Chapter 1309: Chapter 1307: Gathering the Seven Colored Divine Pearls
Where am I?
Who am I, after all?
In the darkness, a consciousness that had been asleep for who knows how long slowly awoke.
Before his eyes was pitch black; storms raged every moment, their power so great that even if the Forbidden Martial Emperor were caught up in one, he would likely meet his death with no place to bury his body.
"Am I alive, or am I dead?"
Shi Xiaole could barely believe it.
He did not know where he was. The storms that brushed past gave him an abnormally dangerous feeling, and yet the last remaining fragments of his consciousness, perhaps by sheer luck, dodged crisis after crisis.
No, it wasn’t good fortune.
Shi Xiaole then discovered that, outside his fragmented consciousness, shone a circle of six-colored light: black, white, cyan, green, blue, red.
It was this ring of six-colored light that saved him from being struck by the storms.
Shi Xiaole was like a speck of dust in the ocean, drifting aimlessly in the darkness, not knowing how long he would drift or where he would end up.
Although most of his memory was lost, some instincts still drove him to start cultivating day after day, as if he had done this countless times before.
Logically speaking, once consciousness was reduced to fragments, it was impossible to recover. But as time passed, Shi Xiaole felt his consciousness growing stronger, albeit slowly.
Perhaps it was a year, or perhaps it was many years.
Shi Xiaole’s fragmented consciousness encountered other fragments, merging with them, and some of his memory returned, numerous blurred images flashing before his eyes.
Whether it was the influence of the six-colored light or not, more and more fragments of consciousness were gathering together, and as the consciousness grew stronger, so did this attractive force.
"My name is Shi Xiaole, I am the master of Nine Heavens Mountain, the owner of Divine Sword Villa, and also the son of the Holy Monarch and the Holy Empress."
When his consciousness reached halfway, Shi Xiaole remembered many critical matters and began to comprehend life and death.
In the endless void, there was utter silence, not even the rolling chaotic void currents made a sound. At one moment, Shi Xiaole suddenly saw a vision.
There seemed to be four terrifyingly powerful figures fighting in the distance, their residual effects spreading and shattering countless chaotic void currents. They were too strong, and with Shi Xiaole’s current state, he couldn’t sense their presence, let alone see their faces clearly.
His consciousness yearned to stay away, but the vortex created by the battle involuntarily pulled him toward it. Just as he thought he was about to be destroyed, he discovered that the scene was not real, but merely a memory engraved in the void.
Those four great experts had perhaps once battled here, but because they were so powerful, the image of their battle lingered long afterward.
"Isn’t this what I am pursuing? But now, let alone a physical body, even my consciousness is hard to restore. Perhaps I’ll remain in this state forever, until I quietly pass away."
A strong sense of unwillingness surged in Shi Xiaole’s heart.
Although he had forgotten, he was certain that there were many things left for him to do; how could he give up?
At the very least, he had to try his utmost, even if he ultimately failed, he would have no regrets.
It was as if Shi Xiaole’s spirit underwent deeper refinement. In the boundless darkness and silence, he completely calmed himself, allowing his consciousness to drift, always perceiving something.
On the long journey, he caught glimpses of battle scenes several times, occasionally casting a glance before immediately withdrawing his attention.
More consciousness merged with him, and he remembered his life-and-death battle with the Absolute Extinguishing Supreme Lord.
"The four great martial paths are all ruined, truly a disaster. But disaster can be the foundation of fortune; without experiencing life and death, how can one truly understand it, and penetrate its mysteries?"
Shi Xiaole knew very well that the current calamity was, in its way, a tremendous opportunity. The saying goes, to build anew, one must first destroy; out of destruction often comes the greatest chance of life.
One day.
All fragments of consciousness returned to their place.
Shi Xiaole’s perception returned to its peak, the six-colored light flourished, and feeling an unknown force pulling him strongly, his consciousness shot out from a void channel with a whoosh.
The next moment!
A brand-new world appeared before Shi Xiaole.
The dim yellow sky, the dark ground, in the distance were barren hills of varying heights, and a thick air of death enveloped this world.
Is this?
The pull grew stronger, and Shi Xiaole flew uncontrollably. Crossing the vast plains, he passed through uninhabited deserts, decaying swamps, and seas with countless fish and shrimp corpses floating...
He observed every image he saw. The withered vegetation in the deserts, the decaying leaves in the marshes, the active microorganisms within the fish and shrimp bodies...
"Death doesn’t mean stillness, only a partial stillness. This unchanging state can change at any time."
Later, Shi Xiaole entered lush forests, vibrant oases, and the rolling oceans...
He found that even the tallest plants were partly declining. The brightest green leaves were only transient. The active fish and shrimp were nearing death...
"Life, death, are just a trivial temporary state of all things in heaven and earth. Only change is eternal."
An enlightenment surged in Shi Xiaole’s mind, and he felt an unprecedented sense of lightness and detachment.
Hum!
In the sea of consciousness, the fragments of light that he thought had disappeared suddenly converged, forming a three-inch Yin-Yang Wheel that emitted black and white light.
The Yin-Yang Wheel gently spun, dragging out fragmented light spots like stars in the diamond-strewn sky.
Outside the consciousness, a vague outline appeared, which then filled out with muscles, bones, flesh, and finally skin and hair. A head of ink-black hair began to grow, touched with strands of white at the temples.
In an instant, a tall and straight body with every muscle perfectly defined appeared above the ocean, exuding a masculine virility.
He took out a set of brand new undergarments and a cyan robe from the system space and put them on, and Shi Xiaole, once dashing and peerless, was back.
No, compared to the past, his temperament was even more outstanding now. His gaze was clean and clear, appearing transparent at a glance, yet as if nothing could be seen through it.
It was like a divine sword that, after settling, had returned to its simple origins, no longer easily displaying its sharpness.
If old friends saw Shi Xiaole now, they would be greatly surprised. For he truly resembled a seventeen or eighteen-year-old youth just starting out, full of vitality and sunshine, with upturned corners of his lips more dazzling than the sun in the sky.
"The path of life and death is nearly reaching eleven-tenths of its peak," he murmured.
With a thought, the Yin-Yang Wheel sped up its rotation, dispersing an endless breath of life. Gradually, a blurry figure appeared beside him, full of malevolence—it was, unmistakably, the Demon Martial Way.
There was also a ruined cyan small sword, and a dried-up lake of illusion, both of which improved under the spreading breath of life.
About a year later, the Illusion Martial Way was the first to recover.
In the second year, the Wind Sword Way was reborn and, under the transformation of the path of life and death, broke through to twelve-tenths at the mid-stage.
In the fifth year, the Demon Martial Way returned to its original state.
With that, Shi Xiaole’s condition had fully returned to its peak, yet he was far more powerful than before. Confident in his ability to kill the severely injured Absolute Extinguishing Supreme Lord, he was ready to face him again.
However, his current priority was figuring out how to return to the East Victory world.
Opening his palm, Shi Xiaole looked at the six shimmering beads lying there and exclaimed, "I never expected that at the crucial moment, it would be you who saved me."
The mysterious suction grew stronger, and with Shi Xiaole urging his power, his speed increased dramatically.
Half a month later.
A sea of thunder appeared ahead.
Bolts of lightning, some as thin as a thumb, others as wide as a water barrel, split the sky and crashed down, creating electric waves. Even the smallest splash could punch countless holes in the void.
A single bolt of lightning is not to be feared, a regular Martial Emperor in the Void Origin Realm could withstand it. But if a hundred, a thousand bolts struck at once, even the Forbidden Martial Emperor could not endure it, let alone an endless sea of thunder.
This was a place of absolute death!
Yet Shi Xiaole did not hesitate and walked straight into it.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
As if sensing an intruder, the sea of thunder became even more violent, pouring down ferociously.
Shi Xiaole used his arm as a sword, and with one strike, his Sword Qi actually extinguished the vitality of a large swath of lightning, drastically reducing their power. They hit him, eliciting only a few arcs of electricity.
One hundred meters.
One thousand meters.
Two thousand meters.
...
The deeper he went, the more powerful the sea of thunder became. At ten thousand meters, even the Sword Qi of life and death was of no use. Shi Xiaole then deployed the Demon Sword Qi, which, after all, possessed greater pure destructive power.
The path of life and death protected his body, healing his wounds at the fastest speed.
Shi Xiaole suddenly spotted a charred corpse.
Even in such an environment, a pure martial breath lingered around the corpse, preventing it from being destroyed, indicating the immense strength of the deceased—near invincible below the Supreme Lord, yet still they died here.
And looking at the vast world, how many unsung geniuses like this had died unnoticed?
Refocusing his mind, Shi Xiaole strained to move forward.
But even so, at thirteen thousand meters, he was still struck so severely that his body was covered in wounds, his flesh a blur, with even white bone chips exposed.
It was there that he saw the second corpse, even more powerful than the first, and above which floated a purple bead.
"I’ve finally found you, it must have been you who guided me here," he said.
The purple bead flew towards him on its own, without Shi Xiaole having to lift a finger. The seven colored divine beads came together, radiating a magnificent divine light, making even the relentless thunder pause for a moment.
Crack! Crack!
The Demon Bone within Shi Xiaole’s body suddenly turned to dust, expelling from his flesh. And then, the divine beads retracted their brilliance and lay quietly in the system space.
At that moment, Shi Xiaole’s spiritual quality surged as if a shackle had been removed, greatly advancing a whole level, and his comprehension likewise made a dramatic leap forward.
The son of the Holy Monarch and Holy Empress—how could his innate talent be ordinary?
Even without Shi Xiaole’s transmigration, this body was still a once-in-a-lifetime genius, only suppressed by the Demon Bone!
Late on, when the Demon Bone was cleansed, it seemed to enhance Shi Xiaole’s understanding of the Devil Path martial arts, but how could that compare to the release of his inherent comprehension?
