Translator: CinderTL
Wood Spirit Empire, Imperial Capital.
The Life Mother Tree appeared to be delivering its final farewell.
Below, Elsa, the next empress who would serve as regent, and the empire's ministers were overcome with grief.
But their sorrow could not prevent the Life Mother Tree's impending demise.
As the tree concentrated all its energy into its crown, condensing it into a single seed that fell into Elsa's hands, the ancient tree, whose canopy stretched for a thousand miles, emitted a soft, gentle light.
Bathed in this radiant glow, the tree disintegrated into countless luminous wisps, like a cloud of shimmering cottonwood fluff, drifting outward to blanket a ten-thousand-mile radius centered on the Imperial Capital.
A sea of radiant light flakes, a thousand miles wide, cascaded across the vast landscape, stretching ten thousand miles in every direction.
The sight was utterly awe-inspiring.
A Seventh-Rank Lifeform!
An existence considered supreme even in the vast cosmos.
In Lesser Thousand Worlds with cultivation systems and civilizations, such a being would be revered as a living Divine Spirit.
The fall of such a lifeform could even trigger cosmic mourning in some smaller worlds.
In the distance, Li Chunjun quietly observed the scene.
He watched the essence material left behind by the fallen Life Mother Tree. Instead of rushing to collect it, he flickered away to a battlefield he had previously cleansed.
Earlier, while channeling the Heavenly Heart Eternal Method, he had sensed the lingering Heart Demons' terror at their combined assault with the Life Mother Tree.
Possessing sufficient intelligence, they understood that continuing to scatter and launch piecemeal attacks on the Imperial Capital would only lead to their piecemeal annihilation by Li Chunjun. They were consciously converging in a single direction.
This regrouping... would take at least an hour or two to complete.
Li Chunjun, however, didn't need to refine any new materials into the Scarlet Sky Sword. Completing a blood refinement would take minimal time.
He focused his attention on the Heart Demon he had deliberately left suppressed within his spiritual realm, now nearly extinguished.
Instantly, all the Essence Qi in his body transformed into Essence Blood, which he refined into the Scarlet Sky Sword.
Unlike previous blood refinements that required infusing materials into the blade, this time he simply sought to purify the sword and deepen his connection with it. The entire process flowed effortlessly.
Especially when he crushed the Heart Demon, once considered "upgrade fodder," with his remaining power, breaking through to Life Level 33, the connection between him and the Scarlet Sky Sword reached a new peak.
The flow of Divine Sense and Essence Qi within the Scarlet Sky Sword became virtually lossless. In fact, each interaction between his Lifebound Flying Sword and his own Essence, Qi, and Spirit now functioned as a form of cultivation, further strengthening their combined power.
As the resonance between Li Chunjun and his Lifebound Flying Sword reached unprecedented heights, subtle yet profound changes silently unfolded within his mind. Though he didn't consciously analyze the origins of these changes, the reason behind them became instantly clear.
"The third layer of the Mind Realm!"
He had been on the verge of a breakthrough, and after refining over fifty more Heart Demons, his Mind Power had finally reached the critical threshold. The increase in his Life Level further solidified his Seventh-Rank Life Foundation, naturally amplifying his mental power. This surge effortlessly shattered the bottleneck restraining his Mind Realm.
He casually activated the Heavenly Heart Eternal Method. The Mind Power Technique advanced to the third layer without any resistance. Upon reaching this new stage, his mental fortitude deepened, radiating an aura of unwavering permanence—as if his heart would endure eternally, unyielding to the passage of time.
"My current Mind Realm... I'm confident I could maintain my resolve even when facing an Ultimate Heart Demon."
Without needing any tests, Li Chunjun understood the strength of his mind. Though he couldn't annihilate an Ultimate Heart Demon, neither could such a demon harm him in the slightest.
By reflecting his inner state through his Mind Power, Li Chunjun had thoroughly assessed his capabilities without needing to spar with others.
"My Lifebound Flying Sword, Mind Realm, Divine Sense strength, Life Foundation, and two Great Dao Bodies..."
Everything had improved dramatically.
It felt as if he had been injected with growth hormones.
Moreover, if he could level up once more to level 34, his very essence would rival that of an Eighth-Tier Life.
At that point, even without fully integrating the power of the Dao into his Mind Power to enter the Void Refining stage, he might be able to briefly contend with Void Refining Great Powers—though only those who had recently ascended to that stage.
Established Void Refining experts possessed not only numerous dao techniques but also Dao Artifacts, advantages that his Life Foundation couldn't easily overcome.
After a long while, Li Chunjun recovered from the transformative changes brought about by this comprehensive enhancement.
He sensed his Mind Realm...
"Heavenly Heart Eternal Method, Third Layer."
In the next moment, a powerful Divine Sense erupted from him, searching for the cosmic frequency of the Wood Spirit Realm.
Having previously experienced borrowing the Life Mother Tree's divine sense to replace the Heavenly Will with his own, this process was swift.
Before long, he had once again merged his consciousness with the cosmos.
The instant he achieved this union, an overwhelming torrent of information cascaded down, far beyond the capacity of Li Chunjun's current divine sense.
Not even a Nine Tribulation True Monarch could withstand such a deluge of cosmic knowledge.
After all, the Wood Spirit Realm was dozens of times larger than the Azure Star Minor Realm. The greater the world, the more intense the informational bombardment during cosmic resonance.
Yet, amidst this overwhelming influx, Li Chunjun's mind remained as steady as a mountain, like a rocky reef defying the relentless waves of a tsunami, unshaken by their ceaseless pounding.
Fueled by this unwavering stability, his divine sense gradually regained mobility, swiftly filtering out irrelevant data.
The more he filtered, the faster his divine sense flowed.
Soon, his consciousness completely detached from the chaotic bombardment of cosmic information, focusing solely on locating the fully manifested Ultimate Heart Demons that had merged with Fifth-Tier Wood Spirits.
Having previously marked these entities, Li Chunjun, now in cosmic harmony, needed only a moment to locate their precise positions, which materialized before him.
With a flick of his mind, the space around him began to distort.
In less than a second, the bridge shattered and collapsed.
A bridge of Seven-Colored Rainbow Light extended from beneath Li Chunjun's feet, stretching into the depths of the Void.
As he stepped forward, the surrounding space seemed to compress rapidly, distorting the entire scene into swirling rainbow light.
When the radiant light dissipated, Li Chunjun found himself standing amidst a mountain range that stretched for tens of thousands of miles.
Within this range, over forty fully manifested Ultimate Heart Demons had gathered, their Divine Senses intertwined as they deliberated.
Nearby, more than four hundred thousand Third and Fourth Tier cultivators stood silently, not uttering a single word.
Because...
Completely enslaved by Heart Demon Seeds, they had been reduced to mere puppets, devoid of all signs of life, and naturally incapable of making any sound.
But as Li Chunjun descended from the heavens with the power to shatter the Void, the eerie silence of the region was completely shattered.
The Seven-Colored Rainbow Light he rode, infused with Space-Shattering Power, landed precisely at the center of the Heart Demons' gathering.
It was as if he had stomped directly onto the "conference table"!
Even as the Heart Demons sensed the descent of the Seven-Colored Rainbow Light and the violent spatial fluctuations, they immediately retreated in a frenzied escape.
But before they could get far, Li Chunjun's Space-Shattering Power and Space-Mending Power converged. Like matter and antimatter colliding, they unleashed an unparalleled surge of energy.
In an instant, a terrifying light erupted, illuminating tens of thousands of miles, accompanied by a devastating energy pulse that flattened everything within a thousand miles.
Visible shockwaves of energy radiated outward with the force of a thunderous storm.
"That human!"
The retreating Heart Demons barely managed to shout in fury before the unrestrained energy surge devoured them whole.
Theoretically, this dispersed energy blast shouldn't have been enough to annihilate these formidable Heart Demons, whose combat power rivaled that of Ninth Tribulation True Monarchs. However, as the energy erupted, Li Chunjun's Scarlet Sky Sword silently pierced through the Void, swiftly overtaking the fleeing Heart Demons.
Concealed by the chaotic energy surge, the Scarlet Sky Sword, imbued with the Great Void Destruction Sword Intent, moved like an elusive phantom, effortlessly cutting down the Heart Demons controlling the Fifth-Tier Wood Spirits one by one.
A faint, almost imperceptible Mind Power shrouded the Scarlet Sky Sword, rendering it completely undetectable to the Heart Demons despite their own mastery of Mind Power.
Swish! Swish! Swish!
In mere moments, over a dozen fully formed Heart Demons had fallen beneath the Scarlet Sky Sword's blade.
The sight filled the leading Heart Demons with furious indignation.
"Stop him!"
"Don't panic! Don't scatter! United, we can surely crush him!"
"Stay together! If you split up, you'll only give him opportunities to pick us off one by one!"
The powerful, fully formed Heart Demons immediately activated their Mind Power, their warnings and commands echoing in the depths of every Heart Demon's consciousness.
But...
There was clearly no hierarchical structure among these Heart Demons. They acknowledged the truth of their leaders' words, but...
Having become Heart Demons, who among them would selflessly sacrifice themselves to restrain Li Chunjun and create an opening for the others?
Every demon for himself was the prevailing instinct.
"He's just one man! Scatter and flee!"
"I haven't fully recovered my peak strength! I refuse to fall here! Once I'm back at full power, I'll settle the score with this human later!"
"Charge! You fools, charge! What are you waiting for? If you don't attack, I'm leaving!"
Not a single Heart Demon obeyed the order to encircle Li Chunjun.
Instead, the remaining Heart Demons, realizing the futility of their position, soared into the Heavenly Vault at top speed. Controlling numerous Third and Fourth Tier puppets, they recklessly charged through the energy shockwaves, throwing themselves at Li Chunjun.
Ironically, this haphazard approach proved to be the most effective tactic.
Given Li Chunjun's current mental fortitude, even thirty or forty Heart Demons couldn't shake his resolve. A direct confrontation would only have resulted in their annihilation.
Instead, the remaining Heart Demons scattered in disarray. Even as Li Chunjun relentlessly pursued them, some managed to escape into the vast cosmos.
The starry sky stretched endlessly before them.
Once they fled the Wood Spirit Minor Thousand World, even Li Chunjun's formidable abilities wouldn't be enough to track them down.
Several hours later, Li Chunjun abandoned his pursuit of the fleeing Heart Demons and returned to the Wood Spirit Minor Thousand World.
Next, he needed to utilize the world's unique mediumless hyperspace communication technology to broadcast the truth about the Heart Demons to hundreds of neighboring Lesser Thousand Worlds.
(End of the Chapter)
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