Rebirth of the Prime Dragon Master
Chapter 148 Bonanza

Boom! A fireball landed on the spirit-manipulated beast's lower abdomen. The fireball hit the spirit- manipulated beast so hard the dagger went through its armored body, and out again in the open air. And with a hole in its torso, the spirit-manipulated fell down the ground. Another roaring sound was made as his body hit the ground.

"Uriah!" Rocky was surprised by the level of Uriah's abilities. He had never seen Uriah use such skills. These special skills were only used by spiritual beasts. Uriah seemed to have develop new fire controlling abilities, in additional to his capability to produce magical saliva.

“Could Uriah actually be a spiritual beast? It's probable it's still a juvenile one.’ Rocky speculated. It was unsure whether Uriah was a war beast or a spiritual beast. His skill of producing magical saliva was not helpful in determining his kind because such ability was also displayed by war beasts but there were some cases that war beasts possessed such power. However, it was under extreme circumstance that Uriah developed a new ability. No war beasts had more than two special skills, so these skills must be innate to Uriah. Uriah was a spiritual beast, there was no doubt about that. His powers had not been fully realized yet, and so far, there were only two skills learned.

While Rocky was still trying to decide which category Uriah belonged to, the fallen armored spirit- manipulated beast let out a pained shriek. It rolled over on its belly and died covered in its own blood that came from the hole in its body bored by Uriah.

Uriah howled in excitement as it witnessed the fall of the spirit-manipulated beast it just defeated. It ran eagerly towards Rocky, jumping around as if waiting for a reward from its master.

"That was amazing, buddy!" Rocky lovingly held Uriah's body and petted its head affectionately. He'd most likely be dead if not for Uriah. He just realized how embarrassing he must have looked. His clothes were torn to pieces during the battle earlier. He barely had any energy left to walk.

And as if on cue, Uriah turned back to the body of the armored spirit-manipulated beast it just defeated, as if it saw something. It made its way back to the corpse and jumped on top of it. With its claws, Uriah dug through the dead beast's wound and searched for something for a while. When it finally found what it was looking for, it came back running to Rocky's side.

When Rocky noticed this, he followed Uriah back to the fallen armored spirit-manipulated beast and inspected it. From the body shot out two black beams of light. The light was coming out of the beast's wound and a strong spiritual aura followed it.

"What the hell is this?" Rocky thought out loud. He crouched beside it to take a better look. As he looked closer, he noticed that the two slivers of light came from two oval worm eggs. Each egg was around half the size of a palm. Rocky could sense the spiritual aura leaking out of the eggs. This entire thing in front of them was rather strange.

Rocky curiously picked up the eggs. He examined the two closely in his palms. They were hard, but obviously neither stones nor crystals. They were definitely something Rocky had never seen before. He somehow got the feeling these eggs were vaguely similar to the yellow spiritual crystal General Marcia gave him. It was just that the latter gave off a weaker spiritual power than that of the crystals’.

It was when Rocky felt a strong air of energy closing in from above. He looked up and saw a familiar war dragon flying towards him. It looked truly magnificent with its dark green colored scales and widely spread wings.

"This is Marin's war dragon! Is she going to be here soon?" Rocky immediately recognized this spirit-manipulated beast and who its master was. His eyes darted towards the dead armored spirit- manipulated beast. A plan was almost instantly formed in his mind. "Uriah!" he called. "We need to hurry and hide! No one should find out we killed this big fella,” he explained. "The extent of our strength should remain unknown. Let's go somewhere we can hide."

Uriah let out a growl which let Rocky knew it understood his instructions. Rocky and Uriah quickly left the body of the fallen armored spirit-manipulated beast and went searching for a place to hide. Marin's war dragon followed a trail of scent all the way to where Rocky was. She was riding her dragon when she found a wild spirit-manipulated beast lying around in an open field. She patted her spirit-manipulated beast's head, signaling it to fly at a lower height. Verdanim responded with a soft roar and immediately followed its master's whim and began descending slowly and carefully. The wild spirit-manipulated beast that Marin discovered was the one Rocky and Uriah just killed. It was the fallen armored spirit-manipulated beast.

The dark green dragon circled the body of the armored spirit-manipulated beast for a few times, and when it was sure it posed no harm, it landed. When it finally settled down the ground, it retracted its wings, stirring dust from down below.

Marin hopped off her war dragon. She moved closer to the body of the armored spirit-manipulated beast until she can thoroughly inspect it. She was astonished by what she discovered. "This is a Dark Heaven Insect! How could it die here?"

Marin touched the beast's body and discovered that the blood was still warm. She knew instantly that the Dark Heaven Insect was killed not long ago. She eagerly looked around, hoping she could find out who was powerful enough to kill such a strong beast.

A couple of squads of spirit manipulators and a few hundreds of soldiers, all led by Jarrett, also found their way to where the body was discovered. They were all equally shocked to see a dead Dark Heaven Insect. None of them thought someone possessed the strength enough to kill an all- powerful spirit-manipulated beast.

"Commander, isn't this one a rare Dark Heaven Insect? Was this the one that attacked an entire village?" Deputy Commander Chen asked, clearly still in shock of what he just saw. This was the first time he had seen a Dark Heaven Insect but knew everything about it. He studied every material about the said beast. It was one of the rarest spirit-manipulated beasts in the entire world, and seeing one personally was honestly a priceless experience for the commander.

"I started tracking its scent way back from that village. I have a hunch it attacked there not long ago." Marin uttered, confirming his suspicion. It was known to be one of the most powerful beasts in the region. It was capable of launching an attack powerful enough to strike an entire village, a feat most common beasts couldn't achieve.

"This is such a shame. I can't help but wonder who's powerful enough to kill this Dark Heaven Insect. Seeing one alive would have been an opportunity of a lifetime. It sure would have been prized had it been captured alive,” Deputy Commander Chen said sullenly, defeat clear in his voice. "Maybe a high-level spirit manipulator was passing by and witnessed the attack. It's possible they stepped in and killed the beast to keep it from causing more damage to the village. Look! The black eggs have been taken away from its body." Marin pointed out.

"A Dark Heaven Insect? Strangely enough, that does ring a bell.” Rocky was hiding behind a sandy hill, and luckily enough, it was not too far away and he was still able to eavesdrop from Marin and her right-hand man. The term Dark Heaven Insect stuck with him. It was very familiar, like he had heard of it before

Rocky did not take his time and searched the Beast Encyclopedia he conveniently carried around with him. He immediately searched for the Dark Heaven Beast entry and hastily took in every bit of information the encyclopedia offered regarding the said beast. This turned out to be a real bonanza for him.

The armored spirit-manipulated beast he had just slain was called a Dark Heaven Insect. It was a mere war beast, but it possessed a unique ability to produce special stones. This stone was called the Dark Heaven Egg and was kept inside its body. The stone also harbored the same strong spiritual power as the spiritual crystals did. The difference between the two was whose power they could help improve. Spiritual crystals were used to boost the strength of a spirit-manipulated beast. On the other hand, Dark Heaven Eggs were used by spirit manipulators to enhance their spiritual powers.

The Dark Heaven Insect also fell into categories: three-star being the highest level. Dark Heaven Eggs were also classified by levels corresponding to their host's rank. A first-grade Dark Heaven Insect of three-star level could produce a primary-grade Dark Heaven Egg while a second-grade Dark Heaven Insect of such a level could make a middle-grade Dark Heaven Egg. Advanced-grade Dark Heaven Egg, which was the most powerful, could only come from a third-grade Dark Heaven Insect of three-star level. An advanced-grade Dark Heaven Egg could raise a spirit manipulator's level from the Heavenly Stage to the Supernal Stage. Having one in hand would obviously be a game-changer for a spirit manipulator with a skill level between the Heavenly Stage and the Supernal Stage. If a spirit manipulator were to catch a Dark Heaven Insect alive and domesticate it, they would have an endless supply of Dark Heaven Eggs. Having such thing would result to a possibility of an ever-evolving prowess.

However, Dark Heaven Insects normally lived in underground burrows dozens of meters below. This was mainly the reason they were difficult to spot. Even spirit manipulators above the Supernal Stage wanted to get ahold of one. Numerous elite spirit manipulators spent majority of their lives waiting to see a Dark Heaven Insect in flesh, let alone catch one alive. The Dark Heaven Insect was also one of the rarest species of spirit-manipulated beasts. There were less than a hundred of them in the entire Wild Spirit Land. The royals that belonged to the Holy Dragon Empire were reported to own only a couple of them. The Gahanna Border that boasted unique geological properties was one of the places suitable for Dark Heaven Insect to live in, but no more than twenty were recorded in the region. With their rarity, the Dark Heaven Insects were considered the most valuable of all the spirit- manipulated beasts.