Chapter 1971: The Entrance to the Underground Palace

"Yes, everything is exactly as you deduced. Back then, I set a trap, luring all those powerful cultivators of the Ancient Martial God Path into it. Then, using my unique and potent cultivation technique, I confined them all within the Immortal Essence Tide Sea.

Those thousands of Martial God-level experts suddenly lost all sense of direction, and bit by bit, I trapped them deep within the sea.

It took me hundreds of years to drain the life force from all those thousands of Martial God-level experts. Because this power was too immense, my physical body couldn't absorb it directly.

That's why I devised a way to extract all the essence of my life force. This is why this Dao Embryo, possessing an extremely powerful life force origin, was formed. One could say it is the storage place for the essence of my life."

Upon hearing this, Xu Yang fully understood the opponent's life form. The humanoid blue life force contour piled up next to them was equivalent to the entity's physical body, while the powerful spiritual energy source currently conversing with Xu Yang was its soul.

Theoretically, the physical body and the soul cannot be separated for long periods from the essence of a life form to exist independently; doing so would cause invisible interference and depletion to both the soul's origin and life force.

However, this entity before him had managed to keep its soul and body completely separate for thousands of years. A faint smile appeared on Xu Yang's face as he spoke to the opponent again.

"You've proven to me the true origin of this blue life form. Now, I want to understand one thing: what exact role did you play in the Ancient Martial God Path?"

Xu Yang's question was indeed to the point, hitting at what he most wanted to clarify. The opponent, however, seemed to deliberately avoid answering directly, merely smiling nonchalantly.

"I don't think you should be concerning yourself with so many irrelevant questions right now. Someone like you, with such a powerful life force origin, should be my most succulent prey.

Do you have anything else you wish to say to me, or to the entire world of the Ancient Martial God Path? I can give you a precious opportunity to express your thoughts, before I devour all the essence of your life force."

Xu Yang burst into laughter.

"You're far from qualified to make me do your bidding. On the contrary, I'm quite interested in this powerful physical body of yours, formed from condensed life force essence. Why don't we have a contest and see who gets the last laugh?"

Without hesitation, Xu Yang directly summoned the Frost Spring Main Divine Artifact in the water. As his innate aura continuously emanated from its surface, the sword's inherent icy sword intent, along with powerful martial arts energy, swiftly spread deep into the entire sea.

An unimaginable freezing power was instantly guided by Xu Yang in every direction of the surrounding waters, quickly freezing the vast majority of this sea area. Only the arrogant blue life form before him had yet to grovel and beg Xu Yang for mercy.

"Very good, your strength has reached a level that warrants my personal intervention. I'm incredibly excited by your presence. The more succulent the prey, the stronger its resistance—I understand that perfectly.

It is precisely because increasingly powerful cultivators appear before me that I have reached this point today. There's nothing more to say; let us now determine who is superior with our true strength."

This deep, spiritual voice suddenly began to try and merge itself with the blue essence-body next to it, but Xu Yang gave the opponent no such chance, striking directly at the blue life form with his sword.

The immensely powerful freezing force rapidly took effect in the sea area where the sword gleam passed, frantically freezing all surrounding water spaces at a visible rate, causing the water-element origin, which could originally transmit energy freely, to completely solidify.

In fact, using ice-attribute power to suppress water-attribute power was absolutely the perfect choice. Originally, this situation should have been the opponent's home ground, but when Xu Yang's Frost Spring Main Divine Artifact began to exert its irreplaceable, powerful effect, the depths of this vast sea instantly became Xu Yang's domain.

Only after gaining the qualification to control all the surrounding ice-sealing power origins did Xu Yang truly begin to unleash his full potential. Standing at the center of several surrounding layers of solid ice, he began to manifest his Dao.

The immensely powerful Tai Chi totem began to frantically release endless life force evolution, making the halo of the Tai Chi totem increasingly brilliant.

At the same time, Xu Yang once again utilized the inherited power of the Angel race. The moment the Law of Light descended, all the frost power was overlaid with a layer of incredibly noble gold.

The appearance of this scene caused the ice-blue life form's owner to become grim-faced. Clearly, before the battle began, he had underestimated Xu Yang's combat capabilities.

"Unbelievable! You truly have many tricks up your sleeve, young man. Before this strike, you indeed had many opportunities to severely injure me. Unfortunately, by exposing your true talents too early now, there's no longer any point in your continued existence."

The ice-blue body then regained its mobility, as it had decisively merged with this portion of its soul origin, becoming a new yet complete life form.

This entity required no clothing, as its entire blue physical body exuded what could almost be described as the most perfect masculine physique. Without any concealment, it mercilessly charged towards Xu Yang on the other side of the battlefield, deep within the water.

With every step, this ice-blue physical body unleashed a terrifying aura capable of overturning the entire Immortal Essence Tide world. Xu Yang's eyebrows subtly furrowed, but amidst his concern, he was still contemplating how to contend with it next.

Boom! The enormous ice-blue entity, having reacquired its body, suddenly lunged a kick towards Xu Yang's position. The terrifying footwork exerted unimaginable pressure on Xu Yang, and the two collided head-on for the first time. A monstrous force instantly collapsed and spread beneath the sea.

The repercussions of this single clash between Xu Yang and the opponent were unimaginable. Unbeknownst to them, the ley lines of the Immortal Essence Tide Sea, which had long been completely sealed, were shaken by this terrifying power, prying open new fissures once more.

"This is bad! This human youth is far too strong. He actually shook open the entrance to the underground palace, which I personally sealed, in just one move. If he discovers the greatest secret here prematurely, the consequences will be truly severe."