Chapter 1566: The Greatest Treasure

The new eighth Immortal King was born that very day.

He opened his eyes, clear and limpid, with the ability to see the futures of all things. Silver runes shone in his eyes. He released a long breath and stretched. "I dealt with the eighth Immortal King far too easily. Now, this might be my own body, but I'm a little unused to it after being gone for so long."

Not only had Zhang Yi reclaimed his body, he had even devoured the eighth Immortal King's soul and obtained his knowledge and memories.

In some sense, he was both Zhang Yi and the eighth Immortal King. Their souls had assimilated with each other, but Zhang Yi was the primary consciousness.

Despite the fact that he had consumed the eighth Immortal King's soul, his own soul was still in tatters. Fortunately, the eighth Immortal King's hideout had large quantities of medicine to heal mental and spiritual damage. With sufficient time, his soul would be restored in full.

Zhang Yi smiled. "I wonder how my lad is doing? I hope he likes the present I specially prepared for him."

Zhang Yi lay on the floor and sighed at the ceiling. "I'm looking forward to our next encounter."

Zhang Lie stepped into the pillar of light. Silver chains of natural law crumbled as Zhang Lie felt an incredible burst of sensation.

Fresh blood sprayed on the ground. Killing intent surged up.

The memory of all those fights didn't dissipate. They remained in this virtual realm, seeping into the earth.

Countless techniques, energy, and fighting spirit were left behind, leaving indelible marks in the realm that would eventually become the cornerstone of its existence.

The blood that spilled, the mental fragments—those melded with the ground. The fighting intent and combat techniques became interconnected links.

After Zhang Lie stepped into the pillar of light, he was able to sense the land's memories and history.

He frowned. Something was amiss. The eighth Immortal King wouldn't have hatched such a complicated plan if the sole reward was the history of this world.

Perhaps to many a cultivator, the battle imprints and fighting spirit left behind by generations of the strongest fifth-realm cultivators would be a tremendous treasure, but surely not to the eighth Immortal King.

Although Zhang Lie had only encountered and fought him once, it was clear from his tone and techniques that he was a prideful, arrogant man.

During the battle, the eighth Immortal King had once said that he wanted to take advantage of the intuition present in the light to recover to his peak, to surpass it and reclaim his former glory.

The memories of the land were far too insufficient for such a great feat.

Zhang Lie immersed himself in the light, his consciousness descending into the ocean of light. Techniques and insight floated around him, all of which the land had recorded. The mental fragments passed him by, but Zhang Lie didn't make any attempt to interact with them.

The realm itself began to collapse, little by little.

Zhang Lie's consciousness sank deeper into the realm, deeper and deeper yet, until he finally found what lay at the very bottom, an intuition of the arcane and the abstruse, which had manifested in the form of spiritual herbs and great treasures on the surface of the realm, which countless cultivators would war over.

The depths of the ocean of light were filled with mysterious glows, like a strange underwater forest of coral.

The depths of this realm was composed of relics of incredible power donated by the true titans of the fifth realm as reward for budding cultivators. In this mysterious realm, all manner of deep insight and intuition would transform into spiritual herbs. Upon being eaten, those herbs would manifest that intuition and insight in full.

Now, Zhang Lie had his pick of whatever insight he wanted.

As Sun Xiaowu had promised, this was an incredible treasure, the likes of which he had never before seen.

It might as well be a library in which every book was a treasured tome, a priceless possession.

All this intuition would certainly allow the eighth Immortal King to return to his peak and even to transcend it.

However, Zhang Lie felt that there was yet more to the story. The eighth Immortal King had been in terrible condition, and even the culmination of this insight might not have restored his body.

Even so, despite the possible destruction of his soul, the eighth Immortal King fought to the last. The intuition and insight before him was vast in scope and scale, but there was no guarantee it could heal his soul. What else lay within?

Zhang Lie looked down. He hadn't yet reached the seabed of the ocean of light. He decided to dive deeper down.

The realm at large continued to fade. The heavenly cordon drew near. The members of Team Zenith didn't resist. They allowed the heavenly cordon to obliterate them as they vanished from the realm in a sea of mental particles.

The realm itself was collapsing; Zhang Lie didn't have much time left.

His consciousness continued to sink and sink. After an interminable amount of time, he finally reached the bottom of the sea.

It was empty and devoid of anything.

Zhang Lie cocked his head. "Could I have been wrong?"

There was no hidden treasure; the land was empty.

There wasn't even a rock to be seen. It was vast and spacious because there was nothing in sight.

Had the eighth Immortal King fought this hard for nothing more than those treasured insights?

Suddenly, as though having thought of something, Zhang Lie leaned down and touched the floor. He couldn't help but smile.

"As expected!"

In the end, he found what he had been looking for. He sat down cross-legged, his mind interfacing with the whole seafloor around him. The floor lit up with light and runes as the sea of light frothed.

This vast, featureless land was the manifestation of the realm at large.

The ability to convert high-level insight into spiritual treasure was the greatest insight of all, and what the eighth Immortal King had been looking for all along. This ability meant that he would be able to repair his soul no matter how shattered it was.

Zhang Lie attempted to gain the insight of the eighth Immortal King's dreams.

Fog gathered around him. Rosy light filtered down to where he was. Vitality surged forth.

His bones began to glow with light.

Despite being a mental construct, his 'physical body' seemed to hurt as it underwent a high-level transformation. Natural law entered his body.

His body sizzled and cracked as it was forged in intuition and insight.