Chapter 2239: Immortal, Inextinguishable

What kind of transformation did Shang Xia’s successful advancement into the Eight Trigram Realm bring him?

Even Shang Xia himself felt a strong sense of curiosity.

Of course, his first focus was on the changes within his body.

Yet the moment the Eight Trigram Immortal Golden Pill, the advancement medicine that had propelled his ascension, transformed into a golden core within his dantian and became the source his Eternity Energy, he understood everything clearly.

The essence of the Eight Trigram Realm was eternity, and that meant longevity.

When the transformation brought by the ascension was complete, Shang Xia noticed that the vitality within his body had been entirely sealed and stabilized, meaning he was beyond the erosion of time itself.

At that point, even without relying on any external aid, even without consuming any of his inner qi, he could easily cross the Star River with his physical body alone.

Previously, he had also been able to remain within the Star River for extended periods, but that endurance came at the cost of constant depletion of his inner qi. If not for the replenishment from his Dipper Star Formation, he wouldn’t have lasted for so long.

Next came the change in his inner qi.

The former Dipper Qi within his body had sublimated and transformed into Eight Trigram Eternity Qi, filling his dantian. Its most distinct characteristic could be summarized by calling it the power of creation.

The first time Shang Xia tested this, he channeled a strand of his Eight Trigram Eternity Qi through his secret art, the Emberkindled Legacy, straight to his External Avatar. In that instant, it was as if he had granted his External Avatar a new life.

He could feel, with absolute clarity, that his External Avatar’s body and the trace of soul he had left had completely fused into one.

His External Avatar was no longer merely a projection. He had become a true avatar, a being of flesh and spirit entirely reborn from his essence!

The change not only elevated his External Avatar’s cultivation and strength to the peak of the Seven Star Realm, but more importantly, he possessed the ability to wield the same martial intents that Shang Xia himself could perform.

While his opponents had no inkling of what had changed, Shang Xia’s External Avatar, previously suppressed by their joint assault, suddenly erupted with power they could not comprehend.

First, he used his rank seven martial intent, Star Shifting Constellation Transformation, to forcibly seize control of and send away the most dangerous of the three opponents, the high-level Sage.

Then, turning in one motion, he unleashed Six Harmony Supporting the Heavens, smashing the void behind the other two Starlight Clones, collapsing the space around them, and trapping both inside.

With the two confined, Shang Xia’s External Avatar, though nearly exhausted from using two mighty martial intents in succession, gathered the last of his inner qi and unleashed one final martial intent, the Divine Killing Spear!

Both Starlight Clones trapped in the newly created pocket of space naturally struggled desperately, unwilling to die. But before Shang Xia’s External Avatar, whose strength had reached the limit of the Seven Star Realm, their resistance meant nothing.

The Divine Killing Spear pierced through both in a single strike, annihilating their bodies one after another.

Moreover, his choice of martial intent was no coincidence. It directly targeted the divine soul of the Star Origin Lord embedded within his Starlight Clones.

Unfortunately, Shang Xia’s External Avatar had still underestimated the tenacity of the Star Origin Lord’s divine soul. Even though only a single thread of it remained in each Starlight Clone, its resilience was formidable.

The first strike obliterated the body and soul of the first Starlight Clone entirely, but by the time it hit the second, its strength had weakened. The body was destroyed, but a faint strand of soul slipped free.

Shang Xia’s External Avatar tried to intercept it immediately, yet could only dim its light, unable to stop it from escaping the separate space he created and vanishing into the distance.

Of course, the disparity was also because his martial intents, though powerful, still could not fully compare to those wielded by Shang Xia’s true body.

𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

Just as his External Avatar finished destroying the bodies of the other two Starlight Clones, the Starlight Clone that had been displaced by the earlier martial intent returned to the field, proof again of the difference in might between Shang Xia’s External Avatar and his true body.

Yet when the Star Origin Lord’s Starlight Clone sensed that both its allies’ life forces had been extinguished, it immediately turned and fled.

Having unleashed three martial intents in a row, Shang Xia’s External Avatar, having expended almost all his energy, could not recover fast enough to give chase. He could only watch as the Starlight Clone disappeared into the void.

He didn’t remain there for long. After restoring a bit of his depleted energy, he too faded and vanished into the void.

...

Deep in the void, Shang Xia’s true body shuddered once.

Everything that had occurred to his External Avatar was known to him, a new ability born from his ascension to the Eight Trigram Realm.

In the past, though his External Avatar could act independently, the greater the distance between them, the weaker their connection would become, until only the faintest awareness of his existence remained.

Now, even though they were separated by a vast gulf, he could still sense every moment of what his External Avatar experienced, only slightly delayed in perception.

Meanwhile, in other directions of the void, Shang Xia could clearly detect multiple battlefields, where old and new allies alike were engaged in combat. The tides of battle varied, some favorable, some dire.

But now that his External Avatar was free, the balance would soon shift decisively. There was no longer any need for him to intervene personally.

As for the escaped strand of the Star Origin Lord’s soul, once it returned to the Seven Essence Heavenly Field, the Star Origin Lord would surely deduce what had taken place.

Shang Xia had no intention of stopping it. After all, he was already standing just outside the chaotic void currents that surrounded the Seven Essence Heavenly Field.

His expression, however, was strange. Though separated by the turbulent barrier, his divine soul could still perceive a subtle transformation happening within.

The Star Origin Lord had succeeded just as Shang Xia was about to enter. He managed to cross the same boundary, stepping into the Martial Eternity Realm as the second existence to do so.

For a moment, Shang Xia was surprised. He was almost amused by the perfect timing, as if fate itself had arranged for the Star Origin Lord to achieve his breakthrough precisely as he approached.

Then he chuckled softly to himself. Without hesitation, Shang Xia stepped forward and entered the Seven Essence Heavenly Field.