Chapter 302 – Entering the Formation Core: Chaos Erupts

Millions of burial mounds, millions of Yin Soldiers, the Eighteen Levels of Hell, and the Nether River capable of transporting Yin Soldiers across the land… these were all matters for the future.

At this moment, Mu Lin was more focused on the Formation Core.

“Splash…”

With the sound of water splashing, the City God Dharma Image was brought by Ink Jiao – Hebo to the Formation Core.

Upon its arrival, Mu Lin’s refinement of the Formation Core began.

“Boom!”

“I can control everything, dominate everything!”

Naturally, Mu Lin began his refinement with the Vow Power Heart Flame.

Fueled by arrogance and nurtured into a flame of dominion, it allowed Mu Lin to dominate all things, making it the best method for refinement.

Of course, this time, Mu Lin did not proceed with crude, direct refinement.

Relying on his understanding of the arrays, Mu Lin refined only the core parts of the formation.

“Boom!”

Thus, under Mu Lin’s will, the fiercely burning Vow Power Heart Flame began to incinerate the thick copper pillars.

Meanwhile, as Mu Lin was busy, outside, in Heartcage City, the refinement of the Divine Blood had reached its most critical moment.

“Thump, thump, thump…”

The illusory Divine Blood heart had already begun to beat, and an endless, refreshing fragrance emanated from it.

Upon smelling that enticing aroma, the surrounding cultivators felt as if their bodies had become completely invigorated.

‘This Divine Blood heart can transform my body, allowing me to ascend directly to Mortal Shedding!’

Realizing this, the greed in their hearts could no longer be restrained, and thus… the battle outside erupted!

“Attack!”

“Rumble!”

[Jade Purity Divine Thunder]

The first to strike was the Jade Daoist of the Daoist Sect. Having been repelled by the combined efforts of the others, he had somehow returned to Heartcage City. The moment he appeared, azure divine thunder descended from the sky, striking toward the head of Evil God Spawn – Scarlet.

“Boom!”

The thunder roared, majestic and divine. Faced with such a ferocious attack, Evil God Spawn – Scarlet remained motionless.

However, though he did not move, from the shadows beneath his feet, a three-headed serpent suddenly emerged.

“Hiss…”

The emerging three-headed serpent hissed toward the sky, and one of its heads unhesitatingly charged toward the divine thunder.

Then, with a “boom,” one of the serpent’s heads was directly shattered by the divine thunder.

Yet, as the serpent’s head shattered, the power of the divine thunder was completely neutralized.

Simultaneously, the loss of one head did not affect the serpent’s other two heads. At this moment, one head spewed fire while the other spewed venom, both attacking the Jade Daoist.

“Hmph, a futile effort!”

Facing the incoming assault, the Jade Daoist did not dodge either. Instead, a majestic and sacred figure emerged from within him.

That saintly figure was initially not large, but upon appearing, the boundless spiritual energy in the surrounding air surged toward it.

“Hum!”

Absorbing this spiritual energy, the saintly figure soon expanded from a normal human size to thirty meters tall, resembling a golden-armored giant.

Even more astonishing was that the moment this giant appeared, it influenced the celestial phenomena, causing endless dark clouds to gather from all directions.

“Ha!”

In the next moment, with a great shout from the golden-armored giant, the sky full of dark clouds instantly transformed into thunderclouds.

“Rumble…”

[God-Monarch Summoning Art]

If Mu Lin were present, he would have realized that the spell used by Jade Daoist was none other than the Heaven-Rank Technique—God-Monarch Summoning Art—which was housed in Jade Lake Dao Academy and had been cultivated by Mu Lin.

Moreover, Jade Daoist’s mastery of this spell had also reached the Master Realm.

Otherwise, the golden-armored Giant Spirit he summoned would not have been so majestic, vast, and infinitely powerful.

Of course, there were still some differences between Mu Lin’s God-Monarch Summoning Art and Jade Daoist’s.

Mu Lin’s Dharma Image Zhong Kui was condensed and created by himself.

In contrast, Jade Daoist’s golden-armored Giant Spirit was a guardian spirit worshipped by the Jade Purity Sect.

The divine consciousness of that guardian spirit made it over a hundred times easier for Jade Daoist to master this technique compared to Mu Lin.

Furthermore, the guardian spirit’s unreserved assistance not only lowered the difficulty for Jade Daoist to cultivate the God-Monarch Summoning Art but also enhanced its power.

It must be said that the heritage of major sects was simply incomparable to that of ordinary rogue cultivators.

Of course, cultivating a divine monarch in this manner was not without its drawbacks—while accepting the guardian spirit’s divine consciousness, the upper limit of Jade Daoist’s God-Monarch Summoning Art was also fixed.

Unless that guardian spirit broke through again, Jade Daoist’s divine monarch would never surpass the current guardian spirit.

Mu Lin’s Dharma Image, however, did not have this problem.

Not to mention that Dharma Image Zhong Kui could be strengthened, but even if Zhong Kui’s status was insufficient, Mu Lin could still enshrine King Yama, or even the Great Emperor of Lidu and the Lord of Mount Tai, as divine monarchs.

…

“Boom!”

A Heaven-Rank Technique, Master Realm cultivation, and driven by the Mana Cultivation of the Realm of Gang Sha Unity—Jade Daoist’s current strength was overwhelmingly powerful.

With such power, he could even hold his own against ordinary Mortal Shedding Adepts for a few moves.

However, just as Jade Daoist had his trump cards, so did Evil God Scion – Scarlet.

“Splash…”

Faced with the majestic golden-armored Giant Spirit and the densely packed divine thunder filling the sky, this Evil God Scion retrieved a dark golden cup from within his body.

As the cup tilted, foul-smelling blood poured out continuously, flowing like a river.

“Roar!”

“Howl!”

Even more terrifying was that as the scarlet Blood River spread, the roars of countless demonic monsters echoed from within it.

Then, in less than a few breaths, nearly a hundred demonic monsters emerged from the Blood River and charged toward the golden-armored Giant Spirit and Jade Daoist.

“Divine Thunder Purges Demons, Slash!”

“Boom!”

Faced with the oncoming demonic monsters, the golden-armored Giant Spirit swung its blade with immense force, cleaving a hundred-meter-long fissure in Heartcage City and slaying nearly a hundred demonic monsters with a single strike of its thunder-infused divine blade.

However, the dark golden cup continued to pour, and the blood flowed endlessly. Even when slain, the demonic monsters could be reborn from the Blood River.

One side wielded a divine monarch of infinite power, while the other held an endless Blood River. For a time, their battle reached a stalemate.

Elsewhere, Drunken Wanderer also engaged in combat with Evil God Scion – Shadow.

Like Jade Daoist and Evil God Scion – Scarlet, both of them possessed their own trump cards.

Evil God Scion – Shadow’s trump card was a cloak. “Whoosh!” After donning the cloak, this Evil God Scion conjured an illusory shadow world. Within this shadow realm, he could teleport and shift positions at will.

Moreover, thousands of shadow servants appeared and vanished within the shadow realm, fighting alongside Evil God Scion – Shadow.

On the other side, Drunken Wanderer took out a wine gourd.

His strength was originally unremarkable, but after drinking the wine from the gourd, his power inexplicably rose by a level, and a bewildering sword intent erupted from him with a roar.

“Flowers intoxicate three thousand guests in the hall, a single sword chills fourteen provinces—slash!”

“Whoosh!”

At this moment, Drunken Wanderer’s figure was hazy, but in this state, his sixth sense had reached the level of divine revelation.

No matter where the Evil God Scion·Shadow attacked from, it would be blocked by Drunken Wanderer the instant it struck.

“Boom!”

Divine thunder, blood beasts, sword energy, shadows… a fierce melee erupted in Heartcage City.

Since all four were in the Realm of Gang Sha Unity and possessed trump cards that transcended their cultivation levels, their chaotic battle resembled a clash of four pseudo-Mortal Shedding practitioners, creating an utterly terrifying spectacle.

Fortunately, this was Heartcage City, where seals were everywhere; otherwise, the entire town would have been shattered by their battle.

Such a fight left the onlookers outside dazzled and deeply shaken.

“So strong!”

“Is Gang Sha Unity that much more powerful than Sha Refinement and Gang Condensation?”

“What are you thinking? Ordinary Gang Sha practitioners can fight one against ten Gang Condensation practitioners or one against a hundred Sha Refinement practitioners, but they aren’t this overwhelmingly powerful. These are disciples of major sects, with trump cards that transcend their realms—that’s why they’re so terrifying… With these trump cards, even if we were at the same cultivation level, they could fight one against ten of us!”

“No, no, no, you’re overestimating me. That Godchild could fight one against a hundred of me.”

The formidable Jade Daoist and others made countless people envious. Even some scions of aristocratic families were green with envy.

Many of the trump cards possessed by Drunken Wanderer and Jade Daoist were not even available to aristocratic families.

While marveling at this, someone brought up Mu Lin and compared him to Jade Daoist and the others.

“Originally, I thought Mu Lin had outstanding talent and could compete with these prodigies from major sects. Now it seems I was being narrow-minded.”

This sentiment was echoed by many, but some offered a fairer perspective:

“Actually, in terms of pure talent, Mu Lin is still slightly stronger than Jade Daoist and the others… The fact that Drunken Wanderer and the others have raised their cultivation to the Realm of Gang Sha Unity at such a young age owes much to the support of their sects and the treasures in their hands. In contrast, Mu Lin relies entirely on himself. Under such circumstances, the fact that he can barely keep up with Jade Daoist in cultivation is already proof enough of his talent. However, the world never judges by talent alone. You can’t expect major sects to ignore the accumulated resources they’ve built over centuries, can you? And once those resources are utilized, Mu Lin simply can’t compare.”

“How could he possibly compete? That Godchild’s divine intent is at the Earth Immortal level. Drunken Wanderer’s wine gourd is also a Spirit Tool—a treasure even Mortal Shedding Adepts find hard to obtain. Mu Lin comes from a humble background. Even if his cultivation and spells are comparable, what does he have to offset the power of such resources and treasures?”

…

The younger generation, being around the same age as Mu Lin and the others, were more focused on the strength of Jade Daoist, Drunken Wanderer, and the others, who possessed treasures and resources.

As for the Clan Elders of the aristocratic families, with their extensive experience, they had long known that the direct disciples of major sects were utterly incomparable to ordinary individuals.

Therefore, Jade Daoist’s outstanding performance did not surprise them.

“It’s normal for these people to possess supreme treasures. It is precisely because they have such treasures that their strength has increased so rapidly.”

At this moment, the Clan Elders of these Aristocratic Families, as well as Prince Liang and his group, were focused on the outcome of this battle.

After observing for a while, some frowned, while others breathed a sigh of relief.

The frowns were because, although Jade Daoist and Drunken Wanderer were strong, they had not managed to subdue the two Evil God Scions after a prolonged battle—they had supreme treasures, but so did their opponents.

Whether it was the Shadow Cloak or the Dark Gold Holy Grail, both were at the level of sacred artifacts, equivalent to Spirit Tools in the immortal path.

With both sides holding supreme treasures, it was normal for a prolonged assault to yield no results.

What made these people sigh in relief was that while Jade Daoist and the others could not overcome the Evil God Scions, the Evil God Scions, in turn, could not overcome Jade Daoist and his companions.

As the two sides remained locked in combat, an impatient Evil God Scion called out to Mingling Zi and the others.

“Let’s join forces and eliminate these two first.”

Previously, it was through their combined efforts that they had driven back Jade Daoist and Drunken Wanderer.

This time, the Evil God Scion – Shadow, as before, called out, urging everyone to join forces and repel Jade Daoist and Drunken Wanderer first.

However, he soon realized that his call… went unanswered.

The remaining powerful figures, such as Mingling Zi, Lingxu Zi, Little Overlord, and Black Fiend Tiger, all had their eyes fixed on the Divine Blood Heart.

“Bastards!”

“I knew you humans couldn’t be trusted.”

The sight of being ignored infuriated the Evil God Scion – Shadow, who cursed angrily.

In contrast, the Evil God Scion – Scarlet was quite indifferent.

“Why get angry? Didn’t we already anticipate their betrayal and prepare for it?”

As he spoke, the Evil God Scion – Scarlet also took a step toward the Divine Blood Heart.

Unsurprisingly, as soon as he took that step, the gazes of Little Overlord, Mingling Zi, Lingxu Zi, Black Fiend Tiger, and the others all converged on him.

The intense scrutiny from the four sent a chill down his spine.

Clearly, these individuals had murderous intent.

—Whether it was the Demonic Sect, the Daoist Sect, or even the demonic monsters, they were all determined to prevent these two Evil God Scions from accessing the first drop of Divine Blood.

As for what would happen afterward… there was no “afterward” to speak of. The Daoist and Demonic factions had long agreed that once the first drop of Divine Blood was condensed, they would join forces to crush these two Evil God Scions.

However, the Evil God Scion – Scarlet was well aware of these schemes.

Despite knowing his predicament, he showed no fear. Instead, a faint smile appeared on his face.

“Your defenses are impressive, but it’s already too late.”

“Greed is the original sin. You shouldn’t have allowed me to refine the first drop of Divine Blood.”

“!!!”

(End of Chapter)