Clouds surged with the rising winds as Li Guanqi sped through the air.
Pengluo popped up on Li Guanqi’s shoulder, glancing up at the sky with a slight frown.
“Master, something feels a bit off.”
“The mist in this valley has grown even thicker...”
Li Guanqi looked up, and just as Pengluo had noted, the mist overhead was significantly denser than before.
“It’s probably because those bizarre butterflies have killed quite a few cultivators.”
“In any case... let’s be careful.”
After saying that, Pengluo pondered for a moment before suggesting, “Master, why don’t you swallow that immortal herb you just obtained? If you can break through to the Heavenly Immortal realm right here, you’ll have far more confidence.”
Li Guanqi came to a halt atop an ancient tree. Thinking it over, he found Pengluo’s reasoning sound.
Just Liu Xiong of Xutian Palace alone had exerted immense pressure on him.
The chasm between realms remained formidable. Relying merely on the Rakshasa Ghost Mask to forcibly boost his power had its limits.
After a moment’s thought, Li Guanqi produced the Sumeru Treasure Hall with a flick of his wrist and embedded it directly into the tree’s core.
With a flicker of his figure, he vanished from the spot, reappearing inside the Sumeru Treasure Hall.
He brought out the sword coffin and stepped inside. Looking at the towering Nirvana Pagoda before him, mixed emotions surged in Li Guanqi’s heart.
It felt like only yesterday when his brothers had entered it one by one to cultivate with all their might.
Now, he had only found Pengluo, with no idea how the others were faring.
Taking a deep breath to cast aside all distracting thoughts, Li Guanqi retrieved the immortal herb he had just acquired.
Just as he was about to enter the pagoda, Pengluo suddenly appeared and handed him several rank-two immortal herbs.
“Their medicinal properties complement that one, doubling the results with half the effort.”
“Here, take a section of my arm too, just in case.”
Li Guanqi was deeply moved by the gesture, failing to notice the guilty flicker in Pengluo’s eyes.
Stepping into the pagoda, Li Guanqi sat down cross-legged. Flames surged around him, their blistering heat slightly warping the surrounding space.
Swallowing several Xuanyuan Pills, Li Guanqi adjusted his condition to its peak.
Wrapping the lotus-like immortal herb in flames, he swallowed it directly into his stomach.
*Boom!*
In that instant, Li Guanqi’s sea of consciousness felt as though it were being torn apart by a mysterious power.
Cold.
A piercing, glacial chill spread throughout his body; that lotus-like immortal herb was actually of an icy attribute.
Shuddering slightly, Li Guanqi hurriedly mobilized Shiwu’s power to guide and refine the energy.
Yet, for some reason, despite being enveloped in flames, that frigid frost still inflicted frostbite upon his meridians.
Simultaneously, the immortal primal energy within Li Guanqi began to swell at a rapid pace.
As waves of profound, ethereal aura rippled outward, Li Guanqi’s consciousness entered a state of comprehension and sudden enlightenment.
The spiritual mark between his brows flickered, and seven-colored spiritual radiance washed over him, enveloping him like mist.
Gradually, Li Guanqi became immersed in his insights. Beside him, the second immortal herb melted away, its essence drawn into his body.
By now, frost clung to Li Guanqi’s brows and eyelashes. His body trembled, and even his breaths carried icy flakes.
Yet the moment the second immortal herb entered his stomach, his body suddenly flared with an unbearable, scorching heat!
A dual world of ice and fire!
Li Guanqi cursed under his breath, finally understanding why Pengluo had snapped off a piece of his arm for him!
Still, matters had reached a point of no return. The surging immortal primal energy in his body washed over his origin soul wave after wave.
Hairline fractures gradually spread across the final shackle.
Yet with every impact, Li Guanqi had to endure an excruciating, soul-rending agony.
Gritting his teeth, Li Guanqi persevered. His blood and qi churned as his immortal primal energy continued to skyrocket.
The power held within two rank-two immortal herbs was simply too immense.
Compared to them, the energy of Xuanyuan Pills was a mere drop in the ocean.
That boundless power was enough to rival two centuries of Li Guanqi’s bitter cultivation.
As the immortal primal energy battered against the shackle, countless insights flashed across Li Guanqi’s mind.
At this moment, he felt an even greater harmony with heaven and earth, as if blending more completely into this realm.
Not only that, but myriad realizations surfaced in his thoughts.
The Mystic Immortal realm was merely about mobilizing and applying one’s own power.
The Heavenly Immortal realm, however... was about absolute control over one’s power, along with the ability to draw upon the grand momentum of heaven and earth to augment oneself.
This was why Mystic Immortal cultivators always felt their strength suppressed when confronting a Heavenly Immortal.
Furthermore, the depth of color, solidity, and size of a Heavenly Immortal cultivator’s layered dao rings of spiritual charm reflected their prowess.
The deeper the color, the more solid, and the larger the dao ring of spiritual charm, the stronger the cultivator!
Typically, a dao ring of spiritual charm was only the size of a jade plate.
Li Guanqi knew none of this. At that moment, he only felt immersed in an immense sea of thunder.
Yet the lightning in this thunderous ocean did not belong to him.
Indignation flared in his heart, fueling an intense desire to seize control of this power.
As the third immortal herb transformed into spiritual liquid and flowed into him, the final shackle upon the origin soul in his dantian shattered with a resounding crack!
*Boom!*
A torrential surge of thunder and flame erupted from within Li Guanqi.
The spirit of Shiwu likewise manifested behind his origin soul, sitting cross-legged.
Never in its wildest dreams had Shiwu imagined that after following Li Guanqi for merely a few years, it would not only ascend straight from the Spirit Realm, but upon arriving in the Immortal Realm, undergo baptism to become an immortal spirit.
And now, in barely a single year, it was about to leap from the Mystic Immortal realm into a rank-two Heavenly Immortal!
Its true power was gradually beginning to take effect.
Shiwu opened its eyes and gently embraced Li Guanqi’s origin soul.
At that instant, Li Guanqi shuddered. The thunder and fire within his body fused completely, becoming an 'origin'!
*Hum!*
Even the Nirvana Pagoda trembled faintly. Li Guanqi’s consciousness felt his power skyrocket out of nowhere.
The lightning surrounding his conscious form began to fall under his control, becoming part of him.
Once this process began, Li Guanqi was completely unstoppable.
He began frantically devouring and refining the lightning in the surrounding thunder sea, claiming it as his own!
Li Guanqi’s original purplish-black lightning transformed completely into pitch-black lightning.
The lightning carried the power of destruction and devourment, alongside a terrifying heat capable of incinerating the firmament.
Beams of spiritual radiance converged behind Li Guanqi.
Ultimately, these lights coalesced into a circular ring.
And as this first ring took shape, it grew larger and larger...
Growing ever vaster!
Li Guanqi had no idea that his dao ring of spiritual charm was already condensing.
His consciousness only knew that the surrounding sea of thunder was resisting him with increasing ferocity.
Yet he refused to yield...
“Damn it all, in such a massive sea of thunder, I’ve barely had a bite!”
“Keep going!”
Little did he realize that the dao ring of spiritual charm condensing behind his head had already ballooned from the size of a jade plate to the length of an arm!
*Rumble!*
Thunderclouds gathered in the sky above Nether Spirit Valley, churning restlessly.
Before long, the heavy, slowly swirling dark clouds expanded from a hundred zhang across to a thousand zhang!
Pengluo’s heart skipped a beat. Standing at the edge of the Nirvana Pagoda, he watched the scene with his mouth slightly agape, his eyes rounded in shock.
“Good grief... this ring is bigger than my entire life...”
Chapter 1675