Chapter 502: Chapter 502: Battle of Divine Souls
Zhang Yuan leaped up from the ground.
All the joints in his body emitted a dense tremor in an instant. Each sound seemed to awaken a portion of strength within, his muscles swelled, and his skin stretched. His internal organs and limbs and bones were free to their fullest extent.
At this moment, Zhang Yuan truly felt what it was like to stand at the pinnacle of Tier Six.
Embracing the sun and moon, plucking stars with his hands, moving mountains and seas with a mere gesture, it seemed as if he had the whole world underfoot.
Although Zhang Yuan knew well that this feeling was merely an illusion brought about by the surge in power.
Yet, his current strength was one that not even ten of his former selves could have reached!
Zhang Yuan took a deep breath, closed his eyes for a moment, and then opened them again.
He activated the first host of the Divine Nest, the Black Giant Ant.
Five times, ten times, twenty times, thirty times...
In just a few breaths, Zhang Yuan increased the augmenting power of the Black Giant Ant to the extreme.
Thirty-two times the peak!
Boom!
He suddenly clenched his fist, and a thunderous sound exploded from the base of his thumb.
He effortlessly withstood the pressure of this ultimate burst.
Moreover, he had some spare capacity.
This meant Zhang Yuan could further upgrade both the Black Giant Ant and the Golden Grasshopper hosts to unleash even greater strength and agility.
He couldn’t imagine how strong his combat power would be with forty or even fifty times the augmentation!
The next moment, Zhang Yuan dismissed the augmentation of the Black Giant Ant.
He retrieved a new set of clothes from his storage space and changed into them.
This treasure hunting journey in the ancient desert city, despite its life and death dangers, yielded far more than he imagined.
The only regret was that his Dragon Carp Armor, which had accompanied him for years, was completely destroyed.
He lost a profoundly useful artifact.
Of course, Zhang Yuan merely felt a bit regretful, for he had gained so much.
One must not be too greedy!
Zhang Yuan’s gaze fell onto the ground beside him.
The Red Blood Saber was lying there quietly.
Without a second thought, he reached out and, applying an attraction force through the air, pulled the divine weapon back to him.
Earlier, the Red Blood Saber had pierced through the Skeleton King’s skull and only flew a few steps before falling to the ground.
It also severed its connection with Zhang Yuan’s divine soul.
Zhang Yuan speculated that this divine weapon might have sustained some damage, requiring nurturing and restoration.
Therefore, he didn’t pay it much mind.
However, to Zhang Yuan’s unexpected shock, when he reintegrated the Red Blood Saber into his Qi Sea Dantian, an extremely sinister aura surged out from the blade.
Completely unprepared, Zhang Yuan found this aura rushing straight into his sea of consciousness.
He immediately felt as if he had fallen into an icy cavern.
This sinister aura was attempting to devour his divine soul!
"Humph!"
Zhang Yuan involuntarily let out a muffled groan, nearly losing his composure, and the excruciating pain turned his face red, his eyes bulged, and his forehead was drenched in sweat, distorting his expression.
But having endured the arduous trial of prior inferno burning, Zhang Yuan’s divine soul will had been tempered to be extremely resilient.
Despite the initial blindsiding attack, he did not fall; after realizing what was happening, he immediately erected a defensive counterattack.
Keeping a point of clarity in his mind, Zhang Yuan concentrated his spiritual power, engaging in a fierce struggle against the sinister aura invading his sea of consciousness.
The sinister aura would "bite" him once, and he would counter "bite" it twice, both sides relentlessly entangled and tearing at each other.
Even though he was overwhelmed with pain, sweat pouring, and vision darkening, Zhang Yuan did not submit or retreat in the least. On the contrary, within his sea of consciousness, he fought with growing valor, feeling even a strong sense of challenge and exhilaration.
Come fight!
Mutual harm!!
As time went on, Zhang Yuan’s divine soul consciousness gradually gained the upper hand.
In his own sea of consciousness, which was his absolute domain, as long as he did not give up or surrender, his spiritual power could naturally be generated continuously, engaging in a sustained war of attrition.
By contrast, the sinister aura invading his sea of consciousness, initially menacing and dealing him a hefty blow, weakened as Zhang Yuan weathered the troublesome outset.
It sought to devour Zhang Yuan’s divine soul consciousness, only to be devoured in return.
While inflicting mutual harm, they also fused into one.
The purely sinister aura, therefore, continued to shrink, with its devouring power growing ever weaker.
After an unknown length of time, a sharp wail suddenly echoed in Zhang Yuan’s mind.
The cry was filled with boundless malice, hatred, despair, and unwillingness.
Zhang Yuan’s divine soul was momentarily shocked, nearly losing its composure.
However, the last trace of sinister aura that had invaded his sea of consciousness was completely devoured and fused by his spiritual power.
No residual trace remained.
Peace returned to Zhang Yuan’s sea of consciousness.
After a moment, he recovered his senses, feeling as though he had dreamt.
However, the next moment, countless chaotic and vast memories surged in Zhang Yuan’s mind, flooding his sea of consciousness tumultuously.
They nearly burst his mind open!
Zhang Yuan involuntarily covered his eyes, feeling his eardrums buzzing, like tens of thousands of hornets had entered his skull.
He felt extremely uncomfortable, nearly vomiting blood on the spot!
Fortunately, these memories, which did not belong to him, quickly settled down within the sea of consciousness, silently merging with his divine soul.
They did not further harm Zhang Yuan.
Even so, his spiritual power was substantially depleted, leaving him drenched as if he had just been fished out of water.
The new clothes he just put on were damp.
Zhang Yuan took out a gourd from his storage space and drank the stored mountain spring water in one go, clearing his mind completely.
Recalling the sinister aura that invaded his sea of consciousness, Zhang Yuan still felt lingering fear.
He promptly checked the Red Blood Saber residing within his Dantian.
The divine weapon, as Zhang Yuan speculated, had its core spirituality considerably damaged.
It wouldn’t be usable in the short term.
But within the blade, there was no strange aura or power present.
Zhang Yuan surmised that the sinister aura likely originated from the Skeleton King; after the Red Blood Saber pierced its skull, it was contaminated and adhered to the blade.
Unaware, he had retrieved the divine weapon into himself, triggering the sinister aura.
It attempted to possess!
As this thought arose in Zhang Yuan’s mind, the massive memories that had settled into his divine soul immediately resurfaced.
However, this time they were no longer chaotic and disordered, but were vividly and vividly presented in his sea of consciousness in the form of scenes.
Zhang Yuan’s mind was involuntarily drawn in.
After a very long period, until his stomach growled with hunger and thirst, he suddenly awoke.
But at this moment, Zhang Yuan couldn’t bother with eating or drinking.
Since he fully understood the origins of the underground palace, the sinister aura, and the ball of flame he had swallowed.
His thoughts flew, unable to extricate himself for a long while.
