High above the western reaches of the Immortal Qin Sea, under the dim and somber night sky, more than ten figures streaked across the altitude, covering a hundred meters in an instant, swift as shooting stars.
“The aura is growing stronger; we’re almost there!”
A hoarse voice suddenly rang out. The speaker was the short, thin elder leading the group, his eyes shut tight, his face a map of deep wrinkles—none other than the newly ascended Spirit God Marquis of the Elixir Immortal Sect.
Following closely behind the Marquis were Zhuang Yu, Taishu Yan, and a slender elder.
The remaining ten figures maintained a distance of anywhere from ten to a hundred meters from the Marquis. They were all elders of the Elixir Immortal Sect; the weakest among them was at the peak of the Ninth Order, with three having already passed the First Spiritual Tribulation, and one having passed the Second Spiritual Tribulation. Every powerhouse of the Elixir Immortal Sect was gathered here.
Hearing the Marquis’s words, a surge of spirit lifted them all.
“When we suddenly appear before those two traitors, Tai Shuang and Tai Yan, their expressions must be priceless. They surely never imagined we could track them down so accurately,” Taishu Yan laughed loudly, his voice brimming with the satisfaction of imminent vengeance.
“Heh, indeed,” Zhuang Yu chuckled at the head, “Fortunately, Senior Brother secretly captured a portion of the aura Tai Yan leaked while advancing to Spirit God. Otherwise…” He paused, shaking his head slightly. “‘Tracing the Source of the Dao,’ this secret art truly cannot be performed without it.”
“Don’t celebrate too soon.”
The Marquis’s expression was placid as he said gravely, “That Tai Yan, capable of breaking through the Third Spiritual Tribulation and ascending to Spirit God with a mere flick of her fingers, will not be easily captured or killed.” After a beat, the Marquis turned to the elder behind him. “Brother Yuan Ru, we will have to trouble you to act alongside us when the time comes, to lend us an arm.”
The elder named Yuan Ru smiled faintly. “That is natural. Our ‘Grand Primordial Heavenly Mansion,’ having accepted the elixir, will naturally assist your Elixir Immortal Sect in completely eradicating these traitors. When we meet them, this old man will say nothing more than immediately summon the ‘Great Void Divine Water’ to suppress the Heavenly Fire before discussing anything else.”
“Excellent! That’s precisely what should be done!”
“…”
“Huu!”
One thousand layers!
The amplitude of the fire wave reached an unprecedented peak, and its frequency was astonishingly fast. The last trace of mixed power transformed into Chaos Divine Power.
At this point, the Li Ju was completely refined successfully.
However, what Nie Kong needed to accomplish was far from over. With a mere thought, a small aperture suddenly appeared at the apex of the sphere of fire.
Chii!
A wisp of Chaos Divine Power shot out. The moment it burst from the aperture, a thread of Chaos Heavenly Fire easily merged into it, rendering the just-condensed Chaos Divine Power even purer.
Chii, chii…
The Chaos Divine Power, like silk threads, flowed leisurely through Nie Kong’s meridians after integrating with the Heavenly Fire.
More and more Divine Power surged out of the fire sphere, and the merged Chaos Heavenly Fire increased, while the flames burning at the bottom of the fire sphere gradually weakened. As for the Heaven and Earth spiritual energy, it ceased abruptly the instant the first strand of Divine Power erupted, and the massive vortex quietly dissipated.
Spiritual energy elements from nearly a hundred miles away slowly surged towards this location to fill the void left in this area.
“Good.”
The surrounding figures immediately noticed, and the two small creatures, Qing You and Gourd, chirped happily as they rushed to Nie Kong’s side first, followed by Tai Yan, Lan Ling, and the (Phantom Eagle King).
On the Immortal Qin Sea, nearly a hundred miles distant, the Sea Clan members who had been observing the activity below simultaneously exhaled a breath of relief upon seeing the dissipating vortex.
“That fellow has finally stopped cultivating,” Shui Rou murmured, feeling an unexpected sense of relief.
The scene of the man cultivating earlier was truly terrifying, especially the vortex spanning dozens of li. It made even them, Ninth Order experts, feel breathless. Consequently, they retreated again and again, only finding comfort after withdrawing to this distance, far from the vortex.
“Elder Gui Xian, where are you going?” Shui Rou’s eyes darted around, and noticing Gui Xian drifting forward, she hurriedly asked.
“This old man is going over to take a look. We must ascertain whether he is of the Sea Clan,” Gui Xian’s figure instantly vanished into the distance, surprising everyone.
“Will Elder Gui Xian be in danger?”
“Probably not. That Spirit God showed no malice; otherwise, none of us would have been able to escape just now.”
“I feel uneasy about this. Alright, I’ll go take a look too. If anything truly happens, perhaps I can assist Elder Gui Xian!”
“Let’s all go together.”
“……………”
As they spoke, more than ten figures shot forward.
At almost the exact same moment, somewhere in the western part of the Immortal Qin Sea, the figures of the Marquis, Zhuang Yu, Yuan Ru, and Taishu Yan suddenly halted at an altitude of a thousand meters, expressions of confusion clouding their faces.
“Something is amiss,” Zhuang Yu frowned. “The surrounding Heaven and Earth spiritual energy is extremely thin, as if it was just completely drained. The spiritual energy from behind us is currently rushing forward to fill the gap. Ahead is the Immortal Qin Sea—could a Sea Clan powerhouse have caused this?”
“Tai Shuang and Tai Yan are ahead. Regardless, let’s go forward and see.”
“……………”
Having settled their deliberation, the group continued onward.
A cove by the seaside.
Chii, chii…
As time passed, the fire sphere, once the size of a basketball, had shrunk to merely the size of a fist. Nie Kong’s body was saturated with Chaos Divine Power. Initially, this Divine Power flowed obediently through his meridians.
But when the meridians could no longer contain it, the Divine Power began to roam, though not chaotically.
The overflowing Chaos Divine Power trickled out, and the fire sphere continued to shrink. Nie Kong was immersed within, unaware of the passage of time. After a long, long while, the fire sphere was as small as a tiny grain of rice, almost negligible amidst the vast expanse of enveloping Chaos Divine Power.
Chii!
With a soft sound, the last trace of Chaos Divine Power within the minuscule fire sphere rushed out, completely absorbing and melting the residual Heavenly Fire. In that instant, all the Chaos Divine Power underwent a transformation.
Refining power with Heavenly Fire to form Chaos Divine Power, and then using Chaos Divine Power to absorb the Heavenly Fire, achieving the utmost purity. When this process concluded entirely, Nie Kong’s Chaos Divine Power ignored the tangible restrictions of muscle, bone, viscera, and blood, condensing into a vast, milky white mass.
The meridians completely vanished.
There was no longer any trace of meridians within Nie Kong’s body—or rather, everywhere was a meridian.
As for the Spirit God apertures, they too vanished!
The Nine Underworld Stars disappeared!
The Heart Manifestation vanished!
The Dharma Image vanished!
Everything had evolved into Chaos Divine Power; now existing was only Chaos Divine Power, and Nie Kong’s body resembled a mass of chaos itself. Yet, this mass of chaos contained apertures, contained Underworld Stars, contained Heart Manifestations, contained Dharma Images, as if everything between Heaven and Earth derived from this single chaos.
Faintly, Nie Kong seemed to grasp the most fundamental essence of the cosmos.
“Huu!”
Nie Kong opened his eyes and exhaled a long breath of turbid air. His entire being had been reborn. Although his appearance remained unchanged, his spirit had undergone an earth-shattering transformation. With a thought, his entire body vanished without a trace, completely merging into the cosmos, revealing absolutely no sign of existence.
Witnessing this, Tai Yan, Lan Ling, and the others widened their eyes in astonishment. Before they could recover, Nie Kong suddenly reappeared in his original spot, as if he had never departed.