Swallowing the Stars: Heart of the Martial God

Chapter 228 The Dark Heaven Lineage

Deep within the tomb of the Wu Kingdom general, a place silent for countless reincarnations, Ling Xuan's true form has arrived on the Cosmic Ship.

Unlike the cautious exploration by Zhou Heng's clone last time, this time, the boundless life force and complete soul fluctuations emanating from his physical body were like a pebble thrown into an ancient well, instantly breaking the deathly silence of the place.

He took a step forward, and his figure appeared in front of the giant bronze gate engraved with the relief of the "Wu" army.

"Om-"

The ancient patterns on the bronze gate lit up one by one, and the gate opened silently inward, more smoothly and thoroughly than when the clone entered last time.

Inside the hall, the starlight barrier shone brightly, and the chaotic energy in the center sensed his arrival and instantly began to churn violently.

A brilliant silver light shone, and the virtual consciousness phantom belonging to Xuan Yan Wu rapidly condensed. Its gaze was no longer cold and scrutinizing as before, but rather carried an indescribable complex emotion—a mixture of scrutiny and expectation.

"You've arrived." The voice of the virtual consciousness resounded directly in the depths of Ling Xuan's soul, less of the programmed indifference and more solemn.

Ling Xuan stood in the hall and nodded slightly: "Senior, Ling Xuan has arrived as promised."

"Good! Flesh and blood as the foundation, soul as the essence, you can inherit my legacy!" The voice of the virtual consciousness suddenly rose, carrying a solemn declaration. "Since you meet the foundation requirements, you are qualified to accept the inheritance trial of General Xuan Yan! This trial is called 'Star Prison,' containing three levels that directly target the limits of your character, will, talent, and potential! Once you begin, there is no turning back. You will either inherit the glory of my 'Wu,' or... perish and your soul will vanish. Are you ready?"

"Ready."

As he finished speaking, the starlight in the entire hall suddenly dimmed, leaving only the central chaotic energy shining brightly, transforming into a huge silver vortex. Deep within the vortex, one could vaguely see the terrifying scene of countless stars being born and dying, and spacetime being distorted, emanating a sense of oppression that made one's soul tremble.

"Star Prison, First Level, Activate! This is the 'Law Return to the Void Sea'!"

Before the words were even finished, the entire scene in the hall completely collapsed and was rebuilt!
Ling Xuan found himself no longer standing on solid ground, but floating above a vast, boundless, and chaotic "ocean".

This "ocean" is not made of water; as far as the eye can see, it is a manifestation of countless broken, chaotic, conflicting, and annihilating laws!

Time here is like a broken ribbon, drifting aimlessly; space is like a shattered mirror, layer upon layer, refracting bizarre and distorted scenes; metal, wood, water, fire, earth, wind, thunder, light, time, space, metal void, wood void... and even more laws and lines whose meaning he could not comprehend at all, entangled, collided, and roared like a dying dragon, finally disintegrating into the most basic particles, returning to complete "nothingness"!
An aura of "annihilation," capable of ending all things and rendering all existence meaningless, permeated every inch of space, heavily oppressing Ling Xuan's body and soul.

"The Sea of ​​Laws Returning to Nothingness," the voice of the Xuan Yan phantom echoed above this chaotic and destroyed land, cold and unwavering, as if stating a given fact, "This place is the remnant of the core battlefield of the Cosmic Ship, containing the scene of all laws collapsing and returning to nothingness. To inherit the supreme lineage, talent is paramount! This trial is to test your comprehension, whether you can glimpse a trace of the true meaning of the Great Dao within this ultimate destruction! Time limit: one hundred million epochs! If you cannot glimpse it, or if the time limit expires and you fail to enter the gate, then you are considered to lack talent, and your divine body and soul will both return to this sea, turning into nothingness!"

One Hundred Million Era!
Ling Xuan was shocked. Wasn't this time a little too short?
Moreover, he needs to comprehend a trace of the true meaning of the Great Dao, which is to elevate his realm to the level of an Eternal True God.
In one hundred million epochs, how could anyone else in this world, besides myself, have the opportunity to advance from the realm of the Lord of the Universe to the realm of the Eternal True God?

Ling Xuan was extremely confident. He had been able to reach the Void True God realm even without guidance before. Now that he had guidance to comprehend, he was certain that he could complete it, but no one else possessed such an ability.

What puts even more pressure on him is the "Law Returning to the Void Sea" itself!
The sense of danger he felt here far surpassed that of those well-known perilous places in the cosmic ocean!
The most terrifying killer is the law of annihilation, which has no specific enemy but is omnipresent and occurs at all times.

He felt like a small boat on a raging sea, about to be smashed to pieces by a single wave.

He tried to mobilize divine power, but found that he was completely isolated from his other avatars in the primordial universe, as if separated by endless time and space. His consciousness was cut off and split into two individuals.

Here, what he can rely on is mainly his own divine body, soul, and most importantly—his understanding of the essence of the laws and his own will!
"We must understand the patterns of this environment as soon as possible and find a way to survive!" Ling Xuan forced himself to calm down and suppress his instinctive fear of the unknown environment.

He cautiously extended his divine power, like a blind man exploring the path, touching the chaotic "seawater" below.

"laugh--!"

Upon contact, an annihilating force, a mixture of accelerated decay, extreme spatial cutting, and a certain cold and deathly quality, spread rapidly along the divine power like a maggot clinging to a bone!

Its speed far exceeded his reaction time!
His wisp of divine power was instantly assimilated, decomposed, and annihilated. A sharp, piercing pain, directly affecting the very essence of his soul, even returned to him, causing him to groan and turn slightly pale.

"What terrifying annihilation power! Pure and domineering, it seems to erase all traces of its existence..." Ling Xuan was horrified and quickly severed the connection, no longer daring to easily extend his divine power.

He hovered above the sea, channeling his divine power to protect himself, his eyes gleaming with divine light, like the most sophisticated detector, as he began to observe and analyze the workings of this Sea of ​​Ruins.

The collision and annihilation of those countless broken laws seemed chaotic and violent, with no discernible pattern.

The colorful scenes of destruction intertwined to form a dizzying abstract painting. Ling Xuan held his breath, his will highly focused, trying to find some kind of inner rhythm or rule within it.

One hundred epochs, two hundred epochs, three hundred epochs... Time quietly slips away.

Ling Xuan hovered in place like a stone sculpture, enduring the relentless onslaught of the surrounding destructive aura.

His divine power was slowly and steadily being depleted. Occasionally, his divine body would be struck by sudden bursts of fragments of law, leaving marks of burning or freezing that required divine power to repair.

Progress was minimal. The complexity of this Guixu Sea far exceeded his imagination. Its pure and ultimate state of mind, leading to nothingness, was completely different from any law system he had ever known.

He felt as if he were deciphering a completely foreign language, one that belonged to destruction itself.

About eight hundred epochs later, during a long period of observation, Ling Xuan's gaze inadvertently locked onto an extremely peculiar scene of annihilation.

It wasn't a chaotic collision of multiple laws, but rather an extremely condensed and pure "darkness." It didn't devour light; rather, wherever it passed, whether it was the solid law of metal, the flowing law of water, or the invisible spatial structure, everything was neatly "severed" as if sliced ​​by the sharpest blade. Then, all traces of existence at the break, including the laws themselves, quickly "faded," not disintegrated, but as if the concept of "existence" had been forcibly erased, returning to an absolute "nothingness." This method of "destruction" possessed an extremely sharp yet extremely silent quality, completely out of place with the surrounding chaotic and explosive scenes of annihilation.

In that instant, it was as if a bolt of lightning flashed through Ling Xuan's mind!
The "Life and Death Sword Intent" that his Zhouheng clone had been comprehending for many years flowed involuntarily into his heart.

The profound meaning of the sword intent, belonging to the realm of returning to nothingness—ending, withering, and returning to silence—resonated with the scene before me, where all things returned to silence and ended in sorrow, in a strange but not entirely harmonious way.

He felt that the "Return to Nothingness" in his sword intent was more inclined towards a slow erosion and end, while the scene before him was a more absolute, more rapid destruction with a certain sense of "severance".

“This…this feeling…” Ling Xuan’s heart skipped a beat, and a thought popped into his head, “This is not an ordinary annihilation of laws…this seems to contain some kind of unique ‘Dao’? A kind of…Dao that severs everything and returns it to eternal darkness?”

This discovery greatly boosted his spirits!

He had previously relied entirely on willpower to endure the ordeal, trying to understand this unfamiliar and desolate place like a headless fly.

But now, he seemed to see a glimmer of light in the endless darkness—a unique sense of destruction!

He no longer passively observed and defended as before.

He began to intentionally focus on observing those annihilation scenes that possessed characteristics similar to "severance" and "returning to eternal darkness," and tried to corroborate and compare them with his own understanding of the "return to nothingness" part of the "Life and Death Blade Intent."

He discovered that although such scenes of destruction were relatively rare, they did exist in this Sea of ​​Ruins, and their manifestations varied slightly.

Some emphasize the unparalleled sharpness of "severing," as if capable of cleaving everything in two; others emphasize the silence of "returning to eternal darkness," causing all things to lose their vitality and color; still others appear more chaotic, triggering a chain reaction of collapse of the surrounding laws while severing...

The more he confirmed it, the clearer a certain feeling in his heart became.

He realized that he might have touched the tip of the iceberg of an extremely profound branch of the Great Dao of Destruction!
This branch seems to be related to "darkness", "severance" and "silence", but its essence is far more complex and profound than he initially understood!

"I understand... This first trial is for General Xuan Yan to help me comprehend... comprehend a unique, true essence of destruction in this sea of ​​destruction!" Ling Xuan's eyes shone with an unprecedented light, an excitement and exhilaration at discovering a path forward and finding a direction.

Although he was not yet clear on which of the six major branches this corresponded to, he knew that he had found the right direction!

After that, Ling Xuan's trial methods underwent a fundamental change.

He no longer observed all the scenes of annihilation aimlessly, but began to consciously seek out and capture those fragments of destruction that contained the meaning of "severance and eternal darkness".

He carefully activated a trace of the Returning to Nothingness Blade Intent within himself, attempting to approach and simulate that unique destructive charm.

This process is more dangerous than before because this unique atmosphere of destruction seems more exclusive and harder to access.

Several times, he tried to imitate the "splitting" characteristic of the Dark Annihilation. As soon as his own sword intent approached, he was injured by the extreme sharpness contained within it. His soul felt as if it had been slashed, and the intense pain almost made him lose consciousness.

But he persevered, relying on the foundation laid by the Life and Death Blade Intent and his own tenacious will, trying again and again, failing again and again, and adjusting again and again.

His understanding of this unique destructive atmosphere accumulated extremely slowly through countless failures and injuries.

When he finally managed to barely simulate a trace of destructive aura, carrying the meaning of "returning to eternal darkness," within his own sword intent after nearly three thousand epochs of time, and with this trace of aura, he was able to "pacify" to some extent the relatively mild annihilation power of his own kind within a small area around him...

The Xuan Yan Wu Xu Ying, suspended high above the Gui Xu Sea, finally showed a very subtle, almost imperceptible fluctuation in its usually calm pupils.

"He actually... touched the edge of the 'Dark Heaven' lineage on his own?" The illusory figure of Xuan Yan murmured, his voice carrying a hint of genuine surprise. "This child... was able to, in such an environment, without a teacher, capture the true meaning of 'making all things lose their color and return to eternal darkness' from the myriad manifestations of destruction? It seems that he was destined for this path before, and his talent... may be even greater than expected."

However, the illusory figure of Xuan Yan knew that Ling Xuan's current performance only proved that he had a natural affinity for the "Dark Heaven" lineage, which could be considered as meeting the minimum threshold for accepting the inheritance.

However, they are still far from truly comprehending the unique and destructive essence of "Dark Heaven" that belongs to the "Wu" lineage.

That requires a deeper understanding, and... a bit of luck.

Ling Xuan himself understood this.

He stood atop the relatively calmer waves of destruction, his gaze fixed on the deeper reaches of the Guixu Sea.

There, the destructive aura of "severance and eternal darkness" was even more intense and pure. He vaguely sensed that there was some ancient and unique origin there that was attracting him.

"Not enough... I've only tentatively simulated a trace of the meaning of 'severance and eternity,' not even scratching the surface of the 'Dark Heaven' lineage." Ling Xuan took a deep breath, suppressing the slight joy brought on by his progress. His eyes regained their firmness and sharpness. He gradually guessed that what he was comprehending was the Dark Heaven lineage within the Great Dao of Destruction. "Ahead, there is still a long way to go. The intent of 'splitting,' the even more chaotic intent... I haven't even touched them yet."

He adjusted his mindset and cautiously began to step into the more dangerous Guixu Sea, which contained more of the true meaning of the "Dark Heaven" lineage.

The real test has only just begun.

(End of this chapter)