Chapter 231: Relics

"Boom—"

A burst of golden light exploded from Xu Chen's entire body, shattering all the flesh, blood, and meridians of the clam shell wrapped around his exterior into powder. Divine patterns appeared out of thin air, subsequently manifesting phantom images of mountains and rivers filling the sky. A terrifying aura directly blasted open the two tightly closed shells outside his body. The mysterious gold patterns on the surface of the shells flashed with blinding light, then suddenly retracted and vanished into his body.

All around his body, the churning lightning plasma was rolled away in every direction by the violent impact like a tidal wave. In an instant, the pitch-black wasteland, which had been nearly cleaved into a giant pit a thousand feet in radius by the Tribulation Lightning, was revealed.

This aura shot straight into the sky, even blasting a large hole through the red blood clouds gathering above. A bolt of Tribulation Lightning brewing within exploded and dissipated, and then the blood clouds began to scatter amidst whistling tremors.

The final bolt of Tribulation Lightning.

It died in the womb before it could even form.

Xu Chen had no idea at all how many bolts of Tribulation Lightning had fallen from start to finish.

At this moment, he only felt an unprecedented joy and relief.

After the largest meridian at his dantian was blown apart, and without the subsequent continuous influx and pressure of lightning plasma, the lightning plasma accumulated in his dantian was also mostly expelled through his apertures. By the time a cluster of illusory blue starlight slowly gathered into a misty starlight vortex and closed the aperture entrances, only a purple light cluster remained in his dantian, violently trembling and churning amidst the residual lightning light.

At this time, Xu Chen's Divine Sense had once again restored its closest connection with his Soul, so his Divine Sense surged into the purple light like a tidal wave.

Soon, a strong life fluctuation appeared within his Divine Sense perception. He saw that at the very core of the purple light, a palm-sized Mysterious Gold Shell was floating. It opened its two small shells, and a cluster of blinding golden light flashed within, emitting a faint, indistinct roar toward the Divine Sense that was enveloping it from all directions.

However, this roar sounded just like an infant, actually carrying a sense of helplessness and fear.

"Go to hell!"

Accompanied by an earth-shattering roar, Xu Chen's Divine Sense transformed into dense Wind Blades and swept toward this tiny shell, completely submerging it like a hurricane.

In his Divine Sense perception, this shell could not be destroyed, but the blinding golden light inside was completely ground into light mist and vanished entirely within the hurricane of Divine Sense.

Then this violent storm of Divine Sense slowly calmed down.

Xu Chen suddenly opened his eyes.

At this time, the world was already peaceful; all around was an empty, pitch-black wasteland, and he was sitting cross-legged in a giant pit dozens of feet deep.

There was no trace of the Tribulation Cloud in the sky.

Rolling Black Mist was surging and pressing in from all directions like a mountain wall.

Around his body, there was no trace of the black clam shell.

This long experience of going from life to death, and then from death back to life, felt just like a dream, leaving him with a strong sense of unreality.

However, he knew that everything just now was not an illusion.

He observed his surroundings for a moment and then looked inside his body and dantian again.

At this time, he no longer needed to borrow the Blue Light Treasure Bottle to clearly feel the large number of divine patterns existing within his Divine Sense perception, already tightly fused with his own bones, flesh, and blood.

And his dantian had turned into a huge circular space emitting brilliant white light, with blue starlight flowing around it; this should be the new dantian space formed after the False Golden Core refined from the clam shell's inner core exploded.

In the very center of his dantian floated a purple light cluster, and a palm-sized shell with strange purple-gold patterns was wrapped within the purple light cluster, looking like the most beautiful and mysterious work of art inlaid with gold and jade.

Xu Chen used his Divine Sense to repeatedly contact this shell and discovered that he truly could no longer feel the slightest fluctuation of life.

In other words, this ancient shell that had almost refined and devoured him was truly and completely dead, posing no further threat.

Although he did not yet know how to refine and absorb this extremely powerful life energy, as long as it remained in his body, he would eventually find a way to make it his own.

As for this beautiful shell, being so hard and mysterious in aura, it must be a rare treasure of heaven and earth, and perhaps in the future, it could be refined into a Magic Treasure of immense power.

Thinking this, Xu Chen moved his Divine Sense, and suddenly, two light images of Mysterious Gold Shells covered in various profound patterns appeared outside his body. Following his breathing and heartbeat, the shells were actually still slightly opening and closing, as beautiful and magnificent as two giant wings.

Could it be that during that impact just now, this shell was actually refined by him?

Xu Chen was exceptionally surprised, because he could clearly perceive at this moment that the light images of these shells were tightly connected to his Soul, as if they were a part of his own body.

Therefore, after observing the two shells for a moment, he moved his Divine Sense, and the two shells actually fluttered gently, carrying him into the air. With a slight flicker, he was already at an altitude of several hundred feet.

Is this teleportation?

After a brief moment of stunned silence, Xu Chen could not help but feel a surge of wild joy.

Teleportation is a skill that only cultivators in the Danyuan Realm can perform.

In fact, the Cloud Flow Step secret technique created by Baiyun Zhenjun is actually a strengthened version of teleportation.

Only after reaching the Danyuan Realm cultivation level, when the Yuan Qi in the body liquefies and begins to slowly carry the characteristics of Spirit Qi, can one touch the fur of this spatial aura.

When a Nascent Soul Great Cultivator uses Shrinking Ground to an Inch to travel ten miles in one step, covering ten thousand miles a day to traverse the human world, it is actually a deeper level of comprehension and application of spatial rules.

Although he had gone through this terrifying Heavenly Tribulation, Xu Chen did not feel that he had undergone Spirit Transformation, nor did he feel the fluctuation of Spirit Qi from his body; in other words, he was still at the Zhenyuan Realm cultivation level.

And the False Golden Core in his dantian did not actually grant him the abilities of a Danyuan Realm expert; he did not even understand what kind of substance this large pearl that opened up a new dantian space belonged to.

But this shell could help him achieve teleportation while he was still in the Zhenyuan Realm, which could be said to have given him an extremely formidable life-saving means out of thin air.

Standing in the air, looking at the giant pit created by the Heavenly Tribulation impact below, Xu Chen was terrified and kept clicking his tongue.

In reality, this Heavenly Tribulation was not aimed at him, but at the residual life aura of the large shell he had taken into his dantian.

He was merely caught up in it by a twist of fate.

But fortunately, in the end, through the confusion, the large shell withstood this Heavenly Tribulation, but ultimately fulfilled him.

In the giant pit, it was not completely silent; there were actually several distinct, strong fluctuations of aura.

He reached out and grabbed, and immediately a crystal-clear crystal fell into his hand.

This crystal was like gold, yet crystal clear, with lightning patterns covering its surface. When he probed it with his Divine Sense, he felt a terrifying aura that instantly annihilated his Divine Sense.

Xu Chen only felt as if his Soul had been struck by lightning, and his face turned pale.

"What a terrifying aura, what on earth is this?"

Cold sweat rolled down Xu Chen's head, and he shivered violently in terror.

But in an instant, he felt a surge of inexplicable joy; this aura seemed similar to the Heavenly Tribulation.

If his guess was correct, this might be something left behind by the Heavenly Tribulation just now.

And the Heavenly Tribulation is the embodiment of the most powerful rule force between heaven and earth.

Therefore, this kind of crystal must not be a common object; perhaps it is an extremely rare treasure.

Xu Chen released his Divine Sense to scan the giant pit carefully, and after reaching out and grabbing several times in succession, he harvested five more crystals. However, just as he was searching carefully again to see if there were more, a point of illusory blue aura fell into his Divine Sense. Surprised, he reached out and grabbed it.

This is a Space Crystal!

Xu Chen was incomparably astonished.

This crystal looked slightly familiar; it seemed he had seen it somewhere before. Just as he was examining it and pondering, a Divine Pattern light-shadow suddenly emerged in his Sea of Consciousness, and a man's stuttering voice rang out: "Benefactor, are, are you alright!"

Xu Chen jolted awake; this was Feng Yi's Wind Whisper transmission, so he hurriedly released his Divine Sense and instantly saw Feng Yi, Feng Liu, and several other Feng Clan Divine Pattern Warriors standing near a canyon over ten miles away with faces full of terror, so he hurriedly used Divine Sense Transmission to say: "I am fine!"

"That's great!" Feng Yi was overjoyed. He flapped the red light-wings behind his back, transformed into a streak of light, and approached rapidly. Soon, the four Feng Clan Divine Pattern Warriors stood before him.

Xu Chen spread his hand to reveal the Blue Space Crystal and asked: "This seems to be Feng Feiyi's Space Crystal. Where did she go?"

The four people's expressions instantly dimmed. Feng Yi lowered his head and hesitated for a moment before saying: "Benefactor, when Feng Feiyi saw you struck by the lightning, she was afraid something had happened to you, so she rushed into the lightning and never came back out. This crystal is what fell off her battle suit; it stands to reason that she is already dead."

Xu Chen's expression changed drastically. He stepped forward, grabbed Feng Yi by the chest, and roared: "Did I not warn you all not to approach me? Why did you not listen?"

Feng Yi did not dare to look up and kept his head bowed in silence.

"Benefactor, the situation at the time was extremely terrifying and critical. Feng Feiyi was completely like a lost soul; she couldn't even remember the Benefactor's name. When she rushed in, we couldn't stop her, nor did we dare to," Feng Liu explained with a face full of shame.

After a long silence, Xu Chen slumped and released Feng Yi, his face full of sorrow.

No wonder he was able to wake up after his Soul was imprisoned by the Shell and his consciousness had sunk; it must have been Feng Feiyi who rushed into the lightning tribulation at the most critical moment to wake him.

And after Feng Feiyi died, that Blue Starlight he had planted inside her body automatically returned to the Blue Light Jade Bottle, which then guided him to find the Blue Light Jade Bottle and restore his connection with his Soul.

In other words, Feng Feiyi had saved his life with her own.

"How could this be? Could it be because of the Slave Seal?"

Xu Chen clutched the Blue Space Crystal, his heart filled with incomparable grief.

"Benefactor, Feng Feiyi is already dead; you don't need to be sad. This was all caused by her own actions!" Seeing Xu Chen's face full of sorrow and distraction, Feng Yi looked up and said earnestly.

Feng Liu and the other three also hurriedly nodded to comfort Xu Chen: "Benefactor, that is exactly it. She didn't listen and rushed into the lightning field; it was all her own doing. The commotion just now was too great, and I fear it will attract powerful Nether Beasts. We should return first and talk later!"

Xu Chen shook his head sadly and said: "You are all wrong. Feng Feiyi died to save me; if it weren't for her, the one dead now would be me!"

The four of them, Feng Yi included, were instantly stunned, their mouths opening and closing as they didn't know what to say.

"Sigh, forget it, let's go back and talk. This is all my fault!"

Xu Chen finally composed his mood, stored the Blue Space Crystal into his Profound Gold Bracelet, and led the four of them, Feng Yi included, back to the valley settlement.

(End of chapter)