Chapter 30: Transformation into Spirit, the One and Only Divine Ring
"T- the Primordial Ferocious Beast, Zhu Yan?!!"
The bandit chief's face instantly turned deathly pale. He struggled to raise his head and gaze up at the mighty golden creature, his body trembling uncontrollably.
"Pfft!"
Before the bandit chief could finish speaking, a golden beast claw descended from the sky and crushed him to pieces. It was the golden pangolin spirit that had reached the Spirit Transformation Realm.
"Awuu~~"
After crushing the bandit chief with a single swipe, the golden pangolin whimpered and prostrated itself on the ground like the most docile little beast, repeatedly kowtowing to the golden creature towering into the clouds.
It had shamelessly defected in the middle of battle!
"Not bad. He who understands the times is a hero. I appreciate you."
The mighty golden creature paused in surprise, then grinned and laughed aloud, its voice rumbling between the clouds like rolling thunder.
"Whimper~"
Before the golden pangolin could show its delight, a vast, furry beast claw blotted out the sky and tore through the void, snatching it up.
"So... become my food!"
With that, the twenty-odd-zhang-long primordial beast was brutally shoved into a cavernous maw. Horrifying crunches sounded from within.
"Run!"
The pressure of facing a Primordial Ferocious Beast had already driven the hundred-plus bandits to the brink of collapse. Their spirit's defection was the final straw, and they immediately scattered like frightened birds and beasts.
"Roar! You ants are all going to die!"
After devouring the exotic beast, Zhu Yan threw back its head and roared. It raised a beastly leg like a pillar holding up the sky and stomped down with a thunderous crash. The earth split apart, runes intertwined, and the bandits were reduced to bloody pulp.
"Zhu Yan—a Primordial Ferocious Beast at the Venerable Realm! You actually just punched and kicked such a mighty creature? That's an unparalleled fiend even the Human Emperor of an ancient kingdom couldn't be completely certain of capturing..."
In the village, the elderly Shi Jian'an stiffly turned his head, murmuring blankly.
"This is the First Ancestral Land. Anything is possible."
As he spoke, Little Shi smiled and waved at Zhu Yan, who had returned victorious.
Time flew by, and another year passed in the blink of an eye.
Little Shi sat motionless atop the mountain for half a year. At last, he successfully merged his twelve heavenly passages into one, opening a single heavenly passage and evolving a hazy immortal domain.
When the sole heavenly passage remained dormant, a peerless divine ring appeared, serving as a protective divine ability.
After successfully evolving the sole heavenly passage, Little Shi spent another half year consolidating his gains. He then successfully transformed into a spirit and became a cultivator of the Spirit Transformation Realm.
Taking advantage of the opportunity created by merging the twelve heavenly passages, he summoned the sole heavenly passage and drew in an endless stream of divine essence to temper his body, completing the first stage of cultivation in the Spirit Transformation Realm—making his body a saint.
The Spirit Transformation Realm was a process of reshaping the true self. It could roughly be divided into making the body a saint, achieving the true self anew in spirit, and finally nurturing a spirit within the heavenly passage.
Making the body a saint and achieving the true self anew—the first two stages—were easy to understand.
As for nurturing a spirit within the heavenly passage, it meant planting a flawless Dao inside it and evolving a deity with an almost independent will, one that could even rival the legendary external incarnation.
On this day, Shi Hao chose to descend from the barren mountain, where he had sat motionless for a full year.
"Willow God, I'm back."
The increasingly handsome boy sat cross-legged beneath the tender green willow tree.
"The Spirit Transformation Realm. Not bad. You've even completed the first stage of cultivation. Your next step is to achieve the true self anew in spirit. What do you intend to do?"
The unremarkable willow tree swayed in unison. Over the past several years, five or six new tender green branches had sprouted, their specks of green radiance shrouding the village.
Shi Hao's heart stirred, but his expression remained calm. "I haven't decided yet."
"Then go take a trip to the Void God Realm. It was a spiritual world created through the joint efforts of the ancient gods. Entering it with your thoughts and training there will temper your spirit. When you return to reality, it can also further nourish your body, which will greatly benefit the second stage of your cultivation."
Willow God explained.
Since ancient times, most of the gods behind the ancient kingdoms had perished. Yet the kingdoms across the lands continued to offer sacrifices as a nation, all to preserve the legacy the ancient gods had left behind—the Void God Realm.
The great secret behind it was actually easy to understand.
The Void God Realm was like a vast local network. The gods of the ancient kingdoms had left behind countless network access points—or internet accounts—and the kingdoms offered sacrifices to pay the network fees and maintain access.
So why could only those within the territories of the ancient kingdoms enter the Void God Realm? Because that was where the Wi-Fi signal reached.
The distant wilderness lay beyond the signal's reach, so naturally, no one could log into the local network.
Willow God was an unparalleled giant with super-administrator privileges. She could log into the Void God Realm without restriction even in the wilderness, without anyone noticing.
Shi Hao thought to himself, Just as I expected. He gave a light nod. "The Void God Realm? It sounds like an interesting place."
"I'll take you there."
As soon as she spoke, five or six tender green willow branches abruptly stretched into several-kilometer-long chains of divine order. They plunged into the void, tore open the sky, and faintly opened a hazy portal.
"Let's go."
Shi Hao's spirit, seated beneath the willow tree, departed in an instant and plunged into the hazy portal.
Inside the ancient space, filled with mist, palace halls and towers lay collapsed everywhere. Wherever the eye could see, only ruins remained—desolate and lonely.
"This is the Land of the Gods' Fall. Ordinary people can't reach it. Pick any direction and keep going. You'll soon arrive at the Initial Grounds, where you can only display the cultivation of the Blood-Moving Realm. You'll understand when you get there."
In the ancient ruins, a sky-reaching willow tree suppressed heaven and earth.
Shi Hao cupped his hands in a salute, then quickly disappeared into the dense mist.
This was a bright world, bustling with people. The young elites of the great powers from all eight regions had gathered here, competing to achieve the most astonishing feats.
"The Void God Realm—I'm here."
A boy who had emerged from the wilderness quietly arrived.
Legend had it that by surpassing the limits and breaking the various records, one would receive fragments of ancient bronze artifacts from the Void God Realm. Once all the fragments were collected, one could even exchange them for some peerless precious technique coveted by pure-blooded creatures and divine birds.
Shi Yi, the ancient Double-Pupiled One, had once racked up records at every level and pieced together a complete page of an ancient bronze book. The Void God Realm had therefore bestowed a mysterious sacred object upon him.
Shi Hao had naturally come to collect the bronze book as well. But his target wasn't some inanimate object—it was the ultimate inheritance of the Void God Realm, the True Phoenix Precious Technique!
"Then let's start with speed for the first record."
Shi Hao's body glowed. Countless bone runes surfaced densely across it, weaving together behind him into a pair of golden wings. With a whoosh, he vanished from the spot.
"Rumble!"
Soon, translucent stone tablets descended in all the various levels of the Void God Realm's blessed lands and grotto-heavens, shining with dazzling radiance:
Shi Hao, unmatched in speed in the Blood-Moving Realm!
"Speed? The speed limit hadn't been broken for three thousand years, and now it's been surpassed in a single day. The undefeated legend of that sage from the Chenliu Clan has been broken."
"Shi Hao? I don't recognize that name. It sounds like he's a member of the Shi Kingdom's imperial clan. Could he be the direct descendant of some top king? The War King or the Martial King?"
"Impossible. My father is the Marquis of Splendid Brocade of the Shi Kingdom, and I know all the young prodigies of its imperial clan. There's no one called Shi Hao among them."
Everyone was stunned, and the various grotto-heavens erupted into an uproar.
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