Little Chick was his tamed beast, but it was also a friend and a brother.
The two of them had been together with one another after having entered the Azure together. Unknowingly, the occasions which they teased one another and the interactions between them, all of these had become a natural part of his life.
Even though they did not share a bond of blood, they had become as close as kin to one another.
This was especially so after they formed a contract with one another. He could sense its thoughts and emotions, creating a feeling of unprecedented intimacy.
The realization that those days would never return left him with a deep feeling of emptiness inside.
He was initially opposed to letting Little Chick devour Kong shi as he thought that it was too dangerous. However, he eventually caved in because he knew there was no other choice. Be it his direct disciples or his clone, there was no one else who had the ability to stop Kong shi anymore.
Even his greatest trump card, the golden page, had failed as well!
So, he allowed Little Chick to go ahead with it, but he also instructed Little Chick to stop as soon as it felt it was in danger. He thought that the latter would be fine with its extraordinarily powerful recovery ability. Yet, who could have thought that Kong shi would go so far as to sever it into many pieces before burning it to ashes!
With eyes filled with killing intent, Zhang Xuan was just about to rush forward to pit his life against Kong shi when he felt someone holding him back. Right after, Wu Chen’s anxious voice sounded, “Young Master! Purifying the Aura of Divinity is more important, or else Little Chick’s sacrifice would have been in vain!”
It was as if a pail of ice water had been poured over Zhang Xuan. His killing intent remained unabated, but rationality had returned back to his thoughts. He immediately halted his actions.
Indeed.
With his current strength, even if he were to pit his life against Kong shi, it was impossible for him to achieve victory. There was a world of difference between the fighting prowess of a god and a Semi-Divinity. This wasn’t something that could be bridged by mere skills or tenacity.
There was only one route Zhang Xuan could take if he wanted to exact vengeance for Little Chick, and that was to purify the Aura of Divinity, assimilate it, and push his cultivation to the level of the gods too!
As long as he succeeded, it shouldn’t be too difficult for him to kill the other party!
Taking a deep breath, Zhang Xuan resumed his lecture after a momentary pause, “Battle technique is a means to channel and exerting one’s strength at a point…”
Xiong xiong!
The color of the flames on the altar grew brighter and brighter.
As of this moment, there were at least 80,000 True Immortals who had opened their hearts, but they were still a stretch off from success!
“How dare your tamed beast devour me whole? I’ll return this humiliation a hundredfold to you!”
Kong shi’s expression remained warped in anger even after slaying Little Chick. With a roar, he swung his sword toward Zhang Xuan.
The weapon he had in hand was only a Semi-Divinity artifact, but in the hands of a god, it exerted strength far beyond that of ordinary Semi-Divinities. The sword qi that was produced through it stretched over a distance of ten li, and its frightening sharpness made it seem as if the fabrics of space were as flimsy as a piece of paper.
“Protect our teacher!”
Zhao Ya and the others charged over agitatedly. Zhang Xuan’s clone also quickly charged forward to protect the main body as well.
Even though they had sustained significant injuries earlier, they had managed to make a full recovery through drinking bottles of chicken soup while Little Chick was holding down Kong shi.
Zhang Xuan’s eleven direct disciples and his clone all had a Semi-Divinity artifact in hand, which added up to a total of 24 Semi-Divinities in total. Through their tight coordination, they formed a powerful collaboration formation.
Even though the sword slash filled with Kong shi’s rage was powerful, they still managed to fend it off, albeit with some difficulty.
“Smash him to death!” Zhang Xuan willed.
Hu!
The golden page, which had lost its target earlier, locked its target onto Kong shi and plummeted from the sky once again.
The strength of the Library of Heaven’s Path had grown proportionately stronger to the might of the heavens of the Azure. This also meant that the duration that the golden page could remain materialized had increased, allowing it to linger in the area even after a failed attack.
With the golden page exerting its full might from above, the space around Kong shi was forcefully sealed through the sheer pressure it emanated.
“Damn it!”
Kong shi immediately tried the same move once more, activating his secret art to conceal his presence from the heavens to dodge the attack from the golden page. However, the clone suddenly rushed from behind to stab Kong shi’s back at this moment.
Zhao Ya and the others quickly emulated the clone’s actions, executing their strongest moves to harass Kong shi.
“You fools! Are you trying to die?” Kong shi felt his goosebumps rising up.
The golden page didn’t discriminate between allies and enemies. It was a force that could crush even the gods, but Zhang Xuan’s clone and direct disciples still charged right into the area of effect of the golden page without any hesitation. That was tantamount to suicide!
Or even worse, they might even be planning on using themselves as a guiding beacon for the golden page to strike… In other words, they were planning on sacrificing themselves to bring him down!
Kong shi released a burst of sword qi which circled him like a ferocious dragon. He was intending to drive these fellows away so that he could hide securely away from the all-seeing eye of the heavens, but these fellows persistently stuck themselves to him. No matter how he tried to push them away, they would return and converge back in on him in the next instant.
He couldn’t escape at all.
Hong long long!
His surroundings swiftly grew darker and darker as the golden page approached him at a terrifying speed. It felt as if the entire weight of the heavens was falling down on him, sparking a hint of fear in the depths of his heart.
“Even if the golden page strikes me squarely, I still won’t die that easily!” Kong shi harrumphed coldly.
Knowing that he wouldn’t be able to shake off Zhang Xuan’s direct disciples and his clone in time, he wrapped himself with a layer of sword qi to protect himself from the attacks from Zhao Ya and the others before dashing right toward the golden page.
Boom!
He collided face-on with the golden page, and the sword in his hand immediately shattered. The tremendous pressure crushing down on him caused fresh blood to spurt from his mouth and nose.
But at the same time, he managed to stop the golden page in place.
“How frightening…” Zhang Xuan’s heart skipped a beat.
The golden page had always been a trusty trump card that he could rely on to defeat his opponent regardless of the situation. As long as he brought it out, even the strongest individuals would be immediately flattened into a pancake.
So, he thought that as long as he could stop Kong shi from dodging, there should be a fair chance that he would be able to crush the latter to death. Yet, the latter actually wielded the strength to withstand it.
It seemed like even the heavens of the Azure was powerless against the gods.
“Young Master, the Aura of Divinity has turned golden!” Wu Chen suddenly exclaimed excitedly.
Zhang Xuan turned his head over and saw the Aura of Divinity on the altar was emanating a brilliant golden glow. It looked the exact same as the one he had received back at the Hall of Gods.
While his direct disciples, his clone, and the golden page were attacking Kong shi, he managed to align the wills of the 100,000 True Immortals together, thus completing the ritual.
“Little Chick, I shall exact vengeance for you…”
Without any hesitation, Zhang Xuan swiftly flitted over to the altar and grabbed the Aura of Divinity.
Tzzzzzz!
The Aura of Divinity slipped into his body through his pores, and it swiftly coursed through his meridians.
If he had haphazardly absorbed the Aura of Divinity without a corresponding cultivation technique back then, there was a good chance that his body would blow up from the accumulation of energy.
But right now…
Just recalling the sight of how Little Chick was sliced into bits and razed to ashes, he felt as if his heart was going to be ripped out.
Flashbacks of the time he had spent with Little Chick crossed his mind.
Back at the Sanctum of Sages, when he tagged along with Luo Xuanqing’s group to find the Dongxu Gourd, the latter abruptly dashed into his dantian and hid in there. That was the start of their bizarre relationship.
There wasn’t anything much that happened while they were at the Master Teacher Continent. He was unable to deal with the Dongxu Gourd, and the latter spent all of its time lazing around and leeching off his dantian. It was only after coming did the Azure did they start to spend more time together.
Smacking his opponents to death from behind, stealing his pills, devouring the sword of his ally… All sorts of things happened between the two of them, and they did all sorts of things together too.
Before he knew it, Little Chick had already taken on an irreplaceable position in his heart.
Habit was truly a scary thing. Somehow, he felt like the days would simply carry on like that. They would continue being by each other’s side, bickering with one another every now and then.
“I am a legendary beast who once ruled over the lands…”
Little Chick’s voice echoed in his mind. In fact, he could almost see the other party shaking its bottom gleefully as it guzzled Immortal Pills as if they cost nothing at all.
“We still haven’t uncovered what kind of legendary beast you are yet…” Zhang Xuan murmured quietly beneath his breath.
All along, that fellow had been trying its best to achieve breakthroughs so that it could finally uncover its true identity… But till the very end, it never knew what it truly was.
The tight bond of brothers go beyond life and death,” Zhang Xuan muttered with reddened eyes.
To look after each other’s back and protect one another in the face of true danger, this was brotherhood!
Boom!
It was as if the Aura of Divinity in Zhang Xuan’s body suddenly found an outlet. It flowed at the whims of Zhang Xuan’s emotions, circulating on and on.
At the same time, Zhang Xuan quickly immersed his consciousness into the Great Codex of Spring and Autumn to accelerate the process by a hundredfold.
Even so, the process of reaching godhood was simply too complicated. It represented the qualitative evolution of a lifeform.
However, Zhang Xuan knew that this matter couldn’t be hurried. So, he allowed the Aura of Divinity to flow along with his feelings and temper his physical body.
“I’ll require at least a single day in order to reach godhood…” Zhang Xuan estimated.
Even though he had comprehended a higher cultivation technique and identified a feasible way of achieving a breakthrough, it would still take at least a single day for him to reach the level of the gods.
It might seem a long period of time, but for a major breakthrough like this, it could already be considered to be extremely fast.
One must know that Kong shi had cultivated for nearly an entire month after he acquired the Aura of Divinity before he managed to make a breakthrough.
In comparison, Zhang Xuan’s ability to make a breakthrough within a single day was unthinkable!
“There are 24 hours in a day, which translates to 1440 minutes. Even with the hundredfold multiplier from cultivating in the Great Codex of Spring and Autumn, I’ll still need 14 minutes before I can make a complete breakthrough…” Zhang Xuan clenched his fists tightly.
“I can only hope that I can buy that much time with the golden page…”
Even if the duration had been lowered down to fourteen minutes, it was still far too long! He wouldn’t be able to exert much strength within this fourteen minutes. If Kong shi were to attempt something during this period of time, he would be completely helpless.
Zhang Xuan turned to look at Kong shi, who was still suppressed under the weight golden page at the moment, and prayed that the golden page would somehow be able to buy him sufficient time for a breakthrough.
Hu!
But barely after this thought surfaced in his mind, the golden page suddenly wavered a little before dissipating into thin air, as if it had never appeared before.
The duration of materialization of the golden page had been increased after he came to the Azure, but it still wasn’t able to remain materialized for too long.
“You scoundrels!”
With the vanishing of the golden page, Kong shi finally turned his gaze toward Zhang Xuan.
His entire arm was already rotting, and his other palm had been severely injured as well. Blood was dripping from his body.
Even though he had managed to fend against the golden page and all of the trump cards which Zhang Xuan had prepared, he still ended up sustaining severe injuries in the midst of doing so.
“You might have succeeded in buying enough time to cleanse the Aura of Divinity and absorb it, but you have also depleted all of your cards too. You don’t have any means of buying time anymore. On the other hand, all I require is a single breath to kill you. There’s no way I’ll be giving you any chances anymore…” Kong shi spat menacingly as he glared at Zhang Xuan with cold eyes.
The only reason why he hadn’t killed Zhang Xuan so far was so as he could capture the latter alive and extract the Heavens’ Imperfections from his body. Yet, this hesitation nearly cost him his life.
That fellow was indeed an existence of the same level as that bastard… Even as a mere Semi-Divinity realm cultivator, that fellow was someone who couldn’t be underestimated!
He realized that he would have to kill that young man right here right now. If the battle were to drag out any longer, he would really lose control over the situation.
