Chapter 1926 - Eighth-Level Spirit Immortal Realm

A black palace materialized high in the sky. Its arrival seemed to overturn heaven and earth, dimming both sun and moon. The palace swallowed half the heavens while boundless darkness energy rolled across the land.

It embodied the power of purgatory, the power of a heretic god, the power of a demon king, and the power of unerring void.

......

A thunderous detonation erupted beneath Chen Kun. The ground exploded around his legs and buried him up to his knees.

"What the hell is that?!" None of the Divine Immortals present had ever witnessed anything so bizarre. It was neither an immortal artifact nor an immortal art, but a palace that had seemingly manifested from nothing.

"What a terrifying palace!" the Yue Clan's patriarch exclaimed, his face stricken with shock. He retreated continuously, unable to comprehend the power emanating from the Purgatory Palace. Countless divine senses collided in the air, filling the entire Ten-Mile Slope.

Chen Kun naturally endured the greatest pressure. In a single instant, the Purgatory Palace stripped away his ability to move.

As the Purgatory Palace continued its descent, the stones beneath Chen Kun burst apart one after another. Fine powder billowed into the air, obscuring the crowd's view.

Creaking noises came from Chen Kun's legs, as though the crushing pressure would shatter them at any moment.

"Break!" Chen Kun roared, releasing the full force of his pinnacle Origin Immortal Realm aura. Its sheer power spread cracks across the Purgatory Palace and threatened to rip it apart.

"Five Elemental Divine Palm!" Liu Wuxie thundered as an enormous palm condensed overhead and came crashing down.

The sudden assault caught Chen Kun completely off guard. Before he could respond, the power of the five elements had already become a colossal millstone that appeared above him amid a thunderous rumble.

"That's the Five Elemental Divine Palm! He actually mastered the power of the five elements!" Elder Gu exclaimed, staggering backward in shock. He could not believe that a Spirit Immortal had not only grasped the power of the five elements but also mastered the Five Elemental Divine Palm.

Many cultivators throughout the celestial realm had grasped the power of the five elements, but only a handful could truly master the Five Elemental Divine Palm. Little wonder that everyone reacted so strongly upon seeing a mere Spirit Immortal display it.

Lingering fear flashed through Chen Kun's eyes. His immortal arts had accomplished practically nothing against Liu Wuxie, who dismantled every attack with ease. Even the oppressive aura of Chen Kun's pinnacle Origin Immortal Realm cultivation had failed to affect him.

"Thunder Ascendant Palm!" Chen Kun roared.

A terrifying transformation immediately swept through his body. Arcs of lightning crackled across his skin, making him resemble the incarnation of a thunder god.

A thunderous explosion erupted as Chen Kun successfully blocked the Five Elemental Divine Palm. In terms of sheer quality, the Five Elemental Divine Palm surpassed the Thunder Ascendant Palm by dozens of times. Liu Wuxie's Spirit Immortal Realm cultivation ultimately limited him, however, and neither his laws nor his immortal energy could compare with those of an Origin Immortal.

The battle was far from finished, and the Five Elemental Divine Palm could not possibly represent Liu Wuxie's only trump card.

Chen Kun still retained considerable strength to retaliate, which was why Liu Wuxie had not summoned the Sky Devouring Divine Cauldron. He planned to drain Chen Kun's immortal energy first. Only afterward would he dare swallow Chen Kun into the cauldron and kill him.

"Divine Eternal Fist!" Liu Wuxie bellowed.

Boundless eternal intent fused with world force the instant Liu Wuxie unleashed the attack, sweeping across the entire Ten-Mile Slope. Power converged upon him from every direction and poured into his fist.

"What? That's the power of eternity," countless experts cried as they sprang to their feet. Every Divine Immortal present, including Xiang Zicheng and Ye Guhai, stared in disbelief. They instinctively turned toward Ye Linghan, hoping she could explain what they were witnessing.

Ye Linghan could answer only with a rueful smile.

Many spectators discovered that both time and laws throughout the surroundings had fallen completely still. "Everything around us has stopped!"

Such was the power of eternity, capable of forcing time and space into eternal stillness within a single instant.

"Divine Mystic Yin Needle!" Liu Wuxie secretly released the Divine Mystic Yin Needle, intending to pierce Chen Kun's defenses. Unless he breached those defenses, even his strongest attack would accomplish nothing.

The Divine Mystic Yin Needle streaked through space and swiftly penetrated Chen Kun's defenses.

"This is bad!" Chen Kun exclaimed as a dreadful premonition surged through him.

The moment the Divine Mystic Yin Needle tore open Chen Kun's defenses, the Divine Eternal Fist descended alongside a mysterious axe imprint. Liu Wuxie had poured every trace of strength into this attack. Combined with the Purgatory Palace's crushing pressure, it made Chen Kun's movements increasingly sluggish.

"Thunderstorm Dominion!" Chen Kun roared. He went so far as to burn his blood essence, summoning boundless lightning that intertwined across the sky and formed a defensive barrier against Liu Wuxie's Divine Eternal Fist.

"Damn it! Without that black palace suppressing him, Elder Chen would never have been driven into such a disadvantage," the Celestial Moon Dao Hall's mentors shouted furiously.

The Purgatory Palace's crushing suppression alone had forced Chen Kun entirely onto the defensive.

A thunderous rumble shook the arena as the Divine Eternal Fist transformed into an eternal river and crashed into Chen Kun. With his defenses already breached, Chen Kun felt as though a colossal mountain had slammed directly into him.

The impact shattered countless bones throughout his body. Had another Origin Immortal Realm cultivator unleashed the Divine Eternal Fist, it would already have reduced him to dust. However, Liu Wuxie was only at the Spirit Immortal Realm, and it limited the power he could wield.

Even with that limitation, the attack still forced Chen Kun to spit out a mouthful of blood.

Every cultivator nearby felt their scalp go numb. Patriarchs, sect masters, and ordinary cultivators alike shuddered as chills raced down their spines. None could believe that Liu Wuxie had inflicted severe injuries upon an expert at the pinnacle of the Origin Immortal Realm. Even if Chen Kun ultimately survived, Liu Wuxie had already made history.

"Liu Wuxie, I'll tear you into pieces!" Chen Kun roared. After igniting his blood essence, he shattered the Purgatory Palace's restraint, regained his freedom, and drove a fist toward Liu Wuxie.

The moment Chen Kun broke free, his strength rose dramatically. He disregarded every injury as the thought of killing Liu Wuxie burned through his mind.

What Chen Kun failed to realize was that Liu Wuxie had not yet revealed his true killing move. Everything unleashed thus far had served only as an appetizer meant to exhaust Chen Kun's immortal energy.

"Mysterious axe imprint, slash!" Liu Wuxie roared. The instant the Divine Eternal Fist exploded, the mysterious axe imprint descended from the heavens and frightened Chen Kun out of his wits.

Who could have imagined that Liu Wuxie commanded so many immortal arts, much less that each one possessed incomparable power?

Chen Kun nearly wept from frustration. He could not comprehend how Liu Wuxie simultaneously executed several immortal arts of such terrifying strength. His own immortal arts appeared utterly inferior by comparison.

The mysterious axe imprint possessed neither form nor substance. Precisely because it lacked a physical form, Chen Kun had no idea how to defend himself. He even forgot to resist, knowing his attacks could not break through it. All he could do was watch helplessly as the axe descended.

A wave of bitter cold swept through Chen Kun the instant the mysterious axe imprint fell. The imprint vanished in a flash, moving too quickly for the surrounding spectators to perceive what had happened. They saw only a dazzling streak of brilliance across their vision.

"Sky Devouring Divine Cauldron!" Before Chen Kun could utter a word, Liu Wuxie summoned the Sky Devouring Divine Cauldron and swallowed him whole.

Calm swiftly returned to the arena. Everyone had witnessed Liu Wuxie unleash one formidable technique after another before finally defeating Chen Kun.

Unleashing those techniques in rapid succession had exacted a tremendous price, completely exhausting Liu Wuxie’s immortal energy. The Five Elemental Divine Palm had alone consumed seventy percent of his reserves, while the Divine Eternal Fist had drained the final trace remaining in his body.

After enduring Chen Kun's relentless attacks throughout the battle, Liu Wuxie dropped heavily into the arena and gasped for breath. He immediately threw millions of immortal stones into the Sky Devouring Divine Cauldron, which rapidly dissolved them into liquid energy and channeled it into the Desolate World.

Demonic flames raged within the Sky Devouring Divine Cauldron while Chen Kun screamed in agony. The cauldron rapidly extracted the Origin Immortal Realm laws from his body and poured them into Liu Wuxie.

"This is the Great Arhat Fruit," Liu Wuxie exclaimed as he searched Chen Kun’s interspatial rings. Along with immortal stones and pills, he discovered one of these exceedingly rare and precious fruits.

"What an exceptional treasure!" Liu Wuxie said as he tossed the Great Arhat Fruit directly into the Sky Devouring Divine Cauldron. The cauldron refined it within a few breaths, sending its energy flowing into the Desolate World.

Liu Wuxie had only just entered the seventh-level Spirit Immortal Realm, yet his cultivation began stirring once more and surging toward the eighth level.

Gongye Zhang, Ye Guhai, and Xiang Zicheng immediately surrounded Liu Wuxie in a triangular formation to prevent any possible sneak attack. The Azure Flame Dao Hall's mentors swiftly established another defensive perimeter outside them, their artifacts ready.

At the same time, the competition officially concluded with the Azure Flame Dao Hall claiming complete victory. They had not lost a single match, creating history in the process.

Liu Wuxie closed his eyes and devoted his complete attention to the breakthrough.

The Celestial Moon Dao Hall could only watch with hatred. Chen Kun had charged directly into the arena upon arriving and never handed his interspatial ring to Elder Gu. Everything he owned had now become Liu Wuxie's gain.

No one had imagined that Liu Wuxie could kill an expert at the pinnacle of the Origin Immortal Realm with such ease.

Chen Kun's body rapidly withered as the Sky Devouring Divine Cauldron extracted its energy and laws.

"Break!" Liu Wuxie growled.

Drawing upon the combined energy of Chen Kun and the Great Arhat Fruit, Liu Wuxie shattered the gateway to the eighth-level Spirit Immortal Realm. His aura soared rapidly and soon reached the pinnacle of the eighth level, leaving him only a single step from the ninth-level Spirit Immortal Realm.

"What a shame. I've advanced too quickly over the past few days. Once I’ve consolidated my cultivation, I should be able to reach the ninth-level Spirit Immortal Realm without any difficulty," Liu Wuxie murmured.

He had no alternative, for advancing too quickly risked destabilizing his foundation. Liu Wuxie had not reached the limit of his cultivation. Based on his dao heart, sufficient resources could carry him all the way to the Immortal Emperor Realm. A cultivation foundation, however, resembled the base of a towering building. If that base lacked stability, one failure could unleash a disastrous chain of consequences.

Liu Wuxie felt no urgency to achieve another breakthrough. After spending some time consolidating his cultivation, he would naturally enter the ninth-level Spirit Immortal Realm.

The Desolate Devouring Art circulated rapidly and drained every trace of immortal energy within tens of thousands of meters, forcing it to draw energy from even greater distances.

Millions of immortal stones disappeared within an instant, consumed at a terrifying rate. An ordinary clan might fail to earn so many resources over an entire year. In other words, Liu Wuxie's single breakthrough had devoured wealth comparable to an ordinary clan's annual income. The thought alone inspired terror.

Time passed slowly. Although the competition had ended, Liu Wuxie made no effort to leave. He spent a full hour consolidating his cultivation before it finally stabilized.

Another dusk descended, and a light drizzle fell from the heavens, veiling the sunset's lingering afterglow. Yet heaviness settled over every heart, for once Liu Wuxie awakened, nine more Celestial Moon Dao Hall mentors would have to die.

That meant only fewer than ten Celestial Moon Dao Hall mentors would leave alive.

Liu Wuxie's eyes suddenly snapped open, releasing a terrifying chill that made the surrounding world tremble. His breakthrough was finally complete.