A strange white fruit hung from a branch, its exotic fragrance detectable within a five-mile radius.
But any magical beast that dared approach the white fruit would instantly be captured and turned into prey.
This white fruit was the Demon Fusion Flower's bait. At most, it counted as a second-tier medicinal ingredient, worth around five thousand gold coins.
Its main body, however, was a genuine third-tier, wood-attribute Demon Fusion Flower-a powerful creature capable of rivaling a Da Dou Shi.
Before reaching the fifth tier, Demon Fusion Flowers could hardly uproot themselves and move freely, while absorbing the spiritual energy of heaven and earth was far too inefficient for them.
Thus, a Demon Fusion Flower grew primarily by luring in unsuspecting low-tier magical beasts, then devouring them to nourish itself.
By consuming different magical beasts, the Demon Fusion Flower could grow fruits of the corresponding attributes, attracting still more magical beasts and forming a perfect hunting cycle.
But humans found such things all too easy to recognize. Some experienced mercenaries even captured low-tier magical beasts specifically to feed them to Demon Fusion Flowers.
They would harvest its fruits while it was digesting, earning enormous sums of gold coins.
Still, it was a third-tier magical beast. One careless mistake could cost them their own lives.
At Xiao Yi Xian's request, Xiao Yan had come to find the core of a third-tier poison-type magical beast for making a poison preparation.
The Demon Fusion Flower happened to be a third-tier magical beast that met every requirement.
Although he already possessed the strength of a Three-Star Da Dou Shi, Xiao Yan was an extremely cautious person.
If he confronted the Demon Fusion Flower head-on, he would not be able to defeat it quickly.
But if he attacked while it was feeding, its fighting strength would drop dramatically.
Even the cleverest magical beasts ultimately seemed rather naive before humans.
Xiao Yan reached into his Storage Ring and pulled out a bear's head left over from his meal.
The Savage Bear's head was enormous, as large as a water vat, and its strength had rivaled that of a human Dou Shi.
Unfortunately, it had encountered Xiao Yan. Not only had it lost its den, but Xiao Yan had roasted and eaten it, and now even its head was being used as bait.
With a mighty throw, Xiao Yan hurled the massive Savage Bear head into the Demon Fusion Flower's attack range.
The Demon Fusion Flower lacked the intelligence to distinguish between prey taking the bait and bait deliberately tossed to it.
It immediately snapped shut, its pair of enormous toothed leaves clamping firmly around the Savage Bear's head before it began injecting its venom.
The Demon Fusion Flower's venom was highly corrosive, helping it rapidly dissolve and absorb its prey.
While it was releasing large quantities of venom, Xiao Yan erupted with Dou Qi and attacked.
[Profound Tier Low Grade-Great Flame Palm]!
A palm formed from Dou Qi slammed into the Demon Fusion Flower's toothed leaves, its scorching heat instantly searing them yellow in places.
But the Demon Fusion Flower was a third-tier magical beast, after all. Even Xiao Yan's surprise attack could not kill it instantly.
The Demon Fusion Flower immediately opened its toothed leaves and abandoned the Savage Bear's head. Two vines then rose from the ground and lashed toward Xiao Yan to entangle him!
At the same time, its toothed leaves swung around and snapped at Xiao Yan.
Unfortunately for it, the earlier strike had already injured those leaves. Xiao Yan gathered Dou Qi around both fists and smashed straight into them.
Bang!
Xiao Yan clearly had the upper hand in this exchange, knocking the Demon Fusion Flower's toothed leaves askew.
Still, he felt faint stabs of pain in his fists. Those toothed leaves were even harder than the refined steel armor forged for the Jia Ma Empire's army.
As the vines coiled toward him from behind, Xiao Yan reached back and grabbed them.
He then channeled Dou Qi into his back, and a pair of eagle wings emerged. "Up you come!"
Xiao Yan flew upward while hauling on the Demon Fusion Flower's vines. Even if he smashed its toothed leaves several times, it would be pointless; they would grow back sooner or later.
His target had always been the Demon Fusion Flower's main root.
The vines were connected to that root. Under Xiao Yan's terrifying strength, the Demon Fusion Flower actually began to show signs of being torn out of the ground, roots and all!
"Roar!"
Only then did the Demon Fusion Flower finally let out a piercing shriek, as though resisting Xiao Yan.
But that could not change the outcome. Using the acceleration of Eagle Wings together with his own strength, Xiao Yan finally uprooted the entire Demon Fusion Flower in one pull!
The Demon Fusion Flower's main root was completely exposed. A wrinkled human face grew upon it-that was where its life lay.
Xiao Yan did not hold back in the slightest. The instant its main root appeared, he bombarded it with Great Flame Palm.
The Demon Fusion Flower naturally feared flames and could only shield itself with more roots, stems, branches, and leaves.
With Xiao Yan flying in the air, it could not even strike back.
Nor did Xiao Yan engage it at close quarters. He simply kept forming Great Flame Palms from Dou Qi and attacking from a distance, weakening the Demon Fusion Flower little by little.
With its main root exposed, the Demon Fusion Flower was soon scorched yellow in several places, its vitality rapidly declining.
As its reactions slowed, Xiao Yan suddenly plunged from the sky. Slipping past its sluggish branches, leaves, and vines, he drew right up against the Demon Fusion Flower and unleashed the strongest Dou Technique he had learned so far with all his might.
[Xuan Tier High Grade-Mad Lion's Roar]!
This time, Xiao Yan unleashed his Dou Qi at full power. At such close range, even a Five-Star Da Dou Shi would have suffered severe injuries.
The Demon Fusion Flower's main root shattered outright, spilling transparent fluid across the ground. Within that pool of fluid lay an emerald-green magic core.
The corners of Xiao Yan's mouth curled upward. His luck seemed pretty good-he had succeeded on his very first attempt.
That was actually quite normal, though. The higher a magical beast's tier, the greater its chance of forming a magic core. For third-tier magical beasts, the probability was generally around fifty percent.
Xiao Yan wrapped his hand in Dou Qi and placed the magic core inside an exquisite jade bottle.
The transparent fluid was also highly poisonous and would corrode his hand on contact. Xiao Yan even felt a layer of the Dou Qi around his hand being eaten away when it touched the fluid.
He had to admit that the higher a magical beast's tier, the more troublesome its venom became. Even a Da Dou Shi's Dou Qi struggled to withstand it. For someone weaker, it would probably penetrate their Dou Qi on the spot and injure their body.
"I didn't expect to finish Xiao Yi Xian's request so quickly. I'll head back first."
Xiao Yan put away the jade bottle. Obtaining this third-tier magic core had taken only five days, a week less than he had expected.
Boom!
Just as Xiao Yan summoned Eagle Wings again and prepared to take off, a strange, earth-shaking blast erupted high in the sky.
Although the sound had clearly come from some distance away, it shook Xiao Yan's blood into turmoil, and his Dou Qi showed faint signs of dispersing!
"What happened?"
Xiao Yan abruptly looked up and discovered two glowing masses flashing in the sky, one green and one purple.
Every time those two masses collided, the sky turned purple or green over an expanse stretching dozens of miles!
Two transcendent beings were actually battling in the sky!
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