Chapter 131: The Three-Headed Demonic Avian

Chapter 131: The Three-Headed Demonic Avian

Those surrounding Wang Biluo were in various states—some spouted gibberish, while others were paralyzed with terror. The many sect leaders present looked particularly ghastly, yet secretly relieved. Previously, these individuals had been summoned by Emperor Yang Wei to suppress Wu Hong, only to end up bowing to him as the newly ascended King of Wuwei.

Though some harbored hidden resentment, witnessing Wu Hong’s invincible might left them drenched in cold sweat. This was a level of destruction beyond human capability. They were convinced that Wu Hong’s strike had annihilated hundreds, perhaps even thousands, of peak Houtian experts; nothing could have survived that overwhelming onslaught. Even the terrifying, peak Houtian Vajra Beast had been frightened into fleeing. Who, then, was the real monster?

Little Dongfang frowned slightly, subdued by Wu Hong’s peerless power. Her own internal energy was unique, yet she knew that if she were to face Wu Hong, a single such strike would kill her a hundred times over without question.

While the crowd was stunned, Wu Hong himself was shocked that his full-force strike had such an effect. He had condensed a thousand arms into one, executing the first form of the "Thousand-Handed Tathagata Palm" from the *True Interpretation of the Great Sun Tathagata*. He had currently perfected only two of those energy arms, yet the power was immense, consuming eighty percent of his internal energy. If he were to manifest all thousand arms and strike with a single palm, the result would be cataclysmic—perhaps shattering mountains and rivers or causing the Yangtze to flow backward. It would be no different from the power of the Xiantian realm.

During that strike, Wu Hong had felt the surrounding heaven and earth energy being drained dry, and the very clouds in the sky had shifted. His father, the King of Wuwei, had been taken away by someone stepping on a flying sword; the Old Man of Myriad Poisons had met the same fate, both ascending into the high heavens. What kind of beings existed up there? At the peak Houtian stage, one was essentially a half-step into the Xiantian realm; his internal energy recovered rapidly. In the time it took to pause, he had already regained fifty percent.

"Whoosh!" Two massive, energy-formed hands materialized behind Wu Hong. They were incredibly dense, resembling the palms of a true Buddha. With a roar of wind, Wu Hong began to ascend.

"Ah! What is the Prince of Wu doing?" the crowd exclaimed. Wu Songran and everyone else close to Wu Hong stared in disbelief.

In truth, finding the culprit who harmed the King of Wuwei was no longer the priority; the important thing was that he was still alive. If Emperor Yang Guang had been the one behind it, he too had reached the Xiantian realm. For Wu Hong, revenge was still on the table, but even if he found Madam Zhao and learned the truth, he might not be able to exact it. He felt a deep longing for the place where the mysterious cultivators took the Xiantian experts. Why could none of them return after ascending? Were they all dead?

Ignoring the shouts below, Wu Hong ignored the bizarre nature of the golden hand-shaped wings on his back, which did not hinder his flight. These wings, spanning over a hundred meters, propelled him upward by dozens of meters with every beat. The normally calm sky grew turbulent as the scenery below blurred into oblivion, reaching the limits of his vision.

He flew for an unknown duration until black winds engulfed the sky, threatening to flip him over. Wu Hong had no choice but to shrink the wings to reduce drag, though this slowed his ascent. These black gales were terrifying; on the ground, they would have ground an ordinary person into fine powder, leaving not even bone fragments behind.

However, Wu Hong’s body was incredibly robust, and the *True Interpretation of the Great Sun Tathagata* was miraculous. He had never stopped practicing its nineteen forms, and he realized it was not merely a foundational body-tempering technique, but one that could strengthen the flesh without limit. Thus, despite the intensity of the Heavenly Gale, he gritted his teeth and poured all his strength into sustaining the wings, trying to conserve his energy.

His standard alloy armor began to corrode, fine scratches appearing on its polished surface. As he climbed higher, the winds grew more violent, forcing him to manifest a protective layer of internal energy. Amidst the black gale, his golden form appeared small and fragile. He marveled at the vastness of the heavens—it was far more expansive than the world below.

"Caw!"

Suddenly, a sound like a raven’s cry pierced the air. Wu Hong tensed. At this altitude, no ordinary raptor, let alone a raven, could survive the scouring of the endless gale.

"Caw—caw—caw!" The cries intensified, forming a sonic wave. Out of the black wind emerged thousands of strange birds. Each had three heads and was the size of a raven, yet they moved through the gale as if it were nothing. Their numbers were impossible to count, discernible only by the glint of their six blood-red eyes.

Wu Hong hovered in the air, his hair whipping wildly, his protective energy blazing. He had never heard of such creatures in any text. They were pitch black, merging with the winds, yet they did not attack immediately. Their numbers grew until they blotted out the sky. Judging by their energy fluctuations, they were only at the Bone-Refining stage, but their sheer volume made them a threat.

"Hmph—a pack of skulking beasts!" Wu Hong’s voice was instantly swallowed by the gale, unable to travel even a hundred meters.

The creatures were bizarre. Before he could think further, thousands of them dived, their beaks sharp and flashing with black light. Wu Hong shifted into the Thousand-Handed Tathagata form. The birds collided with his golden energy body, producing a clanging sound like metal on metal. He frowned; while they couldn't penetrate his defense, each impact drained his internal energy—they were devouring it.

Suddenly, he noticed the vertical eyes in the palms of his energy hands. A cruel smile touched his lips. "If I were to turn humans into my disciples, I would feel a pang of conscience. But for you beasts with no human sentiment, I have no such qualms!"

He pushed his thousand palms forward, and the thousand vertical eyes unleashed a torrent of golden light. The avians recoiled as if they had met their nemesis. Only a few were struck, and Wu Hong realized his mistake—the birds were hiding within the shifting black winds, making them incredibly agile. His massive burst of light missed most targets and nearly exhausted his remaining energy.

He smiled bitterly. It seemed he would have to retreat and explore the heavens when his strength was greater. Two faint golden beams rebounded from the birds he had struck, returning to him. He felt a tiny trickle of energy recover and a minute improvement in his cultivation, but it was a drop in the ocean. If he could convert all these birds, he might even be able to solidify a hundred arms.

Just as he turned to descend, an anomaly occurred: the two birds he had purified, now glowing with pure gold, were instantly torn apart and devoured by their brethren.