Heaven Refining physique-Chapter 92: Grade 4 Spirit Beast

He again started moving but this time with a slightly slower speed, as he did not wish to exhaust himself too much while encountering a Grade 4 beast.

He truly desired to battle an early-stage Grade 4 beast, for it would give him a good measure of his strength. It was already evening, and covering 1,000 miles even with his speed was a vast distance, not to mention he also had to slay some spirit beasts along the way.

The area beyond 1,000 miles was much less explored by humans. It was a given fact that there would be fewer spirit beasts, but every single one would be stronger than those before.

As he was moving, his eyes fell upon a pond. He had seen many ponds along the way, but this one was different. There was a single flower in it, and the size of the pond was also quite smaller.

The flower was in the center of the pond, and the area around it was frozen. He stopped and looked toward it carefully. As expected, it was an Ice-type spirit herb, and it was a Grade 4 herb in its late stage.

For a spirit herb to grow until the late stage this close to the 1,000-mile mark without humans finding it was quite dubious.

Usually, spirit herbs begin with the early stages of their grade, and if nobody plucks them once they mature, they will continue absorbing spirit qi, increasing their stages from early to peak stage before breaking through to the next grade and evolving. By then, their next seeds will also produce spirit herbs of evolved grade.

But since it takes immense time for spirit herbs to break through, not many can afford to wait that long. Thus, the only way this Spirit herb had reached the late stage was that it had not been discovered by anyone, or some spirit beast was using this spirit herb as bait.

Given how open this pond was, it definitely was the second option.

Jiang Hao had not yet felt any fatal danger through his instincts, which meant that if there was indeed a hidden spirit beast here, it had not shown any kind of aggression toward him.

The pond was about 50 meters away from him, so he should definitely be within its spiritual sense range.

Of course, it might not be using its spiritual sense to keep an eye out and was merely waiting for someone to get near the spirit herb itself.

Jiang Hao thought for a moment and went toward it. There was nothing to fear anyway; he could always teleport away. He did not even need to use any minor or major teleportation techniques; he could teleport away using his qi.

When he came close to the edge of the pond, he finally felt killing intent, and it was coming from the pond itself.

He nodded inwardly. So, it was inside the pond itself. No wonder it had not shown any aggression toward him when he was far away from the pond.

The danger he was feeling was definitely higher than that of a peak Grade 3 spirit beast, but he was certain he could fight it. However, fighting a water beast inside water did not seem a wise choice. He had never fought underwater before, and his inexperience might become fatal.

He could not even fly perfectly, so balancing himself inside the water while fighting a Grade 4 beast would be a truly impossible feat for him.

A Grade 4 spirit herb was not enticing enough for him. Although he had a way to thoroughly anger this beast, if it came out to fight him, it would be ideal. If it did not, then he would leave.

A Grade 4 spirit beast could easily soar through the air, so coming out of water was not an issue for spirit beasts dwelling in water. Of course, they would not be as strong as they were in the water, so it was uncertain if it would come out or not.

Jiang Hao created a Nihility Sphere and looked toward the herb. He backed away a little from the edge of the pond and threw it with his full strength.

Before the beast could even react, it struck the spirit herb. A black orb of five meters in diameter was created before disappearing. The spirit herb, along with the ice and some water, vanished with it.

When water moved to fill the gap, it cracked the leftover ice on the surface.

For a moment, Jiang felt that he was not being watched by anything before feeling immense danger. It seemed the beast had looked at the place where the spirit herb was, and not finding it now, had turned its full attention to Jiang Hao.

Jiang Hao waited for it to come out. As expected, it did not take long before a beast flew out of the water. It was a turtle.

Its shell was covered in ice, and its grade, as expected, was at the early stage of Grade 4.

Jiang Hao sighed. Turtle-type beasts were not completely water-type beasts; they could live on land as well. It seemed it had stopped here in the pond after finding this spirit herb.

It might have been waiting for it to become a peak-grade herb while also using it as bait. Spirit beasts have far greater patience and lifespan than human cultivators, so they usually wait for spirit herbs to grow more to their liking.

This was also the reason why most spirit herbs in the wilderness had some spirit beast guarding them.

Jiang Hao observed the turtle closely. Its shell was covered in ice, and it had a single horn on its head, which also appeared to be made of ice. Its skin was blue in color.

It was at least three times bigger than him in height, while its length was even greater.

It also had a tail, the tip of which was covered in ice as well.

Its eyes were fixed on him, and there was no doubt they were filled with anger.

Jiang Hao prepared himself. This beast was far stronger than a peak Grade 3 beast. Seeing all that ice, it definitely was not an ordinary bloodlined beast either.

There was one more point: even though it was a turtle, its speed would definitely be faster than any peak Grade 3 beast that did not have wings.

It landed on the edge of the pond and did not wait. It opened its mouth, and Jiang Hao immediately sidestepped. The moment he did, an icicle passed by him at tremendous speed and struck a tree behind him.

It tore through the tree and several others behind it easily. Not to mention, the trees it tore through were all frozen at the point of impact.

Jiang Hao became utterly focused. The reason he was able to predict the attack was not because of his battle sense but because of his instincts.

Battle sense was helpful only in close-range battles, in which one could easily read the flow of combat. But an attack like this was not something anyone could predict.

Unless they knew that opening its mouth meant it would use a bloodline skill.

When the turtle saw that its attack had missed, it squinted its eyes. For an early-stage Grade 3 human to dodge its attack was a surprise to it.

It put strength into its legs and dashed toward Jiang Hao. Its horn began glowing, and it even grew a few more inches.

Jiang Hao created a Nihility Sphere and threw it directly toward its face. The turtle immediately changed its direction and dodged it easily.

It had seen what this strange black orb had done to the herb. Even it had felt chills when it had seen it before, so it definitely was not going to take it head-on.

While it was dodging, it had opened its mouth, and another icicle had left it. The Nihility Sphere had not even landed, and Jiang Hao had just stabilized himself from throwing it when he again felt extreme danger.

He ducked low, and as expected, an icicle flew past above his head. It was aimed at his chest, had he been standing.

After ducking, Jiang Hao put strength into his legs and leaped. His direction was not upward but toward the turtle itself. He reached it in a second, but the turtle’s eyes followed his every movement perfectly.

He made a fist and attacked toward its head. The turtle positioned its horn in the direction of his fist.

Jiang Hao’s fist was not covered in Primal Essence before, but the moment it was about to touch the horn, his entire fist became enveloped in it.

The turtle did not have time to see his fist before it struck the horn.

*Thud!*

Even though the sound of the clash was heard, Jiang Hao’s fist did not stop. It kept moving forward while refining the horn. As expected, it was only pure ice. Perhaps the true horn was beneath this ice.

Even though it was created by a Grade 4 beast and was quite strong, it still was refined easily. The beast understood what was happening and moved itself back. But before it could retreat too far, Jiang Hao created a Nihility Sphere inside his hand and crushed it.

A black orb formed from his fist, and it even covered more than half of the horn of the spirit beast. If it had not moved back, its entire horn might have been consumed.

Jiang Hao was not harmed by his own Nihility Sphere, but his garments were not spared, and he was bare again. He sighed inwardly when he felt the wind on his unclothed body.

Jiang Hao could finally see the small horn inside the ice, but it was still too deep to reach through his punch.