Before the Battle II
"Actually, I have another master." Lin Hui knew that without giving an explanation, he wouldn't be able to leave the court. He wasn't sure he could win against the other side, especially since they had indeed taught him a few skills back then, albeit a small one.
So I patiently explained at this point.
"Oh? Who is it that commands such respect from you at your current level...?" Junchen Primordial Lord's expression changed slightly as he finished speaking, realizing what was going on.
They've already reached such heights; the only ones who can go even higher are...
"No wonder you have so many karmic troubles... Now, you must have already begun to try the final step, right? Just looking at you now, I feel an urge to have intercourse with you and pursue ultimate bliss. You must want to occupy this kind of position, so you've started cultivating this kind of secret technique?" she continued to transmit her voice.
"Yuanjun truly has discerning eyes." Lin Hui thought with a chill; the other party was indeed worthy of being Fusionist from a major sect. His vision was indeed extremely high.
"Unfortunately, this position is too low and too weak, which may greatly affect your future leap to the final step..." Junchen Primordial Lord continued.
"What do you mean, senior?"
"You don't think that the competition for ranks is based on seniority? Lower-ranking techniques will result in insufficient strength, putting you at a disadvantage in the competition. Back when I was still in the Resistance Army, I witnessed no fewer than three such battles. Although I have lost hope and given up on the idea of advancement, those three battles are still in my heart and I can't forget them." Junchen Primordial Lord said with a hint of regret in his tone.
Back when she wasn't Fusionist, she had a chance to reach the final step, but unfortunately... she was framed and failed at the last hurdle. To survive, she had no choice but to join the current Fusion Sect...
The moment Fusionist merges, they reach the pinnacle of their cultivation. Perhaps a very few geniuses can continue to improve, but at her level, advancing further is no longer a matter of genius, but rather the ceiling imposed by the Source Disaster.
In essence, the Celestial Venerable and the Source Disaster are actually of the same rank.
The Celestial Venerables are essentially a much smaller, weaker version of the Source Disaster. They can only occupy one slot, while the Source Disaster is a collapse that inevitably occurs in any slot.
They are of the same rank and are inherently opposed.
"The higher the rank, the less likely it is to be destroyed by the Source Disaster; the lower the rank, the more dangerous it is. This is because the rank has more flaws and is less stable and eternal. In this world, calamities are the norm. Ranks, apart from the highest few, are mostly like fleeting meteors, flashing by in an instant. Celestial Venerables try to solidify these meteors, attempting to exist in the world for a long time, which naturally leads to countless backlashes," sighed Junchen Primordial Lord. "You should think about why so many people are unwilling to choose a lower rank. Because once chosen, it cannot be reversed, and can never be changed. It determines your ultimate upper limit. Of course, a lower rank also has its advantages, namely, the competition is not so fierce..."
Her rare, sincere advice suggested that Lin Hui still had a chance to change, but once he took that final step, it would be truly irreversible.
"Thank you for your guidance, Yuanjun." Lin Hui, sensing the other party's sincerity, nodded earnestly in return. "I will consider it carefully!"
"Alright." Junchen Primordial Lord nodded, looking at the Xiling Ghost behind Lin Hui. She had originally planned to spend a few million more years here with her senior brother, but at this moment, she suddenly felt a little listless.
Unfortunately, if Lin Hui were truly Fusionist, perhaps she could have been with him for a long, long time... living a shameless and blissful life every day. Alas...
Etc!
Suddenly, Junchen Primordial Lord's soul trembled; she too had been affected by Lin Hui's inexplicable and strange influence.
She snapped out of her daze and realized that the two people opposite her had already disappeared.
"The influence of this imprint...!!? What's going on?"
Junchen Primordial Lord suddenly felt that the direction Lin Hui had chosen might be different from what she had guessed.
*
*
*
In the void.
As soon as Lin Hui broke free of the Stagnant Storm, a thought suddenly struck him. He turned back to look in the direction of the bubbles.
A huge, pale white face was slowly emerging from there.
The face nodded slightly to him and then quickly disappeared again.
Its face was none other than that of the mysterious powerhouse he had seen a million years ago... Phantom Vine!
"It really is it..." Chongli's voice appeared directly in Lin Hui's soul.
"Don't worry, it's alright. I've already spoken to it, and we'll keep to ourselves. It won't give you any trouble."
"Thank you, senior." Lin Hui felt slightly relieved.
"No need. I'm counting on you to use your heart as soon as possible. If anything happens to you, I'll be the first to fight someone to the death," Chongli said earnestly.
Lin Hui was speechless.
"However, there seems to be something wrong with you. It feels like you started occupying a position prematurely somewhere?" Chongli asked.
"This junior doesn't know either..." Lin Hui naturally couldn't admit it, otherwise he wouldn't be able to explain where the Original Object Projection came from.
For someone of the Celestial Venerable's level, even the slightest trace can reveal the answer.
"Forget it, you managed to retrieve my heart from the Forgotten Belt when you were at such a low level. You must have some great opportunity. You'd better watch yourself."
Chongli's voice gradually faded away.
Lin Hui paused for a moment, then continued to leap and dart away into the distance with Xiling Ghost.
In Xiling Ghost's view, their exchange just now had only lasted less than a second.
The extremely fast speed of spiritual communication, thought processes, and exaggeratedly long lifespans mean that the true psychological age of many powerful individuals is much greater than their apparent age.
But everything in the world is subject to repetition and reincarnation, so many strong people, after becoming weary and exhausted, choose to slumber.
This is especially true for many of the Fusionist.
Upon returning to Clear Jade Mountain, Lin Hui arranged for Xiling Ghost to go to Nine Heavens Gate, where he lived on the edge of the Wind Disaster.
He then continued to contemplate the final step.
With the efforts of the Chaos Emperor and others, the expansion and erosion of Wind Energy became increasingly exaggerated, and it even began to gradually encroach on the territory around the Source Disaster.
With this encroachment, friction between Clear Jade Mountain and Source Disaster intensified.
As a result, border conflicts broke out in various places.
The Rongchang Star Lord and Clear Jade Mountain formed an alliance, which, together with the Seven Emotions Merchant Alliance, attracted a large number of high-level cultivators to join the border war against the Source Disaster.
In this massive battle, the core members of Clear Jade Mountain, who had previously made slow progress, finally began to make new breakthroughs.
Time slowly passed...
On the verge of Desolation Disaster.
Lin Hui, Rongchang Star Lord, and Seven Emotions Star Lord floated in the void, gazing at the desolate, yellowish-brown Desolation Disaster in the distance.
That vast, chaotic, withered yellow was rapidly spreading in their direction.
"A total of seventeen other dimensional voids have begun to invade, on an unprecedented scale. What we repelled earlier was only the first wave, totaling three Source Gates."
Source Gates are a common counting unit used by the Resistance Army. They are calculated based on the maximum number that can be released by opening one Source Disaster gate.
A single Source Gate can release approximately ten to fifteen trillion Source Disaster Monsters. The number of monsters is endless, and they will continuously transform into ordinary beings after emerging, making ordinary world spheres utterly unable to withstand them. The actual number is even greater.
"At this level, the total number will likely accumulate to a hundred Source Gate level cultivators, requiring the deployment of cultivators skilled in ultra-large-scale spells." Rongchang Star Lord was a kind-faced, slightly plump old man. His outer robe was simple, with many white lotus flower patterns embroidered on a black background.
The only unusual thing is that he has two heads, and the second head is always held in his arms with one hand. The two heads look exactly the same.
On the other side, the Seven Emotions Star Lord was a monkey with white fur all over its body. Its fur was white while its skin was jet black. It wore pure white armor, carried a halberd on its back, and was surrounded by dense golden runes. Hundreds of tails behind it kept flying.
In comparison, Lin Hui's only action was emitting blue flames from his eyes, making him the most normal one.
"The first thirteen dimensions are manageable, but the others are more difficult to handle. We have too few cultivators under our command who can reach them. We can only build dedicated converters, but if the converters are used and there are large-scale casualties due to maladaptation, given the scale of this Disaster Energy, once it mutates, I'm afraid it will be difficult to reverse the timeline," the Seven Emotions Star Lord said grimly.
Even for disciples killed in the battle against the Source Disaster, resurrecting them is extremely difficult, even if they are from External Source, because they have to personally fight the Source Disaster for particles.
"What about high-end resources?" Lin Hui asked softly.
Over the years, Clear Jade Mountain has absorbed many peripheral cultivators and its strength is quite good, but in terms of high-end power, it still lags far behind the other two. It can only rely on a few core disciples who are materialized, as well as experts who have surrendered to the Chaos Emperor, the Three Mistresses of the Extreme Cold, and other secondary calamities.
Although their combat power is extremely strong due to Wind Energy, they can fight against opponents of higher levels.
However, the number is still too small. That's why Lin Hui is focusing on high-end forces.
"The Desolation Disaster mobilized a total of five large-scale integrated forces, namely the Nine Border Dao Gate, the Fortune-Misfortune Sect, the Azure Ink Sect, the Moon Dao Gate, and the Greenfly Sword Sect," Rongchang Star Lord introduced.
"Of these forces, the first three are all backed by External Source, making them extremely difficult to deal with," added the Seven Emotions Star Lord.
"Seven Emotions, you've done business with many forces. Could you contact more resistance forces to fight against this great Desolation Disaster and ravages together?" asked the Rongchang Star Lord.
"Difficult. To date, we have only seventeen commonly explored Black Domain that oppose large-scale forces. Their distribution is extremely vast. The closest one is hundreds of kilometers away from our current Black Domain void. Many are not even in our current dimension, and some are hidden within cosmic-level world spheres, making them impossible to detect."
The distance unit "Xu" is a custom unit of distance defined by the Resistance Army. One Xu is equal to one hundred trillion light-years. In the void, there are many world spheres that seem small but are actually extremely vast once you enter them, with even more hidden areas.
"The void is vast, and everywhere there is erosion and resistance. These are just the void maps that my Seven Emotions Merchant Alliance has accumulated over many years of doing business. In fact, in far more distant places, there are many more. The Source Disaster is endless, and so is the resistance."
Hearing this, Lin Hui felt a strange sense of emotion.
Faced with this endless void, the two star lords from External Source actually saw things far less clearly than he did.
His true form is now Wind Energy, which has spread across a width of billions of light-years, thus allowing him to acquire far more information than the other two.
Even with his level of knowledge and understanding, he still couldn't fathom the vastness of the void.
He once asked Chongli about this issue.
Chongli's answer only deepened his confusion.
"The Void Black Domain — 'Black Domain' is merely a descriptive term; 'Void' is its essence. It is inherently nothingness. Emptiness means nothingness. Therefore, the void exists everywhere and is the foundation that sustains everything. It represents nothingness, the origin of all things. After nothingness comes existence, after existence comes space, and with space comes change. With change comes matter, energy, and everything else."
Therefore, emptiness is superior to existence, existence is superior to space, space is superior to the change of time, and so on.
"Essentially, emptiness is nothingness, it is nothingness."
"If that's the case, then why can we sense that countless world spheres and Source Disaster exist in the void?" Lin Hui asked at that time.
"Because everything in the outside world is another world formed by the distortion of our senses. Emptiness itself is nothingness, but it is not in our senses," Chongli replied. "Therefore, you must understand that the real emptiness and the emptiness we perceive are not the same thing. We need to concretize everything, so the senses arise. They concretize everything that is not concrete into forms and information that we can understand."