Chapter 0054: Refining the Divine and Returning to Emptiness

A massive flame hundreds of meters wide, faintly green and eerie, exuding an aura of death—before even approaching, Huang Long felt the scorching heat wave. Even Bog and the others beside him felt as though their souls were being burned to ashes.

Although eager to claim the Divine Tree, Huang Long kept an eye on the movements of the Hellish Ghost Roc. Before the necrotic hellfire could reach them, he moved like lightning, appearing above the Divine Tree and dodging the Roc’s attack.

At that moment, with a thought from Huang Long, the dozen-meter-tall Divine Tree slowly rose, detaching itself from the altar, and came before him. His life essence then fully merged with the tree. Though it couldn’t be fully refined yet, it could now be used to activate it.

Seeing that its attack had failed and Huang Long had dodged, the Hellish Ghost Roc, even more anxious, snarled, “Damnous humans! Put down the Nether Divine Tree!” With that, it spread its huge wings, took to the air, and lunged at Huang Long with its mountain-sized claws, intent on tearing the human child to pieces!

Seeing this, Bog and the three beasts shouted loudly, took to the air, rushed forward, and jointly launched another full-force attack at the Hellish Ghost Roc.

Although Bog and his companions, at the middle stage of their Four Sacred Realms, couldn’t pose a threat to the Hellish Ghost Roc, their combined attack disrupted space. Even the peak-stage Roc dared not endure such an attack with its true form and had to abandon Huang Long. It spat out a ball of necrotic hellfire to block their attacks.

With a loud boom, the Hellish Ghost Roc was forced to retreat, roaring angrily, “Get away from me!” Then it folded its wings, and a terrifying force quickly gathered.

Repeatedly blocked and attacked by these weaklings, the Roc, filled with rage, decided to use its innate skill to kill all these despicable creatures. Even if they turned to ashes, it couldn’t care less now.

Seeing this, Huang Long forced out another drop of his life essence and merged it with the Divine Tree. With another thought, the tree instantly transformed into a beam of golden light and was absorbed into the Group of Immortals Pavilion within his forehead’s ancestral aperture.

As soon as the Divine Tree entered the Group of Immortals Pavilion, its jade-like roots stretched infinitely, taking root within it. Under Huang Long’s perception, they continued to merge with the pavilion.

Huang Long was shocked—what was going on? This was beyond his expectations. He had originally only intended to store the Nether Divine Tree in the Group of Immortals Pavilion to refine it into a magical artifact later. Now, it seemed it was going to merge with the pavilion itself?

Buzz, buzz, buzz! After the Divine Tree merged, the Immortals’ Pavilion resonated with a buzzing sound as it underwent rapid changes. At the same time, a surging life force emanated from the Divine Tree, overflowing into the Immortals’ Pavilion and continuously washing over Yellow Dragon’s entire body, then flowing like a tide along his meridians toward his dantian.
“What is this?” Yellow Dragon thought in delight.
Immediately, he exerted all his strength to practice the “Water-Fire Primordial Dragon Art,” frantically absorbing this surging life force and transforming it into innate true essence.
Inside Yellow Dragon’s dantian, it instantly became like boiling water, expanding rapidly until it formed an endless sea. The true essence continuously turned into mist, entering his mind, where his divine essence kept accumulating like flowing water.
Previously, with each cultivation session, his divine essence accumulated bit by bit, but now it kept flowing continuously.
As his divine essence filled up, his primordial spirit grew taller at a visibly rapid pace.
Roar! When Yellow Dragon’s primordial spirit finally reached the same size as his physical body, his mind trembled violently, his aura surged, and he couldn’t help but roar.
His roar shook the heavens, like the cry of a celestial dragon, reaching high into the sky!
With the help of the life force from the Netherworld Divine Tree, at this moment, Yellow Dragon finally broke through from the Qi Refinement to Spirit Transformation stage to the Spirit Refinement to Void Return stage.
Then, a layer of dark golden dragon scales covered his entire body, and sharp spines emerged from the joints of his limbs, emitting a terrifying cold glow.
After years of hard practice with the Water-Fire Primordial Dragon Art, Yellow Dragon finally entered the “Dragon of Response” realm!
Under the astonished gazes of Bog and the others, a several-meter-long dragon tail grew behind Yellow Dragon.
“A dragon-human!” that thought flashed through Bog’s and the three beasts’ minds.
Dragon-humans were said to be a race born from the union of ancient dragons and humans, possessing traits of both. However, due to historical changes, dragon-humans were now rare on the Hengyuan Continent, almost extinct. Could his master be a dragon-human?
Immediately, Bog shook his head secretly. He knew clearly that his young master was indeed human, and his identity as the second young master of the Huang family in the Lutong Kingdom was genuine.
But how could he explain this current appearance?
After reaching the Spirit Refinement to Void Return stage, the life force from the Divine Tree continued to fill Yellow Dragon’s dantian. His mind surged, and the Chaos Bell and the Immortal-Slaying Sword also emitted dazzling light.
Yellow Dragon’s cultivation level kept rising, finally stopping only at the ultimate stage of Spirit Refinement to Void Return.
All of this happened in just a few moments. When Yellow Dragon regained consciousness, feeling his immense strength, he was overjoyed. His dark golden eyes swept toward the roaring Hellish Ghost Giant Roc, and he punched forward. Then, he formed spells, sending waves of Five-Element Divine Thunder down.

Divine Thunder of Water (Gu), Divine Thunder of Fire (Bing), Divine Thunder of Wood (Yi), Divine Thunder of Earth (Wu), Divine Thunder of Metal (Geng) – each as thick as a baby’s arm, their power countless times greater than before.
Thunderstorms filled the sky, engulfing the Hellish Ghost Giant Roc.
In pain, the Hellish Ghost Giant Roc let out a agonized cry.
“Let’s go!” Huang Long shouted. He then cast a Wind Surge spell on everyone, causing them to take off and fly back.
Although Huang Long had reached the realm of Perfecting the Divine Spirit, his dragon form was only comparable to the early stage of the Sacred Realm. Even with the help of the four sacred realms of Bog, he still couldn’t defeat this peak Sacred Realm creature, the Hellish Ghost Giant Roc. Thus, he had no choice but to leave first and return later, once he reached the realm of the Soul Leaving the Body, to explore this Demon King’s Temple again.
Bog and the three beasts followed Huang Long’s lead and took off immediately.
By the time the Hellish Ghost Giant Roc reacted, it saw that Huang Long and his companions were already several miles away. Roaring in fury, it spread its wings and created a dark green hurricane to chase after them relentlessly.
Huang Long sensed this through his mental connection. Seeing the Hellish Ghost Giant Roc closing in, he frowned and sent a beam of golden light from the Ancestral Portal of the Immortal Pavilion, enclosing Bog and the others inside. Then, he cast invisibility and breath suppression spells, disappearing completely from the temple’s space.
The Hellish Ghost Giant Roc, which was on the verge of catching up to Huang Long and his companions, was about to torture and kill them to vent its anger when they suddenly vanished.
Stunned, the Hellish Ghost Giant Roc looked around frantically.
They were gone!
“Damn it! What’s going on?” The dark green flames covering its body spread throughout the surroundings as it roared wildly.
“Humans, come out!”
“Come out at once!”