277: As if facing a formidable enemy

Venerable Huanhai's last remaining Soul Power.

Although it was merely an energy impact caused by a self-destructing video recording, its origin was, after all, an Eight-Star Dou Zun Expert and an Eighth-Grade Alchemist Grandmaster during his lifetime!

The inherent quality of his soul and the purity of its energy far exceeded imagination!

This power erupted in the secret chamber.

Although the vast majority was absorbed by Jiang Donghua, the extremely subtle yet supremely majestic and ancient soul fluctuation released in that instant, like a giant rock thrown into a calm lake, instantly penetrated the numerous barriers of the secret chamber and spread throughout the entire Inner Academy!

This fluctuation was extremely brief, flashing by in an instant, but its high quality and terrifying level were enough to startle certain old monsters deep within the Inner Academy, who had been in seclusion for years and were extremely sensitive to the energy of heaven and earth and soul fluctuations!

Deep within the Inner Academy, in two ancient stone towers, shrouded by powerful barriers and perpetually silent, almost at the same time, two vast and profound terrifying auras, far exceeding the Dou Huang level, suddenly awakened and erupted!

"Om——!"

"Boom——!"

The doors of the stone towers burst open!

Two figures appeared outside the towers in the high sky as if teleporting, facing each other from a distance.

One was dressed in a gray robe, with a withered face, but eyes as sharp as an eagle's.

The other wore sackcloth, with sparse hair, but was enveloped in a majestic aura of life.

They were the true guardians of the Jia Nan Academy's Inner Academy, Elder Qian and Elder Wu, who had been in perpetual seclusion and whose cultivation was unfathomable!

At this moment, both of them had expressions of unprecedented shock and solemnity, their gazes like lightning, instantly sweeping across the entire Inner Academy, attempting to capture the source of that fleeting fluctuation.

"Old Wu! You felt it too?!"

Elder Qian's voice was hoarse, yet with a hint of urgency.

"How could I not feel it?!"

Elder Wu's face was extremely solemn, his eyes bursting with sharp light.

"Although that soul fluctuation was faint, its essence was definitely something only a Dou Zun Expert could possess!"

"And it was far from a simple newly advanced Dou Zun!"

"Not good!"

The two of them almost simultaneously shouted in alarm.

"An unknown Dou Zun Expert has intruded into the Inner Academy?!"

The worst-case scenario was what they instantly thought of!

A strange Dou Zun Expert, whose strength far surpassed theirs, had silently infiltrated the core area of the Inner Academy. What was his intention?!

This was simply the highest level of alert that Jia Nan Academy had rarely encountered since its establishment!

"Go!"

The two exchanged glances, no longer hesitating in the slightest, their figures flickered, instantly tearing through space, and sped towards the general direction from which the fluctuation came!

Their speed was incredibly fast, leaving two blurry afterimages in the air!

At the same time, Great Elder, who was handling affairs somewhere in the Inner Academy, also had a drastic change in expression the moment that fluctuation appeared, and he suddenly looked up!

Although he did not possess the terrifying cultivation of Elder Qian and Elder Wu, as the visible highest administrator of the Inner Academy, his soul perception was also extremely keen.

He clearly captured that terrifying, lofty fluctuation that made one's soul tremble!

"Dou Zun?!"

Great Elder was horrified, almost unable to believe his perception!

Without any hesitation, his Dou Qi erupted with a roar, he violently shook, and his figure shot up into the sky like a meteor, hovering above the Inner Academy!

He swept his sharp gaze downwards, his chest heaving violently, took a deep breath, and infused his powerful Dou Qi into his voice.

Like a clap of thunder, it rolled across the entire Inner Academy, his voice filled with extreme respect and a hint of unconcealable nervousness.

"This junior is Great Elder, Great Elder of the Inner Academy of Jia Nan Academy!"

"May I ask which senior has graced our Jia Nan Inner Academy with their presence? This junior failed to greet you from afar, please forgive me, senior!"

"If senior has any instructions, please do not hesitate to command!"

The booming voice echoed throughout the Inner Academy, carrying the pressure of a Peak Dou Huang Expert, yet it could not hide the awe and unease in his words.

However, the entire Inner Academy fell into a deathly silence.

There was no response.

Only countless Inner Academy Students below were scared pale and silent by this sudden terrifying fluctuation and the elders' reactions as if facing a formidable enemy.

They looked up in terror at the three figures in the sky, who looked as if they were facing a formidable enemy, their hearts filled with confusion and fear.

What exactly was that fleeting aura that made their souls tremble just now?

Inside the secret chamber, an extremely bizarre yet enviable scene was unfolding.

Jiang Donghua and Mu Chen sat opposite each other in a cross-legged position.

Their bodies were like inflated balloons, two or three times fatter than usual, and their skin surface, due to being filled with overly vast and pure energy, presented an abnormal, almost transparent, flushed red!

The space around them was slightly distorted due to the violent fluctuations of energy, and the air was filled with suffocating energy pressure.

Their current state could be described as pain and extreme bliss going hand in hand, an intertwining of the ultimate experience of ice and fire!

Within Jiang Donghua's body, Venerable Huanhai's last remaining, specially transformed, and extremely pure soul origin power was wildly pouring in!

This power was vast and boundless, carrying the Eighth-Grade Alchemist Grandmaster's profound understanding and supreme mysteries of Soul Power, like a breached flood, washing over, expanding, and nourishing his sea of consciousness!

This surge in Soul Power brought not only an unparalleled sense of comfort and a sharp increase in his perception of the energy of heaven and earth, but also an extreme swelling pain and dizziness, as if his soul was about to be torn apart and his consciousness almost drowned!

Mu Chen, on the other hand, was precisely the opposite!

Two streams of power were wildly flowing back into his body.

One was Venerable Huanhai's Dou Zun-level Dou Qi energy, which, though thin, was of extremely high quality, released during the self-destruction process and mixed in the energy flow.

The other was his original Dou Qi, which he had cultivated painstakingly for the past five years but had been swallowed and stored by the cursed mark, and after being refined and purified by that strange dark space, had become even purer and more vast!

These two forces merged into one, like a surging river, instantly breaking through his originally dry and shrunken meridians, and then, with an almost brutal force, wildly filling, expanding, and strengthening his limbs, organs, and Dou Zhi Qi cyclone!

His cultivation was skyrocketing at a terrifying speed, like a rocket, from late Eight-Star Dou Ling, towards Nine-Star Dou Ling, and even Peak Dou Ling!

The ecstasy brought by this feeling of regaining lost power, and even power far exceeding what he had before, was indescribable!

But at the same time, the tearing pain of his meridians being forcibly widened and his body being filled with violent energy almost made him faint!

His veins bulged all over his body, sweat poured down like rain, and his teeth gnashed, clearly enduring immense pain.

Jiang Donghua closed his eyes tightly, his veins throbbing on his forehead, operating his cultivation technique with all his might, frantically refining the incoming Soul Power.

His heart was filled with both ecstasy and anxiety.

"Spirit Realm Soul, this is the crucial threshold for stepping into an Eighth-Grade Alchemist Grandmaster!"

He clearly knew that for Soul Power to break through from Mortal Realm Great Perfection to Spirit Realm, the difficulty far exceeded the improvement of Dou Qi cultivation, requiring long-term effort and a profound understanding of the soul, which was a rare opportunity!

"Now this heaven-sent opportunity is right before his eyes! Venerable Huanhai's residual soul origin is the supreme treasure medicine to help him impact the Spirit Realm Soul!"

"But it's too fast! Too much!"

Jiang Donghua felt that his sea of consciousness had already expanded to its limit, like a balloon blown to its extreme; if he absorbed any more, he feared it would truly burst!

Even with the fragmented experiences of Venerable Huanhai assisting his understanding, the refining speed was far from keeping up with the influx speed!

"I can't refine any more, I'm really reaching my limit!"

A strong sense of dizziness and tearing continuously impacted his consciousness, making him almost lose control of the energy.

Similarly, Mu Chen next to him also let out an uncontrollable groan of pain, and tiny blood beads even began to seep from the surface of his body, a sign that his meridians were about to reach their limit!

Both of them were caught in a race against time between the enormous energy torrent and their own refining capabilities!

Once they failed, the consequences would be unimaginable!