Inside the Island Whale's body, every so often, there was a massive lump of white jade-like substance embedded deep in its flesh.
This was Whale Fat Essence.
The whale's blood and flesh bound it tightly, like veins of jade buried in stone.
Yet no matter how deeply it was hidden, the moment Jing Qian laid his hands on it, he dug it out alive, stuffing it straight into his Tushita Furnace.
With Whale Fat feeding it, the Fate Fire inside the furnace surged higher, carrying an even deeper resonance of vitality.
Jing Qian grew ever more zealous in his treasure-hunting.
He could already see that this Island Whale's vitality was simply too tenacious; it was unbelievably hard to kill.
Rather than wasting his mana in a drawn-out fight, it was far more profitable to strip it of every last shred of Whale Fat.
So along the whale's blubber layers, he carved and scraped his way forward. One after another, clumps of Whale Fat were dug out and taken into his possession.
Beyond the Yin Pearls, he had finally discovered a second resource capable of nurturing the Fate Fire.
He was already preparing to use this old whale to refine a brand-new flame
The Sixth Fatebinding was calling to him.
After all these months of tempering, his Void Furnace had still not produced another Fate Fire, teaching Jing Qian just how rare and difficult it truly was.
Relying only on the frail domain of the Void Realm and ninth-grade Yin Pearls, it would take an inordinately long time to nurture even a single flickering white flame.
He now realized that his previous success had been entirely thanks to the overwhelming support of his family on Tsushima Island, who had supplied him with over a hundred Blue-Blood Life Essences.
Back then, he could pour everything into the furnace: thousands of Yin Ghosts hunted, Yin Pearls worth ten thousand gold, and the flame had sprung up smoothly.
This time, after throwing in pearls worth a fortune, the furnace hadn't even stirred.
Fortunately, his old "friend," the whale, had crossed seas to deliver warmth.
Piece after piece of Whale Fat was tossed into the furnace. With every feed, the white flame flickered violently, blazing higher with remarkable speed.
Yet reality was not quite as he imagined.
Deep within the Void Furnace, in a hidden recess, a palm-sized black cat was happily rolling around in the surging Fate Fire.
It was siphoning away nearly eighty to ninety percent of the true output!
Like a cat high on catnip, each gulp of Fate Fire made it shudder with pleasure.
And with its growth, a strange and indescribable aura was quietly accumulating within the Void Furnace.
"Fishy meat flavor! Delicious!" it purred.
Jing Qian remained completely unaware, continuing to shove Whale Fat inside without hesitation.
Ruthless and relentless, he wreaked havoc through the whale's insides, turning its body upside down.
The mighty Blue-Blood great demon thrashed in the sea in sheer agony, bellowing mournfully.
Its deep vitality kept it from collapsing and dying, but that same vitality condemned it to endure this torture to the fullest.
It had already squeezed out every last drop of its mana, letting it rampage inside its body, trying to cleanse away the invasive aura.
At first, it thought it had simply eaten something bad or accidentally swallowed a strange little creature.
Such things had happened more than once in its long life.
But this time was utterly different. No matter how it swept its vast spiritual sense, it couldn't locate the intruder.
Even when it sensed someone cutting out its Whale Fat and laid its divine sense over it in defense, each time a sword came slashing from nowhere, severing its awareness.
By the time it realized, the Whale Fat was already gone.
The Island Whale grew more and more frenzied!
The Island Whale had stopped moving forward. It lay sprawled on the seafloor, pouring all its power into its body, desperately trying to force Jing Qian out.
But the method it chose was laughably foolish.
It condensed its immense mana into all of its vital points.
Its core organs and the clumps of Whale Fat Essence now radiated a thick spiritual glow.
To Jing Qian, this was almost considerate, like the whale had kindly marked all its weak points. He simply followed the trail of light, easily finding every critical place.
In the span of a single day, he had burrowed through nearly half of the whale's colossal body, severing the blood vessels and meridians that connected its organs.
The Island Whale wasn't dead yet, but it was left half-alive, sprawled weakly across the seabed.
At the very end of this Yin Year, the seas above still raged with storm and tide.
The Yin Ghosts that remained had survived eleven months of hunting, their souls and flesh grown thick and strong, their power clearly rising.
So when a peerless Blue-Blood great demon lay crippled in the ocean, it became a beacon, a chance for ascension.
While Jing Qian rampaged through its insides, carving out Whale Fat, more and more Yin Ghosts quietly descended. One after another, they too slipped into the whale's body.
Though each ghost was an independent being, inside the whale, they began to fuse, combining their strength to gnaw away at its soul, intent on molding themselves into a sixth-grade Violet-Eyed Yin Ghost.
The poor Island Whale, born of noble blood, strong since birth, having ruled the vast seas for a thousand years without once facing true mortal peril, had now fallen prey to a merciless sword cultivator.
Its strength was fading fast, while Jing Qian's sword strikes and the Yin Ghosts' soul-devouring only grew stronger.
The balance tipped, and for the first time, the mighty Blue-Blood Whale faced the brink of death.
By the time it realized, there was no turning back.
Before it lay only a single path.
The Island Whale, for all its millennia of lifespan, was still but an adolescent by its bloodline's measure.
Its lineage was exalted, tracing back to the depths of the open seas, carrying a special status even among the ocean clans.
In the demon world, beings like the Island Whale had a special title, corresponding to the Spiritual Construct Disciples among humans. They were called Blood Pearl Disciples.
This Blood Pearl Whale had ventured to the coastal seas purely out of youthful arrogance, chasing freedom, hoping to carve out a name for itself by refining a powerful Spiritual Construct.
But before it could even glimpse such destiny, it had stumbled into Jing Qian, the calamity star.
Faced with life and death, the Island Whale was forced to reveal its final trump card.
It gathered all its mana into the nape of its neck, aligned its divine sense, and chanted a strange incantation.
The chant drew its vast power into a black feather embedded at the back of its neck.
Barely two feet long, it was nothing against the whale's colossal body, less than a hair.
Yet this feather miraculously absorbed every shred of the whale's mana.
Measured by Crocodile-Dragon units, the whale's reserves equaled at least two hundred Crocodiles!
To accumulate such staggering power and grow to such enormity was already a rare and terrifying gift.
And for a single feather to bear it all clearly, this was no common item:
[Spiritual Construct: Transformation into Roc]
[Subjugation Requirement: Kunpeng lineage]
[Lifespan Cost: 500 years]
This unique one-time Spiritual Construct was the Island Whale's final trump card.
As its mana poured in, the feather erupted.
A torrent of pure black Fire Fiend spewed forth, racing across the whale's entire body.
It was none other than a fifth-grade Golden-Root Kun-Intent Roc-Form True Fire Fiend!
Priceless, overwhelming, the flame roared across the Island Whale, burning its ungainly flesh to ash.
This was the beginning of its transformation.
For this, Blood Pearl Whale carried one-eighth of the Kunpeng bloodline, making it a scion of an incomparably noble divine beast.
Such blood conferred a unique path of growth.
Born in seventh grade with Blue-Blood cultivation, the whale from birth was required to consume resources, draw in essence, and accumulate Blue-Blood Life Essence.
It had not yet reached even half of its true potential; its two hundred Crocodile-units of mana were far from its upper limit.
All the mana it had accumulated at its current realm was fuel meant for one thing: evolution and transformation.
That [Spiritual Construct: Transformation into Roc] embedded in its back carried within it a fifth-grade Fire Fiend, a legacy gift of the Kunpeng lineage.
Once activated, this [Spiritual Construct] would harness the Kun-Intent Roc-Form True Fire Fiend, converting every drop of its accumulated Blue-Blood Life Essence into higher-grade mana without loss, triggering a great leap in cultivation.
And during the process, it would also complete the Body-Refining Through Fire stage necessary for advancing into the fifth grade, further purifying its bloodline.
This was the privilege of divine beast bloodlines backed by the weight of profound inheritance.
Among humans, the Twelve Pillars of the Academy produced countless great cultivators to uphold the empire.
Among demons, there were also bloodline legacies that anchored their fate.
Whether the sea demons of the southern oceans or the mountain spirits of northern Ju Zhou, both held divine beast lineages to suppress and balance the world.
Now, as the Fire Fiend burned through it, the Island Whale's Kunpeng bloodline was fully awakened. It's two hundred Crocodile-units of Blue-Blood Life Essence burned like tinder, easily refined into Violet-Eyed Life Essence.
The Island Whale had ascended to the sixth grade!
But this was not its limit. The fire mingled with its Kunpeng bloodline, unleashing even greater divine power.
Its colossal body rapidly shrank, flesh compressed, bloodline refined, and its stores of Whale Fat ignited like torches.
The one-eighth trace of Kunpeng blood surged, purified into one-quarter.
Its newly formed Violet-Eyed Life Essence began to climb further still, evolving toward an even higher realm.
For Kunpeng descendants, a few with deep foundations and extraordinary talent could even, during [Transformation into Roc], leap directly into the fifth-grade Golden-Root realm, further refining their bloodline.
A successful transformation could save thousands of years of cultivation, marking the promise of greatness and high status.
This was the glorious future the Island Whale had always dreamed of.
But now, that dream was shattered!
It should have spent centuries more, amassing three, four, even five hundred Crocodile-units of Life Essence.
Instead, its accumulation had been cut short, sabotaged by the parasitic sword cultivator gnawing within.
If asked who its greatest enemy in all the world was, the answer was beyond doubt this unseen sword cultivator!
The Fire Fiend it unleashed was not only to refine its bloodline, but also to burn its mortal foe alive.
The flames swept through its entire body, incinerating every invading Yin Ghost to ash.
But the sword cultivator? He was nowhere to be found.
The whale knew he still lived worse; it could feel his presence mocking it.
Unbearable!
...
Within the [Void Realm], Jing Qian broke out in a cold sweat.
Who could understand? One moment, he was happily hotpotting Whale Fat into his furnace, and the next, the whale suddenly lit itself aflame to roast him alive.
He immediately recognized the terror of this Kun-Intent Roc-Form True Fire Fiend, a fifth-grade power surpassing even [Suppressing Spirit]. He could never withstand it head-on.
Fortunately, he had been cautious from the start. His true body never entered the Island Whale.
Every strike of sword-qi he had unleashed came from within the dimensional void, utterly untouchable.
Even the devastating fifth-grade Golden-Root Fire Fiend could not singe a single hair of his.
More than that, the whale had revealed its hidden wealth.
Such a sublime Fire Fiend, how could Jing Qian possibly let it slip away?
Within the Void Realm, he stirred the [Void Furnace]. A rift opened, and he hooked a thread of the Fire Fiend into it.
The Fate Fİre within the furnace flared like oil thrown on a bonfire.
Even with a little black cat secretly siphoning most of the fire for itself, the overwhelming might of the Fire Fiend could not be denied.
A strand of White Fang Fate Fİre quietly bloomed into existence.
The materials for his sixth Fatebinding were finally in hand!
Jing Qian had indeed poured vast amounts of resources into the [Void Furnace], countless treasures consumed without result. At last, however, there was a return.
The first wisp of Fire Fiend yielded extraordinary results, and his opinion of this "good whale friend" rose significantly.
Without hesitation, he drew in another thread of the Fire Fiend, feeding it into his [Life Furnace].
For the [Fate Fire], this Fire Fiend was a reinforcement far beyond [Yin Pearls] or [Whale Fat], an empowering essence thousands of times stronger.
Each strand he siphoned made the [Void Furnace] visibly grow; its flame blazed more brilliantly, more stable, pulsing with a life force that made one's heart tremble.
Meanwhile, outside, the Island Whale was in the midst of a life-and-death metamorphosis, utterly consumed by its own transformation, completely unaware of the "thief" secretly siphoning its sacred Fire Fiend from within.
It was truly cursed with misfortune. Forced into premature ascension, and now even its evolution's fuel was being stolen, leaving it no way to cry injustice.
Had it known the full truth, it would have bitterly regretted swallowing that spider long ago.
Now, wrapped in the [Kun-Intent Roc-Form True Fire Fiend], its flesh churned with both agony and hope as it endured the most violent transformation of its life.
Its thousand-zhang body lay curled in the deep sea, riddled with wounds, charred and cracked like burnt charcoal.
Yet around its awakened Kunpeng bloodline, a new form began to condense.
Within the [Void Realm], Jing Qian's pupils reflected the breathtaking sight: the colossal whale curling in on itself amid azure waters, while fifth-grade Fire Fiend roared outward, boiling the surrounding sea for a hundred li into mist.
Barnacles and corals clinging to its skin flared into sparks and vanished.
Crack!
Bones snapped like thunderclaps. Twelve hill-sized ridges rose along its spine, bursting open to reveal dazzling golden light.
Fragments of hardened bone pierced the charred skin, twisting and rejoining midair into ten-zhang-long golden wing-bones.
The whale's wails pierced the dimensional veil. Torn flesh swiftly re-knit itself, each chunk of seared blubber transmuting into blazing scarlet feathers that lit the deep like firelotuses.
Its once rounded tail split into nine streaming golden plumes, whipping up a tornado across the seabed.
And so it was that the whale's reborn body took the form of a colossal raptor, feathers sharp as blades, sinews taut with raw might.
The Island Whale had transformed from a leviathan into a great roc.
Its thousand-zhang bulk compressed to but twenty; blackened husk peeled away, unveiling lustrous amethyst-crimson feathers glimmering like crystal.
When the last vestige of its whale's skull reshaped into a hooked beak, golden light split the sea and sky.
Screeeeeee!
Thus was born the sixth-grade Violet-Eyed Roc Demon, the [Whale Roc], its emergence casting the entire Hun Continent into deeper turmoil.
Its piercing cry shattered waves across a hundred li. With violet wings unfurled, it soared skyward, streaking due north.
It no longer sought to brawl with the unseen sword cultivator, choosing instead to quit these waters and seek another battlefield.
Having completed its transformation, the [Whale Roc] now had to return to the Kunpeng's ancestral lands in the heart of the ocean to receive the true inheritance.
But first, brimming with rage, it craved release.
Its body stretched wide, [Violet-Eyed Life Essence] flaring, and it became a streak of violet radiance.
The Kunpeng kind: in the sea, leviathans vast enough to swallow islands whole; in the sky, rocs swift enough to chase the moon.
Its speed was peerless: three hundred thousand li in a single day, three times the speed of sound. None in all the Hun Continent could match it.
In the blink of an eye, it had crossed sixty thousand li of ocean, looming now over a great island.
This island soared three thousand zhang, mountains girded in rivers, the very heart of the Hun Continent, the seat of the Prefectural Office.
Upon a coastal peak, a colossal dragon-serpent coiled, body spanning ten li, gleaming like carved amethyst as it gazed skyward.
Its monstrous aura surged heavenward, mingled with myriad [Life Furnace] flames, setting half the sky ablaze.
With the great cultivators gone, this Dragon Python was the last bulwark of the Hun Continent.
Ordinarily, its appearance alone would silence all challengers.
But today was no ordinary day.
A single violet streak split the clouds, plunging straight toward the serpent's head.
The Dragon Python's defenses, immense though they were, shattered upon contact.
For the Kunpeng line devourers of dragons, predators of serpents were the eternal bane of True Dragon kin.
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