Chapter 1782: Advancing Fusion (Part 1)

The golden giant ape waved its two fan-like hands, grabbing the purple flood dragon by the neck. Its arms tightened, and with a roar, it brutally twisted off the dragon's head.

With a loud boom, the purple flood dragon's body instantly disintegrated into countless scattered electric arcs.

The giant ape, however, suddenly raised its head, took a deep breath, and with its mouth wide open, spewed out a vast stream of golden light.

Immediately, as the golden light spread, it enveloped the scattered electric arcs, drawing them all into the golden ape's massive mouth.

In an instant, all the electric light vanished completely.

And not just that!

The giant ape's phantom showed no sign of stopping. As spiritual light circulated on its body, the golden light it spewed transformed into a pillar that plunged into the five-colored spiritual cloud.

A continuous muffled rumbling immediately emanated from the spiritual cloud, which began to rotate around the golden pillar of light.

Under a tremendous suction force, various runes flew out from the spiritual cloud, were rapidly swept into the flashing golden light, and eventually absorbed entirely into the phantom ape's belly.

In a short while, the golden pillar of light was filled with various runes, surging downwards like a tide.

The golden giant ape's vast mouth seemed like a bottomless void. After continuously absorbing so many runes, its expression remained completely unchanged.

The other cultivators at the edge of the misty sea witnessed all of this and were utterly dumbfounded.

The white-haired elder's mind was filled with phrases like "Mountain Ape" and "True Spirit Bloodline," and his expression of shock far exceeded that of the other cultivators.

As the branch patriarch of the True Spirit Gu family, his knowledge was naturally far beyond that of ordinary people. He immediately recognized the golden phantom, like a small mountain, in the low sky above the misty sea as the Dharma Idol of the Mountain Ape, and his astonishment was truly immense.

"No wonder this person didn't want to join our Gu family; they possess a True Spirit bloodline themselves!" the elder thought. "But this Dharma Idol is too astonishing. From such a distance, its aura alone has suppressed all of us. Furthermore, the scale of this celestial phenomenon far surpasses the last one. With so much spiritual energy of heaven and earth gathering, could this person be breaking through a major bottleneck?" The white-haired elder's cultivation wasn't high, but his mind was sharp. In a short time, he had accurately guessed most of the facts, feeling secretly horrified.

At this moment, above the misty sea, not only were runes flying into the golden light, but even the five-colored spiritual cloud itself was being drawn in, swirling rapidly.

After a while, the spiritual cloud in the air became wider at the top and narrower at the bottom, gradually stretching and deforming into a strange, gigantic funnel.

A massive amount of spiritual energy, transformed into a spiritual cloud, poured wildly into the giant ape's phantom.

The previously somewhat blurry giant ape phantom solidified and became clear as the runes flashed.

After a short while, the five-colored spiritual cloud was completely absorbed.

Seeing this, the giant ape phantom, still not satisfied, closed its mouth, struck its chest fiercely with both hands, and radiated dazzling golden light from its body.

With a "boom!"

A swirling white hurricane surged upwards from where the giant ape phantom stood, rapidly expanding and, in an instant, becoming incredibly massive, completely engulfing the mountain-like phantom.

At the same time, an invisible wave rapidly spread outwards in all directions from the hurricane, sweeping across the vicinity of the misty sea, its vast reach enough to leave one dumbfounded.

Within a ten-thousand-mile radius, the spiritual energy of heaven and earth stirred, transforming into countless light specks the size of beans, which surged wildly towards the misty sea.

Numerous light specks appeared near the hurricane like moths to a flame, and instantly vanished into it.

From within the hurricane, the giant ape's low roars emanated, sounding agitated and somewhat pained.

As more and more five-colored light specks arrived, the giant ape's roars grew progressively fainter, until finally, there was no sound at all.

But no matter how many light specks poured in from all directions, they were all swallowed by the hurricane, as if it could never be filled.

The human cultivators near the misty sea, seeing this, couldn't help but repeatedly swallow dryly.

If an ordinary cultivator absorbed so much spiritual energy of heaven and earth, they would likely have exploded and died long ago.

After a considerable period, a mournful ape cry emanated from the white hurricane, followed by an earth-shattering boom.

The hurricane suddenly burst open, sending waves of air wildly in all directions and scattering the numerous nearby light specks.

At the center of the airwaves, the massive ape phantom reappeared.

However, this time the phantom was no longer golden; instead, vibrant five-colored runes flickered faintly across its surface, as if its entire body were covered in five-colored spiritual script.

From a distance, it looked extremely strange.

The giant ape held its head in its hands, its facial expression rapidly changing.

One moment it was in immense pain, the next incredibly furious, and then its eyes turned blood-red, as if it had fallen into a frenzy.

At the same time, the runes on its body flashed wildly, making its form alternately blurry and clear, appearing extremely unstable.

The other observers from afar were naturally wide-eyed and somewhat bewildered.

Only the white-haired elder was secretly alarmed and became greatly fearful.

This situation clearly indicated that the other party was at a critical juncture in breaking through a bottleneck and was encountering an invasion by inner demons.

If the other party truly lost control of their mind and fell under the sway of inner demons, it was highly possible they would go on a killing spree nearby.

Given the other party's astonishing cultivation, low and mid-level cultivators like them would naturally have no power to resist and could only surrender to their fate.

Such incidents had happened more than once in the past.

The more the white-haired elder thought about it, the more frightened he became. In his desperation, he frantically urged his internal spiritual power, wanting to stand up from the immense pressure and escape with his clansmen.

But as soon as he half-stood, his body trembled, and he knelt on the ground once more.

Although the distant giant ape phantom seemed somewhat disoriented, the spiritual pressure it emitted showed no signs of weakening. As a mere Nascent Soul cultivator, he couldn't move at all. His internal spiritual power couldn't be mobilized under the immense pressure, and he couldn't even send out a warning to his clansmen.

Fear and dread filled the elder's heart!

At the same time, in a secret chamber within the mountain peak, Han Li sat cross-legged in a peculiar small array formation, his physical body motionless, like a lifeless object.

A golden-green Nascent Soul, half a foot tall, floated several feet above his physical body, eerily staring at a corner of the secret chamber outside the formation.

The Nascent Soul held a golden broken blade in its hands. Nearby, seventy-two small, inch-long green swords meticulously guarded it.

Outside the numerous small swords, a silver short ruler, a small green cauldron, and a black giant sword slowly rotated around the Nascent Soul.

The reason it was eerie was that one of the Nascent Soul's eyes glowed with blue light while the other was blood-red, and its face was divided in two from the bridge of its nose, displaying two entirely different expressions.

One half of its face was abnormally contorted, filled with a ferocious expression, while the other half held a faint, enigmatic smile, its eyes exceptionally clear and cold.

It was as if two different Han Lis existed within the Nascent Soul's body.

The physical body below formed a hand seal with one hand and held a bronze incense burner in the other. A short, dark, remnant incense stick was dimly inserted in the burner but appeared unlit.

From the top of the secret chamber, large swaths of five-colored spiritual script drifted down. Regardless of whether they landed on the Nascent Soul or the physical body, they instantly and silently vanished.

In the corner that the Nascent Soul was gazing at, a head-sized mass of black mist was rolling restlessly, emitting strange wailing sounds.

As soon as this sound entered one's ears, it immediately made one agitated and restless, unable to find peace of mind, and invoked a strange, intense desire for slaughter.

The calm half of the Nascent Soul's face remained unaffected, completely unmoved by the strange wailing.

The other part of the face, stimulated by this strange wailing, had increasingly thick blood-red light in its eyes, its violent intent surging greatly, appearing on the verge of losing its last shred of rationality.

The Nascent Soul, its blue-glowing eye suddenly flashing with cold light, raised a hand and pointed a finger at the incense burner held by the physical body.

With a "poof," a ball of silver flame shot out from its fingertip, accurately striking the remnant incense stick in the burner.

The incense immediately ignited, and a mysterious sandalwood aroma instantly filled the entire secret chamber.

Strangely enough, after the Nascent Soul took a few deep breaths of this aroma, the previously uncontrollable other half of its face immediately showed a great reduction in violent intent, and the blood-red color in its eyes began to fade.

Meanwhile, the mass of black mist hidden in the corner, the moment it came into contact with this aroma, immediately let out a shrill scream, and its strange wailing abruptly ceased.

The black mist churned violently and gradually dispersed as the aroma spread, revealing a terrifying, eyeless and noseless ghostly face, filled with an expression of agony.

Seeing this, the Nascent Soul, without hesitation, opened its mouth, and a golden electric arc shot out.

With a roar, the golden arc accurately struck the ghostly face, causing it to tremble all over.

It gnashed its teeth in hatred, suddenly let out a shrill cry, became blurry, and finally dissipated into a wisp of black mist, vanishing completely.

Only then did the Nascent Soul slowly close its eyes. Its previously twisted face gradually vanished, and when it opened its eyes again, its gaze was clear as before.

"Just a Heavenly Outer Demon's avatar, thinking it could disturb my mind during an inner demon invasion? That's underestimating me too much," the Nascent Soul said with a cold, almost inaudible chuckle.

Then it tossed the broken blade in its hands above its head, quickly formed a hand seal, and closed its eyes once more!

The five-colored runes falling through the hole in the ceiling suddenly accelerated by more than double, and the entire secret chamber was filled with dazzling spiritual light.

At the same time, another strange fragrance emanated from the physical body below.

But the Nascent Soul seemed oblivious, only frantically absorbing the five-colored runes, which were transformed spiritual energy of heaven and earth from the void, and its body actually began to swell, growing larger at a visible pace.

Half an hour later, Han Li's Nascent Soul had grown to three or four feet tall, as tall as a young child.

At this moment, the giant ape phantom above the mountain peak suddenly transformed into a pillar of light and retracted back into the mountain.

A massive amount of spiritual energy of heaven and earth instantly descended into the secret chamber, pouring desperately into the Nascent Soul and physical body.

The physical body's skin began to turn crystal clear, while the fragrance it emitted grew increasingly strong.

The Nascent Soul above, moreover, within a few breaths, its form, amid flashing spiritual light, instantly expanded to the same size as the physical body. Its eyes were tightly shut, and it floated cross-legged in the air as if weightless, its brows furrowed with pain.