Chapter 376: A Detailed Explanation of Spirit Severing

Facing this renewed turn of events, Du En naturally would not let it succeed; his Wood Domain had already surged over, just in time to interrupt the other party's breakthrough.

Snap! That fifth-tier formation suddenly underwent a change, actually freezing every change he could apply here. Even if, judging by the intensity of the interference, it would only last for about five breaths, that was enough for the person to complete the breakthrough!

It was the handiwork of a True Monarch! Du En immediately stopped wasting effort on useless tasks, instead using the encroachment of his Wood Domain to wear the other side down, while silently watching the formation of the opponent's breakthrough.

Breaking through from the Nascent Soul stage to the Spirit Severing stage!

"Zheng Xing, you have betrayed us."

That person looked young, not particularly handsome, and originally appeared upright, full of hot-blooded passion. He had been dispatched by Meng Changqing to infiltrate the Qiuguang Star Realm to investigate the situation, but in the end, he was caught in the wake of the incident and met with an accident.

That was why Du En had hurried over.

Clearly, this was a trap!

"Hahaha! You didn't expect it, did you? That I would actually be this final great enemy!"

Zheng Xing, in the midst of his breakthrough, felt his Primordial Spirit emerging. His long-held dream had finally been realized, and he could not help but have tears in his eyes, unable to stop himself from speaking aloud.

As his voice fell, the Primordial Spirit was officially painted.

It was water, it was a surging tide, it was a turbid flow!

With a boom, the turbid torrent crushed the now-ineffective handiwork of the True Monarch and directly overturned Du En's Wood Domain, fully displaying its own power, leaving him incomparably satisfied and fulfilled. That six-zhang-tall Primordial Spirit, with lines like a turbid flow, even revealed a trace of smug contempt.

"These cultivators of the Qiuguang lower realm are truly laughable. The strongest means of the Spirit Severing stage is clearly the emergence of the Primordial Spirit to exert great magic power and great coercion, yet from beginning to end, they simply do not understand it at all. It makes me shake my head in secret just watching!"

Faced with this self-satisfaction, Du En could only speak bluntly: "To tell you the truth, I actually noticed your betrayal from the very beginning."

"Impossible! I clearly didn't reveal any flaws!"

"Under these eyes of mine, I can still see some clues. After all, you didn't truly die, but used a fake death to escape. No matter how special the method used, or how unique the True Monarch's means, when it comes to an ordinary elite like you, you inevitably reveal some flaws."

Zheng Xing's expression suddenly became incomparably gloomy.

Elite!

Elite, elite, elite!

It was this damned heaven-ordained talent that kept him trapped at the Nascent Soul perfection, unable to advance a single step further in this life, unable to achieve the status of a Great Cultivator with great magic power and great coercion! Now that Du En mentioned it again, it directly touched his reverse scale.

But the other side didn't care at all, continuing to state the facts plainly: "Besides the clues I saw early on, there were actually other details. For instance, previously the Spirit Mother did not try to seize the power of others, and then she began to intervene on the side of the Buddha Land, as if she had recovered a little and had some spare strength."

"But in fact, there could be a second possibility, which is that the Spirit Mother was being driven by someone at that time. I don't mean the True Monarch; her actions wouldn't be so clumsy. Of course, it could be to confuse the issue, but I feel more that someone was usurping the host's role at that time."

"Further evidence of this is that Chang Lingfeng was killed after his demonic awakening. He was clearly close at hand, yet the Spirit Mother did not try to intercept his power. If it were truly the True Monarch's handiwork, that really shouldn't have happened."

"Even if his Sorrowful Demon Great Coercion and the like were very special and perhaps difficult to digest, she was, after all, that woman who could once influence the Tear River; it wouldn't be strange for her to be able to eat some."

"The last point is that the Spirit Mother's old shell was a bit too weak. She had previously been extracting essence from the many Great Cultivators on that Hanging Tree, yet the result was that she was incredibly weak. At first, I didn't even need to use Daoist arts to defeat her."

"So, Huiqing probably just went with the flow. After all, she likely never truly relied on you from the start; she was using you as an accidental factor to muddy the waters. If it really worked, that would just be an unexpected bonus."

Du En spoke quickly and at length, and although these were all speculative remarks, they made Zheng Xing's expression grow increasingly gloomy.

Because it was indeed he who had been driving some of the Spirit Mother's tentacles, and it was indeed he who had been impatient to intercept and swallow some of the nutrients from the Spirit Mother's old shell.

When it came down to it, why did that big tree break its connection with the Spirit Mother so early—or rather, why did the Spirit Mother shake off those rebellious roots? Wasn't it because he had squeezed in and greedily wanted to occupy these nutrients he considered his own!

"Enough!"

He couldn't help but say this.

But Du En ignored him.

"In the end, these lapses were all because you were too complacent and thus neglected the details. It is a manifestation of someone who was only an elite before, and now looks like a genius, but in reality, lacks inner support—that is to say, you are all show and no substance!"

Zheng Xing was furious, like a raging sea, his coercion pressing down, strong and powerful! "Du En, you are too arrogant!"

"You should know, you are very clear about the important, most basic situation of the Spirit Severing stage, especially since you only broke through to this realm not long ago and used it to kill that evil dragon in the Dragon Palace. Therefore, you couldn't possibly have forgotten!"

"That's right! And that is the reason why the current me wants to kill you—it is simply effortless!"

Accompanied by his roar, the surging coercion erupted further, and the six-zhang-tall Primordial Spirit grew continuously within the raging turbid flow, soon reaching a scale of hundreds or thousands of feet.

His magic power was like a tsunami, impacting this back-side space until it was on the verge of collapse. The fixed isolation means left behind by Luo Heng before his death faced destruction, and it also swept over Du En's side, making him like a small boat in a raging vortex, likely to capsize at any moment.

"So that's it. Her expectation for you was to fix that instant in a short period of time."

He remained as calm as water. Amidst these raging waves and this tsunami vortex, he was like an out-of-place ancient well; there was water in the well, yet it remained tranquil, completely undisturbed by all the water surges outside.

This demeanor made Zheng Xing's face turn ferocious, and he couldn't help but continue to roar: "What are you putting on an act for?! You are clearly just a newcomer, why did the resolution give you the most cultivation resources, completely forgetting us old folks?! On what grounds? Ah!"

"It seems you have some subtle misunderstanding."

Du En remained sharp and blunt, "Don't put on airs about your age and seniority. Although talent has an innate foundation, it can also be changed acquiredly. Therefore, you ask why? It's certainly not because you aren't worthy or were forgotten, but simply because you couldn't take it in and couldn't digest it, understand?"

"You f***ing!!! Die!!!" Zheng Xing broke down completely. Amidst his shrill cries, the Primordial Spirit merged into the torrent, and in an instant, this area of the back-side space completely turned into a marshy wasteland, directly overturning and swallowing Du En's small boat.

"Hahaha!"

"You talked a lot of big talk, and you must have been very smug before, right? But why could the True Monarch allow people to break through the barriers of talent and let me break through to the Spirit Severing stage?"

"Is it that the resolution couldn't do it? No! It's that he wasn't willing, he didn't want to; he was just selfish and used some grand vision to bait us! How pitiful, truly pitiful! The famous Great Cultivator Du of the Southern Lands, a dignified legend of the lower strata, has fallen here today!"

Zheng Xing's words were like turbid waves, echoing here, making such smug evaluations of the opponent he thought he had killed, while also unable to stop himself from issuing hateful rebukes toward his former master, full of resentment...

"Saying he is selfish is actually just something you imagined to make up for your inner guilt. With a character like you, if that woman Huiqing hadn't been pushing you along, you wouldn't even have been able to cross the Spirit Severing barrier."

Accompanied by Du En's words, a crimson-and-gold True Flame bloomed like a vortex in the center of the tsunami's turbid flow.

"Chirp!!!"

A clear cry rang out. Where the sound passed, it suppressed the turbid waves' destruction of the spatial isolation means. Then, a True Flame Phoenix, holy and dignified, spread its wings and rose, completely breaking through the evil torrent and hanging high above Du En's head.

On the other side, a corner of the turbid flow was suddenly shaken open. Looking closely, a demonic sword had emerged, revealing great power, slashing and killing everything that approached and threatened the person it was protecting! "No? How is that possible? That shouldn't be!"

Zheng Xing let out a sharp cry, as if he had seen something incomprehensible.

Du En, however, explained slowly: "Returning substance to nothingness, breaking through to survive, pointing and transforming the Primordial Spirit, using principles to compose, using laws as ink, to paint and manifest that mysterious and profound Primordial Spirit—this is the essence of Spirit Severing."

"In other words, it can be said that the vast majority of Great Cultivators are actually at their strongest state in this realm at the very instant they break through."

"Because at that moment, the principles and laws—the secrets of heaven and earth, deep within the deep—are the most profound, the most direct, and the most superficial. Then, as the Primordial Spirit takes shape and solidifies, they also fade into the depths of the Primordial Spirit, just like all things in heaven and earth; one can easily see the macroscopic appearance, but it is difficult to see the deep, subtle parts at a glance."

"Right, the subsequent cultivation of an ordinary Spirit Severing stage is merely finding that moment again, or rather, accurately grasping and understanding everything about oneself."

"Completely dissecting and mastering oneself, thoroughly allowing the Primordial Spirit to mature, or returning to that initial peak state, only then is it possible to rely on this to further refine principles and attempt to refine the void."

"That's right! That's right! It's exactly like this! The moment of Spirit Transformation—I am currently maintaining that very instant, and I should be at the level of Spirit Transformation Perfection, far surpassing you pieces of trash!!!"

Zheng Xing still refused to believe it, continuing to unleash his might fixed at Spirit Transformation Perfection. However, the surging, turbid waves could not break through the True Flame, nor could they wash away that Demonic Sword! It even seemed to be provoked by them, erupting with terrifying Sorrow Demon Great Might; with a single slash, the wild sea was split in two. Zheng Xing retreated from the Spirit Transformation state in a sorry state, the corners of his Nascent Soul's mouth appearing to bleed, and deep blue lines scattered light dust that drifted away.

"How is that possible?"

"A mere Late-stage Life-bound Demonic Sword—the master is clearly already dead, so how could it still be this strong?!"

Facing this idiot, Du En also seemed somewhat helpless, shaking his head slightly and revealing a faint sighing posture, which made Zheng Xing look as if he had seen a ghost.

"Not to mention your misunderstanding of me, which is the same as everyone else's, let's just talk about one point for now."

He gazed over calmly, yet it made Zheng Xing feel heavy and solemn involuntarily, feeling a sense of oppression descending. No, it wasn't an illusion; he was actually exerting his might! "Ordinary Spirit Transformation is merely transforming into a Nascent Soul, yet there is an extraordinary Spirit Transformation, which is transforming 'I' into a god."

As Du En spoke, he took a step forward.

The True Flame Phoenix quietly flowed back, transforming into a dreamlike circulation of starlight that surrounded him, flowing over his outstretched palms, echoing his next words: "That's right, what geniuses can achieve is merely transformation, while we who walk above geniuses are not like you, who might never find your way back to your original peak until you die."

"Reaching the goal in one step, proving it once and for all, being at the peak from the very beginning, and then continuing to climb upward—at the Spirit Transformation stage, one is already at the Void Refinement stage of others. This is the second basic characteristic of a Heaven's Pride."

Hearing these words, Zheng Xing retreated in the void again and again, his Nascent Soul's face filled with an expression of disbelief, vivid and lifelike.

"Impossible! Impossible! How could it be like this?!"

"How is it impossible? In the Queguang Star Realm, Spirit Mother is the core of the layout for Regretful Love. Why do you think she continued to tolerate you, keep you, and finally utilize you even when everything was about to be washed away?"

Du En calmly stated the answer: "Because she needed to use your power at the peak of Spirit Transformation at this time to practically calibrate and determine the specific level I am at, making the earliest and most basic judgment for her next foolproof layout."

"You're talking nonsense! How could such a thing exist?!!!"

"Of course, it's not to say that a genius Great Cultivator truly cannot defeat a Heaven's Pride Great Cultivator, especially someone like me who has only just squeezed into the weak stream of Heaven's Pride."

Du En suddenly seemed to change his tune again, instantly drawing Zheng Xing's attention over, who actually expected him to say something that would support his own Dao heart and will.

Seeing this, Du En shook his head secretly, yet at this actually quite leisurely juncture, he continued his long-winded speech: "Even if a sparrow is fully grown, it cannot beat a tiger cub. If a genius Great Cultivator has enough talent, they can also view themselves as the cub stage of a stronger being. Like this Queguang Star Realm, there are those of no small talent who can serve as a reflection."

"The Blood Demon Holy Sect in the south—its Sect Master, before entering the demonic path, was a figure who had the hope of opening a new chapter and walking a new path. Like the Twin Dao Embryos of the northern lands, although they have long since died, they could also be called embryos of Dao law while alive, with boundless prospects."

"And there is the Queguang Sect Leader Luo Heng of the central camp, who pondered bitterly and schemed in secret. Although defeated by the Sorrow Demon, he was able to gnaw away the evil nature without falling, instead completely removing the tumor and achieving his wish; he is also a figure worthy of admiration."

"As for Chang Lingfeng, that Great Sorrow Human Demon, there is even less need to speak of him. He is the Sorrow Demon Dao Lord. Being able to receive the pouring of the Tear River, his inner demonic nature grew increasingly majestic from this, breaking through realms as easily as eating and drinking. His talent cannot be constrained by common sense. Even relying on the lingering hatred of the Divine Venerable, I almost couldn't beat him. That was truly the most perilous situation since arriving here."

Speaking to this point, Du En paused, and as if somewhat reluctantly approving, he added one more: "That Great Demon Greed Beast can also be considered passable. Although it is an unorthodox path and quite self-righteous, thinking it can toy with human greed, it can be said to have room for prospects, after all, it is a Great Demon that is the manifestation of greed."

As for the Pure Light Buddha of the Buddha Land?

That kind of goods, let alone being a leader among them, is simply lowering the overall style of Great Cultivators.

Oh, and those guys hanging on the tree before—perhaps they were heroic and spirited in the past, but having been hung for so long and squeezed so much, there was nothing left of them, and their ugly state was fully exposed before they died.

(End of this chapter)