Chapter 1135: Breakthrough failure?

"Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh..."The sword light followed like a shadow, each strike precisely severing the connections between the crowd. Seizing the opportunity, Hai Teng advanced swiftly, taking them down one by one, each strike a fatal blow to a Divine Transformation cultivator.

In the blink of an eye, the Blood Refining Sect had lost five Divine Transformation cultivators.

"Who did this?"

A startled elder of the Blood Refining Sect exclaimed.

His answer came in the form of a sword light.

The elder who had just spoken was instantly torn to pieces, but even as his body shattered, his severed arm reached out, firmly grasping the sword light, and then suddenly exploded, his primordial spirit and physical remains self-destructing simultaneously!

"Boom, boom, boom!!"

The explosion was earth-shattering, finally forcing the hidden attacker back a thousand meters, blasting out a blood-filled crater.

Only then did everyone see clearly that the one who had attacked from the shadows was a sword cultivator.

"Li Changge?"

The cultivators of the Blood Refining Sect were shocked, then quickly realized that he had been body-snatched.

Hai Teng glanced at the person behind him and said, "Thank you, it seems you've recovered."

Qin Xuanji remained silent.

He didn't know what choice would give him the greatest chance of survival. Perhaps hiding, perhaps escaping, perhaps joining the other side, but definitely not fighting to the death.

No matter how he calculated, the survival rate of a desperate battle was the lowest, the lowest.

And with the sect-protecting formation destroyed, even stalling for time became an extravagant hope. To show oneself was to die, that was the greatest possibility.

Yet he didn't know why he made this choice.

"A hundred Divine Transformation cultivators, today, we are likely doomed," Qin Xuanji said.

With the resources provided by the Spirit Realm cultivators, coupled with their path of slaughter, sacrificing three cultivation stars, the Blood Refining Sect's power had reached an unimaginable level.

In terms of the number of Divine Transformation cultivators, they were no less than the Divine Continent Star of ancient times.

"No matter, even if we die here today, we'll take them down with us," Hai Teng's eyes showed no fear.

Qin Xuanji shook his head and said, "Try to live a little longer."

Familiar figures once fought for the Divine Continent Star.

As the battle continued, one figure after another fell on the battlefield, and the mountain gate of the Divine Puppet Sect gradually became stained with blood.

…………

Ming Star, around the Ancient Tomb Sect.

Mo Xingtian and Jiang Bufan searched the area over and over, but still couldn't find any trace of Xu Hei.

The positioning of the Sky-Seeking Disk remained unchanged, yet Xu Hei seemed completely invisible. No matter how they disrupted the space or attacked, they couldn't locate Xu Hei.

Though they couldn't find Xu Hei.

They keenly noticed that the Spiritual Qi of heaven and earth in that area was decreasing, the concentration was dropping!

At this rate of decline.

It could only mean someone was hiding in the dark, cultivating and absorbing a large amount of Spiritual Qi, likely preparing to break through to the next realm.

This matched Xu Hei's cultivation and situation perfectly—having reached the Great Perfection of the Divine Transformation Stage, being hunted by Spirit Realm cultivators, aside from a desperate Void Shattering, there seemed to be no other way.

Even with their preparations, even if Xu Hei did break through, they were confident of victory.

But no one wanted to wait for Xu Hei to truly break through, adding uncertainty, especially since he possessed the Demon God Cauldron. Who knew what new abilities might emerge after Void Shattering?

"Strange, what method is he using? Could it be another function of the Demon God Cauldron?"

"Clearly right in front of us, yet we can't find him!"

Both were puzzled.

Upon inspection, they found that the direction of the Spiritual Qi loss was not fixed, it seemed many locations were absorbing the Spiritual Qi of heaven and earth.

The plan to locate the opponent through the flow of Spiritual Qi was also dismissed.

But no matter what, this indicated that Xu Hei hadn't left, he was still on Ming Star, which meant their general direction was correct.

"Hmph, do you really think I can't find you?"

Jiang Bufan took out a jade bottle and crushed it, instantly dyeing the Spiritual Qi of heaven and earth in the area with a layer of purple that only Jiang Bufan could see.

This was a method of marking Spiritual Qi.

When the purple Spiritual Qi disappeared, Jiang Bufan's eyes glowed with purple light as he carefully sensed, only to find that these Spiritual Qi vanished into spatial cracks, disappearing without a trace.

The marked Spiritual Qi seemed to not exist in the world, even his senses lost track of it.

"Impossible, this is absolutely impossible!" Jiang Bufan was stunned.

He tore open a spatial crack and examined it closely, becoming more and more shocked as he looked.

…………

At this moment, in a hidden space.

The world was a gray haze, with only a three-meter square piece of land, where Xu Hei sat cross-legged, taking deep breaths of the Spiritual Qi flying in from all directions. Meanwhile, the nine crystal cores within him had compressed into one.

This single crystal core was pitch black, like a compressed form of the nine crystal cores, completely transformed.

Xu Hei's aura no longer belonged to the Divine Transformation Stage.

Yet at the same time, he hadn't reached Void Shattering, no matter how he tried, he couldn't take that final step.

Breaking the black crystal core and merging all his Spiritual Power into his primordial spirit, uniting the primordial spirit with the physical body, this was the key step to Void Shattering, yet Xu Hei was stuck at this final step, unable to cross it.

His five Dragon Qi were rampaging within the crystal core, trying to merge into one, but it was always impossible.

"Strange!" Tu Sen also voiced his confusion.

He had tried his best for a long time, always failing, leaving Tu Sen both puzzled and a bit surprised.

This situation, with his knowledge, was only the second time he had encountered it.

"What's wrong?" Xu Hei hesitated, "Can't it be done?"

Tu Sen pondered for a long time and said, "Xu Hei, there's a problem with your cultivation technique!"

"Cultivation technique?" Xu Hei thought for a moment and said, "I've cultivated multiple techniques, is this true?"

Logically, cultivation techniques shouldn't affect a breakthrough.

Even if the White Emperor Sutra and Heavenly Demon Technique were only at the first level, not practicing them at all wouldn't affect Xu Hei reaching the Divine Transformation Stage.

"This Nine Extremes Return to Origin secret technique is indeed excellent. As long as you break the crystal core, with the powerful Spiritual Power within, I have a ninety percent chance of helping you break through. But one of your techniques is restricting your realm," Tu Sen said.

"..." Xu Hei fell into a long silence.

A word immediately popped into his mind: Nine Transformations of the True Dragon.

The fifth transformation of the Nine Transformations of the True Dragon, Gathering Dragon Qi, required a total of nine Dragon Qi, but Xu Hei only had five. In such a short time, where could he find the remaining four Dragon Qi?

Wasn't this asking for his life?

If it really required gathering nine Dragon Qi to break through, Tu Sen might not have a solution either.

"What? Judging by your expression, it seems you have a clue," Tu Sen said with a half-smile.

"That's right! It is indeed the cultivation technique's restriction, but in this situation, you can't help me. I can only say that my ability to use Dragon Soul Descent is thanks to that technique," Xu Hei sighed.