Chaotic qi flowed over the tips of his claws, simulating the scene of the opening of heaven and earth. In the end, a single claw tore open the river of swords and tapped the Star Sword Scion between the brows, shattering his sword heart without taking his life.
The anecdote of “claws evolving myriad arts, defeating the Star Sword” left the entire Sword Domain struck speechless.
The fourth stop: the Ancestral Nest of Myriad Beasts.
This realm was a place where the descendants of immemorial fierce beasts gathered, where bloodline power reigned supreme and the weak were prey to the strong.
Here, Lu Xuan relied on the strength of his pure fleshly body to consecutively defeat eighteen young Beast Emperors who possessed pure-blooded progenitor lineages.
In the end, he stood upon a battle platform piled high with the corpses of myriad beasts, his battle intent mingling with the baleful aura of a hundred beasts. It made all beasts bow their heads, and he was hailed as “a humanoid ancestral beast, a War Immortal descended to the world.”
The fifth stop: the Chaotic Borderlands.
This was a land of disorder near the end of the World Sea, where the laws had yet to be fixed, filled with innate chaotic qi and all manner of bizarre phenomena.
In this place, Lu Xuan encountered supreme prodigies from other ancient great realms, who were likewise tempering themselves in the World Sea.
There was a Divine Son from the “Innate Gods and Demons Great Realm,” who wielded portions of the innate laws.
There was a Stone King from the “Nine-Orificed Stone Man Ancestral Land,” whose fleshly body was undying and imperishable; and even a destined successor from the mysterious “Heavenly Domain of Fate,” who could glimpse a trace of the future’s trajectory…
All of them were supreme talents favored by the fortunes of their respective great realms, figures who could be called children of an era. Their strength was by no means inferior to the top prodigies of the Emperor’s Fall Era; in fact, some even surpassed them.
Lu Xuan contended with them in the Chaotic Borderlands, fighting until chaotic qi boiled and the borderlands shattered.
He discussed the source of laws with the Divine Son, competed against the Stone King in the limits of the fleshly body, and vied with the destined successor over the trajectory of fate…
Every battle was fraught with peril, yet each also benefited him immensely. His understanding of the method of “severing the Three Corpses” and of the War Immortal path grew deeper, and his cultivation advanced steadily toward the Immortal King realm through successive battles pushed to the utmost extreme.
He no longer relied solely on overwhelming power. Instead, he began to employ wisdom and his realm of Dao. At times, he used compassion to deliver the malice in the Divine Son’s heart; at times, he used destruction to overawe the Stone King’s imperishable body; at times, he transcended fate to evade the destined one’s probing…
He transformed conquest into one cleansing after another of the Great Dao and of the heart.
He did not deliberately spread his name, yet his figure, his battles, and his unique War Immortal path and the Dao charm of the Three Corpses were like brands, deeply engraved into every great realm he set foot in and into the hearts of every prodigy who had crossed hands with him.
“The War Immortal roaming the World Sea,” “the Master of the Three Corpses Law,” “the Chaotic Golden Crow”…
All manner of titles quietly circulated among the upper echelons and prodigy circles of many great realms.
He became a mystery, a legend, an invisible standard by which the strength of contemporary prodigies was measured.
No one knew his origins. No one knew his destination.
They only knew that he fought all the way forward, swept through all obstacles, defeated the talents of realm after realm, and that his figure shuttled between the World Sea and the myriad worlds, advancing unwaveringly toward some unknown destination.
Blood and fire were his traveling companions; battle was his sustenance.
He tempered himself in combat and gained enlightenment through conquest, fusing the essence of the Great Daos of the heavens and myriad worlds into one furnace, refining his own invincible path.
And his gaze was always fixed upon the deepest reaches of the World Sea.
The World Sea was boundless, and within it, time seemed to have lost its inherent measure.
Lu Xuan shuttled through the great realms of the heavens, battling outstanding figures from all directions, tempering himself amid blood and fire and drawing essence from the myriad Daos.
His War Immortal path grew ever more radiant, his aura deepened day by day, and the barrier leading to the Immortal King realm had become as clear as a mirror in his heart, within reach.
He was not in a hurry to break through.
The Immortal King realm was no trivial matter. It was not merely the accumulation of power, but a leap in the essence of life, the ultimate verification and sublimation of the Dao one upheld.
He wanted to take that step at the most suitable moment, in the most perfect state.
On this day, following the increasingly intense sensation he felt toward the “ancient palace” in the unseen, he charged into an extremely special region of the World Sea—the Graveyard of Myriad Daos.
It was said that this place was the final resting place of countless experts since ancient times, even of Immortal King giants, and also where the remnants of shattered great realms accumulated.
The laws here were chaotic to the extreme. Fragments of different Dao principles collided, annihilated, and were reborn, forming a bizarre and incomparably dangerous forbidden land.
Space-time was distorted. Often, one step forward would span seas and fields into mulberry groves; one might even be swept into an illusion formed by the lingering obsession of some fallen expert.
Yet danger was often accompanied by opportunity.
For powerful beings who wished to verify their own Great Dao and seek a breakthrough, this Graveyard of Myriad Daos was also an unparalleled sacred land of enlightenment.
Lu Xuan stopped here.
He felt the power in his body boiling, the Dao charm of the Three Corpses stirring, and his comprehension of chaos, of conquest, and of his own self had all reached a critical point.
“It is time.”
He no longer suppressed himself, nor did he seek external enemies.
At the center of this graveyard where myriad Daos intertwined and space-time was in disorder, he sat cross-legged and took the initiative to draw out the embryonic form of his Immortal King Dao fruit, as well as the invincible battle intent he had accumulated by crossing the heavens and defeating countless talents!
“Boom—!!!”
As though a fuse had been lit, the entire Graveyard of Myriad Daos was completely detonated by his active summoning!
Countless shattered, chaotic, and powerful fragments of Dao principles surged toward him from all directions like sharks scenting blood! There was the lingering dragon might of an immemorial Dragon Emperor, the undying obsession of a fallen Immortal King, the mournful Dao charm of a collapsed great realm, and even the meaning of chaos and ending contained within the World Sea itself… They transformed into tangible impacts, madly washing over, tearing at, and testing his Dao heart and Dao fruit!
This was no heavenly tribulation, yet it was more perilous than any heavenly tribulation! This was the backlash of myriad Daos, the collective interrogation of the wills left behind by countless departed powerhouses!
At the heart of the storm, Lu Xuan’s expression held no fear, only absolute calm and resolve.
“Corpse of the Clinging Self, govern myriad laws and stabilize heaven and earth!” The phantom of an imperial-robed figure manifested, attempting to sort out and control this chaotic torrent of myriad Daos.
“Evil Corpse, shatter all obstacles, return all to the source of annihilation!” A pitch-black battle shadow roared, using ultimate destruction to resist the encroachment from without.
“Self Corpse, illuminate suchness and clarify the true self!” A figure in blue robes sat cross-legged, anchoring his spiritual altar and reflecting the essence of myriad laws.
The Three Corpses each displayed their might, fiercely resisting the impact of the Graveyard of Myriad Daos. Lu Xuan’s body was splitting apart, his divine soul swayed, and his Dao fruit trembled, as though it might disintegrate at any moment within this terrifying torrent.
Yet he always guarded one point of undying spiritual clarity. It was the heart of a War Immortal he had condensed after battling across the heavens and comprehending his own Dao; it was the true meaning of chaos that transcended good, evil, and self, reaching straight to the source!
He recalled the tragic grandeur of the Emperor’s Fall Era, Emperor Xi’s expectations, the challenges of the talents of many realms, and his own tireless pursuit of the Great Dao… All his experiences, all his insights, merged and became clear in this instant!
“My Dao is not merely battle, not pure chaos, nor simply the severing of the self…”
“Battle is the outward form, chaos is the root, the Three Corpses are the application, and the true self is the unity!”
“My Dao is the Chaotic War Immortal Dao! It opens through conquest, is reborn through destruction, and governs the self amid the myriad Daos!”
A realization like the first ray of light at the opening of heaven and earth illuminated his sea of consciousness!
“Three Corpses… return!”