Chapter 2428 Practicing Voidness

“Cut!”

The flaming flying sword swept up, and as if dragging down a fiery star river, it chopped across the sky again.

The grand array rumbled, cracking open a gap.

The attacker was clearly a Ninth Realm Ancestor. He teleported into the array as soon as he saw the crack.

“Go!”

“Let us go too!”

Those in the shadows who had been accumulating momentum for this moment all rushed out without hesitation, wanting to take advantage of this opportunity.

However, just as they arrived on the floating land, an angry shriek resounded, “Darn it! You frauds!”

The remark caused the newly arrived figures to pale.

Frauds?

The next second, the Heaven Slaughtering Dao Severing array activated with a loud noise. The skyful of runes flickered and rolled about, obscuring this piece of heaven and earth as if wanting to refine it.

“Noooo!” echoed the mournful screams of the Ninth Realm Ancestor inside, but in just the blink of an eye, it came to a screeching halt and was never heard again.

The only sound was the Heaven Slaughtering Dao Severing array running loudly. Its glow illuminated the void, dazzling beyond measure.

“Retreat!” Those who had just arrived were creeped out. They immediately decided to draw back.

A Ninth Realm Ancestor had been subdued, so one could only imagine how terrifyingly strong the grand array was!

The floating land once again became quiet and deserted like a dragon lair. No one dared to approach it again.

Inside the array, Little Five was feeling financial pain. Just now, he had deliberately let the array reveal an opening to lure in that Ninth Realm Ancestor and thus achieved a kill.

To make this possible, during the few seconds that the Heaven Slaughtering Dao Severing array had operated at full power, it consumed three thousand first-grade cosmic origin crystals!

However, after sorting out the belongings of the victim, Little Five’s smile returned to his face.

This time, Lin Xun definitely won't scold me.

The various treasures, divine materials, and resources left behind had a combined value far exceeding three thousand first-grade cosmic origin crystals.

In addition to this, that Ninth Realm Ancestor already had over five thousand cosmic origin crystals in his pocket!

“Ooh, I wonder if anyone will dare to come and test their luck after this...” Little Five stroked his chin and fell into thought.

Mi Wuya and Yan Yurou, who were also sitting in the grand formation, had watched everything and were shocked into speechlessness.

An Ancestor had been slain!

By virtue of this terrifying grand array alone, Lin Xun could already conquer the Ancient Nebula Road!

Even in this Great Thousand Battle Domain, it was a killer weapon intimidating enough to deter the majority.

To Little Five's regret, no one else came to take the risk in the next few hours. Apparently, they had all been struck with fear.

Six hours later.

In the huge vortex, Lin Xun refined the entire Ancestral dao origin, boosting his cultivation to the peak of the sixth realm in one fell swoop!

“Refreshing!” Lin Xun's eyes shone with joy.

It had only been a few days since he had entered the Undead Soul Domain, and his cultivation had already changed by leaps and bounds. If this was in the outside world, then he would have to cultivate for many years to make such a progress.

“Since my cultivation has reached the extreme perfection of this realm, it won’t advance no matter how many more Ancestral dao origins I refine...”

Lin Xun quickly realized that in order to progress after this, he needed to break through to the next realm. Unfortunately, such a breakthrough could not be achieved with diligent cultivation, but rather required a special opportunity.

The seventh realm of the Emperor Stage was called Practicing Voidness.

“My heart shines like the sun and moon, while I am the universe.

Voidness is my nature, as beyond the Emperor Stage there is a great starry void.”

This was the dao verse that described the realm of Practicing Voidness.

What it meant was that after stepping into this realm, the cultivator would consolidate all their daos into their True Self Emperor World and create a universe around it. The planets’ generous brilliance would cascade down as dao paths, forming a wonderful and intimate harmony with the True Self Emperor World like turbidity and clearness.

In this realm, one’s cultivation would be bright, full, and firm. The dharma form reached perfection. Everything visible and invisible cleared out. The body and spirit became one, keeping only the purest and clearest, the most solid and greatest. At last, one returned to their true nature!

This was in fact a process of turning one’s cultivation from ‘something’ to ‘nothingness.’ When there was nothing, there was only void. Only by practicing voidness could one return to their true nature.

In short, it was all in the four words: Return to true nature.

This was the realm of Practicing Voidness, where the cultivator had begun to touch upon the mysteries of real and illusory, existing and non-existent, true and emptiness.

“The seventh realm of Practicing Voidness, the eighth realm of Fusing with the Dao, and the ninth realm of Ancestral Reversion... I wonder if creating life between existence and nothing is something that that realm of cultivation can explore...” Lin Xun fell into thought as he mused.

A long time ago, when he passed the Great Azure Cloud Path’s eighth trial called Dao Breaking, a taboo realization had dawned upon him.

The almighty dao was the origin and foundation of the world. The ultimate power that cultivators sought was hidden in the mysteries of the world's operation.

When one’s heart could hold the world, they could control the world!

If there was a day that he could build a world with his own strength, deduce the natural cycle of it, and transform everything according to his will, then what would be the difference between him and the supreme Creator in legend?

In such a realm, the power one wielded was no longer fixing, but creating and erasing!

Between ‘something’ and ‘nothing,’ one created birth and destruction!

This was the so-called ‘creating something out of nothing.’

Previously, Lin Xun hadn’t known that very few in even the Emperor Stage could reach this realm.

Now, after many years of travel and improving his cultivation step by step, he vaguely realized that this realm could indeed be called a taboo!

At least, no Ninth Realm Ancestors had ever possessed this kind of power!

“No wonder Xi lost her cool when she knew about this back then...” Lin Xun recalled the event of that year.

In Xi's cognition, creating something out of nothing, and creating life and death was almost some taboo knowledge.

It was just that Lin Xun at the time didn't understand this at all.

Similarly, back in Mulberry Woodland, when the golden cicada learned that Lin Xun hadn’t yet become a Saint but had already peeked into the realm of ‘creating something out of nothing,’ he for once had also lost his composure.

Lin Xun still clearly remembered how bewildered the golden cicada youth had seemed, and how he had stared at him in a daze, asking, “Do you also understand this realm?”

Lin Xun's reply was, “Just had a glimpse of it before.”[1]

Even so, it still caused the golden cicada to marvel out loud.

The current Lin Xun was fully aware of the golden cicada youth’s reputation, who had been praised that:

“This cicada is small, but his dao is above heaven.”

During the epic game of chess with the Nameless Esteemed Emperor, the golden cicada had demonstrated terrifying power, killing Emperor Ancestors to the point they fell like rain!

His performance had amazed Third Senior Sister Ruosu and the other Fangchun Mountain disciples.

Yet, way back then, the golden cicada had been taken aback by Lin Xun's glimpse of ‘creating something out of nothing.’ From this, one could imagine how spectacular this realm was.

Now, when many small details and images of the past that Lin Xun had paid little attention to surfaced in his mind, he finally realized how extraordinary the realm of creating something out of nothing was.

Indeed, it was virtually a taboo.

At the very least, out of all the many Emperor experts he had fought and killed, he had seen none who had that kind of ability.

“Perhaps it’s only possible to unravel some of its mysteries when my cultivation reaches the seventh, eighth, or ninth realm...” Lin Xun came to a vague realization.

Practicing Voidness, Fusing with the Dao, and Ancestral Reversion were actually one big process where one's cultivation was elevated between the concepts of real and illusory, existent and void!

A long time later, Lin Xun shook off all the distracting thoughts, collected his mind, and said, “Green sparrow, I intend to leave the Undead Soul Domain.”

“To break through the realm?” asked the green sparrow.

Clearly, it had noticed that Lin Xun's cultivation had reached the very peak of the sixth realm, and needed to break through to the next realm in order to resume advancing his strength.

Lin Xun nodded, “Yes.”

The green sparrow said without thinking, “In the deepest part of the Undead Soul Domain, there is a bone tunnel, rumored to be formed as the corpses of the strongest characters of the last epoch piled up. If you go through this tunnel, you can enter the next battlefield: Gathering Netherworld.”

The green sparrow proceeded to talk about Gathering Netherworld in detail.

Gathering Netherworld was vast and full of treachery. According to the rumors, it was originally a part of the Netherworld Ghost Domain in the last epoch, but with the destruction of the last epoch, Gathering Netherworld had long since collapsed.

Nowadays, that place had transformed into a place of great dangers, frequented by Netherworld Soldiers, Netherworld Generals, and Netherworld Kings all year round.

Even the weakest of them, a Netherworld Soldier, could kill a third realm Emperor.

A Netherworld General could threaten cultivators at the seventh realm and below.

As for Netherworld Kings, they were the greatest threat, and some powerful Netherworld Kings could even kill Ninth Realm Ancestors!

𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

The green sparrow spoke eloquently, “Gathering Netherworld has no opportunities or fortunes, but killing the ferocious creatures there may lead to a chance of them dropping Yellow Spring Beads, which has incredible effects in refining Emperor-grade treasures.

“In the Eternal True Realm, the Yellow Spring Bead of a Netherworld King can be sold for as much as three hundred thousand first-class cosmic origin crystals.

“Of course, the average person would rarely sell such treasures. They aren’t that easy to collect after all.”

After hearing this, Lin Xun was a bit tempted.

Although his cultivation had advanced by leaps and bounds, the power of the Limitless Abyss Sword Cauldron was improving very slowly. If he had a divine material like the Yellow Spring Bead, then it might just boost the sword cauldron's advancement speed!

Without any delay, he got up and exited the huge vortex.

On that day, Lin Xun, taking Mi Wuya and Yan Yurou with him, quickly traveled toward the deepest part of the Undead Soul Domain.

Along the way, he saw many battles, and all of them were over Ancestral dao origins. No longer having any interest in getting involved in these, he hurriedly went past like he was a passerby.

Six hours later.

The bone tunnel mentioned by the green sparrow finally appeared in Lin Xun's field of vision.

While it was called a tunnel, it more resembled a spacious avenue leading deeper into the starry void. Countless stark-white, broken bones piled up and unfurled into the black depths like a white rainbow.

Those bones had lost their luster long ago, but they had still withstood countless years of erosion and were extremely sturdy.

The green sparrow said, “Before we head to Gathering Netherworld, I have to remind you of a mysterious forbidden area there. It’s filled with mysterious and unfathomable terrors. From age to age, there have been a good number of powerful experts who have lost their lives in that place.”

The bird’s nimble eyes then gleamed with a strange color, “But I would suggest that you take a walk in there.”

Lin Xun was stunned, “Can you elaborate?”

“That mysterious forbidden area is perilous to others, but to you, it might just be a rare place of opportunity. That is, if you have the guts to go there.” The green sparrow refused to reveal anything specific.

1. See chapter 1465 ☜