Shrouding the Heavens: Those Years as the Empress's Strictest Master

It would have been one thing if he had merely been evenly matched in clashes of techniques and divine powers such as Divine Forms and Visions, but why was he now being steadily suppressed even in physical combat?

Moreover, the other man's vital energy inexplicably contained a cold, sinister aura. From the moment they exchanged blows, it had been silently eroding the source of his Golden Body!

Tyrant Corpse Descends from Heaven

"Hehe, impossible? Why would this be impossible...?"

Cang Yuhang threw back his head and laughed wildly. Pressing his advantage, his attacks became increasingly fierce and ruthless.

He was no longer using the Divine Forms secretly passed down by the Tyrant Blood Lineage. At this moment, the wondrous manifestations of his physical body and vital energy alone were enough to drive Xiang Jun back step by step.

"Do you see it? This is the true power of my Tyrant Blood Lineage! Not only trash like you, born of unknown stock—even the strongest Indestructible Golden Body of this generation in the entire universe will not be my match from now on..."

The stronger Cang Yuhang fought, the more an invincible aura gradually condensed around him.

His attacking methods were no longer limited to set moves. Fists, palms, fingers, claws—every burst of immense force struck directly at the source of Xiang Jun's Golden Body.

In mere breaths, he had forced Xiang Jun into passive defense.

Fine cracks began to appear across the dark-golden shell formed by Xiang Jun's stimulated vital energy, while the golden Vision reflected from his Sea of Reincarnation was also growing dim.

"Young Master is mighty!!"

Among the onlookers, the two remaining attendants from the Tyrant Blood Lineage's collateral branch shouted loudly.

Yet deep in their eyes, beneath their reverence, lay a trace of barely perceptible fear.

Nearby, Xin'er was proud and delighted that her partner was about to win, but her beautiful eyes were also filled with concern.

Her relationship with Cang Yuhang was intimate, so over the past few days, she had naturally been able to sense it clearly.

Since cultivating that method called the "Devouring Source Scripture," her partner's temperament seemed to have quietly changed. He had become moody, violent, and cruel.

It had to be known that their group had originally consisted of eight people. Now, aside from the two of them, only those two attendants remained.

What exactly had happened during that time was too horrifying to contemplate.

Though she did not dare dwell too deeply on it, she could not help noticing that Cang Yuhang's Tyrant Blood had recently become somewhat purer than before.

Boom...

At this moment, atop the Blackstone Platform, Xiang Jun had already faced danger several times. The faint radiance of his bloodline grew ever dimmer.

"Brother Jun! Hold on..."

"Xiang Jun, if you really can't do it, then let's admit defeat!"

His relatives and friends nearby were burning with anxiety.

"This ends here. Die, trash..."

Suddenly, Cang Yuhang seized an opening in Xiang Jun's defense and let out a ferocious laugh.

His five fingers curled into a claw. In an instant, a dark-purple Divine Mark vortex materialized in his palm, and he viciously clawed toward Xiang Jun's chest and abdomen!

One could already imagine it: if that claw landed squarely, it might not directly rip out Xiang Jun's Sea of Reincarnation, but destroying the Sea of Bitterness and Dao Palace within his chest and abdomen was entirely possible.

"Why is the method cultivated by this Tyrant Body brat so sinister?"

At that moment, a marquis from the Demon Emperor Hall watching from high above sensed that something was wrong.

"It seems capable of drawing upon another's source to replenish oneself. Such a demonic art cannot be tolerated by heaven and earth!"

An old monk from the Western Desert also gradually noticed some clues. He pressed his palms together, sorrow showing on his face.

"Why does this method resemble the Devouring Source Scripture that has recently spread so widely through the Eastern Wasteland?"

Some cultivators among the crowd were uncertain and alarmed.

"I have also heard of this demonic art these past few months. It has many drawbacks, and the slightest carelessness can lead to qi deviation. It would be one thing to briefly cultivate only a fragment of it, but to persist for long... that is not the Great Dao..."

"Looking at this Tyrant Body, I fear he has already delved too deeply and cannot pull himself free..."

The Taixuan Sect leader shook his head.

"Hehe, in this world, only victory and defeat matter. So what if it is a demonic art, so long as it makes one stronger? The Indestructible Golden Body Lineage of the Big Dipper will fall here today..."

An offworld cultivator looked on coldly.

Thump...

"Indestructible Golden Body... cannot be defeated by me!!"

Below, at the brink of life and death, Xiang Jun roared.

Seeing that his source had already been partly contaminated by the other side during their clash, he simply burned it away for one final gamble.

In an instant, his body blazed once more with dazzling golden radiance, like a god walking the world.

Mystic Yellow Qi drifted out of nowhere. The Sea of Bitterness shone forth, and behind him, a figure seemed to sit high above the nine heavens, looking down upon all living beings.

Immortal King Descends upon the Nine Heavens!

Tyrant Blood possessed nine great Divine Forms, and the Indestructible Golden Body likewise possessed nine great Visions. Though they were not exclusive to this physique, cultivators across the world could cultivate similar ones.

But for ordinary people, cultivating even one in their entire lives was rare. Unlike the Indestructible Golden Body, whose Visions seemed innate, branded deep into the bloodline, they could be awakened from within and comprehended fully as long as one gained sufficient insight.

Buzz...

The Vision reflected into the outside world for only an instant before merging with Xiang Jun's body once again.

At that moment, his physical combat strength was nearly raised to its peak.

With his source burning fiercely, he unleashed its final afterglow and met Cang Yuhang with a punch.

Bang!!!

"Puh..."

After that strike, Xiang Jun spat blood and flew backward.

Crack, crack...

The chilling sound of bones breaking rang continuously. His entire right arm, along with part of the bones in his torso, twisted and deformed before shattering. Flesh exploded, and blood scattered across the sky.

His ruined body crashed heavily to the ground, his aura instantly withering to its lowest point.

Yet even so, his eyes were filled with defiance as he still struggled to stand.

Unfortunately, his injuries were simply too severe, and his source had also been damaged. After struggling several times, he ultimately failed to rise.

Before him, Cang Yuhang was also shaken by that desperate strike, his vital energy surging violently.

His organs trembled, and he staggered back six or seven steps in succession. A thread of blood seeped from the corner of his mouth, but he had not suffered serious injuries.

Instead, he slowly steadied himself and silently felt the sliver of Indestructible Golden Body source drawn into his palm through the Divine Mark vortex. A look of intoxication appeared on his face.

"A mayfly trying to shake a tree—pathetically weak! Mixed blood is mixed blood. How could it compare to my Tyrant Body?"

At last, he flicked his hand and looked at the fallen Xiang Jun, killing intent fully exposed in his eyes.

Tap... tap...

There was no doubt that he had won, yet he continued advancing step by step. He intended to finish his opponent completely, gather up the corpse, devour all the source within it, and further strengthen himself.

"Stop!! Brother Jun has already lost! Why do you still want to kill him?"

Whoosh!

Several figures in midair were just about to rush down when Xin'er, leading the two attendants, intercepted them halfway.

However, just as Cang Yuhang raised his foot and planted his battle boot on Xiang Jun's head, preparing to exert force, a sudden change occurred!

Rumble...

The upper reaches of this world trembled repeatedly. A figure descended from above at an unimaginable speed, as though the laws of this place had taken form.

Bang...

Then, amid the stunned and terrified gazes of countless people, the figure casually slapped out and forcibly blasted apart Cang Yuhang, whose actual cultivation had already stepped half a foot into the Half-Saint realm.

Immediately afterward, the figure casually tossed the remains toward some place on the lowest level, as if throwing away a pile of garbage.

At that moment, the sudden scene left every spectator dumbfounded.

"Yuhang!!!"

Seeing this, Xin'er dove down like a madwoman, but it was completely useless.

Cang Yuhang was already dead, and even his bones had ceased to exist. She lunged at nothing.

Everything had happened within a fleeting flash. No one below the Great Saint Realm had been able to react in the slightest.

Everyone stared blankly.

Only then did they see clearly that the figure was merely an enforcer manifested from the laws and formation diagrams of the Weapon-Refining Grounds—the manifestation of this small world's consciousness.

Its entire body glimmered with a faint metallic sheen.

After erasing Cang Yuhang, the figure shot into the sky and vanished with a thunderous boom.

Master, Your Disciple Misses You

Within the small world on the fourth level.

Magma still churned, and arcs of lightning still flickered all around, yet the entire place had fallen silent, everyone fearing for themselves.

After a long while, once the figure had disappeared, a cultivator in the crowd whose true cultivation was likewise at the Immortal Third Realm secretly swallowed and asked with lingering fear, "Th-this... why did that Bronze Puppet suddenly descend? Wasn't Cang Yuhang always suppressing his cultivation?"

"It was because his control over the demonic art he cultivated was weak. His mind had already been affected by that demonic art. This time, he craved the source of the Indestructible Golden Body too deeply. During the battle, the operation of the demonic art exceeded its bounds by a thread and leaked an aura into the Immortal Platform Secret Realm, yet he did not realize it..."

At that moment, Gu Qingying parted her vermilion lips atop the Cloud Leopard's back and slowly said, "But only because of that could he draw a sliver of the other person's source. Otherwise, with both of them at Dragon Transformation Nine Changes, how could he contaminate another's source?"

"So that's how it is..."

Hearing this, everyone came to a realization. They still trusted Goddess Gu's powers of observation.

After all, she was an extraordinary figure who could break through to the Great Saint Realm at any time. Whether in cultivation or talent, she surpassed the overwhelming majority of those present.

If she had not been born at the wrong time, when the Ancient Road of Central Plains' Qishi Mansion had not opened and the great era had yet to begin, she would likely already have become a true giant capable of overlooking an entire star domain.

"That makes sense. If such a heaven-defying technique truly existed, wouldn't everyone cultivate it?"

"The person behind the recent spread of this Devouring Source Scripture must have sinister intentions..."

The people around them discussed it heatedly.

Xiang Jun's relatives and friends went to examine his injuries. They saw that his source was dim and severely contaminated, and now it was even depleted. He did not have long to live.

"This is an attempt to wipe out our Indestructible Golden Body Lineage..."

An old man held Xiang Jun's ruined body and wept bitterly.

The person in his arms had been the hope of their clan, the one with the strongest bloodline among them by comparison. Yet he had been lost here today...

High in the sky, Jiang Wanqing, the current God King Physique of the Jiang Family from the Ziwei Star Domain, took in this scene and quietly shook her head.

After this battle, the Indestructible Golden Body Lineage of the Big Dipper seemed destined to decline completely.

"We should never have come to these Weapon-Refining Grounds!"

On the Blackstone Platform, Xin'er and the two remaining Tyrant Blood attendants also wept before the pool of blood Cang Yuhang had left behind, tears streaming down their faces.

A moment later, the seductive woman wiped away her tears and slowly rose. She then gave Xiang Jun and his relatives a cold look, but did not make a move.

Their realms might have been higher, but the other side had greater numbers, and there were restrictions here. It was not suitable to provoke trouble.

"Let's go!"

In the end, after considering the matter painfully, Xin'er still decided to leave this place.

Now it seemed that Cang Yuhang had made the wrong decision when he chose to remain in the Big Dipper. How terrible had his luck been?

With that thought, the three immediately stopped suppressing their cultivation and transformed into three streaks of purple light, flying toward the higher levels. To leave the tower, they could only reach the level matching their own cultivation. This was the sole path.

Where they stood, many people watched them depart with complicated expressions, all deeply wary of the bizarre technique Cang Yuhang had displayed earlier.