Chapter 720: Breaking Apart and Coming Together Again

The Rock Devourer silently observed Pang Jian.

The tiny stones packed throughout Pang Jian's Immortal Divine Soul were the refined essence of its power, the crystallization of its Heavenly Dao.

They also acted as its eyes, allowing it to study Pang Jian's communication with his physical body, the anomalies in his sea of consciousness, and the many Dao Seals within him.

The extraordinary nature of Pang Jian's Immortal Divine Soul truly astonished the Rock Devourer.

With its vast experience, it could tell that Pang Jian only had a shallow understanding of his Immortal Divine Soul. Pang Jian himself had no idea just how remarkable it truly was.

"Your divine sense and internal energies can't break my stones." The Rock Devourer snorted. "Brute force won't work, you'll need to find another way. Don't be so rigid in your thinking."

With that, the Rock Devourer said no more.

By this point, Pang Jian had already realized that his usual methods were ineffective with the stones of the Rock Devourer filling his body and sea of consciousness.

He tried the Primeval Demon Fusion Art, Cosmic Fission, Chaos Firmament, Five-Element Starry Rivers, Soul Extraction, Soul Restraint, and Ghost River, but none worked.

These techniques were all rendered unusable due to the stones blocking the flow of his divine sense and divine power.

It also prevented his Immortal Divine Soul from growing or shrinking at will.

As the Rock Devourer said, brute force was not the way out.

Pang Jian calmed down and searched for another solution.

"What is a being like me called in the outside world?" the Rock Devourer suddenly asked.

An Aberrant Spirit. A lifeform without flesh and blood. But with a soul. Typically enormous in form.

Even Pang Jian's thoughts were slightly fragmented, and he could not articulate them into words.

His thoughts and will usually flowed like rivers of light, but the overwhelming number of stones lodged in his body and head obstructed these streams.

"That's right. Beings without a conventional flesh-and-blood body, but possessing a sentient soul, are referred to as Aberrant Spirits," the Rock Devourer said, reading Pang Jian's thoughts through the stones. "When this body of yours was first formed, it had no flesh or internal organs, only various forms of pure energy.

"Even the five viscera you've formed since aren't normal organs.

"I don't know the exact condition of your physical body, but from what I can see, this form of yours resembles an Aberrant Spirit. If not right now, then at the very least, when it was first formed.

"A unique type of Aberrant Spirit," the Rock Devourer concluded.

Pang Jian's mind trembled.

When forming his Immortal Divine Soul in Imperial Dominion City, it had been created primarily from his divine soul, Fortune, and the spiritual qi of heaven and earth, then infused with energies from his dantian.

Once his Immortal Divine Soul took form, it looked otherworldly, like something between crystal and jade.

Even now, his Immortal Divine Soul was not made of true flesh and blood.

His five viscera existed as clusters of radiant light in his chest, but those organs were not innate. They were formed through the Primeval Demon Fusion Art, after refining the blood essence of the Water God Naga and the Dark Bat and fusing them with the five elements.

In other words, the Rock Devourer's claim that he was a different type of Aberrant Spirit did not seem wrong.

"You are just like me, a being without flesh and blood. Did you know that the energies that make up Aberrant Spirits can be broken down?"

With that, the Rock Devourer's humanoid body crumbled into hundreds of tiny fragments before disintegrating into a fine dust.

A breeze swept through, scattering the dust across the heart-shaped fragmented land like a haze.

"All things composed of energy can break down into dust. They can also just as easily come together again."

The Rock Devourer's voice echoed as the dust rapidly gathered together, reforming into its humanoid form in the blink of an eye. It was a display that could only be described as otherworldly.

"You can do it too," the Rock Devourer encouraged. "The Great Demon Gods of the Demon Races can split their souls into thousands of fragments and recombine them later, but what we're capable of goes beyond even that."

Pang Jian was already testing it in secret.

Previously, he tried using his divine sense to attack the stones within his sea of consciousness of his Immortal Divine Soul.

After seeing this demonstration, he instead let his divine sense flow outward.

He did not know how much time had passed, but eventually, his divine sense started to stream from his eyes in streams of golden light that carried his thoughts and memories.

These streams soon became a golden sea of radiance, suspended above the head of his Immortal Divine Soul.

This golden sea of radiance appeared to be his original divine soul, from before he fused it with Fortune to forge a tangible Immortal Divine Soul.

As the sea of radiance condensed, it formed an illusory version of Pang Jian, a manifestation of his golden divine soul.

Pang Jian's multicolored Immortal Divine Soul remained beneath this golden figure, with the connection between them persisting.

He could also still perceive the subtle changes within his physical body from this golden divine soul.

The separation of his divine soul from his sea of consciousness meant the stones no longer hindered his thoughts.

If my divine soul can leave the body, scatter, and reassemble, then the divine powers within me can likely do the same.

With that in mind, the radiance of the sun, moons, and stars flowed from the chest of Pang Jian's Immortal Divine Soul, gathering beside his illusory divine soul.

Cold energy, lightning, earthflame, and metal energy followed suit, each streaming out of his Immortal Divine Soul in wisps and threads to gather near his divine soul.

The five viscera, forged from the blood essence of Outer Gods, remained in his chest, but the energies within them were drawn out.

Soon, Pang Jian's Immortal Divine Soul was nothing more than a colorful shell, its insides filled with stones from the Rock Devourer.

His prismatic Immortal Divine Soul then disintegrated into specks of multicolored light, scattering through the air like billions of fireflies.

Condense!

Billions of multicolored specks gathered into a sea of radiance, enveloping Pang Jian's divine soul and the various energies that had separated earlier.

Pang Jian's Immortal Divine Soul was reformed anew!

In the head of his Immortal Divine Soul, golden divine sense surged alongside Pang Jian's thoughts like waves upon a vast sea.

Darkness, demonic energy, cold energy, and lightning formed Pang Jian's bones, each crystallized to support the chest of his Immortal Divine Soul. The sun, moons, and stars shimmered like acupoints within.

The five elements of Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth became his five viscera once more, though they no longer contained traces of blood essence as before.

His heart became a massive flaming furnace, pulsing with streaks of crimson lightning, within which lay his insights into the Dao of Fire.

His liver turned into verdant forests that teemed with the vitality of the Dao of Verdure.

Hidden crystalline veins lay buried within his spleen, embodying the Dao of Earth.

Towering golden mountains rose high within his lungs, with profound Dao of Metal etched deep into their cores.

Boundless waters surged endlessly in his kidneys, where flickers of ghostly light danced fluidly, as if exemplifying the Dao of Water.

The shell of his Immortal Divine Soul was forged from Fortune itself. His head served as the residence of his divine soul, while the rest of his body contained all the Heavenly Daos that Pang Jian had comprehended, crystallized into tangible forms.

The disintegration and subsequent reconstruction of his Immortal Divine Soul gave Pang Jian a newfound understanding of this body.

The process felt unfamiliar as it was the first time he had dismantled and reassembled his Immortal Divine Soul. Moreover, it was sluggish due to the interference of the stones.

Pang Jian's divine soul flew out once again, the sun, moons, and stars were removed, and his five viscera left his Immortal Divine Soul as pure energy. The shell of his Immortal Divine Soul then scattered into billions of multicolored specks of light before initiating a second reformation.

That's still not right. It can be faster!

𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

The Rock Devourer watched as Pang Jian repeatedly dispersed and reformed his Immortal Divine Soul.

After countless iterations, Pang Jian discovered that he did not need to separate his divine soul and myriad energies. Instead, he could directly infuse them into the specks of light when disintegrating his shell.

Pang Jian's Immortal Divine Soul had transformed, allowing him to shift size at will and freely disassemble and reassemble as he pleased!

The only difference was that he had abandoned the blood essence previously within his five viscera. His five viscera still existed; they were simply constructed from their respective energies.

"The human race imitated the Nether Race's method of cultivating the divine soul, tempering it for the sole purpose of breaking free from the shackles of the flesh," the Rock Devourer said, staring at Pang Jian's new Immortal Divine Soul with satisfaction. He then scolded mildly, "You just had to cram that chaotic blood essence into this special body of yours, making it neither one thing nor the other. In doing so, you only limited yourself."

Pang Jian let out a bitter smile.

After forming his Immortal Divine Soul, Pang Jian had spent most of his time wandering the bizarre mist and exploring other abysses.

No one had been there to teach him about the path forward. He had to figure it all out on his own.

Even Li Wang, his master, and the other True Gods had only cultivated up to the True God Realm. The laws of the Abyss prevented them from going any further.

They, too, did not know about the cultivation path after leaving the Abyss.

For Pang Jian to have elevated his Immortal Divine Soul to this level was already an extraordinary feat under such circumstances.

"Uncut jade cannot become a gem. If I hadn't tempered you, you'd have entered the Nether Abyss with no hope at all." The Rock Devourer snorted. His tone then shifted. "If the World Tree has been reborn...does that mean that slumbering Black Empyrean Phoenix in the Seventh World of the Abyss has started its path of nirvanic rebirth?"