"You've already made appropriate arrangements, so what are you worried about? Could it be that you can also sense that something's wrong?" The beautiful woman was sitting in her seat, minding her own business, but a faint voice suddenly sounded in her spiritual sense. It was an unfamiliar female voice.
The woman's expression remained unchanged, but she replied coldly in her spiritual sense, "Infernal Ghost Mother, you better not do anything out of line unless you want to experience the pain of having your soul pierced."She seemed to be aware of who this woman was.
"Hehe, if you feel like you can't handle the Myriad Demon Flag, you can get me to help you out. If you remove the restrictions on my body, you and I can join forces and a mere Myriad Demon Flag will be nothing to us!" the woman cackled. She appeared to be very confident in her own abilities.
"Remove your restrictions? Keep dreaming," the woman chuckled coldly.
"I'm just looking out for you; no need to get angry. This time, the demon beasts clearly have another intention in mind. Otherwise, why would they have mobilized so many of their troops? You might not be safe even if you hide in the Spirit Void Hall. In my opinion, it'll be very difficult for the North Night Palace to survive this ordeal," the woman cackled in response.
"I won't remove your restrictions no matter what you say. Releasing a ghost cultivator as powerful as you into this world will result in catastrophic consequences. You can just stay in the Profound Ghost Badge." The beautiful woman wasn't tempted at all.
The woman fell silent for a moment before screeching in an enraged voice, "You say that now, but think about it; without my help, how would you have been able to progress to the late-Nascent Soul stage in just over 500 years? I've also saved your life on many occasions. If I hadn't, you would've died countless times; how could you have become the palace master of the North Night Palace without me?"
"You are indeed correct, but don't forget that if I hadn't extracted the Profound Ghost Badge out of that block of Myriad Year Profound Ice, you'd still be hibernating underground. You only helped me reach the Nascent Soul stage so I would have the power to lift the Simultaneous Birth Curse placed upon you, is that not the case? Don't make it sound like you're some kind of philanthropist; you only helped me to help yourself," the beautiful woman replied indifferently.
"But you promised me that you'd release me!" The woman was still furious.
"I did, but then I found a secret technique that allowed me to draw on your Profound Yin Ghost Qi to drastically improve my rate of cultivation. If you can help me reach the Deity Transformation stage, your Simultaneous Birth Curse would automatically be lifted and you'll be able to leave then" "Help you reach the Deity Transformation stage? Do you actually think I'm an omnipotent god?! If I could progress to the Deity Transformation stage, would I have been forced to become a ghost cultivator?" The woman was thunderous with rage.
"If you can't help me reach the Deity Transformation stage, then I'll make sure to seal you again before I pass away," the woman said expressionlessly.
In an extremely frosty voice, the woman said, "Hmph! We'll see if you can even make it through this ordeal first! You've almost exhausted your supply of spirit stones as well, right? Without those things, there's no way you'll be able to make me help you."
"I may not have any more spirit stones, but what you said earlier was nothing more than conjecture. What are those demons going to be able to do to the Spirit Void Hall? Your efforts won't be required here; the North Night Palace can deal with this threat on our own!" the beautiful woman responded with a dark expression.
She made a hand seal, seemingly to activate some sort of Celestial Technique, and the voice of the so-called Infernal Ghost Mother was abruptly cut off.
The beautiful woman recomposed herself before making her way out of the hall.
Two days later, after all of the low-level disciples were evacuated, the demon beasts outside quickly reached city of ice.
The North Night Palace was planning on taking advantage of the final few layers of restrictions to engage in one final battle with the demon beasts.
The manifestation of Old Devil Che, that small child, had fully recovered from his injuries during the past few days. He and the old man were charging into battle with the other metamorphosized demon beasts.
Following an extremely intense battle, both sides suffered some casualties, but the demons were ultimately the ones that came out on top. The small child was able to use the power of the Myriad Demon Flag to engulf two North Night Palace elders in quick succession. As a result, the beautiful woman was forced to retreat while the final restriction kept the demon beasts at bay.
Upon seeing this, Old Devil Che immediately unleashed the full power of the Myriad Demon Flag. Countless demon beasts transformed into demonic Qi, creating a turbulent wave that was crashing relentlessly against the final restriction.
All of the North Night Palace cultivators had retreated into the Hidden Arctic Dragon Border, entering the Spirit Void Hall for protection.
The restriction on the border was immediately activated at the beautiful woman's behest.
The three halls that were positioned in a triangular formation began to tremor violently as the ground began to split open, revealing a super formation spell the encompassed the three halls at its center.
There were countless spirit stones embedded into the formation spell, and most of them appeared to be of the mid-grade or above. At the very core of the formation, there were even a dozen or so high-grade spirit stones that were exceedingly rare.
Runes tumbled within the formation, shimmering with a mysterious and profound light.
Moments later, spiritual light began to intertwine in the air above, creating a vast expanse of silver light that almost encompassed the entire border.
Right at this moment, faint spiritual light also began to emanate from the three halls, following which three thick pillars of light erupted from the top of the halls. Those pillars of light shot straight into the air before disappearing into the silver light above.
The sound of rumbling thunderclaps erupted as peculiar spatial fluctuations radiated from within the light. Immediately thereafter, the light began to tumble and churn urgently, following which a white arc of light several thousand feet in length began to slowly emerge.
As soon as the arc of light appeared, a gust of wind swept up within the border. Small stones and debris were flung into the air as a result and countless buildings were instantly toppled. The world's origin Qi was cast into disarray and everything was plunged into chaos.
However, those three halls seemed to be somehow related to those spatial rifts. The light emanating from them brightened considerably as the white arc of light in the air above slowly elongated and widened, as if a demonic eye was slowly opening.
When the rift had almost encompassed half of the area in the air above the border, bursts of silver light suddenly erupted from within, enveloping the three Spirit Void Halls.
One of the halls tremored violently before slowly rising up from the ground, traveling toward the spatial rift. A silver light flashed and the hall disappeared without a trace. The second hall immediately followed suit.
However, just as the third hall was about to rise up from the ground, a white light flashed from somewhere within the Hidden Arctic Dragon Border, upon which a snowy white Ice Phoenix roughly 10 feet in size suddenly revealed itself.
A hint of surprise flashed through the spirit beast's green eyes as it caught sight of what was happening within the border. It then turned its attention to the final hall that was rising into the air and opened its mouth, blasting forth a white streak of light, which abruptly disappeared.
The phoenix then looked on with a cold expression as that final hall was also sucked into the spatial rift, without doing anything to prevent that from happening.
After all three halls had been absorbed into the spatial rift, the latter began to slowly seal over. A flash of silver light erupted and the rift comp
letely disappeared. All of the phenomena that had taken place within the border also vanished.
Only then did the Ice Phoenix let loose a clear cry before spreading its wings and disappearing amid a burst of white light.
Some time later, an earth-shattering boom erupted and the entire mountain tremored and quaked. The demons had finally broken through the final restriction and stormed into the city of ice. The old man and the small child then rushed directly toward the mountain.
However, right at this moment, Master Arctic Dragon, who was situated in the Profound Ice Cave, was at a critical final juncture of breaking through his bottleneck.
Within the formation spell, Han Li's Purple Apex Flames had already been snuffed out and he was looking toward a certain direction with a surprised look on his face.
Not only him, but the old woman, Bai Mengxin, and the others also wore similar expressions as they stared at the massive rock at the center of the formation spell.
This was because the ball of light atop that rock had completely disappeared, and had been replaced by a white lotus flower of light.
Master Arctic Dragon was sitting within that lotus flower and wisps of glacial Qi were emanating from its petals, making his figure appear indistinct and murky within the lotus.
There was a six-colored lotus flower insignia imprinted on Master Arctic Dragon's glabella which was rather indistinct, and blinking in and out of existence in an extremely unstable manner. What was even more peculiar was that a faint fragrant scent was wafting forth from his body. It was like the scent of sandalwood or of medicine, and it was a very rich aroma, but there was a faint fishy odor intermingled within.
It was incredible!
Chapter 1102: Breakthrough to Deity Transformation Stage
Even though it was an extremely rare occurrence to witness someone making a breakthrough to the Deity Transformation stage in person, there were still many rumors regarding this phenomenon circulating in the cultivation world.
"Transformation of the physical body into sandalwood; who would have thought that this legend would be real? Following the conclusion of this process, he will have successfully broken through his bottleneck, right?" the old woman murmured to herself with an envious look on her face.
"Not necessarily! Brother Arctic Dragon's situation seems to be a little shaky at the moment. It appears that he has only achieved the prerequisites for making a breakthrough to the Deity Transformation stage, but the metamorphosis of the Nascent Soul within his body doesn't appear to be progressing very smoothly. Otherwise, the insignia materialized from our glacial flames wouldn't be blinking so sporadically." The old monk looked on with furrowed brows and was immediately able to identify the issue.
"That can't be helped. Even though we lent him the power of our glacial flames to temporarily enhance his Nascent Soul, that is not his own power, so it's naturally going to be rather difficult for him to control," Han Li remarked.
A hint of concern appeared on the green-robed middle-aged man's face as he asked, "How about we help the grand elder stabilize his Nascent Soul?"
"That definitely won't do! Breaking through a Deity Transformation bottleneck is not that simple. Perhaps this instability is what Senior Martial Brother Arctic Dragon is seeking. Perhaps he wants to use this power to break through the bottleneck in one fell swoop. If we recklessly intervene, we could hurt him instead. It's best to just stand by and observe for now," Bai Mengxin rejected.
A faint smile appeared on Han Li's face upon hearing that and he didn't offer any objections.
Everyone else glanced at one another before also falling silent. In reality, even if they wanted to help, they most likely wouldn't be able to anyway.
After manipulating their glacial flames for two days and two nights without pause, everyone was already utterly exhausted, having overexerted their magic power and spiritual sense in the process.
As such, they could only look on as Master Arctic Dragon strove to overcome the most arduous hurdle by himself.
What everyone failed to notice was that there was a blue light that was shimmering incessantly within Han Li's eyes. He was carefully assessing the flow of magic power in Master Arctic Dragon's body, as well as the changes taking place in his Nascent Soul, and committing all of those details to memory.
These observations would surely be of great benefit to him in the future. Just this experience alone made Han Li feel that it was worth taking the risk to stay here. After all, it was an extremely rare opportunity to be able to witness a cultivator making a breakthrough to the Deity Transformation stage. This was an opportunity that he had to grab with both hands.
Everyone else could also use their spiritual sense to derive some observations, but they were clearly unable to observe anywhere near as much as Han Li could using his Brightsight Spirit Eyes, so he was benefitting far more from this than they were.
Time passed by slowly.
After what seemed like an eternity, Master Arctic Dragon's body suddenly shuddered as he sat within the white lotus flower. The peculiar aroma wafting from his body instantly became several times richer as the lotus insignia on his glabella abruptly expanded, creating a series of lotus projections that began to blossom.
Everyone was instantly alerted by those changes taking place and immediately focused their attention toward Master Arctic Dragon.
The latter's eyes had already opened and a crimson and golden light was radiating from his eyeballs. At the same time, he remained completely stationary, but his body was slowly rising into the air as if he were completely weightless.
Master Arctic Dragon looked around and a hint of elation appeared on his face. After a brief hesitation, he still raised a hand and his fingers tremored slightly as if he were making some sort of hand seal.
Almost at the exact same moment, Han Li felt the remaining spiritual power in his body pulse before surging violently, escaping his body in a violent torrent.
Han Li was extremely shocked and immediately activated his cultivation arts several times. Only then was he able to temporarily repress the unrest within his spiritual power. Everyone else's expressions also changed drastically as they, too, took a series of flustered measures to stabilize their spiritual power.
It appeared that he was not the only one who had been afflicted by that peculiar phenomenon.
Han Li's eyes flashed and before he had figured out what had just happened, a ringing sound suddenly erupted from the several formation spells nearby. The light barrier nearby shuddered violently as wisps of light began to shoot forth from it, drifting directly toward the formation spell.
Those wisps of spiritual light disappeared as soon as they made contact with Master Arctic Dragon's body.
A short while later, the light barrier began to crumble and the light flowing in from outside the formation spell turned into a cream color while becoming more and more viscous.
"The world's origin Qi has been triggered!" someone murmured in a low voice that was filled with elation, awe, admiration, and a hint of envy.
Han Li's heart jolted upon hearing that.
Master Arctic Dragon's was like a bottomless pit; no matter how much glacial energy surged into his body, it effected no change aside from making golden light emanating from his eyes and glabella glow even brighter.
This phenomenon lasted for about 10 minutes, following which a series of explosive sounds erupted from within Master Arctic Dragon's body. His seated figure immediately grew taller by several inches.
At the same time, the lotus insignia on his glabella expanded drastically, obscuring most of his head behind it. The lotus then abruptly contracted, finally shrinking to around the size of a thumb as it imprinted itself onto his glabella.
The light surging toward him from all directions faltered before dissipating.
The unrest in the spiritual power within the bodies of Han Li and the others also settled.
Master Arctic Dragon made a hand seal with a solemn expression before slowly closing his e
yes. The spiritual light emanating from the six-colored lotus flower on his glabella also receded.
"Has he already progressed to the Deity Transformation stage?" The same thought flashed through everyone's mind upon seeing this.
The green-robed middle-aged man and Bai Mengxin were overjoyed.
However, before anyone had a chance to ask, a muffled groan suddenly escaped Master Arctic Dragon's mouth. His face then suddenly began to twist and warp without any warning, and he grabbed onto his own head as if he were suffering from excruciating pain.
Han Li and the others were all flabbergasted upon seeing this.
"What's going on, Senior Martial Brother?" the green-robed man yelled urgently, but didn't dare to approach Master Arctic Dragon
The latter looked up at the green-robed man with difficulty, but before he had a chance to say anything, light suddenly began to flash violently from the lotus flower on his glabella before it detached itself.
The lotus then began to swell and shrink erratically before exploding with a light thump, transforming into six balls of spiritual light as it did so.
Master Arctic Dragon let loose a wail of anguish and his body swayed unsteadily before plummeting from the air. He landed right inside the white lotus flower down below, where he lay curled up into a ball, trembling uncontrollably.
"Grand Elder!" Bai Mengxin couldn't just stand by and watch any longer.
She and the green-robed middle-aged man immediately shot forth as streaks of light toward the lotus flower.
Han Li and the other two looked at one another, but remained where they were.
"I'm alright. It was just some backlash from the world's origin Qi." Much to everyone's surprise, Master Arctic Dragon suddenly flipped over and got up into a seated position again. His face was still quite pale, but his features were no longer twisted in agony.
Bai Mengxin and the green-robed man were very relieved to see this and they stopped in the air above the lotus flower. Just as they were about to inquire Master Arctic Dragon for more details, the latter hurriedly said something before flipping his hand over to reveal a stack of silver daggers that had been used earlier. He waved his hand and streaks of silver light shot forth as all 16 daggers were flung into the air.
A Record of a Mortal’s Journey to Immortality c1-2248 Page 594