"You couldn't even lift your head against me back then. Now you're just a refined corpse, and you still think you can turn the world upside down?" Lu Xiaotian said coolly. In his palm, the Demon-Suppressing Tower faintly appeared—the very Pagoda of the Universal Bright King. It had not grown larger and looked no more than a foot tall, yet it gave the illusion of towering majesty.
The ape-shaped refined corpse raised both hands, but its body was just as it had been when it faced Lu Xiaotian's seven-tiered pagoda all those years ago. Under the crushing weight, the corpse qi spilling from its body kept dissolving in the faint white light.
Suddenly, the ape-shaped refined corpse opened its mouth wide. Its long, spike-like tongue shot toward Lu Xiaotian, swift as wind and lightning. It moved so fast that there was no time to react.
Lu Xiaotian remained unmoved. A tower-shaped barrier of light shimmered around him, and with its appearance, his aura changed once more. The kingly majesty from before was gone, replaced by a boundless radiance, serene and peaceful. The refined corpse's flying tongue struck the barrier, sizzling as though it had been shocked by lightning before snapping back.
Lu Xiaotian poured even more magical power into the Pagoda of the Universal Bright King. The ape-shaped refined corpse felt the weight above its head grow heavier, and its huge body was pressed straight to the ground with a thud. Yet its face remained savage. Its claws dug into the earth as it struggled in defiance.
Lu Xiaotian carefully studied the refined corpse's expression, hoping to find some clue. But after watching it for a long while, all he saw was ferocity. There was not a trace of deep-seated hatred in its eyes.
*It seems that after the Cave