Refining Demons, Comprehending the Dao, Breaking Through Late Stage, Returning to the Void to See the Ancestor Dragon

The desolate Void Ancient Battlefield lay silent. Chaos Mist drifted slowly, gradually swallowing the Demon Blood spilled by the One-Eyed Demon God as he fled, along with the traces of battle, as if nothing had ever happened.

But the dark-purple Demon God Severed Arm in Tongtian's hand still twitched faintly, radiating a terrifying aura of devouring. The violent energy lingering in the air also bore witness to the brief but perilous battle that had just taken place.

Wudang, Sanxiao, and Kui Niu gathered around. As they stared at the severed arm, their faces were filled with lingering fear—and a trace of dread of the unknown. The words "Outer Realm Demon God" and "Otherworld Great Tribulation" had shaken them deeply.

"Master, this place is strange and dangerous. We shouldn't stay long." Yun Xiao was the steadiest of them all. Suppressing her inner turmoil, she warily surveyed the Misty Grey void around them. The One-Eyed Demon God had retreated, but who knew whether it might draw even more terrifying beings?

Tongtian nodded. He shared her concern. Their most urgent task was to recover from the energy they had expended in battle and find a way back to the Primordial World.

His gaze fell on the Demon God Severed Arm in his hand, and a flicker of interest crossed his eyes. This Demon God was terrifying, but its pure Chaos Demonic Qi might be a great tonic for someone like him, who cultivated the Hunyuan Dao.

The risk was enormous! The Demonic Qi contained an overbearing Chaotic Will and Will of Destruction. The slightest misstep could cause it to turn on him, taint his Dao Foundation, or even reduce him to a monster that knew only destruction.

But the rewards were just as staggering! If he could refine it successfully, not only would his cultivation improve tremendously, he could also gain a deeper understanding of the Otherworld Law and build experience for facing the tribulation to come!

Fortune favored the bold! Besides, time waited for no one!

"Guard me!" Tongtian gave his disciples his instruction without further hesitation, then sat cross-legged and placed the still-struggling severed arm in front of him.

He took a deep breath. The Chaos Bead revolved slowly above his head, pouring down an even richer Chaos Qi that enveloped him. He formed a hand seal, and the Primordial Dao Fruit emerged from his dantian, releasing an attractive force as he began trying to separate and refine the pure yet violent Chaos Demonic Qi within the severed arm!

"Master!" Sanxiao cried out in alarm and tried to stop him. This was far too dangerous!

"It's all right. Trust Master." Saint Mother Wudang was worried too, but she trusted Tongtian without question. She immediately signaled for her junior sisters to hold their positions, then took up a post with them and Kui Niu, guarding all four directions and staying on full alert.

The refinement began!

The moment the first wisp of dark-purple Demonic Qi entered his body, Tongtian shuddered violently! The Demonic Qi was like a living thing, filled with a frenzied hunger to devour and destroy. It instantly rampaged through his meridians, wreaking havoc and trying to corrupt his Nascent Soul!

"Hmph! Mere source-less Demonic Qi dares rebel against me?" Tongtian grunted, his gaze fierce as he circulated the Primordial Dao with all his might!

The Chaos Dao Fruit in his dantian spun frantically, radiating an even more ancient, more primordial Chaos Aura. Like a king descending to subdue rebels, it suppressed the intruder! The Demonic Qi that had entered his body encountered this higher level of Power of Chaos and immediately met its match. Though still violent, it was forcibly restrained and suppressed!

The Chaos Bead shone brilliantly, helping to keep it in check while continuously stripping the Chaotic Will from the Demonic Qi and purifying it into the most primordial Chaos Energy.

It was a difficult and painful process. Dark-purple streams of energy periodically bulged beneath Tongtian's skin, and his face shifted between pallor and a flushed red. The veins in his forehead stood out as he endured tremendous pressure.

Wudang and Sanxiao watched with their hearts in their throats, but they didn't dare make a sound and disturb him.

Time passed, second by second.

The Demon God Severed Arm shriveled and withered at a visible pace, until it finally turned to dust and dispersed. Tongtian had absorbed and refined every last bit of the vast amount of pure Demonic Qi it contained!

Boom! Tongtian's aura surged abruptly! Chaos light surged around him, illuminating the surrounding void for a brief moment!

Mid Quasi-Saint Peak! Yet he didn't stop there! Refining the Demonic Qi brought more than an increase in magical power. Insights into its extreme laws of devouring and destruction surged into his mind!

Chaos was not merely all-encompassing and full of life; it also contained destruction and an end! Such was the Dao, one in two aspects!

His Primordial Dao Fruit trembled violently. The tiny Chaos Vortex within it expanded frantically, growing deeper and more profound. As it spun, it even began to take on a hint of the ability to devour and refine all things!

Ruin brought renewal, and realization struck!

The bottleneck began to loosen!

"Break through!" Tongtian abruptly opened his eyes. Chaos arose and perished in his gaze, and his low shout boomed like a Dao Sound! Rumble!!! It was as if countless worlds were being created and destroyed within him! His aura soared like a rocket, breaking through the solid barrier in an instant and entering an entirely new realm!

Quasi-Saint, Late Stage!

A powerful sense of strength filled his entire body. His energy, depleted in the earlier battle, was instantly replenished—and then some! The hidden injuries in his Saint Body healed further, making it even more resilient, strong enough to withstand an Innate Spiritual Treasure head-on! His Nascent Soul grew more condensed, and the range of his Spiritual Sense expanded dramatically!

More importantly, he had gained a deeper understanding of the Chaos Great Dao, and his Primordial Dao Fruit had grown more solid. He could even imitate some of the One-Eyed Demon God's Devouring Characteristic. Though far weaker than the original, it was still an exceptionally powerful means of combat!

"Congratulations, Master (Milord), on your great progress!" Wudang, Sanxiao, and Kui Niu felt the increasingly unfathomable majesty of Tongtian's aura and were overjoyed. They hurried to congratulate him. The stronger their master was, the better their chances of surviving in this perilous void.

Tongtian slowly finished his cultivation and felt the power surging through him. A hint of satisfaction crossed his eyes. Refining the Demon God Severed Arm had been risky, but the gains far exceeded his expectations. Not only had his cultivation advanced, he had also begun to comprehend the Law of Devouring, greatly increasing his combat strength.

If he faced the One-Eyed Demon God again, he was confident he could kill it in ten moves! Even against the likes of Ksitigarbha and Manjushri, he could fight and win! If he used all his trump cards, he might even be able to hold his own against a Quasi-Saint Peak expert!

"Only a little progress. There's still a long road ahead." Tongtian suppressed his joy and turned his gaze toward the endless void. "Our most urgent task is to find the way back."

The Primordial World was protected by a boundary wall. Ordinary methods couldn't locate it, let alone break through. The system's teleportation talisman had sent them here at random. Getting back would be unimaginably difficult.

At this, everyone's spirits sank again. In this unfamiliar, dangerous wasteland of an ancient battlefield, how could they find their way home?

Tongtian pondered for a moment, then silently asked, "System, can you scan for the coordinates of the Primordial World?"

[Insufficient energy. Insufficient permissions. Unable to scan and locate another world. Suggestion: Search this region of the void for any spatial marks or beacons that may be connected to the Primordial World.] The system gave him a vague prompt.

Spatial marks? Beacons?

Tongtian's gaze swept over the enormous remains again. Perhaps these traces left by the ancient battlefield held a clue?

He led the others carefully through the void, avoiding dangerous regions where the energy was unstable as they examined the enormous remains one by one.

The remains were ancient, and most had lost all spiritual energy, leaving behind only hard shells. Occasionally, they sensed fragments of lingering will, full of resentment and fury, but these offered no useful information.

Just as they were nearly ready to give up, Bixiao, who was scouting ahead, suddenly exclaimed, "Master! Look over there!"

Everyone followed her gaze. Beyond several floating, continent-sized fragments of shattered scales, they could faintly sense an extremely weak, desolate aura, utterly unlike the surrounding Chaos Demonic Qi.

The aura was ancient and majestic, and it carried a trace of familiar dragon might?

Tongtian's heart stirred, and he immediately led the others closer.

They passed through the fragments of scales, and the sight before them shook everyone once again!

A gigantic dragon skeleton, too vast to imagine, stretched across the void! It was probably long enough to encircle an entire continent of the Primordial World! Its bones were a dark golden color. Though long bereft of life, they still radiated an awe-inspiring majesty and oppressive force! It seemed that in life, it had been an emperor of supreme rank!

Even more shocking, a broken, rust-covered giant axe was embedded at an angle in the dragon's chest! The axe was plain and ancient in design. Its blade bore dried, dark golden Dragon Blood, as well as an overbearing will that seemed capable of Splitting Chaos!

And the faint dragon might radiating from the skeleton bore a striking resemblance to the Ancestral Dragon's aura Tongtian had sensed at the Dragon Palace of the East Sea! It was simply more ancient, more pure, and more powerful!

"Is this the Ancestral Dragon's skeleton?!" Saint Mother Wudang cried out, her face full of disbelief. After the Dragon-Han Initial Tribulation, the Ancestral Dragon's whereabouts had been unknown. Some said he had died in battle; others, that he had been sealed away. She had never imagined that his bones would be in this distant Outer Realm Ancient Battlefield!

Tongtian was shaken too. He examined the aura carefully and confirmed it without a doubt! This was definitely the Ancestral Dragon—and one who had surpassed the Quasi-Saint realm, nearly reaching the level of a Primordial Grand Unity Golden Immortal! His strength must have rivaled Dao Ancestor Hongjun's before he merged with the Dao!

Who had killed someone as powerful as the Ancestral Dragon with a single broken axe?

His gaze fell on the shattered Giant Axe. He sensed its lingering, overbearing will—the kind that could Split Chaos—and his pupils abruptly contracted!

There was something familiar about this will! It seemed similar to the quality he had sensed in the World Creation imprint. Was it the aura of Great God Pangu?! It was much weaker, but its essence was of an exceptionally high level!

Could this axe have been forged from a fragment of the Pangu Axe? Was the being who had slain the Ancestral Dragon connected to Great God Pangu?

As Tongtian's thoughts raced and he tried to make sense of this shocking secret, the broken Giant Axe embedded in the Ancestral Dragon's chest seemed to sense the faint trace of Chaos Aura on him, drawn from the Chaos Bead and Primordial Dao Fruit and of the same origin as Pangu's. It suddenly gave a low hum!

Immediately afterward, the axe blade's lingering, overbearing World Creation will, left behind by Pangu, resonated in a wondrous way with the undying Dragon Soul will remaining in the Ancestral Dragon's bones!

Hum! A faint but steady spatial gateway, woven from golden and black light, slowly appeared where the dragon's heart lay! From beyond it came an aura that was unmistakably familiar—and desperately longed for—the aura of the Primordial World!

It seemed that before his death, the Ancestral Dragon had used his remains and that broken axe as a foundation to leave behind a spatial passage leading home!

Though they had no idea where the other end of the passage led within the Primordial World, it was undoubtedly their only hope of returning!

"There's always a way out!" Tongtian's eyes lit with delight!

"We're going home!"