Chapter 541: The Struggle of the Living

The flames spread across his entire body, burning everything he possessed—his physical form, his soul, his True Spirit; whatever was his, none could escape the incineration of the pyre.

This situation is highly demonic and evil, but precisely because it is so evil, capable of burning everything, it can shine a light within the Wuqiong Weizhi and shelter the travelers beside the pyre.

The joy on Tai Yin's face vanished instantly.

This flame is incomparably sinister; once one is actively tainted by it, there is almost no possibility of shaking it off, even for a Sacred being.

Could it be that he is to fall sorrowfully at the very beginning of this dawn's rise? To be buried in this infinite darkness, this Wuqiong Weizhi?

He refuses to accept it!

As a genius who survived the Calamity of the Heavenly Court's shattering and managed to escape the True Realm, and who is now a figure who has attained the Dao as a Sacred being, he refuses to abandon even a shred of hope.

Heaven helps those who help themselves.

Although he is well aware that this phrase might just be self-consolation.

Even if a light were to shine over before he dies, it might not necessarily be able to shelter him, nor would a powerhouse of the Great Void necessarily notice him and arrive in a short time, and it is even less certain that they could extinguish the flames upon him.

But since a glimmer of a turning point has already appeared, how could he give up? The flame of survival in Tai Yin's heart began to burn fiercely, and he began to think rapidly about how he could live a little longer.

First, the flames will burn everything he has, so as long as he rapidly increases his own volume, he can make the flames burn longer, and he himself will be able to live longer.

It is just a matter of how to rapidly increase his own volume.

One must know, if there were a way to increase volume, their group of Immortal Gods would not have died so quickly, and certainly would not have been reduced to just him, all alone, by now.

Thinking of this, Tai Yin's heart sank straight to the bottom.

At this moment, the flames of the pyre had already burned his flesh and blood to nothing, revealing deep white bones, which were still being continuously scorched by the flames. The individual bones could not withstand it, making constant crackling sounds as they were burned, finally shattering and turning into ash.

Then it even burned his soul!

As his soul was burned, the soul-light transformed into firelight; an indescribable pain acted upon the depths of Tai Yin's mind, nearly causing his consciousness to cease functioning and fall into a faint.

Only then did Tai Yin realize how painful it must have been for those fellows before they died, yet they had shown nothing of it, each of them appearing so relaxed, at ease, and incomparably carefree.

Those fellows, they led me to my doom.

Tai Yin thought this in his heart, his mood turning bitter.

In this brief instant, Tai Yin's vast soul had already been burned away by half. Under the nourishment of such a volume of soul-matter turning into firewood, the light emitted by the pyre grew increasingly bright, shining further and brighter than before, bordering the light shining over from afar.

But Tai Yin had no time to notice this situation at all.

While suppressing the pain of incineration acting upon his soul and even the depths of his True Spirit, his mind was still racing, attempting to find a glimmer of survival, even if it meant living just one more second.

Swallow all the results of their exploration of the Unknown?

After all, volume does not simply refer to the physical body or the soul; it refers to every aspect—strength, realm laws, level of comprehension; a person's everything constitutes their volume.

If he were to conceptually swallow those results obtained from exploring the Unknown, such as knowledge and information, and turn them into his own, perhaps he could increase his volume?

But soon, he discovered this was not realistic.

Because he had no method to swallow these exploration results and digest them into his own being; forcibly swallowing and digesting would only cause him to consume more power and die faster.

Otherwise, they would have certainly tried to use this to increase their own volume back then. As the saying goes, if you keep the land but lose the people, you lose both the people and the land. If you keep the people but lose the land, you have both the people and the land. If the results are gone, they are gone, but if the person dies, then it is truly over; they wouldn't have died so quickly.

Only then did he realize that every available method had been exhausted by them long ago; otherwise, they would not have sat idly by the pyre, waiting for death.

In this instant, Tai Yin fell into despair.

At this time, the flames were about to finish burning his entire soul; he had only a single point of indestructible True Spirit left. Yet, this indestructible True Spirit appeared incomparably laughable before these flames, ready to be burned at any moment, finally turning into incombustible ash beside the pyre.

Finally, at this moment, he thought of a method.

A method equivalent to suicide, one that had not been used!

That is to actively detach himself from the shelter of the pyre and make full contact with the Wuqiong Weizhi, letting the Wuqiong Weizhi assimilate him. In this way, the flames would not just be burning him; perhaps they would also be burning the Wuqiong Weizhi?

With the intermingling of the Wuqiong Weizhi, perhaps he could hold on for a bit longer—maybe a second, or perhaps zero point one seconds? He did not know, but for now, he could only try.

Tai Yin exerted his last shred of strength to detach himself from the pyre's light, fleeing a distance toward the Great Void and placing himself within the Wuqiong Weizhi. The flames still burned upon him, but it seemed that because of this suicidal act, the flames lost the reinforcement of the pyre, and the burning speed slowed down.

Judging by this speed, he could live for one more stick of incense!

His heart was suddenly filled with joy; it seemed he had bet correctly. But the next moment, he felt something strange approaching. It was hard for him to describe this feeling, but it seemed as if he were slowly losing something.

Tai Yin was very calm; he had anticipated this long ago.

He was being assimilated by the Wuqiong Weizhi, changing from a known self into an unknown thing. After all, everything has a price; he used the Unknown to evade the burning of the flames, so he had to be subjected to the assimilation of the Unknown.

According to the speed of the flame's burning and the Unknown's assimilation.

He could hold on for at most a quarter of an hour.

But at the very least, this allowed him to live for another quarter of an hour, rather than being completely reduced to ash in less than half a quarter of an hour while staying beside the pyre; this could be considered a good result.

He comforted himself thus in his heart.

Yet he also understood that he was very likely wasting his effort. In the end, it was highly probable that he would die completely while enduring both the pain of the flames' burning and the suffering of the Unknown's assimilation.

After all, he was located in the deeper parts of the Unknown Realm; even ordinary Sacred powerhouses are unwilling to enter the Unknown, let alone the deeper parts of the Unknown Realm.

Also, this light...

He watched silently as the light shone over from the direction of the Great Void, discovering that the light not only bordered the firelight of the pyre but was also continuously expanding, about to cover the place where he was.

His heart tightened, and he began to feel expectant and excited.

The next moment, the light covered him.

But he was still there, being assimilated by the Unknown, being burned by the flames, the speed not decreasing in the slightest. At this moment, his heart fell to the bottom, completely despairing; it seemed the worst possibility had inevitably occurred.

The flames burned, the Unknown assimilated, reaching his True Spirit.

At this time, the sense of pain began to diminish, because his consciousness was already chaotic, hazy, and becoming void; as time ticked by, he gradually could no longer feel the pain.

At this moment, the light of the Present World Lighthouse covered that pyre.

A sound of surprise rang out.

"Eh? A pyre of a known form exists in the land of the Unknown?"