Wen Wuyu glanced around. The distance between her and the various ghost tribe clan heads was considerable, and none were approaching, but if she wanted to break free, it would be no easy task.
Although the ghost tribes had no inherited cultivation techniques, their bloodlines were imnsely powerful. Among them, the relatively low-ranking little yakshas, who scrambled for any work they could find, had once been mbers of the Eight Divisions of Heavenly Dragons. Even without techniques, once they matured and awakened their bloodlines, their strength was astonishing.
Wen Wuyu sighed. Her expression cald, and her steps landed on the lake's surface as she followed Chen Shi into the distance.
Since she knew this battle was unavoidable, she wouldn't waste words on pointless argunts.
Besides, she was also curious to see how far the Child Prodigy—whose Innate Dao Embryo had been cut away, who had been dead for eight years, and who had revived without a Divine Embryo—could go.
She walked across the lake, her figure graceful, her reflection mirrored on the tranquil water.
She wore a curved robe, long and perfectly fitted, her hem brushing the lake's surface without a trace of moisture clinging to it.
Wen Wuyu remained expressionless, but in her reflection on the lake, five-colored light blood behind her, moving as she moved. Sothing massive beneath the lake seed to shift along with her, causing the water behind her to rise gradually.
The two advanced, with only about a li between them.
The lake behind Wen Wuyu rose higher and higher, silent yet with an ever-intensifying pressure.
Li Tianqing and the others stood by the shore. The water level in the lake before them was steadily dropping, as all the lake water was flowing toward Wen Wuyu's back.
"Such formidable magical power,"
Li Tianqing thought with a jolt of awe. Although Wen Wuyu hadn't yet struck, her divine ability was already taking shape.
Before her, the lake remained flat and calm as ever, but behind her, the water had risen into the air, held aloft by five-colored light, dazzling like a peacock spreading its tail feathers.
Li Tianqing was in charge of the Celestial Court's Ministry of Rites, code-nad Scholar. Chen Shi had entrusted him with the cultivation techniques inscribed on the stele forest of the True King's Tomb, tasking him with organizing and passing them on to others.
He was naturally highly perceptive and a quick learner. The mont he saw the five-colored light behind Wen Wuyu, he imdiately thought of over a dozen cultivation techniques.
The Grand Five Elents Sword Qi, the Five Peaks Golden Light Mantra, the Treasure Moonlight Peacock Ming Wang Mantra, the Numinous Treasure Five Talisman Sutra...
In the five-colored light behind Wen Wuyu, he could see traces of all these techniques!
Li Tianqing excelled at deciphering others' techniques, but when it ca to Wen Wuyu's five-colored light, he couldn't find a single flaw in the mont!
Just then, Chen Shi had already reached the center of the lake.
The instant he stopped, as if it were a signal, the five-colored light behind Wen Wuyu shot forth. In the sky, a vast flood of water materialized, instantly transforming into five great mountains descending from above!
She had nearly lifted half the lake's volu, forming Mount Tai, Mount Hua, Mount Heng, Mount Chang, and Mount Song out of water. The geography of the five peaks, as she manifested them, differed greatly from their usual forms. The mont these five mountain ranges erged, divine authority radiated from them, as if supre deities sat enthroned within the mountains, pressing down with crushing force!
This form diagram was even more complete than the True Forms of the Five Peaks collected in the True King's Tomb, containing many more details!
Just as she struck, Chen Shi activated the Blood Lake Sutra. The Blood Lake Hell behind his skull erupted with violent power, and a host of ghost gods stood within it—all beings Chen Shi had converted, now guardians of this hell realm.
Chen Shi raised his hand, pushing upward, and every ghost god in the Blood Lake Hell simultaneously raised their hands, lifting together against the descending force.
The five peaks halted in midair, held back by an invisible power!
Suddenly, five-colored light flickered within the mountains, and with a series of sharp whooshes, the five peaks dissolved into countless sword beams raining down from the sky. An endless torrent of sword qi pierced the lake surface where Chen Shi stood!
Wen Wuyu let out a sharp cry, stepped forward, and raised her hand. Vast five-colored vapor rose from the lake, forming Grand Five Elents Sword Qi. Sword beams several li thick howled and spun around the lake, slashing and cutting. With hisses and hums, sword qi crisscrossed in a blinding spectacle!
Wen Wuyu turned her right hand over, then let it fall. The five-colored sword qi floated in the air, condensing into an enormous palm. Its five fingers shimred with five-colored light, and before the lake below could calm, the giant hand crashed down in unison with her delicate jade hand!
"Boom!"
Massive waves surged in all directions, crashing toward the shore!
The clan heads quickly blocked them, shielding the capital from the impact of the waves.
Crown Prince Xiang Kun, standing on the shore watching the battle from a distance, paled slightly. "That woman is formidable! Without bloodline power, she still possesses such powerful divine abilities!"
Wen Wuyu stood still. Suddenly, her expression shifted, and she quickly raised her left hand to block her right cheek.
"Boom!"
Chen Shi appeared almost instantly at her right side, his fist slamming into her palm. The imnse force crushed forward, sending her slender form flying backward. Her body even broke through the air resistance, producing thunderous explosions!
Before she could land on the lake, Chen Shi was already there again, his steps riding wind and thunder, his fists and feet coming at her like a raging storm!
Earlier, she had displayed divine abilities and Dao techniques, seamlessly blending and improvising with Five Elents spells and divine abilities—a flawless performance. But what Chen Shi unleashed was pure, extre close-quarters combat!
Wen Wuyu could only rely on instinctive reactions, her feet moving rapidly to evade his attacks. When she couldn't dodge, she raised her arms to block; when she couldn't block, she had no choice but to take the hit!
She had cultivated thods similar to the Golden Body or True Body, tempering her physique to an extre level of stability. Even the Ming King Golden Body of the Bodhi Monastery, the World-Honored One's Golden Body of the Water Moon Holy Land, or the Bodhisattva Golden Body of the Great Bao Guo Temple—at the sa cultivation stage—would be slightly inferior to hers.
But now, she felt that her Golden Body was on the verge of being shattered!
The two figures moved like light and lightning, clashing at blinding speed across the turbulent lake, flashing and darting around, leaving spectators dizzy. The dull thuds of impact rang out without end!
Suddenly, Wen Wuyu took a solid kick from Chen Shi, sending her flying backward. She tumbled from one lake surface to another.
She was like a small pebble, striking the lake and bouncing up again, then flying a li or so before slamming into the lake once more and rebounding.
This repeated seven or eight tis, covering over ten li, before she leaped up from the water and steadied herself. Before she could land, streaks of white light shot toward her with a whoosh—Chen Shi's finger bones and wrist bones, launched like sharp swords!
"Can he even do that?"
Wen Wuyu laughed in exasperation. Her feet moved like a phantom, gathering lake water into a sword to et the incoming finger and wrist bones.
Her swordsmanship was exquisite. With a slight motion of her water sword, a sky full of sword qi appeared. Ding, ding, ding! They clashed violently with Chen Shi's bones!
But more and more bone swords ca flying. In addition to finger and wrist bones, there were arm bones, neck bones, shin bones, ribs, spine, sternum, vertebrae, hip bones, toe bones!
Wen Wuyu was both startled and furious. "Has he dismantled himself?"
She danced her sword light, and the lake surface was filled with crisscrossing sword qi clashing with Chen Shi's bones. Amid the dense web of sword qi, Chen Shi's bare skull flew straight toward her, piercing through the chaos!
All the bones converged on the skull, and before Chen Shi landed on the water, they reassembled into a complete skeleton, continuing its storm-like assault on her!
Knowing his close-combat prowess, Wen Wuyu avoided a direct confrontation, retreating rapidly to put distance between them.
The two sped across one lake to the next. The lakes of Heavenly Pool, large and small, were as smooth as mirrors, reflecting their fleeting shadows.
Suddenly, a Nascent Soul over ten zhang tall appeared behind Wen Wuyu, radiating dazzling divine light.
As she retreated, the Nascent Soul rged with her body, fusing with her physical form.
The Nascent Soul was over ten zhang tall, while her body was less than six feet. But the mont they rged, her form rapidly grew taller, soon reaching over ten zhang, equal to the Nascent Soul!
This was the wonder of the Unity realm.
The Unity realm involved the soul rging with the Nascent Soul, the Nascent Soul rging with the Divine Embryo, the Divine Embryo rging with the physical body, and the physical body rging with the external world, achieving unity between inner and outer.
The most obvious effect of this realm was that as large as the Nascent Soul was, the physical body beca equally large after rging with it!
This transford body was called the Divine Body.
Moreover, because the physical body rged with the external world, cultivators could draw on the power of heaven and earth!
In the journey of cultivation, starting from the Golden Core stage, cultivators possessed a force field—from the golden core's force field to the Nascent Soul force field, and then to the Nascent Soul force field. By the Divine Descent realm, with insights from the True God, they grasped the principles of shattering the void.
By the Emptiness Refining realm, they transford the force field into a Dao field, achieving the shattering of the void, and thus could attain Unity. After Unity, the Dao field advanced further, enabling them to mobilize the power of heaven and earth, approaching the realm of Ghost and God Domain, with inconceivable abilities!
Wen Wuyu rged her body, stomped her foot, and raised her hand to strike. The lake beneath her surged with a roar, coiling upward with her palm force, turning into a massive, overwhelming pressure bearing down on Chen Shi!
The Blood Lake Hell spinning behind Chen Shi's head suddenly expanded, forming a ghost and god domain nearly twenty li in radius. Standing within it, he seed to transform into the lord of this hell, his palm carrying the eerie power of the underworld as he t the attack!
In the Blood Lake Hell, ghost gods covered in blood plasma soared up, all raising their hands to face Wen Wuyu's palm.
But the next mont, the ghost gods ca crashing down, thudding back into the Blood Lake!
Chen Shi let out a muffled groan, feeling an unparalleled pressure!
His Blood Lake Hell was no less than her inner-outer unity of heaven and earth, but he was lacking in stage. He followed the stage system of the Divine Continent of China, lacking the Divine Descent and Emptiness Refining stages, yet he was already on the edge of the Unity realm, just one step away from entering it.
Without entering the Unity realm, he simply couldn't contend with Wen Wuyu. With pure magical power alone, she could crush him with ease!
Chen Shi didn't hesitate. His Nascent Soul appeared behind him, and he stepped forward.
With that step, his skeleton body swelled wildly, instantly becoming a ten-zhang-tall skeleton radiating dazzling divine light!
The two clashed palm to palm. Wen Wuyu sensed his power surge and was about to switch techniques when suddenly brilliant divine light blood around her.
Her expression changed. Those were talismans forming at breakneck speed, surrounding her!
"The Spirit Banner Ten Extremities Array!"
She didn't hesitate. She imdiately raised her miniature shrine, and the Divine Embryo flew out, rging with her body to achieve true unity!
Her aura surged once more. The power of the Ten Extremities Array erupted. In the void, divine chants echoed, and towering deities appeared, as if crossing through ti and space to descend into this shadowy world, using supre divine power to vanquish demons and wipe out all resistance!
"Boom!"
Li Tianqing, Crown Prince Xiang Kun, and the others saw an exceptionally bright divine light erupt from the lake where Chen Shi and Wen Wuyu were fighting. It shot up like a pillar of light, illuminating the sky as if it were daylight!
That pillar of light, like a sword, sliced down from the sky, stretching for dozens of li. Where it passed, lake water evaporated, and explosions rang out without end!
Wen Wuyu's form broke out of the array but was struck by that world-annihilating pillar of light, sending her flying backward!
On the peak of a mountain by a lake over a hundred li away, dust exploded in all directions—Wen Wuyu must have smashed into that hilltop.
The crowd watched, their hearts pounding.
Suddenly, Wen Wuyu's figure rose from the mountaintop, calling out from afar, "Chen Shi, thank you for holding back. I'll co find you in a couple of days!"
The woman leaped upward—once, twice, three tis—as if climbing an invisible ladder. She jumped out of the underworld and vanished!
Lei Qu and the other clan heads had been ready to move to keep her there, but Chen Shi raised his hand to stop them, saying sternly, "No need to pursue."
The host of ghost gods halted.
Chen Shi dissolved his Unity form, his body returning to normal, and headed back to the royal palace without pausing.
Li Tianqing watched, lost in thought.
Soon after, Li Tianqing arrived at the royal palace. He saw Chen Shi, who had shed his cloak and crown, sitting bare-boned on the throne. His elbow rested on the armrest, and his bony hand cupped his chin, as if deep in thought.
"Why is Your Majesty sighing and looking so glum?" Li Tianqing asked with a smile.
"Beloved Minister Li, have a seat."
Chen Shi scooted over a bit. The throne was wide enough to hold a dozen skeletal imps with no problem.
Li Tianqing sat down, crossing his legs. Though also a skeletal imp, he wasn't as casual as Chen Shi. He was fully dressed—outer robe, inner robe, undershirt, trousers—not too revealing.
Li Tianqing looked at the dejected Chen Shi and spoke up. "Wen Wuyu didn't use the Innate Dao Embryo, did she?"
"Mhm." Chen Shi sighed.
Li Tianqing continued, "So she's not the one who got your Innate Dao Embryo. Wen Wuyu is already this strong, able to fight you to a standstill. The one who obtained the Innate Dao Embryo must be even more powerful. Is that what's troubling you?"
Chen Shi lowered his hand from his chin, shaking his head. "Tianqing, that person might have reached a height I can never attain..."
Li Tianqing was silent for a mont, then smiled. "Why did the Celestial True God bestow the Innate Dao Embryo on you, and not on ? Why not on anyone else over these countless millennia?"
Chen Shi turned to look at him.
Li Tianqing said solemnly, "Because in all these millennia, there has only been one Chen Shi, only one Child Prodigy. The Innate Dao Embryo was rely a reward from the Celestial True God for your outstanding talent—an accessory to add luster to your brilliance. That person only obtained your reward. They can never obtain your insight and talent."
Chen Shi was silent for a long ti before slowly speaking. "Tianqing, you are the best friend I've ever had in this life."
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