Xu Ying asked, "How do we join forces?"
"Simple! Give control of your physical body to me! I will provide the senses, provide the cultivation, and do the fighting!"
The Great Dragon coiled and spiraled into the air. Xu Ying's vision suddenly brightened, and he was finally freed from his sea of consciousness, regaining control over his physical body.
The sea of consciousness was a universe of consciousness, unimaginably vast and teeming with colossal dragons. Now that Xu Ying's consciousness had returned to the waking world, the mortal realm felt surprisingly small by comparison.
All of his senses returned. To his astonishment, not only was he back in command of his flesh, but his perception had become extraordinarily sharp.
He could hear every single sound from his surroundings, and could even detect the faint resonance of Dao ringing within the bodies of the Heavenly Venerable and the dragon immortals as their divine abilities circulated.
Even more wondrous were his eyes—he could actually see his chest and back at the same time!
He could also see his internal organs, every nook and cranny of his body; even the parts he had never cultivated were laid bare before him, clear and distinct!
"Lord Dragon, what about me?" Xu Ying asked hurriedly.
"Just watch! And call me Far Ancestor!"
Controlling his body, the Great Dragon grew wildly excited as it instantly grasped every piece of information about Xu Ying's vessel. "Your cultivation might be a bit low, but you've got plenty of good stuff on you. Your Primordial Spirit follows the Ancestral God's path, refined into indestructible spiritual light! And you've even refined a Dao realm... Though it isn't yours; it must belong to someone else. Still usable, though—refined from innate qi, was it? The ten Dao scenes within the Dao realm are quite solid, and they should be your own. With a foundation like this, I can last two moves before being beaten to death!"
Even though Xu Ying shared the same vision and senses, he had no control over his limbs. He hastily said, "Lord Dragon, let me control half the body! I can boost our cultivation!"
Hearing this, the Great Dragon ran its consciousness in parallel with Xu Ying's, allowing Xu Ying to take partial control, though the dragon remained dominant.
Xu Ying summoned his nine great immortal artifacts, manifesting nine external realms, then stamped his foot to manifest the Grand Luo bodhimanda.
*Buzz! Buzz! Buzz!*
Above his head, ten cave-heavens emerged in orderly splendor. Ten distinct powers—physical body, divine sense, vital qi, soul force, yin and yang, heart power, power of life and death, Dao power, void, and Chaos—surged frantically, multiplying his cultivation more than tenfold in a split second!
He also felt the blessing of the true blood, making his flesh far stronger than before, while his Primordial Spirit made tremendous leaps as well!
The Great Dragon was thoroughly amazed. "Not bad, kid! But don't bother straining yourself! Feel the power of your Far Ancestor! Tremble, you insects!"
Above Xu Ying's head, the gigantic Primordial Spirit of the Far Ancestor shifted slowly. Several of its long whiskers descended into Xu Ying's body. Those long whiskers resembled beams of indestructible spiritual light bridging heaven and earth, incomparably magnificent and majestic.
Xu Ying looked up at the dragon whiskers in a slight daze. Drifting down from above, they bore an uncanny resemblance to the Heavenly Road that connected the myriad heavens and realms to the Immortal Realm.
He had been to the Heavenly Road before. It was formed from indestructible spiritual light, and its first section consisted of two vine-like strands of indestructible spiritual light spanning the cosmic starry sky and linking different worlds together in grand spectacle.
That indestructible spiritual light had been shattered when Xu Ying descended to the mortal realm in his first life, scattering across the realms as tens of thousands of immortal herbs, which Jiang Qi later restored.
Now, as Xu Ying looked at the descending dragon whiskers, he was filled with profound shock. The dragon whiskers were virtually identical to the indestructible spiritual light of the Heavenly Road!
*Could the Heavenly Road have been refined from this Great Dragon's whiskers?*
A single dragon whisker was a Heavenly Road connecting immortal and mortal. The Great Dragon had so many whiskers; if one could pluck a few more...
Just as the thought crossed Xu Ying's mind, the power contained within the dragon whiskers surging into him exploded. The tempestuous might invaded every limb and bone in an instant, piercing through every realm of his cultivation!
Xu Ying felt his strength soar like a rising tide. The power granted by each whisker approached the level of a Heavenly Monarch—an utterly terrifying sensation!
The power flooded him like an endless ocean, making him feel that his own original cultivation was utterly insignificant!
"Foolish human! Do you feel Lord Dragon's power now?"
The Great Dragon gloated with boundless smugness, completely oblivious to the fact that it had slipped from calling itself Far Ancestor back to Lord Dragon.
In that brief span, the Heavenly Venerable charged forward. The dragon immortals around Xu Ying threw themselves in his path with reckless abandon, only for severed limbs and broken torsos to scatter through the air!
"All who stand in my way shall die!"
The Heavenly Venerable mobilized the might of the Dragon Court's Heavenly Dao and slaughtered his way forward. With his current strength, it was nothing short of a massacre!
Yet these dragon immortals knew no fear, charging forward wave after wave in a desperate onslaught against him. But an instant later, they were torn to shreds, falling one by one beneath his strikes!
Xu Ying's eyelid twitched. Hundreds of experts had been revived in the Dragon Court this time, most of them at the Heavenly Monarch level, with very few merely at the Immortal Monarch level.
Although the vessels they had possessed could not seamlessly merge with their Primordial Spirits, their strength was still immensely formidable. Yet not a single one among them could withstand more than a single blow from the Heavenly Venerable before being killed outright. His might was simply horrifying!
Looking through the Great Dragon's vision, Xu Ying was shaken to the core. He could see right through the Heavenly Venerable's Primordial Spirit—it was also composed of indestructible spiritual light, identical to his own!
Such indestructible spiritual light was the hallmark of a Primordial Spirit taking the lead into the Supreme Realm!
*Like me, he once visited the Heavenly Dao Ancestral Court. He stayed by the Ancestral God's side even longer than I did,* Xu Ying thought.
The Heavenly Venerable's Indestructible Primordial Spirit was stronger than his, and he was equally well-versed in the Heavenly Dao—in fact, his mastery of the Heavenly Dao surpassed Xu Ying's!
Such a Heavenly Venerable was like a fully grown Xu Ying!
Xu Ying furrowed his brows as he observed him.
The Heavenly Venerable shared many similarities with him: an Indestructible Primordial Spirit, profound mastery over the Heavenly Dao, boundless cultivation, and an attainment that hovered right on the threshold of the Supreme Realm.
The only advantage Xu Ying held was that he had refined the Grand Luo Ten Scenes. However, the Heavenly Venerable's bodhimanda contained the phenomena of myriad realms; while the Grand Luo Ten Scenes were more exquisite, the myriad realms phenomena were by no means inferior.
*If I hadn't been defeated in my first life, I probably would have become another Heavenly Venerable,* Xu Ying mused quietly.
When the Heavenly Venerable swore brotherhood with him all those years ago, he had likely recognized their similarities. He had seen his own shadow in the Xu Ying of that era, and in a moment of sentiment, they had become sworn brothers.
*Boom!*
The Heavenly Venerable's bodhimanda of myriad realms spun and expanded, blanketing the altar. The myriad realms floated within the bodhimanda, transforming into various divine abilities that struck at all the dragon immortals on the altar simultaneously!
The dragon immortals were thrown into disarray, no longer able to protect Xu Ying. With a single stride, the Heavenly Venerable slipped through the crowd and arrived directly before Xu Ying, unleashing the lethal technique of the Myriad Realms Supreme Indestructible Scripture right from the start: Myriad Daos Equal Heaven!
His palm rose and crashed down, five fingers splayed as though grasping the vault of heaven itself. All ten thousand Daos resonated within his palm, coalescing into an enchanting universe where all living beings lay in his grip!
The sheer refinement of the Dao arts in this single strike was breathtaking.
Suddenly, as Xu Ying's consciousness linked with the Great Dragon's, he felt an unfathomably vast divine sense connect with him, as if plugging into an immense repository of knowledge. An ocean of divine abilities and Dao methods surged in. The accumulation of eons washed over him, making him feel as though he existed alongside the Great Dao and shared the lifespan of heaven and earth!
In a single breath, his vision and perspective were elevated to a height he could never have imagined before. Looking at the Heavenly Venerable's Myriad Daos Equal Heaven again, it no longer seemed so mysterious or profound.
On the contrary, he could spot numerous flaws in the technique.
"Insignificant insect, witness the power of the Far Ancestor!"
Wildly exhilarated, the Great Dragon drove Xu Ying's body forward to meet the blow.
*Boom!*
Their techniques collided. The Heavenly Venerable's expression twisted in shock. The technique he took the utmost pride in, Myriad Daos Equal Heaven, was shattered by "Xu Ying"!
Even his proud cultivation was crushed beneath "Xu Ying's" overwhelming power. He coughed up blood and went flying backward!
At that moment, Zulong had led Wei Xu to the edge of the Dragon Court. Catching sight of this scene from afar, Wei Xu's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. He knew all too well how terrifying the Heavenly Venerable was when wielding the mighty power of the Dragon Court's Heavenly Dao—he had even severely wounded Wei Xu's Supreme-grade body! How could Xu Ying have beaten him into coughing blood?
"Great Dragon Swings Its Tail!"
He heard an ecstatic shout from Xu Ying in the distance, followed by Xu Ying whirling around and sweeping his tail across.
Xu Ying had partially dragonized earlier, growing a dragon tail. Now, that tail expanded to a colossal size. With a fierce roar of wind, it slammed into the airborne Heavenly Venerable, swatting him straight out of the sky into the ground. The earth quaked violently, and shattered rocks flew in all directions.
Wei Xu's eyelid twitched erratically. Turning to Zulong, he asked, "Are you sure my Senior Brother told you to come back?"
Zulong nodded. "Teacher instructed me to wait here."
Blood rushed to Wei Xu's head, throbbing painfully against his temples. He looked up at the boundless, majestic divine dragon coiling across the heavens—that was the Primordial Spirit of the Dragon Race's Far Ancestor, far too powerful, far too terrifying!
A towering Primordial Spirit composed entirely of indestructible spiritual light was entwined across the firmament, its body slithering through from another space-time, descending upon the mortal world with primeval savagery and ferocity!
Wei Xu could tell that the one pummeling the Heavenly Venerable was not Xu Ying at all, but another mighty lifeform entirely!
*Just a few dragon whiskers possess such staggering power?*
For the first time in his life, Wei Xu lost the courage to fight. The primeval divine dragon coiling through the sky possessed power that he could never hope to attain in his entire lifetime!
"Xu Ying" pulled back his tail and stood on the altar, showering praise on him: "Human, your body isn't badly forged at all! It can actually withstand the power of several of my whiskers!"
The Heavenly Venerable struggled to his feet, swaying unsteadily. From just two exchanges, he had suffered grave injuries.
Never before had he been left in such a wretched state.
He roused his Primordial Spirit and mobilized the Heavenly Dao of the Dragon Court. In an instant, wind and clouds gathered, dragon qi welled up from the earth, sweet rain poured from above, and ten thousand dragon-shaped Daos danced in the air, all condensed from the worldly Great Dao of the Dragon Court.
The Heavenly Venerable called out loudly, "Far Ancestor of the Dragon Race, I bear no malice! I was merely trying to stop you from possessing this human! He is not a man of Yuanshou. If you possess him, you will surely perish!"
His voice reverberated, carrying clearly into Xu Ying's ears.
The Great Dragon was puzzled and asked Xu Ying, "Does that mean he isn't a bad guy?"
Xu Ying replied, "He mended the worldly Great Dao of the Dragon Court and took control of its Heavenly Dao with malicious intent."
The Great Dragon looked up. Under the Heavenly Venerable's control, the Heavenly Dao of the Dragon Court grew increasingly potent. Innumerable strands of dragon qi soared into the sky and converged, filling the firmament with divine dragons that bolstered the Heavenly Venerable and amplified his aura!
Indeed, the entire Dragon Court was falling under his dominion!
Wiping the blood from the corner of his mouth, the Heavenly Venerable drifted upward, confronting the Far Ancestor's Primordial Spirit in the sky, and said in a clear voice, "Far Ancestor of the Dragon Race, I have come to negotiate!"
"Negotiate?"
With dragon whiskers protruding from his back, Xu Ying floated into the air to face him. Through Xu Ying's mouth, the Great Dragon sneered, "A lowly human insect like you—what right do you have to negotiate with me?"
Behind him loomed the immeasurably colossal Primordial Spirit of the Far Ancestor, filling heaven and earth with overwhelming Dao might!
Steadying his breath, the Heavenly Venerable declared loudly, "I manipulate the worldly Great Dao of the Dragon Court and command its Heavenly Dao. If your Primordial Spirit descends fully and I seal off this world, you can forget about returning to that space-time! If you and I cooperate, I can provide you with a perfect Yuanshou human vessel for your possession!"
The Great Dragon could indeed return to that mysterious space-time. However, so many dragon immortals had died that no one was left to preside over the sacrificial rite; the descent of his Far Ancestor Primordial Spirit had become an unstoppable tide that would proceed even without sacrifices.
He would still descend into the mortal realm. As for returning to that mysterious realm, he did not require a sacrifice—he could leave whenever he wished.
Yet if the Heavenly Venerable sealed off the Dragon Court, returning to that space-time would indeed become an issue.
The Heavenly Venerable continued, "Fellow Daoist, I will assist in the revival of your Dragon Race and help you regain a foothold in this world! But in return, I need your help to seize power in the Immortal Realm and take that final step into the Supreme Realm! Our two sides can forge a mutually beneficial offensive and defensive alliance!"
Having laid out his intentions, he asked, "What does Fellow Daoist think?"
"Control the Dragon Court's Heavenly Dao?"
"Xu Ying" flashed a faint smile and casually raised a hand. "You mean to say you've already mastered the Dragon Court's Heavenly Dao?"
The Heavenly Venerable's face drained of color. Suddenly, the dragon qi throughout the entire Dragon Court erupted, the Great Dao of heaven and earth resonating as strand after strand slipped free of his control!
The swirling dragon qi filling the sky and the omnipresent Heavenly Dao detached from him in an instant, falling entirely under "Xu Ying's" grasp!
The Heavenly Venerable's mind went blank. He stood frozen in place, dazed and disoriented.
"What qualifications do you possess to negotiate with me?"
The Great Dragon's consciousness gradually detached from Xu Ying's vessel and returned to the Primordial Spirit of the Far Ancestor. The colossal divine dragon spoke slowly, a mocking expression on its face. "You are so weak, so helpless, yet your ambitions are so vast—just like your human bodies, infinitesimally small."
Just as it spoke, its expression shifted slightly. Its Primordial Spirit had remained outside that mysterious space-time for too long and was struggling to endure. Now that possession had failed, it had no choice but to return to that mysterious realm.
Although the Far Ancestor Primordial Spirit belonged to the Great Dragon, it had undergone so many possessions that its composition was no longer as pure as it once was.
To the Dragon Race, the Far Ancestor's descent was not called possession, but glory. Yet possession was possession; even if the possessed offered themselves willingly, it remained a possession nonetheless.
And possession inevitably carried drawbacks.
Though the Great Dragon was the Far Ancestor and possessed boundless might, every time it underwent possession, the Primordial Spirit and soul of another dragon immortal merged into its own, and another dragon immortal's divine sense integrated into its thoughts. With countless possessions over the ages, the Primordial Spirit appeared more powerful on the surface, but in truth, it had grown increasingly impure and unstable.
Its Primordial Spirit attainment was unmatched throughout history, yet it was equally fragile. To remain in the mortal dust, it required a physical vessel; without one, it had no choice but to retreat to that mysterious space-time.
"Human, I'm returning your body to you,"
the Great Dragon's voice sounded reluctantly in Xu Ying's mind. "The mortal world is too filthy. Lord Dragon... I, your Far Ancestor, must return to the Abyss Sea to slumber. I cannot linger in the mortal realm, lest I be defiled by your filth. However, your Far Ancestor can leave a channel of descent within your flesh..."
Xu Ying hastily said, "No need! The mortal dust is far too filthy; an elder like you shouldn't bother descending at all!"
"I've already etched the descent channel!"
the Great Dragon said enthusiastically. "That way, my consciousness can descend into your body whenever I want, appearing right before you so you can praise me often."
Xu Ying's face darkened. Inside his sea of consciousness, a passage made of indestructible spiritual light had indeed formed, connecting into the void. Presumably, the other end of the void linked directly to the Great Dragon's consciousness.
*This bastard just carved a backdoor into my head—a backdoor he can enter and leave whenever he pleases!* Xu Ying ground his teeth.
"I'm heading back!"
The Great Dragon retracted all of its thoughts. The divine senses of all the dragon immortals within Xu Ying's sea of consciousness took flight and departed, and the terribly congested sea of consciousness was finally restored to tranquility.
Xu Ying looked up to see the Far Ancestor soar into the sky, plunging its head into another space-time and swimming toward the realm known as the Abyss Sea.
Its body was so colossal that fully diving into the rift and descending entirely into the Abyss Sea would take some time.
Suddenly, the Far Ancestor's Primordial Spirit lightly flicked its tail against the Heavenly Venerable. With a deafening boom, the Heavenly Venerable vanished, leaving behind only a human-shaped hole in the Dragon Court's sky. There was no telling how far he had been sent flying.
Not far from the altar, the Master of the Mud Pill Palace looked up at the spectacle, then withdrew his gaze, preparing to gather the treasures he needed. Suddenly, a look of astonishment crossed his face. The Dao tree branch snapped off by Daoist Taiyuan abruptly floated into the air, radiating an astonishing fluctuation as it shot toward the Far Ancestor's Primordial Spirit, which was currently retreating into the Abyss Sea!
At the same time, inside the central palace of the Son of Heaven of Zhou, an immortal sword suddenly fell from the wall of its own accord and tore through the sky!
On the other side, Chen Chaosheng abruptly stiffened. A tiny boat, a mere three inches long, flew out from between his eyebrows, bearing a diminutive ferryman who rowed directly toward the Far Ancestor's Primordial Spirit!
Beside Wei Xu, Zulong produced a talisman. A golden immortal talisman lifted into the air and soared straight into the heavens!
Chapter 552