Chapter 136: Bronze Gorge

Bronze Gorge is situated on the western side of Sleeping Dragon Valley. To its left lies a dense primeval forest where the Coiling Dragon keeps watch. Looking toward it at this moment, one can see the spiritual Qi and starlight of a region spanning thousands of miles lingering over this primitive woodland. To its right is the Thousand-Peak Forest occupied by the Bi'an, where soaring peaks stand tall to guard the Demon Court.

Passing through this long Bronze Gorge leads directly to the Demon Court.

Standing here, one can even catch sight of the rolling true form of the Soaring Dragon within the Demon Court, hovering amidst the clouds and mist, churning the wind and rain, and swallowing the sun and moon.

Undoubtedly, it is the most powerful entity in the entire Sleeping Dragon Valley, excluding the innate deities who have arrived here.

Xu Zhong originally had no desire to go to the Demon Court, but he had no choice. After all, Longque was currently hiding within his shadow, directing his advance.

Xu Zhong never expected that Longque could still be alive.

Having just entered the Inner Landscape realm, it managed to survive an encirclement and annihilation by six Inner Landscape masters and still escape. This was truly staggering.

"It seems to be relying on that piece of human skin," Xu Zhong muttered to himself.

The sensation that piece of human skin gave him was extremely peculiar—possessing an abstruse and marvelous quality, as if it harbored supreme techniques and endless Dao rhythms.

"If I could make it my own!" Xu Zhong felt a stirring in his heart.

The next moment, he gathered his vital essence and unified his mind, brushing away the dust of greed from his mirror-like heart.

"Lately, my murderous intent has been heavy, and my greed has also been strong. This is not right," Xu Zhong questioned his original mind.

That was not his true nature.

Although the Heavenly Dao Demonic Aspect was sealed, it was still influencing him every single moment.

"Why are you stopping here? Why don't you move faster?" Longque's voice came from within the shadow.

Immediately afterward, it shook its bell.

From within Xu Zhong's body, countless Gu worms emerged, spreading all over him, gnawing at his Golden Elixir, and surging along the Elixir into his Niwan palace, attempting to devour his human soul.

Xu Zhong endured the pain, refraining from mobilizing his Golden Elixir Dao Tree.

He knew that once he used the Golden Elixir Dao Tree, the fate awaiting him would likely be the seizure of his Dao Tree followed by execution.

Mist and clouds billowed within Bronze Gorge, distorting the line of sight and making things blurry and hard to discern. Even if he were to execute the Nether-Peering Technique, he would still be unable to see everything clearly within the gorge.

Stepping into it, one's own consciousness was affected, making it impossible to determine directions.

Xu Zhong pinched a wisp of wind. The wind contained a handful of yellow earth, easily spanning an acre in size, covered in blooming flowers and luxuriant trees.

He loosened his grip and released this wisp of wind.

Stooping down, he plucked a flower. Sabers, spears, swords, and halberds grew from within the blossom, drifting with straight wolf-smoke, engendering a chaotic scene of galloping horses and clashing steel.

He scooped up a patch of soil, within which was hidden a blazing sea of fire, burning fiercely and scorching to the touch.

Everything seemed inverted.

"Is this an Inversion Array?"

It possessed the characteristics of an Inversion Array, but Bronze Gorge lacked any so-called array flags, making the concept of an array formation baseless.

This was the creation of nature, formed naturally.

Perhaps even the earliest Inversion Arrays were harvested and refined from such naturally formed treasured lands.

Xu Zhong stepped further into Bronze Gorge.

He reached up toward the sky and plucked a moon.

This was the Profound Light Technique, a most basic spell capable of harvesting light and forging a light source.

The moon generated by this profound light hung in the sky, casting a brilliant white radiance that pierced clearly through the boundless fog.

The place where he stood was a stream cutting across Bronze Gorge.

The stream flowed murmuringly for a hundred miles, deep in some places and shallow in others, defying simple description.

There were demonic entities within the water, exhaling spiritual light and inhaling miasma. Some demons who had achieved a certain level of cultivation could use the miasma to leave the water, baring their fangs and brandishing claws in the air while summoning wind and rain.

These demons quite obviously noticed Xu Zhong.

The sound of the stream beside his ears abruptly ceased, and the stream visible to the naked eye rapidly froze into ice.

Xu Zhong deployed his Sword Pellet, sending it plunging downward.

This Sword Pellet weighed tens of thousands of catties. In the blink of an eye, it shattered the ice layer and blasted the demons out of the water.

This was a massive fish stretching a hundred zhang in length, which leaped out of the water with a single swipe of its dragon tail.

Its form was neither entirely dragon nor entirely fish.

Its dorsal fin was like a blade, its entire body covered in dragon scales that emitted a chilling glare. Its vital blood surged, and horns grew upon its head, holding sway over yin and yang. With a single open-mouthed breath, it exhaled a bitter, howling gale that swept across dozens of miles.

"I've heard that dragon-carp flesh has the best texture. I wonder if that's true or false."

Xu Zhong stood in place, reaching out to summon a great wind; his wind-borrowing technique was practiced to a realm of exquisite perfection.

What he borrowed was the Yin Demonic Gale, sweeping across a hundred-mile radius, roaring as it arrived with an unceasing whistling sound.

The freezing wind exhaled by the dragon-carp was swept up by Xu Zhong's Yin Demonic Gale and blown a hundred miles away.

Meanwhile, the colossal tail of the dragon-carp descended, causing the visible sky to suddenly darken as if the heavens themselves were collapsing.

Xu Zhong flipped his palm, lightning surging within his hand, and grabbed forward.

The dragon-carp was caught in Xu Zhong's grip, unable to break free no matter how it struggled.

The next moment, it was thoroughly refined by the Samadhi True Fire exhaled by Xu Zhong.

Just as a pellet was successfully refined, other demons came charging toward Xu Zhong as if courting death.

A crane-demon that had just dived downward had its soul shattered by Xu Zhong's jade ruyi, plummeting from the sky. Before it even hit the ground, tainted by the miasma, it instantly dissolved among the miasma-demons, its flesh and blood completely scattering, leaving only a skeleton that clattered onto the ground.

"Is this enough?" Xu Zhong asked, glancing out of the corner of his eye toward his shadow.

Longque gave no reply, clearly showing that the flesh and blood power of the demons here was not yet sufficient for its recovery.

However, it opened its eyes at this moment and looked out toward the external world.

Its divine soul roamed freely across Bronze Gorge in that instant.

Yet everything within Bronze Gorge was inverted; directions were indistinguishable, locations could not be recognized, and even divine sense was unable to probe it.

Nevertheless, as one of the four great demon kings of Sleeping Dragon Valley, it naturally had its own methods.

Not long after Xu Zhong had moved away from his spot, Longque suddenly spoke: "In your northwest direction, approximately thirteen hundred miles away, there is a marsh of flesh and blood. The flesh and blood power lurking there is sufficient for my recovery."

A marsh of flesh and blood?

This was the first time Xu Zhong had ever heard of such a thing.

Yet judging solely by the name, one could tell it was no sacred ground for cultivation.

"However, there is a Soaring Dragon of the Outer Landscape realm guarding the place!" Longque continued, "You might not necessarily be able to approach that location."

A Soaring Dragon of the Outer Landscape realm?

Hearing this, Xu Zhong knew things would not be simple.

That flesh and blood marsh was likely not Longque's own territory. He muttered inwardly: "Is this trying to snatch food from the tiger's jaws?"

"First hunt and kill beasts in this vicinity to allow me a slight recovery. Only then will we have the surplus strength to deal with that Soaring Dragon!"

Listening to Longque's words, Xu Zhong felt a restless urge rising within him.

If even killing an Outer Landscape qi-practitioner required consuming blood-nourishment, perhaps it wasn't as formidable as imagined.

However, the next moment, the sound of the bell rang out once again.

The flesh and skin on Xu Zhong's body actually began to melt away, dissolving gradually.

His flesh-and-blood body was bit by bit turning into yellowish-green pus that dripped onto the ground. Even with the surging vitality gushing forth from the Wood-Element Secret Treasury, it was still unable to stem this trend of decay.

"Don't harbor any crooked thoughts!" Longque's unhurried voice came through. "What I planted in you is my unique Vermilion Bird Gu. Even an Inner Landscape qi-practitioner can be easily refined to death by it."

"Without a qi-practitioner above the Qi-Equalization realm stepping in, those Gu worms simply cannot be caught. Even if they are caught, without my unique method, there is no way to expel them from the body. You have too many crooked thoughts; this is a minor punishment as a warning. I hope you conduct yourself accordingly."

Longque then changed the subject! "As long as you obediently obey and take me to the flesh and blood marsh, I will naturally lift the Gu from you."

The moment those words fell, the melting of Xu Zhong's physical body was halted.

Yet at this very moment, only bare bones remained of his left hand.

He activated the Wood-Element Secret Treasury, causing vitality to surge and employing creation techniques to reshape his flesh and blood.

"So it's right here!"

Naturally, Longque could not know that Xu Zhong had already discovered where the Vermilion Bird Gu was located.

"It actually hid inside my Golden Elixir Dao Tree!" Xu Zhong was caught between laughter and tears. "Isn't this delivering itself right to my door?"

Xu Zhong did not know whether the Vermilion Bird Gu was powerful, but the Golden Elixir Dao Tree certainly was.

Otherwise, it would not have driven a primordial deity close to the Creator, like the Faceless Man, to madness.

It was nourished by over a million years of foundation; if a mere Vermilion Bird Gu could erase it, then the Faceless Man's centuries of effort would have been spent in vain.

The Vermilion Bird Gu was tiny, resembling a small vermilion bird.

It lay dormant at the very core of the Golden Elixir Dao Tree's trunk, and the tiny lice leaping from its body were the Gu worms roaming all over Xu Zhong's body.

As long as he captured this Vermilion Bird Gu and refined it to death within his Golden Elixir, the other Gu worms on its body would perish along with it.

"Longque is heavily guarded; now is not the right time to strike. Perhaps heading to the flesh and blood marsh, when it is anxious to recover, will be the best opportunity."

Longque naturally remained unaware of the calculations in Xu Zhong's mind, but it had its own schemes as well: "This human brat harbors impure intentions. Once we reach the flesh and blood marsh, he will be the first one I kill."

Heading southwest, Xu Zhong hunted down many more fierce beasts along the way.

The entire vitality and blood power of these beasts were unceremoniously accepted by Longque.

Its strength recovered rapidly, and before long, it possessed power rivaling the Outer Landscape realm.

Once it reached the Outer Landscape realm, its recovery speed became extremely slow—like a bottomless pit, where ten thousand catties of flesh and blood falling into its mouth would only restore a tiny shred of power.

This was because flesh and blood contained acquired Qi, whereas entering the Outer Landscape realm involved cultivating innate Qi.

Transforming acquired Qi into innate Qi was already exceedingly difficult, not to mention that the flesh and blood of beasts and qi-practitioners were far from pure spiritual Qi.

"We can go to the flesh and blood marsh now." After a long while, Longque sensed that its power had reached a bottleneck, and thus spoke.

Consequently, Xu Zhong began speeding toward the flesh and blood marsh.

He ignored all the beast-qi-practitioners he encountered along the way.

Just as he approached the flesh and blood marsh, a familiar voice suddenly came from ahead.

He halted, catching sight of a long plank road spanning across the cliff face.

Meanwhile, several qi-practitioners on the plank road sensed someone approaching and probed toward his location.

That person saw Xu Zhong and was first startled: "Brother Xu? Why are you here? You left in such a hurry back in Tianyuan City, and we thought something had happened to you!"

These qi-practitioners were none other than Yun Yong and others whom Xu Zhong had befriended on the Endless Sea.

Before Xu Zhong could speak, Shiyue, who was by his side, picked up her long spear and lunged fiercely toward Xu Zhong's direction.

"Don't be fooled." Shiyue's brows were furrowed and her eyes cold. "Not long ago, he was merely at the Guarding-One realm. Scarcely two months have passed, yet he has already opened his Niwan palace, cultivated preservation of truth, and is merely a step away from 'riding things'.

"This is not the Xu Zhong we know," she said with a solemn expression. "He is a inner demon born within the flesh and blood marsh."