Before Zhou Donghuang could open his mouth, Su Mo's mind was already running through the ridiculous possibilities, including whether this master of his could have already entered the Primordial Soul stage?
Otherwise, why would he look like one?
In Su Mo's opinion, his master actually entering the early Primordial Soul stage was already an unbelievable feat. After all, when his master had left the Ziyun planet back then, he had not even reached the Dharma stage.
In less than five years, he went from the Primal Core stage to the early Primordial Soul stage, surpassing the four stages of the Dharma stage. This was already an incredible feat in Su Mo's eyes.
Su Mo did not even consider if his master had achieved more than that.
But now...
"Ultimate... ultimate Primordial Soul stage?"
When Su Mo heard Zhou Donghuang's calm answer, he was stunned beyond belief.
Of course, despite being frozen in shock, his mind was still racing with thoughts...
The ultimate Primordial Soul stage?
Besides transcending the four Dharma stages, he had also transcended the three stages of the Primordial Soul stage? And in less than five years!?
How... did his master achieve that?
At this moment, Su Mo could very clearly hear his heart beating louder than ever before.
Just as Su Mo barely managed to regain his senses, Zhou Donghuang's calm voice sounded out once again.
"Even though I am only at the ultimate Primordial Soul stage, if I wanted to kill a regular early Divine Transformation adept, that would not be a problem at all."
Su Mo once again entered a state of shock, his heart beating faster again after having just calmed down slightly.
By the time Su Mo regained his senses again, he had realized that his master had already left, and there was no point in him continuing to hang around in the cave.
After all, the reason he had shut himself in there was to train to reach the Dharma stage.
Now that he had already successfully broken through, there was naturally no more need for him to stay.
...
"Xiao Lu, where are Big Gold and Little Gold?"
After leaving Su Mo's self-isolation cave, Zhou Donghuang arrived at the home of his mother, Lin Lan, and his little sister, Yun Lu. After taking a seat by the stone table in the courtyard, he carried Yun Lu into his arms and cheerfully said, "On this trip back, other than at Lu Qinghu's side sect, I did not see them anywhere else."
Big Gold and Little Gold were the two golden-crowned eagles that Zhou Donghuang had taken in years ago. When he had left the Ziyun planet, the two eagles had also successfully become Primal Core demons.
Yun Lu frowned, saying, "In the past, when they left, they never stayed out for more than a month... but this time, it has already been two months, but they are still not back yet.
"They left before Sister Mengxi and Brother Da Zhuang came."
After hearing Yun Lu's words, Zhou Donghuang nodded, and asked, "Which stage are they at now? Have they been slacking off?"
"A few months ago, they just broke through to the ultimate Primal Core stage," Yun Lu replied.
"Already reached the ultimate Primal Core stage?"
Zhou Donghuang nodded and smiled in satisfaction. "Seems like they have not been slacking off. Given their training, if the two of them stick together, they would be powerful enough to go anywhere they wanted to on the Ziyun planet... furthermore, those few sects with Golden Essence adepts also know of them, so even if they were to meet, I don't think those clans would try to do anything to them."
Yun Lu giggled and said, "Exactly, those two rascals rely on this fact to frequently leech off the food and drinks of those sects... they will even grab a few of their spirit stones on their way out."
"This sounds like something they would do."
Zhou Donghuang laughed along.
...
The Ziyun planet had five main elite sects.
They were the Donghuang Sect, Shenguang Sect, Qianqiu Sect, Tianwu Sect, and the Xuesha Sect.
And before the emergence of the Donghuang Sect, the Ziyun planet also had five top tier sects, with the additional one being the Xuanyin Sect. However, it was extinguished by Zhou Donghuang.
The Xuesha Sect, being one of the Ziyun planet's top five sects, also had a long history.
However, during that fateful Ziyun feast five years ago, the Xuesha Sect lost one of their late Primal Core adepts, who unfortunately was also the Xuesha Sect Leader.
After that incident, the Xuesha Sect's status amongst the Ziyun planet's top five fell to the bottom.
Even on a daily basis, when the Xuesha Sect disciples were out, they felt a sense of inferiority to the disciples of the other four sects. This was due to the Xuesha Sect's most powerful adepts still being weaker than those of the other sects.
The Xuesha Sect's territory resided within a plain of grass. The grass in this plain was all blood red in color, and when looked at from afar, the entire plain looked as if it has been soaked in blood.
This place has also been named the "Blood Plains." Anyone who trespassed into this territory would face a terrible outcome.
At this moment, within the backyard of one of the mansions in the Xuesha Sect camp, stood an extremely scrawny old man in a grey shirt. He sat cross-legged amidst an open space, and one could very clearly see blood flowing through his entire body.
The streams of blood arose from the two large corpses as lying in the courtyard.
One could see the stream of blood slowly becoming weaker.
When the last stream of blood entered the old man's body, a breath of life trembled through him, and he immediately came to life.
At the same time, a part of his originally white long hair miraculously turned black.
His skinny body also began to grow, as though being inflated like a balloon. He fully regained a normal physique, and he even looked somewhat strong.
His old and skinny face also underwent tremendous change. Not only did it regain some fat, but it also became younger, like that of a middle-aged man.
"I can't believe there was a blessing in disguise that allowed me to break through to the Primordial Soul stage."
A smile hung on his lips as the old man looked at the two mountain-like corpses that lay on the floor as his eyes shined. "These two ultimate Primal Core golden-crowned eagles were definitely a huge boost to me!"
Months ago, as he was trying to reach the Primordial Soul stage, he was chased out of his galaxy by his enemy. Amidst his aimless escape, he had unexpectedly landed on this planet.
He thought that he would definitely die, but who would have known that he would successfully reach the Primordial Soul stage and gain another 400 years of life.
What was once his weak and feeble old body was now rejuvenated and retained the vigor of youth.
"The fact that these two small golden-crowned eagles trained until they reached the ultimate Primal Core stage while being on a planet with such a weak aura and poor standards of martial arts—that is really quite a miracle!
"It seems that Zhou Donghuang of that supposed Donghuang Sect must have precious kind of treasure.
"Before I leave this lackluster planet, I shall take a stroll around Donghuang Sect and destroy all that Zhou Donghuang established," the old man gleefully murmured to himself, his eyes gleaming with greed.
But right at this moment—
Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!
Three silhouettes appeared out of thin air, and in the blink of an eye, they arrived in the backyard. They each respectfully bowed towards the old man, saying "Congratulations Senior, for successfully reaching the Primordial Soul stage!"
These three men consisted of two elders of the Xuesha Sect, as well as the new Xuesha Sect Leader, who was chosen after the previous one was killed by Zhou Donghuang a few years ago.
Of the three of them, one was at the late Primal Core stage, while the other two were at the ultimate Primal Core stage.
Three months ago, this old man before them, severely injured and ill, had appeared on the Blood Plains of the Xuesha Sect territory.
Back then, they could have killed this old man.
However, the old man had said that he was an ultimate Dharma adept and that if they saved him, he was willing to impart the secret skill of absorbing the blood and essence of demons.
At the same time, after he recovered from his injuries, he could help them unify the entire the Ziyun planet.
They were convinced.
Therefore, after a brief discussion, they not only took in the old man, but even provided him with a large number of demons to allow him to absorb their essences to recover.
One month ago, the old man fully recovered from his injury.
Right at this time, the two golden-crowned eagles of the Donghuang Sect once again came to the Xuesha Sect.
In the past, even though the Xuesha Sect elders were frustrated with the two golden-crowned eagles' presumptuous ways within the Xuesha Sect, they were helpless. They couldn't kill the eagles and were even afraid of hurting them.
They could only allow the two eagles to continue their arrogant behavior within the Xuesha Sect.
However, this time around, they did not intend to let the two golden-crowned eagles off, and they sought the help of the old man to kill the two golden crowned eagles.
The old man was already close to breaking through to the Primordial Soul stage, and with the help of the blood of these two ultimate Primal Core golden-crowned eagles, the old man finally succeeded.
There had never been a Primordial Soul adept in the history of the Ziyun planet, but one had just been produced in the Xuesha Sect!
"What I have promised you, I will definitely not go back on my word."
The old man looked indifferently at the three of them from the Xuesha Sect and said, "Tomorrow, you'll bring me to annihilate the other three sects, excluding the Donghuang Sect.
"I will help you kill all the adepts of those three sects who are at the late Primal Core stage and up.
"Finally, I will go to the Donghuang Sect and kill all the late Primal Core adepts of the Donghuang Sect, as well as the Donghuang Sect Leader, Zhou Donghuang!
"However, whatever treasure that Zhou Donghuang has, that will be left to me."
The moment the old man finished speaking, the eyes of the three Xuesha Sect members lit up, and they said, "Senior, the fact that you can help us kill the late Primal Core adepts of the other four sects is already a huge blessing to us, how could we dare ask for more?"
"Only a senior of your status is worthy of Zhou Donghuang's treasure."
...
At the same time, the three of them did not forget to remind the old man that Zhou Donghuang was not an easy target. "Senior, five years ago, Zhou Donghuang killed an early Dharma adept when he was only at the late Primal Core stage.
"Given his progress, he most likely has already reached the Dharma stage, and as for which stage he is currently at, we are unsure. So Senior, it is better that you be careful."
The old man was nonchalant. "That early Dharma adept had only just reached the Dharma stage when he was killed, and he did not have the chance to perfect his Dharma Power yet... furthermore, he had no Dharma spirit weapons with him.
"As for me, even though I have only just reached the Primordial Soul stage, I have a Primordial Soul spirit weapon with me, and it is a mid-quality spirit weapon!"
The old man was full of pride and confidence, "You should rest assured... Zhou Donghuang will not stand a chance against me!"