He was in a kingdom but the streets weren't cluttered like normal human kingdoms. The sanctuaries weren't that soft, to allow optimal population.
Bian had all his arsenal ready, the Solum Mirror was out, his armor glistened in the sunlight, brilliantly reflecting a pair of majestic draconic wings on his back.
The Scornful Bane was resting in the eye socket of a bird which had fallen from the sky.
"They're fast!"
Bian clicked his tongue as he retrieved the blade and dropped the bird's body into the bronze cauldron.
It was just an ordinary creature, but what was the Empirical Decree good for? He could fuse the flesh with other creatures to get higher rank resources.
Like he suspected, he didn't have to wait long before several creatures filled up the streets.
Minotaurs riding on tigers, wielding long black spears. He was surrounded by six of these cavalry Minotaurs with the average fitness of each one being primitive.
The leader of the group was riding on a white tiger as big as the houses surrounding them. The Minotaur himself was no slouch at five meters with a black spear double his size which had a red-hot tip.
"Minotaurs on tigers? Sometimes the sanctuaries feel like a severe fever dream."
Bian only had time for one snarky comment before the first two charged at him.
Minotaurs were humanoid creatures, so their strength was definitely nothing to joke about. Those black spears were obviously their geno cores, and Bian had yet to see the geno cores of the tigers they were riding on.
He evaded their charge by jumping up into the sky and flapping his wings, gaining distance from the group.
"Hmph!"
Steam bellowed out of the nostrils of the mutant Minotaur as it positioned its spear to the skies and threw it at Bian, aiming particularly for his wings.
Bian could have chosen to escape, but running would do him no good. Instead, he had to quickly finish off these monsters and add them to his fitness.
As he was flying, he took a step on nothing but air and swerved to the right, tucking in his wings at the last moment.
The burning tip of the black spear barely missed him and several more black spears were already heading his way.
He held the Scornful Bane with both hands and unleashed a barrage of slashes at the spears.
If a geno core is destroyed, the owner would suffer severe backlash and be in a weakened state.
If this happened, not only would they be without a weapon, but they would also be unable to use their natural full strength. It was quite the debilitating move and could lead to death.
A cacophony of clashes erupted mid-air and sparks flew everywhere.
"Well I did not expect this."
Bian marvelled at the black spears which were falling to the ground in one piece.
He had avoided the leader's spear, because he wasn't sure if he could break it in one hit and yet he couldn't even shatter one spear of the primitive Minotaurs.
The spears were extremely durable and that was not the end of it.
Clang!
The red-hot tipped spear struck one of his wings from behind. It bounced off his wings and fell to the side before pausing mid-air.
The other spears he had deflected also paused mid-air then aligned themselves and flew towards him.
Bian didn't just stand still and let himself be assaulted, he flew through the sky evading the pursuit of the black spears.
"One of them keeps going for my face and the leader's spear struck exactly where he had aimed for, even if it was from the back."
Even as Bian was physically engaged, his mind was clear and connecting the dots. He fired up the dongxuan sutra and searched his wing, finding a weird target mark there.
It wasn't perceivable to the naked eye, but it was definitely there.
He expanded the senses and found five more identical markings although these were smaller and their energy was lower.
Bian checked out the group on the ground again. They were quite relaxed with the leader even crossing his arms as if the deed was done.
A vein popped up on his head.
'The nerve.'
Bian couldn't get angry though, he was too preoccupied with his predicament.
Every time he dodged a spear, it came back faster. Even when he deflected it, the speed continued to increase.
The hot-tipped spear almost smacked the Scornful Bane out of his hand when he blocked it poorly with a single hand.
"Very effective strategy, the capital has very good defense."
Bian praised them, then he dove towards the group. The weird markings were obviously the work of the tigers and the spears belonged to the Minotaurs.
As long as they perished, their attacks would cease.
The cavalry were no slouch either. Once they saw Bian approach, they dismounted from the tigers, increasing the numbers he would have to face from six to twelve.
Swoosh!
Bian caught the black spear that was heading for his face and summoned the iron-grip glyph beast soul, locking it firmly in place.
With that out of the way, he made a beeline to the nearest Minotaur. The spears assaulted him relentlessly like a swarm of speeding bullets but they could only make noise and cause sparks.
Bian was perfectly safe in his sacred-blood armour and even the hot-tipped spear was just slightly warmer than the rest of the attacks.
It was akin to when it's raining cats and dogs outside, but the person was provided protection and comfort inside the safety of their house.
The cavalry was shocked, even powerhouses like one of the Four Sentries wouldn't survive when encountering their synced trap, yet this human did.
It was the first time their sure-fire strategy seemed to fall apart, and Bian was more than willing to make sure it would be the last time.
Roar!
They weren't idle, the white tigers pounced at him and the Minotaurs dashed forward.
Bian remained unperturbed, heading straight to the Minotaur whose spear was locked onto his face. He was the first one he had to kill.
Firing the dongxuan sutra at full power, he evaded two pouncing tigers and slid under the leg of the charging Minotaur leader.
The leader's saber-tooth mount had already lunged upon seeing him slide under its master, but Bian came to a hard stop at that moment.
The attack of the big tiger missed him completely and as it pulled away its face in haste, Bian held onto one of its whiskers as thick as a garden hose and was flung into the air by the force.
He used his gained momentum and wings to zip by a Minotaur, beheading it in a single swipe.
[Primitive Creature Demonic Minotaur killed. No Beast soul acquired. Silver Geno Core received: Black Spear. Its flesh is inedible.]
The black spear he had been struggling to hold, preventing it from stabbing his face, turned to a blur of light and flew into his soul sea.
"So I was right. The Empirical Will also works for geno cores, but they have to be summoned out first."
Bian gained the geno core but not the beast soul because of the presence of the Solum Mirror.
Now that it had refilled its soul counter back to a hundred, he unsummoned it and went to the mount of the creature he just killed.
It wasn't an unusual case for some beasts, especially humanoids, to be inedible, so Bian didn't think much of it.
He had a hot trail of tigers and Minotaurs coming at him from the back, but they wouldn't be able to stop him before he killed the lone white tiger.
Suddenly, a bolt of lightning struck him from the side.
CRACKLE!
BOOM!
Bian poised the Scornful Bane to block the attack but was sent flying through the building by his side and he didn't stop there.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
The lightning strike pushed him through four more buildings before he finally stabbed the sword in the ground and stabilised himself.
"What destructive power!"
He looked at the beautiful dark-skinned spirit through the wreckage of the buildings he had collapsed on impact.
She was wearing a long purple gown and had no armor, but three golden shields constantly orbited around her like satellites to a planet.
"Looks like I was right, so you were here." Earl Starshine mumbled in a low voice.