Chapter 550

Boundless void.

Within the stellar body formed from seven-colored crystal stones.

You Ruo and the others stood in the hall, eyebrows flying and colors dancing as they watched in the crystal treasure mirror the scene of Linghu Qingqing's fleet being shattered by a single blow.

"Ah ha, Great Dragon King Ao Chi... his 108 Canghai Divine Pearls condensed into the Canghai Realm, each realm bearing twelve complete Great Dao laws that suppress, heavy as stars, eternal and indestructible. Back then, how many noble divinities were suppressed and slain by his Canghai Realm?"

You Ruo laughed loudly: "But look, look at him—this time he gave his all in a single strike, yet he failed to kill all those poor mortals. His injuries seem not to have healed?"

A handsome young man, his whole body enveloped in a holy light like mercury, with twelve pairs of splendid silver wings slowly unfurling behind him, gave a light chuckle.

"You Ruo, your Ice Spirit race can only play with icebergs and glaciers, summon a few blizzards—that's all. You know far too little about souls, especially the secrets of the Pangu lineage's souls."

"The Ao Chi we see now is merely a split-off of the true Ao Chi, the Primordial Dragon King Ao Chi, cut by that terrifying Dao method."

The handsome young man said leisurely: "It is said that the Dao art known as One Qi Transforms into Three Purities is immensely powerful and marvelous; between the true form and its three avatars, all karma and ties can be completely severed, making each a completely independent entity."

"But it is obvious that Ao Chi is of pure dragon blood, and the dragon clan's nature makes it nearly impossible for them to cultivate the One Qi Transforms into Three Purities Dao art to perfection; therefore, the avatars Ao Chi cut off remain inseparably bound by karma to his true form and to each other."

"Therefore, the Ao Chi we see indeed retains his power at peak condition, his body likewise perfect, yet the combat strength he can exert… is imperfect because his true form and the other two avatars have completely fallen."

"He cannot, as he did in the war of the primordial gods, perfectly unleash all the power of the Canghai Realm."

You Ruo was not angered by the handsome young man's words; he raised his eyebrows intriguingly, looked at the man and laughed: "Then, Your Highness Sheng Rong, what do you mean?"

Sheng Rong lightly flicked the twelve pairs of wings behind him; instantly countless thumb-sized silver light orbs swirled and danced in the hall, bathing it in strange, variegated light, causing everyone's bodies to flicker between light and dark as the orbs moved, their forms shimmering like phantoms.

"How about a wager? We each send a powerful divine general to take Ao Chi as the stake… whoever can slay him… hehe." Sheng Rong narrowed his eyes, producing a palm-sized crystal sphere that incessantly spewed intense silver holy light.

"This is part of my coming-of-age ceremony; my father personally opened a minor holy-light world for me, rich in produce, with resources ideally balanced, and the native beings are utterly perfect, with a male-to-female ratio of one to fifty. They are the perfect slave race."

"This is the spatial key to enter that minor holy-light world; whichever subordinate can slay Ao Chi will gain possession of that world."

Sheng Rong smiled at You Ruo and the others: "But you must produce a stake of equal value."

In the hall, You Ruo and the others stared greedily at the crystal sphere in Sheng Rong's hand; after a long while, they exchanged glances, and the hundred-zhang-tall giant, its whole body flashing with seven-colored crystal light, rumbled in reply: "You've gone too far… but I like it. Humph, however, if you wish to descend upon 'Mu,' you cannot do without my aid."

"So, if I lose, I will pay only seventy percent of the stake; if I win, you must give an additional ten percent."

The crystal giant crossed his arms, utterly unconcerned that You Ruo, Sheng Rong, and the others might refuse his proposal.

Whether it be small-scale tactical strikes or deployments, or massive strategic strikes and deployments, even the staggering scale of a 'Descent of the Gods,' all must rely on this divine crystal planet forged by the Heavenly Crystal Divine Clan.

In other words, the Heavenly Crystal Divine Clan controls the sole passage in and out of 'Mu,' levying some tolls—a perfectly natural arrangement.

"As you say, a greedy and miserly fellow." You Ruo gave a cold snort.

The crystal giant laughed 'hahaha,' slapped his chest hard, then let out a low bellow.

In the void, the planet formed from seven-colored crystal stones suddenly blazed bright.

On the ground, within the wreckage of three shattered colossal ships inside a pit a hundred thousand li wide and a thousand li deep, the seven-colored crystal-forged long-necked vase emitted a blinding divine light.

Tens of thousands of warships turned to ash and smoke; on them, countless elite officers were crushed to bone fragments. Vast clouds of blood mist roiled, tens of thousands of divine embryos and countless divine souls uttering shrill wails. The vase spewed blinding radiance, like a whale sucking in water, as countless blood mists, divine souls, and divine embryos 'hissed' into its maw in a single gulp.

Wu Tie felt only excruciating pain throughout his body; his bones spewed intense light and heat, and a tremendous energy continually nourished his nearly shattered flesh.

Ao Chi's strike was barbaric and domineering, its power terrifyingly great. Had it not been for his equally outrageously sturdy bones bracing him, Wu Tie would have been ground to fragments like the slain officers.

Linghu Qingqing's massive fleet was almost entirely annihilated; only Hu Tu and five others, sheltered by a Five Elements formation formed from five secret treasures, saw several hundred direct descendants of the Hu family and over a thousand top-tier 'Fox Tail' cultivators survive by chance.

Even so, even with those five Five Elements secret treasures shielding them, those fewer than two thousand Hu clan and Fox Tail experts, like Wu Tie, were shaken until their bones shattered inch by inch and their bodies nearly completely collapsed.

The 108 Canghai Divine Pearls shattered, blasting a hundred-thousand-li mountain range, then darted back up to the heavens with astonishing agility, like round after round of bright moons hanging in the sky, forming a wondrously mysterious grand array that encircled Ao Chi on all sides.

Ao Chi hovered at the center of the array, as if all the light of heaven and earth converged upon him; he restored his height to 360 zhang, slightly lowered his head to look down upon the pit below and Linghu Qingqing, Wu Tie, and the others at its center, resembling a true divinity gazing down upon humble, insignificant mortals.

"You, colluding with extraterrestrial demons, your sin is unforgivable… Do you deserve the blood in your veins? Do you deserve your human ancestors? Do you deserve the sage who opened this heaven and earth?"

"You, who forsake your ancestors and slaughter your kin to please demons, deserve death ten thousand times over."

Ao Chi let out a low roar, his voice like thunder, shaking the earth into violent tremors.

Linghu Qingqing and the four Elders of the Linghu clan shuddered violently; just now Ao Chi's barbaric, unreasonable strike, truly like heaven collapsing and earth splitting falling from above, had the vast battle array formed of tens of thousands of warships utterly destroyed without a shred of resistance.

So many elite officers were slain.

This was all the Linghu clan's foundation for their uprising; with just this one blow, it all turned to ash and smoke.

What's worse, to block this strike and protect Old Master Hu and Hu Tu's descendants, Linghu Qingqing and the four Elders sacrificed their lives, going all-in and instantly unleashing all their magical power.

All their secret treasures, the heavenly Dao weapons personally tempered by the four Elders, were utterly blown away by that single blow.

At this moment Linghu Qingqing and the four Elders were completely bare-handed; even their clothes retained their shape only by a last thread of magical power, merely avoiding the embarrassment of being naked in public.

At this moment, they had no combat strength left.

And Ao Chi, looking down from above, fixed his shattered-gold eyes upon them with utter grimness.

Or rather, he gazed upon the long-necked vase that was devouring countless soldiers' essence blood and divine souls and embryos.

Linghu Qingqing suddenly coughed, spitting blood as he did so; he lifted his head to gaze at Ao Chi and laughed shrilly: "Demons? Ha, you think we'd believe your words? You are the true demon; we, acting under heavenly god's command, have come especially to slay you and seize your supreme treasure!"

He produced several Great Dao precious pills, stuffed them into his mouth, desperately restoring his mana, and Linghu Qingqing declared arrogantly: "I, Linghu Qingqing, Left Minister of the Divine State of Great Jin, in charge of its war and conquest… in my heart, you are the demon!"

Linghu Qingqing shouted sternly: "In the hearts of all the people, you are the demon!"

Linghu Qingqing's voice grew ever sharper and louder, ever more righteous and resolute: "Look, look—who killed so many of Great Jin's sons in a single blow? They, they are the hot-blooded sons of Great Jin, the stalwarts who defend its borders… they all have elderly parents with white hair, they all have wives and children waiting hopefully at the gate…"

Linghu Qingqing jabbed a finger at Ao Chi: "You… you killed so many people, you, you destroyed all those originally warm and perfect families… you, you are truly the demonic heretic, you are truly the primordial devil!"

Ao Chi's gaunt face twitched; he stared straight at Linghu Qingqing, silent.

Linghu Qingqing drew a breath, lowered his head, and Wu Tie saw a hint of fortunate hope appear on Linghu Qingqing's face.

The four Linghu Elders likewise, without a word, swallowed Great Dao precious pills, restoring their mana while healing their internal wounds; their aura grew stronger bit by bit, but they were extremely careful, confining it to a space within a radius of about a zhang, daring not to let it spread unchecked outward.

Ao Chi remained silent for a full quarter of an hour; You Ruo and the others dared not even breathe.

Wu Tie also lay prone on the ground, feigning death.

His whole body ached fiercely, his bones burned with pain; his flesh, organs, meridians, and so on were truly on the verge of being minced into meat paste, so the agony was unbearable. The heat flowing inside his bones nourished his entire body, bit by bit mending the wounds in his flesh—but the injuries were too severe; in a quarter of an hour he recovered less than thirty percent.

At this point, if Ao Chi went mad and suddenly struck Wu Tie with those Canghai Divine Pearls three or five times, Wu Tie feared he'd be left with nothing but a skeleton, fleeing in panic… that would be too eerie, and Wu Tie would not want to fall to such a state.

Holding his breath carefully, Wu Tie also took out a bottle of fine medicine, sipping it bit by bit, striving to hasten the healing of his wounds.

"The world changes, and I have actually become a demon?"

Ao Chi slowly nodded: "Yeah, in the hearts of everyone under heaven, I'm this old antique that suddenly popped up from the ground — that's what counts as a demon, right?"

Tilting his head slightly, Ao Chi looked down on Linghu Qingqing and the others with an extremely strange gaze: "Although I know you're making excuses, although I know you little brat aren't anything good, I have to admit that I, the king, was too ruthless, causing too much carnage."

"But what can we do?"

"Back then, the commander-in-chief who led us and the great commander who fought a life-and-death battle with the extraterrestrial demons issued a kill order."

"Kill anyone who approaches the demons!"

"Kill anyone who approaches the demons!"

"Kill anyone who approaches the demons!"

"Anyone who has even the slightest connection with the extraterrestrial demons shall be killed without pardon!"

"So these kids, they died pitifully, died worthless, but they deserved to die!"

Ao Chi raised his right hand; his right index finger suddenly lit up, quickly becoming a hundred times brighter than the sun.

A terrifying pressure crushed down from high above; Ao Chi's aura was vastly stronger than that of the four Linghu clan Elders, and under his horrifying aura, Wu Tie felt his vision repeatedly darkening, the slight healing of his bodily injuries worsening a bit.

"Damn it!" Wu Tie cursed furiously in his heart.

In the pitch-black endless void, within a star formed of seven-colored crystal, dozens of tall and short, fat and thin beings of various tribal traits, clad in heavy armor, stood upon a huge crystal teleportation array.

Strands of bloody mist seeped out of the void, quickly wrapping around these powerful beings; their aura underwent a strange change, their scent — whether magical or spiritual — becoming indistinguishable from that of ordinary human cultivators.

The bloody mist even merged into their bodies, making their bloodline aura no different from that of humans.

The hundred-zhang-tall seven-colored crystal giant nodded satisfactorily: "Good, good thing that old Linghu fellow's followers are all dead or wounded; otherwise I couldn't gather enough material for your descent."

"Ah ha, remember, the human materials gathered this time are only enough for you to descend to 'Mu'; they can only ensure that you won't be attacked by Mu when you descend. But if you want to come back… you must gather enough materials and, using secret arts, alter your aura, then I can guide you back."

"Besides, your aura can only be maintained for seven days."

"After seven days, your human aura will dissipate, and the strange things on the Mu Continent will spare no effort to kill you."

"So, seven days… your window of action is only seven days."

"Of course, if during those seven days you can gather enough materials and maintain the disguise seal on yourselves, then I might as well not have said this."

The seven-colored crystal giant waved a hand, then roared: "General Luoxiong, chop off Ao Chi's head… if you make me lose the bet, your fate… you know what it is!"

Before You Ruo and Sheng Rong et al. could speak, the teleportation array suddenly burst forth with a strong light.

Within the star formed of seven-colored crystal, an extremely fine crystal needle thousands of li long extended out, spraying a band of seven-colored divine light a hundred li thick toward that distant square black continent.

The seven-colored divine light, millions of li long, looked long and thin from afar, like an extremely fine long needle; after traveling a long way through the void, it plunged headfirst into the black continent.