Absorbing Whale Rubber, and the Awakening of Sky Dream Ice Silkworm

Worship Hall, inside Lu Jing's room.

Cut off from the noise and prying eyes outside, Lu Jing sat cross-legged on the soft bed, his steady gaze fixed on the lump of Ten-Thousand-Year Demon Whale Jelly essence in the jade box in his hands, refined and purified by Qian Daoliu.

It resembled a small mass of flowing liquid amber, radiating gentle yet vast life essence, along with a trace of the ancient aura left behind by a deep-sea behemoth.

Without the slightest hesitation, Lu Jing lifted the jade box and tilted his head back, pouring the warm, viscous essence into his mouth!

"Ugh!"

An indescribable fishy bitterness and salty astringency exploded across his mouth in an instant, tyrannically overwhelming every one of his taste buds. It felt like forcibly swallowing a lump of sludge made from concentrated foul-smelling seaweed and rotten fish bones!

His stomach churned violently. Lu Jing's brows twisted tightly together, his face paling slightly as the intense physical revulsion nearly made him vomit on instinct.

The refined Ten-Thousand-Year Demon Whale Jelly tasted even more unbearable than he had imagined upon entering his mouth!

Yet just as that extreme bitterness reached its peak and was about to shatter the limits of his endurance, a strange change occurred.

It was like melting ice and snow, or darkness completely fading away.

The nauseating fishy bitterness was instantly erased as though by an invisible hand, replaced by an indescribably rich, sweet fragrance that originated from the very source of life!

The scent was mellow and warm, carrying the flavor of sunlight piercing through the deep sea and nourishing all things. It instantly washed away every trace of filth in his mouth and seeped straight into his heart.

Lu Jing's tightly furrowed brows suddenly relaxed as a warm, comfortable sensation spread down from his throat.

But that comfort was merely the calm before the storm.

The next moment, a vast energy as scorching as volcanic lava, utterly hard and blazing with yang energy, violently exploded within his abdomen!

Like an awakened furious dragon, that energy brutally surged into every meridian and every inch of flesh throughout his limbs and bones.

Lu Jing's pale skin reddened at a visible rate, even giving off a burning glow!

Sweat instantly soaked through his clothes. Strands of white mist, visible to the naked eye, rose from the surface of his body, and the temperature of the entire room seemed to rise by several degrees.

His blood surged and roared, while his bones let out faint groans under the strain. The tyrannical power contained within the Whale Rubber, enough to reshape one's physique, was raging through him.

"Hmph!" Lu Jing let out a muffled grunt. He endured the immense agony of his body feeling as though it were being torn apart and incinerated, yet his eyes remained sharp as blades.

He immediately focused his mind and circulated the Soul Power within him with all his strength!

"Buzz!"

A low hum echoed through the quiet room. A phantom of a strange lotus slowly emerged above his head, entirely black, its petals seemingly carved from black jade, its lotus platform so profound that it appeared capable of swallowing all light.

The World-Annihilating Black Lotus! It hovered silently, radiating an aura of pure darkness and destruction—heavy, cold, as though it could end all life.

Just as the tyrannical, masculine medicinal power of the Whale Rubber was about to spiral out of control, the power of the World-Annihilating Black Lotus moved!

Pure dark Soul Power and the will of destruction swept out from within Lu Jing like the most ruthless of monarchs, precisely and forcefully pressing down on that rampant, blazing energy!

Darkness and destruction did not seek to eliminate this force. Instead, with a higher level of absolute control, they forcibly restrained, sorted, and guided it!

The two utterly opposing yet equally powerful forces fiercely collided and merged within Lu Jing's body. The chill of darkness suppressed the scorching heat of yang energy, while the will of destruction organized the violent power.

This process required time. Lu Jing's body was like a battlefield, but he clenched his teeth tightly and guided the power of annihilation, forcibly drawing the Whale Rubber's scorching, vast life essence bit by bit, thread by thread, deep into his bloodline, muscles, and bones for the most profound level of Body Tempering.

He could clearly "hear" the faint sounds of impurities being burned away and his muscles and bones being stretched and strengthened within his body.

At that crucial moment, with his body and mind under unbearable strain and his consciousness intensely focused, a spiritual thought laden with sleepiness and strong confusion suddenly sounded deep within Lu Jing's mind, breaking the silence of his consciousness:

"Holy shit! What the hell... ice and fire at the same time?! No, no... these spatial fluctuations... Little Jing? Little Jing! Are you okay? What godforsaken place did we get thrown into? I took one damn nap, and it feels like the whole world's been turned upside down?!"

It was Sky Dream Ice Silkworm! The million-year soul beast that had been sleeping deep within Lu Jing's Sea of Consciousness, its fate bound to his, had finally been awakened by the violent energy storm within Lu Jing's body and the abnormal fluctuations of space-time outside.

Its enormous spiritual body rolled through Lu Jing's sea of consciousness, its ice-blue compound eyes filled with confusion and shock as it anxiously tried to understand what was happening.

At this moment, Lu Jing had devoted all his focus to guiding the two forces through Body Tempering and resisting the heart-rending pain. He had no spare attention to answer Sky Dream Ice Silkworm's questions.

His silence only made Sky Dream Ice Silkworm even more restless.

However, as a seasoned veteran who had lived for a million years, Sky Dream Ice Silkworm's panic lasted only a moment.

Its immense Spiritual Power quickly calmed down. It cautiously sensed the violent masculine current of energy inside Lu Jing, forcibly suppressed by an even more powerful force, as well as the painful yet resolute tempering process Lu Jing was undergoing.

"Damn... this is... top-grade Whale Rubber? And it's been refined? The age is ridiculously high! This kid is risking his life to temper his body?" Sky Dream Ice Silkworm instantly understood Lu Jing's current condition.

It realized that Lu Jing was at an extremely critical and dangerous juncture. Any disturbance could cause the forces to lose balance, with unimaginable consequences.

"Damn, you're going this hard! Fine, fine, I get it!" Sky Dream Ice Silkworm immediately fell silent. Its enormous spiritual body carefully curled into a ball within Lu Jing's sea of consciousness, doing its best not to release any unnecessary fluctuations.

Its ice-blue compound eyes flickered with the light of survival.

"This kid's potential is terrifying. This martial soul... tsk, tsk, it's even more freakish than I imagined. We're tied to the same rope now. If he kicks the bucket, this fragment of my soul is done for too... No, no, absolutely not!"

Sky Dream Ice Silkworm muttered to itself, "Looks like we've ended up in some strange place? But that doesn't matter... The most urgent thing is to make sure this kid gets through this safely, then quickly find a way to help him grow stronger! Become a god! He must become a god! Only once he becomes a god can I rise with him, ascend to the Divine Realm, and gain true immortality!"

Although the enormous ice silkworm spiritual body had quieted down, its spiritual fluctuations remained extraordinarily active. Countless thoughts raced through its mind as it began seriously calculating its future survival plans and how to better "invest" in Lu Jing, this high-potential host.

Meanwhile, at the Pope's Palace.

Within the deep, solemn study, the lamps burned brightly, yet they could not dispel the shadows in the corners.

Behind the massive desk, a figure sat...