Cultivation: From Poor Peasant to Celestial Lord

In an open space at the abandoned logging camp, an eerie wind swept up the grayish-white snow, draping it like a thin burial shroud around the dilapidated Land God Temple.

The moment Chu Bai finished speaking, more than a dozen Demon-slaying Guards fanned out like arrows loosed from a bow.

They moved in unison, their footfalls silent, and swiftly cordoned off a hundred-pace radius.

"HISS—!!!"

Sensing the intrusion of the living’s vital energy, the dozens of Age Demons gathered in the ruins let out an incredibly grating shriek.

This was more than just a sound; it was an assault directly on the Divine Soul, carrying with it an aura of decay and desolation built up over an entire year.

Several Demon-slaying Guards with weaker Cultivation were struck by a sudden wave of dizziness, and the world before them seemed to be veiled in a gloomy shadow.

"Focus!"

Chu Bai snorted, and the warlike will of his [General Star Enters Life] slammed down like a heavy hammer, instantly shattering the interfering Resentment in the air.

The battle erupted in an instant.

The figures of the dozens of Age Demons abruptly blurred, sinking into the shadows beneath them like melting snow, right before everyone’s eyes.

The crisscrossing shadows cast by the withered trees and broken walls around the Land God Temple instantly became their perfect cover.

"Captain, watch out! These vile creatures can slip into shadows!"

Feng Qin cried out, drawing his long saber and unleashing a fiery slash at one of the shadows. But the blade passed straight through, kicking up a spray of gray snow but meeting no resistance.

Chu Bai stood at the very center, his expression terrifyingly calm.

To his Divine Thought, they naturally had nowhere to hide.

"Directly ahead, thirty feet out." Without even turning his head, Chu Bai pointed into the empty air with his right hand.

The empty shadow erupted in a cloud of gray smoke. An Age Demon shrieked as it was pinned fast to a tree trunk, its body crumbling away inch by inch under the immense pressure of Earth Qi.

With their Shadow Escape countered, the remaining Age Demons stopped hiding.

They leaped out from the shadows on all sides, spewing plumes of gray mist from their mouths.

Wherever the mist touched, even the air froze into gray ice crystals.

A Demon-slaying Guard failed to dodge in time. A wisp of the mist brushed against his sleeve, and his entire arm instantly turned stiff and black as his life force was rapidly drained away.

"Fall back! Form the array!"

Chu Bai stomped his foot, unleashing his [Fire Step Ascension] Body Technique. He transformed into a streaking line of crimson fire, plunging into the densest cluster of Age Demons before the mist could envelop them.

He formed a seal with one hand, the Five Elements circulating between his fingers.

At that moment, his Micro Level Guiyuan Technique revealed its terrifying degree of control. He forcibly stripped the scattered Fire and Earth Spiritual Qi from the air and reformed it.

Dozens of Spirit Needles rained down within a hundred paces of Chu Bai. Each needle precisely avoided the Demon-slaying Guards, unerringly piercing the transparent foreheads of the Age Demons.

Every Spirit Water Needle that struck home was met with a spatter of the Age Demons’ sickly green blood.

Under Chu Bai’s incredibly precise assault, the massive bodies of the vile creatures, which had been on the verge of solidifying, began to show alarming cracks.

A roar of anger and desperation echoed from within the vile mist.

Several half-merged Age Demons pounced manically toward Chu Bai. They opened their small maws, filled with countless tiny, sharp teeth, and tried to bite his ankles.

Chu Bai didn’t even bother to use a Dharma Artifact.

With a backhand strike of his right hand, his [Formless Cloud Hand] formed a dense barrier of Magical Power. The instant the Age Demons touched it, they were blasted into a fine powder.

Driven to desperation, the Age Demons grew vicious. Instead of scattering, they followed their instincts and frantically converged on the half-collapsed clay idol at the center of the Land God Temple.

"This is bad! They’re trying to force a merger!"

The dozens of Age Demons became a roiling mass of rotten flesh, rapidly tangling together.

Enveloped by the gray mist, the clay idol began to sprout deformed, thorn-covered limbs.

A massive head, pieced together from countless tiny human faces, slowly began to form atop the idol.

A terrifying pressure, equivalent to the Late-stage of Qi Cultivation, erupted outwards, accompanied by the pungent stench of decay!

"Dream on."

Chu Bai snorted, his eyes flaring with Divine Light.

The Jade-Imbued Gourd at his waist vibrated slightly. He took a swig of pure Spiritual Liquid, and his depleted Magical Power was instantly restored to full.

The [Fire Element Ring] at his feet erupted.

He shot forward like a crimson meteor. The instant the Great Demon lashed out in a frenzy, his [Formless Cloud Hand] struck its abdomen from an uncanny angle.

The Micro Level Spiritual Power of his [Guiyuan Technique] converged in his palm. At that moment, the Five Elements Spiritual Power ceased its circulation and was instead unleashed with full force, generating a wildly destructive power.

With a tremendous BOOM, the entire collapsed Land God Temple was blasted into the air by the force of his palm strike.

The heart-shaped crystal at its core shattered within his palm.

Countless screams were abruptly silenced amidst the wind and snow. The Yin Qi that had shrouded the Chaotic Burial Mound vanished like smoke, utterly purified by the yang energy radiating from the Evil Suppression Array.

The battle was over in less than a hundred breaths.

The entire logging camp trembled violently.

The monster, forcibly fused from dozens of Age Demons, let out one last, bloodcurdling shriek.

Under that immense pressure, its composite body was unable to hold together.

Like tofu crushed under a giant millstone, the idol and the Age Demons within it instantly crumbled into countless motes of fine, gray dust.

The surrounding Demon-slaying Guards stared blankly, first at the ruins that had been turned to dust, then at the back of their captain, whose robes weren’t even ruffled. A storm of shock crashed through their minds.

This wasn’t a battle. It was an absolute rout, a crushing born from a fundamental difference in their level of being.