389: Chapter 383 Spirit Transformation of Ghost Water

"The Mystic Water True Scripture... it truly is a Mysterious-grade Cultivation Technique that seizes the wonders of Heaven and Earth! In just three days, it allowed this old man to condense a False Core!"

He walked to the window, looking at the gloomy sky outside and the city's protective light screen in the distance, the cold sneer on his face growing wider.

"Chen Zhiwen, oh Chen Zhiwen, you've exhausted your schemes, trying to use half a technique to tether this old man and treat me like a dog of your Heavenly Sword Sect. Unfortunately, you underestimated this old man's forbearance, and even more so, you underestimated my Comprehension Ability!"

Huang Wanfu straightened his robes, his chin tilting slightly, his eyes filled with an overbearing arrogance.

"Now that I have reached the False Core Realm, looking across the entire Southern Barrens, who should I fear besides you and those few Nascent Soul Old Monsters? Today's invasion by the Blood Nether Sect is the perfect opportunity for me to make a name for myself and showcase my strength!"

"As long as I display combat power at the Golden Core Stage on the battlefield, even Chen Zhiwen won't dare to order me around like a dog anymore. When that time comes, he must respectfully hand over the second half of the technique! My Huang Family shall stand on equal footing with your Chen Family!"

Carrying such wonderful fantasies, Huang Wanfu transformed into a streak of blue light, dashing towards the city walls in high spirits.

He didn't notice at all that at the very core of his seemingly perfect False Core, a trace of extremely faint black cold Qi had already merged into it completely, like a maggot in the bone. It was not just a False Core; it was an ice bomb that could be detonated at any moment.

A moment later, Huang Wanfu landed on the city wall.

"Grand Elder!"

Huang Wanfu strode toward Chen Zhiwen. He didn't bow fearfully as he had in the past, but instead merely cupped his hands. His voice was loud, and he deliberately released a hint of pressure from his False Core Realm.

"This subordinate has fortunately fulfilled the mission. After several days of secluded meditation, I have finally broken through the shackles and achieved the False Core! With the enemy invading today, I am willing to fight to the death for the Sect and share the Grand Elder's burdens!"

His words were spoken with great force. Several Foundation Establishment Elders of the Chen Family nearby looked over sideways, their eyes showing shock. The False Core Realm—in the current Heavenly Sword Sect, aside from the Grand Elder, this was already the absolute top combat strength.

Huang Wanfu enjoyed the feeling of being looked up to. His chin rose even higher, and he peeked at Chen Zhiwen's back from the corner of his eye, expecting this Nascent Soul great Cultivator to show surprise or try to win him over.

However, Chen Zhiwen didn't even turn his head.

The sea breeze blew against the corners of Chen Zhiwen's clothes. He continued to quietly watch the blood-colored warships in the distance, as if this "False Core expert" Huang Wanfu was nothing more than a negligible breeze in his eyes.

"Broken through?"

After a long while, Chen Zhiwen finally spoke two words, his voice so calm it lacked even a hint of emotion.

The arrogance on Huang Wanfu's face faltered slightly, and a hint of displeasure rose in his heart, but he still answered stiffly, "Indeed! This subordinate is willing to be the vanguard to blunt the edge of that Blood Nether Sect!"

These were just polite words. What he wanted was Chen Zhiwen's attention and rewards, not to actually go and fight to the death against those five thousand plus demonic Cultivators outside.

"Good."

Chen Zhiwen turned around, his deep, cold eyes falling emotionlessly on Huang Wanfu.

"Since Fellow Daoist Huang has such an elegant interest and your loyalty is commendable, if I do not fulfill your wish, wouldn't I be disheartening a meritorious servant?"

The corners of Chen Zhiwen's mouth slowly curled into a hair-raising smile. He raised his hand, pointing at the massive 'Blood Sea' thirty miles away.

"That enemy flagship and that shouting Blood Underworld Old Monster—I'll leave them to you."

"I will order someone to open a gap in the city's protective Formation. Go, let me see the quality of your False Core."

Boom!

The smile on Huang Wanfu's face instantly froze. He felt as if a bucket of ice water had been poured over him, chilling him from head to toe.

His eyes widened in disbelief, his lips trembling: "Gra... Grand Elder, you... you must be joking? That... that is a Nascent Soul Old Monster! And five thousand elites! For me to go out alone... isn't that just walking into the lion's den?"

Chen Zhiwen withdrew his smile, his gaze instantly becoming colder than ten-thousand-year-old profound ice.

"Do I look like I'm joking with you?"

A terrifying pressure of the Late Nascent Soul Stage, like Mount Tai pressing down, instantly slammed into Huang Wanfu's body.

In the face of this vast power, Huang Wanfu's newly condensed False Core pressure was like a flame in a gale, completely crushed with a "poof."

Thud!

Huang Wanfu's knees buckled, and he knelt heavily on the hard city bricks, cracking them. Cold sweat poured out like a waterfall, instantly soaking his back.

"Grand Elder, have mercy! This subordinate... my strength is low, I fear I will jeopardize the Sect's great affairs! I beg the Grand Elder to rescind the order!" Huang Wanfu kowtowed like a woodpecker, no longer showing even a hint of his previous high spirits.

Only at this moment did he wake up. In the face of true power, his laughable Breakthrough and ambition didn't even count for a fart.

Chen Zhiwen walked slowly to Huang Wanfu, looking down at him from above like he was looking at a pathetic dog.

"Soldiers are trained for a thousand days to be used in a single moment. I bestowed a Mysterious-grade technique upon you not so you could put on airs with me on the city wall."

Chen Zhiwen leaned down slightly and whispered coldly in a voice only Huang Wanfu could hear: "What, you ate my bait and now you want to spit it out? Do you believe that with just a thought from me, that False Core in your Dantian will instantly freeze you into an ice sculpture?"

Huang Wanfu felt as if struck by lightning.

He suddenly looked inward at his Dantian and discovered in horror that at the depths of the False Core he was so proud of, an extremely terrifying trace of black cold Qi had somehow entwined itself. If that cold Qi moved even slightly, his Meridians would feel a tearing pain, and his True Essence would go completely out of control!

"You... you poisoned the technique?!" Huang Wanfu snapped his head up, his eyes filled with despair and unbelievable malice.

"Even to be a dog, one has to fight for food. What makes you think I would give you a lucky break for nothing?"

Chen Zhiwen straightened up and waved his sleeve impatiently.

"Zhengchu, open the Formation's Life Gate at the northeast corner. Send Fellow Daoist Huang out of the city to 'achieve great deeds'!"

"Yes!" Chen Zhengchu gave a cold look to the slumped Huang Wanfu and struck out a hand seal without hesitation.

On the golden light screen, a gap about a zhang wide slowly opened. The storm outside instantly poured in through the opening.

"I won't go! I won't go to my death! Chen Zhiwen, you will die a horrible death!" Huang Wanfu completely broke down, screaming madly as he tried to turn and flee.

"It's not up to you."

Chen Zhiwen snorted coldly and flicked his finger.

An invisible Sword Qi, hard to detect with the naked eye, instantly entered the back of Huang Wanfu's heart. Huang Wanfu screamed as his body was grabbed by an invisible giant hand and brutally thrown out of the Formation's gap, hurtling toward the Blood Underworld fleet thirty miles away.

Watching Huang Wanfu's figure struggling desperately in the storm, the Chen Family Cultivators on the city wall all gasped, their awe of the Grand Elder's ruthlessness deepening.

...

Meanwhile, in the underground cold pond secret chamber of Crescent Moon Valley.

Another incredibly tragic life-and-death struggle was taking place here. But this was not a clash of flesh, but a slaughter of Souls.

"Madwoman! Stop! Stop now! If this continues, you'll kill us both!"

The Soul Devouring Ancestor's originally overbearing, raspy voice was now filled with unconcealable terror and weakness.

In the center of the secret chamber, Li Shuang remained sitting cross-legged on the thousand-year-old ice. But her current appearance was more terrifying than a vengeful ghost.

Black-red blood seeped continuously from her seven orifices, and her skin was covered in blood-colored cracks like shattered porcelain. Black Devilish Qi rolled frantically on the surface of her body like boiling water, and with every surge, it was accompanied by the piercing "crack" of bones misaligning within her.

"Death?"

A hair-raising, tragic laugh came from Li Shuang's throat. Her eyes had turned completely pitch black without a trace of white, radiating a nearly insane ruthlessness.

"Old thing, I crawled up from the mud at the very bottom of the cultivation world. Which day was I not rolling in piles of corpses? Which day was my head not on the line? You, a remnant Soul hiding in a broken wooden box, dare to talk to me about death?!"

Li Shuang did not stop the operation of the Dark Water Spirit Incarnation; instead, she bit the tip of her tongue again, spitting out a mouthful of essence blood, pushing the speed of devouring to the absolute limit.

She could feel the massive Soul Power belonging to the Soul Devouring Ancestor being brutally torn, chewed, and swallowed by her! With every bit swallowed, her Soul felt a tearing pain, but following it was the extreme pleasure of her strength skyrocketing!

"Agh—! I am willing to acknowledge you as master! I'll tell you all the locations of the Treasure Troves the Youming Sect hid in the Southern Barrens! I'll teach you Heaven-grade Demonic Techniques! Stop—this old man doesn't want his Soul Flying Away and Spirit Scattering!"

The Soul Devouring Ancestor finally couldn't hold on anymore. He cast aside his dignity as a Demonic Path giant and began to plead piteously. He never imagined that he, the thirty-sixth generation successor of the Youming Sect, would fall into the hands of a paranoid madwoman at the Early Foundation Establishment stage!

This woman's Heart-Nature was more demonic than any demonic Cultivator! She was betting her life with complete disregard for the consequences!

"Your treasures? Your Demonic Techniques?"

The corners of Li Shuang's mouth pulled into a cruel arc, blood dripping from her chin onto the cold ice, instantly freezing into blood-red ice flowers.

"Only power eaten into one's own stomach is real! Your Soul is my greatest treasure!"

"Shatter for me!"

Accompanied by a hysterical roar from deep within Li Shuang's mind.

"Crack—!"

It was as if some extremely sturdy shackle had been violently snapped.

"No—!"

The Soul Devouring Ancestor let out one last scream filled with despair and malice. That wisp of remnant Soul that had lingered for thousands of years finally couldn't withstand Li Shuang's life-risking, mad devouring. It shattered with a bang, turning into a sky full of pure black Soul Power that merged completely into Li Shuang's Sea of Consciousness.

Boom!

A powerful shockwave swept outward from Li Shuang, shattering the thousand-year-old ice in the secret chamber.

Li Shuang snapped her eyes open.

In those pitch-black eyes, a heart-palpitating demonic light flashed. The terrifying cracks on her body were healing at a visible rate. An aura several times stronger than before erupted from within her.

Middle Foundation Establishment!

Moreover, it was a Middle Foundation Establishment fused with Youming Devilish Qi; her combat power was absolutely comparable to the Late Foundation Establishment stage!

She slowly stood up, stretching her muscles and bones that had stiffened from the pain. The surging demonic True Essence in her body made her feel more powerful than ever before.

"Chen Zhiwen..." Li Shuang whispered the name, a complex light flashing in her eyes. There was awe, there was fear, but there was also a hint of ambition suppressed in the deepest depths.

She knew what state she was in—half-human, half-demon, neither man nor ghost. But so what? In this man-eating cultivation world, as long as she could live, as long as she could become stronger, even if she became an Asura, she would not hesitate!

Bang!

The heavy stone door of the secret chamber was shattered by her palm.

Li Shuang transformed into a black ghostly light, carrying a body full of Devilish Qi and killing intent, charging straight toward the walls of Heavenly Sword City.

The great battle had already begun. She needed blood to stabilize this newly gained power.

Just as Li Shuang broke out of seclusion.

Outside Heavenly Sword City, the suffocatingly brief peace was finally broken.

"Fire—!"

The Blood Underworld Old Monster stood at the bow of the giant ship, looking at Huang Wanfu, who had been thrown out of the Formation and was flailing like a fly. A hint of cruel pleasure flashed in his eyes.

No matter what scheme Chen Zhiwen had, in the face of absolute power, it was all in vain!

Following the Blood Underworld Old Monster's command.

"Hum— Hum— Hum—"

Dozens of Crystal Demonic Light Cannons on both sides of the giant ship lit up with an extremely blinding blood-colored light. The Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi within a range of several hundred zhang was sucked dry in an instant, forming a terrifying Spiritual Qi vacuum.

The next instant.

Dozens of terrifying blood-colored light pillars as thick as water vats tore through the heavy rain, carrying a world-destroying violent power as they slammed into Heavenly Sword City's protective Formation!

Boom—!!!

The deafening explosion caused the entire Tianjian Island to shake violently, as if a magnitude ten earthquake had occurred.

The golden protective light screen flickered and distorted madly. The originally thick light shield dimmed by a third under this first wave of synchronized fire!

In the twelve sub-Formation eyes of the inner city.

As the Formation took heavy damage, the Formation hub began to operate frantically, forcibly extracting all usable energy within the Formation eyes.

"Ah—! My spiritual power! My essence blood!"

The Loose Cultivators trapped in the Formation eyes immediately let out piteous screams. Visibly, the flesh on their bodies began to wither, and a large amount of their life essence blood turned into red blood Qi, which was mercilessly sucked away by the Formation and sent to the outer protective light screen.

Just from the shock of this first wave of cannon fire, over a hundred Loose Cultivators with lower cultivation levels in the twelve Formation eyes were sucked into dry corpses and turned to ash!

The meat grinder of war finally, at this moment, revealed its bloodiest and most cruel fangs.

Standing on the city wall, facing the sky full of cannon fire, Chen Zhiwen only slowly drew out his natal Flying Sword, "Autumn Water."

The blade was as clear as autumn water, reflecting his eyes that held not a trace of warmth.

"This spectacle is barely enough to look at."