Situ Zong was one of Lu Yun’s strongest trump cards; having his name written in the Tome of Life and Death elevated him to a strange level of existence. Though he was far less than Ge Long, he still melded perfectly with the Pelagic Orb due to the power of the book. Situ Zong was now a human-shaped connate treasure, one who could destroy heaven and earth with a singular punch.

Close at hand, the priest of ocean stared dumbly at the fist looming large in his sights. He didn’t have the time to form a thought before it landed heavily on his body, blasting him apart with currents of black water essence.

“Bastard!” screamed the priest of earth. He’d blurred into a streak of light to pierce through Lu Yun, but abruptly reversed course to attack Situ Zong instead.

Hummmmm.

Local space seemed to lose its shine after a tremendous hum and patches of the void winked out of existence. In response, Situ Zong fully unleashed the Pelagic Orb to create a real, standalone world. It wasn’t large, but it was sufficient to keep Lu Yun safe within.

Meteors dashed themselves to pieces against the Pelagic Orb while Situ Zong looked coldly at the priest of earth from his position in the air.

“Attacking a connate treasure with a combat art? Should I say you’re fearless or ignorant? Once master’s nascent spirit observation method is perfected, he’ll be able to create solid truth out of deceit and project a true connate treasure. But you? You’re far from it!” He flashed in front of the priest of earth and smashed a punch down on the latter.

“AaaaHHHHH!!” the priest of earth screamed with rage and furiously billowing robes, despite the lack of wind in the area. An enormous altar appeared beneath his feet, gathering dreadful earth essence and recreating the smashed meteors.

At the same time, the priests of forest and blade also coalesced their altars. The three altars resonated with each other in midair and sealed off the premises. A heavily injured priest of ocean reappeared as well, pale as a sheet from being blasted apart earlier. A black altar of water bubbled beneath his feet.

“Damn it, where have you gone, priest of flame?! Why can’t I sense your existence anymore??” roared the priest of earth while dense earth essence collected as stars revolving around his body. Throwing caution to the wind, he flung himself at Situ Zong’s terrifying punch.

Boom!

Boom!

Booooom!

The brilliant stars exploded one after another upon meeting the punch, each explosion draining a bit more color from the high priest’s face. A full eighteen stars shattered from the force of Situ Zong’s attack, but when the last star cracked into pieces, so too was his punch fully exhausted.

The priests of forest and blade, as well as the heavily injured priest of ocean, maneuvered their altars to attack Situ Zong. Nimble as he was, he vanished on the spot with an agile twist of his body and reappeared in front of the Pelagic Orb. He looked at the four high priests and licked his lips.

“Master, if this subordinate can swallow any one of the altars beneath their feet, the Pelagic Orb will evolve into a connate spirit treasure!” 

Situ Zong’s current strength was on par with a fully unleashed connate treasure—which placed him at an unknown level above dao immortal. Even Lu Yun couldn’t say for sure how strong he was now, perhaps he could meet primordial immortals head-on in battle.

Horror flickered over the four priests’ faces when they heard those words. They were strong to the point of suppressing Ashu only when the five of them acted in concert and their altars called upon the power of this tomb realm according to the five elements.

But now that the priest of flame had vanished, their combined strength only reached the ingress realm. While they would still be great experts in the contemporary world of immortals, they weren’t sufficient to withstand Situ Zong.

A fully unleashed connate treasure, one on the verge of evolving into a connate spirit treasure, possessed both absolute strength and all the unique properties of a connate treasure. This was Lu Yun’s greatest ace that he was counting on to help him obtain the spleen in the Xuan Yuan Tomb.

“Let’s go!” roared the priest of earth as his altar suddenly exploded and formed a protective shell of orange light around him. He hastily shot out away from the premises while the other three high priests made the same move.

The four of them vanished in a split second.

Thump!

Situ Zong plopped down on the ground, panting heavily. “Finally managed to scare them off!” He smiled ruefully.

“Not bad, you know how to use your brain now.” Lu Yun clapped Situ Zong’s shoulder.

As strong as he was, there was only one of Situ Zong. If the four high priests were willing to put their lives on the line, they’d be able to kill him if they paid the price of a death or two. After all, there wasn’t that much of a gap between them.

“But master, I spoke the truth. The Pelagic Orb can evolve if it ate any of the altars and would then fully meld with me.” The assimilation of human and treasure was only in its initial stages. Once the Pelagic Orb evolved into a connate spirit treasure, it would truly become Situ Zong’s body.

“The four altars aren’t real altars, but something born out of a strange power. That power seems to possess the quality of helping connate treasures evolve,” he ventured hesitantly.

“Help connate treasures evolve?” Lu Yun’s eyes widened with surprise. He’d thought the altar of fire was a manifestation of the volcano’s power, but now it seemed this wasn’t the case. 

“Is there another mother altar here?” Lu Yun frowned. “But it was destroyed in the mausoleum beneath Mount Exalted…”

“Milord, that mother altar may not have been real. The five altars derived from it are hailed as the strongest treasures in the world, greater than even connate ones. How could the mother altar be destroyed so easily?” Situ Zong offered cautiously. “Perhaps it really is here…”

Now that the coast was clear, Ashu and the others walked out of the void. The holy king sighed when he looked at Situ Zong. “Who would’ve thought that you’d have such a great weapon by your side? He might really be able to evolve into a human-shaped connate treasure if he swallowed another tendril of the mother altar’s power.”

He looked at the priest of flame beside him.

“Now that I’ve obtained the true Fire Altar, this thing means nothing to me.” The priest of flame understood his intentions and stretched out her hand, summoning a kindled altar the size of a fist. This was her legacy as a high priest of flame, but it was a false one as the true inheritance was in the Fire Altar.

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