Chapter 245.2: Deity Fragments, Contemplating the Law, Glimpsing the Origin of Heaven and Earth! (II)

Just how marvelous are deity fragments?

Lu Changsheng took out one small fragment. It was hardly a charming piece, no larger than his palm and thoroughly broken.

At a single thought from Lu Changsheng, his Saint Body manifested and refined the deity fragment in an instant.

Boom!

As he began refining it, he faintly glimpsed fine threads running through the air. They were dense beyond counting, piercing the void, as though weaving the whole of it together.

This is... Law!

A world with order was naturally filled with Laws of every kind. Deities themselves were the incarnations of Laws. Refining a small deity fragment was, in truth, contemplating a Law, and whether anything could be grasped from it came down to Perception.

Once a man becomes a Human Saint through the Martial Dao and a Saint Body is forged, that Saint Body is a Martial Saint's strongest means and his very foundation. But once the Saint Body has been pushed to Perfection on the momentum of the masses, no further step remains. At that point, martial artists turned to heaven, earth, and man.

The momentum of the masses belongs to man. Earth stands for the earthly deities and spirits, which in a certain sense also stand for Law. A martial artist must contemplate a Law and use it to draw forth the origin of heaven and earth. Then, you refine that origin into the Saint Body, pushing it one step further to become an Earthly Saint. As for heaven, that should be the Heavenly Dao, and becoming a Heavenly Saint must be closely bound up with it.

Having refined a single small deity fragment, Lu Changsheng found his heart struck by realization, and these keys of cultivation came to him as a matter of course.

Laws were only the surface. What truly mattered was using those Laws to draw forth the origin of heaven and earth. A Nascent Soul True Lord seeking to advance to a Deity Transformation cultivator probably had to contemplate a Law and draw forth that origin in much the same way.[1]

Without contemplating Laws, the origins of heaven and earth cannot be grasped. Once you do grasp it, you must have your Saint Body at Perfection to refine it.

Lu Changsheng had grasped essentially every factor in the path from Human Saint to Earthly Saint, and not a trace of doubt remained.

Right. Contemplating Laws comes first.

Lu Changsheng's tremendous Perception of over 900,000 points meant that even a small deity fragment would be of enormous help to him. So, he took out a second fragment. He still had more than a dozen of these tiny pieces, enough for him to contemplate the Law the Great Moon True God embodied.

The days passed slowly. Lu Changsheng used the second fragment, then the third, the fourth... Ultimately, he had used thirteen of them in succession, and when only a single tiny deity fragment remained, his heart was struck by realization and he finally grasped the Law.

Law!

A Perception of 900,000 points was truly terrifying. Using nothing more than those minute deity fragments, Lu Changsheng had already comprehended the Law the Great Moon True God represented. Following that strand of Law, Lu Changsheng also sensed the origin of heaven and earth lying behind it.

The moment he laid eyes on it, he realized just how insignificant he truly was. He might be invincible among Human Saints, a Martial Saint standing high above the rest, yet what did that amount to? Before an origin as vast as an ocean, Lu Changsheng was a single grain in the sea.

Stop. Lu Changsheng halted. He could not let himself look any further.

If he looked any longer, he might not be able to resist stirring up the origin, and if his Primordial Chaos Saint Body could not withstand it, the gain would not be worth the loss. It might even shatter the Saint Body outright, which would be an irreversible disaster.

And so, Lu Changsheng simply withdrew his consciousness.

"Phew..." He let out a long breath. To become an Earthly Saint requires contemplating the Law and thereby sensing the origin of heaven and earth. That's the first step, and it's a hard one. Even with a large deity fragment, plenty of Martial Saints still can't comprehend the Law well enough to sense the origin.

Lu Changsheng understood that clearly. The fact that he could contemplate the Law and sense the origin of heaven and earth just with a few tiny deity fragments simply came down to his tremendous Perception. Most Martial Saints did not possess Perception like his. Even if he handed the large deity fragments over to the sacred lands, most of them would still fail to produce an Earthly Saint.

The second step is to stir up the origin, and that step is relatively safe. If all you want is to achieve Earthly Saint, waiting until the Saint Body reaches Perfection before stirring it up poses almost no problem. But if you want a stronger Saint Body, you can attempt stirring up two origins, or three, or even more!

A glint of sharp light flickered in Lu Changsheng's eyes.

The more origins stirred up and absorbed, assuming the Saint Body could bear them, the stronger the cultivator would be upon reaching the Earthly Saint Realm, without question. It was even directly connected to reaching the Heavenly Saint Realm later on.

For that reason, any Martial Saint confident in his own Saint Body would generally attempt two or even three Laws in order to stir up several origins and push the Saint Body's transformation further.

And this was only one kind of deity fragment. It seems like I need to make another trip to the Divine Region, though I can't obtain fragments the way I did last time. It's just far too dangerous. I'll need another approach. According to the intelligence from the sacred lands, there was one method many people rely on... 𝘧𝓇ℯℴ𝓂

It was Martial Saints joining forces.

There were, in fact, a good many Martial Saints inside the Divine Region. A lone Martial Saint could hardly hunt a deity, since no one out there had Lu Changsheng's strength. Most of them joined forces to overwhelm their prey with numbers, and over time, these Martial Saints had formed a hidden power within the Divine Region called the Saint Alliance.

Lu Changsheng did not need other Martial Saints fighting beside him, but he needed information—above all, information on the deities. He could not gamble on luck every time. What if the Great Moon True God had been a Divine King instead, or even a Divine Lord?

Before, he had only wanted to test himself in the Divine Region, and though everything had gone according to plan, it had been dangerous. Now that he had settled on a goal, he needed many different deity fragments to prepare for his future advancement to the Earthly Saint Realm, and contacting the Saint Alliance was undoubtedly a good way to get them.

The Saint Alliance... The Martial Saints of the ten sacred lands gave me their contact methods before, so finding it shouldn't be hard. I'll enter the Divine Region somewhere else, though. This spot is far too dangerous.

Lu Changsheng traced a wide circle around the outside of the Divine Region's sealing formation. Once he was certain he was well clear of the Great Moon Divine Empire, he stepped forward and his figure sank into the formation in an instant.

Lu Changsheng had entered the Divine Region once more.

Whoosh.

His figure wavered slightly as he came through, and he glanced around. He was by the sea again, with no one in sight. It seemed like another place where people rarely set foot.

Lu Changsheng took out a communication stone. It contained the names of several contacts given to him by the ten sacred lands, each one representing one of the sacred lands. He had never used any of them before, since he had never intended to join the Saint Alliance.

First I need to work out which divine empire this is, and roughly where. Only then can I reach the nearest Saint Alliance member.

Lu Changsheng put the stone away and headed swiftly into the depths of the Divine Region without drawing on the power of his Saint Body. Soon, he sensed signs of human activity and came upon a place called Han City.

Han City... So this is the Setting Sun Divine Empire?

Lu Changsheng quickly confirmed the empire he had arrived in.

During his time in the Great Moon Divine Empire, he had learned a little about the surrounding divine empires. The Setting Sun Divine Empire, as he recalled, lay far to the north of the Great Moon Divine Empire, with several other divine empires in between.

He had run a very long way indeed, and the deities near the Great Moon Divine Empire would certainly not find him here. For the moment, at least, he was safe.

One of the contacts should be here in the Setting Sun Divine Empire. Xuanyang, was it?

To him, it sounded like a Dao Name.

Could the man be a Nascent Soul True Lord? It seemed highly likely. The Saint Alliance was not made up of martial artists alone. It included immortal cultivators as well, many of them Nascent Soul True Lords.

Lu Changsheng contacted Xuanyang at once.

Buzz...

An address soon appeared within the communication stone. Only martial artists and immortal cultivators could use a stone of this kind; deities had no way of using one. Of course, a deity could certainly capture an immortal cultivator or martial artist and force them to use the communication stone on its behalf, essentially acting as bait. Still, such cases were rare.

In any case, there was no such thing as complete safety while being in the Divine Region. Since the Saint Alliance had survived here this long, they had to have their own ways of protecting themselves and fending off danger. The alliance couldn't be easy to destroy.

1. TL note: Leaving a note here to explain a little bit about origin. This is a common wuxia/xianxia term. In essence, origin is the fundamental source of power of something. In this specific context, an origin is one of the fundamental forces or essences that make up the world aka origin of heaven and earth. There are multiple origins, representing different fundamental aspects of heaven and earth. For example, depending on the setting, there may be origins associated with things such as fire, water, void/space, time, and other fundamental aspects of existence. ☜