad!"
Qin Buyi's pupils narrowed. In that instant, he knew that to avoid injury, he would have to relinquish the Killing Saber.
But to surrender the saber and lose his weapon would be tantamount to conceding defeat. Even if he dodged this deadly blow, he would be powerless to pose any further threat to the Demon Bear King.
"Killing Swordsmanship: Slaughter!"
With a gaze steeped in murderous intent and madness, Qin Buyi faced the Demon Bear King and declared, "Let's find out who meets death first."
He summoned all his strength, the Killing Saber straining to break free from the bear's grasp.
"Chi!"
The blade sliced through, severing half of the bear's paw, which thudded to the ground!
"Ah!" The Demon Bear King howled in pain, its attack accelerating through the air.
"Killing Swordsmanship: Extermination!"
A crescent moon of energy formed within the Demon Bear King, encasing every organ.
As the Demon Bear King's strike neared, Qin Buyi gritted his teeth and bellowed, "Slash!"
"Chi!" "Chi!"
"Chi!"
The crescent moon churned like a meat grinder, pulverizing the Demon Bear King's insides to a pulp.
With a roar, in the final moment, the Demon Bear King's attack found its mark on Qin Buyi's chest.
"Bang!"
Caught off guard, Qin Buyi bore the brunt of the Demon Bear King's lethal strike.
"Boom!"
A colossal force struck Qin Buyi, sending him flying dozens of meters before slamming into a tree to a halt.
"Cough!"
Clutching his Killing Saber, Qin Buyi shakily rose to his feet, spitting out a mouthful of blood laced with chunks of his organs.
His chest was sunken in, and he felt a wrenching pain as his organs seemed to shift inside him.
Qin Buyi eyed the motionless Demon Bear King in the distance, remaining on high alert.
The absence of a system alert meant the Demon Bear King was still alive, likely feigning death.
Qin Buyi waited patiently, well beyond the reach of the Demon Bear King's attacks.
One day passed...
The Demon Bear King lay still as if dead. Qin Buyi tended to his wounds, making no move to approach.
Two days passed...
With less than twenty-four hours to the mission deadline, Qin Buyi remained patient, biding his time.
Finally, in the last hour before the deadline, the system notification chimed.
Ding! Demon Bear King defeated. Reward: 10 attribute points and a Fourth Rank Teleportation Talisman.
"Whew!" Qin Buyi exhaled deeply.
He allocated the attribute points to his cultivation and approached the Demon Bear King's body, turning it over with a forceful push.
The Demon Bear King's insides were hollow, its organs pulverized by Qin Buyi's earlier onslaught.
"Chi!"
His Killing Saber cracked open the Demon Bear King's skull, revealing a gleaming pearl within.
This Demon Core, formed only at the Deification Stage by a Demon Beast, was the reason the Demon Bear King had clung to life for two days despite its mangled state.
Qin Buyi secured the Demon Core in his Storage Space, retrieved his Star Compass, and took to the skies, guided by its direction.
En route, Qin Buyi accessed his personal information panel:
Name: Qin Buyi
Desolate Body: Primary
Attribute Increase: 5%.
Cultivation: Third Rank, Nascent Infant Late Period (99/100)
Strength: 99
Speed: 99
Physical Strength: 99
Attack Power: 99
Defense: 99
Fortune: 99
...
Killing Saber: Third Rank (99/100)
Attack Power: 99
Killing Saber Technique: Second Rank (50/50, incomplete due to lack of follow-up)
Attack Power: 50
Qin Buyi felt a twinge of unease as he was on the cusp of advancing to the Fourth Rank. He knew from experience that the system often had a surprise in store whenever he was about to make a breakthrough in his cultivation.
Yet, Qin Buyi wasn't too concerned. Bolstered by the Primary Desolate Body, his attributes had solidly entered the Deification Stage.
The wounds he'd sustained in his clash with the Demon Bear King were steadily healing.
As long as he didn't run into the Fox Demon Emperor, whose power surpassed the Deification realm, Qin Buyi was confident he'd face no significant troubles within the Falling Star Mountain Range.
Considering the Fox Demon Emperor hadn't been seen in centuries, Qin Buyi figured his luck couldn't be that poor.
The thought of the epic reward awaiting him upon securing the star core—a return to the Blue Star—sent a surge of excitement through him.
Since his arrival in this foreign realm, he'd faced numerous brushes with death. He remembered how he'd started as a mere mortal and was now on the verge of ascending to the Fourth Rank.
And there were still matters to attend to back on the Blue Star. This thought sharpened the resolve in Qin Buyi's gaze.
"Is this the spot?"
He murmured, peering into the gaping maw of the abyssal cave before him.
Qin Buyi had followed the Star Compass's lead for a quarter of an hour until its needle halted over this location.
Stowing the Star Compass, he tightened his grip on the Killing Saber and descended cautiously into the cave's depths.
The darkness within was no obstacle for Qin Buyi. Having reached the Golden Core Stage, his night vision had improved, and now in the Nascent Infant Stage, it was even less of an issue.
The cave tapered towards the top and expanded as it plunged deeper.
Thirty minutes later, he reached the cavern's floor.
Qin Buyi looked up, estimating the distance he had covered from the cave's mouth to its base.
From such a lofty height, only those at the Nascent Infant Stage, who had the ability to fly, could survive a fall. Anyone at the Golden Core Stage would likely be reduced to a pulp if they were to fall carelessly.
The cavern below was vast, spanning the equivalent of six or seven football fields.
Qin Buyi's descent ended at an underground river, where he spotted strange fish glowing with a blue luminescence.
Despite the river's placid surface, powerful undercurrents roiled beneath.
After taking a brief moment to marvel at the subterranean spectacle, Qin Buyi shifted his focus away and soared up from the river to continue his search.
Before long, in the northern expanse of the cavern, Qin Buyi's gaze landed on a sphere the size of a basketball, suspended mid-air and radiating a bright light. His Probing Eye confirmed it: this was the star core he sought.
As Qin Buyi approached the star core, a beguiling female voice echoed in his ears, "Young Hero, save me."
Looking down beneath the star core, he saw a woman of striking beauty, gazing up at him with a look of distress.
Her garments had slipped, exposing the snowy whiteness of her chest, her shapely buttocks, and long legs, down to her delicate, jade-like feet...
"I've fallen into this cave by accident. It's so dark and frightening here. Young Hero, could you escort me home?"
Her lips, red as flames, parted slightly as she spoke, her face alight with an alluring charm.
"Zheng!" The Killing Saber sang out with the ring of steel.
Jolted from his reverie, Qin Buyi snapped to attention, his body slick with a cold sweat.
In the pitch-black depths of the underground, the appearance of such a tempting woman was a clear danger. Had he succumbed to her lure, his fate would have been sealed.
"Who are you?" Qin Buyi demanded, his tone icy.
The woman cast a sidelong glance at the Killing Saber. Had it not been for the untimely interference of that wretched blade, she mused, this human might well have been ensnared by now.
Realizing her seduction had failed, the woman dropped her act. Her expression, once feigning vulnerability, hardened as she revealed, "Me? I am but a wretched soul, trapped here for three hundred years."
Qin Buyi's Probing Eye could not penetrate the woman's level of cultivation, but her aura, which hinted at a stage beyond Deification, along with the hints dropped in her speech, told him she was no ordinary captive.
An inference that made Qin Buyi itch to curse emerged in his mind, yet it was a conclusion he couldn't ignore.
Qin Buyi broke the silence, "Are you the Fox Demon Emperor?"
"Eh? To think that after three hundred years, there's still a human who knows of me."
"Fox Demon Emperor? Such an unflattering title. I prefer Qingqian."
Qingqian spoke with a mix of surprise and a hint of distaste.
Hearing the woman confirm her identity, waves of emotion stirred within the usually stoic Qin Buyi.
He rapidly assessed the situation, realizing that the legendary Fox Demon Emperor had vanished for so long because she was imprisoned.
Observing Qingqian's friendly demeanor towards him, Qin Buyi surmised that she must be trapped and unable to inflict harm.
Otherwise, he was utterly unconvinced that a Demon Emperor, who had transcended the Deification Stage, would be so cordial to someone like him, a Nascent Infant Stage cultivator who hadn't even reached the Deification Stage.
