Everyone who came to the Greatlaw Gold Pond did so for the Daluo Golden Body but some people were different.
For example, Liu Bai. What occupied his mind now was not limited to the Daluo Golden Body alone…
"According to the original canon, Mandala usually remains at the deepest part of the Greatlaw Gold Pond, suppressing the curse on her body. The reason she took notice of Mu Chen was, first, because he cultivated the Great Sun Undying Body, and second, because of the Immortal Divine Page hidden within him."
The Great Sun Undying Body was a prerequisite for cultivating the Immortal Golden Body, while the Immortal Golden Body itself was one of the inheritances left behind by the Heavenly Emperor. It held extraordinary significance for both the Ancient Heavenly Palace and the Heavenly Emperor, so Mandala naturally valued it greatly.
As for the Immortal Divine Page, the ancient Mandala Flower curse inscriptions recorded on it could help Mandala suppress the curse on her body. Both of these carried special meaning to her, which was why she viewed the fledgling Mu Chen in a new light.
As for Liu Bai, he possessed neither the Great Sun Undying Body nor the Immortal Divine Page. However, if the matter was purely about suppressing the curse, he did have a fairly decent substitute…
Thinking of this, Liu Bai allowed the golden silt to continue tempering and eroding his Celestial Body. While using this opportunity to further refine his own Celestial Body, he simultaneously began using his Spiritual Soul to communicate with the Immortal True Form Scroll suspended above the Sovereign Sea.
Within the Immortal True Form Scroll resided the Five Emperors' Divine Manifestations. Even the demonic soul of a Heavenly Demon Emperor could be sealed and suppressed—helping Mandala suppress her curse would naturally be effortless in comparison.
Of course, the key issue right now was not whether the curse could be suppressed, but whether Liu Bai could mobilize the power of the Immortal True Form Scroll at all…
Within the space of the Sovereign Sea, Liu Bai's Spiritual Soul sat cross-legged with a solemn expression. Before him, a scroll trembled continuously, showing signs of opening.
Finally, just as Liu Bai's Spiritual Soul's face was about to scrunch into a knot, the trembling scroll finally opened a sliver. A strand of five-colored light spilled out from within and swiftly merged into the Five Spirits Divine Celestial Body outside.
Boom!
The Five Spirits Divine Celestial Body, which had been continuously eroded by the golden silt, suddenly erupted with violent, radiant glow, blasting the golden silt at the bottom of the pond away.
But in the next instant, Liu Bai's pupils abruptly contracted.
Within his vision, a golden stone platform gradually revealed itself. The platform was only about a zhang in size, and upon it lay a small, delicate figure, seemingly sleeping peacefully.
At that moment, Liu Bai's pupils shrank sharply. This was no act—his heart was genuinely gripped by extreme tension.
After all, the existence before him was no ordinary powerhouse, but a genuine Earth Sovereign!
More importantly, she was the kind of Earth Sovereign who could very well take his life at any moment. How could he not be nervous?
"Kind of regretting this now…"
Judging from Mandala's behavior in the original canon, she was an existence utterly indifferent to human life. If he proved useless to her, Liu Bai truly had no idea what she might do.
This was a gamble.
Win, and the rewards would be immense. Lose, and he would fall into eternal damnation.
The reason Liu Bai dared to engage in such a dangerous gamble was that he wanted to secure an even stronger backer for himself—so that he could carry out his own wildly ambitious monster-clearing plan.
After all, the biggest difference between the real world and a game was this: in a game, after you killed monsters, you didn't have to worry about the boss leaving its territory to hunt you down in advance. In reality, it absolutely would.
Thus, as a "steady" person, Liu Bai naturally wanted to secure a thick thigh to cling to beforehand.
On the golden platform, whether startled awake by the commotion Liu Bai had caused or awakening on her own after sensing something unusual, the sleeping little girl's eyelashes fluttered slightly before her eyes slowly opened.
They were a pair of golden pupils but the indifference within them made Liu Bai's scalp explode in an instant.
At that moment, Liu Bai seemed completely petrified, staring blankly ahead without the slightest movement.
Mandala's cold, golden gaze fell upon Liu Bai. She stood up, lifted her round, snow-white little foot, and gently stepped forward.
Whoosh!
Liu Bai felt his entire body go rigid as shock surged across his face.
Mandala had directly passed through the protection of his Sovereign Celestial Body and arrived before his true body.
Liu Bai did not dare to move in the slightest. Cold sweat slid down his forehead. Under the gaze of those golden eyes, he felt the unmistakable scent of death.
"Move, move, move!"
He roared inwardly.
Within the Sovereign Sea space, Liu Bai's Spiritual Soul was waving its tiny hands so fast they left afterimages, sweat droplets streaming down its small face.
Finally, just as the Spiritual Soul was about to be drained dry, the Immortal True Form Scroll opened another sliver. A strand of five-colored silk emerged from the scroll, pierced through the Sovereign Sea space, and shot toward the Five Spirits Divine Celestial Body.
At that very moment, Mandala—already standing right before Liu Bai—paused. For the first time, a ripple of emotion appeared on her indifferent face.
Liu Bai then saw her raise her slender little hand and lightly beckon. The five-colored silk that was about to merge into the Five Spirits Divine Celestial Body was caught directly in her grasp.
In the next instant, the silk thread seemed to come alive, snapping straight like a sharp sword and piercing into Mandala's chest.
"Mm…"
A pained groan sounded. Liu Bai could clearly see that Mandala's complexion visibly improved.
Liu Bai finally let out a long sigh of relief.
At this moment, Mandala no longer possessed that previous indifference toward life. Even the golden light in her eyes had faded, and her entire demeanor became much more lively.
In the next instant, Mandala waved her little hand. The golden silt covering the Five Spirits Divine Celestial Body peeled away layer by layer. The original purple-gold Celestial Body vanished, leaving behind only a resplendent, golden five-faced divine statue.
"This is… my Daluo Golden Body actually succeeded?!"
Liu Bai immediately put on a look of ecstatic surprise.
Of course, he admitted there was some acting involved—but looking at this Celestial Body radiating boundless golden light, he was genuinely delighted.
If nothing else, just the protective golden radiance emanating from the Five Spirits Divine Celestial Body alone was something even a Second-Grade Sovereign might not be able to break through. In future battles, he would already stand in an invincible position from the outset.
When the Five Spirits Divine Celestial Body revealed its true form, a trace of surprise flashed through Mandala's eyes. Then, a crisp, childish girl's voice rang beside Liu Bai's ear.
"Five Spirits Divine?"
Just three words but they made Liu Bai freeze, his face filling with shock.
This was genuine shock, without the slightest bit of pretense.
"You actually know the Five Spirits Divine?"
That shouldn't be possible… Could it be something she once heard from the Heavenly Emperor?
Mandala did not answer. She simply stared at Liu Bai with her watery eyes, the probing light within them making it impossible for him to feel even the slightest affection. Instead, it felt as though a Five-Fingered Mountain was pressing down on his heart.
"From now on, you belong to me…"
A light, casual sentence.
If those words had come from a seductive, domineering mature beauty, Liu Bai might have surrendered on the spot. But hearing them from an eleven- or twelve-year-old cute little girl—no matter how you looked at it, it felt awkward.
Still…
It wasn't entirely unacceptable.
After all, in the original story, once this little girl regained her true body and recovered her power, she would become a mature, imperial beauty not inferior to Jiu You.
At this moment, Mandala did not care what Liu Bai was thinking. After making her declaration, she seemed to have already claimed ownership over him. Her small body floated straight into Liu Bai's arms.
Liu Bai felt as though his hands were no longer under his control. They reached out on their own and caught her petite body.
At that instant, Liu Bai's eyelids twitched violently. He had the distinct feeling that some mysterious force beyond countless layers of space had locked onto him, as though it could erase both him and this entire world at any moment.
In a critical moment, Liu Bai swiftly took out a set of clothes from his storage ring and draped them over the little girl. Then, with extreme caution, he asked, "Who are you? What's your name?"
The little girl closed her eyes quietly. After a long pause, a soft, low voice finally sounded.
"Mandala."
Liu Bai sighed helplessly, but in his heart, he was already bursting with joy.
It seemed that his "abduction plan" had succeeded. From now on, if only for the sake of the power of the Immortal True Form Scroll within his body, she would stand up to save his life at critical moments—just like Mu Chen did in the original story.
Both objectives of entering the Greatlaw GoldPond had been achieved. Next, it was time to leave.
This time, Liu Bai had no intention of keeping a low profile. His Sovereign Celestial Body, which had once again expanded to a thousand zhang in height, rose explosively from the ground. Vast whirlpools formed around it as it shot straight out of the Greatlaw GoldPond.
At the same time, outside GoldPond Peak, the area was already filled with clamorous voices.
Everyone stared excitedly at the summit of the peak, where a golden sun now hung in the sky, illuminating tens of thousands of miles in golden radiance.
"So the kid really did it. Interesting, very interesting."
The Sleeping Emperor revealed a smile. Looking at the golden rune within the golden Talisman, how could he fail to understand that its owner had successfully cultivated the Daluo Golden Body?
"For so many years, this is the first time someone has succeeded in condensing the Daluo Golden Body again. It seems that our Great Heavenlaw Domain is about to produce another monstrous genius."
The Sky Vulture Emperor also chuckled softly.
Among those present, only the Spiritual Pupil Emperor and Blood Hawk King—those who were at odds with Liu Bai—could not bring themselves to smile.
It wasn't that the Spiritual Pupil Emperor was on the same side as the Blood Hawk King. He had never deigned to look downwards. The reason for his hostility toward Liu Bai was purely because Liu Bai belonged to the Nine Nether Palace, whose Palace Master, Jiu You, was a junior of the Sky Vulture Emperor.
Among the Three Emperors, the Sleeping Emperor had always stayed out of affairs. As a result, the power of the entire Great Heavenlaw Domain fell into the hands of the Sky Vulture Emperor and the Spiritual Pupil Emperor, and conflict between them was inevitable.
Liu Bai was merely an innocent victim caught in the crossfire.
However, such matters would never be brought to the surface—otherwise, the Three Emperors would lose face.
Thus, during the Assembly of Kings, the Spiritual Pupil Emperor would support the Blood Hawk King, and during the allocation of Greatlaw GoldPond quotas, he would propose reforms to increase participation slots, constantly creating opportunities for the Blood Hawk King.
Who would have thought that the latter would be so disappointing? Not only did he fail to suppress the Nine Nether Palace again, he repeatedly suffered losses instead, allowing the Nine Nether Palace to grow ever stronger.
This left the Spiritual Pupil Emperor extremely displeased.
"It should be about time. The duration of the Greatlaw GoldPond is reaching its limit,"
the Sleeping Emperor said suddenly, his eyes narrowing slightly.
Boom!
The instant his voice fell, a pillar of golden light shot straight into the sky from the summit of GoldPond Peak.
Everyone hurriedly looked up, only to see three gigantic figures tearing through the golden radiance and appearing in the heavens.
Those three figures were three Sovereign Celestial Bodies, all surrounded by dazzling golden light, appearing incomparably solid and indestructible. A powerful aura radiated from them, stirring the winds of the sky.
However, when the crowd sensed these three Sovereign Celestial Bodies, disappointment flashed through their eyes.
They could tell that although these bodies were strong, they were still a considerable distance away from achieving the Daluo Golden Body.
Boom!
Just as disappointment spread among the crowd, another colossal golden beam erupted from the summit of GoldPond Peak. Within that beam, a golden giant figure stepped into the air.
Its entire body shone like pure gold, radiating boundless golden light. The five ferocious, demon-god-like masks upon its head had become solemn and majestic. A golden halo hung behind its head, and an indescribable pressure spread outward, instantly eclipsing the other three Sovereign Celestial Bodies in the sky, even suppressing their radiance.
"The Daluo Golden Body—Five Spirits Divine! Liu Bai succeeded!"
Tang Bing and Tang Rou hugged each other tightly, jumping up and down in excitement.
Behind Jiu You, the Nine Nether Guards were equally exhilarated. Led by Qiu Shan and the others, they let out resounding shouts. After so many years, the Nine Nether Guards had finally experienced such a moment of pride!
At this time, the other three Sovereign Celestial Bodies in the sky dissipated, revealing the figures of Xu Qing, Zhou Yue, and Fang Lei.
All three stared at the golden, cast-like Sovereign Celestial Body with complicated expressions.
Having personally endured the Greatlaw GoldPond, they knew all too well how terrifying it was. Under that dreadful pressure and endless erosion, they simply could not imagine how someone could descend to a depth of two thousand zhang and endure it for such a long time!
Just how powerful had Liu Bai become?!
That question arose simultaneously in all three of their minds.
Of the three, Fang Lei—now a quasi-member of the Nine Nether Palace—felt a sense of joy instead. After witnessing Liu Bai's heaven-defying strength and potential, he felt extremely fortunate for choosing the Nine Nether Palace earlier.
With such a powerful figure leading them, Fang Lei firmly believed that the rewards he would gain in the future would be tenfold, even a hundredfold greater than what he had paid today.
...
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