Nine Astra Skies

Ye Chen ran around in the dense forest with Little Tanuki following closely behind him while Dongmen Yingyang remained in hot pursuit. Ye Chen's Astral Body had sensed that Dongmen Yingyang was probably a top Heavenly Venerable Rank powerhouse although he had most likely attained this advancement quite recently since he could barely compare with Great Emperor Mingwu in terms of capabilities. Nonetheless, Ye Chen was still not strong enough to defeat him at this point. Even if Ye Chen released his Astral Body, he would only be at mid-Heavenly Venerable Rank. In terms of physical capabilities, both Ye Chen and Little Tanuki were only at Earthly Venerable Rank, so they were much weaker than a Heavenly Venerable One.

While Dongmen Yingyang went after Ye Chen, the rest of the people held onto the ropes tightly to keep Little Wingsy in place.

After receiving Ye Chen's instruction, Little Wingsy finally stopped frowning. If he could return to his original form, then he would not have to fear these people! Ye Chen told him before that he should never turn back into his original form unless he was left with no other choice. Little Wingsy kept Ye Chen's words in mind at all times, so he still maintained his human form despite having been tied up for so long.

While Sikou Fengyan, Leiyu Tianyi, and the rest were keeping a close eye on Little Wingsy, they suddenly sensed that something was wrong as Little Wingsy abruptly grew larger with azure blue scales appearing on his body.

Pop, pop, pop!

The Snowfield Gastrodia Root ropes snapped apart. Within just a few seconds, Little Wingsy had transformed into an enormous serpent with three pairs of transparent wings on its back.

"Good heavens. It's a mystical beast!" As they looked up at Little Wingsy, who had grown tremendously in size, Sikou Fengyan and the other men were scared out of their wits. 'This is such a gigantic mystical beast. What rank is this monster? Oh my Lord!'

It was difficult to come by a mystical beast that had taken on human form to hide among humans. They had only read about such instances in books. It was mostly presented in the form of romantic stories about humans and mystical beasts falling in love with one another. Whenever combatants came across such stories, they would usually snort in contempt. However, today, these men had witnessed it with their own eyes.

Little Wingsy opened his mouth and sprayed a blue mist that covered a radius of several hundred meters around him. Whether it was Leiyu Tianyi and his group or those top Tenth Level combatants, they were unable to react in time and ended up collapsing on the ground one after another.

"This is a poisonous mist!" Sikou Fengyan and the other two Earthly Venerable Ones tried to escape at once.

Little Wingsy swung his huge tail and sent those two Earthly Venerable Ones flying backward over a distance of five to six hundred meters with two loud noises. After crashing into and breaking a few large trees, they finally fell to the ground and were almost dead at that point.

Sikou Fengyan was struck with terror when he saw this. Thus, he immediately glided into the air and desperately tried to escape.

Little Wingsy's three pairs of wings started flapping rapidly. Despite his enormous size, he was still able to fly at an incredible speed.

Sikou Fengyan made a determined effort to survive and waved his iron fan. A continuous stream of sharp iron shards shot out at Little Wingsy. Ding, ding, ding… However, those iron shards did not manage to injure Little Wingsy at all. Instead, they became bent out of shape and broke in half the moment they hit his body.

Sikou Fengyan groaned inwardly. While these seemed like ordinary iron shards, they were made of North Sea Black Iron. Hidden weapons that were made of this material were extremely sharp. Their sharpness and hardness should be far greater than that of Tier Four spiritual artifacts. Even so, those iron shards were powerless against Little Wingsy's tough body!

Thus, the serpent kept chasing after Sikou Fengyan while he glided above the dense forest.

Although Little Wingsy had a strong body, his current strength and speed were still far from what he was capable of achieving at his peak. Therefore, while he had the upper hand, he could not defeat Sikou Fengyan just yet.

Meanwhile, Ye Chen and Little Tanuki continued to run desperately through the thick forest, but Dongmen Yingyang remained on their tail and was gradually closing the distance between them.

When Dongmen Yingyang heard what was going on behind him and saw that huge Winged Serpent chasing Sikou Fengyan around in the air, he had figured out at once what had happened and was filled with shock. He realized that this enormous Winged Serpent had been disguising itself as that child all this while. It was not surprising that those sharp hidden weapons and that powerful anesthetic powder of theirs had been rendered useless against the child!

What were they supposed to do now? Well, it seemed like Sikou Fengyan was not going to get killed just yet, so Dongmen Yingyang figured that he might as well focus on killing Ye Chen first. Once he had succeeded in killing Ye Chen, he could report back to the Grandruler! Dongmen Yingyang did not expect so many variables to appear while they were trying to ambush Ye Chen.

As he stared at Ye Chen's retreating figure, Dongmen Yingyang became more determined and increased his speed.

Ye Chen ran away as fast as he could. His cultivation base was only at Earthly Venerable Rank, so if Dongmen Yingyang were to catch up to him, he would certainly be no match for the guy!

Then, Ye Chen suddenly turned around and externalized his Astral Body, transforming it into a tall and mighty gold-armored soldier who charged at Dongmen Yingyang while slashing his saber down at the guy.

Dongmen Yingyang was just about to catch up to Ye Chen when he suddenly felt a wave of heat coming at him, so he raised his head and saw that ghostly gold-armored soldier appearing out of nowhere and charging toward him.

"What is this?" Dongmen Yingyang had fought in more than a thousand battles but had never encountered such a situation. Then, he noticed that the gold-armored soldier appeared to be somewhat unreal. Could it be that this gold-armored soldier was some kind of a ghost?

The purple flames burned brightly as the saber slashed down at him.

With a height of five to six meters and that huge saber in his hand, the gold-armored soldier emitted a heavy and oppressive presence.

Dongmen Yingyang was terrified by the gold-armored soldier's powerful appearance and did not dare to fight the soldier head-on, so he glided backward and dodged to the side.

Boom!

The gold-armored soldier slashed his huge saber down in an earth-shattering noise and left a deep trench in the ground. All the plants that came in contact with the saber were instantly devoured and turned into ashes by the purple flames.

When Dongmen Yingyang turned around and saw that the ground behind him had been burned black, his expression changed at once. Even a top Heavenly Venerable One could never produce such destructive effects with one attack. Dongmen Yingyang trembled with fear when he saw how those fearsome purple flames had devoured everything that stood in their way.

Dongmen Yingyang was not aware that this gold-armored soldier externalized by Ye Chen's Astral Body possessed only the capabilities of a mid-Heavenly Venerable One, so he was under the impression that this gold-armored soldier had at least attained the Mystique Venerable Rank! Dongmen Yingyang might not have been so nervous if he had run into a beginner Mystique Venerable One, but this gold-armored soldier did not seem human at all. To him, that solemn and serene look on the soldier's face appeared to be rather sinister and horrifying.

Nonetheless, Ye Chen did not realize how much fear and awe his gold-armored soldier had caused Dongmen Yingyang to feel. Upon seeing Dongmen Yingyang fleeing from the soldier, Ye Chen naturally proceeded to pursue the guy.

The gold-armored soldier flew across dozens of meters with a whooshing sound and swung his saber down again.

What an incredible speed!

Dongmen Yingyang noticed that the gold-armored soldier seemed to be able to move through space freely and had reached him in an instant. Even a Mystique Venerable One might not necessarily be capable of achieving such speed! Although Dongmen Yingyang was quite a ruthless and fearless person, he could not help feeling a little scared in the face of an unknown being like this. Therefore, he simply continued to soar into the air and dodge the incoming attack from the soldier.

The gold-armored soldier kept waving his saber around and slashing at his target.

Meanwhile, Dongmen Yingyang avoided the attacks. Once, he nearly failed to dodge the soldier's attack in time, so the saber had sliced through his hair when the soldier swung it at him. All of his hair immediately got burned up by the purple flames, which later reached his scalp. The searing pain caused Dongmen Yingyang to scream bitterly.

"D*mn it!" Dongmen Yingyang was in a miserable state and had a vicious look on his face. When he turned around and found Ye Chen standing rooted to his spot without moving a muscle, Dongmen Yingyang instantly realized that Ye Chen had to be the one controlling this gold-armored soldier. Thus, Ye Chen's body should be where the weakest point was located.

As he sensed the soldier's saber approaching him again, Dongmen Yingyang turned his body to dodge the attack and swept past the gold-armored soldier before charging through the air toward Ye Chen.

"Oh no!" Ye Chen turned pale with fear and hurriedly urged the gold-armored soldier to turn around and rescue him.

"Go to hell!" Dongmen Yingyang yelled and launched an Iron Fist so powerful that it produced a howling sound while coming at Ye Chen.

If Ye Chen were to receive this punch from Dongmen Yingyang, he might die right there and then. With a flicker of thought, the gold-armored soldier moved across dozens of meters and appeared in front of Ye Chen as a shield while slashing his saber down at Dongmen Yingyang's fist force.

Rumble!

As the fist force and Ye Chen's Astral Body collided into one another, the impact caused the ground to shake and instantly destroyed numerous large trees around the area.

At the same time, a terrifying and thunderous boom resounded through the valleys of Emerald Cloud Mountain for a prolonged period.

Dongmen Yingyang glided backward over some distance and then stood in the air looking somewhat helpless.

In the meantime, the gold-armored soldier shook and flickered slightly while Ye Chen became as pale as a sheet and nearly spat out a mouthful of blood.

Ye Chen's Astral Body was only as strong as a mid-Heavenly Venerable One at most, so he had reached the limit of what he could handle after exchanging one blow with a top Heavenly Venerable One.

Dongmen Yingyang did not expect that the gold-armored soldier would still be able to turn around and rescue Ye Chen under such circumstances and was startled by his speed. However, after going up against the soldier head-on, he suddenly realized that the gold-armored soldier was not as terrifying as he had imagined seeing as the soldier was at mid-Heavenly Venerable Rank at the most.

"So, this thing isn't that powerful after all. Now, I shall end your lives!" As Dongmen Yingyang recalled how afraid he had been of the gold-armored soldier and how much he had suffered because of that, his expression turned into one of fury, and he charged toward Ye Chen like a bullet.

Upon seeing Dongmen Yingyang charging over, Ye Chen could only grit his teeth and spurred the gold-armored soldier forward to face the enemy.

Little Tanuki felt anxious as she could tell that Ye Chen was no match for Dongmen Yingyang, so she went onto Ye Chen's shoulder and activated her Astral Body. At that point, Little Tanuki's Astral Body could not be externalized just yet and did not have much substantial combat power. Nonetheless, tanukis as a species had an innate ability that allowed them to use their Astral Bodies to strengthen illusions.

Just as Little Tanuki had activated her Astral Body, a bizarre sight took place. Little Tanuki's Astral Body had transformed into white flames that started to coil around the gold-armored soldier's body. Then, the purple flames all over the soldier's body began to merge with the white flames.

The merging process was not that smooth and complete so only around five percent of Little Tanuki's Astral Body had managed to merge with Ye Chen's Astral Body. Nonetheless, the flames surrounding the gold-armored soldier burned brighter as the soldier's capabilities were significantly enhanced.

"What's going on?" Ye Chen was taken aback as he immediately recognized Little Tanuki's energy within those white flames. Could it be that Astral Bodies could be merged?

Once Little Tanuki had merged her Astral Body with that of Ye Chen, his Astral Body grew significantly stronger. The purple and white flames had enhanced each other's beauty as they coiled around the body of the gold-armored soldier and heightened the stately and dignified air about the soldier.

When he saw Dongmen Yingyang coming at him again while throwing out a punch, Ye Chen's Astral Body moved at once.

"Bring it on!" Rays of light shone forth from the gold-armored soldier's eyes.

With another booming sound, the soldier and Dongmen Yingyang exchanged blows once again. The soldier swayed slightly and then charged toward Dongmen Yingyang with an angry roar. Ye Chen's Astral Body would have certainly been severely damaged if he had received that attack from Dongmen Yingyang before the merging of his Astral Body with that of Little Tanuki's. Thus, the effects of their astral merging were quite obvious.