The golden giant ape swung its massive hands like palm-leaf fans and grabbed the purple flood dragon’s neck. With a powerful twist of its arms, it wrenched the enormous dragon head clean off amidst a deafening roar.
With a thunderous boom, the purple flood dragon’s body exploded into countless arcs of electricity that scattered in all directions.
The giant ape suddenly raised its head and took a deep breath, then opened its mouth and spewed forth a vast expanse of golden light. Instantly, the scattered arcs of electricity were enveloped by the golden radiance and sucked into the ape’s gaping maw. In the blink of an eye, all traces of the lightning vanished.
But that wasn’t all! The ape’s phantom showed no signs of stopping. As spiritual light swirled across its surface, the golden light it had expelled transformed into a beam that shot into the five-colored spiritual clouds above.
A series of muffled booms erupted from within the clouds, and the five-colored spiritual clouds began to rotate around the golden beam as if it were their axis.
Under the pull of an immense suction force, countless runes of various hues flew out of the spiritual clouds, only to be swept up by the flashing golden light and ultimately swallowed by the ape’s phantom.
Within moments, the golden beam was filled with multicolored runes, cascading downward like a tidal wave.
The golden giant ape’s mouth seemed like a bottomless pit, devouring the endless stream of runes without showing the slightest change in expression.
Other cultivators at the edge of the misty sea witnessed this spectacle, their jaws dropping in astonishment.
The white-haired old man’s mind raced with thoughts of “Mountain Giant Ape” and “True Spirit Bloodline,” his shock far surpassing that of the others.
As the branch leader of the Gu family, a lineage of True Spirit descendants, his knowledge far exceeded that of ordinary people. He immediately recognized the golden phantom hovering low over the misty sea—it was the Dharma Form of the Mountain Giant Ape. His astonishment was beyond words.
“No wonder this person refused to join our Gu family—he already possesses a True Spirit bloodline! But this Dharma Form is simply too astonishing. From such a distance, its mere aura has suppressed all of us. And the scale of this celestial phenomenon far exceeds the last one. With so much of the world’s spiritual energy converging here, could he be breaking through the bottleneck of the Body Integration stage?” Though his cultivation wasn’t high, the old man’s mind was sharp. In just a short time, he had pieced together most of the truth, leaving him inwardly terrified.
Above the misty sea, not only were the runes being drawn into the golden light, but the five-colored spiritual clouds themselves began to spin wildly, pulled inexorably into the vortex.
Soon, the clouds in the sky took on a bizarre, funnel-like shape—wide at the top and narrow at the bottom.
Vast amounts of spiritual energy, transformed into clouds, poured into the ape’s phantom. As the runes flickered, the once-blurry phantom grew increasingly solid and distinct.
After the time it takes to eat a meal, the five-colored spiritual clouds had been completely absorbed.
Yet the ape’s phantom seemed unsatisfied. It closed its mouth and struck its chest with both fists, causing its golden radiance to flare blindingly.
With a resounding boom, a white hurricane erupted from beneath the ape’s phantom, rapidly expanding until it enveloped the entire mountain-sized apparition.
Simultaneously, an invisible wave of energy radiated outward from the hurricane, sweeping past the edges of the misty sea with a range so vast it left onlookers dumbfounded.
Within a radius of ten thousand miles, the world’s spiritual energy grew restless, condensing into bean-sized points of light that surged toward the misty sea.
Countless points of light, like moths to a flame, appeared near the hurricane and vanished into it in a flash. From within the hurricane came the low growls of the ape, sounding both agitated and pained.
As the five-colored points of light multiplied, the ape’s roars grew quieter until they ceased altogether. Yet no matter how many points of light poured in, the hurricane swallowed them all, as if it could never be filled.
The human cultivators near the misty sea watched in awe, their throats dry with fear. If an ordinary cultivator were to absorb so much spiritual energy at once, they would surely explode on the spot.
After what felt like another meal’s time, a piercing shriek erupted from the white hurricane, followed by a deafening explosion.
The hurricane shattered, sending shockwaves rippling outward in all directions, scattering the nearby points of light.
At the center of the blast, the enormous ape phantom reappeared.
But now, its body was no longer golden. Instead, it was covered in shimmering five-colored runes, giving it an eerie, otherworldly appearance.
The ape clutched its head, its expression shifting rapidly—one moment wracked with pain, the next consumed by rage, then its eyes turning blood-red as if descending into madness.
At the same time, the runes on its body flickered wildly, causing its form to waver between clarity and obscurity, as if it were on the verge of collapse.
The distant onlookers could only stare in confusion.
Only the white-haired old man understood the gravity of the situation, his heart filled with dread.
This was clearly a sign of the cultivator reaching a critical juncture in his breakthrough, now besieged by inner demons. If he lost control of his mind and succumbed to the demons, he might slaughter everyone nearby in a frenzy.
Given his terrifying power, low and mid-level cultivators like them would have no chance of resistance—they could only await their doom.
Such tragedies had happened more than once in the past.
The more the old man thought about it, the more terrified he became. Desperate, he channeled all his spiritual power, trying to rise under the immense pressure and flee with his clansmen.
But as soon as he stood halfway, his legs trembled, and he collapsed back to his knees.
Though the distant ape phantom seemed disoriented, the spiritual pressure it emitted showed no signs of weakening. As a mere Nascent Soul cultivator, he couldn’t move an inch. His spiritual energy was locked under the crushing force, and he couldn’t even send a warning to his clansmen. Fear and despair gripped his heart.
Meanwhile, deep within the mountain, in a secret chamber, Han Li sat cross-legged in a peculiar small formation, his body as still as death.
A foot-tall golden-green Nascent Soul hovered several feet above his body, its eerie gaze fixed on a corner of the chamber.
The Nascent Soul clutched a broken golden blade, surrounded by seventy-two inch-long green flying swords forming a tight protective circle.
Beyond the swords, a silver ruler, a small green cauldron, and a massive black sword orbited the Nascent Soul slowly.
What made it eerie was its face—one eye gleamed with blue light, the other burned crimson, and the features were split down the middle, displaying two entirely different expressions.
One half was twisted in a grotesque, ferocious snarl, while the other wore a faint, cold smile, as if two different Han Lis coexisted within the Nascent Soul.
Below, Han Li’s physical body held a hand seal in one hand and a bronze incense burner in the other. Inside the burner was a small, unlit stub of black incense.
From the ceiling of the chamber, countless five-colored runes drifted down, vanishing soundlessly upon contact with either the Nascent Soul or the body.
In the corner the Nascent Soul watched, a head-sized mass of black mist churned violently, emitting eerie wails.
The sound instantly stirred agitation in anyone who heard it, making it impossible to remain calm and evoking an overwhelming urge to kill.
The calm half of the Nascent Soul’s face remained unmoved, but the other half grew increasingly frenzied under the wails, its crimson eyes darkening as it teetered on the edge of losing all reason.
Suddenly, the blue-glowing eye flashed coldly. The Nascent Soul raised a hand and pointed at the incense burner in the body’s grasp.
With a puff, a silver flame shot from its fingertip, igniting the black incense stub. A mysterious sandalwood fragrance instantly filled the chamber.
Strangely, after inhaling the scent a few times, the Nascent Soul’s frenzied half calmed, the bloodlust in its eyes fading.
The black mist in the corner let out a shriek upon contact with the incense’s aroma, its wails cutting off abruptly.
It thrashed wildly, dissipating under the fragrance to reveal a horrifying, featureless ghost face contorted in agony.
Without hesitation, the Nascent Soul opened its mouth and spat a golden lightning arc.
With a crack, the lightning struck the ghost face, making it shudder.
Gnashing its teeth in hatred, the ghost face let out a piercing screech, then blurred and dissolved into black mist, vanishing entirely.
Only then did the Nascent Soul slowly close its eyes. The twisted half of its face smoothed away, and when it reopened its eyes, they were clear once more.
“Just a fragment of an otherworldly demon, thinking it could disrupt my mind during my inner demon tribulation? How laughable,” the Nascent Soul murmured with a cold sneer.
It tossed the broken blade above its head, formed a series of hand seals, and closed its eyes again.
The five-colored runes falling from the ceiling suddenly doubled in speed, filling the chamber with dazzling light. At the same time, another exotic fragrance emanated from the physical body below.
The Nascent Soul ignored it, focusing solely on absorbing the five-colored runes—condensed world energy—causing its body to visibly expand.
Within half an hour, Han Li’s Nascent Soul had grown to three or four feet tall, like a small child.
At that moment, the giant ape phantom above the mountain shrank into a beam of light and retracted into the mountain’s heart.
An immense surge of world energy descended into the chamber, flooding into both the Nascent Soul and the physical body.
The body’s skin turned translucent, and the fragrance it emitted grew stronger.
Above, the Nascent Soul swelled to match the body’s size in just a few breaths, its eyes closed as it floated weightlessly in midair, its brow furrowed in pain.
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