370: Mystic Ice Dragon Lizard!

Facing the spatial lock imposed by a Dou Zun Expert, the four women finally understood what true despair felt like.

They couldn't even manage to crush the life-saving spatial stone in their hands; the surrounding space was completely solidified, preventing their fingers from completing that simple action!

Resist?

Even the Second Elder, an Eight-Star Dou Zong, was instantly killed. What difference was their meager strength compared to ants before a Dou Zun?

Beg for mercy? Seduce him?

The Venerable Expert before them had eyes as cold as ice, clearly showing no interest in any of their methods.

With no path to life, death seemed to be the only outcome.

Following the extreme terror came hysterical madness and malice!

"You old fossil! You deliberately hid your cultivation to harm us! You deserve a horrible death!"

"I won't spare you even as a ghost!"

"The Yin-Yang Sect won't let you off!"

The filthy curses had just left their mouths, some words still hanging unfinished.

Jiang Donghua frowned slightly, seemingly finding them noisy.

With a thought, the power locking the space instantly underwent a subtle change, transforming into four invisible sharp blades that lightly swept past.

"Pfft... Pfft..."

Four heads, bearing expressions of terror and malice, simultaneously detached from their necks and shot into the air!

Blood spurted like fountains from the severed necks, rapidly freezing into bizarre ice sculptures in the cold air.

The headless bodies swayed before slumping to the ground.

The world instantly became quiet.

Jiang Donghua was expressionless as he remotely retrieved the storage rings from the five corpses.

He casually probed them with his Soul Power.

After taking a look, the corner of his mouth couldn't help but twitch, and he cursed under his breath.

"Damn it! What rotten luck! These must be the poorest bunch of fellows I've plundered in recent years!"

Aside from some low-grade medicinal pills, a small amount of gold coins, and ordinary herbs, the storage rings were practically empty.

The only things of slight value were a few crude parchment maps issued by the Pill Tower, marking the locations of medicinal ingredients.

"Forget it, even a mosquito's leg is meat."

Jiang Donghua disdainfully cleared out the trash, keeping only the maps and a few herbs that were somewhat decent.

As for the Yin-Yang Sect they cursed about before dying, he didn't take it to heart at all.

The forces in the Central Plains were complex and numerous; there were countless sects whose names didn't sound legitimate. Who had the time to remember them all?

Heaven knows which minor sect from some obscure corner they belonged to.

After cleaning up, Jiang Donghua continued searching the valley for the seven-colored moon orchid.

The valley was extremely cold and the terrain complex. Even with his powerful Soul Power, it took him several hours to find the orchid—which emitted a hazy seven-colored glow and was shaped like a crescent moon—deep within a crevice of a shaded ice wall.

"Finally found it."

Jiang Donghua breathed a sigh of relief.

However, what struck him as odd was that there was no Magical Beast guarding such a spiritual treasure.

This defied common sense.

He casually released his Soul Power and meticulously scanned the surroundings several times, not even sparing the area beneath the ice layer.

Silence, a deathly silence.

Other than the mournful sound of the cold wind blowing past the ice edges, there was no trace of any living creature.

"How strange. Could it be that this seven-colored moon orchid just grew and hasn't been discovered by a Magical Beast yet?"

Jiang Donghua felt doubt, but decided to harvest it first.

To be safe, he even condensed Dou Qi into a small hammer and tapped the surrounding ice walls and ground repeatedly, confirming there were no hollow spaces or hidden caves.

"It seems there truly isn't anything."

He shook his head, thinking he might have been overly cautious.

He then stepped forward, carefully reaching out his hand, preparing to pick the seven-colored moon orchid.

Just as his fingertips were about to touch the orchid's stem, a sudden change occurred!

"Boom!"

The two thick ice walls beside him, which had seemed to be a single entity, suddenly began to shake violently without warning!

Amidst flying ice shards, the surface of the ice walls actually writhed and cracked open as if they were alive!

Immediately afterward, eight massive, yellow lantern-like eyes suddenly opened from within the cracking ice walls!

The cold, vertical pupils, carrying indifferent and bloodthirsty light, simultaneously locked onto Jiang Donghua, who was standing close by!

A terrifying aura, infinitely fiercer than that of the Crimson Blood Red Wolf, erupted like a volcanic explosion from behind the ice walls!

The moment those eight giant yellow eyes opened, Jiang Donghua finally saw the true appearance of the lurker!

That wasn't an ice wall at all!

It was the rough hide of the behemoth, perfectly integrated with the surrounding environment!

The Magical Beast's size was unimaginable; it was essentially part of the valley itself, or rather, the valley had formed around its body!

Its head was as massive as a small mountain, shaped like a lizard, yet covered in a thick layer of keratin that resembled thousand-year-old ice.

The seven-colored moon orchid, which emitted a seven-colored glow, was not growing in an ice wall crevice, but precisely on a protruding rock at the center of the giant beast's head, like its natural crown!

A majestic, ferocious aura spread out like a substantial shockwave. Its intensity had clearly reached the Two-Star Dou Zun level!

"Mystic Ice Earth Dragon Lizard!"

A name instantly flashed through Jiang Donghua's mind. This was an extremely rare and powerful Ancient Magical Beast, naturally skilled at manipulating Ice and Earth elements, particularly adept at concealment and camouflage. It often merged with mountains and the earth to prey on all passing creatures!

"Uh..."

Jiang Donghua couldn't help but be momentarily stunned. He truly hadn't expected that a random seven-colored moon orchid in the Pill World would have such a massive creature hidden next to it!

Its concealment skill was so high that it managed to fool even a Spirit Realm Soul that wasn't paying full attention!

He had never considered that a Dou Zun-level Magical Beast would be hiding here.

"Roar—!"

The Mystic Ice Earth Dragon Lizard let out a deafening roar. The sound waves, carrying extreme frigidity, froze the surrounding air into countless ice crystals.

It was clearly enraged that this little insect dared to covet the decoration on its head. It opened its massive maw, large enough to swallow a house, and lunged toward Jiang Donghua with a foul stench and icy breath!

The full-power attack of a Two-Star Dou Zun level Magical Beast possessed the might to shake mountains and earth!

However, facing this attack, which would require even an ordinary Dou Zun to prepare seriously, Jiang Donghua merely offered a faint comment.

"Your concealment skill is good, but unfortunately, your strength is a bit lacking."

He didn't even shift his position. He simply extended his palm toward the massive, biting head and slightly clenched his fingers.

"Space Strangulation."

It was still those four lightly spoken words.

Buzz!

Centered on the Mystic Ice Earth Dragon Lizard's enormous head, the space within several yards instantly became extremely distorted and chaotic!

The spatial energy, which was more than ten times stronger than when he dealt with the Crimson Blood Red Wolf, transformed into countless invisible sharp blades, cutting and squeezing from all directions without blind spots!

"Pfft! Crack... Boom!"

This time, it was no longer silent.

There was a dull sound of sickening flesh tearing and bones shattering, immediately followed by the crash of a heavy object hitting the ground!

The roar of the arrogant Mystic Ice Earth Dragon Lizard came to an abrupt halt.

Its incomparably hard head, capable of resisting high-grade Dou Techniques, was instantly twisted, squeezed, and torn apart under Jiang Donghua's Space Strangulation, finally exploding like a fragile watermelon!

Red and white matter, mixed with ice shards, splattered everywhere!

The massive, headless body twitched violently a few times before collapsing with a crash, shaking the entire valley three times.

Instant kill!

It was still an instant kill without any suspense!

Jiang Donghua waved his hand to disperse the bloody stench in front of him. His figure flashed, and he appeared beside the shattered remains of the Mystic Ice Earth Dragon Lizard's head.

His gaze swept over the scene, immediately locking onto a spot emitting pure energy fluctuations.

He reached out and dug, and a crystal roughly the size of a fist, deep earthy yellow in color, covered in strange patterns, and containing majestic Earth Power, fell into his hand.

An Eighth-Tier Magical Core!

Feeling the pure and vigorous energy fluctuations coming from the Magical Core, a satisfied smile finally appeared on Jiang Donghua's face.

"A Two-Star Dou Zun level Magical Core, the quality is quite good. This concentrated Earth attribute energy is perfect for tempering the body or practicing Earth attribute Dou Techniques. Excellent!"

He put away the Magical Core and easily harvested the unharmed seven-colored moon orchid.

Looking at the massive corpse of the Mystic Ice Earth Dragon Lizard at his feet, Jiang Donghua couldn't help but shake his head.

"This old thing, relying on its perfect camouflage and sneak attacks, must have devoured countless unfortunate Alchemists who came to harvest the seven-colored moon orchid over the past hundreds or thousands of years. I suspect even quite a few Dou Zun fell prey to its scheme."

"Too bad for it. Today, it capsized in the gutter by running into me, unable to withstand even a single move."

It can only be said that in the face of an absolute gap in strength, all schemes, tricks, and innate divine abilities are futile.

Having easily obtained the medicinal ingredient and an unexpectedly pleasant Eighth-Tier Magical Core, Jiang Donghua was in high spirits. He confirmed his direction, tore through space once more, and hurried toward the area where his final target, the Nine-Heart Soul Infant Fruit, was located.

This journey through the Pill World was proving to be extremely efficient for him.