"This..." His vast divine power surged like an ocean, and his flesh met the Magic Treasures head-on. The five elders of the Divine Ring Gate and their sect master watching from afar all paled. They had never heard of such a terrifying youth.
Perhaps only the core successors nurtured by the Holy Lands in legend possessed such divine might-rare talents blessed by heaven.
"Capture him first. We can decide whether to kill him or spare him afterward." The five elders and the sect master were all wary, afraid he might be the successor of some Holy Land. If so, disaster would befall them.
The five elders' weapons possessed tremendous power and flew in every direction. Some unleashed towering flames that burned and warped the sky. Others radiated biting cold that froze everything. Still others sent sword intent soaring into the heavens, cleaving the sky.
Even so, Lu Chen used neither weapons nor divine arts. Relying solely on his powerful body, he shifted his gleaming hands and fingers, which resembled divine iron, and battered those Dao Palace Realm weapons until they cracked and shattered.
Seeing this, the elders of the Divine Ring Gate blanched and began attacking with profound arts.
"Blood Moon descends upon the world, devouring souls and seizing spirits!" one elder roared, forming an arcane hand seal.
A red crescent moon coalesced, radiating an eerie, blood-colored glow. It sought to corrode Lu Chen's divine power, penetrate his powerful flesh, and devour his soul, striking directly at the origin of his divine sense.
"Petty tricks!" Lu Chen showed no fear. With a sharp cry, he swept his hands through the air and manifested a supreme Secret Technique. A Divine Phoenix wreathed in blazing golden flames appeared, like a true immortal spirit descending into the Mortal World.
Phoenix Cry Nine Heavens!
The immortal phoenix spread its wings, divine flames surging into the heavens. It soared out from behind Lu Chen and instantly burned that eerie blood-colored crescent moon into nothingness.
Its wings beat and sliced through space. Before the horrified eyes of that Divine Ring Gate elder, it reduced him to a wisp of smoke.
Phoenix Cry sounded again, its voice resounding through the clouds. An earth-shaking killing intent enveloped the entire Divine Ring Gate, making every disciple tremble. Even the sect master, a Four Extremes Realm cultivator, paled drastically as he sensed a mortal threat.
"Elders, fall back!"
The sect master roared and unleashed a palm-sized ring. It flashed with five brilliant colors-gold, green, black, red, and yellow-and the power of the five elements flowed across it. It seemed forged from five-colored divine iron and refined gold, and exuded a terrifying aura.
"That's our sect's supreme treasure-the Five Elements Ring!"
"Who exactly is that brat? He actually forced the sect master to use our supreme treasure!"
Beyond their shock, the Divine Ring Gate's disciples realized how grave the situation had become. Five elders had surrounded that brat, yet one of them had been killed instead.
Seeing this, the sect master overseeing the battle had immediately deployed the sect's supreme treasure, intending to kill him in a single blow.
Boom!
An explosive rumble shook the sky. The Five Elements Ring unleashed by the sect master grew to the size of a millstone. Brilliant light shone from it as the five elements revolved, and it smashed forward like an entire world, tearing through space and colliding with the immortal phoenix of golden flames.
Bang!
The golden-flamed Divine Phoenix Lu Chen had manifested through the Saint Spirit Secret Art was actually scattered by a single blow from the Five Elements Ring. Rampaging energy surged outward, stirring ripple after ripple through space. A mountain below had dozens of yards sheared off its peak.
"This weapon..." Lu Chen frowned, sensing the power of that five-colored Divine Halo. It was definitely not a weapon refined by a Four Extremes Realm cultivator. Otherwise, it could not have broken his manifested Secret Technique in a single strike.
"Brat, I must admit your combat strength is astonishing. But now that our sect's supreme treasure has appeared, you're certain to die today."
The four remaining Divine Ring Gate elders retreated behind their sect master and stopped attacking.
"Speak. What is your background? Otherwise, once the Five Elements Ring strikes, you'll never have another chance to open your mouth."
The elders and sect master fixed Lu Chen with icy, murderous gazes, as though he were already dead.
"You think you can kill me with that weapon?" Although Lu Chen could feel the power of the five-colored Divine Halo, it was still incapable of killing him.
"Ha ha..." The elders laughed, as though victory were already in their grasp. "Brat, since your talent is so exceptional, we'll at least let you understand why you're dying today."
An ancient Mighty Figure had gathered the essence of the five elements of heaven and earth and poured a lifetime of painstaking effort into refining a weapon interwoven with "Dao" and "principle"-the Five Elements Ring. It was reputed to be capable of destroying every tangible thing in the world that fell within the five elements.
With this magical treasure, that ancient Mighty Figure had once swept across the Northern Region of the Eastern Wilderness, leaving behind a resounding reputation.
But after his death, the supreme treasure known as the Five Elements Ring had been lost, and no one knew where it had ended up.
Later, a cultivator obtained the Five Elements Ring and established a cultivation sect in this region: the Divine Ring Gate. The sect took its name from this immensely powerful Divine Halo.
"Every outsider who has truly seen our sect's supreme treasure has died. Today, you'll be no exception." With that, the sect master drove the Divine Halo forward.
Hum!
The Five Elements Ring seemed naturally formed, shining with five-colored brilliance. Its polished body was covered in dense Dao patterns, ancient and natural. It struck as though carrying the power of an entire world, making the surrounding space tremble.
With a thought, Lu Chen finally unleashed his Divine Mark Purple Gold Pagoda. It grew to over a meter tall and moved to meet the attack. Forged from immortal gold, it was nowhere near being interwoven with "Dao" and "principle," but it was sturdy and imperishable, almost impossible to break.
Clang!
The two collided, and the mountains rumbled. One peak was pulverized outright, becoming a sky full of dust that swept in every direction.
The sky resembled a painted scroll shaken violently by someone, and ripples spread through space.
The weapon refined by this ancient Mighty Figure was indeed terrifying. Interwoven with the power of laws, it possessed tremendous divine might, knocking both the immortal gold pagoda and Lu Chen more than half a kilometer away. Deeply startled, he murmured, "So this is a weapon interwoven with Dao and principle?"
"What kind of pagoda is that? It took the Five Elements Ring head-on without shattering?" The sect master was also slightly startled. This was the first time he had encountered something his sect's supreme treasure could not break.
"Shrouded in purple mist, with naturally formed divine marks and a body as translucent as glass... could it be the legendary immortal gold?" the oldest elder of the Divine Ring Gate exclaimed in shock.
"Immortal gold! That's a material reserved for Great Emperors, something scarcely seen across countless generations! How could that brat have any?" The other three elders and the sect master were all stunned.
Whoosh!
Lu Chen became a blurred shadow and flew back once more. The Divine Mark Purple Gold Pagoda hovered above him, trailing streams of purple radiance.
He did not mind exposing his immortal gold pagoda. After all, as the vessel with which he would one day prove his Dao, it could not remain unused forever.
While he was in the Dao Palace Realm, cultivators of the Four Extremes, Dragon Transformation, and Immortal Platform realms might try to seize it.
When he reached the Immortal Platform Realm, Immortal Second Realm Mighty Figures might come to seize it.
Once he entered the realm of Mighty Figures, kings and Saints might try to seize it.
Simply put, unless he became a Great Emperor, supreme treasures like his immortal gold pagoda and Ye Fan's Xuanhuang Cauldron would always attract the covetous eyes of stronger cultivators. Was he supposed to never use it because of that, only taking it out after becoming a Great Emperor?
Thus, Lu Chen was no longer afraid of others knowing he possessed an immortal gold pagoda, because he already had the strength to protect himself.
Boom!
At the sight of an Immortal Treasure like the Divine Mark Purple Gold Pagoda, greed surged in the sect master's eyes. He drove the Five Elements Ring with all his strength. The power of the five elements revolved within it, as though nurturing an entire world, and it struck again with the might to split mountains and rend the heavens.
Clang!
The Divine Mark Purple Gold Pagoda collided with it and was knocked away again. Although it was indestructible and imperishable, it had yet to develop much wondrous secret power and could hardly withstand the power of laws within the Five Elements Ring.
Clang, clang, clang...
The sect master drove the Five Elements Divine Ring onward, repeatedly blasting Lu Chen and his pagoda away, making his blood churn and his arms go numb.
Had his flesh not undergone a transformation to an absurd degree, those shocks alone would have killed him.
"Now!"
After being driven back repeatedly, Lu Chen activated the Nine Secrets: Jie over a hundred times before finally triggering it, increasing his combat strength tenfold in every respect.
Clang!...
He pulled down his immortal gold pagoda and held it in his hand, swinging it like a brick that could smash through anything, and met the millstone-sized Five Elements Divine Ring in a violent collision.
With tenfold combat strength, he finally stopped this ancient Mighty Figure's weapon. The sky-shaking sound and terrifying energy fluctuations tore straight through the Divine Ring Gate's Sect-Protecting Formation.
As for the ground and mountain peaks below, much of them had already been ravaged beyond recognition. The elders had long since led the disciples several kilometers away; otherwise, the terrifying sound waves alone would have shaken them to death.
The two sides exchanged more than a dozen head-on blows, making space itself shudder and tremble, until the effect of the Nine Secrets: Jie was about to fade.
The sect master was already deathly pale, his spirit flagging and his strength exhausted. Although the ancient Mighty Figure's weapon possessed terrifying power, its consumption of divine power was equally terrifying. He could barely sustain it any longer.
"Absorb!"
With his last reserves of strength, the sect master drove the Five Elements Divine Ring, transforming it into a world of five elements several yards across. Five-colored radiance flowed through it, forming a terrifying vortex that sought to swallow everything.
The mountain peaks, waterfalls, and ground below were all sucked into it. Anything that approached the five-colored vortex was crushed into the primordial essence of the five elements, and any cultivator swallowed by it would naturally suffer the same fate.
"Let's see how long you can hold out!" Lu Chen's expression shifted slightly. He enlarged the Divine Mark Purple Gold Pagoda to a height of a hundred feet and hurled it forward with all his strength. A moment later, the tenfold enhancement of the Nine Secrets: Jie vanished, leaving him feeling weak.
Clang!
Although the vortex formed by the Five Elements Divine Ring gradually shrank the immortal gold pagoda, it ultimately failed to draw it inside and was sent flying by the pagoda instead.
Spurt!
The sect master's divine power was completely exhausted. He spewed a mouthful of blood, his body swaying on the verge of collapse, unable to bear the burden.
"Sect master!" The four elders in the distance paled in alarm and flew over swiftly, hoping to rescue him.
Unfortunately, Lu Chen had no intention of giving them time. Divine Phoenix wings unfurled behind him, instantly cleaving the utterly weakened sect master in two.
Thus, this Four Extremes Realm expert who wielded an ancient Mighty Figure's weapon finally perished at Lu Chen's hands.
Without their sect master, the Divine Ring Gate's elders could no longer stir up any waves, and they were soon wiped out.
As for the Sea of Bitterness Realm disciples, Lu Chen could not be bothered with them. Without the support of their Dao Palace Realm elders and Four Extremes Realm sect master, the Divine Ring Gate would soon be swallowed by the surrounding powers and disappear.
Taking the Five Elements Ring refined by that ancient Mighty Figure, along with more than two thousand jin of Source from the Divine Ring Gate, Lu Chen left and once again entered the barren Red Region.
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