Chapter 718

Wu Tie's arms glowed with divine light, misty and swirling, as if divine light were about to spray off his body surface.

For a long time, Wu Tie's mutated bones were his strongest point; divine weapons and Daoist arts could hardly damage them.

But this time, facing the attack of the ice sculpture trident, Wu Tie's arm bones were completely shattered.

Unlike a mortal body, the divine body integrates the Dao's patterns; once damaged, it is like a cracked bowl holding water—water leaks from the seams, the divine body is naturally harmed, and repairing it is extremely difficult, requiring vast time and energy.

Wu Tie's arm bones were glowing and heating up.

His shattered bones released a tremendous suction, like a black hole, forcibly trapping the bewildering divine light on his body surface.

Every wisp of leaking Dao pattern flew back, none escaping outward; all the shattered bones clinked together as they reassembled, and streams of heat like tides washed over his entire skeleton, instantly healing the arm bones.

An indescribable sense of hunger came from within; Wu Tie's perfectly intact divine body was restored to its original state, with no damage or leakage.

Yet in this process, Wu Tie's magical power was exhausted, and the energy stored in his body was largely depleted, leaving him like a primordial magic bear just awakened from hibernation, starved to skin and bones, his eyeballs emitting green light.

The God-Smiting Whip flew out from within him; within its vast inner space, mountains of prime crystals instantly turned into torrents of prime energy that surged into his body. The divine fetus gulped the prime energy, converting it into pure magical power stored inside, while every cell in his body opened wide, frantically devouring the incoming prime energy.

The terrible hunger quickly faded, but immediately afterward, Wu Tie's entire skeleton glowed and heated, dark flames spewing out, burning him with excruciating pain.

The divine fetus emitted wisps of light mist; under the stimulation of the flames spurting from his bones, the fusion speed of his divine soul and divine body suddenly became a hundred times faster than his usual all-out cultivation, and his Divine Realm cultivation rose at a speed he could feel.

That blow just now shattered Wu Tie's arm bones, but his bones themselves initiated a strange evolutionary process, driving his bones and divine body to become stronger, tougher, and harder to destroy.

Energy, and also exotic substances…

Wu Tie's whole being craved greater energy, more rare treasures to fill his inner void.

His body trembling slightly, Wu Tie glanced at the snowland folk emerging from the spatial gate, snorted coldly, flickered, and plunged straight into the blizzard, using an escape technique to flee swiftly.

"Southerners, you cannot escape… the heavenly gods guide us; leaving that barren and cruel snowland is heaven's decree that we are destined to conquer your lands, slay your men, ravage your women, and let our bloodline replace yours."

"Everything you have—your lands, your wealth, your women—will be our spoils of war."

"Flee? Where could you possibly run to?"

A man over ten feet tall, wearing a crown made of a bear skull, draped in a whole bear hide, with an extremely broad frame yet gaunt as skin and bone, gripped a massive staff and howled toward the spot where Wu Tie had vanished.

"You, you cannot escape."

The old man's eyes spat icy blue light; he slammed his staff hard into the ground, issuing a thunderous boom that made nearby and distant mountains tremble. Snow on many peaks poured down with a "whoosh," and terrifying avalanches erupted everywhere.

Rank after rank of burly warriors clad in various white furs leapt from the spatial gate, marching swiftly along the causeway while continually emitting beast-like howls.

On these warriors' faces, no trace of civilization could be seen.

Every move they made was crude and unrestrained, like beasts of the snowland, all actions stemming purely from survival instinct.

The snowland endowed them with powerful physiques, forcing them to hone formidable combat strength; in that cruel icy wilderness, they fought nature and beasts tooth and nail for a morsel of food or a pelt, ready to risk their lives.

The harsh environment awakened the immense power inherited in their blood, yet they inherited only that power.

Wisdom… civilization… all the beautiful things their ancestors once possessed left no trace in them.

"Ya-ha~~~ho!"

"Ya-ha~~~ho!"

"Ya-ha~~~ho!"

The tens of thousands of laborers who had been dragging the huge ice sculpture picked up the ropes from the ground and continued, with high morale, to haul the massive ice sculpture southward.

Every time they dragged the ice sculpture forward ten or so li, frost Dao patterns flickered in rings on the ice crystal causeway, continually charging the sculpture; it emitted divine light, and the massive troupe would instantly shift forward hundreds of li.

Whenever they neared the ice sculpture's end, a ferocious-looking old man would leap out, hysterically chanting a spell, instantly triggering a blood sacrifice; a beam of divine light shot from the ice sculpture's trident, forcibly carving a long ice crystal causeway through the mountains.

In the mountains, cold light radiated everywhere; wherever the azure divine light passed, peaks exploded into scattering ice crystals, great rivers were frozen solid from bottom to top, and countless birds and beasts were slain by the dispersed snowland warriors, becoming food stores stockpiled in warehouses along the causeway's sides.

Wu Tie's body surged with dark light; fortunately, he is now the lord of Wuguo.

Wuguo may be barren, but that stems from the previous Great Wu God Nation's royal family mismanaging it. Wuguo's natural resources—including prime energy veins and various rare mineral deposits—are actually extremely abundant.

As lord of Wuguo, the cultivation resources flowing into Wu Tie's hands are undoubtedly a colossal astronomical figure.

Surrounded by Li Xuan'gui and others, Wu Tie sat cross-legged on the waist of an extremely perilous great mountain; his whole body radiating dark light like a black hole, countless rare resources and endless prime energy spewed from the God-Smiting Whip, engulfing his body like a tide.

His divine body grew stronger bit by bit, while the divine fetus gradually merged into it.

His connection with heaven, earth, and the universe increased incrementally; his six senses steadily rose, and his magical power, strength, and various accompanying divine abilities also continually grew.

His essence-blood was refined, condensed, and elevated.

The hue of his blood underwent subtle changes; as his divine body continually condensed, stimulated by his skeleton, Wu Tie was advancing toward a nobler bloodline, reverting to ancestral origins, gradually awakening the mighty power latent in his blood.

Faintly, Li Xuan'gui and the others standing beside Wu Tie could hear dragon chants and phoenix calls, lion and tiger roars emanating from within his body.

It seemed as if countless divine birds and beasts were awakening within Wu Tie's body, and familiar auras of various divine birds and beasts continually emanated from him, recognizable to Li Xuan'gui and the others.

Occasionally, Wu Tie's arms would suddenly sprout countless dragon scales, and his fingers hardened into sharp dragon claws.

Occasionally, mysterious-scripted feathers would sprout on Wu Tie's neck; their splendid plumes spat divine light, their feathers gleamed brilliantly, sacred and dazzling beyond compare.

Even at times, Wu Tie's forehead would suddenly sprout variously colored, blazing horns.

Straight, curved, spiral-patterned, or forked like antlers.

His aura shifted—sometimes holy, sometimes mysterious, sometimes dark, sometimes bright. Around him, black mist, thick smoke, flames, frost and other phenomena would intermittently appear; each time a phenomenon manifested, a strange cry of a divine beast or bird would echo from within his body.

Li Xuan'gui and the others were momentarily speechless.

They had also experienced such bodily changes.

This occurred when, during their cultivation, they reached the fifth tier of the Divine Realm or higher, naturally reverting to ancestral origins, tracing their bloodline back to the mighty beings of primordial myth, and obtaining from their blood certain unique omens of powerful divine ability transformations.

For example, Li Xuan'gui—true to his name—upon reaching the fifth tier of the Divine Realm, he reverted to ancestral origins and gained from his blood an extremely formidable "Black Tortoise" transformation.

He could completely transform his human form into a gargantuan primordial Black Tortoise, a single leg of which could be called a heavenly pillar. When Li Xuan'gui fully exerted his Black Tortoise metamorphosis, his shell could nearly cover half a prefecture's territory.

Li Xuan'gui is a spell cultivator; ordinarily, a common nine-forged immortal weapon could seriously wound him.

But after becoming a Black Tortoise, even ordinary innate spiritual weapons could not harm him in the slightest.

Yuan Qilin is likewise; as his name suggests, upon reaching the fifth tier of the Divine Realm, his awakened bloodline enables him to transform into a Earth-Qilin, a central earth virtue, innate auspicious beast; as long as he stands on the earth's veins, enemies whose cultivation exceeds his by several folds find it hard to defeat him.

Such divine ability transformation comes directly from primordial blood, differing from ordinary divine ability changes.

Ordinary divine ability transformation merely alters appearance, granting some of the abilities of the transformed divine beast or bird.

And this kind of bloodline transformation directly turns oneself into the divine beasts and divine birds of ancient myth, completely mastering everything about them and possessing various inconceivable miraculous powers. Not only the appearance, but even the soul and the way of thinking will become that kind of ancient divine beast.

"The bloodlines of all races under heaven and earth all originate from that legendary sage who opened heaven and earth...... Therefore, in theory...... every cultivator who has achieved great power can embody myriad forms, freely mastering the myriad innate divine abilities and transformations of countless divine beasts and birds."

Li Xuan Gui watched Wu Tie's constantly appearing bodily omens, and unconsciously muttered to himself.

"But human strength is limited; we are merely acquired mortals, not that innate sage of legend who opened heaven and earth...... So, therefore...... it is also extremely fortunate that we can condense a divine body, refine our bloodline, and thereby obtain a supremely powerful divine ability transformation."

"If we obtain too many bloodline transformation divine abilities, our bodies cannot withstand them."

"But my lord...... he...... he...... this is...... how many kinds of phenomena have appeared?"

Yuan Qilin stared at Wu Tie, dumbfounded.

"Heavenly gifted and extraordinary, this foundation—how much stronger than ours we don't even know." Mo Yun beside him, envious to the point of almost drooling, said: "Old Turtle, you really got it right this time; being fortunate enough to follow the lord's gate is our great opportunity and great fortune."

Li Xuan Gui smiled without speaking, complacently stroking his long beard.

Wu Tie's body continued to devour primordial crystals and various rare materials...... Heaven and earth were formed by the sage's opening; all spirits of heaven and earth are derived from the sage's bloodline, thus by taking external heavenly and earthly resources one can cultivate the bodies of all spirits. Heaven gives birth to all things to nurture all spirits—this is the most basic principle of heaven and earth.

Wu Tie continually strengthened, his six senses continually improving; the distance his eyes could see grew ever farther, and the distance his ears could hear grew ever greater.

Gradually, Wu Tie heard a long, distant shout coming from the north.

The feeling of hunger inside had been suppressed somewhat, Wu Tie stood up and looked in the direction the sound came from.

Ice mist filled the air, making it hard for even Wu Tie's eyes to discern what lay in that direction.

Thus Wu Tie reached out; his right hand from the elbow down completely transformed into a clear, crystalline ice form. He drew a circle in the air with his hand, and the gloomy icy circle connected the cold qi between heaven and earth; the extremely fine cold-energy particles instantly turned into threads of strange undulations that spread outward.

Soon, the icy light circle rapidly expanded, becoming several zhang in size and hovering before everyone.

In the far northern distance, the scenery on the Ice Crystal Highway appeared within the icy light circle.

First to appear were massive herds of snow plain behemoths, each several dozen zhang tall, with extremely long tusks and bodies covered in extremely long white fur. These huge behemoths carried enormous wooden frames on their backs, piled high with all kinds of odd trinkets.

Pots, pans, bowls, tents made of animal hides, and some small-sized children sitting on them, swaying as the behemoths strode forward.

Behind the herds of behemoths were various kinds of war beasts.

White bears, white tigers, white wolves, white deer……

On the backs of these war beasts were also loaded large amounts of household goods, various pots and pans and the like; Wu Tie even noticed that several white bears carried an entire set of blacksmith's tools—furnaces, crucibles, pliers, hammers, and so on, everything one could need.

Crowds of warriors clad in animal hides followed beside these war beasts, panting as they trotted southward with the beasts.

Countless war beasts and warriors surged southward; on the Ice Crystal Highway, shifting patches of hexagonal frost patterns appeared and disappeared—each time they coalesced, a flash of icy light occurred, and these swiftly marching war beasts and warriors would then appear several hundred li to the south.

Whenever this random transmission occurred, whether being sent or watching a companion being sent, these uninvited guests on the snow plain all let out long, beast-like cries of joy and exhilaration.

The vast army of warriors numbered unknown, but in short, its end could not be seen at a glance.

Wu Tie increased his mana output to the icy light circle, the circle's diameter rapidly increased, and soon Wu Tie and the others saw further movements farther to the north.

Countless ragged men, women, old and young gathered together, a vast multitude whose end could not be seen at a glance, like a migrating swarm of ants, trudging difficultly southward through the cold wind.

Truly a sea of people, its end could not be seen at a glance.

Men, women, elders, children—everyone carried bundles of various sizes, walking step by step southward along the Ice Crystal Highway.

The cold wind howled, freezing qi raged, and from time to time a gaunt old man would collapse face-first to the ground.

The fallen old men were swiftly cleared to the sides of the highway and casually dumped in the wilderness; the others remained silent, their eyes emitting faint glints of ferocity, like wolves, gritting their teeth as they pressed on southward.

The Ice Crystal Highway flashed with icy light; likewise, occasional flashes of icy light would instantaneously shift the great throng of people and horses several hundred li southward.

Such speed……

So many snow plain folk……

"Is there only one such highway?" Wu Tie suddenly looked at Yuan Qilin.

Li Xuan Gui, Yuan Qilin, and the others' faces suddenly turned ashen.

From these migrating snow plain folk, they sensed an extremely primitive, pure malice and greed.

Even just the snow plain folk migrating on this single highway had already given them a tremendous shock.

If there were more……

More highways……