Chapter 646: The True Form of Kun and Peng

……

Below the high platform, the gazes of the crowd—some startled and doubtful, some joyful, some jealous… In the distance, amid the imperial city's ruins, there was no lack of wandering martial folk drawn by the divine light.

Outside the imperial city, within the city of Divine Capital, the common folk—some panicked, some terrified, some devoutly worshipping the gods…

Li Yuan found it hard to describe his present state—seemingly awake yet not, seemingly in meditation yet not. He was clearly introspecting his own body, yet felt as if his spirit had left his flesh, reaching up to the azure heavens and down through the earth.

Above and below the altar, inside and outside the imperial city, within the city of Divine Capital… a thousand scenes, the myriad faces of all beings, all as clear as the lines on a palm.

This was somewhat like the unity of heaven and man, yet seemed even more thorough.

But he only sensed it for an instant; the vast majority of his spirit was gathered within his own body.

"Roar!"

"Ong!"

"Moo!"

……

Thousands of different beast roars and the sounds of weapons clashing wove together in a most intricate tangle, as if ten thousands of spirit beasts and birds, thousands of blades, were fighting each other in a frenzy within his tendons, bones, skin, and flesh.

Countless specks of light, so faint that Li Yuan had to focus his spirit to barely perceive them, merged into his limbs and bones during the slaughter of those countless shadows of weapons and beasts.

Some warm, some icy, some sour and astringent, some stabbing…

All manner of sensations surged into his heart at once. At any ordinary time, Li Yuan doubted he could have endured them, but having just gone through the terrible agony of the divine fire burning his body, these feelings were to him no more than a breeze brushing his face.

Hum~

It seemed a long time, yet seemed only an instant.

The instant that blazing divine fire was extinguished, everything within Li Yuan's body suddenly fell silent; the shadows of ten thousands of weapons and beasts had all merged into his physical body, and even into his soul!

"Roar!"

When Pang Pang Wenlong and the others below the platform heard that long cry, Li Yuan too heard that earth-shaking long cry that seemed to originate from within his own soul.

Hum~

He focused his spirit and observed carefully.

He saw a deep, vast, nearly boundless sea of stars; a giant Kun swam within it, and in an instant leapt up from the abyss, transforming into a great Peng bird with resplendent golden wings, wild and unrestrained.

Whoosh~

The sea of stars surged, a great wind rose suddenly.

In a daze, Li Yuan saw upon the back of that wildly soaring great Peng a figure in a purple Daoist robe—'himself.'

"Divine fire forges the form, and also forges the spirit… when form and spirit are both complete, that is the True Form!"

Enlightenment rose in Li Yuan's heart:

"This is the True Form of Kun and Peng!"

Hum~

As the Daoist riding the Peng returned into the invisible void, Li Yuan's spirit jolted, and from the mysterious depths he sensed 'Da Luo Tian.'

At the same time, he also knew how to go to Da Luo Tian.

"Ride the Peng and travel; in a blink you arrive—before your eyes is Da Luo Tian!"

……

Boom!

Rumble!

Almost at the same moment Li Yuan's form reappeared on the altar, within the You Jing—which had been as if frozen solid by the divine light—a succession of tremendous rumbling sounds suddenly erupted.

The Blood Phoenix shrieked in fury, crashing violently into the Eight Directions Temple.

The Ten Thousand Phoenix Warship rose into the sky; ten thousands of phoenix birds cried out in unison; the great dragon boat, half-rent through the void, shuddered violently and let out an earth-shaking dragon's roar…

The Mysterious Golden Toad, the Purple Cloud Chariot, the Wind God Boat…

All manner of chariots and spirit treasures, bound by the divine light for half a day, now let out heaven-shaking rumbling cries in unison.

But at this moment no one could spare the effort to soothe their spirit treasures; even Shan Xuan Xuanjing Daozi, furious beyond measure, could not help but look toward that streak of divine light piercing through the darkness, his mind a roaring blank.

On that unknown life star, someone had entered the 'Da Luo Tian' of the Weitian Dao Sect!

And had entered Da Luo Tian by means of the guiding divine fire!

"No!"

The Purple Cloud Chariot rumbled violently; Shan Xuan Xuanjing Daozi's heart felt as if cut by a blade, his wrath reaching the extreme: "That was my opportunity!"

"My opportunity!"

When the divine light burst forth, all of You Jing fell silent; even the Blood Phoenix, lost to itself, and Dong Dong Ershisan piloting the Eight Directions Temple, could not move a muscle—yet their thoughts were not frozen.

Shan Xuan Xuanjing Daozi already knew where that familiar feeling of the divine light came from.

This divine light must surely be connected to the sheepskin scroll he had paid a tremendous price for—his own Dao-protector gravely wounded, his Dao soldiers utterly annihilated!

"Someone has stolen my opportunity!"

Shan Xuan Xuanjing Daozi raged, forcefully urging on the Purple Cloud Chariot, heedless even of the Blood Phoenix still colliding with the Eight Directions Temple ahead—wanting only to see who exactly had stolen his opportunity.

"Dang!"

At that moment, the toll of a bell exploded, jolting the raging Shan Xuan Xuanjing Daozi awake.

"Does Shan Xuan Xuanjing Daozi mean to kill a disciple of Da Luo Tian?!"

Yu Cang roared, his face extremely ugly.

Were it not for his wariness of Tianli Sect, he would have wished nothing more than to immediately activate the Great Prison Divine Bell and shake this beast to death.

"Da Luo Tian."

Shan Xuan Xuanjing Daozi fell silent at once.

Tianli Sect was one of only two holy lands in the 'Dashan Xuan Fa Jie'; in terms of power, it even surpassed the five great grotto-heavens of Tian Shi Yuan. As one of the sect's Dao Sons, he naturally knew many secrets unknown to ordinary people.

Although the Weitian Dao Sect had not shown itself in the present world for many ages, it remained the most terrifying force across all heavens and myriad domains; even the Tianli Sect might not be able to afford to provoke it.

"Go!"

Xuandaozi was silent only for an instant; when he raised his head again, his gaze was dark and grim.

"Where to?"

Yu Cang's heart tightened, and he secretly thought: if he truly meant to seek trouble with the people of the Great Luo Heaven, then even at the cost of offending the Tianli Sect, he could not possibly take part in it.

"Slay the Blood Phoenix, perform the Grand Sacrifice!"

Xuandaozi's face twitched, and he said through gritted teeth:

"Wait until this Daoist enters the Supreme Yellow Heaven, then I'll go pay a visit to that 'Dao friend' of the Great Luo Heaven!"

……

"Begin the sacrifice!"

The moment Xuandaozi moved, Ying Ying Shan Xuan Long and Fa Huan Fa Huan Yi Tong, who were still in shock, both came to their senses, and the Ten Thousand Phoenix Vessel had already roared and charged toward the Blood Phoenix.

"Pursue!"

Seeing this, Fa Huan Fa Huan Yi Tong and the others could no longer hold back either; one after another they urged their spirit treasures forward and killed toward the Blood Phoenix, which had been sent tumbling to the ground by the Eight Directions Temple yet remained ferociously unstoppable.

"Lii!"—as if sensing the threat, the Blood Phoenix spread its wings and rose, shrieking furiously, and once more unleashed its divine ability 'Swallow the Heavens'; within You Jing, the gale rose again.

"Beast!"

Seeing the Blood Phoenix employ its divine ability again, Ying Ying Shan Xuan Long gave a cold shout, and the great crimson dragon ship beneath him shuddered violently, then in an instant transformed into a crimson fire dragon stretching thousands of li.

"Crimson Dragon Divine Prohibition—Ying Ying Shan Xuan Long is getting serious!"

Fenghuang'er glanced sideways, and refusing to be outdone, she shook the Thousand Phoenix Banner in midair, shattering the gale that filled the sky; with one shake and one tremor, another thousand golden phoenixes flew out and charged at the Blood Phoenix.

"Great Dream Golden Toad!"

"Divine Wind Without Fixity…"

Fa Huan Fa Huan Yi Tong and Feng Feng Wu Ding also struck together.

In an instant, You Jing thundered again and again.

The true-inheritor Dao children of the various sacred lands and great clans all urged forth divine treasures of at least upper-grade caliber; as their might erupted, even the enraged Blood Phoenix was pressed into the inferior position.

"Lii!"

The Blood Phoenix cried out once more, spreading its wings in fury.

"You deserve to die!"

Dong Dong Ershisan gave a cold snort, and the anger in his heart eased slightly.

Ying Ying Shan Xuan Long and the others were all true-inheritor-level heaven's pride from sacred lands and grotto-heavens; though they had not yet ascended to 'World Refining,' they were only a single step away, and with divine treasures in hand and Dao-protectors watching over them, they could at least make that thieving bird suffer a great loss.

A thought stirred, and Dong Dong Ershisan urged the Eight Directions Temple to evade the Blood Phoenix's divine ability; in a flicker it transformed into motes of dust and vanished, leaving the battlefield to the people of the grotto-heavens and sacred lands.

The Eight Directions Temple had not accumulated enough, and his puppet body was far from repaired; since someone else was making a move, naturally he would not linger in battle.

"Boom—!"

Before fleeing into the void, Dong Dong Ershisan looked back.

He saw beams of divine-ability light crisscrossing and surging, nearly drowning the Blood Phoenix's vast, star-and-moon-like body.

"Lii!!"

……

"Boom!"

When Li Yuan's spirit returned to the Mud Pill, a sudden gale rose within the Mud Pill Palace.

A great peng with wings of blazing gold swept across the Wang Yang; its speed was extreme, and wherever it passed, towering waves churned and spray leapt to the heavens.

"In the abyss it is the Kun; soaring into the sky, it is the Peng!"

Feeling the true form of the Kun-Peng roaming freely within the Mud Pill Palace, Li Yuan could hardly suppress the joy in his heart.

A great creation!

That orb of guiding divine fire itself contained a creation beyond the imagination of ordinary people.

At this moment, in Li Yuan's perception, as the true form of the Kun-Peng roamed back and forth, the Wang Yang that his Mud Pill Palace had become kept expanding.

By the time the true form of the Kun-Peng slowed, this Wang Yang—representing the potential of his spirit realm—had multiplied several times over; not only the area, but the depth too was surging.

Of the spirit realms he had seen, only Pang Pang Wenlong's was larger in area, and even that was not much bigger than his Mud Pill.

Li Yuan was very satisfied; the expansion of the Mud Pill Palace represented the growth of his potential.

"According to the explanation on the Kun-Peng True Form Chart, refining out the true form of the Kun-Peng is the great completion; one only needs to gather enough divine patterns and refine out the Earth Fiend and Heavenly Gang prohibitions, and whether it is the spirit realm or He Yi Jing, it will almost be a matter of course."

Li Yuan smiled, and instantly felt that the pain of the divine fire's burning amounted to nothing.

"Moreover, my gains do not end here."

Li Yuan's thought turned, and his spirit returned to his body.

Hmm~~

The instant his spirit soul returned to his body, Li Yuan heard long, rhythmic trembling sounds—those were the sounds of his viscera churning and blood flowing mingled together.

Limited by the fact that the divine prohibitions had not yet been formed, even though he had condensed the true form of the Kun-Peng, Li Yuan could not condense the Earth Fiend and Heavenly Gang divine prohibitions out of nothing, nor take a single step into He Yi Jing.

But his body had undergone the most tremendous transformation to date!

Crash!

Li Yuan inwardly observed his own body; pale-golden blood was pumped from his heart and flowed throughout his entire body, and his physique was undergoing transformation at a startling speed.

"Wan Xing Ru Xue!"

Li Yuan focused his perception.

At this moment, in his perception, his blood was like the most exquisite creation in the world; on every single drop of blood, the forms of myriad weapons and beasts were inscribed.

The forms of all manner of weapons and beasts coexisted within every drop of blood, and as the blood flowed, they seeped into his limbs and bones, propelling the continuous transformation of his physique.

Tendons, bones, skin, flesh, viscera, meridians…

All manner of rhythms, some delicate, some vigorous, wove together; to Li Yuan's ears, they were like celestial music and divine sound!

"The Sitting-Forget Heart Scripture has reached completion!"

Even with Li Yuan's present state of mind, he could not help but feel a surge of emotion.

To reach this step, that Dragon Demon Daoist of years past, who was born with a Dao-Comprehending Body, took a hundred years; and according to Li Yuan's earlier calculations, for him to reach this step would have taken three hundred years!

"No wonder the seven Long Hu Longhu Dadan I took before have all been digested completely…"

Li Yuan could feel the power within him brimming to the extreme; compared to before the ritual, it had more than merely doubled.

And this was still because the spiritual pills had been exhausted, slowing the transformation driven by his blood.

But even so, he reckoned that if he were to do it again, without the augmentation of the Soldier Register, relying solely on the power contained in his current physique, he could still smash Wan Wan Zhuliu to death with a single hammer!

"Huu!"

His emotions churning, after a long while, the calmed Li Yuan slowly opened his eyes.

"Shwaa!"

Almost at the same instant, over a dozen strands of third-tier or higher incense had already appeared in Li Yuan's Mud Pill Palace, showing just how intense the emotions of the surrounding crowd were at that moment.

"The old-timers are all very worked up…"

Sensing the crowd's feelings, Li Yuan rose with a smile, yet he shared their sentiment.

Sensing that he could head to the Grand Luo Heaven at any time, Li Yuan exhaled a breath of turbid air; the pressure, anxiety, restlessness, and worry from before the ritual vanished in an instant.

"Master, Dao Lord, Senior Pang, all the seniors…"

Meeting the gazes of the crowd outside the altar—some expectant, some anxious—Li Yuan lightly flicked his sleeves and bowed deeply, his sleeves trailing to the ground:

"I have not disgraced the mission; this disciple's ritual has succeeded!"

(End of this chapter)