Chapter 519: Clear Glass Body

Wanxiang Cave is a Symbol Array illusion, the handiwork of the successive patriarchs of the Taiyi Sect.

Inside Wanxiang Cave, it is pitch black, yet within the darkness, light and shadow flicker from time to time, like tiny sparks of fire.

Those lights and shadows, like the eyes of ghosts, appear and disappear.

And right among these ghostly eyes, Duan Rong lies unconscious, not moving a muscle.

Although he is in a coma, a bizarre scene is currently unfolding within his clear Spirit Sea.

The Gray Shadow that was originally sitting cross-legged in the center of the Cangqiong has now been lashed by the shadows of three strikes from the God-Striking Whip, scattering it into clumps like gray cotton wool, drifting across the Cangqiong.

The thirteen Star Bodies that originally surrounded the Gray Shadow are moving in a chaotic, irregular fashion above the Cangqiong; they roll slowly, colliding with one another from time to time...

Yet, Black Soul Silk is floating within Duan Rong's Spirit Sea. These soul silks are incredibly agile, swimming about like water weeds. As soon as they make contact with the gray cotton wool clumps, they bore inside, wandering and weaving within them.

These Black Soul Silks were born from the Medicine Pill that Zhu He fed to Duan Rong.

This item was refined from Divine Medicine originating within the God-Demon Relic.

That Divine Medicine is named Soul Silk Grass.

It is a heaven-sent treasure that takes over a hundred years to mature, nourished by the residual soul power of gods and demons. It can nourish, lock, weave, and stabilize the Divine Soul, making it a supreme medicine for treating damage to the Divine Soul.

Not only are those Black Soul Silks wandering within Duan Rong's Spirit Sea, but at this moment, within that Tree Spirit Light Sea, large swaths of cyan ghostly light are also rising. Qingyou Light Silks, like fungal hyphae, are suddenly swimming toward the gray cotton wool clumps drifting in the sky, like a school of startled fish...

Once those Qingyou Light Silks enter the gray cotton wool clumps, they begin to weave together with the Black Soul Silks...

These scattered gray cotton wool clumps float in the sky, colliding with each other from time to time; at first, there was no reaction, and they would simply pass by each other upon impact.

But as the Qingyou Light Silks and Black Soul Silks became more densely interwoven inside them, suddenly, when two gray cotton wool clumps collided, quite a few Qingyou Light Silks and Black Soul Silks probed out, intertwining and wrapping around each other, actually fusing the two gray cotton wool clumps back together.

Although this process is extremely slow, it has been continuing all the while...

Gradually, those scattered gray cotton wool clumps connected into a single piece, like a rolling dark cloud.

And within that dark cloud, the Qingyou Light Silks and Black Soul Silks are incessantly weaving together...

The thin, scattered dark cloud slowly gathers, becoming a mass of churning Gray Shadow.

Just at this moment, in the darkness, Duan Rong's eyelids seem to have twitched...

Outside, in the valley of Wuliang Cliff, it is already pitch black, with only the Cave Abode on the cliff wall still casting out a mottled, dim yellow patch of light.

The night wind pours in from the cave entrance. Xiao Qiwu, who was fast asleep on the animal-hide Stone Chair, suddenly wakes up. He glances at the Candle Lamp beside him, listens to the whistling wind outside the cave, and cannot help but exhale a breath of turbid air; it is clearly late at night.

Xiao Qiwu stands up and picks up a cup of cold tea, drinking two mouthfuls.

As the cold tea enters his mouth, his spirit jolts slightly.

He steps off the animal-hide Stone Chair and walks slowly to the entrance of the Cave Abode, where the Guard and the young attendant are both asleep with their necks hunched.

Xiao Qiwu does not wake them, but instead flashes out like a ghost.

In the night, Xiao Qiwu flies silently into the valley like a great eagle, reaching the cliff wall of Wanxiang Cave in the blink of an eye.

Xiao Qiwu's Divine Sense sweeps everywhere, shrouding the surroundings. After confirming that there is no one nearby, he takes out an Array Tablet from his back waist and points it into the void in front of the cliff wall.

Divine Sense probing cannot penetrate deep into Wanxiang Cave.

Wanxiang Cave is a Symbol Array illusion. Moreover, this Symbol Array is the handiwork of the Sect's successive patriarchs; how could ordinary Divine Sense probing penetrate it?

With the Array Tablet in hand, he points into the void, and the scenery before him blurs and shifts; then, a pitch-black cave entrance appears abruptly on the cliff wall.

Xiao Qiwu flies inside.

Xiao Qiwu stands at the entrance of Wanxiang Cave and glances at the stone wall on the side of the entrance.

Inside the Shrine there, the God-Striking Whip is placed, and in the incense burner before the Shrine, three sticks of incense have already burned out.

Xiao Qiwu reaches out and takes the God-Striking Whip out.

Inside that Shrine, besides the God-Striking Whip, some trivial items are also placed. Those are parts that were replaced when Lv Yinlin repaired the God-Striking Whip.

Although these parts are worn and damaged, they are old objects, so they were not thrown away but placed together in the Shrine to receive offerings.

When the young attendant comes to wipe the God-Striking Whip every month, he also wipes those worn and damaged old parts.

Xiao Qiwu merely reaches over and grabs the God-Striking Whip; as for those old parts in the Shrine, he does not even glance at them.

Holding the God-Striking Whip, he suddenly leaps, covering about a zhang.

Xiao Qiwu stops his figure in the pitch darkness, takes out the Array Tablet again, and points it into the void in front of him.

As the Array Tablet is pointed, the darkness before him ripples like water, and a patch of flickering light and shadow suddenly appears.

Xiao Qiwu carefully takes half a step forward, crossing into the flickering light and shadow.

At this moment, he is standing at the edge of that light and shadow, holding the God-Striking Whip.

Xiao Qiwu knows that if he takes another half step, he will immediately fall into the turbulent flow of shattered Artistic Conception and be shrouded by thousands of sharp killing intents.

Even though he has already attained the Dongming Realm, it would still take quite some effort to walk out of the thousands of killing intents within this turbulent flow of shattered Artistic Conception.

However, at this moment, he is only standing at the edge and has not triggered those turbulent flows of shattered Artistic Conception.

Xiao Qiwu looks at the sparks of light flickering like ghostly eyes in the darkness before him.

He knows that within every point of light, there is a turbulent flow of Artistic Conception containing thousands of killing intents; as soon as a Divine Soul makes contact, it will be shredded by the thousands of killing intents.

And these lights and shadows, flickering on and off, are dense and countless!

Every generation of Sect patriarchs would inject new turbulent flows of Artistic Conception into this Symbol Array... Over the years, the power of these turbulent flows of Artistic Conception has become greater and greater, so in Lv Yinlin's generation, they stopped injecting new turbulent flows of Artistic Conception and completely fixed the structure of this array.

Xiao Qiwu stands at the edge, looking at the center of the darkness, at Duan Rong, who is surrounded by countless dense ghostly eyes.

Duan Rong lies unconscious there, face down, still in the posture in which he was thrown in.

Xiao Qiwu is not surprised by Duan Rong's state. Even though he probed him during the day, the kid's state was not bad, and his pulse contained strong vitality.

As long as there is enough time, Duan Rong will certainly be able to wake up slowly; at most, his Divine Soul will be somewhat damaged.

But it has only been six or seven hours since the execution during the day; no one could wake up so quickly.

Xiao Qiwu does not notice that although Duan Rong is lying there unconscious and motionless, his eyelids seem to have twitched slightly.

Xiao Qiwu's expression turns gloomy, and the eighty-four symbol seals on the body of the God-Striking Whip in his hand flash incessantly; a clear humming sound immediately rings out in the quiet Wanxiang Cave.

"Since three lashes couldn't kill you, this old man will lash you three more times!"

"I would like to see, is your Divine Soul tougher, or is the God-Striking Whip in my hand tougher!?"

The clear humming sound ceased, and Xiao Qiwu suddenly swung the whip; a strange, whip-like shadow that seemed almost solid struck the back of the unconscious Duan Rong in the darkness.

Inside Duan Rong's Spirit Sea of clarity, a massive whip shadow descended from the sky!

That cluster of Gray Shadow, which had just gathered and still had many gaps in the middle, had only just taken form!

It was then struck down by a lash of the whip shadow!

The newly gathered Gray Shadow was scattered again by the strike, but just as those gray shadow clusters were about to disperse, they were pulled back by the interwoven Qingyou Light Silk and Black Soul Silk, attempting to gather once more.

Just at this moment, a second whip shadow fell from the sky again.

It struck the gray shadow clusters that were attempting to gather, scattering them apart.

Those scattered gray shadow clusters kept having Qingyou Light Silk and Black Soul Silk poking their heads out, wanting to weave.

Just at this moment, a third whip shadow fell again!

It directly struck that gray shadow cluster, causing it to explode and scatter!

Xiao Qiwu stood there, looking at Duan Rong, whose aura was clearly weakening after receiving three more strikes of the God-Striking Whip, a sinister look on his face.

"Kid, you can keep holding on! Tomorrow night, I will whip you three more times! I will strike until your soul flies away and scatters!"

"When the time comes, I will tell your dead ghost of a master—oh right, and that Ancestor who tempered and cultivated you—that your Divine Soul dissipated within the Artistic Conception turbulence inside Wanxiang Cave."

"Who would be able to know that you died under my God-Striking Whip!"

After Xiao Qiwu finished speaking, he held the God-Striking Whip and leaped out of Wanxiang Cave.

Duan Rong lay unconscious in the pitch-black darkness, with dense Ghost Eyes flickering incessantly beside him.

Having endured six strikes of the God-Striking Whip, he had already fallen into a deep coma.

Inside Duan Rong's Spirit Sea of clarity, that original cluster of Gray Shadow had already been beaten into even more fragmented, tiny gray shadow clusters, like cotton wool scattered all over the ground.

But those Qingyou Light Silk and Black Soul Silk were still wandering and weaving through them...

Stitching together the tiny clusters of Gray Shadow one by one...

This process was extremely slow, and those Black Soul Silk were dissipating bit by bit.

Duan Rong's Divine Soul was severely damaged, and as time passed, the medicinal properties of the Soul Silk Grass were dissipating.

However, fortunately, those Qingyou Light Silk were being continuously replenished from the Tree Spirit Light Sea.

As the tiny gray shadow clusters gradually gathered, those Black Soul Silk finally dissipated completely, leaving only the Qingyou Light Silk weaving there.

The scattered gray shadow clusters gradually aggregated, becoming a cluster of Gray Shadow that kept churning. That was Duan Rong's re-aggregated Divine Soul.

The Tree Spirit in the Tree Spirit Light Sea had already been more than half consumed, but those Qingyou Light shadows were still incessantly rising from the light sea, swimming toward the sky...

As the Gray Shadow re-gathered, it hovered in the sky.

Those thirteen Star Bodies surrounded the Gray Shadow, each returning to its position, shining brilliantly as they began to rotate slowly...

Just at this moment, in the darkness, Duan Rong suddenly opened his eyes.

His head felt dizzy, and his Divine Soul sent waves of tearing pain.

Duan Rong grabbed his head, struggled to rise, and sat cross-legged; although he was unconscious, he knew his Divine Soul was severely damaged and dared not delay, immediately operating the thirteen-layer Womb Treasury Sutra technique!

Large swaths of light silk rose from the Tree Spirit Light Sea, swimming toward the sky like a school of fish.

"The Divine Soul is severely damaged; I wonder if the Tree Spirit light silk is enough?"

A flash of worry crossed Duan Rong's mind, wondering if these remaining light silk were enough to repair his damaged Divine Soul.

Those light silk, with Duan Rong's control and the reinforcement of the Womb Treasury Sutra technique, were clearly completely different from the scene when they operated on their own.

Those Qingyou Light Silk that were originally interwoven inside the Gray Shadow were quickly and completely absorbed by the Gray Shadow under the reinforcement of the technique, transforming into Divine Soul.

That churning, floating Gray Shadow was solidifying bit by bit.

And as that Gray Shadow solidified bit by bit, spots of light actually emerged from the depths of the Gray Shadow, gradually forming a fragile, thin layer of light film on the surface of the Gray Shadow.

"This is..."

Duan Rong looked at the shadow in the center of the Cangqiong, which had reappeared as a human figure sitting cross-legged, his heart filled with astonishment.

That shadow was no longer a blurry human outline, but a Clear Glass Body with exceptionally clear facial features, looking exactly like himself.

That Clear Glass Body was only a layer of light film on the surface; inside the body, the Gray Shadow was still floating and churning.

Duan Rong watched for a while and finally knew what that layer of Clear Glass light film on the surface of the Gray Shadow actually was.

That was the light film of the hundreds of Artistic Conceptions he had devoured!

The Artistic Conceptions devoured previously were all light clusters wrapped in a layer of light film.

The Divine Soul could not digest or absorb these Artistic Conception light clusters.

Duan Rong had let the Gray Shadow swallow those light-film-wrapped clusters, and then used the Soul Piercing Needle to pierce the Artistic Conception light clusters inside the body of the Gray Shadow.

Therefore, these Artistic Conception light films had turned into spots of light, always settling inside the body of the Gray Shadow.

He had received six strikes of the God-Striking Whip, which had actually re-tempered these spots of light, turning them into the light film of the Gray Shadow.

Duan Rong did not yet know what miraculous effect this layer of light film on the Gray Shadow had, but he was certain this must be a huge benefit.

Could this be the original intention of Lv Yinlin letting him receive three strikes of the God-Striking Whip?

Not necessarily!

This was something he had refined after receiving six strikes of the God-Striking Whip!

Perhaps Lv Yinlin only wanted to temper his Divine Soul and let the heterogeneous Artistic Conceptions fuse; Lv Yinlin should not have been aware that the spots of light formed by these light films remained deep within his Divine Soul.

Looking at the Clear Glass Body sitting cross-legged in the void, Duan Rong felt his mind clear, and the original pain in his Divine Soul had also completely disappeared.

His Divine Soul damage had been completely repaired, and he had even gained a blessing in disguise, achieving the Clear Glass Body!

But Duan Rong knew that these were all the effects of the Black Soul Silk and the Qingyou Light Silk.

(End of this chapter)