Moonshadow Grass
The wolf king was alarmed and immediately began to struggle. Bolts of lightning erupted across its body as it tried to break free.
But Haoyue would not give it the chance.
"Rock Spear Array!"
This was a rank 8 Earth Element spell!
As his words fell, the ground beneath the wolf king suddenly shook violently. The next instant, sharp stone spears thrust up from underground!
"Pfft, pfft, pfft, pfft-"
A full twelve stone spears stabbed at the wolf king simultaneously from different angles!
"Awooo-"
The wolf king let out a scream, and seven or eight bloody holes appeared in its body.
But it was a mid-stage rank 8 magical beast, after all, and its vitality was extraordinarily tenacious. With a furious roar, it forcibly tore free of the Earth Cage and Billowing Water Prison and lunged at Haoyue.
What awaited it, however, was an even fiercer barrage of magic.
"Earthflow Splitting Slash!"
"Earth Splitting Wave!"
"Quagmire Spell!"
"Ice Spike!"
Haoyue unleashed spells in a frenzy as though they cost nothing.
Although Overflow doubled his energy consumption, Ocean Dragon Soul's 5% mana regeneration per second was enough to sustain him. As long as he managed the types of magic he used and avoided casting too many different elements at once, he could maintain that balance.
So he used only Earth Element and Water Element magic.
Either way, it was enough to deal with this Lightning Flame Wolf King.
"Boom, boom, boom-"
Spell after spell exploded against the wolf king, tearing open its flesh and leaving it drenched in blood.
It tried to fight back, but whenever it began gathering energy, Haoyue interrupted it.
It tried to flee, but Earth Cage and Earth Wall Technique continually restricted its movements.
It even tried to blast a bloody path through with lightning, but Haoyue had already seen through its intentions and used Earth Element magic to block the power of the lightning in advance.
Five minutes.
A full five minutes of relentless attacks.
When the final Earthflow Splitting Slash blasted the wolf king's head to pieces, Haoyue finally let out a long breath.
A mid-stage rank 8 magical beast was even harder to deal with than he had imagined.
Still...
He had won.
"Phew... phew..."
He dropped to one knee, gasping for breath.
Thanks to Ocean Dragon Soul's mana regeneration, he had not used up much mana, but casting high-level spells continuously like that was truly mentally exhausting.
But that was all right.
He just needed a little rest.
Just as he was about to stand-
"Crack."
A sharp snap rang out.
Haoyue's pupils contracted violently.
That was the sound of his bone breaking.
Before he could react, a terrifyingly powerful force struck from behind.
"Smack!!!"
A thick tail slammed into his back, sending him flying!
"Pfft-"
Haoyue spat out a mouthful of blood in midair.
He only had time to cast a layer of Saint-level Earthguard Armor on himself as he flew before he crashed like a cannonball into the rushing river nearby.
"Splash-"
The icy river water swallowed him instantly.
As the current swept him away, he struggled to look back.
A huge black figure slowly emerged from the woods.
It was a gigantic dinosaur, a full ten meters tall, with black scales covering its entire body and a row of sharp spikes along its back. Its eyes were blood-red as it stared coldly in the direction where Haoyue had disappeared.
A Spined Ironclad Dragon.
Late-stage rank 9.
A terrifying thought flashed through Haoyue's mind. I fucking... can't... swim...
Then the river swept him away. He kept swallowing water, suffocating, and recovering, the cycle repeating endlessly as his consciousness gradually faded.
An unknown amount of time passed.
Haoyue slowly regained consciousness.
He found himself lying on a riverbank.
He forced himself to sit up and checked his injuries.
Fortunately.
His flesh was torn open, but his internal organs and bones were unhurt.
The late-stage rank 9 Spined Ironclad Dragon's blow had failed to kill him, but it had still left him badly injured. However, with the combined recovery bonuses of Overflow and Ocean Dragon Soul, his wounds were healing at a speed visible to the naked eye.
He would recover completely in roughly a little over one to two minutes.
That was what made Hex so formidable.
He was tough-skinned and thick-fleshed, with an absurdly powerful ability to recover.
Haoyue gave a bitter laugh and pushed himself to his feet against a rock on the riverbank.
That Spined Ironclad Dragon...
He would remember it.
Once he was strong enough, he would definitely get revenge.
For now, though, he had better find somewhere to rest.
He looked around and spotted a cave not far away.
"That'll do."
Dragging his exhausted body along, he made his way toward the cave, one step at a time.
As he ventured deeper into the cave, he suddenly froze.
Before him, an entirely silvery-white herb grew quietly from a crack in the rock wall.
Its leaves were shaped like crescent moons, giving off a faint silver glow in the dim cave.
Moonshadow Grass.
Haoyue's breathing quickened at once.
The Moonshadow Grass he had spent three whole months searching for without success had appeared right in front of him, just like that?
Fortune and misfortune went hand in hand...
He looked at the silvery-white herb, a complicated light flashing in his eyes.
He had not expected that nearly being killed by a rank 9 Spined Ironclad Dragon would instead turn misfortune into a blessing, letting him find the key herb needed to remove the Tiger Pattern Backlash.
Haoyue took a deep breath, stepped forward, and carefully picked the Moonshadow Grass.
Without hesitation.
He swallowed it in one bite.
The instant the Moonshadow Grass went down his throat, a cool force spread through his body.
The next moment-
"Roar!!!"
An inhuman roar burst from Haoyue's mouth.
Strange blue markings began to emerge on his skin and turn red. Those were the symptoms of the Tiger Pattern Backlash. Stranger still, the markings were spreading at a speed visible to the naked eye, moving from his limbs across his entire body.
At the same time, the Battle-qi inside him began to surge wildly out of control.
The vortex that had once circulated in an orderly manner suddenly turned violent. Like a pot of boiling water, it rampaged through his meridians.
Pain.
An agonizing, piercing pain.
Haoyue's face instantly turned as pale as paper, and beads of sweat the size of beans rolled down his forehead.
He clenched his teeth and dug both hands into the ground, his fingernails sinking into the dirt.
One hour.
A full hour of hellish torment.
When the intense pain finally began to subside, Haoyue found that he was almost completely spent.
But his Battle-qi...
He sensed the changes inside his body.
The original vortex had condensed entirely into droplets.
After liquefying, his Battle-qi had begun condensing into a solid...
He had succeeded.
With the help of the Moonshadow Grass, his warrior cultivation had broken straight through from peak rank 7 to rank 8!
"Phew..."
Haoyue let out a long breath, a smile of relief at having survived appearing on his face.
The Tiger Pattern Backlash was finally gone.
From now on, he could use Tiger-Stripe Transformation again.
Although his warrior cultivation was currently only at the early stage of rank 8, and he could probably reach only late-stage rank 9 after transforming, that was a world of difference from being completely unable to transform before.
And with his rank 8 magus cultivation combined with Tiger-Stripe Transformation...
A sharp light flashed in Haoyue's eyes.
No one at the same rank could match him now, and even a rank higher, he would have few opponents.
[Hextech System] Host: Haoyue Bolei Age: 22 Warrior rank: 8th-level Warrior (early stage) Mage rank: 8th-level Magus (early stage) Spiritual power: rank 8 Battle-qi: rank 8 Health: equivalent to an Early Saint-level warrior Activated Hex: [Dragonheart] (prismatic · passive) Ocean Dragon Soul: energy regeneration +5%/second, health regeneration +5%, water affinity +500% Purgatory Dragon Soul: magic damage +50%, fire affinity +500%, 30% chance to trigger 50% additional damage. Mountain Dragon Soul: defense +50%, earth affinity +500%, shield equal to 20% of maximum health [From Mind to Matter] (silver · passive) Health equal to +50% of total energy [Overflow] Energy consumption is doubled, but damage, shields, and healing are increased based on maximum energy. Current damage increase is 5% of maximum energy. [From Mind to Matter + Overflow] synergy effect: [Archmage] no longer needs to chant incantations when casting magic, and all spells have no cooldown!
His health had already reached Saint-level. Nice.
His journey to the Magical Beasts Mountain Range ended here.
It was time to go back.
He had spent more than half a year in the Magical Beasts Mountain Range. It was time to bring this long training journey to an end.
Haoyue looked up at the sky beyond the cave entrance and stood.
Fenlai Kingdom, Fenlai City.
I'm back.