Chapter 139: Dragon Palace, Soul Devouring Transformation
The Xuanming True Water gushing from the Eye of the North Sea transformed into a thousand-zhang Black Dragon. Its Dragon body was carved from black jade, and the ethereal blue mist seeping between its scales solidified, freezing and cracking the Void Realm like a mirror wherever it passed.
Su Meiniang gently raised her hand, and the Burning Sky Silk gracefully flew out from her sleeve, resembling a Heavenly Phoenix flapping its wings. As crimson light flowed, it twisted three Black Dragons into countless shattered ice crystals.
The shattered ice reflected the moonlight, like a spilling galaxy. She narrowed her Phoenix eyes, glancing at the young man beside her, and as her cherry lips parted, a delicate sandalwood fragrance wafted out: "Little Lord, if you keep staring at the stamens of that Demonic Lotus in a daze, and your Nascent Soul gets swallowed later, don't blame this servant for not collecting your corpse!"
Lu Qingyang laughed heartily, lightly tapping his toes on the copper coin sword, and soared into the air, his robes fluttering. Chaos Mother Qi gathered and dispersed around him like clouds. His Nascent Soul Avatar sometimes solidified into a silver-armored youth with picturesque features, and sometimes transformed into a stream of light, merging deep into the rust spots on the sword body, as if all the sword rust were fragments of stars.
He formed a hand seal with his fingertips, and the rusty sword suddenly let out a clear Dragon's roar, its tip pointing directly at the core of the Demonic Lotus. The ancient, rust-covered sword actually shimmered with ripples, and the inscriptions on its body appeared faintly under the moonlight: "Su Jiejie, look, the bronze giant gate entangled by the roots of this Demonic Lotus, the Big Dipper Seven Killings pattern on its door knocker perfectly matches the gulping mouth of the heaven severing sword sheath—a sword sheath that has been with me for ten years, through cold and heat, has long resonated with my Nascent Soul. How could I not recognize the core of this ancient Demon Slaying Array?"
Before his words finished, the nine petals of the Demonic Lotus suddenly closed. The blood-red lines refined along the edges of the petals shot out like crimson serpent tongues, weaving into a blood-colored cage that trapped the three of them. Leng Yuehan's Ice Soul Sword Array burst forth with brilliant light, and a hundred thousand Ice Soul Swords appeared from the Void Realm, roaring like silver-scaled giant Dragons from the Cold Abyss as they slammed into the blood net.
However, the blood-colored threads wriggled like living things. With a crisp 'clang,' the Ice Soul Sword Array was actually entangled by the blood threads, and the sword bodies instantly froze with frost. Her plain white sleeves fluttered without wind, and the pressure of the Soul Transformation Stage descended like an overturning iceberg, frost flowers swirling between her brows: "The Soul Devouring Sect's arrangement of this Reversal of Yin and Yang Gui Xu Array is quite timely—they chose precisely when the moonlight is at its brightest to draw forth the Yin Qi of the Nine Underworlds!"
A dull hum of a bronze giant gate opening came from underground, and Lu Qingyang's pupils constricted.
What surged out from within the gate was not Devilish Qi, but countless fragments of shattered star maps, swirling like fireflies within the Chaos Mother Qi. Each fragment was engraved with the same runes as the rust spots on his Nascent Soul, resembling star fragments eroded by time.
Su Meiniang's Burning Sky Silk suddenly emitted a scorching sound, and where sparks fell, the full appearance of the Qingqiu rebirth monument emerged. The monument was nine zhang tall, with inscriptions carved in ancient divine script, which, as they flowed, manifested the four characters "Nine Underworlds Gui Xu." Crimson light patterns snaked down like blood tears. "Not good! Once the Gate of Gui Xu opens, all living beings in the Three Realms will become nourishment for the Demonic Lotus!"
Before Leng Yuehan could finish speaking, the Black Dragon, Demonic Lotus, and bronze gate all transformed into streams of light, surging into Lu Qingyang's Nascent Soul rust spots like a hundred rivers returning to the sea. Golden light burst from his Meridians, and his Nascent Soul Avatar roared towards the sky, its sound shaking the Nine Heavens. A Nine-Layered Star Dou Array diagram appeared in the Chaos Mother Qi, and the rusty sword flew from his hand, suspended, its sheath's gulping mouth pointed directly at the bronze giant gate. The star patterns on the door knocker resonated with the rust spots on the sword sheath, emitting a vast hum like an ancient bell, as if narrating ancient secrets.
"Seeking death!" Leng Yuehan's left eye, the Cold Abyss, suddenly erupted with annihilation Dao patterns, and ice crystal runes spread from her pupil to her entire face. The moment the Ice Soul Giant Dragon turned its head, its roar caused ripples in the Void Realm. Its fangs, carved from cold jade, carried the Qi of annihilation as it bit towards Lu Qingyang—but the instant it touched the Chaos mist, the bronze giant gate burst open with a crash.
The Primordial Xuanhuang Qi gushing from within the gate actually condensed into the mandarin duck pattern of a colorful embroidered bellyband. Golden threads moved like living things on the brocade, and the ambiguous red light flowing between the embroidery threads was like unextinguished candlelight in a boudoir.
Su Meiniang's nine tails suddenly unfurled, coiling like crimson silk around two Puppets and slamming them to the ground. The Refined Void Stage Sky Fox True Fire shot out from her fingertips, burning along the Puppet's joints into their cores. As sparks flew, they reflected the "Greedy Wolf Devouring Heaven" divination symbol on the bronze astrolabe.
The divination patterns and the rust on the copper coin sword actually began to devour and fuse with each other. The hundred thousand vengeful spirits spewing from the red-haired Old Ancestor's Lifebound Treasure, the Soul Devouring Cauldron, had faces twisted like Hellish evil spirits, but they let out piercing wails the instant they touched the Fox Fire. "So the Soul Devouring Sect stole Qingqiu's forging technique!" Su Meiniang's red lips curved into a charming smile, and the golden bell at her tail tip suddenly vibrated. The sound waves swept out like blades, and the heads of three hundred vengeful spirits simultaneously fell to the ground. In the scene appearing on the cauldron's body, the eighth generation Su Meiniang's act of sacrificing her tail to save someone was vivid. The golden bell at her tail tip jingled among the vengeful spirits, forming an eerie harmony with the wails of the Yin souls inside the cauldron.
"This forging technique was exchanged for your Qingqiu Old Ancestor's tailbone!" The red-haired Old Ancestor sneered, and within the Soul Devouring Cauldron, a vengeful spirit with Leng Yuehan's previous life appearance suddenly condensed—the woman was dressed in snow-white, with cinnabar between her brows like tears, holding a broken "Taiyin Soul Slaughtering Wheel."
Lu Qingyang's Nascent Soul Avatar suddenly reformed, the rusty copper coins spinning in his palm like a galaxy. Fragments of the chaos bell automatically merged into the copper coins, emitting a vast hum like an ancient divine bell. "
"The old immortal's coffin stash is quite rich!" He lightly tapped his toes on the copper coin sword, and the rust spots on the sword body suddenly shot out starlight. The instant the copper coin pierced through the Soul Devouring Cauldron, a scene of Leng Yuehan Undergoing Tribulation in her previous life appeared on the cauldron's body. In the scene, the woman's white clothes were stained with blood, and the blade of the Soul Slaughtering Wheel cleaved through nine layers of Heavenly Thunder, but she ultimately fell in the last bolt of Purple Cloud Tribulation light. "Deng Tuzi, shut up!" Leng Yuehan's Sword Qi surged, and the Cold Abyss Giant Dragon exploded into a sky full of ice mist.
The blade of the "Taiyin Soul Slaughtering Wheel" appearing in the mist flowed with ethereal blue light. The moment it touched the Soul Devouring Banner, the left eye of the vengeful spirit on the banner suddenly flowed with Xuanhuang Qi, transforming into a blood-red line that entangled the blade: "How dare you desecrate my Dao injury!" The star patterns on the bronze giant gate's door knocker suddenly came to life, transforming into two Soul Devouring Demon Dragons that bared their fangs and claws, lunging at the three of them.
Su Meiniang's Burning Sky Silk, like a crimson bolt of silk, coiled around one of them, and the golden bell at her tail tip shattered the group of vengeful spirits: "Little Lord, aren't you going to get serious yet?" She suddenly tore through the Void Realm, and the Refined Void Stage spatial Dao laws condensed into the Qingqiu rebirth monument. The treasure light from the Dragon Palace relics behind the gate reflected, causing ripples on the sea surface. "The coral branches behind this gate are treasures even the Yaochi Fairy covets!"
In the Chaos Mother Qi, Lu Qingyang's rusty sword suddenly let out a Dragon's roar, its tip pointing directly at the core of the Soul Devouring Cauldron. The red-haired Old Ancestor's expression changed drastically. His Lifebound Treasure actually began to tremble, and the faces of the vengeful spirits inside the cauldron suddenly twisted into his likeness, letting out piercing screams: "You actually broke my Soul Banner Blood Pact!"
Lu Qingyang's Nascent Soul suddenly expanded a hundredfold, and Chaos Mother Qi condensed into an all-access Dao pattern in his seven orifices: "Su Jiejie, you should have said so earlier!" The rusty copper coin sword suddenly disintegrated into one hundred and twenty thousand ancient coins, each coin embedded with a fragment of Leng Yuehan's Ice Soul. "Old coffin-filler, catch Mr. Lu's life-buying money!"
The instant the rain of coins touched the Soul Devouring Demon Dragon, the red-haired Old Ancestor suddenly let out a scream. His Soul Transformation Stage Physical Body actually began to turn copper-rusted, and his Dantian Nascent Soul was corroded by rust into a star-patterned Puppet: "No... this copper rust is..." Before his words finished, a Dragon's claw suddenly extended from within the bronze giant gate, dragging his half-rusted Nascent Soul into the gate.
The tremors at the bottom of the sea became more intense, and the Nine Underworld Demonic Lotus suddenly exploded into a blood mist. Leng Yuehan's Taiyin Soul Slaughtering Wheel crushed the last three Soul Devouring Banners: "What's behind the gate... is devouring Soul Transformation Nascent Souls!" The wheel's blade reflected the scene inside the gate—in the ruins of the North Sea Dragon Palace, countless bronze pillars were refining Cultivator Nascent Souls into star patterns!
Su Meiniang's nine tails coiled around Lu Qingyang's Nascent Soul: "Little Lord, this copper rust..." The golden bell at her tail tip shattered the door knocker's star patterns, revealing a thousand-zhang Demon Dragon coiled behind it. "It's actually from the same source as the Dragon Palace Soul Devouring Array!" The bronze mirror embedded in the Demon Dragon's inverse scale reflected a scene of Lu Qingyang stealing the chaos bell pestle in his previous life.
"So that's how it is!" Lu Qingyang suddenly slapped the rusty copper coin onto his glabella, and his Nascent Soul Avatar erupted with Chaos Tribulation Lightning. "Both Jiejies, I'm taking this Dragon Palace dowry!" The instant the Tribulation Lightning split open the Demon Dragon's inverse scale, the bronze giant gate collapsed with a crash, revealing the Soul Devouring Sect's main altar, which spanned the seabed behind it—one hundred and twenty thousand bronze pillars entangled with star pattern chains, each chain shackling a Soul Transformation Cultivator's Nascent Soul!