Chapter 144: Awakening of the True Form

Return!

This single word transformed into a divine brand, imprinting itself between heaven and earth.

All the Qi refiners who had once refined His vital blood fell continuously toward this place, being smelted into the raw force of blood and breath.

Su Jie began to ascend bit by bit, but was pulled back down by Old Man Li beside him.

Li Yuanhua and the others emerged from the midst of their respective ancestral figures.

"I have found His heart," Su Jie stated. Yet the moment he opened his mouth, breath flew out from within it.

Old Man Li looked in the direction Su Jie pointed—it was the Reincarnation Grotto-heaven.

In an instant, understanding dawned on him.

They had sensed the aura of Xifeng Lie's heart merging as one with the Vine Dragon, and thus assumed the heart was on the Vine Dragon's body.

Yet breaking free from that mental cage at this moment brought a profound sense of sudden enlightenment.

Gazing into the Reincarnation Grotto-heaven, Old Man Li saw the swamp of flesh and blood concealed within, and could not help but be moved. He also beheld the twelve golden stone阙 standing at the edge of the flesh swamp, alongside the true form of the Vine Dragon.

"This is not His complete form?" Old Man Li's heart skipped a beat as he looked at the figure fiercely battling the three deities in the void: "This is merely His divine soul."

Not just the divine soul, but a portion of the flesh and blood as well.

It was the Vine Dragon, having severed a part of its vine and planted it within its own divine soul, thus transforming it into flesh and blood. However, its might fell short of the true body.

"This Vine Dragon is bizarre!" Old Man Li pinched his chin. "It seems to have sealed itself away in order to refine Xifeng Lie's heart."

"Did He become a congenital deity precisely because of this heart?"

After all, judging from surface information, this Vine Dragon should have been a Qi refiner in the Inner Scenery realm, yet it had leaped directly to become a congenital deity.

Such a question was destined to remain unanswered.

The thought flashed through his mind for barely a fraction of a second before Old Man Li arrived at a plan: "I will send you into His inner scenery. Whether you succeed or fail thereafter depends entirely upon yourself."

Because he lacked a heart, Su Jie's physical body could no longer bear the immense power of the vital blood. Consequently, the blood turned to devour his flesh, and many of his internal organs had already been reduced to ashes under its onslaught.

The speed of this destruction even surpassed the rate at which Old Man Li was being consumed by the fire of vital blood.

Su Jie, economical with words, merely nodded numbly.

Old Man Li extended his head out from Fengdu once more, scanning the battlefield in search of an opportunity.

It was precisely because he currently resided within Fengdu that he remained untouched by the fires of war, sitting securely upon the fishing platform.

Boom!

Golden divine blood splashed across the vast firmament as the Vine Dragon's heart was pierced through. Yet the very next moment, His heart grew back anew.

He sneered, shooting twin beams of supreme Yin and supreme Yang light from his eyes. These transformed into two deities, holding the sun and moon aloft as they smashed toward the ancestor of the Ji family.

The spear in the Ji family ancestor's hand was still dripping with blood; just moments ago, He had run the Vine Dragon's heart through with a single thrust.

"Not in the physical body!"

Watching the sun and moon hurtling toward Him, the Ji family ancestor's shadow suddenly detached itself, transforming into a dark cosmos that swept downward, engulfing and stowing away both the sun and the moon.

At that moment, the Vine Dragon once again suppressed the ancestor of the Li family.

The Li family ancestor coughed up blood, while the ancestor of the Chen family rushed out hurriedly in golden battle armor to lend assistance. Divine might radiated boundlessly from Him, overflowing with peerless dominance. With every step He took, a massive fissure tore across the sky, from which purple thunder and lightning poured down in torrents.

The Chen family ancestor grasped a massive bell, its tolls generating massive, rippling shockwaves that spread outward in all directions.

The void shuddered, the earth cracked wide, and amidst the tidal waves of energy, all living things cycled through birth and annihilation.

Meanwhile, the Vine Dragon freed one hand, reached toward the Bronze Gorge, and yanked upward.

The dragon vein deep beneath the earth was pulled out by Him and forged into a golden whip.

Grasping the long whip, He flicked it lightly, shattering the Chen family ancestor's bronze bell and causing the rifts in the void to heal shut.

With another gentle shake, He lashed out directly with the whip at the Chen family ancestor.

The whip shattered the golden armor on the Chen family ancestor's body, tearing his skin and flesh apart.

The Vine Dragon suppressed the Chen family ancestor with one hand and kept the Li family ancestor down with the other. Had the Ji family ancestor not been maneuvering nearby, all of them would likely have been subdued and refined by the Vine Dragon.

The spear in the Ji family ancestor's hand unleashed streaks of divine light that crisscrossed heaven and earth, wreathed in hazy, brilliant, and flickering aura of destruction.

These rays of divine light transformed into chains of order, dancing across the sky as they swarmed in to strangle the Vine Dragon.

The Vine Dragon remained utterly fearless, opening His mouth to exhale a sea of vital blood fire that ignited the chains of order.

From His meridians emerged rivers of blood that morphed into spears of punishment, striking toward the Ji family ancestor.

Boom, boom, boom!

Colossal explosions erupted in the sky, shockwaves sweeping in all directions.

The terrain and landscape of Sleeping Dragon Valley were utterly reshaped and ravaged by this massive shockwave.

As far as the eye could see, the land was dim and scarred, resembling the desolate wasteland of an apocalypse.

An aura of destruction pervaded Sleeping Dragon Valley from top to bottom.

Even congenital deities struggled to survive under the Vine Dragon's oppression, let alone ordinary Qi refiners.

They had originally thought a supreme treasure was being born and merely wished to join the excitement.

Yet the moment they drew slightly close to the Bronze Gorge, they were overwhelmed by the aura of destruction and forced to retreat in panic.

Some unfortunate Qi refiners brushed against the destructive aura and were instantly torn to shreds. Vast fields of bloody flowers blossomed between heaven and earth, merging together to form a crimson cloud pierced by dense webs of destructive force.

"It's over, it's over. Yun Yong is probably truly dead in the Bronze Gorge." Xuan Jiuyuan wore a troubled expression as a golden giant burst forth from the crown of her head—her divine soul.

This golden giant cradled a miniature seven-stringed zither, plucking the strings the very instant the destructive aura arrived.

The melody she played was piercingly harsh, yet remarkably effective.

Before the destructive energy could reach her, an even more brilliant divine light erupted from the zither strings, shattering the incoming force to pieces.

For a time, divine light and destructive energy collided before her, causing space to collapse inward. Howling gales of destruction blew forth violently, obliterating everything in their path.

Xuan Jiuyuan pressed forward with the zither-playing golden giant hovering above her.

The sound of the zither versus the aura of destruction.

Yun Yong's elder sister and the Vine Dragon seemed to be exchanging blows from afar.

Their powers collided detached from physical forms, causing the entirety of Sleeping Dragon Valley to tremble.

Yin Xin also appeared at the scene.

Similar to Xuan Jiuyuan, but shielded beneath his own turtle shell.

He stood beside Xuan Jiuyuan, gazing into the distance.

Suddenly, a sensation stirred within him, and his expression shifted: "Another volume of the Luo Shu rubbings?"

The Luo Shu was one of the supreme treasures in the possession of the Thunder Ancestor. Following His death, the Luo Shu had split into nine pieces, scattering across all corners of heaven and earth.

What remained upon his turtle shell was a rubbing of one fragment of the Luo Shu.

At this moment, as he looked upon the flesh swamp of the Vine Dragon, he instantly spotted the anomaly: "No wonder He was able to use the Reincarnation Grotto-heaven to tightly protect that Creator-tier heart."

Every elevation in realm was a sublimation of life itself.

And the Creator was the ultimate limit of such sublimation.

Even a mere heart contained peerless slaughter intent and primordial breath.

That object was not something ordinary people could suppress, absorb, or refine.

Perhaps the Vine Dragon had already attained the status of a congenital deity from the moment it stepped ashore from the Sea of Chaos.

And the reason He chose to come ashore was likely because of this rubbing of the Luo Shu.

While others could not perceive the rubbing sandwiched within His Reincarnation Grotto-heaven, the dragon turtle could see it clearly.

He could even exercise a fraction of control over that rubbing by virtue of the one he carried upon his own body.

"They are not dead!" Yin Xin turned to Xuan Jiuyuan and said.

"What?" Xuan Jiuyuan looked over at him.

"I said, they aren't dead, just trapped inside that Vine Dragon's Reincarnation Grotto-heaven."

Upon hearing this, Xuan Jiuyuan moved to push forward, intending to charge into the Reincarnation Grotto-heaven to save them, but was quickly grabbed by Yin Xin.

"You can't save anyone charging in like that." Yin Xin was covered in sweat as Xuan Jiuyuan dragged him forward, leaving two trails of cloud vapor in the sky.

"Save them or not, I have to try!" Xuan Jiuyuan reached out and took the seven-stringed zither from the golden giant's hands.

She poured her magical power into it while simultaneously pressing down on all seven strings.

"Zheng!"

A piercing acoustic wave swept outward in all directions, concealing peerless murderous intent within its notes.

Various illusions materialized as the zither notes transformed into synchronized Dao chants, blooming with brilliant divine light like celebratory fireworks.

This single note froze space and time, bringing everything to a standstill for a single breath.

The Vine Dragon paused slightly; He heard the zither note and was frozen in place for the span of a single breath, unable to move.

The same was true for everyone else!

Following that zither note came a terrifying, resplendent beam of divine light.

This primordial light washed over His physical body, as if attempting to carve out a brand-new world within His flesh.

"This is the Primordial Light?" The Vine Dragon was struck with extreme terror.

Where had this Primordial Light come from?

Had a Creator set its sights upon Him?

All manner of doubts arose in His mind.

Yet the moment He looked into the distance, tracing the source of the sound, He discovered that the assailant was merely an ant in the Inner Scenery realm.

It was only the zither in her hands that harbored the Primordial Light.

A massive fissure was cleaved across His body, tearing an opening directly into His Reincarnation Grotto-heaven as well.

"A rare opportunity!" Old Man Li's expression lit up with joy as he hurriedly leaped out of Fengdu, carrying Su Jie with him.

Clutching a colossal sword in his hand, man and sword merged into one, reaching the ultimate pinnacle of brilliance, resembling the escaping one of heaven and earth.

This single sword slash ripped the Vine Dragon's Reincarnation Grotto-heaven wide open.

Instantly, the Grotto-heaven transformed outward into a gigantic vortex, connecting the inner and outer worlds.

The Vine Dragon's massive physical form also began to plummet outward, a single dragon claw of His engulfing the entire Bronze Gorge.

"Hurry, go in!"

Old Man Li and the others shouted and struck almost simultaneously.

Because of Old Man Li's intervention, the Vine Dragon was momentarily suppressed.

Su Jie took the lead, diving headfirst into the vortex, followed closely by Chen Taifeng, Li Yuanhua, and Ji Lin.

Seeing this, some fiercely daring individuals also turned back, leaping into the Reincarnation Grotto-heaven.

Xuan Jiuyuan and Yin Xin arrived a step late.

By the time they reached the Bronze Gorge, the Vine Dragon had already broken free of its restraints.

"Roar..."

With a furious roar from Him, every Qi refiner close to the Bronze Gorge was blasted to death instantly.

"You have thoroughly angered me." Flames of fury burned within the Vine Dragon's eyes.

This ball of fire ignited the clouds above.

He reached into His chest, gouged out His own heart, and crushed it to pieces. In an instant, the Vine Dragon perished.

"What kind of move is this?" Yin Xin wore a curious expression.

He had never expected the Vine Dragon to commit suicide out of anger.

Yet the very next moment, the expressions of everyone present changed drastically.

For they saw the Vine Dragon's Reincarnation Grotto-heaven expanding outward—a hundred miles, three hundred miles, a thousand miles, finally halting only when it reached three thousand miles across.

Accompanied by this process, the true form of the Vine Dragon opened its eyes.

"All of you must die!"