Chapter 11: Named 'Mocha'

The black-robed Dao Lord sat in the cave of fiery red rock. His gaze suddenly looked down at the void passage. Deep within the void passage, a burly figure could faintly be seen climbing on the fiery red rock, swinging a giant axe, chopping with all his might again and again. Just by looking with the naked eye, one could feel how immense the force of that burly figure's axe swings was, yet each chop of the fiery red rock barely cracked it, and only after dozens of chops did a piece break off.

Boom, boom, boom...

The vibrations reaching the black-robed Dao Lord were already very faint.

"Mocha." The black-robed Dao Lord called out. "Come here."

"Yes, master." A deep voice came from below.

Whoosh.

A streak of light flew out from the depths of the void passage and then landed in this cave of fiery red rock. It was a rather burly figure, its naked body exuding a metallic luster, clearly not a normal lifeform. The black giant axe it held in its hand was almost as long as most of its height. After entering, it immediately knelt respectfully: "Master, your orders."

The black-robed Dao Lord nodded: "On the continent of the Spirit Immortal Realm, five little World-level fellows have arrived. Although they are World-level, each of them has reached the level of a two-step Dao Lord in strength. They have entered my cave dwelling and are advancing toward the void passage. I want you to go and eliminate them. Remember, on no account let them destroy my 'Thousand-Leaf Colorful Ni Flower.'"

"Yes, Mocha understands." The burly figure replied respectfully.

"Go." The black-robed Dao Lord commanded.

The burly figure then flew upward along the void passage, quickly entering the entrance to the lowest level of the cave dwelling.

The black-robed Dao Lord watched and nodded slightly. He was not too concerned about the death of his follower, because that follower had only broken through by relying on a Steal-Heaven Life-Death Pill, and usually just helped him with trivial matters like tormenting mortal cultivators. For a great being like him, he disdained spending so much effort tormenting mortal cultivators; it was enough to order his subordinates to do it.

"Five such remarkable World-level cultivators, all likely to become heaven-defying Dao Lords. What a pity." The black-robed Dao Lord sighed softly. "But who told you to come here?"

...

Deep within the Dao Lord's cave dwelling.

Ji Ning and the other four were advancing along the path.

"There must be a great secret hidden deep in this path," said Prince Qinghuang. "We've already encountered eight layers of seals on this path, and we've broken through them with great difficulty. If it weren't an important place, there wouldn't be so many seals."

"We've broken so many seals, and no enemies have appeared in the cave dwelling. It's likely there really are no other Dao Lords," Feng Yi said with a smile. "If everything goes smoothly, that would be great."

"Let's hope so."

Along the deep passage, layer by layer, they kept descending deeper.

Suddenly, at the end ahead, a huge stone door appeared. The stone door had some peculiar carvings that exuded an aura of darkness and sin. Just looking at them made Ji Ning and the others uncomfortable. In fact, along the way, they had noticed that almost everywhere in the cave dwelling, one could feel some resentment and sin aura, and some places were especially dense.

"Sizzle sizzle sizzle..." The world projection and Ji Ning's Yin-Yang Sword Intent domain collided with the stone door.

Golden divine patterns immediately emerged on the surface of the stone door, flowing with immense power, completely unharmed.

Feng Yi Xinjun carefully examined the array restrictions displayed on the stone door. In terms of formations, among Ji Ning and the other four, Feng Yi Xinjun was the strongest. He looked up at the restrictions on the stone door for quite a while.

"Follow my orders," Feng Yi Xinjun said. "Brother Beiming, use your full strength with one sword strike to destroy this divine pattern here."

His world projection immediately showed a light spot on one of the divine patterns.

"Brother Huojin, Tianhuo, you two attack these two places respectively." Feng Yi Xinjun also marked the divine patterns at the very top and very bottom of the entire stone door.

"Brother Qinghuang, you just focus all your power on striking these two doors," Feng Yi Xinjun said with a smile. "Leave the rest to me."

Breaking such seals purely by brute force is extremely difficult. If one is proficient in formations, even if they cannot fully decipher it, as long as they find some key points and combine them with some brute force, breaking it becomes ten or a hundred times easier.

"Everyone, strike!" Feng Yi Xinjun shouted.

"Whoosh."

Ji Ning drew his sword.

A silent, soundless sword strike, but the moment it pierced the divine pattern, its power suddenly surged. The terrifying penetrative force, if Ji Ning wished, could even tear through the spatial dimensions of this area and enter another dimension. Under Ji Ning's sword strike, that divine pattern was directly pierced and destroyed. The sealing array on the stone door immediately began to oscillate and destabilize.

In fact, for a large array, damage to minor parts has little effect; only damage to key hubs affects it so greatly.

"Good." Feng Yi Xinjun showed a delighted expression.

Ji Ning's sword was indeed terrifying.

Earlier, when breaking through the seals in the cave dwelling, they had encountered difficulties that even Prince Qinghuang could not break through. It was Ji Ning who volunteered and pierced the key point of the array with a single sword strike. They had all been shocked by Ji Ning's terrifying sword at that time.

In terms of attack, when it came to overbearing power, Prince Qinghuang was the strongest among the five.

In terms of ruthlessness, Ji Ning's sword was the strongest among them.

"Attack." Tianhuo Mangya and Huojin struck simultaneously. One wielded fire, the other water—completely opposite forces, each of considerable power, but the combination of water and fire caused their power to surge. Tianhuo Mangya's progress was indeed great; or rather, the 'Eternal Twelve Scrolls' was indeed heaven-defying enough. Tianhuo Mangya's current strength was now on par with Huojin of the Twelve Palaces' Four-Man Group.

"Break!" Prince Qinghuang's enormous golden hand smashed over like a grinding wheel, directly striking the two closed stone doors.

Rumble...

The seal twisted and could no longer withstand the impact. The closed stone doors began to open with a rumble, and the seal naturally broke.

The two stone doors were pushed open by the two palm strikes, revealing an empty hall behind.

"Is this the end of the passage?" Ji Ning and the others were startled. Earlier on this path, they had encountered layers of seals one after another, and they had thought that behind the stone door there would still be a passage. Unexpectedly, it was a hall.

Ji Ning and the other four cautiously, surrounded by the world projection and the Yin-Yang Sword Intent domain, walked through the stone door and entered the hall.

The empty hall was about ten thousand zhang in size.

In one corner of the hall sat a burly figure cross-legged. His entire body was fiery red, and even his eyes were burning flames, clearly not a normal lifeform.

"A puppet?" Qinghuang frowned.

"Such a powerful puppet." Feng Yi's expression also changed.

"The deceased Dao Lord was only a one-step Dao Lord; how could he have such a powerful puppet?" Ji Ning's heart sank. They could all tell that this was merely a powerful puppet, but unlike the weak puppets outside the Spirit Immortal Realm, which were at most at the Ancestral God level, this puppet before them was at the Dao Lord level.

Moreover, its aura was so vigorous that it was far beyond ordinary Dao Lords.

"Whoosh whoosh whoosh..." On the other side of the hall, there was also a stone door. The tightly closed stone door was shrouded in dense dark green resentment, on which countless roaring, angry faces appeared. Vast amounts of dense primordial energy were emerging from the surrounding void and then flowing toward the stone door, drilling deep into it.

"The resentment is all converging here? What lies behind that stone door?" Ji Ning realized that they were very close to some of the secrets behind this Spirit Immortal Realm.

Ji Ning and the other four exchanged glances, their hearts all heavy. They understood that this would likely be the most dangerous battle they had faced since entering the alien universe, and they might even die here.

"We five brothers have been sent by our sect to enter the Ancient Domain. We ask for your convenience to let us leave this Spirit Immortal Realm," Feng Yi said. "If you have any requests, please feel free to make them."

The burly puppet sitting cross-legged slowly raised its head, its flame-like eyes fixed on Ji Ning and the others. It grinned, revealing a ferocious smile, and then stood up directly. With its left hand, it summoned a huge black shield out of thin air, and with its right hand, it summoned a giant axe.

With a shield in one hand and an axe in the other, the burly puppet's aura fully erupted, sweeping through the entire hall, causing it to rumble.

"I want..." The burly puppet's voice was deep. "You all dead!"

Bang!

It turned into a streak of light and charged directly at Ji Ning and the other four.