604: Chapter 604 The True Body in Seclusion, the Unyielding Youth

"Yes, but how shall I confirm their identity as descendants of the Hun Clan?" Jin Shi asked in confusion.

Buzz!

Hun Tiandi flipped his palm, and over twenty jade pendants emerged, rotating slowly. They contained not only Hun blood but also the aura of Hun Xiutian.

"This object is called Hun Yu. Once a Hun Clan descendant is nearby, the Hun Yu will glow. Do not expose yourself upon discovery; simply send back the intelligence!"

"Yes!" Jin Shi respectfully accepted the Hun Yu and slowly withdrew.

The Earth Web's vast intelligence system began to reveal itself and spring into action.

Inside the Time Tower, the original body was in seclusion.

Boom!

A figure in green robes hovered on the fifth floor. A purple flame thunder bead floated above his head, rotating slowly and draping down countless bolts of lightning that enveloped him.

Purple lightning permeated the air, forming what looked like a purple lake within a ten-zhang radius around him.

However, this purple lake was not made of ordinary water.

Instead, it was formed entirely by the convergence of brilliant purple lightning. Peals of thunder continuously radiated from the lightning pool.

The terrifying energy fluctuations made one's soul tremble.

Faced with this surging purple lightning, even a five-star Dou Zong would be severely wounded upon contact.

"Such dense lightning energy. The purple flame thunder bead is still incomplete; if it were whole, I wonder how terrifying it would be!"

After a long while, Hun Tiandi sighed inwardly, pushing the Thunder Emperor Art within his body to its limit.

He focused all his efforts on refining the lightning energy. With a great war approaching, strength was the ultimate guarantee.

Fortunately, no one had come to the fifth floor.

Sizzle...

Purple lightning energy coiled around his body like small purple snakes, sinking into his form and being swallowed upon contact with his flesh.

Instantly following the cultivation path, it was refined into lightning Dou Qi and dispersed into his limbs and bones.

It tempered every inch of flesh and meridian. The Sword Bone within his body was also absorbing the lightning energy, integrating it into the bone.

Originally, every piece of bone was densely covered with Innate Sword Runes, making his Body of Ten Thousand Swords increasingly powerful.

He hadn't expected the Innate Sword Runes to actually absorb the power of the purple flame thunder bead.

This caused his jade-white bones to be tinged with traces of purple light, giving his entire skeleton a faint purple hue.

Within the purple, fine lightning energy roamed, perfectly merging into the sword runes.

While cultivating Dou Qi, the God Refining Art was also operating within his Sea of Consciousness.

His soul injury had not yet fully recovered; soul wounds were indeed extremely difficult to treat.

If not for the backing of the Da Zheng Imperial Dynasty, with the Darong Chamber of Commerce collecting resources and the Alchemy Institute refining pills, he wouldn't have been able to recover even this much of his injuries.

The violent energy of the purple flame thunder bead was converted into pure Dou Qi, flowing through his meridians. He cultivated with closed eyes, continuously absorbing the bead's energy.

Under the reversed time of the Time Tower, the Dou Qi in his body rose at a steady rate, and vaguely...

He even touched the barrier of an eight-star Dou Zong...

Last time, Hun Tiandi had given some pointers to Xuan Chen, allowing him to reach the Dou Sheng level. The Heaven and Earth had bestowed merit, which Xuan Chen had transferred to him.

By refining that vast merit, he had successfully reached the six-star Dou Zong level.

Then came the successive battles and the assault on the Starfall Pavilion, which had consumed an enormous amount of his Dou Qi.

Having previously refined the Star Demon-Sealing Monument and undergone the baptism of astral power, and now with the tempering of the purple flame thunder bead, he finally had that sensation of an impending breakthrough.

Of course, it was only a sensation; however, a true breakthrough was not far off.

Central Plains, Star Realm!

Within a vast mountain range where the peaks were majestic and ancient trees reached for the sky, blotting out the sun, lay an endless stretch of primeval forest.

In the depths, within a mineral vein, the clanging sound of metal striking stone rang out.

Upon closer inspection, one could see countless shirtless figures working, drenched in sweat.

Cart after cart of metal-bearing ore was pushed out of the caves. Every miner was extremely gaunt with long, disheveled hair, looking like savages.

"Hurry up, faster!" Scattered around were burly figures in armor, clutching long whips covered in barbs.

The whips lashed through the air with a whistling sound.

Clatter!

Suddenly, an old white-haired man pushing a small cart accidentally let it tip over, spilling ore all over the ground.

"Old thing, you're looking for death!" The guard shouted in rage, lashing out with his whip.

It landed on the old man's back, leaving a bloody trail as the barbs sank in, instantly turning the flesh into a bloody mess.

The intense pain caused the old man's body to convulse instantly.

"Don't hit my grandfather..." Suddenly, a youth of sixteen or seventeen ran over quickly and threw himself over the old man, taking the punishment in his stead.

"Little beast, die!"

"Humph, did you still think you were the high and mighty Hun Clan? The Hun Clan has been wiped out. You lot can only mine here until you die!"

The armored guard mocked, "If not for the mercy of the Flame Emperor, this general would have executed all you Hun Clan remnants long ago!"

Snap...

After a dozen lashes, the youth's back was a mess of mangled flesh and flowing blood.

The intense pain crashed against his nerves like a tide, yet his eyes remained brilliant, radiating unyielding defiance.

Such suffering could not break his spirit.

As a member of the Hun Clan, even if it was destroyed, he would die standing.

On the Fighting Qi Continent, only some super-powers among the Ancient Eight Clans believed that the Hun Clan's ability to maintain the peak of the Dou Di Bloodline...

...was all thanks to the Void Swallowing Flame, ranked second on the strange fire ranking list.

Because the Void Swallowing Flame had devoured the last patriarch of the Spirit Devouring Clan, it gained the miraculous ability to devour bloodline energy.

The Spirit Devouring Clan was a strange race from the ancient era of the Fighting Qi Continent, possessing the special ability to devour the bloodline power of other races.

To sustain their clan's development, they launched a war to devour other races, wiping out countless ancient clans.

And they successfully seized their bloodline power.

Their wanton slaughter of ancient clans to seize bloodline power eventually enraged all the ancient clans.

They were wiped out by the joint efforts of countless forces on the continent, and the last patriarch of the Spirit Devouring Clan was killed by a Hun Clan expert, his remains devoured by the Void Swallowing Flame.

Thus, the Hun Clan had always remained at its peak, with abundant bloodline power and a constant stream of experts.

Even the number one man on the continent from the Xiao Clan back then, Xiao Xuan, had to gather the strength of his entire clan because the Xiao Clan's bloodline power was fading.

He attempted to break through to the legendary Dou Di, but unfortunately, he failed.

The Xiao Clan's bloodline was completely reduced to waste blood, and the Xiao Clan splintered. Because of the special existence of the Heavenly Tomb, Xiao Xuan lingered on in a state that was neither human nor ghost.

"What people don't know is that the Hun Clan's continuity required two things: first, the ability of the Void Swallowing Flame, and second, the unyielding spirit of the Hun Clan."

"Refusing to yield in the face of any difficulty and rising to the challenge—that is the foundation of the Hun Clan's endurance."

"Otherwise, even with the Dou Di Bloodline, they would be nothing more than hollow people!"

The unyielding youth gave the guard a deep look, slowly stood up, helped his aged grandfather, then righted the cart and began loading the ore back onto it piece by piece.

The youth buried his hatred deep in his heart; given the chance, he would end this guard's life.

Crack!

Suddenly, from beneath a rock in the distance, a Gold-Eating Mouse scurried out. The shifty-eyed large mouse looked around cautiously.

Hearing the commotion in the distance, it moved through the rubble.

Poof!

It spat out a jade pendant. As if sensing something, the pendant emitted a red light, which grew more brilliant the closer it got.

"Found them?"

"No, I need to find the boss to confirm first!"

The Gold-Eating Mouse's eyes darted around. It swallowed the jade pendant and disappeared into a hole in the ground, a scene unnoticed by anyone.