Life Essence Jade

Before Jiang Hou could react, a beast appeared in front of him. From it's outward appearance, apart from the horn on its head, it looked like a regular male lizard, only it's bigger. It is as large as a fully grown earthly crocodile.

When it appeared before Jiang Hou, it opened a dark mouth full of sharp teeth. Jiang Hou almost couldn't avoid retching from its stinky breath. In anger, he split the monster in two. It had no time to react. Never in its long life would it have expected that its own hot temper was what led to its death.

"You should keep it's Monster Core. It is the Main ingredient for refining the Longevity Pill. Although the level of the Monster is not enough, it is a classified Rare Monster after all", said Jiang Muchen.

"Life Devourer, sucking up the Fire of Life that is in the brain of a human cultivator and a Monster's Monster Core", muttered Jiang Hou.

"When the monster attacks a cultivator, the cultivator can only die or wait to die. Since the Fire of Life is the thing that keeps a living being alive, both mortals and cultivators, humans and monsters", Said Protector Liu.

"The worst thing is that it is hard to cure. When someone gets attacked by it, part of their Fire of Life is stolen away. When all of the Fire of Life is gone, the body of the owner will live for only a short period of time. The soul will disperse, and the body will return to the energy of the world, with no hope of entering reincarnation", Protector Lei said in a hoarse voice.

So, Jiang Hou, after keeping the green crystal orb emitting rich vitality, he continued with others. Since there are rotten corpses all over the place, they blocked their sense of smell by spiritual energy, keeping the odour outside of them. 

They also flew above the corpses. They are not some pervert or poverty stricken cultivator who would touch corpses for treasures. If it is an inheritance, they would accept that it is coming from a fallen powerful man who is blessing the later generations.

Soon, they came to the end of the cave where a stone table had been placed. It is dark here, but this is not a problem for cultivators. On the table lies a young man with half his skull eaten. Even his innards are gone. But he seems to still be alive.

When Jiang Hou and others approached, the head slowly turned sideways, with the remaining eyes looking at them. Then they heard a voice in their minds, 

"Please, save me. Free me".

Jiang Hou sighed and said, "Don't worry, you will be freed". He restrained his Spiritual Sense, making it seem like a normal Spiritual Sense, then he attacked the body on the table with a 'Spiritual Shock', an attack method of the Sense.

This is something he obtained from RAJH's memories. Although he knew about it before, he couldn't perform it yet. With his cultivation now however, he can at least perform this 'simple' Spiritual attack.

The others in the room were only slightly surprised. They knew Jiang Hou was a genius, so it is normal to display something unique to geniuses. And being able to perform 'Spiritual Shock' is normal among geniuses of the same strength.

The body on the table shook violently for a while, then it stopped moving. What others saw was the normal 'Spiritual Shock', however, what really happened was the early dispersing of the body's soul.

From RAJH's memories, Jiang Hou knew that as one's cultivation realm increases, the importance of the Spiritual Sense will become more prominent. In the Early Stages, cultivators will be able to perform simple Spiritual Attacks like 'Spiritual Shock'. In the Middle Stages, it will evolve to a more powerful entity called Aura, which is able to intimidate, stun, suppress, and even kill others.

The Later stages are the most severe, a mere thought can kill an enemy a hundred thousand miles away. What Jiang Hou displayed was the Middle stage 'Spiritual Shock'. It is an attack that targets the Sea of Consciousness and Soul of a Cultivator, or the Spirit of a Mortal.

When the body stopped moving totally, Jiang Hou signalled, and one of the remaining Four Guards collected the body, and Jiang Hou said, "We need to give him a proper burial after leaving this One Hundred Thousand Monsters Mountain Range".

"Yes, Holy Son", they replied.

In their hearts, they think the Holy Son is too kind. 'He can even think about the body of a Casual Cultivator that was eaten by a monster'. In Jiang Hou's mind however, 'You will suffice for the next plan', he thought.

They looked around but didn't find anything else, but when they were about to leave, Protector Kang said, "Wait! We seem to have forgotten something".

"Protector Kang, what is it? We've already collected the Monster Core, and the miserable cultivator's body to bury. What could we possibly miss?", asked Jiang Muchen.

Jiang Hou also looked over. Seeing them looking at him, Kang Xinshen didn't delay matters either, saying, "It is said that in the lair of a Life Devourer, there will always be a Life Essence Jade, able to nurture Saint King Rank Spiritual Medicines"

"But it's only an Early stage Integrated Union Realm monster", Jiang Hou asked in 'doubt'. Of course he knew, but he would only come back for it some other time. However, since someone mentioned it, he can only continue to pretend. As a Holy Son, there are limits to what he can know. 

"It doesn't matter what strength the Life Devourer has, the Life Essence Jade is a treasure born from the condensed vitality from the breath of the monster over a long period of time. The shortest time is ten years", Kang Xinshen started, and continued to explain,

"This one at the Early stage of the Integrated Union Realm must have lived for at least 120 years, which means, there is a Life Essence Jade that's more than 100 years old in this cave"

With 'shining eyes', Jiang Hou said, "Then let's look for it. We won't leave until we find it". And so they began to search. First, Protector Liu burned all the rotten corpses into ashes, and then condensed spiritual rain to wash away the ashes.

What appeared before them was a black floor, and walls. They searched around for a while, when one of the Guards moved the stone table where the dead body was lying before. When he turned it over, a vast amount of misty vitality washed over him, and he could feel his bottleneck loosen greatly, and his cultivation was continuously improving.

His spirit and soul, and body were being washed by this vitality. But he restrained himself, and, with a rosy face he shouted, "I think I found it".

The others quickly gathered around.

"What rich vitality!" Jiang Muchen exclaimed.

"It is definitely the Life Essence Jade. And it's not just one!", Lei Yan also exclaimed.

Looking at the place where the stone table had been, 5 Green Jades lay on the floor, emitting immense vitality. It was so vast that, 

"Good! Good! Good! You did good this time. You can actually think of moving the stone table away. Not only that, you were able to restrain yourself. You know your place", Liu Mingjue said.

"I was only obeying the orders of the Young Master", the guard replied. But he was sweating.

"Still you did good. Don't hold back anymore. If you feel the need to breakthrough, do it now. All four of you should. What greater joy would it be to become sanctified on an adventure like this?", Jiang Hou said.

The four Guards became happy immediately. They hurriedly shouted, "We thank the Young Master for his grace", then sat down cross-legged to practise.

"Elder and Protectors, don't hold back either", Jiang Hou said.

"Wait!" Liu Mingjue said. "Holy Son, isn't something weird? How could there be five Life Essence Jades when there's supposed to be one? And these five seem to not be merely 120 years old. It will not be an exaggeration to say that they are 1000 years old Life Essence Jades", he continued

This brought the group out of their frenzy. 'That is true!', they thought. What was going on here?

They began to look around vigilantly, even the guards put their practice on hold for now. After all, it is best not to be disturbed when breaking through a realm, especially a Great Realm. And not just a Great Realm, they are crossing the chasm that has stopped countless numbers of others on their path to the top.

It is essential to breakthrough in one go rather than to start and get interrupted. The consequences are severe. The least severe is that the cultivator who was on the verge of breakthrough would die. The most severe would be that he becomes crazy and goes on a killing spree, taking others with him, whether innocent or not, mortal or cultivator.

Then a sigh resounded within the cave.