Chapter 726

Ding Huan implanted a total of ten supreme-grade spiritual veins and one supreme-grade starry-sky spiritual vein beneath Great Star Peak.

Only then did he summon the Grand Void Flame.

First, let Grand Void ascend, then study the stone tablet.

Grand Void is now the top-tier ninth-grade divine flame; logically, the Fire Primordial Crystal should allow Grand Void to continue ascending.

But the Fire Primordial Crystal Ding Huan obtained contained too many impurities; after Grand Void ascended to ninth-grade divine flame with its help, it was nearly at its absolute limit.

The moment the Fire Primordial Pearl was pulled out, Grand Void's flame instantly erupted into a massive bloom of fire, its ecstatic aura unmistakable to Ding Huan.

Ding Huan opened his palm, and Grand Void's flame snatched the Fire Primordial Pearl; immediately, Grand Void's aura surged wildly.

Spiritual energy also transformed into streams, rushing toward Grand Void's flame.

Sensing Grand Void's ascent, Ding Huan ignored it.

He pulled out the stone tablet, constructed the Zhou Tian with the Great Cosmos Art, and began studying the second hidden seal within the jade slip.

Faced with the intricate seal patterns, Ding Huan had no idea where to begin.

He carefully studied the outer seal patterns of the hidden seal; the layered, complex array patterns soon pulled Ding Huan deep inside.

At first, Ding Huan immersed himself in this new law perception, constantly sensing fresh spatial laws and array patterns.

But soon, a deep unease stirred within him—he felt he shouldn't be trapped in these seal patterns, yet he couldn't break free.

He was like a nightmare victim, unable to awaken.

The Great Cosmos Art still operated; his subconscious clung to a sliver of spiritual awareness, and he could only struggle with his will to escape, trying to withdraw from the tangled seal patterns.

He didn't know how long had passed; he felt dazed, his sliver of awareness on the verge of extinction, when a clear voice sounded in his ear:

"Master Huan, I've become a Saint Flame…"

"Grand Void, burn me with your flame…"

Ding Huan, like a drowning man clutching a piece of driftwood, strained to project his will.

Grand Void was his flame—it could sense his demand.

Grand Void was stunned, but quickly realized Master Huan was in trouble.

Threads of fire pierced into Ding Huan's purple palace.

The searing pain jolted Ding Huan awake; his thoughts tore free from the tangled seal patterns.

A purple flame hovered before Ding Huan.

"Grand Void, you've formed a flame spirit?" Ding Huan was ecstatic.

Without Grand Void, he might have sunk into the stone tablet's seal patterns and never awakened.

"Yes, Master Huan, were you alright just now?" Grand Void sounded uneasy.

"I'm fine."

Hearing Ding Huan was unharmed, Grand Void's voice instantly brightened, even radiating strong confidence:

"Master Huan, pull out that Void Nirvana Gold and watch how I deal with it."

"Thank you, Grand Void…"

Ding Huan murmured, shaken.

Fortunately, he had let Grand Void ascend before studying the stone tablet; otherwise, where would his chance be?

Grand Void clearly didn't know Ding Huan had nearly died from this very stone tablet: "Master Huan, what's this little thing?"

Ding Huan exhaled deeply, pointing at the stone tablet in his hand: "Burn this thing."

Whatever this stone tablet was, Ding Huan no longer wanted it.

It nearly cost him his life—keeping it around would be a great disaster.

Grand Void, now brimming with confidence, obeyed instantly; its flame tongue swallowed the stone tablet whole.

Soon, Ding Huan realized he had overestimated Grand Void.

Grand Void simply couldn't burn away the stone tablet's seal.

Grand Void felt humiliated; its flame rose another level.

But the result changed nothing—Grand Void's flame still couldn't burn even a single seal.

Ding Huan widened his eyes.

Grand Void should be a Saint Flame; reaching Sainthood means becoming the supreme being in this universe.

Not just one seal—even a true Saint here could be burned by Grand Void.

Grand Void used the Fire Primordial Pearl to ascend to Saint Flame; there's no such thing as a false Saint Flame.

If so, why can't Grand Void burn even one seal? Is there, in this vast universe, something stronger than a Saint?

"Master Huan, I can't seem to burn this seal," came Grand Void's timid voice—its bragging had backfired.

Ding Huan reached out, grabbed a handful of Fire Primordial Crystals, and tossed them into Grand Void's flame: "Try again. If it still doesn't work, we'll talk."

With the aid of these Fire Primordial Pearls, Grand Void's flame rose another level.

Yet the seal patterns on the stone tablet remained utterly unchanged.

Ding Huan continued constructing the Great Cosmos Art's Zhou Tian, then layered his spiritual sense domain over Grand Void's flame.

He knew relying solely on Grand Void couldn't break the stone tablet's seal—he could only have Grand Void's flame peel away the seal layer by layer.

Afraid of being drawn in again, as last time, by the seal's mind-trap, Ding Huan only kept strengthening his domain to aid Grand Void.

"Crack!" A faint, sharp sound echoed.

Ding Huan saw clearly—the hidden seal on the stone tablet was untouched; what broke was the stone tablet itself…

Before Ding Huan could even exhale in relief, a hidden aura surged deep into his consciousness.

Soul possession?

Ding Huan laughed bitterly—he admitted the seal on this stone tablet was powerful, powerful enough that he couldn't even touch its edge.

But no matter how strong it was, wanting to seize Ding Huan's body was simply a pipe dream.

Ding Huan didn't even bother with the existence in his consciousness sea, frantically beginning to lay down Locking God array patterns, while instructing the Grand Void:

"Grand Void, lock down the entire space of my cave dwelling. Remember, don't let anything escape."

After doing all this, Ding Huan's divine sense finally landed in his consciousness sea's Great Dao universe.

Now his Great Dao universe had merged with his world and already had substance. That divine soul that had charged into his consciousness sea was still darting about wildly in his consciousness sea's Great Dao starry sky.

The remnant soul saw the consciousness sea starry sky, saw the galaxy beneath the stars, the star bridges, even the boundless nebulae, but simply did not see the Primordial Spirit.

How could this be?

That wisp of remnant soul was somewhat stunned.

A mere Divine King, and yet without a Primordial Spirit?

That's impossible.

Without a Primordial Spirit, how could it seize the body? Devour the will?

"Are you looking for my Primordial Spirit?" Ding Huan's divine sense landed on this remnant soul, while streams of spatial laws bound the remnant soul.

No matter how strong this remnant soul was, this was his territory.

"Why do you have no Primordial Spirit?" The remnant soul still couldn't believe it. It suddenly recalled a terrifying thing—could the person before it be a Tianmeng person?

It was said that a small number of Tianmeng people had no Primordial Spirit.

That wasn't right either. Within this Great Dao space, it sensed billions upon billions of laws, each one different, yet vast and boundless.

Every single one flawless—read it all in one go!

Tianmeng people didn't have that kind of brain.

"Now it's young master asking you, not you asking me. If you dare to blabber again, I'll let the flames burn you."

As Ding Huan spoke, a ball of law flame wrapped around this remnant soul.

Although Ding Huan hadn't activated the flame, the remnant soul clearly knew this was Ding Huan's territory. It couldn't find the other's Primordial Spirit right now, so if the other wanted to burn it, it really would be that simple.

"Killing me is meaningless. Actually, I didn't want to seize your body either. It's just that you burned my place of dwelling, so I could only choose to seize a body." The remnant soul's voice came through, as if from remote antiquity,

That was actually true.

Ding Huan was well aware that he had destroyed the other's dwelling stone slip first. If this remnant soul had wanted to seize a body, it would have done so immediately, rather than waiting until the stone slip shattered to seize one.

"You're quite proud, actually—looking down on seizing my body."

Ding Huan understood now. This remnant soul initially must have truly disdained seizing his body, probably looking down on his fleshly body.

The remnant soul did not answer.

Initially it truly had looked down on Ding Huan's fleshly body—not just Ding Huan's, it looked down on anyone's fleshly body.

In this broken-corner of the universe with its tattered rules, its Great Dao was a heaven-piercing height to the people here. How could it possibly fancy the fleshly body of an ant here?

It intended to repair its own fleshly body, then cultivate back up.

"Speak. What's your name?" Ding Huan asked calmly.

"I can answer all your questions, but you need to agree to one thing—let me go." The remnant soul's tone was even, as if negotiating terms with Ding Huan.

Ding Huan drove the law flame to roll up without the slightest hesitation—still daring to negotiate terms with him.

The terrifying flame rolled onto the remnant soul. No matter how high the remnant soul's level was, under this law flame it let out a shrill, miserable shriek.

After all, this was Ding Huan's territory.

He was quite angry—he had met a Bai Chi.

One had to know that a single sentence from him held supreme value for the other's Great Dao, yet the other simply didn't know it at all. He figured even if he explained, the other wouldn't understand in the slightest.

"Stop, stop… I'm willing to answer all your questions." The remnant soul probably also understood what kind of existence Ding Huan was—this was simply a guy who couldn't be threatened.

"Wouldn't it have been fine to do this earlier? Why bother? Now tell me your name." Ding Huan mocked.

"My name is Xing Jia."

"Where are you from?"

"The Moru World."

"Where is the Moru World?"

"It's a world within the Great Universe."

"Where is the Great Universe?"

"The Great Universe should have already been annihilated…"

Ding Huan frowned. Whether it was the Moru World or the Great Universe, he had never heard of either.

"Is what you call 'annihilation' the same as a Calamity Tribulation?" Ding Huan asked.

Xing Jia said slowly, "I suppose it should count as a Calamity Tribulation?"

"What do you mean 'should count as'? Speak more clearly." Ding Huan's tone grew stern.

If he didn't know he couldn't soul-search this remnant soul, he might have just done a soul-search directly.

Earlier, when studying this guy's prohibition patterns, he had nearly sunk into them.

So for this guy, Ding Huan had no patience whatsoever.

Xing Jia fell silent for an even longer time this time. Ding Huan was already getting somewhat impatient waiting, when he finally spoke:

"At first I thought it was caused by someone called Huan, but later it didn't quite seem like it, because he also seemed to be within that Calamity Tribulation. Of course, this is only my guess…"

"Why did you think Huan caused it?" Ding Huan asked.

"Because what Huan cultivated was the Great Universe Art…"

"Wait—you said what Huan cultivated was the Great Universe Art?"

Ding Huan was utterly astonished and cut off Xing Jia's words.

What he cultivated was the Great Universe Art, but his Great Universe Art had been figured out and deduced step by step by himself.

From theory to a simple framework, and then slowly perfecting it...

As his cultivation grew higher and higher, his Great Universe Art also became more and more complete.

He had thought about it before — could the Great Universe Art actually exist? Now, hearing Xing Jia's words, this Great Universe Art really did exist.

"Yes, it's the Great Universe Art." Xing Jia answered.

"Keep going."

"Because every time Huan advances, he needs massive amounts of cosmic planet vitality and realm fortune to assist him. This causes countless planets to collapse and shatter..."

"That son of a bitch!" Ding Huan burst out cursing.

(Fellow Daoist, good night!)

(End of chapter)