Transcendence beyond the extreme realm brought divine abilities forth of their own accord.
With the aperture cave heavens of Liver Wood and the Eye Aperture, plus a final push from the Grand Luo Insight runes nurtured, fused, and sublimated within them through Blood God Transformation, Aman's Martial Dao Heavenly Eye had taken rudimentary shape. Yet it still seemed some way from opening.
Alongside it, a divine ability akin to Heavenly Ear Communication, formed by linking the Ear Aperture and kidneys, was likewise still far from taking shape.
But once the other cave heavens linked together, a mutation occurred. Clear qi gushed from the acupoints and cave heavens throughout his body, continuously corroding and digesting his flesh and even his bones, plunging him into danger once more.
Six Treasury Immortal Thief? Turning his organs into cave heavens brought them into alignment with Six Treasury Immortal Thief? Chen Yao was startled.
Because Six Treasury Immortal Thief's ability to steal the vitality of heaven and earth aligned with some characteristics of Aman's Blood God Transformation, he had taught it to him.
Twin Hands aligned with Blood Moving and drastically lowered the difficulty of transcendence. It was almost like Little Rabbit safely eating her way to a strand of immortal qi by grazing on grass. But Six Treasury Immortal Thief and Qi-State Origin-Flow have little alignment with this, so the difficulty is hard to reduce. The tribulation of transcendence has come after all.
Phoenix nirvana operated at full power, continuously repairing his body. Aman's condition was utterly wretched, with a shocking amount of bone laid bare. His internal organs were almost entirely exposed to the air, while his blood flowed through empty space, competing for vitality with the clear qi erupting from his organs. Willow Deity immediately sent several drops of sap into his blood, tipping the balance between the two.
One hour, two hours, six hours, a full day and night! This tug-of-war went on for a long time. Little by little, Aman forcibly used Blood God Transformation to usurp the mysteries of Six Treasury Immortal Thief, which was wreaking havoc through his organ cave heavens. With Blood God Transformation's transformative power, enhanced by the Phoenix Precious Technique, he incorporated the runes and made them his own. At last, he pulled through.
Without someone standing guard and replenishing his strength, he likely would not have made it. He would have had to shatter his own cave heavens to save his life.
Now, his finally stabilized organs linked with the corresponding nine apertures and the cave heavens of his circulatory acupoints. Like Chen Yao's Qi-State Origin-Flow, they merged into his own Dao fruit and completed their transformation into a divine ability. His essence no longer leaked away, his vitality flourished, his magical power was as vast as the sea, and his looks would never age.
His aptitude truly deserved an Immortal King Giant's attention-he could achieve success in cultivation even with ordinary resources. Aman was held back far too badly in the original timeline. If his early cultivation experiences hadn't left his Dao heart lacking the spirit to fight desperately for that one slim chance, making him give up tempering himself amid the Dark Turmoil's chaotic age so Shi Hao wouldn't worry, he might have become an Immortal King by the end too. He's absolutely no weaker than the likes of Ning Chuan. If he holds on to that breath of resolve to fight for a single chance, then with ample resources, he'll far surpass his original self. Chen Yao revised his assessment of Aman.
Aman let out a long breath. Turbid qi flowed through his mysterious gate acupoints and the aperture cave heavens throughout his body, turning into streams of qi and being expelled. His body instantly became much cleaner, as pure as a newborn's.
At the very least, he would not grow old even when he reached the end of his lifespan.
He slowly raised his hand, and the pale red digestive qi of Six Treasury Immortal Thief appeared. Blood God Transformation could now manifest by converting the clear qi that Six Treasury Immortal Thief released from the acupoints throughout his body. It also carried Six Treasury Immortal Thief's ability to dissolve and digest the vitality of all things, making its destructive power even more outrageous and its attacks even harder to guard against.
Previously, Blood God Transformation was little more than a decent amplifier for the power of precious techniques. To unleash its own power, it still had to pierce the opponent's body before it could use their blood to devour their vital essence. Now, beyond amplifying spells, the constructs of Blood God Transformation themselves possessed Six Treasury Immortal Thief's functions. Souls, magical power, and physical matter could all be absorbed as blood qi.
Although it fell far short of Qi-State Origin-Flow's ability to dissolve things directly at their root, its ability to pierce magical defenses alone was enough to give anyone trouble.
Aman sought out Shi Hao to test it, and the defenses of Shi Hao's Divine Phoenix Precious Technique indeed struggled to withstand the current Blood God Transformation. Blood God Transformation already possessed destructive power forged by nurturing a hundred scriptures in its furnace and devouring myriad kinds of blood. Coupled with Six Treasury Immortal Thief's armor-piercing, dissolving properties, ordinary defenses crumbled at a touch. Only because Shi Hao had such a solid foundation could his Divine Phoenix Precious Technique barely withstand a few attacks from Aman, who now possessed two divine abilities born of transcendence beyond the extreme realm.
"Hmph! I'll surpass you both!" Shi Hao waved his arms and reached out, but Aman, who was still a little taller than him, held his head in place, leaving him unable to reach. He did not mind and was simply fooling around, looking quite pleased with his daily routine of being teased and subdued by his big brother.
"Oh no. Will the butterfly effect of my meddling turn Shi Hao into a brother-obsessed kid someday?" Chen Yao frowned, realizing that once history's wheels began veering off course, they were not merely racing toward a better future-they were also crashing into a ditch.
"So, are you planning to advance to the spirit transformation realm? We're heading to the Hundred Broken Mountains Range next. There's an age limit: under eighteen. Having spirit transformation cultivation would be better." Chen Yao asked.
He had advanced to spirit transformation not long ago. After all, his transcendence in the cave heaven realm was complete, and Qi-State Origin-Flow had become a divine ability. For the moment, there was no further progress to make. Any new ideas could wait until later.
Thanks to how he had used Twin Hands to transcend during Blood Moving and incorporated the Three Corpses God into his body along the way, he had completed fleshly body becoming spirit and remolding the true self as soon as he entered the spirit transformation realm. The credit belonged to the Three Corpses God combined with the corporeal-soul hand, and to the Soul-Clarity Art, respectively. He was now nurturing spirits within his cave heavens.
"Not yet. I feel there's still a path ahead. My primordial spirit can transcend one step further, just like when you opened a primordial spirit cave heaven in your Upper Dantian. Then, like you, I can complete two extreme realms the moment I enter spirit transformation." Aman shook his head.
"More transcendence? You're putting so much pressure on me! I finally got away from Shi Yi, only for you two to turn up! I'm blessed with divine martial talent, a genius rarely seen in this world, yet I've lost just because I'm too young and started late!" Shi Hao escaped his big brother's demonic clutches and grumbled indignantly.
"All right, all right. Get ready. We're going treasure hunting in the Hundred Broken Mountains Range next. Be sure to stay safe, especially you, Little Hao. A cute little boy like you had better not get abducted by some female demon and kept as her pretty boy." Chen Yao teased.
"What? That can happen?" Shi Hao immediately grew nervous.
During their preparations, Chen Yao privately discussed matters with Willow Deity. He mentioned that he had once glimpsed a corner of the future through reincarnation immortal qi: the Pu Demon King would appear within the Hundred Broken Mountains, and the Pu Demon Tree race he had created in the lower realm would bring him inside.
Willow Deity and the Immortal Phoenix King immediately took this very seriously. Willow Deity was recovering exceptionally well by now. She could continuously grow new branches without sleeping, and at an extremely rapid pace; she already had more than a hundred. She personally broke off a willow branch to refine, while also entering the Void God Realm to seek out Second Under Heaven and the Immortal Gold Daoist, asking them, who were currently in better condition, to help refine it further.
"As soon as you discover him, unleash this item. It will drag him into the depths of the Void God Realm. Ancient formations laid down during Immortal Ancient are there, and those two will also be able to unleash the greatest power currently available to them. That will be enough to suppress the Pu Demon King. After all, he is already dead, slain by Endless. At most, only some remnants of his soul and lingering obsessions remain now. There is no need to fear him too much," Willow Deity instructed.
"Rest assured, Willow Deity. I will not fail your trust." Chen Yao spoke solemnly.
The group went to the Heaven Mending Pavilion again, and the Bear Child, running wild, once more brought the timelines into convergence.
Ghost Master had latched onto him again.
"Brother Yao! Brother Aman! Can you see Ghost Master?" Shi Hao clung to Ghost Master, suspended in midair.
With Grand Luo Insight, they could naturally see a blurry silhouette.
"This seems to be the founder of the Heaven Mending Pavilion." Chen Yao poked Ghost Master.
"Young friend, this is beyond our control! Our patriarch's lingering obsession has latched onto juniors more than once, and we don't know what to do either." The Heaven Mending Pavilion's master went green in the face. Their own benefactor had been haunted by their own resentful spirit-where could he possibly seek justice for that? What a calamity out of the blue!
"No matter. We just need to find his sword. We're going to the Hundred Broken Mountains Range anyway, so consider it one more errand." Chen Yao was unconcerned.
How big a deal could it be? At worst, he could enter Feng Hou's Mystic Gate's inner landscape and ask directly. How much weight could Ghost Master's Broken Sword carry? After entering the Hundred Broken Mountains, he also had to use Willow Deity's branch to enter the Void God Realm and find those two old fellows, bringing them into the inner landscape to help deduce little Pu Demon's whereabouts. Compared with that, this was hardly a big deal.
Leaving these matters aside, several days later, the group had entered the Hundred Broken Mountains Range.
Shi Hao and Aman held skewers of grilled White Tiger meat.
This fellow had met an even more miserable end than in the original story. He had swaggered around outside the mountain range, drawing Shi Hao and Aman's attention and being provoked by them. The moment he entered, he lunged straight at the trio, only to be killed instantly by a slap from Shi Hao.
At this point in the original story, Shi Hao had only six cave heavens. Now he had eight, his supreme blood had revived, and he had learned the Ten Fiends Precious Arts. Even calling it slaughtering a chicken would have flattered his opponent.
With that settled, Chen Yao brought their trio into the inner landscape and began inquiring after the whereabouts of Ghost Master's Broken Sword.
The orb of heavenly secrets containing the answer was somewhat tough, but that was all. The three joined forces to blast it apart and extract the heavenly secret.
In the end, Shi Hao found the Broken Sword inside a battered rock on the Treasure-Splitting Cliff.
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