Chapter 1031

Inside the Myriad Spirits Devouring Void Slaying Divine Vessel, the emaciated Wu Tie leaned weakly on the throne.

On the nine futons beside him, the equally skin-and-bones three-corpse avatars and six-path avatars rolled their white eyes, likewise weakly sitting cross-legged there.

"Crazy, crazy... it's just a Heavenly Court?" the Canghai Daoist muttered there: "Just a Heavenly Court? To go to such lengths? Accumulating so much merit power—is that easy?"

Wu Tie breathed lightly, weakly humming: "Money spent is money; clutched dead in hand is just scrap iron. Hmm, isn't there still about half left? Hiss..."

Waves of sour numbness surged through his bone marrow, feeling as if countless leeches were latched onto his bone marrow sucking, leaving him utterly weak, his vision darkening, just wanting to faint.

Even though Wu Tie had endured countless hardships in his cultivation, this strange sensation from his bone marrow still made him wish he were dead, suffering to the extreme.

The Mire-Heaven Demon Alliance's demon sovereigns were either killed or captured, along with countless half-step sovereign and peak divine realm great demons either seized or slain; in the past twenty-four hours, Wu Tie had devoured a total of 127 demon sovereigns and ninety percent of the lifeblood essence within the hearts of tens of thousands of great demons.

With such a vast amount of lifeblood essence, after Wu Tie devoured and absorbed it, turning it into his own essence blood, combined with the boundless creation of merit power, he forcibly condensed eighty-four thousand peripheral dao seals.

Fortunately, Wu Tie succeeded.

Unfortunately, despite his success, Wu Tie was on the verge of exhaustion; this immensely powerful body now felt like sugarcane squeezed a hundred and eight times by a juicer, with not a drop of juice left.

If someone could see through Wu Tie's current body and glimpse its interior, they would witness an immensely magnificent sight.

In Wu Tie's mind, outside his innate spiritual light the size of a water tank and dim in radiance, three thousand large stars and eighty-four thousand small stars transformed into a gorgeous nebula vortex, pulling countless fine dao chains that slowly revolved around the innate spiritual light.

With each breath, an infinitesimal trace of the Heavenly Dao's rhythm was drawn from the void into his innate spiritual light, making his extremely dim innate spiritual light glow just a little brighter.

This nebula vortex completes one rotation every twelve hours, and after each rotation, a drop of chaos-colored starlight jade liquid falls at its core.

This drop of starlight jade liquid rolled gently within Wu Tie's body, traveling through his meridians and blood vessels, spreading throughout his physique before finally merging into his heart, turning into faint starlight that vanished.

With a faint beat of the heart, streams of plasma tinged with faint starlight flowed along the blood vessels throughout the body.

Wherever it passed, Wu Tie's bodily functions continually strengthened, far surpassing the enhancement from his own self-training in top-tier body refinement techniques, by hundreds or even thousands of times.

But now Wu Tie's body is exhausted, with hardly any surplus energy left inside.

Although his bodily functions had been strengthened, without sufficient energy replenishment, every corner of his body, every minuscule cell, contracted frenziedly like a black hole, constantly roaring at Wu Tie, demanding energy replenishment.

Heavy footsteps sounded as a group of Wu tribe youths rushed in, carrying dozens of large cauldrons.

Inside the cauldrons was a viscous liquid, exuding a rich fragrance and flashing with strange light.

Several Wu tribe youths strode up to Wu Tie, brutally pried open his jaw, shoved a metal funnel into his throat, and then poured the cauldron's liquid in with a glug-glug-glug-glug sound.

Streams of massive, pure energy erupted in Wu Tie's abdomen.

Then, in the blink of an eye, Wu Tie's body instantly drained those massive energies, leaving not a drop.

Wu Tie's every cell contracted with growing strength, roaring ever more wildly: "I'm starving, hurry up and give me food!"

Another cauldron, then another, and another...

Dozens of cauldrons of viscous, heavy, infinite-energy jade elixir kept pouring into Wu Tie's mouth, then swiftly devoured completely by his bottomless pit.

Old Tie stood aside with hands behind his back, lightly shaking his head: "Fortunately the Liuli Buddha Nation has deep reserves; its Buddhist treasury holds countless spiritual medicines… and we've also ransacked the lairs of those demon sovereigns and great demons, tsk tsk, they've hoarded countless good things!"

Wu Tie let out a soft hum; the soreness, numbness, aching, and swelling in his bone marrow surged all at once—if not for saving face, he couldn't have helped but groan aloud.

If not for the Liuli Buddha Nation's deep reserves, and if not for the deep reserves of the Mire-Heaven Demon Alliance's demon sovereigns, Wu Tie would surely have ruined his body this time, at least being paralyzed in bed for thirty to fifty years.

Merit power indeed smoothed away all bottlenecks for Wu Tie, protecting his primordial spirit, expanding his innate spiritual light, allowing him in just a few days to forcibly condense the dao seals of the three thousand great dao and eighty-four thousand peripheral dao he had fully comprehended.

Merit power can aid cultivation, possessing boundless creative power, even sparing Wu Tie the dangers of qi deviation, split personality, primordial spirit shattering, and complete soul and spirit dissipation.

But condensing dao seals still must follow the most basic law of energy conservation.

Each dao seal is the primordial spirit's essence power perfectly united with one's own essence, energy, and spirit; each requires a vast amount of essence-energy to condense.

Within a few days, Wu Tie explosively condensed so many dao seals.

Even if each dao seal had just taken form, not even reaching first-rank sovereign grade, it would still be a terrifying consumption.

Fortunately he was in the Liuli Buddha Nation, fortunately he held the Buddhist treasury offered by Jia Ye, and fortunately the Mire-Heaven Demon Alliance had amassed countless treasures over countless years from its demon sovereigns.

Countless heavenly and earthly divine medicines, countless spiritual herbs, countless finished great dao treasure pills… even, Jia Ye taking charge, refined the relics left by his ancestors into relic jade liquid via secret arts…

Cauldron after cauldron of broth, each worth a fortune…

In each cauldron's broth, every drop, if placed outside, would be a holy-grade elixir that even divine-realm experts would fight to seize.

"Thud-thud-thud," heavy footsteps sounded as hundreds of Wu tribe youths rushed in, carrying cauldron after cauldron of jade broth, pouring it into Wu Tie's mouth as fast as possible.

Old Tie watched those cauldrons of jade broth vanish, shaking his head repeatedly: "What a sin… but I'm curious, once your body fills the deficit, just how strong will you be, kid?"

"The Primordial Scripture—Old Tie wonders, have you really condensed all the great dao seals from the Primordial Scripture?"

Wu Tie weakly rolled his eyes, his breath faint as he muttered: "It's all forced; that Heavenly Court came out of nowhere, and it seems they're linked to Wa Island… I always feel something's off, so I'll make preparations."

"What about those treasures Canghai snatched back—how's your research going?" Wu Tie glanced sideways at Old Tie.

Old Tie's expression turned grave.

He stepped before Wu Tie and said in a low voice: "Those lightning-flying vessels and those floating clouds are artificial constructs, and their forging method is clearly that of our Giant God Soldiers."

"But their forging technique is far more exquisite, much more refined than the casting skill mastered by Big Tie."

"To be precise, these lightning-flying vessels and floating clouds are works that, based on the forging techniques known to me and Big Tie, have undergone several generations of upgrades and replacements."

Cocking his head, Old Tie said solemnly: "For example, Big Tie's forging skill is like giving him a lump of iron ore, from which he can forge a thousand-fold refined steel weapon… that is the Giant God Soldier we possess today."

"But those lightning-flying vessels and floating clouds, likewise starting from a lump of iron ore, they forged a special alloy whose performance exceeds thousand-fold refined steel by multiples or even tens of multiples, and they pushed the alloy's properties to the extreme."

"Those lightning-flying vessels are entirely man-made postnatal artifacts, yet their properties are slightly superior to the innate spirit weapons held by the commanders of each clan in Wuguo, while the materials they use are not substantially different from those of our Giant God Soldiers."

Wu Tie stared at Old Tie in shock.

With a large metal funnel clenched in his mouth, jade broth gurgling continuously into it, Wu Tie's shocked expression inexplicably gained a touch of cute clumsiness.

"Heavenly Court… perhaps… has some connection to us?" Old Tie shook his head: "Among the Giant God Soldiers, I belong to the Fighting God Soldiers, a dedicated combat unit… while the Giant God Soldiers also have another system, the Learning God Soldiers, who specialize in tinkering with all sorts of strange things."

"Before I was defeated and fell into slumber, I'd heard rumors that they were everywhere excavating ruins of ancient legends… supposedly seeking the true origin of humanity."

"Could the Heavenly Court be the treasure they dug up?" Old Tie's eyes flashed: "Ha, we've all been foolish."

Old Tie pointed at the Wu tribe youths running off with empty cauldrons and laughed: "The Pool of Transcendent Immortals that Canghai seized can autonomously absorb boundless heavenly and earthly primordial energy, turning it into spiritual spring; tossing you in to nurture would be no less reliable than sitting here."

Wu Tie stared blankly, then laughed: "That makes sense; attacking from both sides is always good."

After a quarter hour, in a vast chamber of the Myriad Spirits Devouring Void Slaying Divine Vessel, inside the Pool of Transcendent Immortals violently controlled by Old Tie, Wu Tie leaned sideways against the pond's edge, still with a large funnel in his mouth, as cauldron after cauldron of jade broth kept pouring in.

The spiritual fluid accumulated in the vast Immortal-transformation Pool churned violently, constantly surging toward Wu Tie, the surface dropping strand by strand at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Wu Tie alone was consuming the pool's spiritual spring several times faster than the combined rate of the over‑hundred‑million Demon‑purging Bureau soldiers previously under Ji Ting's command.

One can see how depleted his body has become.

One can see how great his body's potential has become.

Lao Tie stood beside the Immortal-transformation Pool, watching the phenomenon within, and muttered to himself: "Finally, it's become… tsk, just what background does that Heavenly Court have?"

While Lao Tie and Wu Tie were here muttering about the Heavenly Court, Ji Bai Jie stood on the mountain‑top cliff edge, his expression gloomy as he gazed at a few huge eagles soaring in the distant clouds.

Heavy footsteps sounded from behind him; several men clad in coarse‑cloth short shirts, barefoot with hair unbound, led by two Heavenly Court officials, strode over with wind‑like steps.

The two Heavenly Court officials' faces were dark, and on each of their left and right cheeks was stamped a clear slap mark.

The one who hit them obviously had huge palms; the slap marks nearly covered their entire heads.

Looking closely, these men in coarse‑cloth short shirts, barefoot with hair unbound, were each sturdily built and tall, their palms the size of cattail fans—about the same size as the slap marks on the two officials' faces.

Ji Bai Jie turned his body, his gaze sweeping over the officials' cheeks, and his brow suddenly rose.

"My lord…" the two officials said, bowing resentfully toward Ji Bai Jie.

"Retreat!" Ji Bai Jie waved his hand, giving the two officials no chance to speak.

The two officials lowered their heads, a drifting wind swirling beneath their feet, and they floated away lightly along the path they had come.

Those few burly, stalwart men merely glanced up and down at Ji Bai Jie, then walked to the cliff's edge and looked out downward.

From this high cliff one could see most of the Heavenly Court's palace complex—one majestic mountain after another, palaces cast from huge stones arranged neatly, laid out in an ineffable rhythm along the mountain's contours, stretching without end.

"San Gou, these years you've been low‑key, yet you've founded the elder's base." A slightly older man, his waist slightly bent, nodded toward Ji Bai Jie.

Ji Bai Jie's face darkened, and he said calmly to the stooped man: "Father, my name now is Ji Bai Jie—you must not get it wrong."

"Whatever the elders call you, that's what you are—let alone, it's your own biological father… San Gou, you've been called San Gou since childhood, what's wrong with that?" Among the accompanying men, a middle‑aged fellow with a big beard whose long whiskers hung down to his abdomen, looking rather dignified, snorted coldly: "Are you really going to renounce your six kin just over a name?"

Ji Bai Jie clasped his hands behind his back and tightened his fists firmly.

After a silence, Ji Bai Jie smiled: "I would never dare accept the charge of renouncing my six kin… but it's strange, Uncle, as the current head of the Ji clan, you have lowered yourself to come to this poor, remote place of your nephew—what brings you here?"

The stooped man, Ji Bai Jie's biological father Ji Song, coughed once: "San… no, Bai Jie ah, your eldest uncle…"

Ji Bai Jie's eldest uncle, Ji Kui—the legitimate main‑line head of this branch of the Ji clan and its current patriarch—gave a slight smile, pointing at the overlapping, stretching palace complex and said: "Just now your father said you've founded the elder's estate… I originally thought you were just a child playing around, but I never expected you to actually create such a spectacle."

Ji Bai Jie remained silent, merely giving Ji Kui a sidelong glance and cold‑snorting.

Ji Kui's face drooped; in his view, Ji Bai Jie's attitude showed he completely disregarded him as the clan head.

A burly young man following behind Ji Kui could no longer hold back, shouting: "San Gou brother, speak plainly—these past few days you've caused quite a stir, and the clan elders only now learned you possess such methods."

"We don't care what Heavenly Court you're involved with, but the followers you've gathered are a great opportunity for our branch to surpass the Ji clan's main line and take over the Ji clan's holy land and ancestral shrine."

"You… lack the strength, so you should hand over the position of Heavenly Court's lord to me."

"I will be the lord, you the aide—let us brothers join forces and conquer a realm of our own!"