Chapter 75: Fighting A Core Formation Realm Expert
Chapter 75: Fighting A Core Formation Realm Expert
The moment the Spirit-Ascension Lotus appeared, every single pair of eyes was magnetically drawn to the glowing flower.
Even Harmon, Silas, and Dorris, standing right behind Rhain, stared at the lotus in shock.
They had stripped the False Hollow Realm bare, but they had never seen Rhain extract this particular treasure.
Orion’s arrogant expression also froze.
His eyes, previously filled with contempt, now burned with a ravenous, blazing greed.
"An Epic-Grade spiritual herb!" Orion screamed, pointing a trembling finger at Rhain. "Master Hayden! Forget the old men! Kill him immediately and snatch that lotus for me!"
Hayden’s eyes also flashed with intense desire.
As a Core Formation Realm expert, his senses were far more sharper than anyone else present.
He could feel it—the essence contained within that fragile flower was unreasonably high.
"Hand it over, boy, and I will grant you a swift death!" Hayden yelled.
He pushed off the ground, turning into a streak of light, his hand reaching out like a raptor’s claw to seize Rhain’s throat and the lotus in one swift motion.
BOOM!
At that exact same time, the delicate Spirit-Ascension Lotus exploded.
The dazzling silver and blue light shattered into a torrential mist of impossibly pure, condensed essence, and fiercely drilled directly into Rhain’s palm!
The moment that pure essence drilled into Rhain’s meridian channels, the Abyssal Sovereign Physique awoke.
It devoured the huge essence completely in a single breath.
RUUUMBLE!!!
A pitch-black, murky dark essence erupted from his pores, swallowing his white and gold robes.
The darkness within his irises rapidly expanded, completely swallowing the whites of his eyes in a single breath.
They turned jet black, capable of devouring all the light.
His aura, which had been resting at the third level of the Essence Condensation Realm, instantly skyrocketed.
Essence Condensation Realm—Level 6!
Essence Condensation Realm—Level 9!
In the span of a single, fleeting heartbeat, Rhain’s cultivation rocketed past the peak of his current major realm.
And then—
CRACK!!!
Spirit Manifestation Realm—Level 1!
But the terrifying surge did not stop there.
Spirit Manifestation Realm—Level 2!
Spirit Manifestation Realm—Level 3!
His cultivation base soared, finally settling and locking firmly at the third level of the Spirit Manifestation Realm!
All of this happened in a flash.
The torrential explosion of the Spirit-Ascension Lotus, the mad devouring of the Abyssal Sovereign Physique, and the explosive shattering of realm barriers—it all occurred before one could even blink.
It was so unfathomably fast that Hayden, despite his Core Formation Realm speed, had only just arrived.
His claws were mere inches from grabbing Rhain’s throat.
But those inches might as well have been a thousand miles.
Rhain’s jet-black eyes snapped to Hayden’s incoming hand. He felt that his vision had suddenly sharpened.
Spiritual Sense.
The moment his cultivation broke through the ceiling of the Essence Condensation Realm and stepped into Spirit Manifestation, a wholly new dimension of perception bloomed within his consciousness.
It was as if he had spent his entire existence seeing the world through a keyhole, and now the entire wall had been demolished.
Rhain tilted his head two inches to the left.
Hayden’s clawed fingers whistled past his ear, close enough to shave the air from his cheek.
Hayden’s eyes widened — not just from missing, but also from the fact that the boy’s aura had completely, fundamentally changed in the fraction of a second it had taken him to close the distance.
"What—"
Rhain’s fist was already moving.
Void Fist.
The compressed dark essence phased through the air, aimed squarely at Hayden’s exposed sternum.
Hayden’s instincts, honed over decades of combat, screamed.
He twisted his torso, and simultaneously, a shimmering emerald barrier materialized over his chest.
The compressed dark essence phased right through the shimmering emerald barrier as if it didn’t even exist.
BANG!
Rhain’s fist slammed squarely into Hayden’s sternum.
The devastating internal shockwave of the Void Fist erupted, intending to completely pulverize Hayden’s heart and meridian channels.
For the first time in years, Hayden felt genuine pain.
His body was launched backward, his boots carving deep grooves into the stone plaza before he stabilized himself thirty paces away.
He looked down at his chest. The emerald barrier was completely intact — not a single crack marred its surface.
Yet beneath it, a dark bruise was already blooming across his sternum, and a thin trickle of blood seeped from the corner of his lips.
"Impossible," Hayden whispered, wiping the blood away with the back of his hand, "What kind of demonic techniques are you using? Your cultivation surpassed a whole realm, and your martial arts are bypassing my defense."
Rhain didn’t answer.
He was already moving.
Flashing Thunder Boots ignited. A flash of lightning split the air as he closed the distance in an instant.
"Foolish! Do you think you can defeat me if you broke through to Spirit Manifestation Realm?" Hayden sneered.
Deep within Hayden’s dantian, a dazzling, crystallized core of pure emerald essence pulsed.
His Essence Core.
The true mark of the Core Formation Realm — a perfectly crystallized sphere of condensed essence that orbited within the cultivator’s dantian.
The moment the Void Fist’s shockwave entered Hayden’s body, the Essence Core released a torrential flood of extremely dense, liquefied essence, instantly fortifying his internal organs and entirely neutralizing the dark essence’s destructive force!
The recovery was instantaneous.
The internal damage Rhain’s Void Fist had inflicted had already begun to heal.
"You may have forcibly elevated your realm with a treasure, but borrowed power is just that—borrowed! Today, I will show you the unbridgeable chasm of the Core Formation Realm!"
Hayden’s aura exploded.
"Die!"
Hayden roared, his hands forming rapid, blinding seals.
A torrential wave of highly compressed emerald essence transformed into hundreds of razor-sharp lances, tearing through the air to impale Rhain from every conceivable angle.
It was an inescapable net of death.
No Spirit Manifestation Realm would be able to escape alive... except Rhain.
Eyes of Truth, and the newly awakened Spritual Sense worked simultaneously.
Every microscopic shift in the air currents, the exact trajectory of every single emerald lance were clearly visible in Rhain’s mind.
Rhain’s figure broke into a flash of thunder.
Powered by the Flashing Thunder Boots, he stepped through the microscopic gaps in the rain of spears with an impossible, inhumane degree of precision.
Hayden was stunned once again.
How many more secrets does an Essence Condensation brat in this remote town have?
But Hayden was a Core Formation expert.
He had enough tricks up his sleeves.
"Interesting." Hayden sneered, "I haven’t fought someone worth killing in years."
He clenched his fist, and the remaining emerald lances abruptly detonated in mid-air!
BOOM!
A massive, omnidirectional shockwave of concussive force swallowed the center of the plaza.
Rhain was directly caught in the radius of the blast.
The destructive might of a Core Formation attack slammed into him, threatening to pulverize into dust.
But a dark-gold shimmer rippled beneath his white robes.
The Epic-Grade Black Gold Armour effortlessly absorbed the lethal brunt of the impact.
Still, the raw force sent Rhain tumbling backwards across the ground, his pristine white robes marked with several cuts.
Rhain stabilized himself, his jet-black eyes devoid of any fluctuation.
"What an unkillable cockroach," Hayden’s majestic voice echoed, cold and vibrating with killing intent. "But let us see how your borrowed Spirit Manifestation cultivation holds up against my next attack!"
Deep within Hayden’s dantian, the crystallized Essence Core spun frantically.
A seemingly inexhaustible ocean of essence flooded his meridian channels.
The sheer volume of energy he wielded was something no Condensation or Spirit Manifestation cultivator could ever hope to match.
Hayden raised both of his hands high into the air.
"Epic-Grade Martial Art: Emerald Dragon Strike!"
As the voice fell, the sky above the Azure Cloud Sect suddenly turned luminescent green.