"You forced me!"
Anger surged within Mo Qi, and a wicked thought took root. He hurled the Qiankun Circle again.
The Qiankun Circle expanded violently and descended, trapping the demonic beasts within.
However, the demonic beast tide was at its peak of power. They hadn't endured the impact of the mechanical beasts, nor had they been thoroughly cleansed by the Soul-Bewitching Pills. After a fierce struggle, a series of "pop, pop, pop" sounds echoed as the demonic beasts broke free from the Qiankun Circle's restraint. They lunged at Mo Qi with bared teeth and claws, some even spitting out demonic light.
The demonic light surged towards Mo Qi like a tide.
Mo Qi was greatly alarmed and hastily retreated, simultaneously pointing a finger. The Qiankun Circle spun, encircling the demonic beasts once more.
As the demonic light roared forward, Mo Qi summoned the Haotian Mirror. A horizontal and a vertical ray of light shot out from its center, spinning and merging in the air, like a blinding fan expanding outwards.
It cut and corroded everything in its path, utterly destructive, with constant explosions. All visible objects turned to ash under the intense light's cutting and corrosive power.
The demonic light was dispersed upon contact with the light.
Fearing that harming the demonic beasts would prevent him from refining pills, Mo Qi immediately retracted the Haotian Mirror and tossed several prepared Soul-Departing Pills towards the beast horde.
The demonic beasts were attempting to break free from the Qiankun Circle's confinement again. A wave of Soul-Departing Pills cracked within the beast crowd. After a burst of white smoke, the demonic beasts quieted down, their eyes vacant and their expressions gentle.
Mo Qi flew up again, hovering above the demonic beasts, and scattered the appropriate raw materials.
Following this, he subjected them to the Sacred Fire, refining them into Spirit Beast Pills.
This time, he quickly collected the Spirit Beast Pills, but their strong fragrance still spread outwards unabated.
Freshly made items, still warm, would naturally have a more potent aroma.
As expected, another batch of demonic beasts rushed out desperately. Mo Qi followed the same procedure, refining batch after batch of Spirit Beast Pills using the aforementioned method.
During this process, the half-beast Niu Hu was drawn in.
He had initially found some demonic beasts and refined them with demonic fire. He felt the progress was quite smooth and believed he had a chance to win.
If he won this time, he would bring glory to his clan and could even lead other tribes. It would be a monumental achievement. Upon returning, he would surely be worshipped by thousands, and many half-beast maidens would throw themselves at him.
While lost in these daydreams, he smelled a waft of fragrance from afar and saw a large number of demonic beasts surging in one direction. Curious, he followed the direction of the beast tide.
Then, he witnessed a scene that shocked him!
This was too much!
He had truly underestimated this fellow!
He had thought Mo Qi wouldn't be able to refine Spirit Beast Pills, but it turned out he was better at it than anyone. He had been playing the innocent to hide his strength, which was detestable.
If things continued like this, he would definitely win the competition.
No, he couldn't let that happen.
At this moment, Mo Qi was channeling the Sacred Fire for refining. A batch of steaming hot Spirit Beast Pills was about to be produced. Suddenly, he felt a surge of spiritual energy behind him, extremely violent and filled with a bloodthirsty intent.
Someone was trying to take his life!
Mo Qi's internal spiritual energy was expanding and raging uncontrollably after consuming so many Spirit Beast Pills, almost bursting his body.
He had been busy refining pills and hadn't had time to properly digest and process it.
After all, the competition time was only four hours, and every moment was precious.
He was forcefully suppressing the rampant surge and impact of the spiritual energy.
Due to his own cultivation foundation, the spiritual energy could only enhance his effective cultivation, not increase it indefinitely. Therefore, excessive spiritual energy needed to be released.
Just then, he felt it was the right time to release the excess spiritual energy.
He turned directly, facing the direction of the sneak attack, and let out a mighty roar.
"Boom!"
A sea of fire instantly engulfed the world.
A fiery red filled his vision.
Within that fiery red, in the blink of an eye, he saw a tiger-headed, human-bodied figure swallowed by the sea of fire, disappearing instantly.
It was then he realized that Niu Hu had intended to ambush him, but had instead fallen into his own trap.
The fire rose and fell quickly, like a giant flame licking through the valley, turning the trees and everything hidden within into ashes.
Only a patch of scorched earth remained, along with lingering terror that sent the distant demonic beasts fleeing in all directions.
Mo Qi felt much better now. He patted his deflated stomach and exhaled, feeling refreshed in body and mind.
A moment later, another batch of Spirit Beast Pills was refined, and he collected them.
By then, no more demonic beasts were charging forward.
It seemed there were no more demonic beasts in this area, and he would have to search in other regions. You never know how hard your enemies are working; only by continuously striving can you possibly win.
Mo Qi put away his pill furnace and Qiankun Circle and continued forward.
Suddenly, he saw a faint red glow ahead, like lingering sunset clouds or light mist, ethereal and hazy, giving the impression of a treasure emerging.
Mo Qi was unconsciously drawn to it and walked towards the direction of the red glow.
The red glow emanated from a cave, accompanied by earth-shattering roars.
Mo Qi felt a bloodthirsty intent drawing towards him.
He cautiously peeked into the cave from the entrance.
He saw a giant python coiled in the cave, its body like a small mountain. It had a rock-like horn on its head, and its eyes were as large as lanterns, radiating a blood-red light.
Even more miraculously, its lower body was forked, appearing to be all tails, intertwined. Mo Qi couldn't count how many there were.
Inside the cave, there was a sloping cliff face. On the cliff face grew a blade of grass with emerald green leaves, bearing a red fruit. That red glow was emitted by that fruit.
This fruit was certainly extraordinary, either a poisonous fruit or an immortal fruit.
And this python, coiled in the cave, was none other than its guardian.
It stared at Mo Qi with its lantern-sized eyes, making Mo Qi shiver and almost retreat.
Just then, a figure approached from behind him, bypassed him, and lunged madly at the python, unleashing a five-colored divine light. "It's the Red Cloud Returning Immortal Fruit, and it belongs to me now."
It was Kong Xuan.
While Mo Qi stood stunned, Kong Xuan was already fighting the python.
The python opened its massive mouth and spat out a red mist that condensed in the air into the shape of a giant mouth, completely engulfing the five-colored divine light.
With a thunderous roar, the red mist instantly exploded and dispersed with the wind.
Kong Xuan, wielding a golden whip that shimmered with golden light, struck the giant python.
The python's tail whipped around and coiled around Kong Xuan's body. With a violent shake, Kong Xuan's body was flung into the air, smashed hard onto the ground, and then slammed against the stone wall. Mo Qi's eyelids twitched at the sight.