Cultivation Begins From The Desert-Chapter 712 - 696: Battle of Breaking the City [Part 1]

Bang!

The thunderous roar was incessant, and one corner of the sinister and evil Demon City sky had turned into a Thunder Sea.

The cyan-red "Wood Thunder Element Token" had been pushed to its limit by Zhouyang's incarnation, transforming into a giant magic talisman three zhang in length and half a zhang in width, stretching across the firmament. Countless cyan-red "Wood God Thunder" bolts slithered and surged across it like serpents and dragons.

With each activation of Zhouyang's incarnation's spell, thousands of thunders would fall, striking a demon corpse, causing it to howl constantly and continuously weakening the Corpse Evil Demon Qi within its body.

But this "Wood God Thunder" could only achieve this step; to truly annihilate the demon corpse was almost an impossibility.

Since the manifestation of that blue flame divine technique emitting Extreme Cold Qi, the demon corpse's resistance to such Yang Attribute divine techniques had evidently strengthened, and even the "Wood God Thunder" activated by the "Wood Thunder Element Token" struggled to breach its defenses directly.

Zhouyang was now merely using his incarnation to hold back this demon corpse, creating an opportunity for his actual body to kill another demon corpse.

Being surrounded by the enemy, unclear whether other same-tier enemies were lurking nearby, Zhouyang dared not release all kinds of magic artifacts.

He used the "Exorcism Treasure Robe" to protect himself, then employed the "Qianyang Treasure Pearl" and "Qianyang Golden Tower", both capable of wielding the Qianyang True Flame, to attack the demon corpse.

It must be said, the two "Profound Armored Celestial Corpses" of "Celestial Corpse Ascendant", cultivated through absorbing cold ice demonic Qi in the Ice Sea Demon Abyss for a millennium, were indeed extraordinary. Even when clashing with the renowned "Qianyang True Flame" demon refining fire, they were only slightly disadvantaged.

If not personally experiencing this, Zhouyang would find it hard to believe.

Know that, fires like the "Qianyang True Flame" becoming so renowned is precisely because very few demonic divine techniques in history could rival such divine techniques.

Perhaps against some unique demonic divine techniques, such demon refining fires could not exert significant effects, but when squarely confronting, they rarely met adversaries.

Yet in today's battle, the "Qianyang True Flame" was blocked by a demonic flame divine technique wielded by demonic corpse refinement, which stunned Zhouyang.

Seeing this situation, he consequently developed the same idea that past demonic cultivators had towards him, which was to absolutely not let these two demon corpses return!

Fortunately, at this moment, the master of these two demon corpses, "Celestial Corpse Ascendant", was already being held off by Nie Yushuang. Without these two demon corpses as help, "Celestial Corpse Ascendant" would likely find it difficult to defeat Nie Yushuang as in previous encounters.

At the same time, "Celestial Corpse Ascendant" likely had no idea that Zhouyang possessed the "Qianyang Treasure Pearl", a Tier Seven Immortal Artifact capable of enhancing the power of the "Qianyang True Flame".

Seeing that relying on his mastery of "Qianyang True Flame" alone couldn't entirely dominate over the blue demonic flame on the demon corpse in battle, he decisively activated the power of the "Qianyang Treasure Pearl" to strengthen the flame's potency.

Roar——

When the golden treasure tower imbued with golden true flame descended from the sky again, the demon corpse wielding a black long halberd, just as before, howlingly swung its weapon towards the golden treasure tower.

As the black long halberd cleaved down, part of the blue demonic flame, used for body protection, attached itself to the halberd.

The demon corpse had previously thwarted Zhouyang's attacks several times using this method.

But this time, it failed.

As soon as the treasure tower, carrying the golden true flame, came into contact with the long halberd, the blue demonic flame previously capable of contending with the golden true flame was instantly burnt away completely.

Then, not giving the demon corpse a chance to recover from this change, the golden true flame on the treasure tower surged explosively, rapidly forming a golden fire wave, sweeping towards the demon corpse.

Simultaneously, Zhouyang formed a spell with both hands, sending forth a bolt of crimson gold divine thunder to strike down upon the demon corpse.

His "Nine Heavens Qianyang Demon-Annihilating Divine Thunder" had now reached the small success realm, making this divine thunder bolt a few degrees stronger than the "Wood God Thunder" unleashed from the incarnation's "Wood Thunder Element Token", and much more potent against the demon corpse.

The demon corpse was already struggling under the suddenly intensified golden true flame, and then being struck by the crimson gold divine thunder, its body-protecting divine techniques shattered instantly, and the golden true flame adhered to it, burning ferociously.

Roar~ Howl!

The demon corpse let out a howl akin to a beast's roar, desperately urging the Corpse Evil Qi inside to extinguish the true flame on its body.

But all this was in vain.

The overbearing "Qianyang True Flame", once landed on it, quickly burned fiercely using the Corpse Evil Qi on its body like kindling, fueled by Zhouyang's continuous influx of magical power, impossible for it to extinguish on its own.

And it could be clearly seen, as the golden true flame landed on it, whether it was the dark blue battle armor on its surface, or the body exposed outside, both quickly faded in color and cracked open.

The strength of the demon corpse's demon body relied on years of tempering with Corpse Evil Qi; now that this Qi was burned away and purified by the "Qianyang True Flame", the demon body, previously invulnerable to magical artifacts, naturally lost its former prowess.

This equally applied to the demon artifact armor on the demon corpse.

However, if Zhouyang wanted to refine this demon corpse easily, it wasn't that simple.

Don't forget, this demon corpse already had a master.

In another part of the Demon City, the "Celestial Corpse Ascendant" who was battling Nie Yushuang suddenly had a fierce look in his eyes.

He glanced in the direction of the two [Profound Armored Celestial Corpses], muttered something under his breath as he performed a spell with his hands, and then activated the contingency he had left on the demon corpse earlier.

Aoooo—

A wailing filled with pain suddenly erupted from the mouth of the demon corpse that Zhouyang was refining.

This demon corpse, which was about to be refined by Zhouyang, suddenly seemed to have consumed some potent supplement, and black corpse evil qi started gushing out from every part of its body.

In that instant, the golden true flame fiercely burning on the demon corpse was almost entirely extinguished by this corpse evil qi.

But the changes were not limited to this.

As the corpse evil qi erupted, the body of the demon corpse also began to rapidly transform.

In just a few blinks of an eye, the demon corpse, which originally appeared not much different from a normal human, instantly swelled into a gigantic monster with three heads and six arms.

This monster stood three to four zhang high, and besides the central head that still somewhat resembled a human's, the left and right sides each had a lion head and a tiger head. In addition to its original two arms, there were four more arms sprouting from its sides.

It wasn't just its appearance that changed, but also its cultivation aura.

The demon corpse's original cultivation was equivalent to a Mid-Stage Nascent Soul Cultivator and might not even reach the level of a Sixth-Layer Nascent Soul Cultivator.

However, after transforming into this three-headed six-armed monster, the magical power emanating from the demon corpse suddenly soared to a level comparable to a Late-Stage Nascent Soul Cultivator!

With this rapidly ascending powerful cultivation, the demon corpse transformed into a three-headed six-armed monster. The lion head on the left opened its mouth and spat out a mass of pitch-black demonic light, directly extinguishing the remaining golden true flame on its body.

Then, the six eyes of this beast glared fiercely in the direction of Zhouyang, and with a flash of its figure, it vanished from Zhouyang's sensing range in an instant.

Not good!

A warning instinctively flashed in Zhouyang's heart, as if he had realized something. He swiftly formed a spell with his hands, and his body suddenly burst forth with golden light, utilizing the rarely used "Demon-Suppressing Golden Light" divine technique.

This "Demon-Suppressing Golden Light" originated from the [Golden Sun Demon Suppression Spell], possessing a unique restraining effect on demonic power.

At this time, Zhouyang's body was enveloped in a bright golden light, which indeed produced an unexpected effect.

As the golden light blazed, the three-headed six-armed monster, which had previously disappeared from Zhouyang's senses, was instantly revealed by the golden light.

Within this blink of an eye, the beast had remarkably drawn close to within dozens of zhang behind Zhouyang and even deceived Zhouyang's divine sense perception!

It was obvious, when the golden light revealed its presence, that a trace of surprise appeared on the humanlike face of the three-headed six-armed monster. It seemed not to have anticipated that its whereabouts would be exposed so quickly.

But then that surprised expression quickly turned into fierce and brutal intent.

Suddenly, a blood-red eye appeared between the eyebrows of its right tiger head, and a strange crimson light shot straight out from the eye, falling directly onto Zhouyang.

In an instant, Zhouyang, struck by the blood light, experienced a surge of illusions in his mind. Scenes of hellish corpse mountains and blood seas filled his vision, and a sudden sense of violent killing intent arose within him, provoking a desire to act.

However, at that moment, the purple strange flower beneath the feet of his Nascent Soul suddenly flashed with purple light, as if dispelling darkness like the rising sun, instantly eradicating all those illusions and restoring clarity to his mind.

All of this seemed to last a long time, but in reality, it transpired in less than the blink of an eye.

The three-headed six-armed monster, perhaps confident in this move, lunged towards Zhouyang upon seeing the blood light hit him.

When it realized Zhouyang's gaze was clear and unaffected by the illusions of the blood light, it was too late to withdraw.

Protected by the primordial spiritual treasure he had refined earlier, Zhouyang instantly awoke from the illusion realm, seizing the opportunity.

Being a battle-hardened individual, he immediately knew what he needed to do without any hesitation.

With a shout from his mouth and a flick of his sleeve, he summoned a crimson magic artifact like a glazed cover, directing it to envelop the three-headed six-armed monster.

The two were separated by only dozens of zhang at this moment, making a miss almost impossible.

Roar!

The three-headed, six-armed monster lost the initiative, instead being trapped by Zhouyang's magical artifact, leaving it both shocked and angry. It immediately roared and swung its six arms to wildly bombard the glazed cover that enveloped it, trying to break free from its restraints.

However, the sturdiness of that glazed cover exceeded its imagination.

Under its wild bombardment, the crimson glazed cover trembled violently, with crimson dragon shadows emerging one after another on it, yet it was not shattered or blown away.

Then, before it could take any other actions, patches of golden True Flames suddenly fell inside the glazed cover, quickly transforming into a golden sea of fire that engulfed it, as Zhouyang, having gained the upper hand, finally launched his subsequent offensive.

With the external Exotic Treasure "Fire Dragon Shield" trapping it, and the internal "Qianyang True Flame" continuously refining it, even a monster transformed from a demon corpse with three heads and six arms stood no chance of escape this time.

About a quarter of an hour later, this fiend was reduced to ashes in the blazing True Flame, utterly vanished into nothingness.

After refining this demon corpse, Zhouyang, without regard for recovering the magical power he had just expended, immediately urged his magical artifact to refocus on refining another demon corpse.

But at this time, "Celestial Corpse Ascendant," upon realizing that one of his laboriously refined "Profound Armored Celestial Corpses" had been lost, had already proactively recalled the other demon corpse entangled by Zhouyang's External Incarnation, fearing this one might be lost as well.

After all, the array formations within this Demon City had not been broken, with the main field advantage still held by the demonic cultivators. With the demonic cultivator secretly manipulating the formations, it wasn't easy for Zhouyang to retain the demon corpse.

At this moment, seeing the demon corpse escape, he did not waste his efforts chasing it. He immediately turned with his incarnation to assist Master Cyan Yang in attacking the Bone Mountain.

This Bone Mountain, being a base for the "Nine Nether White Bone Array," was protected by the entire array's power. Furthermore, a Nascent Soul Stage Demon Cultivator was controlling it from behind the scenes; Master Cyan Yang alone could not break through Bone Mountain's defenses in a short time.

In fact, Master Cyan Yang's previous actions were merely to divert the focus of the person controlling the array from behind, preventing them from using the grand array to aid the two demon corpses against Zhouyang.

At this time, Zhouyang, having killed and driven away the two demon corpses and reunited with him, their joint efforts made the power protecting Bone Mountain precarious.

Yet just as Zhouyang and Master Cyan Yang felt encouraged and were preparing to break through Bone Mountain's defense to destroy this array base, a mutation suddenly occurred.

They saw a large cluster of ghastly white demon fire igniting atop the Bone Mountain made of numerous white bones, and before their eyes, the entire towering hundred-zhang mountain collapsed into countless bone powder within half a cup of tea's time.

Seeing this sight, Master Cyan Yang seemed to realize something, his face suddenly changing as he exclaimed uncontrollably: "Not good, the cultivator controlling the array from behind is forcibly drawing power from each array base to trigger this array's ultimate transformation divine technique. These demonic cultivators are prepared to fight us to the death!"

As if responding to Master Cyan Yang's words, shortly after his words fell, a series of roaring sounds resonated from various parts of the Demon City, ringing a total of nine times.

Each roar represented a Tier Six White Bone Demon King emerging in the world, equaling nine Nascent Soul Stage helpers to the demonic cultivator's side after nine roars!

Upon hearing these roars, Master Cyan Yang's face turned exceedingly grim.

He quickly turned his head to look at Zhouyang, speaking in an extremely solemn tone: "Since the 'Nine Nether White Bone Array' has already been activated, it's unlikely that the 'Ten Thousand Ghosts Soul-Devouring Array' will remain idle. Fellow Daoist Zhou, we must be extremely careful from this point on and never neglect the protection of the Primordial Spirit, giving those demonic cultivators an opportunity to exploit!"

Zhouyang, guarded by his meticulously refined Primordial Spiritual Treasure, had little concern over the "Ten Thousand Ghosts Soul-Devouring" divine technique, which was reputed to kill even late-stage Nascent Soul cultivators.

However, with the Primordial Spiritual Treasure being a personal secret, he naturally would not reveal it.

Moreover, since Master Cyan Yang's intentions were entirely kind, he didn't want to reject the other's goodwill.

Thus, he immediately replied with a serious expression: "Thank you, Elder Qingyang, for the reminder. I will be careful myself."

Seeing this, Master Cyan Yang's eyes flickered with a hint of satisfaction.

Although, in terms of true power, Zhouyang had already surpassed him, in his mind, Zhouyang was still regarded as a junior.

Therefore, when encountering situations, he could not help but assume the position of an elder, giving Zhouyang reminders and admonishments.

The fact that Zhouyang did not dismiss his reminders and warnings simply because his power was greater gave him the greatest satisfaction.

Having received Zhouyang's reply, he pondered briefly before continuing: "The emergence of nine Tier Six White Bone Demon Kings means that the demonic cultivator side will no longer be at a numerical disadvantage. You and I may find it difficult to continue cooperating in battle next. However, if possible, let's try not to separate too far. This way, if something changes, we can aid each other promptly."

"What Elder said is very true, I think the same way," Zhouyang nodded and immediately agreed.

But the following situation did not develop as the two of them had imagined.

After the appearance of the nine White Bone Demon Kings, even though one of them was not far from them, it did not come to trouble them.

It seemed the demonic cultivators within the city were intentionally avoiding them.

At the same time, the other cultivators entering the city felt increased pressure, with some even being attacked simultaneously by several demonic cultivators and demons of comparable strength.

As they sensed the sudden outbreak of intense magical combat fluctuations throughout the city, Zhouyang and Master Cyan Yang exchanged a heavy glance, their expressions growing solemn.

"Looks like we can only go our separate ways!"

Master Cyan Yang sighed heavily, his voice laden with gravity. 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

The schemes of the demonic cultivators within the city were all too clear.

Whether considering the bigger picture or their individual safety, they couldn't simply watch their fellow cultivators being besieged and do nothing.

Given that more than one fellow cultivator was in danger inside the city, it was impossible for them all to support just one person.

Doing so might lead to another cultivator falling into the hands of the demonic cultivators, unable to receive timely support.

"This is an open scheme; for now, we can only deal with things as they come."

Zhouyang responded coldly, his demeanor very composed.

He had great confidence in his own strength; whatever schemes the demonic cultivators within the city might be plotting, he was confident he could handle them easily and wasn't worried about encountering any misfortune.

Perhaps influenced by his confidence, Master Cyan Yang's tightly furrowed brows relaxed slightly, and he nodded gently: "Then time is of the essence, let us go assist other fellow cultivators."

He concentrated for a moment and then pointed in a direction, "That should be where Fellow Daoist Shen from the Yuqing Daoist Sect is located; I have a decent relationship with Fellow Daoist Shen, so I'll help him first."

He was certainly going to help those he had good relations with first; this was human nature.

Upon hearing this, Zhouyang was not surprised and simply nodded, "Senior, be careful; if you encounter a strong enemy, signal to me, and I will surely come to your aid."

"Same to you, Fellow Daoist Zhou, take care."

Master Cyan Yang said and then maneuvered his sword light to hurry towards the location of the Nascent Soul cultivator Shen Menglong of the Yuqing Daoist Sect.

Seeing this, Zhouyang also concentrated briefly, then departed in the opposite direction.

His social circle wasn't as extensive as Master Cyan Yang's; among the cultivators from the Liuyun Continent Cultivation Realm coming to aid, apart from Shen Menglong, a Nascent Soul cultivator from the Yuqing Daoist Sect, there was no one with whom he had formed any ties.

Therefore, when choosing whom to assist, he didn't consider whether they had any ties to him but rather which place was in the most severe trouble and most in need of rescue.

Since those demonic cultivators placed such importance on him, he certainly couldn't disappoint them!

Perhaps due to their deep-seated fear of him, while flying within the array, the still-operating "Ten Thousand Ghosts Soul Devouring Array" seemed to completely ignore him, never allocating its power to deal with him.

After a short while, Zhouyang saw the person he intended to rescue.

That person wasn't a Nascent Soul cultivator from the Liuyun Continent Cultivation Realm but a Nascent Soul cultivator from the Beiting Continent Cultivation Realm, named Lv Hongyi, who entered the array alongside Nie Yushuang.

Being a Mid-Stage Nascent Soul cultivator, Lv Hongyi's strength certainly couldn't be considered low, but he was a bona fide Ice Element cultivator whose full strength was considerably hindered when dealing with demonic cultivators.

If it weren't for his extraordinary skills in defense divine techniques and possessing a Tier Six middle-grade spiritual artifact "Ice Soul Cold Jade Pearl," facing the assaults of Nether Bone Old Demon and two Bone Demon Kings, he would struggle to hold until Zhouyang arrived for rescue.

"Don't worry, Fellow Daoist Lv, Zhou is here!"

Still at a distance, Zhouyang shouted loudly to boost Lv Hongyi's morale, offering a stabilizing reassurance.

The outcome from this shout was beyond Zhouyang's expectations.

The Nether Bone Old Demon, who was on the verge of breaking Lv Hongyi's defenses, glanced over upon hearing the shout, his pupils contracted, eyes filled with stark apprehension, and his offensive momentum paused involuntarily.

Nether Bone Old Demon knew about "Celestial Corpse Ascendant" dispatching two "Profound Armored Celestial Corpses" to deal with Zhouyang and was fully aware of their capabilities.

Now seeing Zhouyang unharmed arriving, he knew without thinking that the fate of those two "Profound Armored Celestial Corpses" must be dire.

Furthermore, knowing Zhouyang could unscathed beat and slay two "Profound Armored Celestial Corpses," it was certain Nether Bone Old Demon wouldn't be Zhouyang's match.

Not to mention there's still Lv Hongyi present here.

Nether Bone Old Demon, being a true demonic cultivator, didn't even think of probing Zhouyang through a confrontation; he instantly ordered the two Bone Demon Kings born from the "Nine Nether White Bone Array," to entangle Lv Hongyi, then swiftly retreated from the battlefield.

This change stunned not only Zhouyang but also Lv Hongyi, who was amid a fierce assault by the two Bone Demon Kings, almost slipping defensively due to shock.

Unbeknownst to the two who were momentarily dazzled, Nether Bone Old Demon, departing stealthily, crushed a bone talisman in hand, sending a signal to someone operating in the shadows.