Chapter 989: Realization

The silver canopy continued its steady descent from above.

Its spread was strangely ordinary, with no earth-shaking grandeur or world-ending convulsions, quiet in its erasure of the bizarre mist.

The supreme will of the starry skies had deemed the bizarre mist its main target—the great scourge to be purged first.

As Pang Jian peered up at it, he forced himself into absolute calm, dissecting with cold clarity the nature and actions of the supreme will of the starry skies.

Its radiance unfurled sideways, casting light across the breadth of the starry region. As it did, its divine power grew ever more concentrated, as if drawing energies from various starry regions in the starry skies.

This was another problem with fighting the supreme will of the starry skies. It could summon any energy it desired from the starry regions under its dominion and gather them into its silver radiance.

An uneasy dread stirred within Pang Jian.

That silver canopy would erase every wisp of bizarre mist that had risen upward as it sank to the bottom of the Primordial Chaos Starry Region.

Like the storm of ice shards, the silver canopy was also growing ever more terrifying as it spread. Once it descended, it could even pierce straight through the bizarre mist and seep into its domain, thereby corrupting the abysses.

That would mark the true beginning of calamity. This was no mere tribulation like before, no simple clash of two wills over the ages. This was life and death.

Perhaps the true intent of the supreme will of the starry skies was to use this grand event to extend its dominion across the entirety of the bizarre mist and assimilate its kin.

If it succeeded, the bizarre mist itself would cease to exist. The supreme will of the bizarre mist would perish, or at the very least, be absorbed as part of the supreme will of the starry skies.

It feels as though I can see into the future and deduce what is yet to come. I am brushing against the fundamental laws that underlie the universe

, Pang Jian thought, a flood of tangled thoughts racing through his mind like tides crashing upon a shore.

Pang Jian watched as the Bee Sovereign drove the Hall of Gods into the heart of the colossal storm. His entire view of the struggle had shifted. It felt like his soul had ascended, his wisdom elevated to another plane.

The soul bodies enthroned in his five viscera, celestial bodies, lightning vortexes, and seas of darkness and demonic energy seemed to gain the same insight into the fundamental laws of the universe.

Every fragment of Pang Jian's soul shone brightly within his Immortal Divine Soul, as though all were bathing in the light of wisdom.

The Bee Sovereign's metamorphosis and forging of a Sovereign-level vessel benefits me as well!

Pang Jian could feel the changes within his Immortal Divine Soul. Whenever one of the beings reborn through the Gate of the Abyss achieved a breakthrough, he received great advantages as well.

When the World Tree advanced to Rank Thirteen or the four Fey Gods ascended to high-ranking godhood, his own cultivation realm had surged. The same thing was happening with the Bee Sovereign. However, unlike the others, as the Bee Sovereign's foundation lay in the Dao Source of Soul, the boon it bestowed upon him was immeasurable.

Turning his gaze inward, Pang Jian noticed that the gray mist still lingered in the starry region of his chest. Suddenly, strange visions quietly surfaced within its depths.

A gray sea reeking of death, a putrid mass of flesh, a cloudy river carrying the currents of time, a prism resembling a Divine Persona saturated with the mysteries of space, and other grotesque, unfathomable relics manifested within the bizarre mist in his Immortal Divine Soul.

These were the Dao Sources that the supreme will of the starry skies had hunted down over countless wars. The traces they left behind had been etched upon the shards of Pang Jian's shattered Divine Persona, which was in turn absorbed into his Immortal Divine Soul.

By absorbing the remnants of his physical body with his Immortal Divine Soul, he had also drawn in the gray-white radiance that once corroded his flesh. Within it lingered the vestiges of the myriad Dao Sources as well.

The traces of the fallen Dao Sources imprinted upon both his Divine Persona and that corrosive radiance fused with the gray mist within Pang Jian's Immortal Divine Soul, giving rise to these illusory Dao Sources.

Though these were not the full Dao Sources themselves, merely fragments, within those traces lay the truth of their core mysteries.

At this moment, Pang Jian felt he could unravel their hidden truths and make them his own.

Discern their true essence.

Pang Jian's soul bodies within his Immortal Divine Soul earnestly probed the Dao Sources.

A sea of radiance flooded Pang Jian's mind with interwoven beams of Dao-infused light. The most intricate insights into the Heavenly Daos unfolded upon the manifested Dao Sources.

These were the roots of the Heavenly Daos, the most fundamental laws of existence, the very core that shaped the heavens and birthed all living things.

This lattice of profound truths and knowledge would have normally required an untold amount of time to untangle. Even spending a thousand years, ten thousand years, or even longer could be insufficient to unravel them, let alone comprehend them fully.

Fortunately, his Immortal Divine Soul had the help of the Dao Source of Soul, which sharpened his wisdom to astonishing heights.

The Hall of Gods and the Bee Sovereign were still the heart of the colossal storm of ice shards. The Soulstream, on the other hand, remained adrift in the starry region, quietly rippling with strange waves.

The Dao Source of Soul resonated with him, helping him analyze the traces of the Dao Sources and grasp their subtleties.

The profound truths that were once abstruse and unfathomable became clear and easily comprehensible. Each time Pang Jian understood a profound truth of a Dao Source, corresponding arcs of Dao-infused lightning formed within his Immortal Divine Soul, becoming his meridians.

These arcs of lightning caused his Immortal Divine Soul to undergo a new round of refinement, advancing toward a new form of existence.

If I can comprehend these traces of the Dao Sources and digest their intricacies, I could draw infinitely closer to that supreme will, or perhaps even surpass it!

A clear path unfolded within Pang Jian's mind. His comprehension of these Dao Sources would likewise be a tremendous boon to the Dao Source of Soul.

These traces of the Dao Sources came at great cost. It was only my sister's insistence that I shatter my Divine Persona and give up my physical body that I could seize this fleeting chance.

Does this mean that only a Divine Persona is capable of holding these traces? Does one require a special vessel of the same origin and lineage to serve as the medium?

I forged a Divine Persona in the Fifth World of the Abyss, all while nurturing my Immortal Divine Soul in tandem. Was that all of this for this moment?

Pang Lin, or the Black Empyrean Phoenix...

As his soul ascended, a hazy intuition welled up in his heart.

Perhaps this "coincidence" was long planned for.

The supreme will of the bizarre mist and Pang Lin...were they waiting for this day all along? Was everything before this point simply necessary offerings through which these traces of the fallen Dao Sources could be claimed?