Chapter 2533

The Great Sun Forbidden Zone.

A beam of worldly moonlight poured down, falling into a pool of unrecognizable, rotting flesh and blood!

This scene was ordinary and unremarkable, just like something that often happens in nature—hunted to death by predators, the corpse rotting, then returning to nature.

Yet no one knew that these ordinary, unremarkable bits of rotting flesh and blood had not died.

Within the rotting mess, life still persisted.

They were cells containing immortal ascension substances, with countless threads of undying, indestructible Great Sun sword intent hidden deep within, connecting each cell, so that this pool of rotting flesh and blood remained essentially a single entity.

Moonlight like starlight pierced the Great Sun Forbidden Zone, sprinkling upon this pool of rotting flesh and blood.

This starlight-moonlight was weak, only a single beam, not even one-billionth of what the ancient emperor at his peak could inhale and exhale in a single breath—trivial.

Yet it flowed like living water, endless and continuous.

Time passed bit by bit.

A hundred years, a thousand years, ten thousand years.

One hundred thousand years.

This was the extremely precious hundred-thousand-year lifespan of the forbidden zone's ancient emperor, flowing away without any self-imposed delay, accumulating variables.

At this point, visible to the naked eye, the variables could already be seen.

A beam of starlight-moonlight sprinkled down, falling into the rotting flesh and blood, like a point of light instantly activating a still-living cell, causing it to flicker briefly, then, under an invisible pull, flow toward a specific position and combine with other cells that had already completed reconstruction.

From a higher perspective, these reconstructed immortal-body cells resembled individual stars, twinkling, with the Tai Shang Da Ri Slay Demon Immortal Array patterns between them serving as the orbits between celestial bodies; all the reconstructed immortal-body cells together formed a single entity—the universe's Alaya-consciousness.

The mysteries of heaven and earth exist within every different leaf.

This tiny flesh-and-blood universe, in the unseen depths, aligned with some fundamental mystery of heaven and earth, and in the motion of the stars, gave birth to the Alaya-consciousness.

The Alaya-consciousness of these microcosms is the will of the Tai Shang Da Ri Gu Huang!

Om!

The void suddenly trembled.

Within that pool of rotting flesh and blood, countless immortal-body cells died, while equally many flesh-and-blood cells completed reconstruction and revival, star-like cells rising from the rotting mess, each reconstructed cell serving as a node in the array, forming a terrifying sword array of rampant sword qi, nearly capable of tearing apart the starry sky!

In the immortal sects and the Tai Shang Da Ri Dao Tong, there is such a recognized academic view.

Namely, arrays are the source of the immortal Dao!

Spellcraft can be seen as an unstable, thrown array that can at any moment be triggered to cause a destructive explosion;

Cultivation methods can be seen as composite arrays that can grow, using the cultivator's meridians and dantian as array nodes, with the soul and spiritual awareness as the array's operational logic;

Heaven, earth, and the universe can likewise be seen as arrays based on stars, time, and the Great Dao;

All things in heaven and earth are composed of arrays!

This is the immortal philosophy of the immortal sects and the Tai Shang Da Ri Dao Tong: in these two educational systems, arrays are the foundation of foundations, the top priority; any immortal engaged in military affairs, weapon forging, scientific research, shipbuilding, administration, or any profession must study arrays—without arrays as a foundation, everything is a castle in the air.

And now, the Tai Shang Da Ri Gu Huang is evolving his own body and soul to manifest his Great Dao array!

The human body has between four hundred trillion and six hundred trillion cells; the Tai Shang Da Ri Gu Huang's cells number one hundred ninety trillion, each containing immortal ascension substances, inhaling and exhaling chaos like a micro-world, supporting a terrifying celestial-level lifeform with a lifespan of up to ninety million years.

Now, after a terrifying massacre and rebirth of flesh and blood, too many immortal-body cells have died; only one trillion reconstructed immortal-body cells remain, having shed part of the imprint of ancient times, initially adapted to the present universe, and begun to inhale and exhale the essence of heaven and earth.

Boom!

Boom—boom—

The starry sky trembled, rules resonated, and streams of sun and moon essence rushed fearfully into the forming sword array of reconstructed immortal-body cells, infusing it with present-day sun and moon essence, perfecting it, gradually washing away the extremely ancient time imprint of the Tai Shang Da Ri Xian Chao.

After an unknown duration.

Finally, all the light gradually faded, and within the sword array, the figure of a blue-clad youth emerged.

He had red lips and white teeth, a delicate and handsome face, fine and tender skin, no longer constantly bearing the heavy trace of a history book, resembling a person of the present world—if one did not look into his deep, abyss-like eyes.

"Calculation is flawless."

"The experimental process is flawless—this sovereign is truly an unparalleled heavenly pride of all ages."

Jiang Ding scanned his body with his divine sense and lightly praised himself.

At this moment, with each breath, he could already calmly draw in heavenly and earthly spiritual qi, sun and moon essence, and even slightly touch the present degenerate Great Dao, having partially adapted to the present world; the present world's spacetime had opened a crack in its restriction on him, allowing him to draw heavenly and earthly power to accelerate his own recovery.

However, problems remained in his immortal body and immortal soul.

First, the imprint of past time had not been completely washed away—this was no easy feat, not achievable by a single simple nirvana, and very troublesome;

Second, the price paid when he revived during the era of swallowing the ancient great emperor, by devouring the origin of the boundless starry sky.

The origin of that era's starry sky did not belong to the Tai Shang Da Ri Gu Huang; the beings of that era resented the Tai Shang Da Ri Gu Huang on a karmic level, and heaven and earth likewise despised him; drawing upon such power caused impurities to exist in the Tai Shang Da Ri Gu Huang's magic power and divine soul, as well as in those of all historical ancient emperors.

Without resolving this impurity, ascension is hopeless.

This is the price paid by the emperors of history who traversed vast spans of time to survive to this day—there is no worth or not worth to it; the consequences must also be endured and survived first.

"This sovereign,"

"Unparalleled heavenly pride of all ages, one who is about to ascend, having completed present-world nirvana through astonishing wisdom, shaking ancient and modern times, with talent and brilliance beyond doubt."

"But! Grass, but!"

Jiang Ding muttered to himself, then in the next moment suddenly cursed, his black-and-white eyes flashing with icy light as he abruptly looked toward a direction: "But you old thing, how could you have shaken off part of the time's imprint faster than me?"

"Is that reasonable?"

"Is this reasonable?"

"Could it be that I truly have mediocre talent, ordinary and unremarkable?"

Whoosh!

The black-and-white eyes of annihilation pierced through layers of gloom, tore through the starry sky, tore through millions of miles of land, suddenly boomed into a patch of darkness, blasting out a terrifying deep pit there, with light scattering afterward.

"Great Sun Forbidden Zone—"

Several ancient emperors suddenly awoke, gazing at this scene with dread and fear.

At the end of that black-and-white beam of light, a terrifying, vague figure appeared, faintly visible.

This is a terrifying white-bone demon phoenix as large as Xing Zhou, all flesh and feathers on its body reduced to dust over the long passage of time, leaving only the hardest bones, exuding a terrifying pressure that would suffocate even emperors.

Yet at this moment, there is little trace of age upon this white-bone demon phoenix; it has clearly already achieved Nirvana, its enormous pupils fixed upon the Great Sun Forbidden Zone, having remained thus for an unknown duration, having done something unknown, sending a chill through the heart.

At this moment, all the awakened ancient emperors fell silent like cicadas in winter.

The Deathless Mountain Forbidden Zone!

The deathless ancient emperor of the True Phoenix Immortal Clan!

In this heaven and earth, two forbidden-zone ancient emperors have actually appeared simultaneously—the human and True Phoenix Immortal Clan forbidden-zone ancient emperors standing side by side!