Spirit-Devouring Beast

"Who could possibly have opened this copper box?? Will the Spirit-Devouring Beast be all right??..."

The Black-Clad Woman muttered to herself, utterly at a loss. Had she not been lying on the stone bed, she would probably have been pacing in frantic circles.

Seeing her like this, Liu Xing could only point at his own nose and say, "There's no third person on this planet besides you and me. Naturally, I was the one who opened the box!"

"You opened the copper box? How is that possible?" The Black-Clad Woman nearly sprang off the stone bed in agitation. "A Nascent Soul Realm expert engraved a Golden Light Spirit-Locking Formation on that box! A good-for-nothing like you who can't cultivate would have been blasted to pieces before you even opened it!"

Liu Xing gave a wry smile and rubbed his nose, at a loss for words. In truth, he knew nothing about the Small Copper Box, the Spirit-Devouring Beast, or the Golden Light Spirit-Locking Formation. Yet it was an ironclad fact that he had opened the box unharmed and that the Spirit-Devouring Beast had merged into his divine sense.

After a bout of agitation, the Black-Clad Woman gradually calmed down. Remembering that she had called Liu Xing a good-for-nothing in her panic, she could not help casting him an apologetic glance. Only when she saw that his expression was unchanged did she feel relieved.

By now, the Black-Clad Woman had reasoned that Liu Xing probably would not lie. So he really had opened the Small Copper Box? But how was that possible?

The Small Copper Box bore a Golden Light Spirit-Locking Formation laid down by a Nascent Soul Realm expert. If someone forced it open, the spiritual energy gushing out would unleash a lethal strike. Its power would be no less devastating than the Black-Clad Woman's detonation of her false core. Even an expert who had formed a golden core would struggle to withstand it.

This fellow was merely a mortal incapable of cultivation. How could he have emerged unscathed from the Golden Light Spirit-Locking Formation's attack?

But on this garbage planet, there was nobody else besides him. Who else could have opened the copper box?

Could this seemingly useless fellow actually withstand an attack from a formation laid down by a Nascent Soul Realm expert?

All of this was far too strange. More importantly, once the copper box was opened, the spiritual energy sealed within it would surely scatter in all directions. Without spiritual energy to nourish it, how could the Spirit-Devouring Beast survive?

After thinking it over carefully, the Black-Clad Woman could still only ask Liu Xing, "Fine, suppose you did open the copper box. Where's the Spirit-Devouring Beast inside? It didn't dissipate into the air, did it?"

Liu Xing said, "If that rabbit-like fellow is the Spirit-Devouring Beast you're talking about, it hasn't disappeared. But this Spirit-Devouring Beast is very strange. It burrowed into my body and won't come out."

"The Spirit-Devouring Beast burrowed into your body?!!" the Black-Clad Woman cried out in astonishment again. She looked even more shocked than before, as though she had heard the most inconceivable thing in the entire universe.

Liu Xing nodded with a wry smile. "I don't know what happened either. As soon as I opened the box, the little fellow burrowed into my body. I couldn't dodge it, and it gave me a terrible headache. Now it's sleeping inside me. If you raised it, could I trouble you to call it out? Ever since it entered my body, I haven't been able to make it do anything."

As he spoke, Liu Xing looked at the Black-Clad Woman expectantly.

Everything had gone awry! Completely awry!

The Black-Clad Woman felt that everything she was hearing now was simply too incredible to believe.

The Spirit-Devouring Beast was known as the sovereign of all demon beasts. Though it might not be the only one left in the entire universe, their numbers certainly did not exceed three.

As its name suggested, the Spirit-Devouring Beast was a demon beast that lived by devouring spiritual energy. It was called the sovereign of demon beasts not because it possessed astounding demonic power or boundless might, but because of its unique traits.

The Spirit-Devouring Beast was naturally extraordinarily sensitive to spiritual energy, and its divine sense had a vast reach extending as far as a thousand li. Beneath the sweep of its divine sense, it could detect even the slightest unusual fluctuation in spiritual energy.

The Spirit-Devouring Beast needed to consume vast amounts of spiritual energy to survive. With the help of its powerful divine sense, it usually dwelled in natural spirit veins richest in spiritual energy, or in places where powerful Innate Supreme Treasures lay hidden. Only after it had devoured nearly all the spiritual energy, leaving too little to sustain it, would it seek another place rich in spiritual energy.

The Spirit-Devouring Beast was a born treasure-seeking demon beast. With one in hand, the finest gathering places of spiritual energy and the most powerful Innate Supreme Treasures in the universe could all be swept into one's bag.

That alone made the Spirit-Devouring Beast's value immeasurable!

However, subduing a Spirit-Devouring Beast was no easy task for humans.

First, the Spirit-Devouring Beast existed as a spiritual entity and had no physical body. Trapping it was easier said than done. Even a Nascent Soul Realm expert needed a fortunate convergence of circumstances and a sealed vessel formed from an enormous quantity of spiritual energy to imprison it. Moreover, the Spirit-Devouring Beast could devour spiritual energy itself. Without the profound cultivation of a Nascent Soul Realm expert, an ordinary cultivator simply could not accomplish this.

Yet even if one could trap a Spirit-Devouring Beast, taming it remained impossible. At least, the Cultivation World had yet to discover the proper method for taming one.

The Spirit-Devouring Beast was prized for its ability to scan for spiritual energy with its divine sense. Without taming it, one naturally could not make use of this extraordinary ability. Eventually, the Cultivation World found a method that could be called self-sacrifice, allowing a Spirit-Devouring Beast to be refined into a treasure-seeking demon beast.

The Spirit-Devouring Beast needed vast amounts of spiritual energy to sustain it, while the spiritual energy within a Nascent Soul Realm expert was naturally as vast as the sea. Since the Spirit-Devouring Beast existed as a spiritual entity, a Nascent Soul Realm expert could imprison it within their own body and share its divine sense.

However, once the Spirit-Devouring Beast was imprisoned within their body, even a Nascent Soul Realm expert would have to pour all their cultivation into meeting its need for spiritual energy.

A Nascent Soul Realm expert who absorbed a Spirit-Devouring Beast could indeed use its divine sense to search for treasures. However, all their cultivation, including the spiritual energy accumulated through daily arduous practice, would have to be supplied to the beast. This was almost the same as losing their cultivation entirely.

Although the number of cultivators had surged, those who could reach the Nascent Soul Realm remained as rare as phoenix feathers and qilin horns. Every Nascent Soul Realm expert was someone the various powers would spare no effort to recruit. Even the great sects and aristocratic clans possessed only a handful of such experts, and losing any one of them was a significant blow.

PS: Heh heh, today's third update is here. But I still have to shout, "Brothers and sisters, where are your recommendation votes?"