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Chapter 303: Chapter 300: The Assault
"Retreat!"
Upon receiving Gu Jinlai’s command, Zhang Lihuo and the others didn’t hesitate for a second, and with a spiritual explosion along with the Cheng Ying Mecha, they dashed into the Demon Realm Rift in one breath.
While they were retreating back through the Demon Realm Rift, a flicker of light sparked in Gu Jinlai’s eyes as he charged out.
With his spirit highly concentrated, his gaze seemed to ascend to the True Spirit Realm.
Through the True Spirit Realm, he faintly grasped the location of the "origin" of this Spirit Venerable Level Demon Spirit.
The envisioned Great Sun Core suddenly flashed brightly, and a massive column of light once again pierced through heaven and earth. Following the guidance of the "True Spirit Realm" vision, it struck the Spirit Venerable Level Demon Spirit that was in pursuit.
The Eternal Heavenly Curse.
The second shot of the Eternal Heavenly Curse.
"Boom!"
The Spirit Venerable Level Demon Spirit struck by the Eternal Heavenly Curse was like a water curtain pierced by a giant stone, with a visible ripple emanating from it, continuously exploding outward and even reaching the outer edges of its body. The thinner regions of the body were shattered, turning into scattered spiritual radiance.
The damage dealt by this Eternal Heavenly Curse was at least two to three times that of the previous attacks.
"Humans!"
Under such a critical attack, the Spirit Venerable Level Demon Spirit let out an angry roar.
Intense spirituality kept surging against Gu Jinlai’s True Spirit.
If this surge had occurred in a mortal city, not a single life below the rank of a Heavenly Master within a radius of ten li, or even tens of li, would have survived.
Even a Refining God Immortal would have felt as if their soul were peeled away, dying on the spot.
One could say that the wave of spiritual impact was a wave of life-striping.
Wherever the wave swept through, the soul of the living beings there would be shattered en masse.
Or in other words, soul annihilation.
This was the terror of a Spirit Venerable Level Demon Spirit.
"Buzz, buzz!"
Under this onslaught of spiritual impact and with his Spiritual Sense rapidly depleting, Gu Jinlai immediately felt his True Spirit violently quaking.
If it had been a non-True Spirit Crystalized Heavenly Monarch, their True Spirit would likely have shattered on the spot under this assault.
"Spirit Venerable!"
Gu Jinlai took a deep look at the colossal creature with a wingspan of a hundred meters and a total length of two hundred meters...
Its form had faded somewhat compared to its initial arrival, the blood color not as rich, but its massive size still filled the air with a suffocating sense of oppression.
"If I had twenty or thirty shots of Qingguang, I might just be able to exhaust a Spirit Venerable Level Demon Spirit to death."
Unfortunately...
He didn’t have them.
Moreover, a Spirit Venerable often had a host of Disaster Level and large Demon Spirits in its vicinity.
Killing these Demon Spirits also required expending spirituality. In other words, he would need to prepare thirty or forty shots of Qingguang to repeatedly heal his own True Spirit’s wounds to have a chance of killing one Spirit Venerable.
Gathering such an enormous number of Qingguang was no easy task.
"True Spirit Realm..."
Gu Jinlai had now touched upon the True Spirit Realm.
Yet, unless he relied on Qingguang, he couldn’t maintain the state of the "True Spirit Realm" at all times.
Just like with the Alchemist branch of the Heavenly Master lineage, one who crafts Qi Refining Pills can be called an Alchemist, but there’s a clear distinction between an Alchemist who succeeds only once in ten batches and one who succeeds ten times out of ten.
And Gu Jinlai, in the Third Step of Heavenly Monarch, was akin to the former type of an Alchemist.
After all, his main Cultivation Technique was the Grand Sun Nine Refinement Visualization Method, and this technique reached its limit after making contact with the True Spirit Realm.
Though he had found a path to the Creator through the Qiantian Purple Qi Technique, the difficulty of this path was not small.
"It would be best to obtain the complete legacy of the Aries Star Lord."
Gu Jinlai thought to himself.
Then, as the roaring Spirit Venerable Level Demon Spirit charged toward him, he stepped into the Demon Realm Rift.
"Roar!"
The angry roar of the Venerable Demon Spirit echoed.
Yet, facing this rift of only about twenty-odd meters, it eventually had to halt its pursuit, emitting a reluctant growl.
...
Elsewhere.
Zhang Lihuo, Si Tianyan, Guan Xingyun, Zhang Yukan, Xiang Fengyun, and others, along with the Cheng Ying Mecha, emerged from the rift one after the other.
Their gazes immediately turned to look behind them.
"Supreme Elder!"
"Get ready to guard!"
Zhang Lihuo yelled as he began to visualize the Great Sun Core first.
The others did not dare to delay, each taking a Primordial Spirit Pill and entering a state of Visualization, with dazzling radiance enveloping them and nurturing powerful Soul Secret Techniques.
Although their Soul Secret Techniques caused minimal damage to Catastrophic-level Demon Spirits, they were more than capable of dealing with large Demon Spirits.
Thankfully, the situation did not deteriorate to the worst possible outcome.
After a short while, with a ripple in space, Gu Jinlai stepped out from the Demon Realm Rift.
"Supreme Elder, are you alright?"
Zhang Yukan asked immediately.
"It’s nothing."
Gu Jinlai also took out a Nourishing Essence Pill to replenish his Spiritual Sense and kept his gaze fixed on the Demon Realm Rift.
But...
Perhaps knowing that there was a terrifying Heavenly Master like Gu Jinlai outside, which meant certain death for any common large Demon Spirit or even Catastrophic-level Demon Spirits that attempted to pass through, the Spirit Venerable Level Demon Spirit did not order the Demon Spirits to pursue.
Although the Demon Realm Rift remained open, not a single Demon Spirit emerged from within.
This state lasted for several minutes.
Finally...
The Demon Realm Rift began to gradually shrink.
Just like the Demon Realm Rift in Qiushan Mountain, it tended to close at a collapsing speed.
Even though this rift was over twenty meters, it still took less than a minute to shrink and completely close.
As soon as the Demon Realm Rift had fully closed, whether it was Zhang Lihuo, Zhang Yukan, and other Heavenly Monarchs and Great Heavenly Masters, or Gu Jinlai, who had glimpsed the True Spirit Realm, they all simultaneously breathed a sigh of relief as if a heavy burden had been lifted.
"It’s over."
"The Demon Realm Rift is closed, we have held back this round of Demon Realm Spirit invasion!"
"It’s not just that we’ve blocked this round of Demon Spirits’ invasion, we... even followed the Supreme Elder into the Demon Realm and wreaked havoc..."
"Entering the Demon Realm, that’s just too crazy, too thrilling."
The few of them had completely lost their usual calm and couldn’t wait to vent and express their emotions.
Gu Jinlai understood this very well.
After experiencing a significant event, as long as one was not exhausted to the point of having no energy or directly involved in a tragedy, an unprecedented desire to share would emerge.
After a brief moment of sharing, everyone’s gaze quickly focused on Gu Jinlai.
In their minds, they envisioned the scene of Gu Jinlai brandishing the Great Sun Eternal Radiance against the Demon Spirit of Spirit Venerable Level...
He was like someone holding up the Heavenly Master Torch in a dark storm made of blood-red light, shining endless brilliance.
No matter how ferocious the dark storm was, he always managed to keep the torch from being extinguished.
That scene...
Filled them with boundless admiration and longing.
"A Spirit Venerable Level Demon Spirit."
Zhang Lihuo exclaimed with emotion, "Every scream of it shook my True Spirit, and the spiritual impact it formed when it screeched seemed to tear my True Spirit apart."
"To be honest, facing such a terrifying Demon Spirit, if I hadn’t been at the very back, I wouldn’t have been able to maintain the state of Visualization of the Great Sun Core."
Xiang Fengyun said with a wry smile.
The others nodded in agreement.
Luckily at that time, Gu Jinlai only asked them to temper their spirituality.
Had they been asked to use Soul Secret Techniques to hold it at bay...
Even with Gu Jinlai taking the brunt of the assault in the forefront, they would have been unable to gather their Soul Secret Techniques.
After all, those waves of spiritual shock were far too violent for them.
Gu Jinlai and that Spirit Venerable Level Demon Spirit were like two top fighters clashing; these Great Heavenly Masters couldn’t even get close to assist. Merely the shockwaves from their collision could severely injure them, and even potentially kill them.
Zhang Lihuo looked deeply at Gu Jinlai.
Although he knew that the Venerable Daoist had contact with the True Spirit Realm when arranging the Ten Thousand Spirit Array, he might now be regarded as the number one figure in the Qiantian Heavenly Master lineage.
But, without having truly witnessed his full-force outburst, he couldn’t imagine just how formidable the Supreme Elder had become.
Directly confronting a Spirit Venerable!
Even though it was just a brief confrontation, it still deeply shocked Zhang Lihuo’s heart.
This power...
Even if placed in the most glorious era of the Heavenly Master Civilization a thousand years ago, it would be among those existences only second to the creator.
They could even replace the creators in overseeing the Floating Islands and Space Cities, obtaining almost supreme status in those lands and cities.
"This journey to the Demon Realm was somewhat dangerous, but overall, it could be described as a full return."
Gu Jinlai also relaxed at this time.
As he spoke, his gaze landed on the Cheng Ying Mecha.
"All that’s left is for the Cheng Ying Mecha to fully digest the spirituality, and it will truly complete its transformation, becoming the most powerful War Spiritual Artifact in Lingxiao City!"
Gu Jinlai declared.
"There’s no time to lose, let’s guide the Cheng Ying Mecha to digest this spirituality now!"
Zhang Lihuo immediately said.
Gu Jinlai nodded.
This process, at most, would take only ten to fifteen days.
Just like a fighter jet that had been forged, what remained was merely one final round of testing, and then to paint some colors, assign numbers, and the like.
Even if needed, he could pilot the Cheng Ying Mecha straight into battle and directly fight the Demon Demon King.
Right then, he activated the Thousand-mile Light and Shadow Mirror.
Soon, Gu Luochen, who had been waiting outside with dozens of Demon God Guards, walked in.
"Patriarch."
Gu Luochen bowed and saluted.
Gu Jinlai nodded, "Take the Cheng Ying Mecha back."
After speaking, he turned to Zhang Lihuo and said, "You are all tired as well after this period; have a good rest after returning. There’s no rush to guide the Cheng Ying Mecha through the last stage. It’s not too late to proceed after you’ve recovered. This is a good time to exchange experience in mecha casting."
He added with a smile, "In the future, you will be the main pilots of the Cheng Ying Mecha. Although it lacks the most core energy reactor, in other aspects, it already differs little from a real Cheng Ying Mecha. Feel free to get familiar with it."
"Yes."
"We will not disappoint the Supreme Elder."
"Haha, not tired at all, we can’t wait to see it go into battle," Zhang Lihuo and the others said with a laugh, their mood filled with lightness and joy.
Gu Jinlai gave a slight nod in response.
However, Gu Luochen maintained a solemn expression.
Seeing this, Gu Jinlai couldn’t help but give him a look, "What’s the matter?"
"We have just received news that several large fleets have gathered at the port of Lizhou State... It seems... they wish to make their way towards Jiangzhou State."
