"Pfft!"
As a head shot into the sky, a tall Heavenly Demon expert with wings on his back collapsed with a thunderous crash.
This was already Long Chen's seventeenth consecutive solo challenge against a demon tribe. When the demon prodigy on the altar was killed by him, the ground was already littered with demon corpses.
With a wave of his large hand, Long Chen collected thousands of corpses into the chaotic space. Among these powerful beings, two were rare Three-Vein Emperors, the first time Long Chen had encountered such a Three-Vein Emperor since entering the Great Wilderness.
The strength of a Three-Vein Emperor was several times greater than that of a Dual-Vein expert, but for Long Chen, who had challenged the Nine-Meridian Human Emperor, their strength was no match for them—they were killed in just a few strikes.
When the Three-Vein Emperor appeared, Long Chen knew he was one step closer to the depths of the Great Wilderness. The closer he got, the denser the spiritual energy between heaven and earth became, and the more complete the laws of the Heavenly Dao became.
Only such an environment is suitable for powerful Earth Demons to survive. Small rivers and ditches can't raise big fish. The stronger the creature, the deeper it must move toward the depths of the Great Wilderness.
"Whoosh"
Long Chen slid the Dragonbone Evil Moon onto his back. After this period of fierce fighting, the Dragonbone Evil Moon had been continuously absorbing the power of the blood soul, and its strength had been fully restored.
But the Qiankun Cauldron was still a problem. Its consumption was enormous, and recovery was extremely difficult. During this period, Long Chen continuously threw corpses into the chaotic space. The Taiyin Wood and Fusang Ancient Wood began to flourish, and as flames rose, Huo Ling'er had basically recovered to about seventy percent.
As long as there is enough flame, Huo Ling'er can recover quite quickly. However, Lei Ling'er's recovery speed is far slower because even if the corpses of these monsters are disintegrated, they cannot release much thunderous power. Unless they encounter demons with thunder power, they are of no help to Lei Ling'er.
Judging by the decomposition of these corpses, these monsters seemed to have not experienced the baptism of the heavenly tribulation; otherwise, their bodies should have contained a large amount of tribulation power.
These monsters had grown to this level without undergoing the baptism of heavenly tribulation. Clearly, they were not bound by the laws of the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths, which was a new discovery for Long Chen.
Lei Ling'er was recovering slowly, and Long Chen could only worry helplessly, but there was nothing he could do. Only those native beings of the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths, having survived the heavenly tribulation, would unleash a large amount of thunderous power after being broken down by the black earth.
Here, Long Chen could only see endless monsters, with no other living beings at all. He had no choice but to keep moving forward.
Just as Long Chen predicted, the further they advanced, the stronger the monsters became. Three-vein emperor-level demons were no longer rare; some tribes even had five or six three-vein emperors stationed there, hundreds or thousands of dual-vein emperors, and tens of thousands of ordinary emperors.
However, this posed no threat to Long Chen; it just took a bit longer to clean up.
With the corpses of these powerful figures, the Taiyin Wood and Fusang Ancient Wood quickly recovered, and Huo Ling'er had regained her original strength and began cooperating with the Qiankun Cauldron to refine pills.
With Huo Ling'er's cooperation, the Qiankun Cauldron continuously refined pills and absorbed the spiritual energy of heaven and earth. The dim runes around it began to light up one after another.
Thus, after clearing out a tribe, he would rest for a while, devour a large amount of pills, digest them briefly, then continue searching for the next target. Using the power of these monsters, he helped him digest the pills, then used their corpses to nourish Huo Ling'er, who was responsible for refining pills. Thus, a cycle formed.
This cycle repeated, relentlessly searching for targets. Two months later, one day, Long Chen chased a group of Three-Vein Emperors wielding the Dragon Bone Evil Moon.
"Boom!"
Suddenly, a loud explosion erupted from Long Chen's dantian. A vast aura soared into the sky, and the mass of root energy in Long Chen's dantian burned rapidly, instantly flooding his limbs and bones, then returning to his dantian.
With this in-and-out movement, Long Chen felt all his meridians being cleared by the spiritual root qi. At that moment, his essence, energy, and spirit seemed to be elevated in some way, and his flesh and bones seemed to be strengthened in some way.
That feeling was indescribable—he could clearly sense the change, but there was no obvious improvement. Saying it hadn't improved, his aura suddenly surged several times over.
"Puff, puff, puff... Long
Chen swiftly slashed out with the Dragon Bone Evil Moon. A group of three-vein emperor-level demons were cleaved in two by Long Chen's blade. The chilling blade energy tore through the void, forming a gaping wound tens of thousands of miles long that would not heal.
Long Chen stared at the huge opening, his heart pounding wildly. Just moments ago, his aura had surged around him, with nowhere to release it. Using his energy to wield the blade, he had unleashed such terrifying power. He was stunned himself.
"Is this the power of the Saint King Realm?"
Long Chen felt the changes in his body, his voice trembling. This feeling was all too familiar—this wasn't some Saint King Realm, but clearly the physical changes during the Qi Gathering Realm.
He never expected that after entering the Immortal Realm, this most primitive, simplest, and most fundamental method would appear once again.
"Could this be what the Great Dao is supremely simple and returns to simplicity?" Long Chen couldn't help but mutter, as if entering the Immortal Realm had actually made cultivation easier.
"Decay and immortality, talent and uselessness, seemingly true but not yet seemingly false!" Long Chen's heart raced wildly. It was as if he had suddenly understood. At that moment, his mind was clear, as if he had parted the mist to see the blue sky.
Upon entering the Immortal Realm, Long Chen had been confused all along. He had also communicated with Yue Zifeng, Gu Yang, Bai Shishi, and others, but their understanding of the Immortal Realm was completely different from his.
Only then did Long Chen realize that, because he possessed three bloodlines and practiced the Nine-Star Overlord Body Technique, his path was completely different from others', and the two could not be mutually verified.
Now, Long Chen finally understood that while others at the Immortal Realm condensed immortal runes, his Immortal Realm was condensing immortal energy, and the place where this immortal energy converged was the spiritual root within his dantian.
In other words, within the Immortal Six Realms, all his attention was focused on his spiritual roots; nothing else mattered.
"Hahaha... Long
Chen laughed heartily toward the sky. Once he figured this out, he suddenly felt enlightened.
He didn't know if it was because his spiritual root was taken back then and had been dormant inside Long Aotian's body for too long. Now that it had returned, it was about to begin a second rebirth and reignite its passionate blood.
At this moment, Long Chen looked once again at the lump of root energy in his dantian. That energy slowly wavered, as if responding to Long Chen, which made Long Chen overjoyed.
Previously, although the spiritual root had returned, Long Chen always felt it had been out of his body for too long and was somewhat out of place with him. Now, he had finally developed a kind of soul resonance with the spiritual root.
"Now that I've advanced to the Saint King realm, I can continue deeper and challenge even stronger monsters."
After Long Chen finished speaking, he strode confidently into the depths of the Great Wilderness.