It was another bloody massacre.
All 130-plus Golden Tail Scorpions had been killed, their bodies strewn across the ground.
Garen gained 90,000 experience, two Primary Enhancement Stones, one Level 1 Black Gem, and one Primary Experience Card.
Delighted, Garen stored them, along with the Golden Tail Scorpions' Magic Crystal Cores, in his Space Ring.
The Golden Sun Eagle finally leveled up as well, reaching the Saint Realm.
Mutated Golden Sun Eagle: Saint Realm, Wind and Fire styles
Laws and Mysteries: None (Note: Experience will be displayed and leveling will resume after the beast grasps the Laws and Mysteries.)
Once a magical beast reached the Saint Realm and stabilized its cultivation, it was equivalent to a human at the peak of the Saint Realm.
Xiao Pa flew down from high above and landed beside Garen. Excitement showing, he respectfully called out.
"Master, I've finally reached the Saint Realm."
"Good. Take me back first. You can spend the next while stabilizing your strength."
They returned home two and a half hours later.
Now that Xiao Pa was a Saint Realm magical beast, he could change his size. Garen didn't make him stay in the sky; he told him to shrink down and perch on his shoulder.
When Garen's parents saw the little bird on his shoulder and learned that Xiao Pa had reached the Saint Realm, they were overjoyed.
Over dinner, Garen discussed with his parents the idea of leaving and searching for his uncle.
Garen could tell that his mother was the opposite of his father in temperament: she was warm and outgoing. He figured she must have found it difficult to stay cooped up here all this time.
"Before, I was the only one at the Saint Realm, so I couldn't stay by your side all the time. Now there are two of us. If we go to a large city in the empire where Saint Realm experts live, the Radiant Church won't dare send one after us so easily. We'll be able to search for Uncle more easily, too."
Garen explained his reasoning to his parents.
What he really wanted was for his parents to live a normal life. They weren't old folks who had seen it all, grown disillusioned with the world, and chosen to retreat into the mountains. They were young people who had been forced to live in this remote place.
What young person chose to live in seclusion from their twenties onward? His mother especially—she had been adored by everyone since childhood, yet now she could only hide away in this desolate place.
Of course, he could tell how much his mother cared about his uncle, and he would look into his uncle's whereabouts along the way.
There was no need to rush the move. Garen hadn't been home long, and his parents felt that life had been warm and peaceful lately.
Garen had been keeping in touch with his parents through the Dawson Chamber of Commerce. So he wrote Yale a letter, asking him to look into the whereabouts of his uncle, Arthur.
When Garen first heard his uncle's name from his mother, he had been speechless. Well, it seemed blood really did tell. The name alone made it obvious that Arthur was definitely his uncle.
For the time being, Garen used his plan to train in the Blazing Sun Desert as an excuse. Afterward, they would decide which city to move to.
And so Garen began his monster-hunting spree.
On the first day, he found a group of more than sixty Level Nine Six-Eyed Magic Spiders. Before they could react, Garen swept through them like a gust of wind, striking faster than they could follow and killing more than forty. The remaining twenty were weakened by the baleful aura of the Tiger God Blade, and he wiped them out with ease.
He gained nearly 80,000 experience, one Primary Enhancement Stone, one Level 1 Green Gem, and one Primary Experience Card.
Garen treasured Primary Enhancement Stones. Once he had ten, he could combine them into an Intermediate Enhancement Stone, so he quickly put it away.
On the second day, at the center of an oasis in the desert's core region, one man and one blade churned a lake into chaos. Garen's combat strength was hampered underwater, but the Crocodile Dragon Beasts were weakened by the baleful aura of the God-Slaying Blade, so he still had more than enough strength to deal with them. One by one, the Level Nine Crocodile Dragon Beasts floated to the surface, bellies up and lifeless. He wiped them all out.
He gained over 90,000 experience, two Primary Enhancement Stones, and one Level 1 Critical Hit Gem.
Another great find! With the Level 1 Critical Hit Gem, he could combine it into a Level 2 Critical Hit Gem. A critical hit dealt double damage, and in a real fight, it could deal a lethal blow before the enemy could defend against it.
On the third day, along the shore near the boundless South Sea, one Level Nine Desert Dragon Lizard after another fell by the water, their blood flowing like a river. He killed nearly all of them, but a few escaped by diving into the deep sea to save their lives, even though they couldn't swim. Garen let them go.
There was a legend that the Saint Realm magical beast, the Mosasaurus, one of the rulers of the deep, shared an ancestor with the Desert Dragon Lizard. Both had a trace of dragon blood. In ancient times, they had fled into the deep sea to escape powerful enemies and evolved there.
This time, he gained the most: over 105,000 experience, one Primary Enhancement Stone, one Level 1 Attack Speed Stone, and two Primary Experience Cards.
At last, he had found a new kind of gemstone. When Garen had previously upgraded the God-Slaying Blade to God Realm, he had used a Socketing Stone on it. He had also combined a Level 2 Moon Stone.
When he tried to socket it, the system warned him that defensive gemstones couldn't be socketed into weapons. The Attack Speed Stone clearly boosted attack speed, so it was just what he needed.
Movement speed and attack speed were two different things. Movement speed was how fast a person could move, while attack speed was how quickly a person or weapon could strike.
He had now cleared out all the Level Nine magical beast groups he could find. Garen had slain more than 230 Level Nine magical beasts in total, gaining 270,000 experience. But he was still nowhere near raising his Warrior Level to the Saint Realm.
Warrior Level: Level 9 (373474/1,000,000 experience)
Wind style
Laws and Mysteries: "Wind Element" (830,000/20,000,000 experience)
Fire style
Laws and Mysteries: "Profundity of Explosion" (1,040,000/50,000,000)
Transformation Level: Saint Realm
Magic Level: Level 9 (892/1,000,000 experience)
During this time, his Laws and Mysteries had improved slightly through constant combat.
He removed the Critical Hit Gem from the God-Slaying Blade, combined it into a Level 2 Critical Hit Gem, then socketed it again. After that, he socketed the newly acquired Level 1 Attack Speed Stone.
God-Slaying Blade: Low-level Divine Artifact (Upgradeable), Gemstone Fusing unlocked (four sockets).
Level 2 Sun Stone: Increases the damage of the character's Fire-style magic and battle qi (Laws and Mysteries) by 20%.
Level 2 Critical Hit Gem: Gives the character a 4% chance to land a critical hit when attacking.
Level 2 Breeze Stone: Increases the damage of the character's Wind-style magic and battle qi (Laws and Mysteries) by 20%.
Level 1 Attack Speed Stone: Increases the attack speed of the character or weapon by 10%.
After organizing his gear and weapons, Garen planned his next targets.
The Saint Realm Twin-Horned Flood Dragon, Saint Realm Sand Dragon, and Saint Realm Golden Snake King probably weren't particularly strong. He estimated they were about as powerful as the Saint Realm Black Dragon King, or perhaps a little stronger.
Back when he was at the peak of Level Nine, he could already injure the Saint Realm Black Dragon King. Now, after transforming, he had reached the Saint Realm, his Tiger Blood Battle Qi had grown tenfold, he had grasped the Fire-style High-level Profound Mystery with the greatest explosive power, the Profundity of Explosion, and the Tiger God Blade had been upgraded to God Realm. He should be able to defeat most Saint Realm magical beasts. He would see if he could kill one.
On the fourth day, Garen picked his target: the Saint Realm Twin-Horned Flood Dragon.
The Twin-Horned Flood Dragon was a python with Flood Dragon blood, named for the pair of horns growing from its head.
It was a Fire- and Earth-style magical beast. As an adult, it normally grew a full hundred meters long and was dark yellow all over. Though its scales were small, they were densely packed and gave it remarkable defense. Its hide was also exceptionally tough. However, its attacks were rather limited, making it Garen's first target after careful consideration.
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