Chapter 540 - 271: Return Journey
As the duelists darted into the demonic cocoon’s abdomen, the ten Celestial Venerables suddenly withdrew their subjugation technique and leaped high into the sky.
Freed from its bonds, the demonic cocoon went berserk. Its body shook violently as a brilliant golden light erupted all around it. In just a moment, it transformed into a Divine-Demon Alien with the same appearance as the Celestial Venerables.
The demonic cocoon gulped, patted its belly, and laughed heartily. "With so much nourishment, I can finally break through."
With a grand wave of his hand, the ten Celestial Venerables faded like phantoms, merging into his body one after another.
Zhao Rui stared, dumbfounded. In an instant, he understood everything.
Those powerful Celestial Venerables were nothing more than this creature’s avatars. Ten Celestial Venerables, ten Divine Souls, plus the demonic cocoon’s original body—all had combined to form the formidable Divine-Demon Alien before him.
A divine light shot from the Divine-Demon Alien’s eyes, dispersing all the surrounding mist. The world was instantly plunged into a shifting twilight, a state of flickering light and shadow.
The rabbit demons that had died earlier hopped out one by one, like tribesmen performing a ritual.
Zhao Rui coldly observed it all.
"When all is said and done, I still underestimated you!"
Seeing Zhao Rui was unmoved, the Divine-Demon Alien flickered and appeared before him, a smile touching its dusky features.
"Now that my main body has recovered, it’s time to deal with Ajido. That bastard dared to imprison my avatars for so many years, preventing me from regaining my full strength."
The smile vanished from the Divine-Demon Alien’s face, replaced by a gradually intensifying rage.
Suddenly, the nails on its palms grew into sharp blades, instantly forming a cage of razor-sharp barbs that closed in on Zhao Rui.
Zhao Rui let out a cold chuckle, his body instantly flashing aside. He seemed completely unsurprised by the sudden attack.
When Zhao Rui dodged, the blades, as if they had eyes of their own, began to grow rapidly across the ground in hot pursuit.
The blades grew longer and denser, and in no time, they had formed a veritable forest, covering the entire continent.
"This is my domain. Where can you possibly run?"
The Divine-Demon Alien roared with laughter.
But its laughter died in its throat, the smile freezing on its face. "A Primeval God-Monarch?" it exclaimed in shock. "How is that possible?"
It hurriedly leaped high into the air, its eyes wide with shock as it gazed at Zhao Rui, who had transformed into a colossal giant before it.
"A Primeval God-Monarch? No, this is a Heaven and Earth Dharma Aspect!"
Zhao Rui snorted. His cloud-piercing body stomped the ground, and the entire continent convulsed as if an earth dragon were turning over. The land cracked, mountains crumbled, and the entire forest of blades instantly collapsed, buried beneath rubble and gaping fissures.
The Divine-Demon Alien’s face was a mask of disbelief. After a moment of grim contemplation, a vicious glint flashed in its eyes. The aura around it billowed as its body began to act like a black hole, sucking in all the Spiritual Qi in the dimension.
Its body began to swell—a hundred meters, a thousand, three thousand, five thousand, ten thousand, twenty thousand meters!
Its colossal body was truly immense, with bulging muscles like small mountains that produced a violent hum with every movement.
"Is twenty thousand meters your limit?"
Zhao Rui’s towering, cloud-piercing body looked down on the giant striding toward him, a hint of surprise in his eyes.
Thanks to his recent use of Advancement Points, the expansion of his Hidden Meridians was more than halfway complete, and he had absorbed an immeasurable amount of Dark Energy.
After transforming into his True Dharma Body, he now stood a colossal ten thousand zhang high, rivaling the legendary Heaven and Earth Dharma Aspects of old.
This was the fruit of his long stay in Ajido’s interstellar dueling arena.
He had planned to use this power on Ajido during his escape, but his getaway had been unexpectedly smooth, so he never had the chance.
Now, it seemed he would have to use it on this Divine-Demon Alien instead.
Zhao Rui extended a gargantuan hand, unleashing the Twenty-Eight Dragon Subduing Palms. The attack stirred the very heavens, churning the wind and clouds as it flew toward his opponent.
"You think I’m scared of you!"
The Divine-Demon Alien roared, gathering its divine might and lunging at Zhao Rui.
The two giants battled like a pair of titans holding up the heavens, their brutal combat tearing through the dimension.
Wherever they passed, mountains collapsed, rivers changed their course, and the very earth was gouged into deep craters.
High in the sky, the weather churned violently. Countless air currents swirled between the two combatants, coalescing into hurricanes of terrifying power.
The entire sky grew dim. Thick clouds gathered, were blasted apart by the combatants, and then slowly reformed at an even higher altitude.
They fought for what seemed like an eternity, until the Divine-Demon Alien let out a frustrated roar. It suddenly tore open the void, reverted to its original form, and leaped into the fissure, vanishing without a trace.
It didn’t even leave behind a parting threat.
"Fuck!"
Zhao Rui spat. He had wanted to capture it and get the star map.
But the damn thing actually turned tail and fled mid-battle.
Although its power was a notch below his, the gap wasn’t huge. Capturing it wouldn’t have been easy.
That’s what gave it the opening to escape.
Zhao Rui spat again in frustration, and with a flicker, he too reverted to his normal size.
Gazing at the shattered landscape of the dimensional space, Zhao Rui didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
’Without a star map, am I going to be stuck here forever?’
’And am I supposed to fix all these broken mountains and rivers myself?’
Just as Zhao Rui was scowling in frustration, another fissure suddenly tore open in the sky.
’Again and again... will this ever end?’
Zhao Rui was just about to swing his Tribulation-Breaking Sword and plunge it into the rift when a small, square box suddenly shot out.
"Here’s the star map! You wanted to go home, didn’t you?!"
The familiar voice drifted faintly from the other side of the fissure, laced with pure resentment.
"You could have just given it to me earlier! As if I care about this dump!"
With a sweep of his hand, Zhao Rui scooped up a pile of nearby Exotic Treasures, then swung his Tribulation-Breaking Sword to slice open a dimensional rift and jumped straight through.
A dimensional space is a spatial bubble, independent of the main universe.
By tearing a fissure, one can cross the dimensional barrier and emerge in the main universe.
In the blink of an eye, Zhao Rui found himself in an unfamiliar Star Realm.
’This region must not be far from the Divine-Demon Alien’s personal dimension.’
’Since he was so eager to see me off, he probably didn’t mind me grabbing a few parting gifts.’
’No reason for me to overstay my welcome, then.’
He’d been away for so long; he was more than ready to go home.
Zhao Rui casually took out the small square box and infused it with his Divine Soul. Instantly, a stream of invisible information flowed into his mind.
The top of the box then opened, revealing a virtual sphere.
This sphere was the very star map the Divine-Demon Alien possessed.
On it was a red dot, marking Zhao Rui’s current location.
Zhao Rui focused his will and entered the coordinates for the Bright Divine Domain. A yellow line immediately shot out from the red dot, streaking across the vast river of stars to point at a distant Star Realm.
"Damn, it’s that far?"
Zhao Rui’s face fell. This wasn’t like on Blue Star, where distances were measured in thousands or tens of thousands of kilometers.
This was the vast cosmos, where distances were casually measured in billions of light-years.
"Show teleportation waypoints!"
As Zhao Rui called out, a series of blue dots appeared on the star map.
These blue dots represented locations where one could make an interstellar jump.
Zhao Rui glanced down, his gaze sharpening. Gripping the small box, he shot off at extreme speed toward a distant blue dot.