Chapter 139: Cleaning up the Battlefield
Chapter 139: Chapter 139: Cleaning up the Battlefield
Hearing Hua Liusha’s voice, the Demon Beasts felt a chill creep into their hearts.
’So ruthless!’
’This place really is a trap!’
’A trap set specifically to slaughter the Demon Race!’
The Demon Beasts scrambled to outrun each other, fleeing even faster than they had arrived.
Hua Liusha manipulated her mycelium, instantly ensnaring a large group of Demon Beasts.
These were the slower Demon Beasts, and they were caught in the very first moment.
"Help! Don’t kill me!"
"My father is a Third Realm Demon Beast..."
"Wait! Wait, I have something to say!"
"I’m an ancient variant species!"
The Demon Beasts shrieked and wailed, but in an instant, they were reduced to corpses.
Hua Liusha only spared the few Demon Beasts who claimed to be ancient variant species.
A few Spirit Monsters were also preserved by Hua Liusha, kept aside for later use.
Spirit Monsters and Ghost Gods are rare to begin with, but they often possess unique talents and skills.
Therefore, it was always better to subjugate them if possible.
However, even so, some Demon Beasts managed to escape.
Zhu Ge gave chase for several miles, but eventually had no choice but to turn back.
Looking at the ground, which was littered with severed limbs and mangled flesh, Zhu Ge felt a pang of regret.
"Quick, quick! Sword Hero, Sisi, come collect the flesh!"
"Little sister, hurry and absorb these souls before they scatter!"
Zhu Ge himself frantically began to gather the flesh as well.
’So much of it!’
’What a waste!’
This flesh could be washed and sold, and the bones could be given to his Bone Monster Avatar to absorb and refine.
The blood could be used to water the Blood Mulberry and the Blazing Flame Thorns, and the yin souls could be absorbed by Hua Liusha.
The pelts could be used by Hua Liusha to make Soul Clothing, and even the claws and fangs could be sold to a weapon shop.
A Demon Beast was a treasure trove from head to toe!
And yet, at least dozens of pounds of shredded flesh and blood were now scattered in the mud.
"So many souls!"
There was an unconcealable excitement in Hua Liusha’s voice as a billowing red mist spread out from her.
As a Ghost, if she didn’t want to become a Demon in the Third Realm, she had to consume yin souls and couldn’t touch yang qi at all.
This meant she couldn’t absorb living creatures. She could only feed after a creature had died, and even then, she could only consume the ethereal soul, not the corporeal soul.
By following this path, she could enter the Yin Soul Realm in her Third Realm, instead of the Demon Realm.
This path was destined to be difficult, but it was also destined to be powerful and pure.
And so, the undissipated yin souls from the corpses on the ground became Hua Liusha’s nourishment.
"Sisi, bring out my avatar!"
Zhu Ge shouted, "Sword Hero, pick up the flesh, faster!"
"Yes, yes, Great Master, I’m on it!" Sword Hero used all six of its legs, picking up chunks of Demon Beast Flesh and tossing them onto the grassy area at the valley entrance.
But many scraps of flesh were still wasted, impossible to pick out from the dirt.
Zhu Ge had smashed these bodies to pieces rather than having them neatly dissected by a Butcher, so much of the flesh was inevitably wasted.
’And this is all high-energy flesh!’
If left untreated, it would mean the surrounding plants would definitely experience a period of frenzied growth.
"Master, I’ve brought your avatar!"
Zhu Sisi used her silk threads to drag out Zhu Ge’s Bone Monster Avatar.
At this point, Zhu Ge’s Bone Monster Avatar hadn’t changed much from before, except that the gaps between the bones in its skeleton had widened.
This indicated that the bones it had previously absorbed had been completely refined and integrated into its body.
Now, outside the valley, Zhu Ge immediately had the Bone Monster Avatar stand up and activate its innate skill.
Innate Skill—Myriad Bone Heavenly Attraction!
This was the Bone Monster Avatar’s innate talent, allowing it to control all ownerless bones within a certain range and draw them all toward itself.
The ground was currently littered with bone fragments and dust. Picking them up piece by piece would be wasteful, and picking them up grain by grain would take too much time.
So, he figured he might as well just bring out the Bone Monster Avatar.
As of now, Zhu Ge was still unable to split his focus.
Although his soul was divided, his consciousness was still a single entity.
Only when Zhu Ge could truly split his focus would the Bone Monster Avatar become genuinely useful.
SWOOSH—
Individual bones, whole bones, fragments, and specks...
All the bones moved toward the Bone Monster Avatar at the valley entrance!
Seeing the Bone Monster Avatar spring into action, Zhu Sisi started helping Sword Hero and Zhu Ge deal with the corpses littering the ground.
Fortunately, whether it was Sword Hero, Zhu Sisi, Zhu Ge, or Hua Liusha, they were all quick and deft, working with great speed.
In no time, the several-acre area looked as if it had been plowed clean.
Finally, Zhu Ge simply activated his Blood Qi, uprooted all the surrounding trees, and then used a tiger’s thigh bone as a shovel to scoop up all the blood-soaked soil.
’Waste not, want not!’
This was all blood from First and Second Realm Demon Beasts—every drop was a treasure.
’How could he let this blood go to waste?’
Conveniently, the Blazing Flame Thorns loved to drink blood, and the best way for it to advance was by consuming fresh Demon Beast Blood.
So, Zhu Ge gathered all the soil, had Hua Liusha compress it as much as possible, and then dumped it near the Blazing Flame Thorns.
Although a lot would still be wasted in the end, he decided not to worry about it.
This flurry of activity lasted for several hours.
The one human, two demons, and one ghost were all panting with exhaustion, yet they also felt a sense of fulfillment and happiness.
The final haul was a "grass bowl" stuffed with flesh—a Spiritual Artifact with a storage capacity equivalent to several shipping containers!
Inside it was also the Large Stone Bowl that Zhu Ge had fashioned on the spot, now filled to the brim with Demon Beast Blood.
Down below the small wooden cabin in the valley, the space around the Bone Monster Avatar was piled high with bones, likely enough to last it for several months.
The area around the Blazing Flame Thorns was also covered in blood-stained soil, though it remained to be seen if it would promote the plant’s growth.
Even the uprooted trees were all moved by Zhu Ge to the side of the valley to dry, ready to be used later for building a cabin or for firewood.
However, all this activity had cleared out a large, fan-shaped open area at the mouth of the valley.
Previously, Zhu Ge had chosen this place as his base of operations for its seclusion.
But now, with so many Demon Beasts having escaped, he believed it wouldn’t be long before the valley’s fearsome reputation spread throughout the surrounding area.
It was a reputation that Zhu Ge had carved out with his own power!
Of course, this also included the crushing defeat of the Sword and Axe Mantis.
To the Demon Beasts that fled, the Sword and Axe Mantis had been completely "refined."
But for Zhu Ge and his companions?
The Sword and Axe Mantis had submitted!
"A Third Realm existence..."
After finishing their work, Zhu Ge went into the valley with Hua Liusha and the others to look at the Sword and Axe Mantis being refined by the equally-transforming Liu Jianjian.
In a way, this was an incredible stroke of fortune for Liu Jianjian.
A stroke of fortune granted to her by the True Monarch of the Lantern!
The *Demon Hunting Divine Technique* was incredibly powerful, allowing Liu Jianjian to transform the spines on her back into vessels for nurturing Demon Gods.
Hunt the Demon Gods, nurture the Demon Gods. When the technique was mastered, every single spine she launched would possess the Power of the Demon Gods.
It was precisely because of this gift from the True Monarch of the Lantern that Liu Jianjian had the ability to refine a Third Realm Sword and Axe Mantis.
As the final moment passed, the Sword and Axe Mantis’s once-enormous body shrank smaller and smaller, until it transformed into a single strand of hair and flew back to Liu Jianjian’s head.
"It’s done?" Zhu Ge asked with a smile.
Liu Jianjian’s eyes snapped open. They were shot with blood, and her voice was hoarse as she spoke:
"Master, I’m hungry..."