The boy wasn’t the only one to react in such a way. The old man’s eyes shone with strange light as he stood there panting. Outside of the Sky River Court headquarters, the three observers from the other sects all had looks of complete shock on their faces.

“Who is that!? Her aura... it’s....”

“I’ve never felt so shaken, not even when facing a deva-level patriarch....”

“Who could ever have imagined that the River-Defying Sect would have reserve powers like this!?!?”

Even the other three divisions of the River-Defying Sect were completely and utterly shocked. Master Godwind’s eyes were wide as he was yet again impressed with how well the Spirit Stream Division kept their true strength hidden. Never in all eternity could he have imagined that they would have power such as this at their disposal....

Bai Xiaochun’s eyes were wide as he looked at the baby girl. Although there were other people who might know more about the girl than he did, he still was more familiar with her than most.

In fact, back when he’d laid eyes on her for the first time, he’d even heard her voice....

Now that the baby girl had emerged from the coffin, allowing Bai Xiaochun to directly sense the indescribably terrifying fluctuations rolling off of her, he couldn’t help but pant.

All of this takes a bit of time to describe, but from the moment she opened her eyes until the instant she appeared in midair, only the briefest of moments passed.

Before anyone could even react, the baby girl looked away from the sky, taking in everyone in the world with her gaze, including the enormous beetle.

Then she simply lifted her hand and pointed at the bug!

In that instant, the death beetle began to shiver, and then seemed to lose any ability to fight back. No one could even see any ripples of a magical technique, and yet, the death beetle began to shake violently....

A moment later, the beetle was nothing more than ash dissolving in the air. The wave of the baby girl’s finger had stirred natural law, and completely wiped the beetle out of existence!

The response to the scene which had just played out was complete silence....

The eyes of the River-Defying Sect cultivators were wide, and the Sky River Court cultivators’ minds were reeling.

Bai Xiaochun hovered there in midair, eyes wide with shock. He had just witnessed something that no one else had noticed. With the power of his Heaven-Dao Gold Core, he had noticed that the wave of the baby girl’s finger had caused a vibration on something that looked like a thin thread....

That slight fluctuation gave rise to transformations that he didn’t understand, but the result was that the death beetle was blotted out of existence.

What had just occurred was something that could not be explained with an understanding of magical techniques and divine abilities.

As for the three people from the other sects, their scalps were tingling, and they were shaking visibly. In fact, they weren’t even capable of imagining what kind of power could simply wipe away a mid-grade spirit treasure like that death beetle.

However, they could imagine what would happen if that power were turned upon them; they would be instantly turned into nothing more than ash....

Back in the Sky River Court, the young boy gasped and murmured, “A foreigner... I can’t believe the Spirit Stream Division has a foreigner....”

The look in his eyes as he observed that baby girl couldn’t have been more serious.

The old man suddenly chuckled. “Foreigners are inauspicious.... Everyone knows that. Furthermore, any sect that has dealings with foreigners also becomes polluted and inauspicious....”

A gleam of anticipation could be seen deep within the old man’s eyes.

The boy maintained his silence. He was one of the five devas of the Starry Sky Dao Polarity Sect, and had a very profound understanding of the world around him. He was well aware that foreigners truly were incredibly inauspicious. However, at the same time, the Starry Sky Dao Polarity Sect’s stance toward them was to stay hands off and simply ignore them.

“Damn,” thought the boy. “There must be someone very powerful in the Spirit Stream Division.... The point of revealing that foreigner wasn’t just to kill the death beetle, it was to put on a little show for me. Well, I can do the same thing!” Gaze flickering across the battlefield, he suddenly performed an incantation gesture with his right hand, then pushed his hand down onto the tree trunk next to him.

The old man’s face fell as if he wished to stop the boy, and yet, was unable to. Almost as soon as the boy pushed down onto the tree trunk, the ancient Dire Skybanyan that was the home of the Sky River Court suddenly surged with life force, and began to struggle mightily.

Powerful roaring could be heard as countless branches flew out onto the battlefield and began to wrap around the Sky River Court cultivators, even the Nascent Soul experts. Then the branches lurched back, dragging the cultivators into the Dire Skybanyan.

As the cultivators were swallowed up, they became nutrients for the Dire Skybanyan, causing its life force to surge.

That in turn caused the enormous palm-print on the Dire Skybanyan’s trunk to heal up. Countless branches spread out over it, and leaves sprouted. More intense roars could be heard, and then the enormous tree jerked, snapping the two main branches which had been pinned down by the Blood Ancestor. With that, the gigantic tree reared up to its full height.

The tree let out a bellow that shook heaven and earth, and then, its eyes opened, bright red eyes which stared at the baby girl up in the air.

The baby girl only had ten breaths of time to be awake. Although everything almost seemed to be happening in slow motion, the truth was that those ten breaths of time still hadn’t passed yet, only about eight or nine.

The baby girl was already starting to wither up, and the light was fading from her eyes. And yet, she didn’t even bother to glance at the roaring tree. Instead, she turned her head to look at the shocked Bai Xiaochun!

Bai Xiaochun’s mind instantly began to spin as a familiar yet mysterious voice spoke to him.

“I’ll give you a bit of my qi and blood. I hope... that you can concoct the River-Defying Pill sooner rather than later.”

The baby girl waved her right index finger, and a drop of blood flew out of the tip, which shot with lightning-like speed toward Bai Xiaochun’s forehead. In the blink of an eye, it had fused into him!

Having accomplished this, the baby girl vanished.

A moment later, she reappeared back inside of the Heavenspan Battleship, in the coffin, her eyes closed, once again nothing but a desiccated corpse.

A tremor ran through Bai Xiaochun, and his qi and blood began to seethe. That drop of blood which had just been absorbed into his body apparently contained boundless power. As the power spread out, Bai Xiaochun let out a long, piercing cry. At the same time, nine asuras appeared behind him. Then, with the stimulation of the blood drop, a tenth asura came into being.

As the tenth asura appeared, Bai Xiaochun’s eyes turned bright red. Throwing his head back, he let out a howl that caused heaven and earth to shake. Everyone in the River-Defying Sect was completely shocked.

His fleshly body power instantly began to rocket up, and he suddenly felt as if he were pushing against the second shackle. It seemed that just a bit more power would break through it!

“Undying Heavenly King Body!!” Blue veins bulged out on his face and neck as a shockwave blasted out from him. At the same time, the ten asuras behind him began to merge together!!

When they became one, a terrifying fleshly body power instantly exploded out of Bai Xiaochun.

Bursts of golden light shone out from the single asura as golden armor fell down upon it. Its physical appearance was changing rapidly!

No longer did it have three heads and six arms. It was now an enraged heavenly king, enormous, fully 300 meters tall. It was an Undying Heavenly King! [1. There are many different versions of what the “heavenly kings” look like. Here is one depiction of the famous “four heavenly kings” of Buddhism]

The appearance of the Undying Heavenly King indicated that Bai Xiaochun was finally breaking through the second shackle.

As he did, he threw his head back and roared. He suddenly felt freer. His fleshly body power was skyrocketing, and at the same time, something became visible inside of the projection of the Undying Heavenly King. It was a golden core!

It was none other than an Undying Heavenly King Core!!

Bai Xiaochun took a deep breath, causing the Undying Heavenly King and the core within it to fly toward him. In the blink of an eye, it merged into him, causing an energy that was even more terrifying than before to explode out!

That was the power of two cores!

At the same time, the drop of blood from the baby girl instantly gave Bai Xiaochun deeper enlightenment of the River-Defying Pill. As of this moment, he had new ideas, and was slightly more confident in being able to concoct the pill!

Meanwhile, the Dire Skybanyan was still rising up into the air, and countless River-Defying Sect cultivators were fleeing from it at top speed. As for the cultivators of the Blood Stream Division, they were following the directions of Master Godwind to head back toward the Blood Ancestor.

Although everyone was shaken by what was happening with Bai Xiaochun, there was no time to ponder the situation. Master Godwind immediately roared, “Nightcrypt, my boy, take control of the Blood Ancestor! Kill that Dire Skybanyan!!”