Translator: CinderTL
"Audacious! How dare you slay my Ghost Emperor?" the elder snarled through clenched teeth.
With these six Corpse Puppets, it was indeed possible that the dozen or so Nascent Soul Stage cultivators who had entered in batches had been eliminated.
Without further hesitation, the elder flashed to the entrance of Song Wen's cultivation cave.
"Wu Yue, stop playing tricks and face your death!"
"Senior Gui Xiong, the one who dies might not be this junior," a mocking voice echoed from a corner of the valley floor.
The elder, known as Gui Xiong, turned to see Wu Yue's figure emerge from the mouth of an underground cave.
Gui Xiong was about to erupt in anger when he suddenly sensed an abnormal fluctuation of Spiritual Qi above.
Looking up, the fury that had just flared on his face vanished, replaced by undisguised terror.
At the valley's entrance, another barrier had risen—a fifth-rank formation.
Creak!
The stone gate of the cultivation cave near Gui Xiong swung open.
Immediately, a tidal wave of blood surged forth from within.
Faced with this series of bizarre events, Gui Xiong had long lost the composure of a senior expert, descending into utter panic.
It wasn't that Gui Xiong's temperament was particularly weak; the overwhelming pressure of the blood sea was simply too immense. He felt like a small boat tossed about in a raging storm, any wave threatening to capsize him.
In a panic, he retreated hastily, simultaneously activating his Soul Breaking Awl to strike at the blood sea.
However, he was already standing on the platform outside the cultivation cave, only a few dozen feet from the stone gate. The blood sea's speed far surpassed his own, and it surged forward, engulfing him almost instantly. With barely a struggle, he was swallowed whole, vanishing into the crimson depths.
His Soul Breaking Awl disappeared into the blood sea as well, failing to impede its advance in the slightest.
Wu Yue raised his head, watching the stone gate of the cultivation cave slowly close, his eyes gleaming with excitement.
Senior Yang Yu is truly formidable, he thought. With just a casual strike, he annihilated Gui Xiong, a fellow Divine Transformation Stage cultivator.
As far as Wu Yue knew, no other cultivator could achieve such a feat so effortlessly—not even the Ancestor of the Chen Family in Lotus Square City.
The stronger Yang Yu became, the greater the benefits Wu Yue would reap once he successfully advanced to the Void Refinement Stage.
After the Gui Xiong's death, the area around Corpse Soul Ravine fell silent. No more fools dared to disturb the peace, a situation Song Wen naturally welcomed.
As time passed, nourished by the potent energy of the Void Union Primordial Breakthrough Pill, his primordial spirit grew increasingly powerful. The invisible wall blocking its advancement thickened correspondingly.
Then, at a critical moment, his primordial spirit's power finally reached a breaking point.
Song Wen could clearly sense the invisible wall cracking, gradually becoming unstable and on the verge of collapse.
He flipped his hand, retrieving several Soul Bottles and devouring the souls within one by one.
Instantly, massive amounts of soul fragments erupted from the Sea of Consciousness Black Hole.
These fragments were immediately absorbed by his primordial spirit, which hungrily sought to strengthen itself.
Crack!
A crisp shattering sound echoed within Song Wen's Sea of Consciousness. Like a dam bursting, the power of his primordial spirit surged forth, instantly shattering the limits of the Divine Transformation Stage and crossing the threshold into the Void Refinement Stage.
Just as with his primordial spirit, an invisible wall also blocked the advancement of his spiritual power cultivation.
The spiritual power within his body surged with even greater ferocity, like a flood unleashed from a broken dam, ceaselessly surging and relentlessly battering against the cultivation bottleneck.
Yet the bottleneck remained as immovable as an ancient mountain, unshaken by the relentless assault of his spiritual power.
Song Wen knew this was due to his mid-grade cultivation aptitude, which was inferior to that of other Divine Transformation Stage cultivators.
He didn't wallow in self-pity over his mediocre talent.
Since his current spiritual power was insufficient to break through the bottleneck, he would simply refine more.
Under the nearly uncontrollable surge of spiritual power, the Spiritual Qi drawn into his body was refined almost instantly, becoming part of his reserves.
However, this also intensified his need for Spiritual Qi, as if he were a bottomless pit greedily devouring the heaven and earth spiritual qi.
With a thought, a hundred high-grade spirit stones materialized in mid-air.
He flicked his finger, releasing a surge of spiritual power that shattered the stones. The Spirit Sense contained within the stones was instantly released, significantly enriching the Spiritual Qi within the cultivation cave.
Outside the cave, the spiritual phenomenon grew even more intense.
Spiritual Qi from a radius of twenty thousand miles converged toward Corpse Soul Ravine.
Time flowed like water, and several months passed in the blink of an eye.
The ever-expanding spiritual power surged like a colossal tidal wave, crashing against the bottleneck with earth-shattering force, wave after wave.
Each surge of power shook Song Wen's dantian to its core, his meridians trembling like taut strings. His physical body felt as if it were about to be torn apart by the force.
Despite the excruciating pain, Song Wen gritted his teeth and endured.
Even the sturdiest reef eventually succumbs to the relentless assault of the waves.
Under the sustained onslaught of this power, the bottleneck finally began to loosen.
Song Wen's expression brightened.
The opportunity for breakthrough was within reach.
Just as Song Wen was about to redouble his efforts and shatter the bottleneck in one final push, an unexpected event occurred.
Three figures—two men and a woman—appeared above Corpse Soul Ravine.
Above their heads, a massive vortex of spiritual qi slowly rotated.
"Ancestor, this spiritual qi vortex is drawing in heaven and earth spiritual qi from a radius of tens of thousands of miles. It seems someone is indeed attempting to break through to the Void Refinement Stage here. What should we do next?" The speaker was the sole female cultivator among them, and also the weakest, at the early Divine Transformation Stage.
The leader of the trio was an elderly man with snow-white hair and beard, the "Ancestor" mentioned by the female cultivator, at the late Divine Transformation Stage.
The other male cultivator appeared middle-aged, with cultivation at the mid-stage Divine Transformation Stage.
The old man's gaze, sharp as lightning, pierced down into the ravine below.
After pondering for a long while, a cold glint suddenly flashed in his eyes, his murderous intent fully revealed.
"On the Path of Immortality, stagnation means regression. I'd rather die striving than be trapped in the cage of complacency. Opportunities are fleeting; retreat today will bring regret tomorrow!"
As he spoke, his aura surged violently, like a dragon rising from the sea, its oppressive might radiating in all directions.
"An... Ancestor," the middle-aged male cultivator hesitated. "His strength far surpasses ours. If we fail to kill him, wouldn't we invite disaster, perhaps even bring annihilation upon the entire clan?"
The elder countered, "He's on the verge of a breakthrough, his energy completely focused on it. He can't afford to divide his attention. If we interrupt his advancement, he'll suffer a backlash, leaving him severely weakened. How could he possibly withstand the combined might of the three of us?"
"But..." The middle-aged cultivator remained hesitant.
"Hmph!" the elder snorted coldly. "Those who seek greatness cannot afford to be timid!"
At that moment, the female cultivator interjected.
"Ancestor speaks truly. The path of cultivation is fraught with peril. We cannot guarantee absolute safety in every endeavor; sometimes, we must take a calculated risk."
The middle-aged cultivator glanced sideways at the female cultivator, a flicker of surprise in his eyes.
The Ancestor, with his dwindling lifespan, naturally acted recklessly, unburdened by caution.
But the two of them still had ample years ahead, making such a reckless gamble unnecessary.
(End of the Chapter)