Nine Star Hegemon Body Art (WN)

Through the armadillo’s memories, Long Chen found that the surrounding land was truly a land of treasures. Countless priceless medicinal ingredients were growing in the vicinity. Furthermore, Long Chen was only on the outer edge of that region.

The depths of this region contained countless astounding treasures. However, taking them wouldn’t be easy as even more terrifying beasts were guarding them. With the armadillo’s power, it could only occupy a small area in the outer region.

After Long Chen had given the Violet Leaf Orchid Heart Fruit to it, healing its wounds, it was extremely grateful to Long Chen, to the point that it wouldn’t even reject a slave seal if Long Chen willed it. However, Long Chen didn’t do so and let it go.

Due to its long contact with the Violet Leaf Orchid Heart Fruit, its intelligence had risen, setting it apart from normal devil beasts. Otherwise, it wouldn’t have stayed to protect its offspring.

After it left with its four pups, Long Chen tidied up his thoughts. He then took out a piece of paper and started to draw a rough map.

“Wait, senior, don’t you know what treasures there are around here?” asked Long Chen while drawing.

He suddenly felt dumb. The Earth Cauldron had said that it could sense natural treasures. If he just asked the Earth Cauldron to search for them, wouldn’t that be enough? Why was he wasting his time like this?

“Food has to be eaten one bite at a time, and life must also be taken one step at a time. Sometimes, there are just no shortcuts,” replied the Earth Cauldron, seemingly seeing through his thoughts.

Long Chen cursed inside. Why did the seniors around him always spout incomprehensible principles to him? Hence, he stopped asking.

However, he vaguely felt that the reason the Earth Cauldron had led him in this direction was probably not so simple.

Long Chen quickly drew a simple map. It was crude and lacked any directional markers because the armadillo couldn’t differentiate between north, east, south, and west. Instead, it only recognized its immediate surroundings and what lay further beyond. It also knew which area was peaceful or dangerous.

That armadillo had once ventured deep into this land, but upon encountering some terrifying lifeform, it fled without even laying eyes on it, driven away by the creature’s ominous aura.

Subsequently, it ousted the previous guardian of the Violet Leaf Orchid Heart Fruit and assumed the role itself. Later, another armadillo arrived—this one being the father of the pups.

At first, the two of them fought over the Violet Leaf Orchid Heart Fruit Tree, but they soon started to work together. However, just a few hundred years back, another formidable lifeform arrived to claim the tree, resulting in the death of the father armadillo.

When those devil experts arrived, the mother armadillo had just given birth and depleted its energy, so it couldn’t put up a fight. Now, however, the armadillo was in peak condition, and any attempt by the devil experts to subdue it would surely result in a painful outcome.

Although this armadillo had lived here for a long time, it hadn’t roamed very far. But thanks to it, Long Chen knew hundreds of places with powerful lifeforms in the surroundings. They had to be guarding some kind of treasure.

Luckily, Long Chen only needed a general direction, so he directly spread his lightning wings and flew off.

After a while, a furious roar came from ahead, accompanied by a divine light that pierced through the sky, obliterating a figure in its path.

Long Chen found himself in the territory of a wild wolf. One expert had relied on his stealth abilities to sneak up on the wolf, intending to seize the treasure. However, the wolf detected him and swiftly dispatched him with a single blow.

Enraged by the unlucky bastard’s audacity, the wolf spotted Long Chen in the distance and, without hesitation, prepared to attack, paying no heed to whether or not Long Chen was affiliated with the fallen intruder. Opening its mouth, it prepared to strike.

Like a heavenly blade, a wind slash sliced through the void toward Long Chen.

BOOM!

In response, Long Chen slammed his palm forward, dispersing the wind blade’s energy in every direction, destroying the surrounding land.

Taking a single step forward, Long Chen directly appeared above the wolf and stamped his foot down.

The wolf's head slammed into the ground, causing the earth to erupt into a massive crater.

In an instant, the wolf was quivering with fear, devoid of its arrogant demeanor. After all, Long Chen’s Blood Qi had activated, imbuing him with the intimidating might of a dragon, which rendered the wolf paralyzed with fear.

“If you weren’t a wolf, you’d be a corpse right now,” said Long Chen coldly, standing on its head.

Long Chen walked off after saying that, but he was telling the truth. Any other devil beast would have been killed without mercy for attacking him, but seeing this wolf made him think of Little Snow. So, while it had attacked him first, he still didn’t feel like killing it.

The wolf was now quivering in terror and knelt there obediently.

Long Chen proceeded to inspect the wolf's territory and discovered a peculiar tree standing thirty meters tall. Its long, narrow leaves resembled bent blades, and it bore over ten fruits on its branches.

These fruits were filled with powerful wind energy. However, they had yet to mature and couldn’t be used for alchemy yet. Long Chen just cut off a branch of the tree and tossed it into the primal chaos space. Seeing it starting to take root very quickly, he directly left.

This wolf had thought that it would definitely die, or at the very least, that Long Chen would take all the fruit for himself. However, to its surprise, Long Chen only took a single branch. It stared blankly as Long Chen left.

…

Long Chen arrived at a treasure land according to the armadillo’s memories. It was a mountain covered in blood, evidence of a recent fierce battle. Long Chen could vaguely see a few broken limbs around.

However, based on their Blood Qi fluctuations, they weren’t from the human race. The protector of this place was also gone, not slain but forcibly driven away judging by the battle scars.

Arriving at the center of the mountain, Long Chen found a deep hole where the treasure had once lain. It was evident that the treasure had already been taken.

However, the scars around this hole were messy, indicating that this battle had cost the other side as well. A group of experts had driven away the lifeform guarding this place, yet they suffered greatly as well. Afraid of others taking advantage of their injuries, they took the treasure and ran.

Long Chen squatted by the hole and brushed his fingers across the ground to find a tiny root with the thickness of a single pinkie. He smiled and tossed it into the primal chaos space where it quickly sprouted.

Although Long Chen didn’t obtain the complete treasure and didn’t even know what it looked like, this tiny root was no different from the complete treasure to him.

In this place, there was no need for him to discriminate. Wherever a lifeform stood guard, a rare treasure surely lay in wait.

“Damn human, hand over the treasure, and we’ll consider leaving your corpse intact!”

Just as Long Chen was about to leave, a group of lifeforms with raging killing intent surrounded him.