Chapter 185 - 184: Great Evolution [Bonus]
The temporal dilation of the Void Ascension Battlefield distorted the very flow of time, making the boundary between fleeting hours and endless days almost meaningless. While only half a day had passed in the outside world of Sky Jade City, a full twenty days had already bled away within the pocket realm.
Within the golden-lit cavern of the immortal beast, the air was thick and Jin Rou sat in a strict lotus position, his spiritual power finally stabilized, though his physical body still bore the faint scars of the corpse beetles’ mandibles. He breathed in a slow, rhythmic cadence, circulating his Qi, but his focus was not entirely on his own internal spiritual sea. His eyes, filled with a profound, quiet awe, kept drifting toward the man sitting a few paces away.
Lin Yuan was also seated in a lotus position, completely immersed in his consolidation. The faint mist of his Spirit Severing aura hovered around him, dense and immovable as a mountain.
Jin Rou silently pondered the sheer and terrifying nature of Lin Yuan, his mind struggling to comprehend just what kind of person he had encountered.
What is his true cultivation? Jin Rou thought. He saw through the Golden Immortal Illusion Formation Seal with a mere glance. A casual wave of his hand shattered a veil that our Ancestors swore could only be pierced by a Soul Transformation expert. Is he concealing his realm? Is he truly a Soul Transformation monster walking among us in disguise?
Jin Rou stared at the black and white-robed man and slowly shook his head in silent disagreement with his own assumption.
No, that couldn’t be it. If Lin Yuan were truly at the Soul Transformation realm, he would possess a fully formed Primordial Spirit. If he possessed a Primordial Spirit, he would not be in this cave, meticulously planning a strategy and gathering evidence. He would simply walk into Chu Kuang’s camp, crush the Peerless Stage genius with a single flex of his might, and walk out.
The fact that Lin Yuan was wary of Chu Kuang—a monster at the Peerless Stage (Eighth Step) of Dao Resolve—proved that Lin Yuan was genuinely at the Early Stage of Spirit Severing.
He is truly only at the Early Stage, Jin Rou concluded, yet his reverence for the man only deepened. But that foundation... that terrifying foundation. What kind of monstrous inheritance must he possess? He must have cultivated divine arts and obtained ancient treasures beyond imagination. One of those supreme abilities must have allowed him to see through our Golden Immortal Illusion Formation Seal with nothing more than a glance.
The realization was staggering. To be an Early Stage cultivator yet possess the divine skills, and abilities required to manipulate the battlefield like a grandmaster... Jin Rou finally understood that he was standing before a man destined to reach heights far beyond his imagination. A man who, with every step, could one day shake mountains and rivers, and with a single glance, grasp the profound mysteries of the Origin itself.
A few paces away, Lin Yuan’s mind was entirely separated from the cavern, projecting deep into his own spiritual sea.
Even with all his comprehension, his divine skills, and his flawless Ancient Beast Body, Lin Yuan did not let the arrogance of his recent victories cloud his assessment of the board. Going directly against Chu Kuang in a battle of pure attrition and expecting a flawless victory was improbable.
Chu Kuang was not merely an arrogant heir. He was an Eighth Step Dao Resolve powerhouse, a terrifying existence whose spiritual power was hundreds of times denser than that of a standard Early Stage Spirit Severing cultivator. Lin Yuan knew that in a direct clash of strength, he could undoubtedly hold his ground and perhaps even inflict severe injuries upon Chu Kuang. But killing him cleanly before his retinue could converge was an entirely different matter. It would be an enormous gamble, one in which even a single miscalculation could cost him his life.
But I do not need to fight him in a battle of raw cultivation, Lin Yuan thought, his gaze falling briefly to the two jade slips resting inside his spatial ring. With irrefutable evidence of his capital crimes in my possession, I do not need to defeat Chu Kuang through brute force. I only need to force his hand, and once he acts rashly, the evidence will become his downfall.
To perfectly calculate his approach, Lin Yuan began to meditate upon one of his most profound arts, Great Evolution Divine Ability.
The concept of the Great Evolution, the Dayan, had been contemplated by countless ancient cultivators. They believed that the Great Evolution numbered fifty, yet only forty-nine were used. The missing number represented the one variable that could never be completely calculated: human will. No matter how perfectly the Heavens arranged fate, there would always remain a single thread beyond their grasp, a tiny crack within the otherwise rigid tapestry of destiny.
The Great Evolution Divine Ability was a supreme technique derived from this very concept. It was designed to deduce the deepest secrets of Heaven, predict fortune and disaster, and even derive, evolve, and perfect countless martial techniques from a single spark. Its power was unfathomable, historically associated only with ancient supreme experts who had ascended beyond the lower plane.
However, before a cultivator could use the Great Evolution to derive and evolve a technique, they must be able to manipulate Origin Energy—the literal first breath of creation. Because Lin Yuan was only at the Early Stage of Spirit Severing, he had not formed a Primordial Spirit. Therefore, he was completely incapable of manipulating Origin Energy. The evolutionary aspect of the divine ability was currently, frustratingly locked away from him.
But the ability to deduce the secrets of Heaven and predict fortune and disaster? That did not require the manipulation of Origin Energy. It merely required the cultivator to tap into the Origin Dao—the fundamental resonance of the universe.
Lin Yuan focused his mind. He possessed the merged Dao of Thunder and Rain.
In the eyes of the ancient cultivators, just like the monk within the Mountains and Rivers painting, merging opposing Daos was one of the ways to faintly touch upon the elusive intent of the Origin Dao. When two seemingly contradictory forces were brought together and perfectly balanced, their conflict could reveal a deeper principle that existed beyond either Dao alone.
For Lin Yuan, this principle manifested through his Thunder Rain merged dao. Thunder represented the absolute, destructive Yang, the wrath of the heavens and the spark of celestial fire. Rain, on the other hand, represented the absolute, nourishing Yin, the sorrow of the clouds and the life-giving waters that descended upon the earth. When Thunder and Rain intersected, Yin and Yang intertwined, and the opposing forces entered a delicate state that mirrored the primordial chaos before the universe settled into order.
At that precise intersection within his spiritual sea, Lin Yuan drew upon the faint intent of the Origin Dao.
It was only a trace, a fleeting ghost of a genesis spark, but it was enough.
Lin Yuan cast his prediction, throwing the forty-nine permutations of the Great Evolution out into the void to read the currents of the Void Ascension Battlefield.
He waited for a vision of fortune, or a premonition of disaster.
The result returned.
Nothing.
A/N: Bonus Chapter for reaching 200 Power Stones