Chapter 751 - 434: Zou Yi and Zou Er

Seeing the aura of the entity becoming increasingly ominous, Wang Tianhu naturally grew tense. That was why he asked Zou Feng if they had bitten off more than they could chew. After all, the inherent danger level of the Poisonous Miasma Forest Sea was relatively low.

The Pinnacle Celestial Immortal Sect had three Golden Core Realm Cultivators holding the line. Coupled with Zou Yi, who was proficient in the Poison Dao and fully in his element here, they had faced only false alarms over the past three years. As their exploration progressed, everyone reaped substantial benefits. However, Zou Yi had felt they weren’t playing a big enough game. He insisted on nurturing a massive boss-level threat to secure even greater rewards. Out of trust in Zou Feng, Wang Tianhu had agreed to cooperate, but now, he was clearly starting to regret it...

"Brother Wang, there is no need to worry!

"Although this Demon Tree is formidable, anyone who eats too much will burst, let alone when so many Exotic Poisons are mixed together.

"It will be soon. We just need to wait for it to explode..." the white-haired Zou Yi said with unwavering certainty, as if everything was firmly under his control.

Compared to Zou Feng’s true body, Zou Yi clearly lacked a bit of humanity, acting more like a cold, emotionless machine.

Just as his voice fell, the Chang Poison Demon Tree in the distance suddenly underwent a bizarre mutation. Its massive trunk and branches began to writhe continuously, and faint, beast-like roars echoed from within. All of its leaves seemed to gain a mind of their own, thrashing about madly.

Seeing this, Zou Yi wasn’t surprised in the slightest; instead, he revealed a cold sneer. The food "offered" to the Chang Poison Demon Tree consisted of far more than just a massive amount of local poisonous creatures. Zou Yi naturally hadn’t forgotten to mix in some "special ingredients." By injecting his own unfathomable Exotic Poison, he pushed the Chang Poison Demon Tree to its absolute breaking point.

It was done!

BOOM!

Amidst an earth-shattering roar, the writhing Chang Poison Demon Tree violently exploded. Wang Tianhu and the others truly hadn’t expected such a colossal existence to detonate just like that. The sheer magnitude of the blast made it feel as if the entire Poisonous Miasma Forest Sea was trembling.

Meanwhile, Zou Yi didn’t even blink, his unwavering focus fixed on the epicenter of the blast. The Chang Poison Demon Tree had detonated, leaving behind countless valuable materials that could be claimed as the spoils of this expedition into the Outer Realm. However, what Zou Yi truly sought was its Crystal Core, the very essence of its condensed venom. It was a desire born from primal instinct.

Suddenly, amidst the billowing smoke and dust, a bizarre red light flashed and vanished in an instant. Almost simultaneously, Zou Yi shot forward like an arrow released from its bow, streaking rapidly toward the epicenter of the blast.

Such an action was naturally extremely perilous. The explosion was still ongoing, and the violently mixed, highly potent toxins erupting from the blast were difficult to endure, even for Zou Yi. But he knew he had to do it. The Demon Tree’s Crystal Core had long since developed a consciousness of its own. Even the slightest carelessness would allow it to escape, and missing this opportunity would be akin to finding a needle in a haystack later.

As for his own safety? At the very least, as an Outer Body Incarnation, Zou Yi was nothing more than an emotionless machine that strictly executed his true body’s commands. Completing the mission would always take absolute priority.

Yet, seeing Zou Yi dash toward the most dangerous position, Wang Tianhu cried out, "Junior Brother Zou!" before chasing after him without a second thought.

Meanwhile, in a border region where the Eastern Earth Immortal Realm met the Northern Domain, lay an area situated quite a distance away from where the Celestial Hearing Tower used to be. That fact alone showed just how remote this place was. Precisely because it was so isolated and lacked any resources required by the Pinnacle Celestial Immortal Sect, the local residents generally lived normal lives, largely free from the interference of cultivators.

A century ago, a small nation was even established here, known as Cheyue Country. The people of Cheyue Country naturally knew that the outside world belonged to cultivators, and that the Pinnacle Celestial Immortal Sect was so immensely powerful that they couldn’t even fathom looking up to it. Thus, from top to bottom, the entirety of Cheyue Country existed in a state of peaceful isolation from the rest of the world. All the residents simply hoped to continue living their stable lives. However, with the large-scale invasion of the Tribulation Cultivators, this modest wish naturally became an impossible luxury.

While Cheyue Country lacked any decent resources, it was home to a sizable population born with exceptionally robust physiques. For the Tribulation Cultivators, this was an excellent resource; they were prime human stock!

Since the Pinnacle Celestial Immortal Sect had stretched their frontlines too thin, they temporarily had no time to attend to these remote regions. Now, the ones ruling over this place were three Immortal Officials of the Ninefold Celestial Court, along with a host of Celestial Soldiers and Generals. Furthermore, because the Celestial Tribulation Cultivators of the Ninefold Celestial Court had been entrenched here for quite some time, they had set up numerous defensive structures. Using a vast array of vicious traps, they repeatedly caused Immortal Sect Disciples who stumbled into the area to suffer disastrous setbacks.

Indeed, despite its remoteness, disciples of the Pinnacle Celestial Immortal Sect would still occasionally wander into this place for various reasons. But due to a lack of prior intelligence, by the time they arrived, they would realize too late that they had walked right into a massive death trap.

In the civilian district in the southern part of Cheyue Country, the residents occasionally passing by on the streets were all in a daze. With vacant eyes, they shambled about like walking corpses. This was the result of being forcibly used as test subjects for concoctions by the Celestial Tribulation Cultivators. The Ninefold Celestial Court utilized human stock in a wide variety of ways; they didn’t limit themselves to acts like Refinement or blood sacrifices.

At the end of the street, in a small alleyway close to the city wall, a small head cautiously peeked out. It was a young girl around sixteen years of age. The residents of Cheyue Country were mostly blonde-haired and blue-eyed, an exotic race distinct from the people in the central region of the Eastern Earth Immortal Realm. The young girl observing her surroundings also possessed a head of blonde hair, her large, blinking eyes full of lively intelligence. This stood in stark contrast to the other residents nearby who had been turned into mindless husks after the drug trials. She was likely a lucky survivor who had managed to evade the testing, or perhaps her unique physique had made her immune to the drugs’ effects.

After confirming there was nothing amiss nearby, the young girl quickly lowered her head and dashed across the street with swift, agile movements. Although panting heavily, she didn’t dare linger for even a second. She immediately turned down another path and scrambled through the window of a dilapidated house nearby.

No sooner had she hidden inside the house than a white crane radiating an evil aura flew past the sky above the street. In its beak, the crane carried a human eyeball, which it didn’t swallow right away, instead merely holding it as a plaything. Yet, its gaze constantly swept over the ground below, like a "king" patrolling its territory.

Inside the ruined shack, the young girl could hear nothing but the loud THUMP THUMP of her own racing heart. Once her heartbeat had steadied, knowing the white crane had likely flown far away, she took a few steps forward and used her foot to sweep aside a messy pile of thatch on the floor. Hidden beneath the thatch was a secret trapdoor leading to a cellar. The young girl crouched down and pulled the heavy trapdoor open with great effort. The cellar below was pitch-black, making it impossible to see anything, but as she peered into its depths, her eyes brimmed with joy.

"Master, are you still there?"

"I’m here," a weak voice called out from the cellar.

The joy in the young girl’s eyes brightened, and she immediately climbed down the wooden ladder.

"Master, I brought you a pouch of medicinal herbs. You will definitely recover!" the young girl said as she used a fire starter to light an oil lamp.

Sitting cross-legged in the corner of the cellar was a man whose eyes were completely white, evidently having lost his sight entirely. Not only that, but he had sustained devastating internal injuries, and his once-powerful Cultivation was all but crippled. This man was none other than Zou Feng’s other Blood Spirit Incarnation, Zou Er.

Zou Er was responsible for hunting down the invading Tribulation Cultivators across the land to refine External Pills. The first two years had gone relatively smoothly, and he had successfully refined quite a few External Pills. However, a year ago, while pursuing a Celestial General, he accidentally wandered into Cheyue Country and was critically wounded by the local Immortal Officials. Had it not been for his primary focus on the Nine Immortal Ascension Skills, which granted him immense resistance against the Celestial Court’s Immortal Techniques, he would have perished here long ago.

In truth, as an Outer Body Incarnation, he did not fear death. His only regret was failing to complete his true body’s mission. Thus, Zou Er had gritted his teeth and clung to life until now, solely to prepare one final trump card to answer to his true body...

At the same time, it was also to give an answer to the residents of Cheyue Country who had suffered endlessly under the devastation of the Tribulation Cultivators—especially the young girl standing before him, whose name was Yue Ya. After all, if Yue Ya hadn’t risked eternal damnation to save him, he never would have survived this long.

[Author’s Note: The true body will come out of seclusion in the next Chapter. You don’t need to worry about me using clone storylines to pad the word count.]