Chapter 420: The Dragon Yanluos Cursed Spiritual Avatar

Chapter 420: The Dragon Yanluo's Cursed Spiritual Avatar

A day later, outside the sea of karmic flame, a group of cursed effigies were discussing something.

"Am I blind, or has the sea of karmic flame shrunk?"

"You must be blind. This is only the surface of the sea, and the space within is incredibly large and filled with fire. How could the entrance have shrunk?"

"No, it has grown smaller! And the flames within seem to have dimmed as well."

"Do you hear that? Isn't that... scripture?"

The cursed effigies gaped at each other.

Deep within the sea of karmic flame, Xiao Nanfeng sat cross-legged, ten suns orbiting around his body. He was like a huge black hole devouring the karmic flame in his vicinity. A golden Buddha was manifesting around his body, itself absorbing the flames as it released blinding beams of light. The sound of religious chanting could be heard all around him, as though in ritual prayer to the statue of Buddha he now personified.

Xiao Nanfeng opened his eyes and considered the Buddha statue before frowning. His eyes grew cold as he punched forward, shattering the manifestation.

"I cultivate the Imposing Avatar of Rulai—my body evoking Rulai's form, not Rulai's form taking over my body. Manifest anew!" Xiao Nanfeng commanded.

The fragments of the golden statue that had been shattered swiftly recombined in Xiao Nanfeng's visage.

The religious chanting continued, but had become dissonant and vigorous, like a call to arms in search of glory and brimming with vitality.

The golden statue slowly sat cross-legged, combining with Xiao Nanfeng's body to form a cohesive whole. At that moment, Xiao Nanfeng looked like a blazing golden statue filled with all the energy of the flames he had condensed.

The Imposing Avatar of Rulai was an incredibly difficult technique to cultivate, but Xiao Nanfeng's advancement in spiritual cultivation gave him the background he needed to do so rapidly. In just a day, he had already established the outline of his Immortal body. All that remained was to fill it in and reinforce it until it could take physical form.

By then, he had consumed almost a tenth of the near-limitless sea of karmic flame. Now that the outline was ready, however, he could afford to be less careful. What was important now was absorbing as much energy as quickly as he could.

The rate at which he was absorbing the karmic flames suddenly increased tenfold. The flames surged toward him in a tempest.

The sea of karmic flame was very interesting; the space was formed from evoking natural law. As the karmic flames diminished in volume, so too did the space within shrink.

The entire sea of raging flames was being forged into Xiao Nanfeng's Imposing Avatar of Rulai.

"This avatar truly requires an insane amount of energy. Without this sea of flame, I wouldn't have been able to manifest the avatar even if I had consumed the entirety of the Dazheng Empire's resources..." Xiao Nanfeng murmured, his eyes closed in meditation.

After the majority of the day had passed, Xiao Nanfeng's body suddenly glowed with golden flames. Then, everything halted.

"The first stage of the Earth Immortal realm—and I've successfully begun forging my Immortal body!" Xiao Nanfeng's eyes flashed open.

The flames and golden light on the surface of his body had vanished; all returned to normalcy. There didn't seem to be any change to his physical body at all, but he found that he was unable to cut himself even with his strongest attack.

The ten golden crows had all flown back into his body. The sea of karmic flame had shrunk to such a pitiful extent that they wouldn't fit in it.

"Oh? What's that?" Xiao Nanfeng exclaimed.

As the sea of karmic flame shrank, a golden coffin appeared by the borders of the sea.

Xiao Nanfeng flew toward it, having guessed its identity. He attempted to uncover the coffin immediately.

The coffin had been sealed shut with fire-based techniques, but those were easy for him to deal with. He lifted a hand and absorbed the fire from the techniques until they vanished and the coffin popped open.

He immediately pushed the lid aside, revealing a corpse within.

The corpse was dressed in black brocade with draconic motifs, a humanoid with a black dragon's head. It looked particularly imposing.

The Dragon Yanluo's cursed spiritual avatar stretched, flexed, and tested out Hegemon's Fist a few times, then returned into the coffin. After that, Xiao Nanfeng's yin body flew out of its mindscape.

"You're alright?"

"There's some decay where my yin body interacts with the cursed spiritual avatar's mindscape, but it's at an acceptable level," Xiao Nanfeng explained.

He claimed the Dragon Yanluo's cursed spiritual avatar, along with its coffin, for himself.

The blood peach tree had no choice but to give up on these spoils.

Xiao Nanfeng transformed back into his physical body. He glanced at the few wisps of karmic flame that remained, absorbing them all as the sea of karmic flame popped. Some formation seemed to have shattered.

Then, Xiao Nanfeng was suddenly able to hear a series of shouts coming from beyond.

"Something's wrong. The flames of the sea of karmic flame are vanishing rapidly!"

"Has something happened to the sea? Who could have messed with it?"

"Be careful!"

The cursed effigies were all in a frenzy.

As the final wisp of karmic flame vanished, Xiao Nanfeng appeared within a pit in the valley.

The pit was very strange. Although the bulk of the formations keeping the sea in place had shattered, there was still the outline of a palace steeped in black light left behind.

"A human? How could that be?!"

"Two days ago, he must have been the one who fell into the sea of karmic flame! I was right!"

"Has he devoured the sea?!"

"No, he must have used some treasure or another. We have to catch and interrogate him!"

The cursed effigies pointed at Xiao Nanfeng, their eyes glinting.

"You're making a big fuss. I'm right here. Why don't you come get me?" Xiao Nanfeng exclaimed, smiling.

"Get out of the Yanluo Court's domain, then!" one cursed effigy called back.

Xiao Nanfeng looked down at his feet, at the design of a Yanluo Court emblazoned on the ground. It seemed like a special formation in its own right, and gave off the aura of a Yanluo Court.

Xiao Nanfeng considered his situation carefully. "So this is what you're afraid of? This is what's connected to the cloud of annihilation?"

"What do we do if he refuses to come out?"

"Surround him. I'm sure he'll have to step out eventually. Send a messenger to inform our king."

"Right, he won't be able to get away!"

The cursed effigies grinned fiercely.

"Don't worry. Here I come." Xiao Nanfeng stepped out of the pit with a smile.

"What a fool! Take him down!" a cursed effigy shouted. The gathered cursed effigies all shot over.