Chapter 329: Heaven

All around were pitch-black mountain ridges shaped like swords and blades, jagged strange rocks densely scattered; pale blue-green moonlight shone between the ridges, and occasionally sharp cries of night birds could be heard.

In the high sky, big and small tower ships slowly flew past.

In mid-low air, countless Demon-Suppressing Hall warriors flew in small groups of three to five, moving slowly and cautiously. Many of them held azure glass mirrors, emitting azure light pillars that swept everywhere; wherever the azure light passed, the rocks turned semi-transparent.

If anyone hid within the rocks, they would surely be discovered.

However, these azure light pillars could only penetrate three to four thousand zhang of rock; facing mountain peaks that were routinely several thousand to tens of thousands of zhang tall, these azure glass mirrors were useful but not ideal.

Only the bows of some enormous tower ships bore colossal glass mirrors a hundred zhang in diameter; their azure light pillars fell like sky‑holding pillars onto the ground, and the radiance from these huge mirrors could easily penetrate tens of thousands of zhang of rock.

But there were too few of these huge mirrors to scan the boundless mountain range.

Thus, within the mountains, large groups of Demon-Suppressing Hall members cautiously searched the valleys, careful not to miss any crevice or cave.

Occasionally, when they encountered deeper fissures, they would throw in fist‑sized thunder pearls; lightning flashed, shattering the rocks, and the rolling thunder could be heard hundreds of li away at night.

On some peaks, strange‑shaped figures also stood.

Some had enormous ears, unlike ordinary people, with one hand resting on their wind‑catching ears as they carefully listened to all directions.

Others had huge eyeballs that bulged far out of their sockets like short sticks stuck on their faces; their pupils flashed with strange divine light as they widened their eyes and strained to look in every direction.

Thousand‑Mile Eye and Wind‑Following Ear are elite scouts cultivated by the Demon‑Suppressing Hall through secret arts; each can effortlessly monitor every stir within a thousand‑li radius, even telling how many specks of dust lie on which leg of an ant crawling from a thousand li away.

The Demon‑Suppressing Hall tightly monitored the mountain region spanning a million li, laying a Heaven's Net and Earth's Web to search for Wu Tie.

A small but extremely fast flying vessel seven or eight zhang long whistled past at low altitude, an old man in a blood‑red robe standing at its prow, his sharp voice carrying in all directions: "Find that thief… even with Earth‑Traversing Golden Light, he could not escape a million‑li range in such a short time."

"Find him, do not waste words—kill him outright. Whoever slays him will be promoted three ranks and granted a fief of one city." The old man's eyes flashed with killing intent as he barked: "Remember, no idle chatter, no nagging—on sight, kill him!"

Below a great mountain, deep inside a cavern, Wu Tie grimaced and rubbed his chest.

He had just seized the trade goods of Shengyao and Luolin; although he fled quickly, he never expected that the seemingly unremarkable Huayan would be faster than Wu Tie's full‑power Earth‑Traversing Golden Light.

The Light God Clan can almost instinctively transform their bodies into light, crossing hundreds of thousands of li in an instant—a terrifying speed.

Wu Tie had already fled over ten thousand li, but Huayan in the high air merely flickered to block his path, spewing a white divine flame‑wrapped divine light that slammed heavily into his chest.

Hidden within that divine light was a fist‑sized, exquisitely crafted ancient hammer.

One hammer blow instantly vaporized the flesh on Wu Tie's chest, cracking his ribs into countless hair‑line fissures—despite all his bone evolutions and reinforcements, this was the first time his bones were damaged.

Intense pain surged, and Wu Tie nearly passed out.

Fortunately, the Reincarnation Tower's power is immense; although Wu Tie controlled only five or six percent of it, able to exert just one percent of its strength, he still relied on the Tower to gravely wound Huayan and force her back.

Just that brief entanglement with Huayan, the Demon‑Suppressing Hall's great army suddenly surged from all directions—big and small tower ships filled the skies, countless warriors formed teams to encircle and intercept, and powerful treasures hung in the void, firmly sealing off this space.

The void became as sticky as quicksand and mire, causing the speed of evasion‑light flight to plummet by dozens of times.

Wu Tie had no choice but to dash wildly through the mountains for a while, using a secret art to split the earth and carve an underground cavern to hide in.

He had just finished carving the cavern when another supremely domineering treasure was brought over by the Demon‑Suppressing Hall.

The earth veins within a million‑li radius began to throb violently; the thousand‑li‑thick subterranean rock layers flashed with spiritual light, becoming a hundred times harder than diamond and suffused with a strange force, making all earth‑evasion arts extremely obscure and difficult.

Moreover, an invisible Earth Vein Grand Net sprang into existence; if Wu Tie dared to use earth‑evasion arts, that treasure would surely detect him at once.

"Hey!" Wu Tie snarled, gritting his teeth as he swallowed large amounts of herbs and pills; the Abundance Tree rolled up vast quantities of heavenly‑earth essence from the void and poured it into him. The vaporized flesh on his chest rapidly regenerated, and the cracks in his bones gradually faded.

Wu Tie produced fragments of the Giant God Armament, swallowing dozens of pieces in succession until his entire skeleton radiated high‑temperature flames, constantly tempering bone and flesh until he was drenched in sweat and finally stopped.

"This is even more extravagant than the Heaven's Net and Earth's Web!"

Having tended to his wounds, Wu Tie then felt able to employ his divine abilities, cautiously peeking at the surroundings.

Above and below, the elite armies of the Demon‑Suppressing Hall were densely packed.

The arrangements in the high sky aside, underground the earth veins were frozen, the rock layers made impossibly hard and immobile by secret arts, and besides that, strange earth‑traversing beasts appeared.

These earth‑traversing beasts resembled pangolins, but were hundreds of times larger, their bodies covered in earth‑yellow scales as they slowly wandered through the extremely hard rock strata.

They possessed extraordinarily strange innate abilities; to them, such hard rock was like flowing water, and they moved like fish in water.

Occasionally, when they met underground caves or stone chambers, they opened their mouths and spat out fully armed Demon‑Suppressing Hall warriors, who hurled thunder pearls inside; the pearls blasted the surrounding rock into violent tremors, sending up continual dull booms.

"You've struck where it hurts them." Inside the Reincarnation Tower, Lao Tie's voice drifted out.

"Hmph, I'll make them hurt even more." Wu Tie gave a cold snort and produced a vial of Martial Star Power Essence.

"This treasure can raise a fetus's bodily aptitude to the extreme? It should work for me too." Wu Tie laughed: "After all, I possess both Wu and Wa bloodlines; the Wu lineage focuses on body refinement…"

Wu Tie rubbed his smooth chest.

His bones are now hard enough to withstand ordinary foes; common immortal weapons struggle to damage them.

However, though his flesh and organs are far stronger than those of ordinary body cultivators, against powerful foes their strength still falls short; each time he is struck, his flesh flies apart—an unpleasant sensation.

Wu Tie drew from the bracers' stored cultivation resources—large quantities of beast meat, strong liquor, and the like.

He ignored the Demon‑Suppressing Hall soldiers frantically searching for him outside, first stuffing a large handful of top‑grade primordial herbs packed with immense energy into his mouth, then slowly pouring from the vial a strand of viscous, pure substance—mercury‑like in texture but tens of thousands of times denser, shimmering with strange starlight—Martial Star Power Radiance straight onto his crown.

The Martial Star Power Radiance burst with a 'splash', turning into a vast mist of starlight‑water that enveloped Wu Tie's whole body, then seeped directly through his skin into his flesh.

A violent, indescribably terrifying force, carrying an overwhelming aura of law, howled and swept over Wu Tie's entire body.

Wu Tie's skin, muscles, blood vessels, nerves, organs, bone marrow, and so on—including his already extraordinarily hardened bones—every cell and every minuscule corporeal particle, struck by the Martial Star Power, instantly became tiny, greedy black holes.

All the corporeal particles sent a signal to Wu Tie's soul: hungry, famished, empty… energy, energy, immense energy!

The large handful of top‑grade primordial herbs he held in his mouth instantly vaporized into a negligible heat current that rushed into his body.

That heat flow was instantly devoured by the corporeal particles near his throat, and then an ever‑stronger hunger‑thirst signal spread from his whole body; Wu Tie's physique suddenly withered, and the quasi‑substantial heavenly‑earth essence gathered by the Abundance Tree around him vanished at once.

The enormous amount of essence sufficient to blow up three to five Embryonic Storage realm experts was directly annihilated within Wu Tie's body.

Wu Tie's body began to shudder uncontrollably, each corporeal particle frenziedly moving and frantically drawing heavenly‑earth essence from the outside.

The Reincarnation Tower rose, releasing a black divine light that enveloped Wu Tie's body, sealing off the tremendous disturbance he was causing.

Wu Tie gritted his teeth and, with difficulty, grabbed a large chunk of beast meat and shoved it into his mouth.

His saliva turned into the strongest acid in the world; the meat, upon entering his mouth, hissed and turned into a trickle of fluid that flowed down his throat toward his belly—but that trickle was swallowed whole near his throat before reaching the stomach.

Wu Tie's vision darkened in waves; he frantically waved both hands, grabbing handfuls of herbs, chunks of meat, bottles of potent pills, and shoving them into his mouth nonstop.

After all these years of turmoil, Wu Tie still possessed considerable wealth.

However, under the stimulation of this tiny amount of Wu Qu star power, the little wealth Wu Tie had accumulated was completely devoured in just two hours.

So, using these star power essences to temper fetuses is the most suitable." Lao Tie murmured: "Altering the fetuses' aptitude, making their aptitude better, then letting them rely on cultivation after birth, accumulating sand and earth to become a great mountain, gradually increasing their strength.

Fetuses are just that tiny; altering their aptitude doesn't consume much resources.

But, Xiao Tie, you… your body is already so formidable, so the resources you need to consume……

Using the same method and same materials, the cost to turn an ant into a Vajra body, and to turn a blue whale into a Vajra body… anyone can tell with their backside that the blue whale would require an enormous amount of energy.

The treasure vase hovered above Wu Tie's head, strands of star power essence continually flowing into his body.

Wu Tie had lost all will; he was merely instinctively devouring… devouring anything that stored energy.

The primordial grass was devoured, several stalks of spiritual grass obtained from the Wu family were completely consumed, all the wine and food were devoured, all the elixirs were devoured.

Wu Tie began devouring some rare metal chunks from his bracelet; he had forgotten where these things came from, but these rare metal chunks are also treasures born of heaven and earth; essentially, they are the same as those primordial and spiritual grasses—vast amounts of heaven-earth primordial energy transformed.

Then came some gems, elemental crystals, and the like; Wu Tie swallowed them all.

Then came dozens of Taotie clan bones sent over, each enormous and complete; Wu Tie also swallowed each of those Taotie bones.

Next was the pile of giant divine soldier fragments stacked like a small hill, along with the poisonous snake spears of those giant divine soldiers; Wu Tie swallowed them all as well.

The Tree of Abundance, as if stimulated, had its roots, stems, and branches stretch into the boundless void, frantically devouring heaven-earth primordial energy, continually supplying Wu Tie. As Wu Tie's internal suction grew stronger, the Tree of Abundance's devouring power became ever more terrifying.

Under Wu Tie's stimulation, the divine power of this artifact, the Tree of Abundance, is gradually being awakened.

Constant thunderous booms came from within Wu Tie's body, signifying his physique rapidly merging with vast external energy and swiftly strengthening his flesh.

The half of Wu Tie's bloodline belonging to the Wu family was wildly strengthening, burning, and purifying, then strengthening again and again. Behind Wu Tie, a vast expanse of rich blood qi surged forth, within which appeared towering giants with ferocious, ancient visages, exhaling an overwhelmingly mighty aura.

These giants either roared at the heavens, or moved the stars, or shattered mountains, or flung the seas aside, or flew into the sky, striking the sun with wooden clubs……

Like gods, like demons, their might is unparalleled!

Wu Tie's bloodline continued to be refined and purified in this way; when his Wu family bloodline reached a certain level, his blood turned a dim, murky gray, like a sheet of chaos.

Hunger, an indescribable hunger, kept coming.

Strands of Wu Qu star power essence continually flowed into his body, stimulating Wu Tie's body to keep undergoing strange changes.

Wu Qu star power is actually derived from the Great Dao of Power; Wu Tie is essentially directly using the essence of the Great Dao to temper his body and elevate his origin.

When Wu Tie had consumed about a tenth of a bottle of Wu Qu star power, the burrow he had dug out twitched slightly, and a large pangolin slowly dug through the stone wall, emerging from one side.

Wu Tie suddenly opened his eyes—one pitch black, one deathly pale—then his forehead's heavenly eye burst open, within which lay a dim, murky gray chaos.

Five Demon-Suppressing Hall warriors walked out of the pangolin's huge mouth; they were about to throw thunder pearls, but Wu Tie glanced at them and their bodies instantly turned to ash.

Wu Tie gave a cold snort, waved his right hand, and all the armor and weapons of the five Demon-Suppressing Hall warriors, along with the supplies they carried, flew into his mouth at once, quickly turning into the nourishment he desperately needed.

The enormous pangolin, somewhat spiritual, shuddered in fright and was about to flee; Wu Tie opened his mouth and drew a deep breath, and the pangolin, several zhang long, let out a sharp hiss and was involuntarily swallowed whole by Wu Tie.

In the high sky, a sharp alarm sounded from within a tower ship.

"A scouting soldier has been killed, and we've also lost a terrestrial divine beast…… Quickly determine the location! Hurry, hurry, hurry!"

Crowds upon crowds of Embryo Treasury realm commanders from the Demon-Suppressing Hall descended from the high sky, and Sheng Yao, You Ruo, and others swiftly followed, flying down from the tower ship to the ground.