Chapter 435 - 434: The Underworld Ascension Method

They were completely milk-white, without pupils or irises, yet his perception extended far beyond ordinary sight. He could sense the damaged connections between the world’s foundational laws, the weakening spiritual currents beneath the continents, and the vast emptiness left behind by the removal of the Exotic Realm.

He could even feel the distant pressure of a power that seemed to treat the entire Nine Provinces as nothing more than a collection of objects waiting to be gathered.

Then he sensed the demonic hands.

Their immense silhouettes descended through the shattered firmament, reaching toward the remaining Wonders with a terrifying sense of purpose. Even from beneath countless layers of stone, he could feel their influence pressing upon the foundational structure of the world.

Their power did not resemble the spiritual Qi of an ordinary cultivator, nor could it be explained through the conventional laws of the Void Refinement realm.

It possessed a density that made the surrounding reality tremble.

"The abyss has come to claim the Nine Provinces," the Supreme Grand Elder whispered, his dry voice scraping through the silent chamber. "So the day I waited for has finally arrived, although it has come in a form far worse than I expected."

He slowly raised his skeletal hands and examined the faint spiritual Qi circulating between his fingers. His foundation remained intact, but the world surrounding him had changed so drastically that his previous cultivation methods had become useless.

If he attempted a natural breakthrough now, the incomplete laws of the Nine Provinces would reject his transformation before he could establish a stable Body Integration foundation.

He understood the consequences with absolute clarity. A breakthrough at that level required more than a sufficient supply of spiritual Qi, because the cultivator’s entire existence would become heavier as the body and Primordial Spirit advanced toward a higher state.

The surrounding world had to possess the capacity to accommodate that change, or the cultivator would be crushed by the very laws that governed his existence.

At present, the Nine Provinces possessed no such capacity.

"If the heavens will not support my weight," the Supreme Grand Elder murmured, "then I shall borrow my strength from the laws that govern death."

His hands began to move.

The sequence of seals he formed was ancient and deeply forbidden, belonging to an inheritance that the Cultivation Council had deliberately erased from most of its records. It was not a technique designed to improve cultivation through ordinary means, nor did it promise a stable path toward immortality.

Instead, it allowed a cultivator to exchange the vitality of his own existence for a brief period of power that would otherwise remain beyond his reach.

The Underworld Ascension Method.

He had studied this technique during the earliest years of his seclusion, but he had never dared to employ it. Its price was far too severe, and the power it granted could not be maintained without consuming the foundation that sustained the user.

Under normal circumstances, activating it would have been an act of desperation reserved for a final confrontation in which death was already certain.

Yet the present circumstances had left him with no other choice.

The Supreme Grand Elder did not attempt to absorb the ambient spiritual Qi of the Nine Provinces. He knew that doing so would only place more pressure upon an already failing world, and even an enormous influx of energy could not repair the damaged laws.

Instead, he reached deep into his own foundation and began burning the accumulated vitality he had preserved throughout the ages.

His lifespan became fuel.

Thousands of years of potential, the remnants of countless cultivation cycles, and the vitality stored within his physical body were compressed into a single point. The energy gathered there grew denser with every passing moment, while the temporal marks embedded in his bones began to disintegrate.

His carefully preserved existence was being consumed at a rate that would have horrified any cultivator who understood the price.

He did not hesitate.

He had already lived far longer than most of his contemporaries, and the time he had spent waiting had been intended to protect the Nine Provinces from a calamity precisely like this one. If his remaining lifespan could purchase even a brief opportunity for the cultivators, then allowing it to disappear was no longer a difficult decision.

"Let the years I preserved become the strength I need," he declared, his voice growing louder as the forbidden seals reached completion. "Let the life I saved become the price of this ascension!"

BOOOOOOOOOOM!

The subterranean chamber exploded.

The primordial jade beneath the Supreme Grand Elder disintegrated into countless fragments, and the surrounding formations were swept away by the eruption of gray energy. Layers of ancient stone vaporized in an instant, while the enormous pressure spreading from the chamber forced cracks through the foundations of the Nine Provinces.

The explosion continued upward, tearing through the ruins of the Cultivation Council and sending a towering pillar of gray light into the darkened sky.

Within that pillar, the Supreme Grand Elder’s body began to transform.

His fragile bones expanded as fresh muscle and sinew formed around them. His withered skin regained its structure, and the spiritual Qi that had remained nearly motionless for three thousand years surged through his meridians with terrifying intensity.

His hair fluttered wildly around his shoulders as the gray energy gathered into layers around his body. It formed a temporary vessel capable of withstanding a level of power that the Nine Provinces could no longer naturally sustain.

His milk-white eyes ignited with a sickly gray radiance.

His cultivation began to rise.

He crossed the boundary that had confined him for three thousand years, forcing his foundation beyond the Peak of Void Refinement. His Primordial Spirit expanded, his physical body underwent a violent transformation, and the laws surrounding him twisted beneath the pressure of his newly acquired authority.

For the first time in ten thousand years, a human cultivator in the Nine Provinces radiated the aura of the Early Stage of Body Integration.

The breakthrough was real, but its stability was another matter entirely.

The instant his new aura spread beyond his body, the damaged laws of the Nine Provinces reacted violently. The surrounding space began to collapse, unable to accommodate the sudden increase in his existence.

The air distorted around his shoulders, and the gray light enveloping his body flickered as the world attempted to force him back into a state it could sustain.

Cracks appeared across his newly regenerated flesh.

The Supreme Grand Elder’s expression tightened as he felt the pressure closing around him. His temporary Body Integration foundation was powerful, but the world was treating his existence like an object that had grown too large for its container.

If he remained here for more than a few breaths, the surrounding laws would crush his body and Primordial Spirit regardless of how much power he possessed.

He could not remain in the Nine Provinces.

Fortunately, he had already anticipated this possibility.

The Supreme Grand Elder immediately released his divine sense, sending it through the collapsing layers of stone and broken spatial currents. His perception crossed the Nine Provinces, bypassed the falling ruins, and locked onto the three Emperors standing amid the devastation of the Grand Court.

"Tianxu! Nanheng! Beiming!"