Lin Moyu faintly felt as if an invisible thread were drawing him in the dark. He wasn't some puppet on strings, yet he was still affected by that unseen line, walking a road already arranged. Whatever the process, his direction had never changed. From when the system first appeared to when he later saw it again in the Life-Forbidden Zone, it seemed the system's very existence formed this thread—a thread meant to transcend Heaven-and-Earth, carrying him forward step by step. Compared with it, the Calamity Supreme's so-called arrangements were weaker by countless tiers.
"It's a pity my strength is insufficient," Lin Moyu said. "Thinking too much now is pointless."
"Knowing something is better than knowing nothing," the Primal Chaos Gem smiled. "If anything happens, you can at least prepare early."
"There isn't much to prepare," Lin Moyu said. "What comes next is already clear. In this cycle of the Heaven-and-Earth Life-Death Tribulation, I will push Lin Mohan to the position of Transcendent and let her take command of the Ancient Wilds. Then, whether it's the Dao or the Calamity Supreme—whatever schemes they've laid—will all end in failure.
"After that, I will completely depart from the Ancient Wilds, retire with the work accomplished, enter the Yushen World, and become the Transcendent within the Yushen World. I also need to stir the Wall of Heaven-and-Earth, bring over Heaven-and-Earth origin treasure-materials, and trigger the Yushen World's first Great Tribulation—the Heaven-and-Earth Life-Death Tribulation—so the Yushen World becomes a living Heaven-and-Earth. Only then can my wife, kin, and friends truly live and cultivate within it. That is what I must do. There is no retreat—only forward. Whoever dares block me will be scattered body and soul."
What the Primal Chaos Gem said sounded like a story, like a joke, yet it made Lin Moyu realise those Transcendents may really have discovered something. When he became a Transcendent, perhaps he would discover the same. As for whether he could become a Transcendent—Lin Moyu never doubted it. A steadfast Dao-heart and his own strength gave him confidence.
Within the Technique Domain, the Undying Dao boiled for a full month. During that time, the Technique Domain kept drawing Lin Moyu's soul power, lighting the stars within. By now a million stars had been lit—but a mere million was a drop in the ocean for the Technique Domain. The more stars lit, the stronger the Technique Domain became, and his techniques strengthened accordingly. Thus Lin Moyu knew his techniques still held infinite possibilities.
A month later, the fifth technique finally took shape:
Undying Spirit Soldiers—within the Technique Domain, Undying Spirit Soldiers will be born. They are undying and indestructible, obey summons absolutely, can wage war across Heaven-and-Earth and subdue myriad ages. The master of a Heaven-and-Earth can also convert the dead into Undying Spirits; Undying Spirits will possess everything the deceased had before death. No one but the master of a Heaven-and-Earth can tell them apart.
Infinite Summons had become Undying Spirit Soldiers. The technique was more concise now, with no excess complexity. From this point on, the undead servants vanished completely—replaced by Undying Spirit Soldiers.
The Undying Spirit Soldiers take the Undying Dao as their root, fused with the power of Heaven-and-Earth, Primordial Qi, Lin Moyu's own soul power, and Primal Chaos Qi. They are born in the Technique Domain and exist within it—undying, indestructible. After being slain, they can resurrect on the spot, or within the Technique Domain; there is no limit to the times. Their battle power and number depend on the Technique Domain's strength. Moreover, Lin Moyu can revive corpses, turning them into Undying Spirits. Undying Spirits retain everything from life—memories, appearance, strength. In short, Undying Spirits are indistinguishable from true resurrection; aside from Lin Moyu, no one can tell whether someone is an Undying Spirit. Undying Spirits, like the Undying Spirit Soldiers, possess undying and indestructible power and obey him completely.
As Lin Moyu grasped the technique, countless rays of starlight shone upon the Undying Dao within the Technique Domain. The first Undying Spirit Soldier was born from the Undying Dao: roughly three metres tall—not especially large—humanoid in form, clad in heavy armour that covered the entire body, even the head, with only a pair of scarlet eyes exposed, glowing red. It held a greatsword whose edge gleamed with chill light—an extremely powerful blade. It flew free of the Undying Dao, grey mist rising off it, saturated with the aura of death.
With a thought, Lin Moyu summoned it out of the Technique Domain. It stood silently at his side, motionless. The instant it left the Technique Domain, all its aura retracted; without seeing it with one's eyes, one could hardly sense its existence at all.
Lin Moyu stirred his soul power and linked with the Undying Spirit Soldier, taking over its sight. The scene before him changed to a world of grey and white. In the far distance, white flames flickered—that was soul flame. White meant a living being, possessing vitality. The Undead Eye had also sublimated: it could see farther, and more clearly. Now he could see the souls and vitality of living beings—how strong or weak they were, whether they were injured—clear as day.
Borrowing the soldier's sight, Lin Moyu also received information about the Undying Spirit Soldiers. At present, an Undying Spirit Soldier possessed top-tier Perfect-level battle power—only a hair's breadth from Quasi-Supreme. It had no techniques; it only wielded the power of death in combat—but that was already enough. The might of death granted it the ability to erode and collapse most defences. How potent that corrosion was—only Lin Moyu truly knew. It also had another ability: when their numbers grew, their battle power increased further. The quantity required was enormous—counted by the hundred million. For every additional hundred million, overall battle power increased by one ten-thousandth; at ten billion, by one percent; when the number reached one trillion, overall power doubled—not an individual doubling, but the whole force doubling. Though each increment seemed small, the end result was astonishing. If ten trillion Undying Spirit Soldiers took the field together, their total battle power would increase tenfold. Even if they fell short of Quasi-Supreme, they would not be far off. Ten trillion Undying Spirit Soldiers, with undying and indestructible power, would be enough to encircle and slay a Quasi-Supreme—even a Supreme.
And how many Undying Spirit Soldiers could he possess? Thinking of how many undead servants he'd had before, Lin Moyu felt that given enough time, he could single-handedly challenge every Supreme and Quasi-Supreme in the Ancient Wilds.
Under the rain of starlight within the Technique Domain, Undying Spirit Soldiers were being born in an unending stream. How many would ultimately be born, where the upper limit lay—no one knew. Lin Moyu only knew he had one more task henceforth: to supply soul power to the Technique Domain. It would be a long, long process—perhaps lasting ten thousand years, or longer. For that, he decisively created a soul avatar: one end linked to Little Tree, the other to the Technique Domain. Little Tree would replenish the avatar's soul power, and the avatar would inject soul power into the Technique Domain, continually lighting the stars within and making it ever stronger.
The Technique Domain had ceased gestating; all techniques were complete. Lin Moyu recalled his former self, who had dozens of techniques; now only five remained. But five were enough—refinement over number.
Suddenly, Little Tree's voice sounded: "Master, I feel I'm advancing."
Little Tree's sublimation was within Lin Moyu's expectations. Little Tree was bound to him extremely deeply—especially because his Rebirth Talent needed to accumulate counts, and increasing those counts demanded tremendous power; Little Tree had become the carrier. Without Little Tree, even with the Rebirth Talent, the effect would likely be far inferior.
Little Tree and Lin Moyu had been jointly screened by the Heaven-and-Earth Rules; taking the opportunity, they left the Ancient Wilds and entered the Yushen World. The vast Primordial Qi of the Yushen World poured into Little Tree as the foundation of his advancement, and Lin Moyu's rise in realm and power opened a pathway for Little Tree to advance as well. Thus Little Tree advanced together with him. Unlike the Technique Domain—whose qualitative change Lin Moyu had actively triggered—Little Tree's advancement was a natural result. It was not a complete qualitative change, just some changes at the root—nothing too great. In the days to come, within the Yushen World and under its rules, Little Tree would keep changing; nourished by Primordial Qi, he would grow stronger. As for how strong, Lin Moyu had a rough estimate. After all, Little Tree's foundation was the Chaos Ancestral Tree; his upper limit was already near—unless he obtained some heaven-defying opportunity.
Little Tree relayed every detail of his advancement. The first change: the cap of "rebirths" increased again—previously one hundred thousand, now doubled to two hundred thousand—and the accumulation speed improved greatly, even rising by about a hundred per day. The second change: the Chaos Fruit. Little Tree's Chaos Fruit could heal injuries, strengthen foundations, aid cultivation, deepen rule-insight; taken in battle, it could temporarily raise combat power; in refining, it could serve as a material. A universal fruit, one could say—though of little use to Lin Moyu himself. By now Little Tree had borne who knows how many Chaos Fruit, harvesting each batch as it ripened; the storehouse was full. Now, with Little Tree absorbing Primordial Qi and that qi flowing through his whole being, the fruit borne were no longer Chaos Fruit but Heaven-and-Earth Fruit—same functions, higher tier, greater effect. Little Tree crushed all the previously stored, ripe Chaos Fruit back into nutrients to nourish himself. Not much use, but better than waste; such fine Chaos Fruit would be peerless treasures in the Ancient Wilds, yet Lin Moyu simply ignored them—his sights were too high.
Little Tree's third ability, Chaos Spirit, was still evolving—not yet complete. Formerly, Chaos Spirit could raise domain power, balance domain rules, and patch domain flaws; Lin Moyu had used it to mend defects in the Five-World Domain, and its credit also showed in the recovery of the Lingmiao Domain. Later, its use waned. Now Chaos Spirit was evolving again; what it would become in the end, no one knew. According to Little Tree, this evolution was very slow and would need quite some time. Lin Moyu wasn't anxious—he could wait as long as needed; he didn't need it urgently.
After advancing, Little Tree's strength fully recovered, returning to his peak. He could now rival a Supreme—though, having entered the Yushen World, he could no longer return to the Ancient Wilds. Lin Moyu had a faint feeling that Little Tree's third, still-gestating ability would be of great use in the future. It was only a feeling—hard to say whence it came, a stroke of insight. He didn't tell Little Tree; some things can't be spoken, or they lose their efficacy. Better to let it evolve naturally.
Putting away the Technique Domain, he looked to Xiaopeng, still fighting. "Done?"
Xiaopeng was suppressing his foe and had the upper hand, but the other's life was hard to snuff. Killing him wouldn't be easy. The insect-clan Quasi-Supreme, shaped like a giant mantis, felt no fear of death. His body was covered in wounds; one of his blade-like claws was already broken; yet his attacks were still ferocious, showing no fear of Xiaopeng. His aura had hardly weakened. As a Quasi-Supreme, he could fight an opponent for a hundred years.
Lin Moyu knew Xiaopeng would surely kill him in the end—only that it would take time; a few years would be normal. Not wanting to wait that long, Lin Moyu moved his mind, and a host of Undying Spirit Soldiers charged out. Swords in hand, they pierced the spatial limits and reached the enemy in a flash.
An Undying Spirit Soldier was a bit stronger than a top-tier Perfect-level powerhouse, but still notably short of a Quasi-Supreme; that gap is hard to bridge. Fortunately, the insect Quasi-Supreme had been half-crippled by Xiaopeng; his strength was greatly diminished. In this time, ten thousand Undying Spirit Soldiers had condensed in the Technique Domain, and Lin Moyu sent them all. They joined with Xiaopeng, encircled the foe, and launched a fierce assault.
Judged singly, an Undying Spirit Soldier still fell a hair short of a Quasi-Supreme; even ten thousand wouldn't be enough to kill one. But with Xiaopeng suppressing him, the soldiers' effect was magnified without limit. Their power of death corroded the wounds, wreaking unimaginable damage on the flesh; it also invaded the soul, ravaging the soul-world. The corrosiveness of death is more terrifying than any Great Way or any venom; even a Quasi-Supreme can scarcely withstand it.
With their combined efforts, the insect Quasi-Supreme met his end. After only half an hour of battle, a piercing scream rang out, and he fell—his body shattered into a sorry sight, like a torn burlap sack.
Xiaopeng flew back, excited. "Father, I did pretty well, right?"
"Not bad, not bad. Did you sense any change in Heaven-and-Earth?"
"I did. Heaven-and-Earth seems a bit hostile and restrictive toward me—but only a little."
Xiaopeng's situation was similar to Chaos-Seed's. They weren't bound as deeply as Little Tree and Lin Moyu, so Heaven-and-Earth didn't implicate them.
Lin Moyu looked into the distance. "Did you hear Heaven-and-Earth wail?"
Xiaopeng sensed for a moment, then shook his head. "No."
Lin Moyu was now screened by Heaven-and-Earth and could hardly sense anything within it. Normally, the death of a Quasi-Supreme would make Heaven-and-Earth wail without end. Quasi-Supremes are top existences acknowledged by Heaven-and-Earth; their death is a loss to it. The lack of wailing meant this "insect Quasi-Supreme" merely possessed Quasi-Supreme-level battle power, not the true status of a Quasi-Supreme.
Lin Moyu thought of the Insect Stele: it had gestated him; he had not cultivated himself to it. It seemed the Insect Stele wasn't as simple as it appeared. He had entered it before, reached its core, and obtained the Hidden-Spirit Pearl; beyond that he had found nothing unusual. Powerful it surely was—but if it could gestate an insect with Quasi-Supreme battle power, then the Stele's abilities must surpass his imagination. The Gold Supreme, who controls the Insect Stele, must be similarly formidable—which explains why he doesn't fear the Calamity Supreme in the least.
"A mere calamity brat… interesting. This Gold Supreme hides very deep"