Chapter 1: The Mysterious Magic Formation
Linley also felt that his body had improved significantly compared to the past. Previously, he was a fourth-stage warrior, but now he had directly leaped to the sixth stage. This was the talent of a "Dragonblood Warrior." Of course, thinking back to the pain he had endured not long ago, Linley still shuddered at the memory.
"Linley, try out the effect of Dragonform," Delin Keowote said with great interest.
"That's right, Boss, give it a try quickly," Bebe also said expectantly.
Linley nodded slightly. He was also very curious about how strong he could become in his Dragonform state. Immediately, he controlled the crystallized "Dragonblood battle-qi" gathered at the dantian in his abdomen. Suddenly—
Streams of dark blue-black liquid surged wildly from his dantian, rushing toward his limbs and bones.
"Chi~~" A low, grating sound rang out. Black dragon scales quickly emerged on the surface of Linley's skin. At the same time, a black dragon tail, nearly two meters long and resembling a steel whip, sprouted from the end of his spine. Spikes also began to protrude from the vertebrae along his back.
Compared to a Spinybacked Adamantine Dragon, the number of spikes on Linley's back was slightly fewer, and their length was also a bit shorter.
"I feel like my entire body is filled with boundless power right now," Linley thought, unable to suppress his excitement. Such a powerful sensation—the Dragonblood Warrior, one of the four ultimate warriors of the entire Yulan continent, and he had only just begun to cultivate, yet he already possessed such immense strength.
Truly worthy of being an ultimate warrior!
"The power now is dozens of times stronger than before," Linley said, extending his right hand. At this moment, his arm was covered in scales, and his fingernails were as sharp as knives.
Linley's legs suddenly pushed off the ground—
His entire body shot forward like a bolt of lightning, charging directly into the vast cavern. Linley's arm slashed into the stone wall. With a rumbling sound, fragments of rock naturally fell away. Piercing into the stone wall felt as easy as stabbing into mud.
Too strong.
"Hah~~" Letting out an excited roar, Linley kicked fiercely at the nearby wall, leaving large craters in his wake. Even the rubble from the cavern ceiling kept sliding down.
Pushing off the ground with his legs, Linley launched himself into the air.
His fists slammed heavily into the cavern ceiling—
"Boom!" The ceiling completely cracked open, and massive boulders continuously fell down. Linley didn't care at all. These boulders crashing onto his body caused him no harm whatsoever. The defense of the black scale armor on his body was far stronger than the "Jade Armor."
"Swish!" "Swish!" "Swish!" ...
Linley's entire body transformed into a black blur. One moment he landed, the next he shot into the air, then he smashed his powerful legs and feet into the walls, and finally delivered a fierce uppercut into the cavern ceiling. Rocks fell and struck Linley's body.
A moment later—
Linley landed on the ground and leaped directly to the passageway.
"Grandpa Delin, how was it?" Linley asked.
For a warrior's strength, without systematic testing, ordinary people couldn't distinguish it. At least Linley didn't have that ability, but the experienced Delin Keowote could infer it from the destructive power he had just witnessed.
"Just in terms of raw strength, it should be considered at the threshold of an early eighth-stage warrior," Delin Keowote said somewhat uncertainly. "But your movement speed just now was very fast. You might have inherited the Spinybacked Adamantine Dragon's trait of high mobility. Your speed should be comparable to an agile eighth-stage warrior. As for your defense, without testing, it's hard to say."
Linley nodded slightly.
He knew that his "Dragonform" was closely related to the Spinybacked Adamantine Dragon, and it was possible that the characteristics of his Dragonform were similar to those of the Spinybacked Adamantine Dragon.
"Our family's 'Dragonblood Warrior'—the stronger the strength, the smaller the difference between the three forms. I'm currently a sixth-stage warrior, and Dragonform can reach the 'early eighth-stage' state. According to the records in the books, if a normal human form has the strength of a ninth-stage warrior, then Dragonform can reach the early Saint realm. And if the normal human form has Saint-level strength, then Dragonform remains at the Saint realm, with only a slight increase in combat power."
Linley understood the fundamental reason for "Dragonform."
The reason for Dragonform was that his current body, in its normal human form, could not fully unleash the power of the "Dragonblood Warrior bloodline." Only through Dragonform could he bring out greater strength.
But once he reached the Saint realm and fully absorbed the bloodline's effects, even Dragonform would only provide a minimal increase in power.
"Linley, quickly deal with the corpses of those two magical beasts. One has a Saint-level magical beast core, and the other is a ninth-stage dragon crystal," Delin Keowote urged immediately.
Linley's heart skipped a beat.
Ninth-stage and Saint-level?
Linley knew that a ninth-stage magical beast core was worth five million gold coins. Five million gold coins—that was an enormous fortune. Probably even the total wealth of a major family in Fenlai City would amount to that much.
And a Saint-level magical beast core was simply priceless.
"Alright," Linley said. Still maintaining his Dragonform, he charged directly to the corpse of the Saint-level Purple-Striped Black Bear. Because of his earlier wild attacks on the walls and ceiling, too much rubble had fallen, even burying the Saint-level Purple-Striped Black Bear's corpse.
Linley's right arm, covered in black scales, swept out fiercely. He sent over a dozen large boulders flying, revealing the upper body and head of the Saint-level Purple-Striped Black Bear.
Linley's scaled claws tried to tear open the fur of the Saint-level Purple-Striped Black Bear.
"Hah—" Linley exerted force, but the fur of the Saint-level Purple-Striped Black Bear remained unaffected.
"Linley, this is a Saint-level magical beast. Even in your Dragonform, you're only at the early eighth-stage warrior level. Trying to break through the fur of a Saint-level magical beast is absolutely impossible," Delin Keowote said with a smile.
Linley had to admit that this was indeed the case.
"Linley, look. This Saint-level Purple-Striped Black Bear has many spikes on its body. These spikes are very sharp. Of course, with your strength, you can't pierce the fur with them. But near the eye area, a spike has been driven in. You just need to pull out that spike and reach your hand into the hole to get the Saint-level magical beast core," Delin Keowote said.
For a creature the size of a Spinybacked Adamantine Dragon, these spikes were just spikes!
But for Linley, they were giant awls. The middle and rear ends of these spikes were nearly twenty centimeters thick. Pulling out this spike would naturally leave a large wound on the Saint-level Purple-Striped Black Bear's face. Using this wound to find the Saint-level magical beast core would be much easier.
After all, while the fur of a Saint-level magical beast had strong defense, the inside of its brain wasn't that tough.
Linley pulled out the giant awl with force, then reached his scaled arm through the large wound to search for the magical beast core. The head of this Saint-level Purple-Striped Black Bear was enormous, over a meter tall. Linley had to extend his arm halfway into the hole near the eye area before he found the Saint-level magical beast core.
The core still had traces of blood and other residue on it.
A black, fist-sized magical beast core.
"There's not even a trace of darkness aura," Linley said in surprise. If he hadn't known that this black, fist-sized crystal was the Saint-level Purple-Striped Black Bear's magical beast core, he would have found it hard to believe.
"The energy of a Saint-level magical beast core is completely internalized. In fact, the energy aura of a ninth-stage magical beast core is also very well-contained," Delin Keowote said.
Linley nodded.
"A Saint-level magical beast is a treasure from head to toe. For example, the leg bones of this Saint-level beast are absolutely terrifyingly hard," Delin Keowote sighed. "Unfortunately, you don't have the ability to tear through its astonishingly tough fur."
Linley nodded helplessly.
This Saint-level Purple-Striped Black Bear was simply too massive, and he had no way to move its corpse.
"What a waste," Bebe said deliberately from the side.
Linley smiled. "It's already pretty good. The most valuable part of a magical beast is its core. A Saint-level magical beast core is priceless. I'm already satisfied to have obtained it. Besides, there's still the ninth-stage dragon crystal." Linley walked with a smile toward the corpse of the Spinybacked Adamantine Dragon.
The Spinybacked Adamantine Dragon's corpse had a wound on its head, so finding the dragon crystal shouldn't be difficult.
Linley's claws reached through the wound on the head.
"Huh?"
Linley searched carefully inside the Spinybacked Adamantine Dragon's brain for a while, but there was no dragon crystal at all. This puzzled him.
"How can there be no dragon crystal? Strange?" Linley frowned.
"Impossible. A magical beast can't be without a core. This dragon's crystal must exist. A dead magical beast can't just lose its core," Delin Keowote couldn't believe it either.
But Linley suddenly remembered something—
When he had been desperately swallowing dragon blood, there had been a cold, crystalline object sliding down his throat. At the time, however, he had been too grief-stricken and frenzied to pay attention. Later, when he ate the Blueheart Grass, the pain in other parts of his body disappeared, but one spot still hurt.
"Could it be... the dragon crystal?" Linley wondered inwardly.
He still had the memory of that cold crystal sliding down his throat into his stomach.
"I ate the dragon crystal? This... how is that possible? The Dragonblood Secret Codex records that one must drink living dragon blood to activate the bloodline. Can a dragon crystal be swallowed?" Linley was completely confused. But regardless, he had already swallowed it, and it seemed nothing bad had happened.
Linley smiled.
"What I ate wasn't a dragon crystal—it was five million gold coins," Linley thought ruefully.
"Boss, you, look!" Bebe's shocked voice rang out.
Linley looked at Bebe. Standing on a pile of rubble in the cavern, Bebe was staring dumbfounded at the cavern ceiling. Linley immediately walked out of the passage into the cavern and looked up at the ceiling—
"What is this?"
On the cavern ceiling, a massive black circular platform was revealed, embedded in the roof. Part of this huge black platform was still covered by stones. Clearly... Linley's earlier frenzied attacks had caused many stones to fall from the ceiling, exposing a portion of this black platform.
The black platform itself didn't surprise Linley. What surprised him was—
The black platform was covered in intricate magical runes and patterns, incredibly complex to the extreme. Clearly, a magic formation was arranged on this black platform. Linley had never seen such a complex "magic formation" before.
If the magic formations at Ernst Institute were like a small wind blade, then this mysterious magic formation was like a "Cataclysmic Storm."
Especially in the center of this black platform, a purple longsword was thrust into it, hilt-first.
"This magic formation... how is this possible?" Delin Keowote also appeared beside Linley, looking up. "Impossible. How could such a magic formation appear here, and with a peculiar sword to assist it?"
Delin Keowote, who had always been calm, was now completely shocked. In his over a thousand years of life, he had never seen such a terrifying magic formation. Although this formation hadn't been activated, he could sense its terrifying power.
"Grandpa Delin, is this magic formation very powerful?" Linley asked.
Delin Keowote looked at Linley. "Very powerful? It's more than just powerful. The power of this magic formation surpasses even forbidden spells. Do you think that's powerful? In my entire life, I've never seen such a complex and mysterious magic formation. A formation with such immense power, and it still requires a peculiar sword to assist—is it afraid the formation's power isn't enough?"