Chapter 268: Soul And Body Integration Realm
Gu Yizhe approached the area where dark creatures hurled themselves endlessly against an invisible barrier. Their twisted forms splattered like ink against an invisible barrier. At the base, the splattered mess was continuously dissolving into shadows before reforming to repeat the cycle.
He reached out with one hand, his palm pressing against the invisible surface. Even though he just saw the stretching forest before him, he felt the solid barrier beneath his touch.
An evil smile spread across his face as he pulled back his hand. He then struck forward with immense force. The moment his knuckles made contact, he felt a strange numbness creep up his arm. The energy from his attack spread evenly across the barrier’s surface before vanishing completely, absorbed without a trace.
His confident smile faltered. This was actually a fourth-grade barrier, and quite a good one at that as it was capable of withstanding his strike without even a crack. What was the demon god thinking, giving them such things? Well, he would find out soon enough.
With a more serious expression, he pulled back his fist again. Red petals began materializing in the air around him, swirling around his clenched fist. With the red petals coated fist, he struck once again, this time with significantly more power than before.
The barrier repelled his attack completely, sending him stumbling backward several steps. "What?" His face was pale in shock. That had been his full-power strike, yet the barrier showed no clear signs of damage whatsoever.
His shocked expression twisted into one of rage. "Let’s see just how long you can hold on," he snarled, gritting his teeth. Red aura began gathering around his body, growing more and more intense with each passing second.
"Scarlet Dream," he intoned and everything went silent.
In that instant, time seemed to freeze. The red aura around him suddenly exploded outward, expanding to cover a radius of about a hundred meters. The entire covered area transformed into a field of endless red spider lilies, their petals slowly drifting upward. The man raised both hands as countless petals gathered around them.
He then began hammering the barrier furiously. Each strike produced a thunderous sound, but still no damage appeared on the barrier’s surface. He became more and more agitated as he continued his assault. Even if this was a fourth-grade defensive formation, it shouldn’t be able to withstand his full-power strikes for this long.
As he continued his frenzied hammering, he suddenly sensed something and stopped abruptly. His gaze snapped toward a certain direction, lingering for a moment as his divine sense detected an approaching presence. The space around him cracked like broken glass, revealing the endless darkness within. The cracked space then swallowed him whole.
"Quite the fast runner," a female voice spoke softly as her feet touched down on the exact spot where Yizhe had been standing. She examined the healing spatial cracks with interest, placing her hand against the healing space, preventing it from healing further.
Suddenly, her nose twitched as she noticed a familiar scent.
"Hmm," she murmured, removing her hand and allowing the space to finish healing itself. She turned toward the area where Yizhe had been attacking. She easily saw through the barrier as she approached.
"That smell... a phoenix," she spoke aloud in surprise. Her expression grew strange as she detected something else. "And a dragon too," she added with a distinctly sour look.
"Hmm, scratch that, two dragons," she corrected herself. Her sour expression brightened considerably as she made another discovery. "Wait, are those spirits? And six of them at that?" A pleased smile crossed her features.
To think that such a place exists in the eastern continent.
"Well, don’t mind if I do..." she spoke with anticipation as she stretched her hand toward the barrier...
...
Xiang Yu had just finished his lunch and settled into his usual meditative position to continue cultivating when something startled him. Someone had entered his battle simulation detection range for barely a split second before vanishing. He opened his eyes to check who it was, but his expression instantly froze when he saw the system’s report:
[Name: Gu Yizhe]
[Realm: Body: 17th Layer; Spirit: Void Traversing 2nd Layer; Mind: Level 7; Soul: Adult]
[Species: Demon]
[Spiritual Root: Superior Water]
[Enlightenment: Sacred]
[Bloodline: Demon God (Noble Blood)]
[Techniques: ...]
[Scriptures: ...]
"Demon God?" Panic shot through his body. Had the demon god actually risen? But before his thoughts could spiral even more, he sensed someone hammering against the sect-wide formation.
It was then that realization dawned on him, and he let out a long sigh of relief. This wasn’t the demon god itself, it was someone else from outside, someone with demon god bloodline. Xiang Yu guessed the person was here for the tower. Fortunately, he had set up a fourth grade formation. Otherwise, he didn’t even want to imagine what would have happened...
He rose from his cultivation position and walked over to where the earth clone was. Bending down, he picked up the formation disks scattered on the ground. These were the newly completed third-grade formation disks, each one carefully inscribed with third-grade runes for defense, attack, concealment, regeneration, and qi gathering.
Originally, Xiang Yu had planned to wait until all the formations were completed so they could be deployed simultaneously. But now, with enemies already attacking their barriers, that seemed foolish. What if another enemy appeared? What if this one possessed some crazy divine weapon capable of destroying their current barrier? He refused to take such chances and decided to implement the completed upgrades immediately.
They now had many spirit stones, courtesy of Liu Feng, so activating the formation early wouldn’t cost them anything significant anyway, he reasoned as he walked out of the cave with the formation disks.
He rushed through the sect at maximum speed, his figure becoming a blur as he moved from location to location. At each predetermined node, he carefully positioned a formation disk and activated it. As he worked, the attacks on their barrier continued relentlessly. In fact, they had grown even stronger, causing Xiang Yu’s nervousness to spike despite the current formation holding steady.
Finally, it was time for the crucial final node. This one was exactly where the intruder was attacking. Xiang Yu moved quickly, arriving at the location where the barrier constantly flickered under constant assault. But just as he was about to place the final formation disk, he suddenly felt his blood run cold.
Another system notification materialized before him:
[Name: Luo Yinxin]
[Realm: Body: 15th Layer; Spirit: Soul and Body Integration 1st Layer; Mind: Level 8; Soul: Adult]
[Species: Phoenix]
[Spiritual Root: Sacred Fire]
[Enlightenment: Sacred]
[Bloodline: Phoenix (Noble Blood)]
[Techniques: ...]
[Scriptures: ...]
...
A/N: lol the realm name is so long. Prolly longest of all cultivation realms