After breaking through the African rhino’s defenses, in just a moment, the cold light spun rapidly and pierced into its brain, immediately followed by the sound of bones shattering as the Cold Light Sword shot out from the other side of its head.

With its brain destroyed, the African rhino could no longer hold on. Its massive body crashed to the ground with a “bang,” crushing several large trees and sending dust flying everywhere.

William Thompson controlled the Cold Light Sword to come before him, frowned, and summoned rainwater to wash it clean before putting it into his storage ring. Anyway, William Thompson had no intention of letting the Nascent Soul keep the Cold Light Sword for the time being. Just thinking about the Cold Light Sword having touched something so disgusting inside made William Thompson shudder uncontrollably.

Just as he was about to step forward, William Thompson suddenly noticed a spirit beast that looked like a mouse hopping over to the African rhino in a few quick steps. It circled the rhino a few times, then darted to its head and squeezed in through the wound in its eye.

“So gross, way too gross!” William Thompson couldn’t help but exclaim, surprised that something so small could be so vicious.

Before he finished sighing, William Thompson noticed a small bulge forming inside the African rhino, and that bulge was moving forward at a rapid pace.

Obviously, that bulge was the mouse that had just crawled in (let’s call it that for now). William Thompson was very curious about what it was up to.

Within a few seconds, the bulge moved to the position of the African rhino’s heart, then after a violent squirming, it quickly retraced its path.

“Could this thing specialize in eating hearts?” William Thompson wondered.

But the result took him by surprise.

When the mouse crawled out from the wound in the eye, its two front paws were clutching something, running back excitedly. Because it was covered in blood, even with William Thompson’s sharp eyes he couldn’t tell what it was, but it was definitely not a heart—it seemed to be a solid object.

“Could this African rhino have such a huge heart stone?” William Thompson thought maliciously.

Looking at the sneaky little mouse, William Thompson couldn’t help but laugh. He waved his hand and said, “Bind!”

A beam of golden light shot toward the little mouse, trapping it tightly in place.

The little mouse squeaked frantically, darting left and right but unable to escape William Thompson’s binding circle.

William Thompson slowly approached the little mouse, summoned rainwater to wash it clean, and finally discovered that the thing the mouse was holding looked like a diamond from Earth, but it was huge—about the size of two fists—and its color was a bluish-green.

Wow, if a diamond this big were on Earth, how much would it be worth? William Thompson’s mouth started to water.

Perhaps realizing escape was hopeless, the little mouse stopped squeaking, gripped the diamond tightly with its paws, and tried to bring it to its mouth.

What happened next made William Thompson’s jaw drop to the ground.

With a few crunching sounds, the diamond in the mouse’s paws lost several corners, and the mouse seemed to be chewing it with great relish.

“Damn!” William Thompson grabbed the little mouse, snatched the diamond from its paws, and muttered, “Damn thing even knows how to steal loot.” With that, he tossed the little mouse far away.

Looking closely at the diamond, although the mouse had gnawed off a bit, it was still quite large. What surprised William Thompson even more was that this diamond actually contained a large amount of wood-element spiritual energy. Thinking back to the African rhino’s lightning attack just now, William Thompson finally understood: to the African rhino, this diamond must be equivalent to a cultivator’s Nascent Soul, just not as powerful.

But why didn’t the spirit beasts he killed before have this? He’d roasted bearded reedlings before, and later killed some spirit beasts in the forest that looked like dogs and rabbits for a snack, but even after eating them, he never found anything like this in their hearts. Did it get roasted away? Looks like he’d better pay more attention in the future.

Although he didn’t know what this thing was for, seeing how the little mouse was so eager to eat it, it must be useful for alchemy. So he put the diamond from the African rhino’s body into his storage ring.

Actually, the diamond’s real name was: Immortal Core! Only immortal beasts above the fifth rank would possess one, though occasionally a fourth-rank spirit beast might have one too. It was the life source of an immortal beast. But William Thompson didn’t know this, and thought every immortal beast had one.

The little mouse, having its Immortal Core snatched away, squeaked anxiously and slapped its front paws on the ground in front of William Thompson. A thin stream of spiritual power traveled underground, reaching William Thompson’s feet. This power quickly gathered earth-element spiritual energy from the ground beneath William Thompson’s feet, forming a sharp earthen pillar that shot up from below him.

William Thompson let out a surprised sound, jumped aside, and swung the Cold Light Sword, sending a sword energy strike at the little mouse.

With a squeal, the little mouse’s tail was sliced in half, and in pain, it quickly fled the battlefield.