Chapter 90: Desperate Struggle

Xu Chen naturally had no mind to care about what kind of messy thoughts this woman, who wanted to kill him to sacrifice to her ancestors the moment they met, might have.

He only knew that if he did not do something, they would both surely be dead once the Blue Light Jade Bottle collapsed under the pincer attack of the two great fierce entities.

Therefore, his Yuan Qi surged out, and his Divine Sense permeated the entire Blue Light Treasure Bottle like a tide, bumping into walls everywhere like a headless fly, attempting to communicate with the treasure bottle to get a hint on how to help.

A full cup of tea's time passed, and just as he felt his Divine Sense was so chaotic that he was exhausted, a point of blue light suddenly lit up in his Sea of Consciousness and exploded, instantly transforming into a large number of Ancient Runes that merged into his consciousness.

"Grand Void Demon Refining Art!"

Xu Chen stood blankly for a moment, his face twitching violently a few times before he suddenly snapped back to his senses.

This was an obscure consciousness composed of various strange Ancient Runes, and it was also a miraculous cultivation art, mainly used for refining demonic objects.

At this juncture, the Blue Light Treasure Bottle transmitting this art to him must have had a deep meaning.

Because since the Blue Jade Bead appeared, although it had been in a state difficult to communicate with, it had never done anything meaningless.

In other words, this Demon Refining Art should be able to resolve the current predicament of the treasure bottle and himself.

Thus, Xu Chen hurriedly sat cross-legged, closed his eyes, and began to silently recite the Grand Void Demon Refining Art, while simultaneously circulating his Yuan Qi according to the art's guidance.

Soon, an obscure aura was slowly released from Xu Chen's body, and dots of Blue Starlight drifted out from him, eventually slowly turning into streams of nebula-shaped blue light that flowed and circled.

With the appearance of these blue lights, the constantly shaking and cracking ground rippled with light like waves, the cracking ground quickly began to heal, and the spewing blue light also slowly faded away.

And in Xu Chen's Divine Sense, what he now saw was the Mysterious Water Nether Lotus roaring and howling amidst the rolling black smoke under a vast blue starry sky, suffering like it was being fried in oil amidst the sky full of colorful lightning, with thick white light constantly rising from the flower's roots, stems, and leaves.

These white lights steamed like mist, merged into the blue starry sky, and then appeared in Xu Chen's Sea of Consciousness.

Xu Chen felt his Soul rapidly strengthening in this thick, smoke-like white light, and he could even clearly feel the Blue Light Treasure Bottle becoming clearer at a speed visible to the naked eye.

But as the white mist poured in continuously, the Sea of Consciousness was soon filled, and he felt his Soul beginning to swell.

The speed of the white gas far exceeded the current limit of his Soul's endurance.

In order not to be bloated to death, he hurriedly used his consciousness to guide the surging white gas into his internal organs, meridians, and dantian.

He was already very clear that this white light was actually the white gas previously released by the treasure bottle.

It was just that the previous white gas was very thin and released very slowly, so under the silent nourishment of things, he only felt the benefits without any danger.

But right now, under his use of the specialized technique to accelerate the refining of the Mysterious Water Nether Lotus, the speed of the converted white gas was too fast, completely exceeding his ability to bear it.

A large amount of white gas surged into his body like a tide, and in an instant, the pressure on his flesh and meridians increased sharply; his meridians and dantian expanded and contracted, doubling in size in the blink of an eye, and were still expanding rapidly.

And because his flesh could not withstand such terrifying power to repair and grow, in a moment, blood sprayed out from every pore on Xu Chen's body.

At the same time, the speed of his flesh collapsing far exceeded the speed of growth and repair, so the skin and flesh all over his body began to collapse in patches, first the skin, then the muscles, and then the blood vessels, fascia, and bones.

Listening to the constant popping sounds, Xu Chen's entire body kept exploding, and he was almost wrapped in a cloud of blood mist.

Lan You was completely stunned by Xu Chen's sudden change, and after a moment, she came to her senses and exclaimed in shock: "Daoist Friend Xu, stop quickly, what are you doing?"

At this moment, Xu Chen felt as if his entire being, from flesh to soul, was about to explode into powder.

But his consciousness was exceptionally clear, and his Divine Sense was even several times stronger than when he started.

With the operation of the Grand Void Demon Refining Art, a large amount of Black Mist and the Mysterious Water Nether Lotus were refined into white gas to replenish his body, and the jade bottle also slowly stabilized as his Soul grew stronger.

The nebula vortex at the mouth of the bottle above his head was already about to condense into shape, and he could even feel the aura of the treasure bottle becoming increasingly powerful; after flicking away a large number of tentacles, it forcibly began to drag the stone platform and the fierce beast locked upon it into the vortex.

However, Xu Chen knew that he probably wouldn't be able to hold on until the treasure bottle succeeded.

In at most ten breaths of time, he would be completely blown up by this massive amount of white gas.

White gas was a good thing, but too much of it was poison instead.

If you don't have the diamond drill, don't take on the porcelain work.

Xu Chen felt that he was currently like a porcelain doll, beginning to shatter rapidly from the inside out.

Hearing Lan You's exclamation, Xu Chen suddenly woke up and used Divine Sense Transmission: "Daoist Friend Lan, I need you to help me hold on right now. If we succeed, we can escape smoothly; if we fail, we will die here together. Are you willing?"

"I am willing!" Lan You agreed almost without hesitation.

"Good, pay attention!"

Xu Chen guided with his Divine Sense, and suddenly a stream of white light rushed into Lan You's Sea of Consciousness. Lan You only felt as if she had been stabbed in the soul by a red-hot iron rod; her whole body trembled violently, and her face instantly turned deathly pale without a trace of color.

"Hold on... circulate the art and persist, the longer the better."

Xu Chen gritted his teeth and groaned, while he himself was still constantly absorbing the white gas.

After half of it was gone, he instantly felt much more relaxed, although his body was still constantly exploding, and many bones were exposed.

But amidst this explosion, his tendons, bones, and flesh were also constantly growing rapidly, continuously repairing his injuries.

However, while repairing physical injuries was simple, the most uncomfortable thing at this time was the terrifying growth of his Soul, meridians, and dantian.

In just a few dozen breaths of time, Xu Chen felt his meridians had thickened three times, and his dantian had expanded five times.

But because the speed of expansion was too fast, his Soul, meridians, and dantian were also rapidly shattering and collapsing, and then quickly repairing and growing.

"So painful!"

Xu Chen couldn't help but groan, and his teeth, tongue, and mouth shattered along with it, spraying out a mouthful of minced meat and blood foam.

Lan You's situation seemed to be much better than his.

Firstly, her cultivation realm was already a large stage higher, and secondly, the art of Yuqing Hall was also more complete and mature; furthermore, her Soul, meridians, dantian, and tendons, bones, and flesh were also stronger.

But she only persisted for more than ten breaths of time before blood mist began to spray from her pores, and then her flesh, tendons, and bones began to shatter.

At the same time, her Soul, meridians, and dantian also experienced a terrifying expansion and growth, and at this moment, they were also constantly in the process of collapsing and repairing.

But even so, the two of them were still unable to share the impact of the white light refined by the Grand Void Demon Refining Art, and the speed at which their bodies exploded was far greater than the speed of repair and growth.

Finally, after persisting for less than half a cup of tea's time, Xu Chen's chest exploded with a bang, his internal organs began to shatter, and knowing he could no longer support it, he abruptly stopped the operation of the art.

The surging white light came to an abrupt halt.

Xu Chen collapsed onto the ground, his neck bone shattered and broken, and his whole body was almost torn apart.

However, the white gas filling his Sea of Consciousness and his tendons, bones, and flesh continued to repair his body, and soon his tendons, bones, flesh, meridians, and dantian began to grow and repair rapidly again.

Lan You also experienced a terrifying journey worse than death; at this moment, her condition was not much better than Xu Chen's, and she was covered in wounds, a sight too horrible to look at.

And at this time, the Mysterious Water Nether Lotus had withered after a violent lightning attack and no longer had any movement.

The Blue Light Treasure Bottle also became much clearer and more stable, and the starlight vortex emitted a terrifying aura as it slowly rotated, finally shaking the stone platform's confinement and pulling the giant beast off the stone platform bit by bit, slowly dragging it into the vortex.

"Roar—"

Seemingly sensing the threat of death, the giant beast struggled desperately within the stone platform's chains, its thousands of tentacles rolling and tearing through the sky like giant pythons, as if trying to snap the chains.

Amidst the earth-shattering roars and tremors, Xu Chen's body slowly repaired itself and his consciousness returned; when he struggled to crawl up and sit, he looked up at the sky above and discovered that deep within the vortex, red light was flashing violently, and the phantom of a giant beast with red and black interwoven scales was vaguely visible, its dense mass of tentacles churning crazily within the nebula vortex; under the violent attacks, the starlight vortex flashed with lightning across the sky, and the Blue Light Treasure Bottle also shook violently and incessantly.

Several tentacles were slowly dragged into the treasure bottle by the starlight vortex, and Xu Chen could even clearly see a part of the giant beast's body pressing down like a great mountain, its red and black interwoven scales opening and closing desperately, billowing out waves of red light mist that intertwined with the Blue Starlight, erupting with earth-shattering explosions like a thunderstorm; the shed scales and broken tentacles were blasted to smithereens in the lightning, turning into red and black smoke and dust that drifted down.

Xu Chen felt that his ears had gone deaf, and his Divine Sense would be ground to powder before it could even approach the starlight and the giant beast; amidst this terrifying impact and tremor, his Soul and consciousness were completely unable to coalesce, and he could only stare blankly upward.

Lan You appeared even worse off than Xu Chen, her entire person having become completely dazed.

This kind of world-destroying, violent scene would absolutely become a memory she would never forget for the rest of her life.

Compared to this, the situation she had seen in the giant spider nest deep within the rift was like children fighting and playing.

"Boom—"

Suddenly, with an earth-shattering shake, the giant beast, which had been sucked into the starlight vortex by nearly half, suddenly snapped one of the chains during its violent struggle.

Violent red light dyed the pitch-black space.

A large amount of red Ancient Rune shattered, and the sky full of rubble turned into streams of light, splashing in all directions.

After breaking free from one chain, the giant beast's momentum became even more violent and surged; while its body twisted and struggled to resist the churning starlight vortex, a large number of tentacles wrapped around the stone pillars and chains on the stone platform, contracting and tearing with all their might; the stone pillars shook violently, emitting *ka-ka-ka-ka* sounds that shattered the Soul, and the stone platform was also constantly cracking, with a large number of Ancient Rune shattering along with it.

Not long after, when the second chain was also broken by the giant beast, the giant beast's body, which had already been half-sucked into the starlight vortex, actually began to slowly pull away from the vortex.

"Roar—roar—"

Seemingly sensing the joy of escape, the giant beast let out an earth-shattering roar, its struggling movements becoming even more violent; the entire stone platform began to shake and crumble, and the remaining chains seemed unable to suppress it any longer, tightening and stretching, erupting with waves of blood-colored flames.

The Blue Light Treasure Bottle shook even more violently, its originally clear body gradually becoming illusory and hazy again, and large swathes of the nebula vortex began to crumble.

(End of this chapter)