Simultaneously, they travel through time, starting from the God Ranking.

Chapter 69 Leaving the Underground

The core of Shifang was protected by an invisible barrier, which was Fang Xiu's spiritual shield.

Fang Xiu pinched the Nightmare Ancestor on the ground into a ball, turning it into a black sphere. Around the sphere, a ring of True Soul Flame slowly burned.

After advancing to the Pure Void realm, the True Soul Flame became much easier to use. While Fang Xiu was preparing the Nightmare Ancestor, Elizabeth was already hugging Long Cheng.

Eliza hugged Long Cheng from behind, wrapped her arms around him, lowered her head and wept. Her sobs were not loud, but it was precisely because of this that Long Cheng felt even more heartache.

At this moment, Long Cheng had already exited the Dragon King Transformation state. He let out a soft sigh and pulled Elizabeth into his arms.

"What a tragic couple."

Seeing this, Fang Xiu couldn't help but sigh. However, although the Nightmare Ancestor had been captured, the crisis was not completely over. Shifang's self-destruction was already on the countdown, and the previous battle between the three had undoubtedly accelerated this process.

Having received the power of the Spirit of Shifang, Fang Xiu established a certain connection with Shifang. According to the Spirit of Shifang, there is at most half an hour before the destruction of the Shifang space.

Everyone must leave before then, or they won't be able to leave.

"call--"

Hearing that there was still half an hour left, everyone breathed a sigh of relief. Half an hour was enough for them all to leave.

"Hahahaha!! Nightmare Ancestor! You've finally met your match!!"

Only Fang Xiu could hear the mocking laughter of the Spirit of Shifang. Its body had long been destroyed by the Nightmare Ancestor and could only remain inside its core.

Compared to before, the voice of the spirit of Shifang was now filled with the joy of revenge.

Since Shifang fell into the hands of the Nightmare Ancestor, the once-powerful artifact of the Soul Path was forcibly corrupted by the Nightmare Ancestor into the demonic path, becoming a demonic artifact used to torment other souls in order to gain power. After the Nightmare Ancestor's soul entered Shifang, it became even more vicious, and the spirit of Shifang was even destroyed by the Nightmare Ancestor.

It could be said that the Spirit of Shifang was the happiest when the Nightmare Ancestor failed.

Even the spirit of Shifang specifically requested Fang Xiu to use the True Soul Flame to burn away the soul of the Nightmare Ancestor bit by bit. To the spirit of Shifang, the Nightmare Ancestor's painful wails sounded like the most beautiful celestial music!

Although the Shifang space wouldn't collapse anytime soon, it's like an earthquake. If you know a place is about to be hit by an earthquake, who would stay there? So everyone left the Shifang space together, including Long Cheng.

Unlike the Nightmare Ancestor, who no longer has a physical body, Long Cheng's physical body is still intact outside. The Shattered Dragon Roar shattered the soul, and Shifang is just the right place to repair the loss of the soul.

Long Cheng's originally shattered soul had already been repaired by Shifang. As Long Cheng left Shifang and returned to the outside world, the giant dragon in the dragon-shaped ice mountain outside opened its eyes, the giant dragon disappeared, and in its place was Long Cheng with a naked body.

The Shattered Dragon Roar destroyed Long Cheng's personal storage artifact, so Long Cheng could only cover it with magic for the time being, and the masked guard provided him with a set of clothes.

"Lord Long, you owe me an explanation for the mess this place has become."

Seeing Long Cheng come back to life, the Jade Emperor questioned him, wanting to know who was behind Long Cheng's actions—Gao Yuan? Or someone even higher up…

Fang Xiu ignored the commotion on the Jade Emperor's side. He was adapting to his new body after the breakthrough. After completing the breakthrough, Fang Xiu went to Shifang to fight the Nightmare Ancestor. Only now did he have time to test it.

Leaving aside the strengthening of the physical body, the biggest changes after breaking through to the Void Realm should be in two aspects: magical power and the soul.

After breaking through to the Pure Void stage, not only does the quantity of magical power increase, but the quality also changes. A wisp of magical power in the Pure Void stage is equivalent to five wisps in the tenth level of the Jade Void stage. And this is only after breaking through. The gap will only widen in the future. Not to mention spells, the same spell used in the Pure Void stage is several times more powerful.

Aside from magical power, the biggest change in the Qingxu stage is the soul. The soul in the Qingxu stage is a complete human body, unlike the Yuxu stage where there is only half a body. And with a strong soul, divine sense naturally becomes stronger as well.

However, the current environment is not very suitable for in-depth research. Although the Nightmare Ancestor has been sealed, there is still a mutated king in the underground space. Even though the other party has lost his mind, his mutated body is like a box full of explosives, and a super explosion could happen if he is not careful.

So everyone joined forces. Fang Xiu protected everyone, and the masked guards and Long Cheng worked together to chisel a hole in the fleshy wall. Then, before the monster could react, they filed out.

The monster that the king's physical body transformed into would not possess the aura of Shifang, which is the origin of the halo that protected everyone earlier.

With the help of the spirit of Shifang, apart from the sealed Nightmare Ancestor, Shufangxiu was now most closely connected with Shifang. By leaving Shifang's aura on everyone, it was not difficult for the monster to temporarily ignore them.

This disregard doesn't completely prevent the monster from discovering the group; it merely makes the monster believe that the group is part of it. However, this disregard disappears the moment it attacks.

Following the blasted hole, the group flew out of the underground space. The giant king, now the king in disguise, wielded twisted tentacles to lash out at them, attempting to hold them back.

However, all of this was in vain. Fang Xiu led a group of Jade Void stage cultivators to rapidly advance, while Long Cheng and the masked guards covered their retreat. Such attacks had no effect on the two of them.

The group broke free from the constraints of the underground space and returned to the surface. Long Cheng and the masked guards followed closely behind, accompanied by flying tentacles that could shatter rocks with a casual flick.

As the group ascended into the air, the monster's tentacles extended from the ground, attempting to grab them. When their efforts failed, the monster tried to retract its tentacles, but Fang Xiu was not about to stand by and watch.

Just as the tentacles were about to retract into the cave, Fang Xiu raised his hand and grabbed them. With the active cooperation of the spirit of Shifang, Shifang flew into Fang Xiu's hand like a fish returning to the sea.

"Give it back to me! Give it back to me!!! Give Shifang back to me!!!!"

With Shifang detached from the body, the monster's soul immediately went out of control without Shifang's balance. Painful and wailing faces appeared on the monster's body, all crying out for Fang Xiu to return Shifang to them!

boom!!

A gigantic monster burst from the ground, and in just a short while, hundreds and thousands of different faces appeared on its body, tearing at each other as it tried to break free from its crowded form.

"The Demon-Slaying Vajra!"

The masked guard formed a hand seal, and golden Buddhist light shot into the sky. When he put his palms together in front of his chest, a giant Vajra statue, more than ten feet tall, covered in golden armor and holding a vajra pestle, stood proudly.

The ultimate summoning technique of the Buddhist Pure Void stage—Vajra Subduing Demons!

However, even the ten-zhang-tall Vajra that subdues demons only reached the height of the monster's chest.

The monster, having lost its mind, only knew how to chase Shifang, and Fang Xiu, who was holding Shifang, naturally became its target. It didn't even care about the Demon-Subduing Vajra who was right next to it, and reached out to grab Fang Xiu.

"The Vajra manifests! All demons are vanquished!"

The masked guard chanted an incantation, and the Vajra Demon Subduing Staff immediately raised its three-zhang-and-three-chi-long Vajra Demon Subduing Staff and swung it around to smash the monster.

boom!

With a single blow, the monster's head shattered like a watermelon, spraying out a dark, foul-smelling liquid.

But this was not the end. The broken head had little effect on the monster. Over the years, the monster had long since lost the ability to sustain ordinary fatal wounds. The headless body swayed and then grabbed at the Demon-Subduing Vajra.

Strength and speed: Although this monster has long lost its mind, its mutated body possesses power that nearly surpasses Qingxu's.

While the Demon-Subduing Vajra clashed with the monster, the others were also busy. Long Cheng had just used the Dragon King Transformation, so he wasn't at his peak, but his sharp ice magic still easily caused the surrounding temperature to drop sharply.

Fang Xiu held Shifang in one hand and Nightmare Ancestor in the other, resuming his old ways of controlling his tail. True Soul Flame pulsed in and out; for monsters, beings whose bodies are filled with souls, True Soul Flame was practically a special attack.