Section Twenty-Eight: I am, by nature, the great roc of this world, yet the sky hangs too low for me to soar.
Ji Qinghuan’s joy was visible to the naked eye.
Flame lotuses blossomed in her eyes, fiery runes danced gleefully around her heart, making her seem like a dreamlike fire spirit.
She was about to speak.
But above the heavens, hundreds of Divine Tiger Clan cultivators, furious over their fallen comrades, released thunderous roars.
A white wave of sound swept across the starry sky, breaking her train of thought.
“Brother Ye, don’t worry about me!” Ji Qinghuan’s heart trembled slightly—determined not to hinder Lin Qiye’s battle, she quickly broke free from his embrace and alighted atop a high-rise in the capital of Xia, watching from afar.
She raised her head.
In her gaze, Lin Qiye stood proudly atop the firmament, lightning flashing and thunder rumbling beside him.
There was no denying it.
Lin Qiye was truly formidable.
The instant he appeared, the million stars plummeting from the heavens abruptly reversed course, flying back into space and once more hanging in the galactic river.
The despairing rain of falling stars for humanity halted suddenly.
Yet of course—
A crisis greater than the falling stars had not yet passed!
For in the distance, the foreign race with tiger heads and human bodies was already in a state of rage.
“Barbaric natives, their hearts are cruel and malicious! Too wicked! They must be annihilated!”
“The stench of blood on this person sickens me. His soul must be corrupted, only death can cleanse his sins.”
The Divine Tiger Clan experts bared their fangs, blood-red eyes dangling beneath their brows, flashing with murderous intent.
“Divine Tiger Eleventh Legion, form up! Condense the Celestial Tiger Soul Chain! Combine forces, swiftly kill this demon!”
The Broad-Faced Tiger King was extremely cautious, immediately deploying the most reliable tactic.
In the next instant—
Nearly five hundred Golden Core experts took their positions, forming a strange array.
Chains of spiritual energy threaded from their chests and abdomens, linking them together.
The formation was complete!
Above the formation, a colossal divine tiger took shape, its eyes filled with baleful energy, surveying the world below.
It seemed that a single glance could destroy the universe and stars.
Under the gaze of this giant tiger god,
The defenses, recovery speed, and mobility of the five hundred Golden Core experts rapidly increased, their vitality united in a peculiar manner.
Combat power multiplied dozens of times.
The oppressive force spread a hundredfold.
Across Angel Star, tens of thousands of cultivators, cowed by the pressure, collapsed to the ground, cold sweat beading on their foreheads. The spiritual energy within them felt crushed by a mountain, utterly unusable.
Even Ji Qinghuan staggered, leaning against the city pillar, breathing deeply to ease the strain.
Seeing this, Lin Qiye was somewhat surprised.
“A clever technique—five hundred Golden Core experts united, enough to suppress even peak Golden Core cultivators.”
“But… suppressing me won’t be so easy.”
As he spoke,
Lin Qiye’s aura soared thousands of meters high, forming a pillar of light.
Tens of thousands of thunder dragons coiled around the pillar, baring their fangs and claws, spewing murderous energy.
Behind Lin Qiye, the silhouettes of dragons and elephants loomed in and out of view.
His limbs and spine, tempered into divine bone by innate true energy, radiated a dazzling jade-like glow.
A terrifying suction emanated from those bones.
They craved spiritual energy—endless spiritual energy!
Thus,
The torrents of spiritual energy pouring down from the heavens surged toward Lin Qiye’s pillar, as if swallowed by a whale, rapidly refining into pure spiritual dragons that flowed into his body.
Feeling the hunger in his divine bones, like beggars confronted with roasted chicken,
Lin Qiye shook his head with a smile.
“Whether it’s the Nine-Colored Divine Thunder Body or the Innate Divine Body, both have been stifled in worlds of thin spiritual energy… You foreign invaders, think I am nothing but an ant?”
“Wrong! Utterly wrong…”
“I am the great roc of this world, held down only by low heavens!”
“Now… I shall soar on the wind, gaze down on the four seas, and view Mount Tai as a lump of clay!”
Lin Qiye exhaled a breath of invigorating white air.
It was thanks to Ji Qinghuan, who risked seventy years of her lifespan, who endured four years of torment minute by minute, that this moment had arrived.
He would not let her down!
With this in mind,
Lin Qiye’s absorption of foreign spiritual energy surged again.
His cultivation soared to unimaginable heights!
Within just a few breaths, he leapt to the fourth layer of the Golden Core!
And still, his rise showed no sign of stopping!
This was owed to the multiple blessings of the Nine-Colored Divine Thunder Body, Innate Divine Body, and the flawless “Qi Refinement Technique.”
His terrifying growth rate left the Divine Tiger Clan’s Golden Core experts trembling, their right eyelids twitching uncontrollably.
“This is bad, this kid is a monstrous wolf!”
“Retreat! Retreat!”
The Broad-Faced Tiger King’s heart palpitated, instinctively calling for withdrawal.
However,
The other Golden Core experts protested.
“Boss, don’t boost his morale and undermine our own! With five hundred Golden Core cultivators, empowered by our formation, we could easily kill five peak Golden Cores. How could we not slay a mere fourth-layer Golden Core?”
“Does he alone have the power to annihilate our entire army?”
“Unless he possesses divine bones and top-tier dao bones!”
“Besides, as Golden Core cultivators, our resolve is strong. If we flee without a fight, how can we face future bottlenecks in our cultivation?”
The Divine Tiger Clan’s voices thundered; as Golden Core experts, they bore their own pride.
Facing a mere fourth-layer Golden Core from a tiny world, they would not yield.
“Boss, no matter what, five hundred against one—the advantage is ours!”
Persuaded by their comrades,
The Broad-Faced Tiger King wavered.
“You’re right—the advantage is ours! Attack! Don’t let him break through any further!”
At those words,
The Divine Tiger Clan experts charged in formation!
The murderous military array twisted space, shattered stars and moons.
A massive tiger-head seal descended upon Lin Qiye’s face.
Terrifying pressure weighed upon his bones, threatening to crush them!
Faced with such a deadly move,
Lin Qiye could not even evade; he was pinned in place, unable to move.
He could only endure the seal’s suppression!
“Five hundred Golden Core experts, truly impressive! Fortunately… I have a trump card.”
Muttering to himself,
Lin Qiye willed his mind.
Suddenly,
A resonant blade’s cry, like the roar of a divine dragon, rang out from afar.
Then,
A straight long blade with a handle blazing with bright blue flames shattered the void, swooping in like an eagle.
This was the silver-grade weapon—the Extreme Flame Ring-Handled Blade.
When Lin Qiye broke through to Golden Core,
It was unsealed!
It crossed endless space, descending from the heavens.
Its slender blade was broad-backed and razor-sharp, snowflake patterns etched upon it, dazzling with cold light.
It collided with the tiger-head seal.
A heaven-shaking explosion resounded.
The tiger-head seal cracked and shattered.
Five hundred Golden Core experts’ expressions changed dramatically.
Blood trickled from the corners of their mouths.
Stunned, they turned their shocked gazes to Lin Qiye.
In the surging aftermath of the explosion,
Lin Qiye held the long blade before his brow, retreating gracefully.
The vertical gleam reflected on the blade shone between his eyes, bestowing upon his features an icy, forbidding demeanor.
“He actually broke our formation in such a bizarre way?”
The Broad-Faced Tiger King’s eyelids twitched furiously, an ominous feeling rising in his heart.
“Retreat! Retreat now!” it roared.
But it was too late.
Lin Qiye, blade in hand, became as a tiger with wings, a dragon riding the clouds; with a flicker, he vanished from sight.
In the next moment,
Flames and lightning flashed across the backs of the Divine Tiger Clan’s Golden Core experts.
Each flash cleaved open their muscular backs.
Thunder dragons burst forth from the blade’s glow, shattering their hearts.
In an instant,
Blood sprayed everywhere!
Even the Divine Tiger Clan’s chain formation could not withstand Lin Qiye’s onslaught.
With each strike, the chains snapped bit by bit.
More astonishing still—Lin Qiye’s cultivation continued to rise.
His attacks grew ever more terrifying; one Divine Tiger expert after another, faces filled with shock and terror, plummeted from the sky, transformed into cold corpses…
In just five minutes,
Lin Qiye’s cultivation soared to the seventh layer of the Golden Core.
Of the five hundred Divine Tiger Clan Golden Core experts, only the Broad-Faced Tiger King remained!
The entire army had been annihilated!
The Broad-Faced Tiger King was dumbfounded.
The blood-red eyes dangling beneath its brow quivered with fear and regret.
It could never have imagined,
That leading five hundred Golden Core experts to invade a tiny universe would end in total destruction.
Even more astonishing, they hadn’t even had a chance to escape…
“May I ask… just who are you, sir? What is your name and origin?”
The Broad-Faced Tiger King believed Lin Qiye must be an extraordinary figure.
For he cultivated the flawless version of the “Qi Refinement Technique”!
Yet,
The Broad-Faced Tiger King could not fathom Lin Qiye’s background.
It wished to ask.
But Lin Qiye had no patience for words; his face cold, he swept off the Tiger King’s head with a single stroke.
The tiger’s head spun, and Lin Qiye deftly caught it with his blade.
Then,
He descended gracefully to the capital of Xia.
The moment he touched down,
Lin Qiye’s spirit soared, filled with elation.
Because… after eleven years, the crisp, fate-defying prompt resounded in his mind.