Chapter 104: Escape
The boundless Reincarnation Celestial Cave swept overhead.
Within that Reincarnation Celestial Cave, scars from blades and swords, holes from spears and arrows, were everywhere—one mark after another—traces left by the passage of time.
After entering the Sea of Chaos, they were so weakened that even erasing these scars required thought and courage.
Because doing so consumed their strength.
Yet they did not erase those marks, and as time passed, these marks continued to accumulate, eventually solidifying into Tao injuries.
Even innate deities or creators, no matter how powerful or immortal, could not escape time.
Time was the most terrifying force in the world; no one could outrun it.
Xu Zhong reined in all his vitality, striving to make himself as insignificant as an ant.
This deity clearly paid no attention to ants like Xu Zhong—he was too weak, so weak he didn’t even deserve to fill a gap between teeth.
Xu Zhong narrowly escaped.
“Are there other Qi Refiners here?” a voice called from afar.
Xu Zhong looked up and saw a bronze warship sailing through the void, pulled by nine fierce skeletal dragons.
On the ship, a brilliantly bright sun blazed, and within it was a golden crow. Beneath the sun hung a large purple banner made from Kui Bull hide, thunder rolling across it, shaking the heavens.
Surrounding the bronze ship were circles of gleaming skulls, their hollow eye sockets flickering with eerie blue ghost flames.
“Which clan are you from, Qi Refiner?” the speaker continued.
Using his spirit-penetrating technique, Xu Zhong saw many young figures gathered beneath the banner—half-human, half-demon, neither fully human nor demon—opening their eyes to regard him.
Their bodies were suffused with Tao resonance, perfectly complementing the blank silk scrolls behind them.
Those blank scrolls reflected distant divine battlefields, recording the Tao resonance of ancient gods and modifying it to forge their own spells.
“Could these be the noble families within the Sea of Chaos?”
Only noble houses possessed the wealth to build warships and enslave true dragons.
“The ancient gods were banished into the Sea of Chaos for a million years, and like the outside world, noble houses formed here as well,” Xu Zhong pondered silently. “Perhaps the forefathers of their clans are among those on the battlefield.”
A woman frowned. “Could he be mute?”
“Look at him—does he seem like someone from a great noble family? I’d say he’s probably a disciple of that evil god, lucky to have escaped,” a man chimed in. “Watch me subdue him.”
With that, the man struck.
The moment he moved, a golden torrent of flowing sand burst forth—each grain shimmering with brilliant gold, surrounded by blazing fire energy, unbearably hot.
Clearly, this was the man’s Golden Core.
“A direct attack with a Golden Core,” Xu Zhong calculated. “He doesn’t want to waste time probing me; he intends to kill outright.”
Usually, when both sides are uncertain of each other’s strength, they test the waters first to avoid a fatal mistake.
But this man’s first move was lethal.
He manipulated the golden sand in full force.
“Crack!”
A massive rift tore through the mist, melting the creatures within and transforming them into part of the golden sand’s power.
It was like a whip, obliterating the surrounding fog, stirring the void winds, and howling.
“Your Golden Core’s power is messy and chaotic,” Xu Zhong’s eyes darted about, seeking an opening. “Let me help you temper it!”
He expelled a flame of Samadhi True Fire.
The fire resembled a dragon, wrapping the Golden Core as it soared upward.
In moments, the man’s Golden Core began to collapse, melting under Xu Zhong’s fire, turning into droplets of golden liquid that blossomed into golden lotuses—ephemeral like the fleeting bloom of a night flower.
The man spat blood and was blown backward, engulfed in fierce flames that burned him thoroughly from within.
The others made no move; once the fire died down, a young man reached out, transforming the man’s corpse into a pill.
“You killed Zhou Han, so I should avenge him,” the young man said, popping pill after pill into his mouth like candy. “But he was no match for you—deserved to die. Simply put, I like your Samadhi True Fire. If you hand him over to me, I might spare your life.”
The youth’s thick black hair fluttered wildly, his own Tao resonance flowing ceaselessly, and behind him projected the celestial star maps.
Within his body flowed the supreme Milky Way—that was his Golden Core.
His cultivation was formidable; Xu Zhong sensed the celestial projection behind him was from the Outer Realm, indicating he had reached the Qi Refining Outer Realm, perhaps even the Unity Realm.
Such a person was clearly qualified to speak so boldly.
“Heh!” Xu Zhong snorted coldly. “Why don’t you come and take it yourself?”
The youth smiled, ready to strike.
“Big brother, why waste your effort on a mere ant?” a middle-aged man stepped forward to block him.
“Big brother, let us subdue him first; then you can do as you please,” the youth said weakly, half-lidded eyes. “Agreed!”
The middle-aged man led the charge, followed by a pair of youths—a boy and a girl.
All three were half-human, half-demon—human faces and bodies, but with golden dragon horns and golden dragon tails.
Their cultivation had reached the Transcendence Realm, with souls already condensed.
The middle-aged man struck first, bare-fisted, employing a fist style full of madness and fury—broad and merciless, seemingly unstoppable.
His punches were fast and powerful, tyrannical enough to shatter the stars.
The young pair played a harmonious duet of sword and zither—one hard, one soft, yin and yang.
The zither’s music surged like tides, the sword’s light rippled like waves.
Together, they began to strangle Xu Zhong with a coordinated assault.
Xu Zhong was sealed in all directions—east, south, west, north, above, and below—and a murderous aura surged to the heavens, rolling like smoke and clouds.
He summoned his six-foot pearl, the tricolor lotus, and the Profound Elemental Water Shield, then took out a spinning rattle drum, the Blue Lotus Treasure Lamp, and a Purple Jade Gourd.
These treasures hovered behind him.
He activated these defensive treasures to withstand the zither and sword’s attack, then focused all his strength on the middle-aged man.
In a group fight, it was best to focus on one opponent, beating him into submission and despair...
Killing the chicken to warn the monkey.
“Hum!”
Xu Zhong pointed a finger forward.
At once, a sword orb shot forth like a meteor, smashing toward the middle-aged man.
His punch wind, fierce qi, and killing intent were all crushed to dust by the sword orb, which carried everything with it as it hurtled forward.
The middle-aged man remained expressionless, forming two blazing divine lights with his hands to bind the sword orb.
“Disperse!”
Suddenly, brilliant, dazzling colors exploded from the sword orb.
A flash of white light revealed 721 flying swords bursting forth, a white mist spreading across the sky like a cloud of rosy clouds.
Countless sword shadows danced and twisted, their sword qi howling like thunder.
“A mayfly shaking a giant tree.”
The middle-aged man didn’t even furrow his brows.
“Today’s young people only care about flashy moves, not their essence.”
“You, a Qi Refiner in the Existence Realm, can craft 720 flying swords? Even so, what kind of sword formation can that form?”
He waited until the sword formation closed in before making his move.
“Watch me shatter ten thousand techniques with one blow!”
His essence blood surged; magical power poured into his fists.
He threw a punch with terrifying momentum.
The fierce qi and killing intent formed a dragon-shaped white light.
The dragon roared with the might to swallow stars.
“Slash!”
Xu Zhong formed a sword finger and pointed forward.
Instantly, the sword formation exploded with endless sword light and sword qi.
Within a radius of 1,800 miles, starlight and great rivers were drawn into the sword formation.
The middle-aged man sensed danger but it was too late.
“Hum!”
Countless flying swords merged into the Swallowing Cloud Sword.
In the blink of an eye, the sword grew immense—like a small mountain.
“Big brother, save me!” the man cried desperately.
But his big brother remained unmoved.
The sword light descended.
A flash of blood glowed.
The middle-aged man’s head flew high into the air.
He had been beheaded by a single sword.
“Why doesn’t it hurt?”
He still retained consciousness; darkness had not yet claimed his eyes.
Perhaps he was not dead.
With a thought, he began to communicate with the Wood Luminary Secret Store within, intending to use the vast vitality to reattach his head.
But in the next moment, a faint “boom” was heard.
The man’s corpse inexplicably exploded, transforming into a blooming blood flower—seductive and glaring.
Bright sword light spun from his body, circling above Xu Zhong’s head, accompanied by joyful sword cries.
“I’m dead!”
The man thought, darkness descending before his head exploded.
Xu Zhong gripped the Swallowing Cloud Sword, looking ethereal.
Yet the sword’s tens of thousands of pounds nearly caused him to lose balance on the wind tip.
He recalled his battered six-foot pearl and ruined tricolor lotus, donned the Profound Elemental Water Shield, then turned his gaze to the young pair, while his peripheral vision stayed fixed on the youth aboard the ship.
That youth had raised a pill furnace, exhaled Samadhi True Fire, and deployed mysterious techniques to extract the middle-aged man’s magic power, Golden Core, and soul from the void, aiming to refine him into a pill.
“Kill!”
The youth shouted, his sword reflecting mountains and rivers, its light forming towering peaks.
Though his cultivation surpassed Xu Zhong’s, his swordsmanship and Samadhi True Fire were far inferior.
Behind him, the girl played the zither.
Her strings were dragon tendons, producing faint roars of dragons, which instantly transformed into true dragons attacking Xu Zhong.
The music and swordlight stirred the clouds, darkening the sky.
Xu Zhong’s expression remained calm.
He reversed his power and unleashed Samadhi True Fire.
In an instant, the intangible mountains melted into golden water under his fire.
Simultaneously, he boldly deployed the sword formation to slay the pair.
“Bang!”
The zither shattered; the girl was cut in two.
Blood sprayed, intestines spilled—a gruesome sight.
The youth fled in terror.
But as he moved, his flesh and blood fell to the ground as if no longer belonging to him.
Xu Zhong’s sword qi had already slain him.
His sword was so fast that the body hadn’t even realized it was dead.
“You killed four from my Zhou family,” the youth’s celestial projection surged behind him, immortal spiritual light transforming into gods and demons to consume the departed’s spirits, while their flesh fell into his pill furnace.
“I, Zhou Yang, cannot forgive you!” Zhou Yang’s eyes radiated the power of life and death. “Your Samadhi True Fire belongs to me—”
Before he could finish, Xu Zhong unleashed all his essence, spirit, and power.
From his body, he uprooted a great tree.
The tree shimmered with golden light, terrifying in its majesty.
“Take this!” Xu Zhong cursed angrily, wielding the Tao tree in a sweeping strike.
Zhou Yang’s celestial projection was shattered; parts of it collapsed.
He was struck by backlash from his projection, coughing blood and flying far away.
The Tao tree fell, smashing a large hole through the bronze warship from deck to keel.
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Chapter 104: Escape, Free to Read.