CHAPTER 538: CHAPTER 523: VOID REFINING GOD TECHNIQUE! [2 UPDATES]

Zhouyang’s opponent is a Tier Five Ice Demon.

In the narrow space of an ice cave, battling an opponent like the Ice Demon, which focuses primarily on close combat, is undoubtedly dangerous.

Even though Zhouyang himself possesses a powerful physical body comparable to ordinary Tier Five Demon Beasts, facing the stealth assassination of a same-tier Ice Demon is not easy at all.

He once used the "Separation Fire Golden Eye" to see through the invisibility talent of Tier Four Ice Demons and killed two of them.

However, the invisibility talent of the Tier Five Ice Demon is too powerful. Even if he fully manifests the "Separation Fire Golden Eye" Divine Techniques, he can only barely see a faint white shadow. Often, by the time he sees the opponent’s movement, the two sides are within thirty zhang of each other.

Thirty zhang’s distance means a Tier Five Ice Demon can reach in an instant.

So, Zhouyang was completely passive in the initial phase of the confrontation, unable to even touch a single hair of the wind-like Tier Five Ice Demon during its course.

Fortunately, his "Profound Turtle Shield" defense is strong enough, always able to timely block the close-range attacks of the Tier Five Ice Demon, preventing the attacks from landing on him, giving him a chance to counterattack.

At that moment, after enduring the initial round of the Tier Five Ice Demon’s violent storm-like assaults, Zhouyang immediately summoned the "Heaven-shaking Copper Gong" Artifact and struck the gong.

He didn’t really expect the gong sound to have much effect on such a physically powerful monster as the Tier Five Ice Demon; he just wanted the gong sound to slightly slow down the opponent’s offensive. If it could force the opponent to emerge from invisibility, that would be even better.

It must be said that his idea was half successful. Under the interference of the gong sound, the Tier Five Ice Demon’s attack speed indeed slowed down somewhat, but the gong sound had no inhibiting effect on its invisibility talent.

And the magical power consumed by striking the "Heaven-shaking Copper Gong" is considerable; Zhouyang couldn’t maintain the gong sound continuously.

So, seeing this move was ineffective, he immediately changed tactics.

He gestured with his hand, first retracting the Copper Gong Artifact, then opened his mouth and spat out a golden Treasure Tower.

This golden Treasure Tower Artifact was Zhouyang’s Lifebound Spiritual Artifact "Qianyang Golden Tower," which he successfully refined and had not yet used.

Now, after nearly two years of nurturing, although this Lifebound Spiritual Artifact has not yet successfully advanced to a Tier Five Spiritual Artifact, its aura is already stronger than ordinary Tier Five Lower Grade Spiritual Artifacts due to the rarity of the refining materials.

After Zhouyang summoned this artifact, he raised his hand to point, and the Treasure Tower spinned and enlarged to about three zhang high, hovering above his head, draping a layer of golden light that protected him within.

Just at that moment, the Tier Five Ice Demon launched another ambush.

With a flash of white light, the Ice Demon’s pair of sharp tiger claws, carrying a cold gleam, ferociously clawed at that layer of golden light.

But even such a vicious assault couldn’t shatter that thin layer of golden light.

Only when a sharp, needle-like tail fiercely pierced the golden light did it shatter the layer, then was blocked by the instantly arriving body of the "Profound Turtle Shield" within the golden light.

Breaking Zhouyang’s defense in this round of attacks, the Ice Demon wasn’t greedy or rash at all, quickly withdrew its figure, and vanished into invisibility again outside Zhouyang’s field of vision.

Like a snake cunningly vicious, a fox slyly deceitful, a wolf patiently enduring, this was the impression the Ice Demon left on Zhouyang.

The Ice Demon clearly understood that as long as it continued attacking, in this ice cave, Zhouyang, with his extreme Yang attribute power, would eventually weaken due to the inability to replenish magical power, while it wouldn’t be affected at all.

What it needed to do was continuously pressure Zhouyang, forcing him to expend magical power to defend against its attacks, yet avoiding direct confrontation to prevent Zhouyang from seizing the opportunity to counterattack.

Facing such a vicious and crafty opponent, Zhouyang indeed felt pressured.

But he also had a good trait: patience.

Even knowing the Ice Demon’s intentions, he could maintain composure, calmly and steadily defending against the Ice Demon’s offenses each time, while contemplating a strategy to break the stalemate.

Actually, he already had a strategy for breaking the situation in mind.

However, to execute his plan, he had to wait for the right moment.

The Ice Demon wished to continuously deplete his magical power to weaken him; he also wanted to use the repeated confrontations to further understand the Ice Demon’s condition.

Thus, after nearly half a day of stalemate between man and demon, Zhouyang finally waited for an excellent opportunity to strike.

At that moment, when the Ice Demon lunged once more, he used the observations from previous situations to judge and anticipate the opponent’s attack route a breath earlier.

With this one-breath buffer and correct route judgment, Zhouyang immediately cast a spell on his Lifebound Spiritual Artifact "Qianyang Golden Tower." Instantly, the golden Treasure Tower flew tens of zhang horizontally to the top of the invisible Ice Demon.

Then the bottom of the tower, those closed semicircular doors suddenly opened, releasing a powerful force of suction enveloping the Ice Demon.

If Zhouyang’s "Qianyang Golden Tower" had successfully advanced to a Tier Five Spiritual Artifact, this time the Ice Demon definitely couldn’t resist and would be trapped inside the tower.

Unfortunately, the "Qianyang Golden Tower" is currently just a Tier Four High-grade Spiritual Artifact, and the potency of this Magic Artifact Divine Techniques is inferior.

The Ice Demon suddenly suffered an attack, but by fully unleashing its own power, it quickly broke free from the tower’s pulling force.

However, although it escaped the tower’s pull, it couldn’t avoid its body being momentarily delayed as a result.

And this is the opportunity Zhouyang was waiting for.

A flash of silver light, and a silver long knife suddenly struck towards the Ice Demon right when it broke free from the tower’s pull.

By the time it escaped the tower’s pull, the blade was already within ten zhàng, leaving it no room to dodge.

With no other choice, it could only place one claw across its chest for protection, while the other claw fiercely grabbed towards the sharp edge of the silver long knife.

In all fairness, the Ice Demon’s response in this life-and-death moment was absolutely flawless. Zhouyang admitted that if he were in the same position, he couldn’t have reacted any better, given the extremely brief time to respond!

However, correct responses don’t always yield the desired outcomes.

The Ice Demon’s correct response didn’t foresee how incredibly sharp that silver long knife was.

It resulted in its right claw reaching for the blade being severed in one cut, as well as the left claw across its chest.

Before the pain from the severed claws reached its mind, the blade of the silver long knife had already penetrated over half a foot into its body. A piercing cold and sharp knife energy erupted from within, smashing and freezing all the surrounding organs and blood in its wounds.

Such an injury wasn’t enough to kill the Ice Demon.

But the silver long knife lodged within it and the knife energy within rendered its proud invisibility power ineffective before Zhouyang.

Without its invisibility, the Ice Demon’s strength was merely equivalent to an ordinary Tier Five Demon Beast, let alone the severe injuries it had sustained.

If Zhouyang couldn’t even handle an Ice Demon like this, what face would he have to vie for treasures like the "Holy Infant Fruit"?

Indeed, after a little over a quarter of an hour, the severely injured Ice Demon was killed by Zhouyang on the road while fleeing.

After killing the Ice Demon, Zhouyang had just put its body into his Storage Ring when a formidable force enveloped him, transporting him into a stone chamber brimming with Spiritual Qi.

"Where is this place?"

Inside the stone chamber, the suddenly transported Zhouyang opened his eyes and looked around, the gloom in his eyes disappearing in a flash.

He observed that the stone chamber was about the size of a cultivation chamber in a cave dwelling, containing only a stone bed and a jade scroll placed upon it, with nothing else inside.

Zhouyang raised his hand in a summoning gesture, and the jade scroll flew into his hand. He swept over its contents with his Divine Sense, his eyes instantly filled with a mixture of joy and worry.

His joy came from discovering the jade scroll contained a Spiritual Sense Secret Technique called the "Void Refining God Technique."

The "Void Refining God Technique" has three layers; mastering the first layer can directly enhance a cultivator’s Divine Sense strength by ten percent, and mastering all three layers can enhance it by thirty percent.

Such a technique to enhance Divine Sense strength Zhouyang had heard of before but never seen.

Because those who possess such a technique are invariably among the top-tier Major Sect or Loose Cultivator Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators, and these entities certainly wouldn’t easily allow ordinary cultivators to access such techniques.

Even as far as Zhouyang knew, only the Core Disciples or Golden Core Elders of Major Sects like the Profound Sun Immortal Sect had the right to train in such a technique.

Yet now, he unexpectedly obtained such a technique directly from this stone chamber, which brought him vast joy.

However, this joy was tinged with worry due to some additional remarks accompanying the jade scroll that filled him with immense concern.

According to the existence that left the jade scroll, he must master the first layer of the "Void Refining God Technique" within half a year to leave the stone chamber and be deemed to have passed the trial, enabling him to continue vying for the "Holy Infant Fruit."

Should he fail to master the "Void Refining God Technique" before the Kunxu Realm closes, he would lose even the chance to leave the Kunxu Realm, forced to spend the rest of his life within it.

Some might wonder if it isn’t good to stay and cultivate in a realm so rich in treasures and Spiritual Qi.

After all, if one can cultivate to the Nascent Soul Stage and extend life to three thousand years, wouldn’t that be long enough to wait for the next opening of the Kunxu Realm?

But as Zhouyang learned from Lu Xuanji, the Grand Elder of the Profound Sun Immortal Sect, those who have failed to leave the Kunxu Realm before it closes often vanish without a trace or, like the Wood Demon he saw, transform into inhuman monsters, losing the opportunity to ever leave the Kunxu Realm completely!

Thus, it is evident that the Kunxu Realm is certainly not a place to linger.

"I still have one Enlightenment Profound Truth Fruit left unused. If necessary, I can rely on this Spirit Fruit to aid in mastering the first layer of the ’Void Refining God Technique’!"

"But what about Impatiens? Her Enlightenment Profound Truth Fruit has already been used. What if she fails to master this technique within the given time frame...?"

At this thought, Zhouyang’s face turned as dark as if ready to drip water, devoid of any hint of joy.