The giant golden ape spread its ma.s.sive arms before wrapping them around the neck of the purple wyrm, then tore the head off the huge wyrm with a ferocious roar.
The purple wyrm"s body disintegrated into countless arcs of lightning amid a resounding boom, and the giant ape abruptly raised its head before taking a deep breath, then opened its mouth to expel a vast expanse of golden light.
All of the dispersing arcs of lightning were immediately captured by the golden light before being drawn into the golden ape"s mouth. In the blink of an eye, all of the lightning had vanished.
However, the giant ape had no intention of stopping there. Spiritual light swirled around its body, and the golden light it had expelled from its mouth vanished into the five-colored spirit clouds as a pillar of light.
A string of dull thumps rang out in rapid succession within the spirit clouds, and they began to revolve around the golden pillar of light.
All of the runes within the clouds were drawn into the golden light in a frenzy by a burst of enormous suction force, and these runes were all devoured by the gargantuan ape.
Moments later, the surface of the golden pillar of light was riddled with runes of all different colors, which were surging downward in a frenzy.
The giant golden ape"s mouth was like a bottomless pit that seemed to have an unlimited capacity for these runes.
All of the spectating cultivators around the sea of mist all looked on in a flabbergasted manner.
Meanwhile, the terms "Giant Mountain Ape" and "true spirit bloodline" reverberated within the white-haired elderly man"s mind, and he was even more shocked than all of the other cultivators.
As a branch leader of a true spirit family, he was naturally far more knowledgeable and experienced than other cultivators of his caliber, and he immediately identified that gargantuan ape as the projection of a Giant Mountain Ape, a revelation that immediately had his jaw dropping straight to the ground.
"No wonder he was unwilling to join our Gu Family; he possesses a true spirit bloodline himself! But this projection is way too powerful! Even from this far away, its aura alone is enough to fell so many of us. On top of that, the phenomena taking place on this occasion are even more astonis.h.i.+ng than those from last time. So much of the world"s origin Qi is converging toward one place; could it be that he"s attempting a breakthrough to the Body Integration Stage?" The elderly man wasn"t all that powerful himself, but he was quite smart and managed to strike the nail on the head in just a short time.
At this moment, not only were the runes above the sea of mist being drawn into the golden light, even the five-colored spirit clouds themselves were being swept up.
A short while later, the spirit clouds in the sky had been warped and elongated to form a giant funnel-like structure with a wide top that tapered down to a narrow bottom.
Vast amounts of these spirit clouds were surging into the giant ape projection in a frenzy, and the slightly indistinct projection gradually became clearer during this process.
Not long after that, all of the five-colored spirit clouds had been sucked away, and the giant ape projection seemed to still be dissatisfied. It closed its huge mouth before thumping its own chest again, and piercing golden light erupted from its body.
A white tornado took shape around the giant ape projection before swelling rapidly in size, and in the blink of an eye, it had completely encompa.s.sed the giant projection within it.
At the same time, a burst of invisible fluctuations was rapidly spreading in all directions from the tornado, and the scope covered by these fluctuations was quite astounding.
All of the world"s origin Qi in a radius of thousands of kilometers were stirred up into a frenzy, and they all surged toward the sea of mist as pea-sized specks of light.
These specks of light vanished into the tornado like moths to a flame, and the giant ape"s roar rang out from within the tornado once again. On this occasion, the roar was slightly urgent and pained.
As the number of five-colored specks of light increased, the giant ape"s roars gradually subsided before it fell completely silent in the end.
However, regardless of how many specks of light were converging toward the tornado, it seemed that the tornado would never be filled.
All of the cultivators around the sea of mist looked on in awe and astonishment. If a normal cultivator were to absorb so much of the world"s origin Qi, they would"ve most likely self-detonated and perished already.
After a long while, a shrill cry suddenly rang out from within the white tornado, followed by an earth-shattering boom.
The tornado was then blown apart, and gusts of fierce winds erupted in all directions, dispersing all of the nearby specks of light.
The giant ape appeared once again, but its body was no longer golden in color. Instead, it was riddled with dazzling five-colored runes, presenting a very peculiar yet spectacular sight to behold.
The giant ape had its hands on its head, and its expression was changing rapidly, transitioning erratically between unspeakable agony, extreme fury, and a series of other emotions, making it appear as if it had gone insane.
At the same time, the runes on its body flashed violently, and its entire body was fluctuating in clarity in an extremely unstable manner.
All of the spectators were rather puzzled to see this, but a sense of horror welled up in the white-haired elderly man"s heart.
This situation was a clear indication that the man had reached a critical juncture in his breakthrough and had been afflicted by inner demons.
If he were to succ.u.mb to his inner demons and lose control over himself, it was very possible that his inner demons would make him go on a senseless killing rampage.
With this man"s astonis.h.i.+ng powers, none of the spectating cultivators would be able to offer any resistance, and they"d be as good as dead.
Breaking through major cultivation bottlenecks was always an extremely perilous endeavor, and such events were far from uncommon.
With that in mind, the elderly man"s horror was exacerbated even further, and in his desperation, he circulated his own magic power with all his might, trying to stand up against the enormous pressure so he could lead all of the other cultivators away from here, but he had only just risen to his feet before his legs gave out from under him, and he knelt down onto the ground again.
Even though the giant ape projection in the distance was clearly quite disoriented, the spiritual pressure it was releasing showed no signs of abating. As a mere Nascent Soul cultivator, he was completely immobilized, and even his magic power was completely unable to circulate, so he wasn"t even able to alert the others of how perilous this situation was.
As such, the elderly man could only look on helplessly as his horror mounted.
Meanwhile, within the secret chamber in the mountain, Han Li was seated with his legs crossed inside a peculiar small formation. His body was completely still and lifeless, and there was a golden and azure Nascent Soul that was around half a foot tall hovering several feet above him. The Nascent Soul was staring at a corner of the secret chamber outside of the formation, and it was holding a golden blade segment in its arms.
There were 72 small azure swords around it, each of which was around an inch in length, forming a secure protective barrier.
Around the small swords were a short silver ruler, a small azure cauldron, and a huge black sword, all of which were slowly revolving around the Nascent Soul.
The Nascent Soul"s current appearance was very unsettling as one of its eyes were of a s.h.i.+mmering blue color while the other was as red as blood, and the two halves of its face that were separated by the bridge of its nose wore completely contrasting expressions.
One side of the face was twisted with savagery and ferocity, while the other was calm and collected with a hint of a smile. It was as if there were two completely different Han Lis inside the Nascent Soul"s body.
Han Li"s physical body down below was making a hand seal with one hand and carrying an azure incense burner in the other. There were short black segments of incense sticks protruding from the burner, and they didn"t seem to have been ignited yet.
There was a vast amount of five-colored runes drifting from the ceiling of the secret chamber, and regardless of whether they fell upon Han Li"s Nascent Soul or physical body, they immediately disappeared in a flash.
In the corner that the Nascent Soul was staring into, there was a head-sized ball of black Qi that was churning erratically and letting loose strange howls.
Its howls were extremely unpleasant and made it very difficult for the listener to remain calm. Furthermore, it was tinged with an intense yearning for slaughter.
The calm side of the Nascent Soul"s face remained completely unmoved by this ghastly noise, but the crimson light in the eye of the other side of the face was becoming darker and darker, and it seemed to be about to completely succ.u.mb to insanity at any moment.
A cold light flashed through the Nascent Soul"s blue eye, and it raised a hand before pointing at the incense burner being held by Han Li"s body down below.
A ball of silver flames shot forth from its fingertip before striking the incense sticks in the burner in a flash, and the incense was immediately ignited, sending a mysterious sandalwood scent wafting throughout the entire secret chamber.
Strangely enough, after inhaling this fragrance for only a short moment the deranged look on the twisted side of the Nascent Soul"s face immediately began to abate, and the crimson light in its eye also gradually faded.
As soon as the ball of black Qi came into contact with this scent, it immediately let loose a howl of anguish before abruptly falling silent.
The black Qi then began to churn in a frenzy before gradually dissipating amid the fragrance, revealing a terrifying ghostly face with no nose and no eyes, and was twisted in agony.
The Nascent Soul immediately opened its mouth to expel a bolt of golden lightning upon seeing this, and the arc of lightning struck the ghostly face with unerring accuracy amid a resounding boom, causing it to shudder violently.
It gritted its teeth in a resentful manner before letting loose a sharp screech, and it suddenly became blurry and indistinct before vanis.h.i.+ng into a burst of black Qi.
Only then did the Nascent Soul slowly close its eyes, and its twisted expression gradually faded. When it reopened its eyes, they had completely regained their clarity.
"A mere soul fragment of a Heavenly Devilish Monarch dares to try and disrupt me? Know your place!" the Nascent Soul chuckled coldly in a derisive manner.
It then tossed the blade segment in its arms up into the air, then rapidly made a hand seal before closing its eyes again.
The speed at which the five-colored runes were descending from the ceiling immediately increased by more than twofold, and the entire secret chamber was filled with vibrant spiritual light that was flas.h.i.+ng incessantly.
At the same time, a peculiar fragrance was released by the physical body down below.
However, the Nascent Soul paid no heed to this as it continued to absorb the five-colored runes falling from above with all its might. As it did so, its body began to expand at a rate that was discernible to the naked eye.
After about seven or eight more minutes, the Nascent Soul had grown to around three to four feet tall and resembled a small child.
At this moment, the giant ape projection above the mountain abruptly shrank back into the belly of the mountain as a pillar of light.
An extremely enormous burst of the world"s origin Qi immediately descended into the secret chamber before injecting itself into the Nascent Soul and physical body in a frenzy.
The physical body"s skin began to take on a translucent quality, and the fragrance it released became even more potent.
Meanwhile, the Nascent Soul up above expanded to the same size as the physical body amid flashes of spiritual light within the span of just a few breaths. Its eyes were tightly shut, and it was hovering in mid-air with a seated manner while a pained expression appeared on its face.