Chapter 924 - 744: Domain of a Thousand Zhang

In the memory, Lou Yi had transformed into a strange creature hatched and born from scalding magma.

Its skin was fiery red, its surface covered in patterns somewhat like the texture of lychee peel, with mucus dripping from it from time to time.

Its body was humanoid, only three to four feet tall, but it bore a slender tail covered in sharp spikes, with black claws like blades and a forked tongue.

Creatures like it were born in the magma by the thousands and tens of thousands every day.

"All clansmen of the Gobi Race, each of you carries a trace of the great Demon God’s thin bloodline.

What you must do is ceaselessly awaken the bloodline, strengthen the bloodline. Only the strong are worthy of living to the end and accomplishing supreme feats!"

Above the magma, a high-ranking clansman bathed entirely in Red Light, his aura glaring like a blazing sun, spoke down to all the newborn clansmen, telling them the way to survive.

And to awaken the bloodline, the most important thing was to seek sufficient food within the magma.

There were Fire Scale Fish that could swim freely in magma, their bodies crystal-clear, able to spit fire from their mouths;

There were Lava Crabs hidden in the cracks of solidified rock, their shells hard as iron, their pincers covered in venomous spikes;

And there were Undying Jellyfish hidden deep within the magma, containing primordial liquid within their bodies, the richest in nutrients, yet extremely hard to catch...

The creature Lou Yi had become had to fight with countless clansmen for food, the competition brutally harsh.

The victors’ bodies would grow ever harder, their size increasing, becoming more and more powerful.

The losers would be left barely breathing, in the end swallowed by the magma, returning once more to the magma.

However, he was born with a body a size larger than the other clansmen, and was ruthless and vicious, skilled at seizing opportunities.

When encountering weaker clansmen he would rush in to snatch their food; when encountering those stronger than him he would temporarily hide and flee, then later wait for a chance to deliver a fatal blow.

He would even cut open the corpses of dead clansmen and devour the undigested food inside.

After a hundred days, his size had grown from four to five feet to two zhang, and his arms had increased from the original two to four; he could easily dive three hundred zhang beneath the magma’s surface.

After ten years, his body length had not changed much, but a thick metallic keratin layer had grown all over the surface of his body, while his arms had evolved to eight, allowing him to easily dive a thousand zhang into the magma below.

After a hundred years, his strength had already surpassed that of the high-ranking clansman from back then, his arms evolving to dozens, and he ruled over a vast area of the magma lake region...

The memory came to an abrupt end there.

In reality, Lou Yi opened his eyes.

An enormous surge of extremely scorching Energy flooded into his body from the void, making him involuntarily let out a muffled groan.

Rolling white steam blasted frantically out of every pore of his body, issuing a piercing ’woo-woo-woo’ sound, like the whistle of a train from his previous life, forming a dense fog all around him.

He felt as if magma were truly pouring into his body, completely dissolving his flesh, bones, and organs, then regenerating them anew, transforming into a newborn body harder, more flexible, and brimming with Energy than before.

His body even became lighter and more agile.

The changes under his armpits and along the sides of his torso were especially obvious; each side had grown nine scar-like black circular marks, about the size of apricots.

"Thousand Hands."

As Lou Yi instinctively activated his Divine Skills,

The black round scars began to emit dazzling white light, and from each scar a brand-new arm rapidly extended, bronze in color, looking no different from his original arms.

"At the Proficient Level of the Thousand Hands Divine Skill, eighteen additional arms? Plus the original two, the total comes to twenty arms."

Twenty arms meant he could simultaneously perform ten different Martial Seals.

Lou Yi’s eyes lit up as he began his experiment.

Ten pairs of arms formed seals at the same time, each casting a different Martial Seal.

"Perfect Treasure Vase Seal."

"Fearless Lion Seal."

"Zhenyao White Tiger Seal."

"Ape King Seal."

"Human King Seal."

...

In Lou Yi’s mind, eleven distinct figures appeared simultaneously.

Aside from the black giant eagle whose body was the most imposing,

There was also the Seven-Colored Treasure Bottle that suppressed the void and stood unmoving like a mountain, and the Crimson Silver Lion whose battle intent soared to the sky, roaring like thunder.

The white tiger that ran like lightning, its bearing awe-inspiring, and the black-clothed man with a resolute face and a red headscarf tied around his head...

Each figure came from a different Martial Seal.

Since the start of this Martial Arts Tournament, Lou Yi had already collected more than twenty different Martial Seals, choosing the ten strongest among them to advance.

Of course, due to the limited Energy in the Attribute Panel, he had only elevated a few, such as the Treasure Vase Seal, Human King Seal, and Lion Seal, to relatively high levels.

Most Martial Seals were still at the beginner or Proficient stage.

"Grandmaster, Domain."

Lou Yi began fusing the True Intent of ten Martial Seals with the Injury True Intent.

"Boom!"

For the first time, eleven different strands of Martial Arts True Intent began to fuse, triggering a violent physical and chemical reaction inside Lou Yi’s mind.

His brain felt like it was about to explode; blood spurted out from his mouth, nose, eyes, and ears.

A terrifying aura like a cosmic detonation, like atoms collapsing, blasted out from his body in all directions.

Ten zhang, a hundred zhang, two hundred zhang, five hundred zhang, a thousand zhang!

Within over a thousand zhang of void, everything seemed to fall completely still in that instant.

Not just physically still— even the flow of time itself seemed to slow down a fraction.

From outside, anyone looking toward this stretch of space, without Lou Yi’s permission, would only see pitch black, absolute darkness.

If some great powerhouse wanted to deduce the cause and effect here, unless their Realm far surpassed Lou Yi’s, they would find it hard to probe into anything or anyone within this thousand-zhang radius.

A thousand-zhang space, entirely under his control!

And the degree of control was far stronger than a mere Grandmaster Realm Domain.

The most direct change was speed.

"Whoosh!"

Lou Yi’s figure vanished on the spot in the very next moment.

Even someone at the Peak of True Martial Realm would only be able to catch a faint streak of light and shadow.

"Within this thousand-zhang zone, my speed has gone from the usual three thousand times the speed of sound to ten thousand times the speed of sound at baseline. It’s almost no different from teleportation."

"Normal early Third Realm, even mid Third Realm cultivators, in terms of this instant burst, should be inferior to me."

"Let’s test my strength too—Heaven Shaking."

Then, ten pairs of arms smashed simultaneously toward a single point in the void ahead, and twenty vast surges of Energy were unleashed in full!

"Ssshhh..."

The void tore like fragile paper, letting out a rending sound.

A massive spatial crack, two feet wide and three zhang long, appeared in midair.

Inside the crack was pure darkness, pure nothingness, and a bone-chilling cold that made Lou Yi’s skin prickle.

Because this spatial crack was so large, its self-repairing ability weakened. It actually persisted in midair for a full forty to fifty breaths before it slowly began to heal.

"This time I really did tear open the void." Lou Yi thought.

Of course, it was only the void of the True Profound Continent he had torn.

Even if he passed through this spatial crack, he still couldn’t return to the Vast Sea Realm.

Most likely he would end up drifting in the chaotic currents of the void, with a high risk of getting lost. Naturally, Lou Yi wouldn’t dare take that gamble.

But he had already glimpsed hope.

Once he grew even stronger, he would have a chance to tear open the spatial cracks within the chaotic void currents. By then, he shouldn’t be far from returning to the Vast Sea Realm.

"For now, the priority is to keep boosting my strength." Lou Yi thought.

All the various Martial Seals on the True Profound Continent still had to be collected.

The key items his talent required also had to be sought out.

And of course, his Realm mattered greatly. Right now he was only at the Four Orifice Realm of the Martial Artist Peak, with plenty of room left to climb.

Time flashed by, and the second day soon arrived.

"The Lion Seal lineage has already been expelled. One slot has opened up among the Five Majors, and the first round now has one extra quota!"

"Ape King Seal, White Tiger Seal, Immortal Crane Seal, Lion Seal, Human King Seal—these powerful schools are all gone. You and I have a shot; anyone can charge for the top ten!"

"What, your foundation is lacking, you’re short on Elixirs, and can’t find a Breakthrough Point? Bring your Sect’s Martial Soul Book and go see Lord Lou!"

Lou Yi hadn’t expected that after he slew True Profound, one Sect after another would hurry over to offer their Martial Soul Books.

Some wanted to exchange them for Elixirs, some asked for guidance on Cultivation Techniques, and some simply declared they admired the lord.

Martial Soul Books were very precious, but that depended on who you were dealing with.

To ordinary people, they were priceless treasures, secret True Skills that could never be leaked.

But to a supreme expert capable of killing True Profound, they weren’t worth much at all.

How could such a person covet your mental method? His Cultivation might well be higher than your ancestral founder’s; he could probably point out the flaws in your book!

The Fan City Martial Arts Tournament continued to blaze on with full intensity.

Meanwhile, the wave of voluntarily offering Martial Soul Books to Lou Yi was almost just as fervent.

Soon, the first round of the Martial Arts Tournament concluded, deciding thirty-six precious spots to continue into the second round and face off against the Four Main Lineages.

From the second round onward, the Treasure Vase Lineage’s opponents directly forfeited, and in the third round they again voluntarily conceded.

They practically did nothing and cruised into the final round with ridiculous ease.

...