Chapter 908: I, Undying!
"Impossible!"
Achilles swung out the Shadow Blade, ghostly light splitting apart the Ruins Sea, tearing Lu Chenzhou to pieces; flesh and blood danced through the sky, swept into nothingness by the waves of the Ruins Sea.
Achilles gasped heavily, the intense pain in his chest making him lower his head to glance at the wound that pierced through him.
"Wasn’t this an illusion?"
"Achilles, your heart is panicking." A calm voice exploded in Achilles’ mind; Lu Chenzhou once again appeared behind Achilles, the Big Spear impaling Achilles, then with a sudden slash, Achilles was torn in two like a zipper.
Rip.
Achilles’ figure shattered into phantom images, dodging this deadly impalement. In a backhand, he cleaved out with the Shadow God Blade, the ghostly light striking Lu Chenzhou swiftly and accurately, cutting his body into a mist of blood.
Within the fog appeared a solemn, expressionless giant face, its diameter nearly a hundred miles across.
It was Lu Chenzhou himself.
He gazed at the Shadow God Blade.
"Nice dagger. As expected of the Supreme Treasure left by the Wangliang Ancestor. In your hands, it’s being wasted."
From the giant face extended a giant hand; a blood-colored Big Spear, with the force to pierce through stars, split apart the Ruins Sea, its spear tip flowing with nine-colored light, igniting the void.
"Nine Tribulation Lotus!"
Lu Chenzhou’s aura, infinitely close to the Eight Realms, erupted in full; a nine-colored Divine Lotus, nearly a thousand miles in diameter with himself and Achilles at its center, blossomed forth.
Boom!
The power of the Heavenly Tribulation erupted.
Nine-colored brilliance lit up the darkness of the Ruins Sea for tens of thousands of miles, the Aurora Palace shook with a deafening roar, the surrounding minor worlds trembled incessantly from the aftershocks.
Countless living beings shivered in fear.
Vaguely, they saw on the heavens a brilliant golden light, an unlookable divine figure shining resplendently.
Like a Heavenly God descending within the Divine Lotus.
Under that spear, Achilles for the first time felt the threat of death. Ever since he’d ascended to the Eight Realms, this was his first time experiencing such a sensation.
With the Shadow God Blade in hand, as long as he didn’t provoke Second Step or Third Step beings, he was unrivaled.
Ordinary Eight Realms cultivators were no match for him.
This Lu Chenzhou, just a measly Seventh Realm, could actually deliver a strike that threatened him—unbelievable.
This spear—he dared not take it head-on. His figure scattered into countless shadows, fleeing in all directions.
Rumble!
The Nine Tribulation Lotus obliterated all.
Within a thousand miles of the core, all things vanished into nothingness.
At the ten-thousand-mile edge, the void was shattered.
99% of the shadows were churned to pieces, only 1% managed to reappear a hundred thousand miles away, forming Achilles’ illusory figure, his face showing signs of weakness.
This life-preserving Divine Skill consumed him greatly as well.
"Even a Second Step being wouldn’t dare clash head-on with that spear, right? Isn’t Lu Chenzhou supposed to be seriously injured? How can he possess such power and still be under Wang Yue’s curse?"
Achilles’ heart surged with shock and doubt.
Daoist Heavenly Gu, who was battling Emperor Shitian, also stared in astonishment. With his Seventh Rank mastery over the Illusion Realm Dao, he could see clearly that Lu Chenzhou was not merely an illusion.
"Blood Rebirth, omnipresent, undying and immortal—this is the legendary Third Realm of the fleshly body."
Undying!
When it came to body cultivation, Heavenly Gu knew little; he had only heard such things from his father. Throughout the Heavenly Dragon Sect’s golden age, those who had cultivated their bodies to the Third Realm or above were fewer than he could count on two hands.
Among them, four Great Powers had to be subtracted, for their bodies had been trained to the Immortal Realm.
In other words, among the hundreds of Heavenly Realm cultivators in the Heavenly Dragon Sect, only a scant few had reached the Undying Realm in body cultivation.
Every one of these was a leader among the Eight Realms, most of them at the Second Step. Those capable of reaching Undying in the First Step were all of Great Power potential.
But to reach Undying at the Seventh Realm—
He had never heard of such a thing.
His father once said, in the Great Wilderness, although the sword cultivators were the most famous, those to be most feared were actually the ascetic monks of the Heavenly Heart Sect and the brutes of the Heavenly Dragon Sect.
Eight Realms ascetic monks hid their bodies in secret places, traversing the world only through Spiritual Embodiments.
So long as their real bodies were not discovered, unless a Great Power, or a Third Step expert who controlled Causality or other special Secret Techniques, made a move, no one could kill them.
As for the Eight Realms brutes, their bodies were incomparably strong, able to face Spiritual Weapons and Magical Treasures head-on, with an Undying Body, resilient as cockroaches. Some elites cultivated an Undying Body, capable of Blood Rebirth—no matter if blasted to blood mist, so long as a single drop remained, they would not die.
He understood now.
Lu Chenzhou had feigned weakness on purpose, intending to use Achilles’ attack to help him break through the shackle of the Fleshly Body’s Third Realm, ascending from Undying to Undying Realm.
After reaching the Undying Realm, Lu Chenzhou hid himself within the blood mist that Achilles blasted apart in the void, even within the bloodstains on the Shadow God Blade and Achilles Armor. So long as even a thread remained, he could revive at any time; moreover, his soul had already completely fused with his flesh, every dust-sized droplet of blood a complete world, a home for his Divine Soul.
On the surface, it looked as if his soul had scattered—
But in truth, his soul, relying on the blood mist, was already omnipresent, existing throughout the Ruins Sea for tens of thousands of miles. To kill such an opponent, there were only two ways.
The first was at least a Third Step Causality Dao expert, who could curse-kill through omnipresent threads of causality, striking directly at the source. No matter how many clones, it would be useless. Back then, the four Great Powers of the Heavenly Dragon Sect were curse-killed across great distance by some Forbidden Zone existence, their Divine Souls utterly annihilated.
The second was for a demigod or Great Power to take action. These beings, already mastering a Dao, could carry out a dimensionality reduction attack with their Dao to obliterate any yet-unmastered beings, dissolving their flesh and Divine Soul into the most basic Five Element particles—then Blood Rebirth would be useless. Only upon reaching the Immortal Realm could one resist.
In other words, from the moment Lu Chenzhou ascended to the Undying Realm, in this era, unless those vanishingly rare two classes of beings struck, nobody could kill him. This brat was invincible.
Lu Chenzhou might not be able to kill him,
But neither could he hope to kill Lu Chenzhou.
Heavenly Gu Daoist felt a chill run through his heart.
How did it come to this?
What impressed him most about Lu Chenzhou was that the youth was a mighty Heart Cultivator, mastering the Great Dream Dao, and his physical body was also extraordinary; yet, he hadn’t expected that Lu Chenzhou, just Seventh Realm, would achieve an Undying flesh body.
At this thought, Heavenly Gu Daoist could only sigh helplessly, abandoning the current endeavor.
He howled, manifesting his Gu Diao true body; wings spread, covering the sky, and with a shake, tens of thousands of Feather Swords exploded forth, shattering tens of thousands of miles of Ruins Sea.
Emperor Shitian’s expression changed drastically; only now did he realize that the Heavenly Gu Daoist was finally showing his true strength.
Impossible to face by force.
Rumble!
The violent shockwave sent the Aurora Palace flying, crashing through the Ruins Sea like a solitary boat in a storm.
"Young friend Lu, previously I offended you only because I was forced by the Forbidden Zone’s oppression. I myself admire talent. Congratulations to you, for stepping into the legendary Undying Realm with a Seventh Realm body. Your future is boundless. Our paths now part."
A stream of light fell into the Ruins Sea—it was two Spiritual Soldier Long Swords, whose quality surpassed Top Grade of the Seventh Rank.
"These are the [Qian Man Sword] and [Bamboo Hand Sword], a matched pair once worn by the Eight Realms Great Cultivator Shen Mutu in the Ancient Times. Used together, they fully equal Eighth Rank Spiritual Weapons. Take them as my apology."
The Ruins Sea gradually calmed down.
Heavenly Gu Daoist had disappeared without a trace.
Emperor Shitian’s face was intensely grim; making a Second Step powerhouse stay was simply too difficult. Without the Aurora Palace’s aid, even he was no match for Heavenly Gu Daoist.
Being able to repel him meant the mission was accomplished; Emperor Shitian transformed into a stream of light and charged at Achilles.
"What, Heavenly Gu actually ran?"
"What happened?"
"It seems the Military Leader broke through to the Undying Realm and scared the old Daoist away? Is Undying really that powerful?"
Undying Realm was far too distant.
For many Heavenly Realm experts, it was only a legend; just how strong it really was, no one had ever witnessed.
"Hahaha, so it’s really the Undying Realm. No wonder Chenzhou was so confident. My disciple is invincible!" Old Wang leaped from his sickbed in excitement.
"That fellow is truly unpredictable. Where exactly is his limit?" Yaochi Immortal Hand stroked her silver-grey hair, her chest rising and falling.
She herself was a body cultivator of the Undying Realm.
Among the powerhouses of Tianxia, in flesh cultivation, she was second only to the Eternal Immortal, the Priest, the Dragon King, and Lu Chenzhou.
She knew full well how difficult and remote the path from [Undying] to [Undying ] was! Even upon entering the Eight Realms, she wasn’t certain she could forge an Undying Body.
The words "Undying "—
—could directly scare off a Second Step powerhouse.
This was its true worth!
...
"What, actually Undying Realm? No, impossible, I must be trapped in an illusion."
Achilles would rather believe he was trapped in an illusion than accept that Lu Chenzhou had advanced to Undying —that would mean, in this world, nobody could kill him.
Unless a demigod descended!
"Divine Power·Great Unseen Finger!" Emperor Shitian attacked, lifting his finger for a gentle tap.
The waves of the Ruins Sea parted, and a finger of the Ancient Buddha, displaying the Buddhist ten qualities—color, sound, scent, taste, touch, coming into existence and ceasing, male, female—thundered down.
Great Unseen Finger.
Emperor Shitian’s strongest Middle Grade Divine Skill.
Boom! Achilles was struck in haste, his body tossed out like a rag, noble Shadow Blood scattering; the hit instantly cleared his mind.
"Heavenly Gu’s already run—I’d best withdraw, too. There’s no way to kill Lu Chenzhou even if this drags on. Besides, I’ve already obtained the Wangliang Finger Bone and Lu Chenzhou’s storage ring. Killing him or not doesn’t matter—that’s the Evil Gods’ business. Why risk my life?"
At this thought, Achilles let the Shadow Blood blaze, pouring it into the Shadow God Blade in his palm.
"Divine Power·Shadow God Descent!" Somewhere in the void, an eerie, icy laughter echoed.
Suddenly, Achilles’ body swelled like a balloon and exploded, out of which crawled a hulking, indistinct shadow monster, lips curved in a bloodthirsty smile.
"Wangliang Ancestor..."
Lu Chenzhou took a deep breath, rolling tides of the boundless Ruins Sea rumbling forth. As he unleashed Devouring Heaven and Earth, his figure soared, reaching a hundred miles tall, like Fatian Xiangdi.
The Ruins Sea for tens of thousands of miles around formed a massive vortex. His aura soared above the Early Stage of the Eighth Realm, no weaker than veterans like Achilles.
Around Emperor Shitian flew three Eighth Rank Spiritual Weapons: a drum, a sword, and a cloak, while his Spiritual Power erupted like a volcano, manifesting a Thunder Emperor avatar.
The Thunder Emperor, the Wangliang Ancestor, and Lu Chenzhou—these three colossal figures clashed blow for blow in the Ruins Sea.
Within ten thousand miles it was a black hole of chaos, with only the Daos of Shadow, the Invisible, and the World remaining—other Daos were squeezed out and erased to nothingness.
"This is a true Eight Realms battle."
"So strong."
"They’re crushing Achilles!"
Within the Aurora Palace, everyone’s hearts and minds were shaken to the core.