The Dying Man

Jiang Yao's body suddenly stirred, and he woke up.

He was greeted by the concerned, and even fanatical, gazes of those around him.

Jiang Yao noticed that the view outside the spaceship was a simulation of the dark universe; it seemed they had switched ships and were currently traveling through the dark universe.

Meng Yi, the old patriarch of the Yanhe lineage with his tall frame and thick beard, stared at his face, his expression a mix of wild joy and disbelief.

"How are you feeling?"

Jiang Yao offered a bitter smile and shook his head, saying, "Not great. The situation was critical at the time; I practically burned my soul and forced my bloodline ability to erupt in a desperate attempt to repel that Moyun Vine. After I retracted the bloodline ability, the ancient will within it dissipated, and the ability collapsed. It will need to be nurtured all over again."

Prose was shocked, and worry appeared on Kuman's face.

Meng Yi frowned slightly. What Jiang Yao said did not exceed his expectations. To cross a major realm and injure—even force back—such a formidable plant life form without paying a price would be against the laws of nature.

However, the collapse of a bloodline ability was a significant injury for a member of the Lingtong Race, akin to losing half one's life.

Fortunately, Jiang Yao was not yet 300 years old, so the source of his bloodline had not yet closed. He could spend time re-nurturing it within his pupils, though it would consume a vast amount of life essence and even soul power.

Given that he was already severely injured, this danger was undoubtedly a major blow to Jiang Yao.

Of course, regardless of whether Jiang Yao's potential had been severely damaged, he was still a treasure of the Lingtong Race. As for the talk of a desperate eruption, Meng Yi had never heard of anyone in the clan at the Stellar Level 1 being able to cross a major realm to heavily injure an opponent—let alone a plant life form—using a bloodline ability.

Forget burning the soul; even burning one's entire body from head to toe wouldn't achieve that. If bloodline abilities had such power, the Lingtong Race wouldn't have been locked in a stalemate with Yinhu Island for tens of thousands of epochs.

Meng Yi's expression turned fierce: "Hateful! Hateful! I have already reported this ambush to the main sect immediately. The several World Lord elders managing the holy land are furious, and the ancestor must know by now. Even if we don't go to war with Yinhu Island, we will certainly make them pay a heavy price! Rest assured, there will be compensation for you."

Meng Yi said this partly out of genuine rage and partly to comfort Jiang Yao.

Although the two holy lands had reached an agreement and made threats that breaking the rules would trigger a holy war, those were just threats. While the two holy lands had indeed fought in history, Meng Yi had spent several epochs in the main sect, and he guessed that the possibility of the two holy lands going to war over this was low.

Jiang Yao was indeed a great pity. Bloodline abilities were crucial to spirit readers of the Lingtong Race. History was full of examples where, after a bloodline ability collapsed, even if it was re-nurtured, the once-dazzling genius would lose their luster and fade into mediocrity.

Especially when a young genius was in the midst of a rapid ascent, encountering such a calamity was fatal and caused immense damage to their potential.

While Meng Yi felt relief and joy, he was also deeply pained. This was the most promising genius his Yanhe lineage had produced since splitting from the main sect. Otherwise, he wouldn't have volunteered to escort him, nor would he have shamelessly borrowed the Wushen Thorn from a World Lord elder with whom he had a good relationship. Any injury that would damage Jiang Yao's future achievements felt like cutting his own flesh.

However, Jiang Yao had no time to worry about the feelings of Meng Yi and the others—whether they were pained, worried, jealous, envious, or gloating.

Aside from the "desperate eruption" and "burning the soul," not a word of what he had just said was true.

And even the "desperate eruption" and "burning the soul" were only mentioned to account for dealing with the will of Bizhang.

He had experienced firsthand what it meant to have a trump card that was a double-edged sword.

After retracting Bizhang's will, Jiang Yao hadn't fainted from exhaustion as Meng Yi and the others assumed; instead, he had only just begun to sink his entire will and focus into his body to fight for his life.

After Bizhang's will had devoured a vine several kilometers long from the Universe-level Moyun Vine, its power had indeed greatly increased.

Coupled with the anger and unwillingness of being pulled away from its "meal" by Jiang Yao, Bizhang's will had immediately turned its hostility toward Jiang Yao.

Jiang Yao had truly used the power of the Xu Yuan Space, combined with his newly awakened domain, to integrate his genetic energy, physical strength, spiritual power, and consciousness. He triggered a resonance with the cosmic space, burned his soul, and relied on the Messenger "Bajie" within the Taihuan Token, who would occasionally inject power into his exhausted will through calls that seemed to manifest out of thin air.

Only then did he finally manage to lock Bizhang's will back into the Xu Yuan Space. It was just that this time, Jiang Yao could clearly feel that the will of Bizhang, now suppressed within the Xu Yuan Space, was struggling with even greater force.

In any case, until his own strength had improved sufficiently, he was determined not to release Bizhang's will again. He would be staying in the main sect's holy land for the foreseeable future, so he shouldn't encounter any more danger.

Of course, there was a reason why the Nine Transformations of the Desolate God made him suffer while also bringing him joy.

After enduring such an ordeal, the harvest was bountiful.

First was his will. The process of confronting Bizhang's will was no less intense than a life-or-death battle; it not only improved his genes but also tempered his will.

Although there was no specific benchmark, Bajie believed that his will at this moment had definitely exceeded the limits of the Stellar Level and reached the Universe Level.

The second benefit was not physical transformation, but insights into the laws.

Bizhang could render a Moyun Vine a major realm higher than itself helpless with its will alone, relying on the origin laws of fire and light. As a darling of these two laws, Bizhang could mobilize unparalleled cosmic energy just by using its will, instinctively unleashing extremely powerful law-based abilities.

Jiang Yao had personally experienced how Bizhang invoked the laws and how it executed the mysteries of the laws. Although he still couldn't fully comprehend them, it had greatly advanced his understanding of the laws.

He had even crossed the threshold of the Origin Law of Fire, something he and Bajie had estimated would take several more years.

Although Bizhang seemed to have been granted the power of both fire and light origin laws, there was still a focus and a hierarchy; it was clearly more proficient and intimate with the control of the Origin Law of Fire.

Jiang Yao's perception of the fluctuations of the origin laws followed Bizhang's lead. The fluctuations of the fire law were the easiest to perceive, followed by light, while the fluctuations of the space law were quite blurry, and the fluctuations of the time law were the most obscure.

His body had naturally undergone some transformation, though the degree of evolution was far less than the leap he experienced after his first transformation into Bizhang and his subsequent reversion to his original form.

The reason Jiang Yao lied about burning his soul to deal with the Moyun Vine and the collapse of his bloodline ability was that he would soon arrive at the holy land. Even if he didn't know exactly how the holy land would train him, he knew he wouldn't be able to avoid using his bloodline ability in the Virtual Universe.

But since Bizhang's will was sealed in the Xu Yuan Space, the Virtual Universe could not manifest the Xu Yuan Space.

Moreover, he suspected that even if Bizhang's will weren't in the Xu Yuan Space, the Virtual Universe might not be able to manifest Bizhang, as that was merely Bizhang's will, not a true secret technique.

For Jiang Yao, the value of Bizhang's will was only in helping him cultivate and grow stronger in reality, serving as a trump card that was almost a mutual-destruction tactic.

He certainly couldn't rely on it in the Virtual Universe.

But he didn't need Bizhang to appear in the Virtual Universe; he was confident he could handle battles there based on his law insights alone.

Furthermore, as he continued to confront Bizhang's will, his understanding of the origin laws of fire and light would only grow stronger.

He had a clear feeling that whether it was transforming into Bizhang and reverting, or releasing Bizhang's will to strengthen his body, the ultimate goal seemed to be the transformation of his human body into a special life form that was "extremely close and compatible with the laws of fire and light."

Inside a magnificent divine kingdom, amidst a vast ocean surrounded by colossal mountain ranges, a peak that pierced the heavens rose from the boundless golden sea, stretching straight into the clouds.

This was the resting place of the master of this divine kingdom, as well as a forbidden zone; typically, only World Lords could enter this place to seek an audience with the great Immortal existence.

Yet, at this moment, a youth with an aura only at the Stellar Level was dragging a trail of afterimages, climbing the stairs as if walking through an empty land.

Before long, without needing to report, the youth walked into the magnificent palace on his own, under the envious gazes of the guards along the way.

Two guards stationed at the palace entrance exchanged glances, their eyes filled with emotion as they communicated via telepathy.

"I only arrived at the Divine Mountain for rotation a year ago; was that Abbott just now?"

"Heh, who else could it be? What other Stellar Level has such treatment?"

"Back when I was at the Stellar Level, I was considered the number one genius of Yinhu Island, and I never even dreamed of being taken as a disciple by the Divine Lord."

"He stepped into the threshold of the Laws of Origin while still at the Stellar Level; you could say he has basically reserved a spot in the Guluo Secret Realm of the Xuanshang Universe Kingdom. He is our Yinhu Island's trump card for this Genius Tournament. How can you compare to him? Even among the Divine Lord's living disciples, he is likely second only to that one."

The youth Ling Hui knelt before a divine power avatar that radiated golden light, its face obscured from view.

"The Genius Tournament is still three hundred years away. You are not cultivating secret techniques of the laws at the bottom of Yinhu Lake; is there a reason you have come here?"

The voice from high above held neither joy nor anger.

The youth did not rise, his voice clear and resonant: "I beg Teacher to show mercy to Teacher Mo Hong!"

"Oh?"

The youth's voice was slightly tense: "Disciple has heard that Teacher Mo Hong violated the agreement between the two Holy Lands by privately sending people to intercept and kill a genius of the Lingtong Race. Disciple dares not argue, but I ask Teacher to consider that Teacher Mo Hong acted out of public duty for our Yinhu Island, and out of excessive concern for this disciple, acting rashly to eliminate a young enemy genius ahead of time. I beg you to forgive him for this risky move."

"Public duty?"

The voice from high above let out a soft hum, causing the youth's face to turn slightly pale, though the tone softened immediately afterward.

"Rise. Mo Hong did indeed commit a crime, but he is, after all, the teacher who discovered and cultivated you. The powerhouses cultivated by our Yinhu Island are not meant to be devoid of emotion or reason. That you can remember the bond between teacher and student and come here to plead for him when he has committed a grave error proves that you are a person of loyalty and righteousness.

I am not angry; I am only pleased.

Rest assured, that he could cultivate a disciple like you is his fortune. Even for your sake, I will not punish Mo Hong. I will provide sufficient compensation to the Jiuyuan Holy Land, and there will be no war over this."

The youth then stood up, his expression one of disbelief. He had come to plead, hoping only to lighten the punishment for Teacher Mo Hong and his lineage; he never expected such an outcome. The Divine Lord valued him so highly that he had no intention of punishing Teacher Mo Hong at all.

Immediately, a look of intense gratitude appeared on the youth's face.

The voice from high above carried a smile: "Your diligent cultivation will be your repayment to me. Go back now."

After the youth walked out of the palace, another magnificent voice rang out: "Teacher, the Jiuyuan Holy Land will likely demand an exorbitant price this time. Even if Mo Hong was once the junior brother's teacher, he should not be let off so easily for such a grave mistake."

The Immortal deity addressed as Teacher chuckled, his tone carrying a strange nuance: "Give the Jiuyuan Holy Land whatever they ask for this time. He is merely a man on the verge of death; before long, we shall take it back tenfold, or even a hundredfold."