Catch the Purple Sable, Secure the Blood Qi!

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"A purple sable!"

He had only just entered the depths of Great Locust Mountain when he spotted a familiar figure!

Ancient trees a hundred zhang tall towered into the clouds, their clinging vines like enormous pythons, having grown for who knew how many years. The thick air of wilderness formed a faint tide of mist.

Among the twisted, gnarled trees, a purple sable turned into a streak of light and shot away.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Behind the fleeing purple sable, the ancient forest was smashed open as several figures radiating savagery closed in on it from multiple directions.

"Careful! This beast is cunning. Don't fall for its tricks again!"

A burly man barked a warning, his blood saber cleaving through an ancient tree. His body flickered through the forest, every step concealing him behind ancient trees and scattered rocks.

"Roar..."

Yet just as those figures were about to surround that streak of purple light, a furious roar shook the mountain forest!

A black giant ape a full six zhang tall bared its fangs and reached for a burly man. Before the man could react, it grabbed him and swallowed him into its gaping mouth. Splattering blood spilled from the corners of its mouth and dripped down.

"An ape king! This is bad! Fall back!"

The leader slashed his blood saber down through the air. Two blood cavities resembling crimson whirlpools appeared behind him, surging blood Qi pouring from them into his blood saber.

After that slash, he hurtled backward, but roars rose all around him, and savage blood Qi swept through the mountain forest.

Another six or seven giant apes appeared around them, each four or five zhang tall. They smashed through the ancient forest and charged at the men. Almost instantly, the remaining warriors were torn apart by the giant apes, and the stench of blood filled the ancient forest!

"Kill!"

Seeing the brothers he had spent his days and nights with swallowed alive by these giant apes in a single encounter, the burly man tore through the air with his blood saber. Roars also sounded from the blood cavities floating behind him, and the blood phantoms of two gray wolves appeared!

"Roar!" Yet the giant ape king did not dodge at all, reaching straight out with its huge palm to seize the two blood wolves.

Splurt!

The giant ape crushed the blood wolves in its palm. These were the ferocious beasts the burly man had nurtured in his Divine Repositories, but they clearly were not particularly powerful variant beasts, and were crushed outright before the giant ape!

Crack!

The giant ape opened its enormous mouth, and the sound of shattering bloody bones rang through the ancient forest. Seeing that all the intruders had been wiped out, the giant apes beat their chests and let out savage howls.

"Good stuff."

Several li of mountain forest away, Qingyang Huan watched the giant apes that had appeared and murmured instinctively. Although these apes were not variant beasts, their blood Qi surged incomparably. If it were all converted into his own blood Qi, it would be enough for him to open a Divine Repository.

"Go!"

The next moment, however, he came to his senses, grabbed Jin Wei, and sprinted straight toward the edge of the mountain!

Roar! Roar! Roar!

Moments later, these giant apes crushed a beast trail through the forest like a torrent, flattening their hiding place!

On an ancient tree behind the giant apes, a tiny purple figure appeared. Looking at the ground the apes had trampled, a trace of puzzlement flashed through its little eyes, which resembled purple beans.

It even raised its little paws and rubbed its eyes in a very human gesture, then looked again.

Why weren't they there?

At last, purple light flashed through the purple figure's eyes, and it reached out its little paws and clawed twice at the air before it, somewhat unwilling to give up.

The next moment, however, all the little creature's purple fur stood on end. It leaped straight down from the ancient tree, drawing in its purple light to the utmost, and slipped into a jumble of rocks as though it had vanished.

Roar! Roar! Roar!

At that same moment, the giant apes threw back their heads and roared at the sky. Each erupted with savagery, their enormous palms wrenching thick ancient trees from the ground and hurling them skyward.

Roar!

High in the sky, an enormous winged python flew with its wings spread. Black radiance instantly flowed over its entire body, shattering the ancient trees hurled up from below. Not only that, it opened its bloody maw and swooped down, caught a giant ape in its jaws, and rose into the sky again.

Splurt!

The giant ape roared and struggled, but the next moment its neck burst apart. Blood scattered over the ancient forest in a mist, becoming a rain of blood, before its enormous headless body plummeted to the earth.

Roar!

The python was incomparably powerful. After biting one giant ape to death, it swooped down again. Its wings were like sharp blood sabers, shearing the ancient trees level. As they sliced through a giant ape's body, half its body broke apart, and blood gushed wildly.

By then, Qingyang Huan and Jin Wei had already run several li away.

Whew!

Leaning beneath a huge boulder and sensing the savage presence behind him, he still remembered that purple sable vividly. It was absolutely a cunning hunter.

"Something's wrong!"

A moment later, he sensed the roars and howls coming from behind them, seemingly shaking the entire mountain forest. The giant apes were roaring.

"The giant apes are roaring. Could they have encountered an opponent?"

The two exchanged a glance. Those giant apes' blood Qi surged like a tide. After advancing to the Divine Treasure Realm, their bloodlines would have undergone some degree of transformation. Several appearing together like this was simply impossible near Qingyang Mountain.

"Let's go!"

The next moment, Qingyang Huan gripped the Stone Spear and carefully headed back. However, they did not retrace their steps, instead heading in another direction first and making a wide detour.

Hiss!

When the two cautiously crouched and poked their heads around a corner, the sight before them made them suck in a cold breath.

The giant apes, so savage before, had now been reduced to shattered bones. Blood flowed in rivers, and the mountain forest was in utter disarray. A bloody trail extended deep into the ancient forest.

They did not see the giant ape that had led them. Clearly, it had fought its way deeper into the ancient forest!

But the bloody remains of the five or six giant apes lying on the ground before them had all belonged to Divine Treasure Realm beasts. At that moment, even Qingyang Huan's eyes lit up.

Wait!

Just then, the Stone Spear trembled in his hand. Qingyang Huan paused, his gaze shifting toward a pile of scattered rocks. He stared at it for a long while before signaling Jin Wei.

Then Qingyang Huan swaggered toward the giant apes' bloody remains. Just as he had walked a dozen or so zhang away-

Whoosh!

A streak of purple light shot out of the rock pile and hurtled toward him!

Clang!

Just as the purple streak was about to plunge into his body, Qingyang Huan abruptly turned and swung the Stone Spear sideways.

Bam!

The purple streak slammed straight into the Stone Spear, then rebounded even faster than before, accompanied by a shriek.

Boom!

At that very instant, Jin Wei, who had remained motionless, punched through the air toward the rebounding purple light.

Bam!

Under the fierce blow, the purple light was blasted away again, and Qingyang Huan lunged toward it.

"Little thing, I finally caught you!"

When he rose from the ground, one hand was clamped tightly around the purple sable's neck. Under that enormous force, its little eyes kept rolling back while its four tiny paws struggled incessantly.

Immediately afterward, Qingyang Huan threw the Stone Spear into the giant apes' mangled flesh and blood. Blood Qi roared like a surging river, and in a mere instant, the blood Qi of several Divine Treasure Realm beasts was swept clean by the Stone Spear!

"Go!"

Holding the purple sable by the neck, he grabbed the Stone Spear. Paying no heed at all to the blood spilling from the sable's mouth or its rolling eyes, Qingyang Huan and Jin Wei ran toward the outskirts of Great Locust Mountain.

Not long after they left, a dark shadow blotted out the sky above the mountain forest strewn with mangled flesh and blood. The enormous python beat its fleshy wings and roared.