Chapter 600: The Essence of the Source!

A brilliant light erupted from the Warp, and then this light rapidly turned into a torrent, sweeping toward the surroundings, finally dissipating only when it flowed to the core domains of the Four Dark Gods.

At the core of that brilliant light, the Bird-shaped Dark God and the Bloated Dark God were charred black, their bodies more than half evaporated. But strangely, as the light dissipated, their bodies were healing at an incredible speed. This healing was not even the invincible effect they gained from the Warp, but a fact that happened naturally.

"This... this is!?"

"...What exactly are we..."

The worldviews of the two Dark Gods were nearly shattered, along with the Slaanesh core Su Xing was holding, which was struggling violently.

"This is your power, which is why I call you weak, non-humans!"

Su Xing appeared in the light, no longer in that infinitely large form that seemed to fill the universe, just a simple Heroic race body, as if everything just now was fake.

A second later, the two Dark Gods had completely recovered, with only a few slight black marks on their bodies. However, compared to them, the Warp demons that were constantly rushing toward the Emperor guarding Earth in this Warp were cleared out in a large wave. These demons did not recover or resurrect, but were truly directly eliminated by this white light.

"This is your trick—it’s nothing more than this being your home field, so the falsehoods you create are preserved for longer. Then, as long as the vast majority of other sentient beings believe it is real, it becomes real within this Warp. This is your mental phase, this is the truth of the Warp. But I am not affected, so even if you imagine the universe being destroyed, it has no effect on me. Otherwise? Use your heads to hit my blade?"

As Su Xing spoke, he raised his blade and charged again, hacking wildly around the two giant Dark Gods, cutting them until they were a bloody mess, their bodies sliced thousands of times. Although they were healing rapidly, Su Xing’s damage was real damage. As long as they were hit within five steps, the annihilation was real annihilation; it was just that the Warp’s volume was huge enough to allow them to heal and recover constantly.

However, this time, the two Dark Gods let Su Xing attack constantly, and they stood still on the spot, motionless. Even the Slaanesh core in Su Xing’s hand stopped struggling. For a moment, the atmosphere was very strange.

Su Xing remained silent, only attacking aggressively. Finally, the two Dark Gods suddenly exploded with a bang and disappeared, along with the Slaanesh core, which also exploded and dissipated. All three vanished from Su Xing’s attack range.

Seeing this, Su Xing also stopped his blade and stood still on the spot.

"...Why tell them the truth about the Warp?"

The Emperor’s voice rang out, filled with anxiety and blame: "Isn't it better to keep them blinded and consume their essence? By telling them, you immediately forced them to burn their bridges! They just didn't know; once they know, they are, after all, the Four Dark Gods—they have resolve and courage!"

"That is exactly what I want!"

Su Xing shouted loudly, resolutely: "If we don't kill the strong enemy, how can we win? If we only kill the bodies they imagine, how many days will you and I have to kill? Dozens of days? Or hundreds of days? When the source of the Warp truly emerges and its essence is still largely preserved, what will you and I use to fight? It is better to force them to use the true essence of the Warp now, and kill them one by one. If we are not their match, you and I can kill to our heart's content. At worst, we get killed, but we must splash blood on them!"

The Emperor was stunned and said repeatedly: "You, you, you are too reckless, aren't you?"

Su Xing chuckled: "I don't have your patience, nor your high level of awareness. So you are the Emperor, you are a great man, you can watch humanity develop for tens of thousands of years, you can rise up to lead humanity in a counterattack, and you can sit on the Golden Throne for ten thousand years in a besieged city. I cannot do that. I am just a common man. You want to talk to me about ten thousand years? No, I only fight for the morning and the evening! Today..."

"If we do not win, then let us die on the road of charging!"

As he spoke, Su Xing held his blade horizontally and looked toward the three directions of the Warp.

Just as Su Xing and the Emperor were talking, the core territories of the three Dark Gods—Tzeentch, Nurgle, and Slaanesh—also underwent changes.

These three core territories were their respective rule domains, the places where their respective rules were manifested in the Warp, named the Crystal Labyrinth, the Plague Garden, and the Palace of Pleasure. There was another one not present, still shrinking and recovering in the material universe—Khorne, whose core territory was named the Brass Citadel.

For a long time, the core territories of the Four Dark Gods were forbidden areas in the Warp, and everyone who knew of these four core territories, including the Emperor and the Four Dark Gods themselves, only thought that these four territories were the manifestation of their great authority.

But until this moment, the three Dark Gods, the Emperor, and all beings in the Warp knew that the core territories of the Dark Gods were not just simple manifestations of authority, but their true power essence in the Warp!

The three major territories began to dissolve, but they did not disappear; instead, they solidified and wriggled, finally merging into one. The demons, souls, and various essences within these territories all fused together, finally manifesting into three giant demons.

One was a bloated, rotting fungal mass of flesh; one was a collection of sharp teeth and claws, a bird-wing and bird-beak combination with no head or tail; one was a long, wriggling lump of meat that seemed like a snake, a beautiful woman, and a muscular man. Each was a thousand meters in size, completely unremarkable compared to their previous Dark God bodies. But the moment they appeared, the cores of three Warp hurricanes began to emerge, and a vast amount of Warp essence began to converge toward these three points. Their speed in sucking up Warp essence was second only to the black hole formed by the mental world.

Seeing this scene, the Emperor was silent, and then he laughed heartily: "Good, good, good, the ever-unchanging Warp, actually has a day like this... No matter the result, just by this appearing, the Warp can never be complete in this world again. At most, the material world and the Warp will each take half. In this way, even if you and I both die, this battle is not a loss!"

Su Xing said: "Just the three of them want me dead? It's still too early!"

The Emperor nodded in agreement: "That's true, they are only three of the eight expressions of the Warp. Adding Khorne, they are only four. The true source of the Warp hasn't emerged yet, so why should we die? Then... I'll take one, you take two?"

"Good!"

Su Xing looked left and right, chuckled, and ran toward Slaanesh with his blade.

The sun symbolizing the Emperor suddenly shrank violently, and a Golden Throne emerged from the sun, followed by infinite spirits—Space Marines, ordinary humans—seeming to turn into a torrent of humanity. An old man holding a long staff bowed and said: "Your Majesty, has the final moment arrived?"

"Malcador..." the Emperor murmured.

Another handsome man with wings on his back flew down: "Father, has the final battle arrived?"

"Sanguinius..." the Emperor said in a trance.

Countless giants, far taller than Space Marines, walked over: "Your Majesty, is our sacrifice of value?"

"Thunder..." the Emperor lowered his head with teary eyes.

Countless Space Marines, countless ordinary humans, countless ordinary citizens, they raised their hands and swarmed over: "Your Majesty, do we still have hope? Can we still win? Will our descendants still be threatened by the Warp?"

The Emperor looked up, light appearing in his eyes. He said the words he had said ten thousand years ago in the firmest tone.

"I swear..."

"I will win!"

The torrent of humanity accompanied the Golden Throne, merging violently with the sun, and a thousand-meter-tall golden-armored humanoid emerged.

The golden-armored humanoid also looked left and right, then charged toward the rotting fungus.

At the same time, Su Xing had already approached Slaanesh. Before he could get close, a snake tail in Slaanesh’s flesh shook, and a sharp spike smashed toward Su Xing.

Su Xing raised his blade to block. A massive force, enough to shatter stars, hit the blade. With one strike, Su Xing’s arms burst, and he was blasted back, retreating for dozens of seconds before gradually stopping. His arms were already bloody, and although they healed in an instant, this was real, undeniable power, not a brain game of circling the land.

"Hahaha, this is more like it!"

Su Xing laughed, continued to charge, and clashed dozens of times with the snake tail spike, finally seizing an opportunity to chop it off with one strike. The entire snake tail exploded and annihilated. At the same time, the lump of meat forming Slaanesh had completely taken shape, and a thousand-meter-tall, beautiful humanoid figure, both male and female, finally emerged.

"Little brother from another world, thanks to you, I finally know my true self today. So..."

Slaanesh smiled sweetly, holding a sharp spike in each hand, the spikes glowing with faint blue light, clearly carrying some kind of poison.

"...Let me repay you and let you ascend to bliss!"

Slaanesh came to meet him, and Su Xing also charged with his blade. The broken blade and the sharp spikes clashed together. There was no star-birth-and-death, no heaven-and-earth-shattering, but it was this clash that truly revealed their true colors!

Su Xing had completely understood what an Ascended Body was, and what a Source was... perhaps it did not include all Sources, such as the 0.2-level life Seven Deadly Sins Source, or the 0.1-level Initial Immortal/Initial Buddha Source, but at least he understood what a 0.3-level Source was!

The so-called Ascended Body is the self-perfection of a life.

This might not be vivid. To use a more vivid and concrete way of saying it, the so-called self-perfection is... My Dao!!

Taking Su Xing’s Tiger Demon Art as an example, its upgrade direction is from the first threshold, to entering the hall, to reaching perfection, to reaching the peak, until finally achieving the ultimate manifestation. By the time of ultimate manifestation, it has actually reached the limit, and there is no path further up unless one achieves ascension!

Su Xing’s Tiger Demon Art ascended from the ultimate manifestation.

"My Dao, surpassing the theoretical limit, creating a path that belongs to oneself."

This is the ascension above the limit of the Tiger Demon Art, and this is actually the ladder of ascension!

But the Tiger Demon Art is only one of countless martial arts in national martial arts, not the entirety of the extraordinary path of national martial arts, so it cannot rely on the Tiger Demon Art to push national martial arts beyond the limit. Therefore, in the end, only the Tiger Demon Art broke its limit.

A true Ascended Body is the ascension after an extraordinary path reaches its limit; it is the self-perfection of a life. For example, if Su Xing’s national martial arts surpassed "seeing the body without damage" and ascended another layer, then he could achieve an Ascended Body through national martial arts.

This is an Ascended Body—the self-perfection of a life, forming its own system, the self is one, the self is the beginning, the self is a circle!

Of course, this is a small perfection, the self-perfection belonging to a life. It does not reach great perfection, it cannot yet be independent of external things, and the self is not absolute, but it can produce a huge resistance to all non-self pollution, erosion, distortion, or the infinite cycle and self-closed loop of the Source.

And as for the Source...

Merging the self into the Dao, the Dao dyes the universe!

For a non-Ascended Body, the Source is unsolvable because the Source can easily incorporate it into an infinite cycle and perfect closed loop, making all non-Ascended Bodies become brains in a vat within the Source’s Dao-dyed universe!

This is also why in the Lost Lands, people from the lost forces all said that one can only fight against the level above by crossing one rank—for example, mortals against Ascended Bodies, Ascended Bodies against Sources. It is because mortals simply cannot break the fourth wall brought by the Source. This is also the reason why, at that time, Su Xing’s strength could clearly defeat an Ascended Body, but once he encountered pollution at the Source level, even a tiny bit, he almost died.

Dimensional energy level crushing—numerical strength is useless!

But if an Ascended Body fights against a Source, the Source can only rely on its true self to kill. Whoever has stronger power wins; there is no situation where a Source can crush an Ascended Body with a single thought.

However, in most cases, the Source can actually still crush an Ascended Body because the gap in volume between them is too large. An Ascended Body is still the accumulation of an individual, but once a Source achieves Dao-ization, it can immediately use the world as resources, easily dye the world with Dao, and turn the heaven, earth, and all things within it into brains in a vat within the Source’s infinite cycle and self-closed loop. In the same amount of time and the same state, the resources a Source can absorb are ten thousand times greater than an Ascended Body!

Therefore, the three major ranks—Mortal, Ascended Body, Source—still belong to the absolute rank suppression under the entire dream world system, unless there are extremely rare individual cases...

Extreme Dao Ascended Body!

Being able to learn multiple extraordinary paths without hindrance, and once each extraordinary path ascends, it can immediately condense ascension characteristics. And multiple ascension characteristics plus multiple extraordinary paths can be superimposed and reinforced with each other. If this superposition and reinforcement are gathered in large numbers, it is truly not as simple as a numerical qualitative change!

Rule complementarity, numerical multiplication—the changes brought about are the true qualitative change!

And it just so happens... Su Xing is an Extreme Dao seed!

"Monster! I can tell at a glance that you are not human! Hmph! Mere petty tricks, how dare you show off before an expert?"

Su Xing let out a roar of inexplicable meaning, one hand forming a palm, a dragon-shaped qi burst forth, while the other hand held the blade and thrust forward.

Under the palm-blade, one of Slaanesh’s arms was severed, and Su Xing slashed his blade into its chest.

But at the same time, a bird claw suddenly flashed, piercing into Su Xing’s belly from behind.

Slaanesh was severely wounded, Tzeentch launched a sneak attack!

(End of chapter)