Chapter 156: The Void Great Grinding Mill

A massive millstone suddenly appeared.

A powerful fluctuation emanated from it, connecting to the nine heavens above and drawing upon the netherworld below. Radiating a towering and ferocious might, it swept across the entire platform.

Everyone was captivated by the sight and immediately turned their gaze toward the millstone.

The millstone was not particularly large in circumference, and its surface was covered in ravines. Yet, the moment any ravine met the eye, it transformed into a vast heavenly chasm spanning thousands of miles.

The ravines were overflowing with a blur of mangled flesh and blood, from which a blinding crimson radiance surged into the sky.

This flesh and blood was immensely pure; judging by its spiritual essence, it originated from Qi-realm or even higher-level Qi practitioners.

The unfathomable nature of this millstone and its abrupt appearance caused both Shi Yao and the mountain demon to halt their actions simultaneously.

Li Yuanhua breathed a sigh of relief and picked up Ji Lin’s protective magical artifact that had fallen to the ground—a seal.

It was exceedingly heavy, weighing hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Li Yuanhua had to muster all his spiritual power just to lift it.

The seal was perfectly square, crafted of gold with a purple ribbon, exuding an overwhelming aura of nobility. The ribbon was woven from dragon tendons, and nine coiling flood dragons were carved atop the golden seal.

"Don't look at me like that. Ji Lin is dead anyway; there's no way his magical artifact should fall into the hands of those two monsters, right?" Li Yuanhua looked at Chen Taifeng beside him and shrugged.

Chen Taifeng remained silent, which was as good as tacit consent.

Given the peculiar circumstances, as long as Li Yuanhua could strengthen himself, he would become a valuable ally.

The two of them had each seized a fragment of the True Transmission just moments before...

Taking advantage of the moment Shi Yao and the others were distracted by the millstone, they hurried to refine the primordial Qi within them.

Li Yuanhua seized this very opportunity to step into the External Scenery realm.

His external scenery was merely a square inch of territory. In truth, when most Qi practitioners achieve the External Scenery realm and condense their external scenery grotto-heavens, the territory they acquire is no larger than a square inch.

His divine soul stepped out of the Niwan palace and entered the external scenery.

If he had future opportunities to expand his external scenery grotto-heaven, he could continuously search for heavenly treasures and "plant" them within the grotto-heaven, thereby growing it larger.

Li Yuanhua was currently polishing his external scenery and pondering where best to conceal it so it would go unnoticed.

Just then, he suddenly noticed that Chen Taifeng, like Shi Yao and the mountain demon, had frozen motionless.

Upon closer inspection, he discovered that Chen Taifeng's body no longer contained a divine soul; even his Niwan palace had been hollowed out.

His physical body was completely empty, reduced to an empty shell.

A sense of astonishment arose in Li Yuanhua's heart, and he quickly looked toward Shi Yao and the mountain demon.

Their bodies were likewise devoid of divine souls—empty, hollow shells.

He stared at the gigantic millstone, feeling suspicious. "Could it be that the millstone sucked away their divine souls? When will it take mine?"

Li Yuanhua was gripped by uncertainty, but the next moment, his gaze fell upon Shi Yao and the mountain demon.

"This is an opportunity!" His eyes darted back and forth. "If I manage to escape by fluke, I will inevitably have to face these two monsters. Why don't I destroy their physical bodies right now, leaving their divine souls with nowhere to anchor? That will make them much easier to deal with later."

Acting on the thought instantly, he summoned Primordial Qi from within himself, transforming it into the Eight Gates that hovered and swirled around the two demons.

Imbued with the power of heaven and earth, these Eight Gates manifested from the outside in within their bodies, weaving together terrifying, interlocking arrays.

Streams of destructive force surged forth from the Eight Gates, filling their bodies inside and out with a continuous roar, bursting forth countless bloody mist that dispersed into the heaven and earth.

However, just as he was preparing to use the Eight Gates to grind away the bodies and demon cores of the two great demons, a beam of spiritual light struck him. When he opened his eyes once more, he found himself within a mystical and unpredictable grotto-heaven.

As soon as he touched the ground, a beam of destructive spiritual light swept toward him.

Startled into a frenzy, Li Yuanhua hurriedly cast an escape art and fled.

His Niwan palace fled right along with him.

Looking around his surroundings, he saw the unimaginably huge millstone revolving incessantly, emitting a grinding creak.

With every rotation of the millstone, it emitted a rain of light.

This rain of light was filled with destructive forces, ruinous gales, and various malefic qi.

If a divine soul even brushed against a fraction of it, it would be instantly ground to annihilation.

Li Yuanhua's scalp tingled with dread.

Yet, there was not a soul around him.

The vast blessed land formed by this millstone was like an immense, boundless ocean, forever venting its wrath and roaring. The rains of light were like surging tides upon this ocean, and they were the solitary wave-riders upon it.

The divine soul was the body, and the Niwan palace was the boat.

Upon the turbulent ocean, only the boat offered safety; once they left the boat, they would be buried within the ocean depths.

The boat beneath Li Yuanhua's feet was tiny, but it was just enough to forge ahead amidst the turbulence.

Further ahead, there were other boats.

Those boats were larger and steadier than his, capable of even plowing through the towering waves.

The occupants of those boats were familiar faces.

Fu Xuan, Su Jie, the figure in the black robe, and Chen Taifeng.

"Why is one person missing?" Li Yuanhua frowned.

The next moment, a terrifying, unfathomable beam of spiritual light erupted from the stone mill, stretching across ninety thousand miles and blasting a bloody scar into the grotto-heaven from which blood steadily dripped.

Li Yuanhua hurriedly turned his boat around to flee.

As he ran, he glanced backward.

There was nothing behind him.

And one person was missing ahead.

"How did that fellow manage to evade the millstone's pull?" Terror gripped Li Yuanhua's heart.

A trace of the destructive light grazed his Niwan palace, forcing him to ruthlessly sever the section of the Niwan palace tainted by the destructive power.

This directly caused his divine soul to destabilize, and with an open mouth, he vomited a stream of undying spiritual light!

The answer to his question was quite simple.

Because it was too heavy to carry.

The millstone's method was to bundle up the divine soul, the undying spiritual light, and the Niwan palace and take them away together.

Among these, the most crucial component was actually the Niwan palace.

However, Xu Zhong's Niwan palace was overwhelmingly heavy.

It bore the reflection of the Classic of Bai Ze. The tens of thousands of innate deities born alongside heaven and earth recorded within it had transformed into prison-like stone pillars sealing the Heavenly Dao's demonic phase, alongside the Thirty-Three-Layer Thunder Tribulation Heaven conjured by the Divine Pivot Azure Firmament Thunder Pagoda, plus all sorts of bizarre sealing arrays.

All these elements pressed down upon Xu Zhong's Niwan palace, making it exceptionally heavy.

While resting within the skull, it naturally felt as light as nothingness, but attempting to extract it from the skull made it heavy as the universe.

Powerful though the millstone was, it was not powerful enough to effortlessly pluck Xu Zhong's Niwan palace right out of his brain.

Even if it could be extracted, once dragged into that trial secret realm, there was a high chance it would directly seal the millstone from within.

The gains would not outweigh the losses.

Consequently, Xu Zhong's Niwan palace, along with his soul, was not taken away by the millstone.

However, the millstone did not let him off entirely either.

Peering into the interior of his Niwan palace, Xu Zhong saw a tiny, golden, miniature millstone lurking above his human soul.

This millstone rotated in a restrained manner, and every single strand of light it spun out fell directly upon Xu Zhong's human soul.

Those rays of light were saturated with destructive power, accompanied by a foul, bloody stench.

The stench was nauseating, resembling something that had fermented for millions of years.

As the destructive power landed on his human soul, Xu Zhong felt the power of tribulation fate within it.

Upon entering the human soul, these destructive forces shattered into the finest dust, tinged with golden afterglow and filled with chaotic power, as if capable of pounding a person's soul back into a state of primordial chaos.

In an instant, streams of golden brilliance erupted from Xu Zhong's body—a radiance bright enough to illuminate the entire void.

Within the Niwan palace, this brilliance was compressed into a thin line, devoid of vastness, yet flashing with thunderous light.

Tribulation determines all living beings!

Attacked by the thunderous light, his human soul was on the verge of being blasted into dust in a fraction of a second.

Yet, the next moment, the Divine Pivot Azure Firmament Thunder Pagoda resting above his head spun gently, instantly absorbing the thunder light and destructive power into its thunder clouds.

Tribulation cannot touch him.

Xu Zhong's physical body had been scoured by primordial Qi, and the Dao tree of the Golden Elixir was deeply rooted within him; he had long since evolved into a lifeform akin to the Thunder Ancestor, a type of Qi practitioner who mimics innate birth.

Since he himself was the convergence point of tribulation fate, how could he ever be constrained by it?

Tribulation cannot be imposed upon him.

Sensing this, the millstone seemed to grow frantic, spinning crazily as if losing its composure, relentlessly raining down tribulations upon Xu Zhong regardless of the cost.

Boundless chaos transformed into tribulations and descended.

All manner of visions emerged from the chaos: the primordial opening of heaven and earth, the birth of new gods, the cosmos and universe, the sun, moon, and stars, birds and beasts... Every single thing in existence manifested one by one in that instant.

Xu Zhong stared at the millstone, momentarily mesmerized.

The power wielded by this millstone was immensely formidable.

It used destructive power as its base and tribulation fate as its grinding wheel.

As the millstone turned, destructive power and tribulation fate were brewed in tandem—first destruction, followed by tribulation.

Once the entire process was complete, a person would be directly pulverized by the millstone and reduced to a part of chaos.

Gazing at the millstone, Xu Zhong remained unmoved even with tribulation fate pressing down upon him.

In refining spells and arts, one must first look at the form, then the rhythm, and finally the spirit.

Watching the millstone, Xu Zhong simulated its form in his heart, initiating its rotation with Yin and Yang as his foundation.

Failure!

Try again!

Failure once more!

"How to balance these two forces—that is the key!" Xu Zhong pondered.

He introduced the undying spiritual light into the mix, using it to rein in Yin and Yang, and instantly, that millstone took shape.

Next was the rhythm!

Rhythm was the manifestation of power and the externalization of the primordial source.

The rhythm of this millstone referred to the power of destruction and the power of tribulation fate.

Xu Zhong already possessed tribulation fate within himself; the crucial missing piece was the power of destruction.

Where did the power of destruction come from?

"It comes from the power of creation!" Xu Zhong smiled faintly, answering his own question.

One Yin and one Yang constitute the Dao, and Yin and Yang arise in tandem.

A human lives by a single breath.

Below the External Scenery realm, this breath within the body is called acquired qi, also known as magical power.

Above the External Scenery and below the Internal Scenery, it is innate qi.

The flip side of all these qi is the power of destruction.

Xu Zhong had found the power of destruction.

Using the undying spiritual light to rein in both the power of destruction and tribulation fate.

With that accomplished, it was time to focus on the spirit.

Spirit was the fusion of form and rhythm.

To grasp the form and rhythm, fuse them perfectly, infuse them with one's own comprehension, and transform them into something of one's own—that was the spirit.

Until now, Xu Zhong only possessed the form and rhythm of the spell, but lacked the spirit.

"Since this millstone came from the void, let us call it the Void Great Millstone," Xu Zhong declared.

His human soul burst forth with power, executing the Void Great Millstone to counter-attack the millstone suspended above his head.

"Boom! Boom!" The ceaseless explosions of the two millstones colliding generated shockwaves that instantly tilted his heavenly soul downward.

Bang!

With a deafening crash, Xu Zhong shattered the millstone within his own Niwan palace.

He snapped his eyes wide open, only to face the exact same situation Li Yuanhua had encountered.

Then, he made the exact same reaction as Li Yuanhua: "Strike first to gain the upper hand!"

Eager to try, Xu Zhong lashed out with the Void Great Millstone.

Yet, his attack was blocked by Fu Xuan's sword.

That sword rang out long and clear in the void, and then slashed down toward Xu Zhong.