Chapter 547 - 546: Dark Spirit Essence, Insect Mother Metamorphosis

"Essence Source +39247892."

The prompt popped up.

Li Jing stood within the raging Phoenix Heavenly Fire, his eyes unusually downcast.

Facing his full-blown Burn the Sky, the Void Dark Spirit was killed outright.

Surprisingly, its corpse wasn’t completely incinerated, leaving behind a long, slender filament.

In his hand.

The filament gave off a hint of coolness.

The raging Phoenix Heavenly Fire did not affect it in the slightest.

Not even burned.

It did not even show a slightest sign of temperature increase.

"Level has increased by 422. Strength Of Thunder Punishment +844, Skill Points +2."

Accompanied by the upgrade prompt, the Phoenix Heavenly Fire, which had engulfed everything around, quietly dissipated.

Then, Li Jing saw the appearance of the filament.

At the same time, the Eye of True Vision gave feedback.

Dark Spirit Essence.

Mutated from the vertebral tendons of an adult Void Dark Spirit.

Divine Object.

Carrying it ensures that the wearer won’t fall into the void.

If melted into a tool, it directly imparts the unique rule, Void, to the tool.

Having received this information, Li Jing was stunned.

The Dark Spirit itself was reduced to ashes by his Phoenix Heavenly Fire in no time, this "vertebral tendon" that was left behind was certainly valuable.

But, it was unexpected that this thing would be a Divine Object, with such a varying and constant effect.

Ensure that the wearer will not fall into the void.

It can also directly grant unique rules to a tool through melting.

Void.

This is no ordinary rule.

There are thousands of rules in the world, but the rule of Void is independent of the world, and exists only in the void.

It is also the only rule in the void.

What a treasure!

Li Jing’s eyes were glowing.

"What is this?"

Shi Zixuan asked.

Li Jing turned his head at the sound.

In view.

She, along with Ling Ling and Xiaocai, had come up close.

Just as he was about to answer, Ling Ling drooled and blurted out.

"Delicious!"

Xiaocai also nodded quickly.

Seeing this, Li Jing cheekily pocketed the Dark Spirit Essence.

This kind of treasure cannot let these two little fellows unwittingly swallow.

After ensuring that the Dark Spirit Essence left the sight of the two youngsters, Li Jing said.

"This is Dark Spirit Essence, a Divine Object with quite magical effects."

"Another Divine Object!?"

Shi Zixuan exclaimed in surprise.

Divine Object.

Something she had only heard of before.

After coming to the Ancient Fairyland, she had encountered three in just two days.

Even if the Ancient Fairyland was full of treasures, this was still a bit too much...

Shi Zixuan, who was enviously looking at Li Jing, who had collected the object, pursed her lips forward.

"What should we do with this?"

Li Jing turned his head.

Not far away.

The Void Human-shaped Fruit, coated with the raging Phoenix Heavenly Fire, hung silently in the air.

After gazing at the Human-shaped Fruit for a while, Li Jing waved his hand to extinguish the Phoenix Heavenly Fire.

Just like the Dark Spirit Essence.

The Void Human-shaped Fruit of the Divine Item Level was not damaged at all under the burning of the Phoenix Heavenly Fire, it was still like jade.

After a brief silence, Li Jing turned his head.

"I’ve got something from this journey, how about waiting for Blue Phoenix and Jin Ritian to wake up, and then you guys divide this thing up?"

"I don’t need it."

Shi Zixuan shook her head and said.

"Those who don’t contribute shouldn’t receive rewards. In this battle, I just watched from behind. Blue Phoenix and Elder Jin made quite a lot of effort, it’s not appropriate for me to get a share."

After stating her principles, she glanced at the Void Human-shaped Fruit and muttered.

"If nothing unexpected happens, they might not want this thing. Although it is a Divine Object, it is one of the extremely weird ones. Not to mention anything else, this fruit clearly has a human shape, who knows if one day it will come alive and become a great evil."

Li Jing was taken aback.

The Void Human-shaped Fruit, which is extremely yin and extreme evil, is indeed not necessarily a good thing.

Besides being used as a pseudo-Immortal Medicine to achieve immortality, whether it has other uses or not, Li Jing can’t tell.

The Eye of True Vision gave him only that much information.

To go further, it needs him to explore more himself.

The only thing Li Jing can guess at the moment is.

Once the Void Human-shaped Fruit completes its transformation, it probably becomes a shell that can fuse with the Void Dark Spirit, allowing it to transform from a Void Dark Spirit into something even more terrifying.

This is most likely the end point of the symbiotic relationship between the two.

Of course, it could also be a new beginning.

In nature.

Many plants provide food and shelter for insects, and in turn, insects help disperse their seeds.

This common symbiotic relationship is no different.

If they put this thing in the hands of Blue Phoenix and Jin Ritian, the two of them might not want it.

In fact.

Li Jing himself wasn’t too eager to keep the thing.

While the divine quality of the object is indeed alluring, it is after all a top-grade evil artifact.

Who knows when a disaster might occur, or what misfortune and changes it could trigger...

Apart from that.

There is a very real situation at hand.

Ling Ling and Xiaocai showed no interest in the Void Human-shaped Fruit; they didn’t even give it a single festive glance...

In contrast.

Both youngsters perked up at the sight of the Void Dark Spirit’s Essence.

Though, it should be the Void Dark Spirit -- not the Human-shaped Fruit -- which instinctively causes both of them even more revulsion.

Figuring he could wait until Blue Phoenix and Jin Ritian wake up, Li Jing waved his hand.

He was about to collect the Void Human-shaped Fruit into his Little Universe through his own realm when a Space Fissure suddenly opened close to the Human-shaped Fruit, and the Deceiving the Heavens, who had earlier escaped, stepped out.

?

Li Jing.

???

Shi Zixuan.

Neither of them expected that Deceiving the Heavens would suddenly pop out at this moment.

Over there.

As soon as Deceiving the Heavens appeared, it turned its head, smirked, waved its hand to form an invisible large hand and horizontally grabbed the Void Human-shaped Fruit.

!!!

Li Jing.

!!!

Shi Zixuan.

Both of them aren’t fools.

They both realized that Deceiving the Heavens was trying to snatch the fruit from them.

Just as they were about to take action, the Void Human-shaped Fruit, held by the large invisible hand, suddenly opened its eyes.

Both of them were stunned.

The Void Dark Spirit is dead!

How can the Human-shaped Fruit still open its eyes!?

Is it being controlled by another Void Dark Spirit!?

On the other side.

Deceiving the Heavens, who wanted to snatch away the fruit, saw the Void Human-shaped Fruit open its eyes, its face changed slightly, and without any hesitation, it was about to retreat to the Space Fissure it came from.

However, before he could fully withdraw.

The Void Human-shaped Fruit had a hint of insidious smile on its face, and surprisingly reached out its hand to catch him.

Deceiving the Heavens, caught by the fruit, roared in fury.

"You devil! Let go of me!"

Before his words could fall, the Void Human-shaped Fruit, as quick as a flash, threw him into its mouth.

Deceiving the Heavens, as a humanoid, is only at the height of 1.8 meters.

However, the Void Human-shaped Fruit is as tall as a multi-story building.

The size difference between the two is enormous.

Deceiving the Heavens was thrown into its mouth and swallowed whole in one gulp.

The sudden turn of events caught Li Jing and Shi Zixuan off guard.

One moment they were about to stop Deceiving the Heavens.

The next, he was swallowed by the Void Human-shaped Fruit...

Both Ling Ling and Xiaocai were also taken aback by this unexpected twist of events. Suddenly, Ling Ling shouted out.

"Li Jing! This thing is about to become alive!"

???

Become alive?

Li Jing looked befuddled.

At the same time.

He saw the outline of a health bar gradually emerging above the head of the Void Human-shaped Fruit.

Accompanying this.

The feedback from the Eye of True Vision started to change.

Void Worm Mother in metamorphosis.

Getting this feedback, Li Jing’s facial expression darkened slightly.

He didn’t know what Void Worm Mother was.

But, undoubtedly, it had something to do with Void Dark Spirit.

Without giving it much thought and not waiting for the health bar to fully appear above its head to reveal its value, Li Jing swung his hand, summoning the Unnamed Taoist Tool.

Just about to make a move, the Void Worm Mother turned its head, gave a chilling smile, reached out with a swift movement of both hands, grabbed the Space Fissure opened by Deceiving the Heavens and forcefully tore it to a size that allowed itself to jump inside.

Seeing this scene, Li Jing frowned and instinctively wanted to give chase.

But before he could move, a delicate scent of wind suddenly appeared by his side.

Caught by surprise, Li Jing paused for a moment.

Shi Zixuan’s delicate body trembled slightly; she forcefully resisted the urge to turn her head to look, closing her eyes instead.

Li Jing turned his head.

Into his sight.

Was Charming Spirit, quietly gazing at the Space Fissure torn open by the Void Worm Mother, chewing on a piece of bread.

Feeling someone’s gaze on her, she slightly turned her head.

"I was only not paying attention to you for a little while, and you’ve stirred up such a big mess?"

"...."

Li Jing.

What does Charming Spirit mean by that...?

"How many Void Dark Spirits have you seen?"

Charming Spirit asked.

"One."

Li Jing replied.

"Killed?"

Charming Spirit asked again.

Li Jing subconsciously nodded.

"This is troubling."

Charming Spirit murmured.

"This is probably one of the fish that slipped through the net back then, I’m going to pursue it, you all stay out of it. If you meet it again, try to avoid it as much as possible."

Saying this, her figure moved, like a shadow, into the closing space fissure.

Seeing this, Li Jing frowned.

Shi Zixuan, who was by his side, tentatively opened her eyes.

Ensuring that Charming Spirit was gone, she finally felt relieved to speak.

"Can you explain what just happened?"

"I can’t explain it clearly either."

Li Jing shook his head and said.

"But I guess we’ve probably just encountered the culprit behind the destruction of the ancient fairyland. When I saw the Void Dark Spirit earlier, my Eye of True Vision indeed spotted its ability to extract the essence of all things and nourish the Void Human-shaped Fruit."

Hearing this, Shi Zixuan’s face showed a look of utter shock and disbelief.

Although Li Jing’s explanation was not very clear.

She didn’t understand what he meant by Eye of True Vision.

But as clever as she was.

She quickly realized that the Eye of True Vision was not the main point.

The point was, the Void Dark Spirit had the ability to extract the essence of all things, and use it to nourish the Void Human-shaped Fruit.

It was obvious.

The abnormality of the Cemetery of the Immortals and the stele tombs they had witnessed successively in the ancient fairyland were certainly related to the Void Dark Spirit.

The four words "from the void" recognized by the Blue Phoenix on the stele, further spurred speculation.

Additionally, with the sudden appearance of the charming spirit.

It wasn’t hard to imagine that the sudden change in the Void Human-shaped Fruit was likely the catalyst that led to the destruction of the ancient fairyland.

Not daring to think further, Shi Zixuan asked with a very unpleasant expression.

"How did that thing... suddenly come back to life? Is it because you killed the Void Dark Spirit mentioned by the Charming Spirit?"

"Unless something unexpected happened, yes."

Li Jing nodded silently, speaking in a low voice.

"I had noticed beforehand that the Void Human-shaped Fruit might go through a metamorphosis, but I didn’t expect it to do so in this form."

As he spoke, he continued.

"One wrong step leads to a series of mistakes. From what the Charming Spirit said earlier, it’s not hard to speculate that the creature seems to have a symbiotic relationship with the Void Dark Spirit. After the Void Dark Spirit dies out, the Human-shaped Fruit will undergo a metamorphosis and change into the Worm Mother, producing a new swarm of Void Dark Spirits."

Hearing what Li Jing said, Shi Zixuan fell silent.

On her shoulder, Xiaocai blinked.

"So, Li Jing, did you really cause a disaster?"

Li Jing was speechless.

This little thing, there’s a limit to being heartless, isn’t there?

Ling Ling, standing nearby, then spoke.

"The Deceiving the Heavens was eaten, I don’t know if it’s dead or not, if it’s dead, that could cause trouble."

Hearing this, Li Jing stiffened.

If the Deceiving the Heavens died just like that, it would save them a lot of trouble.

But, they would have no place to get the Earth Burying Soil.

The demise of the Will of Heaven is not something that could ordinarily be encountered.

The birth of the Earth Burying Soil is a result of probability.

This damn...

"I hope it’s okay."

Li Jing uttered in silence.

"What do we do now? Will we just leave or...?"

Shi Zixuan asked.

"First, let’s wait for Blue Phoenix and Jin Ritian to wake up, then continue exploring."

Li Jing started, saying.

"The Void Worm Mother has not yet completed its metamorphosis; it is uncertain how long it will take to complete. However, since she has already run away, her metamorphosis is not an easy task and temporarily nothing to worry about. Besides, Charming Spirit has already pursued her; maybe she will bring us good news soon."

With that, Li Jing continued.

"But these are all secondary, before we leave, we must confirm whether the Deceiving the Heavens is dead or alive, so that we won’t make it easy for him. Otherwise, we would have big trouble coming our way."

Shi Zixuan nodded at his words.

The threat of the Void Worm Mother might be great.

But it doesn’t have an actual target.

The Deceiving the Heavens and them, however, are mortal enemies.

They cannot rest easy leaving unless they confirm that the Deceiving the Heavens has thoroughly cooled off.

...

Having a clear plan, Li Jing chose to take Shi Zixuan into the Little Universe Realm with him.

Because Blue Phoenix and Jin Ritian were unconscious, they had been removed from his domain and placed under two life trees during his eruption of the Burn the Sky skill.

Being under the shade of the life tree which incessantly released source of life, they would wake up sooner.

Upon entering the Little Universe Realm, Li Jing didn’t just wait idly.

He let Shi Zixuan play with Ling Ling and Xiaocai, while keeping an eye on Blue Phoenix and Jin Ritian.

Li Jing then climbed to the top of Canglong Mountain alone to retrieve the essence of Dark Spirit and called for the Flying Sword Blue Edge.

The essence of Dark Spirit was so valuable that it certainly had to be used.

Simply looking at it was meaningless.

Li Jing currently had three half-step Taoist artifacts in his hands.

Smoke Eye and Linglong, after comprehending a rule each, seemed to be "troubled in progress", for they had not made any further progress for quite some time.

The Flying Sword Blue Edge was no different.

The difference was.

It had once comprehended two rules.

With one more rule, it could turn into a Taoist artifact.

If he could melt the essence of the Dark Spirit into it, the matter would be resolved.

Perhaps giving the essence of the Dark Spirit to the Unnamed and Snow Sound might have better results, making the two Taoist artifacts more powerful. However, Li Jing hoped there could be more Taoist artifacts in his hands.

When power is not enough, quantity can make up for it.

His situation is also rather special.

The spirit weapons can independently step forward and fight using their own "bodies".

All five spirit weapons possess strength equal to his.

He is now an Emperor.

If these five spirit weapons step forward, they all hold a Venerable level of strength.

This kind of fight, as they gang up on someone, is exciting.

From Li Jing’s point of view.

A qualified artifact should learn to "act on its own".

In terms of "acting on their own", apart from Snow Sound, which was refined not long ago and does not perform very well, the other four artifacts of Li Jing are already experts.

However, in terms of quality, Flying Sword Blue Edge and three other half-step Taoist Artifacts are still slightly inferior.

Originally, Li Jing had a laissez-faire attitude towards this aspect.

After all, it is not something he could easily influence.

Whether an artifact can eventually become a Taoist tool depends on the artifact itself.

But with the Spirit Essence, things have changed.

At this point.

It’s almost inevitable that the three artifacts like Flying Sword Blue Edge should evolve into Taoist tools.

Usually, when Li Jing needs his artifacts to gang up on someone, the other party’s realm is uncertain.

But now, at least an Emperor level is required when there is a need.

Those below this.

He can exterminate them with a single slap.

Is there a need to gang up?

To threaten an Emperor level or higher, it must be a Taoist tool.

Leaving aside these considerations.

Li Jing called the Flying Sword Blue Edge without hesitation.

He threw out the Spirit Essence.

He snapped his fingers to send out a Phoenix Heavenly Fire, and immediately followed it up with the power of the Little Universe for enhancement.

Even the Burn the Sky power released at full strength was not sufficient to shake the Spirit Essence, let alone the artifact refinement flame control method.

However, with the power of the Little Universe, nothing is a problem anymore.

Here, Li Jing is omnipotent.

"Sizzle!"

Under the enhancement of the world’s power, the Phoenix Heavenly Fire easily melted the entire Spirit Essence into a solution.

Seeing that the solution was ready, Li Jing lifted the Flying Sword Blue Edge in his hand.

"Blue Blade, what kind of ’tattoo’ do you like?"

"Dragon."

Flying Sword Blue Edge answered without hesitation.

Li Jing raised an eyebrow.

He hadn’t expected that usually reticent Flying Sword Blue Edge to have taste. Choosing a dragon for a "tattoo" was quite cool.

Without much thought, Li Jing pulled out his mobile phone, searched the internet of Sky City for the image of a five-clawed golden dragon, stored it, held the sword horizontally in front of his chest with one hand and summoned the Spirit Essence solution with the other to start engraving.

Artifact melting is much simpler than proper refining.

What Li Jing needed to do was not full melting.

If he did, it would be like the Flying Sword Blue Edge was being recast.

Following that, it’s not clear if the spirit weapon would still be the same. But it would lay dormant for some time.

This.

Not necessary.

Flying Sword Blue Edge’s style itself is convenient, and there’s no need for adjustments.

The Heaven’s Creation Skill is at the maximum level and the strength at Emperor level is available to support. Thus, this melting process went smoothly.

After Li Jing engraved a five-clawed golden dragon on the blue blade of the Flying Sword Blue Edge, a high-pitched "dragon chant" echoed through the sky.

Suddenly hearing this sound, Li Jing could not help laughing.

He didn’t fuse a dragon soul into it, so how can there be a dragon chant?

This was the Flying Sword Blue Edge being playful, using the rules of wind to make the sound of the sword resemble a dragon chant.

In the midst of his mixed laughter and confusion, a prompt appeared before him.

"Taoist artifact transformation, Flying Sword Blue Edge."

As the prompt appeared, a layer of grey film emerged through the distortion of space around the Flying Sword Blue Edge’s blade.

Success!

The depth of Li Jing’s eyes glowed, and with a wave of his hand, he sent out a horizontal slash.

"Swish!"

A wave of sword energy swept out easily tearing through space, leaving a long and deep space fissure in the sky that didn’t close for a long time.

At the foot of Canglong Mountain.

Shi Zixuan was sitting on a swing and feeding Spirit Fruits to Ling Ling and Xiaocai when she noticed something different in the sky and unconsciously raised her eyes.

Seeing a space fissure forming, she was slightly taken aback.

A tear in space.

This is not worth worrying about.

At her level.

Tearing space is simple.

Li Jing even holds control over the rules of space.

With his means, he can easily tear open space with a casual stroke.

But now, right before her eyes.

She sensed the power of the Void...

What did Li Jing do!?

Void power, she had never seen anyone able to control it...

Shi Zixuan was horrified.

But then again.

She didn’t feel surprised about the same.

After all, the man on the mountain.

Is Li Jing.

...