Chapter 302: Mountain Range Giant Beast! The Beast's Shadow in the Depths of Mingtu

As Baichuan's words fell, his heart also steeled itself, as if something had witnessed and acknowledged this name/race.

Was this a peculiarity from the Dragon Blood? Or a divine marvel that all living beings must possess when crossing a certain life tier?

Chaotic thoughts flooded his mind.

Of course, this strange feeling came too secretly and vanished too swiftly; he had no time to experience it in detail.

Baichuan did not think further and gathered his thoughts.

Now that the breakthrough was complete, it was time for the next step.

Only after truly breaking through to Zhenjun did Baichuan realize how terrifyingly fast the recovery of his spiritual power was at this realm, and how much destruction he could unleash.

His intuition told him that the spiritual power he alone provided might equal that of fifty Zhenjun or even divine spirits!

That was no small number. One must know that the surviving Zhenjun powerhouses in the Dongfang Quyu, even including the group he had initially saved, numbered only just over seventy.

Currently, all Zhenjun-realm beings in the entire Dongfang Quyu—including those sleeping, those hiding in Mingtu, or those still guarding various places across this land who had not yet arrived—numbered barely over a hundred.

And Baichuan alone supplied spiritual power equivalent to half of all Zhenjun-realm beings in the entire Dongfang Quyu!

This was right after his breakthrough; once stabilized and further improved, this amount might increase even more.

This was not only because he was inherently stronger than these beings, but also because he was closer to the position of Heaven and Earth, and had truly broken through to this realm.

The Dragon Claw, wreathed in black-and-gold flames, stretched out. The Ancient Bell suspended within the Spirit Sea stirred slightly, and a vortex appeared in the void out of thin air, from which two ancient tomes slowly emerged.

These were the ancient tomes personally hidden within the Ancient Bell by Tangboshi before his death—one was the "Basic Qi Refining Art" that had created the entire Spirit Qi cultivation system, and the other was a storage space that could only be opened when a true Tianzun powerhouse appeared, containing the mysterious ancient tome that had appeared alongside those several clusters of mysterious blood.

Putting away the ancient tomes, Baichuan took one last look at the Rhythm Fruit quietly radiating brilliant light within the Ancient Bell, then departed.

That Dao Fruit belonging to Canglan—he would ultimately have to completely shatter it. Not shattering it meant the mysterious position on this planet would always have a controller.

Although he could absorb it and make it his own, a Dao Fruit comprehended by another was ultimately another's. Even if he truly could absorb and contain it, it would never compare to one he comprehended and condensed himself.

Of course, this was only one reason. The most important thing was that earlier, when he had truly broken through to Zhenjun by his own power, he had actually birthed his own "Treading Flames." So when he broke through to Tianzun by his own power, and even inscribed the entire position to break through to a Planet Overlord equivalent to his current strength, would he then birth a true innate ability of his own?

For instance, an LV5 (Planet)-level ability?!

Baichuan was not sure, but he was looking forward to it. Just this point alone was worth his inscription and condensation.

Of course, not now.

The world's current Divine-realm powerhouses still needed the existence of this Rhythm Fruit.

But the other half of the Rhythm Fruit was no longer needed.

The Divine Corpse that had escaped from his hands in the depths of Mingtu back then needed to be dealt with.

Moreover, he was also very curious about the ability model of that era's Banzhu on this planet—the Mountain Range Giant Beast.

Setting everything else aside, just the fact that its body could grow to the size of a mountain range was extraordinary in itself.

What is a mountain range?

Only a landform extending in a certain direction, composed of several mountain ridges and valleys, could be called a "mountain range."

And for a being to be named a Mountain Range Giant Beast, although there might be some exaggeration in this aspect, even the weakest among them—how could its body size be less than a thousand meters?

As the true king among the Mountain Range Giant Beasts of old, that Divine Corpse, namely Canglan, had a body size that—even though Baichuan had not observed it carefully, and it had once again sunk into the thick Yin Qi clouds—he could roughly judge to be no less than 6,000 meters!

6,000 meters! What an exaggerated body size?!

Baichuan's current body size had only just barely reached two hundred meters. The comparison between him and the other party... there was simply no comparison to be made; the gap was too vast.

If he could obtain the aspect of body size from the other's ability model, it would be tantamount to bringing him one step closer to a planet-sized body.

Even though these Mountain Range Giant Beasts had grown to such enormity step by step over countless ages, how many creatures in this world could grow to such a massive size? And what divine marvels must their bodily construction possess to allow them to grow to such enormity?

If its own bloodline didn't possess a shred of peculiarity, that would be an insult to Baichuan's intelligence.

……

Leaving the starship, Baichuan, relying on the pseudo-Tianzun-level authority power upon him, issued a command to all the Zhenjun in the entire Dongfang Quyu who had completely submitted to him,

Then he began, for the first time relying on his own perception, to search for the blurry boundary between Mingtu and the human world.

This was yet another distinct feeling.

As the surrounding space rippled once again, Baichuan used his own power to step into the familiar Mingtu.

The dim firmament, the endless chains had long since vanished, leaving only streams of Yin Qi resembling Qi channels continuously surging forth. On the black-and-scarlet broken earth, countless yaosui of various forms roamed aimlessly across the land.

Although the mysterious summoning from Canglan no longer existed, it didn't matter. Having come here once before, he had long since memorized the direction within, let alone that he still possessed Tianzun-level authority power.

After carefully sensing, Baichuan traveled unimpeded all the way to the familiar depths of Mingtu.

Taking only three days!

Flying all the way, countless corpses lay scattered below, like mountains of corpses. But perhaps because they had lost the attraction of the mysterious summoning, and with the death of large numbers of strange insects, the eeriness on these corpses had diminished considerably,

Before long, Baichuan arrived at the place where the Canglan Divine Corpse had once appeared.

What met Baichuan's eyes was a familiar mass of chaos. He once hadn't understood what this chaos was, which had allowed the other party to shrink into it at the last moment. Now, however, he understood—

This chaos was a space that Canglan of old had created on the periphery of Tianyuan Star using a certain power of his own, situated between the mysterious position and the Ancient Bell Barrier. It was as if the entire Tianyuan Jie was a cooked egg, Tianyuan Star was the yolk, the mysterious position was the egg white, and the eggshell was the Ancient Bell Barrier. This chaotic space created by Canglan was like a bubble on that white membrane between the egg white and the eggshell.

In the past, he couldn't enter it with his own power, even knowing the other party was located at the "white membrane," because although the "white membrane" seemed to be there, it wasn't actually there. It was like trying to find a small bubble on this vast "white membrane" without knowing its exact location—which was no easy task.

But now it was different. The entire Ancient Bell's barrier held no more secrets in his eyes. As long as he was near this "bubble," he could completely rely on his connection with the Ancient Bell to determine the exact location of this chaos and step into it!

In thought, Baichuan lightly touched the Ancient Bell within his heart. In an instant, a mottled space appeared before his eyes, with a jet-black, ink-like mass standing in the center—that was the chaos where the Canglan Divine Corpse resided!

From within, he could sense a faint yet deadly crisis.

Baichuan suddenly understood, not at all surprised by the crisis he felt.

After all, no matter what, Canglan was the undisputed strongest being in this world. Even Taiyang Zunzhe and the Tangboshi behind him could do nothing against him. The reason he ended up as a corpse was ultimately his own misfortune—unluckily encountering a Star-Devouring Worm attack the moment he stepped out of the planet.

Baichuan even suspected that if not for the other party's incomplete state, even facing the Star-Devouring Worm wouldn't have led to such a miserable situation.

Because what he faced at that time was not merely the Star-Devouring Worm, but also Tangboshi, who had stolen half of his Dao Fruit, causing his incomplete state, and who at the last moment used the Ancient Bell Barrier to sever his connection with the planet's position!

Moreover, according to certain rumors, a certain Tianzun once appeared in the depths of Mingtu and returned in disgrace.

It was not impossible that the Tianzun in those rumors was Taiyang Tianzun.

Yet despite all this, the other party had endured until now, tens of thousands of years later, having lost all support.

Such an existence—if one were to say it had not a single arrangement in its lair, that would be pure fantasy. Its physical body may not have broken through to the Planet Overlord realm, but its soul may have long since reached that level, even possessing a certain divinity, only lacking the fusion of spirit and flesh.

The soul, after all, always represents mystery.

Not to mention that the soul level is precisely Baichuan's current weakness—he is a Planet Overlord at LV5 who specializes in the physical body.

Now, he is about to enter the lair of such an existence.

Thinking of this, Baichuan inwardly raised his vigilance to the utmost. The next moment, with a single thought, he stepped inside.

In an instant, ripples appeared from nowhere in the void at the deepest part of Mingtu. The next moment, the flame dragon that had been treading upon flames—its four claws trailing black and gold fire as it traversed the void—was swallowed up and vanished.

Darkness! Boundless, endless darkness!!

Silence! Soundless, deathly stillness!!

It was as if the scene from Baichuan's sea of consciousness when he had undergone his metamorphosis and given birth to a dragon soul had reappeared. Looking in every direction—up, down, left, right—there was only darkness. He could only faintly sense streams of condensed air currents surging ceaselessly, along with a faint, elusive stench of decay.

"So this is where Canglan has been sleeping all along?"

Baichuan controlled his body so that the strange air currents would not carry him away, and gazing at the faint light upon his four claws alone, he murmured inwardly.

The next instant, a strange feeling shot straight into his heart, and his gaze abruptly sharpened.

By the faint light upon his claws, he saw within the surrounding darkness countless eyes lighting up from the void, watching him silently, without a trace of emotion!

A piercing, bone-chilling needle-like sensation ignored the high temperature within Baichuan's body and struck straight at his heart.

In an instant, a wave of goosebumps rose all over Baichuan's slender dragon body. Strands of Light Point fragments fell like dust with a soft "shhh," dropping into the darkness toward some unknown place.

This chill did not act upon the physical body, but directly upon the soul, upon the Spirit level!

If Baichuan had not already made up for his shortcoming to a small extent and given birth to a soul,

perhaps this strange power acting upon his consciousness would have brought even more Light Point energy of death.

Baichuan had only just stepped into the other's home ground, and was already discovered by its master, who even gave him a show of force.

"Hiss!"

A cluster of sparks sprang up, then instantly transformed into a massive torch!

A special flame that could burn matter and also ignite the soul, the Spirit level—in an instant it rose skyward, radiating warm light into this place.

"Sizzle sizzle sizzle…"

As the firelight spread, the darkness rapidly receded, and pair after pair of cold, emotionless eyes swiftly closed and vanished. Strange sounds rang out from within the darkness, as though something was being burned.

This was the strange flame that had sprung up from Baichuan's four claws suddenly swelling and rising, transforming into a blazing torch!

It was also Baichuan's counterattack.

By the light of this rising flame, amid the wavering shadows, he finally caught sight of a faintly visible dark figure!

Within the dark figure, something resembling a Blood Moon lit up, illuminating the small dragon treading upon flames within the darkness—its gaze brimming with brutality and cruelty!

That dark figure rose swiftly from bottom to top, trailing a ribbon of blood, as though propping up an entire sky,

Though it was a dark figure, one could still see within it faintly discernible, clearly defined muscles, covered all over with strands of dense black bristles,

In an instant, a figure that seemed to hold up the heavens appeared, dense chaotic aura surging ceaselessly. Only now did Baichuan see the dark figure's true form clearly—that thing was no Blood Moon at all!

It was an eye!

It was the eye of an incomparably enormous creature!!

Overall it resembled a colossal human figure, but its entire body was covered in a layer of dense black fur that swayed in the wind. A pair of eyes like Blood Moons stared fixedly downward. The next moment, It raised a pair of giant claws of knotted sinew, lifting them high above Its head. Following this motion, Baichuan was shocked to discover that atop this monster's head there existed three faces!

The first was the brutal blood-eye he had seen at first, with a sunken nose, a pair of long, curved sharp teeth curling up at the corners of its lips, and black-red aura ceaselessly billowing from its mouth.

The second was on the left—a smooth, fair, human-like face, with a pair of golden eyes weeping blood, in a compassionate aspect!

The third was on the right—a soft, even cute-looking, furry face resembling a young ape, innocent of the ways of the world!

"Whoosh!!!"

"Buzz!!!"

A biting hurricane rose, and a piercing sonic boom exploded!

It was as though the entire heavens and earth had moved along with this motion!

A pair of beast-claws of knotted sinew that blotted out the sky clenched into fists, and in a mountain-moving posture, smashed violently toward the earth—

And that place was precisely where Baichuan stood.

Yin energy like a dragon surged in close pursuit of the beast-claws!

In an instant, all Baichuan's eyes could see was this single pair of sky-covering giant claws smashing down. The entire heavens and earth were filled with this pair of beast-claws—there was nowhere left to dodge!

……

(End of Chapter)