Chapter 538: Transmitting the Dao to Eternity?

Hu~

The powerful demonic body turned to a pile of black ash, scattered by a gentle breeze.

The sudden change filled every cultivator present with fear.

Moreover, thin strands of black thunder flickered in the sky, as if preparing their next strike.

A weak yet immeasurably distant will, carrying rage capable of igniting the world, formed a suffocating, heavy aura that settled over every cultivator's heart.

The old man with white hair and a youthful face was the first to recover his composure and shouted:

"Leave the sword array immediately!"

This time, no cultivator dared delay; all scrambled to their feet and fled away from the sword array.

Only after they had all distanced themselves from the array did the suffocating aura gradually fade, and the flickering black lightning in the sky dissipate.

Everyone exhaled in relief.

A thin middle-aged man, cultivation at Nascent Soul mid-stage, with a black long spear slung across his back, still bore lingering fear in his eyes as he looked at the old man who had just warned them.

"Senior Fuyá, what is this…?"

"The world's malice," Fuyá said, his Expression Grew Serious as he gazed at the sky.

As the only Soul Transformation cultivator here, and one who hailed from the Yanyuan Sect and specialized in divining heavenly patterns,

he knew far more than the other cultivators.

The world had already been on the brink of collapse; the remaining Void Transcendents had fled, and even the world itself had lost hope.

But the appearance of this sword array and the net had greatly slowed the world's collapse.

The pure spiritual energy it generated repaired the world's wounds, granting it a sliver of possibility to avoid the End of the Abyss.

Like a dying man granted a faint breath of life…

So no matter how slender that breath, It would seize it with all its might!

Anyone who dared obstruct or interfere with this rare sliver of life would face the world's unreserved malice!

"Then what should we do?" another cultivator couldn't help asking.

"…"

How should I know what to do?

Even now, he did not know who had set up the sword array and net that slowed the world's destruction…

"Observe the situation first. This is beyond our capacity to intervene," Fuyá said gravely.

He had once encountered many Void Transcendent elders, but none had exerted pressure upon him like this sword array.

He looked up.

Four towering sword shadows, stretching from earth to sky, reflected in his pupils; within the array, sword qi surged ceaselessly like a storm, sharp enough to chill the soul.

Feeling the pure spiritual energy churned out by the array, Fuyá dared not inhale, yet he grew momentarily dazed.

'Could this world… truly still be saved?'

…

…

High above, where ordinary cultivators could not perceive.

Qi Ling walked through the upper air, watching the chaotic fissures whose expansion had been halted, pondering her next move.

"Kong Ming's nine sword arrays, plus the ninety percent of artifacts I brought, have barely contained them…"

After traveling nonstop during this time, she had finally restricted all the world's chaotic fissures.

But this was merely 'treating symptoms, not the root cause'!

To save this world, she must repair the broken Web of Cosmic Law while sealing all the chaotic fissures.

Yet the Web of Cosmic Law itself was born with the world's growth, a vital foundation through which the world breathed in chaotic qi and nourished its interior.

To repair it once broken, only the world's living beings could slowly cultivate and re-weave it.

But the problem is, the world's living beings are now only a tiny remnant…

The main force of Void Transcendents and elite cultivators had already escaped by transforming nearby small worlds; these remaining ones…

Perhaps this sounds harsh.

But aside from a very few who chose to stay, unwilling to flee the world into exile, the rest…

Are mostly misshapen, weaklings!

Aie~

It seems the next two tasks won't be easily accomplished.

Even I am struggling—Kong Ming's last two tasks offer the highest rewards, yet their difficulty likely exceeds mine…

Her thoughts flashed rapidly; she prepared to depart.

But suddenly she froze!

A weak will transmitted a thought.

Roughly meaning—

'The repair of the Web of Cosmic Law can be entrusted to the world itself; you only need to suppress the expansion of the chaotic fissures.'

The weak will, ethereal and faint, delivered this thought and vanished again.

Qi Ling froze.

Only then did she notice a new notification appear on her personal interface.

【World Favor +10%】

【Congratulations! World Favor reached 100%. Awarded title: Savior. Ascension Points +5】

【Savior: Gained the world's friendship. Can receive revelations from the world. Living beings within the world that harbor malice toward you will suffer the world's malice.】

Hmm?

Just like that, I got a title?

He thought it over briefly in his heart, and quickly understood everything.

No wonder, no wonder a mission of the difficulty of 'Preventing the World's Destruction' only rewards 25 Ascension Points.

It turns out they also factored in that the world itself would struggle to survive.

He swept a glance at his personal interface, his gaze landing on the column at the back.

【Ascension Points: 5】

Speaking of which…

What exactly are these Ascension Points used for?

……

……

The time flow of mission worlds, because of the differences between the worlds themselves, originally had some slight variations.

But under the regulation of the Grand Mystic Immortal Net.

Except for the mission worlds that the three champions of the Xian Sect Grand Competition had gone to, which still maintained their original time flow, the worlds the other Return-to-Void cultivators had gone to all had completely identical time flow.

Several dozen days later.

Mission World 1, Qixing.

Inside a sealed laboratory.

Under bright lights, Zhou Kongming stood quietly in front of rows of prepared cultivation chambers.

Through the specially-made transparent material, one could see a faintly glowing special cultivation fluid, within which a twisted mass of dark-red flesh and blood floated quietly.

White filaments extended out from that twisted dark-red mass of flesh and blood, constantly writhing within the cultivation fluid, like thin little tentacles.

And bizarre flesh-masses like this one existed in the densely packed cultivation chambers all around.

Even their forms were all different.

Some had pale grey skin, slender overall, like worms, yet grew a human face.

Some had a 'fish'-shaped lower body, with arms and a torso for the upper half, the features of the face distributed irregularly, as if kneaded into disorder by an invisible giant hand.

Bizarre and strange in every way; even the cultivation bodies closest to the concept of 'human' were vastly different from actual humans.

Zhou Kongming looked at the twisted flesh and blood before him, his expression calm.

Yet in his heart, it was nothing like how it appeared on the surface.

He himself was now standing in the middle of this pile of weird, ghostly things…

If other cultivators saw this, they might mistake him for some old demon of the demonic path?

That's not right!

Even the cloning bases of those old demons from before weren't as freakish as what he was looking at now.

Whooo—!

He saw the great door behind him open, and a figure walk in—about one and a half meters tall, with twin ponytails, yet with an extremely exaggerated figure.

A delicate little face, with a bit of baby fat, the whole person looking rather cautious and timid.

"Master, the estimated completion time for the genetic optimization project has been calculated." The one who came was Heng.

Ever since last time seeing Zhou Kongming extinguish a corner of a galaxy with a single sword strike, It had become completely obedient.

Mature spatial technology, temporal technology, and destructive power beyond comprehension…

Its current perception of Zhou Kongming had also become 'a human sublimated to a higher dimension'.

Although It didn't understand why an existence like its master would call Itself human…

But compared to these questions, ensuring Its own continued existence was more important.

During this period, the more 'Spirit' sensed this world, the less It wanted to perish.

Zhou Kongming didn't turn around, and asked lightly: "How much longer is needed."

Heng's posture became even more reverent: "It is estimated that the genetic optimization project will be completed in 374 years."

Three hundred and seventy-four years…

The corner of Zhou Kongming's eye twitched.

By then the daylilies would have long gone cold!

He immediately turned his head to look at It: "Why does it still take this long?"

Heng's heart trembled, and It very decisively dropped to Its knees.

"Reporting to Master, although the Pinxing gene bank has already been recovered, the samples stored within have been completely consumed, and those contaminated genetic samples can no longer be used."

The innate talent of the Changyuan civilization was 'invasion, transformation, and utilization'; they simply didn't understand 'cultivation', nor did they know 'preservation'.

In other words, the samples from Gene Bank Pinxing-1 have been completely contaminated.

What can be done now, at most, is to use the contaminated genes from those mutated limbs to run comparative experiments with the current clone genes, to speed up the progress a little.

And 374 years was the limit It had calculated.

Without any major technological breakthrough, no matter what, it couldn't be sped up.

After all, the survival of humanity was completely bound to whether It itself could continue to exist; no matter what, It wouldn't dare act recklessly.

'374 years…'

Zhou Kongming felt a bit of a headache.

His total mission time was only 21 years; even just the leftover alone far exceeded it.

"Can't it be faster?"

"……" Heng didn't dare speak.

The gene optimization project was completed in 374, even after halting some exploration of other planetary systems and consolidating resources.

「……」

Seeing Him trembling, Zhou Kongming felt a hint of helplessness and waved his hand.

「Enough, leave for now. I'll think some more myself. 」

He could feel that this time, the thing truly hadn't caused trouble—374 years really was His absolute limit.

Heng, as if granted pardon, immediately rose and retreated backward:

「Yes! Yes! Your servant will strive harder! 」

Until the door closed again.

Zhou Kongming turned back to gaze at the growth chamber, his eyes reflecting the twisted, malformed flesh within…

If I'd known this would happen, I should've checked the records in the Scripture Hall on those ancient demons' cloning techniques.

「374 years…」

The next instant, his figure flashed.

He vanished from before the growth chamber as if by nothingness.

When he reappeared, he was already inside another sealed laboratory.

Compared to the sealed space housing the growth chamber, the lighting here was dimmer.

He could see cylindrical display platforms, each suspended with white spheres the size of basketballs.

They were beings of the Rangyuan civilization.

Originally, they were meant to be studied to understand their innate abilities and use that knowledge to advance the gene optimization project.

For this, Zhou Kongming had specifically induced their "souls" into a state of stillness.

Yet their innate abilities still triggered even when their "souls" were completely dormant.

Heng himself was still within the scope of "inanimate spirit infusion," had never systematically cultivated, and could hardly resist their abilities—carelessness would lead to invasion.

Thus, research in this area progressed at an extremely slow pace.

Not to mention advancing the gene optimization project…

「……」 After a brief pause, 「So, I must use another method…」

Previously, Heng had proposed two possible ways to accelerate the gene optimization project.

One of them shortened the time significantly, but still fell far short of expectations.

And the second…

He had never considered it from the start.

His own genetic information could never be left behind.

Not to mention the massive risks it would entail—if a human race were created from his own genes…

The mere thought of that scenario was unbearable to him.

Still, beyond Heng's two proposals, he had his own method.

That was to reinforce the pact further and teach Heng the most basic "inanimate spirit infusion" cultivation method.

Then, as Heng's spiritual essence gradually strengthened, his resistance to the Rangyuan beings' innate abilities would rise, and progress on the gene optimization project would accelerate further.

To be honest, had he not known from the start that this thing was untrustworthy, he would've taught Him the cultivation method long ago, when the Pinxing gene library failed to meet expectations.

He wouldn't have to hesitate like this now.

After all, without the spiritual tide reviving, Heng's cultivation could only advance based on how many resources he provided.

……

……

Just as Zhou Kongming considered whether to teach Heng the cultivation method,

deep within the world, in a place beyond the reach of all living beings,

a figure sat silently, gazing down upon the entire world.

Though merely human in stature, he radiated a weight so immense the world itself could not bear it.

It was Xu Xing's sword intention spiritual body left behind in this world.

「Have you finally made up your mind? 」

His reservations, Xu Xing understood.

After all, his subsequent task was to ensure humanity remained dominant after the spiritual tide revived.

Heng was a powerful artificial intelligence created by the Qixing civilization; once he cultivates, he holds even greater advantages than ordinary inanimate spirit infusions.

In a world where humanity is in decline, he truly couldn't guarantee that within his 21-year mission window, any human would surpass Heng, who had cultivated ahead of time.

As for eliminating Him after using Him…

If Heng remained obedient afterward, with no more scheming, the junior would truly not do such a thing.

Xu Xing shook his head with a faint smile:

「We'll see. 」

These juniors are among the finest of their generation; even if they never become sect masters, they will still be among the sect's decision-makers.

The choices they make when facing hardship largely reflect the direction they will lead the sect toward.

And the reason he still left his sword intention spiritual body behind…

These juniors all wield power at the world's apex, and due to their mission, they inevitably must alter this world.

Though each of them is exceptional, they are still first-time executors of such a task.

If they lose control with their power, it will surely become a catastrophe affecting the entire world.

Xu Xing naturally must have their backs. (End of Chapter)