Yuan’s Ascension

With his soul cultivation at the Yuan Soul level, Earth Immortal Qi He could extend his Soul Will over a hundred thousand li even within the Thunder Marsh World.

Moreover, his soul was an entire level higher, which was a fundamental difference. Thus, he could perceive Wu Yuan's movements, while Wu Yuan remained completely unaware of his presence.

Earth Immortal Qi He exhaled and stood up.

"He’s coming?"

"What's happening?" Chi Chang, Mu Xin, Protectorate Fang, Nie Le, and the others sitting nearby opened their eyes and looked towards Earth Immortal Qi He.

"Wait here," Earth Immortal Qi He said coldly, offering no further explanation.

He only knew Wu Yuan's appearance. As for his soul aura? Before entering the Thunder Marsh World, he hadn't bothered to pay attention to a Shambhala disciple of the Autumn Lake Hall.

An Autumn Lake Hall disciple? The name sounded intimidating, but it only intimidated Void Refiner and Amethyst Cradle cultivators. For immortals? They didn't care at all.

This was also why the Longstar Immortal Sect hadn't sent any immortals to receive Wu Yuan when he first arrived.

Yes, the Autumn Lake Hall was powerful. But they recruited tens of thousands of formal disciples every few hundred to thousand years. Why would the upper echelons of the Longstar Immortal Sect care about an ordinary disciple?

Even if it were a High Immortal from the Autumn Lake Hall, the Longstar Immortal Sect still wouldn't fear them. After all, the Longstar Immortal Sect also had its own group of Archimmortals, with the powerful Ling Huan Immortal Nation backing them. The Ling Huan Immortal Nation was in no way inferior to the Autumn Lake Hall.

Of course, Wu Yuan was certainly no ordinary disciple, but one with a powerful background. Otherwise, how could he possess an Earth Immortal puppet worth the entire fortune of a High Immortal?

Logically, an ordinary Earth Immortal of the Longstar Immortal Sect would be unwilling to provoke someone with such a background upon learning of it. Unfortunately, he encountered Earth Immortal Qi He, who was determined to seize his treasures.

Time went by.

A short while later, Earth Immortal Qi He raised both hands. Instantly, streams of earthy-yellow Earth Immortal mana began to interweave and gather in his palms, surging and roiling like a miniature star being born. The mana gathered and compressed, with countless Dao cryptic patterns intertwined within.

Gradually, a faint flush appeared on Earth Immortal Qi He's face. Unleashing such a powerful arcane art was clearly quite taxing even for him.

The pressure emanating from this palm-sized star made the Void Refiner/Elysian Field powerhouses present shiver, let alone Mu Xin and the other Amethyst Cradle cultivators.

So this is an immortal-level arcane art. Chi Chang and Protectorate Fang exchanged glances, both watching with bated breath.

In close combat and sudden ambushes, body refiners naturally held the advantage. However, given sufficient time and space, even an ordinary Earth Immortal could cast terrifyingly powerful arcane arts. This was the advantage qi refiners held.

The difficulty of attacking the lair of an Archimmortal versus the lair of an Archdeity was vastly different. Even an Astral Lord would be reluctant to invade the lair of an ordinary Archimmortal.

A full ten breaths passed.

"Go!" Earth Immortal Qi He suddenly thrust out both palms. In an instant, the earthy-yellow orb of light in his hands transformed into a streak of light and roared forth.

Ten thousand li per second! Thirty thousand li per second! A hundred thousand li per second!

Boom! This earthy-yellow streak of light, compressed to extremes, accelerated to an incredibly terrifying speed. With overwhelming force, it swept through the entire canyon passage like a lightning bolt.

At this moment, Earth Immortal Qi He was only thirty thousand li away from Wu Yuan.

Thirty thousand li sounded far, but the arcane art would reach Wu Yuan in less than a second. The horrifying burst of power, especially that fleeting streak of light, made the hearts of Chi Chang and the others shudder.

Kill him! With the attack power of this ninth-stage Earth Immortal arcane art, a single strike is enough to shatter all obstacles. Earth Immortal Qi He's eyes were cold.

There's an 80-90% chance this Shadow Blade won't have time to react at all before perishing. There's a 10% chance he might activate some protective treasures.

There's an extremely small chance he could summon that Earth Immortal level puppet, but even if just 1% of the residual shockwave makes contact with him, it should be enough to kill him. Earth Immortal Qi He was very confident.

Normally, when ambushed with such an arcane art, even a ninth-stage Elysian Field cultivator would surely die, and even an ordinary Earth Immortal might perish.

Moreover, the moment Earth Immortal Qi He had cast the arcane art, he also transformed into a streak of light. With flying swords orbiting his body, he followed the attack along the canyon passage.

His speed instantly broke three thousand li per second and continued to accelerate. Flying in a straight line, an Earth Immortal could quickly break ten thousand li per second. However, the winding canyon passage prevented him from reaching top speed.

If Wu Yuan truly had an unbelievable self-preservation ability that allowed him to survive the first arcane art, then Earth Immortal Qi He, following closely behind, would continue attacking to finish off his wounded target.

It could be said that Earth Immortal Qi He had planned for every contingency. In his mind, no matter what, Wu Yuan could not escape this crisis.

…

I've finally crossed the threshold of the Law of Life. It's a pity there's no time to comprehend the Dao pattern diagrams on the other stone walls one by one. Wu Yuan flew at high speed along the canyon passage, feeling quite joyful.

Although he had just crossed the initiate threshold of a Greater Law, he still had a long way to go before reaching the True Intent stage of the Life Dao. But the hardest part was always getting started. Having taken the first step, Wu Yuan was naturally excited.

Of course, due to his past experiences, Wu Yuan remained vigilant. His Soul Will maintained a constant scan of his surroundings over a radius of ten thousand li.

After repeated encounters with powerhouses, Wu Yuan had long understood that thunder beasts, Yuan Soul-level Soul Will, and some Void Refiner/Elysian Field cultivators who had cultivated special secret arts could all potentially evade his Soul Will detection. It wasn't foolproof.

However, maintaining a ten thousand li scan was still better than nothing. At least normal arcane arts, talisman activations, and spiritual qi fluctuations couldn't escape his Soul Will perception.

Hmm? Wu Yuan's pupils constricted slightly as alarm bells went off through his soul.

Every hair on his body instantly stood on end! It was like an ordinary person suddenly seeing a snarling tiger leap out of the grass just three meters away. An unprecedented sense of impending doom gripped Wu Yuan's heart.

Danger! Extreme danger! This feeling was ten times, a hundred times stronger than the sense of crisis Wu Yuan had experienced during the worm devil catastrophe years ago!

At this moment, Wu Yuan's Soul Force had already ‘seen’ it. Just ten thousand li away, a terrifying earthy-yellow streak of light that seemed capable of destroying heaven and earth was hurtling along the canyon passage at a horrifying speed.

An arcane art? An immortal-level arcane art? This thought flashed instinctively through Wu Yuan's mind.

Ten thousand li? For an immortal-level arcane art, the time required to cross such a distance was practically negligible. His life or death would be determined in this moment.

Flee? It was impossible to escape! Even a High Immortal's flight speed couldn't match the speed of an arcane art.

Dodge? The canyon passage was too narrow. An arcane art like this would sweep through the entire canyon.

That left only one option - endure!

In just one-tenth of a second, this arcane art would reach him. Who would ambush him? Wu Yuan had no time to think about it.

Wu Yuan waved his hand, and the purple-robed Shadow Moon instantly appeared before him.

Without any prompting from Wu Yuan. Shadow Moon’s aura already began to surge after sensing the danger. She activated her third form right away.

Boom! Throwing knives appeared one after another, and layers of golden light materialized and spread. The knife domain instantly took shape, shielding Wu Yuan.

"Master, Beast Fusion." Likewise, without Wu Yuan's prompting, Little Black sensed the impending danger just as clearly. A vast wave of ether had already begun pouring into Wu Yuan's flesh, even faster than Shadow Moon's deployment of the knife domain. At the same time, a pair of wings appeared, like giant double-edged blades, faintly curving to shield Wu Yuan.

Great Eldritch Divine Body! Three-Headed Eight-Armed Form! Wu Yuan simultaneously unleashed these two grand ether arts. Vital ether surged through him.

In an instant, Wu Yuan unleashed his full might, his vital aura exploding as high-grade spirion armor covered his entire body, and eight shields materialized in his eight arms.

As for advanced ether arts like Deity Form, Wu Yuan dared not employ them, for it would transform him into a thousand-zhang giant, making him far more susceptible to the shockwave's impact.

In reality, maintaining a Soul Will perception of ten thousand li gave Wu Yuan a moment to detect the ambush. This brief time to react presented Wu Yuan with numerous options, such as using one or two of the immensely powerful artifacts or Dao Treasures he had purchased, such as the Void Divine Talisman.

However, they were far too costly! Using up a Dao Treasure worth hundreds of divine crystals? Wu Yuan naturally felt the pinch. Though wealthy, he couldn't squander treasures so carelessly.

The evolved version of the Great Eldritch Divine Body gave Wu Yuan a measure of confidence. Without this moment to react, Wu Yuan would have had over a 50% chance of dying from this strike, rendering even an abundance of treasures useless, as he wouldn't have been able to employ them.

Of course, this all happened in the blink of an eye.

Boom!! Before Wu Yuan could get a firm hold on the eight shields in his hands, that terrifying earthy-yellow beam of light had already pierced into the knife domain that Shadow Moon had just formed.

Rumble~ It was a frightening collision. Although Shadow Moon managed to form a knife domain, it was far from reaching its peak power and instantly showed signs of collapse. Throwing knives flew chaotically in all directions.

However, Shadow Moon, unleashing the might of a peak-stage Earth Immortal, assembled a truly formidable knife domain. The series of collisions weakened the earthy-yellow beam’s power by over 90%!

Bang~ The remaining 10% of the beam's power penetrated the knife domain, sweeping through the area where Wu Yuan stood.

A terrifying shockwave spread outward.

Rumble~ Wu Yuan instantly sensed waves of unprecedented force radiating outward, penetrating through the eight shields and striking his spirion armor directly. The eight shields were violently torn from his grasp. The impact sent Wu Yuan flying backward.

Knife domain! Shields! Armor! Three layers of defense weakened over 99% of the power, but the remaining sliver of force still caused Wu Yuan's Great Eldritch Divine Body to tremble, with faint cracks appearing on his skin’s surface.

Thud! Wu Yuan's body crashed violently into a mountain, sending countless rocks flying and causing the entire mountain to quake. He was blasted back a full thousand li.

Finally, the power of the earthy-yellow beam was fully exhausted, its aftershocks continuing to surge through the canyon passage, leaving a trail of destruction for at least several thousand li.