Wanhe Demon Kingdom, Kalin Realm Star.
Kalin Realm Star is located deep within the demon race's territory, yet it still maintains the lifestyle of the human race, with ninety percent of its population being pure humans.
At the center of the realm star, there stands a giant tree, its trunk supporting a palace, and its leaves covered with a layer of soil. Rows of plants are planted there, and many of the arrangements are similar to those in the Primordial Realm.
On a city tower that closely resembles the one in Great Void City, a young man in white robes stands sideways beneath the crescent moon, holding a jar of wine with one hand. His gaze, filled with sorrow, looks at the sky.
Jin Yan, once a disciple of Zuo Qiyu, a former member of the Coral Nine Steps, and a Shennong from the Extreme Dao Mother Tree lineage.
In the past, Jin Yan made great contributions to the empire and was a hero of his time. However, now his name cannot be found in the empire's history. He has transformed into a guest elder of the Wanhe Demon Kingdom.
"Master, you gave Zhao Xing a way out, why couldn't you give me a way out?" Jin Yan murmurs to himself.
"Back then, it was you who made me cultivate the Primordial Avatar. It was you who made me experience the agony of the split, and it was because of you that I can only survive in the demon race's domain, hiding in the shadows... Why... now..."
"Because you're too weak! Just like him!" At that moment, a long sword pierced through the wall of the city tower, stabbing through Jin Yan's body.
A red shadow appeared behind him, and his gaze, sharp as a freshly forged blade, swept across the sky. Even the wind seemed to freeze and fall to the ground. He looked exactly like Jin Yan, but his aura was completely different.
"Poof!" The red-armored Jin Yan killed the white-robed Jin Yan, then absorbed him, and his aura seemed to grow stronger.
Thud. Looking at the broken body on the ground, Jin Yan coldly crushed it underfoot, muttering, "Zuo Qiyu, Zhao Xing, both of you must die!"
Turning around, countless "Jin Yan" corpses lay in pools of blood within the city.
Only a few remained, still struggling to crawl on the ground.
The red-armored Jin Yan extended his hand, and the remaining avatars were killed one by one. With each death, the red-armored Jin Yan's aura grew stronger.
Once Zhao Xing suppressed the murderous intent in his heart, he began to quickly organize his thoughts.
After mastering the Primordial Straw Puppet Technique, he gained four abilities.
The first was Control of Dao. The original Great Void Straw Puppet Technique repelled any straw puppet within a certain range, making others' straw puppet techniques ineffective. So, when Zhao Xing first practiced it, many people's straw puppets in the Primordial Realm collapsed.
The Primordial Straw Puppet Technique added a control ability on top of that foundation.
Within a certain range, Zhao Xing could control any straw puppet.
Moreover, he didn't need soul intrusion and could control them remotely. This ability naturally emerged after mastering the Primordial Straw Puppet Technique, and it could be called a "Great Dao Divine Ability."
The second was Primordial Dharma Body. The prototype of the Primordial Straw Puppet Technique was Void Ancestor, who, though a Qi Sect martial artist, had a body of techniques.
The Primordial Dharma Body would naturally give birth to Primordial Divine Power, which has a strong ability for space traversal because Void Ancestor himself was born in the void!
Thus, the Primordial Dharma Body was very adept at cultivating spatial techniques, and its power was greatly amplified.
If the Primordial Straw Puppet were made with special Void Ancestor materials, it would even possess the defensive power of a golden body.
However, Zhao Xing didn't have the "Void Ancestor materials" on hand, so with ordinary materials, its power was significantly reduced.
The third was No-Distance Transmission.
The Dharma Body and the main body could transmit to each other.
The main body's soul and the Primordial soul could also swap places or recover the soul.
In the Great Void Straw Puppet Technique, Zhao Xing's main body and split souls had to be close to each other for soul separation.
However, with the Primordial Straw Puppet Technique, with just a thought, the main body could recall the split soul!
He could sense them from any distance, and soul transmission occurred instantly. The transmission between the main body and the avatar was slightly slower, but the distance it could cover was immense.
"If there's no obstruction, it can almost instantly cross a star system. If I have avatars stationed in thirty-six of the empire's top-tier star systems, I could travel across the vast empire's domains in a day."
"The soul has no distance limitations! I can recall it with a single thought!"
"No wonder Zuo Qiyu is always so elusive; he's everywhere." Zhao Xing couldn't help but feel amazed.
Of course, the only drawback of No-Distance Transmission was that it couldn't bring anyone along.
The fourth ability's emergence also meant that Zhao Xing would encounter difficulties when recovering souls.
This leads to the fourth ability: Soul Splitting.
It was a passive ability.
When the Primordial Avatar technique was first practiced, it would complete a split, dividing the soul into two parts that would remain independent, unaffected by each other.
The more times the soul was split, the more avatars Zhao Xing could control, and his combat strength would dramatically increase.
Because the souls were independent, once the split soul became stronger, it would develop various thoughts, creating countless voices in his mind.
With so many voices, their opinions would not always align.
When he tried to recall the split soul, it would resist!
Therefore, to avoid this situation, the Primordial Avatar and the main body shouldn't be separated for too long, or they would become "strange" to each other.
Since they were independent, the True Spirit Heavenly Poison, a deadly toxin, posed no significant problem for the Primordial Avatar. He could simply abandon the poisoned part and escape!
However, Zhao Xing believed that soul splitting was more of a flaw than an ability.
If the technique were only meant to increase survival, the Primordial Avatar wasn't much more advanced than the Great Void Avatar.
Because the Primordial Avatar was not invulnerable to death. Exceeding certain thresholds, like the use of causal divine objects, could still result in its destruction.
Based on this reasoning, the splitting technique didn't seem necessary.
"Mm. Soul Splitting, increasing the number of avatars, boosting combat power, enhancing survival ability—that's secondary. The ultimate goal is to survive the True Spirit Tribulation?" Zhao Xing continued organizing his thoughts, and he was shocked.
"Once I reach the Reincarnation Realm, I'll inevitably face the True Spirit Tribulation. If I'm not sure I can survive it, I can use the Primordial Dharma Body combined with some True Spirit to endure the tribulation."
"By sacrificing one Dharma Body and some True Spirits, I can avoid the True Spirit Tribulation."
"After surviving the tribulation, due to the independence of the Primordial Avatar, the True Spirit will grow stronger."
"Then, using No-Distance Transmission, with just a thought, I can recall the True Spirit. The True Spirit will be a thousand times stronger, even ten thousand times stronger than others!"
"So the ultimate goal is really this?"
Zhao Xing thought for a moment: If, during the first tribulation in the Reincarnation Realm, he split one thousand Primordial avatars, and each Primordial avatar undergoes the True Spirit Tribulation, then once the avatars survive the tribulation, the True Spirit will grow even stronger.
Assuming that the reward for surviving the True Spirit Tribulation is 1 for everyone in the Reincarnation Realm, by recalling them, he would have 1000 times the True Spirit!
What if it were ten thousand or one million?
"Shh!" Zhao Xing was immediately stunned. "Surviving the tribulation, then recalling and increasing the True Spirit."
"Failing the tribulation? It doesn't affect the main body or other avatars. Only one dies."
"This is truly heaven-defying."
But after some careful consideration, Zhao Xing felt there must be a limit to this Soul Splitting.
Otherwise, Zuo Qiyu and Jin Yan wouldn't be thinking of killing each other.
Everyone could just cultivate their avatars to grow stronger, so why all the fighting and killing?
"Control of Dao, No-Distance Transmission, Primordial Dharma Body, Soul Splitting—each of these abilities is heaven-defying," Zhao Xing thought. "But there are also many hidden dangers. If the Soul Splitting goes too far, it will surely lead to mental confusion. You need extremely strong soul secret techniques to control it, or you could go mad."
"The Primordial Dharma Body consumes a lot. Without Void Ancestor materials, it's only slightly stronger than the Great Void Avatar, not enough to reach a level that defies the heavens."
"Control of Dao becomes ineffective against people like Zuo Qiyu and Jin Yan. When everyone is on the same level, it's just another technique, and it can't break through."
"No-Distance Transmission doesn't have much of a hidden danger, but if there aren't enough avatars, it can't achieve its full effect."
"Gu Tianyang really created an extremely powerful, yet extremely deadly technique." Zhao Xing summarized his thoughts.
After becoming more familiar with his abilities, he looked toward the distant towering mountains.
"Since this technique is based on Void Ancestor as the template, the information on Void Ancestor's shedding god bone must be very important."
"Zuo Qiyu must have made up his mind to teach me this technique. He probably wanted to solve the flaws as well."
No one would want to cultivate such a technique, especially one that had caused a master-disciple rift!
Zuo Qiyu must have been willing to make concessions on the Great Dao, hoping to find a solution in his heart.
"No-Distance Transmission." A flash of black appeared in Zhao Xing's eyes, and the mountain in front of him vanished, along with the gray mist in the sky.
He saw the Great Void Avatar, which had been pinned under the mountain.
The Great Void Avatar also had the conditions for No-Distance Transmission, but its range was not as great as that of the Primordial Avatar.
"Whoosh~"
The next moment, the main body sitting on the flower chair disappeared, appearing inside the Great Void Avatar that had been crushed.
Both the soul and body were transmitted and arrived inside the Great Void Straw Puppet!
Swish~
Zuo Qiyu and the Five Venom Emperor appeared simultaneously, looking at the empty flower chair. Zuo Qiyu didn't say anything.
"What's there to look at? It's just a chair, you're not going to have red eyes, are you?" The Five Venom Emperor cautiously put the flower chair away.
Zhao Xing was able to suppress his murderous intent because he had just completed the technique and hadn't undergone multiple soul splits yet. But Zuo Qiyu, with so many avatars, experienced the same kind of craving that came with the tearing.
The more avatars, the more voices guiding his actions!
"Hmph." Zuo Qiyu turned his gaze away.
"Zuo Qiyu, tell me honestly, did you purposely teach Zhao Xing the Primordial Avatar to treat him like a pig?" The Five Venom Emperor asked. "His avatar, though transformed into his shape, was fully controllable using 'Control of Dao.' You could have made the connection first, then used No-Distance Transmission to enter."
"Foolish!" Zuo Qiyu laughed. "You still claim to understand? Turns out, you're just posturing."
The Five Venom Emperor realized that Zuo Qiyu was referring to the conversation in the Tianyou Ancient Kingdom's imperial palace. However, this time he didn't become angry but asked, "Then tell me, what do I not understand?"
"If I could enter, why would I create another enemy?" Zuo Qiyu said coldly. "I've already tried. Control of Dao is useless against Zhao Xing's Great Void Avatar here."
"If your Control of Dao fails here, does that mean..." The Five Venom Emperor's gaze sharpened as if he realized something.
"Either the shedding god bone isolates it, or it's the issue with the Transmission Realm Tower, or this space-time has a master," Zuo Qiyu said. "Either way, it's a god-level power, and only they can enter."
The Five Venom Emperor was well aware of the Causal War. He worried, "How did a small fry like Zhao Xing's Causal War escalate to such a level? Sigh..."
At this point, the Five Venom Emperor could only sigh. When it reached such a level, he could only hope that Zhao Xing would remain safe.
Zhao Xing's main body appeared inside the Great Void Straw Puppet. At this point, he hadn't experienced a full tear yet. He only felt a faint separation between his main body and the avatar. This was because his soul hadn't yet undergone a qualitative change to reach the True Spirit level. The first great split was not fully completed; it was only a prelude.
However, he couldn't care about this right now. He just wanted to enter quickly and find out what was going on.
"My upper body is pinned outside the circle, but my lower body is inside."
"The avatar needs to maintain this state. I won't recall the split soul yet. I'll head towards the feet and see if I can pass through into the inside."
Zhao Xing ran through the interior space of the Great Void Straw Puppet for a while. He could see a distinct outer layer with a faint red glow, and inside it was a white barrier.
As he approached, he felt an invisible resistance.
"Not letting me in?" Zhao Xing tried again but found himself unable to enter. The sensation was identical to the one he experienced when blocked at the Transmission Realm Tower's entrance.
However, just as Zhao Xing was thinking of a solution, the light shield underwent two changes.
The first change was that the red light weakened. It receded slowly, like a tide moving outward.
The second change was that the white light brightened, and a wave-like ripple pushed upward.
"First, the red light gently and actively withdrew. Second, the white light seems to have launched an attack, pushing back the red light." Zhao Xing keenly noticed the change and a guess formed in his mind.
"Could it be that Old Qing and Bowe are helping me? Old Qing is repaying a favor, but what does Bowe want?"
"Just go with the flow, go with the flow—after all, I'll be forgotten once I return to my old home." Zhao Xing shook his head, deciding not to think too much about it.
"Whoosh~"
The main body successfully passed through the white light barrier and entered the god pattern area.
The view in front of him brightened from dimness, just like stepping out of a cave.
In fact, this was exactly the case; Zhao Xing entered the interior through his Great Void Avatar's big toe.
"I'm inside now. Where is the god pattern of the shedding god bone?"
He looked down and found only a vast expanse of white, unable to see anything else.
This was no different from being outside, except for the ground glowing white. Zhao Xing didn't feel anything. "Could it be that the white light is divine power?" Zhao Xing wondered, feeling it was very likely.
When he studied the god-level technique, the Heart Sealing Technique, left by the divine doctor Fan Qianrou, he had experienced a burst of white light as well.
That white light later split into seven colors, and eventually, through his understanding of the Great Life Dao, he mastered the Blue Flower power.
"My soul body still has half of the True Soul Heavenly Poison. This is really difficult to comprehend," Zhao Xing thought as he looked at the ground, a thought suddenly crossing his mind.
"Maybe Old Qing was right, the opportunity is here—soul exit!!!"
The True Soul Heavenly Poison had made it extremely difficult for his soul to leave his body. It felt like carrying an infinitely heavy mountain, moving step by step forward without shaking. At that moment, half of the True Soul Heavenly Poison was already dispelled, and the protective measures set up by Bowe around his soul were also half removed.
With a misstep, the True Soul Heavenly Poison could fully erupt.
"Ugh~"
Zhao Xing's seven apertures started leaking a faint black mist.
It took three years, but finally, as his magic power neared exhaustion, he completed the step of "soul exit."
"Buzz~"
When the soul, carrying the True Soul Heavenly Poison, emerged, Zhao Xing felt a sudden release throughout his body.
The world around him suddenly became bright.
It was like finally unloading an enormous burden, and he felt an immense sense of relief.
"Oh, wow, this feels great!"
It was so comfortable that Zhao Xing couldn't help but dance with joy, shouting out loud.
Because in that instant, the True Soul Heavenly Poison was dissolved by the white light!
It was like throwing an ice cube into the sun—instantly melting away!
"Void Ancestor is amazing!" Zhao Xing couldn't help but exclaim.
He had still been unable to dispel the True Soul Heavenly Poison using the Blue Flower power, but the divine power on Void Ancestor's shedding bone instantly neutralized the poison!
The shedding bone, having been around for who knows how many years, still had the divine power to eliminate the half-god-level, hard-to-cure True Soul Heavenly Poison!
"I can see some clues now."
Zhao Xing's soul returned to his body. Without the True Soul Heavenly Poison, everything seemed clearer.
"Earlier, the white light dissolved the True Soul Heavenly Poison. This white light rose from beneath my feet and returned to about a hundred meters above my head."
"Soul Sight!"
Suddenly, pairs of eyes appeared above Zhao Xing's head. With multiple perspectives, he could now scan the white earth back and forth.
He sat cross-legged while his main body also practiced the "Heart Sealing Technique."
Since Fan Qianrou was also in the divine realm, even if she wasn't as powerful as Void Ancestor, she still had divine power.
The Great Dao leads to the same destination. Zhao Xing thought that he could use his experience with the Blue Flower power to understand Void Ancestor's shedding god bone.
"He's inside."
Zuo Qiyu and the Five Venom Emperor watched from afar on a mountain peak. They could clearly see a tiny black dot on the white earth below.
"Stop looking. I'll guard this place," the Five Venom Emperor nudged Zuo Qiyu. "Your eyes are red again—"
"Huh? I didn't feel your killing intent this time. Could it be you really have red eyes?"
Zuo Qiyu: "..."
"Can you not talk if you're not going to say anything useful?"
Seeing Zuo Qiyu about to explode, the Five Venom Emperor quickly changed the topic. "The Heavenly Martial Emperor has been asking for help for a while. You should go mediate."
"We can't just ignore him. It wouldn't look good."
Zuo Qiyu nodded. The Heavenly Martial Emperor might be tough, but facing five demon clan emperors, he could only take a beating with no strength to fight back.
However, if the Heavenly Martial Emperor didn't end the battle, the five demon clan emperors wouldn't be able to successfully comprehend the shedding god bone.
With a Qi Sect martial artist yelling in the background, how could anyone concentrate on comprehending?
"Whoosh~"
Zuo Qiyu quickly flew towards the battle area.
After just three months in the god pattern area, Zhao Xing had made progress, and his main body had also mastered the Blue Flower power.
A strand of Blue Flower power enveloped his eyes. With the enhancement of the Blue Flower power, his perspective on the white earth completely changed.
The movement trajectory of the white light slowed down, and Zhao Xing committed all the operating patterns to memory. Soon, they formed a strange diagram.
Upon zooming in, Zhao Xing was a bit surprised because it looked very much like a stomach.
The stomach was three-dimensional, with many white lines flowing like meridians in operation.
"If the shedding bone I'm seeing is only part of it, does this represent the method of devouring in a martial artist's golden body cultivation?"
A martial artist's golden body cultivation involves skin, bones, and organs, each part having its own separate method of cultivation, yet the whole body is interconnected.
Zhao Xing had entered the stomachs of many Qi Sect martial artists, such as You Tian and Chen Xuan.
The scenes inside their stomachs were completely different. Some had stomachs filled with flames, like a world of fire, while others had stomachs that resembled an ice-cold purgatory.
Not to mention the martial artists; he himself had practiced food supplementation techniques, which made him very familiar with this part of the body.
"In martial arts cultivation, the Heavenly Chef position occupies a very important part. The Qi Sect philosophy is about gathering everything in the body, being able to absorb and digest spiritual energy, making that the primary goal."
"Digestion happens here, and from this point, the energies of Yin, Yang, and the Five Elements are circulated throughout the body to temper the bones and strengthen the flesh, which is the essence of internal cultivation."
The three-dimensional diagram before him looked like a star chart. Zhao Xing thought for a moment, then summoned a straw puppet from his source space to begin a simulation.
He didn't dare to try it on his main body, but within the straw puppet techniques, there was a shape-shifting Avatar, which could perfectly replicate the human or demon race's physique, designed specifically to test new methods.
If the main body tried, it might go wrong, but if the shape-shifting Avatar tried, even if it exploded, it wouldn't matter.
Buzz~
The first step of the shape-shifting puppet's cultivation exploded.
Boom!
It exploded cleanly, instantly vanishing into nothingness.
Zhao Xing furrowed his brows.
It wasn't because the Avatar exploded that he frowned, but because he realized he had forgotten the entire process of cultivation just now.
"I can't remember it. Even if I complete the training here, it would be useless." Zhao Xing looked at the disintegrating diagram. At first, the Avatar remembered half of it, but now it had forgotten everything.
"The method of the shedding bone, the level is too high. Even if it's just a fragment, I can't remember the Dao patterns, let alone preserve them. It's difficult."
After practicing, forgetting immediately was clearly due to the Dao patterns attached to the divine bone being impossible to retain.
This made Zhao Xing's efforts, whether in cultivating himself or copying and submitting it for others, a difficult task.
Boom!
Whoosh~
Bang, bang, bang, bang!
After trying over ten thousand times, Zhao Xing realized this was no coincidence. Each time, the cultivation would explode right at the beginning.
"Many precious secret methods require very high standards for the materials that carry them. For example, Fan Qianrou's Seven-Star Fighting Cabinet, the innate divine powers preserved by the Three Thousand Dao Seeds, the Primordial Dao Zang, and the Myriad Dao Tree—"
"Powerful methods require strong carriers to preserve them."
"Could I try using plant life as a carrier?" Zhao Xing looked inwardly at his source space.
"Seven Domains True Spirit Bamboo—this was given by the Five Venom Emperor. It's already entering the growth phase now, and its combat power rivals that of the Reincarnation Realm. It probably won't work, though. It's not the Myriad Dao Tree. It's not a good carrier."
"The Black Sky Moon Tree, grade unknown, it's better not to try. It definitely won't work."
"The Spirit Devouring Grass, legendary grade, its level should be enough, but it's still just a seedling. It's probably not going to work."
"The Thousand Illusions Tree? Let's not talk about that. It's still only in the Life and Death Dao domain."
"The soul would obviously be a good carrier. If I try cultivating with my main body, I might be able to remember it. Just like Fan Qianrou's method, the soul power in the trial puppet is too small."
"Maybe if I cultivate with my main body, it won't explode."
"But, it's very dangerous, and even if I learn it, I can't teach it to others."
"Unless I find a suitable carrier, like the Heart Sealing Law with the Seven-Star Fighting Cabinet."
Zhao Xing hesitated, but he was unwilling to leave it untried. Still, the danger was far too uncontrollable.
Suddenly, something in his source space caught his attention, making his eyes light up.
"Ah, how did I not think of that!"
Whoosh~
Zhao Xing flipped his hand, and a wooden statue appeared before him from his source space.
Far away, in the Tianyou Ancient Kingdom's royal palace, Qing Yuzi in the elm tree felt something, so he gazed in the direction of the shedding god bone.
When he saw Zhao Xing take out the wooden statue, Qing Yuzi's eyes nearly popped out of his head.
"What? This bastard—Don't use my divine statue as a carrier!!"
What level is Void Ancestor? What level is he?
Letting Zhao Xing in already consumed a lot of his divine power. He only allowed him in because he saw Zhao Xing was special and wanted to give him a try.
But now, Zhao Xing, afraid to die and not daring to practice himself, was planning to use his divine statue as a carrier to give himself some insurance.
"Don't—"
Qing Yuzi wanted to scold Zhao Xing, but it was too late!
He heard a faint mumble in his ears: "Oh, great Qing Yu God, disciple Zhao Xing plans to borrow your divine statue for a while. If he can bring back the Void Ancestor divine method, it will benefit cultivators, and you will gain immeasurable merit—"
Immediately, Qing Yuzi's eyes turned red.
The red light that symbolized the operation rules of the Transmission Realm Tower, which he had previously overcome, suddenly pressed down fiercely.
Boom!
His head was instantly split in two, stopping only at his neck.
Qing Yuzi's body split apart!
And so did his mood.
"My former law body was just wasted like this. I will never be able to enter this time-space again." Qing Yuzi wanted to cry but had no tears. "Sigh, what sin have I committed..."