True Soul Fragment Acquired

"Where's that Xiaoyao bastard? Wasn't he involved in what happened back then too?"

Deep within the various Life Forbidden Zones, divine senses from Supremes who were "on duty" descended coldly. Their fluctuations carried scrutiny and curiosity, as well as a hint of wariness toward the Undying Daoist.

At the end of the Primordial Era, some beings had vaguely heard the Fighting Saint Emperor's furious roar echoing in every direction.

Although that place was not within Human Emperor Hall's territory, they had always paid close attention to the Central Plains. They knew that one of the Immortal Ascension Road's nodes from ages past was located at...

Southern Region of Eastern Wasteland.

Several hundred miles beyond the capital of Ancient Yan Kingdom.

A slender figure in a black dress gently waved her pale hand. The restrained demonic energy around her drifted about, erasing every trace of bloodstench that had spread nearby.

The woman wore a Bronze Mask that could block divine-sense probing. She was none other than Li Qingjue, who had been separated from Tan Lin for more than three months.

During this time, she had remained near Yaoguang Village, tempering her Dao foundation and preparing to break through into the Immortal Platform Secret Realm.

Whenever she finished comprehending something and sat in meditation, she would occasionally bestow some fortune in secret upon the villagers who had once given her food and clothing.

If her brother and master were the only pure land within her evil wyrm-like state of mind,

then the villagers of this village were the sparse greenery adorning that pure land.

Their small acts of kindness had kept her, only four or five years old after her brother was taken away, from starving or freezing to death.

One had to know that the mortal dynasties of this world levied harsh taxes and cruel exactions upon the common people. Few rulers ever cared for their subjects. Yet even while struggling to make ends meet themselves, these villagers would gather a little something from house to house, allowing her to survive until she met her master several years later.

She had always remembered this kindness.

They had shown her that this world was not filled only with petty scheming and filthy depravity.

Although... those kind-hearted villagers had made up only a very small portion of the village...

Splash...

The bloody water from corpses crushed by demonic energy fell like rain, pattering down in a drizzle.

Only then had Li Qingjue finished a one-sided slaughter.

She had extracted the Origin from every cultivator who had tried to amuse themselves by exploiting and massacring mortals in the nearby villages, then crushed their bodies.

These cultivators were mostly people from the Outer Domain. Their elders had died during the Drill Tower trials, leaving them temporarily unable to return to the Outer Domain, so they had remained in the Southern Region.

Because they came from the Outer Domain, with some not even belonging to the Human Race, the negative emotions from the deaths of their relatives, friends, masters, and elders filled their hearts. Stranded in a foreign land, they could easily explode over trivial matters, venting their pent-up emotions through murder and... sexual violence...

Independent cultivators without backing, as well as mortals, naturally became their preferred targets.

Hum...

The demonic energy around Li Qingjue surged. After sweeping away the blood rain from the area, it all flowed back into her body, tempering her flesh.

A gentle breeze blew through the air, making the ribbons of her black dress flutter and briefly revealing the exquisite curves beneath it.

Her black hair cascaded like a waterfall. She still retained the simple habits she had when she was with her brother and master, using only a plain wooden hairpin to secure her bun behind her head. Though unadorned, she possessed an otherworldly grace beyond compare.

Rumble...

Suddenly, the skies over the Five Regions of the Big Dipper changed dramatically. The instant the disturbance from the Central Plains arrived,

the ruthless killer raised her masked face toward the heavens. All the savagery and coldness in her eyes faded away as she stared blankly toward the Central Plains with clear eyes.

"Master... you'll succeed. You definitely will..."

She called softly, her voice carrying a trace of longing.

Having spent more than twelve years with Tan Lin, most of them in the Drill Tower, she naturally recognized the Human Emperor's aura.

In truth, although she had never said it aloud, she still felt somewhat resentful that her master had gone alone to the Central Plains for one final gamble.

Now that the great age was about to begin and the Drill Tower had collapsed, the Ancient Roads of all races were opening one after another. Her Dao Heart was resolute, and she believed she could contend for this lifetime's Emperor's Position.

Once she attained the Emperor's Position, would she really become some ungrateful wretch and refuse to help her master recover?

Yet she did not know that the Human Tribulation following a Dao-Proving Tribulation was extraordinarily complicated and full of change. With Tan Lin, this Variable, now added to the equation, matters had become even more unpredictable.

Even whether she, the future Female Emperor, could safely prove her Dao and attain Emperor Attainment in this lifetime remained unknown.

Northern Region, the land of Nine Dragons Embracing the Pearl.

Within the Ancient Emperor Mountain Secret Realm.

A wisp of divine sense left outside the Divine Source by the Undying Heavenly Empress stirred slightly.

"Human Emperor? He truly is mad. He's sacrificing every Great Dao imprint he left behind during the Primordial Era in exchange for a brief return to his peak. How is that any different from a Restricted-Area Supreme undergoing Ultimate Sublimation? He will vanish in the end..."

Her thoughts turned.

Clad in rainbow robes and feathered gauze, her alluring figure emerged from the cracked Divine Source that had long since shattered.

Tap... tap...

The slender heels of her verdant embroidered shoes clicked crisply against the ground as she arrived beside the Divine Spring pool. Her delicate brows furrowed, and her voice carried a trace of mockery.

"I thought you could muddy the waters far more than this. So you're nothing but trash after all. I overestimated you..."

As she thought of this, her train of thought suddenly shifted.

After all, he was a Dao Attainer who had already died once a million years ago. Now that he had reappeared, surely he would not fail to stir even a single ripple.

"You knew Human Emperor Hall in the Central Plains was a dragon's den and tiger's lair, yet you still went. Are you truly stupid, or do you have some reliance? Could it be that after this... you can still survive?"

Suddenly, ripples spread across the Divine Spring pool.

As she looked at the peerless jade reflection in the water, something seemed to occur to her, and her furrowed brows slowly relaxed.

Boom!!!

Central Plains, deep within Human Emperor Hall.

Within the great hall, the Human Emperor Banner sensed Tan Lin's aura and erupted into an earth-shaking hum.

The Heaven-Suppressing Runes laid down by the Undying Daoist on the banner surface flashed madly, yet they could not completely stop it from breaking free of its final restraints and flying into Tan Lin's hand!

"Detonating every Great Dao imprint you left in this world? You're really going all in..."

Behind him, the Undying Daoist lightly clenched his hand. The Undying Heavenly Blade shot out from the distant heavens, about to fly into his grasp.

With such a heavy weapon in hand, he no longer cared whether the other party obtained the soul fragments within the banner and merged them with his remnant soul.

Besides, he had remained here all this time. He would not give his opponent the chance to break the restrictions.

"Hand over your great secret obediently. Perhaps I'll grant you a quick death. You know, after living this long, I naturally have some methods for torturing souls..."

The Undying Daoist spoke with a smiling face.

Yet before his words had faded, when he saw Tan Lin casting a spell to break the restrictions, his expression turned cold.

The concentrated and incomparably vast Faith Power within him circulated. He struck with one palm, transforming it into a giant hand that covered the sky. Terrifying Imperial Dao power swept forth, and the heavens rumbled as though they were a sheet of torn cloth.

With one hand, he activated the Divine Soul Pool Water. The three-colored liquid transformed into a True Dragon that shifted colors endlessly, lunging to devour Tan Lin.

His other hand grasped the Undying Heavenly Blade as it crossed the boundless starry sky. With a cold laugh, he prepared to seal Tan Lin's remnant soul.

Who would have thought—

the next instant, a sudden change erupted at the other end of the universe!

As if sensing something, the Undying Daoist's expression changed drastically before he could even wield the Undying Heavenly Blade to unleash a world-shaking strike.

Far beyond the endless starry sky, deep within the core of an unknown Ancient Star.

The crimson-gray mist dispersed. A remarkable golden eagle suddenly appeared from nowhere outside, carrying an array diagram that emitted a terrifying Imperial Dao aura. It erupted with destructive radiance and crashed toward the center of the earthfire magma!

There, endless immortal light blossomed, and a Five-Colored Immortal Egg floated in the air.

Rumble...

At the same time, within the great hall, Tan Lin's remnant soul turned around.

The powers of the Lunar Holy Emperor and Solar Holy Emperor intertwined. The phantom of the Yin-Yang Millstone, his Enlightened Dao Artifact that had long been destroyed in his previous life, reappeared from the void and blocked the True Dragon formed from the Divine Soul Pool Water—a strike from the Undying Daoist comparable to a Supreme Being's attack.

"What? Are you still planning to remain here? Your true body's Nirvana this time will likely end in failure, Dao Brother."

He smiled at the Undying Daoist, calm and unruffled.

"Oh, right. I nearly forgot to tell you, Dao Brother. My arrangements extend far beyond this. I have already informed others of the news that your true body is undergoing Nirvana transformation on that Ancient Star..."

Whoosh!

Before Tan Lin could finish, the Undying Daoist had already torn open the void and crossed the starry sky, rushing toward the distant other end of the universe.

Boom...

The core of that Ancient Star shook violently as the place of Nirvana suffered a fierce impact.

True Soul Fragment Obtained (3.1K)

Within the earthfire magma.

The array diagram carried by the golden eagle self-destructed, erupting with power far beyond its original might. Although the Five-Colored Immortal Egg was still protected by a Heaven-Suppressing Ancient Emperor Grand Formation in the planetary core, and none of the other arrangements Tan Lin had mentioned appeared,

the Undying Daoist still chose not to remain in the Central Plains of the Big Dipper.

Ever since falling from the Immortal Domain, he had spent millions of years scheming and deceiving, beginning with betrayal and ambushes during his growth, then eventually receiving the worship of all races and reaching this point step by step.

He could not afford to gamble, nor did he wish to.

It did not matter if he failed to obtain the Human Emperor's great secret. His true body undergoing Nirvana could not be allowed to suffer any mishap. Even without that great secret, he could still become immortal!

"Phew..."

Within the great hall of Human Emperor Hall in the Central Plains, Tan Lin's remnant soul immediately breathed a sigh of relief as he watched the Undying Daoist leave.

Under [Inverted All-Causes Vision], he could see that movement had also arisen at the Sea of Reincarnation.

If the opponent had not left while holding the Undying Heavenly Blade, and Heavenly Venerable Xiaoyao arrived as well, this time he truly would have found it difficult to deal with them.

However, his timing had been excellent. At the most critical moment of the Undying Heavenly Emperor's Nirvana, he had moved his piece and launched a surprise attack.

Fortunately, this was not the later era. The Undying Heavenly Emperor had yet to enter the Strange World to "guard the gate," or else he would not even have been able to use this tactic of besieging Wei to rescue Zhao.

Of course, there were no further arrangements at that Nirvana site. But with truth and falsehood mixed together like this, the Undying Daoist had no choice but to believe it.

He had indeed informed multiple Restricted Areas about the Undying Heavenly Emperor bathing in Ancient Emperor Blood and undergoing Nirvana transformation. He had even made this secret public when he fell during the Primordial Era.

It was simply that those Supremes were all as shrewd as ghosts. The Undying Heavenly Emperor had been dead for many years, with no obvious traces to follow, while his former "glorious image" had been deeply ingrained in their minds. Many believed it was Tan Lin's scheme, a final attempt to use a tiger to devour a wolf and kill the Undying Daoist.

Even those beings who half-believed him would not easily attempt anything.

After all, even if they verified that the Undying Heavenly Emperor was truly alive, how could they determine the location, timing, and condition of his Nirvana?

And even if they did determine those things, could they defeat the Undying Heavenly Emperor, who had not severed himself, without joining forces or even undergoing Ultimate Sublimation?

Would the price they paid to unseal themselves and emerge be worth the reward...

All these doubts and calculations, this attitude of ignoring anything unrelated to themselves, meant that unless a blade was hanging over their own heads, they would not act easily.

Only if the scene from the Mythic Era repeated itself, with Emperor Zun forcibly dragging everyone toward "immortality," would he become a target of universal condemnation, abandoned by all and attacked by the gathered Supremes.

Having lived three lives, Tan Lin believed he had already seen through the nature and thoughts of these Restricted-Area Supremes. He did not hold overly high hopes for them...

Still, if a Supreme Being truly emerged from a Restricted Area to attack the Undying Heavenly Emperor this time, he would naturally be more than happy to see it.

I hope some Supreme is really foolish enough to charge in...

Tan Lin thought to himself.

Then he turned his attention back to the location of that screen.

The greatest obstacle had now temporarily disappeared.

Now was the time!

Tan Lin narrowed his deep eyes slightly. With the Solar Holy Emperor's power in one hand and the Lunar Holy Emperor's power in the other, he struck out with two palms in succession. Imperial Dao energy erupted, shattering the outermost restriction on the screen.

He soared forward and reached through the air toward the Human Emperor Banner!