Nine Star Hegemon Body Art

The Ironwing Horned Eagle spread its half-a-mile-wide wings. Its wings were like heaven-splitting blades that crashed down upon Mu Xue.

Because its body was so huge, Mu Xue truly appeared like an ant in front of it.

However, one thing that put Long Chen at ease was that the Ironwing Horned Eagle was still at the early Xiantian realm and had yet to advance.

Furthermore, although it had reached the Xiantian realm, its bloodline wasn’t pure. The bloodline its ancestor had left behind for it was becoming thin, and perhaps this Ironwing Eagle’s descendants would find it difficult just to reach the Xiantian realm.

A Magical Beast’s bloodline inheritance was even more important than a human’s. However, their bloodline inheritance wasn’t endless. If a hundred generations passed without another descendant reaching the same bloodline purity as its ancestor, then after those hundred generations, the bloodline would drop by one rank.

After another hundred generations without the pure bloodline reappearing, then it would drop another rank, all the way until the race was cruelly washed out by nature’s rules.

As for this Ironwing Eagle, its bloodline was already extremely impure. However, in terms of true fighting strength, it was much stronger than the Hidden Ground Spider which didn’t specialize in attacking.

Mu Xue was circulating her Xiantian power in preparation to receive the Ironwing Eagle. Although she had only just advanced, she had been stuck at the half-step Xiantian realm for almost two years. She definitely had some control over Xiantian power. Now that she had finally advanced, she was much stronger than an average person who had just advanced.

“There’s no need to face it head-on in the first exchange!” shouted Long Chen.

The Ironwing Eagle’s immense body was charging forward. Was there a point to taking that much force head-on?

Mu Xue hastily dashed out of the way, appearing hundreds of meters away in an instant.

BOOM!

The Ironwing Eagle’s huge body crashed into the ground, and the land within hundreds of miles rocked along with it.

Mu Xue couldn’t help being startled. That impact was shockingly great, and if she had really faced it head-on, she would definitely be injured.

She felt admiration for Long Chen’s vision. He had instantly seen through its strength. But she was unaware that after being with Meng Qi for so long, Long Chen had learned a great deal pertaining to Magical Beasts. He naturally had a greater ability to judge a Magical Beast’s power than most.

Long Chen had felt that Mu Xue might not necessarily lose in terms of power, but there was a risk she would be injured. There was no need to take that risk.

As the Ironwing Eagle climbed up from the ground, Mu Xue’s sword slashed down. Sword Qi powered by Xiantian power split through the void.

Bang!

The Sword Qi exploded upon the Ironwing Eagle’s body, and it was sent tumbling back, feathers flying off its body.

The distant mercenaries cheered upon seeing that. Mu Xue’s attack was actually able to send a Xiantian Magical Beast tumbling back. She was truly mighty.

But Long Chen’s mouth twitched. This kind of intelligence was almost worrying. She had spread her Sword Qi so widely that it was unable to cause any real injuries. It might look impressive, but what use did that have?

But then looking at the feathers on the ground, he instantly realized it had one use: it had a feather’s use.^[1]

If it was Long Chen, he definitely wouldn’t have scattered his power but concentrated all his might to stab through the side of the Ironwing Eagle.

Its feathers there were as strong as the ones on its back. With Mu Xue’s Xiantian power, she would have been able to create a deep cut there. Although it might not be considered a heavy injury, it would at least count as an injury.

But at this time, Long Chen chose to keep his mouth shut. After all, each cultivator had their own choices, and there was no such thing as being absolutely right or absolutely wrong. He wouldn’t vainly give directions.

The Ironwing Eagle let out a furious bird cry, and a huge wing slammed towards Mu Xue.

BOOM! Mu Xue’s sword slashed onto its wing, but she was unable to block its explosive power and was blown back.

However, the Ironwing Eagle was also forced back slightly by Mu Xue’s Xiantian power. That was the most terrifying aspect of Xiantian power.

Houtian power referred to a person circulating their energy within the body. But Xiantian power referred to using the Xiantian spiritual qi inside your body to control the natural energy around you to attack. The two of them were qualitatively different.

“It’s about to use a powerful move!” Long Chen suddenly shouted.

He had only just said that when the Ironwing Eagle’s forehead shot out a red ray of light at Mu Xue.

Mu Xue hastily dodged to the side. The red ray brushed right past her body.

BOOM!

The light pierced directly through a distant mountain. A hole dozens of meters wide was blown into it.

“It has given birth to a crystal bone!” Mu Xue was startled.

A Xiantian Magical Beast had a certain chance of being able to merge their crystal core into a bone. Once they were merged, they would imprint their strongest attack into that bone. That was the so-called crystal bone.

One requirement for a Magical Beast to give birth to a crystal bone was that its ancestor had to have been powerful. It required a powerful rune to exist within their bloodline.

The fact that this Ironwing Horned Eagle was able to condense a crystal bone meant that its bloodline was not ordinary. However, that bloodline had declined by its generation.

Other than this, even with a powerful bloodline, a Magical Beast had less than one in a thousand chance of being able to condense a crystal bone. That made crystal bones extremely rare.

Crystal bones were very heaven-defying treasures. They were natural weapons, and once they were refined, it was possible to use your own power to activate the runes on it to attack.

They were weapons that even Xiantian experts would long for. Back in the Jiuli secret realm, Han Tianyu’s luck had been amazing enough for him to obtain one. But later it had been destroyed by Long Chen’s dragon scale.

Back then, Han Tianyu had no Xiantian power to activate the crystal bone, and he had been required to use his own essence blood to use it, almost causing him to die of blood loss.

That crystal bone of his had been powerful, but his own power had been too weak. Han Tianyu had been unable to draw out its full power.

Only a Xiantian expert’s Xiantian power was able to fully draw out the potential of a crystal bone. After all, the runes on the bone were the Magical Beast’s core runes that contained their strongest attack.

However, a Magical Beast’s intelligence was too low, and their comprehension over natural energy was also too crude. They themselves were only able to draw out a tenth of their own crystal bone’s power.

But if a Xiantian expert activated a crystal bone, then they would truly be unrivaled within their realm. So a crystal bone was something countless Xiantian experts would go crazy for.

Mu Xue was also a Xiantian expert, so her heart began to pound. If she obtained this crystal bone, the Muxue Mercenary Unit would be able to dominate all the other mercenary units. They would no longer ever have to be bullied.

“When it’s about to use its crystal bone’s attack, its eyes will become violet. That’s a sign it’s accumulating energy, and it’s very conspicuous. Pay attention to it!” shouted Long Chen.

Right now, Long Chen had nothing to do. He directly took out a chair and leisurely sat, simply minding his own business.

He hadn’t expected Mu Xue’s luck to be so good as to run into a Magical Beast possessing the crystal bone. The Muxue Mercenary Unit had truly struck gold.

BOOM, BOOM…!

Continuous explosions rang out. Mu Xue drifted around, sword-images flying all over. The discovery of this crystal bone had raised her spirits, and she became more and more courageous with her attacks.

But Long Chen really was almost unable to watch it. In front of a Magical Beast, what were you doing facing it head-on? There had been many opportunities for her to heavily injure it.

He didn’t know whether it was because Mu Xue didn’t dare take any risks for that, or whether it was just that she didn’t know how to take advantage of opportunities. Just watching made Long Chen worry helplessly.

However, Mu Xue was truly powerful. Following this intense battle, her ability to use Xiantian power increased. Long Chen supposed that it was best to just treat this as a training exercise.

Long Chen couldn’t be bothered to watch. He began to continue strengthening his meridians. An hour later, his meridians had been pushed to their limit once again, and Mu Xue was still fighting.

“Is she planning on fighting a battle of attrition?” Long Chen sighed.

His fighting style was that if he could kill someone with one blow, he wouldn’t waste a second. Just watching this kind of battle made him worry.

On the other hand, the distant mercenaries felt their blood boiling. This senseless battle in Long Chen’s eyes was actually a heaven-shaking battle in their eyes.

Long Chen didn’t want to waste any time. He began extracting the life energy in the primal chaos bead’s trees.

His injuries had actually mostly healed. But the destructive will of the Heavenly Daos was still causing havoc in his body. He needed this life energy to expel it.

After several days, those injuries had healed to fifty percent, which gratified him.

BUZZ!

Suddenly, Long Chen felt intense fluctuations, and he suddenly heard Mu Xue’s startled scream.  “Watch out, Long Chen!”

He saw a red light shooting straight towards him. Long Chen couldn’t help cursing inside, “You guys can fight your battle, but mind your own business.”

He dashed to the side, and the red light pierced straight through the chair he had been sitting in.

BOOM!

That luxurious chair of his was instantly destroyed. At the same time, the mountain behind him crumbled.

This sudden change dumbfounded everyone. Why would the Ironwing Eagle suddenly set its sights on Long Chen while it was in the middle of fighting Mu Xue?

The Ironwing Eagle let out a heaven-shaking cry when it saw it didn’t kill Long Chen. Surprisingly, it gave up on Mu Xue and charged straight at Long Chen.

Mu Xue was completely shocked. The Ironwing Eagle was too fast, and there was no way she could stop it. “Run Long Chen!”

The mercenaries all turned pale. Long Chen was in the midst of forming his meridians. He hadn’t even reached the true Meridian Opening realm. He would definitely die against a Xiantian Magical Beast.

“What are you doing?!”

Seeing Long Chen just standing there like an imbecile with this huge monster charging at him, all of the mercenaries screamed. It seemed he had lost any of his previous quick wits.

The Ironwing Eagle’s sharp beak shone with a metallic light as it ruthlessly stabbed towards Long Chen.

BOOM!

^[1] This is a joke. When you say something has a feather’s use, it means it has no use. The word for feather here can also mean hair, so you may have seen a hair’s use before. Personally, I usually translate it as simply no use rather than a hair’s use.

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Alternate title: It's Not Easy Being AFK