Chapter 263 - 262: Soul Transformation!
The blinding, liquid-white pillar of Origin Qi poured from the microscopic fissure in the fabric of space, cascading directly into Lin Yuan’s perfectly still form. The absolute silence of the Grand Court was broken only by the frantic breathing of a hundred thousand cultivators desperately trying to steal the scraps of a god’s feast.
Within the boundless expanse of Lin Yuan’s spiritual sea, a metamorphosis of terrifying proportions was actively rewriting the fundamental nature of his existence.
The ocean of his Dao Intent lay completely still, subdued by the overwhelming, conceptual weight of the first breath of creation. At the absolute center of this stillness, his Nascent Soul projection sat cross-legged. It was no longer a glowing, Qi-infused avatar of his physical body. Under the torrential deluge of the Origin Qi, the Nascent Soul was literally dissolving.
The pain of this dissolution would have driven an ordinary expert completely, irreversibly mad. It was the sensation of having one’s mortal memories, earthly attachments, and physical anchor to the Nine Provinces burned away by the primordial fire of creation. But Lin Yuan’s Dao Heart was at the Transcendent Stage. It was the Tenth Step. He did not flinch as his mortal shell was stripped from his soul.
As the impurities of the mortal dust were incinerated, the Origin Qi began to coalesce, forging something entirely new.
It was a Primordial Spirit.
It did not look like a miniature, glowing human. It was a flawless manifestation of pure cosmic law. It pulsed with the devastating, overlapping tricolor light of the Dao of Three Rebirths—black, white, and crimson—bound perfectly within the apocalyptic hum of thunder and the nourishing cadence of rain. This was a living, breathing concept. From this point forward, if Lin Yuan’s physical body were to be completely pulverized into ash, he would not die. His true existence now resided entirely within this high-dimensional spirit.
While Lin Yuan was forming his Primordial Spirit, the physical world outside was a spectacle of absolute, manic desperation.
The Central Continent’s Grand Court, usually a bastion of rigid, aristocratic dignity, had been reduced to a feeding frenzy. The residual wisps of Origin Qi that drifted away from Lin Yuan’s primary beam were the most valuable substance in that area.
"Breathe! Do not let a single breath escape into the void!" roared a grand elder of the Ye Province, his massive, heavily scarred chest heaving as he forcibly cycled his Beast-Taming Heart Sutra. He sat cross-legged on the stone terraces. "This is the genesis breath! To think a Lower Division Cultivator provided this!"
"Shut up and cycle your Qi, you old fool! If you speak, you break the circulation!" snapped an aristocratic woman from the Xuan Province, her eyes squeezed tightly shut, her hands forming rapid seals.
A few dozen yards away, the Chu Patriarch, Chu Wuhai, sat trembling amidst the shattered ruins of his pavilion. His son, Chu Kuang, had been vaporized just moments ago. The grief tearing at the Patriarch’s soul was a physical, agonizing weight. But the sheer, intoxicating presence of the Origin Qi overrode even a father’s mourning.
"My Dao Heart... it is fracturing," Chu Wuhai muttered feverishly, tears of sorrow and greed mingling on his cheeks as he absorbed the white mist. "But this energy... it is fusing the cracks! It is healing the foundation!"
Even the most arrogant prodigies were forced to bow to the miracle occurring in the center of the arena. Xuan Mingzhe, the tri-Dao legend, sat perfectly still upon the upper terraces. His sword lay forgotten by his side. The spatial tears in his Annihilation domain, which had been dangerously widening due to the stress of his battles, were smoothly, and flawlessly knitting themselves back together under the soothing, absolute authority of the Origin Qi.
"It is a supreme irony," Xuan Mingzhe whispered to himself, a bitter, yet awestruck smile touching his lips. "Many spent time calling him a rat from the mud. And now, the entire Central Continent sits at his feet, desperately licking the dew from his ascent."
Xuan Mingzhe continued circulating the faint strand of Origin Qi within his body, his expression growing increasingly solemn.
He knew that the Origin Qi obtained from an Origin Void was fundamentally different from ordinary sources of Origin Energy. It was purer, more powerful, and far more profound, carrying a unique quality that could not be found in other sources.
For a cultivator like him, this was an extraordinary opportunity.
If he could properly absorb and refine this Origin Qi, he could use it to repair the damage to his cultivation and push his comprehension forward by leaps and bounds.
He absolutely could not afford to waste even a single strand.
While the Upper Division fed on the dispersed scraps, a completely different, infinitely more intimate miracle was occurring directly behind Lin Yuan.
Bai Qingyue sat cross-legged in her pale blue gown, her eyes closed, her breathing perfectly synchronized with the man she loved.
Because they were bound by their Dao Companionship, their souls shared an unbreakable karmic tether. She was not scrambling to absorb the ambient, diluted mist like the rest. She was drinking directly from the source through the invisible conduit of their bond.
The overflowing Heaven and Earth luck that accompanied the birth of a Primordial Spirit washed into her completely restored meridians.
Her cultivation, which had just stabilized at the Peak of Foundation Establishment, violently erupted.
The barrier to the Core Formation realm did not just break, it completely dissolved. Within her newly healed dantian, her Spiritual Energy compressed with terrifying speed. It spun into a vortex, condensing, solidifying, and refining itself under the absolute purity of the Heaven and Earth Luck.
A Golden Core formed. But it was not an ordinary core. It was completely flawless, radiating a brilliant, crystalline blue light that carried the faint, lingering resonance of Lin Yuan’s Dao Intent. She was advancing with a speed that defied normal conventions
Her progress so far was nothing short of sheer fortune.
After the Soul Transformation restriction was removed by the Void Refinement Qi, Bai Qingyue was able to rapidly restore her former cultivation base. An enormous amount of spiritual energy flooded into her body, replenishing her depleted cultivation and allowing her to recover at an astonishing pace.
But that was only the beginning.
An immense amount of Heaven and Earth Luck soon descended upon her, surrounding her body in a profound aura of fortune. Bai Qingyue did not waste this opportunity. She used the overwhelming power of Heaven and Earth Luck to temper her physique while simultaneously refining her spiritual energy.
Under the nourishment of this extraordinary fortune, her foundation became increasingly solid.
Then, everything came together naturally.
Her spiritual energy began to condense and circulate within her Dantian, gradually forming a brilliant golden core. With the assistance of the immense Heaven and Earth Luck surrounding her, Bai Qingyue smoothly completed her breakthrough and successfully formed her Golden Core.
What should have been a difficult bottleneck became almost effortless.
Her recovery, foundation, and breakthrough had all been accelerated by the unprecedented fortune that had descended upon her.
At the very edge of the Zhao pavilion’s terrace, standing as a solitary guard between his family and the manic, cultivating crowds, was Bai Chen.
The young Foundation Establishment cultivator stood with his feet planted shoulder-width apart, his hand resting firmly on the hilt of his drawn sword. Despite the irresistible lure of the Origin Qi saturating the air, Bai Chen refused to close his eyes or drop into a meditative stance.
He knew that, at any cultivation realm below Soul Transformation, absorbing Origin Qi was no different from courting death. Yet a thought suddenly crossed his mind.
What if one of the frenzied Upper Division elders lost all reason and attempted to rush Lin Yuan in order to seize the beam’s focal point?
Bai Chen’s eyes turned cold.
If anyone dared to approach Lin Yuan with such intentions, they would have to step over his corpse first.
"It’s truly such a sight to behold, Bai Chen. Seeing the birth of a Primordial Spirit. The making of a god!"
A soft, clear voice broke through his intense concentration.
Bai Chen turned his head slightly, keeping his body positioned between the speaker and Lin Yuan. Walking gracefully across the star-iron plates was Su Yin, the Saintess of the Pure Cloud Sect. Her immaculate white and azure robes fluttered gently in the high-altitude winds.
Bai Chen offered her a tight, weary smile, but his hand never left the hilt of his sword.
"Indeed," he replied quietly. "It is a sight worth witnessing. But with so many people watching, I’m not taking any chances."
Su Yin glanced at the sword in his hand before looking toward Lin Yuan and the enormous beam of Origin Qi descending from the void.
"You really intend to protect him?"
"Of course." Bai Chen’s expression became serious. "He’s my brother-in-law."
Su Yin blinked, then a faint smile appeared on her lips.
"You say that as though it were the most obvious thing in the world."
"It is."
Bai Chen tightened his grip on his sword.
"As long as I’m standing here, no one is getting close to him."
Su Yin eyes softened with a mixture of profound respect and fond exasperation. "The entire arena is paralyzed by greed, Bai Chen. No one is looking to attack him. They are too busy worshiping the scraps falling from his table."
She stepped up beside him, leaning lightly against the stone balustrade, her gaze fixed entirely upon the blinding, liquid-white pillar of light enveloping Lin Yuan.
"It’s sad," Su Yin murmured, her voice filled with an awe she could barely put into words. "Because of our cultivation, we simply cannot make use of such an opportunity even when it is right in front of us. Foundation Establishment cultivators like us would be courting death if we dared to approach Origin Qi!"
She turned her head, looking at the profile of the young man standing vigil beside her.
"So, Senior Lin will become the first Soul Transformation expert from Zhao Province."
Bai Chen’s chest swelled with fierce pride as he looked back at the glowing figure of his brother-in-law.
"The first in more than three hundred years," he said. "The records in our ancestral halls state that the last time a true Sovereign walked our borders, the Central Continent had not even finished constructing these floating pagodas."
"It completely rewrites the geopolitical reality of the Central Continent," Su Yin noted, her mind analyzing the political fallout. "To possess a Soul Transformation expert automatically elevates a province’s classification. The Zhao Province will no longer be considered part of the Lower Division. We will be granted an inner seat in the Dao Court. The trade routes, the spirit stone allocations, the diplomatic immunity... Senior Lin has single-handedly dragged an entire population out of the mud."
Bai Chen tightened his grip on his sword hilt. "When he stands up from that spot... the Central Continent will finally understand that the era of the Six Peerless Geniuses was just a prologue to his reign."
Su Yin looked at Bai Chen, seeing the absolute, unshakeable devotion in the young man’s eyes. "You truly believe he is invincible, don’t you?"
"I don’t believe it," Bai Chen corrected, turning to look her dead in the eye. "I know it. And soon, the rest of the universe will know it too."
High above the chaotic, cultivating masses, the Five Emperors remained seated upon their primordial thrones. They, too, were actively absorbing the drifting wisps of Origin Qi, but their Void Refinement divine senses remained entirely focused on the phenomenon below.
"The cocoon is breaking," Emperor Tianxu announced, his golden eyes narrowing against the blinding light.
"The influx of Origin Qi is slowing," Emperor Nanheng noted, her fiery Vermilion Bird aura flickering as the atmospheric pressure in the arena began to subtly shift. "His Dao cannot hold the crack open any longer. The temporal window is closing."
"It matters not," Emperor Beiming rumbled, his deep voice carrying a note of profound, terrifying finality. "He has taken what he needed. The transformation is complete. The mortal dust has been shed."
Emperor Xiyan leaned forward, his armored hands gripping the armrests of his White Tiger throne until the ancient bone cracked. "Prepare yourselves. The birth of a new god is rarely a quiet affair."
In the center of the arena, the blinding, liquid-white pillar of light suddenly, violently snapped.
The microscopic fissure in the sky sealed shut with a deafening CRACK that echoed across the continent like a thunderbolt striking an anvil. The sunlight of Sky Jade City immediately returned, casting long, sharp shadows across the star-iron floor.
The ambient Origin Qi vanished, instantly dissipating into the ether.
A collective groan of disappointment and physical withdrawal echoed across the amphitheater as hundred of cultivators were abruptly cut off from the genesis breath. They opened their eyes, blinking against the sudden sunlight, their spiritual seas buzzing with the residual, profound energy they had managed to hoard.
But their complaints died in their throats the moment they looked toward the center of the arena.
Lin Yuan’s deep purple eyes opened.
He was no longer glowing. The blinding white light had entirely receded into his flesh. His pristine robes, which had been frayed and torn during the brutal climb of the Nine-Tiered Sky, had been perfectly restored by the transformative energy, appearing utterly untouched.
He sat perfectly still for a moment.
And then, he stood up.
The physical movement was simple, but the conceptual weight behind it was apocalyptic.
The aura that radiated from Lin Yuan was fundamentally, terrifyingly different from the immense pressure he had exerted at the Supreme Stage. It was no longer a heavy, suffocating gravity that tried to push lesser beings down. It was not an aggressive, localized domain of thunder or rain.
It was absolute reality.
He had stepped into the Early Stage of the Soul Transformation Realm.
His Primordial Spirit was fully forged. He was no longer a mortal attempting to manipulate the laws of the universe; he was an entity that existed on the exact same frequency as the laws themselves. When he breathed, the ambient spiritual Qi of the arena eagerly rushed to fill his lungs, practically begging to be utilized.
The surrounding adjudicators instinctively took a step back, their hands dropping to their weapons in a display of primal intimidation.
"Soul Transformation," the Chu Patriarch whispered, his voice completely hollow, staring at the man who had just rendered centuries of Central Continent superiority entirely irrelevant. "He did it. He actually did it."
Behind Lin Yuan, Bai Qingyue slowly opened her eyes. The crystalline blue depths of her irises flashed with the brilliant, flawless light of her newly forged Golden Core. She looked up at her husband’s broad back, feeling the staggering, infinite security of his newly ascended aura.
Lin Yuan did not look at the screaming crowds. He did not look at the stunned adjudicators, nor did he look up at the Five Emperors hovering above.
His deep purple eyes were fixed perfectly forward, staring into the empty space of the arena. His Primordial Spirit, newly birthed and hypersensitive to the foundational fabric of reality, was expanding outward, testing the boundaries of its new existence.
Lin Yuan raised his right boot.
He took a single, deliberate step forward.
The moment the sole of his boot touched the star-iron plate, the entire universe violently convulsed.
BOOOOOOOOOOM!
It was not an explosion of Spiritual Energy. It was not a localized attack from a disgruntled Upper Division elder.
It was a sudden, incomprehensible, and utterly apocalyptic pressure that descended directly from the absolute zenith of the sky. It bypassed the floating pagodas, bypassed the Void Refinement barriers of the arena, and bypassed the natural laws of the Nine Provinces entirely.
The pressure slammed into Lin Yuan with the force of a collapsing galaxy.
The star-iron plates beneath his boots, forged to withstand the apocalyptic strikes of Transcendent beasts, instantly shattered into faint dust, forming a massive, hundred-yard crater around him.
Lin Yuan’s Rank 10 Ancient Beast Body let out a terrifying, grinding groan. The sheer weight of the invisible force was so astronomical that his knees buckled a fraction of an inch. His newly forged Primordial Spirit flared violently, projecting a localized domain of the Dao of Three Rebirths simply to keep his spine from snapping in half.
"Yuan!" Bai Qingyue screamed, throwing her hands forward to cast a protective barrier, but the residual shockwave of the descending pressure instantly shattered her Golden Core Spiritual Energy, throwing her backward into Bai Chen’s frantic, waiting arms.
"What is happening?!" Emperor Tianxu roared, leaping from his throne, his Void Refinement aura flaring to its absolute maximum as the entire Grand Court began to physically shake under the collateral suppression.
"It is not an attack from the crowd!" Emperor Xiyan shouted, drawing his massive warlord blade, his eyes darting frantically toward the heavens. "The pressure... it is coming from the sky! It is Heaven’s might!"
Heaven’s might! The force that can suppress all life, Heaven’s Might!
Lin Yuan stood in the center of the crater, his teeth gritted, blood instantly leaking from his nose and the corners of his mouth. The suppression was not just physical; it was a targeted, existential erasure. Something, or someone, existing far beyond the limitations of the mortal dust had sensed the birth of his Primordial Spirit and had immediately moved to crush it.
The air around him began to warp, turning a sickly, corrupted shade of crimson. The smell of rotting blood and ancient malice—the exact same scent that had accompanied the Blood Asura Dao of the vengeful assassin—flooded the arena.
Lin Yuan slowly raised his head, fighting against millions of pounds of pressure, his deep purple eyes locking onto the empty sky above.
He had taken a single step as a god, and the Heavens had immediately responded by dropping the sky on his head.