Guiyuan said nothing more and simply moved his mind.
The Heavenly Sha Pagoda, one of the Thirty-Three Heavens Fierce Sha Treasures, hovered beside him, wreathed in baleful energy. It trembled faintly, and its bottom entrance swung open.
In an instant, tens of thousands of Essence Qi Pills, each the size of a thumb and made from Dao Body flesh and blood, spilled out like drops of blood. Guiyuan supported them with his magic power and sent them before Xuanming.
The pills floated in the air, radiating vast, pure vital essence. Even the thin spiritual energy around them began to ripple.
Xuanming glanced at them, a trace of surprise flickering across her cool, beautiful features.
She reached out with two slender fingers and casually pinched up a pill, applying a little pressure.
"Crack."
The pill shattered at her touch, but did not turn to dust. Instead, it burst into a dense cloud of scarlet vital essence, which she drew into her body with a slight flare of her nostrils.
A warm current instantly spread through her limbs and bones, nourishing her severely damaged True Body of the Wu Clan.
The essence was purer than any flesh she had ever devoured. She barely needed to refine it before it replenished her losses.
"...Not bad."
Xuanming finally spoke. Her voice remained cold, but at least she no longer rejected him outright.
Without hesitation, she drew all the tens of thousands of Essence Qi Pills floating before her into her mouth.
Boom!
An even greater torrent of vital essence unfurled inside her, surging like countless warm currents as it frantically mended her cracked bones and damaged organs.
Black light flowed over her body. Baleful energy rose of its own accord to protect her, and her injuries began to heal at a visible pace.
However, she then shook her head, a grave look flashing through her beautiful eyes. "When he was dying, he struck me with a wisp of Chaos Sha containing a trace of Daluo's true might. It's exceptionally tenacious.
"I'll need time to wear it down completely."
Guiyuan sighed at her words, his tone tinged with helplessness. "You know how dangerous that creature is. Without absolute confidence, why go and face it alone?"
Xuanming's icy eyes narrowed sharply, and the baleful energy around her instantly turned dangerous. Threads of cold threatened to freeze the air.
If not for the fact that this man had just helped her and saved her from Taowu's claws,
then his lecturing tone would have earned him a taste of an Ancestral Wu's fist.
Sensing the chill that had nearly solidified around him, Guiyuan rubbed his nose and said no more.
As for the Chaos Sha entwined with Daluo power inside Xuanming,
he truly had no solution for it at the moment. She could only wear it down herself, bit by bit.
Time passed. Hundreds of years slipped quietly by in these barren mountains of the North.
Xuanming remained seated with her eyes closed, the baleful energy around her locked in a struggle with that stubborn wisp of Chaos Sha.
Her aura recovered slowly but steadily.
Meanwhile, Guiyuan sat facing Styx, making no attempt to waste his time.
"Slaughter is not born for killing. It is a blade that purges Heaven and Earth and severs karma. The heart may harbor murderous intent without the spirit being stained by the world; the will may turn to slaughter without the Dao being tainted..."
Guiyuan slowly shared his insights into the Great Slaughter Technique.
His words did not concern the established ways of killing in the Primordial World.
Instead, they came from the Eternal Life Great World: insights into slaughter refined through countless battles and elevated beyond them. His perspective was incisive, and his understanding profound.
At first, Styx simply listened. The longer he did, the brighter his eyes grew.
By the end, an astonishing light shone in his scarlet pupils.
He had never imagined that Guiyuan, a Daoist who had taken form in the North Sea and whose Origin Foundation seemed to have nothing to do with the Dao of Slaughter, would possess such profound and original insights into slaughter.
Many of Guiyuan's ideas had opened Styx's eyes, as though a door to a new world had swung open before him.
"Brilliant! Simply brilliant!"
Styx clapped his hands in praise, while the phantoms of Yuantu and Abi behind him hummed with excitement.
"Daoist Guiyuan, your words go straight to the heart of slaughter. Styx has learned much!"
He, too, held nothing back. He expounded on how he had been born in the Sea of Blood, observed the murderous intent of Heaven and Earth and the end of all things,
and thus comprehended the Great Dao of Slaughter in the Primordial World.
It was a more primordial and direct principle of slaughter, one that upheld the will of Heaven and Earth.
As the two discussed the Dao, their auras resonated.
Guiyuan felt Styx's pure and imposing intent to kill sharpening the runes of the Great Slaughter Technique in his heart, like the finest whetstone honing a blade.
The divine ability talisman representing the source of slaughter shuddered violently within his True Spirit. Countless mysteries of slaughter flowed through it, merging and rising to a higher form.
After an unknown length of time, Guiyuan's mind jolted.
A phantom rune, dark red and shaped like a beating heart, abruptly took form in the depths of his sea of consciousness!
The Heart of Slaughter!
With the heart formed, every trace of murderous intent that Guiyuan had naturally carried from years of battle vanished in an instant. He became plain and unremarkable.
Yet with a mere thought, he could unleash a sky-filling killing intent at will, controlling it as easily as his own arm, without the slightest hindrance.
At their level, the peak of Primordial Unity, their spiritual senses were extraordinarily sharp, and their perception of killing intent all the more fearsome.
The Heart of Slaughter gave him an excellent means of controlling his own aura.
Whether for ambushes, concealment, or resisting the impact of another's killing intent, it would prove immensely useful.
Guiyuan slowly opened his eyes and looked at Styx, whose aura had grown even sharper after gaining something from their discussion. He smiled faintly.
"Your guidance helped me condense the Heart of Slaughter. Thank you, Daoist."
Styx returned his smile, his heart buoyed. "The feeling is mutual!
"Discussing the Dao with you has been worth ten thousand years of bitter cultivation!
"Once this matter is settled, I'll seek you out again. We'll drink and discuss slaughter to our hearts' content!"
Just then, another vast, icy aura shot into the sky, interrupting their conversation.
Xuanming, who had been sitting quietly as she healed, rose to her feet. Baleful energy flowed smoothly around her.
That troublesome wisp of Chaos Sha had been completely ground away.
Though she had yet to return to her peak, cold light flashed in her beautiful eyes, and her fighting spirit had been rekindled.
She looked at Guiyuan and Styx and spoke concisely.
"We can move."
"Let's go!"
At Guiyuan's low cry, the three figures shot off like meteors tearing through the gray sky. They made no attempt to hide their auras as they rushed straight for the core of Changbai Mountain's Ancestral Vein!
The surging baleful energy was like stagnant water struck by a boulder. It boiled in an instant!
"ROAR—!!!"
A furious roar exploded from the mountaintop, shaking Heaven and Earth.
Taowu King's mountain-sized form abruptly rose. His enormous scarlet eyes locked onto the three unwelcome visitors.
Especially the one who had escaped from his claws not long ago!
When enemies met, their eyes burned with hatred!
"Follow the plan!" Guiyuan sent them a sharp transmission.
The three figures flashed, forming a Three Talents Formation in an instant and surrounding Taowu.
Xuanming took the main position, facing Taowu head-on.
Guiyuan and Styx took the two flanks, their auras linked.
The strategy was settled in an instant.
Xuanming, whose physical body was the strongest and who excelled most at close combat, would lead the attack. Guiyuan and Styx would suppress and strike Taowu from the sides with their spirit treasures and divine abilities!
"Slay!"
Xuanming struck first. Without any flourish, she manifested her True Form of the Ancestral Wu.
With a human face and a beast's body, she wore green snakes from her ears. Vast icy baleful energy condensed around her fists, turning them into two ancient, unmelting mountains of ice. She slammed them toward the enormous, still-unhealed hole in Taowu's chest!
Simple and brutal, yet devastatingly effective!
Before you continue