48: Chapter 48 Tiger Biao

"It's been a long time since I last used this..."

Wu Li let out a breath, and his gaze turned serious.

"In the beginning there was light, shining in the east. The Sun Lord descends, and all ghosts hide away. As the divine light shines, all evil and yin perish. By the order of the Solar Lord, I command!"

"Gather!"

Wu Li gave a low shout, and the Demon Power within his body surged out like a tide. However, instead of circulating it directly, he directed it into the spiritual liquid, using the spiritual liquid to stimulate Spiritual Qi, which in turn catalyzed the essence blood.

The reason it was so tedious was because the Solar Divine Incantation was a Daoist technique of the Human Race. As a member of the Yao Race, Wu Li had no way of commanding it directly.

But with this conversion...

By leveraging the old man's essence blood, it was equivalent to commanding this incantation with a human identity. However, because of this workaround, he could only unleash thirty percent of the Solar Divine Incantation's power.

*Buzz!!*

Only then did the essence blood split into eight streams of energy, precisely injecting into the eight spiritual energy nodes in accordance with Wu Li's incantation.

At the exact same instant,

the sun rose in the east, and sunlight shone down.

The dim runes lit up once more, emitting a faint golden light like eight lit lamps.

"Gather!!"

Wu Li pointed out another strand of Demon Power.

The Formation's Foundation was activated, and the light barrier emerged once more. This time, however, instead of enveloping the entire Mass Grave, it slowly shrank, condensing around Wu Li's body.

Wu Li opened his eyes, and the Blood Pupil on his forehead snapped open. The crimson glow intertwined with the golden light of the Formation.

He began to alter the flow of the Formation, redirecting the power that originally targeted ghostly entities toward the sky.

On the eastern horizon...

the first ray of sunlight pierced through the clouds, spilling over the Mass Grave.

Wu Li's Demon Power shook violently, and the Formation's light flared brilliantly as the eight spiritual energy nodes simultaneously released bursts of energy. Although Wu Li was the caster, his identity as a member of the Yao Race made him feel incredibly uncomfortable.

"As expected of the Essence of the Sun."

The Essence of the Sun was the ultimate Yang, the natural bane of ghosts and the Yao Race.

Wu Li sighed with emotion.

The pillars of light converged in the sky, turning into a massive vortex that frantically absorbed the Essence of the Sun contained within the sunlight.

The Essence of the Sun surged through the pillars of light into the Formation nodes, where it was absorbed and stored by the runes.

"With a day's worth of accumulation, I wonder what kind of power it can unleash."

Having spoken, Wu Li tarried no longer and turned to leave.

Right now, Lord Tunming's primary target was still Su Wanyue. Although Wu Li had drawn some attention, as long as he didn't show his face directly, he should still be able to lay low for a while.

Soon,

after leaving the Mass Grave, Wu Li did not return to the Stone Forest immediately.

Time was tight now.

Wu Li spread his wings and flew toward the eastern foothills.

As time passed,

the terrain of the eastern foothills of Taiyue Mountain gradually sloped downward, and the trees grew increasingly dense.

Wu Li flew low to the ground. After about an hour, the terrain ahead began to change. The dense forest thinned out, replaced by a valley strewn with jagged rocks.

The entrance to the valley was narrow, with towering stone walls on both sides, acting like a natural barrier.

Wu Li folded his wings and landed on a withered tree. His Blood Pupil slowly opened, its crimson light sweeping across the entire valley.

Deep in the valley,

a mass of dark red blood energy was exceptionally eye-catching.

"Found it."

"This is the aura..."

Wu Li's pupils contracted slightly. He closed his Blood Pupil and hid his body among the branches and leaves, remaining completely still.

According to what Su Wanyue said, this Biao's cultivation should have been below the second rank...

But now...

this aura was clearly at the second rank, and specifically the Middle Stage of the second rank!

"The cultivation level doesn't match."

"And I don't know if... what Su Wanyue said about the third quarter of the Wu hour..."

Wu Li was highly skeptical.

But there was no good way to verify it at the moment. Crouched on the withered tree, his bead-like black eyes stared deep into the valley, committing the surrounding terrain, vegetation, and distribution of Spiritual Qi to memory, planning escape routes in advance.

Inside the valley,

the entrance was narrow, with towering stone walls on both sides, leaving only a single path for entry and exit.

The interior of the valley was spacious, with a raised platform in the center, and the dark red blood energy was near this platform.

Deep in the valley, a low tree could be faintly seen. Its trunk was thick, its foliage sparse, and a few crimson fruits hung from its branches.

It was too far away to make out the details, but the dense fluctuations of Spiritual Qi could be clearly felt even from this distance.

tiger blood vermilion fruit.

A flash of greed crossed Wu Li's eyes, but he quickly suppressed it.

As time passed, the sun gradually climbed to the center of the sky.

Just before the third quarter of the Wu hour, Wu Li slowly spread his wings, silently glided down from the withered tree, and flew toward the depths of the valley close to the ground.

The midday sun was at its fiercest, and the Essence of the Sun was at its richest.

According to what Su Wanyue had said, this Vicious Beast would be at its most drowsy during this time.

The interior of the valley was more spacious than he had anticipated.

It was strewn with jagged rocks and overgrown with weeds, and a pungent, foul stench hung in the air—the distinctive marking of a Vicious Beast's territory.

Wu Li landed behind a huge boulder, poked his head out, and peered toward the center of the valley with his bead-like black eyes.

There,

a behemoth was lying on a bluestone that had been worn smooth and shiny.

It was indeed that Tiger Biao.

Its body was a full two sizes larger than a normal tiger, over two zhang in length, and covered in grayish-brown short fur. Its forelimbs were slender, its head massive, and it lacked the "Wang" character pattern commonly found on a tiger's forehead.

"Roar~"

"Huff~"

"Roar~"

"Huff~"

At this moment, this Biao was slowly lying down onto the bluestone where it usually rested.

It first scraped the bluestone twice with its front paws to make the surface even smoother, then tilted its body and lay completely flat. Its eyes slowly closed, and its breathing became steady and long.

Wu Li crouched behind the boulder, utterly motionless, keeping even his breathing as light as possible.

One breath...

Two breaths...

This Tiger Biao had fallen completely fast asleep.

Its snoring was like thunder, and its thick body rose and fell with its breathing.

"Is it asleep?"

Wu Li slowly flew out from behind the boulder, silent and stealthy, his wings flapping without making a single sound.

Flying low to the ground, he bypassed the jagged rocks, threaded through the weeds, and flew toward the low fruit tree in the center of the valley.

The fruit tree was right before him.

The trunk was thick, and the bark was dark brown, covered with fine cracks like scars carved by time.

Its foliage was sparse, but every leaf was thick, lush green, and emitted a faint fluorescence.

Six crimson fruits hung from the branches, each the size of a baby's fist, completely blood-red.

tiger blood vermilion fruit.

A flash of greed crossed Wu Li's eyes.

Six of them, all fully ripe.

He without the slightest hesitation, reached out with both claws, plucking the vermilion fruits from the branches one by one. He carefully wrapped them in Demon Power, letting them float by his side.

One, two, three... six, all successfully pocketed.

Right at that moment...

"You crow, aren't you being a bit too greedy?"

A voice came from behind the fruit tree, sharp and hurried.

Wu Li's movements froze instantly, his feathers puffing up as his gaze swept toward the source of the voice.

Behind the fruit tree,

a grayish-brown pangolin was crouching in the grass, curled into a ball, its small eyes staring intently at him.

This pangolin was a size larger than a normal one, and its body emitted faint fluctuations of Demon Power.

First rank, Late Stage.

A flash of coldness crossed Wu Li's eyes.

Crouching beside the fruit tree, his bead-like black eyes stared coldly at the pangolin, without releasing any Demon Power.