Chapter 105: A Race to the Finish

The bronze warship buckled and caved in from top to bottom under relentless assault.

From Xu Zhong’s Golden Core Dao Tree burst forth seven-colored rays, corresponding to yin energy.

With each downward strike, the seven-colored divine light swept downward.

The first to suffer was the sun, an illusion born from a golden crow’s divine egg.

The golden crow was pierced through by the seven-colored light; its golden blood splattered across the sky. Below it fluttered the purple great banner made of Kui bullhide.

Thunderlight surged forth, and just as a thunder marsh began to emerge, it was shattered to fragments by the Golden Core Dao Tree. Countless bolts of lightning fractured into pieces, embodying ultimate destruction.

“Impudent!”

Suddenly, a protector on the ship reacted, shouting angrily as he mobilized his innate energy. The sound of crashing waves echoed through the void as he manifested a Dao method, radiating a terrifying aura. He stretched out his hand as if to suppress the mortal realm itself.

“Young masters and ladies, do not fear! Watch me take him down.”

Behind this protector, yin and yang energies erupted, accompanied by vital energy and spirit. The yin-yang energies ignited the vital essence, transforming into Samadhi True Fire, which faintly ignited the void, producing wisps of blue-purple smoke.

This Samadhi True Fire was far stronger than Xu Zhong’s own.

After all, this was a half-step Inner Realm Qi Refining cultivator.

Confident in his power, he believed his Samadhi True Fire could ignite even the void; it was only natural it could ignite the Golden Core of a True Existence Qi Refining cultivator.

As expected, the Golden Core caught fire.

But it showed no sign of stopping.

It struck the protector directly, sending him flying backwards. His body was covered in terrifying wounds, revealing vast stretches of stark white bones. A faint Dao resonance invaded his flesh and blood, hindering the wounds from healing.

“Run!”

Other Qi Refiners aboard the bronze warship watched on in horror, their eyes bloodshot and hearts shattered.

The Dao Tree, tainted with Samadhi True Fire, landed on the ship, instantly setting it ablaze. Countless molten iron droplets fell into the void.

Some cultivators failed to escape in time; the True Fire touched them, leaving no trace of soul or ashes behind in an instant.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The bronze warship was crushed into a massive dent by Xu Zhong’s Golden Core Dao Tree. The core formation within the dent was shattered into golden flakes.

In an instant, the ship burst into flames and crashed to the ground with a deafening roar.

Xu Zhong withdrew the Golden Core Dao Tree, surprised in his heart. He had known his Golden Core was powerful but had never imagined it to be this formidable.

Yet he remained confident.

After all, to summon this Golden Core, he had nearly drained himself completely.

At this moment, his skin clung to his bones with not a shred of muscle in between. His blood vessels were withered and cracked like a parched riverbed. In this state, he looked far more pitiful than if a demon had harvested him a thousand times over.

The soul inside Xu Zhong’s mud pill opened its eyes. Yin energy flowed from the cranial orifices, stabilizing the Purple Jade Gourd in the void and retrieving other treasures within.

He pushed open the mouth of the Purple Jade Gourd, and countless sword energies erupted forth.

In an instant, Xu Zhong was flung over a hundred yards away.

Seated upon the gourd, he gulped down medicine pills, slowly regaining some vitality.

“Little thief, you injured me, destroyed my Zhou family’s ship, and killed so many of my brothers and sisters. Do you think you can just slip away so easily?” Zhou Yang ground his teeth, fury uncontrollable.

His Outer Realm had been shattered by a tenth, dragging down his own cultivation and state.

He had never expected an ordinary True Existence Qi Refining cultivator to possess such a mighty Golden Core.

His mind sharp and imaginative, he immediately connected Xu Zhong to the Faceless Man, mistakenly believing Xu Zhong to be the Faceless Man’s direct disciple, possessing a priceless treasure bestowed by him.

“If only I could plant that tree within my Outer Realm…” Zhou Yang’s eyes gleamed with desire, “perhaps then I could be invincible at my level.”

Though Xu Zhong fled swiftly, Zhou Yang was clearly faster.

After just a single breath, he compressed a hundred-mile distance into a single step, appearing behind Xu Zhong moments later.

They stood amidst a vast, tranquil ocean, calm as an ancient well with no ripples.

Xu Zhong glanced back.

Zhou Yang removed a pair of dragon horns from his head and tossed them forward.

In an instant, the dragon horns transformed into two mountain-sized divine blades, piercing through the clouds and illusions, swiftly lunging to entangle Xu Zhong.

Xu Zhong turned back, eyes burning with rage.

The dragon horns were so enormous that escape from their enveloping space was impossible.

“I’m going to die…” Xu Zhong resigned himself, lying back on the Purple Jade Gourd to await death. “That bastard Situ Nan…”

If not for Situ Nan, he wouldn’t have appeared in the Chaotic Sea.

His hatred for Situ Nan was fierce enough to make his teeth itch.

“I won’t let you go even if I become a ghost.”

If by some miracle his soul survived, he vowed to train tirelessly to become a ghost god…

At that moment, the ocean beneath began to tremble violently. A massive whirlpool appeared, followed by a second.

Black light swirled within these sea eyes.

They seemed to belong to a powerful sea beast.

“I can still live!” Xu Zhong’s face brightened.

He had nearly forgotten this was the Chaotic Sea.

Every being here was both hunter and hunted.

The disturbance Xu Zhong caused might not awaken these mighty beasts; even if awakened, they would see only a weakling, unworthy of their attention.

But Zhou Yang was different.

He had cultivated Qiwu, his Outer Realm housing endless innate energy—a walking human elixir.

Two tentacles emerged from the sea beast’s eyes.

Each tentacle was lined with suction cups the size of ponds.

The tentacles coiled around the dragon horns and, leveraging this grip, the colossal octopus body surfaced from the ocean.

It was a giant octopus, roughly the size of a small mountain.

Each of its eight tentacles stretched like mountain ranges in length.

It gripped the dragon horns and began stuffing them into its mouth.

Inside its mouth was a yin-yang grinding mill, formed from entwined yin-yang energies, capable of erasing all spiritual materials, divine treasures, and even artifacts, refining them into pure spiritual energy.

“Damn it!”

Just as Xu Zhong was about to be slain by Zhou Yang’s spell, a sudden intervention appeared.

Zhou Yang roared furiously, spitting forth a bone sword.

He lightly slashed through the air.

The sword’s power was immense, carving a trench three hundred miles long and wide through the ocean, striking one of the octopus’s tentacles.

In an instant, the tentacle was severed.

The octopus appeared unbothered, retracting the severed tentacle with its remaining limbs and swallowing it along with the dragon horns.

“Crunch, crack!”

A new tentacle quickly regrew.

The octopus could not refine all the energy and blood within the dragon horns in a short time.

Greedy, it sought to swallow Zhou Yang as well, to refine him together.

Its eight tentacles danced through the air, stirring eight miniature realms.

These realms rotated endlessly in cycles, with stars sinking within their depths.

Zhou Yang glanced at Xu Zhong, who had already flown over a hundred miles away atop the Purple Jade Gourd, and his fury erupted anew.

“Die!”

He raised his sword, shouting.

Instantly, the bone sword transformed in the void into a colossal whale, exhaling innate energy. Behind it, endless void flickered with birth and death, its might overwhelming.

The sword descended straight down, swiftly slaying the octopus.

The octopus’s body lay in tatters, tentacles severed one after another, golden blood spilling forth, attracting countless river monsters scrambling to devour it.

Zhou Yang sheathed the bone sword, looked at Xu Zhong, then at the octopus.

He reattached the dragon horns after cleansing them in the river.

By the riverbank, he set up a pill furnace, extracted the octopus’s demon core, and embedded it in his Outer Realm, treating it like a star set within the collapsed space.

His Outer Realm then engulfed the octopus’s Outer Realm...

In an instant, his Outer Realm expanded, and the collapsed portion was repaired.

He gathered the octopus’s corpse, placed it within the pill furnace, and unleashed Samadhi True Fire.

In a flash, a clear, metallic clinking resounded in his ears.

He roughly refined the octopus demon into medicinal pills.

After stashing these pills into his storage ring, he realized Xu Zhong had vanished without a trace.

“Damn, that’s a huge loss,” Zhou Yang fumed.

Just as he prepared to leave, a powerful aura awakened in the river.

A demonic dragon emerged from the water.

This dragon was enormous; each scale held potent yin-yang energy, resembling massive yin-yang grinding mills capable of erasing all things under heaven.

Especially notable was a red reversed scale between its horns, hiding an Inner Realm world containing supreme power to annihilate worlds.

“You killed my people; you’re courting death!”

This was a demonic dragon on the verge of achieving innate divinity.

“Zhou family business, does it concern you?” Zhou Yang showed no fear.

“I’m targeting your Zhou family!”

The dragon gaped, spitting forth a cup of primordial heavy water.

Primordial heavy water was exceedingly precious, distilled only by melting an entire sea.

A single drop contained the power of a whole ocean.

Even if Zhou Yang expended all his magic, he couldn’t burn dry an ocean, let alone neutralize primordial heavy water.

No matter how many past and future lives were tied together, this cup of primordial heavy water would be unstoppable.

Zhou Yang transformed into a half-human, half-dragon demon and fled into the distance.

“My Zhou family ancestor will crush you to dust...”

He ran, shouting behind him.

“Let him come!” The demonic dragon flew from the river, vast swaths of yin-yang energy swirling as a massive dark cloud, smashing toward Zhou Yang.

Where it touched flesh, it instantly transformed into a terrifying yin-yang grinding mill, capable of erasing a person’s yin and yang.

Zhou Yang spat copious blood, which fell through the air as large crimson blossoms.

Between bouts of spitting blood, he cleared away the parts infected by the yin-yang grinding mill, exposing stark white bones. For parts deeply embedded into the marrow, he cut them away entirely.

Zhou Yang ran swiftly, pursuing Xu Zhong’s fleeing path.

Before long, he caught up with Xu Zhong resting atop a hill.

Xu Zhong was gasping heavily, swallowing pills to restore his magic.

Seeing Zhou Yang approaching, he prepared to mount the Purple Jade Gourd and escape.

But in the next moment, he saw Zhou Yang streaking past overhead, chased by the massive demonic dragon.

The dragon paid him no heed.

“So there are advantages to being an ant,” Xu Zhong laughed heartily.

Both he and Zhou Yang were ants; Zhou Yang was just a bigger one with a louder voice, buzzing like a flying fly, while Xu Zhong was a quiet ant, silent and unassuming.

Between the silent ant at his feet and the buzzing fly at his ear, whose movements and size could be more easily noticed?

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Chapter 105: The Chase Continues, Free to Read.