Chapter 303

The ox-head great shield emitted a strong light.

Now it is not just an ox-head phantom, but a stalwart four-horned blood demon ox standing on a blood-red lotus, exhaling thunder, stationed in the magma sea, firmly protecting Wu Tie and the two others.

No matter how the magma surged, no matter how earth, water, fire, and wind scoured, no matter how the surroundings turned to chaos, this blood demon ox, over ten zhang in length, stood firm as a mountain.

Wu Tie stared intently at Sima Shan and Sima Quan.

Having just heard Wu Zheng communicating with them, these two fellows had actually half-stepped out of the Embryo Treasury realm and entered the Divine Clarity realm.

'Divine Clarity', in the primordial era, this term carried a special meaning.

To 'godify and illuminate' is to truly comprehend the principle of something; in cultivation, it means the soul and spirit fully fuse with the power of a heavenly earth great Dao; on a magical artifact, it means the soul‑scattering banner has completely grown to the level of an innate Dao artifact.

The Life Pool is infancy, the Embryo Treasury is adulthood, and Divine Clarity means this adult has truly found his own 'Dao', understood his own Dao, penetrated his own Dao — like a clueless street ruffian who suddenly wields divine weapons and grasps the essence of swordsmanship, thereafter every gesture is a supreme sword move, each strike capable of taking a life.

This is 'Divine Clarity'.

The several thousand Wu clan attackers were mostly at Embryo Treasury or Life Pool cultivation, with several hundred at Embryo Treasury and several thousand at Life Pool; moreover, by borrowing the power of the Innate Twelve Demon Gods, they turned heaven and earth into a tiny chaos, each move imbued with tremendous heavenly force.

Thousands of heavy weapons rained down, yet none could approach Sima Shan and Sima Quan in the slightest.

Sima Shan swung his hammer, the octagonal flying phoenix hammer blazing with fire; a hammer‑image burst forth, expanding into a flaming volcano that overturned upward. Instantly, over half of the thousands of weapons were blown away by his hammer, and hundreds of inferior weapons emitted sharp cracking sounds.

The magma sea within a hundred li radius was shaken by the hammer until almost completely vaporized; the twelve demon gods on the totem pillars shrieked, spewing flames hundreds of zhang long from their eyes.

Sima Quan lightly waved his long spear, and ribbons of light like flowing water twisted and wound, like divine serpents wildly stabbing across the sky.

Each weapon struck by his spear's flowing light heard only the sound of water scouring stone; the weapons were coated in ice crystals, then hurled aloft by immense force.

Suddenly, Sima Quan casually swung, sending several streams of light slashing outward; the dozens of Wu clan members sheltered by the great formation all grunted in unison, as deep bone‑reaching wounds appeared inexplicably on their chests, abdomens, and thighs, the wounds exuding a frigid Cold Qi that instantly froze the nearby blood and flesh with ice crystals.

These thick‑skinned, stalwart Wu clan youths instantly shivered all over, panting as they retreated.

Having taken a blow from Sima Quan, their blood and veins froze throughout, instantly depriving them of strength to fight.

The formation roared, and magma spewed forth again from all sides; this time the magma turned pitch‑black, its temperature even more horrifying, and it contained various wondrous heavenly‑earth spirit fires, bringing a terrifying heat that swept over.

Thousands of heavy weapons were also enveloped by the black, murky light; under the formation's push, each heavy weapon descended like a massive vortex once more.

This time, the formation's unleashed power was more than ten times that of before.

Thousands of Wu clan members exhaled in unison, employing secret arts to push their strength to the limit, squeezing out the last thread of power from their marrow and gathering it into this strike.

Wu Tie's face turned ashen.

Like an autumn insect sensing the coming winter chill, Wu Tie felt in this strike a terrifying power — enough to shatter him in one blow and utterly scatter his soul.

After all, he had only just entered the Life Pool realm; even with a solid foundation, the formation's strike nearly reached Divine Clarity power, and the gap between Divine Clarity and Embryo Treasury is as great as that between Foundation Establishment and Life Pool.

Heaven and earth apart, they cannot be compared.

Wu Tie clenched his fists, staring fixedly at the strike, at the black vortex enveloping thousands of heavy weapons as they crashed down.

Sima Shan burst into laughter, his body erupting with blinding firelight; he raised the octagonal flying phoenix hammer, every pore of his arms spewing out fine, long fire lines, and he shouted as he hammered upward toward the heavens.

Thousands of heavy weapons exploded outward.

Except for nearly a thousand weapons left intact, the other three‑plus thousand high‑grade elemental weapons, painstakingly forged with the Wu clan's blood and essence, were utterly shattered.

Over three thousand Wu clan members vomited blood and staggered back, their steps unsteady and faces pallid, clearly the strike had damaged their vital essence.

Moreover, another thousand plus Wu clan members showed a slight change in complexion, with blood trickling from the corners of their mouths.

"Is this… the Divine Clarity realm?" Wu Tie exclaimed in shock.

"Divine Clarity — to godify and illuminate, it resides within a person…" Sima Shan seemed to have heard Wu Tie's exclamation, and he smiled slowly: "In the primordial age, the Divine Clarity realm was also called the Golden Immortal realm."

"As for Golden Immortals, people back then believed gold was the purest, most eternal, never‑corrupting substance in heaven and earth." Sima Shan glanced at Wu Tie with a hint of pride, indeed having heard his exclamation.

"A Golden Immortal is an immortal as bright and pure as gold, eternal and undying." Sima Shan, restrained, waved his heavy hammer: "We're just a little shy — only a bit of cultivation separates us; I and Ah Quan are Golden Immortals… but the Divine Clarity title, well, it also makes sense; 'Divine Clarity' seems more to our liking."

Sima Quan, holding his crescent spear, smiled faintly: "We are the lofty Divine Clarity beings, while you are lowly scum from the mire — trash, vermin, the lowest of the low… you dare offend the Divine State of Great Jin?"

Twenty‑four youths clad in mail armor laughed together.

Simultaneously they drew from their waists three‑chi‑long, palm‑wide eight‑sided heavy war swords, gripping the hilts with both hands and pointing them at the surrounding Wu clan members.

These twenty‑four high‑level Embryo Treasury cultivators likewise formed a sword array; as their sword intent united, intersecting sword lights appeared, and a heavy black‑light turtle shell rose slowly, followed by a phantom of the Black Tortoise materializing above their heads.

"Black Tortoise Sword Formation." Old Tie sighed low: "The Black Tortoise Guard — this was envisaged as a powerful internal guard unit, but it was never completed, and we suffered a crushing defeat… I thought I'd never see a Black Tortoise Sword Formation in my lifetime."

With a snake's head and a turtle's body, treading myriad acres of black waves, the Black Tortoise phantom emerged, forcing the surrounding black magma to retreat a few steps.

The twenty‑four mighty cultivators of the Demon‑Suppressing Hall simultaneously gripped their swords and thrust forward; twenty‑four mountain‑thick sword qi burst forth, paired like scissors, howling as they slaughtered the surrounding Wu clan members.

The twelve demon gods on the totem pillars simultaneously raised both hands; they grasped at the void, and ashen chaotic thunder‑light flew from their palms, crashing heavily onto those sword lights.

The Black Tortoise sword qi exploded, instantly transforming the mountain‑heavy sword lights into numerous foot‑long, water‑like, agile sword blades that pierced the chaotic thunder‑light interception and surged into the dense ranks of the Wu clan.

The sword blades were fierce yet fluid like a brook; incessant 'pfft' sounds rang out as deep sword gashes appeared on the attackers' bodies, blood spattered in great swaths, and in an instant over two thousand were severely wounded by the sword light, the air instantly reeking of blood.

Wu Tie's face twitched, and he said in a low voice: "Uncle, if because of me the clan suffers loss… I…"

Wu Zheng snorted coldly: "What nonsense? They dare come to Wu territory to hunt us down; even without grudge we'd kill them, let alone that they dare bully our family's youngster."

"Don't worry, these fellows have never seen a battlefield, never witnessed real blood‑shed combat; letting them strike now is also to let them taste blood early." Wu Zheng curled his lip, coldly saying: "If the clan's true killing embryos were to act… heh heh, our Wu family isn't lacking Divine Clarity old ghosts."

He gave a proud smile, Wu Zheng leaned close to Wu Tie's ear and whispered: "I've heard our clan still has even more formidable old things in seclusion. Anyway, if in Wu territory we can't even protect our own juniors, do we still have the face to bear this surname?"

Several of the highest‑rank Embryo Treasury great witches let out a low roar.

Thousands of the Wu clan's sturdy fighters, whose footing had been chaotic, stabilized their stance, breathing deeply as the fearsome wounds on their burly, stalwart bodies began to heal rapidly.

The heartbeat of thousands became extraordinarily loud.

'Thud‑thud', 'thud‑thud'…

The heavy, resonant heartbeat gradually converged on a single point, and a terrifying blood‑vitality aura shot up into the heavens.

Wu Tie and Wu Zheng's bodies shuddered; their blood‑vitality nearly burst out of their frames, merging into that suffocating blood‑aura high above.

Fortunately they knew they were not inside the formation, and forcibly suppressed their blood‑aura, thereby preventing their power from rushing into the formation to wreak havoc.

The twelve Innate Demon Gods simultaneously shot up into the high sky.

The black magma roiled; the Innate Demon Gods merged into the black vortex, the Wu clan's massive blood‑vitality gathered as one, and thereafter a towering, stalwart giant a thousand zhang tall silently coalesced.

Its visage was hazy, its body entwined with thirty‑three chaotic fire streams like giant dragons.

The giant raised the great axe in his hand and brought it down upon Sima Quan, Sima Shan, and the others.

Earlier, thousands had joined forces in a bombardment that seemed mighty, but in reality their strength was scattered.

Yet the blood and qi of those thousands coalesced into a giant; this strike concentrated everyone's power into a single line, its force extremely refined, its lethality terrifying to the extreme.

The Black Tortoise Sword Formation of the twenty-four Fetal Storage Realm cultivators was the first to block it.

The great axe fell, the Black Tortoise was broken in two, the twenty-four Fetal Storage Realm sword cultivators all spat blood, their eight-sided heavy swords snapped, each heard the sound of dense bone fractures within their bodies, and all twenty-four collapsed to the ground, twitching, unable to move.

Sima Shan drew a deep breath, wiped the mocking smile from his face, his expression solemn as he raised the great hammer and struck down at the great axe.

The great hammer and the great axe collided.

At first instant, the hammer and axe remained unmoving; only Sima Shan's robe sleeves suddenly shattered, and the veins on his two snow-white arms bulged out prominently.

The next instant, a huge roar sounded; Sima Shan let out a muffled grunt, a few drops of blood sprayed from his nostrils, and his body trembled as he stepped back one pace.

The thousand-zhang giant's great axe split open, and the giant's arm was flung upward hundreds of zhang by the recoil.

Sima Quan moved.

His crescent halberd was like a venomous snake, whistling shrilly as it thrust straight into the thousand-zhang giant's heart.

With just that strike, the thousand-zhang giant's heart was pierced, and its body swiftly began to collapse.

The giant's left hand clenched into a fist, which slammed into Sima Quan.

Sima Quan was struck so hard that fire spewed from his seven orifices, sparks and blood spraying hundreds of zhang away.

Outside the great formation that trapped the two, a thousand li away, a pitch-black altar several hundred zhang square hovered silently in the air.

Dozens of gaunt Wu family members, their hair mostly gray, stood silently before the altar, solemnly gazing at the strange ritual implements placed upon it, especially the Wu Tie Soul-Scattering Banner and the seven Northern Dipper Soul-Slaying Swords enshrined in the center.

The Soul-Scattering Banner swayed lightly; at the instant Sima Shan and Sima Quan both spat blood, the banner suddenly burst forth with threads of Blood Light.

Dozens of the Wu family's Xuanming clan members chorused a grim laugh: 'Got it, got it, the blood and qi have been hooked, only the soul remains… Hahaha, come on, come on, the truly terrifying thing of our Wu family is the formeless, traceless Wu Curse Technique.'

Dozens of Xuanming clansmen circled the altar, singing and dancing, loudly chanting the incantation as they performed the ancient dance of primeval ancestors sacrificing to the heavenly and earthly demons.

Within the formation, Sima Shan and Sima Quan's bodies suddenly swayed.

Their eyes grew hazy, and they saw translucent human-shaped light flickering out from within them.

Sima Shan and Sima Quan cried out in alarm, both looking at the trace of blood they had just sprayed.

Such a trifling trace of blood had become the medium for the Wu family's spell, allowing them to directly attack their own souls?

It was… like seeing a ghost!

What a horrifying Wu Curse Technique!

Each produced the Soul-Stabilizing Treasure they had taken from the Spirit Treasure Hall when leaving the Demon-Subduing Hall.

A blood-colored pearl and a bronze token, two strange treasures, hovered above their heads, emitting firework-like light that formed a protective shield around their bodies.

Having just steadied their soul qi, the twenty-four nearby high-level Fetal Storage Realm sword cultivators who had suffered severe injuries twitched; seeing their soul qi vanish instantly, they realized their souls had been forcibly sucked away by the altar a thousand li distant.

"You deserve to die!" Sima Shan and Sima Quan screamed hoarsely.

Far away, in a tiny secret cavern, over a hundred warriors clad in black heavy armor lay on the ground, while the Unknown hovered in the air, grinning wickedly with smug satisfaction.

These warriors were precisely the reinforcements of the faction that had aided Sima Shan and Sima Quan in infiltrating the Underground World.

After the Unknown burst into the secret cavern, it disregarded everything and directly devoured everyone's essence and blood.

The essence and blood of the over-hundred Fetal Storage Realm and Life Pool Realm cultivators were exceptionally rich, and the Unknown ate with great delight.

Suddenly, the Unknown sensed the qi fluctuations on Sima Shan and Sima Quan, let out a low growl, and swiftly turned into a gust of cold wind rushing toward the spot where they were trapped.

Bang!

A huge hand appeared out of thin air and slapped the Unknown down from the void.

A gaunt old man over five meters tall stood with his hands behind his back, slightly hunched, before the Unknown, nodding with a chuckle: 'Kids just playing around—let them have their fun, life or death is fate… As old immortals like us, isn't it fine to stand aside and watch the spectacle?'

The old man turned to the Unknown, revealing a ferocious grin: 'If you dare to join the fun, we'll have you.'

The Unknown cracked a smile: 'You? You think you can kill me?'

Swish!

Thirty-five men, each as strong as or even stronger than the skinny old man, burst forth from all directions.

The Unknown's face twitched.

He simply sat cross-legged on the ground, arms crossed over his chest: 'Hey, fine, let those two brats… see how their luck holds.'

The skinny old man burst out laughing: 'True—damn obedient… wait, no, I meant to say, friends coming from afar, how delightful! How delightful! Hahaha, delightful, delightful!'