Ten Directions Chaos

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Chapter 12: Ten Directions Chaos

At that moment, an emerald-green venomous snake lay coiled near Chen Beiwu's collarbone.

The snake was roughly three feet long, its body covered in fine, closely packed scales that gleamed emerald green, as though it had been cast from jade.

Its head was a flattened triangle, and its eyes resembled translucent amber. With every flick of its forked tongue, wisps of spiritual energy gathered around it.

[Species]: Jade-Scale Snake (common name: Three-Step Drop)

[Attributes]: Wood, poison

[Bloodline]: First-tier, low-grade (strange beast)

[Cultivation]: Over ten years

[Innate talent]: Jade-Scale Illusory Poison (its fangs contain a potent venom that can erode the magical power of cultivators below late-stage Qi Refining and induce fatal hallucinations.)

Recognizing the venomous snake, Chen Beiwu held his breath and slowed his heartbeat as much as possible, then gathered an almost imperceptible strand of magical power at his fingertip.

Sensing the fluctuation in spiritual power, the emerald snake's slit pupils contracted. Its body instinctively tightened as it raised its head and slowly turned toward Chen Beiwu's fingertip.

This was the Jade-Scale Snake's warning posture when it sensed danger-the windup before an attack.

Feeling the cold touch against his skin, Chen Beiwu grew calmer still and lightly flicked his finger.

Bang!

A patch of grass in the distance burst apart, and the Jade-Scale Snake immediately turned its attention toward the disturbed spiritual energy.

Now!

Chen Beiwu seized the opening. The magical power within him instantly connected with the protective talisman he carried, while his right hand, empowered by that same magic, shot out with blinding speed and precision to seize the snake seven inches below its head.

Crack!

Lifting the foul-smelling, rigid snake, Chen Beiwu swiftly stood up.

Strange. Weren't rare beasts like the Jade-Scale Snake already extinct?

Chen Beiwu carefully surveyed his surroundings. Ancient trees stood around him, their roots twisted and tangled, their trunks so thick that ten people could barely encircle them. They were all thousand-year-old trees recorded in books, and the air carried the delicate fragrance of unfamiliar wildflowers.

Did I transmigrate again?

Chen Beiwu stared blankly at the scene before him, keenly aware of the cold sensation against his fingertips.

Roar!

Just then, a beast's roar rose from the distant mountains, piercing the clouds. It was so loud that dewdrops shook loose from the treetops and pattered down.

Not good. That's a spirit-shaking roar! Chen Beiwu's expression changed, and his first instinct was to flee.

An ordinary second-tier spirit beast could not produce a spirit-shaking roar. Generally, only lesser demons with more than fifty years of cultivation could do so.

In the Primordial Era, lesser demons might have been ants among demonkind, too insignificant to mention in novels and biographies-not even worthy of being ninth-rate characters.

But measured by the cultivation realms of the real world, a Second Realm lesser demon was equivalent to a Foundation Establishment Rogue Person, far beyond what a mortal Qi Refining cultivator like Chen Beiwu could withstand.

Hum!

As though answering his thoughts, a stream of obscure information suddenly poured into Chen Beiwu's mind.

[Divine Ability]: Ten Directions Chaos. Using the Nine-Breath Qi Ingestion divine ability as a catalyst, you can draw upon the newly awakened power of the chaos realm to travel freely through the Ten Directions Chaos Gate and leave special spatial anchor points throughout the world.

Roar! ;psme&;psme&

Realizing that the distant roars were rapidly approaching, Chen Beiwu immediately pressed his right hand against his heart. He used Nine-Breath Qi Ingestion to mobilize the chaos realm's power and actively summon the Ten Directions Chaos Gate.

The next instant, brilliant golden light enveloped Chen Beiwu, then tore open the void. He vanished completely from that world, leaving not even a trace of his aura behind.

Shortly after Chen Beiwu departed, lightning exploded, and an enormous beast appeared with a thunderous crash. Its head resembled a lion's or tiger's, it stood twenty feet tall at the shoulder, and deep-purple scales armored its entire body.

Its eyes were like bronze bells. A single spiraling horn grew from its forehead, with silvery-white lightning patterns coiling around its tip and unleashing savage flashes of lightning.

;psme&;psme&

Some of the lightning struck the ground, burning blackened pits into it. Other bolts struck its exposed fangs, forming layer upon layer of purple-gold bone spurs that radiated a vicious menace.

This beast was the ruler of these mountains: an Azure Thunder Tiger, a second-tier spirit beast with a full two hundred and eighty-eight years of cultivation.

The Azure Thunder Tiger sniffed lightly, then looked toward the flattened grass on the ground, puzzlement showing in its slit pupils.

When the dazzling golden light faded, Chen Beiwu found himself back in the cultivation room at home.

The cold Jade-Scale Snake dangling from his right hand seemed to remind him that everything he had just experienced was real.

With the help of the Ten Directions Chaos Gate, he had truly traveled to a mysterious world and killed a Jade-Scale Snake.

Whew. Stay calm! Chen Beiwu exhaled a breath of stale air, forcibly suppressing his shock and delight.

He enjoyed reading miscellaneous books such as One Hundred Thousand Strange Beasts. Otherwise, he could never have identified the Jade-Scale Snake at a glance.

The Jade-Scale Snake was a strange beast from the Medieval Era, with extremely demanding habitat requirements. It generally appeared only in places thick with spiritual energy and densely covered in spirit herbs, and it could not be raised artificially. This unusual serpent had long since gone extinct in the Immortal Alliance era and existed only in books.

Its blood could heighten cultivators' sensitivity to the spiritual energy of beasts; its skin and scales ;psme&;psme&

could be used as medicinal ingredients.

Most precious of all, however, was its gallbladder. It could serve as a superior substitute for spirit stones, helping cultivators increase their Qi Refining speed. Its value was immeasurable.

From this information, combined with the unimaginably rich and pure spiritual energy in that other world, Chen Beiwu could tentatively establish one thing.

The other side of the Ten Directions Chaos Gate might be a new world the Immortal Alliance had never discovered, or it might be a grotto-heaven blessed land within the alliance's territory that had yet to reveal itself, abundant in cultivation resources.

It can travel freely through space and time even beneath the Immortal Alliance's formation. It seems I still underestimated the power of Nine-Breath Chaos! Even as Chen Beiwu marveled, he continued turning possibilities over in his mind.

Perhaps the seven-colored fortuitous encounter he had triggered with his divine ability had manifested as tonight's Ten Directions Chaos Gate.

If that was true, the potency of seven-colored fortune was probably far beyond anything he had imagined.

Early the next morning, Chen Beiwu left for class as usual while Iron Egg watched him go.

Nothing in his appearance suggested that he had stayed awake the entire night.

"How strange. Why are you here so early today? Don't you usually arrive right on the dot?" Xu Lingling asked, thoroughly surprised.

Chen Beiwu glanced at her, could not be bothered to respond, and continued organizing the information in his mind. It was a habit from his previous life as a small-town exam grinder.

Although he had only made the journey once, his investigations and conclusions from the previous night had allowed him to piece together a few facts about the Ten Directions Chaos Gate.

First, time in the other world seemed to flow at essentially the same speed as in the Immortal Alliance. If he spent a minute there, roughly a minute would pass in the alliance as well.

Second, activating the Ten Directions Chaos Gate required a windup of one or two breaths. If he was interrupted during that time, the teleportation would also be interrupted.

Therefore, before each journey, he would be best off finding somewhere safe, or completing the windup in advance so he could teleport instantly at the crucial moment.

Third, the concentration of spiritual energy in the other world was ten times higher than in a first-tier, mid-grade cultivation room, nearly matching a second-tier, low-grade spirit vein. It was more than enough to meet his cultivation needs.

But there was one point that required particular care: the richer a place was in spiritual energy, the more likely it was to produce powerful demonic beasts.

If he wanted to explore the other world, he would have to prepare thoroughly. Otherwise, he might die there and become food for demonic beasts.

(End of chapter)