Entering once more, Wei Yuan was on familiar ground. He first darted sideways, then accelerated and grazed the outer edge of the ruins, predictably stirring up a swarm of monsters.
Wei Yuan immediately dashed deeper into the realm. After running for some distance, he noticed that the monsters pursuing him moved at varying speeds, stretching out over a considerable distance.
Wei Yuan suddenly lunged forward, turned with sword drawn from his back, and the greatsword flared with the terrifying radiance of immortal thunder. At the apex of its arc, the blade paused for a split second before a second terrifying surge of power stacked atop it. With peerless momentum, the greatsword cleaved straight down toward the foremost monster!
Sweeping the Four Barbarians!
Great sound is scarcely heard; the greatsword chopped silently all the way through before the blade, unable to bear the colossal burden, shattered completely into a ball of pure thunderous radiance.
A bright silver line appeared down the middle of the monster's body, and piece by piece, its form was wiped out, reduced completely to nothingness.
This was the ultimate lethal strike of the Sword of Ten Thousand Generations and Autumns. Judging by the legacy Xu Shiqi had originally passed down, it seemed that what Xu Fanggu possessed was still an incomplete version.
Wei Yuan had never dared to use this move lightly. If Xu Fanggu ever sensed it and realized that the complete version of his immortal Dao foundation was actually in Wei Yuan's hands, he would undoubtedly strike with reckless abandon.
After the monster was slain, a cloud of flying ash and three motes of light floated from its body, only to be swept into the thunder-light left by the shattered greatsword and thoroughly refined in an instant. Once the thunder-light dissipated, only a wisp of dark gray qi remained in the air, drifting slowly as if alive.
The moment this gray qi appeared, Wei Yuan's origin soul jolted, giving him the bizarre sensation of coming face-to-face with the Heavenly Dao. The surrounding darkness boiled over; countless dark figures crawled out from their hiding places and pounced toward this inconspicuous strand of gray qi.
Wei Yuan reacted far faster than the monsters. Drawing the gray qi into his grasp, he sprinted at full speed toward the exit.
Many of the monsters struck only empty air. By the time they wheeled around, Wei Yuan was already far in the distance.
On his way back past the ruins, Wei Yuan suddenly noticed a commotion within: dozens of monsters were laying siege to a petite, fair figure. The person looked delicate, yet fought with extreme savagery, neither dodging nor parrying. Taking a hit from a monster meant returning a punch; wherever her fist landed, that part of the monster shattered instantly into pieces.
Yet as savagely as she fought, every blow her small body took opened a massive wound, from which seeped not blood, but pure life force!
Feng Tingyu!
Her situation was already perilous. Without time to wonder how she had gotten in, Wei Yuan charged straight forward, violently ramming aside all the monsters in his path. He scooped Feng Tingyu into his arms, shielding her with his body, and a blazing point of thunder-light flared in his hand!
The thunder-light instantly erupted into a sea of thunder, sweeping clear a radius of dozens of zhang. Every monster was ignited by the thunder-light, most of their auras rapidly waning as they turned tail to flee.
The three closest monsters were directly refined into ash by the thunder-fire, and another wisp of gray qi rose from one of them.
However, this wisp of gray qi was exceedingly faint and drew no notice from the other monsters amidst the sea of thunder.
This single strike exhausted all the thunder slurry Wei Yuan had brought with him. Standing at the center of the thunder sea, he naturally endured the sensation of having his body bathed in immortal thunder. Only a few patches of Feng Tingyu's exposed skin were singed by the thunder-fire, but Wei Yuan quickly extinguished it with Dao power.
The blow heavily wounded the surrounding monsters, but Wei Yuan also took several hits. Yet the monsters could only leave shallow, long scratches across him—nothing fatal. In this regard, Wei Yuan's origin soul was far stronger than Feng Tingyu's.
Wei Yuan snatched the second strand of gray qi, then sprinted with Feng Tingyu in his arms all the way back to the vicinity of the light portal. Just as he was about to cross through it, he suddenly halted.
Feng Tingyu now bore seven or eight massive wounds, leaving her entire body looking somewhat battered and broken. Barely any time had elapsed from Wei Yuan launching his rescue to fleeing, yet in a battle of only a dozen or so breaths, Feng Tingyu had reduced herself to such a wretched state.
Feng Tingyu had completely forgotten that she was currently in origin soul form, having left her physical body outside. Instinctively trading blow for blow with the monsters, this was the result.
The problem was that she was completely naked.
In the distance, the monsters were slowly closing in. They seemed somewhat fearful of the light portal's radiance, yet unable to resist the temptation of the two strands of gray qi, they crept forward bit by bit.
Seizing the brief lull, Wei Yuan asked, "Did you bring magic treasure clothes in here?"
"Yeah! And the moment I entered, they were completely destroyed." Feng Tingyu looked utterly vexed. Looking down at herself, she quietly drew her chest inward slightly, careful not to expose the fact that muscle contributed the lion's share of its volume.
Then she looked at Wei Yuan's neatly arranged clothes and blinked in surprise. "How come your magic treasure is fine?"
Wei Yuan replied expressionlessly, "I didn't bring any magic treasures."
Feng Tingyu thought for a moment before dawning realization struck her. "You're wearing nothing at all!"
The clothes on Wei Yuan were actually part of his body. He had merely altered the shape of his surface while shifting its color and texture, making it look as though he were wearing tight-fitting clothes.
Back when he was suppressed under Nether Mountain, Wei Yuan had comprehended the ability to alter his origin soul's bodily form. Thus, although he was technically wearing nothing when passing in and out of the light portal, an ordinary person wouldn't be able to tell.
Furthermore, Wei Yuan had cleared the area beforehand, forbidding mortals from approaching and allowing only the immortal plants to stand by nearby.
Immensely intrigued, Feng Tingyu slid a small hand toward Wei Yuan's lapels, only to find that she naturally couldn't reach inside. Her eyes lit up as if discovering a new continent, and her hands began wandering restlessly all over him.
Seeing her hands grow increasingly unruly, Wei Yuan could endure it no longer. Extending a cloak from his arm, he wrapped Feng Tingyu up directly and stepped out through the light portal.
Having lost their target, the monsters dispersed and concealed themselves once more.
Once outside the light portal, Wei Yuan ordered one of his Dao Foundation warriors to bring over a set of magic treasure clothes and had Feng Tingyu put them on inside the cloak. At this point, apart from the immortal plants and Maiden Yin-Yang, only Wei Yuan's Dharma Idol Dao Foundation warriors were around—all of whom lacked sapience. Wei Yuan had not even allowed the dragon guards to come near.
Slipping into the clothes while tugging at Wei Yuan's cloak, Feng Tingyu asked, "Which part of your body does this count as? Can you feel it? Tell me, what does it feel like?"
Pushed past his limit, Wei Yuan extended a strip of cloth from the cloak to seal her mouth. But Feng Tingyu blinked, bared her white teeth, and bit down on the cloth strip, instantly making Wei Yuan's face turn pale.
"Fine, I won't gag you, but stop squirming and get dressed already! How did you get in here?"
As Wei Yuan spoke to Feng Tingyu inside the cloak, each of the immortal plants stealthily extended a branch over.
"I don't know either! I was just waiting for my new dharma idol to stabilize, so I kept sleeping. Once I fell asleep, I could come here to play. Let me tell you, it's so much fun here!
"For example, there's a bunch of people in a corner of the city. Normally, they go about their own business, but at night, they secretly gather in a dilapidated house to do things. They've been making a one-legged bronze statue, and it's almost finished. They said once the inscriptions are carved onto it, it'll be done, and then they're going to find a spot outside the city to bury it—"
Wei Yuan's expression darkened slightly. "How do you know about that?"
Feng Tingyu replied as if it were the most natural thing in the world: "I'm one of them! None of them could lift that bronze statue."
Wei Yuan managed with great difficulty to get Feng Tingyu properly dressed, then told her to go back and nurse her wounds properly. At the same time, he secretly gave Maiden Yin-Yang an order not to let Feng Tingyu in again for a month.
Without Feng Tingyu, Wei Yuan was confident that the group wouldn't be able to transport their one-legged bronze statue outside the city, and their brilliant master plan would be nipped in the bud.
After sending Feng Tingyu away, Wei Yuan finally had time to examine the two wisps of gray qi in his hands. Searching through the data in the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World, he confirmed that the gray qi was very likely Dao profound qi.
This was a type of qi that leaked out on rare occasions when the Heavenly Great Dao operated and inadvertently revealed itself to the world; it could be regarded as scraps and remnants touched by the origin of the Great Dao.
Dao profound qi was extraordinarily rare; once it appeared, surrounding demonic beasts would devour it in the blink of an eye. Its sole efficacy was elevating cultivation aptitude: an ordinary beast that swallowed a wisp of Dao profound qi would transform into a spirit beast immediately.
The two wisps of Dao profound qi in Wei Yuan's hands had been refined anew from the monsters using immortal thunder. Their potency was not as great as natural Dao profound qi, offering limited effect on an immortal foundation, but they could still provide an improvement to those below the immortal foundation level.
Who could have guessed that refining monsters from this eerie shattered world with immortal thunder would yield Dao profound qi? Its value instantly became completely different.
Wei Yuan sealed the two wisps of Dao profound qi and stored them temporarily in the Yin-Yang Grand Furnace array. Gathering another ball of thunder slurry, and taking advantage of the time remaining on the candle flame, he charged through the light portal once again.
The moment he crossed the light portal this time, three nearby black birds soared high and vanished in an instant. Wei Yuan was left speechless; these three birds probably hadn't even seen him before, so did they really need to be terrified to this degree?
However, Wei Yuan had no time to pay attention to the black birds now. Selecting the ruins in another direction, he charged over. A commotion stirred within the ruins, but in the end, only a few monsters rushed out.
By now, Wei Yuan understood the combat strength of these monsters like the back of his hand. A single strike from the Sword of Ten Thousand Generations and Autumns immobilized all the monsters in place, followed by another slash that slew one of them, refining it with immortal thunder. This time, however, no Dao profound qi appeared.
Seeing the tide turn against them, the remaining monsters actually turned tail and ran, catching Wei Yuan by surprise. Moreover, as though dreading something inside the ruins, they did not retreat into them, but began fleeing around the ruins instead.
Had they fled back into the ruins, Wei Yuan might have given up the chase, but moving away from the ruins suited his intentions perfectly, and he immediately gave rapid pursuit.
Wei Yuan was far faster than these monsters and was just about to overtake them when all the monsters abruptly stopped and wheeled around, glaring hungrily. Then, one monster after another emerged from the surroundings, encircling Wei Yuan completely.
Wei Yuan was startled, and for the first time, solemnity rose in his heart. He had actually walked into an ambush—did these monsters understand how to lure the enemy deep into a trap as well? What's more, they actually knew he dared not enter the ruins, deliberately picking a location outside to spring their ambush.
Chapter 614