Chapter 701 - 17: Seated in the Divine Furnace, a Single Nian Connects All Bodies

'Is this... a True Form of Transcendence?'

Inside the Eight Trigrams Furnace, Lu Xuan muttered blankly to himself, head lowered, as he examined his own Physique and body.

He now possessed a complete True Form of Transcendence.

"Lady..."

Lu Xuan looked at the stunningly beautiful woman in her deep slumber, a sour feeling rising in his nose. The woman's face was extremely pale, and even her lips were colorless.

The vigorous heartbeat of the past was now faint and weak, as if it could stop at any moment...

With just a thought, Lu Xuan understood the full cause and effect of the situation. He remained silent for a long, long time.

He let out a soft sigh.

Putting away the Creation Jade Scroll he held, Lu Xuan performed the Mediation of Creation. He created infinite heavenly materials and earthly treasures within the Eight Trigrams Furnace, weaving them into a flourishing scene that surrounded the Goddess.

He pointed, creating three thousand Great Realms and linking them into a formation. This created a state of permanence that slowly nourished the beautiful woman's body.

After finishing all this, Lu Xuan sat cross-legged in the Eight Trigrams Furnace and sighed once more.

After a long time,

He focused his mind, comprehending the earth-shattering changes that had occurred in his Physique.

A single drop of blood, a sliver of skin, a single fiber—all of it radiated a dazzling light of Transcendence, brilliant to the extreme.

Lu Xuan gently shook his fist, and the Eight Trigrams Furnace trembled violently and ceaselessly. The blink of an eye was enough to stir up a massive storm that tore everything apart inside the furnace, turning even Time into embers!

A True Form of Transcendence.

A complete Transcendence Origin.

Lu Xuan exhaled a heavy breath of foul air. The impact of his breath caused the Eight Trigrams Furnace to hum and tremble once more. He focused his mind, quietly sensing the fundamental changes within himself, and tried to perceive the [complete Transcendent Trait] residing in his Physique.

'Is it Time? No, not entirely...'

'Time and Years are merely a part of this complete Transcendent Trait!'

Lu Xuan's expression was shaken, a look of sudden realization dawning on his face. 'No wonder. No wonder even a half-formed True Form of Transcendence couldn't bear the weight of containing this complete trait!'

If this [complete Transcendent Trait] were to be named, it should be called...

[Era].

That's right, [Era].

If the Celestial Intent Dao Rhyme gave Lu Xuan the potential to replace, supplant, and substitute the Great Will of Heaven and Earth,

then the [Era Essence] gave him the potential to replace, supplant, substitute, and become an [Era] itself!

Although a Dao Fruit leaps beyond the Years and exists outside of Time, possessing all sorts of incredible abilities, it is ultimately only on par with the Great Heaven and Earth.

And whether it be the Great Heaven and Earth, the River of Time, or even Hongmeng, they all exist within an [Era]!

The only exception was The Beginning of Ancient Times. It was exceptionally special, existing both inside and outside the Era. It was pioneered by the Primordial Celestial Venerable, and yet it also birthed the Primordial Celestial Venerable...

"So that's how it is, so that's how it is!"

Lu Xuan's eyes shone brightly with sudden understanding!

It was because of a certain tremor from the [Era Essence] that a great conflict of Years erupted, engulfing even Dao Fruits, which led to the incident with Xiaohuo'Er and the others.

Similarly, because The Beginning of Ancient Times was so incredibly special—existing both inside and outside the Era and naturally possessing something similar to a complete Transcendent Trait—

the position of Daoist Ancestor of The Beginning of Ancient Times that he had schemed for could not be seized by Taiyi!

Quietly, he sensed the impossibly vast [Era Essence] within his body.

Lu Xuan was extremely cautious, not daring to touch it at all. A power of this level, a complete Transcendent Trait like this, was simply not something he could control.

After a long while, he gently exhaled a breath of foul air, his eyes growing bright and spirited as he murmured to himself,

'I can sense that right now, Taiyi has not obtained the True Form of Transcendence. It seems my previous deduction was correct...'

Lu Xuan sat upright in the Eight Trigrams Furnace, gently stroking its inner wall with a smile on his face.

The Eight Trigrams Furnace was profound beyond measure. It could even nurture his master's true body and was a mysterious Great Artifact that seemed to possess a might beyond imagination.

He had placed his true body in the Eight Trigrams Furnace to see if he could use it to burn away the connection between himself and Taiyi.

Although he had failed, proving that path was a dead end, he had also made a unique discovery!

The body of the Eight Trigrams Furnace isolated everything.

Lu Xuan's true body sat quietly cross-legged. As his thoughts performed a shallow scan, he found that due to the furnace's isolation, his other Physiques in the outside world had not awakened, nor had they synchronously obtained the True Form of Transcendence.

'By that same logic, Taiyi shouldn't have obtained the True Form of Transcendence either...'

'Unfortunately, I can't stay in this furnace forever; I'm destined to walk out. However...'

A glint appeared in Lu Xuan's eyes. The external Physiques could not connect with the true body inside the furnace, but the true body inside could sense everything about the external Physiques.

For example, he discovered that 'Houtu' was continuously feeding Great Dao Origin to the Purple Cloud Palace Master...

'This is getting interesting...'

After pondering for a moment, Lu Xuan's gaze deepened. The Eight Trigrams Furnace might be his way out of this predicament, but it was always wise to have a few contingency plans.

He did not step out of the Eight Trigrams Furnace. Instead, he simply sent the Creation Jade Scroll out, letting it fall silently toward The Beginning of Ancient Times.

"It's time to begin."

As he spoke to himself, Lu Xuan's gaze sharpened. With his true body remaining in the Eight Trigrams Furnace, shielded by the furnace's isolation, his gains would no longer be synchronized with his True Self Incarnations, nor with Taiyi.

At the same time, he separated wisps of his True Spirit, sending them into his many bodies outside the furnace. They took control, assisting the dormant consciousnesses and True Spirits of the incarnations to slowly awaken.

From within the furnace, he controlled his many bodies outside.

'Next, I'll see if I can walk my master's path once more...'

'True Fire refines the great furnace, and the great furnace nurtures the divine body!'

"Awaken! All of you, awaken!"

Lu Xuan's True Spirit trembled, awakening his many bodies outside the furnace.

.........

The journey for the True Scripture had eighty-one tribulations, with each one lasting a hundred years. Having experienced seventy-nine of them, seventy-nine hundred years had already passed.

"Two tribulations left, just two more..."

Aboard the World-Crossing Treasure Raft, formed from the Six Paths of Reincarnation, Sun Wukong let out a huge yawn, his head bobbing up and down with exhaustion.

For seventy-nine hundred years, aside from the tribulations they encountered along the way—like Chaos Evil Beasts, void storms, and desolate great worlds—they hadn't seen a single living being or a hint of life.

Even for a group of beings as top-tier as them, the boredom was extreme.

"What do you guys think the last two tribulations will be?"

Sun Wukong asked, bored out of his mind.

Beside him, Ben Bo'Erba listlessly raised his head and said weakly,

"Maybe it'll be like the last one, where we fell into an Ancient Chaos Realm and fought to the death with the Old Gods who rule it?"

Sha Wujing lifted his eyelids slightly.

"Or perhaps it will be like the most dangerous tribulation, where we got lost in a Chaos storm and were once on the brink of [Absolute Ruin]?"

Zhu Wuneng lay lazily on the Treasure Raft, using his shrunken Nine-toothed Nail Rake as a toothpick, yawning incessantly.

"I think it'll be another Time eruption, and we'll fall into the embers of the River of Time and have to struggle to survive again."

The group chattered on, recalling the various tribulations they had endured. All of them were terrified by the memories; only Sun Wukong was slightly better off...

As for Zhu Wuneng and Sha Wujing, who had experienced the previous Journey to the West, the memory alone made them want to bawl their eyes out. Could the tribulations of the two journeys... really be compared??

It was either Chaos storms, or Years eruptions, or facing Outer Path Deities who occupied an ancient Great Realm...

The suffering was immense! It was immense!

At this moment, Tang Monk slowly raised his eyes, his expression solemn.

"Alright, no more complaining. For the last two tribulations, we must give it our all. Once we obtain the True Scripture and return, all will be settled!"

As he spoke, the World-Crossing Treasure Raft trembled slightly, sending everyone on board stumbling. They subconsciously turned to look.

"What is..."

Even Sun Wukong, who had always been the most unrestrained and fearless, turned pale. Zhu Wuneng, who had been chewing on the Nine-toothed Nail Rake, slowly opened his mouth wide. The Nail Rake fell, landing with a crisp CLANG.

"Sweet mother of..."

Ben Bo'Erba murmured to himself.

Directly in front of the World-Crossing Treasure Raft, they could clearly see a majestic body, boundlessly large.

The body was covered in wounds and seemed to be bleeding. One of its hands hung naturally at its side, resting squarely on a vast expanse of Ancient Realms.

And the tens of thousands of Ancient Realms crushed beneath that giant hand were each similar to the ones Sun Monkey and his companions had once fallen into...

"This... this can't be the eightieth tribulation, can it..."

Sha Wujing muttered to himself. Just staring at that boundlessly massive Physique made his hair stand on end and gave him a feeling of suffocation.

At a glance, one could see the remnants of many Great Realms swirling around the boundless body, accompanied by endless strange phenomena. Entire multiverses flowed within its pores.

And with each of the giant body's breaths, a new Chaos storm would form—the same kind of all-consuming, all-destroying storm that had nearly wiped them all out before...

"Son of a..."

Sun Wukong's eyes bulged like bronze bells.

"So, all the tribulations we've been through all these years... were all related to this corpse?!"

It was no wonder he said that. A single breath from the corpse, which extended beyond their field of vision, was a Chaos storm. The opening and closing of its pores spewed forth countless terrifying embers of Years.

A single drop of the giant corpse's blood, drifting into an Ancient Realm, would transform into one of the Outer Path Deities that had once nearly beaten them all to death...

In the seventy-nine hundred years, traces of all seventy-nine tribulations they had experienced could be found on this immeasurable corpse!

"Wait!"

Zhu Wuneng suddenly cried out in alarm.

"The raft... is falling toward the corpse!!"

Everyone jolted, utterly terrified.

The corpse was simply too, too big. Its terrifying mass caused the infinite Chaos to collapse just by its sheer existence.

With the corpse at the center, all heavens, all worlds, and All Realms were slowly falling toward it. All Time, all matter, all concepts—everything seemed destined to fall upon the corpse.

The corpse was like...

the true, fundamental ruin, the source and final destination of all things.

"Turn! Turn away!"

Sun Wukong roared, brandishing the Ruyi Dog-Beating Stick in an attempt to push the World-Crossing Treasure Raft away, but... he failed.

The World-Crossing Treasure Raft continued to fall toward the incomparably massive body.

Just as everyone on the raft fell into despair, Ben Bo'Erba jolted again.

"It's... it's waking up! The corpse is waking up!!"

Everyone looked up, their breath catching in their throats.

The incomparably massive corpse slowly, gradually, sat up straight. Countless embers of Years were shaken from its body, triggering infinite Chaos storms...

The group finally got a clear look at the face of the giant 'corpse'.

"That... old ghost from Douluo Palace?" Sun Wukong was utterly bewildered. His mind reeled from the immense shock, and the monkey was completely stunned.

'That old ghost... possessed such might??'

'Then what was the point of all my ruckus back then?'

He suddenly fell silent, feeling dizzy and faint.

.........

"It woke up early? What's going on?"

Taiyi looked up, frowning slightly in confusion.

After pondering for a long time, he seemed to make up his mind.

'This won't do. Fu Xi's aura is growing heavier and heavier. I must speed things up... Let me give it a little push.'

As he spoke to himself, he pointed a finger. An infinite distance away, the World-Crossing Treasure Raft, which had been teetering in the Chaos storms and embers of Years, suddenly flared with brilliant light.

Supreme Laojun, who had just sat up, subconsciously glanced over. His gaze fell precisely upon the World-Crossing Treasure Raft, or rather, the Six Paths of Reincarnation...

and saw the corpse floating out of it.

Little Peach Spirit's.

Supreme Laojun froze on the spot.