The karmic abyss was deathly silent.
Yang Chen's divine sense body gave the ancient darkness one final sweep.
He saw the Ancestral Dragon Remnant Soul's stunned expression.
That mountain-sized dragon body stood frozen in place. The ghostly flames within its empty eye sockets had solidified into two dim green crystals, reflecting endless bewilderment and humiliation.
The majesty of the former ruler of heaven and earth had shattered.
It had shattered completely, leaving not even scraps behind.
He could also sense that, deeper within the distant darkness, two other equally ancient and immense wills were desperately suppressing every trace of their own aura.
One was like an extinguished star, retaining scorching residual warmth yet not daring to release even the slightest light or heat.
That was the Phoenix Ancestor.
The other was like a mountain sinking into the earth's core, concealing all its weight and majesty as it disguised itself as an ordinary stone.
That was the First Qilin.
They had seen everything.
They had watched how the Ancestral Dragon had been forced into logical collapse and mental breakdown.
They had also understood the game's only rule.
Good.
A silent curve lifted at the corner of Yang Chen's divine sense's mouth.
That saves me the trouble of wasting my breath explaining things one by one.
Today was only the beginning.
You three greatest creditors of the ancient primordial world had your promissory notes in my hands, so you would follow my rules.
He no longer paid attention to those thoroughly obedient "Treasure Delivering Boys." With a thought, he moved.
The drop of incomparably radiant golden blood floating before his divine sense body instantly entered his brow.
The next moment, his divine sense returned to his body.
Kunlun Mountain, within a crude cave dwelling.
Yang Chen, who sat cross-legged, suddenly opened his eyes.
There was no golden light, no phenomenon.
His gaze was as calm as an abyss, reflecting not the slightest ripple.
Without the slightest hesitation, he immediately closed his eyes, sank his awareness into his dantian, guarded his spiritual platform, and prepared to refine this drop of life essence containing the fortune of an entire era.
However, he had underestimated it.
He had severely underestimated the weight carried by the words "Ancestral Dragon."
He had also underestimated just how tyrannical and overbearing the will contained within this drop of essence blood was!
Almost at the very instant he looked inward, that drop of golden blood exploded within his Purple Mansion!
This was not a gentle release of energy.
It was the most primitive, savage invasion and conquest!
A violent power beyond words disdained to circulate through his meridians. Instead, it transformed into countless minute golden bolts of lightning and launched indiscriminate, destructive assaults against every corner of his body, every particle within him!
Crack!
A crisp explosion rang out, not from the outside world, but from deep within his own spine.
The agony had not even had time to reach his Divine Soul.
Crack! Crack crack!
Next came his ribs, his limbs, and his skull!
In an instant, all two hundred and six bones in his body were ground into powder by that brutal force!
This was not refinement.
This was dismantling!
Yang Chen's body jolted violently. Veins bulged across his forehead, while his muscles spasmed uncontrollably.
He wanted to roar, but no sound came out, because his throat bones had shattered as well.
Only then did the tidal wave of agony sweep over him, instantly drowning all of his consciousness.
But this was only the beginning.
After his bones shattered, that tyrannical golden power began advancing into his flesh and blood.
The instant his blood came into contact with that force, it ignited.
It boiled!
Every blood vessel became a channel of scorching magma, and every heartbeat pumped that lethal heat throughout his entire body.
Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle—
White mist rose from the surface of his cross-legged body. It was a sign that the moisture within him had been instantly evaporated.
His muscle fibers were like straw ropes thrown into a furnace, snapping and dissolving inch by inch into the most primal energy.
His five viscera and six bowels were churned into an indistinct mass of bloody pulp by that terrifying storm raging within his body.
From the outside, Yang Chen still maintained his cross-legged posture, but the inside of his body had already completely collapsed beyond recognition.
Had it been any other Grand Unity Golden Immortal, their Divine Soul would have long since been extinguished, leaving behind only a puddle of tribulation ash.
But Yang Chen had not.
Within him, besides Rahula's karmic sin force, there was another power.
It was the towering Golden Light of Merit bestowed by the Heavenly Dao!
It was the life-saving talisman the Heavenly Dao had bestowed when he first threatened to self-destruct, trying to coax him into staying alive!
Hum—
Just as Yang Chen's life force was about to be completely extinguished, a warm and majestic Golden Light of Merit spread from the depths of his True Spirit.
Wherever the golden light passed, the violent power of the Ancestral Dragon seemed to encounter its nemesis, or perhaps its king, and actually restrained some of its all-destroying savagery.
It no longer destroyed blindly.
Instead, it began a higher-level process—reconstruction!
Using the fragments of shattered bone as a foundation, the dissolved energy of flesh and blood as material, and the origin power of the Ancestral Dragon Essence Blood as the guiding force, it began a complete rebirth through destruction!
The shattered bone powder condensed anew. Golden dragon-shaped Dao patterns quietly emerged upon the new bones, whose quality surpassed any innate refined gold and was indestructible.
The boiling blood was completely replaced. Drop after drop of fresh blood, radiating a faint golden sheen, was born from nothingness. Every flow roared like rushing rivers, carrying boundless vitality.
The dissolved muscles were woven anew. Every bundle of muscle fibers became incomparably tough, filled with explosive power.
This was a process of destruction followed by rebirth.
It was the ultimate ritual through which a mortal body transformed into a sacred physique.
The agony did not fade. Instead, it grew increasingly intense.
The pain of bones regenerating and flesh reforming was ten thousand times more profound than the previous destruction.
Yang Chen's teeth had long since shattered from clenching them. His consciousness drifted through boundless pain, yet he desperately held onto the final thread of clarity.
He could feel it.
He was growing stronger!
It was the most fundamental leap, one originating from the very level of life itself!
Time lost all meaning amid this inhuman torment.
Perhaps it was an instant, perhaps an eternity.
Outside the cave dwelling, the sun rose and set, and the stars shifted. Seven full days and nights passed silently.
On the morning of the seventh day, when the first wisp of purple qi rose in the east.
Within the cave dwelling, the figure that resembled a withered statue finally moved.
Slowly, he opened his eyes.
Boom!
Two golden divine beams, solid enough to seem tangible, shot from his pupils and blasted two bottomless holes through the stone wall opposite him.
The skin across his body was crystal-clear, with treasure light flowing over it. Beneath his skin, faint phantoms of fine golden dragon scales could be seen slowly moving.
Every surge of blood through his body caused a muffled boom, as though the void itself could no longer bear the strain.
He stood up.
It was an incomparably simple movement.
Yet the ground beneath his feet silently sank three feet, while spiderweb-like cracks spread throughout the entire cave dwelling.
He merely stood there and did nothing, yet his very existence caused the surrounding space to show signs of distortion.
What a terrifying physical body!
He lowered his head and looked at his hands.
His fingers were long, his skin fair. They appeared no different from before.
But he knew that those hands contained the power to tear apart stars.
He could feel that the sheer strength of his physical body was now completely comparable to those top-tier Great Witches who ran rampant across the primordial land.
He was even only a step away from the legendary Ancestral Witches, whose bodies were immortal and who proved the Dao with strength!
An unprecedented sense of power filled every limb and every bone in his body.
Every gesture carried the might to overturn heaven and earth.
Feeling the surging, roaring power within him, as though it would never run dry, the corners of his mouth finally rose slowly into a brilliant smile.
"Just one drop of essence blood has such miraculous effects."
"Thanks, Ancestral Dragon, for sending this rocket!"
Before you continue