Translator: CinderTL
Tian Heng's words sent ripples of emotion through the Dao Venerables.
"A divine sage who possesses two great daos of the void?! This... this is utterly unprecedented!"
"After achieving dao unification, comprehending a second great dao becomes exponentially more difficult due to interference from one's original dao. Yet this innate divine being was born with two daos? If we could unravel the secrets of how his daos coexist, wouldn't that mean anyone could become a Supreme Sovereign, anyone could become a supreme powerhouse...?"
"And that's not all! The next realm beyond supreme powerhouse is the unification of forty-nine great daos, culminating in the Great Unification Realm! Even Pan Wu, Chairman of the War Commission and the foremost figure of our era, who wields over a dozen Immortal Artifacts, felt himself reaching his limits when unifying his tenth great dao. Rumor has it he hasn't made any progress in three hundred million years. Perhaps 'nine' truly is the ultimate limit. If we could solve the problem of dao compatibility by studying this unique divine sage..."
The path forward!
This was the path ahead for Ultimate Powerhouses!
The Dao Venerables exchanged glances. Though they were ancient beings who had lived for hundreds of millions of years, their emotions and words were usually mere tools for expressing their positions in appropriate contexts. Yet at this moment, a genuine surge of emotion stirred within them.
Their minds raced with renewed vigor.
"That would be the ideal outcome. Whether we can truly resolve the great dao compatibility issue depends on the results of our research," Tian Heng said.
"But even the slightest glimmer of hope is worth investing all our resources in, especially when we've reached a dead end. In fact, there should be no limit to the resources we allocate!" Dao Venerable Xu Yun declared emphatically.
"Before we proceed, we must first 'invite' Li Shengsheng back to cooperate with our research," Tian Heng said calmly.
For countless millennia, they had repeatedly come tantalizingly close to glimpsing the possibility of a higher realm, only to have those hopes mercilessly shattered time and again.
Most recently, when the Immortal God System emerged, the Supreme Research Institute had believed they could combine the collective power of all living beings to forge a life form beyond the Ultimate Powerhouse, one capable of illuminating the path forward.
The result?
They couldn't even achieve dao unification.
The project was abandoned in utter failure.
Only the factions within the Heavenly Palace would bother picking up such projects.
After playing with them for a while and finding them uninteresting, they would discard them.
In the cosmos, there seemed to exist an invisible rule: the Ultimate Powerhouse truly represented the limit of all living beings.
Although Li Chunjun, an innate divine being born with two great daos, had rekindled their hopes, after witnessing countless such "hopes" that ultimately proved false...
They had grown numb.
Of course, many interpreted this apathy as prudence.
"You're entrusting such a crucial divine sage to the Great Void Ancestral Dragon, a Foreign Race member?" Director Han Lan expressed his dissatisfaction through his tone. "Is this just to appear legitimate, keep us in the dark, and then secretly claim any research breakthroughs for yourselves?"
"The Supreme Research Institute may be renowned for its vast knowledge, but this is different! This innate divine being possesses two great daos!" Dao Venerable Xu Yun countered. "Don't forget, nearly all cultivation systems of the Human Race were developed by following the paths of innate divine beings. This Li Shengsheng holds immense promise! Yet your Supreme Research Institute continues to conceal him behind closed doors!?"
"This is Dean Ling Hui's decision."
"Don't try to intimidate us with Ling Hui's position as vice dean," Director Han Lan of Han Lan Corporation said sternly. "The alliance leader of the Immortal Alliance's Truth Alliance is not far from the True Dragon Great World. Li Chunjun even killed one of his personal disciples. Tell me, should I invite him to take a look as well?"
Tian Heng glanced at the Dao Venerables. He himself was genuinely interested in Li Chunjun, this innate divine being.
However, Dean Ling Hui was clearly acting out of personal motives, unwilling to make the matter public. Tian Heng hesitated to openly contradict him.
Now that the False God Hall, Starry Sky Group, and Immortal Alliance had all lodged protests...
"Then I'll inform Dean Ling Hui about forming an observation team to go together, just in case," the Dao Venerable said with a faint smile.
Han Lan, Tai Chu, and Xu Yun had more or less guessed Tian Heng's plan, but this was a transparent scheme.
Even if they saw through it, they couldn't afford to pass up this opportunity.
Let alone Li Chunjun's unique combination of two great daos, even without that...
A divine sage represented extraordinary value.
Their previous inaction stemmed from the vast difference in their levels of existence compared to those below. They simply hadn't reacted quickly enough.
The True Dragon Great World.
At this moment, on the battlefield where Li Chunjun, the Lord of Ephemeral, the Lord of Divine Visage, and others were engaged, a cataclysmic storm raged.
The collapse of a Great World was fundamentally different from its destruction.
It was like comparing the annihilation of living beings within a Lesser Thousand World to the destruction of the entire Lesser Thousand World.
The two were incomparable in scale and nature.
This collapse represented utter annihilation at its core.
Faced with such an apocalyptic force, it was virtually impossible for any life to survive in this environment.
Even those who had achieved dao unification would have to avoid the full brunt of the destruction power unleashed by the collapse of a Great World to avoid injury.
Yet within this maelstrom of destruction, a figure existed silently, almost imperceptibly.
Or rather...
He was undeniably present, yet simultaneously seemed to be absent.
Neither the terrifying destructive power swirling around him nor the great dao light net that had already caused massive disturbances in the surrounding area could touch his body.
He was like a projection, a lingering thought, a void—walking through this world yet unaffected by any of its forces.
This was Li Chunjun, who had elevated his Life Level to 44, fully completing the transformation of his innate void dao body.
"Void," Li Chunjun murmured.
This was the antithesis of existence itself!
A concept more absolute than the Void, destruction, or death.
Destruction and death were merely transformations of matter and energy, at most cycles of reincarnation on the spiritual, Void, or temporal planes.
Dead life, buried in the earth, would continue to exist by nurturing flowers and grasses.
Shattered planets would drift through the endless starry sky as smaller particles.
But the Void...
That was the emptiness where nothing existed!
The nothingness where all things ceased to be.
It could corrode all "existence" into the concept of "non-existence."
It was the greatest enemy of all living beings.
It was both existence and non-existence.
Both destruction and annihilation.
This Dao...
He had finally grasped it.
But he hesitated to walk this path, to tread the path he had forged.
For if he truly followed this path...
The first thing to be transformed into the Void would be himself.
Therefore...
Li Chunjun took a step into the Void, utilizing the power of his innate void dao body to quickly appear at the edge of the destructive torrent.
Only after distancing himself far from the area of destruction did Li Chunjun manifest his physical form once more.
"Wait a little longer," he murmured inwardly.
Can becoming one with the void and pioneering the void great dao truly resurrect the dead?
Impossible.
Based on his current observations, he couldn't achieve it.
Unable to resurrect the dead...
The question of whether to continue down this path, which demanded such a tremendous sacrifice, warranted serious consideration.
But now...
The only question was: if he abandoned the path of pioneering the Dao and instead chose dao unification, could he truly transcend the Ultimate Powerhouse realm and even...
Ascend to Immortality?
"Dao unification is Level 41, Supreme Sovereign is Level 42, and Ultimate Powerhouse is merely Level 43. Yet even after reaching Level 44, I haven't even touched the realm of Immortality. At best, I can accommodate more great daos. If this trend continues, if Ascension to Immortality requires Level 47, that's manageable. But if it requires Level 51..."
Li Chunjun's thoughts ground to a halt.
Level 51!
How could he possibly reach Level 51?!
In the starry sky currently accessible to the Human Race, aside from humans themselves, the strongest beings were those who had achieved dao unification.
At most, there were also the progenitor divine beings who had pioneered their own paths and stood at the pinnacle of a great Dao.
But progenitor divine beings were essentially also at the dao unification level.
In other words, even if he used dao unification as his advancement criterion, his Life Level could only reach 47 at most.
Even including the Supreme Sovereigns, it would only reach 48.
This was assuming he overestimated the Human Race to have three-digit numbers of Supreme Sovereigns.
As for the remaining Ultimate Powerhouses...
It was almost impossible for the nine Ultimate Powerhouses to push his Life Level to 49.
Therefore, 48 was his absolute limit.
And at Life Level 48...
Could he achieve Ascension to Immortality?
Could he resurrect the dead?
Li Chunjun's thoughts raced to this point, and he nearly felt suffocated.
After a long moment, he finally composed himself. "Perhaps I've underestimated the Human Race's strength and prosperity! Although I've cultivated a law-based lifeform and my combat power exceeds one million, my cultivation time is still less than forty years. Moreover, the highest-level being I've interacted with is only the Quasi-Tenth-Tier Liu Yu."
In his calm state, Li Chunjun reasoned, "Although Liu Yu has lived for countless ages, she remains merely an Artifact Spirit, a spirit-type life serving as a 'housekeeper.' She lacks access to truly core, high-level information, regardless of her strength or status. Therefore, it's perfectly understandable that she wouldn't know whether dao unification or even Ultimate Powerhouses can resurrect the dead."
Since Liu Yu didn't know, he would have to find someone who did.
"Ideally, a dao unification expert in both the Dao of Life and the Dao of Soul," Li Chunjun mused.
Someone who embodied both these great daos...
"Profound Yellow Supreme," he thought immediately of his nominal Master, the Profound Yellow Supreme.
A Supreme-level being who had mastered the three great daos of life, creation, and soul.
The daos he commanded perfectly aligned with Li Chunjun's needs.
Moreover, the Supreme Sovereign possessed an insatiable thirst for advancement, constantly researching realms beyond the Path to Supreme Power.
If he could personally consult this Supreme Sovereign, he was certain to obtain the answers he sought.
"Even Liu Yu doesn't know the whereabouts of the Profound Yellow Supreme. The Profound Yellow Sect and other Supreme Sages can only speculate that he's been lost in the great dao river. But just because these limited Supreme Sages and Quasi-Tenth-Tier experts are unaware doesn't mean the Dao Venerables are equally ignorant..."
To seek information from a Dao Venerable...
Li Chunjun's gaze drifted to the horizon, where the True Dragon Great World, on the verge of collapse, was cracking open with ever-widening fissures.
His battle with the Lord of Ephemeral and other Quasi-Tenth-Tier experts had confirmed that the Great Void Ancestral Dragon was supporting them from behind, their purpose being to stall for time.
Now, to find a Dao Venerable to inquire about the Supreme's whereabouts, the one who would soon come to him uninvited was undoubtedly the best choice.
"I've already cultivated the innate void dao body. Even the destructive power of a collapsing Great World holds no fear for me. Facing a Dao Venerable, even if I can't defeat them, I can still conceal myself and retreat."
With this thought, Li Chunjun headed toward the still-intact Southern Dragon Palace.
There, he would await the arrival of the Great Void Ancestral Dragon and converse with the Avatar it would send.
(End of the Chapter)
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