271: Chapter 271 Golden Core Formation Approaches, Troops Deployed at the Front Lines

Ten zhang.

Inside the blood-filled maw of the Golden Core Abyssal Beast—the moment Lu Changyuan's sword tip aimed at that fist-sized dark blue crystal—a circle of extremely bright and dense spiritual light exploded.

The halo expanded outward from the center of the crystal—the speed of expansion was so fast that it filled the entire oral cavity in less than half a breath—dark blue spiritual light leaked out from between the teeth—every ray of leaking light carried an extremely cold temperature—the light swept across the air—the moisture in the air instantly condensed into extremely fine and dense ice crystals—the ice crystals floated within the dark golden spiritual light layer—neither rising—nor sinking—as if caught between two Spiritual Pressures—unable to move.

Lu Changyuan's sword tip pierced into that circular halo of spiritual light.

The instant the sword tip made contact with the spiritual light—the layer of dark golden spiritual light that had surged to calf-height on the dark copper alloy floor—was split down the middle by the shockwave of the two forces colliding.

The way it was split was extremely neat—from Lu Changyuan's toe toward the direction of the Golden Core Abyssal Beast—a crack less than half a foot wide was torn open in the spiritual light layer—the dark golden spiritual light on both sides of the crack curled outward—the edges of the curling light shimmered with an extremely bright white-gold—then the crack was swallowed by the surging spiritual light in less than a breath—emitting a very light and thin sizzling sound as it was swallowed.

The four legs of the Golden Core Abyssal Beast braked simultaneously less than five zhang away from Lu Changyuan.

The way it braked was by kicking the ground with its front legs—while its hind legs slid forward—the four legs plowed four extremely deep and wide grooves into the dark copper alloy floor.

The surface of the dark copper alloy was scraped open by the hard edges at the bottom of the bone armor—the scraped-off metal debris bounced upward within the dark golden spiritual light layer—and upon being swept by the aftermath of the Spiritual Pressure in mid-air—the debris was instantly shattered into extremely fine and dense metal powder—the powder floated in the air—shimmering with a cold light that was indistinguishable between gold and blue under the overlapping dark golden and dark blue spiritual lights.

The Abyss Beast Leader stopped.

Under the suppression of the Guardian Spirit's Spiritual Pressure, its body released extremely violent fluctuations of spiritual power—the dark copper deposits on the bone armor began to show dense, tiny cracks in the confrontation between the two Spiritual Pressures—the cracks spread inward from the outermost layer of the deposits—with every layer it spread—the color of the cracks changed from ghostly green to dark green—and then to an ink green that was nearly black.

Its mouth closed—then opened again—this time the width of it opening was nearly half as large again as the last time—the dark blue crystal fragments on the inner wall of the oral cavity all lit up—the fragments arranged in a circle simultaneously radiated spiritual light outward—the halos were nested one inside another—pushing outward from the depths of the oral cavity—when pushed to the throat, all the halos contracted in the same instant—contracting into a fist-sized, extremely bright, and extremely blue ball of light.

The ball of light stopped at its throat for less than half a breath.

Then it was ejected.

The dark blue Deep Sea Death Ray shot out from the mouth of the Abyss Beast Leader—the diameter of the beam was nearly three feet—the temperature inside the light pillar dropped to an extreme value—the air the light pillar passed through was instantly frozen—it was the air itself that was frozen—the air condensed into extremely fine and dense liquid mist droplets at the extremely low temperature—the mist droplets formed a circle of semi-transparent white low-temperature layer on the periphery of the light pillar—the low-temperature layer continuously spread outward as the light pillar advanced—spreading onto the dark copper alloy floor—the dark golden spiritual light layer on the surface of the floor dimmed the instant the low-temperature layer swept over it—the light from the cold-light Spirit Stones was refracted within the low-temperature layer—the angle of refraction was extremely irregular—casting a distorted and deformed shadow of light in the center of the altar.

Lu Changyuan did not retreat.

His left foot stepped forward half a step on the dark copper alloy floor—as he stepped down—False Core level spiritual power poured from the Yongquan acupoint into the floor—the ancient Array Pattern on the floor lit up beneath his foot—bright to the extreme limit—then the dark golden spiritual light jumped up from the sole of his foot—jumping over his calf—jumping over his waist—jumping over his chest—surging past the sword tip.

He twisted his wrist—the sword tip traced an extremely short and narrow arc in the air—on the trajectory the arc traced—a faint and thin cyan Sword Qi remained—the Sword Qi stopped in the dark golden spiritual light layer for less than half a breath—then was driven by the sword tip—extending forward in the direction of the sword tip—the speed of extension went from slow to fast—extending to a hundred zhang away in less than a breath.

A hundred-zhang water tornado—exploded out from the sword tip.

The water tornado was forcibly drawn out from the dark golden spiritual light layer around his body—from those semi-transparent spiritual lights that surged to calf-height.

The dark golden spiritual light was pulled by his False Core level spiritual power—converging toward the sword tip—the speed of convergence was extremely fast—so fast that the spiritual light layer appeared with an extremely obvious depression at the very moment it was drawn away by him—the edges of the depression spread outward—spreading to the feet of Shadow One and Shadow Two—spreading to the feet of Leng Feng—spreading to the broken Dharma robe that Shopkeeper Qian had spread on the floor—at everyone's ankles—the spiritual light layer sank nearly half an inch—then surged back—the surged-back spiritual light was nearly half a grade fainter than before—as if some core spiritual power component had been extracted.

The water tornado and the Deep Sea Death Ray collided in mid-air.

The location of the collision was between Lu Changyuan and the Abyss Beast Leader—nearly three zhang away from him—and nearly two zhang away from the Abyss Beast Leader.

The instant of the collision—there was no sound.

It collided too violently—the speed of sound transmission could not keep up with the speed of the collision—the sound exploded nearly half a breath after the collision occurred—the way it exploded was by spreading in all directions simultaneously—the sound waves surged back and forth in the altar space—hitting the dome—bouncing back—hitting the stone walls—bouncing back—every time it bounced—the fragments of the ancient Sword Cultivator's sword-testing Sword Intent remaining on the stone walls resonated once—the frequency of the resonance was so dense that it merged into one—the stone walls of the entire altar were humming.

The water tornado and the Death Ray—were deadlocked.

On the contact surface of the two—the dark golden water tornado and the dark blue Death Ray eroded each other—both sides were consumed simultaneously on the contact surface—the consumed parts turned into extremely fine and dense light debris and splashed outward from the contact surface—the color of the light debris kept jumping between dark gold and dark blue—the speed of the jumping was extremely fast—so fast that human eyes could not distinguish any color—one could only see an extremely bright and white Chaos light mass continuously expanding.

Lu Changyuan's sword tip was vibrating.

The frequency of the vibration transmitted from the sword tip to the hilt—transmitting to the web of his hand—the muscles in the web of his hand were taut in the vibration—so tight that his knuckles turned white.

He pressed the black crystal tightly against his left palm again—the temperature on the surface of the crystal jumped from slightly cool to scalding at the very moment the sword momentum erupted—the heat moved upward from his palm—passing through his wrist—passing through his forearm—reaching his Dantian—deep within his Dantian—that False Core level spiritual power, which had been refined to the extreme by spiritual marrow—had its Meridians washed by the Blue Sea Jade Liquid—and had been compressed by the spiritual restriction array in layers of the Dantian—pushed up by less than half a notch the instant the heat arrived.

The hand that the Guardian Spirit pressed on the stone slab—the moment the two forces collided—its five fingers curled closed by another half an inch.

The five semi-transparent dark golden fingers curled from the suspended gripping posture toward the palm—with every fraction it closed—the spiritual power flow lines at the joints lit up one degree—the brightness shifted from dark gold to a nearly white bright gold.

On the stone slab beneath the palm—those circular cracks expanded another circle outward from the array core—the newly expanded cracks overlapped with the old cracks—nesting ring by ring—the outermost layer of cracks had already extended to the edge of the altar.

Deep within the cracks of the array core—an extremely heavy and strong fluctuation of spiritual power was surging upward—the speed of the surge was not fast—but every inch it surged upward—the dark golden spiritual light layer of the entire altar space jumped upward once—the magnitude of the jump was not large—less than half an inch—but the frequency of the jump was completely synchronized with the swallowing and spitting frequency of the spiritual power flow lines inside the Guardian Spirit's arm.

Lu Changyuan sensed this surging spiritual power—with the soles of his feet.

The dark copper alloy floor beneath his feet—every time the spiritual light layer jumped upward—the surface temperature of the floor jumped up by less than half a degree.

Once—twice—three times—the jumping frequency of the floor surface temperature was completely consistent with the spiritual power swallowing and spitting frequency of the Guardian Spirit's arm.

He spoke—his voice was not loud—but amidst the roaring sound of the water tornado and the Death Ray colliding—every word fell extremely steadily.

"Leng Feng—right flank."

Leng Feng stepped out from the side of the stone platform.

His narrow-bladed straight sword was already raised—the sword tip locked onto the seam between the left shoulder armor and the chest armor of the Golden Core Abyssal Beast on the right—the dark copper deposits at the seam were at least half as thin as in other locations—the result of hundreds of years of wear and tear.

The body size of that Golden Core Abyssal Beast was nearly two sizes smaller than the leader—the dark copper deposits on the bone armor were only the outermost layer—under the dual suppression of the Guardian Spirit's Spiritual Pressure and Lu Changyuan's False Core level Spiritual Pressure—its four legs were inching forward—the speed of movement was not fast—but every inch it moved—the dark blue crystal fragments at the tips of the bone spurs lit up one degree.

Its target was the array core in the center of the altar—it was circling—moving toward the array core from the flank.

Leng Feng's figure pulled out an extremely short and narrow afterimage within the dark golden spiritual light layer.

The trajectory traced by the narrow-bladed straight sword in the air was extremely concise—without any superfluous movements—from raising the sword to striking—there was no transition in between—the sword tip appeared directly from one position to another—piercing into the seam of the Golden Core Abyssal Beast's bone armor on the left—the depth of the piercing was less than half an inch—but the position of the piercing was extremely precise—exactly stuck at the thinnest point of the deposit layer at the seam.

When the sword tip pierced in—a circle of extremely bright and fine dark golden sparks exploded at the seam of the bone armor—the sparks flashed under the cold-light Spirit Stones—then extinguished—leaving an extremely fine and faint sword mark at the seam of the bone armor.

That Golden Core Abyssal Beast let out a low, pained roar—its body turned from moving sideways to facing Leng Feng directly—it gave up circling—all the bone spurs on the bone armor stood up—the dark blue crystal fragments at the tips of the bone spurs lit up simultaneously—more than a dozen extremely fine and extremely cold spiritual power rays shot out from the tips of the bone spurs—the direction—Leng Feng.

"Shadow One, Shadow Two—left flank, combined attack."

Shadow One and Shadow Two had already moved the moment Leng Feng struck.

The two's short swords crossed in the air—the spiritual power density at the intersection point crossed the Golden Core threshold in an instant—the extremely narrow and long rift in the air expanded outward under the compression of the spiritual power density—the spiritual power light inside the rift changed from extremely bright and white to a nearly transparent dark gold—the same color shade as the Guardian Spirit's arm.

The two stepped forward simultaneously—the stride length of their steps was completely consistent—left foot—right foot—every step they took on the dark copper alloy floor—the ancient Array Pattern on the floor lit up beneath their feet—the position of the light faintly echoed the spiritual power circulation routes within their bodies.

The Golden Core Abyssal Beast on the left—the smallest one—had dark copper deposits on its bone armor that hadn't fully hardened yet. Faint bone growth lines were still visible on the surface of the deposits; this was a young Abyssal Beast that had only recently reached the Golden Core Stage.

Its reaction was nearly half a beat faster than the other two. As the intersection point of Shadow One and Shadow Two's Sword Qi formed, it had already turned its body toward them. A bone shield sprang from its flank, the shield face unfolding to nearly a zhang in width, blocking nearly two-thirds of the entrance to the side corridor.

The dark copper deposits on the bone shield's surface glimmered with a freezing, eerie green light within the dark golden Spiritual Pressure layer. The bone texture on the shield face spiraled outward from the center, with the spacing between each spiral perfectly uniform. This was a standard-issue bone shield of the Haiyuan Clan Royal Court Imperial Guard; the young Abyssal Beast was a descendant of the Royal Court's Blood Sacrifice faction.

The combined Sword Qi attack from Shadow One and Shadow Two collided with the bone shield.

At the moment of impact, Shadow One pulled her left foot inward by less than half an inch, and Shadow Two hooked the counterweight ball on her sword hilt upward with her right pinky by less than half a li. Their spiritual power twisted simultaneously at the intersection point in the same direction—the opposite direction of the bone shield's spiral pattern.

The combined Sword Qi exploded across the surface of the bone shield, tearing in the opposite direction along the spiral pattern. The Sword Qi wove between the textures; with each spiral it passed, a layer of the dark copper deposits on the bone shield was stripped away. The fragments of the stripped deposits were ground into extremely fine, dense powder by the Sword Qi in the air. The powder sank within the dark golden Spiritual Pressure layer, landing on the floor and spreading a thin, faint layer of eerie green dust.

"The one in the middle—"

Lu Changyuan pushed his sword tip forward amidst the stalemate between the water tornado and the death beam.

It was the angle. He turned his wrist inward by less than half a circle, and the angle of his sword tip changed, shifting from directly facing the center of the death beam to a side-cut. The direction of the water tornado followed the change in the sword tip's angle, shifting from a frontal collision to an oblique cut. The angle of this cut was incredibly tricky, landing precisely on the weak point of the death beam's spiritual power.

The distribution of spiritual power inside the death beam was extremely uneven; the density was highest at the center and decreased toward the edges. This gradient of decreasing density formed an incredibly narrow and thin weak zone of spiritual power on the periphery of the beam. As the death beam fired, this weak zone moved nearly a zhang per second, tracking so fast that the spiritual sense of an ordinary Foundation Establishment Cultivator could not possibly capture it.

However, Lu Changyuan's spiritual sense had been refined by Spirit Marrow, washed by three hundred years of Azure Sea Jade Liquid, and repeatedly tempered by False Core-level spiritual power; his spiritual sense perception speed was at least an order of magnitude faster than an ordinary Late Foundation Establishment Stage Cultivator. The movement trajectory of the death beam's weak spiritual zone was, in his spiritual sense perception, like following the path of a silk thread slowly drifting in the air with his finger; every inch of its movement was clearly visible.

The slanted face of the water tornado cut into the weak zone of the death beam.

At the moment of the cut, a disruption of spiritual power occurred within the death beam. The weak zone was severed, and the death beam split into two sections. The front half, having lost the spiritual power supply from the back half, turned from dark blue to nearly transparent light blue in less than half a breath, then disintegrated. It disintegrated by exploding outward from the center. The fragments of the death beam streaked through the air, leaving behind extremely short, bright blue trails of light. The trails flew outward within the dark golden Spiritual Pressure layer, but halfway through, they were swept into the residual spiritual power of the water tornado. Inside the water tornado, the swept-up death beam fragments were squeezed, crushed, and assimilated. The color of the water tornado shifted from dark golden to a gold-blue interweaving, mixed with dark blue.

The back half of the death beam exploded inside the Abyss Beast Leader's mouth.

The cause of the explosion was the backlash after the spiritual power disruption; the annular structure formed by the dark blue crystal fragments lost its balance at the moment of the disruption. The spiritual power inside the fragments backflowed, and the backflowing spiritual power collided at the center of the annular structure. The shockwave of the collision tore the ball of light at its throat open from the inside. The Abyss Beast Leader's mouth slammed shut, but the shockwave had already exploded. The bone structure on the inner wall of its mouth emitted a deep, muffled cracking sound under the shockwave. Several dark blue crystal fragments embedded in the inner wall of the mouth were shaken loose from the bone by the shockwave, flying out from between its teeth and tumbling in the air. Each fragment dragged an extremely long, dark blue trail of light behind it, the brightness of which decayed from extremely bright to extremely dark in less than half a breath. The fragments slammed onto the dark copper alloy floor, producing a very light, crisp clattering sound, and then went dark.

The residual power of the water tornado slammed into the Abyss Beast Leader's closed mouth.

The force of the impact pushed the Abyss Beast Leader's upper body back nearly three feet. Its front legs slid backward on the dark copper alloy floor, and the hard edges at the bottom of its bone armor plowed two grooves into the floor, deeper than the previous ones. The metal at the edges of the grooves was curled upward, the curled metal edges reflecting a very faint dark copper glimmer under the cold-light Spirit Stones. It stopped, its four legs standing firm again. The dark copper deposits on its bone armor had been stripped away by a layer under the scouring of the water tornado's residual spiritual power. Where it had peeled away, the dark green bone body underneath was revealed, its surface covered with a very thin, faint layer of residual dark golden Spiritual Pressure—the residual spiritual power left on its bone armor after the water tornado's impact. The residual spiritual power flickered on the surface of its bone body at a very slow frequency, one bright, one dark, perfectly synchronized with the spiritual power flickering frequency of the altar's array core.

Then, the Abyss Beast Leader's mouth opened again.

This time, the way its mouth opened was completely different from before. It was the bone armor that was moving. Its entire body's bone armor—starting from the head, extending downward, passing the neck, the shoulder armor, the back, the flanks, all the way to the tail armor—every piece of bone armor was pushing outward simultaneously, as if something was squeezing out from inside its body. The seams between the bone armor, where the bone edges had originally been tightly interlocked, were pushed open. From the gaps, extremely thick, dark, ink-green spiritual light seeped out. The density of the spiritual light was extremely high, and the speed at which it seeped from the gaps was extremely slow, like magma seeping out from a deep crustal fissure. With every inch that seeped out, the bone at the edges of the gaps was dyed a shade deeper, changing from dark green to ink-green, and then to a near-black ink-green.

The area where the bone armor seams were pushed open doubled in less than three breaths.

Then, the bone spikes all surged in size.

Every bone spike extended outward. The speed of the extension was so fast that the dark blue crystal fragments embedded in the tips of the bone spikes were squeezed out of the bone by the force of the extension. The fragments rotated at the tips of the bone spikes; with each rotation, the dark blue spiritual light inside the fragments brightened by one degree, the brightness shifting from dark blue to a nearly white, bright blue. In less than two breaths, the bone spikes extended to nearly twice their original length. And it was a proliferation; as the bone spike surface extended, a new layer of bone curled outward, covering the old bone. The speed of the coverage was so fast that a very clear growth line formed between the new and old bone, the color of the line reflecting a very faint, pale golden glimmer within the dark golden Spiritual Pressure layer.

As the bone armor pushed open and the bone spikes surged, the Abyss Beast Leader's body expanded by nearly thirty percent. Its four legs thickened. At the seams of the leg bone armor, muscle tissue bulged out from the gaps. The surface of the bulging muscle was covered with extremely fine, dense dark green scales. The edges of the scales were extremely thin, so thin they were nearly translucent under the cold-light Spirit Stones. Each scale vibrated at an extremely fast frequency, a frequency completely synchronized with the surging spiritual power fluctuation inside its body.

Berserk State.

The Berserk State of a variant Abyssal Beast relied on the combat instincts carved into the deepest layers of its bones, deep within its Bloodline. When a Golden Core Stage variant Abyssal Beast was suppressed in battle, forced back under the Spiritual Pressure of a Guardian Spirit, or stripped of its bone armor by the residual power of a water tornado, its Bloodline instinct would automatically trigger the Berserk State. After entering the Berserk State, the bone spikes doubled in length, speed surged, and the intensity of spiritual power output jumped by at least nearly half. The cost was that after the Berserk State ended, it would require at least several months of deep-sea hibernation to recover. If it were heavily injured again while in the Berserk State, it would cause permanent damage to its spiritual power Foundation.

The price was extremely heavy. But the Abyss Beast Leader, under the suppression of the Guardian Spirit's Spiritual Pressure and before the sword tip of that human False Core Cultivator opposite the water tornado, chose to pay any price.

The moment the Berserk State was complete, its four legs exerted force simultaneously, and its body catapulted from its spot. The speed was so fast that it dragged a long, wide ink-green afterimage through the dark golden Spiritual Pressure layer. The afterimage lingered in the air for less than half a breath, then was caught up to and swallowed by its body, and then a new afterimage appeared in a new position. It did not charge head-on, but rather bypassed the residual spiritual power barrier of the water tornado from the side, leaping upward from the left periphery to a height of nearly ten zhang in the air. Its body flipped in the air, and all its bone spikes spread out. When the dense forest of bone spikes unfolded on its back, it looked like a deep-sea hedgehog opening all its spines in the air. The crystal fragments at the tips of the spines, illuminated by the cold-light Spirit Stones on the dome, reflected a dense cluster of blue-white light spots. The light spots formed an extremely irregular patch of light in the air, the shadow of which projected onto the altar floor, completely shrouding Lu Changyuan's position.

Then, it came down from the air, with the momentum of Mount Tai pressing down, crashing toward him.

The bone spikes were like a forest; spiritual power surged wildly. The dark golden altar Spiritual Pressure layer, under the impact of the air pressure from its descent, buckled downward from the center. The depth of the depression went from half a foot to one foot, then to one and a half feet. The Spiritual Pressure layer at the edges of the depression was squeezed outward by the air pressure, the curling spiritual light reflecting very faint, thin golden ripples under the dome's cold-light Spirit Stones, spreading outward in circles—spreading under Leng Feng's sword, under Shadow One and Shadow Two's feet, to where Shopkeeper Qian was huddled at the base of the stone wall, and to every corner of the entire altar space.

Lu Changyuan looked up.

In his pupils—was reflected the forest of ink-green bone spikes, blotting out the sky, crashing down from the air.