Chapter 64: Divine Transformation Stage

"Cao Yun, if it were the past, I might truly lack the courage to face you directly. But now, with the assistance of this True Devil Qi, elevating my cultivation is as easy as reaching for something in my pocket." Before Yunjuzi even finished his sentence, his cultivation realm rapidly surged from the Great Perfection of the Foundation Establishment Mid-Stage to the Late Stage, and then skyrocketed all the way until it reached the Foundation Establishment Perfection. In an instant, a majestic and surging aura erupted from within him, signaling that his realm had broken through to the Core Formation Stage.

Yet within a mere few breaths, Yunjuzi had achieved a leap from the Great Perfection of the Foundation Establishment Mid-Stage to the Core Formation Stage. Such a spectacle was far too bizarre and simply unbelievable.

However, upon seeing this, Cao Yun did not reveal even the slightest trace of surprise; he had intended all along to see what kind of trump cards Yunjuzi still had hidden.

"Yunjuzi, if early Core Formation is your reliance, then you may go and die." With that said, under the precise control of his spiritual sense, twenty strands of killing intent from within Cao Yun instantly plunged into Yunjuzi's body.

In a mere fraction of a second, Yunjuzi's head burst open like a watermelon struck by a heavy hammer.

Simultaneously, a streak of red light shot forth from between Cao Yun's eyebrows, swiftly sweeping Yunjuzi's soul into his glabella. Following that, Cao Yun waved his hand gently, and the four storage bags on Yunjuzi's body flew into his grasp as if summoned.

At this moment, the agonizing wails of Foundation Establishment cultivators were already echoing from all around one after another. Among them, there were also those with firm willpower whose fingers or cheeks had already turned to bare white bones, yet they still gritted their teeth and kept their eyes tightly closed, trying to grasp that sliver of hope amidst despair.

Seeing this, Cao Yun transformed into a streak of escaping light and rapidly distanced himself from the area. If these cultivators were truly as Yunjuzi had said, they would undoubtedly escape death. Should they launch a desperate counterattack against him in their final moments, it would become quite troublesome. After all, he was the only one here completely unharmed, and the strands of killing intent within him were already running low; naturally, he had no wish to waste even the slightest fraction when his life was not under threat.

Of course, Cao Yun did not fly very far away either; instead, he chose a nearby spot within range of his spiritual sense to quietly monitor this group of cultivators heading toward their doom.

Once they all perished, their abundant storage bags would entirely belong to Cao Yun.

At present, those Foundation Establishment cultivators were writhing and rolling on the ground in excruciating pain, with substantial portions of their bodies and arms already reduced to white bones.

Some cultivators, unable to endure this inhuman torture any longer, simply chose self-detonation, dragging several nearby Foundation Establishment cultivators along with them to end the endless agony.

Cao Yun gazed at the True Devil Qi pressing down gradually from the sky, shook his head helplessly, and then took out Yunjuzi's Qi-isolating grand array formation disc.

At this moment, the spiritual energy on the formation disc was still extremely abundant. Cao Yun gently tossed it onto the ground, and the disc instantly transformed into a massive barrier of light, firmly enclosing him within it.

Time flowed on, and after just another day, the vast majority of the Foundation Establishment cultivators had already perished, leaving only a few Late-Stage Foundation Establishment cultivators and Chen Ping still struggling bitterly to hold on.

Right at this moment, Chen Ping suddenly roared, "Senior, you cannot abandon me..."

"With your intellect, it is difficult to achieve greatness in this immortal cultivation world. You might as well perish sooner, lest you drag this old man into such a perilous situation at this very moment." As the words fell, a streak of golden light suddenly shot out from Chen Ping's body, speeding at an extreme velocity toward Cao Yun's direction.

"Senior... you cannot do this... ah..." Chen Ping roared hysterically, and then began to roll on the ground in unbearable agony, followed immediately by a loud "bang" as he exploded right where he stood.

"Good-for-nothing..." A cold voice echoed from within the racing golden light.

Before long, the golden light arrived at Cao Yun's location, piercing through the meticulously laid Qi-isolating grand array of Cao Yun in an instant.

"If Your Excellency wishes to live, do not perform such foolish actions." Cao Yun's gaze was like a torch as he looked calmly at the incoming golden light and spoke.

"Oh? Junior, are you threatening me?" The golden light coalesced into a sphere, hovering about a zhang in front of Cao Yun, its tone carrying a hint of amusement.

"Threatening? No, I am warning you." Cao Yun's expression remained calm and his tone indifferent.

"Hehe, Junior, your realm is not high, but you certainly have quite a few tricks. Had this old man not used Bone-Observing Art to examine you, I truly would have taken you for a low-stage cultivator disguised as a Nascent Soul expert. Yet you are undeniably a mere Foundation Establishment junior." A mocking voice came from within the ball of light.

"Oh? That being said, Your Excellency is a Nascent Soul cultivator, then?" Cao Yun intentionally used an exaggerated and sarcastic tone.

"Nascent Soul? Hmph... This old man is a primordial Divine Transformation cultivator. Were my primordial spirit not reduced to less than a percent of its former self, a single thought from this old man would allow me to easily step out of this array." An arrogant voice echoed from within the ball of light.

"Divine Transformation?" Hearing this, Cao Yun felt a slight tremor in his heart; this was the first time he had ever heard of this realm. After a moment of contemplation, he sneered, "I suppose Chen Ping listened to Your Excellency's instigation, which is why he died so miserably here?"

"Hmph, that good-for-nothing Chen Ping—had he not mistakenly stumbled into the Earth-Demon Subduing Array that sealed this old man back then and fled the confinement with my residual primordial spirit, given his pseudo-spirit root aptitude, the second layer of Qi Refining would have been his limit. How could he have possibly reached the Foundation Establishment Mid-Stage realm he achieved today?" A voice of dissatisfaction issued from the ball of light.

"Oh? With Your Excellency's profound insight, you still allowed Chen Ping to plunge into the True Devil Qi, resulting in both of your lives being snuffed out at this moment," Cao Yun said non-committally.

"Hmph, not only was that boy Chen Ping dull in aptitude, but his temperament was also of the lowest tier. This old man helped him hunt down three Core Formation beasts in the Myriad Beast Forest, only to be forced into a deep slumber due to primordial spirit damage. When I awoke, the boy had already been pierced through by demonic Qi beyond any hope of salvation. Had this old man not been a Divine Transformation powerhouse whose Nascent Soul had condensed into a primordial spirit, I would likely have been buried along with this fellow," a voice of helplessness came from within the ball of light.

"So that's how it is. It seems Your Excellency has truly been plagued by bad luck," Cao Yun softened his tone slightly. "I wonder why Senior did not seize Chen Ping's body, or that of some other cultivator?"

"Seize a body? At my realm, is there still any need to resort to such means? For cultivators of our caliber, a physical body is nothing more than an inconsequential shell. Whenever needed, one can be condensed at a moment's notice. The reason I possessed Chen Ping was because my primordial spirit was severely damaged, forcing me to take refuge within another's dantian and borrow his magical power to nourish my primordial spirit." An explanatory voice emanated from the ball of light.

"Put that way, Senior must possess someone in order to slowly recover your primordial spirit?" Cao Yun asked thoughtfully.

"If there were Soul-Nourishing Wood or a magical treasure to possess, that too could nourish my primordial spirit and allow it to recover," came the affirmative voice from within the light sphere.

"No wonder this Chen Ping was so eager to acquire a magical treasure; it turns out he intended it for Senior to inhabit. It seems he treated you rather well," Cao Yun said indifferently, a trace of mockery lingering in his tone.