As the long spear approached, Zhao Lie's eyes showed a glint of horror, but he remained unflustered. At the critical moment, his body inexplicably shifted slightly, and then the spear, which should have pierced through his head, landed on his chest instead.
Though his chest was pierced, it was not fatal.
Zhao Lie was a fierce tiger, and a great one at that, possessing tremendous vitality that had already transformed into 'Qi Blood Mercury.' His physical body had evolved with divine technique transformations.
The spear pierced through Zhao Lie, leaving a transparent wound that turned to ashes and dissipated. Golden yellow blood flowed from Zhao Lie's wound.
"Such pure blood, I want to drink it!" Zhang Chen, watching Zhao Lie's golden yellow blood flowing, felt a surge of impulse from the crystal core within his heart.
"Zhao Lie's blood is a great nourishment for me." Zhang Chen thought to himself.
As he pondered, Zhao Lie roared in the distance, and the wound on his body began to sprout flesh and healed completely within a breath.
"How can this be!" Dugu Qiu exclaimed as he watched Zhao Lie avoid a lethal strike, his face finally changing, losing his previous calm and comprehensive confidence.
"People progress, don't they? No one stands still. Haven't I gained anything over these decades?" Zhao Lie sneered coldly at the eunuch:
"Take my punch!"
With a punch, space twisted, and this was the martial dao divine technique awakened when the physical body's vitality reached a certain level.
Dugu Qiu grabbed at the void with his palm, and countless lightning bolts manifested out of thin air, striking at Demon King Zhao Lie.
"Such petty tricks, merely the antics of a guileless craftsman," Zhao Lie sneered coldly, his fist bursting with Gang Qi. The sky-full of lightning was directly shattered, and his punch continued unabated, forcefully and dominantly striking towards Dugu Qiu.
"Boom~"
The punch seemed to contain a unique force. Dugu Qiu's Yang God was immobilized, unable to break free, and in the next moment, the fist landed on Dugu Qiu's Yang God, directly shattering it.
However, the shattered Yang God quickly reassembled in the distance, forming Dugu Qiu's original appearance. He looked at Zhao Lie with horror: "Impossible, how are you so powerful?"
"I told you, no one stands still. A cycle ago, you used the mysterious imprint traces of the Twelfth Tier to severely wound me. Now, my flesh has long derived divine techniques, I am no longer who I was back then," Zhao Lie said with a proud tone.
Upon hearing this, Dugu Qiu's face turned grim, knowing that trouble was brewing. This Zhao Lie might have already seen the threshold of the Tenth Tier and was about to break the limitations, with his flesh evolving.
"Do not panic, my lord, Xie Xuan is here, willing to lend you a hand," a divine light flowed from the distance, and it was Xie Xuan's Yang God arriving.
"Commander Xie, you've come at the perfect time. Let's join forces and kill this beast!" Seeing Xie Xuan's arrival, Dugu Qiu showed joy.
From a distance, Mr. Wu's manor suddenly had Vast Righteous Qi rising towards the sky: "Esteemed lords, it is our unshirkable duty to slay demons and eliminate demons. How can I be absent from such a task?"
Mr. Wu's Yang God emerged, participating in the battlefield, with Vast Righteous Qi circulating around him.
"Hahaha, with three Yang Gods here, this beast has no escape," Dugu Qiu laughed with elation.
"Unexpectedly, such a small Goulan County has gathered three Yang God experts, but what of it? Do you all think I have no helpers?" Zhao Lie chuckled coldly, and in the next moment, a vast divine light soared through the heavens from afar, a figure shrouded in divine light and indistinguishable, landing beside Zhao Lie:
"Great Demon King, we must now renegotiate the division of the tree coffin and the Divine Demon's corpse," the newly arrived figure's voice was vague, indiscernible.
"You have helpers too?" Dugu Qiu looked at the man enveloped in divine light with seriousness in his eyes.
They could not discern the difference between the Incense Dao and the true Yang God, but Zhang Chen, mastering the Dharma Eye, could see that the person before them was a strong figure formed from incense, and he was familiar with this person, who was Gu Mingyue, one of the twelve Grand Celestial Masters of Yellow Heaven Dao.
"Kill!"
Zhao Lie's roar answered Gu Mingyue, and in an instant, both sides clashed into chaos, wind and fire stirred, celestial thunder fell incessantly, completely obscuring everyone's vision, preventing them from seeing the ongoing battle.
"Thankfully, we have three Yang God experts of the Human Race in the Northern Land, or there could have been big trouble. But how did Demon King Zhao Lie cross the White Bone Great Wall into the pass, without any reaction from Great Victory Dynasty's Twelfth Tier mystery?" Xie Lingyun looked at the fighting sides, eyes filled with doubt.
Zhang Chen remained silent, retracting the Dharma Eye from the battle, a look of seriousness in his eyes: "I never imagined there were so many Yang God level experts in the world."
"Yang God experts are not that many, it's just a coincidence they all gathered here," Xie Lingyun said.
"I wonder, what is the background of the newly appeared Yang God expert?" Xie Lingyun watched Gu Mingyue's figure, a look of surprise in his eyes.
Upon hearing this, Zhang Chen pondered briefly but did not speak because empty talk could not be convincing. Who would believe him if he said the person was Gu Mingyue?
The key thing was that Gu Mingyue was stronger than the last time they met, even suppressing Xie Xuan.
"It seems Yellow Heaven Dao's incense has been spreading well lately," Zhang Chen thought to himself.
A black wind swirled up in the distance around Zhang Chen, firelight and lightning interwoven, the sky and earth filled with flying sands and stones, obscuring the battle status. Everyone fought from daylight to night, and from night to dawn. At the first hint of purple energy rising in the east, Grand Steward Dugu Qiu's voice came from the storm: "Zhao Lie, you dared to cross the White Bone Great Wall on your own, and today you shall pay the price. This means was meant to deal with Prince Pingbian's Mansion's Old Dragon, but you have chosen to bump into it yourself, so don't blame me."
The next moment, a piercing thunder echoed through the heavens and earth, accompanied by screams, and then the black wind blew away the clouds above the nine heavens, causing the world to sway continually.
A good while later, once all was calm and tranquil, where were the Yang God experts? Zhao Lie had disappeared, and so had Dugu Qiu and his companions.
Prince Pingbian quickly summoned his soldiers to gather forward, only to find the tree coffin and Divine Demon corpse had vanished.
"What happened?" Zhang Chen looked at the distant, empty sky in confusion, wondering why all the experts had left so cleanly.
"That Grand Steward unexpectedly brought the body of Great Victory Dynasty's Twelfth Tier mystery: Judgement. He must have used Judgement's body to severely wound Zhao Lie, only it's unclear whether Zhao Lie survived. When the Grand Steward wielded Judgement, he himself would also be affected by Divine Power, suffering serious injuries. To avoid others coveting the divine artifact, he had no choice but to choose seclusion."
Xie Lingyun mused: "This was a fight of mutual destruction, Zhao Lie and the mysterious Yang God expert were severely injured, and the Grand Steward won't be in good shape either. This means was intended for the Old Dragon King's soul, but who knew Zhao Lie would recklessly crash into it."
"As for what truly transpired in this battle, who won or lost, I need to inquire with the head of the Inspection and Supervision Department," saying this
Xie Lingyun showed a trace of anxiety on his face:
"I must go now, the Inspection and Supervision Department must step forward next, or else the situation might become increasingly uncontrollable. Hide yourself well, and do not stir up any trouble, for the Northern Land might descend into chaos."
With these words, Xie Lingyun hurriedly left, leaving Zhang Chen standing on the mountain top in a daze, his eyes full of emotion: "This was no ordinary scene, of course, the matter and trouble are similarly extraordinary."