Archean Eon Art

Chapter 692: Attention

I found it. Meng Chuan—who was standing atop the water surface—was delighted.

The most important thing when killing a Sixth Tribulation forbidden creature was to find its Life Core!

A Life Core could be anything. For example, a ship, a flag, a wine cup, a drop of blood, a grain of sand, a blade of grass, a corpse, a mountain, a star, a mystic treasure... Everything could be a forbidden creature’s Life Core. Furthermore, it could be disguised. There was nothing special about it when disguised.

This made defeating forbidden creatures easy, but completely killing them difficult.

Meng Chuan deliberately pretended to be weak because he was afraid of scaring the forbidden creature. If he revealed his peak Sixth Tribulation realm strength and killed the other party’s true body, his opponent would be so scared that they wouldn’t dare condense their true bodies outside of their Life Core. How could Meng Chuan find a Life Core in the vast Chaos Turbid River?

A Life Core is ordinary. Only by condensing a new true body will there be energy fluctuations. Furthermore, the true body condensed won’t be too far from the Life Core.

Meng Chuan’s three Essence Soul avatars secretly circled the area as they used the spatial law to sense the area carefully.

The moment the black figure used its Life Core to condense its true body, the Life Core’s fluctuations exposed the Life Core’s location.

There.

Meng Chuan discovered that a stream of water was hidden in the Chaos Turbid River—which was 6 million kilometers away from him. It was like a part of the river, but it was exposed when the black figure condensed.

Die!

Meng Chuan’s figure vanished into thin air. When he reappeared, he was already close to the invisible stream. Absolute Space repelled all the other water currents around the stream in question, imprisoning the fist-sized stream of water only.

A face immediately appeared on the fist-sized stream of water. It opened its mouth in a bid to beg for mercy. “No...”

Pa!

As Meng Chuan watched, Absolute Space instantly diced the fist-sized stream of water into eight pieces. The face was completely destroyed as it wailed in despair.

After it was sliced apart, the Life Core completely revealed itself. It was a crystal ball that had shattered into eight pieces.

Crystal ball? Meng Chuan stretched out his hand, and the Life Core fragments flew into his hand. They were like translucent crystal ball fragments.

I don’t know what use these Life Core fragments have. Only Fiend Mountain’s owner is buying them wantonly. Meng Chuan shook his head slightly. Demon Slayer can only devour Life Core fragments with baneful aura, but there are many types of Life Core fragments. Baneful aura is only one of them.

Meng Chuan vaguely felt that forbidden creatures likely represented another powerful path. They were more powerful than Tribulation Eminences in certain aspects. For example, a Seventh Tribulation forbidden creature’s Life Core was on the brink of being conceptualized. Its life-preservation abilities were superior to most Seventh Tribulation Eminences.

They could devour everything, including inhabited worlds. They could live for a very, very long time until their consciousness completely decayed and collapsed. Then, a new consciousness would be born in their Life Core. The length of their lifespan—the point when their consciousness dissipated—didn’t need elaboration.

Their survivability, devouring ability, and lifespan all exceeded that of cultivators. However, this system was clearly not easy to study. Otherwise, the other Eighth Tribulation Eminences would’ve long purchased Life Cores.

After pondering for a moment and failing to discover anything special about the crystal ball fragment, Meng Chuan put it away and flew toward the black corpse in the distance.

A true corpse. Meng Chuan observed.

As long as the Life Core remained intact, one could never obtain a Sixth Tribulation forbidden creature’s true corpse. It would completely disappear and condense when resurrected.

This corpse? Meng Chuan frowned as he looked at it. This was a large stretch of black algae that spanned more than 500 kilometers. There was a soft body under the algae, and the large eye was already closed.

What a strange lifeform. Meng Chuan put it away. The first Sixth Tribulation forbidden creature target is eliminated.

...

Meng Chuan had two solutions to completing the karmic debt of killing Sixth Tribulation forbidden creatures.

The first was to use Eternal Tower, White Avian Hall, and other intelligence channels to investigate which river zone’s river system had a Sixth Tribulation forbidden creature. With the River of Spacetime’s vastness, there were still a few Sixth Tribulation forbidden creatures. These forbidden creatures were naturally born in the outer realm’s void, and they were generally weaker than those in the Chaos Turbid River. Hence, it was easier to kill them.

However, the disadvantage was that it was very difficult to find a Sixth Tribulation forbidden creature, even if he knew that a river system had one.

Therefore, Meng Chuan chose the second method—to come to the Chaos Turbid River!

Meng Chuan was strong enough, and he was an Essence Soul Tribulation Eminence. He wasn’t afraid of his Essence Soul avatars dying in battle, so he naturally dared to come to this dangerous place.

...

The Chaos Turbid River was just too large. Although Meng Chuan could sense everything within 50 million kilometers, and his three Essence Soul avatars acted independently, it wasn’t easy to encounter a forbidden creature.

More than a month later, Meng Chuan encountered a second Sixth Tribulation forbidden creature.

Boom!

After a difficult battle, Meng Chuan finally killed the forbidden creature’s true body—which resembled a blood-colored flower.

Why isn’t it reviving? Where’s its Life Core? Meng Chuan felt a little helpless while above the Chaos Turbid River. He could determine that the other party was still alive through karma, but he couldn’t sense its location. I only revealed 20% of my strength. It was very strenuous for me to kill one of its true bodies. Yet, it’s so scared that it doesn’t dare show its face?

As long as it resurrected and condensed a new true body, Meng Chuan could lock onto the other party’s true body through karma. However, the other party had completely hidden in its Life Core, preventing any karma locking.

I probably won’t be able to kill this Tribulation Eminence even if I use all my strength. I have to be careful; I’ll hide for 1,000 years before condensing my true body. Over 4.5 million kilometers away from Meng Chuan, a Life Core—disguised as a stream of water—flowed through the Chaos Turbid River. It didn’t condense a new true body, and there were no fluctuations. Thus, Meng Chuan couldn’t sense it.

I’ve already shown weakness to the enemy, but I still gave it a scare. Meng Chuan was helpless. No matter how weak I am, I have to get rid of the other party’s true body. If I don’t force the other party to revive, how can I find a Life Core?

...

Eight months later, Meng Chuan encountered the fifth forbidden creature.

Crack! Crack! Crack!

An old wooden ship—snapped into three pieces—was in front of Meng Chuan.

Meng Chuan smilingly watched the crumbling wooden ship and then looked at the eight-armed monster corpse—which was 5,000 kilometers tall—in the distance.

I’ve finally killed a second Sixth Tribulation forbidden creature. Meng Chuan sighed with emotion and was in a good mood. I like the Sixth Tribulation forbidden creatures that are bold and confident. They are the ones with guts!

Only those with guts would dare condense their true bodies again to continue the pursuit. Only then would Meng Chuan have a chance to reap the rewards.

The Life Core is actually a wooden ship. Meng Chuan looked at the ancient, broken wooden ship and waved his hand to put it away. He also put away the true corpse.

I’m done once I kill another one. Meng Chuan’s mood improved significantly. Even if he left the Chaos Turbid River and hunted a Sixth Tribulation forbidden creature in the outer realm’s void, it wouldn’t be too difficult.

...

Two and a half years later.

The forbidden creatures in the surrounding area were even more careful. Meng Chuan suspected that some of these Sixth Tribulation forbidden creatures might know each other. He had killed two of them, causing some forbidden creatures to raise their vigilance. Therefore, the effectiveness of his ‘feigning weakness’ became worse.

Boom!

As the Life Core shattered, the Life Core’s true appearance appeared—it was a broken weapon.

Its Life Core is a weapon? Meng Chuan looked at the corpse in the distance. This forbidden creature had 13 sharp blades on its head, which resembled a crown. From its neck to its tailbone, there was a row of more than 300 blades.

This forbidden creature is the strongest one I’ve encountered. It has nearly half the strength of a peak Sixth Tribulation Eminence. Meng Chuan had previously tried his best to put on an act. He disguised himself as an Essence Soul Tribulation Eminence that was good at the Pupil of Darkness and had an Eighth Tribulation array formation.

After a bitter battle, he killed the other party’s true body. This weapon creature failed to attack from a distance, and it wanted to engage in close combat after reviving! It clearly had many tricks up its sleeve and was still confident.

However, its revival allowed Meng Chuan to discover the hidden Life Core. Meng Chuan couldn’t be bothered to waste any more time, so he revealed all his strength, teleported close to the Life Core, and slashed it open.

I’ve finished off all three forbidden creatures. Meng Chuan was in a good mood. Next, I can leisurely travel the Chaos Turbid River and experience the means that are available to forbidden creatures.

Meng Chuan felt much more relaxed.

At the same time, he created an Essence Soul avatar to carry the Sixth Tribulation forbidden creatures’ Life Cores and corpses. He used the mystic technique passed down by Fiend Mountain’s owner and was silently expelled from the Chaos Turbid River. He then returned with his war spoils.

...

In an extremely remote area of the Chaos Turbid River—it was difficult to find this place without sufficient attainments in spacetime.

Whoosh.

An incomparably large, blurry face condensed in the river.

This face opened its eyes to look at the river water, but it also seemed to be prying into space.

What’s going on? Three Chaos creatures were killed in a row in such a short period of time? Its eyes showed a little bit of perplexment. Although forbidden creatures would kill each other in the Chaos Turbid River, forbidden creatures had very powerful life-preservation means. Due to Chaos Turbid River’s vastness, only one forbidden creature would typically die every 100 to 1,000 years.

It was very abnormal for three forbidden creatures to die in just three years.

Let me see who killed the three Chaos creatures.

Its large eyes reflected one scene after another, and a large number of images appeared on the timeline.

The images quickly locked onto the scenes of the black-robed, white-haired Meng Chuan killing three forbidden creatures.