Treasure-hunting: Into the Unknown

At that moment, Zachary looked up and was met by the pitch black sky, from which Batwing Beasts went flying down one after another, finally landing on a stack of large stones nearby. They turned towards the cave and hissed loudly, as if threatening something.

As if on cue, the whole stone cave and valley shook violently, and Zachary looked around cautiously as he stood his ground. His gaze eventually landed back on the stone cave's interior, where a towering figure slowly appeared.

Zachary resisted the urge to step back in surprise upon recognizing what was in front of him. It had snow white fur, with a body that seemed to be a terrifying mixture of a lion and tiger. Its two huge heads, three long, pillar-like tails that flailed around, and a sturdy, overwhelming aura that stood out among ordinary martial beasts—its presence and power spoke exactly that it had the strength to be an elite martial beast.

"Is this the Dawn Beast? Damn, it looks much stronger than the Earthworm-shaped Dog!" Zachary sighed exasperatedly, his eyes fixed solely on the creature in front of him.

He trailed its every movement carefully; it walked out of the cave and let out a booming roar to the Batwing Beasts, as though warning them not to enter.

They, in turn, didn't seem to be afraid of the elite treasure beast threatening them. They took off in various directions, stirring up some stones to fly about and then heading towards the two-headed creature.

Upon shaking its body, there spread out a strange Imperial Level force, on which the stones collided. And as soon as it did, they instantly disintegrated into fine powder.

"I don't really think I have the confidence to defeat such a powerful thing," Zachary muttered with a hint of shock. He had a feeling that what he'd just watched was not even a display of full power.

Just as Zachary tried to control his now erratic breaths, the creature opened its mouth once again—this time, no roar came out. Instead, it let out a breath, from which a concentrated energy bomb blasted out and then hurled towards the huge stone where a Batwing Beast stood. The beast quickly soared into the air, just as the stone was crushed into ti

g more and more restless as it found nothing. In apparent desperation, it started to fly further inside.

Without hesitation, Zachary formed an ice blade and hurled it towards the unwitting creature. Having put up no defenses, the ice flowers penetrated its body, and in an instant, blood trickled down its thin layer of skin. It let out a piercing scream and thrashed about in pain for several moments before slamming against the top of the cave. The whole area started to collapse as sands and stones crumbled down.

With his Flying Boots, Zachary began to fly away quickly before he lost the opportunity to escape.

It was at that moment that the Dawn Beast realized the intrusion. Turning back quickly, it saw the Batwing Beast stuck near the entrance, unable to escape. In a moment of unimaginable rage, the two-headed beast rushed back in with a deafening roar.

It wasn't as if the Batwing Beast was blind to the incoming attack, but before it could even position itself to counter, from the Dawn Beast's body released blindingly brilliant light. Within a few moments, a beast soul appeared from its back, emanating an aura enough to make the once unshakeable Batwing Beasts howl in fear.

And in the blink of an eye, the body of the beast that had snuck into the cave burst apart, exploding into a vomit-inducing sight of scattered and mutilated flesh.

Zachary's breath wavered as he finally witnessed the power of such creature's beast soul.