An endless void.
There was no telling what place this was.
Thunderclouds hung dense and heavy, stretching without bound.
At the furthest edge of vision lay only vast swathes of radiant sunset light and an ocean of lightning; beyond that, nothing could be seen.
An Azure Luan spread its wings, spanning tens of thousands of feet—a creature vast as a mountain. Such a colossal beast was simply unimaginable, the sort spoken of only in legends.
Now, Qin Sang was seeing the divine beast, the Azure Luan, with his own eyes.
Faced with such terrifying natural might and this great demon of an Azure Luan—even if brought on merely by an illusion—Qin Sang felt his head buzzing incessantly, his surroundings spinning.
Standing here, Qin Sang suddenly felt how utterly insignificant he was. Any random cluster of thunderclouds held enough power to easily reduce him to ash.
This was a natural marsh of thunder, a land of absolute death for any living being!
Even a Transformation stage great demon or a Nascent Soul Patriarch would struggle to take a single step here.
Yet that Azure Luan showed no fear at all, wandering through the thunderclouds, darting among them as it pleased. Countless bolts of lightning crashed into its body without pause, unable to ruffle even a single feather.
An azure radiance shimmered around the Azure Luan.
The moment lightning struck that azure glow, it turned docile and vanished without a trace, leaving only ripples in its wake.
*What realm is this Azure Luan in? Could it be a legendary Heavenly Demon?*
Qin Sang was terrified.
The Azure Luan treated the celestial lightning as nothing, seeming not to have mobilized even a trace of true essence, yet the thunder could not harm it in the least. Its calls even carried hints of leisurely pleasure.
Such power was terrifying, almost beyond comprehension.
*No, that's not right! It's absorbing the thunderclouds' power!*
At last, Qin Sang noticed a subtle detail: the Azure Luan was not resisting the thunder at all. No wonder the thunderclouds could not harm it—those bolts of lightning were being drawn in by it deliberately.
Whether resisting thunderclouds or absorbing them, both were feats beyond an ordinary person's wildest imagination.
*It's actually a Thunder Luan!*
Thoughts raced through Qin Sang's mind. He deduced that the Azure Luan roaming through the thunderclouds in this vision was very likely the true form of the projection sealed inside the mysterious stone slab.
Senior Sister Qingjun had only caught a fleeting glimpse and had not seen the whole picture. When carving the Azure Luan puppet, she had merely followed her own imagination and granted it the power to manipulate fire.
The scenery in the void remained monotonous.
Enveloped constantly by lightning, Qin Sang could not discern its expression. The Azure Luan seemed to be on a journey, its eyes fixed straight ahead as it sped in one direction, piercing through one thundercloud after another.
The boundless radiant light still lay far ahead.
The endless thunderclouds seemed as though they would never cease.
Recovering from his initial shock, Qin Sang collected his thoughts, intending to break free of the illusion.
*For such a terrifying Azure Luan, no wonder a wisp of its projection could endure all the way into the present day. Was it really just a projection sealed within that mysterious stone slab? What was that thing that entered my body?*
He grew worried about his own physical vessel.
To his shock, no sooner had the thought arisen than an excruciating, tearing pain ripped him out of the vision in an instant.
"Aargh!"
Qin Sang let out a shrill scream.
It was an agony he had never experienced before. Even the harrowing pain he had endured when breaking through via the astral essence body infusion paled in comparison.
From head to toe, every inch of him was ablaze with torment.
In his flesh, meridians, marrow, and qi ocean, an unfamiliar power seemed to tear through him, searching inch by inch for something it had yet to find.
At that moment, Qin Sang felt as though he were about to be ripped into countless pieces.
Even now, he could not fathom why this was happening.
Yet connecting the Azure Luan projection with his own visualization of a Heavenly Demon, his practice of the *Heavenly Demon Refining Form*, and the lingering aura of an Azure Luan upon his body, he could faintly guess at the truth.
This power was exceptionally violent, suffused with the scent of thunder—identical to the Azure Luan in the illusion just now.
Qingjun had been the first to come into contact with the slab, and later it fell into Qianji Demon King's hands.
Qingjun was human, while Qianji Demon King was a snake demon who had attained transformation; neither possessed the bloodline of an Azure Luan.
In their hands, the mysterious slab had behaved normally, and stimulating it with true essence had merely manifested the projection. Yet the moment Qin Sang touched it, the projection had emerged and its power had invaded his body.
This was definitely no coincidence!
Waves of agony washed over him. Qin Sang knew full well that if this continued, his end would be grim!
*The Heavenly Demon Refining Form!*
A flash of inspiration struck his mind.
Whoever tied the knot had to untie it. Feasible or not, he could only grasp at this sole lifesaver.
Enduring the boundless agony, Qin Sang forced his mind to focus and circulated the cultivation art.
In an instant, that power of the Azure Luan seemed to find two outlets, surging madly toward the phoenix wings upon his back.
These phoenix wings were manifested through the Heavenly Demon Transformation divine ability and were not truly physical; they merely appeared solid enough to give that illusion. The moment the power poured in, the phoenix wings flared with blinding radiance, blurring the line between illusion and reality even further.
*Crack!*
Abruptly, fractures spiderwebbed across the phoenix wings.
Even these ethereal wings could not withstand such overwhelming force and were on the verge of collapsing.
Before Qin Sang could catch his breath, he cried out inwardly in alarm and frantically drove his technique, trying to re-condense the wings.
Moreover, Qin Sang made a new discovery.
Having undergone the infusion of astral essence, his physical body had already reached its absolute limit, just a hair's breadth away from breaking through to the fourth layer. Now that he had circulated the art, faint signs of a breakthrough actually began to emerge.
Yet time waited for no one.
The respite was short-lived; the power of the Azure Luan was far too ferocious and overwhelming.
Before he could comprehend the Heavenly Demon Dharma Idol described in the art, he would be crushed by this terrifying onslaught.
*Crack, crack...*
Fracture after fracture surfaced.
The phoenix wings twisted and warped, on the verge of bursting apart from the strain.
To make matters worse, the injuries across Qin Sang's body grew increasingly severe.
*Am I going to die here because of this?*
The thought flashed across his mind, but he instantly crushed it, throwing everything into pushing for a breakthrough!
He would never surrender his will to survive!
Right at that moment.
Qin Sang suddenly detected a faint suction appearing from within his qi ocean, drawing in the power of the Azure Luan.
*The Heavenly Eye Butterfly!*
To Qin Sang's pleasant surprise, the one absorbing the Azure Luan's power was none other than his natal insect gu—the Heavenly Eye Butterfly!
The divine beast, the Azure Luan, and the spiritual insect, the Heavenly Eye Butterfly.
Two entirely unrelated creatures—how could the Heavenly Eye Butterfly absorb it?
*Thunder! Of course! Its thunder control divine ability!*
Qin Sang understood the reason in an instant.
This was the power of a Thunder Luan!
After undergoing a mutation, the Heavenly Eye Butterfly had gained the ability to control thunder. Though it had never proven particularly useful before, it was now playing a vital role, acting as a conduit.
It could withstand the Thunder Luan's power, sharing its master's burden while reaping benefits of its own!
*Once it absorbs this, will it undergo a metamorphosis, or another mutation?*
The thought flickered through Qin Sang's mind.
Moments later, the pulling force grew stronger as the butterfly drew in more and more of the Azure Luan's power. Qin Sang's agony eased, the phoenix wings stabilized, and he finally had room to breathe.
Just as he was about to seize the moment to drive the *Heavenly Demon Refining Form* toward a breakthrough, an enraged curse from the falcon demon rang out in his ear: "Are you fucking insane?! Run, dammit! If you want to die, go ahead, but I haven't lived long enough!"
Startled, Qin Sang pulled his awareness back to reality.
The entire treasury was in utter shambles, and the phenomenon unleashed by the Azure Luan projection had already broken out beyond the vault!
Chapter 1144