Chapter 975: Mid Deity Transformation Stage

The sweet melody served not only to ward off enemies but also to provide aid; Lu Yang and Meng Jingzhou fought until they were thoroughly exhilarated, and upon hearing the music, their prowess surged dramatically.

Originally, Meng Jingzhou could only maintain his dharma idol for a brief fleeting moment, but with the melody's blessing, its duration was immensely prolonged.

Lu Yang’s sword qi and spells seemed to spring from an inexhaustible, bottomless well, pouring forth in an endless, boundless stream.

Gan Tian licked away a stray crumb of potato that clung to her lips: "Dried potatoes are decent enough, but they lack flavor. Do you happen to have any honey?"

"Yes, yes, of course." Yun Mengmeng’s storage ring possessed little else, but spice and seasonings were in abundant supply—sesame oil, soy sauce, cumin, chili powder... every imaginable element was present.

"Here, this is the honey I brought back from my homeland, brewed from peach blossoms; it is exceedingly delicious."

Yun Mengmeng retrieved a small vial of honey, drizzled it over the potato slices, sealed the paper bag, and shook it with great vigor until the thick, golden liquid emitted a fragrance exceptionally sweet, carrying a density of spiritual energy that none beneath the Combination Stage could hope to digest.

Having consumed the honey-flavored potato slices, Gan Tian nodded in deep contentment: "Mmh, this time the taste is just right."

Yun Mengmeng licked the sweet honey adhering to her fingertips: "So sweet, Xiao Zhi, would you care for some?"

"No."

Yun Mengmeng stared in immense surprise at her seemingly childish friend: "You are already of such an age, yet you still fear cavities?"

"It is merely that I am unaccustomed to things too sweet."

"I do not believe you."

"..."

Two souls fought while three stood watching; the summit of Heaven Gate Peak was a portrait of perfect harmony.

"How long must we keep fighting?" Lu Yang sent a telepathic message to Meng Jingzhou.

"I know not."

It could be said that the cultivation these two had forged left them with no weaknesses; their strikes were formidable, their physical bodies brutal, both reigning invincible among those of their peerless rank.

In terms of offensive techniques, Lu Yang held the upper hand; in terms of physical hardiness, Meng Jingzhou was superior; now, with Gan Tian composing melodies to rouse their spirits, not only were their strikes and flesh bolstered, but the knitting of their wounds was also astonishingly swift.

To continue fighting in this manner made a decisive victory difficult to attain.

Moreover, it was utterly exhausting.

"You... you should surrender..."

"The one... the one who should yield is you..."

"In your dreams..."

By the end, they struck with an utter lack of strength; though they could still stir the spiritual energy within their bodies, they were so spent they simply lacked the will to do so, yet refusing to concede, they could only clash with naked fists until Gan Tian, seeing their inability to proceed, kindly ceased her strumming.

Without the blessing of the zither's notes, the two lost what little strength supported their frames, took two staggered paces toward each other, and upon collapsing, knocked their heads together with a resounding thud, falling into a deep, heavy slumber upon the earth.

Yun Zhi, standing a short distance away, cast her magic, lifting Lu Yang back to his grotto and returning Meng Jingzhou to his own abode.

...

With Meng Jingzhou’s departure, Lu Yang could finally resume his quiet cultivation in peace.

In the blink of an eye, three years passed.

True to his word, Bai Ye relocated a massive, snow-capped mountain to settle down within the Ask Faith Sect, and Daoist Master Chuiyue, sharing the same physical vessel as Bai Ye, also came to reside there.

Just behind Heaven Gate Peak lay that grand snow mountain, making it easy for Lu Yang to seek out Bai Ye for leisure.

Outsiders remained oblivious to Bai Ye’s existence, assuming instead that the Immortal Palace was attempting to transplant the mythical laurel tree.

Lu Yang and Meng Jingzhou, having cultivated for so long, wished to wander the outer world, only to stumble unwittingly upon a string of serial murders; after investigating the identities of the six victims, they discovered that all six had once guarded a particular shipment, and following this thread, they locked onto the final man—the seventh victim.

By the time they arrived, the seventh man had already been assassinated, but through a bloody symbol drawn by his fingertip in his dying breath, coupled with their own formidable divine senses, they successfully unearthed an encrypted ledger within a hidden chamber of the study.

Thereafter came an endless onslaught of assassins sent to claim Lu Yang and Meng Jingzhou, all of whom were naturally slain in return; these dead-soldiers were bound by restrictions that forbade soul-searching, forcing the pair to refocus their attention on the encrypted ledger until, upon deciphering it, they found it recorded the smuggling operations between the Demon Empire and the Great Xia, involving an astronomical deficit of spirit stones that entangled vast webs of interest.

Lu Yang deduced that any entity capable of managing such a grand enterprise must be one of the few great Demon clans of the Tribulation Transmutation Stage, all of whom currently resided within the Demon City of the Demon Empire.

Disguising themselves as rogue cultivators, they lurked secretly within the Demon City, where they accidentally ran into Zhu Tian, who was traveling incognito; Zhu Tian feigned ignorance of their identities, and after a sequence of staged theatrics, the two finally confirmed that the Nine Infants Clan was indeed one of the smuggling factions.

The pair feigned provocations, creating a tremendous uproar within the Nine Infants Clan, fighting their way from the Foundation Establishment cultivators all the way until they forced a Combination Stage grand demon to strike; seeing themselves outmatched, they made a show of fleeing, luring the Tribulation Transmutation ancestor of the Nine Infants Clan out of seclusion to hunt them, at which critical juncture Zhu Tian struck, suppressing the old ancestor.

Following the vine to its root through the confession of the Nine Infants Clan, they established that the smuggling counterpart within the Great Xia was Duke Qin, Jing Yansong; upon learning of this, the Great Xia court cooperated in the arrest, uprooting the faction of Duke Qin that had smuggled for years, with the illicit gains filling the treasuries of both nations.

The case became the grandest smuggling affair since the founding of the Demon Empire, and was likewise recorded by the Great Xia Ministry of Justice as a classic precedent to be passed down through eternity.

Meanwhile, during his clash with the Combination Stage grand demon of the Nine Infants Clan, Lu Yang had inadvertently slipped a fragmented map from the foe's robes; by searching ancient texts, he discovered that this fragment was the key to unlocking the legendary Cloud Firmament Secret Realm, a place harboring countless treasures that could only be opened once all nine map fragments were gathered.

Lu Yang also discovered that the owners of the fragments could communicate through them; all nine pieces possessed masters, yet none trusted the others, making a mutual gathering impossible, leaving Lu Yang with no choice but to request the aid of the Heaven Divining Sect to calculate the locations of the other eight owners through his piece, after which he visited them one by one, among whom the highest in cultivation reached the Combination Stage and the lowest resided at the Golden Core Stage.

Once the fragments were assembled, the Cloud Firmament Secret Realm was opened, yet it permitted entry only to Golden Core cultivators; Lu Yang thus requested Lord Hanhaidao to employ the nascent power of his Space Dao Fruit to expand the realm's entry threshold, allowing all nine individuals to venture inside.

The Cloud Firmament Secret Realm was, in truth, a snare left behind by a Tribulation Transmutation cultivator from the late period of the Great Gan Dynasty; upon discovering this, Lord Hanhaidao clashed with the Great Gan cultivator and captured him alive, and as for the treasures within the realm, none held greater value than the Great Gan cultivator himself.

Aside from these grand events and a few mundane trifles, nothing of note occurred during these three years.

Upon the summit of Heaven Gate Peak, a Qi-gathering array formed of high-grade spirit stones blossomed from the inside out; Lu Yang held his hands in prayer, seated cross-legged upon a lotus dais formed by nine sharp swords.

Lu Yang formed hand seals to regulate his breath, uniting his essence, qi, and spirit as one, resembling a divine sword poised to pierce the vault of heaven.

As Lu Yang's aura climbed, piece after piece of high-grade spirit stones rapidly drained into hollow shells, transforming into a relentless torrent of power that surged into his body.

Meridians widened, the dantian expanded, and the nascent soul became lifelike... cataclysmic transformations occurred within.

The aura that had scaled to the zenith suddenly dropped, and Lu Yang exhaled a breath of pure clarity; now his spirit was divine and his body pristine, long stripped of post-natal impurities.

He stretched his limbs, evoking a series of crisp, cracking sounds: "Finally, the mid-stage of the Soul Formation Realm."