Chapter 678

After sending Immortal Lady Xuan Yuezi to the world of incense deification, Li Yi seized this opportunity to absorb a vast amount of incense power; as countless torrents of incense energy surged into his body, radiant light blazed all around him.

With this immense incense power bolstering him, he felt his strength rising at breakneck speed.

Had he possessed incense power earlier, he would have feared no encirclement by heavenly demons—just one invocation of Wind and Rain, empowered by incense, would have slain them all. Alas, once severed from the incense-deification world, incense power vanished like water without roots, dissipating rapidly; though a trace remained, it was useless for serious purposes.

"But this opening of the cross-realm gate has given me an idea: when facing a powerful foe, I can borrow incense power to temporarily surge my strength."

Li Yi stared at the cross-realm device.

Now that he had gathered three complete oddities, he could essentially travel freely between realms; it wouldn't hurt to indulge once—open a cross-realm gate just to harvest incense belief energy.

With the energy of three complete oddities, maintaining a cross-realm gate for a single person posed no difficulty.

Even after ten minutes, the gate remained stable.

Li Yi stood beside the gate, absorbing incense power in abundance, then used this energy to perform the Great Heaven-and-Earth Qi Absorption Art.

In an instant.

The heavens and earth churned violently; cosmic energy from the Demon-God Realm surged toward Tianyi Hall, divided into the Five Elements, with one stream flooding into Li Yi's body.

He was at the fourth layer of Five Qi Realm, with several acupoints still unfilled; without incense, his cultivation was too slow, and now he was on the battlefield of the Demon-God Realm—advancing his realm was critical.

If he could break through to the fifth layer of Five Qi Realm, even without full completion, his strength would crush heavenly demons.

The difference between Five Qi in harmony and Five Qi incomplete is not trivial.

Li Yi opening a cross-realm gate to cultivate using incense belief energy was extravagance itself—maintaining the gate's opening consumed vast cosmic energy at every moment.

Without three complete oddities, prolonged activation was impossible.

But now that the conditions existed, Li Yi no longer cared about extravagance—waste it if he must; this was no time for frugality, for the crisis in the Demon-God Realm remained unresolved.

Even if he won this assault, another would come.

As time slowly passed.

Combined with his prior diligent cultivation and this surge, his cultivation at the fourth layer of Five Qi Realm gradually reached fullness; the last remaining acupoint was finally filled with the Five Element spiritual energies.

"Heart-fire qi, lung-metal qi, liver-wood qi, spleen-earth qi, and finally kidney-water qi—I've now fully completed the fourth layer of Five Qi Realm, but it's not enough. Until I enter the final layer, I remain incomplete."

Although Li Yi's strength had slightly improved since before.

But this progress was minor—only his magic power had grown denser, with no true transformation.

"I must at least reach the final layer, fill one liver-wood acupoint, so I can circulate the Five Elements and unlock a new path of transformation. May all proceed smoothly," Li Yi thought inwardly.

He continued cultivating, unwilling to waste this vast incense belief energy.

As incense power grew ever greater, the incense gathered on Li Yi now exceeded the peak he had reached when he served as imperial priest during his cross-realm journey, and its quantity continued to rise.

The strengthening incense power amplified the Great Heaven-and-Earth Qi Absorption Art, accelerating his cultivation further.

With the influx of liver-wood qi, the final missing element of the Five Elements was completed; due to the Five Elements generating one another, radiant light burst from his five viscera and six bowels.

Five-colored qi interwove, as if countless energies churned within his body.

As the Five Elements circulated, streams of black energy were forcibly purged—black energy hidden in flesh, blood, and bone marrow, invisible in normal times, the embryonic toxins of cultivators.

Now that Li Yi had entered the fifth layer of Five Qi Realm, these toxins lingering in his body were being expelled.

Moreover.

His five viscera and six bowels began to glow with crystalline clarity under the circulation of the Five Elements; his body grew light as air, and within him, his divine blood surged like a great river.

Divine blood was generating at an unimaginable rate.

"The transformation of Five Qi Realm has begun," Li Yi sensed the changes in his body, deeply astonished.

Though Xiang Xiangzi had once taught that when a cultivator reached Five Qi Realm, the Five Elements generating one another would trigger a miraculous transformation—turning a mortal flesh-and-blood body into the true Dao body befitting a cultivator.

On the Xuan Immortal Continent, this was equivalent to Tribulation Crossing.

The mortal body has its limits; only by shedding it and evolving to a higher level could one gain greater power.

No matter how much one trains, human strength can never match that of a tiger.

This is a fundamental difference, not something postnatal cultivation can overcome.

Thus, regardless of the cultivation method, the ultimate goal is to continuously evolve, transform, discard the old body, and break free from the shackles of flesh and blood.

If Li Yi's cultivation method was a gradual transformation, this Five Elements harmony was like a silkworm pupa becoming a butterfly.

But Li Yi had only just entered Five Qi Realm, and his body contained divine blood, so his transformation would take far longer than a normal cultivator's—yet this would bring him unexpected benefits.

Soon.

Intense hunger surged through his mind.

After the transformation of his five viscera and six bowels, divine blood was generating too rapidly, demanding massive blood essence replenishment.

Li Yi paid no heed to anything else—he immediately pulled from the Five Element Bracelet the pills crafted by the Bald Daoist, pills rich with immense blood essence; though Liu Guizi had dismissed them as trash and scraps, their sheer quantity made them filling.

As blood essence flooded in, the generation of divine blood accelerated further.

Silver divine blood and golden dragon blood interwove within him, roaring like dragons and tigers, nourishing every part of his body, granting Li Yi a frame as mighty as a dragon or god.

Silver lightning crackled around him, making him resemble a thunder god descending from heaven; golden flames danced, as if a true dragon were being born from the fire.

The Five Elements transformed into five divine lights soaring into the heavens; dragon-tiger power surged through his muscles and bones.

All manner of marvels occurred.

Fortunately, he was inside Tianyi Hall—no one outside knew of these changes; had the Demon-God Realm detected these signs, great demons would have risked their lives to kill Li Yi.

Only the strong could comprehend how astonishing Li Yi's transformation truly was.

The potential he had gained from cross-realm cultivation was now blooming.

And this transformation brought a massive surge in strength.

"I've only filled one acupoint in the fifth layer of Five Qi Realm, yet I already feel my strength surging—I can't imagine how powerful I'll be when all twelve acupoints in the final layer are filled."

Li Yi marveled inwardly.

Moreover, as the Five Elements merged into one, his magic power had changed—it was indescribable, but he sensed his former magic power had been like mist, insubstantial and vast yet hollow, limiting his spells' potency.

Now, his magic power had become tangible, endowed with weight and inherent power; if he cast spells now, their strength would explode.

Bloodline, flesh, and magic power had all reached a new height.

If before, he could barely resist heavenly demons with all his strength, now he could kill them effortlessly with bare hands—even without magic treasures. To subdue him, only a great demon could intervene.

This transformation was unimaginable.

Consider how few days had passed.

A normal cultivator could never achieve such progress in such a short time.

"There's no need to rely on incense power anymore. I only need to sit quietly for a few days, letting my body adapt to this transformation," Li Yi said, then shut the cross-realm gate and retrieved the device.

He sat alone in Tianyi Hall.

He sat for exactly three days.

During these three days, the oddities supplied vast cosmic energy, and abundant pills replenished blood essence—his body suffered no depletion, so the transformation proceeded smoothly and yielded remarkable results.

In these days, many new experts had joined Earth's defense line.

Perhaps because the previous battle had slain five great demons, Earth's evolutionists had gained confidence; this time, more came than before, and the once-empty defense line gradually grew bustling.

"Li Yi, are you there?"

Suddenly.

A voice sounded outside Tianyi Hall.

Ten formidable evolutionists arrived as a team.

Their mission: to garrison this section of the defense line.

With Su Mu gone, Tao Sheng missing, and several others dead, Li Yi was now the sole defender of this stretch.

Under these circumstances, Xiao Jianguo, as the responsible officer, naturally had to promptly reinforce Li Yi.

After all, no matter how scarce personnel were, they couldn't leave Li Yi alone guarding such a vast front—it was unthinkable, and besides, Li Yi had performed exceptionally in the last battle, slaying many heavenly demons; he deserved special attention.

The man calling out was a young man of about twenty-five or twenty-six, named Zhang Tianfan, clad in a super-nano combat suit, carrying a simple yet ancient treasure blade, radiating martial vigor; his own strength was formidable, his realm already at Spirit God Realm.

Though this realm was not strong on the defense line, he bore traces of multiple cultivation methods—his combat power might rival a heavenly demon.

Beside him were nine other evolutionists, each formidable—any one could be called a master anywhere on Earth.

"No response—maybe he's not inside the hall?" said a woman beside him, also clad in super-nano combat gear, a treasure sword hanging at her waist.

It was a lower-grade treasure artifact from the Xuan Immortal Continent, potent in power—no one knew how she had acquired it.