A World Worth Protecting

1

On the Black Spirit Dwarf Planet, the green skies, the glow from the irregular sun-like light source that lit up the black desert, as well as the peculiar heatwave, made the entire planet seem extremely barren from the surface.

There were no plants, no animals, and even the civilization that existed on the planet were ghost spirits using the corpses as their clothing.

There were villages, but put more accurately, they were merely ghost villages formed by the ghost spirits who were leeching off the corpses.

It appeared as if death had become the theme of this planet. It was like a puddle of still water that was without any ripples, until… Wang Baole’s arrival.

Wang Baole was like a huge rock that had been thrown into the water, splashing it everywhere and creating ripples that broke the inactivity in the area…

<em>I’ve struck gold! </em>Wang Baole laughed heartily towards the sky in an agitated manner. It was the seventh day since his arrival. Under the elderly ghost spirit’s lead, Wang Baole swept through over fifty villages using his Dark Fire.

Without any exception, all the villages had the statues that he needed. The statues were also all made from Stellar Sources, and that, to Wang Baole, was wealth!

Other than Stellar Sources, Wang Baole also found precious materials in some of the villages. They included ores and broken Dharmic Artifacts. They were items that didn’t exist in the Federation, and not much information was recorded about them either. Wang Baole only came to know that they were treasures after entering the Dao Palace.

That raised Wang Baole’s spirit. He finally understood how the three extraterrestrial Nascent Soul realm cultivators that he had killed by luring them into the Dark Artifact felt when they were reaping those gains.

<em>This is all accidental wealth… </em>In Wang Baole’s excitement, he had forgotten all about Patriarch Black Wind. Right now, he only had the thought to scavenge all the sculptures. The elderly ghost spirit also became more experienced in leading the way, and with it showing the way, Wang Baole continued on his scavenging journey.

Days passed. Half a month later, when Wang Baole had scavenged most of the planet, he had accumulated over a hundred sculptures. Seeing that the one-month time limit was approaching and that he had only managed to cover half the planet, Wang Baole grew anxious. With a combination of threats and urging, the elderly ghost spirit brought Wang Baole to the place on the planet with the biggest sculptures!

It was a deep trench that was surrounded by a vast, empty area. There were no other ghost spirits present. There was only a thousand-foot-tall giant sculpture that was erected in the area, giving off a red glow. The sculpture appeared to have been rooted deep into the ground, and a mysterious force from the space between the heavens and earth seem to be channeled deep underground, using the sculpture as a channel.

When Wang Baole saw the sculpture from afar, he felt disbelief, and his heartbeat rose furiously. The sculpture seemed to be mostly, though not entirely, composed of Stellar Source. The material that made up the rest of it also seemed impressive.

That made Wang Baole feel extremely agitated as he dashed towards the sculpture immediately. As he neared the sculpture, he transformed into Thearch Armor while laughing. His body instantly grew to a size of a hundred feet as he hugged the sculpture and twisted it while roaring!

As Wang Baole twisted, the earth trembled. The sculpture was being pulled off the ground little by little by Wang Baole, creating a shockwave that spread from the connection point to deep underground.

Right now, in the cave underneath the sculpture, there was an altar that was shrouded by black winds. The black winds formed a vortex that spun continuously. In the vortex, there were originally over two hundred bright spots glowing brilliantly. Of them, three of them were the largest and appeared to be a cluster of light that became the center of the other bright spots. Every time the bright spots glowed, the black wind vortex would spin at an even greater speed.

However, right now, over half of those two hundred bright spots had been extinguished. That slowed down the speed of rotation of the black wind vortex. When one of the three largest light clusters began to extinguish rapidly and entirely, a pair of eyes within the vortex suddenly opened wide!

There was initially a look of bewilderment revealed in the pair of eyes, as if it was wondering why it was awakened prematurely. However, very soon, it realized that the number of sculptures that it had painstakingly refined to sustain its training had decreased by over a hundred. On top of that, one of its three intrinsic light clusters had been extinguished, causing furious screams to emerge from within the vortex immediately.

“D*rn it!”

When the scream reverberated, above ground, Wang Baole, who was forcefully pulling the large sculpture out, blinked. At that moment, the red glow emerging from the sculpture intensified, as if the sculpture was coming alive. A sign of activity was also visible from the sculpture’s originally listless eyes.

“It’s alive?” Wang Baole was shocked. In his disbelief, he raised his right hand and revealed a large ball of Dark Fire. He smacked his hand onto the head of the sculpture.

“Then, I have no choice but to snatch it!” As Wang Baole spoke, his hand smacked down on the sculpture loudly. The sculpture vibrated several times, and the red glow dissipated. When everything returned to normal, Wang Baole pulled the sculpture out of the ground completely. He was excited and wanted to put the sculpture in the storage bracelet. Only, he realized that the sculpture was too big and that his storage bracelet was almost entirely filled. Unless he dismantled the sculpture, he wouldn’t be able to keep it.

Wang Baole regretted immediately, as he felt that he should have prepared more storage bags when he came. Right now, without a choice, he could only pull the sculpture along as he hurriedly left. At the same time, he raised his hand continuously and smacked it onto the sculpture to break it into pieces. He did everything while simultaneously putting the pieces into his storage bag.

As Wang Baole escaped, on the altar deep underground, a scream even louder than previously reverberated. The vortex had even detached from the altar and shrank significantly, eventually transforming into the illusory image of a human-like creature with the body of a bird.

The figure had the head of a woman, but not of an elderly lady. Instead, it looked like a middle-aged woman, but it wasn’t the least beautiful. It looked extremely frightening, and there was a black mark on its face. It had a mouth full of sharp teeth. With viciousness in its eyes, it turned and transformed into a gust of black wind, emerging from the basin through the cave and shooting into the sky!

Instantly, black wind spread in all directions, charging towards the sky. It immediately noticed Wang Baole, who was hugging the sculpture and escaping at high speed into the distance.

“You have to die for stealing my sculpture!” As it screamed, the alien cultivator with the head of a human and the body of a bird pursued Wang Baole at immense speed.

<em>Patriarch Black Wind? </em>Wang Baole, who was attacking the sculpture and breaking it into pieces before storing them in his storage bag, turned to take a look upon hearing the voice. He recognized the owner of the voice, as the black wind was extremely powerful, which made recognition easy.

<em>A Nascent Soul realm cultivator indeed… </em>A glow flashed across Wang Baole’s eyes as he picked up speed. As he continued to escape at high speed, he also attacked the sculpture even more furiously.

Seeing that Wang Baole was escaping, Patriarch Black Wind was extremely unhappy and refused to let Wang Baole get his way. It was formed by the accumulation of black winds and had an edge in terms of speed. That was especially so as Wang Baole was a mere Core Formation realm cultivator. Patriarch Black Wind didn’t consider the issue of how a Core Formation realm cultivator could appear in the area. Instead, it picked up speed in its pursuit and resolved to swallow Wang Baole whole!

In reality, even though Patriarch Black Wind was at the Nascent Soul realm, it was only at the early stage. Furthermore, as it didn’t train using a physical body, it didn’t have a high Spirit Intelligence. It was so authoritative on the Black Spirit Dwarf Planet simply due to the crisis that the Vast Expanse Dao Palace had experienced previously, which left the area unattended. All the elites from the Vast Expanse Dao Palace were nullified, which gave it the unplanned opportunity to rule the area, transforming it into a place for cultivation. At the same time, it made use of the Stellar Source present in the area and spent many years to lay the sculptures so that it could cultivate.

However, now that its efforts were negated by Wang Baole, it grew furious, especially as Wang Baole continued to attack the sculpture.

“Little thief, I will swallow your flesh, extract your soul, and convert you into a ghost spirit. I’ll whip you repeatedly for a thousand years to make you suffer for stealing my sculpture!” Patriarch Black Wind neared as it screamed. When it was a mere thousand feed from Wang Baole, Patriarch Black Wind screamed shrilly, sealing its hands as it pointed. Immediately, its body vanished, transforming into a black hurricane as it swept towards Wang Baole.

Realizing that his speed was no match for Patriarch Black Wind, Wang Baole was unhappy and wanted to pick up speed. However, noticing the black hurricane that it had transmogrified into, Wang Baole narrowed his eyes.

<em>It’s related to spirits indeed! </em>Wang Baole laughed suddenly, tossing the remaining half of the sculpture aside. When he turned his head, a look of ferocity appeared in his eyes.

“Are you blind? I’m not a thief. This is the territory of my Vast Expanse Dao Palace. As a disciple of the Vast Expanse Dao Palace, I’m just here to take something. It’s good enough that I didn’t find trouble with you, yet you dare to threaten me?” Wang Baole sounded extremely righteous as he turned and clenched the right hand of Thearch Armor into a fist and punched!