Chapter 616 - 380: Annihilation of the Celestial Demon, Yi Beidou Walks His Own Path (Part 2)

The positions of the Seven Stars represent the workings of nature. By moving the Seven Stars now, Yi Beidou was defying all logic and shattering the rules!

His name was his destiny.

If there was no path forward, he would hack through the thorns and forge one himself. If the rules forbade it, he would shatter them and create a miracle with his own power!

To act alone, against all reason—that was Yi Beidou!

The first Heaven-Devouring Seven Stars Acupoint moved to the spot between Yi Beidou's eyebrows, and then the second one overlapped it.

This was no simple stacking. Yi Beidou was fusing the terrifying energies within the Heaven-Devouring Seven Stars Acupoints into a single entity!

This was a vast power that completely surpassed his control!

CRACK! CRACK!

Hideous cracks spread across Yi Beidou's demon-transformed, Earth Immortal-level body. Black blood burst forth, erupting into scorching Black Flames that burned furiously.

But this was not the end.

As the third Seven Stars Acupoint converged, the dark light on Yi Beidou's body grew even more intense. His skin and flesh were constantly disintegrating and evaporating, far too quickly for even the Penglai Technique to repair.

Then came the fourth, and the fifth...

The disintegration of Yi Beidou's body accelerated, yet his eyes remained half-lidded, showing no trace of hesitation.

Yi's Reversal: Seven Stars Unification!

Even for a true Earth Immortal, this was tantamount to a Forbidden Secret Technique and would very likely result in death.

But his path had reached its end. If he didn't surge forward and gamble with his life, how could he hope to carve a new way through the thorns?

To create a new era and forge a miracle, one needed more than just unwavering conviction; one needed the courage to be reborn from the precipice of death!

If he failed to open his Immortal Acupoints today, then this would be the day he, Yi Beidou, died!

Watching Yi Beidou from the side, Innate's expression grew vacant as Yi Beidou's earlier words echoed in his mind.

HAHAHAHAHA!!

He suddenly threw his head back and laughed, his laughter laced with an ineffable bitterness.

He was born divine, an incarnation of nature itself, the very progenitor of human Cultivation. Deep in his heart, he had always possessed an unshakeable confidence.

He was perfect, invincible, a singular existence throughout the ages.

In that ancient, benighted era, his inability to transcend the limits of life and open his Immortal Acupoints was not due to any failing of his own, but to the limitations of the age.

He stood at an infinite height, looking down on a world of ants. He was profoundly lonely. He needed an equal, an opponent with whom he could push his limits and glimpse that higher realm.

And so, he researched Earth Immortal Flesh and Blood, developed a technique to seal away his own life, and slept for nearly ten thousand years, waiting only for what he deemed the correct era.

That was why, in his duel with Yi Beidou, when he sensed that insurmountable barrier—a consequence of an ancient cataclysm on Earth that had severed the path forward for all creation—his first reaction had been one of bitter resentment and despair.

The "correct era" he had been waiting for simply didn't exist. Or, more accurately, that era had already passed in the ancient past, long before he was ever born.

And one cannot return to the past.

However, after witnessing Yi Beidou's response, he had a complete epiphany.

If there is no path forward, then forge one through the thorns! If it is not the correct era, then create a new one with your own power!

He had chosen Yi Beidou to be his opponent, but in truth, Yi Beidou didn't need an opponent at all.

Even without him, Innate, and without this battle today, the moment this man before him reached the absolute peak where he could advance no further, he would have done the same—charged headlong toward that unattainable miracle, all by himself, ready to pay the price with his life!

He would never yield to his era or to fate!

'So, I lost to the era long ago. The moment I sealed myself away, the true me, the pure me, had already died in the past. I died the moment I bowed my head to fate!!'

A smile of release spread across Innate's face.

BOOM!!

In that instant, the Seven Stars Acupoints within Yi Beidou's body completely fused into one between his eyebrows. The terrifying energy wave blasted apart the atmosphere, and the Black Flame shot into the cosmos, expanding wildly.

Meanwhile, Yi Beidou's body had completely disintegrated, transforming into an endless ocean of Black Flame.

His Celestial Demon Body was reduced to ash, not a single trace remaining as it returned to annihilation.

Under the terrifying force of the energy blast, even Innate's endless golden dew was compressed to its absolute limit. His body began to be rapidly corroded by the Black Flame, sustaining horrific burns. He could only channel his Immortal Talisman to forcefully resist.

He stared intently at Yi Beidou. His own path had been proven wrong; neither his will nor his spirit were at their peak. He could no longer assail that higher realm. All hope for success now rested on Yi Beidou alone.

With his Celestial Demon Body annihilated, Yi Beidou should have been utterly destroyed. Yet, because of his terrifying energy, spirit, and will, he entered a peculiar state.

He had lost his physical body, but a faint, illusory silhouette of him remained in the Void. The vast font of energy between his brows, formed by the Seven Stars Unification, showed no signs of dissipating. On the contrary, it grew ever more solid.

'Unborn and undying! The Divine Intent is immortal!!'

'To shatter the boundary between life and death with supreme Heart Intent and enlightenment!'

'This is... a True Spirit!!'

Far below on the ground, Li Xiu Niang—who was watching it all unfold with her spiritual sense, piercing through the endless energy fluctuations—trembled from head to toe as scalding tears streamed from her eyes.

A True Spirit!

The supreme realm that countless Spirit Cultivators had pursued since ancient times had manifested right before her eyes.

The sight was so profound, she felt that she could die now and it would have been worth it.

'A True Spirit? But without opening the Immortal Acupoints, it can't be considered a success. A Yin Spirit that has weathered ten thousand calamities can hardly become a saint. A True Spirit is just a minor path for achieving Longevity by escaping the world.'