Chapter 424: Turning the Tables, Changqing Rises Violently

Practice has proven that the above-ground portion of the An Kingdom's royal palace was indeed built without any consideration for spell battles, a piece of arrogant, self-conceited, and extravagant shoddy construction; yet here underground, it is the secret lair of the An God, naturally managed by him to be as impenetrable as an iron barrel!

However, Du En had actually anticipated this; under his Fiery Eyes of Truth, he had long since noticed various suspicious signs.

Therefore, facing this sudden change underground—a situation akin to turning the earth into steel—he was not the least bit surprised. The Wood Domain, which had been gathering strength in the first and second underground levels and even growing throughout the first ground level to spread across the open space around the palace, erupted immediately, blocking it! Crack, crack, crack, bang, bang, bang...

A teeth-grinding sound of shattering and crushing rang out densely; it was the roots of countless trees and grasses engaging in a fierce strangulation with the An-Light Red Crystals!

However, relying solely on the Wood Domain spell would naturally be difficult to contend with the An God's lair layout, but Du En had another move!

"Woo—"

Accompanied by a distant, long cry coming from the sky, a massive Soaring Kun puppet suddenly leaped down from the high-altitude clouds and crashed thunderously onto the right flank of An Capital, which the Great General Ming was currently entangled in and unable to attend to.

Then, it self-destructed.

Boom!!!

A terrifying mushroom cloud, with a crown diameter of over a hundred miles, appeared in the world on the spot.

A violent shockwave raged outward, and the high-energy mana torrent was even more terrifying, easily tearing and shredding everything in its path.

If not for the fact that An Capital itself was ridiculously large, with a vast open space between the city wall defense zone and the residential area, and the inner side being densely covered with the An Kingdom's second line of defense, I fear that this one blow alone would have caused incalculable casualties.

However, it was precisely because he could ensure no innocents would be harmed that Du En self-destructed so decisively.

Bang, bang, bang! Under the ravages of the shock torrent, large sections of the city wall shattered and collapsed, and countless puppets and guards were caught in the aftermath.

Great General Ming was greatly shocked; he forced back his opponent and prepared to go and attempt to contain it.

But the puppets caught in the blast—they could also self-destruct!

Immediately, accompanied by the terrifying flash that appeared with the simultaneous self-destruction, the mushroom cloud that had just risen was directly torn apart. The entire right city wall of An Capital was wiped away on the spot, not even a trace of the wall foundation underground remained, leaving behind a deep pit with incredibly smooth edges as if it had been hollowed out of thin air, resembling an abyss.

The power the An God had exerted on this side naturally vanished into thin air as well.

Because that was hundreds upon hundreds of Fifth-Rank puppets self-destructing at once, as if the same number of genius Nascent Soul cultivators had jointly unleashed a desperate final strike; even Du En himself would find it hard to endure, so a mere city wall was naturally destroyed in an instant.

And the transmission of the impact was exceptionally rapid. As the part of the city wall where the An God primarily exerted his protection, its massive damage and destruction rippled through the underground conduction veins in the blink of an eye to the royal palace, directly causing the layout here to become fragmented as well.

The Wood Domain spell then pressed on with renewed vigor, and the Holy God also struck at the opportune moment, immediately turning from guest to host, thoroughly invading and occupying the underground ground of the An Kingdom's royal palace; only that strange space leading to the deeper depths, which was not actually directly beneath the material soil layer, remained outside their control.

However, the red crystal teeth at that entrance seemed to have been affected as well, and their fracturing stopped.

Du En calmly raised his hand and flicked his finger; several True Flame Fire Phoenixes, the size of sparrows, immediately coalesced into a few the size of medium-sized dogs, emerging from the dream gap to peck at them.

Those beaks were of two colors: the red was scorching, the gold was brilliant; it was precisely the highly refined, more powerful True Flame.

"Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle!"

A strange sound rang out, as if in annoyance, as if in fear; little shadows suddenly emerged from within the red crystals, and then these strange shadows suddenly poked their heads out, extending ghost-claw-like hands to meet the pecking phoenix beaks.

They were easily pecked through, and as the True Flame spread, it immediately turned them into nothingness.

But this was not the end; there was no telling how many strange shadows were emerging from the translucent fluorite red crystals, baring fangs and brandishing claws, fearless and undaunted, still daring to reach out, trying to pull those True Flame Fire Phoenixes out of the dream gap.

For a time, these red crystals, which had originally appeared to have ordinary edges, also took on many eerie colors.

After the Holy God noticed this, her expression changed.

"Residual resentment, residual souls?!"

Those infected with Fluorite Disease suffer immensely, and eventually, from flesh to soul, they reach a point of total collapse, because that kind of endless absorption of disease Qi to strengthen and proliferate is simply not something an ordinary vessel can withstand.

Although the person is dead, because of the torture suffered during their lifetime, and factors like the echoes of Fluorite Disease, situations like the Disease Bone Wasteland arise, where resentful thoughts and residual souls remain, capable of connecting to become a Disease Net.

And the An God went a step further; by collecting an unknown number of residual resentments and souls, and aggregating and refining them in his own way, he created these strange, ghostly shadows residing in the fluorite red crystals, which even ordinary Nascent Soul cultivators are no match for!

This is a very brilliant Demonic Path method! The various means that deity has gradually revealed are truly terrifying to think about! However, this kind of trick still cannot stop Du En.

While controlling the fire phoenixes, his posture was elegant and his movements swift; one peck per strange shadow, and although it looked like he only pecked once, several strange shadows shattered and disappeared as a result.

At the same time, he also controlled the long phoenix tail feathers to continue infiltrating downward.

Very quickly.

Crack, boom! Touching the bottom, erupting, directly disintegrating its existence from the roots of the sealing restriction!

A chain reaction appeared rapidly; the fluorite red crystals at the entrance and the layers of strange shadows suddenly shattered and dissipated, turning to dust along with the restriction.

With a lift of the floor, the door opened.

The ominous dark red inside, as if long prepared, surged out simultaneously.

The god and the man, also long prepared, immediately poured in light and flame; after a slight stalemate, they suppressed the ominous deep red back and carved layers of restriction veins onto the passage, continuing to turn from guest to host, transforming this place into their own controlled territory.

Du En glanced at those glowing veins and then took another look at the Holy God's Hanging Lamp.

Learning really fast...

He couldn't help but think this, because although it appeared crude, it was already a genuine cultivator's method, containing the nuances of artifact restrictions, puppet veins, and the like; it was a form of temporary control restriction.

Clearly, having obtained the inheritance from the Puppet Sect Tower and constantly watching Du En's effortless Earth-Wood Holy Refining, the Holy God had already quickly figured out many things.

Coupled with her method of using power that could be called squandering...

He didn't think too much, because they needed to finish the battle quickly.

Beneath this passage, although it might be a trap set by the An God, neither the god nor the man hesitated at this moment; both wanted to go down and see what was going on, to see what the An God had secretly done.

Otherwise, when facing the An God next, who knew if something unpredictable might pop out from here, such as god-remains or refined objects infected with Fluorite Disease, or some other thing.

That is why this is called a "Yang Plot"—a plot that, once they notice it, they are forced to go and figure out!

Du En raised his hand in a beckoning gesture, and the Phoenix Red True Flame, which had already burned away many fluorite crystals on the third level, immediately flew over, transforming into a rolling cloud of fire, gold and red intertwined. It then split into two; one part continued to churn and roll, remaining at the entrance to protect this retreat, while one phoenix let out a clear cry and opened the way forward.

His figure followed closely behind, jumping into the entrance and beginning to descend.

"Yun, you stay here, heal well, and at the same time keep an eye on the entrance and act as a backup."

"Understood."

Regarding the Holy God's words, Yun did not try to be brave and immediately answered.

Then she saw the Hanging Lamp flash and vanish, following Du En down. Yun stood up, walked over, and sat cross-legged in front of the churning True Flame. The final fluorite proliferation crystal on her face quietly fell off and shattered, her appearance completely restored to what it was before, only looking pale and beaded with sweat, quite pitiful.

She thought for a moment, raised her hand to drive the mana she had just recovered—which was not much—and released a spell.

Outside, the Wood Domain crisscrossed and occupied the area, True Flame rolled at the entrance, and in the middle, water mist quietly appeared, condensing into clouds; faintly, it seemed as if a bright moon was hiding in the clouds, and the whole thing gradually became illusory, capable of obscuring and interfering with external perception.

This was all she could do, and then she sat in silent meditation, refining the medicinal power and the remaining Fluorspar Sickness within her body.

Sizzle—

A strange, shrill sound jumped across the projected light screen.

At this moment, the screen was a flickering, pitch-black void, occasionally rippling with blood-colored light, as if something were hidden within, making one unable to help but frown.

Meng Changqing looked up at the projected image in his courtyard, here on the Fifth Peak of the Falling Feather Immortal Gate, from the Source Life Star Realm, which was separated by an unknown number of hundreds of millions of miles; it had been interrupted by abnormal interference and had turned into its current state.

He released the hand seal he had been holding, his brows furrowed slightly, and he revealed a look of confusion.

Clearly, the Immortal Gate was the mastermind behind the scenes, the one looking down from high above, yet now it had failed to maintain the connection, having been countered by a piece on its own chessboard...

He suddenly grinned and looked at True Monarch Buyi opposite him: "Senior Brother, this is a situation you didn't anticipate beforehand, right?"

As for the Source Life Star Realm, he was by no means the controller; True Monarch Buyi opposite him was.

Although he had gained some right of intervention due to their mutual exchange of conditions, it was actually not much, so he hadn't bothered to try doing anything else.

"... It has indeed gone somewhat out of control."

Accompanied by True Monarch Buyi's admission and confirmation, the projected image went completely silent; even the sizzling sound ceased, leaving only that completely frozen patch of darkness.

Across a communication channel spanning an unknown number of hundreds of millions of miles, it had been artificially severed from the other end! What kind of figures were the two of them? At the instant it was severed, both saw a dim, suspended sun suddenly flash by.

Dark God!

"... I am actually not that surprised; after all, when I saw that so-called Blood Lotus Sect appear, I had already sensed the abnormality of that god."

Meng Changqing could not help but sigh with emotion, "However, I did not expect that in a small, barren star realm, where the quality of the spiritual vein star source barely exceeds the fifth rank, there would actually appear two gods capable of rebelling against their own nature."

"Ordinary gods are merely puppets of logic, not gods in any practical sense; such things, I can manufacture as many as I want, it is a very simple matter."

True Monarch Buyi spoke so bluntly, stating a fact, and even raised a hand to point at the air in front of him; immediately, a painful scream was pulled over, and between his palms, a primordial spirit was being reshaped into a different form—it was none other than the Blood Lotus Dark Maiden, who had been assimilated and attached to the Law of Pain.

Following a display of miraculous technique, the prototype of a newborn god was transformed and gestated.

It would only take another few years to a few decades for her to be fully gestated and become a new god! Then.

Snap! True Monarch Buyi flicked his finger again, his cold, rigid face devoid of any ripples, and the newborn god prototype that the Blood Lotus Dark Maiden had become simply exploded, completely vanishing into nothingness.

Although it was only because he had extracted the primordial spirit attached to the law and utilized her proximity to the logic of pain that he could so easily create a prototype of a pain god, True Monarch Buyi's nonchalance still caused Meng Changqing's eyes to shift slightly.

How many times must one have practiced this to be able to do such a thing easily at the early stage of the Heaven's Pride Integration realm?!

His heart trembled secretly, and he felt even more dissatisfaction with True Monarch Buyi's actions in the Source Life Star Realm, his expression unknowingly taking on a haze.

"Ordinary gods, when it comes down to it, are just things of this level; they are essentially no different from high-grade spiritual objects or special curiosities, except that they can walk and move, and carry a seemingly useful brain."

True Monarch Buyi did not care about the change in Meng Changqing's expression and continued to speak, unperturbed, his gaze cast upon the pitch-black, frozen projection screen, his stone-like, inanimate stare as if he could still continue to gaze at the performance behind the black curtain.

"But they are different; they are not those defective products. Of course, they are not the successful products I created either; those I created were all failures, and they have all been disposed of."

These words contained many meanings.

Meng Changqing could not help but think of the Divine Bone Treasure Artifact of the Great General Ming, and the curiosity 'Rain Bone' gestated in the Rain Valley, and his expression turned even gloomier.

It was clear that the gods created experimentally all died miserable deaths, and even their remains and bones after death were to be used as the foundation for this True Monarch's new experiments!

"It would be better to see more clearly."

True Monarch Buyi said this, and prepared to cast his supreme Dao technique across the distance of unknown hundreds of millions of miles to pull back the pitch-black obstruction.

This was not to say that his casting range was truly that far.

A True Monarch, when it comes down to it, is only at the Integration stage; although he can play with stars, he still appears insignificant when facing the entire infinite universe and starry sky, this immeasurably vast world.

However, the five great immortal gates, including the Falling Feather Immortal Gate, had long since extended their tentacles to the deepest parts of the universe after ten thousand years of development.

Although the Source Life Star was an unknown number of hundreds of millions of miles away from this Ancestral Star, since it had already been brought under control, True Monarch Buyi, who possessed the power of governance, could use it as a springboard to easily realize his supreme Dao technique on the other side!

However, before the True Monarch's Dao technique could even unfold, an accident occurred on his own side.

An abrupt collapse appeared from a point on his chest, instantly swallowing his entire person and directly interrupting his actions.

His gaze, devoid of any ripples of shock or anger, glanced at the attacker the instant before he vanished.

Unbeknownst to anyone, Meng Changqing's hazy, indistinct true body had already opened a pair of eyes, as if reflecting the heavens and earth, and simultaneously extended a finger, causing space-time to collapse and recreating earth, fire, wind, and water to make a special small world, swallowing True Monarch Buyi inside.

With a quiet flash, he himself also disappeared.

"Ha... haha... I've endured you for a long time..."

The true body erupted, catching True Monarch Buyi off guard; Meng Changqing's avatar was like a faulty connection, its expression incomparably stiff, its words intermittent.

The reason he still kept this little bit of remaining strength was naturally to deal with the others.

Sure enough, in the next instant, three divine senses had already descended upon this place.

Three True Monarchs!

"Don't worry... it's just, a friendly spar... I won't kill him..."

Meng Changqing's avatar spoke in stutters; two of the three divine senses immediately withdrew and left, only the divine sense of True Monarch Huiqing remained here, paying attention to the battle within the isolated small world, and seemingly still somewhat concerned about the other side of the frozen, pitch-black screen.

Because of this, the remaining consciousness in the avatar could not be withdrawn.

They really are birds of a feather! Meng Changqing cursed inwardly, and struck True Monarch Buyi even more ruthlessly.

(End of this chapter)