CHAPTER 375: CHAPTER 360: DESTROYING THE GOLDEN CORE!

Zhong Chuming had to exert considerable effort to catch up with Zhouyang and his party.

Although the Beast Taming Sect is also a renowned major sect within the Liuyun Continent Cultivation Realm, its foundational strength is notably lacking compared to the Profound Sun Immortal Sect.

The Profound Sun Immortal Sect, through secret teleportation arrays constructed throughout the Liuyun Continent Cultivation Realm, has the capability to rapidly send sect cultivators hundreds of thousands, even up to millions, of miles away.

The Beast Taming Sect falls far short in this regard.

Departing from the Beast Taming Sect mountain gate, Zhong Chuming first used a teleportation array to arrive at a location tens of thousands of miles away from the incident.

Then, he soared through the clouds and mist, retrieving Zhouyang’s remaining blood from a Beast Taming Sect disciple to feed to the "Nether Crow" to determine Zhouyang’s escape direction.

Afterwards, he continuously relayed messages to the sect, allowing the sect’s intelligence personnel to distribute them to all factions along the route, while he pursued Zhouyang and Xu Song day and night using both the Soaring Through the Clouds Divine Techniques and riding mounts.

Fortunately, he’s a Golden Core Stage Cultivator with profound magical power, and he rears a Tier Four Middle-Grade Flying Spirit Beast specifically for travel, allowing him to fly tirelessly for several days and ultimately catch up with them before they entered the Broken Cloud Mountain Range.

"Damn brat, to kill you, my Beast Taming Sect has sacrificed several elite inner sect members, causing even me to be reprimanded by the sect master uncle. How should I deal with you?"

In the wild barren mountains, Zhong Chuming stood on the back of a massive earth-yellow turtle with a back spanning thirty to forty zhang, and angrily growled at Zhouyang.

By this point, he didn’t want to kill Zhouyang quickly, finding it too lenient.

Zhouyang, seeing Zhong Chuming’s wrathful expression and looking down at the Tier Five Lower Grade Demon Beast "Gen Mountain Turtle" beneath him exuding a mighty mountain-like aura, his face turned pale.

If it were only Zhong Chuming alone, perhaps he could exhaust his means and, with Xu Song fighting desperately, still resist somewhat.

But with the addition of a "Gen Mountain Turtle," he had no chance of winning.

"Looks like I have no choice but to use that item!"

With a silent sigh, he looked furiously at Zhong Chuming and cursed angrily: "You shameless old dog, if it wasn’t for your greed wanting to seize my spirit pet, would we have become enemies?"

"If it weren’t for your Beast Taming Sect cultivators bent on killing me, why would I kill them?"

"You’ve caused the death of sect disciples yourself, punished by the sect elders, yet you refuse to repent, instead shifting blame onto me, truly despicable beyond words, utterly shameless!"

To be called "old dog" by a Purple Mansion Stage Cultivator was not something Zhong Chuming could tolerate.

"Brat, you’re courting death!"

With an angry roar, he waved his hand and sent a flying sword slashing towards Zhouyang.

Meanwhile, the Tier Five Lower Grade Demon Beast "Gen Mountain Turtle" let out a roar, opening its mouth and shooting a earth-yellow spiritual power beam towards Zhouyang.

Xu Song, controlling the Bone Flying Ship, hurriedly summoned his black Demon Umbrella, creating a black light screen in front of him to narrowly block Zhong Chuming and the spirit pet’s attack.

However, the cost of blocking the attack resulted in Xu Song’s previously solid, human-like ghost body turning increasingly ethereal.

Ghost cultivators lack flesh and blood; their ghost bodies are formed entirely from their own magical power, so the state of their ghost body indicates their condition.

When a Golden Core Stage Ghost Cultivator can no longer maintain their ghost body, they are close to death.

"A mere ghost dares to act impudent, die!"

Zhong Chuming had no intention of entangling with Xu Song. Seeing Xu Song block his and his spirit pet’s attack, he immediately raised his hand to throw out the Tier Four High-Grade Spirit Talisman "Celestial Spirit Divine Thunder Talisman" he exchanged from the sect treasure vault.

Bang!

A rumbling thunder exploded as a thick silver-white celestial thunder descended from the sky, striking towards Xu Song and Zhouyang.

This "Celestial Spirit Divine Thunder Talisman" can only be crafted by cultivators versed in Thunder Element Techniques, possessing genuine celestial thunder’s evil-busting power. Despite being only Tier Four High-Grade, if it actually hits, even someone like Xu Song, a Golden Core Stage Ghost Cultivator, would be severely injured or killed.

"Cyan Splendor Technique, Lotus Manifestation!"

"Disaster Elimination, Divine Armor Eternal!"

At that moment, seeing the thunder suddenly fall, Xiao Ying, who was always like an invisible person, suddenly stood up from the flying ship, unleashing two of her long-practiced life-saving divine techniques.

A lotus with nine petals suddenly blossomed in the air above the flying ship, precisely blocking the descending silver-white celestial thunder.

Simultaneously, a cyan-colored divine armor with countless intricate divine patterns appeared on Xiao Ying’s body, then she soared into the sky to resist.

She defied even a Late-Stage Purple Mansion Cultivator by resisting the "Celestial Spirit Divine Thunder" with her First-Layer of the Purple Mansion Cultivation!

"Ying’Er!"

With a sorrowful cry, Zhouyang suddenly raised his hand, summoning the purple jade talisman gifted by Master Cyan Yang.

Not good!

As soon as the purple jade talisman left Zhouyang’s hand, Zhong Chuming’s heart skipped a beat, almost stopping.

He hailed from the Beast Taming Sect, a top-tier major sect, and possessed top-notch insight and vision. From the aura emitted by the purple jade talisman, he could immediately tell that it must be a Dao protection treasure specially crafted by a Nascent Soul Stage cultivator for their descendants.

At this moment, he didn’t have time to wonder why Zhouyang, a mere loose cultivator of unknown origin, possessed such a precious Dao protection treasure, which even Golden Core Stage cultivators would find hard to obtain. He just wanted to save his own life.

"Beast Spirit Secret Technique, Human-Beast Unity!"

He shouted loudly, his face flushed, as his body swiftly transformed into a mass of blood light, merging with the Tier Five Lower Grade demon beast "Gen Mountain Turtle" beneath him.

This is the Beast Taming Sect’s exclusive secret divine technique, which can only be performed by cultivators with Golden Core Stage cultivation. Once executed, it temporarily merges the cultivator and the spirit beast, greatly enhancing combat power and survival ability.

However, this divine technique comes with strong side effects. After merging, the practitioner is easily influenced by the beastly nature, leading to becoming possessed.

Therefore, unless it’s a desperate situation requiring a desperate fight, no Golden Core Stage cultivator from the Beast Taming Sect is willing to use this secret divine technique.

Zhong Chuming initially had a Fourth-Layer Golden Core cultivation level. After merging with the "Gen Mountain Turtle," the creature’s original Tier Five Lower Grade cultivation immediately surged to nearly Tier Five Top Grade.

The "Gen Mountain Turtle," as a demon beast, is renowned for its defense divine techniques. When the Tier Five Lower Grade "Gen Mountain Turtle" fully retracts its head for defense, even a Late-Stage Golden Core cultivator would struggle significantly to break its defense.

Now that the "Gen Mountain Turtle’s" magical power aura has risen to Tier Five Middle Grade, the power of its defense divine techniques has also greatly increased.

It roared, and a vast yellow light burst forth from its broad back, the yellow light several feet thick, soon forming an earth-yellow battle armor that completely shielded its entire body, leaving not even its eyes or tail tip exposed.

Yet even so, in the face of the Nascent Soul Stage cultivator’s divine techniques, such resistance seemed so powerless.

The sky flashed with purple lightning, and the purple jade talisman given to Zhouyang by Master Cyan Yang shattered silently into dust, its entire power transforming into a purple divine thunder as thick as a pillar, striking towards the "Gen Mountain Turtle."

This purple divine thunder, known as "Profound Sun Purple Sky Divine Thunder," is a thunder technique divine technique that only Nascent Soul Stage cultivators within the Profound Sun Immortal Sect can perform.

This "Profound Sun Purple Sky Divine Thunder" is famously known as the hallmark divine technique of the Profound Sun Immortal Sect’s Nascent Soul Stage cultivators. For tens of thousands of years, countless demonic beings have been annihilated under this divine thunder, their divine souls extinguished.

Among cultivators below the Golden Core Stage, those in the entire Liuyun Continent Cultivation Realm who can survive a strike of the "Profound Sun Purple Sky Divine Thunder" are likely fewer than two handfuls.

Despite the significant increase in strength after merging with the "Gen Mountain Turtle," Zhong Chuming could at best match an equal level with a Ninth-Layer Golden Core cultivator.

But not every Ninth-Layer Golden Core cultivator can withstand a strike of the "Profound Sun Purple Sky Divine Thunder" and live.

Thus, when the dazzling purple divine thunder descended from the heavens, the thick yellow light armor covering the "Gen Mountain Turtle" immediately disintegrated like melting ice and snow.

Then, the nearly foot-thick turtle shell could not withstand the power of the divine thunder and was blasted into a hole half a foot square, the shell, flesh, and bones inside instantly vaporized into blue smoke.

Afterward, the massive "Gen Mountain Turtle," like a small mountain collapsing, fell toward the earth below.

Rumbling!

When the massive demon body of the "Gen Mountain Turtle" struck the ground, a mountain two or three hundred feet high was directly flattened, turning into a plain. The ground within a ten-mile radius, centered around the impact point, was crisscrossed with deep fissures resembling a giant spider web, as if it were the epicenter of a magnitude ten earthquake.

Such is what is meant by landslides and ground cracks.

"Ying’er, Ying’er, are you okay! Don’t scare me!"

On the Bone Flying Ship, there was no joy of vanquishing a formidable foe visible on Zhouyang’s face. Instead, he looked panicked as he reached out to hold his Dao companion Xiao Ying, who was also falling from the sky. Having not shed tears for many years, two streams of tears unwillingly flowed down his cheeks, wetting his face.

"I... I’m fine, Zhou Lang, quickly... quickly escape!"

Cradled in Zhouyang’s arms, Xiao Ying, critically injured and on the brink of death, looked pale as she struggled to open her eyes to gaze upon the handsome face of her beloved man. Using all her remaining strength, blood dripping from her lips, she trembled as she spoke her mind, then her head tilted, and she fainted completely.

She had withstood an attack from a Tier Four High-Grade Thunder Spell with her First-Layer of the Purple Mansion cultivation. Not being disintegrated on the spot was a stroke of great fortune.

Of course, she did this not to save Xu Song, the ghost cultivator, but to save Zhouyang.

At the time, the three of them were on the same flying ship, and Zhouyang needed to focus on activating the purple jade talisman given by Master Cyan Yang. If she hadn’t blocked the "Celestial Spirit Divine Thunder," Zhouyang wouldn’t have survived the thunder strike.

"Ying’er! Ying’er, hold on, I will definitely save you, I will definitely save you!"

Zhouyang stared at his unconscious Dao companion, screaming maniacally as he hurriedly retrieved various healing spirit pills from his storage ring, feeding them into Xiao Ying’s mouth and infusing them with his magical power to help her absorb them.

The elixirs thus absorbed couldn’t exert their full effects, but to Zhouyang, as long as he could save Xiao Ying’s life, he didn’t mind wasting as many spirit elixirs as needed.

"Fellow Daoist Zhou, calm down. Miss Xiao’s cultivation of a Wood Element Technique inherently provides strong resistance to Thunder Magic attacks, and if I am not mistaken, the technique she practices is also highly effective in healing and recovery."

"She is currently only severely injured and unconscious. Giving her too many elixirs will not only fail to aid her injuries but might also cause internal injuries due to drug interactions."

On the Bone Flying Ship, Xu Song, who had not suffered much harm thanks to Xiao Ying’s protection, saw Zhouyang panicking and losing his composure. He had to offer words of comfort.

After offering these comforting words and seeing Zhouyang pause as if he had listened, Xu Song hurriedly continued, "The most pressing issue now is to heed Fellow Daoist Xiao’s advice and leave this place immediately."

"With a Golden Core Stage Elder from the Beast Taming Sect dead, it will surely prompt the investigation from a Nascent Soul Stage cultivator. We must enter the Broken Cloud Mountain Range before that Nascent Soul Stage cultivator arrives!"