After the bald Golden Crow finished speaking, it handed a spatial container of high-quality spiritual liquid to Qi Ping, claiming he would need it shortly.
"Very well!"
At this point, Qi Ping naturally had no reason to hesitate and immediately took the spiritual liquid. Seeing the mysterious portal begin to shrink, he flicked his body and used spatial laws to shift his position. In the blink of an eye, he entered the portal.
Even if it were just for this bizarre altar that shared the same origin as the Immortal Alliance, he had to investigate. Fortunately, this was just a spirit body crafted from Treant clones and precious materials like Cloud-Phantom Gold; it possessed nearly ninety-five percent of his original body's combat power, and he could well afford the cost of losing it.
When Qi Ping emerged from the other side of the portal, a pungent smell of blood immediately assaulted his senses! As he took in the scene before him, he felt a wave of physical discomfort.
Mangled corpses, rotting flesh, and crimson blood—these things combined to form an unfathomable sea of flesh and blood. Carcasses of all sorts of demon beasts were piled high within this sea.
"Just how many demon beasts died here?"
Qi Ping couldn't imagine how many demon beasts must have perished to form such a sea of corpses and blood. At the very least, he was certain that even if every human in the entire Star Sea World gathered together, they could never form such a sea.
However, if it were merely a pile of flesh and blood, it might be endurable. But the flesh, which shouldn't have been able to rot, was covered in all sorts of disgusting maggots, and countless nauseating vengeful spirits and dead souls flitted through the air...
The first impression was one of unspeakable disgust, followed by a bone-chilling dread from the depths of the soul!
"What on earth happened here?"
Even with his current knowledge, Qi Ping couldn't fathom what kind of power could create such a hellish landscape. He also couldn't imagine that such a tragic war had ever occurred in the Forest Sea Demon Realm. After all, the corpses of terrifying demon beasts at the Void Refinement and Integration Stages were not uncommon here.
Suddenly, while Qi Ping was contemplating the scene, several incredibly fast black shadows struck out. They moved so quickly that they appeared before him in the blink of an eye. Only then did Qi Ping see that it was a black maggot over ten times larger than himself, with disgusting slime dripping from its body.
"Late seventh grade!" Qi Ping's heart tightened.
The realm of this maggot was the same as his! However, that wasn't the strangest part. The most bizarre thing was that this maggot emitted the aura and pressure of a Great Vehicle Stage existence! Because of this power, an ordinary Integration Stage cultivator would likely be frozen in place by the sheer pressure!
Fortunately, Qi Ping's foundation was deep enough, and he had recently grown accustomed to the pressure of Great Vehicle auras; otherwise, he truly might have fallen victim. But even so, it still put considerable pressure on him.
"Heavenly Wood Shield!"
Qi Ping instinctively cast a spell to block his front. In the next moment, a jet-black liquid struck the wood shield like an arrow. The terrifying power of the attack actually shattered Qi Ping's Heavenly Wood Shield into pieces!
"What terrifying power!"
"The attack carries power at the Great Vehicle level. This power is the antithesis of life energy?"
In their first clash, the destructive force exceeded Qi Ping's expectations. Specifically, because their powers were mutually exclusive, the power of both their attacks had intensified significantly.
"From the destructive boost, the opponent's power is actually no weaker than the combination of the Azure Dragon's Eastern Extreme Wood power and the Jungle Druid power!"
One had to remember that his wood-attribute power had been fused with the essence of an eighth-grade Azure Dragon. His Extreme Wood power was unimaginably strong, yet it had been matched by a maggot! If he told anyone else, they wouldn't believe it—even Qi Ping found it hard to believe.
But the fact was right before him!
"I want to see exactly what kind of creature you are!"
At this stage, Qi Ping was naturally unafraid. He unleashed all the power of the Wood Master Dao Fruit, instantly forming a suit of indestructible wooden armor around himself. At the same time, he gathered extreme wood power in his hands, forming a spell similar to the Flame Burst spell, but far exceeding it in power and sophistication—a spell easily capable of ranking among the top seventh-grade spells!
This was the tactic Qi Ping had instantly devised based on the situation. Since their powers were mutually exclusive, he would use the most extreme power to blast his way through!
At their respective extreme speeds, the man and the maggot exchanged over a hundred blows in the blink of an eye. The terrifying shockwaves churned the sea of rotting flesh and blood into chaos! Countless vengeful spirits and maggots of lower realms were obliterated by the shockwaves.
"How incredibly persistent!"
Qi Ping looked at the maggot before him, which had been blasted into a tattered mess. His own chest was heaving heavily. It was hard to believe that a single maggot could push him to this extent.
However, to his surprise, the seventh-grade maggot, seeing that it was losing the fight, suddenly turned and fled!
But how could Qi Ping allow it to escape?
"Spatial Blink!"
"Extreme Wood—Burst!"
In the blink of an eye, one world-shaking explosion after another rose between the man and the maggot. Even the wooden armor on Qi Ping's body was continuously shattering! The maggot's counterattacks were not much weaker than Qi Ping's; in some instances, they were even slightly stronger!
Fortunately, Qi Ping was significantly superior in the sophistication and control of his defensive spells. He could rapidly heal any damage to his wooden armor and body, whereas the maggot relied solely on its physical properties and innate talents for defense.
This might have been a source of despair for an ordinary seventh-grade being, but for Qi Ping, who was proficient in all sorts of spells, it was manageable. Still, he had to admit that this maggot was terrifyingly strong!
After over a thousand more clashes, Qi Ping finally completely destroyed the maggot that had ambushed him. The entire sea of rotting flesh and blood had been churned into a mess, a scene of absolute carnage!
"This thing is truly bizarre!"
Fortunately, although the battle was intense, it had lasted less than a few minutes for a seventh-grade expert. Steeling his nerves, Qi Ping continued forward. He wanted to see exactly what kind of hellhole this was!
However, no matter how far he traveled, the scenes he encountered were nearly identical to the one before. To make matters worse, before he had gone very far, he was once again targeted by a seventh-grade maggot!
And he wasn't just being targeted by a maggot—two vengeful ghosts, one at the late seventh grade and the other at the peak of the seventh grade, also set their sights on him!
Qi Ping's heart sank. A single maggot had been difficult enough; now he had two ghosts of unknown depth to deal with as well! And in terms of attack methods, the ghosts were clearly more troublesome.
But what truly made his skin crawl wasn't that. He had discovered something even more terrifying:
'These bizarre things are of the same origin... they even come from... the same entity!'
'In other words, all these strange creatures in this sea of rotting flesh are clones of a single existence!?'