“Woof, woof, woof…” The black puppy was staring with its big eyes, which were as pellucid as black round onyx. It was gazing at Ding Hao and the other two with perplexity in its eyes.
“Pup, are you still playing dumb?” Uncle Tianshu was very dissatisfied with the black puppy’s answer. He waved a kitchen knife in his hand, and said, “Be honest with us, or I’ll kill you to make dog hotpot…”
Before he had finished his words—
“Ah…” Uncle Tianshu screamed and jumped up.
The black puppy was furious. It opened its mouth and bit his left ankle, letting out a threatening growl from its throat. No matter how hard Uncle Tianshu swung his ankle, he could not get rid of it.
The black puppy seemed part of his ankle now.
“Hey, little fella, let go! I was just joking… can’t you take a joke? We won’t be able to play together if you can’t.” Uncle Tianshu grumbled bitterly and finally had to apologize. Unfortunately, the black puppy would not forgive him.
Ding Hao observed carefully for a while and smacked his lips in wonder.
He still could not feel any energy fluctuations from the black puppy’s body. No matter how he looked at it, this little fella was no different from an ordinary dog, except for being a little chubby. Even with the Power of the Origin from his mother, the Three-headed Heavenly Hound, it did not seem visibly changed.
However, this little fella managed to swallow the Black Demon Patriarch’s Elemental Demonic Fire, and even scared off that absolute master at the Demon Saint Realm…
“How on earth did it do that?”
Ding Hao could not find the answer.
“What should we do next? Things don’t seem to be going our way.” Ding Hao asked for Uncle Tianshu’s advice, and told him what he had serendipitously seen happen outside the Towering Buddha Pagoda, when he was cultivating in the 97th-floor secret chamber.
Uncle Tianshu was extremely shocked.
“If what you see wasn’t an illusion, we may be in deep trouble… I’m afraid that this adventure in the Sacred Hall ruins will be a big catastrophe.” Uncle Tianshu looked solemn, as though he had remembered something.
“What catastrophe?” Ding Hao’s heart skipped a beat.
“Maybe someone’s making use of these ruins for ulterior purposes.” Uncle Tianshu wanted to say something but checked himself. He took out the black leather-like map from the inner lining of his robe, and studied it carefully for a while. Then he sat on a rock and began to think, his chin in his hand.
The black puppy was still stubbornly biting and clinging on his ankle.
Ding Hao did not ask more. Instead, he took out a Fiery Crimson Pellet and swallowed it. He started to replenish the flaming Bi Fang’s Qi in his Middle Dantian. Just now, in order to shake off the Black Demon Saint, he had depleted too much energy. At this time, almost all the energy in the Middle Dantian of his chest was gone.
Sitting cross-legged on the ground, Ding Hao was surrounded by flames.
After about 15 minutes, he opened his eyes with satisfaction. With the help of a seventh-level elixir with fire property, the flaming Qi in his Six Strange Veins was once again vigorous and full. He had basically recovered his strength.
Uncle Tianshu was still lost in thought.
The black puppy was still clinging on his ankle.
Ding Hao tried to summon the Saber Master and the Sword Master in his mind, but there was still no response. He was now even more worried, but there was nothing he could do.
He used his Divine Senses to scan the inside of his head.
On his forehead, that golden bead of light was still eddying, occupying part of his sensory consciousness. Once his Divine Senses tried to probe the light, it would be devoured. He could not guess what was inside that bead of light.
Recalling his fight with the Black Demon Saint just now, Ding Hao’s expression became serious.
For a long time, as a Great Grandmaster at the Martial King Realm, he had fought against and killed many Martial Emperors. Even when he fought an expert at the Martial Emperor Realm, he was not at a disadvantage. Especially in this kind of oppressive environment, his powerful physical strength would gain him the upper hand. He had even trounced that gatekeeper at the Martial Grand Emperor Realm from the Ziji Sect.
This made Ding Hao extremely confident in his own strength.
However, he was completely at the losing end when confronted by a Demon Saint opponent this time. He was defeated so badly by that Demon Saint, crushed like dry weeds. Ding Hao simply did not have the slightest ability to retaliate. Had he been without a forbidden weapon like the Devil Saber, he would have been dead.
And that Black Demon Saint’s Demonic Power had been suppressed by the Towering Buddha Pagoda!
It was not hard to imagine Ding Hao unable to hold on even for a moment in an outside fight under normal circumstances. The Martial King Realm and the Demon Saint Realm were separated by two full realms. No one could close this gap through fortuitous encounters, gifts of nature, and even a unique bloodline physique.
Ding Hao now realized that with his current strength, he had no chance of defeating an opponent at the Saint Realm.
He might have a slim chance if he activated the Rusted Sword or the Devil Saber to the full.
Yet he might not win too.
After all, Ding Hao’s strength could not unleash the full power of the Rusted Sword and the Devil Saber.
And obviously, given their maturity and combat experience, these absolute superiors at the Saint Realm would not give Ding Hao any chance to fully activate the two forbidden weapons. In other words, although these weapons might be regarded as Ding Hao’s trump cards, he still needed enough time to fully prepare and activate them.
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“Looks like I still need to quickly improve my strength!”
Ding Hao sighed.
At this time, Uncle Tianshu’s voice rang out in his ears, “Dammit, so someone managed to ambush me this time! Well, one ax strike can’t chop off my head, and I won’t mind a few more… Let’s go all the way! Little Chap Ding, we’re left with no choice. If we retreat, we’ll die. We can only move on to the very end.”
Ding Hao stood up, looked at the fuming coarse-looking Uncle Tianshu, and asked happily, “Have you figured out something?”
“Just a little.” Uncle Tianshu did not seem keen to explain.
Ding Hao was so angry that he gritted his teeth.
This old fellow was getting worse and worse, always keeping him in suspense!
Uncle Tianshu pretended not to see the scornful expression on Ding Hao’s face. He changed the subject. “Let’s talk about something practical. According to the map, the 100th floor of the Towering Buddha Pagoda is called the First Celestial Level. There’s a peerless boundary formation on that level. Only by overcoming this formation can we proceed upwards. Once we overcome ten Celestial Levels in succession, we’ll arrive at the Central Sacred Hall on the highest story of the pagoda. According to legend, there’s a divine power guarding the hall and the Three Great Divine Artifacts—the Sands of Time, the Heavenly Samsara Disc, and God-suppressing Seal. Only the destined ones can lay their hands on the three Divine Artifacts.”
A Divine Artifact was the most powerful weapon in the world. Even a warrior under the Primordial Realm could kill a Martial Emperor or a Martial Sage with it. Ding Hao guessed that his Devil Saber and Rusted Sword must be at the same level as a Divine Artifact, but they were not completely intact. They seemed to have been seriously damaged and could not recover their full strength, and so were unable to rival a true Divine Artifact.
Hearing this, Ding Hao felt a headache coming. “Ten Celestial Levels? Does it mean we have to climb 1,000 stories?”
Uncle Tianshu nodded. “Yes, that’s right.”
While speaking, he urged Ding Hao on his way again, in case they fell behind and could not catch up with the others, making him lose the Divine Artifacts.
They knew at present that absolute experts at the Saint Realm, from both the Human and the Demon Clans, were in the vanguard.
If it weren’t for the Black Demon Saint waiting at the entrance of this floor in ambush, looking to avenge his disciple and grand-disciple’s deaths, they would probably have reached the boundary formation of the First Celestial Level long ago, on the 100th floor.
So Ding Hao continued to activate his motorbike, Black Lightning, racing away at top speed with Uncle Tianshu.
The black puppy’s teeth was sunk in the latter’s ankle. Uncle Tianshu was holding Evil Moon and two white tiger cubs in his arms. There was a big white tigress balanced supine on his head, like a Human hanging upside down.
Four hours later, in an ancient square like a graveyard…
The amazing scene they saw stunned them all.
“What…” Ding Hao stopped the motorcycle and opened his mouth wide.
At the end of this square was a galaxy.
A real galaxy.
Incredible!
The blood-red fragments of shattered boulders were drifting in the void like in a cosmic vacuum.
The road in the square was a dead end, as if someone had hacked it off with a long sword. On one side was the square, and on the other, a sudden black vacuum. Small pebbles were floating at the faultline. In the distance, there were multicolored stars, like a lonely galactic river…
This scene was simply too astounding.
Two totally incompatible scenes were before them at the same time, without disrupting the other’s existence. It was simply a miracle. Ding Hao really could not think of any other word to describe what he had just seen.
They felt like they had reached the ends of the earth, and the furthermost extremity of the galaxy.
“Yes, this is the boundary formation of the First Celestial Level. It looks just like what the legend says. So the Starry River Boundary Formation really exists! The Sacred Hall had already mastered this power ages ago!” Uncle Tianshu could not help but sigh, looking spellbound by this scene.
The Starry River Boundary Formation?
Only then did Ding Hao realize that the starry sky in front was actually a boundary formation constructed by some great magical power.
“Isn’t this kind of power simply too amazing?”
Sacred Hall had built a galaxy directly, which really looked to them like they had reached outer space! The closer they got to the edge of the square, the more they could feel that weightless sensation which accompanied the loss of planetary gravity. The pressure from the Towering Buddha Pagoda was gradually being offset.
“We’re obviously inside the Towering Buddha Pagoda, but why do I feel like I’m at the ends of the earth?”
“What’s that…?”
Ding Hao was shocked when he saw something floating in the distance.
On closer inspection, they turned out to be the dead bodies of several Demon experts. They were in their original forms. Their bodies, which were thousands of meters high, were like small planets orbiting in the distant starry sky. From their stiff bodies and the small quantity of blood oozing out of their wounds, he could tell that they were completely dead. Their blood had condensed into solid scarlet balls drifting in the vacuum, shimmering with enchanting brilliance.
Ding Hao’s heart skipped a beat. He launched himself on his feet, kicking and breaking a rock. The rock fragment hurtled into the starry distant sky.
Since there was no atmospheric friction in a vacuum, the rock fragment shot out like a cannonball at top speed. Finally, it hit the drifting pebbles and demon corpses in the distance. Like a row of dominoes that had been pushed over, everything scattered, rolling into the depths of the starry sky…