Eternal Heavenly Emperor-Chapter 356 - 346: King’s Touchstone
"Aaah—" The Stone Scale Beast let out a furious roar, stretching its foot to stomp toward Chu Hao again.
"Are you really addicted to stomping?" Chu Hao’s figure moved swiftly, executing the Wind and Cloud Step; his speed immediately surged.
Bang, the Stone Scale Beast’s foot stomped on nothing.
Taking advantage of the opportunity, Chu Hao counterattacked with a palm strike that landed on the creature’s foot. To his surprise, the strike seemed to vanish without effect, as if sinking into the sea, seemingly not affecting the giant beast at all.
Unconvinced, he sliced with his right palm again, this time channeling Starlight.
Crackle, an ear-piercing friction sound arose as Starlight swept across the beast’s scales, yet it shockingly failed to penetrate, only leaving a deep mark.
Chu Hao was astounded. What kind of defense was this? It was comparable to the Silver Dragon Armor.
The strike also thoroughly infuriated the Stone Scale Beast, which violently performed a Dragon Tail Swing. Its thick tail swept toward Chu Hao.
Chu Hao dodged, snap, the tail swept through the air. The terrifying force passed by as if a giant cosmic scythe had slashed through, and trees within a hundred meters had all fallen down in swathes.
"Hahahaha!" Fat Cat laughed loudly from a distance. Flying Fire had already stopped, merely suppressed by Fat Cat and unable to leap over, "Hao, I did warn you. Fighting this dim-witted beast won’t do you any good."
Chu Hao frowned and said, "How is this guy’s hide so thick?"
"Nonsense, though the Stone Scale Beast isn’t a Divine Beast, when it comes to defensive power, it’s top-tier. There aren’t many people or ferocious beasts of the same tier who can breach its defenses." Fat Cat’s expression turned serious, then added, "However, there was a saying in my era: whoever can break through the defense of a Stone Scale Beast of the same tier without using a Treasure Tool has the potential to become a king. This is indeed a touchstone."
Breaking through the giant beast’s scales without resorting to a Treasure Tool?
Chu Hao was somewhat surprised; he now knew the defensive power of these scales—his Starlight could only leave a mark, yet who else could compare to his Starlight?
This was Starlight compressed 20 times at Double Great Perfection of the Three Minor Realms, transforming into its current length. Its power was extraordinary.
Breaking through the Stone Scale Beast’s defense was definitely no simple task, no wonder it could serve as a standard for judging a Young King.
Chu Hao couldn’t help but feel competitive; he actually wanted to give it a try.
The Stone Scale Beast launched a fierce attack. Chu Hao didn’t resist directly; this Ancient Fierce Beast was at least equivalent to an Eighth Tier Warrior, thick-skinned and bone-hard, comparable to a genuine Body Cultivator. Confronting it head-on would simply be masochistic.
He engaged in evasive combat, using Starlight as a cutting edge, slicing at the Stone Scale Beast’s defense. However, the beast was simply too large, and he couldn’t guarantee that each strike hit the same scale, let alone the same spot.
Thus, breaking through the defense of the Stone Scale Beast, even just a single scale, became incredibly difficult.
"Haha, Hao," Fat Cat, pointing out from a distance, laughed heartily, "The Stone Scale Beast is an Earth Series ferocious beast. What does Earth Series imply? Strong defensive power, terrifying brute strength! So-called Body Cultivation isn’t as narrow as you think—humans and ferocious beasts can both embark on the path of Body Cultivation."
"In fact, the earliest Body Cultivators were Divine Beasts nurtured by nature, such as the Starry Sky Behemoth, Tyrant, Black Tortoise, and then the Ancient Fierce Beasts, with humans coming last."
"Let me tell you one more thing, the very first human Body Cultivators were also the offspring of transformed Divine Beasts intermingled with humans. So, speaking of pure Body Cultivation, it starts with the Divine Beasts, followed by their offspring, then the Ancient Fierce Beasts. Your level of Body Cultivation, haha, is just not up to par."
"The Stone Scale Beast, it has a trace of Ancient Fierce Beast bloodline."
"Pity, the ferocious beast is not a Divine Beast, lacking Divinity substance, the taste is truly too inferior—they crumble apart just like—"
"Stop, stop, stop!"
Chu Hao hurriedly halted the Fat Cat to prevent it from behaving inappropriately again.
Boom, the Stone Scale Beast suddenly opened its mouth, spitting out a giant rock that smashed toward Chu Hao.
Chu Hao was taken aback. Are you a ferocious beast or a Demon Beast, how can you even spit out giant rocks?
This thought flashed through his mind briefly, and he quickly raised his fists to meet the falling boulder.
Bang!
He only felt his whole body tremble, his arms numb as if about to lose all sensation. The Stone Scale Beast’s brute strength was already above his, and the rock was surprisingly hard. It didn’t shatter under the impact of his punches, which had caused his arms to feel almost like they had broken.
"Hahaha!" Fat Cat, rolling in laughter and schadenfreude, said, "Hao, you’re not even an Innate Body Cultivator, how could you possibly compete in strength with a descendant of an Ancient Fierce Beast? Isn’t this asking for trouble?"
Chu Hao intensified his grip, deploying Shocking Force; the force acted directly inside the boulder—crack, crack, crack, crack—numerous tiny cracks then abruptly appeared on the stone, and it suddenly shattered into a cloud of stone debris.
Thankfully, the hardness of the stone was far from matching the scales of the Stone Scale Beast.
"Why can this guy spit out rocks?" Chu Hao asked; this was what truly perplexed him.
"Descendant of an Ancient Fierce Beast," Fat Cat explained. "Though it can’t compare to the offspring of Divine Beasts, it is still an offspring of the Ancient Beasts after all. It possesses a trace of ancient bloodline and can convert a tiny bit of rules into innate abilities. Isn’t that normal? Don’t you also use flames?"
Can flames and rocks even be compared?
No, that’s not right!
Chu Hao immediately shook his head internally. Flames might seem intangible, but how could there be flames without the combustion of matter? When he formed flames, he only consumed physical strength, which, to his former self, seemed purely a conversion of energy.
Now, upon reflection, that wasn’t quite right.
Since he could convert physical strength into flames, why couldn’t the Stone Scale Beast convert physical strength into rocks? Mass could be converted into energy, a fact Chu Hao had long known—nuclear fission was based on this principle. But the reverse? Why couldn’t energy be converted back into matter?
"Hao, now’s not the time to think about these things. Can you handle it or not?" Fat Cat asked.
Filled with boldness, Chu Hao declared, "Of course!"
He launched another attack. The Crescent Slash was unleashed, while his palms formed flames that were condensed and compressed into two Fire Blades. This was an inspiration he had in the Martial Disciple Realm. The highly compressed flames were like oxygen cutting on Earth, virtually unstoppable.
As his realm had increased, since his physique hadn’t kept up, this skill had been shelved and rarely used until he began Body Cultivation, supported by formidable physical strength, allowing the Might of Flames to shine once more.
Starlight consumed Star Force, while flames consumed physical strength; entirely different, thus Chu Hao could use both without diminishing the power of Starlight or flames.
The Stone Scale Beast was very powerful; he had to put forth his real effort.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
A fierce battle ensued between man and beast. This descendant of the Ancient Behemoth, enraged by Chu Hao, continuously spat out massive rocks at him, and was fiercely biting and stomping.
"Bite hard, don’t spare me any dignity—oh, just a tad bit more and you would have stomped on Hao! Ah, a little to the left, and that tail would have whipped him," Fat Cat remarked as it sat down, pulling out some dried meat and wine, clearly enjoying the spectacle.
This damned cat!
Chu Hao was so angry he was steaming, but entangled with the Stone Scale Beast, he had no choice but to fight; there was no way to grab Fat Cat for a good thrashing.
Besides, Fat Cat possessed the ability to teleport. Trying to catch it was no easy task.
He set aside everything and focused wholeheartedly on battling with the Stone Scale Beast.
In terms of strength, the Stone Scale Beast naturally had the upper hand. As for defensive power, Chu Hao, a latecomer to Body Cultivation, couldn’t compare to a beast with a trace of Ancient Fierce Beast bloodline. However, he excelled in mobility, constantly moving around the Stone Scale Beast, patiently bombarding it with punches and palms.
Almost half an hour later, finally, a scale broke under Chu Hao’s assault, blood gushing out. The Stone Scale Beast, thoroughly enraged, was covered in a radiant blood-red light, and its strength surged tremendously.
"Hao, run!" Fat Cat shouted, hastily jumping onto Flying Fire and shamelessly fleeing first.
Chu Hao quickly followed suit. His battle with the Stone Scale Beast was just to prove he could breach its defenses, not necessarily to defeat it—after all, its armor was painfully tough, and merely breaking one scale had taken him half an hour and most of his strength. He had no energy left for a prolonged fight.
As he fled, an idea struck him; he took out the golden pupil eye, infused it with Soul Power, and scanned the relentlessly pursuing Stone Scale Beast.
Hmm?
Through his eyes, the Stone Scale Beast suddenly seemed different, its body appearing composed of countless dots and lines, as if transformed from solid to ethereal. Before such a pattern, he easily spotted the Stone Scale Beast’s weakness.
He paused, and as the Stone Scale Beast pounced, he suddenly leaped up, delivering a powerful punch to its knee.
A strange occurrence unfolded. Although Chu Hao’s strength was relatively weaker compared to the Stone Scale Beast, this punch caused the beast to stagger and knee buckle, as if it had a cramp, and it thunderously collapsed onto the ground.
As the person who executed this, Chu Hao was somewhat astonished.
Via the golden pupil eye, he had seen the structural weak point of the Stone Scale Beast. His punch landed right there, and the effect was unexpectedly efficient—if Chu Hao hadn’t used Starlight or Blue Flame, that punch would have felt like an ordinary person punching a wall, completely ineffective.
But now, the same punch had caused the Stone Scale Beast to fall thunderously.
Chu Hao immediately began to reason. It wasn’t that his punch had increased in power, but it had struck precisely at a power transmission node of the Stone Scale Beast, instantly disrupting its power flow and causing the massive beast to fall thunderously.
Strictly speaking, the beast had actually tripped over itself.
Realizing this, he was shocked. He had merely used the golden pupil eye to spot the Stone Scale Beast’s weakness. What if a real golden-eyed beast was involved? (To be continued. If you enjoy this novel, please vote at Qidian.com. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users please visit m.qidian.com to continue reading.)
