Chapter 271: Breaking Through the Barrier

The Grand Void Demon-Refining Art began to circulate.

A wisp of faint white Qi emerged from the void deep within the Heaven-Suppressing Divine Stele, then trickled out from the blue starlight vortex, appearing in Xu Chen's Sea of Consciousness; guided by his Divine Sense, it merged bit by bit with the blue light into the giant ox skull.

A faint, five-colored hazy radiance crackled and exploded within the skull.

This white Qi was extremely weak, practically the same amount that the Blue Light Treasure Bottle usually emitted daily.

As his realm continuously improved and his soul and physical body were constantly strengthened, this bit of white Qi had become dispensable to him, usually only enough for maintaining health.

But right now, he had pinned all his hopes on this faint white light.

Fortunately, although this white light was very weak, it was indeed somewhat effective, capable of continuously burning the Nether Qi remaining inside the skull.

Xu Chen had no other way at this moment; he circulated the Grand Void Demon-Refining Art with all his might to barely protect himself, while the power of the demon soul remained formidable, and the spatial confinement force released by the pale golden crystal soon trapped Xu Chen within it once again.

He was unable to move, feeling as if he had fallen into the depths of extremely deep water, being constantly squeezed by terrifying forces coming from all directions.

However, his body had long since been transformed by the white Qi to be extremely tough; although his body kept emitting popping sounds like frying beans, it was not severely damaged, and at most, his skin, flesh, and bones were continuously wrinkling and deforming under the heavy pressure of the confinement, yet he could still barely hold on.

The faint white light outputted continuously, and the giant ox skull floating in the air kept exploding with five-colored hazy light.

Both sides were attempting to be the first to break through the other's defense.

One hour... two hours... three hours...

The sky turned from dim to dark.

Above the pitch-black and endless Cangming Sky, white stars became more and more numerous.

A half-crescent moon emerged from the towering mountain wall whose top could not be seen, and the faint moonlight shone into the huge breached valley.

"Awoo~~"

"Roar~~"

In the quiet, pitch-black, and gloomy forest outside the breach, the roars and howls of Demon Beasts rose one after another.

"Skree~~"

A giant four-winged strange bird let out a long cry that shook the soul, whistling over the small lake and bringing with it a violent gale.

Chen Yang hid under a large rock, his face pale and trembling.

No matter how much he shouted until his throat was raw, Xu Chen remained motionless, as if he had been petrified.

And the increasingly intense spatial fluctuations in the surroundings also gradually made him feel afraid; the entire area of the small lake had a very strange feeling, as if it were slowly isolating itself from the surrounding space, becoming increasingly blurred.

A powerful aura swept over from the depths of the breach, and a moment later, a thin, tall figure suddenly appeared near the small lake, but immediately let out a cry of surprise, flashed several hundred zhang away, and stood in the air, looking down at Xu Chen, who was sitting still by the small lake, and that giant, eerie Nether Beast skull that was still flickering with golden and blue light.

"Senior Guilingzi!" Chen Yang, as if he had found his backbone, hurriedly darted out from under the rock and hid behind True Monarch Guiling.

True Monarch Guiling's expression was grave and fearful; he pointed at Xu Chen and asked, "What happened? Why is there such a powerful spatial aura fluctuation?"

Chen Yang shook his head in terror and said, "I don't know either. Junior Brother took out this giant skull, saying he wanted to study it, but a mishap occurred very quickly. Senior, is my Junior Brother alright?"

After observing carefully for a moment, True Monarch Guiling said, "If this Daoist is not mistaken, the giant skull that Daoist Friend Xu took out should be a sixth-rank Nether Beast skull, which has already condensed spatial rules. Daoist Friend Xu likely wanted to refine this skull into a Magic Treasure, but because there is a remnant soul of the Nether Beast inside the skull, the two sides have fallen into a confrontation. As it stands, Daoist Friend Xu is in some danger, but for the time being, it seems there is no threat to his life!"

Upon hearing this, Chen Yang's face turned even paler, and he said with a trembling voice, "A... a sixth-rank Nether Beast remnant soul? Wouldn't that be similar to a True Monarch's Primordial Spirit? With Fourth Brother's cultivation, I fear he cannot resist for long. I beg Senior to intervene and help."

True Monarch Guiling waved his hand with a serious expression and said, "Don't be anxious. Right now, Daoist Friend Xu can still hold on, and this skull has a strange aura; the demon soul is very powerful. If we act rashly, I fear it will cause an even greater mishap. It is better to observe for a while first. If Daoist Friend Xu truly cannot resist, this Daoist will naturally do his utmost to save him. For now, we can only retreat a little and protect Daoist Friend Xu first."

Chen Yang finally breathed a slight sigh of relief, and then the two retreated to more than a mile outside the small lake to continue observing.

Soon, nearly another hour passed, and it was already late at night.

Three streaks of light arrived one after another from the depths of the breach; they were none other than Wang Daolin, Lu An, and Zhong Hui.

However, before the three could get close, they were stopped by True Monarch Guiling's Divine Sense Transmission, and they stayed far away from the small lake area, not daring to approach.

"What a powerful aura from this skull!"

After communicating and clarifying the situation, Wang Daolin's eyes shone brightly in the night, his expression one of both shock and joy.

In his view, Xu Chen was already full of treasures, like a "boy of many treasures" that made people drool.

Not to mention how much Spirit Tea, Spirit Wine, and Spirit Stones he might still have on him, just the Divine Blood Paste and Blood God Grass, two rare wonders of the world, were enough to make all great cultivators covet them.

And now, Xu Chen had suddenly taken out such a giant Nether Beast skull with a terrifying aura; if this thing were successfully refined, it would inevitably be a super Magic Treasure capable of suppressing the entire Shenzhou Xianjie.

Although his realm was only at the Danyuan Realm, his knowledge far exceeded his peers.

The Primordial Spirit Magic Treasure of the True Monarch of the Qingcheng Daoist Field seemed to have an aura not as powerful as the pressure released by this skull.

Furthermore, for Xu Chen to be able to hide such a large skull on his person, he must possess a spatial Magic Treasure even larger than this.

A storage Magic Treasure with such a large space was worth at least ten thousand Spirit Stones; that was also a massive amount of wealth.

"If I can really escape, I must kill Xu Chen and seize that storage Magic Treasure; then everything will be mine!"

Wang Daolin's face looked terrified, but his heart was burning with desire.

Xu Chen remained trapped in the spatial confinement released by the demon soul.

However, this spatial confinement rule could trap his body, but it could not completely trap the Heaven-Suppressing Divine Stele and the blue starlight, two mysterious things that far exceeded his realm.

Xu Chen's soul was stable, and he had been circulating the Grand Void Demon-Refining Art with all his might, guiding the white Qi to continuously burn the Nether Beast skull and then constantly permeate toward the golden crystal.

Under the continuous burning of the white Qi, the skull, having lost its Nether Qi, began to decay and turn into dust that drifted away, while the blue light followed the gaps of erosion and decay to continuously merge inward, like a blue light awl, slowly piercing inward bit by bit, getting closer and closer to the golden crystal.

In the past, when he was still suppressing the Nether Demon Flower, the cultivation of the Grand Void Demon-Refining Art to refine white Qi was extremely violent, so Xu Chen could only hold on for at most half an hour.

But now, after the Blue Light Treasure Bottle and the Heaven-Suppressing Divine Stele merged, he no longer had such pressure, except that the white Qi he refined was pitifully little.

However, as time passed, the power of the Grand Void Demon-Refining Art finally began to manifest itself clearly.

No matter how powerful this giant ox Nether Beast was when it was alive, it now only had its demon soul remaining, lodged in the golden crystal, unable to break free to launch attacks, and could only rely on the spatial power of the crystal itself, which gave Xu Chen a great deal of time and space for a counterattack.

Although the white light was weak, its erosive power could not be blocked.

Under the guidance of Xu Chen's Divine Sense, it concentrated on a single point and continuously burned inward; although the demon soul felt this threat, it found that it was completely useless, aside from roaring, impacting, and releasing greater spatial confinement force in an attempt to stop it.

Time passed.

The cold and pitch-black night slowly became bright and clear.

Amidst the anxious and unbearable torment and waiting of True Monarch Guiling and the others, the night passed quickly.

And just at daybreak, the faint white light that Xu Chen had refined using the Grand Void Demon-Refining Art finally burned a hole the size of a fine needle into the Nether Beast skull.

"Break!"

Finally, he concentrated his Divine Sense, primordial energy, white energy, and Blue Starlight into a single point, slamming it heavily against the outer wall of the golden crystal.

"Boom~"

A terrifying aura that shook the Soul exploded outward.

The blue light contending with the golden radiance suddenly converged into a blindingly bright beam, piercing into the golden crystal like a sharp sword.

After a full night of resistance, the golden crystal barrier was finally breached.

The spatial pressure that had been pressing down on Xu Chen like billions of catties of seawater for the entire night vanished in an instant.

The spatial confinement permeating the area around the small lake disintegrated layer by layer like ice.

The sand, stones, grass, trees, mud, and water within a radius of three li were all wiped out by the collapsing space; the entire area of the small lake seemed as if it had been suddenly scooped out of thin air, disappearing into a regular circular pit over a dozen zhang deep.

"Roar~~"

The moment the Blue Starlight broke into the golden crystal, the Demon Soul let out an earth-shattering roar, seemingly filled with endless terror and fury, while simultaneously spewing out a thick, dense black light.

However, this was also its last remaining resistance.

The Blue Starlight released a brilliant radiance, crashing thunderously into the illusory body of the Demon Soul.

The movements of the Demon Soul's phantom suddenly froze, and a moment later, a twisted, cross-shaped blue Ancient Rune appeared in the center of the Demon Soul's forehead, glowing with a blue light that looked like a shining star.

The massive Nether Beast skull crashed onto the ground with a boom.

As the Grand Void Demon-Refining Art stopped circulating and the Blue Starlight throughout his body retracted into his Apertures, a mist of blood sprayed from Xu Chen's entire body, and his head lolled to the side as he collapsed onto the ground.

After a night of spatial confinement and intense pressure, even his body, which was as strong as a Third-Tier Magic Treasure, had reached the verge of collapse.

"Daoist Friend Xu!"

An exclamation rang out, and the tall, thin figure of True Monarch Guiling flickered into existence beside Xu Chen, raising a hand to support him.

"Please take me back to rest, Senior; protect this skull for me for the time being, it is of great use!"

Xu Chen said weakly with his eyes closed.

Although his consciousness was still relatively clear at this moment, he felt as if every bone and tendon in his body had been shattered, and he could not even move a single finger.

"Very well, rest assured Daoist Friend Xu, I will arrange everything that follows!"

True Monarch Guiling nodded, and with a sweep of Spirit Qi, he vanished from the spot along with Xu Chen and the massive Nether Beast skull; Chen Yang, Wang Daolin, and the others also disappeared at the same time.

(End of this chapter)