Chapter 178: Breaking Through the Crisis!

The Three-Eyed Demon Ape unleashed a second attack in concert with his first, shooting a golden beam of light from its third eye at Wu Zhangkong’s head.

This… is a spiritual attack?

Wu Zhangkong’s eyes flashed open the instant the third eye attacked. A golden violet light, far more resplendent than before, burst from within his eyes. This was clearly the full strength of his Purple Demon Eyes.

Purple and gold clashed mid-air, fighting for dominance as they released waves of spiritual power that rippled outwards.

Tang Wulin was still hit by the energy waves while watching from afar. Without any methods to defend himself against a spiritual attack, pounding nausea assailed his mind before his eyes went blank and he lost his grip on reality.

Tang Wulin had been perched atop a tree when the spiritual wave swallowed him and amidst his confusion, he fell to the ground.

Back on the battlefield, Wu Zhangkong raised his head. His complexion was pale, blood flowing freely from his nose and ears. He had taken some damage from that spiritual confrontation just now.

The moment the dust from their spiritual battle settled, the violet energy arrived before him.

In the split second before it arrived, Wu Zhangkong closed his eyes. Then he finally made his move.

His jet-black sixth soul ring rose into the air, enveloping his entire body before flaring with a resplendent white light that flew into the Skyfrost Sword.

Both Wu Zhangkong and the Skyfrost Sword appeared to be as white as snow. His figure vanished an instant later, becoming a white blur that flitted across the battlefield.

Ice bloomed behind the blur’s wake as it shot forth and froze the light in place when it swept past it. Cracks formed at the core of light as it struggled within its icy prison.

Then the frozen casing split open and that radiant violet light exploded in all directions.

The white blur flashed by once more. Clad in white and armed with a white sword, Wu Zhangkong appeared behind the Three-Eyed Demon Ape.

The ape’s smug expression froze in place.

A vertical white line appeared on top of its head, slicing through its third eye and all the way to its crotch.

“Wulin, the third eye!” Wu Zhangkong’s booming voice sobered Tang Wulin. His head was still splitting from the spiritual shock-induced headache when he heard his teacher’s call.

It felt like a thousand needles were stabbing his brain, a pain that overwhelmed his senses to the point where he wanted to smash his head into a wall.

Although his vision was fuzzy, he still managed to send out his Bluesilver Grass with a thought.

Goldlight slithered out of his body and bore into a strand of Bluesilver Grass. The strand seemed to breathe into life as it transformed from azure to gold and hardened. It pierced through the Three-Eyed Demon Ape’s third eye like a spear before penetrating into the ape’s brain.

Tang Wulin collapsed in exhaustion as dark spots darkened his vision and sweat poured from his body.

At that moment, an immense wealth of energy flowed into him through the golden vine.

While it wasn’t his first time absorbing spirit energy, this time was the most unique. The energy was split into two; Goldlight was rapidly absorbing one part of the energy as it rested within the grass, while the other was flooding into Tang Wulin’s brain. It was this latter energy that was the cause of the stabbing pain in his brain. Releasing a muffled groan, Tang Wulin immediately lost consciousness.

Wu Zhangkong silently stood there, pale-faced as he took notice of Tang Wulin’s situation. He appeared beside his disciple like a bolt of lightning, brows furrowed and eyes bewildered.

He had been so focused on obtaining this ten-thousand-year soul beast’s spirit energy for Tang Wulin, that he forgot a crucial fact; the beast was of the ten-thousand-year level that could range from the beginning of the realm all the way to the peak. If it was more than the maximum age, just how much excess spirit energy was Tang Wulin absorbing?

During the previous evaluation, it was determined that Tang Wulin’s spiritual power was strong enough to endure little more than two-thousand-years worth of spirit energy. Any more than that would risk his mind and body crumbling apart.

Tang Wulin’s spirit soul had reached about 1,300 years after absorbing the energy of the previous soul beasts. Currently, he was absorbing the spirit energy of this ten-thousand-year Three-Eyed Demon Ape—a minimum of 1000 years worth. The question now was whether Tang Wulin’s body was strong enough to endure this magnitude of spirit energy!

Furthermore, this Three-Eyed Demon Ape was different from ordinary soul beasts; it possessed a tremendous amount of spiritual power. Although there was no method to obtain soul power in the spirit ascension platform, spiritual-attributed soul beasts possessed a special characteristic. Should a Soul Master absorb their spirit energy, they would be faced with a spiritual attack.  

Wu Zhangkong’s eyes held a trace of rarely seen worry. His mind had been muddled after the spiritual clash with the Three-Eyed Demon Ape, thus leading to his thoughtless decision of having Tang Wulin absorb its energy and ending up in this perilous situation.

There was nothing he could do now but wait. The moment a Soul Master began to absorb spirit energy, it would fuse and evolve the spirit soul. No external interference was possible once this process began; even a Title Douluo could only be forced to watch on helplessly as Tang Wulin absorbed the energy.

Not only did the spirit ascension platform increase the age of spirit souls, it also influenced the soul power and spiritual power of Soul Masters. Wu Zhangkong could only silently wait and pray for Tang Wulin’s success. Should Tang Wulin fail, it would end up as more than just a major problem.

☀

Waves of dizziness slammed into Tang Wulin. Though he felt no pain, he was numb to any other feeling as well. Chaos reigned in his spiritual world.

After some time, a sliver of his consciousness woke. He opened his eyes, only to find himself floating in a pitch-black space. In its wake came endless, torturous, pain.

“Wher-where am I?” The pain drilled into his head, making him tremble.

The darkness gradually waned and a pale gold appeared. He watched as Goldlight slowly grew stronger, but then, so too did his pain. The pain was so unbearable that he seemingly yearned for the release that only death provided.

Nothing could alleviate his agony, so he surveyed his surroundings. Cracks appeared within this golden world soon after, numbing his pain.

An idea struck him. Could this be my spiritual world? The space of my consciousness?

“Old Tang!” Tang Wulin screamed in panic. He could sense that as the cracks gradually widened, his impending death was also likely to become a reality.

“Hah…” A sigh resonated throughout the space, announcing the arrival of the golden light before him. The golden light possessed a shape similar to that of a weapon with a long shaft, but that was all Tang Wulin could discern.

Golden rays of light blossomed from the long-shafted weapon and entered the cracks of this golden world.

The cracks paused before slowly beginning to repair itself and restoring the world to its original pristine.

His piercing torture also eased as warmth filled Tang Wulin, healing his suffering mind.

“My powers are limited, you know. You absorbed more energy than you could handle, forcing me to use some of my power to aid you in this crisis. While you should be fine for now, the problem is that I won’t have as much power to help you break the next seal anymore. The pressure you will have to face will be several folds higher than what it should have been. Prepare yourself. Even though you received a large upgrade this time, you absolutely must not do this again, otherwise I will run out of power needed to help you and you will risk your life each time you break a seal.”

Old Tang’s voice resounded throughout this golden world. Tang Wulin felt as if he had reunited with a long-lost relative, but in the next moment the gold faded away and darkness returned. He lost consciousness once more.

☀

A fit of dizziness unlike anything before hit Tang Wulin when he woke up and left him paralyzed, unable to move a finger or raise his head. It was one of the greatest struggles of his life just to simply open his eyes.

It’s cold!

The first thing he noticed was the chill in the air. Sensation returned to his body, but it was still as heavy as lead and uncontrollable.