Reaper of the Martial World

Book 11: Chapter 119: Bury (1)

Dyon’s gripped Ancestor Golden Crow’s severed head. His fist clenched, sending a tidal wave of force through the dead Overlord’s skull and causing a rain of flesh and blood. 

Dyon observed the red-gold bead that remained in his hand apathetically. Though he seemed to be holding it casually, it radiated a level of heat that matched the surface of a star. Even with its vital force cut off, it felt an innate desire to burn the world to the ground.

Beast cores. They were a natural phenomenon that mortal beasts didn’t have the right to form. In fact, even Ancestor Golden Crow only barely met the requirements to create one. Still, even then, his was only the size of a fingernail.

These were very different from the infernal cores of the Infernal and Embryonic Infernal Beasts. While infernal cores only contained a dense qi, true beast cores contained not only an immortal beast’s cultivation, but also their comprehension.

Everything it was that made Ancestor Golden Crow as powerful as he was, was hidden within this very fingernail sized crystal shard.

On the immortal plane, such a beast core was invaluable. The truth was that not every beast could form one. Only those with deep enough bloodline talent or those who had experienced lucky mutations could form one. The number was at only about 10% of beasts.

“Oh…?”

Dyon dropped down heavily from the skies, unable to sustain flight without his qi. Though he was sure he could figure out how to using vital qi as a substitute, he couldn’t be bothered. After all, he still had his wings if he was really in need of flight.

“Do all of you have one of these?”

Dyon moved his head toward the five remaining beast Overlords as though they were meat on a platter. Suddenly, greed they had toward the soaring treasures in the distance vanished, replaced with an ingrained fear that penetrated their marrow.

They couldn’t understand what they were seeing. Why was Dyon’s battle strength fluctuating so wildly? Sometimes he would be as weak as an ant, and at others… He could behead a three facet Overlord with a single strike?!

Dyon’s senses turned back toward the small shard in his hand. It was quite beautiful in a morbid kind of way, especially since he could see Ancestor Golden Crow’s soul screaming in agony from his vantage point.

“How interesting.”

With a thought, Dyon crushed it. Ancestor Golden Crow’s last horrified scream filled the air, turning into particle sized red-gold dust that sparkled between Dyon’s fingers.

The white flames around Dyon blazed to life. They jumped from a gentle simmer to a raging typhoon, spiralling around Dyon with an illusory light.

The world around him shook and quaked.

A moment later, wavering runes began to appear within the dust particles. They seemed similar to the ones that perpetually floated around Dyon, except they were far more complex. In fact, there were also many more of them.

The bronze runes that appeared were a deeper bronze. The silver runes that manifested were a brighter silver. The gold runes trembled the space around them were a more lustrous gold.

Dyon had been thinking for a long time already. If he really were to break free from the Heavens entirely, just what would his path be? He had already completely discarded his inner world. And now that he had abandoned his qi, it might completely collapse any time now. However, he wasn’t worried. He felt that his own path was far more powerful. It was a path so unprecedented that even if another had thought of it, they would abandon it immediately.

Dyon’s master had opened up a whole new world to him by passing on her legacy to him… He realized that he had been too tunnel-visioned in the way he viewed array alchemy. Even after that, Madeleine’s words truly woke him up. His lovely wife understood him better than even he understood himself…

Array Alchemy was about snatching heavenly laws as you pleased. This was what reigned supreme at the core of it all. Who said it had to be executed with heavenly herbs? Why couldn’t he do it with the flesh and blood of beasts? Why couldn’t he use the human body as a cauldron as he did with Ri? Why couldn’t he use the beast core in his hands at this very moment…?

‘Give them to me. The laws that made you a Golden Crow. The source of your strength, your blood, your flames…’

The runes around Dyon trembled as though fighting against his command.

The small spark of a golden flame flickered into existence before disappearing. The cycle continued again and again, endlessly. It seemed for a moment that it really might never succeed.

The Overlords didn’t understand what was going on, but they could feel the skies screaming. Tribulation clouds swarmed above, sending strikes of lighting downward that bombarded Dyon’s body. They seemed greedy to kill him where he stood, burn him completely to ash.

Dyon’s empty eye sockets turned up to the skies. Even without pupils, his disdain was clear.

“Fuck off.”

It seemed the Heavens had forgotten that they gave this Ancient Battlefield to Dyon to control. To anyone else, everything was far more difficult in this place. However, to Dyon, it was the exact opposite. This battlefield was where he reigned supreme.

Dyon realized the Heavens didn’t have full control over his constitution precisely because it wasn’t the original Titan Diamond Body to begin with. Dyon’s constitution was the fusion of two Titan Diamond Bodies!

The tribulation clouds froze. As though playing a backdrop to the birth of something new, it could only watch as golden flames erupted around Dyon’s body, incinerating the corpses and fields of blood for miles.