The bald, burly man was seriously injured and retreated, and Lu Ming and his group did not linger and immediately left the place.
After that, they became much more cautious, deliberately heading to secluded places to avoid encountering other martial artists.
For the next ten days or so, everything was peaceful and nothing major happened, allowing them to hunt wild beasts with peace of mind.
With the help of the metal spheres, their hunting speed against wild beasts increased significantly.
However, they discovered that while the metal ball could deal with beasts at the fourth level of the Void God Realm, it had great difficulty dealing with those at the fifth level or above. It could scare them, but they would turn around and run away, and the metal ball could not catch up with them.
Therefore, the wild beasts they hunted were all below the fourth level of the Void God Realm.
During this time, Lu Ming, Xie Nianqing, Xie Nianjun, and Tong Xier also went all out to kill wild beasts and hunt for their cores.
After all, if it relies solely on the metal ball, it will take half of the beast cores it hunts.
If they work together, the efficiency will naturally be much higher.
In ten days, combined with what they had hunted before, all the beast cores they had collected were estimated to be worth around 100,000 divine crystals, which was definitely a huge haul.
On this day, after the metal ball swallowed a beast core, it suddenly emitted a dazzling light, and a powerful aura spread out.
"Could this be... that I'm about to advance?"
Lu Ming was somewhat stunned.
Could this metal sphere advance in level by continuously devouring the beast's core?
A series of thoughts raced through Lu Ming's mind.
The metal ball, like a balloon, would inflate and shrink repeatedly for several hours before finally stabilizing, and its aura also increased.
"Second level of the Void God Realm!"
Lu Ming understood that the metal sphere had indeed advanced, reaching the second level of the Void God Realm.
Lu Ming was overjoyed. With the metal ball advancing, its strength would undoubtedly increase, and its speed in hunting wild beasts would certainly be faster.
While they continued hunting wild beasts,
A figure rushed out of a hidden cave; it was none other than the bald, burly man from Yuanluo Palace.
After more than ten days, his injuries were finally fully healed, and the aftereffects of burning his divine power were completely stabilized.
"Tong Xi'er, and that brat, you won't get away with this! If I can't have you, neither can you!"
The bald, burly man spoke menacingly, then vanished in a flash.
Tens of thousands of miles away, there was also a group of people hunting wild beasts. There were about a dozen of them. This group came from another force, the Wind and Cloud Hall.
Fengyun Hall is also a force no weaker than Yuanluo Hall and Zhengtian Army.
"who?"
Suddenly, an old man leading the Fengyun Hall looked sharply in one direction.
"Brother Feng's intuition is indeed sharp; I admire him!"
With a soft laugh, a figure appeared—it was the bald, burly man from the Yuanluo Palace.
"Kang Bing, is that you? What, you want to take advantage of my Fengyun Hall?"
The old man from Fengyun Hall scanned his surroundings with eyes as sharp as lightning.
The other members of Fengyun Hall also looked around warily.
The Chaotic Star Sea is inherently a chaotic place, with countless forces of all sizes, and it is commonplace for these forces to fight each other.
On Wanjinxing, fighting each other for beast cores is commonplace, so they naturally have to be on high alert.
"Brother Feng, you jest. I've come to tell you about an incredible opportunity!"
The bald, burly man smiled.
"An incredible opportunity?"
The old man's lips curled slightly, clearly disbelieving, and he said, "If there were such a chance, would you, Kang Bing, be so kind as to tell me? You would have kept it for yourself long ago!"
"This opportunity wasn't in my hands; it was snatched away by someone else. Those were a few lads from the Zhengtian Army. They obtained a metal sphere that possessed sentience and could suppress other metal beasts on Wanjin Star. Then they seized the beast cores of those beasts with astonishing efficiency!"
The bald, burly man said.
"What? There's actually such a treasure? Kang Bing, you're not kidding me, are you?!"
The old man still seemed somewhat skeptical.
"Believe it or not, the message has been delivered. There are only four people in the Zhengtian Army, three women and one man, all young. Why don't you try it and see if it's true?"
The bald, burly man smiled, then vanished in a flash.
"Brother Feng, what should we do? Is what Kang Bing said true or false?"
Someone asked the old man.
"There are such powerful metallic beings that can suppress other metallic beasts. It's better to believe it than not. If it's true, we'll be rich! Let's find those kids from Zhengtian Army immediately!"
The old man gave the instructions.
Afterwards, the bald, burly man traveled across the land, searching for people from other forces, and spread the news. Most people, like the elder of the Wind and Cloud Hall, were willing to search and see for themselves.
More and more people joined the search for Lu Ming and his companions.
Lu Ming and his group were completely unaware of this and continued hunting for beast cores.
With the advancement of the metal sphere, their speed in hunting beast cores increased significantly, and they were even able to hunt down wild beasts at the fifth level of the Void God Realm.
"Someone's there!"
On this day, as they were traveling, Xie Nianjun's eyes suddenly lit up.
Lu Ming and Xie Nianqing also sensed it immediately.
Swish! Swish!...
Six figures flashed ahead.
Among these six people were snake people and minotaurs.
The elderly snake-man at the head of the group swept his gaze over Lu Ming and his companions with a gloomy expression, finally settling on the metal sphere on Lu Ming's shoulder.
"Just as Kang Bing said, there really is such a metallic life form!"
The old snake-man's eyes were filled with greed.
They came from a small faction, consisting of only six people on Wan Jin Xing. Upon hearing Kang Bing's news, they immediately began searching everywhere, and unexpectedly, they were the first to find Lu Ming and his group.
"Boy, hand over that metal ball you're carrying, and we might spare your life!"
The old snake-man spoke, his voice sharp and hoarse, his snake tail swishing back and forth, full of threat.
"They came for the metal ball?"
Lu Ming's heart skipped a beat, and he immediately thought of the bald, burly man in the Yuanluo Palace.
It must have been that bald, burly man who leaked it, or perhaps he simply wanted to use someone else to get rid of them.
"roll!"
Lu Ming sneered.
Of the six, the one with the highest cultivation was the snake-man elder, who was at the fourth level of the Void God Realm. The others were all below the fourth level of the Void God Realm, so they had nothing to fear.
"What did you say? A mere Void Transformation Realm cultivator dares to speak to me like that! If you had obediently handed over the metal sphere, I might have considered sparing your life. But now, even if you kneel down and beg me, you're still going to die!"
The old snake-man's voice was icy cold, filled with chilling killing intent.
"I'll kill him!"
A minotaur at the third level of the Void God Realm, wielding a battle axe, arched his body and took a step forward, his figure like an arrow rushing towards Lu Ming.
"Go, smash him to death!"
With a wave of his hand, Lu Ming sent the metal ball flying, which then rapidly expanded and slammed down on the minotaur.
Editor's note: The damaged English source for this chapter has been replaced with WTR-LAB's public Web machine translation from Chinese, with minor editorial corrections. Names and wording may differ from nearby chapters.