But before shock could set in, a wave of exhilaration surged through him.
So many beasts. So many attribute bubbles.
This... was a gold mine. An incredibly valuable one.
"A lot of attribute bubbles! And not just white—there are green ones too!"
Tian Shen's mouth nearly watered as he crouched above the valley. He wanted to leap down right then and there, snatching up the countless bubbles scattered like treasure on the battlefield.
Especially those green ones...
By now, he'd figured it out. White bubbles usually meant attributes in double digits. Green bubbles? Those may give double digits. The color wasn't just for show—it reflected value.
The entire valley was teeming with beasts. At a glance, there had to be hundreds of them.
Each one seemed to drop a bubble when injured or killed. Most were white, but a few green ones stood out—those came from the massive, ferocious monsters that had made even Tian Shen's heart skip a beat.
2-Star beasts, he guessed.
At least mid-stage 2-Star—comparable to a human cultivator above the sixth-stage of the Qi Refining Realm!
"Emmm~" Tian Shen took a deep breath, calming his excitement.
"Don't rush. Be smart. If I scoop up enough white bubbles, even mid-stage 2-Star beasts won't be untouchable anymore. Let's observe a bit longer... see what they're up to."
He pressed low against the cliff face and slowly inched deeper into the valley, staying hidden in the terrain's natural shadows.
That's when he noticed something strange.
The beasts—despite their numbers—weren't fighting.
Instead, they all faced toward the far end of the valley. Some crouched. Others lay down. A few were even kneeling.
All of them were... waiting.
Maybe paying their respects to their king, maybe begging for mercy from the terrifying thing residing in the depths.
Well, its their animalistic institution to follow the command of the strong afterall.
Not like humans, hypocritical beings who do anything in their power to let others do their bidding.
But one thing is sure, Something was going on deep within the valley, something big.
The place stretched far, and Tian Shen had to move cautiously across the steep mountaintop. Though he was confident he could survive a fall, what waited below was a nest of beasts. One slip could get him ripped to shreds before he even hit the ground.
At the very end of the valley stood a weathered, ancient-looking structure—an altar, long abandoned and half-collapsed. At its center floated a glowing white orb.
Light pulsed gently from it. A strange rhythm echoed in the air.
But that wasn't what made Tian Shen's eyes narrow.
It was the three beasts around the altar.
Each one lay prostrate like a devout worshiper, silently taking part in some kind of ritual.
They were all peak 2-Star beasts—monsters so powerful that even early-stage Foundation Establishment Realm Cultivators would struggle to slaughter them.
What the hell is this place? Some sort of beast altar? A spiritual awakening ritual?
Are these monsters becoming sentient...?
Suddenly, the orb pulsed, sending deep chimes across the valley.
The sound hit Tian Shen like a sledgehammer to the chest. He gritted his teeth, reeling from the impact.
He'd unknowingly clenched a nearby black stone—and crushed it to powder.
Blackstone, renowned for its hardness, was often used to construct homes for non-cultivators. Even early-stage Qi Refining Realm cultivators struggled to scratch it.
Now Tian Shen had crumbled it one-handed, without using any technique.
If anyone had seen it, their jaws would've hit the floor.
Down in the valley, the three peak 2-Star monsters suddenly roared—driven into a frenzy by the chimes. Their howls burst into shockwaves, crashing into the valley walls like thunderclaps.
The earth shook violently.
It felt like the end of the world.
Moments later, the ringing spread to the rest of the beast horde.
The weaker monsters couldn't take it. They went berserk, turning on each other in a chaotic bloodbath.
The valley became a war zone.
Tian Shen's eyes gleamed.
He didn't hesitate any longer.
He darted back to the valley's entrance, descended carefully, and slipped into the fray.
From what he'd observed, the beasts near the entrance were weaker—mostly low-tier. Even without picking up any attributes, he could handle a few of them. And at his current speed?
He could dance through the battlefield like a ghost.
As soon as Tian Shen stepped within ten meters of an attribute bubble, it zipped into his body.
A cascade of system notifications rang out in his mind:
『Gained physique ×30』
『Gained physique ×110』
Annoying? Sure. But to Tian Shen, it was music.
Every chime was power. Every line was growth.
For the next half hour, he became a phantom on the battlefield—never staying in one place, darting between skirmishes, collecting bubbles left and right.
Eventually, the fighting began to die down.
Almost no beasts remained intact. The few survivors—mostly mid-stage 2-Star monsters—stood in silence, glancing around cautiously.
Some of them had expressions of... confusion?
It was like they sensed something off.
During the chaos, they'd felt something—a human figure flashing by, impossibly fast. They had tried to catch him, but fending off wave after wave of frenzied beasts had kept them pinned down.
Now, with the valley quiet again, that figure was nowhere to be seen.
It was not an illusion.
Tian Shen had already slipped away, crouched in a rocky alcove near the valley's entrance, grinning from ear to ear as he checked his stat screen.
"So good... this is insane!"
"Only in a full-on beast melee can my stats skyrocket so fast!"
He laughed quietly to himself, eyes full of madness and excitement.
"Seems like I'll have to stir up more of these battles in the future."
"After all... they're just monsters. Let them tear each other apart."
And with that thought, Tian Shen continued soaking in his gains, preparing for the next big harvest.