Chapter 78: The Birth and Demise of a Hei Fengwang

A new member joined the chat group, and Lu Qingshan was naturally very pleased.

After all, credits were still very precious to Lu Qingshan, and the only ways he could obtain credits in the chat group were by waiting for the group to distribute them or exchanging resources with other members.

The more members in the group, the more credits he could naturally acquire from those with the most resources.

So for the following period, Lu Qingshan frequently used his own resources to exchange credits with others in the group.

Yet even though he had now accumulated sufficient credits, he did not immediately use the Enlightenment Boost function in the chat group; instead, he planned to use it when he next entered the Prime Universe, during his contemplation of the Chaos Stele.

After all, he had once used the Enlightenment Boost function during his previous contemplation of the Chaos Stele, which enabled him to achieve astonishing progress within the Chaos City in just two thousand years.

Unfortunately, at that time Lu Qingshan's credits were limited, far too few to allow him to use the Enlightenment Boost function every time he contemplated the Chaos Stele.

Precisely because of this, Lu Qingshan had already begun accumulating credits for his next training session in the Chaos City.

Thus, time continued to pass, and before he knew it, over two hundred thousand years had elapsed.

During this period, Lu Qingshan not only made up for the break following his last training session in the Chaos City, but also received his first five-thousand-year break.

Yet this time, Lu Qingshan did not choose to rest; instead, he planned to wait until his next break, when he could accumulate a ten-thousand-year period, then re-enter the Chaos City to train for three thousand years.

Although three thousand years of training was extremely brief for an immortal deity with eternal life, combining the Chaos Stele with the chat group's Enlightenment Boost function would still grant him considerable progress.

In the virtual universe, Thunder Island, within the training space of Lu Qingshan's residence.

"Simulate the scene as Zi Guang Island!"

At Lu Qingshan's command, the intelligent lifeform Hearing Shenlan swiftly acted, and the entire training space instantly transformed into a vast purple island.

This was a region he frequently visited during his travels in the Outland Battlefield; though called an island, its diameter exceeded thirty million kilometers and could accommodate battles between Hei Fengwang immortals.

The portion Lu Qingshan simulated in his training space was merely a tiny fragment of Zi Guang Island.

At this moment, Lu Qingshan stood barefoot on dark-gold battle boots, his back bearing a crystal longsword forged from Lei Ting purple crystal, floating above Zi Guang Island as he gazed far ahead at a massive mountain range.

"Heavenly Thunder Break!"

Lu Qingshan suddenly roared, and in an instant, the crystal longsword at his back was gripped in his hand.

As he swung the sword fiercely, a brilliant purple blade of light instantly tore through layers of space ahead, slashing toward the distant massive mountain range.

The purple blade struck the towering mountain range, instantly severing a peak tens of thousands of kilometers high.

Boom—

The severed peak crashed heavily to the ground, instantly stirring up endless interstellar dust.

"Hahahaha…"

Feeling the power of this full-force strike, Lu Qingshan's face lit up with excitement: "After endless years of arduous cultivation, the power of this self-created secret technique has finally reached the top tier!"

After all, even the self-created secret techniques of most Hei Fengwang immortals were merely top-tier.

Although Lu Qingshan's current understanding of the Dao was far inferior to that of Hei Fengwang's, merely this one top-tier secret technique was enough to let him tower over most peers of his own realm.

"Of course, the most important thing for me now is that I have fully comprehended the fifth diagram of the Heavenly Thunder Chaos Stele!"

Lu Qingshan thought inwardly: "Now my Divine Power can be restructured again, and after this restructuring, I will possess a true immortal body—this is truly double fortune!"

In fact, regardless of which Chaos Stele one contemplates, the fifth diagram always corresponds to a minor branch of one of the two supreme primordial Dao principles.

Just as the complete Space Primordial Dao can be divided into three major branches—'Teleportation,' 'Slicing,' and 'Space Sealing'—each major branch further splits into numerous sub-branches, and those into even smaller ones.

What Lu Qingshan has now fully comprehended is a minor branch beneath 'Time Pause,' one of the three major branches of the Time Primordial Dao.

Merely comprehending this one minor branch is enough to grant him the ability to pass the Fourteenth Level of the Tongtian Bridge!

"It's time to restructure my Divine Power!"

With this thought, Lu Qingshan's consciousness immediately returned to the real world, and he began restructuring his Divine Power.

Previously, his Divine Power had risen from the initial hundredfold realm to eight hundredfold realm, but this breakthrough to one thousandfold realm was a fundamental transformation!

"Divine Power, restructure!"

The process of restructuring Divine Power carried no danger, but previously, when Lu Qingshan restructured his Divine Power, he relied only on scattered fragments of the Time Primordial Dao; though this could increase Divine Power's strength, it could not achieve fundamental transformation.

This time, however, Lu Qingshan relied on a complete branch beneath the Time Primordial Dao, allowing his restructured Divine Power to reach a relatively perfect state—the Hei Fengwang immortal's 'Immortal Body'!

At the level of Immortal Commander, even when combat power was similar, there were many opportunities to kill an opponent.

If a larger group attacked a smaller one, it became even simpler!

But at the Hei Fengwang level and above, unless combat power differed drastically, killing an opponent two levels weaker required immense cost.

The reason for this was that all Hei Fengwang immortals possessed Immortal Bodies; even if reduced to dust, they could reassemble themselves without any loss of power.

To kill a Hei Fengwang immortal with an Immortal Body, only two methods generally worked: 'Soul Annihilation' and 'Forced Erasure.'

To annihilate an enemy's soul, one must utterly dominate in soul attacks.

Yet who among those who became immortal deities had not fought their way out of mountains of corpses and seas of blood? Nearly every one possessed formidable willpower; annihilating an immortal deity through soul attacks was extremely difficult.

Similarly, forcibly erasing an immortal deity with an Immortal Body was also extremely difficult.

Achieving this usually required overwhelming power.

For example, taking the weakest Hei Fengwang Initial-tier immortal as a baseline, without special treasures, one needed at least Hei Fengwang Initial-tier power to forcibly erase their Divine Power; if a Hei Fengwang High-tier wished to forcibly erase another's Divine Power, they too would need to burn their own immortal Divine Power—but once burned, that portion of Divine Power was permanently lost, imposing an extremely heavy cost on the attacker.

Even a Hei Fengwang Peak-tier immortal burning their Divine Power to kill a Hei Fengwang Initial-tier immortal would require hundreds or even thousands of years to recover, let alone a Hei Fengwang High-tier!

Thus, at the Hei Fengwang level, unless there was extraordinary profit or deep hatred, immortal deities rarely burned their immortal Divine Power to fight to the death.

Of course, if one possessed rare treasures, special elixirs, or other items that inflicted severe damage to immortal Divine Power, even those with weaker power could kill an immortal with an Immortal Body.

For instance, Luo Feng in the original story once used the priceless Femo Poison to annihilate numerous Hei Fengwang immortals, earning himself the title of Dao River King!

Yet such treasures were invariably extremely rare, and acquiring them was exceedingly difficult.

Soon, Lu Qingshan's Divine Power stabilized once more.

Puff!

Lu Qingshan willed it, and his entire arm instantly disintegrated into countless particles, then quickly reassembled into its original form.

"Immortal Body! This is the Immortal Body!"

Lu Qingshan smiled as he watched his arm fully restored, a faint smile spreading across his face.

If this had happened before the reorganization of his Divine Power, even if his arm could recover its original form, it would certainly have lost a portion of his Immortal Divine Power; but now that he possesses an Undying Body, the situation is completely different!

Never mind just one arm; even if his entire body were blasted into powder, as long as the opponent's power was not strong enough to annihilate the essence of his Divine Power, he could restore his original state through his Undying Body.

"Next, it is time to reorganize the Divine Power of the Endless Divine Sea Avatar and the Second Avatar!"

Upon thinking of this, the Endless Divine Sea Avatar and the Second Avatar located within the Divine Domain quickly began reorganizing their Divine Power.

After the Divine Power reorganization was completed, the volume of the Endless Divine Sea Avatar shrank by another layer; however, thanks to the accumulation of over two hundred thousand years previously, even after shrinking, the Endless Divine Sea Avatar still retained a diameter of more than thirty meters!

"Supplementing Divine Power!"

Once the Divine Power of the several avatars was reorganized, Lu Qingshan quickly opened a temporary Divine Domain transmission channel, transferring the Divine Power from the Endless Divine Sea Avatar onto his Original Body and the Second Avatar.

"I can now be considered to have broken away from the status of an ordinary Immortal!"

Watching the temporary Divine Domain transmission channel slowly close, Lu Qingshan felt quite emotional in his heart.

Recalling back when he was at the Domain Master level, he had racked his brains to accumulate the points needed to purchase the initial universe comprehension slot, yet even after spending over a hundred years, he might not have accumulated wealth worth a single Hunyuan unit.

Later, after becoming Immortal, the situation improved slightly, but working for one hundred thousand years only yielded a reward of three thousand points; therefore, when returning between the Virtual Universe Company headquarters and his family, he would rather take a universe spaceship to fly slowly than spend vast resources to open a Divine Domain transmission channel.

But now, Lu Qingshan could open a Divine Domain transmission channel at will without feeling any pain!

And the reason for all these changes was that his strength had been constantly improving!

"Once one enters the Marquis rank, one suddenly feels the world is wide!"

Lu Qingshan's mood at this moment was undoubtedly quite excited; after all, in the eyes of many powerful beings, only those who possess an Undying Body can be considered true Immortal Deities, and he had finally stepped into this realm!

Just then, the voice of the intelligent lifeform Hearing Shenlan suddenly rang in Lu Qingshan's mind: "Master, your friend Lu Xiusi has sent you a message!"

"Lu Xiusi? Isn't he still wandering the Outer Battlefield? Why did he suddenly think to contact me?"

With a thought from Lu Qingshan, his consciousness instantly connected to the Virtual Universe, and he then rushed toward Lu Xiusi's residence on Lei Ting Island.

When Lu Qingshan arrived at the living room of Lu Xiusi's residence, he discovered that seven or eight Immortals had already gathered there; they were all old acquaintances who had participated in that year's Star-Level Peak Genius Battle, yet everyone on their faces bore a trace of sadness.

"Lu Qingshan!"

"Brother Lu Qingshan, you have come too!"

Seeing Lu Qingshan appear, the few people around him all greeted him.

After greeting everyone one by one, Lu Qingshan quickly walked before 'Purple Radiance' Lu Xiusi and said: "Lu Xiusi, what is the matter that brought everyone here this time?"

"Brother Lu Qingshan!"

Lu Xiusi looked up at Lu Qingshan, then said with considerable sadness: "Lu Xiusi has perished!"

"This..."

Hearing Lu Xiusi's words, Lu Qingshan could not help but be slightly stunned.

It must be known that Marquis of the Storm Lu Xiusi had already passed the fifteenth layer of the Heaven-Connecting Bridge while at the Domain Master level; upon breaking through, he became a Marquis Immortal possessing an Undying Body.

Considering that the opponent had accumulated nearly ten million years within the Virtual Universe Company, it was said that he later spent nearly ten million points to cultivate an auxiliary lifeform of the Marquis Initial level; even though Lu Qingshan had now also stepped into the Marquis realm, he would absolutely not be his match.

But now, Lu Xiusi, whose survival strength was so astonishing, had actually perished?

"What exactly happened?" Lu Qingshan hurriedly asked.

"Sigh, let me explain!"

Christopher, standing nearby, glanced at Lu Xiusi, then said in a low voice: "In recent years, Lu Xiusi and Lu Xiusi have been wandering the Outer Battlefield; however, the area they were in had relatively few powerful beings, with the strongest being only a Marquis Peak. With Lu Xiusi's Marquis-level strength, he basically would not encounter any fatal dangers; at most, the speed of accumulating wealth would be a bit slower!"

Hearing this, Lu Qingshan could not help but nod slightly.

Not going to dangerous areas was the greatest reason why Lu Xiusi and Lu Xiusi could wander the Outer Battlefield for over a million years without encountering fatal dangers.

After all, with Lu Xiusi's strength, combined with a Marquis-level auxiliary lifeform, even a Marquis Peak powerful being, without burning Immortal Divine Power, would be unable to do anything to him!

"Not long ago, Lu Xiusi and the others encountered a small alien team consisting of only two Immortal Deities; Lu Xiusi and the others acted together and almost instantly resolved the battle, but unexpectedly, one of those Immortals was a favorite junior of 'Tiger Flame Marquis', a Marquis Peak Immortal from the Meng Yao Zu camp!"

Christopher continued: "Just one hour ago, that Tiger Flame Marquis led numerous Immortals to find Lu Xiusi and Lu Xiusi, who knew nothing about the matter; under the opponent's crazy attacks while burning Immortal Divine Power, six of the eight people in Lu Xiusi and the others' team perished directly; only Lu Xiusi and another member were lucky enough to encounter another powerful team from our human camp while fleeing for their lives, and thus survived smoothly!"

"So that is how it is!" After hearing Christopher's words, Lu Qingshan suddenly understood.

Such matters are simply too common on the Outer Battlefield!

In the original work, Luo Feng had only been able to wander the Outer Battlefield for a few thousand years when he had encountered such matters several times.

For instance, the elite team Luo Feng joined when he first entered the Outer Battlefield was retaliated against after killing an Immortal Deity; there was also the Mechanical Race powerful being whose weapon was snatched by Luo Feng, who had once rallied other powerful beings to besiege Luo Feng's Lord Jinjiao avatar; and there was also the Purple Bell King that Luo Feng encountered while fighting for the treasure of the Sacrificial Tower...

Even when Lu Qingshan himself wandered the Outer Battlefield in the past, he had encountered such situations several times...

It was just that in the original work, Luo Feng's strength was very great, and Lu Qingshan's survival ability at the Domain Master level was also quite good, so they all successfully weathered these crises.

And Lu Xiusi and the others must have encountered such matters quite often on the Outer Battlefield, but their luck this time was obviously very bad!

"This matter is actually all my fault due to greed!"

After a moment of silence, Lu Xiusi, standing nearby, said in a low voice: "Actually, Lu Xiusi had planned to leave the Outer Battlefield fifty thousand years ago; it was just that I always wanted to accumulate resources sufficient to allow Kush to break through to the Marquis level, so he continued to stay in the Outer Battlefield with me!"

"If I had left the Outer Battlefield with Lu Xiusi fifty thousand years ago, he would not have perished!"

"Lu Xiusi, do not say that!"

Christopher, standing nearby, quickly said: "Previously, when you went to the Outer Battlefield again, was it not because of Lu Xiusi's invitation?"

"Yes!"

Another Immortal Deity also looked at Lu Xiusi and comforted him: "Lu Xiusi, the Outer Battlefield is inherently very dangerous; even a Hei Fengwang Immortal could perish. Lu Xiusi must have thought deeply before he was willing to stay with you!"

"Lu Xiusi was the strongest among us; who would have thought that even he would perish on the Outer Battlefield!"

"Yes! With Lu Xiusi gone, none of us from our generation will have a single Marquis Immortal left!"

"Now is not the time to talk about these things!"

Christopher quickly said: "I recall that Lu Xiusi's family has only him as an Immortal; with his passing, his family will certainly not have a good time next! We have all met as acquaintances; let us think carefully and see if we can do something to help him!"

"I recall Lu Xiusi is from the Gu Lun Universe Country!"

Another Immortal Deity, 'Gallop', quickly said: "I have a very good relationship with 'Setis' from the Commerce Department of the Gu Lun Branch; I can ask him to take care of Lu Xiusi's family later!"

"I and the Gu Lun Universe Country's..."

Immortal Deities one by one began offering ideas.

But just at that moment, Ross, who had invited everyone, spoke up directly: "There's no need for the trouble, everyone!"

Hearing this, the crowd immediately looked toward Ross, and Christoph even asked: "Ross, what do you mean by this?"

"Just leave this matter to me!"

Ross said quickly: "Although I was lucky enough to escape this catastrophe, my divine power has been depleted by more than twenty percent, and my auxiliary life has lost forty percent of its divine power — it nearly fell into slumber. So this time, I expect I'll need a very long stretch of time before I can recover my strength!"

"Next, I plan to go directly to Lu Xiusi's hometown and hold the fort there. Even if it costs me everything I have, I will cultivate a new Undying Divine Spirit for Lu Xiusi's family!"

"Ross!"

Hearing this, Gallup beside him could not help but advise: "Cultivating an Undying Divine Spirit is no simple matter. Even among many Marquis Undying, or even King Undying families, a second Undying Divine Spirit does not necessarily appear!"

"I understand!"

Ross nodded and said: "That's why I'll try to pick out some geniuses to cultivate. Even if I can't do it now, I believe that after hundreds of millions, or even billions, or tens of billions of years, I will definitely be able to do it!"

Hearing Ross's words, Lu Qingshan felt quite moved within his heart.

In this world of Swallowed Star, geniuses like Luo Feng — no, even geniuses like Bo Lan and Rong Jun — are exceedingly rare.

Geniuses like Lu Xiusi and Ross are the most common sort!

When they had just begun cultivating, they too had been incomparably dazzling. Even when they roamed the Extraterritorial Battlefield, they had once been filled with boundless boldness — hoping their strength would surge ahead, hoping to obtain vast resources, hoping to nurture powerful auxiliary lives…

But on the Extraterritorial Battlefield, brimming with endless peril, a single fatal crisis is enough to reduce the accumulation of their long years to nothing in an instant!

Ross could be considered fairly lucky — in the end he only lost a portion of his divine power. As for Lu Xiusi, he lost his life outright.

(End of chapter)