Celestial Beast Taming

Giant Horror Demons produce a unique type of Blood Qi Crystal that provides immense power to their massive frames.

The Giant Horror Demon’s rapid movement wasn’t just due to its unique six-legged structure; it was also linked to the crimson Blood Qi Crystals inside its body.

These Blood Qi Crystals, harder than steel, were the very source of a Giant Horror Demon’s power.

Hong Ji loved the color of the Blood Qi Crystals. She fashioned the palm-sized crystals into two hairpins and clipped them into her long, ink-black hair.

The design on the two hairpins was an image of Zhong Ling with her head bowed shyly.

Back when she was just a Substitute Puppet, Hong Ji had dreamed of slaughtering a Wind-Running Rabbit and staining her white robes red with its blood.

Zhong Yi was long since used to Hong Ji’s vanity!

"Hong Ji, you absorbed the Wing Melting Demon’s wings. Can you fly now?"

Hong Ji had tried to form wings before. Since the Guardian Beast Remains she had absorbed included avian types, she had successfully managed to create a pair.

But she had been unable to use them to fly.

Hong Ji appeared slender and graceful, but with all the materials she had absorbed, her weight had become nearly impossible to calculate.

At his words, Hong Ji gave it a try. A pair of wings with a nearly nine-meter span materialized behind her.

After manifesting the wings, Hong Ji didn’t immediately flap them. Instead, she coated them with Cardiac Muscle from the Horned Demon and the Giant Horror Demon.

This made the once-thin wings nearly two fingers thick. A massive sonic boom erupted as she flapped them, and just as she’d hoped, her feet left the ground.

But at less than half a meter off the ground, she already found it incredibly strenuous.

Seeing this, Zhong Yi thought, ’Hong Ji will only continue to absorb more materials, so her weight is just going to keep increasing.’

’It takes a huge amount of Energy per second just to hover half a meter off the ground. It seems flying is just not in the cards for Hong Ji.’

Hong Ji wasn’t the least bit discouraged by her inability to fly. The wings, now covered in Cardiac Muscle, had become like a new toy for her.

Through continuous adjustments, Hong Ji transformed the single pair of bat-like wings into two pairs of slender butterfly wings.

Then, the Giant Horror Demon’s sharp, conical teeth erupted from the inside edges of the butterfly wings. Layer upon layer of bone armor, wrapped in tough fascia, materialized upon them.

This was clearly inspired by her observations of the Shattered Blade Butterfly in combat. The two pairs of butterfly wings, adjusted to a span of about six meters, became Hong Ji’s weapons for both offense and defense.

Hong Ji’s power had once again reached a new level.

At that moment, Zhong Yi checked the Secret Realm Exploration Level and saw that it had reached ninety-nine percent.

As they continued deeper into the Horned Demon Secret Realm, the air temperature steadily rose.

After traveling for more than two full hours, Zhong Yi came upon a massive lava nursery.

Within the nursery rested a grotesque embryo so massive that its top was out of sight. It continuously spewed a thick, purplish-red, fleshy fluid.

As this fluid flowed into the lava, it was like prawn crackers being dropped into a wok of boiling oil.

In an instant, the fluid would puff up and expand, forming one small embryo after another.

These smaller embryos squirmed, struggling to crawl out of the lava nursery.

The moment they escaped the lava, they would rapidly mature into juvenile Horned Demons.

Some embryos would tear at and devour others within the nursery. After leaving the lava, these cannibalistic individuals would evolve into higher-level Demons, such as Giant Horror Demons and Wing Melting Demons.

The scene, though sinister, possessed a magnificent, epic grandeur.

New life gestating amidst evil—it was as if he were looking directly at the Origin of a world!

This was clearly the source of the Horned Demon Secret Realm!

In the game’s lore, every Secret Realm was a fragment left behind after a world’s destruction.

But this wasn’t just a game; it was a real world where his very presence could trigger a butterfly effect.

In the game’s data, Zhong Yi had determined *how* those worlds were destroyed, but there were clearly deeper reasons at play.

Zhong Yi didn’t dwell on it. ’After all, with my current strength, I don’t have the luxury of uncovering these secrets.’

After Zhong Yi finished watching the scene, the massive lava nursery and the writhing purple embryos shattered like phantoms.

A solemn, magnificent altar appeared before Zhong Yi and Zhong Ling, upon which rested three items completely shrouded in light.

As the altar appeared, a sacred, magnificent, and utterly emotionless voice sounded in Zhong Yi’s and Zhong Ling’s ears.

[Congratulations on achieving one hundred percent Secret Realm Exploration Level. Divine Origin Value +1.]

[Your reward for this brave accomplishment lies before you. Please distribute it amongst yourselves.]

Zhong Yi ignored the items on the altar and immediately checked this so-called "Divine Origin Value."

Zhong Yi was one hundred percent certain that the Divine Origin Value had not existed in the game.

When a person first entered a Secret Realm, they were added to a ranking list, and this information could be accessed through their Identity Card.

This allowed one to check their Secret Realm Points at any time via their Identity Card.

Zhong Yi saw that his Identity Card displayed his Secret Realm Points in blue as 8,735, while the golden Divine Origin Value was displayed before it.

Zhong Ling’s was the same, except her Secret Realm Points were only 259.

Secret Realm Points were obtained by killing Demons within the Secret Realm. The system was fair: whoever landed the killing blow received the points.

In the battles against the Horned Demon Swarm, the Giant Horror Demon, and the Wing Melting Demon, Hong Ji had killed most of the targets.

Only a few were killed by the Shattered Blade Butterfly under Zhong Ling’s command, which was why Zhong Yi’s Secret Realm Points were dozens of times higher than hers.

This method of acquiring Secret Realm Points led many Adventurers to form Mercenary Corps or Travel Groups to help the scions of powerful factions farm points.

These Mercenary Corps or Travel Groups only needed to heavily wound a Demon, allowing the faction’s scion to deliver the final blow and claim the points.

This practice allowed many Guardian Beast Masters of mediocre talent to eke out a living in the Secret Realms.

Secret Realm Points had no practical use; in human society, they were merely a symbol of status and combat prowess.

But this golden Divine Origin Value was clearly different from Secret Realm Points!

When Zhong Yi inspected the Divine Origin Value, he received two pieces of information.

First, Divine Origin Value was bound to the Life that earned it and could not be transferred by any means.

Second, his current Divine Origin Value was too low to activate the Divine Origin Store.

’In other words,’ he thought, ’Divine Origin Value can be used as currency in the Divine Origin Store, but I can only unlock it after accumulating a certain amount.’

Zhong Yi had already experienced just how difficult it was to obtain a single point of Divine Origin Value.

’There are probably very few people in the entire Xin Xia Federation who have ever obtained Divine Origin Value.’

’A Divine Origin Store that uses Divine Origin Value as its currency must have some absolutely incredible things for sale.’