Chapter 510 |
“Are we going to move against the Primordial Heavenly Sovereign?”
Wendy, standing beside Adam, spoke with a little excitement. She’d hated what had just happened and wanted nothing more than to see immortals tear each other apart.
Adam shook his head. “No. He’s not ready yet.”
When Daoyuan first stepped out of Da Luo Heaven, he cut off his own flesh and distributed his spirit to feed the Twelve Capitals Heavenly Calamity Array and several Heavenly Sovereigns. In effect he parceled his energy out, then killed — directly or indirectly — every node that had helped form the array, reclaiming that energy and letting it recombine.
That give-and-take made it appear as if the total energy had increased and made his strength comparable to the Primordial Heavenly Sovereign. But the result was mixed and uneven — like one kilogram of cotton versus one kilogram of iron: the weight is the same, but the quality is not.
At this point, attacking the Primordial Heavenly Sovereign would be suicide.
Adam felt that Daoyuan didn’t truly care about conserving his energy; he was trying to provoke the celestial tribulation with sheer volume. That could explain a nascent tendency toward “cutting away the external and merging with the Dao” — perhaps a real attempt at transcendence.
“Besides,” Adam added, “even if his power were really equal now, he still wouldn’t throw himself into a life-or-death fight unless he had a trump card that could finish Primordial in one stroke.”
Aisha came up beside them. “Those six ninth-tier beings that appeared earlier — they’re like Martial Gods from the Qianyuan Realm. They’re pure Third-Epoch remnants that Daoyuan cultivated.”
Adam watched the enormous figures drifting in the distant sky and the growing number of dim spheres gathering before Daoyuan. “A trump card? Not necessarily. I think it’s more like—”
Before he could finish, the countless dark spheres that had been aimed toward Da Luo Heaven suddenly shifted direction. While the six ninth-tier beings waited for their master’s order, the spheres struck them.
On impact the spheres released a flash of energy, then transformed into black holes. Colliding and compounding, they rapidly swallowed the beings’ energies.
“Not enough yet, so—”
The True Demon body grew heavier and heavier. Each slight motion, even a breath, risked collapsing the void. Daoyuan turned his head, opened his mouth, and inhaled deeply: “Then merge with me. You are my children; this is your duty. I will bring you with me when I ascend.”
Those ninth-tier beings had always known Daoyuan’s intention and had prepared countermeasures. They never truly expected to ascend themselves; they intended to take advantage of Daoyuan’s weakness and a mutual slaughter with Primordial to seize the prize and become deities. They were confident — they had already cracked the secret seals within their bodies.
But they hadn’t expected that Daoyuan never trusted them. Behind one seal there was always another.
The dim spheres embedded into their bodies like fetters, locking down their movement and will. As Daoyuan inhaled, their bodies degraded, their matter converted into the purest form of energy and drawn into his maw.
Daoyuan’s aura climbed again. On the brink of the ninth-tier threshold he leaped forward, touching the gate to the tenth tier.
The vortex spinning in the sky became a true gateway, inscribed with countless, unimaginably complex sigils. The mages needed no order; they threw themselves into recording every symbol with desperate energy.
Then Daoyuan raised his hand and drew three shallow cuts across his own flesh, softly intoning as he did:
“Pengqiao, boundless desire.”
“Pengzhen, all external things.”
“Pengju, all cause and effect.”
With each cut and each chant a simulacrum formed outside the True Demon body. The first duplicate was hideous, the source of all evil. The second duplicate was the True Demon body, the source of raw power. The third duplicate was internally discordant — the souls of those previously killed and devoured surged wildly within it, yet it oddly maintained an overall coherence; it was the source of consciousness.
After cleaving away the three corpses, what appeared was Daoyuan’s original Primordial Spirit. In that moment he truly seemed to reach a great enlightenment; his eyes had no trace of fury, only calm.
He surveyed the surroundings. When he looked at the fleet and at Da Luo Heaven, there was no ripple in his expression. He exhaled softly. Pengqiao shot upward and struck the gate; the sigils on the doorway streamed downward and shattered the simulacra. In the process, the gate actually opened a little.
“What is that thing, exactly?” the mages exchanged bewildered looks. In the mage worldview nothing like this had ever occurred. “Could this be... real ascension?”
Pengqiao’s destruction did not shake Daoyuan. Pengju rose next, disintegrating inch by inch as it ascended and becoming a product of pure concept. It wreathed itself around the gateway’s sigils and gradually enlarged the portal.
Inside the gateway was void and chaos.
Then, with terrifying suddenness, wild void energy erupted. All manner of things — tangible and intangible — flashed into existence and poured down through the portal. There were Immortal Dao techniques, the greatest attacks known from the Cataclysm Zone’s civilizations, and even magic in forms the mages had never seen.
In that instant, the area under the portal was drawn into a vacuum; everything between heaven and earth seemed to lose its sense of being. Only Daoyuan’s Primordial Spirit and the True Demon body bracing for the heavenly tribulation remained in full presence.
One by one, attacks at the ninth-tier level slammed into the True Demon’s body. Visibly, the body grew purer and purer. The raging demonic qi was cleansed and stripped away by the attacks; the flesh gradually took on a flawless jade quality. Even the blood that flowed from wounds was pure white.
An hour later the True Demon’s body was battered and near collapse. At that moment the tribulation raining from the gateway paused.
Daoyuan rose tall and looked toward Da Luo Heaven. He knew the Primordial Heavenly Sovereign must be watching. “Great Sovereign,” he said, “you were wrong. Yet I do not resent.”
At that sound the Primordial Heavenly Sovereign and Wanxiang Heavenly Sovereign, who had not shown themselves until now, simultaneously flew out of Da Luo Heaven. They said nothing; they only watched Daoyuan with calm eyes.
Daoyuan inclined his head at them with a smile, then released a long, soaring cry and shot upward beyond the True Demon body, charging into the gateway to meet the returning tribulation.
The energies of the tribulation vanished; only pure-concept assaults remained. By Immortal Dao standards this was an interrogation of the heart. Daoyuan’s ascent slowed but never wavered. His Primordial Spirit shattered and reformed again and again — each time more solid than before.
Three hours later, he had fully entered the gate.