Book 7, Chapter 14: Ten Years

Book 7, Chapter 14: Ten Years

Su Chen’s massive wave of consciousness energy swept all of the demons away.

But in the blink of an eye, countless new demons surfaced to take their place. This time, there were even a few strange ones that looked like giant eyes.

Su Chen harrumphed coldly. “Paltry demons!”

Flames surged forth from his body.

These flames were not real; rather, they were formed from aggregated consciousness energy. Even so, the heat radiating from the flames was intense enough that they seemed capable of incinerating virtually anything to ash.

The demons shrieked and howled miserably as they died in droves.

At the same time, Su Chen noticed that these demons were leaving behind a strange, star-like residue when they died.

Su Chen felt his heart skip a beat as he diverted a small bit of his consciousness to interact with that unknown residue.

As soon as his consciousness touched it, his body jolted as the strange residue instantly disappeared. His entire body felt different, as if some kind of restriction had been unlocked, or as if his consciousness had ascended to another level.

“As I expected!” Su Chen immediately began to recklessly absorb all of the residue left behind by the demons’ corpses.

As he continued to absorb and process the strange residue, a golden pill began to gradually form in Su Chen’s body as well. His, however, was even larger and rounder than Ye Fenghan’s, and it was imbued with more energy as well.

Su Chen continued to incinerate the endless stream of demons, and his golden pill grew fuller and fuller. After a certain point, it even began to float into the air, after which it flew into the eighth consciousness palace that he had formed.

As it settled down in the palace, a loud boom took place inside the palace.

Strangely enough, he felt as if countless voices were chanting something indecipherable in his ear, causing his skin to crawl.

At this point, Su Chen had long since stabilized his Ultimate Emperor Realm cultivation, and he had also formed his eight consciousness palaces quite a long time ago. Even so, this pill raised his consciousness palaces to new heights and greatly increased his consciousness power.

His strength hadn’t increased by an entire realm, of course, but even so, it still had quite a profound effect on Su Chen.

“Wonderful!” Su Chen crowed excitedly.

He could sense that his pursuit of the zenith had finally brought him to the perfect state.

Ever since Su Chen had reached the Light Shaking Realm, his bloodline-less ascensions had required outside help to succeed. This time, however, his discovery of this golden inner pill meant that his Flying Immortal Cultivation Techniques had officially distanced themselves from bloodline cultivation. Not only that, but this discovery had also resulted in the creation of a completely new path to the apex.

At that moment, a powerful will suddenly descended upon the sinister Dreamrealm.

“So, Lord of the Dreamrealm, you’re finally here?” Su Chen laughed loudly. “I’m afraid that you’re too late!”

Su Chen’s consciousness immediately began to retreat.

A chilling wave of willpower washed over him like an unstoppable tidal wave as all of the demons simultaneously rushed at Su Chen with newfound power. Suddenly, their fear of flames seemed to have disappeared.

Su Chen didn’t seem too perturbed by this change, however. He casually pulled out one of the divine script characters from his box and tossed it in front of him.

Radiant divine light came to life, spilling everywhere.

Even the Lord of the Dreamrealm could no longer protect those demons as they crumbled into dust without any resistance.

An infuriated roar echoed from the depths of the darkness — the Lord of the Dreamrealm was enraged.

But before he could do anything else, Su Chen’s will fully exited from the Dreamrealm and returned to his physical body.

After Su Chen returned, he waved his hand, causing the passageway to fade.

After taking care of this matter, Su Chen let out a long sigh.

Even though he had seemingly passed through that trial without much issue, it had actually been quite dangerous.

Thankfully, the Lord of the Dreamrealm didn’t anticipate that Su Chen could use divine script characters, which was why he had ultimately lost. Next time, however, the Lord of the Dreamrealm would be ready for this trick, and escaping wouldn’t be nearly as easy.

Though, now that Su Chen had completely formed his golden pill, there was no longer any need to go back to the Dreamrealm and kill more demons.

However, Su Chen’s goals didn’t end here.

He needed to improve this new cultivation path as a whole so that the entire Boundless Sect would become stronger.

In some sense, the demons within the Dreamrealm were the most nutritious meals possible for a cultivator.

But why exactly did these demons leave that mysterious residue behind in the first place?

Su Chen had no idea.

Even so, a guess slowly began to piece itself together in his mind.

The Primordial Continent was a physical realm while the Dreamrealm was a consciousness one.

When a physical realm and a consciousness realm intersected, many strange changes would take place.

The same principle held for the merging of Yin and Yang.

As for whether this hypothesis was correct or not, Su Chen could only verify it through dedicated research.

Regardless, after the golden pill had settled in Su Chen’s consciousness palaces, he could instinctively tell that they had reached a state of unparalleled perfection. Even though it seemed counterintuitive that improving a lower cultivation realm could impact his current strength, it was undeniable that a few significant changes had taken place in his body as a direct result of that golden pill.

Su Chen could sense that the Origin Energy in his body had qualitatively advanced to a higher level.

This change was entirely due to the full formation of the golden pill and the effects that it exerted on the Origin Energy in his body.

But because Su Chen was an Ultimate Emperor Realm cultivator, changes to his Spirit Burning Realm foundation didn’t actually have that much of an effect on him. Even so, Su Chen relished in the way his body had changed.

Pu!

A small flame sprang to life at Su Chen’s fingertip.

The flame danced around Su Chen’s finger like a nimble dragon, filled with boundless vigor and vitality.

This was the seed of the Flaming Dragon Theurgy Art, and it was just beginning to bud.

Compared to before, Su Chen’s current Flaming Dragon bud was much more agile; it seemed to have come alive, as it was capable of leaping and dancing on its own. In addition, he was now capable of blessing it with his God-Sealing Method Power as well.

But Su Chen had consciously chosen not to do so, partly because his Origin Energy had transformed.

After his Origin Energy’s subtle transformation, besides Su Chen’s Flaming Dragon becoming much more agile, the flame had also become tinged with a faint white color.

However, the gap between a Spirit Burning Realm cultivator and an Ultimate Emperor Realm cultivator was not that easily bridged, which minimized the difference. The faint tinge of white merely accentuated the vibrantly red flame.

Even so, a delighted expression still surfaced on Su Chen’s face.

With a light flick of his fingers, the small flaming dragon flew forth, as if it had its own will. It landed on a nearby bookshelf where it continued to burn brilliantly, but surprisingly, nothing was damaged.

Then, Su Chen made a sudden gesture with his fingers. The small flame immediately expanded, consuming the bookshelf and turning it into ashes.

Su Chen watched on coldly as he analyzed the situation.

The altered Origin Energy didn’t seem to be much stronger than before in terms of raw power, but it had taken on two additional effects.

The first was that it was much more responsive to the user’s intentions and also far more obedient to the user’s wishes. In other words, Origin Skills could be altered and controlled as needed even after they were unleashed.

Su Chen had been able to do this in the past, and his Theurgy Arts had already accomplished these feats.

However, he had only been able to achieve that level of control due to his own personal ability, his powerful consciousness, and the inherent characteristics of his Theurgy Arts. These abilities were not transferable; after all, not just anyone had a consciousness as powerful as his.

Even so, if the golden pill path could be generalized and spread to the sect’s disciples, then the Boundless Sect’s disciples would have much finer command over their Origin Skills. It would be as if each of them had mastered their own Theurgy Art.

The second effect was that the attacks were now much more effective on an internal level.

Su Chen’s flame had burned the bookshelf from within, which was why it had been consumed in an instant.

This had nothing to do with raw power.

There was no practical difference between a cultivator with ten thousand units of strength attacking with one thousandth of their full strength and a cultivator with ten units of strength attacking with all of their might.

The flame that Su Chen had unleashed just now was incredibly compressed and only slightly more powerful than your average flame.

The bookshelf should have taken at least a minute to burn up under normal circumstances.

And the reason why the bookshelf had immediately been burnt to ashes wasn’t because of the flame’s overwhelming power, but rather because the flame had ignited every part of the bookshelf from the inside at the same time. This caused the bookshelf to be consumed almost instantaneously.

The result was that these weak flames could achieve effects up to a hundred times greater than what should have been possible.

This kind of intrinsic change in how the Origin Energy operated was exactly what Su Chen was after.

“This has gone far beyond my expectations......” Su Chen gently muttered to himself.

After all, this was merely the Spirit Burning Realm’s golden pill. What about the Thought Manifestation Realm? What about the Ultimate Emperor Realm? What if even the Light Shaking Realm was supplemented?

What kinds of changes would come about then?

A new path had suddenly opened up before Su Chen’s eyes.

These possibilities were far more meaningful than anything else he had explored thus far.

Su Chen’s excitement grew even further.

This excitement stemmed from discovering a new world, a new dream.

Ever since Su Chen had discovered that he could use the consciousness extraction instrument to ascend to the Ultimate Emperor Realm, which completed the seventh level of the Flying Immortal Cultivation Techniques, his life had become dull and lacking in excitement.

He had originally thought that his future focus after completing the Flying Immortal Cultivation Techniques would be to pursue higher realms, constantly searching for the ever-elusive apex.

Now, however, he discovered that he had been wrong.

There was still much that he didn’t know about this world.

Whether it was Desolate Beasts, Origin Beasts, gods, this new faint white energy, or the path of the golden pill, they all served to open his eyes and reveal just how many mysteries this world still contained. It also helped him realize that, while the human path might be limited, the pursuit of knowledge was truly unlimited.

Completing the path of the golden pill, reaching the true peak, deconstructing divine power, upgrading the God-Sealing Method Power, wiping out the Demonic Beasts......

There was simply too much to be done!

Su Chen’s heart was filled with newfound excitement, and his will to fight also surged.

“Argh...... Su Chen......”

A familiar low voice echoed in his ears.

It was the Lord of the Dreamrealm.

It seemed that he was truly angry, given that his will had forcibly broken out of the Dreamrealm and into the real world.

There was a real, physical response to his actions.

It seemed that the Lord of the Dreamrealm had finally managed to transmit his will from the Dreamrealm into the real world.

However, Su Chen felt no fear because of this.

He smiled slightly as he brazenly asked, “Lord of the Dreamrealm, what exactly is the Eternal Treaty?”

“You dare to even ask me such a question?” The Lord of the Dreamrealm’s deep voice echoed through the room, shaking in rage. “The Barrier of this world is crumbling, and the Eternal Treaty is beginning to lose effect. The gods will soon return and take control of this world once again! At that time, I will bring death upon you and your race to exact revenge for your murder of my descendants today!”

“So those demons were the Dream Spirits, right? How fascinating! In the fake Dreamrealm, they seem calm, gentle, and playful. However, their true appearance is actually so ugly and sinister. You constructed a beautiful dream in order to entice us. But why? Why can you construct such a realm, capable of mesmerizing hundreds of races, yet still be barred from returning? Is it because you don’t have enough energy? Or is the Treaty restricting your actions?” Su Chen continued to ponder out loud.

“That has nothing to do with you!” the Lord of the Dreamrealm howled, “The day that the Barrier comes down will be the day of your demise!”

“Your reply has already given me the answer I seek — you don’t have the ability to do so yet.” Su Chen nodded as he continued postulating, “You can only create realms, but not destroy this one. This is also because of the Barrier’s restriction, right? What exactly is the Barrier? Where is it? Is it tangible, or intangible?”

“Shut your impertinent mouth! You’re asking too many questions,” the Lord of the Dreamrealm roared impatiently.

He had come to intimidate and scare Su Chen, but Su Chen had completely ignored his threats. Instead, all Su Chen did was ask questions, and he would even sometimes answer his own questions.

Worse still, his answers were all correct.

Su Chen also recognized this, and he smiled slightly. “I’ve found your weakness, haven’t I? This makes me quite happy. I quite like the feeling of tormenting a god while that god cannot do anything to me.”

“Shut your mouth! You will not be arrogant for much longer!”

“Oh? I think that I can be arrogant for quite some time.” Su Chen continued to provoke his opponent. “Maybe ten years? A hundred? I think that a thousand sounds quite nice.”

“No. You will have at most ten more years......” the Lord of the Dreamrealm spoke ominously as his voice began to fade away.

Su Chen’s expression shifted slightly. “Ten years? So in other words, the gods will return in ten years?”