Chapter 76: Battle of the Golden Core Realm
Jiang Li moved around tentatively. His body was still extremely light. With a light tap of his foot, he could leap several meters horizontally.
His movement speed was still very fast, but if he was careful, he would not fall.
If he controlled himself a little more, he could already walk at normal speed. It would not be so easy to see through him.
He carefully tore off the Ancient Armored Horse Talisman on his body and put it into his bosom. It was very likely that he would return this thing to Elder Zhong.
However, it had to be said that the purple talisman felt better to the touch.
After tidying up his things, Jiang Li trotted towards the sect flying ship that was waiting not far away.
Jiang Li walked up the gangway to the deck. There were a few inner sect disciples and elders on the ship. They were looking at the distant city where the four of them were fighting.
Over 500 outer sect disciples had yet to come out, and only Jiang Li had returned to the ship.
“Someone is finally back. Kid, show your token!” An inner sect disciple went forward and asked Jiang Li to show his token to verify his identity.
Jiang Li thought for a moment before he took out two tokens from his waist and handed them over.
“Two tokens? Hmm? There’s also an inner sect token?”
“Your name is Jiang Li? Where did you get this token from?”
This inner sect senior brother was dressed in black and was also a disciple of the Law Enforcement Hall. Perhaps it was because of his usual working habits, he felt suspicious when he saw this.
Could it be that this inner sect disciple token was forged by him?
At this moment, the only elder present heard the keyword ‘inner sect disciple’ and walked over. He took the token and verified it before returning it to Jiang Li.
“You’re the one who completed the mission? You found the sect defectors?”
This elder’s brain was obviously much more alert than that law-enforcement disciple. He immediately hit the nail on the head.
“Elder, the lightning cracker in the city was indeed released by me. After the three elders arrived, they used a token of the defectors to refine this inner sect token for me.”
Jiang Li received the token and completely ignored that law-enforcement disciple. He only gave an affirmative answer to the elder.
In fact, chasing after traitors was the job of the Law Enforcement Hall. It was completely within the scope of their responsibilities.
However, the sect could not bear to part with the lives of the inner sect disciples, which was why the outer sect competition was changed and 500 outer sect disciples entered the city to risk their lives to search.
To be honest, these 500 outer sect disciples were actually sending themselves to death on behalf of the Law Enforcement Hall’s disciples. However, it was one thing for them to not appreciate their kindness, but it was very excessive for them to be so arrogant.
“Looks like you’ve done quite well. You’ll be an inner sect disciple from now on. Remember to work harder and cultivate.”
After encouraging Jiang Li for a moment, the elder no longer looked at him, and he looked once more at the battle in the city.
The battle between Golden Cores and the might of the lightning tribulation caused the entire city to tremble! All the buildings on the ground shook!
In this situation, it was naturally Duan Shuang—who had fallen to the demonic path—who was at an absolute disadvantage.
Duan Shuang had just broken through to the Golden Core realm and had used a ‘demonic cultivation method’ to forcefully break through. His foundation was unstable.
Relying on the wonderful balance of the yin-yang effect of the Zombie Core and Golden Core, he was barely able to keep his Golden Core from shattering under the lightning tribulation.
Relying on tribulation lightning to refine the Golden Core and Zombie Core was extremely dangerous.
The main reason why he could achieve this was because the “spiritual root seed” in his body was inherited from the Golden Core zombie demon.
The Zombie Core and Golden Core were both his own items. Only then could he have some confidence in fusing the two cores.
Once the two cores fused, it would become the legendary Heavenly Lightning Indestructible Zombie Core. When the time came, his battle prowess would greatly increase and he would be able to resolve the siege. Where could he not go in this world?
However, there could not be any mistakes in an extremely delicate matter such as fusing the Golden Core. If he wanted to succeed, it would only be possible if no one disturbed him.
He was unlucky to have met a knowledgeable Elder Chen who recognized his methods!
Together with the other two elders, he withstood the lightning tribulation and attacked forcefully, catching Duan Shuang unprepared.
On one hand, he had to maintain the fusion of the two cores while resisting the lightning. On the other hand, he had to divert some of his attention to deal with the three cultivators who were not weaker than him or even stronger than him.
If not for the fact that his Golden Core Dao Heart could divert his attention to multi-task, and if not for the fact that his ice attribute spiritual root technique’s defensive ability was outstanding, he would have probably died in the city by now.
Duan Shuang probably also knew that even if he faced the enemy with his full strength, it was impossible for him to defeat the three elders.
Therefore, after trying to collide a few times and injuring himself, he decisively gave up on counterattacking.
Instead, he used a large amount of spiritual qi to condense a dense ice crystal shield around him. He had two energy cores, and double the spiritual qi storage of others, which was a rare advantage in the battle.
The large-scale ice crystal formation that was condensed temporarily defended against the attacks of the three elders’ artifacts.
The rebel cultivator, Duan Shuang, casually wiped away the blood that gushed out of his mouth and nose, and then began to speed up the merging of the Golden Zombie Fusion Core.
Boom!
At this moment, another bolt of tribulation lightning struck down!
Each tribulation was stronger than the previous.
If the first bolt of tribulation lightning in a tribulation cloud was only ‘1’, then the final bolt of tribulation lightning would be ’20’ or even stronger.
Up until now, the power of the tribulation lightning was no longer the same as before. The silver bolts of lightning had already begun to mix with blue and purple colors.
At this moment, the rebel cultivator, Duan Shuang, had released more than half of his spiritual qi. The two Golden and Zombie Cores were emptied, so they could no longer completely block the tribulation lightning.
His entire body shook. As his body twitched, sparks flew.
However, this was not the most important thing. What was most important was the two cores that were the essence of his origin.
Crack!
A crisp cracking sound rang out. The Zombie Core was most afraid of the Yang-attribute lightning and could not withstand it. A crack appeared under the violent lightning energy.
But this was not the end. The cracks were still spreading, and the glass-like core was soon on the verge of breaking.
Then, another crack sounded. The Golden Core beside the Zombie Core also could not hold on and started to crack.
Guh!
The Golden Core and Zombie Core were breaking at the same time. That demonic cultivator, Duan Shuang, suffered an extremely terrifying blow. His head felt like it was about to explode. It was no longer bleeding from his seven orifices, but blood spurting out from his seven orifices!
Seven blood pillars shot out from the seven orifices of his head. There were even sizzling sounds.
The three elders were immediately overjoyed, believing that the battle was about to end.
In the next moment, their expressions changed drastically again!
On the other hand, Duan Shuang, who was extremely miserable and had blood spurting out of his seven orifices, suddenly looked up and laughed loudly.
“Hahaha! So that’s how it is! So that’s how it is! There is no creation without destruction! So that’s how it is! Hahahaha!”
That was because just as the spiritual qi of the Zombie Core and Golden Core were about to be depleted…
The two pills that had kept a distance from each other and could not touch each other for a long time finally stuck together. With the shattering point as the breakthrough point, they truly began to fuse together.
That kind of fusion was clearly not ordinary. A large amount of spiritual qi and energy swarmed over. They began to use the cores that were currently fusing as the center to form a terrifying spiritual qi whirlpool that absorbed all the spiritual qi in the vicinity.
Even Jiang Li, who was standing on the flying ship outside the city, sensed the abnormal flow of spiritual qi, so it could be seen how large the influence was.
The ice crystal shield that was mostly shattered by the three elders started to grow rapidly under the replenishment of spiritual qi. In a short period of time, all their previous efforts were wasted.
The three elders felt their hearts turn cold. They already felt that something was amiss.
As the two cores gradually fused together, the bottle gourd shape gradually turned into a ball shape. The speed at which spiritual qi gathered was still accelerating. That might was so great that people who did not know would think that someone was breaking through to the Nascent Soul realm.
The three-colored spiritual light continuously shot out. The three elders had already given up most of their defense and risked being struck by lightning to attack with all their might.
However, in front of the seemingly endless replenishment of the ice crystal shield that was constantly increasing in value, it was still useless!
The three of them were really suppressed by Duan Shuang who had just broken through to the Golden Core realm while enduring the lightning tribulation.
If this continued, when the other party really succeeded in refining the two cores, who would be the one being pursued? It was really hard to say!
Swoosh!
At this moment, a long rainbow suddenly pierced through the sky. The power was not inferior to the combined attack of the three elders. It was a flying ship of the sect approaching under the lightning tribulation and striking fiercely at the ice crystal formation from afar.
The white sphere-like ice crystal formation seemed to have been bitten by a giant, and a large piece was suddenly missing!
Looking at the other two directions of Cloud Stream City, two flying boats were also flying over.
The three elders immediately reacted and flew back to the warship in three different directions.
It was because they had been caught in a mistake by fetching outer sect disciples. They subconsciously believed that the flying ship could not enter the tribulation cloud’s range.
However, the lightning tribulation would only react to living beings. Without carrying a large number of disciples, the flying ship would not be targeted too much. A small number of lightning tribulations were still within their tolerance limit.
Now was not the time to consider losses. If the warship was damaged, they could still repair it.
However, Duan Shuang had to die! Looking at the exaggerated spiritual qi vortex, if they really let the other party accomplish what he wanted to do, all of them would die here.
The three warships were all carrying extremely powerful arrays. With sufficient spirit stones to support the expenditure, although the flying ship was not flexible enough, the attack power it could unleash was definitely far greater than a Golden Core cultivator.
The three elders with the highest cultivation levels returned to the flying ship. Under their control, the flying ship’s array formation emitted an even brighter light.
Previously, during the battle at the Mother River, Duan Shuang had relied on the array formations on the ship to easily deal with the Golden Core zombie demons.
At this moment, the might of the even stronger warship was naturally even more terrifying under the control of the three elders!
Swoosh!
Three streaks of spiritual qi shot out from the bow of the ship and struck the dense ice crystal shield. The countless ice crystals shattered instantly, revealing Duan Shuang who was covered in blood.
Swoosh!
The heavenly lightning had already begun to attack the warship. There was no time to waste.
Without any hesitation, the bow of the three warships lit up again. This time, they aimed directly at the Heavenly Lightning Indestructible Zombie Core floating above Duan Shuang, which was almost formed!
Duan Shuang should have used his agility to dodge far away, but the Golden Core was suspended above his head and about to be refined. He could not react immediately.
Surrounded by three warships, no matter which direction he flew in, he would definitely be hit by one of the flying ships.
Although his body was strong as a Golden Core cultivator, it was impossible for him to survive this attack.
The situation took a turn for the worse. As such, he knew that his death was imminent. Duan Shuang steeled his heart and flew up to grab the Golden Core, stuffing it back into his mouth.
Under the pursuit of the three long arcs, his figure directly plunged into the tribulation clouds in the sky.