Visit Martial King Manor?

"Fight to the death?"

Shi Yi slowly opened his eyes, and his hidden Double Pupils emerged within their sockets.

Before Adult Pixiu could speak,

Shi Yi raised a hand and unleashed the Suan Ni Precious Technique. A sea of thunder descended from the heavens, pillar after pillar of lightning as thick as water barrels crashing viciously toward Adult Pixiu.

With thunder, shatter the darkness.

"Looks like you've spent quite a while in the Great Wilderness. You don't even know anything—how pitiful!" Adult Pixiu sneered.

Lightning pillars capable of instantly wiping out most Prehistoric Ferocious Beasts and Desolate Variants were nothing more than an itch to it, posing no real threat whatsoever.

Of course, the lightning's paralysis and impact still greatly hindered its movements. For a while, it could not catch Shi Yi and could only let him toy with it using the lightning filling the sky.

"I don't understand what you mean. I said it before: the Mountain Treasure is fated with me. No one can take it away, and that includes you!"

Shi Yi could not use the Qilin Treasure Technique again for the time being. His body needed time to recover; otherwise, even the Willow Deity Method's Unceasing Growth would not be able to stop his body from collapsing.

But it had to be said,

without the secret method passed down by the Willow Deity, Shi Yi could never have endured pain akin to being slowly cut to pieces today and forcibly relied on external power to raise his strength to its limit.

The reason was simple.

Without the Willow Deity Method's power of Unceasing Growth, such an extreme burst of power would leave his body crippled or maimed afterward. It was even possible that he would never recover from it.

Yet the Unceasing Growth inherent to the Willow Deity Method constantly repaired Shi Yi's bodily injuries, like a gentle hand smoothing over every wound.

Still, the Unceasing Growth provided by the Willow Deity Method had its limits.

Shi Yi had only just begun cultivating it and was nowhere near the point of regenerating from a drop of blood. Not to mention, the Willow Deity Method he cultivated was incomplete.

Just like the Qilin Treasure Technique, the Willow Deity Method was incomplete. It was not that the Willow Deity had been unwilling to teach him, but that Shi Yi was not yet qualified to cultivate the complete Willow Deity Method.

"Shi Yi, what lies between you and me goes far beyond fighting over the Mountain Treasure."

Adult Pixiu swiftly dodged the descending lightning pillars. Its body moved like thunder and lightning itself, leaving no trace to be seen. By now, it had grown accustomed to the rhythm of the lightning pillars' descent.

After several breaths,

Adult Pixiu found an opening. It slipped behind Shi Yi, extended a claw, and smashed it viciously into Shi Yi's back, swatting him out of the sky.

Like a shooting star, like a falling meteor.

The next instant,

"Boom! Boom! Boom!" Mountains collapsed, and the earth trembled.

Shi Yi's body was like a ball sent flying, smashing straight through a towering mountain range before becoming embedded deep within it.

Fortunately, the Beast Bone and Beast Hide had greatly strengthened his body. Together with the Willow Deity Method's Unceasing Growth constantly repairing him, he had not been slapped to death.

Yet in the next moment,

ten Celestial Passages, blazing like scorching suns, rose into the sky once more. At the same time, countless Double Pupils in the heavens lit up.

Stared at relentlessly by countless pairs of eyes,

what kind of feeling was that?

Adult Pixiu could not describe it either. It only sensed a fatal crisis brewing, one that put its life on the line. It absolutely could not allow those Double Pupils to keep watching it.

At this moment, blood streamed uncontrollably from the corners of Shi Yi's eyes. The crimson blood along his cheeks made him look exceptionally eerie, carrying an indescribable air of mystery.

However,

this was merely the side effect of Shi Yi overusing his Double Pupils and exhausting his ocular power.

As for why Shi Yi was draining his ocular power so recklessly, it was naturally not for amusement.

He wanted to see Adult Pixiu's fatal weakness and strike it down in one blow.

I can't see it. I can't see it. I still can't see its life line. As expected, power forcibly raised is only power. Without insights into this realm, I am ultimately not someone of this realm.

That makes sense. A child holding a firearm may possess destructive power and the ability to kill, but how could he compare to a battle-hardened special forces soldier? All I can ensure is fairness in terms of power.

Once we truly fight, the chance of winning is minuscule.

From Shi Yi's perspective,

the world was filled with colors and lines everywhere—karma lines, marriage-fate lines, life lines... Everything in the world possessed its own line.

As long as those lines were severed, everything would be severed.

Sever the karma line, and karma would cease to exist.

Sever the marriage-fate line, and marriage fate would cease to exist.

Likewise,

sever the life line, and life would cease to exist.

"Brat Shi Yi, I don't know what you're doing, but I won't let you keep staring."

Adult Pixiu once again circled behind Shi Yi. Its gaping maw lunged at him, trying to bite him to death in a single bite, tear him apart, and swallow him whole.

It no longer hoped to cripple Shi Yi, erase his memories, and turn him into its adopted son. One careless mistake, and it might die here itself.

What a pity. If I had just a little more time, perhaps I could have seen your life line, Shi Yi sighed inwardly.

A lesson learned the hard way made one wiser.

Shi Yi was not caught off guard by Adult Pixiu again. He used the Suan Ni Precious Technique and stuffed a lightning sphere glowing with blue light into Adult Pixiu's gaping maw.

"Ptooey! Ptooey! Ptooey!"

Adult Pixiu spat out the lightning sphere, its four feet stomping fiercely through the air as it charged after Shi Yi once more.

Shi Yi was not afraid. With a wave of his hand, another sea of thunder descended, forming lightning pillars that bombarded it.

He ran, it chased.

He could not escape even with wings.

But Shi Yi had no intention of running. With the Ten Celestial Passages continuously drawing in the energy of heaven and earth to replenish his expenditure, combined with the Willow Deity Method's inherent Unceasing Growth, he believed it would not be difficult to remain locked in a stalemate with this Adult Pixiu.

When it came to a war of endurance,

he was not afraid.

What did not kill me would only make me stronger.

Ten days and ten nights passed.

Within a hundred thousand li around the place where the Mountain Treasure had emerged, the Great Wilderness had essentially been flattened by Shi Yi and Adult Pixiu, one man and one beast.

Vast thunderclouds had remained suspended in the boundless sky the entire time, with lightning pillars as thick as water barrels falling from them now and then.

Over these ten days,

Shi Yi grew more excited the longer he fought, as if his body held some hidden battle-hungry instinct. He felt as though he grew stronger with every battle.

At first, he had been beaten down without any ability to resist. Now, he could suppress his opponent. His control over his power had improved by at least more than double.

At the same time,

Adult Pixiu also realized the terrifying nature of Shi Yi's talent to grow stronger through battle. It inwardly marveled that Shi Yi truly deserved to be a Double Pupil User with the bearing of a sage, and the thought of temporarily avoiding him arose in its heart.

And it was on this day

that, after forcibly knocking Shi Yi away with the horn on the back of its head, Adult Pixiu turned tail and fled as though oil had been smeared beneath its feet. Shi Yi stood there dumbfounded, utterly unable to understand what was happening.

"Shi Yi, had I known you possessed such talent, after succeeding in my revenge back then, I should not have harmed the innocent. But matters have come to this, and there is no remedy. If there is a chance, I will personally visit you at Martial King Manor."

After leaving behind these words that plunged Shi Yi into thought, Adult Pixiu vanished beyond the horizon.

Clearly, it had now abandoned both its bid for the Mountain Treasure and its intention to kill Shi Yi, this potential threat.

"Visit Martial King Manor? How dare you? Do you think the Stone Emperor is just sitting around doing nothing?" Shi Yi said in confusion.

Martial King Manor was located in the Stone Kingdom, an ancient kingdom worshipped by hundreds of millions of humans. With the Imperial Dragon Qi, the Human Emperor could kill any ferocious beast that dared set foot in the Stone Kingdom.

After pondering for a long while without understanding Adult Pixiu's words, Shi Yi stopped dwelling on them and slowly flew toward the white pillar of light at the very center of the battlefield.

The white pillar of light reached from heaven to earth.

Within it was a black sphere, densely covered in strange runes.