The great hall was in a deathly silent at the moment. A few bronze oil lamps shone brightly. The warm lamplight merged with the sunlight that came in through the door slit, and within the light, countless grains of dust quietly floated in the air.
All of a sudden, a floating dust grain exploded, releasing a fist-sized blood-red spell symbol. That was a powerful spell symbol of a blood curse. Ji Hao studied about this spell symbol in depth back in his learning days in the Magi Palace. Hit by this spell symbol, the blood of any living creature would instantly become fresh water.
These floating dust grains in the Town Hall were actually strong defensive mechanisms, and Ji Hao had never heard of something like this.
Along with a dazzling blood-red beam, the spell symbol came to Ji Hao’s heart. Ji Hao turned around his palm and let the Pan Gu bell expand to meters tall, drifting above his head. Dense Chaos power streams poured down. The spell symbol bumped against a Chaos power stream, blasted into a puff of blood-red light spot, and faded in the air.
"Blood-clearing spell?" Sensing the strong impact force through the Pan Gu bell, Ji Hao said with a deep voice, "It’s not so easy to deal with me."
A long series of explosive sound was started, as thousands of dust grains exploded simultaneously around Ji Hao. A dazzling light illuminated the entire hall, when thousands of different spell symbols glowed in the air and generated a whirlwind, roaring around Ji Hao.
Simple patterns of clouds and dragons sparkled on the surface of the Pan Gu bell. A faintly audible bell ring was generated, crushing all spell symbols.
Ji Hao stood up, raised the Taiji divine sword, and seemed to hack straight on Emperor Shun’s head. The sword left a sharp golden beam in the air.
"Here! Come on!" Emperor Shun burst with a growl and patted heavily on his straightened neck. "Come on, with all of your power, cut this neck! I will not fight back, I won’t raise any defense. Let’s see if your sword is sharp enough to behead your own leader!"
Ji Hao gripped the sword hilt, but his heart had sunk. He stared at Emperor Shun, not knowing what to do.
Sky devils were shapeless. They didn’t even have their own physical bodies. They occupied the bodies and devoured the souls of other living creatures to develop. A large proportion of the power of this Ying Zun was now suppressing Emperor Shun’s soul. Therefore, he could not do much at the moment, and Ji Hao could easily defeat him.
But even so, Ji Hao couldn’t save Emperor Shun. Ji Hao could cut off his hands, but those would be Emperor Shun’s hands; Ji Hao could break his legs, but those would be Emperor Shun’s legs. Behead him? No, impossible, because that head belonged to Emperor Shun, and Ji Hao would never cut off Emperor Shun’s head, not even if he were truly out of his mind.
"You!" Ji Hao glared at Emperor Shun and squeezed out a few words through gritted teeth, "What do you want?"
"Your leader’s soul is very sweet and tasty. To my kind, it is the perfect nourishment!" Emperor Shun sat straight, looked Ji Hao coldly and said, "I have a feeling that when I can devour your leader’s soul, I will reach to another level..Same as a caterpillar becoming a butterfly…I will go through a great evolution!"
Emperor Shun narrowed his eyes, sighed while yearning. "Then, I will no longer be Ying Zun. Instead, my people will call me ‘Saint Ying’!"
Opening his eyes, Emperor Shun looked at Ji Hao in the eyes and continued with a deep voice, "You can never understand our strong desire to evolution. A tasty food that is already in my mouth, I will never spit it out…Not to mention the fact that I have already occupied your leader’s body. With his name, I can easily get more souls to eat!"
Ji Hao gripped the sword with both hands. Strong sword intent was released from the sword, transforming into hazy silhouettes of dragons, phoenixes, and other legendary creatures, hovering all over the hall. Ji Hao had been cultivating himself severely, and had been improving fast. At this stage, his sword intent could already condense into visible shapes, which meant he had already stepped into a whole new level.
With a sign of fear, Emperor Shun looked at those hazy silhouettes and murmured, "I now believe that you are powerful enough to kill Xia Zun and Yu Zun…You are not an especially powerful one, but your weapons are, and you have learned a terrifying sword art…What an ogreish sword intent!"
While smirking, Emperor Shun abruptly tilted his head, sighed slowly, and continued, "But no matter how powerful you are, do you dare to even harm a hair of mine? Do you? If you don’t, please, open the door behind you and leave quietly. Will you?"
Gently patting on his belly, Emperor Shun gave a bitter smile and said, "I don’t want anyone to interrupt me while I am enjoying my delicate food. Especially that…This food of mine is a bit too vigorous, and it’s not so easy for me to ‘enjoy’ it."
Ji Hao dropped the Taiji divine sword, took two steps forward, and sat down, face to face with Emperor Shun.
"Name your price. What can make you leave Emperor Shun’s body?" The Pan Gu bell floated above Ji Hao’s head, protecting him against all possible attacks. Ji Hao rested his hands on his knees, then forcibly calmed himself down. With a smile, he asked Emperor Shun.
"Ten souls, equally good as your leader’s soul!" Emperor Shun gave a bright grin and reached out his hands, then spread his ten fingers and said seriously to Ji Hao, "Ten souls, all as good as your leader's soul. If you can offer ten times more, I’ll leave."
Ji Hao didn’t respond.
Ten souls, all as good as Emperor Shun’s soul? If Ying Zun was talking about human souls, Ji Hao would never agree. But, if the souls of other creatures counted…
Pondering for a while, Ji Hao raised his head. His erect eye suddenly opened. In his spiritual space, inside his red sun primordial spirit, and behind that golden and the silver silhouette, the faint and dark silhouette burst with a resonant roar, as it transformed into a three-headed black dragon and wooshed out of the red sun.
A dark beam of light darted out of Ji Hao’s erect eye and sank into Emperor Shun’s body. Invading along with the dark light was the Taiji divine sword, which was transformed into two dragon-shaped streams of light. A black light stream and a dark light stream guarded on both sides of the three-headed dragon as it swiftly broke into Emperor Shun’s spirit space.
The dark silhouette in Ji Hao’s red sun primordial spirit was an embryo of Dao, generated by Ji Hao’s great Dao of Taiji, after it absorbed a part of the great Dao of destruction that came from Yemo Shayi. It was a mixed product of Ji Hao’s primordial spirit power and the great Dao of destruction.
A cultivator's embryo of Dao were generated by the powers of great Dao and his primordial spirit power, and were immeasurably powerful. In other words, embryos of Dao were embodiments of great Dao, with unpredictable powers.
For cultivators with strong embryos of Dao, even if the physical body was destroyed, the embryos of Dao could still exist independently. Without world-destroying disasters, the owners of embryos of Dao could be counted as truly immortal beings.
For many disciples of Priest Dachi, Priest Qing Wei, Yu Yu, Priest Hua, and Priest Mu, their highest goal was mostly growing an embryo of Dao and becoming immortal beings, having eternal lives.
Along with the Taiji divine sword, the embryo of the great Dao of destruction broke into Emperor Shun’s spiritual space. Through the eyes of the embryo, Ji Hao saw nothing but dazzling stars.
It was like the vast starry sky with no edges but countless sparkling stars. Ji Hao was disoriented. He could neither find Yin Zun nor Emperor Shun’s soul.