After the Black Empress was forced back out through the opening in the defensive line, Jiang Wuyue was surrounded by a few Ba'ans, and a fierce series of clashes ensued.

Right at this moment, all of the light in the cave suddenly dimmed, immediately following which a golden bolt of lightning reached the Black Empress almost instantaneously.

The Black Empress had just forced back Jiang Wuyue with a devastating punch when she was struck by a sense of fear that welled up from directly within her soul. She abruptly folded her wings in front of her, and a massive black halo appeared above her head. The black halo bore the appearance of a crown, and there was faint golden light shimmering at its center. A strange rune then took shape in front of the Black Empress before forming a shield.

Everything had happened in the blink of an eye, and golden light erupted in all directions. The surrounding Ba'ans were all sent flying by the terrifying shockwaves resulting from the explosion, and Jiang Wuyue was also forced to stumble back in retreat.

The Black Empress's body swayed slightly, and a hint of emotion finally appeared in her cold and expressionless eyes. She was in complete disbelief!

The black shield that had been formed by the rune had already shattered, and a golden spear had skewered her hand and her shoulder.

Terrifying suction force immediately erupted from the Golden Dragon Spear, and the Black Empress let loose a howl of anguish before violently swinging her arm through the air to forcibly fling the Golden Dragon Spear away. However, her entire arm was quickly shriveling up along with the right half of her body. Her shoulder collapsed, and even her right wing fell limply by her side.

Her body swayed, and she quickly rushed back into the abyssal passageway, disappearing from view in the blink of an eye.

All of the black mechas had already rushed forward at this point, and with the assistance of the battle armor masters, they were able to slay several Ba'ans in quick succession before finally plugging the gap again. The long-range attacks from the rear were also becoming fiercer and fiercer as one giant ball of light after another crashed into the midst of the abyssal creatures, resulting in strings of violent explosions.

Meanwhile, Tang Wulin descended from up above, and both his blood essence power and soul power had been completely exhausted. He had never tried to compress all of his power into a single attack. It was a good thing that he had such a powerful weapon in the form of his Golden Dragon Spear; a normal weapon would've completely exploded from the vast influx of energy.

Golden light flashed, and the Golden Dragon Spear flew back into Tang Wulin's grasp. An enormous burst of energy immediately surged into his body like a flowing river.

Tang Wulin felt as if his body were a parched desert that was rapidly being replenished with vitality, and he couldn't help but moan with pleasure. He stood on the spot, using his Golden Dragon Spear as a crutch as he silently absorbed the influx of energy.

The energy that had been absorbed was almost entirely injected into his blood essence vortex, and it began to rotate again. An unprecedented feeling of power spread through his entire body, completely wiping away his feebleness. Even though this energy wasn't replenishing his soul power to anywhere near the degree that it was replenishing his blood essence power, he had still instantly recovered to over 60% of his peak condition.

Tang Wulin didn't know whether that attack had inflicted lasting damage on the Black Empress. He had used the Tang Sect's hidden weapon hand techniques after injecting all of his power into the Golden Dragon Spear, and the Black Empress had underestimated him, thereby resulting in her being severely wounded by that attack.

However, this was the first time Tang Wulin had encountered an enemy that was able to forcibly extricate the Golden Dragon Spear from their body before they were sucked dry.

It was a shame that he hadn't been able to kill that Black Empress. Doing so would've definitely earned him an enormous amount of accolades that would significantly contribute to his promotions.

Even so, Tang Wulin was already very satisfied. At the very least, he had absorbed the Black Empress's energy, and his heart was filled with elation as he felt the relentless river of blood essence power surging froth from his Golden Dragon Spear.

All of a sudden, his body abruptly shuddered. His blood essence churned within his body, causing his skin to turn slightly red in color. This red color was slightly abnormal, and much to Tang Wulin's surprise, the color of his blood essence vortex also began to change. Due to its high-speed rotation, its original faint golden color was approaching a scorching white color. He felt as if some kind of explosive power were about to erupt within his body.

Crap! Did I absorb too much energy for me to handle?

A throbbing pain began to spread through his entire body, and he let loose a muffled groan. He tried to release his Golden Dragon Spear, but found himself completely unable to do so.

A layer of golden light began to appear on the Golden Dragon Spear before being slowly injected into his body, and the redness of his skin became more and more pronounced. However, he was currently wearing his Dragon Moon battle armor with his visor covering his face, so no one could see the abnormal condition that he was in.

He had just severely wounded a Black Empress and forced it into retreat, and it was very normal for him to be taking a rest after unleashing such a devastating attack. As such, no one had had any idea that there was currently something wrong with his body.

This is bad!

Never would Tang Wulin have thought that the Black Empress would possess such immense energy. The energy coming from the Golden Dragon Spear had already been filtered, but even after the filtration process, there still seemed to be no end to this influx of energy.

Tang Wulin had only ever experienced this kind of feeling back when he was absorbing dragon clouds in the Dragon Valley. However, the energy flowing from the Golden Dragon Spear was much more direct. He could take his time when absorbing the dragon clouds as the energy from them had gathered on the outside of his body, but the Golden Dragon Spear was injecting its energy deep into his body, forcing it to fuse directly with his bloodline power. The process was too short; there was no time for him to digest and absorb this energy!

What could he do? He had no choice but to bite the bullet and hope for the best!

Tang Wulin activated his soul power to revolve around his blood essence power, trying to control the rotation of his blood essence vortex in a subtle way.

However, that proved to be completely ineffective. The blood essence vortex was only accelerating in its rotation, and its scorching white color had illuminated his entire chest white.

If it weren't for the fact that his meridians were extremely resolute, his body would've most likely fallen apart already.

A wry smile appeared on his face. His body was already on the verge of falling apart just from the influx of energy; wouldn't the energy influx from breaking his 10th Golden Dragon King seal be even more fearsome?

He was really beginning to reach his limit now. Strong danger signals were being set off in his brain, and right at this moment, Tang Wulin suddenly sensed his blood essence vortex collapsing in on itself.

This sudden development made him feel as if his entire body were being compressed inward along with his blood essence vortex, and it was as if he were going to be crushed into smithereens.

This is really bad!

"Boom!"

A resounding boom that was audible only to Tang Wulin erupted within his body. The terrifying explosion immediately made his mind go completely blank. Brilliant light radiated from his suit of battle armor, and if he hadn't been wearing his suit of battle armor, everyone would be able to sense the unprecedentedly enormous aura erupting from his body. This aura erupted from his body alongside a burst of blood mist. However, the blood mist wasn't red; instead, it was of a faint golden color.

Tang Wulin was instantly deprived of all of his senses. In that instant, he felt as if his entire body had already exploded into its tiniest constituent particles. All of the chaos and commotion around him seemed to have been relegated to another world.

His soul drifted in the air, and everything in his world had turned into a scorching white color. Only the resounding explosion was still echoing within his ears.

How did this happen? His mind had already completely congealed, rendering him unable to think, but his heart was filled with astonishment.

After what seemed like an eternity that could've also been just a split second, Tang Wulin's body moved slightly, and tightened his grip around his Golden Dragon Spear again.

His consciousness gradually returned to him, and his body was still being afflicted by intense throbbing pain, but there was a wonderful feeling that existed alongside this pain.

It was an extremely comfortable itchy and warm sensation that was quickly eradicating the throbbing pain.

Tang Wulin finally fully returned to his senses, and much to his surprise, he was greeted by the sight of a golden world. This wasn't the actual world, but instead, it was the world within his body.

He saw a system of complex golden lines. Were those... his meridians?

Also, what were those solid strips of golden fibers? Were those his muscles? His bones appeared to be like transparent golden gems, and he could even see his bone marrow flowing like mercury within those bones.

His golden blood circulated within his body as he breathed, converging toward his heart before being pumped all over his body.

Everything within his body had become an entirely golden world. This was a very dazzling and exuberant golden color, as opposed to the original faint golden color.

Tang Wulin hurriedly turned his attention to his own chest. There, he discovered that the blood essence vortex had disappeared, and it had been replaced by what appeared to be a series of golden strips of light that were revolving with his chest. At the very center of those strips of light was a stationary thumbnail-sized rhomboid crystal.