Eternal Life from the Golden Needle Technique

As an old demon who had lived for nearly two hundred years, the battle-hardened Qiu Kunsheng quickly realized something was wrong.

However,

it was too late!

Unbeknownst to him,

Shen Changchuan's strength had been growing bit by bit, gradually surpassing his own!

At this moment, Qiu Kunsheng,

facing Shen Changchuan in the heat of battle, felt as if he were trapped in a muddy swamp.

Under the relentless bombardment of Perfection Tier Two Skills, he sank deeper and deeper, completely unable to break free!

The pressure closing in from all sides was so immense it nearly suffocated him!

Moreover,

it was only then,

that he had a startling realization—

he had left himself no way out!

From the very beginning,

he had never even considered the possibility of defeat!

And now,

he found himself trapped in a dead end,

with nowhere to run and nowhere to hide!

In an instant,

Qiu Kunsheng broke out in a cold sweat.

Realizing his escape was cut off, he was struck by a terrifying thought:

'I'm really going to die here!'

"Damn it!"

"If my Lifebound Corpse Refinement was here, how could it have come to this?!"

Qiu Kunsheng felt utterly aggrieved.

With his Lifebound Corpse Refinement and the Corpse Refining Sect's Corpse Combination Secret Technique, he could have even unleashed the power of the Soul Emergence Ninth Layer!

But alas, there were no 'what ifs' in this world!

Now,

he felt like prey caught in a spider's web.

The more he struggled,

the tighter the binds became,

pulling him inexorably toward death!

"Damn it, damn it, damn it!!!"

Before him was Shen Changchuan's overwhelming pressure, and behind him, the Ninth Layer Mountain Array blocked his path.

Realizing he was cornered, Qiu Kunsheng finally began to panic.

Although his years of combat experience prevented him

from revealing any openings in his fight with Shen Changchuan,

the shift in his mentality

was clearly felt by Shen Changchuan on the other side.

'Is this as far as it goes...? In that case, let's end this!'

Sensing his opponent's state,

and considering that the man was providing less and less of a challenge as the fight dragged on,

worrying that his cornered enemy might try to take him down with him in a final, desperate act,

Shen Changchuan decided to strike first!

Instantly,

the look in his eyes sharpened.

The aura emanating from his body shifted dramatically.

Divine Skill: One Sword, Myriad Phenomena!

Without any warning,

an utterly bizarre power descended upon the world, suffusing the heavens and earth!

Within the entire Ninth Layer Mountain Grand Array,

time and space seemed to freeze, held in place by an invisible, intangible power that transcended the Myriad Phenomena of the Universe!

The world fell silent!

In that instant,

Qiu Kunsheng felt as if Shen Changchuan's figure was stretching out, merging with heaven and earth, dissolving into the myriad phenomena to become the universe itself!

His thoughts,

too, were affected by that formless energy,

growing sluggish.

Everything in the world slowed to a crawl.

"This is..."

Qiu Kunsheng's Heart Spirit was shaken.

His mind became a swirl of chaos and confusion.

He could do nothing, think nothing.

All he knew was that a stream of light seemed to pour down from the nine heavens,

slashing across the sky.

The light appeared so suddenly, as if the world were a frozen photograph. The beam came from beyond the heavens, descending upon the mortal realm and cleaving the world in two!

The light between heaven and earth faded.

Qiu Kunsheng didn't know how much time had passed.

It felt like an instant,

and also like ten thousand years.

When his senses returned, time began to flow again.

But the power and Vitality within his body had already been completely drained away.

"Di... Divine... Technique..."

Qiu Kunsheng's eyes were vacant as he mumbled his final two words.

His body then split down the middle,

falling from the sky in two halves, all signs of life gone.

The dust settled.

High in the sky,

Shen Changchuan let out a long breath.

At the same time, however,

his face was incredibly pale.

Clearly, that one sword strike

had consumed a great deal of his energy.

He had reached his limit,

making it impossible to unleash such an attack again.

'The power of a Divine Technique has become so strong... No wonder condensing a Divine Seed when ascending to the Soul Emergence Realm is held in such high regard!'

'Even at his peak, I doubt Qiu Kunsheng could have withstood such a move!'

Gazing at the bisected corpse that had fallen to the ground,

Shen Changchuan sighed with a mix of emotions.

Without a doubt,

the power of that strike

had shocked even him!

It couldn't be helped.

For years, he had spent most of his time in secluded Cultivation in Barbaric City and had rarely fought. Naturally, he hadn't had many opportunities to use his Divine Techniques.

Without a suitable opponent,

Shen Changchuan knew his transformed Divine Technique was powerful, but he had no way to gauge just how powerful it truly was.

Only now, after using it to slay Qiu Kunsheng—a Soul Emergence Eighth Layer Late Stage cultivator—with a single sword strike,

did he finally have a rough understanding of this Divine Technique's power!

Setting aside everything else,

the mere fact that even Qiu Kunsheng, a Soul Emergence Eighth Layer Late Stage cultivator, could not escape the influence of the Divine Technique's aura,

was a testament to its terrifying power!

Shen Changchuan had never met a Soul Emergence Ninth Layer Cultivator, so he couldn't speak for their level of power.

But below the Soul Emergence Ninth Layer,

Shen Changchuan dared say that almost no one could withstand this move!

'But then again, this result isn't exactly unexpected.'

'The transformation of a Divine Seed is directly proportional to the resources a Cultivator accumulates—the more one gathers, the more powerful the transformation!'

'Right now, I possess over a thousand Perfection Techniques, including more than twenty Perfection Tier Two Skills. With such a massive foundation, who among all the Cultivators in the Soul Emergence Realm can compare to me?'

'This Divine Technique isn't just the result of a simple Divine Seed transformation.'

'It is the culmination of my years of hard work, the very essence of a thousand accumulated Perfection Techniques!'

With just a moment of reflection,

Shen Changchuan had already figured it all out.

A hint of pride swelled in his heart.

The evolution of a Divine Seed nurtured by a thousand Perfection Techniques was naturally bound to be extraordinary!

Other Cultivators didn't have the aid of a progress bar panel display,

so even after decades of Cultivation, upon reaching the Soul Emergence Late Stage, they might only master one or two Perfection Tier Two Skills.

Even counting their Tier One Perfection Techniques, the total number likely wouldn't break one hundred.

Their accumulated foundation couldn't hope to compare with Shen Changchuan's.

Therefore, he couldn't use the transformation of other people's Divine Techniques as a benchmark.

'With the progress bar panel, the stronger I get, the greater my potential will become!'

'Perhaps my starting point was far behind those truly heaven-defying prodigies and demons, and far behind the second-generation heirs with their powerful backgrounds.'

'But one day, I will catch up to them, and even surpass them!'

Shen Changchuan gazed out at the world,

his heart brimming with confidence.