Chapter 517 - 114: Dao Transformation
For beings of Murphy and the Ironspine Duke’s caliber, communication had long transcended the shackles of sound. Information was transmitted through the mere flow of Spiritual Power.
Their battle changed in the blink of an eye. In what felt like a long second to a mortal, they could unleash countless attacks and defenses, enacting endless variations.
「Holy City Plaza」
The panic had subsided, but most of the people remained where they were, either conversing in low voices or silently praying as they gazed up at the tranquil sky.
Eleanor was methodically directing the Temple Knights and instructors, evacuating the crowd and comforting the frightened apprentices.
The Wizards from the Silver Tower, whose powers had been sealed, also respectfully joined in, diligently carrying out their assigned tasks.
Her sister had temporarily placed Mo Ling with a reliable female instructor. She was taking small sips of warm water, but her eyes kept darting toward the northern horizon, the direction her father had gone.
Bobby sat close beside her, whispering something to try and distract her.
A few Old Faction Cardinals had escaped immediate execution, merely having their powers stripped. Though they hadn’t been escorted away and were currently unguarded, they simply sat slumped on the ground. Their faces were ashen and their eyes vacant, as if their very souls had dissipated along with Adrian and Ambrosius.
Everything was returning to order.
Suddenly, while quietly giving a Knight Captain instructions for the aftermath, Eleanor’s voice came to an abrupt halt.
She whipped her head around, her gaze locking onto the northwestern sky.
’That’s the direction Father went, less than ten minutes ago!’
There, with her superhuman perception, she could sense two indescribably immense powers moving at astonishing speed.
The familiar, sharp sword intent belonging to her father was weakening at an alarming rate, while another, more ancient and immense pressure clung to it like a shadow, in relentless pursuit!
The color drained from her face.
The Wizards of the Silver Tower also paled in horror.
They exchanged terrified glances.
’The level of that pursuing radiance... it’s far beyond our understanding of Elementalization!’
’Could it be...’
Inside the Pope’s Office, the quill in Elizabeth’s hand snapped silently as she attended to her duties.
She rose and strode to the floor-to-ceiling window. Her gaze pierced the void toward the north, her deep, dark eyes instantly filling with solemnity and worry.
The three Cardinals of the new faction also seemed to sense it. They looked uneasily toward the sky, the tremor from the very source of their power making their hearts pound with fear.
Deep within the Holy Hall Pharmacy, the dozing Dragon Witch, Freyja, suddenly snapped her eyes open. Her golden-red irises constricted into vertical slits. "This is..."
Within the Iscent Mountain Belly, inside the core chamber of the "Mind Furnace," the curve representing the energy level on Edwin’s monitor suddenly spiked into an unprecedented red danger zone.
He pushed up his gold-rimmed glasses, his gaze behind the lenses exceptionally calm. "It’s here," he murmured. "It’s finally here..."
Soon, a Dark Gold Sword Light, so dim it was almost imperceptible, streaked across the sky like a burnt-out meteor. It paused briefly over the Holy City Basin, where it manifested into Murphy’s pale, ethereal form.
In almost the same instant, the destructive radiance resembling a small sun surged forward from behind, carrying with it the power to crush everything in its path!
Eleanor’s heart leaped into her throat. She stared intently at her father’s figure in the sky, which looked as if it could dissipate at any moment.
But Murphy, floating in the air, seemed oblivious to the fatal pursuit behind him.
He merely lowered his gaze, then raised his right hand.
His fingers slowly closed, grasping at the empty air.
Two calm words echoed clearly in the mind of every Extraordinary Being:
"Sword, come."
...
「Deep within the Iscent Mountain Belly.」
「Area B-1」
Inside the massive, cylindrical core of the Mind Furnace, a silvery-white metal sphere five meters in diameter pulsed steadily like a heart. It was suspended in the center, bound by Dao Patterns, and its surface, which used light signals to exchange information, shimmered with a brilliant radiance.
It was the central hub of the Furnace and the core mainframe of the most powerful computer on the Continent.
Moreover, it was a Dharma Artifact that Murphy had spent eleven years of painstaking effort refining from pure Spiritual Materials.
The instant the words "Sword, come" echoed...
HUMMM!
The silvery-white sphere suddenly shuddered!
The unceasing stream of light signals on its surface vanished, and the entire sphere went dim.
However, the silence lasted only for a ten-thousandth of a second.
The next moment, an even purer, more brilliant radiance erupted from within the sphere!
This was not the light of information transfer, but the glow of its material essence beginning to transition, transforming into unobservable matter!
Following that, a stream of silvery-white light, so condensed it seemed solid, shot out silently from the mountain’s belly. It passed through the thick rock strata, complex runic wards, and layered laboratory structures as if they were mere phantoms, tearing across the sky straight toward the ethereal figure above the Holy City.
In the control room, Edwin stood before the massive Mind Furnace, silently watching it all.
His face showed no surprise; his gaze behind his lenses was as calm as still water.
Just as the Wizards of the Silver Tower had once remarked, he was a pure "Observer."
Unlike the "Balance Keepers," who claimed to observe but constantly interfered with the course of the world, he did nothing more than watch.
...
「Above the Holy City」
The stream of silvery-white light that had shot out from the mountain belly appeared in Murphy’s outstretched right hand.
The instant the light entered his hand, Murphy’s already ethereal form flickered violently. Then, like a drop of ink dissolving in water, he rapidly dissipated, completely merging into the silvery-white stream!
Merging with him was the Three-inch Dark Gold Small Sword, an artifact he had cultivated with his own life force and tempered a thousand times in the True Sun Flame.
The sword, the man, and the silvery stream from the Mind Furnace’s core—a confluence of eleven years of accumulated knowledge, data, and even a portion of the World Origin from Murphy’s push for change—all completed their final fusion at this very moment!
VMMMMMM!
A magnificent sword hum, one that seemed to originate from the dawn of creation yet resounded in the very depths of the soul, erupted from the suddenly expanding torrent of light!
After expanding to its absolute limit in an instant, the light collapsed inward with even more frantic speed!
Finally, a colossal beam of sword light, as crimson as blood, stretched across the sky above the Holy City!
The sword light was resplendent. Its radiance instantly outshone the blazing sun, bathing the entire Holy City Basin in a sacred, golden-red twilight!
"You—!"
Incredulous fury erupted from the eyes within the Ironspine Duke’s body of pure radiance!
"You dare attempt to glimpse ’Dawn’ within the Old Realm? You think you’re worthy?!"
Of course, Murphy was not qualified to ascend to the Golden Core realm.
His spirit, his beliefs, his emotions, the very structure of his mind that he had tried to forge with mathematics and logic—none of it could possibly maintain a complete, continuous "self." Not while it was transforming into unobservable matter and simultaneously being altered by the endless Spiritual Qi and Dao Rhyme of the heavens.
Even an altered version of his consciousness—one with a unique mental structure, capable of thought, but no longer his former self—could not exist through this process.
For a Cultivator, the body becomes one with heaven and earth.
But how can heaven and earth possess a self?
How can the Dao possess personal attachments?
The price for mastering such immense Spiritual Qi was an unprecedentedly violent Dao Transformation.
And so, Murphy’s self was now vanishing, melting away. Unlike his previous, altered self which could still maintain a degree of thought, this was a complete dissolution into a part of heaven and earth.
"Foolish! You’re courting your own destruction!"
The Ironspine Duke’s spiritual roar vibrated through the void, now stained red by the sword light. His radiant form erupted with a torrent of destructive energy even more ferocious and reckless than during his pursuit.
He might not have believed Murphy could succeed under such conditions, but he would not permit even the slightest chance of an accident. He had to utterly crush this sword—along with the dissipating consciousness within it—before the final Dao Transformation was complete!
"Be utterly annihilated!"
The resplendent sword light, as crimson as molten gold at sunset, clashed violently with the destructive radiance that devoured all light and heat, high above the dome of the Holy City!