Rockfire Castle was a city situated in the middle of the desert. This was similar to Green Water Village, but the difference was that Green Water Village was situated in an oasis at the edge of the desert, while Rockfire Castle was situated in the middle of the desert. The surroundings were barren and there wasn't even a hint of greenery.
The Spirit Snake and I dismounted from the Black Dragon Beast. Looking at the huge city that was enveloped in sand, we couldn't help but frown.
It was said that the ruler of Rockfire Castle was the Sand Lizard Tribe. They had lived in the desert for generations. Perhaps they were willing to endure the sandstorm, but the Spirit Snake and I instinctively hated it.
It was no wonder that I had heard people say that the Southern Province rarely interacted with the Northwest Province and the Southern Province. Just the sandstorm alone was something that the other half beast races couldn't endure.
After passing through the sandstorm, the Spirit Snake and I entered the towering city gates of Rockfire Castle. The strange thing was that after entering the city, the sandstorm that filled the sky suddenly disappeared. Other than the sky being slightly dark, the city was actually dry. The air was fresh and the streets were spacious. It instantly made one feel much more comfortable.
I raised my head to look at the sky. The sandstorm hadn't disappeared and was even covering the sky. This was the reason why the sky was dark. However, the city seemed to have a transparent filter that blocked the sandstorm outside the city. This was rather interesting.
After looking at the weather, I looked at the people on the streets. The city didn't only have the Sand Lizard Tribe as I had thought. In reality, the half beast people on the streets were of various races. However, they were very different from the half beast people in the Northern Province and Western Province.
Other than the most commonly seen Sand Lizard Tribe, I also saw beautiful young ladies from the Butterfly Tribe, strong men from the Giant Crocodile Tribe, bespectacled Hawksbill Turtle Tribe scholars and so on.
Apart from them, there were also other races with strange appearances. For example, there were two transparent wings on their backs, slender bodies, and elf-like young girls. There were two extremely strong arms but short statures, and so on. I couldn't guess what kind of race they were.
However, looking at it from a general perspective, the half beast people here were more of a reptile or insect type. This was a fundamental difference from the Northern Province and Western Province. This was an eye-opener for me.
After looking at the culture and customs of Rockfire Castle, it was time to hurry up and get down to business.
From Wind Breath City to here, it had been more than five months, and there was less than half a month left until the awakening ceremony.
With the experience from the previous two times, it should not be a big problem to deal with the fierce beast Suanni in the Rockfire Castle. However, the previous two times, the Snake Spirit had participated as a member of the Dragon Clan, especially the second time, when he had taken the initiative to join. If he showed up again this time, he was afraid that it would arouse the suspicion of the Demon Clan. Even if he succeeded this time, the next fierce beast that would appear in Royal City would be a little more dangerous for no reason.
So, after thinking about it, I decided not to let the spirit snake show up this time. I would deal with everything myself.
My current cultivation was close to half a step into the Sunset Realm. Even if I were to face the Monster Emperor, I was confident that I would be able to escape unscathed. Thus, without the help of the Spirit Snake, I didn't panic. I wandered around the city and found the location of the city lord's mansion before finding an inn to settle down in.
The Rockfire Castle was located in the middle of the desert. Although there was no sandstorm in the castle, there was almost no vegetation.
Without vegetation, there were naturally no wooden houses. Thus, the houses in the Rockfire Castle were made of stone. They were squarish and looked quite unique.
As the most majestic building in the Rockfire Castle, the structure of the city lord's mansion was different. It wasn't made of stone, but was made of metal. Looking from afar, the light gold exterior was dazzling even in the dusky weather.
Even though I was far away, I could still recognize that the metal was made of pure gold. It seemed that regardless of whether it was in the human world or the Demon Domain, gold was a hard currency that could be flaunted.
After settling down, I snuck into the city lord's mansion that was made of pure gold that night.
The city lord of the Rockfire Castle, who was only at the intermediate stage of the Monster God Realm, wasn't my match. However, I didn't need to find trouble with him. I found an elder of the Gravel Lizard Clan in the city lord's mansion and used some methods to understand the situation. Afterwards, I erased his memory and left without leaving any trace.
In summary, the Rockfire Castle's awakening ceremony was no different from the other two provinces. Apart from that, I also obtained another piece of information. The Gravel Lizard Clan's Monster Emperor of the Gravel Lizard Castle had been in seclusion for many years and didn't care about the outside world.
This undoubtedly made me feel much more at ease.
After waiting in the inn for a few days, the day of the awakening ceremony arrived. I got the Snake Spirit to wait in the inn while I snuck into the city lord's mansion to participate in the awakening ceremony.
Since everyone's power was inferior to mine and I didn't have to worry about the Monster Emperor spying on me, everything went smoothly.
The beast that was awakened this time was called Suan Ni. According to the records, this beast had the appearance of a tiger with dog fur. It was six meters long, had tiger feet, boar's teeth, and a tail that was eight meters long.
Roughly speaking, this Suan Ni was a huge tiger with dog fur. It had the tusks of a wild boar and an extremely long tail. According to the records, this beast was extremely stubborn and vicious. However, when it faced the power of a God that I emitted, it didn't show any signs of viciousness. In fact, when it looked at me, its gaze was filled with admiration. It was obvious that it had a good relationship with the Monster Emperor Suan.
After successfully subduing the Suan Ni and instructing it to settle down and wait for the next meeting, I didn't leave. Instead, I stayed in the city lord's mansion for another day before returning to the inn.
I stayed for another day not because I was worried about any unforeseen events, but because I wanted to check if there was any news of Nangong.
It wasn't a coincidence that he appeared in the Wind's Breath City previously. According to my understanding, he was extremely hostile towards the Monster Race. Now that he took the initiative to hand over the Divine Weapon to the Monster Race, he definitely had a motive.
I wasn't sure what exactly he wanted to do, but there was no doubt that it was related to me. Hence, I wanted to see if he would continue to participate in the awakening ceremony of the other beasts.
Now, it seemed that I was overthinking. He didn't follow me to the Rockfire Fortress.
Since Nangong didn't appear, I threw this matter to the back of my mind and stayed in the Rockfire Fortress with the spirit snake for a few more days.
According to the news from the Dragon Race, the awakening of the last beast in Monarch City was set to be two years later.
Even though the Rockfire Fortress was far from Monarch City, it wouldn't take more than half a year to reach there. Furthermore, we had been continuously hunting beasts and traveling for the past half a year, so we were both physically and mentally exhausted. Hence, we rested for a period of time in the Rockfire Fortress and stabilized our auras. After stabilizing our cultivation, we left the Rockfire Fortress and boarded the Black Dragon Beast once again. We took the northeast direction and crossed the Ruo Shui Lake.
When we rushed to the Rockfire Fortress, we had flown above the Ruo Shui Lake for a total of two months. We had long lost interest in the black water below us. However, as we headed towards Monarch City, the Ruo Shui Lake seemed to have changed. It wasn't a boundless ocean anymore. Instead, there were islands and reefs. Some of the islands were quite large and the islands were covered with green plants. It was completely different from the desert that we had seen in the past half a year.
Other than the plants, almost all of the islands and reefs had the aura of beasts. However, the spirit snake and I were only interested in beasts with the cultivation of Monster Immortals. Hence, we wouldn't stop at ordinary islands and reefs. We would only stop for a while when we discovered the aura of Monster Immortals. After hunting the beasts and obtaining their elixirs, we would rest on the islands and reefs for a few days to admire the scenery and wild animals that were completely different from the human world before continuing on our journey.
We had plenty of time on our journey. Hence, our journey was very relaxed. Rather than saying that we were in a hurry, it was more like playing. The spirit snake had even caught a few ape-like beasts and kept them by its side to train and serve as its servants. We were having a lot of fun.
I had considered using this period of time to go to the Dragon Territory to bring Tong Tong out. However, after careful consideration, I felt that it wasn't safe for the spirit snake and I to go to the Dragon Territory with our current cultivation. Moreover, it was hard to say whether it would affect the matter of subduing the four beasts. Hence, I decided to get rid of the last beast of chaos first before considering the matter of saving Tong Tong and leaving the Monster Territory.
We didn't travel at a fast speed during our journey. After drifting for half a year, we were still in the depths of the Ruo Shui Lake.
One day, the spirit snake and I discovered an island below us on the Dark Dragon Beast. The island was about three thousand feet in circumference. The surface of the island was lush and verdant. At first glance, there wasn't anything special about it. However, after sensing it, I could faintly feel an extremely majestic and vast power.
My first reaction was that we had encountered a beast with the cultivation of Monster Emperor. However, after careful investigation, I didn't find any trace of the existence of any beast on the island.
After discussing with the spirit snake, the spirit snake's eyes lit up. He said with certainty that this wasn't the aura of a beast but the aura of a powerful treasure. He also said that the Dragon race was the most sensitive to the aura of treasures. He was definitely not mistaken.
His conjecture was somewhat reasonable. Treasures like the Ten Great Divine Instruments had formidable power. If there really was a treasure of this level on this island, everything that I had sensed made sense.