Chapter 835
Half-Step to the Ninth Realm
"Rumble rumble rumble—"
Su Chen sat cross-legged, hovering above the Epoch Graveyard. The prehistoric Yin Soldiers and death energy that had originally tried to approach him, after sensing the terrifying aura within him that was frantically refining the prehistoric Abyss Lord, all retreated in terror to a distance of millions of miles, as if they had encountered their natural enemy.
More than half a month has passed.
The flickering divine light of origin on Su Chen's body finally stabilized completely.
"Click".
As the last invisible shackle within his body was completely shattered, Su Chen slowly opened his eyes.
In his eyes, one reflected the vibrant prosperity of the present world, the other the absolute stillness of prehistoric times. These two diametrically opposed, even paradoxical, concepts of the ultimate path achieved a near-perfect harmony within him.
[Half-step into the Ninth Realm]!!!
After devouring the prehistoric Dao Fruit of the Lord of the Withered Profound Abyss, Su Chen finally crossed that seemingly hopeless chasm and truly stood at the very peak of this multiverse system, with one foot already in the legendary Realm of Returning to Truth!
He clenched his fist slightly.
"boom!"
The vast, empty sea of matter tens of millions of miles in front of him collapsed irreversibly, transforming into a true, absolute void and dead zone, simply because of the muscle contraction he generated when he clenched his fist.
"Is this... the power of being halfway to the ninth realm?"
Su Chen lowered his head, looking at his flawless hands that seemed capable of vanishing at any moment, and a satisfied smile curved his lips.
He knew that if he were to encounter the High Dimension Council's Grand Elder at his peak again, he wouldn't need to use any of his trump cards. With just one strike, he could completely wipe out the opponent and the entire Primordial Divine Realm.
Because his foundation has already integrated the essence of both the present world and the prehistoric era!
"but……"
Su Chen raised his head, his gaze falling once again on the towering [Heaven-Reaching Stone Tablet] in the very center of the Epoch Graveyard.
"Half a step is still just half a step."
"The only clue recorded on this stone tablet is the path to the true 'Ninth Realm,' the path to the 'First Cause' of the origin of all things."
Su Chen took a deep breath, suppressed his earth-shattering cultivation, and returned to a state of simplicity and authenticity.
He strode forward, stepping over the remains of the Lord of the Withered Profound Abyss, which had long since turned to ashes, and once again arrived at the foot of the Heavenly Stele.
This time, without the disturbance of the prehistoric elders, Su Chen was able to truly comprehend the ultimate meaning contained in this stone tablet.
He reached out and placed his hand once again on the cold, chaotic surface of the monument.
"Om——"
He probed into it with his divine sense.
In the blink of an eye, the stars shifted and eras changed.
Su Chen's consciousness followed the Dao patterns on the stone tablet, extending infinitely upwards, piercing through the dark fluid of the Great Void Sea, and through endless paradoxes and nothingness.
finally.
His consciousness arrived in a place where there was no color, no sound, and not even the concepts of "space" and "time".
There is only one point here.
The Singularity is something that cannot be measured by size, yet it encompasses all past, present, and future of multiple universes, and all things, both tangible and intangible.
At the very center of that singularity, there is an ultimate light source, purely composed of the concepts of "creation" and "destruction".
That is the source of all things, the creator of multiple universes, and the executor of the destruction of eras.
—The Ultimate Cause!
"I see……"
Su Chen's consciousness did not feel fear in the face of that supreme light source; instead, it was filled with an extreme longing and madness from its very source.
"The so-called Ninth Realm is not a cultivation level at all. It is a rank!"
"To truly enter the Ninth Realm, one must find this [First Cause] in the deepest part of this Great Void Sea, and then..."
In his consciousness space, Su Chen revealed a cruel smile that would make even the gods of all realms tremble before that supreme light source.
"Eat it!"
"I devour the Creator, I replace the First Cause, I am the Origin, I am the Ultimate!!!"
Consciousness returns to its original state.
Su Chen suddenly opened his eyes and withdrew his hand from the Tongtian Stone Tablet.
The moment he withdrew his hand, the Tongtian Stone Tablet, which had stood for countless eras and witnessed the destruction of prehistoric times, suddenly cracked open with a huge fissure in the middle.
Within the crevice, a mysterious passage leads directly to the core and deepest part of the Great Void Sea, where the [First Cause] is hidden.
"The Creator?"
Su Chen tightened his grip on the Origin Demon Blade and straightened the green robe he wore, which was formed from the laws of nature.
He showed no hesitation, nor the slightest reverence.
With an unprecedented fervor for the extreme, he stepped into the passage leading to the ultimate.
"Wash your neck clean and wait."
"My Lord, it's time to eat."
……
……
"boom!"
When Su Chen's footsteps truly crossed the ultimate rift created by the Heavenly Stone Tablet, the Epoch Graveyard behind him, the dark and viscous fluid water of the Great Void Sea, and all the decaying aura of the "previous era" were instantly isolated and disappeared.
There is no sound, no light, no matter, and even the two most fundamental building blocks of the multiverse, "time" and "space," no longer exist here.
If the outer realms are a high-dimensional vacuum devoid of spiritual energy, and the Great Void Sea is a chaotic ruin filled with logical paradoxes, then this passage is the true—[absolute nothingness].
This is the state before the birth of all things, a place where even the "concept" itself has not yet been defined.
"Is this the path to the end...?"
Su Chen stood in this pure white expanse that defied description. Although there was nothing around him, his true spirit was experiencing an unprecedented and terrifying sense of pressure.
This pressure doesn't come from external force, but from the absolute nothingness's frantic rejection of his existence! Here, anything that "exists" is heresy!
"Crack...knock..."
The dark gold divine armor on Su Chen's body, formed from the essence of the eighth realm at its peak, began to show fine cracks under this repulsive force. The vast and boundless inner universe within him also emitted a muffled rumble under the pressure of this power, as if it would collapse inward and return to nothingness at any moment.
"You want to assimilate me into nothingness? Erase all traces of my existence?"
Su Chen lowered his head slightly, glanced at his hands which were beginning to become somewhat transparent and were faintly blending into the pure white space, and a cold, extremely arrogant smile appeared on his lips.
"My Dao is called Origin! It is the creation from nothing to something, and the absorption from something to nothing!"
"You think you can define my existence just because of environmental rejection? Give me that—definition!"
"boom!!!"
With a low shout from Su Chen, the terrifying foundation of the half-step ninth realm within his body suddenly erupted!
Half of it was the vibrant origin of the multiverse in the present world, and the other half was the desolate power of the prehistoric era. One was life, one was death; one was yin, one was yang. These two completely opposite extreme forces intertwined wildly within Su Chen's body, eventually transforming into a flawless [Origin Tai Chi Diagram], which floated behind his head.
The Tai Chi symbol slowly rotated, emanating an absolute will that was "invulnerable to all laws and supreme in itself".
The pure white void power that attempted to assimilate and erase Su Chen was like a clay ox entering the sea the moment it touched this Tai Chi diagram. It was forcibly transformed into the purest energy and fed back into Su Chen's inner universe.
"As long as I have a breath left, the place where I stand will be the center of the multiverse!"
Su Chen held the Source Demon Blade in his hand and steadily stepped forward through the endless pure white passage.
I don't know how long it took.
In this place where time has no concept, it may be a moment, or it may have been billions of epochs.
Suddenly, an extremely strange ripple appeared in the pure white void in front of Su Chen.
Immediately afterwards, countless colorful rivers, each exuding a distinct aura of cause and effect, emerged from the void in all directions, like countless ferocious dragons, intertwining and coiling around Su Chen's path forward.
"This is……"
Su Chen stopped and gazed intently at the long rivers.
In his divine perception, what flowed in these long rivers were not river water, but—[countless versions of himself]!
In the first long river, Su Chen saw his past self in the mortal realm. That self had failed to obtain the opportunity of the library, and on a stormy night, was pierced through the heart by an enemy's sword, collapsing in the mud and dying in despair.
In the second long river, he saw another version of himself. Although that version of himself had embarked on the path of cultivation, his true spirit was obliterated by the array of the High Dimensional Judgment Council when he ascended to the outer realm, turning into a wisp of ashes outside the Primordial God Realm.
In the third long river, that version of himself submitted to the High Dimensional Council. He knelt at the feet of the Grand Elder, surrendered the Great Road of Origin, and became a lackey of the Council, barely surviving for countless epochs.
There are even scenes of him transforming into a savior, sacrificing himself to save all living beings; and scenes of him falling into the demonic path and being jointly killed by the heavenly laws of all realms...
The billions of rivers represent billions of parallel causal relationships and infinite possibilities that may occur in multiple universe timelines.
"A trial? Or an ambush?"
Su Chen looked at these scenes without any change in his eyes, which even revealed a hint of condescending mockery.
Just then, the countless "Su Chens" in the long river all turned their heads and spoke in unison to Su Chen in the center of the passage in an extremely eerie voice, full of allure and pleading:
"Come back...become one with us..."
"This is your destiny; you are merely one variable among countless possibilities..."
"Abandon that unattainable ninth realm, return to the long river of the Great Dao, and enjoy eternal tranquility..."
Accompanied by countless overlapping demonic sounds, the long rivers began to boil wildly. Countless illusory "Su Chen" struggled to crawl out of the water, stretching out dense arms, attempting to grab Su Chen in the center of the passage and drag him into the River of Cause and Effect, which represented infinite possibilities but in reality erased his "uniqueness"!
This is an extremely terrifying concept attack!
It doesn't attack the physical body, nor does it attack the soul. Its aim is to shake Su Chen's invincible heart that yearns for the Dao by showcasing countless possibilities of failure, ordinariness, and humiliation!
If Su Chen's Dao heart harbors even the slightest doubt, if he admits that he "might fail," then his [Absolutely Unique Origin] status, forged through mountains of corpses and seas of blood, will instantly collapse!
Faced with such a terrifying killing situation that could instantly cause any eighth-realm expert to lose their Dao heart.
Instead of retreating, Su Chen raised his head and let out a wild, arrogant laugh that shook the absolute void!
Hahahaha!!!
"Destiny? Possibly?"
"A bunch of non-existent illusions dare to disturb my supreme Dao heart?!"
The coldness on Su Chen's face transformed into extreme brutality and domineering power. He gripped the hilt of the Origin Demon Blade with both hands, and the half-step ninth realm essence within his body exploded like a supernova!
He coldly looked down at the millions of illusory "selves" trying to drag him down, his eyes filled with nothing but endless ruthlessness and murderous intent.
"Throughout my journey, I have crushed countless chosen ones beneath my feet! My fate has never been bound by the river of cause and effect!"
"I am who I am!"
"Throughout the myriad realms and countless epochs, above and below the heavens, I alone reign supreme!"
"Any path I haven't walked is a dead end! Any possibility I haven't experienced is—heretical and false!"
"Smash to me!!!"
"boom------------!!!!!"
Su Chen drew his sword and slashed furiously!
A peerless blade of light, a blend of modern vitality and prehistoric death energy, stretching for hundreds of millions of miles, interwoven with dark gold and gray-black, carrying Su Chen's unshakeable and absolutely unique supreme domineering intent, fiercely cleaved towards the river of cause and effect that blocked the passage!
[The Ultimate Secret of Origin - Absolutely Unique]!
"Hey!"
There was no earth-shattering explosion, only a crisp sound of tearing fabric.
Under Su Chen's domineering and unreasonable strike, the river of cause and effect, which represented "infinite possibilities," was instantly split in two, like a scroll being ripped open by a sharp blade!
Those billions of illusory "Su Chen" were completely annihilated like bubbles before they even had a chance to scream when touched by the blade's light, turning into the most primordial nothingness dust!
One strike severs cause and effect! One strike extinguishes all thoughts!
Su Chen, longsword in hand, stepped out from the shattered river of cause and effect. His aura not only didn't weaken, but instead, having severed these causal illusions, became even purer and more indescribable!
"Such a crude illusion dares to hinder my progress."
Su Chen flicked away non-existent blood from the blade and stared coldly at the end of the passage.
"It seems that this so-called 'first cause' is nothing more than a coward who only knows how to hide behind the scenes and play with concepts."
"Since you refuse to come out, then I, the Venerable One, will personally expose your secrets!"
Su Chen stopped moving slowly and suddenly exerted force with his feet. With a "bang", he transformed into an aurora that transcended the concept of speed and rushed wildly towards the deepest part of the passage!
As he went deeper.
The surrounding pure white nothingness began to change.
In the previously empty space, wisps of thread, visible to the naked eye and displaying a chaotic color, began to appear.
These threads are densely packed and crisscrossed, each one flowing with terrifying laws of "creation" and "destruction." They are like the underlying code that constructs the entire multiverse, maintaining the operation of everything.
Su Chen raised an eyebrow slightly.
He could sense that the power contained within these chaotic threads was the ultimate aura emanating from the Heavenly Stele in the Epoch Graveyard within the Great Void Sea!
"Are we finally reaching the source...?" (End of Chapter)