Heavenly Jewel Change

Just as they finished collecting the precious materials from the bodies of the Blood Blaze Lions, they were suddenly surprised by another loud howl, and another pitch black giant ape leapt out of the forest.

“Careful!” Lin TianAo shouted out. This time, he took the initiative to move ahead.

None of them had expected that another Heavenly Beast would come so quickly after the pride of lions. Furthermore, there had been no warning as the giant black ape had approached so silently. Its current position was extremely close to Little Four, and its two metre long thick arms flung out towards Little Four, its giant palms wide open as they smashed down towards Little Four.

The giant ape was about three metres tall, covered with bright black fur, and its yellow eyes were filled with a vicious rage. The Heavenly Energy around its body seemed even stronger than that of the Blood Blaze Lion Leader.

Little Four had a lot of battle experience, and being alerted by Lin TianAo’s shout directed at him, he did not hesitate and immediately used the Blink skill.

The huge black claw smashed through the position where Little Four was a split second ago, right as he reappeared ten yards away thanks to the Blink, breaking out in cold sweat from that close shave.

Of all Heavenly Beasts, the giant apes were closest to humans, and they were further blessed with a natural physical strength and offensive power. Even the powerful cats like lions and tigers would rarely taken them on willingly.

This giant ape in front of them did not seem to have any unique points on first look, but on closer examination, they could see a strange, diamond shaped scale in the center of its forehead.

Little Four exclaimed in surprise: “It’s a Dark Demon Ape, everyone be careful! That fellow is likely at least Low to Mid Level Zong Stage!”

Just from the ranking alone, this Dark Demon Ape would seem to be pretty much the same as the Blood Blaze Lion. However, do not forget about the word Darkness. Even at the same rank, the Heavenly Beasts with a Greater Attribute like that was definitely tougher to deal with.

At that moment, everyone couldn’t help but think to themselves… what was that little white tiger of Zhou Weiqing’s! For it to attract the attention of several Zong Stage Beasts from so far away while it was leveling up, that showed its appeal and attraction!

However, now was not the time to think about such things, and everyone sprang into action. Shangguan Bing’er’s bowstring sounded out quickly, as arrow after arrow streamed towards the Giant Ape’s eyes.

A layer of black light rippled out from the Dark Demon Ape, and any arrows which entered the light seemed to melt away like snow before even reaching the ape.

With a howl, the Dark Demon Ape leapt up towards Shangguan Bing’er, but at the same time, Lin TianAo had reached it.

With a swift sidestep, he bounced ahead, the full five-Shield Assembly appearing in his hands glowing with a thick yellow glow as he forcefully blocked the Dark Demon Ape. With a loud crash, the two smashed into each other, and Lin TianAo was sent back by the blow, rolling with it before landing on the ground. However, he had managed to successfully block the ape. However, a series of explosions rang out on his shield.

“Careful! Its attacks have a corrosive nature!” Lin TianAo shouted out. Even when facing such a powerful Zong Stage Beast, he remained calm and unflurried. A glow in his eyes, he did not hesitate as he stepped forward once more with his left foot, a strong yellow light from his shield enveloping his body. In the next moment, he had charged forward like a bulldozer towards the ape again.

This was one of the skills imbued in the Assembly Set Shield, called Shield Rush. Earlier, when he had managed to stun the Blood Blaze Lion Leader momentarily, it had been the merit of this very skill.

Alas, the Dark Demon Ape was not the Blood Blaze Lion. It had several advantages over the lion, agility and speed being one of them. Its powerful legs struck the ground hard, a savage aura bursting forth from its body as it lifted both hands in front of itself in a sudden burst of acceleration, striking forward towards Lin TianAo.

*BANG*! A massive but slightly muffled explosion rang out, accompanying a yellow flash reverberating around the area as the two clashed once more. The impact caused the Dark Demon Ape to fall back almost ten yards before stopping, but Lin TianAo also did not have it easy. Shield in hand, his body slid back several yards before finally stopping when he slammed into a tree. Sustaining injuries, he couldn’t help but spurt out a mouthful of blood.

This was also a Zong Stage Heavenly Beast, but unlike the Blood Blaze Lion whose Physical Attribute was not Strength, not only did this Dark Demon Ape have the rare Darkness Attribute, it also had the a Strength Attribute! Despite Lin TianAo’s preparation and usage of his Skills, he still sustained some internal injuries from their clash.

However, this clash did have its results, as the Dark Demon Ape was momentarily stunned. Once again, Lin TianAo’s powerful defense had awarded his companions with a great opportunity.

Xiao Yan’s attack was launched almost at the same time as the Dark Demon Ape was sent flying back by the impact, once again with the fused Chain Fireballs. With another massive explosion, the fused Fireball struck the Dark Demon Ape’s body. At that time, it was still in a stunned state from Lin TianAo’s blow, and its protective black shroud had dimmed considerably. The explosion from the Fused Fireball sent it flying back once more. However, its fur had an even greater defense than even the Blood Blaze Lion Leader, and it did not seem to have sustained any serious injuries.

Unfortunately for it, this was after all an entire team. Crow had also moved at the same time as Xiao Yan’s attack. Her entire body launched up high into midair, axes in each hand held up high, and she cleaved downwards with all her might.

As her heavy axes smashed downwards two glowing gold lights shot towards them like a bolt of lightning. Its target was not the ape, but Crow’s legendary axes. As the twin gold lights landed on the axes, the originally Dark-Gold glow of the axes brightened considerably.

The Dark Demon Ape only had the time to lift its arms to block as the axes landed.

*Craackk* *Craaackk* The thick arms of the Dark Demon Ape were actually smashed and broken by the heavy blows of the twin axes, and they continued on their path to bite savagely into the thick muscles of its neck.

With a pained howl, the Dark Demon Ape whirled around in anger, a ripple of black and blood-red light expanding from its body.

Little Four who had flown into the air by now shouted out: “Careful, it’s the Death Wave!”

As he spoke, five yellow lights sprung into the air, each a circular shape spinning around quickly. Two shot in front of Crow, one in front of Little Four, and the last two in front of Shangguan Bing’er and Drunken Bao respectively.

There was a strange buzzing sound as the Death Wave exploded outwards in a circle, and the five yellow lights darkened considerably as it passed. However, those protected by the five lights were totally uninjured, as the dark circles retreated back towards the same direction.

Naturally, the one who had saved everyone at such a critical moment was Lin TianAo, his Assembly Shield actually splitting into five. Indeed, those five yellow lights were his individual shields, and under Lin TianAo’s full power, they had barely managed to block the Death Wave.

The rest of the team was able to see the results of the Death Wave. The entire area it had passed by was filled with death and destruction; no matter grass, plants, rocks, everything had disintegrated and vanished. Such a terrifying destructive power was indeed a sight to behold.

Having sustained such heavy injuries, followed by unleashing its greatest attack, the Dark Demon Ape seemed exhausted. However, its eyes were still fixated upon the cave.

With a sudden sickening thud, a thick Ice Spear embedded itself into the Dark Demon Ape’s eye, spearing right through and carrying its body several yards back, as large amounts of blood spurted out of all its wounds.

The one who had dealt the finishing blow was naturally Ye Paopao with his Water Attribute Skill – Ice Spear. However, it wasn’t that he had managed to find such a great opportunity, but rather everything had happened so quick that his skill had been unleashed late, and his attack had only just arrived. In terms of tacit understanding and teamwork, he was still far from being able to have good timing with the team. After all, he did not have the same amount of real battle experience as Shangguan Bing’er did. Luckily, things had worked out well for them.

Crow took a quick step forward, grabbing her axes once more, before swinging them around to lop off the ape’s head. It wasn’t that she was cruel, but these Heavenly Beasts were tenacious and tough, with much life force within them. If they did not ensure the kill, they could actually burst forth with a last attack, and if anyone could be caught off guard and injured or worse, killed. Under such a circumstance when they might continue facing attacks from other Beasts, it might prove the downfall of the entire team.

Lin TianAo’s face was pale and ugly. This fight might have been extremely short and seemingly simple, but he had expended a huge amount of energy and effort. He had used more than half of his Heavenly Energy, and more importantly, he had sustained several injuries.

Shangguan Bing’er looked on from the side. She was extremely clear that both the Blood Blaze Lion and Dark Demon Ape were actually much more powerful than their entire team. The only reason they had managed to deal with them was because of teamwork, and more importantly, because of Lin TianAo.

Lin TianAo’s blows were always at the right time, right angle, and right place. It was only because of his powerful defense and combat ability that these two Zong Stage Heavenly Beasts had not been able to utilise their full power, and had been quickly finished off with everyone’s combined attacks. If not for that, if the Dark Demon Ape had been able to unleash its full arsenal, it could have easily killed most, if not all, of them. Although Lin TianAo’s methods were vastly different from that of the Heavenly Bow Unit’s, the overall goal was the same; to make use of teamwork and skill, not allowing the powerful Heavenly Beasts to unleash their power before it died.

There had not been much of a time gap between the Blood Blaze Lion Pride’s appearance to the even more powerful Dark Demon Ape’s appearance, and everyone’s face grew serious and worried. Zhou Weiqing had brought the little white tiger into the cave for only an hour, and they had already fended off two waves of powerful attacks. Who knew what else lay ahead?

“Do not harvest the materials from these Heavenly Beasts anymore, just take the Heavenly Cores quickly. Everyone, rest up and recover your Heavenly Energy.” Lin TianAo quickly made the decision and gave out an order.