Chapter 708 |
The monstrous fusion of the three demonic cultivators possessed power close to the Nascent Soul Realm, yet even that was meaningless before the refining flames of the Nanming Bright Fire.
In the span of a single breath, they were reduced to ashes, utterly refined into nothingness—without even a final scream.
Lu Qing’s expression did not waver in the slightest.
After learning that these three demons had captured hundreds of thousands of living beings for blood sacrifices to forge demonic artifacts, he had already sentenced them to death in his heart. Their fate was sealed.
Even the last remaining demonic cultivator who had fled and hidden himself would not escape. Lu Qing would find him—and destroy him completely.
After soul-searching one of the corpses earlier, he already had a clue on how to locate that survivor.
Once the fused abomination was annihilated, Lu Qing turned and walked toward another spatial prison where an icy, cold-faced old man was confined.
Inside the prison, the old man sat cross-legged, calm and composed. Lu Qing was mildly surprised.
“He’s been this calm all along?”
“At first, he struggled, trying to break free,” Yan replied. “But after realizing it was futile, he gave up. Still, he seems to have some kind of confidence. Once he calmed down, he’s stayed that way ever since. I suspect he’s relying on something.”
The old man, who had been surrounded by nothing but endless darkness, suddenly found himself exposed to light again. He started in surprise—then, upon seeing Lu Qing and Yan, his body trembled slightly. A flicker of fear flashed in his eyes.
He had been imprisoned here for some time, and during those days of silence and reflection, he had come to understand one thing clearly:
That day, he had truly kicked an iron plate.
The young Golden Core cultivator he once toyed with had somehow, in just a few decades, become a Nascent Soul cultivator—one whose strength now far exceeded his own comprehension.
Even he, a two-tribulation Nascent Soul expert, was completely powerless before this young man.
Still, he wasn’t too afraid. After all, he had his trump card.
He hadn’t used it yet because he wanted to see what Lu Qing intended to do with him.
And now, Lu Qing had finally appeared.
Lu Qing and Yan said nothing, merely standing there watching him. In the end, it was the old man who broke the silence.
“Young man, what are you staring at?”
He glanced at Yan, recognizing the spirit as the artifact’s tool spirit, and focused his attention on Lu Qing.
“Old thing, you seem rather confident for someone in your position,” Lu Qing said coolly.
“Confident? Hardly. I’m just... intrigued,” the old man sneered. “That Golden Core brat who once barely escaped from me—only a few decades have passed, and now you stand as a Nascent Soul cultivator. I’m curious. What fortune or inheritance did you receive to grow so powerful?”
“You’re not qualified to question me,” Lu Qing replied flatly. “Your confidence comes from the fact that you’ve branded your Divine Soul Imprint onto the origin core of your home world. As long as that imprint remains, you cannot truly die. Even if this body perishes, you can reform from your world’s origin energy. Am I right?”
The old man’s composure shattered instantly.
“Impossible! How do you know that?!”
His greatest secret—something no one, not even his closest disciples, had ever known—was laid bare in a single sentence.
They only knew he could resurrect from a blood pool, but not the true reason why.
Now, that secret had been ripped open, and panic gnawed at his heart.
His immortality was the very reason he had ruled his home world for millennia.
If the righteous cultivators of his world ever learned the truth—that his “immortality” stemmed from a soul imprint fused into the world’s core—they would hunt him to the ends of creation to destroy that imprint.
He looked at Lu Qing, horror finally replacing arrogance.
“Nothing impossible about it,” Lu Qing said coldly. “Why else would I have spared you back then? I was curious about that very technique—the one that lets you anchor your soul to the origin of a world.”
A wave of dread surged through the old man. He knew what was coming and tried to act immediately.
His Nascent Soul flared within his body, unleashing a destructive force.
But he was too slow.
Before the energy could erupt, a surge of Divine Soul power swept through him. Illusions flooded his mind. His thoughts scattered, consciousness falling into disarray.
“Trying to self-destruct your Nascent Soul?” Lu Qing’s tone turned icy. “Before me, you don’t even have the right to die.”
His voice echoed through the prison like a death knell.
Moments later, the old man’s consciousness was completely consumed by illusion.
Half an incense stick later, Lu Qing’s eyes flickered. His Divine Soul pulsed, and the old man’s body trembled violently. The aura of his Nascent Soul faded rapidly, and his life essence was extinguished.
His Nascent Soul had been annihilated.
Yet Lu Qing’s gaze carried a trace of admiration.
“As expected of a Nascent Soul cultivator—his willpower was formidable.”
Though only half an incense stick had passed in the real world, within the illusion, decades had gone by.
Throughout those phantom decades, the old man’s mind had been ensnared in countless false realities, yet he never once betrayed his secret—until the final instant, when his resistance finally collapsed and he revealed the method he cultivated.
“The Minor Divine Ability, Phantasm, works wonders against Golden Core cultivators,” Lu Qing murmured, “but against Nascent Soul cultivators, its effect is limited.”
At his current level, he could feel it clearly.
The Nascent Soul Realm cultivators, whose souls had endured the tempering of tribulations, possessed incredible fortitude of mind. Simple illusions could no longer sway them easily.
It was only because the old man had been sealed, and his soul was weaker than Lu Qing’s, that the illusion had succeeded at all. Even so, Lu Qing had nearly failed to extract the truth.
“It seems once I’m done handling the matters at hand, I should devote time to advancing my Divine Abilities.”
He had acquired two Minor Divine Abilities—Great Strength and Phantasm. Though minor, both held limitless potential if cultivated to higher levels.
But such cultivation required deep comprehension of the Dao. Forced attempts could backfire, leading to soul annihilation.
Even Lu Qing, in his Golden Core days, hadn’t dared to risk it.
Now, having entered the Nascent Soul Realm, his soul was a thousandfold stronger. He finally had the qualifications to attempt it.
“Still,” he thought, “the technique I just obtained is far more extraordinary than I imagined.”
The method the old man revealed was called Ephemeral Life Anchored to Heaven and Earth.
It was a technique he had obtained long ago during an expedition in the starry void, within a mysterious secret realm.
This technique was astonishing—it taught one to brand their Divine Soul Imprint onto the origin of a world, ensuring the soul’s survival and granting multiple chances at rebirth.
As long as the imprint endured, the practitioner could resurrect, even if body and soul were destroyed. It was an incredible life-preserving method.
Of course, such a miraculous technique came with immense difficulty.
First, the threshold was extreme. Forming the required soul imprint demanded forging an indestructible intent—a will embodying the essence of “not dying.”
Even then, imprinting it onto a world’s origin was nearly impossible. The soul of even a mighty Nascent Soul cultivator was minuscule compared to a world’s origin.
Attempting to inscribe one’s soul upon it was like frost under a blazing sun—obliterated in an instant.
The old man had succeeded only because he had acquired several mysterious treasures within that same secret realm—treasures that aided his success.
With that, he became the “Undying Blood Ancestor,” a name that struck terror into every righteous cultivator of his world. No matter how many times they killed him, he always returned.
But Lu Qing knew the truth: the technique was powerful, yet not flawless.
If someone located and destroyed the soul imprint at the world’s core, the technique would be broken.
Moreover, Ephemeral Life Anchored to Heaven and Earth allowed only nine resurrections in total, and each rebirth severely weakened the soul.
Even so, Lu Qing couldn’t help but admire it. A technique like this was worth any risk.
Most intriguing of all was the final passage:
as one’s cultivation deepened, the soul imprint could gradually absorb the world’s origin power—eventually replacing the world’s consciousness itself.
To become one with heaven and earth, sharing its lifespan—so long as the world endured, the cultivator would never die.
But reaching that level was unimaginably difficult.
Even a Nine-Tribulation Nascent Soul expert might never achieve it.
Lu Qing smiled faintly. “Still, if I could one day truly master such a realm, perhaps I could end the spiritual energy cycle of birth and death in my home world.”
For countless years, his world’s spiritual energy had followed a pattern of revival and extinction every tens of thousands of years. He had never known how to stop it.
Now, perhaps, he had found a glimmer of hope.
“This technique must be cultivated,” he decided. “Once my current affairs are settled, I’ll study it alongside my two Divine Abilities.”
Having made up his mind, Lu Qing exchanged a few quiet words with Yan, then withdrew his consciousness from the Li Huo Cauldron.
He entered meditation and began to comprehend Ephemeral Life Anchored to Heaven and Earth.
Through the night he sat unmoving.
When dawn broke, Lu Qing opened his eyes—light gleaming within them.
After a night of comprehension, he was filled with awe.
“This technique… it’s truly profound. Not one bit inferior to the Heavenly Witch Body of Ten Thousand Tribulations—and it’s a Nascent Soul-level technique.”
He exhaled slowly. “I truly wonder what kind of supreme existence created such a wondrous art. This world is far deeper than I imagined.”
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