Chapter 1289: The Value of the Shell
To all non-humankind creatures in Pan Gu world, bloodline was especially important. The origins of their bloodlines, the backgrounds of their ancestors, these meant almost everything to them.
For example, an ordinary tiger who lived in the forest might cultivate itself into a spirit creature, but for sure, it would be far less talented than a spirit tiger, which possessed the bloodline of the White Tiger, the holy beast. Based on the same cultivation level, a spirit tiger with White Tiger’s bloodline could defeat ten ordinary spirit tigers. Another example could be of an ordinary spirit fox, which was surely not as good as an offspring of Sky Fox, be it in terms of appearance or power. An ordinary spirit snake could never compare with a black water serpent, which had a strong prehistorical bloodline.
Bloodlines were essential. Therefore, without a strangely good luck, a spirit creature with an ordinary bloodline would have no chance to compete against the ones with strong bloodlines. Just like Yu Ancestor, who even risked infuriating Gong Gong to persuade him to strengthen his body and improve his bloodline with the essence water.
Crayfishes had a lowly bloodline. They lived at the bottom of the food chain, feeding on mud. Therefore, even if a crayfish luckily cultivated itself into a spirit creature, it still had to be extra careful to survive, like Shermie. Spirit crayfishes did have the chance to reach the level of Divine Magus with severe cultivation; Shermie did it. However, except for his pair of stunningly strong fists, Shermie had no other power or ability. To be honest, if Shermie didn’t meet Ji Hao, and if Ji Hao didn’t guide him through the Natural Trial Spirit Creature Soul Text and teach him to understand the great Dao of the extreme negative, his best possibility would be becoming a high-grade fighter among water-kind beings, no matter how strong he could be.
Nevertheless, that giant crayfish he saw in the darkness was a Chaos creature, a top-grade predator, one of the thirty million Chaos monsters who attacked, and finally killed Saint Pan Gu back then. It was born and lived in the Chaos. In terms of background, that giant crayfish was definitely more gifted than Xiang Liu, Kun Peng, and the others of the first generation of Pan Gu world creatures.
Netherworld soul-eating giant crayfish, ever since it was born, it struggled in the Chaos for life. But if Kun Peng and Xiang Liu were thrown into the Chaos when they were still newborns, they could last at most for a breath, before they were crushed completely, without a trace.
This dark piece of shell absorbed all of the netherworld soul-eating giant crayfish’s life-force before it was killed by Pan Gu. This shell recorded all its powers and secret magics. More importantly, a pure drop of spirit blood was sealed in it, a drop of spirit blood that belonged to the netherworld soul-eating giant crayfish.
If an ordinary spirit crayfish absorbed this drop of blood, it would have a great chance to change its bloodline, becoming a possessor of the netherworld soul-eating giant crayfish’s bloodline. The bloodline power generated by one single drop of spirit blood would be thin, but as long as this lucky spirit crayfish keeps cultivating itself, it would eventually become a real netherworld soul-eating giant crayfish.
A real netherworld soul-eating giant crayfish, unimaginably powerful.
"This treasure was in our family treasury for many years. We never found someone good enough for it." Tushan Inkstone gently stroked the smooth shell and said with a low voice, "Today, I met you, Mr. Summer...I think, it’s time for this treasure to meet its new owner."
Tushan Inkstone glanced at Ji Hao, then at Shermie. He locked his fingers together and lightly patted on the shell.
Followed by a loud series of popping noise, dazzling electric bolts burst from the shell. Magic seals on the shell were undone, layer by layer. A greatly stronger spirit creature power erupted from the shell, while a gray mist condensed into an enormous crayfish, wielding its claws in the reception room.
The enormous crayfish roared towards the sky, deeply and thunderously like dragon roars. The roars echoed through Ji Hao’s spiritual space. Ji Hao’s embryos of Dao of sun and the extreme negative each gave a deep shout, as resonant as a bright bell ring, dispelling the sound waves created by the crayfish. So, Ji Hao wasn’t affected at all.
However, Shermie and Heng Xing quivered intensely, then thudded their knees on the ground together.
This was a bloodline-level suppression from a high-level spirit creature over lower level ones. Shermie was only an ordinary spirit crayfish, while Heng Xing was an offspring of a Henggong fish and a devil bone fish. Both Henggong fish and devil bone fish had strong bloodlines, but still, they had no chance to win against a netherworld soul-eating giant crayfish. Therefore, both Heng Xing and Shermie kneeled straight on the ground, with sweat flowing down from their foreheads in streams. They trembled, and couldn’t say word.
Ji Hao slowly stood up. A bone-piercingly cold and evil power was released from his body. Tushan Inkstone’s smile froze on his face when he realized in shock that the strange power released by Ji Hao had frozen his body, disabling him from even blinking his eyes. A fist-sized jade pendent tied around Tushan Inkstone’s waist glowed with a dazzling light. A cyan-colored layer of light flew out of the pendent like water streams, spreading on Tushan Inkstone’s body.
However, the cyan light only managed to spread for about three feet far, before it was stopped by a silver-blue light. The cyan light and the silver-blue light clashed against each other violently, generating scary explosive sounds. Thousands of tiny spell symbols sparkled quickly on the surface of the jade pendent. The power of this amulet had been boosted up to the maximum, but it still failed to defeat the silver-blue light and protect Tushan Inkstone.
"Mr...S-Summer..." With all of his strength, Tushan Inkstone finally squeezed out a few words through his gritted teeth.
"The treasure is good, but you made my boys kneel... not good." Ji Hao conveniently took over the dark shell from Tushan Inkstone’s hand. The shell was thickly covered in natural patterns. Glancing at the shell, Ji Hao chuckled as he held the shell with both hands, then slightly flicked his wrists. A silver, frigid light spurted out from his palms, immediately covering the entire shell.
That strong spirit creature power released from the shell was suddenly gone, and so was that enormous crayfish. Shermie and Heng Xing stood back up from the ground, tremblingly wiping the sweat on their heads. They couldn’t recover from the soul-deep shock brought to them by the terrifying power, which belonged to the netherworld soul-eating giant crayfish, for a long while.
Clang! A longsword fell on the ground. Just now, when Ji Hao stood up, a few guards silently showed up in the reception room, wearing black soft armors. But as same as Tushan Inkstone, these guards were frozen by the cold power released from Ji Hao’s body, such that none of them could move an inch.
Ji Hao took over the shell and restrained his power, after which, a guard slightly moved his fingers, failing to hold his sword tight, which dropped to the ground.
"What? What kind of shop this is? You’re not thinking about murdering me for my money, are you?" Ji Hao squinted at the few guards, gave a cold smile, and said, "I am not afraid to tell you that this is my place. With one order of mine, millions of shrimp warriors will tear your shop down. Do you believe me?"
Tushan Inkstone’s body was slightly warmed up. Tremblingly moving his limbs, he hurriedly gave Ji Hao a big grin with a lingering fear and said, "Mr. Summer, this is a misunderstanding, a misunderstanding...I only wanted to show you the power of this shell. Any crayfish can use it."
Holding the shell, Ji Hao looked at those natural patterns on it and said blandly, "Cut the crap, name your price!"