Yang Spirit

While "Hu Mang" and Madman Jiang were locked in a fierce battle, a colossal Taiyin Thunder Pool lay nearly ten thousand zhang beneath the main Demon-Subduing Well.

The pool was neither gold nor iron, neither wood nor stone. It had been condensed from the cold jade of heaven and earth.

There was not a drop of water in the pool. It was filled entirely with thunder plasma given form.

The thunder was no ordinary lightning, either, but Sha born of Taiyin chains.

Every bolt of lightning resembled an ice dragon, winding and coiling with a shrill sound like wailing ghosts and howling gods. Hearing it made one's hair stand on end and threatened to scatter one's true essence.

Where the lightning passed, ice formed in the void. Even Five Phases Spiritual Qi shattered upon contact, turning into the most primal Taiyin Qi.

At the heart of the pool, a "Yin Soul" loomed in and out of sight. It was as large as a cartwheel, its radiance deathly pale and its chill penetrating to the marrow.

With every turn, it drew in all the surrounding rock, sand, and earth, even the Devil-Subduing True Fire, and refined them into drops of lead-gray Taiyin Divine Thunder. They fell like rain, returning to the pool.

The cycle repeated endlessly, without cease.

At the very center of this "Lunar Soul," a figure could dimly be seen sitting cross-legged, a lotus of fire in his palm.

He was "breathing in and out."

Every time he "inhaled," the surrounding darkness was drawn toward the center.

Every time he "exhaled," countless twisted shadows of lightning struggled and screamed across the pool's surface before being drawn into his body.

Above the thunder pool, a black cloud of Mystic Yin hung in the air, tightly bound by tens of thousands of thunderous chains.

It had avoided being refined on the spot only because the "black cloud" was formed from the Mystic Yin Devil Cultivation Method and could transform back and forth with the surrounding Taiyin Qi.

Unfortunately, thunder's punishment was merciless, and the devil path would eventually reach its end.

A closer look would reveal that the edges of the Mystic Yin cloud had already grown thin as smoke, its essence Qi leaking away as wisps of Demonic Qi were greedily devoured by the thunder pool.

"When Yin reaches its extreme, Yang is born; a lotus is planted in fire. When Taiyin evolves, gods and ghosts alike recoil."

"As expected of a True Disciple of the Thunder Manor. He actually dares to condense a 'Taiyang Thunder Manor' inside this Demon-Subduing City. Is he really not afraid his presence will leak out and the boundless divine thunder of heaven and earth will strike him dead?"

At the very center of the black cloud, Daoist Xuanyin stood expressionless. Beside him were the two old unorthodox ghosts, Thousand Poisons and Rotten Bones.

No, to be precise, only Old Ghost Rotten Bones remained. As for that old woman Thousand Poisons, she had long since been reduced to a corpse.

Those two, along with Daoist Xuanyin's "number two bootlicking disciple," were all as pale as paper and as thin as sticks. Their essence, Qi, and spirit had clearly been steadily consumed, and they had reached the point where the oil was spent and the lamp burned dry.

The three old unorthodox monsters, so arrogant and overbearing before, had somehow ended up in this state.

"Fortunately, this man is too conceited. He can't refine us in a short time, so he has only used the formations inside this Demon-Subduing Well to trap us while he enters seclusion to refine the Thunder Manor."

"And now the commotion outside is growing louder and louder. There are even signs that the 'Devil Subjugation Restriction' has been activated. This is our only chance."

Daoist Xuanyin said calmly:

"Once an opportunity appears, you and I will abandon our fleshly bodies and reverse our essence, sacrificing our Three Flowers and Five Qi to use that power to burst out of the well in one stroke."

"Old Ghost Xuanyin, you must be joking! If I sacrifice my Three Flowers and Five Qi, my three souls and seven spirits will never be able to become one again, much less reincarnate. My consciousness will be muddled and my memories shattered. What difference would there be between living like that and being dead?"

Old Ghost Rotten Bones revealed his true form: a corpse whose white bones were like sticks, with nothing but a sheet of human skin hanging from them. His eyes were two black hollows, emitting faint specks of ghostly fire.

"That's the key. Once you and I abandon our fleshly bodies and cultivation and break through the seal, I'll immediately use the Mystic Yin Body Possession Great Method to merge the remnants of our souls into the body of this rebellious disciple of mine. You and I will become one. How much consciousness each of us retains will be left to heaven's will. What do you say?"

Old Ghost Rotten Bones was stunned at first. Then he looked at Xuanyin's second disciple, whose face was filled with terror. After pondering for a moment, he silently nodded.

The two fell silent once more.

Several more explosions erupted above them. Finally, one of them caused the light of the "Devil-Subduing Seal" above the well to dim.

"The chance is here!"

A fierce light flashed in Daoist Xuanyin's eyes. Without another moment's hesitation, he struck the crown of his head!

Boom!

Three tremendous blasts came from his three Dantians.

Three auspicious clouds shot into the sky from the top of his head!

The first, the "Flower of Essence," was crimson, the foundation of the Essence Blood throughout his body.

As this flower bloomed, it was like a volcanic eruption. Countless waves of scorching blood Sha Qi spread out in an instant, staining the surrounding Taiyin lightning a bloody red.

The second, the "Flower of Qi," was pure azure, the gathering place of the Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi he breathed in and out. When it exploded, even the churning Taiyin Thunder Pool stalled for a moment!

The third, the "Flower of Spirit," was pure white, the root of the Primordial Spirit and its thoughts. But only the flower's root remained, so its explosion was weaker than the first two!

The Three Flowers shattered, and the Five Qi followed!

Five pillars of Qi immediately shone through the five organs in his chest: one azure, two white, three yellow, four red, and five black.

The five pillars of Qi intertwined and slammed upward into the seal.

Much the same happened to Old Woman Thousand Poisons, who had been refined into a zombie, and Old Ghost Rotten Bones beside her.

At the same time, Hu Mang, who had just sliced off one of his opponent's arms, felt the earth shake and the Qi and Blood throughout his body churn. Then the main well erupted like a volcano. Terrifying devil smoke, essence Qi, Taiyin Qi, and corpse-bone Qi condensed together into a colossal pillar of Qi that shot straight into the sky.

"Fuck, again?!"

"Another volcanic eruption?!"

Hu Mang's first reaction was, I fucking transmigrated, so why am I dealing with this all over again?!

But he quickly realized that this was no volcanic eruption. Someone was self-destructing.

At the heart of the pillar of light, three battered corpses were being torn apart inch by inch, crushed and devoured by the destructive force...

One of them was already a bloody mess, but those familiar clothes and that sinister devil-path presence were all too familiar to Hu Mang!

Wasn't that the old monster he had seen just after he transmigrated?

Daoist Xuanyin, one of the old unorthodox monsters. Hu Mang had looted his own Profound Yin Body Refining Technique from that dead disciple of his.

Why was the old man underground?

And how had he ended up self-destructing?!

Hu Mang stared in complete bewilderment.

Looking on the bright side, the old man probably wouldn't be going to avenge his disciple. He would be going to join him instead.

"Trying to run!"

A cold snort suddenly came from beneath the well.

The next moment, heaven and earth lit up. Everything in the world vanished, replaced by a resplendent deity, awe-inspiring and unfathomable.

A Yang Spirit appeared in manifest form and changed in ways impossible to predict. It could see what people of the world could not see and do what they could not do.

When all could see its Divine Abilities manifest in the mortal world, it was called a Yang Spirit.

Old Chen's words flashed through Hu Mang's mind.

There really was a Yang Spirit in the city!!

One hand of the "Yang Spirit" reached for a fleeing mass of "Profound Yin Devil Qi," while the other appeared above the Hundred-Well Abyss, blotting out the thunderclouds.

An indifferent, arrogant voice rang out, tinged with resentment.

"Two lowly divine officers, ruining my plans!"

The next moment, two masses of divine thunder, each the size of a water vat, fell directly toward the two men's heads. Yang was born at Yin's extreme, and the pressure this Yang thunder exerted on Hu Mang was even greater than that of the "Evil-Subduing Divine Thunder."

Before the divine thunder arrived, its pressure descended.

Hu Mang felt his whole body tighten, as though all of heaven and earth were squeezing in on him. His bones creaked under the unbearable strain, and even his blood nearly froze beneath that force.

The half of Hu Mang's face covered by "Ghost Makeup" burned away in an instant.

At the same time, thirty-six Innate Thunder Patterns lit up on the Shattered Star Great Spear in his hand.

All the divine light of the "Heavenly Soldier Divine Office" covered the spear's shaft.

The runes that had merely been etched into the shaft now came completely alive!

They no longer remained still, but began to race along the shaft. With every circuit, the light on the spear grew brighter and its temperature more scorching.

That was no ordinary fire. It was "Qianyang True Fire"-the first ray of pure light capable of burning away all evil when heaven and earth first opened.

Boom!!!!

The spear of light and the divine thunder collided violently.

In that instant, heaven and earth lost all sound.

Every color was swallowed by a single point of pure white at the center of the explosion.

Those were two diametrically opposed powers of "Qianyang," born from the same source, annihilating and transforming into each other.

Hu Mang felt both arms shudder violently and the skin between his thumbs and forefingers split. Before the blood could flow, the searing heat evaporated it.

But he clenched his teeth, his feet sinking deep into the rock as he forcibly endured the force of the recoil.

He did not know how long had passed. It felt impossibly long to Hu Mang, but perhaps only a few breaths later, both lights dissipated at once.

Crack.

A conspicuous crack appeared on the Shattering Thunder Great Spear's egg-shaped shaft.

Hu Mang's lower body, meanwhile, was buried deep in the mud, leaving him almost unable to move.

His fleshly body's presence was nearly gone.

"Hm?"

A soft exclamation came from the "Yang Spirit" overhead.

But before it could make another move, the entire Demon-Subduing Well suddenly exploded once more, without warning.

Boom!!!!

It was not an eruption of fire and Demonic Qi. Instead, an "Innate Thunder Eye" opened at the very heart of the well's depths!

It was not a Law Technique or a demonic eye, but a vertical pupil formed from the most primal, most tyrannical "thunder path origin" in heaven and earth.

It hovered quietly in midair, without emotion or will.

The instant the thunder eye blinked, a bolt of lightning shot out from it.

Within that lightning, the phantom of a thunder god could faintly be seen—a human body and a bird's face, wielding a hammer and a wedge. Though it appeared for only an instant, it radiated a supreme majesty that commanded all thunder!

"So this is where you were hiding!!"

The "Yang Spirit" was overjoyed and reached directly for it, but the lightning transformed from Thunder God slipped through a gap in its hand and darted into the thunderclouds.

"Trying to escape?"

The Yang Spirit snorted coldly. Its enormous body, which blotted out the heavens and the sun, scattered in an instant and reformed into the figure of a young man in white.

The young man still wore the same indifferent, arrogant expression, but now there was a trace of urgency in his eyes.

Without another word, he too used a lightning escape Technique, his figure becoming a streak of white light faster than lightning as he pursued it relentlessly and plunged deep into the thunderclouds.