After his astonishment, Kong Hongwu's face filled with a cold sneer. "No wonder Linghu searched for you for an entire year, even slaughtering quite a few cultivators hiding within the star formation, yet never found you! So you had gotten mixed up with Buddhist sect disciples again! Ancestor Hongmeng! He truly does not know the immensity of heaven and earth—his ambitions are simply too great!"
"Ancestor Hongmeng?" Xiao Hua was slightly stunned, then instantly understood that Kong Hongwu had mistaken something. Yet he did not explain. With a low roar, his entire body swelled once more. Kong Hongwu paid no heed to his struggle. Calm and unruffled, he opened his mouth and exhaled a breath of true qi onto his star armor. The armor's rosy radiance grew brighter, and the armor restraining Xiao Hua expanded along with his body.
"I never expected you to possess an Immortal Palace Token and even infiltrate this place!" Kong Hongwu said in high spirits, laughing. "What a pity. Others lure the enemy into the trap, while you walked in without being invited. If Linghu learned of this, his lungs would burst with rage!"
As he spoke, Kong Hongwu's figure flashed forward, blocking the star path to prevent Xiao Hua from escaping.
Buzz... At that moment, dark golden light burst from around Xiao Hua's body. Beneath the golden radiance, five-colored clouds and rosy mists surged forth as well. Xiao Hua's enormous Dharma Body Golden Body abruptly shrank with the light, turning into a slender "bamboo staff" before Kong Hongwu's eyes!
Kong Hongwu stood dumbfounded, crying out in astonishment once more, "You... you actually know Five Qi Ascending to the Origin?? How is that possible?"
Before his shock had faded, countless fine threads of lightning coiled around Xiao Hua's slender bamboo-like body. His figure flashed with