When system cheat becomes rampant!

Although these images were simulations, under the influence of spiritual power, they could unleash formidable destructive power—this was the bizarre aspect of desolate beasts. They managed to use spiritual power to manipulate the images recorded by magnetic fields and display such formidable combat power.

Elder Luo's explanation also felt quite novel to Xiang Beifei. Desolate beasts at the Meridian Opening stage should certainly not be underestimated. They no longer relied solely on brute force to deal with others but also used various bizarre physical abilities and spiritual power to confront humans, making them nearly impossible to guard against.

Elder Luo walked over, fiddled with a crevice in the rock, and said, "The Silent Centipede's body is too weak, so it normally hides in these ravines. With the aid of the wind-formed sound waves and the manipulation of spiritual power, it hunts down smaller desolate beasts by utilizing past recorded scenes here, then burrows into the body of the desolate beasts and sucks their flesh and blood dry."

"This desolate beast is truly formidable," Xiang Beifei couldn't help but say.

"Desolate beasts in the Meridian Opening phase are all formidable."

Upon saying this, Elder Luo paused for a moment, seemed to think of something, and then looked towards the depths of the wilderness outside the domain, a vast expanse of endless yellow sand.

After a while, he slowly said, "Desolate beasts above the Meridian Opening phase are even more formidable because they have already possessed intelligence not inferior to humans."

"The library doesn't have detailed records of desolate beasts in the God Refining stage," said Xiang Beifei.

"That's because desolate beasts in the God Refining stage are very intelligent, knowing how to protect themselves, making their weaknesses difficult to expose," Elder Luo said.

Desolate beasts in the Qi-Controlling stage only understand various brute strengths, relying on their tough fur and breathing fireballs, which already pose a challenge for many students.

Desolate beasts in the Meridian Opening phase possess control over various bizarre abilities, which are even not inferior to humans' systematic abilities, causing ordinary martial artists a lot of headaches when facing them.

However, desolate beasts in the Qi-Controlling and Meridian Opening stages, compared to human elites, are relatively easier to deal with. To study them, martial artists like Elder Luo often can capture them, then dissect them and discover their weaknesses.

But God Refining stage desolate beasts represent a different qualitative change.

Intelligent desolate beasts, possessing strong power, are hard to capture and even more unlikely to be dissected for learning freely. Therefore, even elite institutions like Liangzhou University have very few records on God Refining stage and above desolate beasts.

Simply because one does not know what to record.

Xiang Beifei pondered for a moment and asked, "So, every time the Jiuzhou Alliance faces a large-scale beast tide, is it these intelligent desolate beasts that are orchestrating it?"

Over thousands of years, the Jiuzhou Alliance had suffered countless beast tide attacks, with its territory constantly shrinking. All those desolate beasts originally lived well in their respective adapted wildernesses, many even natural enemies that would fight to the death upon encountering one another. But suddenly, at some point, they all dropped their grudges and collectively rushed toward the alliance's borders, which definitely wasn't without aim.

There was only one explanation.

Highly intelligent desolate beasts covertly controlled and instigated the beast tides.

Elder Luo withdrew his gaze and nodded slightly, "Yes, intelligent desolate beasts are high-level and can drive lower-level desolate beasts. Just like us Awakeners, systems of high-level talents suppress those of lower levels, and it is almost the same with desolate beasts."

Xiang Beifei thoughtfully looked at the corpse of the Silent Centipede in his hand.

Suddenly, he thought that this was just the Marquis Domain, hosting only Meridian Opening phase desolate beasts with such bizarre abilities. His parents had ventured into the "Inquiring Dao" a fourth-grade area—didn't that imply that the desolate beasts there possessed very high intelligence?

What exactly were his parents doing there?

"All right, let's not talk about such a heavy topic anymore. Got the energy? If not, chew on some seeds, and then we can move on," Elder Luo said.

"Okay."

Xiang Beifei stopped thinking about those concerns. He only wanted to focus on advancing his cultivation as soon as possible.

He had already stepped into the Meridian Opening phase and wanted to light up the fifth star and obtain the fifth ability. This time, he only needed three early Meridian Opening stage Beast Pills.

However, with Elder Luo's protection, he didn't mind killing a few more Meridian Opening phase desolate beasts, better safe than sorry, to avoid the hassle of making another trip later.

——

In a single day, Xiang Beifei had nearly scoured the entire Gobi desert for desolate beasts. He couldn't be bothered with those at the Qi-Controlling stage, and focused solely on hunting those at the Meridian Opening stage.

The killing process wasn't all smooth sailing. After slaying the sixth Meridian Opening stage desolate beast, Xiang Beifei was a disheveled mess, barely able to get up from the ground.

He was chewing sunflower seeds, recovering from his injuries.

Elder Luo was sitting beside him on a rock, feeling both pity and helplessness.

"You shouldn't have messed with later-stage Meridian Opening desolate beasts," he said.

Earlier, he had wanted to intervene several times, but hesitated because Xiang Beifei was stubborn and refused help unless it was a matter of life and death.

Elder Luo was initially amused to see the boy in such a sorry state, but seeing Xiang Beifei nearly lose his life made him anxious. He couldn't sit still with his heart in his throat, worrying about an accident, especially since the boy refused to ask for help.

"I didn't know it was a late-stage Meridian Opening at first,"

Xiang Beifei sat up, looked at the wound on his chest— a deep gash almost revealing his ribs. However, Elder Luo's sunflower seeds were slowly healing him.

He could handle early-stage Meridian Opening desolate beasts, and with a bit of guidance from Elder Luo, he could barely manage the mid-stage ones by exploiting their weaknesses.

But late-stage ones were far too powerful. The one just then, a giant scorpion, possessed a bizarre ability that trapped Xiang Beifei in a space where time seemed to stand still.

He described his own movements as sluggish like an old man's, while the opponent struck as fast as lightning, nearly killing him.

Fortunately, Xiang Beifei managed to escape the space in time because of Xiaohei's abilities, which were also somewhat effective against desolate beasts; this was his only consolation, but he dared not provoke those late-stage beasts again, knowing their weaknesses or not.

"I wish I could reach Elder Luo's level of strength," Xiang Beifei said admiringly.

Earlier, he had been chased by the giant scorpion all over the vast desert for two whole hours, desperately thinking of ways to defeat it, but the disparity in strength was too great. Eventually, Elder Luo, unable to bear it any longer, casually spit out a sunflower seed husk and killed the late-stage giant scorpion!

What astounded Xiang Beifei most was that when Elder Luo spat out the sunflower seed husk to kill the giant scorpion, his system still displayed [Realm——]

When Elder Luo truly made a move, Xiang Beifei still couldn't see Elder Luo's realm!

"How high exactly is your cultivation level, Elder Luo?" Xiang Beifei was truly astonished.

He thought Elder Luo might be at the late-stage of God Refining, but that was still too optimistic.

This Luo Yunxian was anything but simple!

"Don't rush for quick success. You've just begun Meridian Opening, killing late-stage desolate beasts is unrealistic. Take it slow; one day, you'll reach my level,"

Elder Luo patted Xiang Beifei on the shoulder, then pondered slightly as if thinking of something.

He was wondering how many days this "one day" truly meant.

Just a few days earlier, he boldy wagered it would take two months for Xiang Beifei to reach the Meridian Opening stage. Then Xiang Beifei casually took about a week, giving him quite a scare.

Now, he dared not make such guarantees lightly anymore. After living a lifetime, one cannot always lose face in front of the younger generation.

Besides, as it stands, Xiang Beifei's strength is improving like a ghost, almost at an SSR potential, and in his eyes, already much stronger than SSR.

Could he actually be the legendary UR level?