A journey through immortal realms begins with a phantom tale.

"Since you want to see it, I'll let you see it properly!"

Li Qiang's anger surged; he couldn't stand the arrogant attitude of the immortals. He flew into the air and, with a thought, summoned the four-piece set of Heavenly Venerable equipment.

To be honest, Li Qiang had long wanted to test the true power of the Celestial Venerable Set. Now that Chi Wuyu had descended to the mortal realm and dared to steal the Divine Wood Liquid from Illusion Tree Star, it was a perfect opportunity for him to practice. He was clad in a Celestial Venerable robe, with the Celestial Venerable Dragon Staff floating in his right hand and the Battle Soul Blade in his left. Divine power flowed around him, radiating a divine aura.

Luo Cheng stood to the side, secretly smiling: "This outfit looks a bit like a legendary set in a game."

When Chi Wuyu saw Li Qiang unleash four divine artifacts at once, he was greatly shocked and his expression became solemn.

Hou Pijing was so shocked he couldn't close his mouth—he still remembered when he first met Li Qiang, the other was just a Nascent Soul cultivator who couldn't fly, but now his strength far surpassed his own, reaching a realm he couldn't even comprehend. He flew to Luo Cheng's side, thinking to himself, "If Brother Li gets into a disadvantage later, I'll risk my life to help him."

Looking at Chi Wuyu again, he had already donned immortal armor, and an immortal artifact was floating in front of him. Clearly, he had already regarded Li Qiang as a true opponent.

"Take this!" Li Qiang shouted, and with a thought, the Battle Soul Blade transformed into a streak of light, slashing straight at Chi Wuyu.

The power of this divine weapon is terrifying.

Chi Wuyu felt that the space around him was locked, and faced with such an attack, he had no choice but to resist it head-on.

"Well done!" Chi Wuyu shouted, his immortal energy surging as he tried to make the void tremble to alleviate the sword's momentum. But the Battle Soul Sword's momentum was unstoppable, like a celestial river pouring down.

Chi Wuyu is known as the "Battle Immortal" in the Immortal Realm, possessing extremely rich combat experience. In contrast, Li Qiang, despite being blessed with the Celestial Venerable Set, lacks practical combat experience by a significant margin; his strike was straightforward and devoid of any skill.

Chi Wuyu used a celestial artifact to block the Battle Soul Blade, while simultaneously using a powerful celestial technique to deflect the blade's momentum. Immediately afterward, he took out another celestial artifact and launched a counterattack at Li Qiang.

The clash between immortals, though seemingly slow, was actually as fast as lightning. Li Qiang hadn't expected Chi Wuyu to react so quickly, and his combat experience far surpassed his own. His single strike had already depleted seventy percent of his divine power, and now, trying to defend against the immortal weapon, he felt his divine power couldn't keep up.

However, Li Qiang wasn't stupid. Over the past century, he had learned a great deal from Luo Cheng and understood the basic attributes of divine artifacts. Luo Cheng had once said, "With the Celestial Venerable Set, it's like wearing a tortoise shell; even if the Azure Emperor himself were to attack, he couldn't break through your defenses."

Li Qiang trusted Luo Cheng completely. Therefore, he abandoned defense and focused solely on attacking.

"Ding!"

The celestial artifact slammed heavily onto the Celestial Venerable's robe, only unleashing a dazzling burst of divine light. Li Qiang felt a slight tremor within him, as the robe completely neutralized the violent celestial energy. He was overjoyed: "Just as my senior brother said, it truly can defend against an immortal's attack!"

In contrast, Chi Wuyu was completely dumbfounded. He never expected that the defensive power of the divine artifact on Li Qiang's body would be so terrifying—his full-force attack only caused ripples on the Heavenly Venerable's robe.

Feeling more confident, Li Qiang opened his mouth and swallowed two sacred olives to replenish his divine chess power. Luo Cheng watched from the side and secretly shook his head: This kid's divine chess power is already showing signs of going berserk, and he still dares to swallow sacred olives.

He could see that Li Qiang had unintentionally triggered his "madness" and, influenced by his cultivation level, only wanted to fight someone.

"Old man, one more time!"

Having entered the state of madness, Li Qiang's eyes turned bloodshot, and his fighting spirit surged to the heavens. This fighting spirit, amplified by the Battle Soul Blade, increased a hundredfold. He completely abandoned defense and wildly slashed at Chi Wuyu with his divine weapon.

The Heavenly Dragon Staff became a stick in his hands. He flashed forward and smashed it at Chi Wuyu.

Chi Wuyu thought to herself, "What kind of fighting is this?"

He unleashed his great supernatural powers and magical arts, but his attacks on Li Qiang felt like mere tickles. However, the divine weapon in Li Qiang's hand had its own attack bonus and special attributes, making every punch land hard, leaving Chi Wuyu only able to parry and unable to retaliate.

The two fought from the sky to the ground, then charged into the interior of the Illusion Tree Star, smashing countless leaves and breaking countless branches.

"Not good!" Luo Cheng thought to himself, "This is bad." Li Qiang was completely immersed in the state of madness, with no thought of protecting the Illusion Tree Star; he only wanted to fight to his heart's content.

A cultivator and a celestial being from the heavens collided twice, causing terrifying damage to the Illusion Tree Star. Not only did they shatter a large number of leaves and break a large number of branches, but several knife marks also appeared on the main trunk.

Luo Cheng said to Hou Pijing, "You wait here!"

Hou Pijing understood that he was not qualified to participate in a battle of this level; even the aftershocks would severely injure him, so he could only anxiously watch from the sidelines.

Luo Cheng used his great teleportation technique to catch up with the two, emitting a special sonic melody in an attempt to shock Li Qiang's mind and break his frenzied state. At the same time, he shouted to Chi Wuyu, "Chi Wuyu, stop now!"

Chi Wuyu was inwardly distressed: "I wanted to stop, but this madman was like a man possessed, chasing after me and beating me up relentlessly, giving me no chance to catch my breath!"

Luo Cheng was three major realms below Li Qiang, and for a moment he felt somewhat constrained. A thought struck him: "Since my realm isn't high enough, I'll raise it by another realm!"

In an instant, Luo Cheng guided the Heart of God, making it beat rhythmically, and comprehended the "Heart of Annihilation" within the Nine Heavens Gods, breaking through to the third level of cultivation—the Three Annihilation Heaven!

Seeing Luo Cheng break through in the face of battle, Chi Wuyu felt bitter: "What did I do to deserve this? Why do I have to pick a fight with cultivators?" He finally understood that these cultivators were monsters!

After Luo Cheng broke through, he immediately swallowed ten Sacred Olives to replenish his divine power and took a Withered Green Pill to stabilize his realm.

"Junior brother!" He called out softly, finally bringing Li Qiang back to his senses for a moment.

Immediately afterwards, Luo Cheng raised his hand and used the Bei Ye Divine Restriction to seal Chi Wuyu's immortal techniques; then he unleashed the Eighteen Demon-Slaying Hands, sending Chi Wuyu flying back hundreds of kilometers.

The two divine arts and two supernatural powers were used with great subtlety.

Chi Wuyu exclaimed inwardly, "Now this is what a real fight is like!"

In comparison, his own two moves just now seemed like child's play. He could sense that although his cultivation level was slightly higher than Luo Cheng's, the opponent's combat experience was extremely rich—these two divine techniques alone couldn't arouse even the slightest fighting spirit in him.

After Luo Chengzhen pushed Chi Wuyu back, he flashed to Li Qiang's side and said, "Junior brother, calm your mind. I'll help you organize your Divine Chess Power."

"Okay." Li Qiang felt the divine power within his body surging wildly, as if it might get out of control at any moment.

Luo Cheng used his divine sense to transmit a passage of scripture into Li Qiang's mind: "Junior brother, memorize this passage of scripture."

"I've got it."

With Luo Cheng's help, the divine power within Li Qiang gradually subsided.

Chi Wuyu stood aside, neither leaving nor making another move. Seeing Luo Cheng busy helping Li Qiang stabilize his rampaging Divine Chess Power, he dared not act rashly.

Half a day later, Luo Cheng withdrew his Divine Chess Power. Li Qiang breathed a sigh of relief and looked at Luo Cheng: "Senior Brother, you've finally broken through to a higher realm?"

"I want to break through, and I can do it anytime," Luo Cheng said calmly.

Li Qiang was immediately frustrated—he couldn't possibly control himself so freely.

Luo Cheng turned to look at Chi Wuyu: "What, aren't you leaving yet? Want to fight again?"

Li Qiang brandished his Battle Soul Blade: "Your name is Chi Wuyu, right? If you haven't had enough, I'm ready to fight to the bitter end!"

"What the hell are you talking about!" Chi Wuyu was filled with regret. He couldn't afford to offend either of these two.

But he still didn't want to leave. After hesitating for a moment, he lowered his stance and said, "I just want to collect some divine wood sap."

Li Qiang raised an eyebrow: "It's not impossible to get the Divine Wood Liquid, but you have to trade it for something."

"Exchange?" Chi Wuyu was stunned. In his view, as an immortal, if he wanted some Divine Wood Liquid, would the cultivators of Illusion Tree Star dare to refuse him? Why would he need to "exchange" it?

Seeing his expression, Li Qiang said angrily, "What, you don't want to exchange, but you want to steal it?"

"I am an immortal, how could I do something like forcibly seizing or robbing?" Chi Wuyu retorted stubbornly.

"Heh." Li Qiang chuckled coldly, his face full of disdain.

Luo Cheng said, "Chi Wuyu, if you can offer something of equal value, it's not impossible to exchange it."

Chi Wuyu searched his body for a long time but couldn't find any decent treasures. He was a War Immortal, having spent his entire life in battle, and had no treasures on him.

Luo Cheng's gaze fell on his immortal artifacts: "These two immortal artifacts you have are quite good; you could exchange them for divine wood liquid."

Chi Wuyu's face darkened: "No way!" These were his natal immortal artifacts. Without them, his combat power would drop by at least half.

"If you don't want to change, then leave now," Luo Cheng said, issuing an order to leave.

Li Qiang also said, "You are not welcome here."

Faced with the two cultivators' tough stance, Chi Wuyu hesitated for a moment before finally turning away dejectedly.

"These immortals are so used to being high and mighty; they just want to take anything good they see." Li Qiang scoffed.

"Just ignore him." Luo Cheng said, turning to look at the Illusion Tree Star—several new cracks had appeared on the trunk of the giant tree.

"Junior brother, look at you! You almost destroyed the Illusion Tree Star."

Looking at the cracks, Li Qiang scratched his head somewhat embarrassedly: "I couldn't control my strength."

However, the lingering immortal energy and divine power within these traces actually hold some benefits for Illusion Tree Star. In the future, this battlefield might even nurture spiritual creatures.

The two returned to the Divine Wood Sect, and Hou Pijing breathed a long sigh of relief: "Brother, your combat power is terrifying!"

"Brother Hou, are you alright?" Li Qiang asked with concern.

"It's nothing, it's nothing." Hou Pijing waved his hand. After the baptism of the battle just now, his state of mind has improved again. In addition, with the divine object that Luo Cheng had given him, the true essence in his body has been completely transformed into immortal essence.

Just then, beams of celestial light descended from the void, enveloping Hou Pijing with a guiding force.

"My two brothers, I'm about to ascend to heaven. Take care!" Hou Pijing said with a carefree smile.

"Take care of yourself!"

Hou Pijing's figure was enveloped in celestial light, slowly rising into the sky, and finally disappearing into the horizon.

Li Qiang looked in the direction he left, feeling somewhat lost.

Luo Cheng patted him on the shoulder: "Junior brother, if you're tired of staying in the cultivation world, let's go for a stroll in the immortal realm."

"Hehe, Senior Brother, are you treating the Immortal Realm like a vegetable market?" Li Qiang was amused by him, and the sadness in his heart lessened a lot.

The two spent a few more days playing on the Illusion Tree Star. Luo Cheng used his magic to record the wonders of the Illusion Tree Star, intending to show them to Lin Chen when he returned—the images recorded by this magic were far more detailed than mobile phone videos, a true three-dimensional panorama.

"Junior brother, let's go back to Fengyuan Star."

"it is good."