The road is vague

Chapter 322 Advancement to Golden Core
The hermit crab siren, which was as big as a small mountain, quickly approached the island and was trapped in the outermost illusion array.

As the illusion array was activated, the entire island was instantly enveloped in a sea of ​​flowers.

The hermit crab siren was enraged and let out a strange shriek.

The nearby seawater surged into the sky, forming waves more than ten feet high, which rushed towards the small island.

The true demon clone's expression changed. Under the rampage of this Golden Core stage demon king, the outermost six-colored illusion array probably wouldn't last long. He immediately released Li Mo's physical form restrictions, his body continued to expand, bursting open his clothes, transforming into a genderless demon form over two zhang tall and completely black, wielding a greatsword made of his spine and charging forward.

However, even in its demon form, its size is still insignificant compared to this mountain-sized hermit crab sea monster.

Bang!
The greatsword made of the spine struck the hermit crab siren's shell, producing a piercing collision sound. At the same time, it generated an incredible rebound force, repelling the true demon clone and sending it flying back several feet.

A crab claw swept across, and the true demon clone was hastily swept away once again.

He flew more than ten zhang in the air before finally coming to a stop.

His body was nearly torn apart by the other party.

Although such physical attacks are not fatal to demons, they made the true demon avatar realize that its powerful physique, which once gave it an absolute advantage in battles against human cultivators, was insignificant compared to these deep-sea monsters.

After all, for these demons, a strong physique is their true asset.

While the physique of demons may be formidable to humans, it is merely bizarre compared to that of monsters, and cannot be described as powerful at all.

At this time.

The hermit crab sea monster spat out another burst of azure water, which seemed to have the property of dissolving and differentiating, a natural supernatural power on par with Gui Water.

The true demon clone immediately manipulated the array plate, using the sea of ​​flowers to conceal its presence, and with the help of the array's power, disappeared in front of the hermit crab sea monster.

Upon seeing this, the hermit crab sea monster continued to destroy the flag array.

Its goal is to devour the enlightened ones here.

While recovering from his injuries, the true demon clone looked at the enormous snail shell on the back of the hermit crab sea monster, which was as big as a small mountain.

The conch shell was grayish-white with pink patterns. The Asura Demon Fire left by the spine sword was being continuously extinguished by the conch shell, posing no threat whatsoever.

No one knows how many people this hermit crab sea monster has devoured or how many years it has cultivated.

Its true form may only be at the peak of the early Golden Core stage, but the original owner of this conch shell was definitely not at that level. It was most likely that the shell was accidentally obtained by this hermit crab sea monster after the conch shell was upgraded and re-shelled.

By comparison.

The true demon clone was not only at the early stage of the Golden Core realm, which it had only recently advanced to, but it was also limited by the cultivation level of its main body and could not unleash its full strength. Therefore, its basic strength was far inferior to that of the hermit crab sea monster.

Seeing that the six-colored illusion array was about to be destroyed by the hermit crab sea monster, the true demon clone, after a short rest, not only fully recovered from its injuries, but also improved its strength due to the enlightenment of Li Mo's main body.

"If the main body were to advance to the Golden Core stage and fully unleash its power, even though this sea monster is quite strong, with the Primal True Demon's strength far exceeding that of ordinary Asura demons, dealing with this sea monster would not be so difficult."

As he said this, the True Demon clone suddenly activated its True Demon Body.

His four heads each displayed different emotions, joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness. At the same time, these drastically different qualities formed a near-pure and sacred yet defiled and corrupt state. This is the profound mystery of the Dao that the primordial true demon pursued.

The head with a joyful expression gently blew on the greatsword made of the spine, and the Asura Demon Fire that was originally attached to it quickly turned pale.

At this time.

The outermost illusion array finally lost its effectiveness due to the rampage caused by the hermit crab sea monster.

The hermit crab sea monster could clearly sense the divine soul power of the enlightened beings in this place, which was constantly condensing in the strange phenomena of heaven and earth. This made it feel both incredibly delicious and increasingly dangerous. It immediately plunged into the Six Calamities and Six Tribulations Extinction Dust Array. Then it noticed the True Demon Avatar, which had recovered to its original state and whose aura had become significantly stronger. Its eyes narrowed slightly.

The true demon clone attacked first, its spine-bone greatsword extending infinitely, crashing down like a black, ferocious purgatory bone tower, even larger than the hermit crab sea monster that resembled a small mountain.

The hermit crab siren extended one of its claws to defend itself.

There was a bang.

The hermit crab siren took a few steps back, but it was no big deal.

The true demon clone flew backwards until it landed on the mountainside, smashing a large number of rocks before coming to a stop.

The hermit crab siren's eyes revealed a human-like sneer. Just as it was about to press its advantage, its small eyes suddenly noticed the pale fire on the crab claw. After a brief moment of stunned silence, it let out a heart-wrenching shriek and moved with incredible speed, repeatedly smashing the crab claw to the ground in an attempt to extinguish the primordial demonic fire.

The true demon clone, panting, manipulated the array plate.

The so-called six disasters and six difficulties.

The six disasters are the yin and yang sides of the three disasters of heaven, earth and man, and this is the power of prohibition.

The sixth challenge is the power of light, darkness, water, fire, wind, and thunder. This is a magical attack: a bolt of fire and thunder descends from the sky, and at the same time, the ground's gravity suddenly increases, confining the hermit crab sea monster to its spot.

After being forced to stop, the hermit crab siren, which was as big as a small mountain, first glanced at the lightning and fire descending from the sky. Although it possessed the power to match a mid-to-high-level spell, it was extremely confident in its defensive capabilities and was not afraid of it.

Only the pale demonic fire on the crab claws had gradually burned through its shell, causing it unbearable pain.

After failing to destroy itself naturally, it was bound by the gravity of the great formation. So it stopped struggling and opened its mouth, spitting out a stream of azure water, attempting to compensate for its quality with quantity through the dissolving properties of its innate ability.

Lightning and fire descended from the sky, landing on the hermit crab siren's shell, creating dazzling sparks.

In an instant, the island seemed to collapse as if the sky had fallen and the earth had split open, with lightning flashing everywhere.

The true demon clone discovered that the power of the great formation was actually created by the opponent's shell being continuously spread out, thus forming such an exaggerated scene. As the attack of the great formation ended, the hermit crab sea monster, which was as big as a small mountain, was revealed. Apart from some injuries to its claws, the rest of its body only had some superficial scratches, which were not worth mentioning.

At this time.

Six Bagua Spirit Gathering Puppets, each with cultivation comparable to the early Foundation Establishment stage, rushed out, releasing spiritual light and shooting towards the hermit crab sea monster.

Boom, boom, boom—the sound of explosions continued.

The combined attack puppets unleash a yin wind and calamity fire to delay the hermit crab sea monster's advance.

Upon seeing this, the true demon avatar released a corrupted demonic light.

The ghostly light flashed and disappeared in an instant, landing on the hermit crab siren. Surprisingly, it had a remarkable effect, instantly corrupting the siren's mind and driving it into a complete madness.

But this also made it even more determined to devour those who had attained enlightenment, and it began to wreak havoc on the island.

Meanwhile, inside the cave, Li Mo, aided by the extraordinary phenomena of heaven and earth during his Core Formation, experienced a continuous collapse of his magical power and a constant flow of spiritual enlightenment.

He didn't know what insights others had when they advanced to the Golden Core stage.

At this moment, he felt that his essence, energy, and spirit, which were scattered in two different worlds, were gradually merging into one and focusing on a single point.

This is undoubtedly where the next golden elixir will be found.

During this process, he felt that the Misty Box was perfectly merging with him, becoming his natal magic weapon, and at the same time, he had a vague sense of enlightenment.

Each human cultivator can only refine one natal magic weapon in their lifetime.

This natal magic weapon will merge with the cultivator's soul. While nourishing the natal magic weapon to become stronger, it will also strengthen the cultivator's own soul power. Li Mo did not expect that the process of merging with the Misty Box from the moment he obtained it was actually the process of cultivating his natal magic weapon!
However, the level of the Misty Box is simply too high.

Even though it has now become his natal magic weapon, he can only sense a small part of the area centered on Misty Peak.

Simultaneously.

Li Mo's sudden enlightenment at this moment was his comprehension of the primordial chaos thunder path.

Everything he once pursued—various spells, secret techniques, and supernatural powers—was merely at the level of technique; only cultivation realm is fundamental.

What limits a cultivator's cultivation level, besides refining the spiritual energy of heaven and earth to accumulate magical power and improving one's mental state, is also the understanding of the Dao.

Because of the Misty Box, Li Mo never lacked insights into the Dao.

Therefore, during his Qi Refining and Foundation Establishment stages, he only experienced a period of stagnation in his magical power in the late Foundation Establishment stage due to insufficient understanding of the difference between immortals and mortals.

As cultivators come to realize the difference between immortals and mortals, their cultivation level continuously improves after advancing to the Golden Core stage.

Of the three elements that limit a cultivator's realm—mana, mental state, and comprehension—the weight of condensing mana remains unchanged, the weight of improving mental state begins to gradually decrease, while the weight of comprehension of the Dao begins to continuously increase.

The vast majority of cultivators initially gain their understanding of the Dao from the Five Elements techniques and various other skills.

At the very beginning.

As cultivators advance in their cultivation level, the need for comprehension of the Dao decreases, and even drawing nourishment from the understanding of techniques is sufficient.

However, as cultivators advance, their understanding of the Dao needs to increase. Simply learning from various spells is far from enough to support their advancement, especially after the Golden Core stage. If one does not comprehend so-called supernatural powers, relying solely on learning various high-level spells will likely keep one stuck in the early Golden Core stage for life.

This is why the higher the level of a cultivator, the more limited their methods tend to be.

Because these high-level cultivators have moved beyond the process of pursuing various spells to defeat enemies, and have now reached the stage of pursuing absolute power.

Especially after advancing to the Nascent Soul stage, one will receive various titles, which often represent an understanding of the Dao.

For example, Sima Fu's title of "Master of Painting and Calligraphy" refers to his insights into writing history.

For example, the Yuanhun Zhenren (元魂真人) is someone who comprehends the power of the soul.

Even titles like Qian Yuan Sheng Jun, Chang Sheng Guan Zhu, or the Old Madman, are less like titles and more like names reflecting their understanding of the Dao.

As cultivators gradually move towards the Great Dao, all sorts of fancy spells naturally become low-level techniques. No matter how painstakingly they weave complex spell structures, they are no match for a casual strike after comprehending the Great Dao.

Suddenly.

Li Mo opened his eyes.

The liquid mana within his body instantly condensed into a solid golden core. After his divine soul collapsed into a singularity, a terrifying wave of divine thought, ten times stronger than before, burst forth and merged into the surrounding celestial phenomena, rapidly absorbing insights into the order of heaven and earth.

At the same time, his body floated silently in the air.

From then on, he could fly freely without any magical power, making him as light as a god and as graceful as an immortal.

"Dualistic Chaotic Thunder Path".

On one hand, there is the enlightenment of the Dao of the most intelligent beings in the realm of mountains and seas; on the other hand, there is the enlightenment of the ethereal Dao in the realm of dreams.

As he muttered to himself, he realized that the island was almost completely destroyed, with only the Six Ding Six Jia Void Forbidden Array struggling to hold on.

Now that he has finally advanced to the Golden Core stage, his divine sense fell on the hermit crab sea monster, and he was immediately enraged.

"Humph!"

After a cold snort, Li Mo's figure flashed and disappeared, appearing above the island and looking down at the True Demon clone and the hermit crab sea monster who were fighting.

His combined attack puppets and Bagua spirit gathering puppets were all shattered, and the Six Colors Illusion Concealment Array and the Six Calamities and Six Tribulations Extinction Array had also been destroyed. His true demon clone was in a sorry state.

The hermit crab siren was also severely injured and became delirious.

In just a moment, Li Mo and the True Demon's clone were in perfect harmony, and he knew everything that had happened here.

At the same time, as his cultivation level improved, he also realized that he was limiting the strength of his True Demon Avatar and had not been able to unleash the various strange and unpredictable abilities of the demon race. Now that he has advanced to the Golden Core stage, his True Demon Avatar is no longer suppressed by the original body's level and has increased its strength by a large margin almost out of thin air.

"Sorry."

Upon hearing this, the true demon avatar chuckled.

"We are one, why should we do this?"

After Li Mo nodded upon hearing this, he looked at the hermit crab sea monster whose crab shell was tattered in many places but whose snail shell was intact. His expression became serious for a moment, and then he extended his right index and middle fingers and lightly tapped his forehead.

The true demon clone seemed to know what Li Mo was going to do and immediately sent a telepathic message to him.

"Keep the shells to refine defensive magic weapons."

"understood."

Within Li Mo's soul, the Dao of the Supreme Being and the Dao of the Ethereal collided and rubbed together, and a two-colored lightning bolt, intertwined with each other, suddenly appeared, heading straight for the berserk hermit crab sea monster.

Boom!
After the binary chaotic lightning surged into the hermit crab siren's body through the claw wound, the siren, which was as large as a small mountain, was instantly shattered into countless pieces of corpse. The whole process was completed in one go, without any hesitation or delay.

The once earth-shaking, wild island suddenly fell silent.

(End of this chapter)