Cultivating for a hundred lifetimes to ascension

"Hmph!"

Emperor Houtu snorted coldly, as the body of the Light Man flickered intensely.

He looked down at the Light Heat Cloud, and with a single wave of his hand, his entire arm dropped and, in a flash, merged into the Original Stone Axe.

The Original Stone Axe immediately erupted with surging blood light, and the power of the blood-light giant axe skyrocketed, slicing through the obstructive Light Heat Cloud in one fell swoop and continuing to slash down thunderously, its might having increased several-fold compared to before.

Boom, boom, boom!

The Three Suns Intense Fire Banner flew out of his grip, dragging behind it three sun phantoms that collided fiercely with the blood-light giant axe, exploding with thunderous roars like rolling thunder.

For a moment, the two Ancient Treasures were locked in stalemate.

Zhao Sheng took a deep breath; at the root of his thigh, the bleeding had already stopped, replaced by countless flesh buds that were interweaving and growing rapidly at the wound.

At this moment, his spirit was focused to the utmost, with nearly a hundred split Divine Thoughts cooperating seamlessly in well-ordered harmony.

Zhao Sheng made spell gestures with both hands, and one by one, Heaven and Earth Spiritual Fire flew out from the Thousand Flame Tripod, transforming successively into illusions of swords, dragons, elephants, star nebulae, mountains, thunderbolts, and more, each bursting with tremendous pressure, surrounding their master within a hundred feet.

The Spiritual Images created by the various fires of the Spiritual Fire divided their efforts: half suppressed the surging Xuanhuang Earth Energy, and the other half charged upward to aid the Three Suns Intense Fire Banner in its struggle against the Primordial Axe.

Seeing this spectacle, Emperor Houtu was taken aback. He hadn't expected such a young Nascent Soul junior to possess such astonishing abilities, capable not only of resisting stubbornly to this point but even showing signs of a counterattack.

"Hmph, you little ant dare to offend a heaven god! An unpardonable sin, meet your death!"

As this reprimand echoed through heaven and earth, the Emperor's other arm suddenly fell off, instantly transforming into a brilliant Primordial Spirit Sword that with a flash of light, shot at an unbelievable speed into the Sea of Zhao Sheng's brow and soul.

Thud, thud, thud!

Above the Soul Sea, three successive Guardian Talismans were shattered by the divine sword, yet the divine sword merely dimmed by a third and continued its slash towards the Nascent Soul.

At that critical moment, the seven-inch tall Nascent Soul suddenly made a slight turn; in an instant, it split into more than ten identical Spiritual Images of the Nascent Soul, each as vivid as the next, with waves of Divine Thought and consciousness as indistinguishable as one person.

Boom, boom, boom!

After the Primordial Spirit Sword continuously shattered five of the Nascent Soul avatars, it finally exhausted the last remnants of Primordial Spirit power and vanished into thin air.

At this time, Zhao Sheng's face was slightly pale, but he seemed unaffected, still commanding the Magical Treasures and Spiritual Fire in an orderly manner to resist Emperor Houtu's various attacks.

However, apart from himself, no one knew that the Primordial Spirit Sword had actually severed five of his split thoughts.

Emperor Houtu, seeing Zhao Sheng unharmed, was truly shocked at last.

With a thought, the Primordial Axe abruptly flew back and hovered in front of the Light Man, emitting intense blood light all over.

Zhao Sheng's expression relaxed a bit, and his figure burst back several hundred feet before he stopped moving.

"No wonder you dared to sneak into our main camp alone; you indeed have some tricks up your sleeve. It seems there are many secrets on you, and I am becoming more and more interested in you," Emperor Houtu said coldly with a smile.

As his voice fell, the Original Stone Axe suddenly ejected a column of blood-colored light that shot into the high sky and vanished into the menacing clouds without a trace.

The next moment, a thunderous crack resounded!

Within the clouds in the sky, a fierce wind suddenly erupted, tearing open a huge hole, from which a torrent-like tide of blood-colored light poured down.

In an instant, half of the Heavenly Vault was painted in a hue of blood.

Witnessing such an ominous change in the sky, Zhao Sheng's heart chilled; without a second thought, he grabbed his Three Suns Intense Fire Banner.

In the same instant, the Heaven and Earth Spiritual Fire, like weary birds returning to the forest, whooshed back into the Thousand Flame Tripod.

As the tide of blood light spread, Zhao Sheng's gaze suddenly darkened; another five split thoughts were slashed by a sword.

However, the moment the Thousand Flame Tripod vanished into the Qi Sea of his Dantian, Zhao Sheng instantly disappeared from his original location.

The next instant, the tide of blood-light roared past, but alas, it found nothing.

"Over there!"

Just then, Emperor Houtu suddenly looked up toward the west, where someone's presence abruptly revealed itself three hundred miles away, but the Primordial Spirit had not yet shifted over.

That person disappeared again, this time the shift brought him a staggering twelve hundred miles from the main camp, far beyond the Primordial Spirit True Monarch's limit for Divine Thought detection.

Having lost his sense of Zhao Sheng, Emperor Houtu couldn't help but snort coldly as his Divine Split dissipated into nothing.

Before long, the Flying Sky Temple and Floating Fortress in the main camp activated all their detection Arrays, and their Defensive Light Shields rose simultaneously.

Immediately after, squad after squad of patrol teams flew out from the main camp, initiating continuous patrols for hundreds of miles around, not missing a single anomaly. The level of vigilance was more than ten times stricter than before.

However, in the following seven to eight days, everything remained calm and peaceful. The numerous patrol teams diligently patrolled the surroundings to no avail.

With their meager tricks, how could they possibly discover a Late-stage Nascent Soul Cultivator?

Zhao Sheng had not left and had been ethereal and elusive around the main camp in these days, secretly spying on the movements of the Heavenly Dao Sect.

During this period, occasionally, several frighteningly powerful auras would suddenly rise from deep within the golden temple, followed by immense Power of Primordial Spirit swiftly scanning across hundreds of miles, startling him into fleeing multiple times.

Despite Zhao Sheng's exposure, the three Divinity Transformation True Monarchs stationed here were left with no way to handle him, for this little thief was too slippery.

Another two days passed, and the half-month deadline arrived.

On this day, Liu Wen, a green-robed believer, had a joyous expression as he quickly made his way up the cabin passage to the upper deck,

Eager for his turn to get some fresh air on the deck after being cooped up for three days.

Following behind Liu Wen were four or five Taoist practitioners of the same rank, all of whom were part of the same shift rotation.

As they turned the corner and came to the front of the steel ladder, Liu Wen suddenly spotted a faint glimmer of light flickering and vanishing in a dark corner.

Hm?

He took another careful look but did not spot anything unusual this time.

Just then, a junior brother beside him suddenly rubbed his nose and let out a violent sneeze.

Ah...choo!

"Eh? Junior Brother Wu, what's wrong with you?" one asked with concern.

"It's nothing! Someone must be cursing me," said Junior Brother Wu, glancing at Liu Wen at the front.

Liu Wen noticed his gesture from the corner of his eye but did not react.

So what if he lost out to me a few years ago; he still harbors such deep jealousy to this day.

The whining of a defeated dog, why pay him any heed!

However... ever since he mentioned it, strangely, Liu Wen also felt an itch in his nose, always on the verge of sneezing.

But Liu Wen suppressed the urge and carried on as if nothing was amiss, climbing up the ladder.

By this moment, he had already forgotten the earlier incident.

This brief interlude passed in a flash.

Yet at that time, Liu Wen had no idea that similar scenes were almost simultaneously occurring on numerous Flying Sky Temples and Floating Fortresses.

In many secluded and shaded corners, Sealing Crystal Pearls turned to dust at the very same moment.

Instantly, clusters of Devil Fungus that were ten times smaller than spiritual energy particles transformed into invisible plagues, blending into the air and quietly spreading.

The situation on the Dark Star was entirely different this time; as the spores drifting in the air were exceptionally dilute, it greatly delayed the onset of the Crystalization Disease.

No one in the main camp noticed the danger that had descended upon them, the deathly threat was silently attacking.

Six hundred miles away, Zhao Sheng stood atop Bone Mountain, hands clasped behind his back, gazing profoundly at the distant twinkling Radiance as if anticipating something.

About half an hour later,

At the edge of a deck on a Floating Fortress, Liu Wen suddenly felt a sharp pain in his throat, followed by uncontrollable severe coughing.

Thump, thump!

A large blob of phlegm was violently spat onto the pristine deck, spreading out, and within the sticky green mucus, faint glimmers of light twinkled.

Liu Wen's gaze abruptly sharpened, his body stiffened in place, and an inexplicable sense of dread welled up in his heart.

"Wow, what... what is this?"

At that moment, a shout of alarm suddenly drew the attention of everyone on the deck.

Liu Wen looked up to see Junior Brother Wu, a few paces away, pointing at a pool of phlegm on the ground with a horrified expression, his fingers trembling violently as if he had seen something deeply terrifying.