148: Battle against the overlord of the sixth heaven, break through the body refinement barrier.

Roar.

The Mountain-Moving Ancient Ape pounded its chest fiercely. A layer of golden light covered its body, and its fists, resembling mountain peaks, suddenly turned into thousands of afterimages, crashing down.

Boom, boom, boom—

Explosions echoed through the Void Realm. Any random fist shadow was enough to heavily injure someone with high Sixth Heaven combat strength.

Seeing this, Five-colored Escape Light emerged beneath Li Jiangchen's feet. Spatial fluctuations surged around him as his figure darted out, leaving countless afterimages, weaving through the sky full of fist shadows like a graceful swan.

Thump, thump, thump! His feet landed on the massive arm, which felt like a mountain range, and he sprinted rapidly toward the Mountain-Moving Ancient Ape's head.

Boom—

Another heavy, fierce punch slammed down. Li Jiangchen's figure abruptly vanished, suddenly reappearing on the Mountain-Moving Ancient Ape's forehead.

"Momentary Eternal Calamity!"

Spatial and temporal fluctuations surged around Li Jiangchen. A layer of silver radiance covered the demon slaying sword, and as his true energy surged, it transformed into a silver dragon, violently stabbing toward the Mountain-Moving Ancient Ape's head.

At the very last split second, the Mountain-Moving Ancient Ape seemed to sense the terror of this sword strike and rapidly tilted its head. The Sword Qi exploded, destroying more than half of its head, splattering red and white everywhere.

At the same time, a massive golden tail tore through the sky like a long whip, instantly swatting Li Jiangchen hundreds of miles away.

The golden Undecaying Power circulated, and Li Jiangchen's figure recovered, though a trace of paleness flashed across his face.

"As expected of the Sixth Heaven Overlord of this mountain range, it survived my Momentary Eternal Calamity head-on without dying, and its aura barely even dropped."

"This ancient beast's body is immensely powerful, and its vitality far exceeds that of a Sixth Heaven Cultivator; it has too much of an advantage in a fight."

"However, even if I can't kill it, I still need to reap some benefits."

Whoosh—

The Immortal Sword Domain, Demon Kingdom in the Palm, and Ten Directions Immortal Slaying Sword Formation, the power of these three Domains spread out with Li Jiangchen at the center. With a thought, endless Sword Qi appeared all around.

"Kill!"

In an instant, thousands of Sword Qi were unleashed, slashing down like rain onto the Mountain-Moving Ancient Ape's body. The Sword Qi dissipated, sparking countless flames, causing the Mountain-Moving Ancient Ape great pain, but failing to inflict any fatal injuries.

Suddenly, a glint of silver appeared amidst the sky full of Sword Light, transforming into a silver dragon that instantly pierced through the Mountain-Moving Ancient Ape's heart, turning into a white streak in the Void Realm.

On the tip of the sword, there were several drops of scalding essence blood rich with life force.

Li Jiangchen pulled with his palm, and the demon slaying sword returned to his hand. He immediately took out a clean white porcelain bottle and collected the few drops of essence blood.

"The quality of this essence blood is much higher than the one from just before."

"Let's go."

Without further hesitation, Li Jiangchen summoned an escape light beneath his feet and shot toward the horizon.

A few breaths later.

The Mountain-Moving Ancient Ape's form coalesced, its aura having dropped by a notch. Watching the figure disappear into the horizon, it pounded its chest in rage. A moment later, it returned to the depths of the mountain range.

Several days later.

Li Jiangchen returned to Illusion Star City.

Inside the quiet room.

"Ancient beasts have massive bodies and life force far exceeding Cultivators of the same rank. In a fight between peers, it is very difficult to kill them unless the power of Momentary Eternal Calamity is increased by another notch, allowing it to extinguish a large amount of their life force in one go."

"However, this trip was still quite smooth."

"I obtained both the Spirit Bone and the essence blood of the Mountain-Moving Ancient Ape, especially those five drops of essence blood from the Sixth Heaven Overlord-level Mountain-Moving Ancient Ape. Condensing them into a True Spirit Totem will increase its power by at least thirty percent."

"In addition, from killing that Jiao Chi Clan Body Cultivator, I gained over three million spirit stones for nothing, along with several Spirit Treasures and spiritual materials for Body Refining. The total value should exceed four million spirit stones. It counts as recovering some losses."

After Li Jiangchen finished counting his gains, he arranged for the Demon Flood Dragon King and the Fire Crow King to begin brewing the Body Refining medicinal concoction in a massive bronze cauldron, following the formula he had deduced.

One month later.

As piece after piece of spiritual materials for Body Refining were added, the medicinal concoction inside the cauldron took on a faint golden hue.

The Spirit Bone of the Sixth Heaven Mountain-Moving Ancient Ape completely melted, and a fierce, evil aura surged out from within, actually transforming into a phantom image that lunged at him.

"Disperse!"

Li Jiangchen flicked his finger, and the phantom of Evil Qi dissipated, vanishing into a wisp of black smoke. In an instant, the medicinal concoction in the cauldron fused into one, emitting a faint golden light.

Li Jiangchen leaped inside. The scalding medicinal power poured through his 108,000 pores, rushing desperately into his limbs and meridians, converging on the totem on his back, slowly outlining the pattern of the Mountain-Moving Ancient Ape.

Three days later.

The medicinal concoction in the cauldron turned into clear water with a pale cyan tint.

"As expected, I inherited the Mountain-Moving Ancient Ape's Great Strength Divine Ability."

The pattern of the Mountain-Moving Ancient Ape appeared on Li Jiangchen's back, and a surge of immense strength flooded his limbs and meridians. He clenched his fingers in the air, his qi force fusing into Protective Aura, and with a flick of his finger, it transformed into a white ray of light that shot toward the heavenly azure mark-leaving stele.

Pfft! The Protective Aura dissipated, leaving behind a finger imprint about an inch deep.

"Body Refining fourth heaven. Relying solely on Body Refining methods, I barely have the combat strength of the Sixth Heaven. Acceptable."

"Currently, my true energy cultivation is at the fifth heaven, Body Refining is at the fourth heaven, and only my divine path cultivation remains at just the third heaven..."

Li Jiangchen frowned slightly.

True energy cultivation goes without saying.

The Origin at the summit of Illusion Star Mountain is rich; there will be plenty of opportunities to go up in the future, at which point I can consume Demon cultivation to easily comprehend the Sixth Heaven Realm.

The path of Body Refining consumes vast resources, but with the massive resources of the Three Mountains Star Domain, breaking through to higher Realms is only a matter of time.

Only the divine path cultivation is a problem. For no other reason than that there are too few practitioners.

"I'll have to try my luck at this Divine Concealment Society..." Li Jiangchen took out the emerald green spiritual talisman, which was gifted by Treant Elder Zong.

This person is not only the strongest person in divine path cultivation he has encountered, but he is also capable of secretly establishing a clandestine organization like the Divine Concealment Society; it seems his hidden background is not small.

Several days later.

Following the guidance of the spiritual talisman, Li Jiangchen arrived at a dilapidated temple within Illusion Star City. The deity statue enshrined inside the temple was exactly the twelve-winged humanoid phantom he had seen that day.

'What exactly is this twelve-winged deity statue?'

Li Jiangchen guessed inwardly. Following the instructions, he tapped his finger three times on the back of the statue's foot, and suddenly, a passageway appeared behind the statue.

He stepped into the passageway and entered an underground palace.

The surroundings were brightly lit, and the walls were embedded with various wing sculptures of different shapes, looking as if they were alive.

In front of a huge round table were eleven Cultivators of various races, all concealing their auras. Some wore bamboo hats, others wore peculiar masks. Under his Spiritual Sense, their faces were blurred, and their auras were chaotic, making them difficult to identify.

Li Jiangchen was the same; he had long since used the Bee Hunting Tower token to disguise himself as a pale-faced middle-aged Human Race.

"Heh heh, another newcomer has arrived." A Sixth Heaven Cultivator near the left side of the round table, wearing a bamboo hat but with a long, white tail swaying behind him, said.

"What a pity, the divine path cultivation is too inferior, only at the third heaven. However, it seems he also concurrently Cultivates true energy and Body Refining. Delusionally trying to Cultivate all three paths; what a greedy fellow."

"Hmph, with such weak divine path cultivation, what good things could he possibly have? What benefit is he to us?"

"Elder Zong, although the Divine Concealment Society was founded by you, you should set a threshold standard. Otherwise, there will always be some people sneaking in, which is not good." A Cultivator wearing a fierce ghost mask with a muffled voice said.

'These people don't seem to welcome my joining...' Li Jiangchen keenly sensed this.

At this moment, from the main seat of the round table, Treant Elder Zong spoke: "Everyone, do not underestimate this Fellow Daoist. Although his main practice is the true energy path and he only has a fifth heaven cultivation, his combat strength has broken through to the Sixth Heaven, approaching the top-tier level. Last time, it was he who joined us in hunting that Mountain-Moving Ancient Ape."

Once these words were spoken, the scene immediately fell silent. A fifth heaven Realm, yet capable of unleashing combat strength approaching the peak of the Sixth Heaven. Such a Genius individual often has a deep background, and while this group of people each has their own background, they were unwilling to provoke him.

"Alright, if there are no objections, let's begin exchanging divine path treasures with each other." Treant Elder Zong pointed toward a woman with a graceful figure wearing a veil. "Let's start with Fairy Qinghe."