Chapter 1654: Mountain Sea Bronze Patina
Chapter 1654: Mountain Sea Bronze Patina
Following the direction indicated by the Immeasurable Wall, she saw it was pointing at one of the immortal treasures sent over by the Guangwu Xinghai.
Rinsing Moon Bai said with a sigh, "That's not something you can eat."
She then gave a brief overview of the current situation in the Shuo Xinghai.
"So, you're telling me that this... Guangwu Xinghai has many more delicacies like this one?"
The Immeasurable Wall immediately began to stir, and the black mountains and white waters suppressing it momentarily showed signs of halting their flow.
Rinsing Moon Bai was rather astonished. "Have you had a breakthrough?"
"Naturally!" the Immeasurable Wall declared smugly. "With my talent, how could I be suppressed for so long and not make any gains?"
"Of course, I'm still a ways off from truly becoming human like Senior Cheng Dao."
"Just wait until I've finished my cultivation and woken up! Then, no matter what tricks those scoundrels pull, I'll crush them all!"
"Hmph, I bet you didn't see this coming. I was originally counting on you to transcend and pull me along, but now the tables have turned, and I'm the one who has to look out for you."
Rinsing Moon Bai wasn't annoyed by this. She simply smiled and replied, "Well then, let's just see who manages to transcend first."
"With Senior Cheng Dao guiding my enlightenment, most of this stuff I've been hoarding is useless to me now. I'll give it to you for protection! I hope you can make it through this ordeal safely."
As it spoke, the Immeasurable Wall spat out a collection of items, including treasures like the Eternal Straw Cape, and gave them to Rinsing Moon Bai.
"Remember, be wary of the Guangwu Xinghai!" the Immeasurable Wall repeated.
Then, the black mountains and white waters resumed their gentle flow, and the Immeasurable Wall fell silent once more.
"Guangwu Xinghai..."
Rinsing Moon Bai gazed toward the far side of the star sea, her eyes narrowing slightly.
"It seems I need to prepare more thoroughly."
Though she didn't know what the Immeasurable Wall had sensed, Rinsing Moon Bai chose to trust its judgment.
Time flew, and three years passed in the blink of an eye.
On this day, over a hundred True Immortals and two Nameless True Immortals from the Guangwu Xinghai crossed the void, escorting an immortal coffin caked in ancient bronze patina.
Their leader was Yuan Shu, who had previously handled the negotiations.
After exchanging pleasantries, all eyes were fixed on the next step: opening the coffin to slay the immortal within!
"Though we don't know what is buried in this ancient bronze coffin, the waves of Dao Annihilation it stirred within the Mountain Sea are second only to those of the transcendent shell. Everyone, do not let your guard down!"
The Shuo Xinghai had driven a hard bargain during the negotiations, extorting a heavy price.
Naturally, the Guangwu Xinghai had to shoulder more of the pressure.
The immortals of the Shuo Xinghai stared intently at the bronze coffin, their expressions grave.
As a crack slivered open on the coffin, the patina covering its surface seemed to come alive. With a dry, rustling sound, it flowed back into the coffin.
A mysterious chant, echoing from a desolate age, emanated from within the immortal coffin.
Upon hearing it, everyone present felt an instinctual sorrow and desolation well up within their hearts.
"Watch out!"
A True Immortal from the Guangwu Xinghai, perhaps lost in the chant, was unknowingly tainted by a dark green bronze patina that seemed to appear from nowhere.
In an instant, he was transformed into a bronze figure.
His eyes were corroded away, leaving two empty sockets that revealed a profound darkness within.
The sight was utterly horrifying.
More alarmingly, once transformed into a bronze statue, the True Immortal also began to chant that mysterious, ancient melody.
Like a virus, the bronze transformation spread with terrifying speed.
Ordinary True Immortals were instantly infected upon the slightest contact, utterly powerless to resist.
Only the Nameless True Immortals fared better; the singular Dao paths they commanded offered strong resistance to this alien transformation.
However, it was only enough for self-preservation.
Even the dense Dao Net couldn't completely halt the spread of the bronze rhythm, only slow its advance.
As the ancient bronze coffin opened, the mysterious ballad began to echo throughout the Shuo Xinghai.
An endless army of bronze figures began to assemble, surrounding the immortal coffin.
This bizarre scene caught both the Guangwu and Shuo Xinghai civilizations completely off guard.
"Is this the power of a being on the verge of transcendence?"
"What in the world is buried inside that ancient bronze coffin?"
Only after the initial setback did they slowly begin to react.
They concentrated the power of the Dao Net, forming a defensive line with the Nameless True Immortals to halt the spread of the transformation.
The bizarre power of the bronze rhythm was entirely outside their understanding of cultivation.
They needed time to analyze it and devise a countermeasure.
"We can't protect the entire star sea. That region... we'll have to abandon it," Rinsing Moon Bai sighed.
In the time it took her to speak, the Shuo Xinghai had already been split into two starkly contrasting halves.
One half was the Dao Net, flickering intermittently with blue light; opposing it was the immortal coffin, shrouded in deep green shadows and surrounded by its innumerable bronze army.
During the stalemate, perhaps having gathered sufficient strength, the ancient bronze coffin began to transform once more.
The dark green patina on its surface vanished completely.
The coffin swung wide open.
With a resonant clang, a sacred and imposing bronze chariot slowly rolled out of the immortal coffin.
Eight ferocious, uniquely shaped ancient beasts led the way. The chariot itself carried no person.
Instead, it bore an impossibly complex ancient bronze tree!
It was clearly no more than a thousand feet tall.
Yet it seemed to embody countless transformations, making it impossible to discern its true form.
Every branch and leaf of the ancient bronze tree seemed to record the rise and fall of an ancient bronze dynasty.
Densely packed upon the thousand-foot tree was a history of immeasurable weight.
"The dark axe dances, splitting wind and thunder."
"The oracle shells burst, the blood sun descends..."
The hundreds of millions strong bronze army chanted in powerful unison.
Amidst the mournful rhythm, the ancient bronze tree projected more phantoms of the past.
These were countless ancient bronze civilizations, each having reached the zenith of its prosperity.
But without fail, just as they reached their peak, they were all annihilated by a terrifying calamity.
That world-shattering event was none other than the Dao Annihilation Calamity!
The bronze civilizations possessed an unimaginable tenacity. Even under the threat of Dao Annihilation, they could preserve a thread of life, a spark that could not be extinguished.
It became the seed for the dawn of the next civilization.
Through countless cycles, the branches and leaves of the ancient bronze tree grew ever more luxuriant, representing the growing number of civilizations that had risen and fallen.
Yet, without exception, none could escape the fate of being consumed by Dao Annihilation.
In this endless cycle, there was no hope of victory.
And so, the king of the final bronze civilization chose to end the ceaseless cycle.
He gathered every trace of all the bronze civilizations that had ever been, sealed himself away, and entombed himself within a great coffin.
After drifting through the Dao Annihilation for untold ages, he was finally fished from the void by the Guangwu Xinghai.
"To awaken from the gloom is the will of all ancient sages."
"Today, your blood shall commemorate my awakening."
In the eyes of the bronze civilization, the immortals of Guangwu and Shuo Xinghai were, without question, aberrations.
There was not even a need for parley; war began at once.
Although the individual soldiers of the bronze army were relatively weak, their numbers were truly endless.
From that bronze tree, less than a thousand feet tall, it seemed they could summon any being that had ever appeared in the Mountain Sea.
And they did not exist in any true sense of life and death.
Even after being destroyed by the immortals of Shuo Xinghai, they simply turned back into bronze patina, flowed into the bronze tree, and re-formed as new branches and leaves.
Rinsing Moon Bai and the others had tried to sever this cycle of regeneration, but the resilience of this bronze power, which had endured countless cycles of civilization even amidst the absolute extinction of Dao Annihilation, far exceeded their expectations.
The effort required to completely obliterate them was hundreds of times greater than simply defeating them.
It often took several Nameless True Immortals working together just to completely dispel the bizarre power of the "bronze transformation."
It was a thankless, exhausting task.
After a brief period of setbacks, Rinsing Moon Bai's side decisively changed their strategy.
They no longer insisted on erasing the bronze figures from existence.
Instead, they focused on eliminating as many of the transformed soldiers as possible, slowly whittling down the power of the ancient bronze tree.
Transforming the bronze army was not without cost to the ancient tree standing on the chariot.
At the very least, after the war had raged for half a year, Rinsing Moon Bai noticed that its transformations had clearly diminished.
While the bronze civilization was mysterious and extraordinary, the people of Shuo Xinghai and Guangwu were also tough survivors of the Dao Annihilation's devastation. Their foundations were not much weaker.
Furthermore, they were fighting on home ground.
As the battle reached a stalemate, the ancient bronze tree changed again.
Bronze leaves began to wither and fall, along with pieces of the trunk.
Each fallen piece transformed into a colossal, blurry figure.
They appeared to be the "kings" of past bronze civilizations.
Tens of thousands of them stood in rank, charging toward the Dao Net.
Compared to the bronze army, the ancient bronze kings were significantly more difficult to deal with.
These bronze figures all possessed their own unique divine abilities.
All were based on the "bronze transformation" but had evolved into various strange and complex forms.
Some of them were nearly identical to the Great Daos of the current era.
For example, one king's palm glowed with a green light, and anyone struck by it would have their body and soul instantly frozen, as if trapped in a past moment of time.
Another chanted in golden script, and countless twisted characters swarmed their enemies like insects. Those afflicted would have their memories distorted, and though they were from Shuo Xinghai, they would turn to slaughter their fellow immortals on behalf of the bronze tree.
...
Although the bronze kings were not on par with the Nameless, they were far stronger than True Immortals.
With all of them attacking at once, Rinsing Moon Bai's side began to falter.
More critically, the eight ferocious beasts pulling the chariot had not moved an inch from the very beginning.
They merely observed the battlefield with cold indifference.
"Bring out the immortal treasures."
After a brief discussion, the group reached a decision.
A saber and a sword.
Two flashes of light appeared in succession.
The phantoms of the saber and sword covered the countless bronze figures.
As they destroyed them, they also absorbed all the bronze patina the figures turned into upon their destruction.
The Dao Sword and Dao Saber became tinged with a bronze-green hue.
But their own power was not diminished; instead, they gained a certain mysterious quality.
The bronze tree's army was instantly cleared, leaving only a hundred or so "kings" remaining.
The eight ancient beasts, who had been watching all along, finally made their move.
If the Dao Sword and Dao Saber were relics of other civilizations salvaged from the Dao Annihilation by the Guangwu Xinghai, then these ancient beasts were the relics of the Mountain Sea collected by the bronze civilization.
Compared to the Daos of the current era, these survivors from the ancient Mountain Sea had resisted the Dao Annihilation almost entirely with their physical bodies.
Even with the Dao Net's support, the immortals' divine abilities and techniques seemed to have little effect on them.
Under the savage assault of the ancient beasts, the Dao Net nearly snapped.
Fortunately, over the past few years, the various sections of the Dao Net had undergone intensive training under Rinsing Moon Bai's command.
That was the only reason it hadn't been destroyed instantly.
The immortals had no choice but to deploy more of the fished immortal treasures to combat them.
The ancient civilization from the Mountain Sea's past and the surviving star sea civilization from the lower realms gradually fell into a stalemate on the battlefield.
The bronze civilization was not connected to the Mountain Sea. It relied entirely on its own bizarre nature for its endless regeneration.
On the other hand, Guangwu and Shuo Xinghai had the infinite power of the Mountain Sea to rely on.
As the two sides clashed, the infinite nature of the Mountain Sea ultimately proved superior.
The branches and leaves of the ancient bronze tree gradually withered away.
Soon, only a bare trunk remained.
The final bronze king remained calm.
He grasped the bronze trunk, and then plunged it fiercely into his own chest!
The ancient bronze tree dissolved into a rustic patina, flowing from the wound in his chest and into the bronze king's body.
Once more, it sprouted branches and leaves, manifesting as a vibrant, living tree.
Only...
Unlike the bronze tree that carried the past, this one on the body of the final bronze king represented renunciation and rebirth.
The bronze king's face gradually became clear.
But on the battlefield, all other bronze-transformed beings, as if they had lost their source of power, slowly began to dissipate.
The kings, the ancient beasts.
All of them faded away.
The immense pressure on the star sea immortals vanished in an instant.
But Rinsing Moon Bai and the others felt no joy, only alarm.
They stared at the final bronze king before them, who seemed to be undergoing a world-shaking transformation, and a sense of foreboding rose in their hearts.
"This is bad! These are the signs of enlightenment and transcendence!"
It was Yuan Shu who reacted first, screaming, "If this thing truly transcends, we're all going to die!"
The immortals' hearts trembled at his words.
Understanding the gravity of the situation, they no longer held anything back. All their ultimate divine abilities, techniques, and treasures were unleashed.
They hurled everything they had at the final bronze king.
Rinsing Moon Bai had also instinctively moved to push the Dao Net's power to its maximum.
But suddenly, she remembered the Immeasurable Wall's earlier warning.
A thought flickered in her mind, and she held back.
She did not unleash the measures she had prepared.
Having abandoned the glory and memories of the past, integrating the memories of all bronze civilizations into himself, the final bronze king was now only a single step away from transcendence.
Even the Dao Annihilation beyond the Shuo Xinghai seemed to sense it.
The tides surged, growing increasingly turbulent.
Though the immortals did their utmost to stop him, they could not harm him in the slightest.
They watched as the patterns of the ancient tree on the bronze king's body grew more and more luxuriant.
It seemed they were about to witness the birth of a new transcendent expert.
Despair appeared on the faces of the immortals.
Instinctively, some already began to look for a way to escape.
At this final moment, Yuan Shu of the Guangwu Xinghai gritted his teeth and threw a seemingly ordinary bead toward the bronze king.
A brilliant light bloomed, and countless phantoms burst forth.
It was the Dao Chronicle Projection Pearl!
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