But the Eastern Emperor felt not the slightest fear or resentment at his lifespan reaching its end and death approaching. There was only resolve and determination.
"In the past, the Saint Emperor failed his transformation, his body perishing and his Dao vanishing, leaving behind only a bloodstained human skin... in this lifetime, will I walk the same road as him?"
Over these years, he had not merely cultivated like a madman, sublimating and comprehending the Dao at the extremes between life and death to temper his combat strength to the utmost. He had also devoted considerable time and energy specifically to deducing a longevity method.
He had once learned of an ancient method from the handwritten notes left behind by the Sun Saint Emperor.
This longevity method was very unusual. Like a golden cicada shedding its shell, it could let a person shed their decaying outer skin and expel their rotting bones and flesh, thereby remaking themselves and blossoming with new life.
He combined the Undying Heavenly Emperor's Nirvana Technique with the Transformation Method he had inadvertently obtained from the Divine Silkworm Clan's Ancestral Star during his earlier travels through the universe, reorganizing and deducing them anew to gradually perfect this longevity method.
But even the Eastern Emperor had no absolute confidence in whether it would succeed.
He could only seek life through death and stake everything on defying heaven.
An unknown length of time passed.
Aged to the utmost, he sat there with his head bowed and eyes closed, gradually losing his vitality.
Hundreds of years passed. Incomparably dense emperor fiendish qi spread, filling the entire cave abode, and a horrifying scene appeared.
"Gurgle... gurgle..." The Eastern Emperor's utterly decayed body, which should have lost all vitality, actually began to writhe eerily.
A blood-drenched figure emerged from within, transforming