Chapter 230: The Final Battle

An unknown Void, separated by an unknown distance.

An ancient and imposing palace floated in the pitch-black darkness.

Inside the empty main hall, a tall figure in a black robe with a hood obscuring their face appeared out of thin air, sitting upon a high, dark-gold chair, staring toward a certain direction in the Void.

After the giant shadow focused for a long moment, they gently turned a large black ring on a finger as thin and withered as a dead bone, and said in a low voice: "The Minghuang is actually experiencing a disturbance in its rules; it is clearly an aura triggered by the human race. Could it be that the Wuxingtian has completed another cycle, and the great war is about to begin again? I wonder how many I can kill this time?"

"Heitian, you had better take care of yourself. The human race has been preparing for a whole cycle; I fear it won't be so easy to defeat them this time. Perhaps you will end up leaving your life here for good!"

A hoarse, low voice sounded in the main hall, as if it had traveled across billions of miles of Void.

The black-robed figure gave a cold snort and said: "Yellow Springs, you don't need to worry about whether I live or die. You had better concern yourself with your own life; don't die too early!"

"Heh heh, rest assured, I will absolutely not die before you!" The hoarse, low voice let out a laugh like a night owl.

"I hope so. After this battle is over, there is still a fight between you and me. You had better wash your neck clean; don't dirty my Potian Blade!" The black-robed figure conjured a pitch-black curved blade out of thin air in their hand, gently stroked the blade with their hand, and spoke coldly.

"Forget it, that broken blade of yours can only kill chickens, ducks, pigs, and dogs. A word of warning: the human race has produced another Great Vehicle Immortal Lord, whose strength is extremely formidable. You had better look out for yourself; don't end up like Youtong last time, showing off only to die so thoroughly that not even a scrap of bone could be found!"

The hoarse voice quickly vanished from the main hall.

The hand of the black-robed figure stroking the curved blade trembled slightly, then they took one more look at a certain place beyond the endless Void, and their figure quickly vanished from the dark-gold chair. The massive, ancient palace returned to its silence of ten million years, slowly losing its trace in the Black Wind as if drifting with the tide.

Xu Chen naturally had no feeling for these distant people and events, and not even anyone in the mortal world or the Immortal World would know of them.

His battle for control of his physical body against the giant clam had already entered a white-hot stage.

As he broke through the meridian channels one by one, with the vital life-and-death apertures being breached with the aid of the Demon Refining Art, he slowly reclaimed control, and his grasp over his physical body became increasingly clear.

By now, only a dozen or so meridian pipes connecting the clam shell to his body remained.

But these dozen or so were all incredibly thick and as hard as a Third-tier Magic Treasure; every one he broke through consumed a massive amount of white Qi.

His body, likewise, had reached its limit under the repeated impact of the white Qi; the speed of its collapse was increasing, the speed of its mending was slowing, and coupled with the powerful squeezing of the clam shell's flesh and the terrifying impact of the lightning, he gradually felt that his body had reached the point of imminent collapse.

Moreover, by this time, he also felt his Soul was exhausted to the point of collapse, and he had even become muddled and hallucinated several times; scenes of the wild, ancient past surged forth again like a tide, attempting to annihilate his Divine Sense and sink him into oblivion.

However, Xu Chen knew that this was his last and only chance to survive.

In reality, he was not having an easy time, and this giant clam was not having an easy time either.

The muscles that were constantly writhing and squeezing him were also riddled with holes from the impact of the white light.

Furthermore, as the will of the clam shell fully retreated into his dantian, the clam shell's main body also began to lose support; its muscles and meridians began to atrophy, and the speed at which it absorbed the Tribulation Lightning slowed down significantly.

Both sides knew they were facing the final decisive battle.

Therefore, both were concentrating all their efforts on defense, placing the final battlefield in the dantian.

What made Xu Chen feel slightly fortunate was that he had killed this giant clam once before, and he estimated that its original Soul had already dissipated.

What remained was merely an instinctual life response stored within a mass of purple liquid inside the giant pearl; aside from some ancient memories, it seemed to possess no consciousness or memory of its own.

The process of the giant clam devouring and merging with Xu Chen was akin to a life instinct; its consciousness was very weak, much like a newborn infant, far inferior to the thinking and judgment of a mature life like Xu Chen.

At this moment, the will of the clam shell had entered entirely into the purple light of the dantian, seemingly wanting to rely on its powerful life aura to fully resist Xu Chen's destruction and counterattack.

Xu Chen naturally would not abandon the control he was about to obtain; he forcibly condensed his Soul to keep himself sufficiently clear-headed, and while constantly breaking through the endless stream of images, he also continued to push the Demon Refining Art to its limit.

In his view, whoever could hold on until the end would be the victor.

Even if he could not break through all the meridian channels in one go this time to completely reclaim control of his body, he had to try to break through as many apertures as possible, sever the connection between the clam shell and his body, and simultaneously cut off the Tribulation Lightning's destruction of his body.

He did not know how long this clam shell had lived in the Underworld, but its life aura was powerful to such a degree that, according to the concepts of the Immortal World, it had lived for at least tens of thousands of years, if not longer.

What surprised and intrigued Xu Chen the most was that this giant clam could condense such formidable life energy; if he could absorb all of this energy, he felt he could live for at least ten thousand years himself.

In that case, let alone Qi Refining and Spirit Transformation, even a True Immortal who had reached the stage of Refining Spirit and Returning to Void might not necessarily live longer than him.

Because it was said that as long as one had not stepped into the stage of Refining Void and Merging with Dao, one could not be as eternal as heaven and earth; beyond the Three Realms and Five Elements, there remained the Immeasurable Heavenly Tribulation, and with every step of advancement, one had to endure the might of the Immeasurable Heavenly Tribulation, and one careless move would still result in death and annihilation.

As for how True Immortals crossed the tribulation and what happened if they failed, the mortal world and the Immortal World had never had any description; they were merely legends similar to myths, completely unworthy of belief.

But it was a consensus that True Immortals still had to cross the tribulation, and no one doubted it.

Because those great cultivators in the Shenling Realm who had stepped into the highest level of Qi Refining and Spirit Transformation had already begun to touch the power of the laws of heaven and earth, while True Immortals in the stage of Refining Spirit and Returning to Void mainly familiarized themselves with the laws of heaven and earth to touch the Great Dao of heaven and earth, ultimately merging with the Dao to achieve immortality and be as eternal as heaven and earth.

However, Xu Chen had no method to refer to for stripping and refining the terrifying life force of this giant clam for his own use; the only thing he could do was to completely grind away the giant clam's residual consciousness in this invisible battle for the dantian, and then this mass of life energy would belong to him.

Therefore, the final level of this battle was not white Qi, nor was it Yuan Qi, and certainly not the physical body, but the Soul; only the one whose Soul was sufficiently powerful could win.

Thus, this battle was a matter of life or death; there was absolutely no possibility of a draw or peaceful coexistence.

And Xu Chen believed that as long as he had a single breath left, he would absolutely not allow another completely foreign, hostile consciousness to exist within his most important dantian; this was a battle for survival, and there was absolutely no room for retreat.

Therefore, even though Xu Chen's Divine Sense had reached the point of being almost dim to the point of collapse, and his physical body had almost completely merged with the clam's collapsing flesh, he did not intend to stop the operation of the Demon Refining Art; as long as there was a sliver of clarity, the Demon Refining Art would seize the opportunity to operate, guiding the white light to constantly strike the remaining meridian channels.

One... two... three...

In his muddled state, Xu Chen sank into the vast number of wild images time and again, only to suddenly wake up; the remaining dozen or so meridian channels were also broken one by one, slowly.

Until a certain moment, in Xu Chen's Divine Sense, only the last and thickest meridian remained, connecting to his dantian like a mountain cave, within which surged and churned golden lightning plasma, continuously squeezing into the dantian.

And at this time, after the meridian channels throughout his body had been broken and closed, this lightning plasma could no longer be sent into other meridians, so it accumulated more and more in the dantian, eventually turning into a churning and turbulent pool of golden lightning plasma.

A mass of rich purple was wrapped within the lightning plasma, releasing an incomparably powerful life aura; under the influence of this life aura, streaks of lightning actually transformed into the shapes of birds, fish, and insects, wandering and flying in the dantian, constantly exploding and reforming.

Feeling the increasing amount of lightning plasma that was about to burst his dantian, Xu Chen knew that if he could not break through this last main meridian as soon as possible, he would sooner or later be blasted into powder by the Tribulation Lightning.

However, no matter how he operated the Demon Refining Art, with the white light striking the position of the dantian aperture like a torrent, this meridian, which had been magnified in his Divine Sense to be as huge as a mountain cave, was rapidly repairing itself while collapsing, and it seemed to be becoming thicker and sturdier.

The clam shell's newborn consciousness must have also sensed Xu Chen's intent, and it was also doing its utmost to squeeze its flesh from the outside, constantly piling it up outside the meridian, reinforcing this lightning plasma channel like a wall of copper and iron to resist Xu Chen's counterattack.

Under such repeated contention, as time passed, Xu Chen's consciousness grew weaker and weaker; countless ancient images filled his Soul like light and shadow, and even the Blue Light Treasure Bottle began to slowly blur, seeming to grow further and further away.

Xu Chen was burning with anxiety, knowing that once his consciousness lost its Soul connection with the Blue Light Treasure Bottle again, he would have no chance of winning.

Therefore, he simply withdrew his Divine Sense, fully struck the Blue Light Treasure Bottle, and communicated to find a new method.

Thus, under this intense desire for survival, a God Crystal interwoven with gold and red inside the Blue Light Treasure Bottle exploded with a bang.

A golden light and shadow mixed into the overwhelming blood light instantly swept through his consciousness; the hundreds of Divine Pattern Jade Pieces engraved on the Blue Light Treasure Bottle also collapsed, then transformed out of thin air into individual Ancient Runes, rushing out of the bottle's mouth along with the violent aura, sweeping through his entire body like a dam bursting, and merging into his sinews, bones, and flesh.

A powerful and desolate aura radiated from Xu Chen's body, as if an ancient god were awakening within him.

"Break—"

In his wild joy, Xu Chen used this terrifying blood energy to launch the most violent strike yet against the position of his dantian.

(End of chapter)