What was happening now was different from when the Blood River Lord had lured out Divine Genesis in order to create treasures so that he could use them against the sword spirit. At that time, the light from Divine Genesis had been like the morning sun, but now, it was the noon sun!
The light from before had only turned objects that already had form into treasures, but Divine Genesis was now acting like a panicked monkey, frantically releasing all of its power, thousands of times greater than the power it had used before.
This power affected the flowers drifting in the air, the flowing clouds, the floating dirt, and even crystalline drops of dew. Even the sky, the earth, and the mountains were affected by its divine light.
The Divine Genesis crazily released its power as if it wanted every mote of dust to turn into a treasure.
Thus, everyone saw the world undergo a stupefying transformation.
Under the effect of Divine Genesis's Dao Standard, they could see that almost everything they could lay eyes on began to radiate treasure light.
It was a scene impossible to imagine. When every existence in the world began to radiate light, the intense light brought with it a deep darkness.
Nobody could see anything, when absolute light engulfed all!
The light even began to affect the representatives.
They felt their clothes beginning to change, and even the hairs that they had shed and little bits of dandruff were tested by the treasure light.
The only thing that didn't change was themselves, the only thing Divine Genesis couldn't affect.
But that omnipresent treasure light closed around them, its formidable pressure making it difficult for them to breathe.
They had never seen so many treasures before, let alone imagined that they would feel so much pressure and fear while being surrounded by them.
The majestic might of the treasures filled the world, forming a pure energy to resist the devouring of the Mountain River State Diagram.
But this method couldn't truly stop the diagram. On the contrary, it only stimulated its appetite. It crazily devoured the treasures, not caring for grade, size, or power.
Within the diagram, He Chong, Deng Yuqing, and Duan Fourth were still gasping at the world's sudden expansion.
As chunks of soil appeared and expanded the land around them, He Chong muttered, "That bastard Tang Jie—just where did he get all this land from? And it's even coming together with spatial fabric… Isn't he worried about losing his skin once someone finds out?"
"Given Tang Jie's personality, if he dares to do something, then he's not worried about being found out," Deng Yuqing commented.
Duan Fourth snorted, "It's hard to not be discovered, unless he's devouring a small world."
"Hard to say. Don't forget that Tang Jie already has a small world," Deng Yuqing said.
Duan Fourth remembered that the Martial Lord's hidden realm was also a small world, and he fell silent.
But because he had yet to reach the end and had yet to pick all the herbs, Tang Jie couldn't kill this golden goose just yet. Moreover, the land that was coming into the diagram clearly wasn't from the Martial Lord's hidden realm.
Fortunately, it wasn't long before the devouring of spatial fabric stopped, and it was only physical matter that continued to be devoured.
He Chong snorted. "It seems that this kid also knows that there are things he shouldn't do and has started to give up."
He was no friend to Tang Jie, and the better off Tang Jie was, the unhappier he became. If he weren't stuck in this place and trying to improve the environment for his own sake, he certainly wouldn't have helped Tang Jie with all this. Thus, he felt happy on seeing Tang Jie's devouring slow down.
He had barely finished speaking when there was a flash of light in the sky.
A flower drifted down.
This flower had seven petals, each one a different color, radiating a splendid light as it spiraled down. Its light put it clearly as an upper-grade art relic, which left the three of them dumbfounded. They wondered what sort of person would be such a spendthrift that they would refine a flower into a treasure, and how Tang Jie could possibly be so generous as to allow this level of treasure to fall into the diagram.
He Chong flew up and grabbed it, smiling. "It's a pretty decent little thing. I'll take it."
Deng and Duan shared a look of helplessness.
What could they do? They were weaker than He Chong.
But a moment later, even more treasure lights began to fall from the sky.
One treasure after another appeared in the skies of the diagram, falling like rain, like snow, like hail.
The three of them shared a dumbfounded look. Suddenly, they shouted, "We're rich!" and began to grab those treasures.
He Chong even had a treasure-gathering spell that he used to draw all the art relics toward him.
But more and more treasures were appearing in the sky, the downpour only growing denser and faster. The three of them couldn't handle it all, so they could only watch as the treasures plummeted to the ground, blasting craters into the ground and unleashing powerful shockwaves, and they were momentarily at a loss for what to do. And because of the treasure-gathering spell, He Chong was almost instantly buried in treasures, at the bottom of what quickly became a small mountain.
He Chong had no choice but to cancel his spell. Treasures continued to fall from the sky, leaving him awestruck.
Duan Fourth relaxed his hand, and art relics fell to the ground.
Deng Yuqing bitterly laughed and dumped out the treasures in his Mustard Seed Bag. "I'm such a fool. Wanting art relics and divine treasures in a place like this… These things aren't ours at all. They're Tang Jie's."
"How could he… how could he have so many treasures?" He Chong looked up, his entire body trembling in shock.
Those art relics and divine treasures that would have had countless people fighting over them were now piling up in great mounds like trash in a landfill.
After some time, after numerous "treasure mountains" had piled up on the ground, there were still treasures falling from the sky, but the rate had started to slow down.
The three of them were completely numb by now.
The three of them thought in unison, If Tang Jie has this many treasures, he must be the richest man in the universe.
But a moment later, Tang Jie's cold voice rang out from the heavens.
"He Chong!"
"Yes?"
"These treasures—you can pick some that you like, but the rest… Throw them all into the world furnace!"
"What?" He Chong blurted out in shock.
"Now, at once!" Tang Jie didn't give him any explanation, only strictly urging him on.
―――――――――――――
While treasures rained down in the diagram, within the Treasure Paradise, Tang Jie was gradually losing ground.
The Blood River Lord had been right about one thing. Even though Tang Jie was much stronger now that his avatar had merged with his original body, he was still much weaker than the Blood River Lord's half–Soul Transformation avatars merged with the Blood River Behemoth.
He had lasted this long primarily because of the Herding Yang Pearl's power.
But the Herding Yang Pearl had its own limit. Tang Jie could sense that, because his body had gotten stronger from the merging, the Herding Yang Pearl was already releasing the most power that it could, and because of the constant fighting, it was already beginning to crack. It probably wouldn't be long before the Herding Yang Pearl finally broke.
But the behemoth was still as energetic as ever, striking at Tang Jie again and again while madly laughing, "Useless! You're no match for me!"
A crimson hand swatted down, creating a mighty wave in the Blood Sea. Before Tang Jie could react, this wave thundered into Tang Jie's chest, cracking several of his ribs as it sent him flying.
Even though Tang Jie recovered from his injuries in just a moment, the Blood River Lord kept up the attacks, barely giving Tang Jie any chance to breathe.
Tang Jie used the Chaoswind Step to move behind the behemoth. The merging had combined the law cultivation and body cultivation in one body, and he no longer found it difficult to cast spell arts.
But the moment he appeared, the Blood River Behemoth swung a palm around as if he had predicted it. The palm contained a crimson vortex that prevented Tang Jie from moving, and a moment later, a steely fist slammed into Tang Jie's face, caving in his nose. The behemoth roared, "Useless! The true function of merging should be to fuse the flesh and law power to produce a new strength, not to simply use them together. Junior, you're far too lacking in this aspect! Blood River Roaring Punch!"
Another punch imbued with immense power, the roaring of the Blood River vaguely audible within it, surged toward him.
This was exactly the new power the Blood River Lord was talking about, the fusion of the Blood River Lord's law bodies with the behemoth's physical form. It was a combat technique that even the Blood River Lord's original body hadn't used, but through his ten thousand years of experience, the moment he merged, he created this new technique of vast power. The only side effect was that he had to make up the name on the spot, and this "Blood River Roaring Punch" was quite the unpleasant name.
In comparison, while Tang Jie had gotten stronger through the merging, he hadn't been able to produce any new abilities. For him, after merging, strength was still strength, and spell arts were still spell arts. Other than the boost that came with stronger cultivation level, his combat techniques weren't very different from before, as opposed to the Blood River Lord, whose power had multiplied after the merging.
And because the avatar's spell arts were weaker than the original body, the original body still fought with fists despite the fact that he could now cast spell arts. The only truly useful spell art was the Chaoswind Step.
But the Chaoswind Step clearly wasn't enough. As he used it more and more, the Blood River Lord quickly grasped its tempo and was able to counter it.
This was primarily because this was Tang Jie's first merging. He had barely gotten a handle on the art, let alone gotten a deeper-level understanding of its uses.
In this aspect, Tang Jie could be considered both lucky and unlucky.
He was lucky because he encountered a professional on his first merging, who let him understand that merging was only a start, not an end, and there were still many abilities that needed to be developed. If he hadn't encountered the Blood River Lord, he might have not realized this for a very long time. And he was unlucky because even a simple merging had given Tang Jie such a huge boost in combat power that the average opponent would have been obliterated by now. He could have even put up a good fight against a Celestial Chief–level cultivator. But he had run into a ten-thousand-year-old monster in the Blood River Lord, who was much stronger than him in all aspects, rendering many of his trump cards ineffective and pushing him into desperate straits.
If Tang Jie didn't have anything else, he was bound to fall under the Blood River Lord's frenzied offensive.
Fortunately, he really did have something else.
This was truly his final move.
Looking at the laughing Blood River Lord, Tang Jie sighed and said, "He Chong… Those treasures… Throw them all into the world furnace… now!"
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