Chapter 639 - 632: The Essence of the "Dragon
Within the endless, turbulent currents of the True Realm.
Now, this world was finally no longer an oppressive, imperceptible void to Zhou Yuanjue.
He could now "see" this world.
Countless torrents of energy, surging like tides, constantly traversed the void, outlining perceptible shapes in his mind’s eye.
This meant he was getting closer and closer to truly touching and mastering this power.
Here, he had long since lost track of time. Three years felt like a millennium, yet also passed in the blink of an eye.
At this moment, a massive crystal, several dozen meters wide and the color of translucent crystal, floated amidst the True Realm’s currents. It was about the size of a house.
It was hollow inside. A figure sat cross-legged within, his eyes closed. On the floor before him was a small, spring-like opening connected to the outside, from which the Power of the True Realm slowly poured in, fueling his cultivation, research, and absorption.
Outwardly, Zhou Yuanjue looked no different than he had three years ago. In truth, however, the very structure of life within his body had undergone an earth-shattering transformation.
His willpower structure, his genes—everything had completely changed.
It was based on humans and life from Earth, yet it had completely transcended and subverted the structure of terrestrial life.
Right now, the fundamental structure of his life resembled a long serpent, or perhaps a Divine Dragon, constantly coiling and knotting itself into an even more complex form.
It bore a slight resemblance to the structure of the Sacred Lotus diagram.
This structural diagram was indeed something Zhou Yuanjue had created by attempting to simulate the structure of the Sacred Lotus diagram.
But in reality, this diagram’s structure was fundamentally very different from the Sacred Lotus diagram.
Because the essence of this life structure was "alive."
The long dragon was the true essence of the life structure Zhou Yuanjue had forged for himself. The structure of the Sacred Lotus diagram was merely something he "simulated" using this essential structure.
Constructing a complete and perfect life structure was simply too difficult. It would require an entire, vast civilization, with countless lives deducing and experimenting over immense spans of time, to achieve.
This was why the Master of Nightmares had believed that Zhou Yuanjue, having embarked on the Path of True Self, had utterly lost any chance of further advancement.
Because his lifespan was nowhere near long enough to see a civilization complete such a deduction.
And this was indeed the case. After trying, Zhou Yuanjue discovered that even with the Sacred Lotus diagram as a reference, deducing another perfect structure on his own would likely take him dozens, if not hundreds, of years.
However, the Sacred Lotus diagram also concealed immense risks.
Therefore, he had been forced to change his strategy.
An idea had come to him: he would try to "activate" the fundamental structure of his own life.
Theoretically, his Path of True Self was somewhat different from others. Firstly, his cells possessed a greater "autonomy" than those of an ordinary practitioner on the Path of True Self. They could even voice themselves independently within his body, "thinking" for themselves under the guidance of a specific order and exploring paths forward without his direction.
This was because his own will was so powerful that a greater portion of it was distributed to each individual cell.
At the same time, his cellular Recovery Power was strong enough that even if only a single cell remained, he could regenerate in a short time as long as he had enough energy.
Thus, over the past three years, supplied with True Realm Energy, he had cast aside all his concerns. Through constant stimulation and adjustment, his body’s cells began to undergo certain characteristic changes.
He had enhanced to its absolute limit the ability known as "True Self"—the power to finely adjust one’s life structure for drastic changes in physical specialization, something originally unique to those on the Path of True Self.
Originally, his "True Self" ability, under his special will and life characteristics, could temporarily unify all specialized fields—something ordinary True Self Powerhouses couldn’t do. This was the ability of the "Four Holy Forms: Azure Dragon." Now, he had developed this Azure Dragon ability to its very limit.
His life structure seemed to have truly become a "dragon."
Not that its form was dragon-like, but that its essence was similar to that of a "dragon."
The essence of a "dragon" is to gather and absorb various forms, compensating for weaknesses with strengths, blending essences, and thereby making itself stronger.
In this state, he had achieved the "activation" of his own life structure.
He could adjust his genes to resemble the structure of a monkey, causing his body to gradually evolve toward a simian form. He could also adjust it to the form of any creature, turning his body into any half-human, half-beast shape.
It seemed he had truly become the master of his own life structure.
And he had achieved this ability by "dying" thousands upon thousands of times.
Over these three years, he constantly adjusted his life structure. Often, the structure would collapse, and his body would dissolve into a puddle of rotten flesh. He would then rely on cells he had left behind beforehand, using the vast power of the True Realm to rapidly regenerate before experimenting all over again.
Through this long process, he was finally able to adjust his own genes into this "activated" state.
Any other powerhouse on the Path of True Self would not necessarily succeed even in a hundred years, because they lacked Zhou Yuanjue’s powerful Recovery Power and his seemingly indomitable will.
After achieving this "activation" of his life structure, Zhou Yuanjue began using his activated genes to "simulate" the form of the Sacred Lotus diagram.
This simulation was unrelated to his essence. Due to the special nature of his life structure, he could "change" this structure at a certain cost and would not be bound by it forever.
Once he had finished simulating this perfect structure, he could use it to attract the Power of the True Realm for his own use as well.
HUMMM!!
At that moment, the seated Zhou Yuanjue completed the final adjustments to the Sacred Lotus diagram and snapped his eyes open.
In the unseen world, his perception of the surrounding energy was clearer, but he could still feel a thin membrane before his eyes.
He had not yet truly achieved the leap of life, a complete breakthrough of his current realm.
’Is it because my current life structure is just a simulation, so I haven’t achieved a complete metamorphosis?’
Zhou Yuanjue muttered to himself.
’But it doesn’t matter. I’ve reached the point where I can draw upon the Power of the True Realm. What the Primordial Ancestor could do back then, I can do now!’
Zhou Yuanjue’s eyes glinted as he looked into the space before him.