Chapter 134: Gods and Demons

Leaving the Demonic Lotus Mountain, Yuntian directly altered his appearance and shifted his aura, transforming from a youth in black into an elegant young man in green robes.

Both the Eight-Nine Mystic Arts and other supreme inheritances contain techniques of form and shape-shifting, and the Chaotic Golden Body cultivated by Yuntian was far more profound and marvelous than those. Altering his appearance and disguising his aura was naturally effortless for him. Of course, even if he could disguise his aura to appear immensely powerful, his actual cultivation and strength could not be truly altered.

Relying on his acute perception of spatial fluctuations, Yuntian easily located a place where space was distorted and spatial cracks had formed.

In the void not far from the distorted spatial cracks, Yuntian appeared out of thin air via a void teleportation technique. Without the slightest hesitation, he flew directly toward the spatial crack at the center of the distortion. With a flicker of his figure, he stepped into the crack. The violent spatial forces caused sparks to flash across Yuntian's body, where a faint golden glow was visible beneath his skin. Immediately afterward, he emerged into the chaotic void, which was filled with hazy, primordial energy all around.

"In the chaotic void outside the Great Xia world, this is indeed a fine place to cultivate the Chaotic Golden Body," Yuntian said with a faint smile. He sat cross-legged directly in the chaotic void, letting the hazy chaotic energy crash against his body like crashing waves. Then, he closed his eyes and began to actively absorb the chaotic energy to cultivate his Chaotic Golden Body.

The Chaotic Golden Body inherently required absorbing the energies of earth, wind, water, and fire to gradually transform the physical body into a chaotic physique. Directly absorbing chaotic energy naturally achieved the same effect, and moreover, it enhanced the physical body's might at a much faster rate than absorbing the energies of earth, wind, water, and fire.

As massive amounts of chaotic energy surged into Yuntian's body like a tidal wave, the strength of his body, which flashed with a brilliant golden light, rapidly increased.

During the few months before he went to Antan City to become a disciple of the Black-White Palace, Yuntian had already quietly practiced in silence, elevating his physical body to the Yuanshen level. Now, his physical body's might was directly advancing at a terrifying speed to the peak of the Yuanshen level. Then, after absorbing a vast amount of chaotic energy to undergo a qualitative transformation, it reached the Void-Returning Earth Immortal level in no time at all.

A physical body at the Void-Returning Earth Immortal level was comparable to that of a Void-Returning level Fiendgod. Although his Qi refinement was still at the early Wanxiang stage, Yuntian was confident that even if he were to fight a powerful Void-Returning Fiendgod head-on, he would not fall into a disadvantageous position. After all, his comprehension of the Dao was far superior to that of a Void-Returning Fiendgod.

"Ordinary Earth Immortals and Loose Immortals could be crushed by me with a flick of my finger," Yuntian murmured as he finished his cultivation session, traversed the spatial crack, and returned to the void above the Yushan Great Wilderness Swamp. He clenched his fist, brimming with confidence, and then raised his head, his gaze burning brightly as he looked into the distance. "This Yushan Great Wilderness Swamp hides a powerful Void-Returning Fiendgod. I wonder if Ji Ning and the others have crossed paths with them yet. My Chaotic Golden Body can be considered minorly accomplished; it is about time I found a formidable opponent to test my skills."

With these words, Yuntian's figure flickered and seemed to melt directly into space. The void rippled slightly before quickly returning to normal, leaving Yuntian as if he had never appeared at all.

***

Deep within the belly of a desolate mountain, a subterranean river ran through a gloomy and dark underground cavern. Further down into the depths, there was a fissure about two zhang wide, from which wisps of golden-tinged flames were continuously spewing outward.

A youth dressed in animal skins sat cross-legged not far away, slowly absorbing those golden earth-flames wisp by wisp. It was none other than Ji Ning.

At the same time, three Wanxiang Adepts were standing upon a giant green leaf, flying forward amidst the rolling clouds.

"Brother Dongyi, have we arrived at the location of the earth-flame vein you spoke of?" asked a bald woman in black in a crisp voice, her face adorned with alluring red tattoos.

Dongyi, dressed in golden robes, smiled and said, "The two of you can rest assured. We have all sworn oaths to the Heavenly Dao, so what is there to worry about? The location of that earth-flame vein is extremely concealed, and I only discovered it by sheer coincidence. I believe no one else could have discovered it within such a short time."

Dongyi was in high spirits. Although he had previously escaped in disarray from Ji Ning's hands, he had been lucky enough to stumble upon an earth-flame vein. He had used this piece of information to trade for quite a few treasures. Of course, for now, it was merely an agreement with heavenly oaths sworn by both parties; only when they reached the earth-flame vein would the other party hand over the treasures to him.

"We have arrived. It's that low hill directly below," Dongyi said suddenly after flying forward for a moment longer, steering the green-leaf magical treasure to dive downward.

Hearing this, the male and female Wanxiang Adepts beside him couldn't help but perk up, their gazes filled with anticipation as they looked down.

What the three of them did not know was that just as they entered a hidden cave within the mountain, space twisted and fluctuated slightly outside the cave. A youth in green robes suddenly materialized with an inexplicable smile at the corner of his mouth—it was Yuntian, who had altered his aura and appearance.

Yuntian did not go inside; instead, he simply waited outside. Time slowly passed, and after an unknown period, a violent surge of energy suddenly erupted from deep underground. Soon after, a black flying shuttle pierced through the rock face from the interior of the low hill at a terrifying speed, shooting obliquely into the sky.

Boom... Amidst a muffled collision sound, Yuntian, who had arrived in front of the black flying shuttle with a single step, casually raised his hand and blocked it dead in its tracks.

"God-Slaying Art!" Yuntian's surging divine sense invaded the black flying shuttle, effortlessly obliterating the soul of Adept Redleaf within it. Then, with a thought, he put the black flying shuttle away. Adept Redcloud had never imagined that after managing to escape from Ji Ning's hands by sheer luck, he would crash right into Yuntian's grasp.

Immediately afterward, Yuntian sensed a terrifying aura erupting from deep underground, awakening like a slumbering divine dragon. Clearly perceiving that aura vanishing amidst a subtle spatial fluctuation, Yuntian took a single step, his figure plunging into the distorted void as he gave chase to that formless spatial ripple.

After the span of merely a cup of tea, far away from the subterranean depths beneath the low hill where Ji Ning and the others were, a stretch of the void suddenly trembled and twisted, tearing open a massive spatial crack. Immediately following that, two figures—one large and one small—flew out from within.

The giant figure stood fully ten thousand zhang tall, with palms a thousand zhang wide. Its entire body seemed to be formed of magma and volcanic rock, possessing a single vertical pupil, a single nose, and a single mouth. It had no hair, and faint traces of magma lingered upon its head. Its entire body emanated a scorching, terrifying aura that caused the surrounding space to tremble.

As for the smaller figure, it was precisely Yuntian in his disguise as a green-robed youth. At this moment, holding a dark cyan celestial sword in his hand, his entire body radiated a sharp, piercing aura, merging completely with this patch of space as if he were the sovereign within this realm.

That dark cyan celestial sword was a supreme celestial-grade immortal sword magical treasure that Yuntian had specifically commissioned Yunchen to purchase materials for and refine back when he was in Antan City.

"Are you an Immortal?" The giant fiendgod stared at Yuntian with a mix of shock and anger, its eyes flashing with intense wariness. Just now, as it was traveling through space, Yuntian had suddenly and silently approached, forcing it out of the void with a single strike. That seemingly effortless sword strike, imbued with terrifying might, reminded it irresistibly of the North-Traveling Immortal who had once hunted it down. It faintly had a feeling that this mysterious young man in green robes might be even more terrifying than that North-Traveling Immortal.

"An Immortal? Why don't you try and find out," Yuntian said with a slight curl of his lips. He swung the dark cyan celestial sword in his hand in a seemingly sluggish motion. Instantly, formless howling gales converged, taking the dark cyan celestial sword as their center to form a cyan tornado-like storm of sword qi that swept toward the giant fiendgod. Wherever the storm of sword qi passed, space was twisted and thrown into chaos.

Roar... With a furious roar, the giant fiendgod directly swung a crimson-red spiked club that abruptly materialized in its hand. Terrifying, violent flame energy and thick malevolent aura radiated from the spiked club as it met the cyan sword qi storm head-on.

Boom rumble... Amidst thunderous energy explosions explosions, the space within a radius of several miles distorted and collapsed, and the space within dozens of miles shuddered. Such might could truly be called world-destroying, causing the mountains below to collapse and the earth to shatter.

Completely ignoring this terrifying energy storm, Yuntian dashed like a streak of golden light toward the fiendgod, which was staggering backward. Waving his sword once more, a terrifying chill suddenly descended upon the world in an instant, as if freezing space itself. A white sword light condensed from bone-chilling frost slashed fiercely toward the fiendgod, causing the flames surging across its body to begin extinguishing.