232: Chapter 232 Line up, scan the code to pay!

"Roar—!!!"

Dozens of evil spirits opened their bloody maws, their blood-red eyes flashing within the black mist.

These monsters, refined personally by Yin Tianzheng, possessed no sanity at all; their minds were filled with nothing but pure killing instinct.

As soon as they smelled so much fresh blood around Blood Crystal Valley, they immediately began to hiss and roar in excitement.

Some pounced toward the dazed prodigies.

Others roared as they charged toward Cao Kun at the center of the Lightning Tribulation.

"Demonic creatures! They're demonic creatures!"

"Damn it! Where did all these evil spirits come from?! How can such foul things exist in the Ancient God Ruins?!"

The prodigies, who had originally rushed here full of joy to snatch an "ancient Opportunity," were now terrified.

They tried to break through the evil spirits' blockade to escape, but the strength of those evil spirits far exceeded their imagination.

"Ah—!!"

A weaker Prodigy failed to dodge in time and was pounced on directly by an evil spirit.

Pitch-black mist instantly surged into his body.

Immediately after, that Prodigy let out a blood-curdling scream.

His skin turned dark black at a visible rate, his limbs twisted and deformed, and patches of pitch-black scales grew out of his spine with a "crack-crack" sound.

His eyes changed from a normal color to blood-red.

His mouth split open to his ears, revealing a mouthful of sharp fangs.

Furthermore,

As he mutated, his aura actually broke through the Law suppression of the Ancient God Ruins!

It climbed to the Early Body Integration Stage.

It lost all reason, opened its bloody maw, and pounced toward its nearest companion.

*Splat!*

A Myriad Sword Sect Disciple failed to react and was directly slapped into a pulp, sword and all, by his former fellow Disciple.

"Junior Brother!!"

Ye Qingyun's eyes were bloodshot, but he didn't dare to look back.

Because a Body Integration Stage evil spirit was chasing him right behind his back.

"Damn it! The Laws of the Ancient God Ruins clearly suppress all cultivation within the Void Refining stage! How can it break through to the Body Integration Stage?!"

Similar tragedies were playing out everywhere.

Two more weaker prodigies were possessed by evil spirits, turning into black-scaled Body Integration Stage monsters.

Three Body Integration Stage monsters.

Plus the remaining dozens of Peak Void Refining evil spirits.

They trapped hundreds of prodigies within Blood Crystal Valley.

In front was the "Living Yama" Cao Kun Undergoing Tribulation.

Behind were the Body Integration Stage monsters unaffected by the Law suppression.

Caught in the middle, the mental state of the various prodigies completely collapsed.

"What a sin!!"

"I just came to find an Opportunity! How did it turn into this?!"

The female cultivator from the Tianji Pavilion was on the verge of tears.

Ye Qingyun unsheathed three Top-Grade Spirit Treasure Flying Swords, barely blocking an evil spirit's pounce, and was knocked back dozens of steps by the impact.

His heart was now filled with deep regret.

If he had known that this so-called seven-colored divine light was just this Star of Misfortune breaking through, he would have rather gouged out his own eyes than run here!

At the bottom of the valley.

Cao Kun opened his eyes.

His Divine Sense had long since captured the changes on the periphery.

Evil spirits, possession, Body Integration Stage monsters...

"The work of the Lingxiao Divine Kingdom?"

"That old geezer Yin Tianzheng really is persistent."

He stood up and looked up at the Seven-Colored Tribulation Clouds overhead, which were brewing the second divine lightning.

Then he looked at the corpses of those prodigies who had been torn apart by the monsters, their Storage Rings lost who-knows-where, and Cao Kun's expression immediately darkened.

"Damn it!"

"Yin Tianzheng, you old bastard! It's one thing for you to send monsters to kill me, but who gave you permission to kill my fat sheep?!"

"Daring to cut off my path to wealth—you already have a path to death!"

Facing the dozen or so evil spirits roaring and charging toward him,

Instead of dodging, Cao Kun took the initiative to meet them.

"Rumble—!"

The second Seven-Colored Heavenly Lightning struck at this moment!

The terrifying power of lightning enveloped an area of several hundred feet.

Cao Kun bore the brunt of it.

But relying on the Chaos Unity Art, the Eternal Green Wood Immortal, and the Dao Wheel, he stubbornly withstood the damage at the core of the lightning.

The outer layer of his Physical Body's skin was charred black by the lightning, but the internal Meridians and bones became even more resilient under the tempering of the lightning power.

However, those evil spirits charging at him weren't so lucky.

The extreme Yang power of the Seven-Colored Heavenly Lightning naturally countered the Yin-attribute evil spirits.

Wherever the lightning reached, the evil spirits let out shrill screams.

Their bodies twisted violently in the lightning, and the pitch-black mist crackled as it was electrocuted.

"Awoo—!!"

The dozen or so evil spirits charging at Cao Kun were forced back by the lightning, rolling and howling in pain thirty feet away from him.

Although they weren't directly destroyed, they clearly didn't dare to approach another step.

Cao Kun looked around at the prodigies being chased to their wits' end by the evil spirits.

A bold idea took shape in his mind.

"Ahem!"

"Fellow Daoists! Don't be afraid!"

Cao Kun's voice pierced through the thunder, clearly reaching everyone's ears.

"Meeting is a form of Karma!"

All the prodigies looked at him at the same time.

Cao Kun stood amidst the seven-colored lightning, surrounded by half-dead evil spirits being electrocuted.

He had a kind smile on his face, looking like a warm-hearted older neighbor.

"Seeing you all being bullied by these ugly freaks makes me feel quite uneasy."

"How about this: each of you hands over a Storage Ring as a protection fee, and today I'll show some mercy and work part-time as a bodyguard to slay these demons for you!"

"What do you think?"

The words fell.

The entire Blood Crystal Valley went silent for a moment.

Then, an uproar broke out.

"What?! Hand over our Storage Rings?!"

"This is a damn robbery while the house is on fire!"

"We're being chased by monsters, and you actually want to collect a protection fee?! Why don't you just go rob someone?!"

Curses rose one after another.

"Hey, hey, hey, you can't say that. Slander carries karmic responsibility."

Cao Kun looked indifferent.

"I'm a principled businessman; I don't force sales. Whether you pay or not is up to you."

"If you don't pay, just keep playing with those Body Integration Stage monsters."

"Anyway, I'm not in a hurry."

*Splat!*

During the conversation,

Another Prodigy who didn't believe in the danger tried to break out.

He was slapped by a Body Integration Stage monster, crushing half his body along with his protective Magic Treasure, his intestines spilling all over the ground.

The bloody reality shattered the prodigies' pitiful self-esteem.

No matter how important money was, could it be more important than life?!

"I'll pay! Can't I just pay!"

The first to compromise was a Disciple from the Tianji Pavilion.

While dodging an evil spirit's pursuit, he pulled the Storage Ring off his finger and threw it toward Cao Kun.

"Here! Quick, save me!"

People from the Tianji Pavilion were the best at calculations.

Trading one Storage Ring for a life—no matter how you calculated it, it wasn't a loss.

Cao Kun caught the Storage Ring steadily and scanned it with his Divine Sense.

Hmm, over three million Top-Grade Spirit Stones, plus several decent Magic Treasures.

This female cultivator from the Tianji Pavilion was a real little rich woman.

"Deal."

He casually flicked out a strand of Chaos Sword Qi, sending the two evil spirits chasing that Disciple flying.

Hit by the Chaos Qi, the evil spirits let out shrill screams, and more than half of their black mist dissipated.

"Come over and stand behind me."

With the first successful example of getting to safety, the remaining prodigies no longer cared about face!

"I'll pay too..."

"Take it, take it! Don't let that thing come over!"

"My Storage Ring is here! Take it quickly!"

One Storage Ring after another flew toward Cao Kun.

Cao Kun caught the Storage Rings while undergoing his tribulation, busy and happy.

"Hey! You in the purple clothes! Your Storage Ring only has eight hundred thousand Spirit Stones? Do you think I'm a beggar? Throw that jade pendant on your waist over here too!"

"Ye Qingyun from the Myriad Sword Sect, right? I've had my eye on you for a long time. Leave two of those three Flying Swords behind your back, or I won't save you!"

The entire scene became extremely absurd.

For every ring Cao Kun collected, he flicked out a strand of Sword Qi to help the person out of their predicament.

In just half an incense stick's time, the more than two hundred surviving prodigies on the outskirts of Blood Crystal Valley had all been picked clean by Cao Kun.

They obediently hid in the lightning safety zone behind Cao Kun, shivering.

And at the very moment the last Storage Ring fell into Cao Kun's palm,

The tribulation clouds overhead surged to the extreme.

"Boom—!!!"

The third seven-colored divine lightning finally fell.

Cao Kun swept all the collected Storage Rings into the tower in one go and laughed wildly toward the sky.

Using the Five Emperors Origin True Body combined with the Chaos Unity Art, he actually swallowed the entire final bolt of heavenly lightning into his body!

As Cao Kun successfully crossed the Lightning Tribulation,

The spiritual power in his body completed its final transformation at this moment.

The bottleneck of the Late Soul Transformation Stage completely ceased to exist.

Cao Kun's cultivation officially stepped into the Early Void Refinement Stage!

At the moment of his Breakthrough, a mixture of Chaos Qi and the residual power of the Seven-Colored Heavenly Lightning spread in all directions.

The Body Integration Stage monsters and evil spirits circling nearby, unwilling to leave, faced this destructive storm of Laws head-on.

The extremely firm and Yang power of the heavenly lightning instantly burned the Indestructible Living Being Origins maintained within them to ashes!

The physical bodies of the three Body Integration Stage monsters collapsed amidst shrill wails.

They then turned into pools of black water.

The remaining evil spirits were completely annihilated in the lightning storm.

The crisis was resolved.

The prodigies who had paid the protection fee slumped to the ground.

Looking at the back in the center of the lightning that seemed like a god or demon, they could no longer harbor even a shred of resistance, only awe.

At the same time, the System's notification sounded in Cao Kun's mind.

[Ding! Detected that the host's cultivation has broken through to the Void Refinement Stage.]

[The second floor of the all-heavens and myriad-realms demon suppressing tower has officially opened!]

Yu Linglong