During this time, Gu Yuan was constantly searching for spiritual herbs that had grown for many years, most of which were beneficial to the physique. Many spiritual herbs seemed useless to the spiritual cultivators of this world, and some, not recognizing their value, did not even discover them. This made Gu Yuan extremely happy.
As he scouted along, all the spiritual herbs were collected into his storage ring, regardless of their age. Gu Yuan even felt that if he were to leave here, the power contained within the spiritual herbs he obtained could increase his Qi Meridian Realm cultivation by about a hundred.
It should be known that the cultivation of the Qi Meridian Realm was to open up the 365 major acupoints within the body, and each major acupoint contained 108 minor acupoints, like a chain reaction. Furthermore, each acupoint opened would increase Gu Yuan's physical strength.
The moment acupoints were opened, a large amount of the body's origin essence would be released. After all the acupoints were opened, the entire body would ascend to a higher level, becoming closer to the essence of innate divine demons.
Many spiritual herbs were inevitably guarded by demonic beasts. Gu Yuan punched and shattered these beasts, refining their flesh and blood with his flames for purification. These demonic beasts lived in an environment rich in spiritual energy, their bodies absorbing this energy day and night, making their flesh extremely pure and containing a lot of energy.
Sensing his gains, Gu Yuan's face showed an expression like an old farmer reaping a bountiful harvest. He flew into the sky. There were no restrictions here. Gu Yuan's divine soul sensed that in the center of this world, a massive energy was continuously gathering. As soon as he entered, a consciousness informed him that he could only leave after ten days.
On the ground, some people who had encountered spiritual herbs seemed to have already started fighting, with various colored spiritual lights flying about and destroying everything around them.
Gu Yuan stood on a cloud, watching the battle below with great interest. The two were fighting over a medicinal herb that was seven hundred years old.
Its effect, as Gu Yuan understood it, was to strengthen the internal energy, with little benefit to the physical body. But that was for others. For Gu Yuan, who possessed the fate of devouring heaven and earth, it was a trivial matter; any energy could be absorbed by his physical body.
The two combatants were both native cultivators of this world. The basic power of their spiritual cultivation was the same, so they were locked in a stalemate.
The two clearly noticed Gu Yuan, who was observing from mid-air. They exchanged glances, instantly understanding each other's intentions.
In their view, Gu Yuan was waiting to reap the benefits. It would be better for them to join forces and deal with the outsider first, as they had been rivals for over a decade.
Gu Yuan's sharp divine soul detected the change in the situation. His eyes flashed with a sharp light, but he made no move, quietly watching the two perform their act.
Spiritual lights continuously surged around, air currents exploded, and the battlefield imperceptibly drew closer to Gu Yuan. Eventually, the straight-line distance between the two and Gu Yuan was only about a hundred meters. They exchanged glances, and their spiritual energy erupted, far more potent than when they had been fighting before.
It seemed these two had not used their full strength when fighting, both being experienced schemers.
But they had encountered an even greater schemer in Gu Yuan.
Gu Yuan watched the two spiritual energy attacks heading towards him. One person's spiritual essence was a golden long sword, and the attack launched at Gu Yuan was golden sword qi, exuding a sharp aura.
The other person's spiritual essence was a flame, and the attack unleashed was a wave of flames emitting scorching heat.
Gu Yuan looked at their attacks, a slight smile curling his lips.
"So weak and powerless!"
Innumerable light spots in his body lit up, activating in a peculiar manner.
These were the countless particles Gu Yuan had opened up, now arranged and combined in a strange form.
This was a body formation of particles suitable for his physique that Gu Yuan had spent a month creating.
The Innate Five Elements Divine Monarch Array!
Using the minor five elements within his body to connect with the major five elements in heaven and earth, and injecting them into the particles he had opened up, to strengthen his physique!
A five-colored radiance flashed within Gu Yuan's body, and his physique suddenly grew, reaching a height of five meters before stopping.
A five-colored halo hovered behind his head, and his entire body was enveloped in five-colored spiritual light, which was the five elements of this world.
At this moment, he was like a god of the five elements, and these five elements continuously swirled around Gu Yuan.
Gu Yuan felt the changes within his body, his lips curving slightly. He hadn't expected the power to be this good.
The particles within his body operated in the form of the five elements. The five-colored light no longer flowed. The five elements Divine Monarchs guarding his internal organs seemed to be in another dimension within his body, exuding power that influenced the countless particles within and connecting with the external five elements, constantly merging with the minor five elements inside to increase Gu Yuan's strength.
At this moment, the attacks of the two had also reached Gu Yuan.
Gu Yuan waved his hand, and countless earth element powers instantly condensed, forming a massive rock shield.
Boom!
Countless rock fragments exploded, and the force of the explosion instantly created a smoke screen, obscuring Gu Yuan's massive form.
The two exchanged glances, seeing the solemnity in each other's eyes. They had originally thought he was an easy opponent, but the sudden burst of power made them feel a jolt of fear.
Whoosh!
A strong wind swept through, and the two watched as a large hole was torn through the smoke in front of them, which slowly dissipated.
Sensing the deep breaths behind him, the two slowly turned to look back. An extremely colossal body appeared before them.
Gu Yuan looked down at the two small figures below, a cruel smile slowly appearing on his lips, his eyes as cold as ten thousand fathoms of ice.
He suddenly clapped his hands together, Bang!
A deafening sound echoed through heaven and earth. Countless air molecules were directly crushed by Gu Yuan's hands, releasing numerous powerful air currents.
Gu Yuan did not feel the texture of flesh and blood. His divine soul swept out, and he saw the two figures who had appeared behind him at some unknown time.
His gaze fell upon the dim spiritual artifacts in their hands, and he instantly understood what had happened.
"Heh, why run?" Gu Yuan chuckled.
His four-meter-tall body instantly erupted with unparalleled speed, tearing through countless air currents, and he appeared before the two in an instant.
Innumerable five elements of qi erupted, forming a pair of giant palms that slammed down fiercely towards the two who were fleeing in different directions.
"Ahhh!"
"Get lost!" The man whose spiritual essence was a golden long sword roared. The golden long sword hovering behind his head instantly unleashed countless golden sword qi, fiercely striking the five elements palm print rapidly approaching him.
Clang clang clang!
A dense metallic collision sound rang out. The surface of the five elements palm print flowed with metal element qi, blocking all the sword qi. The incredibly sharp sword qi only left white dots on the palm print, but under the flow of the five elements qi, they instantly disappeared.
Gu Yuan's face was filled with killing intent. These two had intended to kill him from the start, so he would definitely kill them to prevent any future trouble, lest they stab him in the back at some unknown time.
The other person unleashed extremely compressed flames, shooting directly towards Gu Yuan's five elements palm print. However, Gu Yuan's five elements palm print flashed with spiritual light, and a water-blue barrier instantly enveloped its surface.
A large amount of water vapor was continuously evaporated. Gu Yuan could still control this evaporated water vapor, condensing it into water droplets that shot towards the continuously fleeing man of flame.
Gu Yuan used his mind for two purposes, pursuing both of them simultaneously.
Bang!
Two blood mists erupted from Gu Yuan's five elements palm print.
Gu Yuan's expression was impassive. He opened his palm print, and two corpses, reduced to lumps of flesh, appeared within his sight. Gu Yuan's expression was still impassive. The five elements on his palm print transformed, and flames blazed.
Gu Yuan had no habit of eating people. He directly incinerated these two lumps of corpses.
They turned into two piles of black ash, scattering with the wind. Gu Yuan's gaze turned to another location.
There, two spiritual essences emitting a mysterious glow swayed in the wind.
Gu Yuan was somewhat curious. Were these not the spiritual essences nurtured by those two? They hadn't disappeared.
He gently touched these two spiritual essences with his blood qi. These two spiritual essences, as if they had intelligence, continuously circled the tentacles formed by Gu Yuan's blood qi, and even touched them from time to time.
Gu Yuan's face showed some surprise. He hadn't expected the spiritual essences of this world to be reusable.
The information transmitted from these two spiritual essences was that if he absorbed them, he could possess them.
Unfortunately, if it were someone else, perhaps they could absorb them, but encountering Gu Yuan, he could only say sorry.
Gu Yuan silently apologized in his heart. His blood qi transformed into a large hand, directly grabbing the two spiritual essences. A powerful force erupted instantly, crushing the two spiritual essences alive. Gu Yuan vaguely felt two screams ringing out.
He shook his head. How could there be screams? Gu Yuan chuckled inwardly, looking at the two spiritual essences he had crushed, which had now transformed into two streams of pure power.
One was fire, and the other was metal.
He sensed them with his divine soul but did not rashly absorb them. He took out a jar that could store heavenly and earthly power and put them into it.
After doing all this, he approached the spiritual herb. Who would have thought that this single spiritual herb would cause two lives to be lost? Gu Yuan shook his head and sighed softly, then happily put it into his storage space.
Heaven knows, Gu Yuan only wanted to pick up a bargain and observe the fighting styles of this world. He never intended to kill anyone. Gu Yuan killed demonic beasts; how could he harm humans?
Shaking his head, Gu Yuan left the area.
His direction was towards the center of this world.
...
Ten minutes later, Gu Yuan arrived at a place where two groups of people were confronting each other.
Gu Yuan was somewhat curious and sent out his divine soul to sense the area. He discovered that the seemingly ordinary ground concealed a formation.
He immediately became interested. A formation meant there were good things, or possibly bad things, but usually more good things, as this was the base camp of the Zhen Tian Sect, and few would suppress bad things at their doorstep.
Looking at the scene, it was clearly two organizations confronting each other.
Gu Yuan landed on the ground, right in the middle of the formation, and felt the wary gazes from both sides.
Gu Yuan smiled, then said loudly, "All eyes on me!"
Instantly, all eyes were focused on Gu Yuan. Although both groups were of a lower cultivation realm than him, there were more than twenty people in total.
So many eyes fixed on Gu Yuan; most people would have felt immense pressure, but Gu Yuan felt none.
"I have an announcement to make. The item beneath this formation is mine!"
After speaking, Gu Yuan stomped his foot downwards.
Rumble!
The originally flat ground was instantly struck by a powerful force. Gu Yuan had a smile on his face as everyone watched him, right before their eyes, fall into a large hole created by the formation.
The leaders of both sides were instantly shocked. They had been confronting each other for so long, only to have a dark horse intercept them.
A feeling of being toyed with arose in their hearts.
"Chase him!"
"Everyone go down!"
The leaders of both sides roared and leaped into the pit Gu Yuan had created.
Gu Yuan's body fell rapidly, feeling the violent airflow generated by his rapid descent.
Recalling the scene just now, cheerful laughter erupted from the pit.
The two groups chasing after him heard Gu Yuan's cheerful laughter and felt a surge of anger.
"Damn it, if I catch you, I'll tear you to shreds!"
Both leaders thought in their hearts.
The reason Gu Yuan could stomp out a large pit was that while he was speaking to attract attention, his divine soul had secretly probed into the formation.
The formation itself was of a relatively high level, but due to the passage of time, its original power had greatly diminished, allowing Gu Yuan to destroy it in just a few words.
Gu Yuan counted the time. In about ten breaths, Gu Yuan successfully landed on the ground.
He looked around, and a passage made entirely of stone bricks appeared before him. The ground underfoot was also made of hard stone bricks.
Sensing the descending aura from above, Gu Yuan gently tapped his foot on the ground, leaving a small gift for them.
Countless formation patterns instantly erupted, then hid themselves on the ground, disappearing.
He scanned his surroundings, finding no obvious features, and then lightly tapped his foot, his body instantly flying out.
After a few breaths.
Boom!
A violent explosion echoed through the passage, accompanied by earth-shattering screams.
Gu Yuan, who was flying away, heard the screams from behind, and a dangerous curve appeared on his lips.
"Damn it, who are you? I will capture you and tear you to shreds!"
A mournful voice echoed from the cave entrance.
The leader in white clothes, now disheveled, was not the one who bore the brunt of the explosion.
Looking at his junior disciple howling on the ground, clutching a leg that was deeply cut, his expression was extremely grim.
He ordered those who came down later to escort the injured disciple out and guard him, then he tapped his foot and pursued Gu Yuan's direction.
Not only was his junior disciple injured, but people from another faction were also affected. Their leader gritted his teeth, ordered a few people to take care of the injured, and then entered the passage closely following the figure in white.