Chapter Thirty: The Monster Did Not Drop Gold Coins

As the energy starlight, stirred by the tremors around them, rose one by one through the blood sigil above their heads into the sky, the once-clear heavens suddenly darkened. Unnoticed, the surrounding clouds gathered together, forming an inky thundercloud where flashes of lightning began to smolder.

“Hey, Xiaoyuan, are you ready yet? I can’t hold on much longer—I’m running out of divine power.” The lightning brewed above, yet did not descend. Wen Hui was the first to falter; she had only just broken through to the Divine Descent stage, had fought a fierce battle, expended her ultimate move across a wide area, and her reserves of divine power were already depleted. To unleash the Furious Howling Hurricane a second time was pushing her to the brink. But she managed to hold out for thirty seconds.

Thirty seconds—neither long nor short—were enough for Zhuan Xiaoyuan to squeeze more power from the True Essence Blood Sigil—Heaven’s Fivefold Thunder. The ample preparation lessened the move’s toll on her body as well.

“Heaven’s Fivefold Thunder Law—Heaven’s Fivefold Thunder, Strike.” As Xiaoyuan uttered the incantation, the thunder that had brewed for thirty seconds finally revealed itself from the clouds.

A deafening crash exploded as golden lightning shot down, piercing the heart of the tornado Wen Hui had conjured, striking the chariot-class demon imprisoned in its eye with unerring precision.

The peal of thunder erupted within the hurricane, the blinding gold light of lightning piercing the storm and drowning out all surrounding color. For a moment, all anyone could see was a field of gold.

As the thunder faded and the blinding brilliance dissipated into the air, the emerald tornado Wen Hui had conjured vanished without a trace. Gone, too, was the chariot-class demon that had been trapped within.

Where that demon once stood, now there was nothing—only the faintly blue starlight of energy drifting nearby as proof it had ever existed.

With the lightning’s passing, the energies around them gradually returned to equilibrium. The pale blue starlight, as if drawn by some force, began to swirl around and converge upon Xiaoyuan, merging into her being. This starlight was the pure divine energy once sealed in the demon’s core crystal.

No one knew why the demon’s core crystal contained such energy—energy that attracted warriors who bore divine arms, energy that could, to a certain extent, augment their total divine power.

To this day, humanity did not even know how demons came to be. Why did they appear in this world? Why did they prey upon humans? What connection did the evil gods spawned from demons share with the guardian gods of humankind?

All these questions confounded humanity—unsolved mysteries difficult even to approach. Perhaps someone in the military’s upper echelons knew the answers; perhaps not. But at this moment, Xiaoyuan certainly did not, nor did she have the leisure or desire to ponder such world-encompassing riddles.

As the pale blue starlight merged into her, the almost stagnant nebula of divine power within her breast absorbed it greedily, like parched fields drinking in the long-awaited rain.

As the blue energy fused into the swirling nebula at her chest, what had been sluggish and nearly motionless burst with vitality. Divine power surged back, and not only that—her maximum capacity for it soared as if on wings.

One by one, the blue star points melted into the nebula, expanding its range rapidly. The darkness at the nebula’s edges was steadily dispelled by light.

When the nebula reached a certain limit, its growth was forcibly halted. It could expand no further, even as the stream of pure blue energy continued to flow into Xiaoyuan.

At this moment, a feeling of swelling bloated within her, growing stronger with each pulse of energy, as if she might burst apart at any second.

Finally, when she could endure no more and tried to reject the influx, a crisp snap sounded within her—as if something had shattered inside. The feeling of being overfilled vanished instantly, replaced by a hollow, gnawing hunger.

In her sight, as the swelling peaked, the nebula suddenly quaked violently. For a heartbeat, its once-stable swirl was thrown into chaos, but at the sound of that crisp snap, tranquility swiftly returned.

Then, as if dyed, the once-silvery glow at the nebula’s heart began to bleed with faint gold, spreading outward. The blue energy still flowed in, ceaseless.

As her divine strength grew, so did the golden light, expanding further. When the last of the pale blue energy had been absorbed, the golden hue now filled a fifth of the swirling nebula within her.

Though it seemed as if an age had passed, in truth, only a few seconds elapsed from the moment Xiaoyuan began to absorb the energy until it was gone. Yet in those few seconds, she felt herself utterly transformed.

She picked up the Immortal Slayer Sword, feeling the newfound density of divine power coursing through her, feeling her physical might surpass even that of Huang Xiaoyan. Xiaoyuan knew she had broken through the Faith Level and finally ascended to the Prayer Level.

In the instant she reached the Prayer Level, Xiaoyuan sensed she was close to touching what had once seemed unattainable. Reveling in this wholly new sensation within her, she seemed to glimpse that prodigy girl who always ran far ahead.

It had taken that girl three days to rise from Faith to Prayer Level. Xiaoyuan, though delayed for months before reaching Faith Level, had also managed the ascent to Prayer Level in just three days. A goal that once seemed impossibly distant had, in this moment, drawn a little nearer—still far away, but no longer so hopelessly out of reach.

“Xiaoyuan, be careful!” Just as Xiaoyuan was savoring her progress and the narrowing of the gap between herself and her target, a voice cried out.

From her own shadow, a black, razor-sharp spear as thick as her waist shot forth, aiming straight for her back. Had it struck, it would have been fatal.

A chill shot up her spine, danger prickling her senses. Instinctively, Xiaoyuan leapt forward, spinning around, both hands lifting the Immortal Slayer Sword before her. Beneath her feet, a black-and-white Taiji diagram sprang to life, the sign that she had driven the Taiji principle to its very limit. Only then did Wen Hui’s voice reach her ears.

A thunderous crash erupted…