Ten thousand I am across the heavens

In less than a second, Lanno used a domino-like energy surge to gather the energy of nature into the device behind him. He then launched it as a beam of light, hurtling straight towards the location of the Giant Sun Immortal.

The power of this attack was truly astonishing. Even the Giant Sun Immortal Venerable had to temporarily evade its force, choosing to teleport away with the disc beneath him in an instant. After dodging the attack, he teleported back.

Although such teleportation consumes a considerable amount of resources, it is far less than the potential costs of directly withstanding this attack.

Lanno didn't make any further maneuvers, as if he hadn't intended for the attack to hit in the first place. He simply unleashed a strike into the void.

Seeing this, the Giant Sun Immortal Venerable breathed a sigh of relief. Utilizing the domino effect, his opponent could indeed leverage power far exceeding their own limits, unleashing attacks several orders of magnitude stronger. However, just as he had anticipated, if the attack's power was too great, control would suffer. If he himself unleashed an attack of that power, making it curve and track its target would be effortless. But it seemed his opponent couldn't do that. And that was perfectly normal. After all, such a thing sounded utterly absurd. Being able to multiply their output power so many times was already exaggerated enough; to expect complete control? What would be the point of all their hard-earned cultivation then?
Lanno showed no sign of frustration at missing his target. The attack had struck the ground directly, creating a massive crater tens of kilometers in diameter. A vast amount of energy had gathered within this crater, seemingly on the verge of dissipating into chaotic, disordered energy currents that vanished into the world.

But in the next instant, countless pale green traces, resembling circuit boards, appeared, extending into the area and giving it a sense of regularity. They then rapidly extracted energy from it, constructing a steel jungle within the crater at an even faster pace than before. From within this steel jungle, giant cannons rose, once again targeting the Giant Sun Immortal Venerable and launching an attack.

Although the magnitude of this attack was no less than the last one, because it was a dispersed attack and not clustered together, the threat was actually much lower. Immortal Venerable Giant Sun no longer needed to dodge. He simply relied on his passive defense to stop these attacks in mid-air, completely eliminating their threat to him.

However, things took a turn for the worse than he expected. This time, the steel jungle that had grown from the ground didn't crumble and dissipate as before after the killing move was completed. Instead, it remained there, transforming into a solid fortress. Meanwhile, Lanno was already crushing the second immortal essence stone, preparing to unleash his killing move.

Giant Sun Immortal Venerable was slightly puzzled, then realized something, and his expression turned grim when he looked at the steel jungle again. He now realized that the killing move he had just endured was insignificant. It seemed like his opponent had run out of tricks. One move was enough to overwhelm him, but another would be less powerful. However, in reality, Lan Nuo had expended almost no energy to unleash this move; he had used the residual energy from his previous killing move. By making use of waste, he could not only unleash another powerful attack, but it seemed he could continue to attack, even though this level of attack posed almost no threat to Giant Sun Immortal Venerable.

However, the cost of this attack is practically negligible for the opponent. And if the entire battlefield were to become such a steel jungle, it would be a troublesome matter even for the Giant Sun Immortal Venerable.

The Giant Sun Immortal Venerable could clearly sense that his opponent's energy expenditure was very low. Moreover, it seemed that this body was constantly growing stronger, with the passage of time residing within it, which was extremely evident. It seemed to be a deadly move from the cosmic realm.

The Giant Sun Immortal Venerable quickly saw through the effect of this killing move: the days felt like years, which could greatly accelerate the time it took for his immortal aperture to appear. Although he wouldn't gain any more output during this process—only some plants might grow rapidly and animals might reproduce quickly—his immortal essence wouldn't increase significantly, and the yield would remain the same as before. However, it could greatly increase the speed of an immortal's advancement.

Immortals often need to spend hundreds of years in the Immortal Aperture before facing the Heavenly Tribulation to advance to the next level. During this period, they only need to deal with a natural disaster once every 10 years.

Increasing the speed of time flow within one's immortal aperture can indeed accelerate advancement. However, for most people, this is tantamount to suicide. With time flowing too rapidly, there's simply no time to prepare. They would be forced to hastily face natural disasters and calamities, potentially perishing in the process. Therefore, the vast majority choose the opposite approach: slowing down the flow of time, sacrificing some of their external strength to reduce the speed of their immortal aperture's operation, thus granting themselves a longer lifespan in the real world.

Ultimate Lanno was clearly not worried about natural disasters or calamities. In his current battle with the Giant Sun Immortal Venerable, even a casual strike from either side was far more terrifying than a natural disaster requiring a transformation from the sixth to the seventh rank. He could easily overcome such a calamity. Furthermore, if he advanced to the seventh rank, his overall attributes would improve even further, making it even more difficult for the Giant Sun Immortal Venerable to defeat him. With only one level of time acceleration, he certainly couldn't advance in a short time. However, if he could truly accumulate time acceleration layer by layer and withstand the potential backlash, then it was indeed possible to advance to the seventh rank in a short period.

Meanwhile, the Giant Sun Immortal Venerable noticed that Lan Nuo was ruthlessly devouring the clones of his other eldest sons. Once their heads were shattered and their souls banished, their bodies would unhesitatingly assimilate into his own, merging into his immortal apertures. Then, all the Dao traces on his body would be stripped away and integrated into the Dao trace system of his immortal apertures. His immortal apertures also appeared far more regular and aesthetically pleasing than others, with a clear and orderly distribution of Dao traces. Even someone without much artistic appreciation could easily discern the order and beauty within them.

This stable and regular arrangement of Dao traces gave him near-absolute control over his immortal aperture. At this moment, as time accelerated, natural disasters and calamities descended one after another, but his immortal aperture, which had transformed into a continent of steel, remained unscathed amidst the swirling calamities.

Flames will spontaneously generate in the void, directly incinerating the interior of the metallic continent and destroying the precious crops cultivated there. But as soon as the flames are generated, the burning area begins to deform rapidly. The ignited area is isolated in a magnetic levitation manner, or extinguished quickly using ultra-low temperatures or methods specifically designed for this type of flame.

The Dao traces contained within will be quickly disassembled and sorted by the nanobots that arrive later, and every bit of them will be integrated into their own Dao trace system without any waste.

Natural disasters and calamities are themselves a form of enhancement for cultivators. Generally, an immortal who wants to increase the number of Dao traces has only three methods. The first is to absorb or digest Gu worms or other creatures rich in Dao essence, relying on esophagus killing techniques or other schools' killing techniques that can absorb Dao traces, transforming them into their own. The second method is to devour the immortal apertures of others, which is very difficult. First, one must have an even larger immortal aperture than the other party to be able to devour it, meaning one can only bully the weak. Second, one can only devour those of one's own school; that is, the Path of Wisdom can only devour the Path of Wisdom, and the Path of Soul can only devour the Path of Soul, unless one cultivates two schools simultaneously, and both schools are very strong—something that ordinary people simply cannot do. Even Venerables usually only cultivate two schools.

Furthermore, to meet the conditions for devouring, besides being from the same school, one's own cultivation level must be high enough to surpass that of the other party. For example, a Grandmaster must devour a Master, or a Great Grandmaster must devour a Grandmaster before they can devour and absorb, thus strengthening their own immortal aperture.

Obviously, these conditions are not easy to meet. The third way to increase Dao traces is the most common and stable one: experiencing natural disasters and calamities. Although these disasters and calamities will damage the immortal aperture, the energy of heaven and earth will also bring Dao traces. If you survive, you can absorb more Dao traces. However, this depends on luck. These Dao traces may not belong to your school of thought, and even if you absorb them, they may not be useful.

The ability to reliably absorb the Dao traces within natural disasters and calamities is a test of an immortal's skill. If the absorption is insufficient, the losses will outweigh the gains, and even if one survives, the losses may exceed the gains. Conversely, if the losses can be minimized and almost all the remaining Dao traces from the natural disasters and calamities are preserved, then one can maximize their gains.

At this very moment, Lanno was constantly fine-tuning the form of the steel continent within his immortal aperture, allowing it to continuously absorb Dao traces and further perfect his immortal aperture. This super mechanical continent was being tempered and refined through countless calamities, growing stronger and stronger.

Those with some knowledge of the arts know that Dao traces can enhance the power of a corresponding school's killing moves. Normally, a thousand Dao traces can double the killing power, ten thousand can increase it tenfold, and even a Venerable has at least three hundred thousand Dao traces. In reality, each of them has at least a million Dao traces, meaning that a casual killing move can be a thousand times more powerful. With the same resources, their killing moves are several orders of magnitude more powerful than others, resulting in an overwhelmingly superior force.

If the Republic of Mountains and Rivers hadn't pooled the wisdom of countless people to develop advanced killing moves, each high-end advanced killing move with a multiplier of over ten thousand times, it would have been impossible to bridge the chasm-like gap in the number of Dao traces between the two sides.

If Lan Nuo hadn't reached the pinnacle of combat skill, capable of using double or even triple advanced killing moves to multiply the multipliers of the killing moves, thus reducing casting speed to increase the multipliers to seven or eight orders of magnitude, he wouldn't even be qualified to stand here right now.

That's good. His current body is already very strong, having just manifested, and is rich in golden Dao traces. He already possesses ten thousand Dao traces even after becoming an immortal. With a 10x multiplier, he couldn't even withstand the first attack.

Even so, Lan Nuo was in a state of unlocked genetic potential, going all out and using a triple-layered advanced killing move. This heaven-defying level of skill was what allowed him to raise his multiplier to eight orders of magnitude. The Giant Sun Immortal Venerable's own multiplier was already three orders of magnitude, and the difference between the multiplier of the Yellow Apricot Immortal Essence and the Immortal Essence Stone was as high as six orders of magnitude. Lan Nuo had to exert all his strength to reach a point where he was only one order of magnitude behind the Giant Sun Immortal Venerable. If the two were to fight to the bitter end, he would have no chance of winning.

But if he wanted to retreat and run away at this time, he would definitely not be able to escape. If Lan Nuo wanted to get away unscathed, he had to put enough pressure on the other party and make the Giant Sun Immortal Venerable think that the price he paid in this battle was unacceptable to him. So even if he was just putting up a fight, he had to appear strong enough.

Both Tianyi and Juyang wanted to kill him. Accelerating the flow of time in his immortal aperture at this time was tantamount to courting death in the eyes of ordinary people. This meant that he might have to endure more than a dozen superimposed natural disasters and calamities at the same time, and they were all time-accelerated versions. It was as if the power of more than a dozen calamities was packaged together and compressed in time to increase the power and blast down.

If things had been done gradually, overcoming the calamity wouldn't have been difficult. But now, it's all coming at him at once, which carries a certain degree of danger. Moreover, Heaven's Will seems to want him dead, and Heaven can actively adjust the power of calamities. Normally, Heaven's Will will actively reduce the power of natural disasters and tribulations. Therefore, even if he manages to overcome them easily, Lanno won't gain much in the process, nor will he acquire many Dao Marks. Even if he does, they will likely offer no benefit to his own cultivation style.

However, the current situation is unique. A single heavenly tribulation certainly wouldn't kill Lan Nuo, so the strategy was to reduce its power and benefits. But now, with so many tribulations stacked together, the Heavenly Will has unleashed a wave of maximum power. Beset by internal and external forces, there's a considerable probability that Lan Nuo will be instantly killed. If he can't withstand this onslaught, even if he's given countless Dao Marks, they're still just for the dead. After his death, his Immortal Aperture will ultimately return to this world. The Dao Marks will eventually be reclaimed by this world along with the shattering of his Immortal Aperture.

Therefore, in the eyes of the Giant Sun Immortal Venerable, Lan Nuo's immortal aperture, having activated the triple-layered, agonizingly slow attack, seemed to instantly transform into a super bomb. The surrounding天地气 (heaven and earth energy) within tens of thousands of miles was completely drained, converging into his immortal aperture and transforming into a calamity. If it were anyone else, they wouldn't even need to attack; they would die on their own. But Lan Nuo had already instilled too much fear in him, so he decisively chose to finish him off, combining the power of the calamity with the attack from both inside and outside, thus eliminating his greatest threat.

[To be continued]

Please add this to your favorites and vote for it! (End of Chapter)