The Trap

The Chaos Sea at the Cosmic Frontier Wasteland erupted in a deafening roar. Towering waves surged up and swallowed the place where Li Ming and the old ghost stood.

The Dark Supremes watched coldly.

They had wanted to see how the old ghost would devour Li Ming and his Chaotic Body. Instead, the Chaos Sea had suddenly erupted and submerged them. Even the Supremes could not see through the Chaos.

"Did Li Ming stir up the Chaos Sea with his own Chaos Origin?" a Dark Supreme asked uncertainly.

"Impossible. Strong as Li Ming is, he couldn't make the Chaos Sea erupt. It's just a coincidence."

"That old ghost has lived for who knows how many tens of thousands of years and possessed who knows how many people. Looks like his boat's finally capsized—he's fallen into Li Ming's hands."

Moments ago, they had seen dazzling Immortal Ascension Light flare and rapidly dissolve the terrifying Devil Mist.

Clearly, Li Ming's methods had caught the old ghost off guard too.

"Could the old ghost have devoured Li Ming after all, then slipped into the Chaos Sea?"

They had sensed the old ghost's aura and were deeply wary of him.

Li Ming, at least, was out in the open where everyone could observe him. The old ghost was shrouded in mystery and did not even dare reveal his identity. That only made them warier.

Some Supremes thought Li Ming had turned the tables and killed the old ghost. Others believed the old ghost had seized the chance to possess Li Ming, while still more Dark Supremes said nothing.

Li Ming had already shown the full extent of his strength in the earlier battle.

But the old ghost held an Immortal Weapon like the Bronze Immortal Hall, and that left the outcome uncertain.

For the Dark Supremes, the fall of one of their own was a rare piece of gossip amid their long slumbers and occasional awakenings.

They had long grown accustomed to life and death. Apart from Mortal-World Ascension, everything was a passing cloud before their eyes, incapable of stirring their interest.

One Dark Supreme scanned the Chaos carefully, but in the end, even he could not see what had happened within it.

Nor could he find any trace of Li Ming or the old ghost.

"Ah..."

Deep within the boundless Chaos Sea, a shriek of utter agony came from the dazzling Immortal Ascension Light.

The terrifying Devil Mist dissolved completely under the Flying Immortal Power in the blink of an eye.

Li Ming stood in the Chaos Sea, watching the old ghost struggle and howl.

A mysterious power flowed within the radiant Flying Immortal Power.

It was the power that had flowed from the Bronze Mirror.

Li Ming had thought his own strength would be enough to deal with the old ghost. He had not expected the Devil Mist to rouse the Bronze Mirror.

The aura flowing from the Bronze Mirror seemed innately able to suppress that nether power.

Though only a few wisps emerged, they instantly wiped the Devil Mist clean away.

"Demon Venerable, if you spare my life, I'll sever all my origin and divine power and give them to you. I'll reincarnate, cultivate again, and start from the beginning."

The old ghost let out howl after unwilling howl.

Li Ming's Flying Immortal Power had pinned him down. He was at the end of the road.

A faint smile appeared on Li Ming's face. "At this point, do you have any other choice?"

"What you're offering is already in my pocket. Why would I need you to give it to me?"

"I can get it all by killing you, and I won't have to worry about you cultivating your way back up and taking revenge someday."

Li Ming knew the old ghost must still have a trick up his sleeve. Rather than search his Primordial Spirit, he kept wearing it down with Flying Immortal Power.

Chaos surged from Li Ming's body and became a divine furnace of Chaos, enclosing the old ghost.

Using the surrounding Chaos Sea as fuel, he kindled raging Chaos Flame and scorched the old ghost without mercy.

His Heavenly Demonic Saber did not stay idle either. He sliced the old ghost apart, cut by cut. Each stroke stripped away part of his origin and carved a piece from his Primordial Spirit.

By the end of the refining, nearly all the origin had been separated out.

The old ghost's Primordial Spirit fluctuations had weakened almost to nothing. He was on the verge of vanishing entirely.

Only then did Li Ming attempt to search his soul.

Just as Li Ming had expected, the old ghost had one last trick.

Born of nether forces, he had possessed countless geniuses, and his Primordial Spirit was powerful beyond belief.

He was, in truth, an old ghost who chiefly cultivated the Primordial Spirit Dao.

He had deliberately shown weakness and abandoned the origins he had stolen, all to wait for this chance.

He intended to devour Li Ming's Primordial Spirit and turn the tables in one stroke.

In fact, desperation had forced him to resort to it.

The Bronze Immortal Hall should have answered him like his own arm, yet now he seemed to have lost all connection to it.

That left him no choice.

Li Ming's Primordial Spirit, wrapped in Chaos Divine Light, was like a blazing sun.

It was even stronger than the old ghost's.

"Why? Why is your Primordial Spirit stronger than mine?"

Sensing the despair in the old ghost's divine thoughts, Li Ming said coldly, "I'll send you to your death now. You're fated to die with your eyes still open."

The old ghost immediately ignited the Light of Dao Transformation within his Primordial Spirit.

If he could not survive, he would take Li Ming down with him.

He meant to kill Li Ming by dissolving into the Dao.

But a mysterious power flowed from the Bronze Mirror and forcibly ground away the power of Dao Dissolution.

"Before this venerable one, I decide who lives and who dies!"

Suppressed by the Bronze Mirror's power, the old ghost was completely obliterated by Li Ming in the blink of an eye.

The old ghost was formidable indeed. He truly possessed combat strength on the level of a Heavenly Emperor.

Unfortunately for him, he had met Li Ming.

Without the Bronze Mirror, defeating the old ghost would certainly have been a bitter fight for Li Ming.

Instead, Li Ming had wiped out his Primordial Spirit with ease.

Only after a while did Li Ming open his eyes.

That old monster had been remarkable indeed. He had attained Enlightenment as Supreme in an age long past.

Thanks to the mysterious traits of his race, he had possessed the bodies of countless geniuses. Like a baleful spirit, he had hidden inside other people's flesh to survive, yet no one had ever discovered him.

Li Ming erased every last trace of the old ghost's divine thoughts, kindled Chaos Fire, and began refining the origins he had left behind.

The Heaven-Swallowing Demonic Art Li Ming had created was especially suited to these origins.

Once he had refined them, they became a bead wreathed in chaotic qi.

Countless visions appeared around it, and innumerable Grand Dao Runes flashed.

The origins the old ghost had stolen were vast indeed. They came from more than six thousand people, every one a genius with a special physique.

Li Ming had refined away everything the old ghost had left behind.

Only pure, refined origin remained inside.

For Li Ming, it was powerful nourishment too.

He swallowed it. The black hole in his Sea of Bitterness instantly engulfed the bead.

That mass of Chaos immediately merged with the Chaos in his body.

Together, they became a vast ocean of Chaos.

Rumble!

A tremendous roar sounded within Li Ming's Sea of Bitterness.

Countless visions appeared around him as well. As though a Heavenly Emperor had stirred, phantom Immortal Spirits manifested one after another.

Radiant Grand Dao Order Divine Chains appeared around his body. Countless feathers of light danced, divine radiance shone in ten thousand beams, and auspicious colors streamed in a thousand rays.

They cascaded like the Milky Way, then gathered like countless stars into a brilliant sea of stars.

A sacred, ethereal sword-immortal aura spread in every direction.

Rumble!

A deafening, world-splitting roar came from Li Ming's Sea of Bitterness.

After devouring the origin left by the old ghost, his body seemed to hold a new surge of supreme divine power.

His strength rose another small step in a short span of time.

In the blink of an eye, feathers of light danced and divine clouds filled the sky. He seemed to be shedding his mortal shell and ascending as an immortal.

Only after a long time did the turmoil within Li Ming subside. He had finally refined the old ghost's origin completely.

Li Ming opened his eyes. He felt the powerful aura within him and was deeply satisfied.

His gaze turned to the Bronze Immortal Hall.

A magnificent palace stood silently ahead.

Mottled with verdigris, it looked ancient and weathered.

Its exterior seemed decayed, yet within it lingered a supreme, profoundly mysterious Immortal Dao presence.

The hall floated in the Chaos ahead, shedding a faint green Immortal Light.

Dense Immortal Dao Runes intertwined around it, making the space it occupied seem like a mysterious little world.

This was the Bronze Immortal Hall, one of the few Immortal Weapons remaining in the Shrouding the Heavens World.

Li Ming had never seen the Bronze Immortal Hall before, but he recognized the famed Immortal Weapon at first sight.

He had thought the Bronze Immortal Hall might not yet have fallen from the Immortal Domain into this world.

Perhaps it was still lying quietly somewhere in a Chaos Sea within the cosmos.

He had never imagined it would end up in the old ghost's hands, then pass into his own.

The towering Bronze Immortal Hall gave off a faint, mysterious glow as it floated in the Chaos ahead.

Chaos surged around it, and Immortal Dao Runes bloomed, illuminating the surrounding darkness.

Though mottled with verdigris and ancient with age, it carried no hint of decay. Instead, it radiated the aura of eternal life in the Immortal Dao.

"To think the Bronze Immortal Hall would appear right before my eyes," Li Ming said with feeling.

Since entering this world, he had heard legends of the Desolate Pagoda and the Kunlun Immortal Bell.

The Kunlun Immortal Bell was on Kunlun Mountain, in the hands of the Kunlun Immortal Race—or rather, it resided there permanently, leading people to believe the Kunlun Clan controlled it.

The Desolate Pagoda, meanwhile, belonged to no one. It had appeared from time to time, but its tracks had always vanished soon after. No one had ever obtained it.

These were among the few Immortal Weapons in the Shrouding the Heavens World. Anyone—or any clan—who obtained one could use it to anchor the fortunes of an entire region.

Even Emperor Zun's Immortal Ascension Cauldron had required countless formations and the mysterious power of Kunlun Mountain to come into being.

That showed how difficult it was for an Immortal Weapon to be born.

And now the Bronze Immortal Hall floated silently before him. Though Li Ming had long known it existed, his heart still surged like a storm-tossed sea.

He had never expected the Bronze Immortal Hall to fall into the old ghost's hands.

When had the old ghost found it? How had he obtained it?

Li Ming had found no answers in the old ghost's Primordial Spirit.

But whatever had happened, the Bronze Immortal Hall was his now.

Li Ming recalled that in Ye Fan's era, the Bronze Immortal Hall seemed to have nurtured immortal soil of Chaos, countless Source Roots of Mother Qi of All Things, and other supreme materials...

What treasures might be inside it now?

Such things usually hid along the Road to Immortality or in abandoned stretches of it, where they naturally nurtured many treasures.

Li Ming carefully sensed the Bronze Immortal Hall and found its condition peculiar.

By all rights, it should have been ownerless, yet he could faintly sense the aura of a Weapon Deity.

It seemed to flicker in and out of existence, impossible to pin down or divine.

Could an Artifact Spirit from the Age of Mythology still linger within the Bronze Immortal Hall?

Did it not want to fall into Li Ming's hands?

Li Ming carefully studied the Immortal Dao Runes and the countless imprints on its surface.

These were genuine Immortal Dao Runes and Immortal Dao Laws.

Though Li Ming had never seen true Immortal Dao Runes or Laws before, he could tell at first glance.

The old ghost had possessed the Bronze Immortal Hall, so he had likely explored its interior and laid traps there.

Li Ming would have to be careful when he entered.

He stepped forward and soon heard strange, surging sounds from within the Bronze Immortal Hall.

Countless ancient killing formations lay inside. As long as they were not immortal-grade, they were useless against Li Ming and could not stop him.

Soon he saw a divine river of Lunar Water and a divine river of Solar True Fire beyond the formations.

Where Mother Qi of All Things should have been nurtured, two divine rivers—one lunar, one solar—had instead formed and now thundered through the world within.

The hall's interior was vast and empty, like a boundless world or an endless void, filled with faint mists of Chaos.

There, countless Grand Dao Laws had formed dense chains that intertwined like a Heavenly Net, creating a terrifying killing formation.

What made this Heavenly Venerable's formation so formidable was its connection to certain Immortal Dao Runes. It was far more dangerous than an ordinary formation.

Li Ming carefully dismantled the formations as he advanced.

He felt the terrifying power of the Lunar Water and Solar True Fire. If he had not been able to smelt them into Chaos, even an ordinary Dark Supreme might have left this place battered and covered in soot.

Flying Immortal Power bloomed. After a burst of rumbling, Li Ming broke the formations there.

Before long, the rivers formed of Lunar Water and Solar True Fire vanished, leaving only the aura of the Immortal Dao flowing through the space.

He pressed on, seeming to cross one small world after another, and soon entered a vast palace.

Ahead, Yin-Yang revolved. Lunar Water and Solar True Fire surged as though they could smelt all things.

They did not stop Li Ming. He smiled faintly, and Chaos flowed from his body.

Bzzz.

The Chaos swallowed the Lunar Water and Solar True Fire with ease.

A gateway appeared ahead, shaped like the two fish of the Yin-Yang taiji symbol. One was yin, the other yang, and together they formed a flawless taiji diagram.

It was much the same as it would be in Ye Fan's era.

Sensing the aura of the Yin-Yang fish, Li Ming immediately wondered whether the Bronze Immortal Hall had once fallen into Daode Tianzun's hands.

Daode Tianzun was a Heavenly Venerable from an ancient age. Li Ming had never met him, but he had obtained his Dao Scripture and hoped to meet him someday to discuss the mysteries of the Dao.

He circulated the Dao Scripture, testing whether it could serve as the key to opening the doorway and whether it would elicit any response. Soon, he shook his head. The Grand Dao divine resonance did not match.

This Yin-Yang Taiji Dao had existed since an age long past. It was not unique to Daode Tianzun.

It was said that a Dark Supreme had once unearthed a Yin-Yang Dao Diagram dating back to an unknown ancient era.

Looking at the doorway ahead, Li Ming once again unleashed chaos qi, with mysterious chaos laws brewing within it.

As this chaos divine light merged into the Taiji Yin-Yang diagram, it acted like a key, instantly bringing the Yin-Yang fish to life.

The lifelike Yin-Yang fish ultimately fused into chaos as well. With a thunderous boom, chaos qi spread, and the doorway ahead opened on its own.

With the door gone, an unfathomably deep passage appeared ahead, leading to who knew where.

Li Ming hesitated for a moment, then flew inside.

He passed through a corridor mottled with light and shadow, as though space and time had fallen into disorder, as though one might lose oneself within them.

But Li Ming had already reached this level of cultivation. Even an ordinary sea of mortal dust could not shake him in the slightest. This thing still hoped to unsettle his Dao heart?

Li Ming then entered the hazy world ahead.

Solar true fire filled the place, while lunar water gathered into rivers and flowed everywhere.

Like a Yin-Yang diagram, they circulated endlessly, sustaining one another.

At the center of the dividing line between Yin and Yang, a Great Dao Cocoon bobbed up and down, radiating Nine-Colored Divine Light as it occasionally breathed chaos and Immortal Dao Runes in and out.

As though breathing, the Great Dao Cocoon periodically inhaled and exhaled the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, even resonating and vibrating in harmony with the Immortal Dao Runes within the Bronze Immortal Hall.

It exuded a mysterious aura and power.

To his surprise, Li Ming discovered that the Great Dao Cocoon was actually trying to seize his divine power, and even his vital essence.

With a gentle slash, the Heavenly Demonic Saber immediately severed that demonic power and obliterated those inexplicable laws.

Li Ming stepped forward and walked toward the Great Dao Cocoon.

As though sensing danger, the Great Dao Cocoon suddenly surrounded itself with countless shining runes. Grand Dao laws blazed fiercely and shot toward Li Ming like javelins, yet they could not pierce his Immortal Ascension Light.

Lunar water and solar true fire surged and roared, but that was all they could do. In the blink of an eye, Li Ming devoured a great deal of them.

Li Ming soon reached the Great Dao Cocoon, radiating invincible might.

Cries of anguish and mournful wails actually rang out from within the Great Dao Cocoon.

"Old ghost, to think you intended to become the Bronze Immortal Hall's weapon deity and attain True Immortality by becoming the weapon deity of an Immortal Weapon!"

"What a pity. If you hadn't attacked me or tried to possess my body, all your efforts wouldn't have come to nothing at the final hurdle."

Li Ming was surprised to discover that what lay within this Great Dao Cocoon truly was the weapon deity that old ghost had refined.

It was just like the weapon deity of Emperor Zun's Immortal Ascension Cauldron, which had undergone nirvana and become Divine Baby.

To think this old ghost had already conceived a similar scheme before Emperor Zun.

His plan had been excellent, and it had nearly succeeded.

Presumably, he had intended to seize Li Ming's chaos origin and merge it into this Great Dao Cocoon as nourishment.

Who knew how many tens of thousands of years this Great Dao Cocoon had existed?

Immortal Dao Runes flowed across the Great Dao Cocoon, resembling the nine great divine metals melted down, or mysterious immortal source liquid.

The old ghost must have felt that he was taking too long to become an Immortal Weapon's weapon deity. With his original body growing older by the day, he couldn't wait until the weapon deity became a True Immortal deity, so he had risked a try, hadn't he?

Unfortunately, the old ghost had failed.

Now, peculiar fluctuations of life were indeed brewing within the Great Dao Cocoon.

It was somewhat like a weapon deity, yet also somewhat like a sacred spirit. Although it possessed a trace of the Immortal Dao's aura, it lacked a human's vigorous blood and vital energy.

It would still take an immense span of time for it to become the weapon deity of a true Immortal Weapon.

Li Ming drew the Heavenly Demonic Saber and was about to cleave the old ghost's Great Dao Cocoon apart with a single stroke, erase every trace of him, and take possession of the Bronze Immortal Hall.

Just then, a thunderous boom rang out. The entire Bronze Immortal Hall seemed to erupt in revolt as endless essence of heaven and earth, chaos qi, lunar divine water, and solar divine fire converged madly upon the Great Dao Cocoon.

The Great Dao Cocoon instantly linked with the Bronze Immortal Hall, becoming its weapon deity.

Although it had not reached the level of a True Immortal, after lying dormant for countless tens of thousands of years, their auras had long since fused together.

The Immortal Dao aura it released was terrifying beyond measure, bearing down on Li Ming to suppress him.

It actually trapped Li Ming inside the Bronze Immortal Hall, like catching a turtle in a jar.

By entering the Bronze Immortal Hall, Li Ming had seemingly fallen straight into a trap.