Chapter 25: The Proposal

"How did he become so strong? My divine-demon body couldn't stop him at all?" The Dragon Whale great demon panicked as it felt the ant-like human youth easily burrow into its skull. "Force him out!"

In an instant, Ji Ning had drilled about a hundred zhang deep into the Dragon Whale's skull. Just then, surging water-green streams of light rushed from all directions, directly slamming into Ji Ning.

"Divine power!" Ji Ning understood at once—this was the Dragon Whale's divine power.

Divine power resides in every part of a divine-demon body.

At that moment, with a thought from the Dragon Whale great demon, vast amounts of divine power around its skull surged like a flood, crashing into Ji Ning. It was too fierce! The endless divine power struck Ji Ning, making him gasp.

"How can it have so much divine power?" Ji Ning suddenly realized that his chances of killing this Dragon Whale great demon were slim. Because the divine power contained in its enormous body was countless times greater than his own. To kill such a behemoth... one's strength must far surpass it; otherwise, one could only wound it at best.

"Break!"

Ji Ning, executing the Star Picking Hand, was fiercely brave. He cleaved through the divine power that blocked him like a flood, charging straight for the vital point in the Dragon Whale's skull.

"Rumble~~~"

Wherever Ji Ning passed, two sword beams freely swept, wantonly destroying the inside of the Dragon Whale's skull.

The skull is the core of the body.

If the vital point in the skull is damaged, an ordinary innate lifeform divine demon would die instantly. For one who has reached the level of 'reborn from a drop of blood' (Zifu level), though they won't die... they lose control of their body, instinctively wanting to condense their divine body. If one reaches the Wanxiang level, a divine demon can easily change its appearance and form through control of the body. But once the vital point in the skull is damaged, though they don't completely lose control, their control weakens to the extreme, barely able to execute simple techniques. If one reaches the Primordial level... they can even split off part of their flesh and blood to form a clone!

For divine body cultivation, the Zifu level is 'reborn from a drop of blood'.

The Wanxiang level is 'changing appearance and form'.

The Primordial level is 'clone'.

...

Plucking a single hair to form a clone is easy for a powerful divine demon.

For a Primordial-level divine demon, the skull has no special significance to the divine body. But at the Wanxiang level... the skull is still important. At this stage, the soul is mainly in the 'sea of consciousness'. Once the skull is damaged, the soul's control over the body naturally drops greatly.

"Boom!" As Ji Ning's sword beam pierced the vital point in the skull, the entire Dragon Whale great demon's body trembled in midair, then began to fall downward.

As it fell, the whole Dragon Whale great demon twisted and struggled.

Below, Mu Zishuo and the green-clad girl looked up, extremely tense. Seeing the scene before her, the green-clad girl found it hard to believe and sent a joyful telepathic message: "Is he going to win? Is your senior brother really this powerful, able to defeat even this Dragon Whale great demon?"

"It seems so," Mu Zishuo also looked up.

"But the Dragon Whale great demon is a divine demon; it won't be defeated so easily," the green-clad girl said, watching worriedly.

...

Inside the Dragon Whale's skull.

Ji Ning pierced its vital point and immediately sensed that the Dragon Whale's resistance had weakened to the extreme, realizing that its control over its body was now extremely faint.

"Good," Ji Ning's eyes lit up. "Water-Fire Lotus."

Immediately, enormous Water-Fire Lotuses began to appear around him, each dozens of zhang in size, manifesting inside the Dragon Whale's mouth. They began madly shredding parts of the Dragon Whale's body, like its tongue.

But...

Sizzle sizzle sizzle~~~

Couldn't shred!

"Huh?" Ji Ning stared.

Couldn't shred?

"Small, small, small." With a thought, Ji Ning made the Water-Fire Lotuses shrink, their power continuously increasing. Six Water-Fire Lotuses, each about ten zhang in size, finally managed to shred the Dragon Whale great demon's body.

"What a monster," Ji Ning was shocked. "My Water-Fire Lotuses are far more powerful than before, but when spread out, they couldn't even shred its body. Its flesh and blood are too tough."

About ten zhang was the range where Ji Ning's Water-Fire Lotuses could maintain maximum power.

Clearly, the Water-Fire Lotuses had to be pushed to the extreme to shred it.

But... shredding such a small amount of flesh and blood—how long would it take to shred a three-thousand-zhang body? The shredding speed might not even match the Dragon Whale's own divine power recovery rate.

"Bang!" The Dragon Whale's skull suddenly exploded entirely.

Ji Ning was also thrown back by the blast.

"Good fellow, it actually abandoned its skull," Ji Ning thought as he flew backward, shocked by the Dragon Whale's decisiveness. Though the Dragon Whale's control over its body was very weak, it could still perform simple techniques; blowing up its own skull was easy.

The skull completely exploded, and the Dragon Whale's massive body rolled over. During the roll, a new skull regrew.

It let out an angry roar.

"Roar~~~"

With the earth-shaking roar, its enormous, fan-like tail slapped toward Ji Ning. Too fast! And the tail alone was nearly a thousand zhang wide. Ji Ning, in midair with no leverage, was less agile than on the ground. For a moment, he couldn't dodge.

Since he couldn't dodge, he wouldn't dodge!

"Break for me!"

Ji Ning held the Northmoon sword in both hands and roared. The sword light in his hands turned into two sword rivers, slashing directly at the massive tail that came slapping down.

The enormous tail was like a fan covering heaven and earth.

The two sword beams seemed to pierce the sky.

They collided in an instant!

Boom!!!

As if heaven and earth were splitting, the air around them exploded wildly. Bright red blood instantly splattered, even staining the sky red. Ji Ning himself was like a meteor, slammed with a whoosh directly into the wilderness below. The wilderness shook with a thunderous roar, and deep, cracked ravines appeared.

Ji Ning himself had already been smashed deep into the ground.

"Human." High in the sky, the Dragon Whale great demon's enormous tail had a terrifying wound, hundreds of zhang long, nearly tearing the tail apart. The wound was now rapidly healing.

It looked down and easily sensed that the human's aura deep underground was equally powerful and狂暴, not weakened at all.

It understood...

The other party also cultivated a divine body. Even if a slap injured him, he could quickly recover unscathed.

"I didn't expect your divine body cultivation to be stronger than your qi cultivation. You hid it well," the Dragon Whale great demon's voice boomed. Then it turned into a streak of light and quickly departed. As it left, the array flags rose and flew toward it.

Swoosh.

Ji Ning leaped out, soaring from the deep underground to land on the surface.

"Gone?" Ji Ning held the Northmoon sword, watching the Dragon Whale great demon disappear into the distance.

"Senior brother, you drove away the Dragon Whale great demon?" Mu Zishuo said excitedly.

The green-clad girl beside him was even more stunned. She looked at the Dragon Whale great demon that had vanished in the distance, then at the clear-featured youth before her, who looked almost the same as back then: "You... drove away the Dragon Whale great demon? Do you have a twin brother?"

"What are you thinking?" Ji Ning laughed and scolded.

"But how can you be so strong? I've had many adventures," the green-clad girl said, staring at Ji Ning. "That was a Dragon Whale great demon! I heard it could escape even from Primordial cultivators. It's extremely powerful."

"It is strong," Ji Ning said. "Especially its enormous body, with divine power so vast it's almost unimaginable. To kill it? I simply can't. Even Primordial cultivators—only those who truly surpass it can kill it. Otherwise, some ordinary Primordial cultivators can't do anything to it."

Among Wanxiang cultivators, there are differences in level.

The same goes for Primordial cultivators.

For example, the Primordial cultivators in the Black-White College—each one comprehends a complete Dao before stepping into the Primordial realm! And 'Beishan Heihu', as a candidate for the next Marquis of Anqi, gave Ji Ning an equally strong sense of threat. These are all outstanding among Primordial cultivators.

"If you can't do anything to it, why did it flee?" the green-clad girl asked.

"Because it can't do anything to me either," Ji Ning laughed. "And having its skull's vital point pierced, weakening its body control... once tasted, no divine demon wants to taste it a second time."

Though the soul can sense the divine body, due to the damaged skull, control over the body is extremely faint.

This feeling is a nightmare.

"And this time, it suffered a loss in our fight; it probably has some shadow in its heart. Afraid I might have more tricks," Ji Ning said. "So naturally, it's best to leave quickly."

"Oh," the green-clad girl nodded.

She couldn't help but admire Ji Ning. Her eyes sparkled as she looked at him—too impressive. Back then, when she fought him, he was only at the Houtian level. Now he had become so powerful. Even the Dragon Whale great demon, which she felt was unbeatable, had retreated, and the other dozen Wanxiang great demons were killed like chicks.

"Actually, if we kept fighting, if it didn't leave, I would have had to leave," Ji Ning said with emotion.

He relied on the Star Picking Hand to unleash astonishing power.

But the Star Picking Hand technique... consumes divine power at an alarming rate. Its power far surpasses techniques like 'Heavenly Transformation' by several levels! This allowed Ji Ning to unleash such combat strength, but the divine power consumption was equally astonishing. Ji Ning couldn't fight at this level for long.

"Senior brother, stop it," Mu Zishuo pouted. "If you keep being modest, I can't stand it. The one who just fled was a Wanxiang-perfect divine body cultivator with a divine technique—a Dragon Whale great demon."

Ji Ning blinked.

"Ji boy!" the green-clad girl suddenly said.

"Huh?" Ji Ning looked at her. "Little snake, what's up?"

"Do you have a spirit beast? How about I follow you?" the green-clad girl proposed. "I'm a Kongqing Snake; I grow quickly. And I'm good at finding treasure spots... You need to use Minor Teleportation Dao talismans for spatial travel, but for me, it's as easy as breathing. And when my realm is higher, even space-locking arrays won't affect me."

Ji Ning blinked: "I already have a spirit beast by my side."