"What secret technique is this? It can actually devour the bones of a fourth-order magical beast!"
Nalan Su's eyes bulged like bronze bells as he stared unblinkingly at the astonishing scene before him, unwilling to miss a single detail he had never seen before.
Just as everyone's attention was drawn to Xiao Qian's miraculous actions, the fourth-order magical beast, the Mighty Demon Bull, slowly shook its still-dizzy head. After swaying its head a few times, it finally climbed to its feet.
Its thick hooves scraped hard against the ground, leaving deep gouges with every stroke, as though gathering strength for another powerful charge.
The dull scraping sounded especially clear in the silent Beast-Taming Arena, like beating war drums heralding another ferocious attack.
"There isn't much time."
Xiao Qian kept his full attention on his opponent. His brows creased slightly, his heart tightened, and his hands unconsciously quickened.
Crack, crack, crack.
The grating friction of bone grew sharper and more piercing, like countless steel needles scraping across glass at once, making everyone's hair stand on end.
An ink-black radiance spun wildly around the bones and magic core, accelerating until it formed a massive black vortex.
Under the vortex's powerful suction, the snow-white essence surged faster into the Dragon Phoenix magic core like a rushing stream, making the core blaze with light and appear ever more unfathomable.
"Rooooar!"
The Demon Bull suddenly unleashed an earthshaking roar that exploded above the Beast-Taming Arena like rolling thunder.
Its bronze-bell eyes locked onto the Fairy Spirit Puppet that had made it suffer so badly earlier. Flames of fury seemed to spout from its eyes, as though it wanted to burn the entire puppet to ashes.
Its whole body shone with a dark-iron luster. The light seemed almost tangible as it enveloped its enormous frame, like a suit of indestructible armor.
Its enormous horns, in particular, were now coated in an incomparably sharp aura. They gleamed coldly in the sunlight like two peerless instruments of slaughter, brimming with deadly menace.
"No! That beast has recovered!" Nalan Yanran's face turned deathly pale at the sight, and she cried out in alarm, "Father! Elder!"
Yet before Nalan Su and Nalan Nan could act, they suddenly saw the magic core in Xiao Qian's hand become like a great beast starved for ages. Like a giant whale drawing in water, it abruptly sucked in all the surrounding radiance at once.
The two magical beast skeletons were completely devoured at that moment!
In an instant, the mysterious aura emanating from the magic core enveloped the entire Beast-Taming Arena. It was so dense it seemed tangible, as though a mysterious veil had been draped over the whole space.
"Go!"
Xiao Qian's gaze flashed like lightning. He gave a low, forceful shout while pointing firmly at the Fairy Spirit Puppet.
At that very instant, the already dazzling magic core transformed into a brilliant orb of light and shot like a meteor toward the Fairy Spirit Puppet's smooth, jade-like brow.
It moved so fast that it left only a radiant streak in the air.
"Fuse!"
Xiao Qian shouted, pressing one hand firmly against the Fairy Spirit Puppet's back, which was as smooth and supple as jade.
In an instant, the Dou Qi within his Nine Dantians poured out like a raging tide, surging into the Fairy Spirit Puppet. This was the crucial final step in refining the puppet.
As essence poured from the magic core, the cracks that had appeared in the Fairy Spirit Puppet's arm vanished in an instant, restoring it completely.
The arm was flawless as mutton-fat jade. Its snow-jade skin gleamed with a newborn luster, as though it had been reborn.
Not only that, but the strength of its entire body had increased substantially.
If the Fairy Spirit Puppet's body had only barely possessed Dou Ling-level strength before, it now fully met that standard.
If the Fairy Spirit Puppet could also use Dou Qi, its combat power would be entirely equivalent to that of a Dou Ling.
Unfortunately, its meridians haven't formed. It only has the strength for a single strike, Xiao Qian mused, unable to suppress a trace of regret.
Yet just then, an indescribably profound and mysterious light suddenly burst from his Nine Dantians.
Immediately afterward, nine golden flames sprang into being. As though possessed of minds of their own, they flowed along Xiao Qian's arm and into the Fairy Spirit Puppet before he could react, then coiled like nimble snakes around the magic core in its brow.
Boom!
In Xiao Qian's eyes, the entire world seemed to turn upside down in that instant.
Space first became black as ink, as though it had plunged into an endless abyss of darkness. Then that darkness began to shatter, countless cracks spreading across it like a mirror.
The cracks spread densely around him, like an enormous black spiderweb enclosing him tightly.
At the same time, an unimaginably powerful suction erupted from the cracks. Like an invisible giant hand, it dragged him violently inside in an instant.
Spatial rifts? How is that possible?!
Xiao Qian cried out inwardly.
He instinctively looked back, only to see an utterly bizarre scene: outside the spatial rifts, Nalan Yanran, Nalan Su, and Nalan Nan stood completely frozen, as though someone had pressed pause on time.
Nalan Yanran's worried expression remained fixed on her lovely face. The anxiety in her eyes was clearly visible, yet she could no longer make a single movement.
Even more astonishingly, Xiao Qian could see himself and the Fairy Spirit Puppet still standing safely outside the rifts, as though nothing had happened.
It's... my soul has been pulled out! What on earth is happening?!
Xiao Qian was filled with shock and confusion, but he had no chance to investigate this sudden turn of events.
Within the rifts surrounding his soul, magnificent rays of dazzling, multicolored light suddenly appeared. They intertwined, forming a rainbow-colored space shaped like a passageway.
Whoosh!
The next moment, Xiao Qian's soul vanished from the rifts, as though yanked away by a powerful force.
Outside the rifts behind him, space and time remained frozen, as though the entire world had been paused for eternity at that moment.
"Aaaaaah!"
Xiao Qian felt as though his soul was a tiny boat caught amid wild winds and towering waves. Heaven and earth spun around him, and the entire world tumbled madly.
The sensation left him dizzy and nauseated, his stomach churning like an overturned sea, as though every part of his body had been crushed and pieced back together.
He had no idea how long passed before the nightmarish spinning finally stopped.
Xiao Qian discovered that the space around him was exceedingly strange. Time and space seemed eternally suspended here, without the slightest sign of movement, and the stillness was unsettling.
Only with difficulty did Xiao Qian recover from the harrowing experience. Still shaken, he drew a deep breath and finally opened his eyes slowly to look around.
Before him lay a continent stretching as far as the eye could see. The grandeur of the sight made him hold his breath.
From his vantage point, an immense ocean occupied the center of the continent. It resembled an enormous sheet of blue silk, shimmering beneath the sunlight.
Islands of every size dotted the vast ocean like brilliant pearls set into the blue silk. Their shapes varied greatly; some were small and exquisite, while others stretched far and wide.
On either side of the ocean lay two landmasses of roughly equal size.
One landmass resembled a lotus, its delicate outline like a work of art painstakingly sculpted by nature; the other was an irregular oval, its edges marked by all manner of peculiar terrain-mountain ranges towering into the clouds, deep and narrow canyons, and winding coastlines-displaying a wild, rugged beauty.
Yet the entire boundless continent had a strange grayish-white hue, as though shrouded in a mysterious mist, giving it an illusory and enigmatic air.
Across this grayish-white continent, only four places shone with brilliant spiritual light. Like beacons in the darkness, those lights held a burning allure for Xiao Qian, as though calling to him and drawing him irresistibly closer.
Give it a tap?
An inexplicable impulse rose within Xiao Qian. He felt as though his soul were being drawn toward those spiritual lights, and the thought sprang unbidden into his mind, as though a gentle touch upon them would lift the veil from this mysterious phenomenon.
Before you continue