Chapter 256: Another Hole Blown Open

"Xu Chen... Xu Chen..."

Suddenly, a familiar voice resonated within his Sea of Consciousness. He gave a violent start, his Divine Sense surged out through his body, and he opened his eyes.

Before him was a faint, shimmering white light. He was lying in a soft, warm embrace, and all around, there seemed to be the sound of dripping water.

The first thing that met his eyes was a towering chest spanning his field of vision and half of a stunningly beautiful, snow-white face, which was looking at him with eyes full of joy.

"Demon Lord Youtong!" Xu Chen was startled and hurriedly sat up, but he felt a sharp pain in his chest and couldn't help but groan.

"You are severely injured, don't move around!" A slender, snow-white hand gently pressed him back down.

Xu Chen closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths. Once the sharp pain subsided, he slowly opened his eyes again and asked, "Where are we?"

Demon Lord Youtong shook her head gently and said, "I am not sure either, but we should still be within Minghuang. Perhaps we are not far from the Mortal World."

"Truly?!"

Xu Chen sat up abruptly in his excitement, but under the intense pain, he couldn't help but groan again. He felt as if his body had been completely torn apart, so he gritted his teeth and looked down, only to see that his entire chest was a bloody, mangled mess with a large hole in it.

"Hiss~"

Xu Chen couldn't help but gasp.

His middle dantian had actually been breached as well.

However, after a moment of distraction, he hurriedly sat cross-legged and began to circulate his cultivation technique. He discovered that his Origin Qi could still circulate, but whenever it passed through the Shan Zhong Xue, it would be swallowed into a blue starlight vortex, only to reappear at the other end of the meridian path according to the circulation route.

This situation left him incredibly astonished.

Previously, all his apertures also contained blue starlight vortices, but this phenomenon had never occurred during the circulation of Origin Qi.

In other words, although his dantian had been destroyed, the starlight vortices had taken over the function of the apertures, still capable of supporting the circulation of Origin Qi. Moreover, there was not the slightest sense of stagnation; it even felt smoother and more stable.

If the Shan Zhong Xue was like this, could the other apertures be the same?

Therefore, Xu Chen continued to circulate his technique, intentionally guiding the Origin Qi to enter the starlight vortex directly as it passed through the apertures.

Sure enough, his hypothesis worked.

After the Origin Qi passed through the starlight vortex, it appeared in the corresponding meridians smoothly as the technique circulated.

What kind of monster have I turned into?

After one small cycle finished and the Origin Qi returned to his dantian, Xu Chen performed an internal inspection of his entire body's meridians and apertures, and began to stare blankly once more.

Now, his dantian was no longer a dantian, and his Sea of Consciousness was no longer a Sea of Consciousness. Aside from his physical body, which was still composed of relatively normal bones, flesh, and blood, everything he had cultivated as a foundation for immortality had become unrecognizable.

"Xu Chen, are, are you alright?"

Seeing Xu Chen sitting in meditation and then opening his eyes with a bewildered expression, Demon Lord Youtong was very nervous.

Xu Chen turned his head and stared straight at Demon Lord Youtong. This female Demon Lord, whom he had not spent much time with but who possessed immense power, seemed to have undergone a huge change in both personality and the aura she radiated.

Based on his previous experience with her, she should not be this gentle and nervous toward him.

Could it be that Feng Feiyi is truly not dead yet?

Xu Chen felt a surge of joy in his heart, followed by a wave of worry.

However, with the situation unclear and his injuries severe, he did not want to be distracted by messy thoughts, so he nodded and said, "I won't die for now, but I need to recover for a while. Your aura is a bit chaotic; are you injured as well?"

Demon Lord Youtong nodded gently and said, "During the explosion, I was severely injured and fell unconscious just like you. When I woke up, I found myself lying in this place. Your injuries are worse, and you remained unconscious the whole time. I didn't know how to save you, so I could only wait for you to wake up!"

"So that's how it is. It seems our luck is actually quite good." Xu Chen nodded with a strange expression.

Who was Demon Lord Youtong? She was a great demon of the Underworld who had lived for thousands or tens of thousands of years with only a wisp of her remnant soul residing in the Mysterious Water Nether Lotus. Her strength was comparable to a Void Immortal, possessing the power to destroy heaven and earth. Every gesture and word of hers usually carried an inexplicable pressure and terrifying aura; it was simply impossible for her to be this soft-spoken and flustered.

If she were in her normal state, she would never speak to him like this, let alone hold him in her arms and call out to him gently. She would either be dragging him around to find a way out, or she would have hacked him into eight pieces to study the Blue Light Treasure Bottle and the Heaven-Suppressing Monument before abandoning him in the wilderness.

Therefore, the current state of Demon Lord Youtong seemed closer to Feng Feiyi.

It was just that her physical appearance was still that of the resurrected Demon Lord Youtong.

And it was only her personality that had changed; she was still the original Demon Lord Youtong.

"By the way, where are your wings?" Xu Chen asked suddenly after looking Demon Lord Youtong up and down.

"The wings are still here!" As Demon Lord Youtong spoke, two rays of red light emerged from behind her, and she spread two massive, crimson bat wings covered in mysterious patterns.

Xu Chen finally breathed a sigh of relief and said, "That's good. I need to recover and heal for a while now. You should also get some rest. Once we have recovered enough, we must leave this place quickly, otherwise, Demon Lord Heitian might catch up."

At the mention of Demon Lord Heitian, Demon Lord Youtong's expression suddenly turned icy cold, and faint golden light flickered within her pitch-black pupils.

Xu Chen, however, had a drastic change in expression.

Because within Demon Lord Youtong's pupils, he actually saw a clear, dark blue cross-shaped Slave Seal rotating gently, exactly the same as the blue cross mark that had been on Feng Feiyi's forehead.

"What is wrong with you?" Demon Lord Youtong's voice was slightly gloomy.

"Oh, I'm fine. I have some Soul Beads here; take them and use them!"

Xu Chen waved his hand, and seven or eight Soul Beads, each at least the size of a bowl, floated in front of Demon Lord Youtong.

Demon Lord Youtong seemed to be in a daze for a moment, appearing somewhat lost. Seeing that Xu Chen had already closed his eyes to enter meditation, she took the Soul Beads into her hands and began to study them slowly. Soon, a strong, cold, and gloomy aura began to radiate from her body, and wisps of pitch-black, ink-like substance from the Soul Beads were swallowed into her nose and mouth like smoke.

Because his Origin Qi could still circulate normally, Xu Chen did not pay too much attention to the changes in his meridians and apertures for the time being, instead focusing his main energy on repairing the damage to his body.

In the past, no matter how much damage his Soul and body sustained, he could quickly repair them by circulating the Great Void Demon-Refining Art and absorbing large amounts of white Qi.

But this time, as he circulated the Great Void Demon-Refining Art, he felt that the situation was not looking good.

Although the technique could still be circulated, without the Blue Light Treasure Bottle, it felt very slow and sluggish. No matter how much he pushed with his Divine Sense, he could only feel a faint wisp of white Qi leaking out from the blue vortex in the center of the Heaven-Suppressing Monument. It was completely incomparable to the fierce, gushing state of white light in the past; it was not even as much as the amount of white Qi the Blue Light Treasure Bottle used to refine on its own daily.

He could now roughly confirm that the Blue Light Treasure Bottle and the Heaven-Suppressing Monument must have fused together.

The function was still there, but the refining speed and effectiveness were greatly diminished.

"What on earth is the Heaven-Suppressing Monument? It seems even more powerful than the Blue Light Treasure Bottle..."

Xu Chen muttered to himself, but he continued to circulate the Great Void Demon-Refining Art, guiding the dissipated white Qi to repair the massive wound on his chest.

He was very depressed, having no idea why such a large hole had been blown in his chest.

The only thing he felt somewhat fortunate about was that his internal organs and his most important heart had not been damaged.

Otherwise, he would probably be dead.

This sitting session lasted for an unknown amount of time, until Xu Chen felt that the wound had basically healed, at which point he stopped the Great Void Demon-Refining Art.

Opening his eyes, he saw Youtong sitting quietly opposite him, looking down at him with a very serious expression.

"What's wrong?" Xu Chen asked with some surprise.

Youtong quickly withdrew her gaze, stood up, and said, "We have stayed here for too long and must leave immediately; I keep having a bad feeling!"

Xu Chen also stood up and said, "Let's go, leave at once!"

For an expert of Youtong's level, regardless of her state, she had already begun to merge with the rules of heaven and earth, and every action and word would stir the aura of the rules; therefore, if she felt something was wrong, then something bad would certainly happen.

And the greatest possibility was that Heitian had caught up again.

Thus, the two quickly left the deeply hidden cave and sped away along a canyon that looked like an abyss.

This was the first time Xu Chen had left the place where he was healing since he woke up.

Outside it was still cold and pitch-black, but the omnipresent Black Mist of Minghuang had thinned out significantly; even without using Divine Sense, one could see the area for several miles around, and if he released his Divine Sense with full force, Xu Chen could see at least three hundred miles away.

On the land that had previously been almost devoid of life, sparse plants had actually begun to appear; although they were all strange-looking, withered, and small, they truly brought a completely different feeling to this wild and desolate land.

Ever since falling into Minghuang, this was the first time Xu Chen had felt a sense of brightness, openness, and the breath of life, and his mood instantly improved a lot.

And this sign also indicated that they should indeed be very close to the mortal world now.

The two did not dare to linger at all; one spread crimson bat wings, and the other opened an illusory Shell, flashing through the Void like two streaks of lightning, and soon they had fled over a thousand miles away.

(End of this chapter)