Destiny is ashes

Chapter 1008 Cultivating Three Paths Simultaneously (13)

The ancestral spirit of the Earth element, the Kunyu Divine Deer, has been destroyed.

This giant spirit, born from the primordial chaos, was finally killed by An Jing's elbow after a fierce and exhilarating battle, thus achieving its true annihilation.

With its demise, the entire desolate secret realm that served as its body and divine domain also lost its last support.

Rumbling--

The sky collapsed and the earth caved in.

Amidst the astonished gazes of countless cultivators outside, a once ordinary primeval forest within the Zhaolin Realm suddenly distorted and cracked like a shattered mirror, emitting a teeth-grinding cracking sound.

Immediately afterwards, a huge, collapsing hole appeared in the sky above the forest.

However, this was not the end. As the void collapsed to its limit, an unimaginable force of expansion erupted from it!

It was like countless yellow sands falling from the sky.

The original secret desert was like an infinite data packet that was instantly decompressed, expanding and extending wildly outward from that forest as the center!
The original forest was separated, and a brand new land was born from the new space and time. A patch of lush green was quickly divided and moved away, until finally only an endless expanse of yellowish-brown and sandy brown could be seen in the distance.

Mountains were stretched into flat land as they expanded, and rivers dried up and ceased to exist as they extended.

However, new mountains, hills and veins of earth, new rivers, lakes and oases also appeared in the desert as time and space were decompressed.

In just a few breaths, a vast expanse of golden Gobi Desert, filled with an ancient and desolate atmosphere, appeared out of thin air between heaven and earth, completely replacing, or rather, releasing itself from the original location of that forest.

The entire Zhaolin Realm expanded out of thin air.

This earth-shattering spectacle instantly attracted the attention of all cultivators within the Zhaolin Realm.

"What happened?!"

"Is the earth expanding? No, it's space. The grotto-heaven itself is growing!"

"What terrifying true meaning of heaven and earth! It seems the Radiant Scale Realm has become even stronger?!"

"It's a secret realm! A secret realm has collapsed! This aura... it's the Seven Luminaries Ancestral Spirit! One of the Ancestral Spirits is dead!"

Exclamations of surprise rose and fell. Countless divine thoughts and gazes, spanning thousands of miles, were all directed towards the heart of that newly formed desert.

Soon, someone spotted the figure standing in the center of the desert, a figure that would inevitably capture everyone's attention.

A sharp-eyed immortal raised a finger in horror, his voice trembling with excitement and astonishment: "There's someone in the heart of the desert! He killed the ancestral spirit!"

“I recognize him, it’s destiny! Anjing!”

"Why is he all alone? Could it be... that he defeated the ancestral spirit single-handedly?!"

This is simply unbelievable. In many past trials, it was always a team that could defeat the Ancestral Spirit, which is why the major sects would send an entire squad into the Zhaolin Realm.

While some people can indeed defeat ancestral spirits with their own strength, they will definitely be severely injured and lose the ability to fight.

But now, An Jing was standing there, not only was he injured, but even his clothes... oh, his clothes had changed, he was wearing a suit of armor.

Even so, he was almost at full strength!

"Could it be..." someone murmured to themselves, "that someone can truly kill ancestral spirits without taking any damage?"

The heart of the desert.

An Jing slowly raised his hand, staring at his palm, as if trying to see through the lines on his palm to understand his newborn Dao and reason, as well as his 'physical body formed by the Dao'.

After a moment, he closed his eyes and his mind sank into his own inner world.

It can't be said that An Jing fought entirely alone, because Jin Jie and Su Xinbai did help him directly push the ancestral spirit into the third stage, and he was indeed injured, but his injuries have all healed.

However, An Jing is now confident that he can once again annihilate the ancestral spirit without taking any damage.

And now, he is sensing his own grotto.

Within the Heavenly Punishment Realm, earth-shattering changes are taking place.

The boundless energy of the Earth element, carrying the incomparably profound [Seven Luminaries Star-Suppressing True Talisman], flowed into the cave world like a hundred rivers flowing into the sea, completely disappearing into the land where the Heavenly Punishment Divine Tree was located.

In an instant, the entire cavern suddenly became colorful and vibrant.

Originally, the land of this world was merely a vast, solid concept of 'soil' that bore all things. Simply put, it was an endless plain of earth and stone. Although there were some mountain ranges due to the existence of the earth veins, it was essentially a flat world without any details.

Now, with the infusion of this power of the 'Source of Earth,' this flat land was instantly etched with the most detailed inscriptions and the most authentic flesh and blood by an invisible sculptor's knife. Black soil, red soil, yellow soil... mountains rose abruptly, and hills stretched endlessly.

Swamps, wetlands, and plains are interspersed, and every inch of soil contains different characteristics and vitality.

If the original cave world was just a rough sketch, a design concept in the game, then now it has been given the most precise modeling, transformed into a real world that can truly nurture all things.

Simply put, it means you can actually grow vegetables now.

At this moment, life on the earth is becoming increasingly abundant.

According to the principle of mutual generation and restraint of the five elements, because of the appearance and abundance of 'earth', the spirit of 'metal' generated by earth becomes more and more sharp and refined; the spirit of 'wood' that restrains earth also finds a foundation to take root and sprout on this fertile land.

The earth, at the center, suppresses and nourishes the entire grotto-heaven world. The tranquil grotto-heaven cultivation method—[Establishing the Four Extremes]—thus naturally progressed, reaching the second extreme.

In Anjing's divine perception, the four cardinal directions of the cave, symbolizing the "Four Heavenly Punishments," have quietly condensed the phantom of a divine sword in the south, following the Eastern Heavenly Sword.

It was a bare, gleaming sword, seemingly forged from endless calamity fire, silently hovering in the Dan Yuan position south of the cave, radiating the majesty of judging sins.

[Heavenly Punishment Sword]!
—Those who have sinned before will be condemned by those who follow; the punishment of Heaven will be used to punish the sins of generations!

But why did they coalesce?
Wasn't it said that you could only get it by killing the Heavenly Demon?
An Jing was somewhat confused. According to his previous understanding, the Four Heavenly Punishment Swords should only be able to take shape after the Heavenly Demons that meet the corresponding conditions are killed.

Why would killing just one ancestral spirit has accelerated the appearance of the Heavenly Punishment Sword?

But then I thought about it again and realized it didn't matter. What's done is done, and the Star of Candlelight has no objections.

In fact, An Jing did not initially intend to actually kill the Kunyu Divine Deer.

Because after entering the Realm of Radiant Scales, he smelled the faint scent of blood and sensed that every killing in this world could cause some strange changes that were beneficial to the Heavenly Demon.

Especially after learning about the 'Great Calamity of the Blood Sea' from the Haotian Mirror, he became even more wary: rashly killing these ancestral spirits connected to the origin of the Zhaolin Realm's cave heaven might inadvertently provide power to the Heavenly Demon and the Blood Sea Demonic Sect.

The Realm of Scales itself clearly provides a way to obtain a ticket without killing these ancestral spirits.

For example, the battle between Dapeng, Anjing, and the Lord of the Forbidden Land was aimed at subjugating and defeating them.

If one can subdue them, gain their approval, or even cooperate with them, that would also be a way to pass the trial.

Although it is strange for someone like him, who is in the Seven Calamities, to say this, there are countless paths in the human world, and there is indeed more than just the path of killing.

Unfortunately, the Kunyu Divine Deer was determined to die.

Since that's the case, An Jing, being kind-hearted, fulfilled the other party's last wish.

Anyway, even if this really strengthens the Heavenly Demons, he is confident that he can suppress them all.

Just as An Jing was pondering, three streaks of light flew in from the sky.

The light fell on his side, where Jin Yanhua, You Ruhui, and Su Xinbai stood.

"You...you actually did it!"

Jin Yanhua's gaze immediately fell upon the center of the desert, the place where the Kunyu Divine Deer had once stood, where space and time were still trembling slightly.

She let out a long breath, her voice filled with emotion and shock: "And, your current state..."

She looked An Jing up and down, her dragon eyes like mirrors, reflecting the figure of a martial artist. Jin Yanhua sensed the perfectly smooth, even overly smooth, aura emanating from An Jing, which didn't seem like that of a Divine Treasure cultivator at all. He said uncertainly, "Your aura seems to be directly at the high-level of the Divine Treasure realm?"

"Even stronger!"

“Yes.” An Jing nodded frankly, without any concealment: “I am currently at the advanced stage of the Divine Treasury. I am just one step away from reaching the peak of the Divine Treasury by achieving the [Boundless Heart].

At this moment, he was cultivating the three methods simultaneously within his body, advancing in tandem.

The Immortal Purple Mansion has already passed through the initial stages of [Soul Transfer to the Void] and [Heavenly Furnace Nourishing the Dao], and is now preparing for the [Seven Returns and Nine Revolutions] technique.

This is already a realm in the upper-middle stage of the Purple Mansion, but because he has already achieved the Cave Heaven, he cultivates both his body and mind, so once he completes the Seven Returns and Nine Revolutions, he will also reach the peak.

As for the Feathered Ascension Cave Heaven, it has already connected two of the Four Extremes, and its foundation is far more solid than that of ordinary people.

Cultivating both body and spirit, uniting the three paths, one attains the dual immortality.

An Jing is far superior to ordinary high-level Divine Treasure cultivators. In fact, it could be said that even if a true saint were to appear, if one were careless and showed the slightest negligence, An Jing would sever one's Heavenly Rank with a single sword strike, temporarily dragging one into the quagmire of the Divine Treasure True Person realm, and then kill one with An Jing's incomparably rich experience.

(End of this chapter)