"It's you!"
As soon as he spoke,
the mass of black qi abruptly stopped, appearing calm.
But those blood-red eyes betrayed Shen Ni's inner thoughts.
At that moment,
his heart was in turmoil.
Unable to hold back, he blurted out,
his voice full of resentment, even gritted with anger.
"Heh, looks like you still remember this venerable one! Good memory!"
Lei Jun said with a smile.
By comparison, his tone was extremely relaxed.
But there was a hint of mockery in his words.
Thousands of eons of planning!
And it had all been ruined just like that.
How could he not remember? One could say
that in all the Primordial Wilderness, aside from the Heavenly Dao,
the one Shen Ni most wanted to destroy was Lei Jun.
But now, when he looked at Lei Jun, he couldn't see through his state at all.
That made his heart even more bitter.
And utterly shocked.
"You... have proved the Hunyuan Dao?"
"Hmph!"
"If I hadn't misjudged you, would you be where you are today?"
"You'd have met your end yesterday!"
"You should thank me for once sparing your life!"
Lei Jun glanced sidelong at Shen Ni.
Then he chuckled.
"You did misjudge me, that's true. But to claim you once spared my life—you think far too highly of yourself!"
As he reached the end of his sentence, Lei Jun's eyes narrowed and his tone grew heavier.
At the same time,
a purple-gold giant hand suddenly reached out from the Void!
It happened in an instant.
It seized Shen Ni's True Body in its grasp!
The giant hand was condensed from purple-gold Profound Qi.
It could lock down Space-time.
It also possessed a strange power beyond the dimensions, making it difficult for Shen Ni to escape.
Then Lei Jun spoke again:
"You've lost!"
With a single thought, a giant hand appeared.
The Beast Emperor Shen Ni, whose ferocious might was peerless, had been subdued!
No matter how he struggled, he couldn't break free.
Clearly,
the being that had imprisoned him was on a far higher level than he was.
With another thought,
a rumble echoed within Lei Jun.
A Furnace's phantom image appeared.
Lu Ran appeared between heaven and earth.
Looking again,
it seemed as if heaven and earth were inside the Furnace!
The Heaven and Earth Furnace could refine heaven and earth!
"Get in!"
He gave Shen Ni no chance to speak. The purple-gold giant hand swept out and tossed him straight into the Furnace.
It wasn't that Lei Jun feared Shen Ni might do something and cause unforeseen complications.
He simply couldn't be bothered to listen to a "dead man" prattle on.
He'd just refine him and be done with it!
Not only that,
another idea occurred to Lei Jun.
It was related to the changes that had arisen when he'd fully refined the World-Destroying Grinding Disc.
He had comprehended a few Dharma Gates from it.
The art of alchemy was one of them.
Lei Jun had suddenly had an idea.
He wanted to experiment.
Now he had the Dharma Gate and the Furnace.
And he had the ingredients.
So why not give it a try?
The Dao of Alchemy was profoundly mysterious.
It was no worse than any other Dharma Gate.
The Three Thousand Great Daos—
the Dao of Alchemy was one of them.
At that moment, Lei Jun used heaven and earth as his Furnace to refine the Beast Emperor, Shen Ni!
Time passed in an instant.
One Eon, two Eons...
Seven Eons.
Forty-nine Eons passed.
In an instant,
a stream of Misty Treasure Qi shot into the sky from the Furnace!
It was as if a Spirit Treasure had appeared.
At that moment...
the Treasure Pill was complete!
Lei Jun eagerly opened the Heaven and Earth Furnace, finally revealing the Treasure Pill's true form!
In an instant,
Five-Colored Divine Light shone.
Brilliant and dazzling.
Boundless Primordial Spiritual Qi drifted out of the Furnace.
It swirled around a Dan Pill that seemed both tangible and intangible, as if it contained heaven and earth, all things, and the very image of every Origin!
"As expected of the Beast Emperor Shen Ni. This pill is blessed by heaven and earth, extraordinary!"
"Truly wonderful!"
"Now that I have this Dan Method, my cultivation speed will improve by leaps and bounds!"
"This is a fortuitous opportunity!"
Having understood everything, Lei Jun felt even more enlightened.
Originally, he had already prepared himself
for his cultivation speed to slow down after he broke through to the late Qi Refining stage.
He hadn't expected
to find a fortuitous opportunity to increase his cultivation speed in the Three Yuan Dan Technique!
All one could say was that the Dao Scripture was truly profound and mysterious.
Even a little insight gained from it
could benefit Lei Jun for a long time.
Whoosh!
Just then,
a tiny wisp of black qi rose from where the Heaven and Earth Furnace had dispersed.
It gradually lifted into the air.
It was a trace of Boundless Fierce Beast!
Hm?
Had a Primal Chaos Fierce Beast been born?
Lei Jun was startled at first.
Then he understood.
His eyes lit up.
His expression turned odd, too.
This black qi...
Why did it seem familiar?
Although there were some subtle differences, overall it was hardly distinguishable from the baleful qi Lei Jun had just used to make the pill!
As for where this baleful qi had come from...
"Ha ha ha!"
"So what if you've proved the Hunyuan Dao?"
"I am formed from Wuliang Fierce Shatter. My Origin will endure through countless tribulations!"
"Baleful qi is me, and I am baleful qi!"
"As long as the baleful qi remains, I remain!"
"What you destroyed was merely one of my countless True Bodies!"
At that moment,
a defiant voice rang out abruptly.
Between heaven and earth,
the baleful qi gathered once more.
Shen Ni, whom Lei Jun had refined in the Furnace, had actually come back to life?
Just then,
Shen Ni's True Body finished condensing.
Although it still looked somewhat illusory and was nowhere near as imposing as before,
compared to what came before, it was almost insignificant.
But there was no hint of weakness in Shen Ni's voice.
Clearly,
the destruction of a single True Body had little effect on him.
Even if they were all destroyed, he could simply condense another!
Just as he was doing now!
After he finished speaking, Shen Ni was somewhat pleased with himself.
At the same time, he wanted to see Lei Jun's dismayed expression.
But Lei Jun's reaction
left Shen Ni utterly baffled.
He wasn't dismayed, which was one thing—but why did Lei Jun's eyes seem to light up after he'd finished speaking?
Then,
a Dao Sound rang out.
It seemed to carry a note of delight.
Lei Jun spoke.
"You have many more True Bodies?"
"Wonderful. Ahem..."
"What I mean is..."
"We cultivators must take it upon ourselves to eliminate evil and drive out wickedness!"
"I will destroy every last one of your True Bodies!"
"Not a single one will remain!"
For a brief moment, Shen Ni even wondered if he was seeing things.
Or perhaps he'd heard wrong.
How wonderful?
I have countless true bodies; I'm difficult to kill.
Shouldn't you be horrified, with your brows furrowed?
Why are you even happier?
What's so wonderful about it?
And if anyone should be saying "wonderful," it should be me!
At that moment, Shen Ni's mind was full of questions.
He didn't really care about what Lei Jun said afterward.
After all, they were on opposing sides.
Those words were perfectly normal.
For a while,
Shen Ni was utterly baffled.
He couldn't make sense of it at all.
As for Lei Jun,
he certainly wasn't going to explain, nor did he care what Shen Ni thought.
In any case, Shen Ni was still alive.
But to him, that wasn't a bad thing at all.
It was a major boon!
This was settled!
Cultivation!
He didn't have to work himself to the bone gathering baleful energy—or even refining it himself—anymore.
He could just find Shen Ni's true body, couldn't he?
If he compared it to "harvesting leeks,"
Lei Jun doing it himself was like starting by tilling the land. After planting the seeds, he'd have to tend them carefully before he could hope to reap a harvest.
And the yield and quality might not even be good.
But finding Shen Ni's true body?
That was like coming across a whole field of mature leeks!
He could harvest them right away!
It was convenient, quick, and efficient!
And the quality wasn't bad, either!
There was no need to think about which to choose, was there?
This wasn't a fierce beast's true body.
It was a lush green patch of leeks!
Now you could see why he'd called it "wonderful," couldn't you?
At that moment,
the way Lei Jun looked at Shen Ni changed.
So much so that Shen Ni couldn't help feeling that something was off.
He just couldn't put his finger on it.
But clearly, he couldn't stay here any longer.
"Hmph! I don't care what you're planning!"
"I'll remember this grudge!"
"One day, I'll repay it!"
With that,
the bit of Boundless Fierce Shatter that had just emerged dissolved at astonishing speed!
Shen Ni's presence vanished along with it.
Watching this,
Lei Jun shook his head, not caring whether Shen Ni could still hear him.
His tone was regretful.
"Why bother?"
"Even if you hadn't dissolved it, I wouldn't have attacked you now."
"You're still just a little leek seedling!"
"Hahaha!"
In that short time, Lei Jun had already worked out his whole plan.
The next step
was as he'd thought before.
Aside from purifying baleful energy,
his main focus would be finding Shen Ni's true body.
But it had to be said:
finding the true body wouldn't be easy.
Although Lei Jun could sense Shen Ni's location and find him quickly,
that didn't mean he could do the same with his true body.
Lei Jun thought,
"When Shen Ni's true body isn't manifested, it should be concealed in the world in the form of baleful energy."
"When he needs it, he can simply gather it together again!"
"Perhaps that's why, like a Sage, he cannot be destroyed as long as his baleful energy remains!"
"In a way, isn't that a little like Ming He's Blood God Son ability? Only on a much larger scale!"
"After all, Ming He is also said to be immortal as long as the Blood Sea remains. His Blood God Sons are concealed within the Blood Sea..."
Of course,
Ming He hadn't taken form yet.
To be precise,
it would be better to say that Ming He's ability was like Shen Ni's Boundless True Body.
Perhaps he'd even gained insight into it from this!
Besides,
Ming He was one of the few beings in the Primordial Wilderness who was barely affected by baleful energy.
Or rather, he had already been affected by it!
He might even...
have obtained part of Shen Ni's legacy.
At this thought,
a suspicion arose in Lei Jun's mind.
"Perhaps, after Shen Ni disappears, he hides in the Blood Sea?"
"Is that why I can't sense him?"
"Even if that's not the case, he must have some connection to the Blood Sea!"
"And he must have made some arrangements there!"
"Then it's clear where I should go next."
Before you continue