With each strike of lightning, Liao Pantu's soul, which had swelled to the size of the heavens, gradually shrank.
At first, every bolt shook his soul to the core, forcing him to exert every ounce of his strength to prevent himself from being scattered. But as time passed, he grew accustomed to the strikes, eventually able to close his eyes and let the lightning hit him without feeling any pain or discomfort.
Perhaps a long time had passed.
Suddenly, the thunder and lightning ceased without warning.
When Liao Pantu opened his eyes again, he found that his soul had returned to its normal size.
He thought it was the end.
But then, sharp sounds, like needles, burst from his sea of consciousness, shooting in all directions!
It felt like these sounds were calling out for something.
Liao Pantu seemed to sense something. He looked up sharply and gazed into the distance.
It was coming!
It had returned!
In the distance, a whirlwind in the shape of a human figure rushed toward him.
Or, to be more precise, a gust of wind carrying an invisible human form sped toward him.
It wasn't wind, nor dust, nor light, yet it was carried along by Yin energy, pushed by wind, supported by dust, and illuminated by light, as it rushed toward Liao Pantu.
In an instant, the whirlwind collided with him.
Suddenly, Liao Pantu felt his once-cold soul begin to warm.
He lifted his hands and looked down.
His previously black, semi-transparent soul now had veins spreading across it, little by little.
"Thump thump."
A long-lost sound echoed in his ears.
He looked down at his chest.
A bright red heart had grown there!
It was beating!
Liao Pantu raised his hands, trembling, and gently placed them over his chest, feeling the rhythmic pulse of the heart.
This was a living proof that only a physical body could possess.
With the heart now in place, blood vessels began rapidly spreading throughout his body, as if following a source. In the blink of an eye, they covered his entire form.
Blood flowed out of the beating heart, coursing through the veins.
Next, bones began to form within his soul, acting as the framework to support it.
Then, white bones grew flesh.
The red muscle expanded outward, covering the blood vessels and slowly enveloping his entire soul.
Finally, a layer of skin formed over the flesh, completing his body.
When the process was done, long black hair sprouted from his scalp, growing until it reached the ground before it stopped.
As everything came to a close, a gentle breeze blew, lifting the strands of his hair and his robes, letting them dance in the wind.
Liao Pantu stood still, stunned by the sensation of having a physical body once more. He could feel the transformation in himself, the shock in his heart turning into a surreal joy.
But he knew it was real.
Because not only had he regained his physical body, but he had also ascended to the Deity Transformation Stage.
The lightning strikes earlier were his Deity Transformation Tribulation.
Everything that had happened was crystal clear in his sea of consciousness.
His breakthrough in cultivation had allowed him to step into the Deity Transformation stage in one leap. This breakthrough also allowed him to overcome the barriers of space and seals to retrieve the last fragment of his soul. On top of that, after surviving the tribulation, he had even reshaped his physical body.
Liao Pantu was filled with a flood of emotions.
But in the end, it all turned into an overwhelming sense of elation.
"Hahahahaha—" He threw his arms wide and laughed joyfully toward the sky.
This feeling of wholeness, this completeness—it had been so long since he'd felt it!
As his awareness returned, he realized he had left that void-like space. Turning around, he found himself back inside Changming Mountain.
The white fox, Changming, was sitting nearby, licking its paws. Seeing that Liao Pantu had awoken, it narrowed its long, fox-like eyes and said lazily:
"Congratulations to Elder Liao on successfully reaching the Deity Transformation stage. The Sect Leader has asked me to inform you to return to the floating island after you've left seclusion."
Looking at the white fox, Liao Pantu felt a little disoriented.
It felt like a long time had passed, yet Changming's relaxed demeanor made it seem as if not much time had gone by.
After calculating, he realized it had only been a little over a month.
Glancing around, he noticed no traces of the tribulation remained.
The white fox noticed his expression and narrowed its eyes further, saying:
"Elder Liao need not worry. During your tribulation, I isolated you from the outside world, so no harm was done."
Though Changming's explanation was vague, Liao Pantu understood.
During his tribulation, the tomb guardian had created a space within Changming Mountain, possibly even concealing the anomalies above the mountain.
He was amazed. This Changming was merely the spirit of Changming Mountain, a formation personally crafted by Sect Leader Lin Xiao. Yet this spirit, born from the mountain, had been able to isolate a space for his tribulation, ensuring that the outside world remained unaffected…
The mountain, just like its guardian, was incredibly formidable!
"Thank you for your protection. I shall now return to see the Sect Leader," Liao Pantu said, bidding farewell to Changming before flying toward the floating island.
——
Far away in the cultivation world, Yinxuanzi had been meditating in his cave when he suddenly felt a disturbance in his sea of consciousness.
He opened his eyes, sensing something strange.
Moments later, he felt an unusual change in the stone coffin deep within his cave.
He immediately got up to investigate.
Had Liao Pantu been present, he would have recognized the stone coffin right away.
It was identical to the one used to suppress each fragment of his soul.
However, the one inside Yinxuanzi's cave did not hold a fragment of Liao Pantu's soul, but rather his physical body.
Upon arriving in front of the coffin, Yinxuanzi saw that its exterior showed no signs of change, nor was there any damage.
But the disturbance from within had been real.
The special material of the coffin prevented him from seeing what was happening inside, so, confused, he pushed open the lid.
The moment the coffin opened, Yinxuanzi was shocked to see Liao Pantu's once perfectly preserved body disintegrating into dust!
His heart skipped a beat, and he quickly cast a spell in an attempt to stop it.
But it was futile.
The body he had painstakingly preserved using secret techniques turned to ash before his eyes in an instant.
Staring at the now empty coffin, Yinxuanzi was stunned.
"Junior brother…"
He reached inside, touching the remaining ashes at the bottom, his eyes dazed.
His junior brother, the prodigy who had caused so much envy and hatred over the centuries, had just disappeared like this…
Yinxuanzi stood silently before the coffin for a long time.
No.
That couldn't be right.
His junior brother had been hunted for so long, had been fragmented for so long. Yinxuanzi had chosen domains that matched his soul's strength. Even weakened, Liao Pantu was still a Nascent Soul cultivator. No one could have completely destroyed him, and he had even added extra precautions to the coffin. How could he have just died so suddenly?