Chapter 60: Chapter 60: Battling Sky-Level Beast
The rampage ended quickly.
But the victorious Rock was still roaring with rage, looking around the now-silent clearing.
Soon, It spotted the movement of Vahn’s Spirit Sense as even a faint human aura was now an insult to its primal fury.
The Rock Giant turned its attention, its massive, glowing eyes locking directly onto their hidden position.
Lilith, sensing the Sky Level beast’s singular focus, stepped forward, her shadow-veiled figure remaining perfectly calm.
"Vahn, the Rock Giant is a Sky Level Beast, far stronger than you currently are now. But its movements are simple, and its mind is dull. This is your final lesson before we exit this territory."
She gestured toward the colossal, menacing figure. "Fight it alone. You must learn to face a superior threat and use your mind, not just your blade. Do not disappoint me."
Vahn felt the cold gravity of the command. A true Sky Level beast was a massive leap from an Earth Rank pack. His life was now genuinely on the line.
Yet, as he faced the towering mass of stone and fury, Vahn didn’t feel the paralyzing grip of fear anymore. Instead, an aura of determined warrior radiated from him
He accepted the challenge without hesitation.
Lilith’s cold heart, despite her best efforts, shook once again. She wasn’t seeing a fool charging to his death; she was seeing a man whose will was rapidly approaching the terrifying level required to challenge the world itself.
Holding the Hellbringer Saber, Vahn didn’t hesitate. He knew that matching a Sky Level Beast with mere martial skill or energy conservation was suicide. This was a forced final exam, and the only way to pass was with a calculated, overwhelming display of power.
He invoked his most powerful Art at once.
"Nine Heavens Lightning Swords: Destruction Sword!"
The black blade of his Hellbringer Saber instantly crackled with crackling blue lightning. The electrical discharge was far denser and more vibrant than when channeled through his old Earth-grade weapon, testament to the Saint-grade saber’s superior conduction.
Holding the Saber in his right hand, Vahn felt the destructive power gathering within, pulling deeply from his recently enhanced Mana reserves. He didn’t just use the Sword Art; he also poured vast amounts of Spirit Energy into the Saint Weapon for maximum power, accepting the massive drain. Against such a towering giant, holding back wasn’t an option.
His eyes, reflecting the destructive blue lightning, fixed onto the Rock Giant as it rolled toward him like a spinning armadillo, shaking the very ground beneath them.
Its approach was devastating, like an avalanche of stone and fury.
"Destroy!"
Vahn’s roar came as a low rumble of pure intent. He didn’t charge. He held the Saber like a harpoon, aimed carefully at the Rock Giant’s rough stone torso, then threw it toward the beast like a javelin.
Buzzz!!
The very air ahead of the Hellbringer screamed. The terrifying speed and the destructive lightning force annihilated air particles in its path, leaving a visible, crackling streak of blue energy slicing through the clearing.
The Rock Giant, simple-minded and focused only on crushing its target, didn’t bother to defend against the projectile. It assumed the tiny, flying object would simply shatter against its natural stone armor.
However, It was catastrophically wrong.
The Hellbringer Saber, super-charged by Vahn’s Destruction Sword Art and amplified by the Saint-grade’s cutting affinity, struck the Rock Giant squarely in the chest, right where its core was located.
BOOOOM!
The impact was not just physical; it was an explosive confluence of contradictory energies. The Heavenly Lightning, which possessed the elemental property of ultimate destruction, met the pure Earth element of the Rock Giant.
The resulting explosion dwarfed the earlier demise of the Fire Crow. A blinding sphere of blue and white light erupted, followed by a shockwave that flattened nearby trees and sent chunks of shrapnel and stone flying across the clearing.
The Rock Giant stopped rolling. Its torso, where the Hellbringer had lodged itself, cracked open as if struck by a lightning bolt from the heavens. Massive fissures spiderwebbed across its entire body.
Its large frame groaned, and then, with a slow, agonizing slide, the top half of the Giant toppled over, sending a small dust cloud into the sky. The lower half, its core destroyed, crumbled into a lifeless pile of mundane stones.
"???"
Vahn stood there, momentarily stunned. He had just defeated a Sky-level beast, which was equal to a Foundation Establishment cultivator.
His true combat prowess had soared so much.
Even Lilith, stepping out of the shadows, raised a silent, shadowed eyebrow of surprise. She hadn’t expected him to take down the Rock Giant in a single strike at all. She was genuinely impressed.
As Vahn picked up the Hellbringer Saber, Lilith pointed toward a spot amidst the rocky debris.
There, glowing faintly green against the gray stone, was a perfectly round object.
"Pick up the Beast Core," she instructed. "It’s valuable. A Sky-level core. You can easily sell it in the market for 1,000 spirit stones."
Vahn did as she told. Even though he had accumulated more than 200,000 spirit stones from the auction sale, he knew they were never going to be enough for his future needs, especially for his Void Refining Physique.
Afterward, they quickly left the conflict scene.
The red-haired young man’s lifeless corpse and the smashed bodies of his companions were scattered like a mangled mess.
It was a grim truth as how cruel this World can be.
However, just half an hour after their departure, the silence of the scorched clearing was shattered again.
HUMM!
A powerful presence sliced through the western sky. A nobleman with the same striking red hair as the corpse of the young man, Damien, descended in a flare of crimson energy.
He was a man of terrifying stature, clearly radiating the power of a high-level Golden Core cultivator, or perhaps even higher.
"WHO...??"
The nobleman let out a bellow of rage that shook the remaining tree canopies as soon as his eyes fell upon the lifeless body of his son, Damien.
"Who is it? Who dared to kill my son?
It was a roar of utter devastation and fury.
Furious, he immediately unleashed his Spirit Sense, extending it for hundreds of meters in every direction, scouring the terrain for any trace of the attackers. He quickly found the faint, residual auras of Vahn and Lilith, coupled with the distinct energy signature of the Lightning Art that had killed the Rock Giant.
After putting the corpse inside his Space Ring, he didn’t hesitate a moment longer.
Identifying the faint trail of the culprits, he started following them like an Infernal Storm.
"Whoosh..."
This man was the Patriarch of Infernal Clan from Fire Cloud City. He was a figure known to show no mercy, and his current rage promised a brutal vengeance for his son’s death.