Chapter 3614: Absolute Power

Lu Yin continued to release more and more sourcebox arrays, sending all of them at Emperor Wu from every direction.

At the same time, his consciousness formed a Skyshearer Millstone that pressed down. As both of his hands gently moved about, he guided the Heaven's Seal sequence particles as he prepared to use Linked Palm.

Emperor Wu threw another punch, and once again, he destroyed the void and space itself with overwhelming power. While consciousness was not a physical power, it still needed a medium to manifest through, and by destroying space, it was possible to destroy consciousness.

Emperor Wu was following the same logic as Lu Yin and the others had when they had besieged Xu Jin.

However, there was a condition to such a method: one had to endure the impact of the consciousness for at least an instant. If even that much was impossible, how could a person hope to destroy space?

Emperor Wu was certainly able to endure for an instant. He was even capable of enduring the Skyshearer Millstone’s full power, if he so chose. There was simply no need for that.

Regardless of the power that Lu Yin used, a single punch was enough to break it.

The Setting Sun blazed, burning away knowledge of martial arts.

Emperor Wu threw another punch. He did not possess any sort of martial arts, only absolute power.

Lu Yin’s spiritual force overwhelmed everything.

A single punch from Emperor Wu shattered space yet again. Nothing that Lu Yin attempted had any effect. In the face of absolute power, all of his counterattacks were futile.

High Seraph, are you watching?

Emperor Wu’s expression grew ferocious. With the Heaven's Seal sequence base, he would elevate the beast-form Spirit Rebirths’ status once and for all.

For countless years, he had refrained from using the sequence base, and it had all been for just this moment. Now that he was using it, he had become invincible.

Both sides of the Fu River fell silent.

All of the humans stayed silent. They were seeing the might of the Heaven's Seal sequence base. Only at this moment did people understand why Heaven's Seal was ranked second. It carried the collective will of all the beast-form Spirit Rebirths throughout the countless years of the Spirit Nidus. This was their determination to surpass the human-form Spirit Rebirths.

At this moment, all the beast-form Spirit Rebirths were exhilarated. The day had finally come. No one could stop Emperor Wu.

Yi Die, Jiu Weihu, and everyone else was staring into the wilderness. Against the power of Heaven's Seal, who else but the High Seraph himself could fight against Emperor Wu? This was the true power of the ruler of the beast-form Spirit Rebirths.

As for why Emperor Wu had delayed the battle for so long, that no longer mattered. His strength was all that mattered.

At this moment, Emperor Wu had reached the absolute peak of his power. His victory in this battle was already assured.

Emperor Wu had exposed his invincible power. Just a casual wave of his hand was enough to obliterate the spirit treasure formations. He stared at Lu Yin.

Is that the battle technique that allows him to borrow others’ sequence particles?

Emperor Wu was aware of Lu Yin’s Linked Palm. After all, Lu Yin had used it more than once while in the Spirit Nidus.

However, not even Linked Palm was enough. Far from it. The power accumulated from the beast-form Spirit Rebirths throughout countless years had combined into a force that was intended to dominate the entire Spirit Nidus. Borrowing sequence particles was meaningless.

Emperor Wu clenched a fist. "Golden Roc and You Xia, are they still alive?"

Lu Yin remained calm as he manipulated the sequence particles belonging to Heaven's Seal. “They are.”

"Release them, and I will spare your life," Emperor Wu arrogantly declared. He stared into Lu Yin’s eyes, but he saw no hint of retreat in them. This human still had more left that he could use, but all of his techniques were meaningless in the face of absolute power.

Back at the battle at the Umbral Deep, this human had left the entire Spirit Nidus suffocated by his unfathomable strength and overwhelming power.

Emperor Wu had to admit that, without the help of outside strength, he would never have been able to equal this man’s power. However, since Heaven's Seal had already been used, such things no longer mattered.

Lu Yin stared at Emperor Wu. "You are overconfident."

Emperor Wu's eyes flashed. "You cannot endure this level of strength! Will you release them or not?"

Lu Yin let out a long breath. In his current state, it was indeed impossible to stand up to the power barraging him. It might even surpass the limits of Extremes Must Be Reversed.

However, the gap that had opened up was not completely impossible to compensate for.

To make up for the difference in strength, power was needed. Lu Yin’s expression grew complex. There was a technique that he had only ever used once, but it was something that should be able to somewhat narrow the gap that had opened up.

Lu Yin had had to mend a great deal of karma after reversing the branch of the River of Aeons. One bit of broken karma was related to Seraph Meng Sang. Specifically, it was True God’s Natural Art.

Only because he had fought against Meng Sang, who was capable of inverting dreams and reality, had Lu Yin coincidentally entered the mental state that was required in order to master True God’s Natural Art.

He simply needed to fight against Meng Sang once more in order to relearn Natural Art and mend that karma, but Lu Yin had abandoned that path. Not only had he been unable to find Meng Sang after arriving in the Spirit Nidus, but Meng Sang had also shown absolutely no intention of fighting against Lu Yin. Furthermore, True God was the one behind Meng Sang, and that man was aware of Lu Yin’s attempts to mend his karma. True God would never allow that to happen.

However, Lu Yin no longer needed to mend his karma. He had captured so many of the Spirit Nidus’s experts and imprisoned them in his Champions’ Stage Purgatory, strengthening his Karmic Dao. Lu Yin had become capable of enduring any sort of karmic backlash.

“Ethereal autumn waters, a vague beauty, gazing eastward...

”Family unseen, ascending the heights of heaven, one person remaining...”

...

Where is the singing coming from?

Emperor Wu felt perplexed. On a battlefield where two of the most powerful beings in the megaverse were fighting, it was practically impossible for any sound from beyond the battlefield to enter it, let alone a bit of singing.

At that moment, lanterns started to drift into view from all directions, each of which carried only the woodpecker character.

No sense of self, no sense of others. Abandoning all thoughts and concepts while merging with the universe and achieving immortality. This was True God’s Natural Art.

Lu Yin brought out his Karmic Dao, though no one else was able to even perceive karma. If they could, they would be absolutely shocked by what they witnessed. Karmic backlash was bearing down upon Lu Yin like a monstrous beast, just as he had suffered before.

In front, Emperor Wu launched a punch that shattered the void. Lu Yin’s eyes turned blood-red as divine energy surged across his body. With a casual wave, he split the lantern in two. Thoughts had manifested as lanterns, and by breaking them, he severed emotion. Humans inevitably possess desires, thoughts, and hopes. Stripping those away disrupted the karmic foundation of cultivation, effectively erasing one’s cultivation.

It was only at this moment that Lu Yin realized that Natural Art unexpectedly harmonized with his path of karma.

The Setting Sun was a comprehension technique that caused the target to forget their knowledge of martial arts. In contrast, Natural Art removed a person’s purpose for cultivating, making that outcome impossible. If the two were compared, then Natural Art was even more overbearing, and it also was more closely aligned with Lu Yin’s understanding of karma.

Had True God created this technique by pure coincidence, or had he also comprehended karma?

No, that was impossible. If he had actually comprehended karma, he would have never been outmaneuvered by the Great Sovereign or forced to endure the torment of her Six Paths of Reincarnation Realm.

Not comprehending karma did not prevent a person from creating a technique that aligned with karma. Given True God’s extraordinary talent, he was undoubtedly capable of doing such a thing.

Emperor Wu threw another punch that shattered space, his invincible power once again being put on display. However, in doing so, he coughed up blood, and his eyes became dazed for a moment. While he recovered swiftly, Lu Yin still noticed the change.

This was the effect of Natural Art.

The audience on both sides of the Fu River were completely dumbfounded. How had Emperor Wu thrown a punch, only to be the one who was injured?

No one could understand what had happened, aside from those few who knew about True God’s three ultimate techniques.

As he listened to the faint sound of singing and seemed to see a beautiful lakeside, scenes raced through Emperor Wu’s mind. He saw how he had trained his strength, as well as his unwavering dedication to perfecting his defenses. He saw the hopes set upon him by the previous lord of the Primal Beastland, those eyes that had shone with both expectation and blame. If Emperor Wu had not taken Heaven's Seal to the Consciousness Megaverse, the previous lord of the Primal Beastland would not have been defeated. Why had things ended up as they had? Did they blame him? Had the past lord blamed him? That individual had clearly given Heaven's Seal to Emperor Wu and sent him to the Consciousness Megaverse for protection, even while knowing of the inevitable battle.

It wasn’t my fault! It wasn’t me!

Emperor Wu let out a furious roar as his body suddenly grew taller, and he clenched his fists. Heaven's Seal quivered. His strength dropped significantly, giving him the unsettling feeling of no longer being able to fully control the sequence base.

He had clearly gained the upper hand, his overwhelming strength destroying everything with brute force, only for the momentum of the battle to be instantly reversed.

Lanterns floated through the sky. Emperor Wu let out a deep growl as a substance exited his body and formed layers that forced Heaven's Seal back down and into him.

Far away, an elderly beast-form Spirit Rebirth commented with a hoarse voice, “As his strength falls, Heaven's Seal becomes unstable. What did Seraph Lu do? He actually managed to weaken the woodpecker.”

Many nearby cultivators turned to stare at the ancient creature in surprise.

Yao?

That was Emperor Wu’s name. There were very few in the Spirit Nidus who were qualified to address him directly.

No one recognized the beast-form Spirit Rebirth who had just spoken, though just the sound of his voice made it clear that he was beyond ancient.

“Although his strength is falling and he can no longer fully control Heaven's Seal, he is using his innate gift to force it down and suppress it within his body. He can still wield the sequence base’s power, though doing so will result in backlash. We’ll have to see whether he can defeat Seraph Lu before the backlash breaks him,” the ancient expert continued, erasing many people’s confusion.

At that moment, another individual appeared beside the ancient beast-form Spirit Rebirth. Many cultivators recognized the newcomer, as he was the Gate of Laws’ Zhan Ming. Another of the Seven Seraphs had appeared. Did this mean that the ancient creature who had just commented on the battle was from the Gate of Laws? No one knew how long the elder had been standing there.

Down on the ground, Lu Yin also noticed that Emperor Wu’s strength had been steadily falling. He was no longer able to fully control the power of Heaven's Seal or its sequence particles.

There were some tools that could not be used freely. When Lu Yin had first started cultivating, he had obtained a piece of Progenitor Wushang's hide, but at that time, even just glancing at the hide had been enough to knock him out.

If Emperor Wu wanted to defeat Lu Yin by relying on the power of Heaven's Seal, the ruler of the Primal Beastland needed to possess the strength to sustain the sequence base. However, Natural Art was continuously sapping his power away. Since Emperor Wu no longer possessed the physical strength needed to control Heaven's Seal, he had been forced to resort to another method of wielding it.

This was Emperor Wu’s innate gift, Hardening.

His Hardening innate gift was the foundation of his path towards obtaining an invincible defense.

Not only could Emperor Wu resist attacks directed at him, but he could also use his innate gift to suppress and control Heaven's Seal.

However, he suffered as a result.

Boom!

Facing Lu Yin, Emperor Wu threw yet another punch. His overwhelming strength was released, enough to effortlessly expose the True Void.

Lu Yin exhaled. His body suddenly looked withered as he took a step forward. He was surrounded by Verdant Eternity, and Infinity caused his power to surge wildly as Wielder - Indestructible battle force spread across his body. If Emperor Wu wanted to fight with brute strength, then so be it.

Natural Art did not just erase a person’s emotions and the karma of their cultivation; it could also enhance the user’s own power.

True God had once used Natural Art to amplify his own physical strength, and then he had overwhelmed everyone else in the Tianyuan Megaverse. He had uprooted the black Mother Tree and stormed the Immemorial Citadel.

At this moment, Lu Yin was using the same technique to enhance his strength, using it to narrow the gap between him and Emperor Wu.

Boom!

The ground trembled and then shattered as Lu Yin was sent hurtling deep underground by just one punch. He pierced through multiple layers of magma that lay beneath the wilderness and then shot back into outer space. Absolute darkness followed him as space had shattered from the force of Emperor Wu’s punches. Blow after blow struck, but Lu Yin was still unable to fully stand up to Emperor Wu’s power. Still, Natural Art compensated for the overwhelming disparity, and Lu Yin was able to at least put up some resistance. His body withered, recovered, withered again, and then recovered in a continuous cycle.

Along the banks of the Fu River, Hu Wu and Tian Ya clenched their fists. Just one punch looked to have shattered Seraph Lu. While Emperor Wu was still coughing up blood, there was no doubt that his strength remained invincible.

The lanterns continued to float through the sky, and periodically, one would be destroyed. Emperor Wu coughed up more blood. His injuries were partly due to Natural Art, and partly from the backlash of suppressing the sequence base.

As he stared into the abyss in the ground that opened back up into outer space, he threw one punch after another. "Let’s see how many more you can take!"