Chapter 142: Whereabouts
The flesh swamp trembled violently, and a thunderous roar rang out.
Beneath the twelve golden stone towers, the red-heart bodhi tree suddenly came alive. It began to stretch and unfold, taking on the form and spirit of a dragon. In the blink of an eye, it transformed into a true dragon.
The instant it appeared, an ancient and overwhelming aura swept over them.
As it extended its claws and fangs, mighty waves of vitality surged forth like a boundless sea.
Boom!
A powerful heartbeat resounded. Its thunderous echo swept in every direction like a tide, making everyone present shudder. The sound shook their bodies from within, bringing with it excruciating pain.
Strange divine radiance also shot into the sky from the base of the twelve golden stone towers. Ancient characters, written in hooked iron strokes and silver lines, soared like dragons and phoenixes, majestic and forceful.
These were all the Seal Runes used to suppress the Heart Demon King.
Every Seal Rune had a different structure because it was written in a different manner. Thus, each assumed a different form.
The Seal Runes drifted upward and transformed into an enormous gateway.
Beyond that gateway appeared an ancient palace: walls of celadon, pillars of crystal, and glazed tiles. Purple energy had been carved into the eaves in the shapes of soaring dragons, black tortoises, phoenixes, and qilins. The divine beasts of the Four Symbols occupied the four cardinal directions.
Seated in the center of the palace was a towering figure. Mysterious power rose and sank behind its head, yet the form of a Reincarnation Grotto-Heaven could not be seen.
That was because its Reincarnation Grotto-Heaven was here.
Xu Zhong abruptly turned toward the flesh swamp.
So this was the Vine Dragon’s Reincarnation Grotto-Heaven.
And the red-heart bodhi trees were the Vine Dragon’s true body.
Its true body had always remained within its own Reincarnation Grotto-Heaven. What wandered through the outside world was merely its soul.
The power of its soul was not far inferior to that of its true body. When the two merged, its abilities could achieve an effect greater than one plus one.
Its Reincarnation Grotto-Heaven was so small!
Xu Zhong looked at the domain, which extended no more than a hundred miles in every direction, and thought of all he had witnessed along the way. The Reincarnation Grotto-Heavens of the supreme innate deities he had encountered were comparable to entire grotto-heavens. The Reincarnation Grotto-Heavens of the Creators were nested within one another, while that of the Heavenly Dao Demon Form directly extended through the Thirty-Three Heavens.
Compared with those deities, the Vine Dragon’s Reincarnation Grotto-Heaven was absurdly small.
The Vine Dragon’s true body could not fully unfold within it. Instead, it was piled together like a colossal mountain of flesh.
It tried its best to keep its body within the limits of what the Reincarnation Grotto-Heaven could contain, yet a dragon’s tail still protruded.
That single tail was enough to fill the entire Bronze Gorge.
The Vine Dragon’s true body was enough to intimidate Xu Zhong and the others, but it was the soul that truly controlled the Reincarnation Grotto-Heaven.
“You little insects actually managed to get inside.”
The soul spoke.
Its voice filled the entire flesh swamp, vast and rumbling as it transformed into thunder. The breath exhaled from its mouth became a violent hurricane.
For a time, wind and thunder raged above the flesh swamp, filling it with a savage force of destruction.
Under the impact of that terrifying power, the bodies of several people trembled, and their internal organs were injured. Wisps of hazy blood mist seeped from their bodies, only to be swiftly absorbed by the power permeating the flesh swamp.
The Vine Dragon’s soul began extending one of its fingers through the gateway.
In an instant, the Vine Dragon’s true body merged into that finger.
The flesh swamp trembled. Divine radiance flashed, transforming into purple-qi bronze furnaces, scarlet-glow divine swords, and great white-gold blades. Dragons flew and phoenixes danced; qilins breathed auspicious clouds; divine tortoises carried mountains on their backs. Countless visions shot into the heavens as an unprecedented force pressed downward.
Xu Zhong’s gaze flickered.
This was the power bestowed upon them by the Gate of Creation. By borrowing the qi within the body and employing the arts of creation, they could bring all things into being.
He knew that these visions were entirely real.
He immediately stepped forward, Cloud-Swallowing Sword in hand. A thousand miles of starlight appeared behind him, only to be compressed into a single thread of radiance in the blink of an eye.
Even so, he continued to execute his sword technique.
The dragon reared and the phoenix soared, a momentum impossible to restrain.
This sword embodied the two aspects his swordsmanship emphasized: reality and illusion.
The dragon was the aspect of reality, while the phoenix represented illusion.
It was both the River of Stars Sword Dao and the Great River Sword Dao.
The sword thrust forward and collided with the purple-qi bronze furnace.
Boom!
Flames formed from profound yellow and deep black energies surged from within the furnace.
The two-colored flames descended from the sky and easily set the rearing dragon and fiery phoenix ablaze, leaving behind only two wisps of blue smoke.
The flames gathered their force and swept forward, landing upon Xu Zhong.
At once, Xu Zhong’s body began to burn fiercely. The palace within him slowly melted into bronze liquid and flowed through his meridians.
Xu Zhong was secretly alarmed. He immediately activated the Golden Elixir Dao Tree within his body.
The Golden Elixir Dao Tree merely shifted its position, and the two-colored flames ignited.
By then, the purple-qi bronze furnace had already crashed down.
Bang!
A deafening impact rang out.
Xu Zhong’s fleshly body collided with the bronze furnace.
The Dark-Origin True Water Barrier around him shattered as quickly as paper. A hole the size of a millstone was smashed through it.
The purple-qi bronze furnace broke through the Dark-Origin True Water Barrier, smashed through the protective radiance of the Life-Radiance Art, and pierced through the Qi-Sealing Technique. It was about to strike Xu Zhong directly.
At that moment, the Threefold True Fire surged into the heavens and collided with the two-colored flames.
In the blink of an eye, Xu Zhong refined the purple-qi bronze furnace away with the Threefold True Fire.
By then, Yun Yi and the others had already been restrained.
Apparently, the Vine Dragon had intended to kill one person as a warning to the others, using Xu Zhong’s death to cow them. It had not expected him to possess the Golden Elixir Dao Tree and various bizarre techniques.
“Oh?”
The Vine Dragon stared at Xu Zhong in astonishment.
Its words carried the authority of Heaven. A flawless white crescent blade came from beyond the heavens.
The crescent blade’s size and length were suppressed to within a hundred miles. It spiraled downward, preparing to kill Xu Zhong and the others completely.
Its power was beyond anything Xu Zhong and the others at their level could withstand, whether through individual techniques or a combined formation.
The Vine Dragon intended to kill them outright.
Xu Zhong’s thoughts stirred, and a branch of the Golden Elixir Dao Tree emerged from his navel.
Yet Yun Yong once again raised his zither strings.
The strings carried the sound of the zither and surged forward like a mighty river.
The strings snapped in the middle, while the crescent blade was also severed. It fell to the ground and transformed into a broken finger, radiating powerful vitality. A blood spirit mushroom grew from it, its demonic age increasing without pause as the spirituality within it grew stronger.
In the space of a single breath, the blood spirit mushroom took human form.
It appeared to be a young child, with two little braids, a small bellyband, and bare feet.
Seeing the situation, it immediately turned and ran, but the flesh swamp soon refined it away.
“You have angered me!”
The Vine Dragon’s fury spread throughout the entire flesh swamp, transforming it into a realm of thunder.
Yet even that thunder realm could not contain its true body.
Countless bolts of lightning shook the heavens with booming thunder.
Xu Zhong ignored it, using his physical body to withstand the lightning and tribulation.
“Rise!”
In silence, a Jade Pool Sword Formation suddenly appeared from thin air.
The formation stood upon one of the golden stone towers.
In an instant, a surging torrent of Jade Pool water poured downward, crashing against a golden stone tower.
Rumble!
The sound did not come from the heavens. It came from the core of the flesh swamp.
The Heart Demon King had also begun bombarding that golden stone tower.
“How dare you!”
The Vine Dragon’s expression changed. It rose from its throne and strode forward.
The immense vitality and blood of its physical body were summoned.
“One Breath Primordial Unity Formation!”
Shiyue spun the astrolabe in her hands.
Although she did not know what Xu Zhong intended to do, helping him at this moment required no thought.
Three hundred and sixty formation flags flew out.
Before the flags could form a complete formation, the Vine Dragon’s overwhelming vitality and blood swept over them and shattered it. The flags scattered in every direction.
That vast force of vitality and blood condensed into a spear of punishment and crashed down.
The moment its tip descended a single inch, Yun Yong and the others could no longer control their bodies. They fell to their knees, and great masses of blood mist surged from them.
Cracking sounds came from their bodies as their bones shook and broke. Their flesh split from head to toe, blood streaming everywhere in a scene of terrible carnage.
At that very moment, under the assault of Xu Zhong and the Heart Demon King from within and without, the golden stone tower broke apart.
A corner of the formation sealing the Heart Demon King was exposed.
At the same time, a field of golden blood-light spread outward.
Every thread and wisp of that golden blood-light possessed astonishing power.
A mere ten feet of it was enough to suppress all the vitality and blood within the Reincarnation Grotto-Heaven.
Xu Zhong and the others had no time to think. Nor did they consider restraining the golden blood-light. They seized one another and, in perfect tacit understanding, leaped into the flesh swamp.
“Guli guli!”
Xu Zhong spoke in the demonic tongue.
The Heart Demon King summoned several demonic clouds, which lifted Xu Zhong and the others.
Only then did the Vine Dragon’s soul enter its physical body.
It glared at the Heart Demon King with such hatred that its teeth seemed ready to crack, yet it could do nothing.
It had to rebuild the golden stone tower immediately. It could not allow the golden blood-light to continue flowing away.
Every wisp of golden vitality and blood that escaped might bring disaster upon it.
Dragging its unbearably heavy body, it cut off one of its own dragon feet and thrust it into the place where the golden stone tower had stood.
In an instant, the dragon foot transformed into a golden stone tower.
The Vine Dragon then personally inscribed the Seal Rune upon it.
Only after completing all this did it have time to look toward Xu Zhong and the others.
“You won’t last long. Even with that treacherous Heart Demon protecting you, you will eventually be refined away!”
“Are you afraid of us?” Xu Zhong met its gaze. “Is it because some secret is hidden within this Reincarnation Grotto-Heaven?”
Before the Vine Dragon could answer, Xu Zhong continued, “Let me guess.”
“Under normal circumstances, when a qi cultivator forms a soul, that means they possess two consciousnesses. Ordinarily, the consciousness of the physical body is dominant, while that of the soul is subordinate.”
“But in your case, everything has been reversed.”
Xu Zhong clapped his hands and paced back and forth.
The Heart Demon King followed closely behind him, protecting him from the enraged Vine Dragon.
“That is because the consciousness of your true body fell into slumber for some reason. Before that happened, it severed you from itself.”
“That also explains why you have always been the one to act, while your physical body has done little more than shake its vitality and blood and otherwise stood by.”
If the Vine Dragon’s physical body could move, Xu Zhong and the others would never have escaped.
They would have been crushed to death by it in an instant.
“What caused your physical body to fall asleep? And what forced you to kill the Dragon Sparrow the instant it entered the flesh swamp?”
They had been master and servant for a thousand years, and their relationship had been deep. Yet the Vine Dragon had killed it without hesitation.
If it had merely been an ordinary demon beast, that would have meant little. But the Dragon Sparrow had cultivated an Inner Landscape and was one of the Vine Dragon’s most capable assistants.
There was only one reason that could have provoked such a drastic reaction.
The answer was obvious.
“Your heart is here!”