343: Chapter 343 The Foundation of the Chaotic Dao Body!

Immortal Master Xinghe's face was so gloomy it could drip water; he stared fixedly at the Void Realm where the portal had vanished, his chest heaving violently, and it took a long while for him to suppress his churning blood and rage.

He took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down, and turned to an Elder beside him who had been silently observing and recording while holding a star disk—Immortal Master Tianyan.

"Elder Tianyan," Immortal Master Xinghe's voice carried a suppressed hoarseness, "have you recorded the star formation, spatial nodes, and energy fluctuations from when the Secret Realm portal opened just now? Can it be opened again?"

Immortal Master Tianyan stroked the star disk in his hand, which was flowing with brilliance, a hint of complacency appearing on his face as he nodded affirmatively:

"Rest assured, Chief. This old man has already fully recorded and deduced the changes in the formation, the positions of the stars, and the rhythm of the energy. Although this formation is quite exquisite and ancient, rearranging it to reopen the Secret Realm portal is not a difficult task!"

Upon hearing this, a trace of ferocity and hope finally flashed in Immortal Master Xinghe's eyes:

"Good! Start immediately, rearrange the formation, and open the portal!"

"Yes!"

The Elders were invigorated; although they had suffered a setback just now, if they could reopen the portal and block the exit, the opponent would become a turtle in a jar!

Under Immortal Master Tianyan's command, they immediately began moving the stellar debris according to the results deduced by the star disk, attempting to recreate the previous silver-white star map formation.

These Elders were, after all, deep in cultivation; working together, their efficiency in moving stars, while not as good as Three Eyes, was still quite impressive.

Soon, star after star was pushed to its predetermined position, and faint lines of starlight began to outline the shape once more.

Immortal Master Tianyan was fully focused, constantly adjusting the finer details:

"Shift left by three points... move that meteor iron star forward by another hundred miles... Good! Inject Star Power and activate the formation eye!"

As the last few key stars returned to their positions and Star Power was injected, the silver-white star map formation lit up again, and the space in the center began to twist and ripple...

A rotating, slightly blurry phantom of a starlight portal slowly emerged!

"Success!" an Elder said joyfully.

Cold light flickered in Immortal Master Xinghe's eyes, and he was about to order a few people to enter first to investigate.

However, just at the moment when the portal phantom was gradually solidifying and about to open completely—

Hum!

The portal phantom suddenly trembled, as if it had struck an invisible, indestructible barrier!

No matter how the formation urged the Star Power to impact it, the portal could not be further stabilized or expanded, remaining in a blurry, unstable state that seemed ready to collapse at any moment, let alone allowing anyone to pass through.

"What is going on?!"

Immortal Master Xinghe's expression changed, and he looked at Immortal Master Tianyan.

Immortal Master Tianyan also furrowed his brows tightly, the light in the star disk in his hand flickering rapidly as he deduced; a moment later, he looked up, his face filled with incredulous astonishment and a trace of dejection:

"The portal... has been locked from the inside!"

"There is a force that has sealed the 'inner side' of the portal passage from within the Secret Realm! Our formation can only 'knock' from the outside, but we cannot 'push open' a door that is being braced from the inside!"

"Unless it is opened from within, or there is a force several levels above the one who set the barrier to forcibly blast it open from the outside, we simply cannot get in!"

As soon as these words were spoken, all the Elders were stunned.

Seal the Secret Realm? From the inside?

That guy... the first thing he did after going in was to lock the door behind him?!

Immortal Master Xinghe felt a surge of stifling air rush straight to his head, and his vision even went slightly dark.

He had exhausted his efforts, bringing a group of Elders to rearrange the formation, and this was the result?

The opponent not only got in, but also conveniently locked the door from the inside!

This was simply a naked mockery and humiliation of their Sky Patrol Immortal Alliance, and of him, Immortal Master Xinghe!

Immortal Master Xinghe squeezed a sentence out from between his teeth, his voice like ice from the Nine Netherworlds:

"Good! Very good! This seat wants to see how long you can hide in there!"

"Set up a grand formation and completely seal off this Star Domain for me! Do not let even a single bug out!"

He did not believe that a Fallen Immortal could hide in a Secret Realm for a lifetime!

Inside the Starry Sky Secret Realm, however, it was a different, tranquil scene.

Starlight was brilliant, and energy was like a tide.

Su Mo stood with his hands behind his back on the shore of a lake that seemed to be composed of liquid starlight, looking at the dreamlike Secret Realm world before him, and nodded with satisfaction.

The phantom of the Great Desire Heavenly Immortal Venerable slowly withdrew his hand, the starlight fading from his fingertips:

"The portal has been sealed from the inside; those people will not be able to get in for a while."

He turned to Su Mo, his phantom pointing to the vast lake before them, shimmering with waves and formed entirely from condensed liquid starlight:

"Little friend, the resource this old man has left for you is this lake."

Su Mo's eyebrows raised slightly, his gaze sweeping over this tranquil and brilliant star lake; apart from the extremely pure Star Power, he did not perceive anything else unusual:

"This lake?"

"Exactly." The Great Desire Heavenly Immortal Venerable's voice carried a hint of complacency and reminiscence, "This lake was not naturally formed; it was condensed by this old man when I traveled the universe, collecting Nine Heavens Star Essence and Chaos First Dew, spending ten thousand years of time to achieve it. Its sole utility is to help you condense the true Foundation of the Chaos Dao Body!"

"Although the energy of this lake is vast and gentle, the Fusion process requires your own Chaos Qi as a catalyst to reshape your Foundation; it is extremely painful and carries a certain amount of risk. Is little friend willing to give it a try?" the Great Desire Heavenly Immortal Venerable said solemnly.

Su Mo did not answer, just chuckled, took a step forward, and walked into the lake where starlight flowed.

In an instant, the calm lake surface boiled!

The endless liquid starlight seemed to have found its destination, turning into billions of brilliant streams of light, actively rushing toward Su Mo.

The Chaos Qi that was originally calm within his body seemed to be ignited, operating and surging at an unprecedented speed, greedily absorbing the incoming energy of the same source.

A strange transformation was taking place within his body.

Bones, Meridians, flesh, and even his Divine Soul were undergoing an essential sublimation and restructuring.

Intense pain arrived, as if every inch was being crushed and reshaped, but Su Mo's expression did not change; he closed his eyes and focused, guiding this vast power.

Deep within his Dantian, the originally scattered Chaos Qi began to crazily condense and compress toward a single point in the center, gradually forming a strange crystal the size of a grain of rice.

Beside him, Three Eyes' huge purple eyes stared straight at the lake, instinctively sensing the pure energy within it, and it couldn't help but stretch out a claw, wanting to scoop some up.

"Do not." The Great Desire Heavenly Immortal Venerable's phantom flicked his sleeves, "Three Eyes, the energy of this lake leans toward the Chaos Origin; if you forcibly absorb it, not only will it be of no benefit, but it may instead trigger a backlash of the Devilish Qi within you, with unpredictable consequences."

Upon hearing this, Three Eyes retracted its claw sheepishly, responded with a low sound, and lay down by the lake, watching eagerly.

In the Secret Realm, there were no sun or moon, and time seemed to have lost its meaning.

It was unknown how much time had passed; it might have been an instant, or it might have been several years.

That vast and brilliant star lake had now become transparent and thin, and one could almost see the base at the bottom of the lake paved with stardust.

All the energy essence had been completely devoured by the figure sitting quietly in the center of the lake.

Su Mo slowly opened his eyes.

There was no burst of divine light in his eyes; instead, there was a profound calmness, but beneath that calmness, it seemed as if scenes of the beginning of Chaos and the flow of galaxies flashed by and vanished.

With a slight movement of his mind, he raised his right hand.

Above his palm, a wisp of gray aura spontaneously condensed; this aura was more refined and more ancient than before.

Peak Golden Immortal!

And it was not an ordinary Peak Golden Immortal.

He could clearly feel that the Chaos crystal within his body had firmly taken shape; although it was only the initial formation of the dao foundation, it was far from achieving a truly Perfect Chaos Dao Body.

But his Physical Body, immortal essence, and Divine Soul had all undergone a qualitative leap, and his control and application of Chaos power had reached an entirely new level.

"Congratulations, little friend; the Chaos dao foundation has been formed, and the Great Dao is within reach." The Great Desire Heavenly Immortal Venerable's phantom said with gratification, appearing to have also become much more solid.

Su Mo stood up, the starlight lake water sliding off him without staining him in the slightest.

He clenched his fist, feeling the surging, seemingly endless new power within his body, and the corners of his mouth curled up slightly.

"Now it is time to go out..."

Su Mo withdrew his fist and was about to set off, but the Great Desire Heavenly Immortal Venerable's phantom flickered and raised his hand to stop him:

"Wait, little friend. Within this lake, there is still one item that will be of great use to you; it is not too late to leave after you take it."

"Oh?" Su Mo turned back, looking toward the nearly dried-up center of the lake, "What item?"