The Supreme Grade Puppet, Di, gave a profound, solemn nod. "Yes, Master," he affirmed, his resonant baritone now laced with a deeper, more human quality. His magnificent, marble-swirled form did not dissolve but flowed, the swirling black and white essence reforming and coalescing.
In a matter of heartbeats, the puppet was gone, replaced by a figure of an ancient, composed man. Long, pristine white hair, bound by a simple jade pin, fell over the shoulders of a flowing white and light blue robe. The old man, whose face held the calm, ageless expression of a mountain, executed a deep, graceful bow before Lin Yi. The next moment, with a silent flicker, his presence vanished, completely absorbed into the fabric of the void.
Lin Yi's blazing red pupils narrowed. He instantly extended his spiritual consciousness, a vast, invisible net of mental energy that swept across the mountainside and into the surrounding emptiness. The consciousness, capable of piercing through complex arrays and defenses, found nothing.
Di was utterly gone, his spiritual signature completely erased from the universe's ambient energy. Lin Yi's lips curved slightly beneath his mask, his eyes briefly glowing with satisfied triumph. The Supreme Grade Puppet was perfect; a weapon undetectable even by its own master, ready to strike from a place no one could perceive.
His gaze slowly shifted from the scarred earth to the distant direction of Yan City, a place he was now far removed from. 'Yan City is no longer Lin Dong's stage,' he mused internally. The original destiny was already in motion. His brother would soon be leaving the city, heading for the Lin Clan's main branch competition, the inevitable, chaotic grandeur of the Hundred Empire Battle, and the ultimate gateway to the future: the Eight Super Sect Recruitment. The returns he had just received... the Tai Sheng Art and the Reincarnation Heart... were not meant for quick, flashy power-ups but for a complete, foundational overhaul of his path.
'I need time,' he concluded, the thought absolute. He would retreat into secluded cultivation, solidifying his new Third Turn Nirvana foundation and quietly mastering the incomprehensible power before the wider world stage opened. The timeline would not wait for him, but his current power meant he didn't need to chase it.
A faint, calculating light sparked in his eyes as he recalled the glacial figure of Ling Qingzhu. He had promised to visit her Nine Heaven Supreme Purity Sect. Unlike his younger brother, who would approach the Super Sects as a desperate, hopeful recruit, Lin Yi would arrive as an absolute power.
'The Super Sects are not high and mighty to me,' he thought, a cold, almost arrogant confidence settling over him. 'I will be strong enough to treat their leaders as equals, perhaps less. I will visit during the recruitment, but not as a participant. I will go for her.' With a wave of his hand, a spatial tear opened, and Lin Yi stepped into the shimmering void, disappearing to begin his period of supreme seclusion.
…
A year bled into the vast stretch of time, marked only by the phases of the moon and the slow, inexorable growth of power within Lin Yi. Far from the chaotic currents of the Great Yan Empire's core, in a remote, nameless village nestled in the capital province's deepest wilderness, Lin Yi had chosen his sanctuary.
He sat cross-legged at the muddy edge of a slow-moving river, a simple bamboo fishing rod resting in the crook of his hand. His usual head band was replaced by a wide-brimmed straw hat, shadowing his calm gray pupils, which were currently fixed not on the water, but on the thin, almost invisible wire he had meticulously designed as his line. The wire, woven from rare spiritual silk and infused with minute traces of his Nirvana Qi, gave a faint, almost imperceptible flicker.
A small, satisfied smile touched his lips. He gave the rod a subtle, practiced tug. The water broke cleanly, and a plump, silver-scaled river fish arced through the air. He caught it with a casual ease that belied the focused power of a Ninth Turn Nirvana Master, placing it into a nearby wicker basket.
In this year's duration, his strength has steadily increased from Third Turn of Nirvana to Ninth Turn of Nirvana Transformation. After using all the returns he received from Lin Dong and others… including Ling Qingzhu who also successfully broke through the Nirvana realm.
While he was looking at the silver fish and thinking about his current realm, a silent, internal tsunami of light erupted within the confines of his spiritual consciousness, instantly overwhelming the quiet serenity of his retreat.
[Target Character, Lin Dong, has successfully acquired the Devouring Ancestral Symbol.]
[1,000,000,000x achievement return Initiated.]
[You have gained the Devouring Avenue Symbol: The Foundation of All Consumption.]
Lin Yi's entire body went rigid. His gray pupils, usually a steady, calm lake, violently constricted to needle points beneath the shadow of his hat. The magnitude of the return... a full billion-fold multiplier... was both expected and utterly devastating in its implications.
The external world ceased to exist. In the boundless, star-filled expanse of his soul space, the Devouring World, anchored by one of the eight major constellations, experienced a colossal, instantaneous transformation. A dark, impossibly ancient symbol, a black hole of pure, consuming energy, materialized at the core of the Devouring World. It did not merely merge; it became the core.
The Devouring World instantly stabilized, but the fluctuation it began to exude was unlike anything before. It was an ethereal, terrifying resonance, a fundamental vibration that seemed to encompass and dictate the very laws of consumption and absorption within the entire dimension. It was the sound of the universe's ultimate law of entropy being weaponized.
Simultaneously, a complete, unreserved understanding of the symbol flooded Lin Yi's mind, overriding his knowledge of the original Ancestral Symbol. This was not merely the Devouring Ancestral Symbol; it was the Devouring Avenue Symbol. It was the quintessential source of Devouring, granting him an Avenue Grade Talent: the limitless capacity to devour and process anything, from raw matter and spiritual energy to fundamental laws, concepts, and even destiny itself, without distinction.
A strange, almost detached expression replaced the fleeting shock on Lin Yi's face. He lowered the fishing rod down with meticulous care, the implications of this new, terrifying power settling into the core of his being. He turned and reached out, his bare hand closing around a simple, palm-sized, granite stone lying nearby.
He focused his consciousness, directing the subtle energy of the Devouring Avenue Symbol, a power that now flowed through his very meridians.
The activation was instantaneous, silent, and absolute.
The moment the power mixed with law touched the stone, the granite did not crumble or break; it melted. It devolved instantly, turning into a wispy, gray smoke that was immediately pulled, like water down a drain, into the Devouring World inside his soul space.
...