Martial Universe (Wu Dong Qian Kun)

The air in the valley seemed to solidify the instant those words left Lin Dong’s mouth, while the Mighty Earthsplitting Tiger stared at Lin Dong with a savage glint in his eyes.

“So you have the same goal as the rest of them,” the Mighty Earthsplitting Tiger opened his mouth, revealing its sharp and frightening white fangs.

“There is no free lunch in this world. If it wasn’t for my help today, not only would you have lost the Heavenly Devil Tiger bone, you might have even lost your life.” Lin Dong replied indifferently.

“And I have made myself clear that you must pay the price if you want me to assist you. You should have already guessed what price I was talking about at that time.”

“Since you have already promised me, based on your current words, it seems like you were deliberately trying to trick me?” Under Lin Dong’s straw hat, an icy glint swept across his eyes.

“I cannot deny that you have indeed helped me. However, I am preparing to use the Heavenly Devil Tiger bone to breakthrough the second Nirvana Tribulation. I will never give it to you!” the Mighty Earthsplitting Tiger spoke hesitantly while its eyes contained uncertainty.

“I have some Nirvana Pills in my hands and I can offer them to you as your remuneration.”

Lin Dong’s brows creased subtly. Obviously, things were not going smoothly as he had expected it to be. Apparently, it was not an easy task to make the Mighty Earthsplitting Tiger gave up the Heavenly Demonic Tiger’s bone obediently.

Seeing Lin Dong remain silent, fear flashed across the Mighty Earthsplitting Tiger’s eyes. Then, it casted a glance at the Blood Soul Puppet behind Lin Dong. It knew that if they were to fight, it might not be able to gain an upper-hand against the combined forces of Lin Dong and the Blood Soul Puppet .

“Hey hey, there’s no need for such a tense situation…”

Just as the atmosphere in the valley froze, the lazy voice of Little Marten finally reverberated through the air. Then, it appeared on Lin Dong’s shoulder while wobbling its body.

“Demonic Spirit?”

The Mighty Earthsplitting Tiger was startled when he saw Little Marten appeared on Lin Dong’s shoulder. Soon after, a twinge of sombreness and fear gushed through its eyes. Even though Little Marten was petite in size, for some reasons, the Mighty Earthsplitting Tiger could sense a faint overwhelming pressure from it.

“Hey, lunkhead. Don’t tell me you are thinking about keeping the Heavenly Devil Tiger bone and implant it into your body during the Nirvana Tribulation? If that’s the case, Grandpa Marten think you won’t be able to live long. The bloodline of Heavenly Demonic Tiger race is overbearing and with your mediocre physique, even if you forcefully fuse with it, you will not be able to display its powers. Instead, you might have more to lose if your bones are incompatible,” Little Marten shot a glance at the Mighty Earthsplitting Tiger and warned.

Upon hearing these words, the Mighty Earthsplitting Tiger’s facial expression changed but surprisingly, it did not refute Little Marten. It did have this notion all along and it also clearly know that it was extremely dangerous to do this.

“It is extremely difficult to pass through the Nirvana Tribulation. Without the Heavenly Demonic Tiger’s Bone, I might as well be considered as dead, so I rather take the risk,” the Mighty Earthsplitting Tiger uttered in a low voice. When the tiger faced Little Marten, the aggression in the former’s voice toned down unconsciously. Through the unique connection between Demonic Beasts, it could detect that the seemingly tiny Little Marten appeared to hide an aggression that was stronger than itself by countless times.

“You seem determined to pass through the second Nirvana Tribulation. Forget about it, I can see that you have put in the effort to cultivate till this level. Grandpa Marten shall not use those typical threatening tactics against you.” Little Marten said with its claw under its chin. Soon after, with a grasp of its other claw, a glowing bamboo strip appeared in that claw.

“This is an unique body transformation martial art practised by the species of Dark Abyss Tiger. If you can master it, your chances of passing through the Nirvana Tribulation should increase by around thirty percent.”

“The Dark Abyss Tiger’s body transformation martial art”

Upon hearing these words, the Mighty Earthsplitting Tiger could not help but loseits voice momentarily. The Dark Abyss Tiger was one of the three great tiger species and their body transformation martial art was remarkably formidable. This was considered a priceless treasure to those tiger-type Demonic Beasts. It could not believe that the glowing bamboo strip in Little Marten’s claw is actually the legendary martial art.

Little Marten paid no attention to the greatly astonished Mighty Earthsplitting Tiger and threw the glowing bamboo strip to the tiger. Upon seeing this, the Mighty Earthsplitting Tiger hastily catched the glowing bamboo strip and the glowing bamboo strip then materialized into an enormous amount of information that flowed straight into the tiger’s mind.

“This is indeed the Dark Abyss Tiger’s body transformation martial art,” the Mighty Earthsplitting Tiger’s eyes shone brightly as the amazing information disseminated in his mind.

“Lunkhead, hand over the Heavenly Devil Tiger Bone now,” Little Marten darted a glance at the delighted Mighty Earthsplitting Tiger and pouted slightly. Although this martial art might not be exceptionally powerful amongst the species of the Dark Abyss Tiger, it was still a prized treasure to the Mighty Earthsplitting Tiger.

Having heard the words, a tinge of hesitation swiped across the eyes of the overjoyed Mighty Earthsplitting Tiger. Then, it mumbled, “So this martial art can only increase my success rate by thirty percent?”

Little Marten narrowed its eyes with disdain and the tone of its voice turned flat, “Lunkhead, my patience for you is going to run out soon. There hasn’t been anyone in this world who refuses to comply after receiving benefits from me.”

As these words hung in the air, Little Marten suddenly took a step forward and levitated in mid-air. A faint enormous shadow formed behind its body. That shadow’s wings, which were so gigantic that they could cover the heaven and earth, began to flap lightly. An aura that made the Mighty Earthsplitting Tiger trembled in compliance propagated through the area silently.

“Celest… Celestial Demon Marten!”

The Mighty Earthsplitting Tiger stared at the gigantic shadow behind Little Marten in horror and its body broke out in a cold all of a sudden. Clearly, it was no stranger to this species, which would even be considered as the elite in Demon City.

“Lord Celestial Demon Marten, please do not be angry. I shall bring forth the Heavenly Devil Tiger Bone to you now!” However, this Mighty Earthsplitting Tiger was quick-witted.The tiger knew that Little Marten was infuriated by looking at the latter’s appearance and it did not dare to procrastinate any further. It then swiftly rushed into its cave.

“Tsk.”

Seeing the back view of the frightened tiger, Little Marten withdrew the humongous shadow and the terrifying aura was gone with it as well. Little Marten smirked and seemed proud of itself as it returned to Lin Dong’s shoulder, “Did you see this? This is the mightiness of Grandpa Marten. Now, you should know how domineering and scary the race of Celestial Demon Marten are?”

Lin Dong spread his hands and paid no notice to the pompous fellow and set his gaze at the cave entrance. Soon, a urgent and heavy footsteps could be heard. After a while, the Mighty Earthsplitting Tiger reappeared. However, this time around, there was a thirty-metres huge, black-coloured skeleton on the tiger’s shoulder.

Boom!

The black skeleton was solidly placed on the ground and in that instant, the entire valley trembled a little. Even Lin Dong was shaken by that impressive weight. Then, he threw a scrutinising look at the skeleton.

The skeleton was wholly pitch-black and flickered with a metallic lustre as if it was made of black steel. Even though only a set of tiger bones was left, there was still an aura of dominance and ferocity emitting from deep within the bones.

Under the diffusion of the such overwhelming aura, even the Mighty Earthsplitting Tiger could not help but to retreat a few steps away. Its eyes were flashing with zealousness and reluctance as it stared at the tiger bones.

Lin Dong clicked his tongue twice. Based on the shape of the skeleton, he could make a rough judgement of the beast’s appearance when it was still alive. It was indeed the shape of a tiger. Imagined if the Heavenly Demonic Tiger was still alive, how overbearing and mind-trembling its aura would be. The Heavenly Demonic Tiger’s reputation as one of the three great tiger-types Demonic Beasts was not undeserving indeed.

Little Marten landed on top of the Heavenly Demonic Tiger’s skeleton but it did not cower under the influence of the overbearing aura exuded by the skeleton. It then pat on the bones with its claws and nodded his head at Lin Dong, acknowledging, “This is indeed the Heavenly Demonic Tiger’s bone.”

Having heard Little Marten’s acknowledgement, Lin Dong deeply heaved a sigh of relief. Finally, he had gotten it and with this, Little Flame could attain the Nirvana stage and leave its beast-form.

Lin Dong bent down and examined the set of skeleton. Under the reluctant gaze of the Mighty Earthsplitting Tiger, Lin Dong swung his sleeve and kept the skeleton in his Qiankun bag.

“Haha, thanks a lot for this gift.” Knowing that the tiger’s skeleton was in his hands, Lin Dong felt rather jovial and laughed at the Mighty Earthsplitting Tiger, who was still glaring at him.

The Mighty Earthsplitting Tiger laughed bitterly as it shook his head. However, when it thought about the martial art that he had just obtained, it felt a little less gloomier. Given Celestial Demon Marten’s status, the tiger knew that the former would not toy around with it. Hence, it seems like this martial art should be legitimate.

“We still have other things to do, so we shall not stay any further. Mate, I think that you should leave this place as well. Those guys earlier on will not give up so easily,” Once Lin Dong obtained the thing he needed, he did not have any intentions to stay on.

“Alright.”

The Mighty Earthsplitting Tiger nodded his head. Even though it intended to kill Chen Mo and his gang, it also understood that he was not on the winning side in term of numbers and he alone could not contend against them. It seemed like it had to retreat to those secluded inner sanctums of the mountain to train peacefully. Until the day it became stronger, then could it tore through space and time to leave the Ancient Battlefield.

“Take care.”

Lin Dong bidded farewell to the tiger and with a jolt of his body, he flew out of the beast valley. At the same time, Little Marten materialized in a red glow and went back into Lin Dong’s body.

Looking at the back of Lin Dong who was now far away, the Mighty Earthsplitting Tiger heaved a sigh of relief. The aura exuded by Little Marten made him feel somewhat unbearable. It was the kind of condescending oppression that a superior exerted on an inferior.

“The legendary Celestial Demon Marten is indeed scary…..”