ISWI Chapter 960-961 (Patreon)

Chapter 960: The Eight-Crowned King Won't Attack Us!

The Celestial Prince wanted to fight the Eight-Crowned King?

When this guess surfaced, everyone frowned at once.

In any world, ranking things was the favorite pastime of onlookers. It allowed those who had no qualifications to compete for the immortal path to feel some sense of participation.

Ever since the battle between the Heavenly Emperor's heir and the Exiled Immortal, a new ranking had already been released, and the Eight-Crowned King still ranked first in this realm.

However, the reason he could still hold first place was not that people believed his talent was the best in the world.

On the contrary, everyone unanimously agreed that the Heavenly Emperor's heir's talent far surpassed the Eight-Crowned King's. It was only that the Eight-Crowned King, thanks to the World Tree sapling and the fact that he had once fought a true immortal, temporarily held the lead in combat strength.

Once the Heavenly Emperor's heir reached the Great Emperor or Quasi-Immortal realm and caught up in cultivation, it would most likely still be the Heavenly Emperor's heir who was stronger.

Second place was the Heavenly Emperor's heir. The reason for second place was self-evident. Next was the Celestial Prince, who had been ranked third.

But now that the Celestial Prince had emerged with a domineering aura, his eyes burning with undying divine flames that inspired fear, and he had come straight to the Immortal Path right after emerging, no one knew what incredible things the Celestial Prince might have obtained during his million-year seclusion. His combat strength was truly hard to predict.

Therefore, everyone was speculating.

Could the Celestial Prince be so confident that he planned to fight the Eight-Crowned King first, then the Heavenly Emperor's heir afterward?

If that was truly the case, then the Celestial Prince was also extraordinary—far more terrifying and powerful than they had expected.

Under countless gazes, the Celestial Prince did not speak. He simply swept his eyes calmly over the crowd. Then, together with the three Quasi-Immortal clan elders of the Undying Celestial Phoenix Clan, he stepped onto the teleportation array.

In the next moment, divine light flared. The four figures disappeared from their original spot. They left behind countless cultivators in Immortal City who were still discussing heatedly, guessing just how powerful the Celestial Prince had become after sealing himself for a million years.

…

Inside the Ninth Realm.

The number of cultivators here was pitifully small. They all looked at the Celestial Prince with fear and did not dare to meet his eyes.

One of the clan elders spoke, "Old Ancestor, where is that Holy Spirit located?"

The Celestial Prince shook his head and sat down cross-legged. "The Holy Spirit naturally carries heavenly secret shielding. It was difficult to deduce its exact location before. But now that I am in the Ninth Realm, it won't take long to deduce the precise position."

One of the clan elders looked around hesitantly and spoke cautiously, "If we are in the Ninth Realm, will the Eight-Crowned King misunderstand and attack us?"

The Eight-Crowned King was also in the Ninth Realm.

Hearing this, the Celestial Prince also frowned slightly. He considered himself terrifyingly strong, but he did not have enough confidence when facing the Eight-Crowned King. If the other party came looking for him, it could cause quite a bit of trouble.

However, in the next moment, another clan elder shook his head. "Don't worry. The Eight-Crowned King is too proud. Even when facing the Heavenly Emperor's heir, he never said he would take action. So why would he specially attack us?"

The moment these words were spoken, the other two clan elders relaxed.

Indeed. If the Eight-Crowned King was willing to attack the Celestial Prince, he would definitely have tried to nip the Heavenly Emperor's heir in the bud as well. Since he had not taken action against the Heavenly Emperor's heir, he was even less likely to come kill them.

The Celestial Prince's frown deepened when he heard this. He felt humiliated. Now, even his own clansmen did not seem to trust him.

But the most important thing was that he really did not have much confidence. This scene was far too different from the one he had imagined—emerging into the world and becoming unrivaled in this realm.

The Celestial Prince secretly clenched his fist. After hesitating for a moment, he closed his eyes again and began deducing the Holy Spirit's location. Joining hands with the Holy Spirit, they would definitely be able to shake and kill both the Heavenly Emperor's heir and the Eight-Crowned King. So what if their talent and combat strength were strong? Did he really have to charge forward and court death?

What he wanted was to enter the Immortal Realm and become an Immortal King to achieve eternal life. Not to compete with others in a lower realm over a moment of hot-blooded courage. Walking farther was the real victory!

In this manner, several days passed. The Celestial Prince suddenly stood up, locked onto a direction, and flew toward the depths of the Ninth Realm of the Immortal Path!

…

Heavenly Evolution Holy Land.

Above the Holy Son Peak.

As terrifying power boiled forth, a massive black hole appeared in the sky. All the spiritual qi within the entire Holy Land formed a vortex at this moment, carrying spiritual pressure as it was sucked inside. But it was not only spiritual qi that was being drawn in.

That enormous black hole was like the path of reincarnation, seemingly wanting to pull everyone's mind and soul into it for transmigration. Even the Great Emperor realm elders inside the Holy Land changed color, feeling their divine souls become unstable.

If not for the fact that the master of the black hole harbored no malice, the divine souls of countless cultivators throughout Heavenly Evolution Holy Land might have been sucked away in an instant, turning the entire area into a dead zone.

Feng Baiyu raised an eyebrow as he watched, sensing the spiritual qi inside the Holy Land thinning at an inconceivable speed. Shock flickered in his pupils.

"What kind of black hole has Ye Chen condensed? Its plundering power is actually this tyrannical? And it carries the power of reincarnation. Did he comprehend it from the Innate Supreme Heart? Even the Heavenly Emperor back then only truly mastered reincarnation after approaching the Immortal King realm, allowing him to sweep through everything."

Sensing that the Holy Land's spiritual qi was about to be exhausted, Feng Baiyu immediately waved his large hand. He pushed every spirit-gathering array in the entire Holy Land to maximum power. The mountain gate grand array also opened wide at this moment, like a giant beast swallowing and spitting spiritual qi from the outside world.

At the same time, the treasury of Heavenly Evolution Holy Land was thrown open. Mountains of spirit stones flew out, shattered by Feng Baiyu with a wave of his hand, turning into the purest spiritual qi that was sent into the black hole.

The elders who had rushed over upon hearing the news saw this and raised no objections. Although the Age of Dharma's End was approaching and spirit stones had become strategic resources—with many forces selling off treasures to stockpile them—as long as Ye Chen could grow and become the only one to achieve immortality in this era, would Heavenly Evolution Holy Land ever lack spirit stones again?

The spirit stones of all the major forces could belong to the Heavenly Evolution Holy Land.

Therefore, when the elders saw this behavior of consuming the sect's foundation, they not only did not stop it but instead took out their own items containing spiritual qi and shattered them as well. They were helping their Holy Son gestate his black hole.

However, after just a few days, the elders' expressions changed. It was not enough. Completely not enough. The spirit-gathering arrays of Heavenly Evolution Holy Land were already smoking. The spiritual qi concentration throughout the entire Holy Land had plummeted to an extremely thin level.

It was not just Heavenly Evolution Holy Land. Within a radius of hundreds of millions of kilometers around the Holy Land, the spiritual qi concentration had dropped to the extreme.

Countless cultivators stared in shock. They suspected that the Age of Dharma's End had arrived early.

Yet even after drawing so much, Ye Chen's black hole still had not finished gestating. In the next moment, the stars in the sky shifted. The black hole surged, sucking in endless stellar spiritual qi from the starry sky.

Countless great stars that originally followed their own trajectories were forcibly pulled off course by the black hole. Then they exploded one after another, turning into the purest heavenly and earthly origin energy that was devoured by the black hole.

At this moment, Feng Baiyu was truly dumbfounded. He had seen many scenes of people achieving the Great Emperor realm. Everyone went crazy sucking in energy. But he had never seen anyone gestate a black hole with such terrifying absorption power. It was as if the entire cultivation world was about to be drained dry. If Ye Chen continued sucking like this for a few more years, the Age of Dharma's End might really arrive early because of him!

Chapter 961: Peak of the Great Emperor!

Ye Chen condensed his chaotic vortex. The amount of energy he absorbed far exceeded what ten thousand Great Emperor realm cultivators could gather combined. It was simply outrageous.

Fortunately, the disaster Feng Baiyu had feared never occurred. After a full month had passed and more than a hundred massive stars had been destroyed, the chaotic vortex finally stopped devouring everything around it and quietly faded away once more.

Yet Feng Baiyu's eyes were filled with shock.

After a cultivator broke through to the Great Emperor realm, their chaotic vortex and inner world became interdependent. The inner world served as the foundation for the vortex. Only a sufficiently stable world could support the vortex's continued growth. In turn, the stronger the vortex became, the faster it could draw power from the outside world, allowing the inner world's reserves to accumulate endlessly.

Feng Baiyu suspected that Ye Chen's inner world had already reached the peak of the Great Emperor level back when he was still at the Great Saint realm. Now, he no longer needed to divert any attention to strengthening his world's foundation and could focus entirely on nurturing his chaotic vortex.

Having drawn in such an enormous amount of power—one capable of swallowing entire stars—Ye Chen's vortex had likely grown to its absolute limit. When it reappeared, would Ye Chen have already stepped into the peak of the Great Emperor realm? If so, his foundation could truly be described as unprecedented and unrepeatable.

…

The world possessed tremendous self-recovery power.

Merely half a month later, the spiritual Qi density in the Heavenly Evolution Holy Land and the surrounding region had returned to its previous levels.

The chaotic stellar phenomena in the sky, caused by the destruction of hundreds of great stars, had also settled into new, stable orbits.

Inside the Heavenly Evolution Holy Land, almost every cultivator was waiting for Ye Chen to emerge from seclusion. They all wanted to know whether the person responsible for such a massive disturbance had truly reached the peak of the Great Emperor realm the moment he came out of closed-door cultivation.

If that were the case, Ye Chen's cultivation speed at the ninth layer of the Mahayana stage would be even faster than most cultivators progressing through the ninth layer of Qi Refining.

Just then, endless strange phenomena suddenly gathered above Holy Son Peak. Accompanied by the slow opening of the long-silent gates to the Holy Son's residence, a figure walked out unhurriedly, instantly drawing every eye in the area.

The person who appeared was naturally Ye Chen.

The moment the experts of the Heavenly Evolution Holy Land sensed his aura, their breathing halted. Before entering seclusion, their fourth Holy Son's presence had already been enough to make Quasi-Immortals feel awe and fear. Now, he had clearly taken another major step forward.

A Great Emperor's aura was not something one could look at directly; even Quasi-Immortals trembled in dread. Especially Ye Chen's eyes—they were deep and serene, as if connected to the cycle of reincarnation itself. A single glance was enough to draw a person's soul into their depths.

Feng Baiyu flew over to stand before Ye Chen and stared at him with widened eyes.

"You… you've really reached the peak of the Great Emperor realm?"

Feng Baiyu could hardly believe it.

Ye Chen merely gave a faint smile in response. His inner world's foundation had long since reached an unattainable level. After breaking through to the Great Emperor realm and beginning to nurture his chaotic vortex, he had felt no strain at all.

Thus, after condensing the vortex, he continued nurturing it without pause until it directly reached its limit. His cultivation had naturally risen along with it, climbing straight to the peak of the Great Emperor realm.

Faced with Feng Baiyu's incredulous gaze, Ye Chen simply shook his head lightly.

"I simply worked a little harder than most on a daily basis and built up a slightly deeper foundation, that's all. These are the most basic things. Why is the Holy Master so surprised?"

Feng Baiyu's mouth twitched. This kid had grown stronger, and his ability to show off had grown even more unbearable. If he could still beat Ye Chen, he really wouldn't be able to hold back.

"Who asked you?"

Feng Baiyu rolled his eyes, turned around, and flew back toward the Cloud Summit Heavenly Palace. He had originally wanted to ask many more questions, but seeing Ye Chen acting so smug, he decided not to. Let the brat suffocate from holding it in.

After his breakthrough, Ye Chen was in an excellent mood. If conditions had allowed, he would have liked nothing more than to enter seclusion again and push straight through to the Quasi-Immortal realm.

Unfortunately, that was impossible for the time being. To achieve the Quasi-Immortal realm, one needed to fuse the chaotic vortex with the inner world and perfect its rules. The minimum requirement for that fusion was complete harmony between the world and the vortex—in other words, they had to coexist and influence each other for a sufficient length of time.

For most cultivators, this was never an issue. After all, the journey from condensing the chaotic vortex to reaching the peak of the Great Emperor realm took even the most talented geniuses nearly a thousand years. Their vortex and inner world would have long since achieved perfect harmony during that extended period.

Ye Chen, however, was different. He had shot straight to the peak the moment he broke through. Both his chaotic vortex and inner world had reached their limits, yet the vortex was still brand new. The two had not had time to synchronize. It was truly a problem only the most supreme prodigies would face.

Ye Chen had already calculated that it would take roughly two and a half years for the synchronization to complete, at which point he could attempt to break through to the Quasi-Immortal realm.

He was not worried. After reaching the Great Emperor realm, his strength had surged once more. While his overall combat power had doubled in many aspects, that was merely secondary. The true gain lay in the reincarnation chaotic vortex he had condensed. Even Ye Chen felt it was terrifyingly powerful.

The reincarnation rules within it had benefited him immensely, greatly enhancing many of his divine techniques, including the Heavenly Emperor Fist. His Supreme Heart had also been significantly affected, as if it were accelerating its own transformation.

Ye Chen believed his double pupils could incorporate the reincarnation rules as well. If his original destructive light evolved directly into the light of reincarnation, its power would undoubtedly become far greater—one glance could send an opponent into the cycle of reincarnation.

In short, the reincarnation chaotic vortex was like a treasure trove. Once he fully excavated and mastered its rules, his strength would surge again.

Under these circumstances, spending another two and a half years consolidating his gains was perfectly acceptable.

Besides, no one in the current cultivation world should be able to defeat him anymore. He could casually slap a Celestial Prince to death and suppress an eight-crowned king. There was also that gestating holy spirit, though he did not know whether it would emerge before he became an immortal. Either way, it would not affect the overall situation. For now, he would simply continue cultivating steadily.

Ye Chen drifted toward Senior An's cave residence. He still remembered their agreement. Once he broke through to the Quasi-Immortal realm, if he had not yet obtained the Chaos Azure Lotus, he would fulfill his promise and take Senior An as his Dao companion, then conceive their first child.

In truth, Ye Chen had never wanted children. With his lifespan stretching endlessly into the future and the hope of eventual transcendence, he had no need for offspring to carry on his legacy.

However, Senior An held a different place in his heart. Since she desired it so strongly, he found it difficult to refuse.

With these thoughts in mind, Ye Chen arrived at Senior An's cave residence.

Upon learning that he had broken through directly to the peak of the Great Emperor realm, Senior An—who had always remained calm and composed, her expression unchanging even if the sky were to collapse—showed a rare flicker of expectant joy in her eyes. When she helped dispel his poison, she was far more proactive than usual.

Clearly, after all these years, Senior An had endured far too much hardship…

…

At the same time, the Celestial Prince arrived before a hidden realm together with three Quasi-Immortals from the Undying Celestial Phoenix Clan. The secret realm was protected by mysterious arrays that shielded it from heavenly secrets. Even a Quasi-Immortal would find it nearly impossible to open.

However, three divine lights appeared behind the Celestial Prince's head. They swirled and transformed into profound talismans that empowered him. The flames in his eyes burned even brighter, as if they could see through everything in the world.

Soon, the Celestial Prince pointed a finger lightly into the void. The secret realm rumbled in response. Its entrance slowly opened, revealing a lotus pond within.