Chapter 246 - 245: Ninth Floor (2)
"The ancients spoke of this law," Emperor Tianxu said, his eyes fixed on the pagoda, his mind reeling with the implications. "The Great Dao gives rise to one. One gives rise to two. Two gives rise to three... and three gives rise to all myriad things! The cycle of reincarnation contains all myriad lives! The Three Rebirths essence is the absolute foundation that gives rise to such a miracle!"
"To possess such a law at the Spirit Severing realm..." Emperor Beiming rumbled, his voice thick with a terrifying mix of dread and covetousness. "If he cultivates it to Great Success... he will obtain the Life and Death Dao Domain."
"More than a domain," Emperor Xiyan breathed, his warlord bravado completely evaporated. "If he internalizes that law, he could forge the mysterious Life and Death Dao Body. A Dao body that is universally considered to be as indestructible and as powerful as a True Immortal Body!"
The crowd went completely wild. The implications were apocalyptic. If the Zhao anomaly truly possessed the Three Rebirths Dao, he was not just a genius; he was a walking deity, a man destined to eclipse every single expert sitting upon their thrones.
In the Chu pavilion, Chu Kuang stared at the tri-colored light bleeding from the pagoda, his mind finally, completely breaking. The man he had mocked, the man he had threatened, possessed a law that made Half-Step Transcendent Cultivation look like child’s play. He had been fighting a god, completely unaware of the abyss he had stared into.
In the Zhao pavilion, Bai Qingyue smiled. It was a radiant, beautiful smile of absolute vindication. She watched the tri-colored light paint the heavens, knowing that her husband, her love, was finally showing the universe exactly who he was.
Inside the ninth floor of the Nine-Tiered Sky, the tri-colored halo of the Three Rebirths had completely overwritten the area.
The cosmic dust platform had been swept away, replaced by an endless, swirling vortex of black, white, and crimson light.
The Half-Step Soul Transformation Guardian staggered backward, its pseudo-Primordial Spirit violently flickering, visibly terrified by the Origin Dao aura radiating from Lin Yuan.
Lin Yuan stood in the center of the storm, his eyes glowing with the laws of reincarnation.
He did not draw his sword. He raised his hands.
"The mortal dust does not end here," Lin Yuan spoke, his voice echoing with the terrifying, overlapping resonance of a thousand lifetimes. "It merely cycles."
He activated the Origin Dao spell: [Six Arms of Reincarnation].
From Lin Yuan’s back, his Nascent Soul projection violently emerged. The golden-purple avatar was instantly bathed in the tri-colored light. With a deafening roar, four massive, ethereal arms forged of pure, rotating black, white, and crimson spiritual energy erupted from the avatar’s back, joining its original two arms.
Six massive, god-like arms of reincarnation stretched out, hovering above Lin Yuan like the limbs of a deity.
The Half-Step Soul Transformation Guardian desperately raised its hands, attempting to channel its immense Qi to recreate its spatial suppression domain.
It was utterly useless.
Lin Yuan made a grasping motion with his right hand.
Above him, two of the massive, ethereal arms shot forward. They did not target the old man’s physical body; they targeted the very concept of the space he occupied. The giant hands grasped the Guardian’s spatial domain and literally, physically ripped it in half, tearing reality like a piece of wet parchment.
The Guardian screamed, a sound of absolute terror.
Lin Yuan closed his fist.
The remaining four ethereal arms slammed down upon the old man. They bypassed the Guardian’s Qi barriers unconditionally. They grabbed the pseudo-Primordial Spirit hovering behind the entity and squeezed.
The energy of the Six Arms of Reincarnation instantly asserted its absolute authority over the cycle of life and death. It commanded the soul to return to the void.
CRACK-BOOOOM!
The Half-Step Soul Transformation Guardian was completely, and instantly crushed into absolute nothingness. There was no shower of sparks. There was no lingering mist. The entity, along with its formidable foundation, was entirely erased from existence in a single, overwhelming strike.
Lin Yuan stood amidst the swirling tri-colored light, slowly lowering his hand. The massive, six-armed avatar faded back into his spiritual sea, and the glowing light in his eyes slowly returned to their natural, deep purple.
He had done it. He had obliterated a Half-Step Soul Transformation phantom.
A massive, golden portal materialized, leading to the summit. Lin Yuan step toward it.
He had achieved his objective. He had tested his limits, secured an insurmountable amount of merits, and sent a message to the entire Central Continent that would shake their hierarchy to its very core.
Stepping through the portal, Lin Yuan emerged onto the absolute apex of the Nine-Tiered Sky—a flawless, circular platform of pure white jade suspended in a tranquil, boundless sea of starlight. The oppressive, crushing pressure of the lower floors was completely absent here. It was a serene expanse reserved exclusively for those who had conquered all floors.
He was not alone.
Standing at the center of the platform, his hands clasped behind his back, was Xuan Mingzhe. The tri-Dao legend of the Central Continent radiated an aura so incredibly dense that the starlight around him seemed to bend and warp under his spatial gravity.
Xuan Mingzhe slowly turned his head. His eyes, carrying the weight of a Half-Step Soul Transformation sovereign, locked onto Lin Yuan.
"So, you are the other person that cleared all nine floors," Xuan Mingzhe spoke, his voice resonating with a heavy finality.
Lin Yuan stopped a dozen paces away, the residual tri-colored light of the Three Rebirths still faintly pulsing in his deep purple eyes.
"I have been waiting for the person ever since I sensed their lingering trace of fortune," Xuan Mingzhe continued, his expression hardening into a mask of absolute resolve. "So you are the person I need to clear so that I can claim what’s rightfully mine across heaven and earth. I will not yield till I come face with my truth!"
Lin Yuan met the peerless genius’s gaze, his Unshaken Dao Heart perfectly still. He saw no arrogance in Xuan Mingzhe’s eyes, only the pure, terrifying conviction of a man who lived and died by his Dao.
"So will I," Lin Yuan replied smoothly.
Before either sovereign could draw their blade to test that truth, the ambient array of the Nine-Tiered Sky chimed with a deafening, conclusive resonance. The trial was officially over. The summit platform dissolved into a blinding pillar of spatial light, wrapping around both cultivators to expel them from the artifact.
When the light faded, Lin Yuan stood calmly on the star-iron plates of the Grand Court. The entire amphitheater—hundreds of thousands of cultivators, the provincial lords, and the Five Emperors—stared down at him in total silence.
The jade monolith flared, updating the final result of all preliminary rounds.
MERIT RANKINGS (CURRENT)
1. Xuan Mingzhe (Xuan Province) - 10100 Merits
2. Lin Yuan (Zhao Province) - 9610 Merits
3. Chu Kuang (Chu Province) - 7000 Merits
4. Jiang Wan (Jiang Province) - 6830 Merits
5. Ye Ao (Ye Province) - 6800 Merits
6. Feng Yao (Feng Province) - 6700 Merits
...