Against all odds, against an opponent who stood at the peak of the Core Formation Realm, who possessed the bloodline of a divine beast, Kyrian had won.
But how?
The question bothered him.
He still did not fully understand how he had managed to defeat the beast. That translucent blue aura that had erged from his eyes in the final mont of the battle...
Kyrian had no idea what that thing truly was.
Nor how he had managed to use it.
All he rembered was that deep sensation of connection with his eyes.
As though, in that mont, all the ice in the world had responded to his will.
Kyrian’s eyes narrowed slightly.
Even now, hours, perhaps days, after the battle, he could still feel that connection.
Weaker, yes. Distant, certainly. But still present.
Like an invisible thread linking his eyes to sothing he could neither see nor fully comprehend.
His understanding of ice seed deeper than before the battle.
Far deeper.
It was not rely a sensation. Kyrian could feel the difference in the way ice Qi responded to him. Before, it had been like controlling a tool. Now, it was almost like commanding an extension of himself.
However, Kyrian also understood one thing clearly.
Using that power again in his current state would be suicide.
His body simply could not withstand that energy.
The sensation of internal freezing that still remained within him was proof of that.
His muscles had suffered.
His consciousness felt exhausted, as though it had aged several years within only a few minutes of battle.
’Perhaps... when my body evolves. When my cultivation increases.’
’Then perhaps I will be able to use that power freely.’ Kyrian thought.
But until then, he would avoid doing so.
Only in extre situations. Only when he was truly facing death.
...
Kyrian sighed slowly.
That battle had been the most difficult of his life.
Far more difficult than any previous confrontation. The beast had been monstrous.
Its physical strength, its endurance, its vast Qi, its speed, everything about that creature existed on a different level. All because of its draconic bloodline.
Dragon blood.
Kyrian now understood clearly.
The legends about ancient divine beasts were probably true. If rely a creature possessing a tiny fraction of that bloodline had already been capable of pressuring him to such an extent, of nearly killing him multiple tis...
Then a true dragon...
For a mont, Kyrian imagined facing a real dragon in the sa realm as that lizard.
He would probably die quickly. In seconds, perhaps. The difference between a lizard carrying traces of draconic blood and a pure-blooded dragon was likely as vast as the difference between an ordinary mortal and a cultivator.
The thought caused his eyes to shine faintly.
But instead of fear, he felt anticipation.
A spark of excitent burned within his chest, even with his body aching and his ridians damaged.
Because Kyrian also possessed absolute confidence in himself.
He was not an ordinary cultivator. His eyes were not ordinary eyes. The path he walked was not an ordinary path.
If one day he faced a true dragon in the sa realm as him...
He did not believe he would lose.
That certainty did not co from arrogance. It ca from sothing deeper, from the sa connection he felt with his eyes.
...
After a few minutes recovering his breath and gathering enough strength to ignore the pain throbbing through every inch of his body, Kyrian finally began to stand.
The movent was slow. Almost clumsy.
He used his hands to support himself against the frozen ground, pushing his body upward with an effort that seed to demand more energy than the entire battle against the lizard.
His legs trembled. His arms trembled. But he ignored it.
Kyrian stood up.
For a mont, he simply remained there, motionless, breathing deeply, feeling the volcano’s hot air enter and leave his lungs.
’Pain. It is only a small pain.’ He thought.
Step by step, he slowly walked toward the half-frozen corpse of the Five-Horned Lava Lizard.
Every step was a small victory over his own body. The ice beneath his feet cracked softly under the weight, and the sound echoed throughout the silence of the devastated region.
As he approached the beast, Kyrian raised his eyes.
The ice around the colossal body slowly began lting under his control.
Soon, the gigantic corpse was fully revealed before him.
Even dead, even covered in wounds inflicted by Kyrian, the lizard still appeared threatening.
The red scales reflected the glow of the distant lava, creating patterns of light that danced slowly across the beast’s surface.
The five horns remained intact. Kyrian had not managed to damage them during the battle, and they glowed faintly, as though they still retained remnants of the power the creature possessed in life.
Kyrian placed a hand upon the lizard’s head.
The scales were extrely hard. Even frozen, even without fire Qi protecting them, Kyrian could feel the resistance beneath his fingers.
’Obviously, I’m not going to leave this corpse here.’
It was a beast with draconic blood.
Every part of that body was worth a fortune.
The scales are capable of resisting attacks that would destroy ordinary armor. The bones are light, durable, and perfect for forging weapons or creating certain types of pills.
The horns, filled with concentrated fire Qi, were valuable to alchemists and craftsn.
The organs, so of them, such as the heart and the beast core, contained essence possessed by very few creatures in the Northern Territory.
And above all, the draconic blood essence.
Kyrian’s eyes glead faintly at the thought.
That beast’s blood essence would definitely be extrely useful soday.
Without hesitation, Kyrian used his spatial ring.
A light flashed briefly as the ring’s internal space opened, ready to receive the corpse.
Then the gigantic body of the lizard disappeared.
Where there had once been a mountain of scales and bones, now there was only empty ground, stained with blood and still frozen in so places.
But imdiately, Kyrian realized the problem.
His spatial ring... was practically full.
The lizard’s corpse occupied an enormous amount of space inside the ring, far more than Kyrian had anticipated.
The resources, materials, and treasures he had accumulated, the herbs purchased in Red Smoke City, the robes, the scrolls, the pills.
There was no longer much free space.
Kyrian frowned slightly.
"I need to find a larger spatial ring."
Doing so, however, would not be easy. High-capacity spatial rings were extrely rare and expensive.
Even in the great cities of the Northern Territory, finding one that t his needs could take ti.
He stored the thought away in his mind and would continue dealing with it in the next city.
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