Chapter 711: Divine Ability First Success, Junior Disciple of Mount Mount Dongxuan (Combined Chapter)

"Gloop—"

Like a stone dropped into a deep well.

The divine realm Wang Yang was itself formed from the convergence of the three primordial forces; the instant the Blood Phoenix fell into it, Li Yuan felt a fierce, searing heat surge up in his chest.

"Screech—"

Within the sea of heart, a phoenix bird woven from blazing blood-fire leapt forth, as if about to tear through the sky—yet it was bound by chain after chain of divine runes, dragged toward the deeper reaches of the sea of heart.

"Clatter-clatter—"

Li Yuan heard the sound of iron chains grinding.

Focusing his perception, he saw a diagram of the human body's meridians woven from countless specks of starlight—blood vessels, meridians, acupoints… down to the countless tiny particles that composed the meridian-body.

'Cells?'

The thought surfaced in Li Yuan's mind.

But Yu Yu Xuanji—his thoughts were pulled back at once; a phoenix woven of blood-fire plunged like a meteor, slamming brutally into the meridian diagram.

"Boom!"

In that instant, even though Li Yuan had prepared himself thoroughly, his spirit still shuddered violently; he felt as if his very flesh were about to shatter.

An indescribable colossal force, as if it would tear him to pieces from the very root!

"Suppress!"

The will rose in Li Yuan's heart.

That incomparably intricate meridian diagram shifted in response; the countless trembling particles, centered on the acupoints across his body, churned violently, weaving themselves into chain after chain that bound the ferocious Blood Phoenix fast.

"Hum—"

Li Yuan activated the Suppressing Prison Gu Gu Shentong.

Chain after chain trembled and sang; under the divine ability's effect, the meridian diagram gradually transformed, becoming a 'great prison' resembling a Daoist temple, a sacred shrine!

In that instant, Li Yuan felt the spiritual pill he had swallowed drain away violently; his magic power, too, was consumed at a terrifying rate—nearly bottoming out in the blink of an eye.

But he seemed not to notice, wholly focused on driving the Suppressing Prison Gu Gu Shentong.

"Whine—"

In the bamboo tower, the two gourd-shaped Dao soldiers standing guard started in alarm, only to see wisps of illusory 'mist' emerge from their master's shadow and stream into his body.

"Whoosh—"

Streams of shadow after shadow merged into his body; thousands upon thousands of strands of Ying Mo Fa magic power flowed like a mighty Jianghe, fueling Li Yuan's divine ability.

Once. And again.

Li Yuan kept a clear count in his heart: over twenty third-realm shadow-images had shattered in succession, more than ten thousand strands of Ying Mo Fa magic power burning and being consumed.

Finally, several days later, the Blood Phoenix was dragged into the great prison.

"Boom!"

The sea of heart quaked, the shock spreading outward to reach the deepest depths of body and spirit!

In an instant, thunderous roars shook the divine realm; the Shan Xuan Teng Tree and the nine great true forms, long prepared, trembled in unison, suppressing the divine realm's upheaval.

"Buzz-buzz-buzz—"

In the bamboo tower, the Dao soldiers on guard all snapped to alert.

The two little gourds looked toward their master—his body was trembling violently, waves of buzzing sounds accompanied by rolling waves of heat pouring out from within him.

With a 'boom,' the bamboo tower caught fire; even with the divine prohibition's protection, it could not withstand such searing heat.

At once, the spirit puppets Li Yi, Li Er and the rest outside the courtyard rushed in, casting all manner of spells to summon raging wind and torrential rain—but even so, the fierce flames of Pang Pang Liexue still burned on.

"Squeak—"

The little mouse, absorbed in refining its art, let out a shriek; had Xie Xie Tongzhi not been quick-handed, it would have plunged straight into the inferno.

"Stupid mouse!"

Xie Xie Tongzhi flung it aside in disgust. She had seen plenty of Li Yuan's refining-art commotion over the years; though this one was tremendous, she was rather unmoved.

"Whoosh-whoosh—"

Blazing flames shot skyward, as if about to set the cave-heaven itself alight—only when they touched the divine prohibition of Mount Mount Dongxuan were they pressed back.

It was flame, yet not flame in any ordinary sense.

Xie Xie Tongzhi compared it for a long while, running through even the legendary divine fires in her mind, but could find no description that matched.

Its hues ran from crimson to gold, the utmost yang, the utmost hardness; even without wildly spreading, it gave the sense of burning anything it touched—and even observing it with divine sense brought a stinging pain.

"What fire is this?"

Just as Xie Xie Tongzhi was wondering, the sky-filling flames suddenly reversed and streamed back; in the blink of an eye, the bamboo tower's ruins vanished along with them, and on the empty ground, only Li Yuan remained, sitting cross-legged.

All the Dao soldiers were blasted more than a li away.

"Thump!"

Suddenly, a deep, drum-like heartbeat sounded.

Xie Xie Tongzhi focused her gaze and watched; at a trembling cry, Li Yuan's body actually disintegrated in an instant, dissolving into 'tiny particles' she could barely glimpse even with the utmost focus.

"Crack!"

In less than a thousandth of an instant, a fire-phoenix no larger than a little finger leapt out of the void; it cried once, then swelled to several zhang across and took wing.

"Transformation spell?"

Xie Xie Tongzhi started.

Then came a continuous 'bang-bang-bang'; in the void, fire-phoenix after fire-phoenix sprang into being—from nothing to something, from tiny to enormous—and in the blink of an eye, ten thousand fire-phoenixes blotted out the sky.

And after that, what leapt out of the void was no longer only phoenix-birds.

Thunder dragons, spirit tortoises, demon oxen, demon flood-dragons…

Countless spirit-beast shadows poured forth in a stream—some soaring into the sky, some growling low; and behind the spirit-beasts, a Bai Hu and a Blue Dragon appeared, and finally even a towering great tree sprouted forth!

The giant tree towered to the heavens, its branches and leaves unfurling, evolving once more into sabers, spears, swords, and halberds — spiritual treasures and divine weapons.

"This…"

Shen Ying'er tried reaching out to grab a long sword, but with a 'hiss', the long sword dodged as if possessed of a spirit, rising and falling, thrusting and slashing.

"Is this… Wu Gong?"

Shen Ying'er's heart jolted; looking again at those myriad weapon-beasts, she suddenly understood.

She had followed Li Yuan for a long time, and once, bored beyond measure, had watched him practice martial arts. Now, focusing her spirit, she indeed saw traces of one Wu Gong after another.

There was Bai Yuan wielding a hammer, a giant elephant swinging its trunk, dragon and tiger merging their currents, a green snake transforming into a spear…

"White Ape Cloak Hammer, Soldier's Path Battle Hammer, Dragon-Tiger Heaven-Shaking Hammer, Ancient Elephant Six-Form Hammer… Hu Pao Dao Fa, Fu Mo Dao Fa, Hundred-Step Flying Sword…"

In that instant, Li Yuan felt himself splitting into myriad forms, his spirit and will soaring to a height never before attained.

He attempted to perform martial arts; the thousand-plus Wu Gong he had learned could now be executed simultaneously, and had long since transcended the realms of perfection and grand perfection.

At this moment, the transformations and flow of the various Wu Gong he channeled had already far surpassed the limits the creators themselves could imagine.

"Weng~"

The shadows of myriad weapon-beasts nearly blotted out the sky, yet in barely a moment they all surged back in reverse, and in a breath, transformed into the appearance of Li Yuan robed in his magic robe.

"Success!"

Letting out a long breath, Li Yuan's face even held a trace of bewilderment.

No other reason — the might of this Gu Gu Shentong was far more terrifying than he had anticipated!

In that instant, he felt as if ten thousand volcanoes were erupting within him, his power surging to a degree that made even his own heart pound with awe.

He could sense that great prison which confined the Blood Phoenix — its myriad chains — centered on that prison, spreading to every minute part of his body.

Nourishing his physical body, and like an incomparably intricate net of divine-patterned chains, it had made his flesh and blood tougher than ever before.

"Gourd Sword Qi!"

Li Yuan looked up at the two dazed little gourds; the latter reacted swiftly, flickering once and spewing out a combined four hundred and sixty-two streams of Gourd Sword Qi.

Each one was enough to tear apart the flesh of a Third-Realm demon, and now they wove together in a crisscrossing pattern, their sword qi chilling and dense, making the little mouse and Shen Ying'er watching from the side feel their scalps tingle.

Li Yuan, however, actively retracted his magic robe and the Nine-Smoke Veil, and under their terrified gazes, stepped into the interwoven, net-like sword light.

"Hiss hiss hiss~"

One only heard the sounds of tearing silk; the sword light pulsed as if it would cleave even the void, yet when it struck Li Yuan's body, it could not leave so much as a single mark.

He extended his palm, letting the sword light cluster and shoot at him, quietly sensing it.

In his perception, the instant these sword lights reached his body, the net of divine-patterned chains within his flesh trembled lightly — not merely resisting the external attack.

It was even drawing upon the power of the external attack, channeling it back into that great prison.

"The Blood Phoenix's Heaven-Devouring Gu Gu Shentong?"

Li Yuan's perception was exquisitely fine; he keenly detected that resisting the attack had not depleted his own strength — on the contrary, the Blood Phoenix's qi had risen by an extremely faint margin.

"Marvelous beyond words!"

After a bout of experimentation, Li Yuan's eyes grew brighter and brighter, until finally he even had the gourd Dao soldiers merge all their sword qi into one stream, stabbing straight at his brow!

"Hiss~"

Li Yuan neither dodged nor flinched; he only felt a slight sting at his brow, like a mosquito bite, and immediately an almost imperceptible warm current surged toward his limbs and bones.

"This stream of Gourd Sword Qi rivals the offensive spells of an ordinary Si Shi Zhong Fa-restricted treasure, yet it no longer even qualifies to wound me!"

Li Yuan truly felt the terror of this Gu Gu Shentong.

One must understand, this was only the growth and transformation of his physical body after the Gu Gu Shentong was mastered; he had not yet truly channeled this Gu Gu Shentong!

"Even though the Blood Phoenix is presently extremely weak, once I channel this Gu Gu Shentong, as long as I have enough magic power to sustain it, an ordinary Fourth-Realm cultivator would be no match for me!"

"As for the Fifth Realm…"

Li Yuan recalled the Fifth-Realm cultivators he had seen, his heart not quite certain, but he immediately dismissed the thought.

His true body wasn't the Ying Mo Shen — where was the need to fight across realms?

As for those of the same realm…

"Even against those of the same realm, I cannot be careless. The Weeping Heaven Dao Sect is full of mighty experts; it's not certain I'm the only one who has cultivated a Gu Gu Shentong, and besides, I may not even be able to defeat that Five Dragon Immortal."

Daoist Li calmed his emotions.

He flicked a finger; the shadow of the Mystic Vine Tree flashed and vanished, and immediately the empty ground saw grass and trees grow wildly, and within a few breaths, a three-story small building had already grown.

"Go refine your arts on your own."

Tossing a bottle of spirit pills to Shen Ying'er and the little mouse with a wave of his hand, Li Yuan could not wait and returned to the bamboo tower. After a brief adjustment, he took out the Insight Orb, preparing to seek out Senior Brother Yellow Ape for a test of skill.

"Weng~"

At that moment, the Insight Orb trembled lightly, and Fayin Fayin Tongzi's spiritual message arrived:

"Haha, boy Li, you're no longer the youngest disciple of our Mount Mount Dongxuan!"

"A new junior brother has entered the sect?"

Li Yuan was somewhat surprised.

The Weeping Heaven Dao Sect did have those who widely recruited disciples, but Mount Mount Dongxuan was clearly not among them — especially since the 'Floating' generation had barely a hundred years left before the next iteration, and they rarely took in new disciples anymore.

"Entering the sect as an inner disciple directly!"

Fayin Fayin Tongzi clicked his tongue in wonder: "You've only been in the sect a little over ten years, yet now another disciple with god-demon level aptitude has come, and quite coincidentally, also entered through the Guidance Divine Fire."

"What a coincidence?"

Li Yuan was somewhat astonished, and immediately recited an incantation, connecting with the Grand Luo Records.

He now had quasi-Core-Disciple level authority, and could browse the information of any disciple below Core Disciple. With a thought, he already saw the records of that youngest inner disciple.

【Qin Qian】

【Bloodline: Human】

【Realm: Initial Divine Palace Forging】

【Talent: God and Demon】

【Divine Endowment: Supreme】

【... At around the age of twenty, he used the guiding divine fire to forge the true form of the Coiling Dragon...】

【... If one could forge top-tier magic power... the True Transmission Grand Ritual could be performed】

"Qin Qian?"

Li Yuan felt something stir within him. He instinctively pinched his fingers to divine, but Yu Yu Xuanji felt a sharp pain in his fingers — it was the backlash of divination.

"Qian?"

Releasing his fingers, Li Yuan instinctively thought of the 'Qian' from Bei Chen Fa Jie — the one who had descended into the mortal world with the Heavenly Heart and been transformed. But on second thought, he felt he was being overly sensitive.

A cultivator from the Opening Gui Xu Otherworld would not have the nerve to enter Mount Mount Dongxuan on their own initiative.

One must understand that among all the Weitian Dao Sects, the Twelve Mountains of Daluo were extremely strict in accepting disciples — they would not even take non-humans, let alone someone from the Opening Gui Xu Otherworld.