Chapter 54: Descent into the Void, Overawing the Realm (End of Volume One)

  5,000 words per chapter

  ————————

  As soon as he thought of cultivating the Void Flame, Zhang Heng's heart became even more agitated.

  This flame is related to the core of the abnormal power, claiming to refine and transform all things in the world into nothingness. As for what kind of powerful ability it has, Zhang Heng isn't very clear.

  However, he knew that this flame was extraordinary in its refining properties, being thousands of times more powerful than the Refining Void Spirit Qi.

  Moreover, once he can cultivate the Void Flame, Zhang Heng will be able to thoroughly refine the spiritual instrument that cannot exert its full power by a Qi Refining stage cultivator, achieving true unity of instrument and self, allowing the spiritual instrument to merge into his own body.

  By then, Zhang Heng would be able to easily kill all Qi Refining stage cultivators and even challenge Jie Dan stage cultivators across levels. In this way, the advantage of obtaining the true treasure in the Blood Killing Cave Mansion became more apparent.

  In addition, the Soul-Devouring Wasp planted in Zhang Heng's body by Ouyang Old Ancestor will also not pose any threat to Zhang Heng, and silently, another trump card that can counter Ouyang Old Ancestor will emerge.

  All the benefits forced Zhang Heng to cultivate the Void Flame now, but in Zhang Heng's expectation, cultivating the Void Flame might take some time, which would miss the opportunity of Fang Yun's gathering and more importantly, the date of taking the antidote for the Soul-Eating Wasp from Old Ancestor Ouyang.

  However, in this situation, Zhang Heng had no other choice either. If he didn't refine the ice mountain, he would likely be crushed under it forever, or even turn into an ice sculpture and become a part of the ice mountain.

  However, this ice mountain made entirely of crystal ice is different from ordinary spiritual instrument minerals and the like. Zhang Heng felt that it should be easy to refine.

  Taking a deep breath, Zhang Heng withdrew the refined spiritual energy from outside his body, closed his eyes, eliminated all distractions, and began to use his divine sense to connect with the mysterious jade cylinder in his mind.

  Still suspended in Zhang Heng's sea of consciousness, the mysterious jade cylinder was crystal clear and silver-white in color, with a hint of remoteness and mystery.

  Following the method in Jade Annals, Zhang Heng once again started circulating the Lianyuan Spiritual Energy inside his body, forming those nine cycles of circulation.

  At the time of entering the abnormal meridian, Zhang Heng could drive the spiritual energy in his body to form a nine-turn spiritual energy circulation network at will, and now he was even more handy.

  The focal point of the nine spiritual energy circulation web was in the silver light group inside the dantian, and when Zhang Heng controlled the nine spiritual energy circulation webs inside his body, he felt that there was some unknown mysterious connection between them.

  After everything was ready, Zhang Heng's nine-turn spiritual energy circulation network suddenly stopped, and the silver light ball the size of a soybean in his dantian emitted dazzling light, followed by another intense tremor.

  This quivering sound was particularly special, as if a baby was crying, and all the monsters or ordinary animals around here involuntarily shuddered when they heard this quiver.

  Then, Zhang Heng's mouth opened slightly, and the silver jade cylinder in his divine sense sea also trembled slightly.

  With a "poof" sound, Zhang Heng's mouth opened wide and he spat out the silver light ball the size of a soybean from his dantian, as if it were an inner dan being spit out by a demonic beast, but not quite.

  This silver light group is the essence of Zhang Heng's yuanqi, and previously, he only spat out a tenth of it, which allowed him to exert his strength comparable to that of a foundation-building cultivator in a short period of time, forcing Luo Xue to use her life-saving divine ability, causing the essence of over 100,000 years to become this moment's iceberg.

  At the moment when the silver light ball was spat out of his body, the nine spiritual energy circulation nets outside Zhang Heng's body also moved out of his body.

  Still centered on the silver light group, the nine spiritual energy circulation nets actually ran along a mysterious and complex trajectory in mid-air.

  If Zhang Heng opened the nine spiritual energy circulation networks in his body, with a silver light group as the center of rotation, this is only considered opening the small Zhou Tian of the human body. At this moment, in the case of virtual empty evolution, it is like opening the Zhou Tian between heaven and earth.

  After doing all this, Zhang Heng's face was pale and bloodless, his whole body even felt a bit weak. But he also let out a slight sigh of relief.

  Under his intention, the external mysterious nine spiritual energy circulation network that had formed its own Zhou Tian began to gradually expand, with the goal of enveloping the entire iceberg.

  Then, the cycle of circulation formed by refining virtual spirit energy began to disperse slowly, continuously expanding, covering an area of one meter, two meters, three meters...

  Under Zhang Heng's careful manipulation, the peripheral heavenly circulation web began to expand ceaselessly, and the space for refining the void spirit energy also grew larger.

  The entire cycle of the week revolves around a silver light cluster, treating the surrounding ice crystal mountains as non-existent voids, operating like this, without seeing the frosty white light inside the glacier coming out.

  When the scope of this cycle network expanded to a certain extent, Zhang Heng felt that he was somewhat out of his depth and could no longer expand the Zhou Tian cycle network as he wished. If he forced it to expand further, it would cause the carefully managed outer heavenly net to become fragmented and broken.

  At this moment, three-quarters of the iceberg was within the range of the outer heavenly cover. Zhang Heng let out a faint sigh, it could only be like this.

  After making plans, Zhang Heng stopped his intention of continuing to expand the peripheral Tianwang. He concentrated on stabilizing the path of spiritual energy circulation outside his body.

  In about the time it takes to burn an incense stick, the peripheral Heavenly Web had completely stabilized, and the circulation of the refined spiritual energy also became more unobstructed.

  Alright, with just one last step left, Zhang Heng closed his eyes and once again began to connect with the mysterious jade cylinder within his divine sea.

  A series of notes that even he himself couldn't understand spilled out from his mouth, Zhang Heng's consciousness had already been tightly linked with the mysterious jade cylinder.

  As Zhang Heng's incantation was activated, at a certain moment, a transparent silver lightning suddenly burst out of the silver jade cylinder.

  A burst of laughter, a transparent silver lightning bolt shot out from Zhang Heng's mouth, precisely converging with the silver light cluster at the focal point of the external heavenly circle.

  With a crackling sound, the silver light cluster shattered in an instant.

  A fierce silver light burst out violently within Zhou Tian's web.

  Although Zhou Tian Wang lost the silver light group in the center, its rotation speed increased by more than a dozen times in the blink of an eye, and this speed is still increasing.

  A silver whirlpool appeared at the focal point where the silver light group was originally located.

  At the beginning, this silver whirlpool rotated very slowly, but as the surrounding Lingqi accelerated its rotation, this silver whirlpool also began to accelerate continuously.

  As time passed, the silver whirlpool spun faster and faster until it seemed almost stationary.

  Zhang Heng had nothing to do at this moment, staring blankly at the silver vortex that seemed to have stopped in the sky. Through a thread of spiritual connection, he found that the speed of the silver vortex was still increasing non-stop.

  The surroundings had already turned pitch black, the silver whirlpool in the iceberg was still accelerating non-stop, and the silver light was like a bright moon.

  But in an instant, the silver whirlpool shook violently and turned into a pitch-black mass in the next moment!

  That's not just ordinary black, but a pure black like a black hole that swallows everything!

  In Zhang Heng's eyes, that black whirlpool seemed like a miniature black hole.

  But Zhang Heng knew that this was not a black hole, but rather something quite similar.

  And Zhang Heng did not feel any gravitational pull from that black whirlpool at all.

  After the black vortex was formed, the mission of those refining spiritual energy around it seemed to have been completed, and they were all sucked into the black vortex.

  The black vortex, after absorbing the Lian Yu Ling Qi, began to rotate wildly again, and the surrounding ice crystal mountains flashed with one wave after another of frosty white light.

  This frosty white light did not come out on its own, but was forced out by an invisible force.

  In front of his eyes, all he saw was a vast expanse of frosty white light transforming into a long river-like streak surging towards the black whirlpool.

  Zhang Heng stared in shock, the Frost White Light that could originally turn any object into an ice sculpture at will was actually being absorbed like water.

  Moreover, after inhaling these frosty white lights, Zhang Heng felt that his dantian had unexpectedly produced a portion of refined spiritual energy.

  Where did these refined spiritual energies come from?

  Zhang Heng gazed at the black vortex that seemed to be embedded in the void, and a guess arose in his heart: Could it be that those frosty white lights entered the black vortex and transformed into this?

  But how could things absorbed by that black whirlpool run into one's own body?

  Just as Zhang Heng was pondering, he felt that the Lianyuan spiritual energy inside his body was further increasing. Zhang Heng's mind moved and he operated these newly acquired Lianyuan spiritual energies in the dantian, continuously condensing them to form a silver light group like the one at the beginning.

  A steady stream of Lianyuan spiritual energy was produced in Zhang Heng's dantian, and finally all entered the new silver light group.

  The black whirlpool in the void is still rotating ceaselessly, and the surrounding icebergs are gradually decreasing in size. Although the reduction is not very large, it is thousands of times faster than the speed at which Xue Lian absorbed it just now.

  The silver light mass inside Zhang Heng was condensing and growing in an orderly manner, and he also split out a part of his divine consciousness to observe the surrounding ice mountains and the black vortex in the void.

  He somehow established a connection with that black whirlpool in the void.

  As soon as the thought moved, the speed of the black vortex's rotation slowed down for an instant.

  Zhang Heng smiled contentedly, it seemed that success was just one last step away.

  Just then, Zhang Heng suddenly received a spiritual fluctuation, which came from the snow lotus in front of him.

  A wave of fear and emotion swept towards Zhang Heng.

  Zhang Heng glanced sideways, and saw that the snow lotus also began to involuntarily emit a gentle white light into the black vortex in the void. If it was not stopped, all the essence contained in this snow lotus would be completely absorbed by the black vortex soon after.

  Zhang Heng would never let this happen, not to mention the role of Xue Lian itself. Just recently, the other party had helped him recover from a serious internal and external injury, allowing him to cultivate the Void Flame at this time. This point alone was enough for Zhang Heng not to stand idly by and watch as Xue Lian disappeared from this world.

  A slight movement of her mind, and the black vortex in the void immediately stopped forcibly stripping away Snow Lotus's bodily essence.

  Xue Lian immediately felt a wave of gratitude towards Zhang Heng.

  Zhang Heng couldn't afford to be distracted by conversation at this time. The silver light mass in his dantian was recovering its original size with the help of sufficient Lingshu Spirit Qi, and it continued to condense and grow.

  Time passed bit by bit, and when the morning sunlight shone here, Zhang Heng suddenly raised his head to find that the surrounding icebergs were only over two meters high, transforming overnight from an iceberg into a house-sized ice block.

  At this moment, the black vortex in the void stopped rotating and stood still in the void.

  Zhang Heng speculated that this black vortex may have reached a certain degree of saturation.

  After standing still in the void for about ten breaths, the black vortex finally changed.

  A massive black whirlpool of the entire disc size was constantly twisting in the void, sometimes expanding and sometimes shrinking, its shape changing hundreds of times in the blink of an eye.

  Finally, at a certain moment, a crisp sound rang out in the sky and earth.

  "Clang——"

  This sound is neither loud nor soft, yet it carries a soul-stirring divine majesty.

  "Clang——"

  In the void, a strange wave that cannot be observed by either the naked eye or divine sense is transmitted to the entire land at the same moment.

  It traversed the billions of miles of road, arrived at the edge of the continent, crossed the vast and endless ocean, and passed through several continents comparable to Dongyun, all the way to the end of the sky.

  It reaches up to heaven and down to earth, startling heaven and earth, weeping ghosts and gods, sweeping across one boundary.

  Beyond the thirty-third heaven, the endless blue sky reaches its end, where the void floats, a hazy world, golden and jade-like, with crystal palaces and jade halls, as if it were an earthly paradise.

  A crisp sound, leaving behind a dead silence.

  At the bottom of the deep sea, millions of monsters and beasts are hidden in the abyss. In the dark waves, a hazy water boundary is visible, with pearls shining brightly, and palace buildings towering high, truly a strange and isolated realm.

  A crisp sound, followed by a few hollow sighs in the empty space.

  ……

  About 4 or 5 thousand li away from the distant mountains, there is a peak of over 10,000 meters, and everything on the top of the mountain is covered with thick white snow.

  In the secret chamber of a palace at the summit, an old man with silver hair was awakened from his closed-door meditation, with fresh blood flowing from the corner of his mouth and a pale face. He muttered to himself: "What kind of terrible thing has been born in this world that even my cultivation has regressed by a small stage..."

  Ignore space, ignore distance, ignore the high and low of cultivation.

  At this moment, all cultivators within the realm who have reached the Embryonic Breath stage or higher had their hearts and spirits affected. Mildly, their divine sense was damaged; severely, their cultivation regressed by one stage.

  This tremendous change had no impact on the lower-class people in the cultivation world, but it caused the overall strength of the great masters within this realm to decline, and could be called a major disaster for the cultivation world in a million years.

  But Zhang Heng, the mastermind behind this matter, was completely unaware of everything he had caused.

  The black whirlpool also stopped its incessant twisting with that crisp sound, like a static black hole.

  At this moment, Zhang Heng felt as if the entire space-time had come to a standstill, his breath paused, the wind silent, and the sunlight dimmed, as if waiting for something to be born.

  Suddenly, Zhang Heng's heart skipped a beat as he saw the static black whirlpool disappear into thin air.

  Under Zhang Heng's gaze, that whirlpool like a black hole disappeared just like that.

  Vanished into thin air, this is indeed bizarre!

  Zhang Heng's face turned pale, could it be that he had failed?

  The long-awaited Void Flame failed at this last juncture, and Zhang Heng's heart was about to die.

  However, just as Zhang Heng was extremely disheartened, a very special connection came from the void.

  Zhang Heng looked up and saw nothing, but the real and tangible feeling of being connected to his divine consciousness lingered in his mind.

  "Could it be..." Zhang Heng stared blankly at the empty sky, suddenly bursting into laughter.

  "Take it!" Zhang Heng's hand stretched out, and a special ripple came from the void.

  "Hmm——"

  A transparent flame descended from the void and hovered above Zhang Heng's palm.

  This flame is completely invisible to the naked eye and is a kind of non-existent existence.

  But if probed with spiritual awareness, a faintly visible transparent flame flickering with pale silver light can be seen.

  When this transparent flame fell onto Zhang Heng's palm, a sense of inclusiveness and transcendence arose in his heart.

  It seems that as long as this flame is in hand, all obstacles will be rendered useless and everything can be reduced to nothingness.

  Just as Zhang Heng's heart was surging, a tremor came from billions of miles away in space and time, and a black lightning bolt that seemed to not exist in this world fell from the end of the sky, hitting the void flame right on.

  Zhang Heng's face changed greatly, although he didn't know what this black lightning was, he could feel a power that transcended the laws of heaven and earth.

  The transparent flame was struck by a black lightning bolt, paused for a moment, and then disappeared out of thin air in Zhang Heng's unscathed palm.

  Another disappearance?

  Zhang Heng's heart skipped a beat.

  "Humming..."

  A ripple of disturbance echoed through the void once more, and a transparent flame of Void Fire reappeared in Zhang Heng's hand.

  However, after this change, a black lightning symbol appeared in the center of the flame.

  Zhang Heng didn't know the special meaning of this black lightning symbol, and with a lingering fear, he looked at the empty flame in his hand and quickly put it away.

  The flame of void in its palm jumped reluctantly and finally merged into Zhang Heng's body.

  Zhang Heng discovered that the Void Flame had finally merged into his own Divine Sea, and above the transparent flame was the mysterious Jade Cylinder.

  Under the foil of the void flames, the mysterious jade cylinder is even more dazzling and enchanting, standing still in Zhang Heng's sea of consciousness for eternity.

  Zhang Heng withdrew his consciousness and cast his gaze outward. At this moment, the horizon had already revealed a faint reddish hue, heralding the start of a new day.

  It took only one day for him to cultivate himself into a Void Flame, and this speed was indeed beyond Zhang Heng's expectations.

  He let out a slight sigh, and Zhang Heng felt the enormous ice block, comparable to the size of a house, still pressing down on him. He muttered to himself: "The hardness of this ice block is close to that of a low-grade spiritual artifact. It's going to be quite troublesome to break it open."

  While the snow lotus next to it was still emitting those white lights with miraculous healing effects, it was continuously absorbing the frosty white light from the iceberg, but the speed was still very slow.

  Zhang Heng curled his lips and said, "Let me come instead, and take a look at the power of this Void Flame."

  A transparent silver flame appeared in Zhang Heng's hand, and the flame danced happily on his palm, as if it had some expectation.

  "Go!"

  Zhang Heng's mind stirred, and the Void Flame "whooshed" as it rapidly flew towards that giant ice block.