The surrounding area was all dark. Both the time and s.p.a.ce had disappeared.
Ji Hao drifted in the world of darkness. From all directions, sharp strands of power had been dragging his body, pulling every muscle, every meridian, and each bone of his.
Those power strands were small, yet especially sharp. Ji Hao felt like being filled up by an army of ants, and each ant had gripped a tiny part of Ji Hao’s body in its mouthpart. These ants were tearing his body together; they wanted to tear him into the tiniest pieces.
Every strand of power was thin and sharp, yet extremely strong.
Ji Hao felt like being eating by countless ants. However, every single one of these ants was as powerful as a peak-level Divine Magus. They bit on Ji Hao’s body, shaking their heads hard, and crazily tearing him, cutting him, and attempting to crush and devour every slight bit of his spirit blood and life-force.
Ji Hao tightened his st.u.r.dy body, every muscle and tendon of his. He raised his head high, and roared out with a rumbling and hoa.r.s.e voice, "Not enough! Not enough!"
His smooth, glowing, jade-like skin was tightened as well. Steel-bar-like blood veins bulged under his skin. Inside those veins, his blood was surging, causing thunder-like noises. The colorless Chaos blood which contained a tremendous power flew to every corner of Ji Hao’s body. Gradually, thin steam rose from Ji Hao’s skin.
Ji Hao’s physical strength had gone far beyond the limits of Divine Magi. That strong army of ants failed to move Ji Hao’s body; except for causing him a piercing pain and making him very uncomfortable, those powerful ants didn’t manage to pull a hair off.
Power streams b.u.mped into each other inside Ji Hao’s body, causing a loud sizzling noise. The extremely negative power and extremely positive had been changing states constantly inside his body; sometimes they merged, sometimes they clashed against each other, then mixed with the mysterious power contained in Ji Hao’s blood. Weak electric bolts sizzled across Ji Hao’s skin.
Three-feet-thick, turbid mist covered his body completely. From the mist, countless thin Chaos lightning bolts darted out and struck him. Every thin lightning bolt would leave a brightly sparkling spell symbol on his skin.
These spell symbols were anciently styled; every single spell symbol represented a part of the most original Dao which only existed when Pan Gu created this world. As more and more spell symbols were left on his skin, Ji Hao’s body began shrinking. Meanwhile, his physical power began growing. When his body shrank by an inch, his physical strength improved by ten percent; when his body shrank by a foot, his physical strength doubled!
Ji Hao couldn’t tell how long it had been; probably a moment, probably centuries. His body shrank by three feet, and had become nearly transparent. Countless faintly visible Chaos power streams had been rapidly flowing inside his body.
Buzz! All of a sudden, Ji Hao broke through the fifth turn of the cultivation method with nine turns. He even skipped the sixth turn and directly stepped into the seventh turn. His boosting physical strength immediately crushed all his bones, but as a blood-red beam flashed across his entire body, all broken bones recovered, many times stronger than before.
"Pure physical strength, do you feel it?" The mysterious man gradually showed up in Ji Hao’s spiritual s.p.a.ce. With a complicated emotion, he sighed and said, "As long as your physical strength is extremely great…"
Pausing slightly, the mysterious man continued, "But of course, only physical strength is not enough. The skills of using it are important as well. Especially all kinds of magics and other abilities, those are important too."
Ji Hao didn’t have the time to listen to the mysterious man. Those sharp strands of power had still been trying to tear his body like billions of mad ants. But once those ants realized that they couldn’t do any actual harm to Ji Hao, they started drilling into his body. Those sharp power strands instantly moved into his body, gathered between his chest and stomach, and concentrated into a tiny spot, millions of times smaller than the point of a needle.
A terrifying devouring power burst from this tiny spot. Ji Hao felt that it wasn’t just a dark spot; instead, it was a black hole, a greedily powerful black hole. His blood and life-force were agitated, surging towards this black hole.
Ji Hao had never suffered such a great pain, which made him howl out loud.
At the moment, all the others saw the dark swirl that Yemo Shayi released rotate around Ji Hao for seven to eight minutes, then merge in Ji Hao’s body, leaving a tiny dark light spot sparkling between Ji Hao’s chest and stomach at last.
Ji Hao forced his body tight and activated all his power. Slowly, he made the posture of everything-grow to control his spirit blood and stop it from flowing into that dark hole.
However, the dark hole created by Yemo Shayi contained the power of the great Dao of devouring which belonged to the original world of Yu Clan people. Yemo Shayi was a Sun and Moon stage powerful being, and could perfectly control the power of the great Dao of devouring. Ji Hao could never fight the most powerful Dao of a world with merely his physical strength.
Puff! Ji Hao’s muscles suddenly withered and left his transparent skin wrapped around his bones.
Yemo Shayi slowly clapped his hands and said to Yemo Luoye blandly, "Your Highness, it’s going to be over. What a shame, he overestimated himself. He can’t even take thirty percent of my power!"
Yemo Luoye chuckled. She narrowed her eyes, and quickly fixed those eyes on the three supreme treasures held in Yuan Li’s hands, "So, Yemo Shayi, that mirror suits me very much, and that cloak…I like that cloak too. The sword is yours."
Yemo Shayi paused slightly. He also wanted the Taiji cloak.
However, he could never want anything that Yemo Luoye wanted. Elegantly and politely, he bowed to Yemo Luoye, then nodded smilingly.
Ji Hao failed to control his spirit blood and life-force. His spirit blood and life-force surged into that black hole like a flood. Within a blink of an eye, he was nearly drained. As fast as he could, Ji Hao instinctively activated the extremely negative power and extremely positive power inside him and transformed into a Taiji diagram that trapped the black hole in it.
The pain faded, and the spirit blood flew back.
The misty Taiji diagram rotated around the black hole ceaselessly. Priest Dachi once taught Ji Hao about the great Dao of Taiji. At this moment, every single world Priest Dachi said to Ji Hao resounded in Ji Hao’s primordial spirit one after another. Ji Hao realized that he had never gained such a clear understanding of the great Dao of Taiji.
The extremely negative power and extremely positive power flushed Ji Hao’s body. Once again, Ji Hao made the posture of everything-grow and slowly moved his body.
A warm and clear layer of light surrounded Ji Hao. The great Dao of Taiji was of a much higher grade than the Dao of destroying. The clear light rapidly absorbed all the power contained in the dark hole. Ji Hao’s muscles swelled again. In addition to that, a mysterious sense of power spread out from his body.