Chapter 4723: Certain Death
The silver white arrows struck him again, vaporizing his body and leaving behind a resplendent soul.
Like colored glazed glass, his soul shone with myriad hues, packed full of countless soul particles, each like a miniature soul clone, making the whole soul dense and full.
The soul had not grown much stronger in sheer power.
Merging real and unreal had changed its nature, not its strength.
Lin Moyu understood clearly that the true roots of a powerful soul were now planted.
All that remained was to "water" them and let his soul continually grow.
Breaking through to the Supreme tier was only the starting line.
His path toward the Life Forbidden Zone had already taken half a step forward.
Next, he needed to find the body's own real and unreal.
By discovering the "unreal" side of the flesh and merging it with the real, just as he had done with his soul, he would lay the strongest foundation and take another step toward the Forbidden Zone.
As for cultivation realms, once those two steps were complete, realm progress would follow naturally.
Now that his soul could no longer be vaporized, Lin murmured, "Eight five seven. It's over. You should fully disperse as well."
His soul exploded with a roar, scattering innumerable soul particles.
At the same time, the Calamity Scepter swept across, smashing the silver white giant into powder.
Lin's soul particles shot into the drifting dust like tiny hunters, erasing the remaining silver substance.
Though the silver dust was invisible to the naked eye, it could not escape the soul particles' perception.
Carrying Lin's will, they could locate it no matter how small it was.
His battle shifted from the grand scale to the microscopic.
The soul particles hidden in the silver dust were quickly purged, and when the giant reformed, a full third of its body was missing.
Before it could act, the Calamity Scepter swept again, pulverizing it once more while Lin's soul particles continued their assault.
The rhythm of battle completely changed.
It was no longer a simple exchange of blows.
The giant's "value" had been wrung dry, and it had reached its end.
Soon, all the special silver substance composing it was destroyed.
Lin's soul particles returned to him, and his body re formed in purple radiance.
He sensed the changes in his body and soul.
Now the soul's nature had surpassed that of the body, leaving a faint sense of imbalance between them.
"It seems the body still needs to be stronger."
He had not yet discovered the body's "unreal" side.
His intuition told him his body was still not strong enough; only when it advanced further would that hidden aspect reveal itself.
To strengthen the body, he would have to take another huge "reckless step," and he already had a method in mind he merely had to carry it out.
His eyes fell upon the eight tiered pagoda not far away.
This world's core was now a feast waiting to be devoured.
The World Burning Fire flew forth and landed smoothly on the pagoda, beginning to refine it.
The Calamity Scepter also shot out to share in the feast.
A great many rule crystals fell out of the pagoda.
Though the Silver White World had no rule born beings and its Dao rules were extremely simple, that did not mean it had none.
On the contrary, its rule force was immensely strong and pure, and the number and quality of the refined crystals were both exceptional.
"This time, the Linguistic God World should be able to evolve."
He had obtained an Eighth Cycle world.
Through Heaven Shattering Earth Rending, he had reignited its vitality and set it evolving once more.
The power of heaven and earth and Primordial Qi it produced would be more than enough for the Linguistic God World to feast upon.
That inner world now lacked only a hair's breadth before its qualitative transformation.
This time, it had an eighty to ninety percent chance of advancing.
Once its nature rose, when the first major world calamity came, the Linguistic God World could at least stand as a Seventh Cycle world.
The refinement went smoothly, further strengthening the World Burning Fire.
Its growth seemed to have no limit; as long as it was fed, it could keep growing forever.
Its essence was simply too powerful, and no one had yet found its upper boundary.
As he refined the world core, scenes surfaced within the flames.
They were memories recorded in the core itself events from the world's initial evolution.
During its first great calamity, an accident had occurred.
Originally, the world should have absorbed and fused a small amount of power from the Life Forbidden Zone.
Instead, that power surged in on a massive scale.
The world had no time to filter or integrate it; all life within was erased, and even the rules collapsed.
Thus it became the Silver White World a dead realm completely occupied by annihilation.
Its origin was as simple as it was brutal.
Lin felt nothing in particular upon seeing it.
His days of sighing over such things were long past; he now regarded all such events with calm detachment.
Worlds were as numerous as cattle.
No matter what happened to them, it was all just another kind of "normal," nothing to be surprised by.
Once the World Burning Fire and Calamity Scepter finished devouring the world core, the Silver White World once listed as a deathland by peak powerhouses began to collapse.
Carrying the pagoda's leftover shell, Lin turned back.
The spatial passage rapidly disintegrated as the power of the Life Forbidden Zone surged in.
Having experienced this many times, he knew how to handle it.
He walked back lightly, as if strolling through a courtyard, and stepped out of the tunnel into the Primal Chaos Wilds.
The roar of surging water met his ears as the World Source Spring churned.
In his vision, Baizhong and Boyang were staring at him with strange expressions.
"What's wrong with you two?" Lin asked curiously.
"Daoist Lin has been gone a hundred years," Baizhong replied. "You seem… somewhat different."
Boyang nodded. "It appears Daoist Lin has gained some opportunities."
Lin knew that he had, indeed, changed and that the change came from his soul.
His soul had completed the fusion of real and unreal, quite possibly making it the only such soul in all the myriad worlds.
"Indeed, there have been some gains," he said calmly. "Every world has its opportunities it's only a question of whether you can seize them."
Baizhong asked softly, "If this old man had gone in himself instead of sending only a clone, what would the result have been?"
He could not help a trace of regret; he had never personally stepped inside.
Lin's answer ended that regret for good.
"You would have died with absolute certainty."
Baizhong paused, then bowed to him. "Many thanks for the warning, Daoist Lin."
"That world was extremely special," Lin went on. "Aside from me, no one could cross it. Even those few top beings would die if they tried."
"So dangerous…" Baizhong muttered under his breath.
He did not ask why Lin alone could pass.
That would have been prying into Lin's secrets he was not foolish enough to do that.
Boyang studied Lin, seemingly trying to see what exactly had changed, but no matter how he looked, he could not find the cause.
Over the course of that century, his own injuries had fully healed.
A hundred years earlier, both elders had been absorbing and refining Primordial Qi, and their auras were now slightly stronger than before.
Lin swept his gaze across the surrounding heavens and earth.
The Nine Heavens Fate Arts silently activated.
All the changes the great world calamity had undergone over the past century entered his sight.
"It seems my becoming a Supreme has thrown the world into greater chaos," he said quietly, "further advancing the progress of the great calamity."
"In as few as three hundred years, or as many as five hundred, the great calamity will reach its peak. At that time, something will appear."
"That thing may allow you two to break past Supreme and reach the level of 'those few.' There is even a small chance to go further."
"But it is also a knot of fate and cause and effect. To fight for it is to risk death."
"If you intend to compete, you should decide now whether the end result is acceptable to you."
As Supremes, Baizhong and Boyang could both sense that in every great calamity there existed a single object of enormous significance.
They already knew this much.
Boyang's lips moved slightly. "Is Daoist Lin planning to contend for it as well?"