God of Illusions

What happened next proved that Bai Xiaofei’s choice of raising Huskie with the free range method was correct. If it wasn’t for that, he wouldn’t have been able to discover such a hidden escape route. The new escape route was right at the edge of the Furnace of Agarwood. Although there wasn’t a hole at the defensive barrier here like their previous escape route, the barrier here was too thin to prevent their passage.

After wrapping their bodies with origin energy, the two left. And the moment they entered the Infinite Mountain Range, they were akin to fish released to the sea. In the blink of an eye, they had completely left the secured zone around the academy.

They were running madly along when Hu Xian’er suddenly stopped at an area with lush trees.

“This place will do.”

She looked at Bai Xiaofei, her blushing face was filled with emotions while her eyes were also filled with desire.

“Are you sure this place is safe?” Bai Xiaofei scanned his surroundings cautiously like a thief about to steal something. He wasn’t even that cautious when he had previously snuck into the women’s dormitory.

“Don’t worry, I checked. In the region spanning several kilometers around us, there are no powerful magical beasts. As for magical beasts even farther away, we will have the time to react when they start coming at us.” Hu Xian’er dispelled any doubts Bai Xiaofei had, and she paused before speaking again, “Take it out!”

Hearing Hu Xian’er’s request, a solemn look surfaced on Bai Xiaofei’s face. With a flash of his storage ring, something appeared in his palm. It was the unique crystal Zhuang Ming had cheaply sold him. Although Zhuang Ming and Feng Wuhen did not know what this item was, Hu Xian’er knew.

Earlier when Hu Xian’er had muttered into Bai Xiaofei’s ears, she was telling him he had to get this item no matter what because it was a priceless treasure. Otherwise, why would he have become so generous toward the end? That was because this crystal alone was already a crazy profit for him. Everything after that was mere extra earnings.

After taking the crystal from Bai Xiaofei, Hu Xian’er placed her complete focus on it. After sinking her senses into the crystal at such close distance, her suspicions from earlier were completely confirmed.

This was no top-tier forging material. This was the magic core of a Saint Rank magical beast. All magical beasts at King Rank and above would form a magic core containing all their power. Similar to the origin core within Bai Xiaofei and all other humans, the magic core was the source of power for magical beasts.

Because of that, magic cores were the most valuable material one could obtain from a magical beast. There were many things one could do with a magic core. The most basic usage involved turning it into an energy source. The energy within a magic core was much purer than a Starnet Stone.

But if the magical beast the magic core came from was partial to a certain attribute, the energy within the magic core could no longer be absorbed by a human. After all, the origin energy of humans was without attribute. If one recklessly absorbed an energy source, it could throw the person’s origin energy into chaos, causing that person to die of bodily implosion.

However, puppet masters with puppets sharing the same elemental attribute as the magic core could use it as a battery. The puppet master could directly extract the energy within the magic core to fuel the puppet’s abilities.

Under normal circumstances, the magic core of a King Rank magical beast was able to last a puppet master of the same rank three long battles with enemies of the same level. And apart from acting as an energy source, the magic core could also be used for blacksmithing.

The energy within a magic core shared the same energy and elemental characteristic of its previous owner. Using special hand seals, one could extract the characteristic from the magic core and attach it to the item one was forging. The items forged in this manner would usually be of excellent quality, and if the magic core was used by an excellent puppetsmith, the puppetsmith could create a puppet that possesses some of the original magical beast’s abilities.

In a way, when Zhuang Ming claimed that this was some forging material, he wasn’t completely wrong. But that was not the only usage of this magic core. The only reason magic cores were so valuable was its third function: helping an animate puppet evolve.

Simply put, even a magic core of the lowest quality would be as effective in helping a puppet evolve as ten puppet cores of the same level. Moreover, the animate puppet stood a chance of inheriting some abilities of the original magical beast when evolving this way. The puppet would then transform into a puppet with double or even more abilities. A puppet like this was extremely rare.

This function alone was what caused a magic core to be so valuable. But those were only the functions of magic cores to humans. Apart from that, for magical beasts, magic cores were also extremely valuable treasures.

In fact, animate puppets were no different from magical beasts. They had merely lost some of the abilities they would have had if they were still free magical beasts. Therefore, the magic core would do the same thing to magical beasts. But due to the flexibility of magical beasts, magic cores would have a much stronger effect on them than on animate puppets.

Some people might question why magical beasts hadn’t gone extinct if magic cores were that valuable. Were the humans blind? Of course, that was not the case. When humanity discovered how useful magic cores could be, they had indeed tried hunting large numbers of magical beasts for magic cores. But those puppet masters had all paid a terrible price for their greed.

All magical beasts had absolute control over their own magic core. Even when they were on their dying breath, they could still control their magic core with mere thoughts. In the situation where they had been hunted down for their magic core, most magical beasts would decide to explode their magic core. They would rather die than suffer dishonor. That was a concept that the magical beasts had displayed well.

Unless one was able to instantly kill a magical beast, not giving them even the slightest chance to react, the only thing one would face from a dying magical beast was an explosion. Because of that, humans who had seen actual magic cores were very few in number. Zhuang Ming and Feng Wuhen were among those who had seen one, but they failed to recognize this magic core for what it was due to the special characteristic of Saint Rank beasts.

For beasts below the Saint Rank, there were not many differences between their magic cores. But upon reaching the Saint Rank, magical beasts would reassemble their magic cores. The reassembling would allow the Saint Rank magical beasts to better control their power and would grant them a new innate ability.

On top of that, Saint Rank magical beasts were top living beings that seemed to only exist in legends. Because of that, it was not surprising for a Saint Rank magic core to be unrecognizable. But Hu Xian’er was different than all of them. She was a magical beast – and a magical beast with an absolutely remarkable bloodline. Even without seeing or hearing about Saint Rank magic cores before, she still had information about Saint Rank magic cores in her brain from her inherited memories.

“How do you use this thing?” Bai Xiaofei asked, unable to hold back his curiosity when he saw how serious Hu Xian’er seemed. Something so hard not even Zhuang Ming and the Babel Merchant House could do anything to it...it was definitely not something Hu Xian’er could tear apart with her claws or teeth.

“You will know soon!” Hu Xian’er said. A resolute look surfaced in her eyes as she made a decision to do something that she did not dare to inform Bai Xiaofei about. The next instant, she opened her mouth, and an incomparably pure stream of energy poured out of her mouth. Before long, the energy converged and transformed into a purple crystal hovering before her the size of a fist.

Looking at the crystal, Bai Xiaofei swallowed. If his guess was right, that would be Hu Xian’er’s magic core.

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