Chapter 573: The Indestructible Body

A large expanse of red insect cloud circled in mid-air, then turned and descended to a spot not far away, after which these insects combined together again; with a flash of red light, Zhang Nuo appeared before the crowd once more!

"Insect body? Are you a demon beast or a human after all?"

Zhuyue looked at Zhang Nuo in terror, her complexion having turned ugly to the extreme; she had not expected that Zhang Nuo's physical body could actually transform into countless red beetles in an instant. She had never even heard of such a divine ability before! Moreover, the number of these red beetles was extremely vast; even if thirty or fifty died, no reduction would be visible!

If one analyzed the situation according to this, wouldn't this body of Zhang Nuo's be indestructible? As long as he was attacked, he would only need to lose a few insects!

A smile still hung on Zhang Nuo's face. He glanced at his own body, feeling greatly pleased in his heart; his body was originally the host for the 'Hidden Wing Blood-Eating Insect', and it could be said that the body was the Spirit Insect, and the Spirit Insect was the body!

Just a moment ago, when the sword strike Zhuyue launched hit his body, he had actually used the 'Hidden Wing Blood-Eating Insect' to open a gap at the very spot the long sword pierced into his body the instant it entered!

On the surface, it looked like the long sword had slashed into his body, but in reality, the long sword had simply passed through while wrapped in a mass of Spirit Insects! Afterward, his body differentiated into countless Spirit Insects and vanished before the crowd's eyes! When the Spirit Insects finished reassembling the body, he had restored his physical form!

This was the wonder of the 'Beast-Taming Return to One Illusion Immortal Art'; the cultivator and the Spirit Beast were combined, relying on each other, and were entirely one entity!

"Hehe, whatever Fellow Daoist Zhuyue says I am, then that is what I am!"

Having experienced the body differentiating into Spirit Insects, Zhang Nuo's confidence greatly increased. Since the opponent had no way to harm him while they were at the same stage, he could fight with all his might!

Before Zhuyue could reply, Zhang Nuo flipped one hand, and a cyan gourd appeared in his grip! This 'Cyan Wood Gourd' Magic Treasure was exactly what he had seized from Niu Xiukong's hands back then. Because Zhang Nuo was still at the Spirit Severing Stage at that time, he had no way to erase the Divine Sense Mark the other party had left on it. It was only after entering the Integration Stage that he spent several years refining away Niu Xiukong's Divine Sense Mark within the Magic Treasure and re-imprinting it with his own!

The Cyan Wood Gourd turned slightly in Zhang Nuo's palm, and a large amount of cyan light surged out from the gourd's mouth, appearing as hundreds of specks of light before him!

"Go!"

As the word 'go' left his mouth, these cyan light orbs, each the size of a fist, turned into streaks of Spirit Power light and fiercely struck toward Zhuyue! With her complexion changing drastically, Zhuyue had thoroughly understood the gap in strength between her and Zhang Nuo! Even though she had advanced to the Integration Middle Stage and possessed the body of a demon beast, facing a monster like Zhang Nuo, she would likely not gain any advantage even if she exhausted all her divine abilities!

Thinking of this, Zhuyue withdrew all her divine abilities, transformed into a streak of escape light, and fled toward the rear!

The hundreds of light orbs launched by the Cyan Wood Gourd all missed, and seeing this woman turn and run, a look of surprise appeared on Zhang Nuo's face! But immediately, he laughed out loud twice and turned his head to send a sound transmission to Tianyi Daoist on the mountaintop:

"Hall Master! It is time to launch the general offensive! Let us strike while the iron is hot and drive the demon beasts back!"

Hearing Zhang Nuo's sound transmission and seeing the leading demon cultivator of the opposing side flee, Tianyi Laodao also became interested. After briefly discussing with the monk Xiangxin beside him, he gave the order. Aside from the few cultivators left behind to operate the attack Array, all cultivators rushed out from the light screen of the Mountain Protection Restriction and swarmed toward the retreating demon beasts!

The defeat was like a collapsing mountain. Upon receiving Zhuyue's order to retreat, the countless demon beast army began to fall back. Just at this moment, tens of thousands of cultivators rushed down from Bushishan, chasing the fleeing demon beasts and slaughtering them to their heart's content!

Zhang Nuo, naturally, could not let this excellent opportunity pass. With a flick of his sleeves, countless 'Hidden Wing Blood-Eating Insects' flew out, and a red insect cloud covering an area of about an acre appeared, shrouding the demon beasts below!

As long as they were bitten by the Spirit Insects, the fresh blood within the demon beasts' bodies would be drained dry! In this way, not only were the demon beasts slaughtered, but the 'Hidden Wing Blood-Eating Insects' were also replenished with some food!

The cultivators of the Wuliang Dao Sect and Jile Temple chased the demon beasts for hundreds of miles before stopping. Looking back, they saw the corpses of various demon beasts everywhere. With a movement of Zhang Nuo's Divine Sense, the countless 'Hidden Wing Blood-Eating Insects' returned into his body, and with a flash, he arrived beside Tianyi Laodao!

"Hall Master! We should also collect the corpses of these demon beasts; we can pick out the useful ones and refine them into materials!"

At this moment, Tianyi looked at the youth before him, unable to speak for a long while. Was this still a cultivator at the Integration Early Stage? Some of his divine abilities were things he had never heard of!

"You are right! Someone, come! Transport all the useful demon beast corpses back to the mountain!"

Some of the surrounding cultivators agreed, and then Zhang Nuo, Tianyi, and the others returned to Bushishan first.

Just as they entered the main hall, the monk Xiangxin laughed so hard the wrinkles on his old face bloomed!

"Haha! Fellow Daoist Zhang! This poor monk truly underestimated you before. Today's battle, you have truly vented our pent-up anger!"

"Indeed, Fellow Daoist Zhang, this set of divine abilities of yours, Kangdong is convinced!"

The monk Tuotuo also said to Zhang Nuo repeatedly!

"You fellow daoists flatter me! These petty tricks of mine were fine to use the first time, but if used a second time, perhaps they would not be effective!"

Zhang Nuo's gaze swept over the people present; he knew that, likely, no one on this Bushishan would dare to look down on his existence again! His fame now was perhaps even greater than that of Tianyi Laodao!

Some are happy, some are sad! At the same time, Zhuyue stood at the edge of a forest, looking at the countless injured demon beasts before her, feeling a lingering fear in her heart! If she had been even a moment later, even her own life would not have been saved. She was still recalling that battle with Zhang Nuo; how did the other party manage to merge into one with the Spirit Beast?

It seemed that relying solely on her strength to take down Bushishan was simply impossible. Thinking of this, the young girl flipped her jade hand, and a Sound Transmission Talisman appeared in her palm. After whispering a few words to the Fowen, she infused it with Spirit Power, and the Sound Transmission Talisman transformed into a streak of fire, rushing into the high sky; after circling once, it quickly vanished into the horizon!

Afterward, Zhuyue gave some instructions to the few demon cultivators beside her and turned to enter the forest.

Two months later, not even a shadow of a demon beast had appeared at the foot of Bushishan; it seemed that after that great battle, the demon beasts never dared to attack the mountain again!

Tianyi and the others enjoyed a moment of leisure, spending every day instructing the cultivators on the mountain to craft various defensive Dharma Treasures. They were not naive enough to think that because the demon beasts had retreated for a moment, this mountain was safe; the calmer it appeared, the more major events would occur in the days to come!

This calm before the dawn was the most terrifying of all!

Since that battle, Zhang Nuo had opened a simple Cave Abode on the mountain, hiding inside to cultivate in seclusion all day. Tianyi Daoist and the others did not dare to disturb him easily. Judging from the battle two months ago, Zhang Nuo had become the main force of Bushishan! And an indispensable main force at that!

At this moment, inside the Cave Abode, Zhang Nuo sat cross-legged, holding two Jade Slips in his hands. These two Jade Slips were exactly what Xuanjin had secretly copied from the Chen Family Cave Abode in the Tianfa Forest back then.

After carefully reading the cultivation arts within the Jade Slips, Zhang Nuo's brows remained tightly furrowed. The two Jade Slips recorded two profound cultivation arts respectively, but what made him hesitate was that he could not practice the arts on them for the time being. The main reason was that most of the cultivation arts within his body had not been completed; if he were to forcibly practice the arts left behind by a True Immortal, it might result in half the work for twice the result!

All the cultivation arts on Zhang Nuo's body, through the fusion of the 'Return to One True Art', had created the 'Beast-Taming Return to One Illusion Immortal Art' he now practiced. On the surface, it was a complete cultivation art, but in reality, he still needed to cultivate the various minor arts within it to Great Perfection to truly complete this newly created art!

In the last hundred years, the 'Immovable Underworld King' had been deciphered by the Hell Butterfly quite a bit, and now only the final Ninth Layer remained unrevealed. Once the Ninth Layer was also deciphered, Zhang Nuo would use all his energy to cultivate the 'Immovable Underworld King' to Great Perfection!

Only when his physical body was tempered to the strongest level could he continue to practice the 'Eight Extremes Demon Veins'! And the prerequisite for practicing the 'Eight Extremes Demon Veins' was a formidable physical body! The mutually reinforcing relationship between these cultivation arts was very subtle; once any link in the middle was broken, his cultivation would stagnate.

As for the 'Shangqing Sword Art', it could not be continued simply because of the missing parts of the art. If he wanted to cultivate this sword art to the level of Great Perfection, he had to find the sword art for the remaining three layers! This was an extremely thorny matter. Since Zhang Nuo came to the Immortal World, based on his understanding of the cultivation arts in the Immortal Domain, almost no one knew of the existence of the 'Shangqing Sword Art'!

Could it be that this kind of cultivation art was an insignificant existence in the Immortal World? The answer was negative. Zhang Nuo had been practicing the 'Shangqing Sword Art' for hundreds of years, and judging from the various powers within the sword art, even if it could not be ranked among the highest-tier arts in the Immortal Domain, it should still have a place among the mid-tier arts!

Pondering these matters repeatedly in his heart, Zhang Nuo flickered his figure and summoned Xuanjin out! A streak of Golden Light landed, and Xuanjin blinked its eyes, looking at the Jade Slips in Zhang Nuo's hands and saying:

"Master, are you still unable to make up your mind?"

Zhang Nuo nodded, sighed lightly, and said:

"I originally thought that by stealing the cultivation arts left behind by the True Immortal, I could let you and Qiongqi practice them, but I did not expect that these arts were only suitable for humans to practice, and with my current cultivation, I have no ability to modify these arts at all!"

Having said this, Zhang Nuo threw the Jade Slips to Xuanjin!