The five-colored egg flickered faintly, as though enduring immense pain.
When all the blood-colored energy poured into the youth's body, a bloody gleam shone in his eyes.
Pitch-black cracks spread across his neck and extended onto the left side of his face.
Chapter 72: An Immortal Falls, All Things Are Born
After absorbing that blood-colored energy, the youth's deathly pale face regained some color, and the wound on his shoulder rapidly scabbed over and healed.
The Dao traces clinging to the wound were swiftly purged as well.
But his once-black hair turned blood-red in an instant, and his white robes had long since become robes of blood.
The aura he released grew far more volatile. His savage presence billowed his blood-colored robes, and his hair danced wildly.
A fierce gleam flashed through his eyes. Thick killing intent spread over him, while his fighting spirit soared into the sky, shaking the surrounding space.
Even the heavens changed with his emotions. Blood-colored lightning flickered incessantly within dense black clouds.
But when the youth's gaze touched the black egg beside him, his rising aura abruptly halted.
The bloody light in his eyes faded somewhat. Regaining a little reason, he shook his muddled head.
Shi Qingyun still had no idea what had happened.
Suddenly, the youth turned his deep eyes toward Qingyun.
The moment their eyes met, Shi Qingyun felt as though his entire soul would be drawn into the five-pointed formation within the youth's eyes.
The next instant, the youth picked up the five-colored egg floating in the void again. Crisscrossing Dao patterns appeared beneath his feet, and the broken wheel floated before him.
With the fallen corpses serving as its anchor points, a massive formation appeared beneath his feet.
The corpses within the formation were steadily consumed, streams of energy drawn out of them. In the blink of an eye, they turned into specks of starlight and vanished.
That energy gathered on the broken wheel before the youth, and a tremendous radiance burst from it.
The next instant, an enormous spatial gateway appeared there. He stepped into it and vanished.
Not long after the youth disappeared, space rippled behind Shi Qingyun, and several figures appeared.
Their pursuing bodies passed through his own. Shi Qingyun immediately felt as though his body had been smashed apart, scattering into specks of golden light. Then the world spun around him.
He appeared in a stretch of void. Looking up, he saw brilliant stars so close to him.
He hovered beside the white-robed youth's corpse. Its bare upper body was covered in wounds, and its face had cracked apart like porcelain.
Golden runes could faintly be seen flickering beneath that face. Shi Qingyun fell silent.
He could not imagine how devastating a battle the youth had endured.
Beside the youth's hand, the five-colored egg had already dimmed considerably, and black wisps kept spreading across it.
Some of that black, corrosive energy had already entered the colored egg.
A crimson sword was embedded in the heart beneath his bare chest, its keen blade piercing straight through his body.
The characters spelling Muyang were clearly branded on the sword's hilt.
The next instant, the energy within the youth turned into specks of starlight, slowly spreading out from his corpse and forming a river of shimmering lights.
It flowed toward the land below. Before long, a small world appeared there, filled with rich life essence.
Shi Qingyun's figure flickered, and he stood above the small world. Though the familiar sight before him filled his eyes with shock, after watching for so long, he had finally understood.
"This is the Qilin Secret Realm!"
A heart, half black and half red, flew out of the shriveled corpse.
The sword embedded in it was instantly shattered into dust and dispersed into the void. Then the heart swept up the egg.
A streak of red light pierced through layer after layer of space and plunged into the land below.
As soon as the heart entered the land below, the terrain began changing wildly.
A rift valley appeared there. Countless formations sprang wildly from the heart, slowly extending outward.
The emerging formations ground away at the dark power within the heart, locking that black energy firmly along both sides of the rift valley, where it was instantly engulfed by blood-red crystals.
The shriveled skin on the corpse peeled away from its skeleton and swept toward the black egg, wrapping it tightly within.
As though deprived of support, the stark white skeleton scattered like falling rain onto the land below, and immense mountain ranges rose from the earth.
Streams of formations poured from those bones into the ground, spreading outward wildly.
The formation runes surged outward like wild horses galloping with their legs unleashed.
The scene froze there. The earlier images flashed swiftly before his eyes, turning into a Star River that drifted around him.
Within that river flickered a youth's entire life, from weakness to strength. The fragmented images sketched a rough account of his life.
Most showed him cultivating, with thick Dao essence suffusing his surroundings.
Outside
The runes on the bone shard flickered continuously. One after another, they floated off it and landed on Little White, instantly merging into its body.
Little White, keeping watch beside Shi Qingyun, merely let out a little howl and tilted its head in utter confusion.
The Dao Diagram within Shi Qingyun suddenly trembled, and its radiance shone outside his body.
The next instant, an enormous Taiji diagram appeared in the air before Shi Qingyun, slowly rotating and giving off a natural aura.
The river brimming with Dao essence surged into the Dao Diagram as though it had found an outlet.
The Dao Diagram slowly emitted a mysterious glow, then vanished from his sight in an instant.
At first, he was somewhat bewildered, but once he sensed that familiar aura, he relaxed.
Suddenly, the world before Shi Qingyun began shattering inch by inch. An enormous fragment fell from the sky, then dissolved into wisps of light and vanished in midair.
A dazzling light appeared not far from Shi Qingyun. Runes flashed beneath his feet, and he appeared before it. Just as he was about to step into that gate of light-
An ancient, distant voice reached his ears, drifting like ethereal immortal music.
"Take good care of it."
Shi Qingyun froze for a moment, then nodded with determination in his eyes.
He stepped forward, and that familiar light instantly filled his vision.
When he opened his eyes again, he saw the stone wall with a hole in it.
Chapter 73: Ten Thousand Net Formation
Little White stirred against Shi Qingyun's chest, and that slight movement instantly pulled him out of his thoughts.
He looked down at his chest and saw a black bundle nestled there. Only after glancing around did he realize he was lying on the ground.
The bone shard lay quietly in his hand. Once pitch-black, it had become white as snow, with a metallic luster gleaming across its surface.
He gripped it with his right hand, intending to lift it for a closer look, but his hand sank under its weight, and it did not budge.
Startled, Shi Qingyun exerted force. The muscles in his arm instantly tightened, and he slowly lifted the bone shard from the ground.
Holding it before him, he gathered divine power in his hand and slowly poured it into the white bone.
After a while, nothing had happened. Only the silver glow radiating from the bone had grown brighter.
After repeated attempts, he realized that the pitch-black bone shard had become this white bone, possessing nothing beyond its weight and hardness.
He channeled divine power into his eyes and examined Little White, only to find that no matter how he looked, Little White seemed to be merely an ordinary exotic beast.
Had he not known Little White's identity, he would have believed his own assessment.
He looked at the white bone in his hand, then at Little White in his arms, and a feeling of admiration rose within him.
At the same time, some of the worry in his heart eased.
With a sweep of divine power, he put the white bone away. He had already gained enough this time. If the bone shard was gone, so be it. At least the white bone that remained belonged to an expert of the immortal Dao realm.
Though all it had left now was its hardness, it was still a rare treasure. He was already thoroughly satisfied.
Outside, darkness had long since fallen, and the roars of Ferocious Beasts drifted into the cave through its entrance.
He stood up, supporting Little White with one hand and cradling it against his chest.
A crimson-white flame rose from his hand. He tossed it into the pile of firewood, and light instantly filled the entire cave.
Divine power surged into his feet. He stamped the ground, and a runic formation instantly took shape beneath him, then appeared over the cave entrance in the blink of an eye.
At the entrance, a five-pointed star formation gleamed beneath the starlight, instantly shutting out every sound from outside.
The vital essence drifting between heaven and earth continued pouring into the cave through the formation.
This formation really is useful.
Holding Little White in one arm and manipulating runes with his other hand, he swiftly sank his awareness into his body.
His figure appeared in a pitch-black space, where a Taiji Dao Diagram slowly rotated, shedding specks of starlight into that dark world.
Standing before the enormous Taiji Dao Diagram, he seemed so tiny. Throughout that dark space, the Dao Diagram was the only source of light.
As he studied the Dao Diagram, he kept feeling that something about it had changed. Its Dao essence seemed richer, and its spirituality had grown fuller.
He poured divine power into the Dao Diagram before him, determined to see whether absorbing that torrent of memories had brought any changes.
As he infused it with divine power, the Dao Diagram grew brighter and brighter. Faintly, he heard the rushing sound of flowing water within it.
Gradually, that river appeared within the Dao Diagram. A figure stood upon it, flickering in and out of sight.
Suddenly, a beam of golden light shot from the river, pierced through the Dao Diagram, and plunged straight into the space between his brows. A strange gray rune accompanied that golden light.
Shi Qingyun's body instantly stiffened, and his thoughts stopped. Beyond his control, his body slowly floated toward the Dao Diagram.
Outside, fragments of runes emerged over his body, constantly flickering around him.
Those runes connected with one another, then instantly shattered into specks of golden light that merged into his body.
Gradually, the runes formed all manner of strange formations, floating around him.
An enormous formation took shape with him at its center, extending beyond the cave. A deadly sense of danger radiated from it.
Startled, the surrounding Ferocious Beasts instantly scattered like birds and beasts.
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