Chapter 857: Chapter 28: Zhou Yan Becomes a God
The Jiang family, Soul Nurturing Space.
Zhou Yan’s soul emerged from his body, silently standing next to his physical form.
This series of nearly breathless experiences brought his soul to the brink of collapse.
Having already been injured by a strike from a genuine Evil Venerate beyond space-time, and compounded by the exhausted Emperor Xuan Yuan’s Energy, Zhou Yan had almost no other paths to take.
If not for intimidating Jiang Tianxin, his subsequent cultivation would have been affected.
Fortunately, all of this was still under control and calculation.
If not for a nearly transcendental soul level that could leap out from a series of traps, Zhou Yan felt he would never touch upon the secrets revealed by the Jiang family.
And now, having touched upon them, he truly unveiled the mist and glimpsed just the tip of the vast iceberg.
"If it were an ordinary Cultivator, faced with such endless soul power and divine origin power, they would certainly absorb more. But Evil Venerates are inherently different, they would not fancy such energy much, only absorbing an appropriate portion and leaving much behind without further absorption.
Hence, if I were to use the Swallowing Heaven Divine Skill to absorb the energy of this Soul Nurturing Space, I only need to absorb around thirty percent, not too much, to show a casual attitude towards this energy."
Zhou Yan pondered in his heart, analyzing from the perspective of an superior, thus arriving at this conclusion.
Immediately, Zhou Yan utilized the Swallowing Heaven Divine Skill, first beginning to heal the soul’s injuries, using Soul Slash Zun Dao to begin straightforward restoration of the soul’s wounds.
The processes of all Tao, recovery, and so forth are very fundamental matters.
But at Zhou Yan’s soul level, these fundamental Daos are true Supreme Sword Dao, and cannot be considered simple Daos.
Zhou Yan couldn’t be certain this Soul Nurturing Space wasn’t being monitored, given that the Jiang family’s methods were far more formidable than he imagined, and the reason he managed to hold Jiang Tianxin at bay included various factors, but it’s hard to say about others in the Jiang family.
Because of this, Zhou Yan combined the simple recovery Tao with his understanding of the Immortal level, his Sudden Enlightenment concerning his soul level, experiencing various recovery methods, yet within the Great Dao of Sword Dao, there is something distinct.
These abilities are what Zhou Yan excels at and are means to confuse enemies.
At the same time, this process also deepened Zhou Yan’s understanding of his soul level, leading to a new comprehension of soul structure and condensing of the Soul Embryo.
Zhou Yan remained Zhou Yan, yet during this process of enlightenment and recovery, gradually touched upon something different.
He slowly calmed his mind, wholly considering himself as the ’Evil Venerate’. Perhaps only in doing so, by deceiving himself, could he deceive others.
This is a method of reversal born out of necessity and desperation, only through this can he take the initiative.
Moreover, Zhou Yan knew he would soon face Jiang He. He had a ninety percent chance of deceiving Jiang Tianxin, but when it came to deceiving Jiang He, the ancient Supreme Sword Dao peak, Zhou Yan wasn’t as confident, even accounting for his trump card methods, he only had fifty percent confidence.
Therefore, regardless of success or failure, Zhou Yan would certainly recover the accumulation of Emperor Xuan Yuan’s Energy, regain the usage capability of the Xuanyuan Sword and heal the soul power damage of the Xuanyuan Ancestor during this period.
The Soul Nurturing Space offered Zhou Yan this chance, but it was still far from enough.
...
Strands of soul power were gradually absorbed by Zhou Yan’s soul, during which Zhou Yan also comprehended numerous rules within small worlds, experiencing the mysteries of various sword bodies.
These rules come from the genius soul seeds harvested—if the geniuses of the Sword Burial Ancestor Star were harvested, the souls of characters like the Evil King, Saint Yao, and Fairy Die would transform into the soul power here, the Dao they enlightened would transform into the purest Supreme Dao Rule Power, flowing in this space.
It can be said that enlightenment here is built on the lifelong efforts of cultivators from lower planes.
This is a very cruel matter, but what Zhou Yan enjoyed now was like picking fruits already taken from a great tree, without any guilt.
Because these soul powers appearing represents those cultivators treated like ’live pigs’ had long since returned their souls to the heavens, vanished into ashes.
One general achieves his success, bones dry up beneath.
This Soul Nurturing Space truly and cruelly manifested this point.
Zhou Yan’s soul level was exceedingly powerful, thus after the initial chaos, Zhou Yan quickly distinguished various Great Dao rules among the endless soul power and divine origin power.
These Great Dao rules aren’t true Great Dao rules, they belong to the world rules of the Breeding Ground, yet the myriad Great Daos ultimately converge, even if this Great Dao doesn’t belong to the plane, similar data still exists.
Zhou Yan’s soul enveloped this soul power with a powerful Realm but didn’t absorb, instead perceiving various Supreme Daos within.
Initially, Zhou Yan had difficulty calming down because the endless Dao laws were dazzlingly complex and overwhelming.
Each one was the enlightenment from a lifetime spent by other genius cultivators, even cultivators with strong enlightenment couldn’t complete them in a short time.
And those harvested are not just one cultivator but countless cultivators from Breeding Grounds.
Every breeding ground is a universe of its own, or even multiple universes, with endless planets and countless cultivators.
Such endless Tao rules now swept through Zhou Yan like a scan.
Gradually, Zhou Yan’s heart settled down, experiencing the Heart of Transcendence amidst the Eight Great Primordial Sword Bodies and the Ninth Chaos Sword Body, understanding a soul realm that comes after deep sedimentation.
Zhou Yan also gradually understood that the physical body is the Bitter Sea, and the soul is the boat.
To cross the Bitter Sea, the boat must transcend.
The strongest physical body can only reach the limit of Hongmeng Sky Sword Venerate, beyond which it cannot progress further, inevitably leading to decay.
Initially, the stronger the physical body, the more it can support a strong soul, ensuring one’s safety.
But in the end, the physical body remains something to be discarded, a mere shell, only the soul body, soul embryo, transforming into an infant can achieve the Immortal Throne.
Zhou Yan grasped such a Tao, again feeling an urge for embryo formation rising in his heart.
Yet, as this feeling arose, Zhou Yan’s spirit was clear as a mirror, immediately realizing that if he performed soul embryo formation now, he would surely fail, with the soul truly annihilated, not merely shattered.
This was merely a temptation of realm, a fleeting temptation, like an ultimate poison emitting a great fragrance, extremely tempting to cultivators.
But if one consumes the medicine before it truly matures, the outcome is one of eternal damnation.
"Nine Sword Saint Sources, nine great sword bodies in place, soul power like the sea, traversing like mountains."
"I condense the soul path with the soul heart, the soul path lasts for Wannian."
"Then, all my supreme paths, tempered through rebirth, transform into the First Transition, retaining a Tao—Heavenly Gang Xingyi Divine Tao."
"Xingyi Divine Tao, transforms through Heavenly Gang, the power of transformation, rebirth into the true. God Transformation Dao rebirth, transformed into Zun Dao."
"Xingyi Zun Dao, condensed."
Zhou Yan murmured to himself, after comprehending endless Tao rules, his soul reached a full state, condensing one turn of divine Tao through Soul Slash Zun Dao.
At this moment, Zhou Yan broke through the realm of Nine Sword Saint Sources, achieving the First Transition of God Realm.
That instant, Zhou Yan was completely white, his body turning transparent as glazed fairy jade.
The bones and bloodline emitted a light sound of Great Dao Resonance.
Amidst such melodies, the traces of impurities within Zhou Yan’s body were again shaken out, transforming into a plume of turbid air dissipating into the void.
The transformation of supreme Tao formed an inexplicable law, manifesting within Zhou Yan’s soul body.
Zhou Yan’s soul sea experienced a moment of turbulence, then swept across four directions, massively devouring the energy here.
Everything, like flowing water, perfectly fell into place.
During this transformation process, because the soul-nurturing space was exceptionally full and pure with energy, the Emperor Xuan Yuan’s energy Zhou Yan had lost was finally accumulated completely, while Xuanyuan Ancestor also finally awoke from slumber, the Xuanyuan Sword further emitted an almost immortal divine sheen.
It seemed that due to Zhou Yan’s progress of realm, everything became exceptionally smooth.
The energy consumption of this universe was merely one-tenth, this one-tenth already being vast, but for Zhou Yan, it was still under control.
As long as it doesn’t exceed one-third, the Jiang family will not pay too much attention.
Zhou Yan carefully surveyed the nuances of the Sword God’s realm, finally realizing that truly reaching this realm reveals much more than just forcibly promoting to this realm. All that is experienced cannot be compared.
Achieving the Sword God First Transition felt like a transcendence of soul body and divine body, the constitution of a saint transforming into that of a divine, intertwining the physical body and soul more closely together, revealing divine soul spirit power, also manifesting the form of the five elements in soul stones.
Soul stones are akin to divine status, reflecting the attributes of the divine body.
Unlike others who possess singular attributes, Zhou Yan had twelve great fierce beast soul stones within, displayed in twelve positions of his soul body, yet tightly condensed into one, extremely mysterious.
But these soul stones were extremely formidable, carrying immense strength.
"This is the embryonic form of Twelve Divine Forms, with enormous combat power improvement. It’s a pity that among so many supreme paths I comprehend, only one Xingyi supreme path underwent transformation, turning into a venerable level supreme path. Yet the original venerable level supreme paths, wanting to undergo transformation might not be easy."
"My cultivation has no shackles, no cultivation barriers exist, but if the paths I employ cannot transform, later to advance to the Sword God Second Transition, seeking a supreme path belonging to me to undergo transformation, the difficulty is indeed massive."
"Only upon reaching the God Realm do I understand, to conduct one transformation and rebirth of a divine Tao harboring divinity is almost equivalent to overthrowing all one’s understanding to comprehend a more comprehensive and perfect enlightenment. If a cultivator with a previously weak foundation reaches this realm, their flaws are many, yet progression becomes easier. My previous cultivation, all perfect, everything falls into place, now with the most solid foundation, seeking flaws and deficiencies becomes incredibly difficult."