Heaven-and-earth thunder pounded the domain replicas—this was the world's punitive lightning. Its might was overwhelming, enough to instantly kill a Chaos Realm Perfect, and even threaten a Calamity Supreme. Yet before the lightning web woven by the Elemental Gem, it was powerless. The Elemental Gem's tier surpasses the world itself; it can command all elements—including the world's own thunder. No matter how the world-rules struck, the replicas remained unharmed. Then gales roared and a sea of fire boiled; the world's punishments are not only lightning but also the Annihilating Wind and the Domain-Erasing Flame. Without exception, all were effortlessly neutralized by the Elemental Gem and had no effect.
Lin Moyu continued to absorb domain power. The bloodline resonance had passed, so he sped up the refining; in under an hour he had absorbed and refined forty replicas—half of them. Though resonance had shaved off some of his strength, he had already made it up. His aura now surpassed top-tier Perfect, and his domain was undergoing a qualitative change—growing ever stronger, stronger even than a Calamity Supreme's domain. At the level of Chaos Realm Perfect, with domain power alone he now had the ability to contend with a Calamity Supreme. A Perfect matching a Supreme—this shattered the bottom line of the world-rules. Rules ceased to be rules; limits ceased to limit.
The world-rules were utterly enraged. Threads of intent fell; Lin Moyu found his connection to Heaven-and-Earth rapidly severed. He could no longer sense the rules. He was clearly a calamity-bearer, yet at this moment he could not sense them—almost laughable—because the world had given him a new title: Heaven-and-Earth Public Enemy. The new identity overrode the old. He was cut off from the rules and from all daos within this world; he could no longer borrow rule-power or dao-power. Likewise, his realm was fixed at Chaos Realm Perfect, hard to advance further.
This was exactly the result Lin Moyu wanted—all within his calculations. He did not plot as far or as intricately as the Calamity Supreme, but his target far exceeded the Calamity Supreme's: while that one schemed against people, Lin Moyu was scheming against the world itself—a wholly different height. In this regard, the Calamity Supreme lost completely.
"Finally a Public Enemy. All daos gone, the rules shut me out—now I can truly examine my own dao." Lin Moyu showed not a trace of worry. For him, this status had only benefits. He knew his Undying Dao does not belong to the Ancient Wilds at all; it belongs only to himself. Normally, world-daos and his Undying Dao interfere with each other, making it hard to see it clearly. As his cultivation, strength, and realm climbed, the once-crucial Undying Dao faded from awareness—especially with a body and soul both mighty, the World-Scorching Fire, and the Heaven-Scourge Scepter prevailing everywhere—so he'd neglected it. But he had never forgotten: the Undying Dao is his root; the fire and scepter are external. Now was the perfect time to comprehend the Undying Dao without any interference—the results would be superb. That was the first benefit of being a Public Enemy.
The second: his techniques could finally shed the world's limits and sublime. In this breakthrough he had used his calamity-bearer status and the power of the Tenfold-Nine Domains to scrutinize the rules. Beyond using them as a mirror to correct past detours and clarify his future path, he also spied something crucial: his techniques, though powerful, were all capped by the world-rules. Even if he broke into the Calamity Supreme realm, they would not grow stronger. To sublime them, he must first escape the world's constraint.
Everything has two sides. Now that he is branded Public Enemy and cut off from the rules, from another angle his techniques are no longer restricted. For others, losing the world's rule/dao support would greatly weaken their arts. But for him it is different: he has a world's rules—the Yushen World—to support his arts; he has the Undying Dao to support them; he has Primordial Qi and domain power beyond limits. Thus, being Public Enemy brings him no harm—only gain. Seize the chance: both comprehend the dao and elevate the arts, severing dependence on the Ancient Wilds so they rely only on himself. Then, wherever he goes—even to another world—his arts still function, like the World-Scorching Fire and his body and soul, which are unaffected anywhere.
"The time's come—let's begin. I'll focus fully; the outside is yours." He spoke to the Primal Chaos Gem. He knew the world would act again—perhaps a Supreme would arrive. Xiaopeng and Chaos-Seed would struggle to stop a Supreme; only the Primal Chaos Gem could. The Gem smiled: "Rest easy. Whoever comes won't disturb you." With its current ability, it could block a Calamity Supreme—even stall the Dao for a while. If all went well, Lin Moyu wouldn't need long.
Lin Moyu drew a deep breath; with it, the remaining domain replicas all turned to streams and entered his body, then bored into his soul. Several technique-stars were wrapped by those streams, left the soul-world, and entered the Tenfold-Nine Domains. Domain power surged in, swaddling and nourishing them. Then the gate of the Yushen World opened; within, Primordial Qi, carrying world-power, likewise fell upon the technique-stars. They began to strengthen, shining with startling brilliance.
Thunder rolled from his lips: "Little Tree, return." Little Tree obeyed at once. Because he was now Public Enemy, Little Tree and others were also affected. Xiaopeng and Chaos-Seed were impacted less; Little Tree the most—his combat power had plummeted, and in his fight with the insectoid Quasi-Supreme he had fallen behind. Lin Moyu would also use Little Tree to test whether his method worked.
As Little Tree returned, the insectoid Quasi-Supreme lunged to kill. The formation roared; the Primal Chaos Gem, commanding the array, barked, "Back!" The Soul Gem flared; waves of soul shock blasted forth. Terror-stricken, the insectoid Quasi-Supreme reeled away—the Soul Gem's tier is too high; its attacks inspire fear regardless of strength.
Little Tree re-entered Lin Moyu's soul-world, then followed the streams into the Tenfold-Nine Domains, likewise bathing in domain power and the downpour of Primordial Qi. Lin Moyu said softly, "In the Yushen World, establish a new true-spirit imprint and sever the one in the Ancient Wilds." Little Tree was born of the Ancient Wilds, nurtured by its Heaven-and-Earth; naturally his true spirit resides there. So it was for Xiaopeng and Chaos-Seed. Only Lin Moyu came from a domain; his imprint was on the Origin Continent—later, after he became its lord, he reclaimed it into himself.
A true spirit is a being's marker of existence within a world; if it's destroyed, the world-rules erase that being—an inescapable rule even for Transcendents. Where the imprint sits is usually irrelevant; ordinarily it's hidden within the rules, untouchable. Once a Transcendent refines a world, they may extract certain key true spirits to hold personally, thus holding others' life and death.
To truly leave the Ancient Wilds, there are two ways: (1) find your true spirit within the rules and reclaim it—as Lin Moyu did; or (2) sever your link to it while simultaneously planting a new imprint in another world. The latter is hard and needs conditions: that world must accept your imprint, and you need Primordial Qi to condense it. The instant you cut your imprint, the rules come to erase you—seen as betrayal. But now was a fine chance: since the rules branded Lin Moyu Public Enemy, they blocked him—and by extension blocked Little Tree. Thus, after the cut, Little Tree would have enough time to leave a new imprint in the Yushen World, which has ample Primordial Qi and whose lord is Lin Moyu—so acceptance was guaranteed. Another benefit of being Public Enemy—also within Lin Moyu's plan.
Little Tree seized the chance, dove into the soul-world, cut his true spirit, and, through Lin Moyu's open gate, entered the Yushen World, completely leaving the Ancient Wilds. At the severing instant, the rules stirred, but before they could erase him, Little Tree was gone. From that moment, he was no longer a being of the Ancient Wilds—but could still, through the Yushen World, enter Lin Moyu's soul-world, and draw its power more easily. His new-life cycles and soul-power recharge for Lin Moyu would both become faster. For Little Tree, he has slipped the Calamity, removed mortal danger, and can continue to grow—benefits all around.
"Nice loophole," Lin Moyu smiled. He had exploited one of the world's gaps.
The Primal Chaos Gem said, "The rules, though rigorous, still have plenty of holes. If you look, you'll find them."
"Exactly," Lin Moyu said. "But two-sided: with Little Tree gone, some things get harder." Little Tree could no longer act within the Ancient Wilds—no more hopping time-space channels or wormhole-finding. Lin Moyu would handle those himself—or find substitutes; a bit more hassle, no change to the big picture.
Next would be Xiaopeng and Chaos-Seed, but Lin Moyu wasn't in a rush; his techniques were evolving, and those two weren't fully blocked by the rules, so he'd use different methods to free them.
Under the flood of domain power, the techniques steadily changed. Lin Moyu poured in vast Primordial Qi without stint to sublime the technique-stars. Primordial Qi, the wondrous breath from the birth of Heaven-and-Earth, can nurture life and evolve daos—its utility is near-limitless. Using it to sublime techniques works as well. Crucially, Primordial Qi is highly universal: the Ancient Wilds' earliest Primordial Qi and the Yushen World's present Primordial Qi are essentially the same, so Yushen Primordial Qi functions in the Ancient Wilds without rejection.
With the rules blocking Lin Moyu, their constraint on his arts was likewise reduced. He would seize the moment to complete their sublimation and, at the root, change them so they no longer rely on the world-rules but on a new anchor—already chosen: his Undying Dao. The Undying Dao isn't limited by worlds; in other broken worlds it is merely suppressed—showing it is of higher tier than worlds themselves, only not yet strong enough. As it grows, it will surpass worlds. If his arts rest on the Undying Dao, they can break the rules' limits and grow as the Undying Dao grows. Their nature will change once free of the rules; what they'll become, he did not know—he would do it first and see. Good or bad, the die was cast.
A big gamble—but he had the capital. Even in loss he still had body, soul, the World-Scorching Fire, and the Heaven-Scourge Scepter. He did not fear losing.
"I'll lend a hand," said the Primal Chaos Gem, with its usual proud air, waving a small hand. The Heaven-Scourge Scepter blazed; the Soul, Elemental, Balance, and Domain Gems all glittered. From them trickled a peculiar power, coursed along the scepter in four special routes, and finally gathered in the Primal Chaos Gem. The whole scepter shone; the four gems' powers wove a strange pattern. Lin Moyu had never seen the scepter like this.
Gathering the four gems' powers, the Primal Chaos Gem exhaled a tiny breath—wisps that fell upon the subliming technique-stars. Instantly they flared. That breath acted like a catalyst; the Primordial Qi and domain power sheathing the stars boiled together. An indescribable aura spilled out. The stars gave off soft cracks; dense fissures crawled over them. After several minutes—bang—they burst.
The technique-stars exploded into countless fragments. In that instant, all undead thralls vanished. Lin Moyu did not panic; he knew the arts still existed. The fragments had not been annihilated; wrapped in domain power and Primordial Qi, they whirled and reassembled, releasing an even greater force.
"No breaking, no making," Lin Moyu murmured, eyes ever brighter. He knew what came next might overturn his understanding.