516: Reversal of polarity

In the haste, Elder Xuan condensed all his strength, subconsciously raising his hand to form a green shield with his remaining Spiritual Qi to block his front. A crisp yet deafening clash rang out as the Golden Scaled Dragon phantom, carrying the flowing cloud sword, stabbed fiercely into the green shield. The golden and green Spiritual Qi collided violently, forming a powerful shockwave that spread in all directions, causing the stone walls of the Immortal Cave to rustle and crumble as rubble fell and dust filled the air.

Even in his weakest state, the Foundation of a former Soul Transformation Cultivator was still terrifying; that hastily condensed shield actually managed to withstand Murong Gu's over-leveled strike.

However, he was also shaken by the shockwave, his chest heaving violently as more black blood seeped from the corners of his mouth. His face grew increasingly pale, and his already weakened body was pushed to its limits, making it difficult for him to even stand steadily.

After the initial shock, endless anger and pain surged into Elder Xuan's heart. His eyes were filled with unbelievable disappointment and fury as he hissed at Murong Gu, "You brat, you're crazy! What are you doing?! I have not treated you poorly; why are you trying to kill me?"

Murong Gu's chest ached, and blood trickled from his mouth as he staggered back a few steps. Yet, he still gripped the flowing cloud sword tightly, the Golden Scaled Dragon phantom around him not yet dissipated. His eyes were as sharp as knives as he stared fixedly at Elder Xuan, roaring through gritted teeth, "You Devil Head, stop pretending! Look at yourself—haggard and withered, covered in an ominous and evil aura. Where is there even a hint of an immortal's grace left in you?"

He pointed at the Bloody Jade Box in Elder Xuan's hand, his voice carrying suppressed anger and fear: "You deliberately used the Azure Origin Art to trap me at my Realm, polishing my Foundation day after day, simply because you wanted to Cultivate me into the perfect Possession container! I've heard such tricks and stories countless times since I was a child. Do you think you can deceive me? Today, even if I have to sacrifice my life, I will never let you succeed!"

"Possession?" Elder Xuan was stunned upon hearing this, and then he let out a bitter laugh filled with sorrow. "You boy, you think so lowly of me. If I truly wanted to perform a Possession on you, I would have done it back when you accidentally entered the Soul Severing Forest and were being hunted by the Black Flame Bear. Why would I wait until today and go through the trouble of giving you resources and guiding your Cultivation? It's true that I was once one of the Four Great Devil Generals who followed the Netherworld Lord to conquer the world, and I have killed countless people, but that was a thousand years ago. I have lived here in seclusion for a century, long since recuperating and resting! I was merely waiting for my Lifespan to end."

Xuanyuan Gu shouted coldly, "You admitted it, you are a Devil Head! You're still pretending!! During the past six months you were missing, you must have gone to find treasures to assist your Possession."

Elder Xuan took out a jade box: "Do you know what I was doing during those six months I was gone?? I used all the Magical Artifacts and merits of my entire life to go to the Netherworld and beg the Netherworld Lord, Xiao Jingyan, for a Heaven-Defying, fate-changing Reshaping Pill. I saw that your skeletal structure was ordinary and your upper limit was too low, so I wanted to use this Reshaping Pill to help you reshape your bones before I died!!"

Murong Gu was shaken, a look of bewilderment appearing on his face. Looking at Elder Xuan's sincere expression, it didn't seem like a facade. No, no, it must be his lie; he couldn't fall for it: "If you weren't going to perform a Possession, why did you deliberately block my Realm? Why did you hide your identity?"

"Blocking your Realm was to temper you. Although your Physical Body from Body Tempering is good, your skeletal structure can only be considered mediocre in the Eternal Continent. If you Cultivate at a normal speed, you would at most stop at the Golden Core and never achieve greatness. The shackles of the Azure Origin Art were meant to let you repeatedly polish your Spiritual Qi and Physical Body within the Bottleneck, solidifying your Foundation. I intended to help you Breakthrough in one fell swoop once the timing was right, achieving twice the result with half the effort. I planned to help you break through the Bottleneck and reach the Golden Core after my seclusion ended. I never expected you to be so ungrateful and even try to kill me!"

"I don't believe you!" Murong Gu interrupted him. "How can the words of a Devil Head like you be taken seriously? That Bloody Jade Box in your hand and this weird Reshaping Pill must be evil objects! They must have been prepared for the Possession!"

Elder Xuan was beyond furious. His Lifespan was already near its end, and being so misunderstood and interrupted by Murong Gu made his anger uncontrollable.

"Stubborn and incorrigible! I intended to do one good deed before I died, yet you treat me like this. Today, I will let you know that even if my Lifespan is at its end, dealing with you is still as easy as turning over my palm!"

Elder Xuan's gentle gaze instantly turned cold, and a suffocating Divine Might erupted from his body—it was the Foundation of a Soul Transformation Cultivator. Even if his Lifespan was nearly exhausted and his Divine Soul was decaying, he was by no means someone a Golden Core Cultivator could contend with.

Countless blood threads as thin as hair surged from his palm, glinting with a chilling luster. They coiled toward Murong Gu like venomous snakes, the air making sharp whistling sounds wherever they passed as it was sliced through.

Murong Gu felt as if every bone in his body was about to be crushed by this Divine Might. His Golden Core vibrated violently within his Dantian, and the flow of his Spiritual Qi instantly stalled. When those blood threads coiled around his body, a bone-piercing pain spread throughout him, as if he would be sliced into countless pieces in the next second.

"Ah—!" He convulsed in pain, veins bulging on his forehead, yet he still gritted his teeth firmly, refusing to bow his head and beg for mercy.

In this moment of life and death, his survival instinct and the potential of the Divine Illumination Seamless Record completely erupted.

Murong Gu frantically circulated his Cultivation Technique, the power of his Divine Soul within his Sea of Consciousness surging. The full power of the second Realm was released, and a strand of Divine Soul power, refined to the extreme, broke through the shackles of his Physical Body, condensing into a Golden Soul Sword about an inch long within his Sea of Consciousness.

This soul sword carried a sharp light that could pierce through delusions, and it actually forced its way through the Soul Transformation Cultivator's mental barrier, stabbing straight into the core of Elder Xuan's Sea of Consciousness!

"Ah—!" A shrill scream escaped Elder Xuan's mouth. His entire body convulsed violently, and the blood threads around him instantly disintegrated into fly ash, his Soul Transformation Divine Might vanishing along with them.

He stared at Murong Gu in disbelief, a large amount of black blood overflowing from his mouth. His voice was broken and ragged: "Im... Impossible! How can your Divine Sense be this strong? You are clearly only... only at the Golden Core! To actually be able to pierce through my Divine Soul barrier..."

Elder Xuan's Divine Soul was instantly heavily damaged. He let out a shrill cry as his withered body convulsed violently. His Spiritual Qi fell into complete chaos, and his rate of aging accelerated abruptly—his hair all fell out, his skin became as dry as withered bark, and even his breathing grew faint.

Murong Gu was knocked back repeatedly by the force of the backlash, a mist of blood spraying from his chest.

Elder Xuan slumped on the ground, gasping for breath as black blood continued to leak from his mouth. However, a crazed smile appeared in his eyes, his laughter hoarse and desolate: "Retribution... truly retribution! A thousand years ago, I killed people like grass, creating boundless slaughter. In my old age, I wanted to turn back and do one good thing, to take a disciple to pass on my Legacy and make up for my past mistakes, but in the end, I am to be killed by the very disciple I wanted to take in... Hahaha, how satisfying! How satisfying!"

He tremblingly raised his hand, pointing at the Reshaping Pill on the ground, his tone weak yet carrying an unquestionable solemnity: "That... that is not an evil object. It is a divine item that can change fate and reshape a Cultivator's Foundation. Your Divine Sense is so powerful; you can completely check it for yourself!"

Murong Gu feared it was another trap and cautiously checked it with his Divine Sense.

Sure enough, he found that this Reshaping Pill did not have a trace of evil energy. It contained dense Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi and was clearly a Heaven And Earth Treasure.

"No, impossible. How could a Devil Head like you do so much for a stranger like me? I don't believe it. It's fake, it must be fake!!" Murong Gu felt as if he had been struck by lightning. He froze in place, the color draining from his face, leaving only an expression of unbelievable bewilderment.