Chapter 889: Border, Dispute (3)

Spark Martial City.

In the great hall, Wu Tie sat upon a massive black iron throne, and around him faintly swirled countless dragon-like flowing light discs spinning and dancing.

Behind him, even more complex, mysterious, and unfathomable multi-spiral streams of light surged forth.

The dragon-like flowing light was vast and magnificent, grand and imposing.

Yet those multi-spiral streams made Wu Tie seem like a demon or a fiend, and filled the entire hall with an uneasy, restless, distorted aura.

In his mind, the originally huge divine fetus was now only about seventy to eighty zhang tall.

The power of the divine fetus had already been accompanied by strands of Great Dao patterns, merging with Wu Tie's divine body. Now the divine fetus of about seventy to eighty zhang contained the divine soul's power, which was the most core, refined, and concentrated force of the original divine fetus.

Within his body, the multi-spiral streams of light originating from that one inscrutable spiritual light were numerous and ever-changing; with Wu Tie's current divine fetus power, he could likely convert only about three-tenths of all those multi-spiral streams into Dao patterns, merging them with his divine body.

Within this remaining divine fetus, a spark of vibrant life had already been fully nurtured, awaiting Wu Tie to completely dissolve the divine fetus, whereupon that vitality would burst forth.

Three-tenths of the alien Great Dao laws is the utmost that Wu Tie's body and soul can endure.

If Wu Tie wished to integrate more alien Great Dao with himself, it would likely cause fierce conflict with this world's three thousand Great Dao and eighty-four thousand side paths, directly affecting the stability of his divine body.

"I am not an omniscient, almighty being; to perfectly comprehend this world's Great Dao and side paths is already extremely fortunate."

"Beyond this world, to grasp countless alien Great Dao and additionally master about thirty percent is... a tremendous fortune."

"Do not be greedy, do not seek anything more." Wu Tie sat squarely and steadily on the throne, calmly contemplating his next steps.

"Dissolve the divine fetus, fully fuse it with the divine body, unite spirit and flesh, break the innate-acquired bottleneck, and let a spark of innate spiritual light be born."

"Innate spiritual light is a living being, the sole imprint within this heaven and earth."

"To master the innate spiritual light of one's true self is to master one's own life and death; from then on, life and death are not dictated by heaven... unless encountering external calamity, then one truly lays the foundation for carefree longevity."

"This point of innate spiritual light has endless uses. If it can be perfectly merged with the heavenly Dao and entrusted to it, then it becomes the foundation of a sage. However, to merge into the heavenly Dao, the innate spiritual light must be nourished to immense strength; otherwise, under the torrent of the Great Dao, the imprint of the true self within the innate spiritual light will be gradually eroded away, and I will no longer be myself, merely a puppet of the Great Dao."

"However, according to their words, this world imposes a great restriction on humanity... humanity cannot become Venerable."

"This restriction is tens of millions of times harsher than the calamity of the God Sovereign Realm on the Three Kingdoms Continent."

"The calamity of the God Sovereign Realm can be forcibly endured if one's strength is sufficient."

"Yet this Venerable level... over so many years of the Spark Dynasty, not a single Venerable has appeared... showing how difficult and terrifying it is."

Wu Tie lightly tapped the throne's armrest with his fingers; the divine fetus shrank bit by bit, its vast soul power merging with the collapsing multi-spiral streams of light, transforming into Dao patterns like snakes, pythons, flood dragons, and poisonous insects, which gradually sank into his divine body.

Wu Tie's entire body was enveloped by a mass of chaotic spiritual light; within that chaos, as the alien Great Dao continually merged, strange variations gradually arose, as if a huge black hole was slowly growing within the chaos.

The divine fetus shrank little by little, and Wu Tie also gradually reached his limit.

The limit of what his soul and flesh can bear, the limit this world can contain.

The speed of the divine fetus's dissolution gradually accelerated; countless spiral streams of light broke apart, among which a large amount of Dao patterns merged with Wu Tie's soul power.

Seventy to eighty zhang...

Fifty to sixty zhang...

Thirty to fifty zhang...

Seven to eight zhang...

Five to six zhang...

About one zhang...

The divine fetus grew ever smaller, while the aura emanating from Wu Tie's divine body became increasingly vast and terrifying.

An ever-growing chaotic constricting force enveloped Wu Tie's divine fetus; his divine fetus was like a strange 'egg', pressed by pressure to become ever smaller, ever more brilliantly radiant, ever more crystal-clear and pure.

The Dao patterns already fused with Wu Tie's divine body each emitted a wisp of strange aura, continually inscribed upon that 'egg'.

Outside the hall's doors, light and shadow swayed.

When the sunlight slanted in through the window lattice, Wu Tie's entire bodily qi suddenly stagnated.

He drew a deep breath, and his whole body's strange spiral streams of light surged rapidly; the less than seventy percent of alien Great Dao remaining within him all transformed into streams of light that shot out from his palm.

A dazzling mass of spiritual light the size of a human head appeared in Wu Tie's palm.

With a 'crack', it seemed as if some shackles within Wu Tie's body had broken.

A feeling of unprecedented ease and pleasure arose; the 'egg' within Wu Tie's body emitted threads of spiritual light, already at the critical point of being born yet lacking the strength to advance further.

Between heaven and earth, an invisible force enveloped Wu Tie.

Wanting to advance further, he could no longer move forward at all.

Wu Tie looked at the cluster of spiritual light in his hand, within which countless strange alien Great Dao-derived spiral light discs spun and danced.

He flipped his palm, and the spiritual light vanished.

The next instant, the spiritual light appeared outside the dozens of layered halls, before Pei Feng, who was reviewing documents in the hall.

"Feng, absorb it, then contemplate." Wu Tie's voice sounded in Pei Feng's ear: "These alien Great Dao, you first try to contemplate them; with your World-ending Demonic Phoenix foundation, these alien Great Dao should greatly enhance you."

He lightly tapped his finger; the spiritual light split, autonomously absorbing and strengthening heavenly-earthly primordial energy, dividing from one mass into two.

Pei Feng reached out and took one mass of spiritual light into his body; the other mass flashed and arrived before Lao Tie. Subsequently, the same spiritual light divided, the same instantaneous transmission occurred; from the Three Kingdoms Continent came Wu Jin, Wu Yin, and Wu Tong, the brothers who command the orthodox armies guarding the four directions, as well as the batch of Wu family youths whom Wu Tie trusts most, each receiving such a mass of spiritual light.

No matter how much of these alien Great Dao laws Wu Jin and the others can comprehend, Wu Tie always feels it will bring them ample benefit.

If Wu Tie is not mistaken, these alien Great Dao laws belong to those so-called 'spirits'.

"Know yourself and know your enemy, and you will win a hundred battles"—this holds true on the battlefield, and likewise in cultivation.

The more one encounters and understands, the less one will suffer when facing enemies in the future.

Within Wu Tie's own mind, there is likewise a mass of retained spiritual light, fully recording all alien Great Dao. Wu Tie did not deliberately activate it; this mass of spiritual light in his mind spontaneously evolved, ultimately becoming a mass of bewildering, ever-changing light, its colors shifting millions of times in an instant, a wholly murky gray pyramid.

A pyramid several zhang tall hovered in Wu Tie's mind; its surface occasionally bore countless twisted, strange, ferocious, evil Dao patterns taking shape, writhing and wriggling like serpents.

"The origin of these alien Great Dao is unfathomable."

"Could it be that the Pangu Sage plundered them from somewhere?" A few irreverent thoughts flashed through Wu Tie's mind.

"However, these ancient matters have little to do with us later generations." Wu Tie lightly stroked the throne's armrest: "At last, I have also reached this state where no further progress is possible."

"Is it truly that this world cannot advance any further?" Wu Tie, lost in thought, raised his gaze to the hall's ceiling.

On the throne, Wu Tie's figure had become indistinct; only a mass of chaotic spiritual light several zhang in diameter could be seen spinning rapidly, and at the core of the chaotic spiritual light, an ominous, terrifying black hole flickered in and out of existence.

The primordial heavenly-earth energy howled as it was sucked into this black hole; the immense primordial energy transformed into chaotic mana, continuously flowing into Wu Tie's body.

Each cell within Wu Tie's body seemed to become a self-contained closed space, each cell frenziedly devouring and hoarding chaotic mana.

The mana capacity of each cell rivals that of an ordinary human god at the first heaven of the Divine Realm.

Wu Tie's entire body contains trillions of cells; setting aside other divine abilities, just in terms of total mana, if Wu Tie were to tell the world his current state, he would likely scare a great many people to death.

"Quantity doesn't matter; what matters is quality." Wu Tie drew a deep breath.

The entire Flint Martial City, together with all living beings within a million-li radius around it, had their breath caught.

With this deep breath, Wu Tie directly sucked in all the primordial heavenly-earth energy within a million-li radius, leaving none behind; the energy instantly entered his body as if teleported, and countless beings felt a sudden surge of immense fear.

That is the innate fear that weak beings feel, stemming from bloodline and soul, when they encounter a natural enemy.

Inside Flint Martial City, in a large manor, Zhu Ganglie, who was feasting heartily, trembled all over his fatty flesh, and looked in horror toward the Imperial City: "This kid... truly lives up to being Old Pig's third junior brother... Has he reached the extreme?"

The Golden-Eyed Demon Sovereign sitting across from Zhu Ganglie set down his wine jug, narrowed his eyes, and countless fine golden rays shot from his pupils.

"However, he is human, and can no longer make progress." The Golden-Eyed Demon Sovereign said in a low voice: "Old Pig, his lifespan is only 129,600 years. Do you really think he can bring any change?"

Zhu Ganglie fell silent, picked up a plump braised pig's trotter, and began to munch loudly, "Crack! crack!": "Hmm, this trotter made from century-old braised broth is not bad... try it, try it!"

The Golden-Eyed Demon Sovereign's face twisted: "You say you... eat vegetarian?"

Zhu Ganglie, calm and composed, while eating and drinking heartily, mumbled vaguely: "Wine and meat pass through the intestines, the Buddha sits in the heart... Look, in Old Pig's hand is a piece of pork trotter, but in Old Pig's eye, it is a head of cabbage..."

"Bodhi is not a tree, the bright mirror is not a stand... Monkey-head, you are attached to form." Zhu Ganglie spouted nonsense without even blushing.

Dong, dong-dong, dong-dong-dong!

The Heavenly Origin Divine Bell hanging on the east gate tower of Flint Martial City suddenly emitted a deep, muffled sound.

In all directions, countless Wuguo soldiers leapt into the air, forming ranks in midair to guard; moreover, high-ranking officials wearing purple and crimson robes gripped their swords, standing in the void, their eyes like lightning scanning the surroundings.

Not long after, dozens of winged humanoid scouts with twin wings on their backs turned into streaks of light, howling as they shot out from a teleportation array inside the city.

"Report... the Heavenly Character Large-Small Trading Field came under attack; the Hall of Households Chief and Western Demon State Trade Supervisor Huang Xiu was killed..."

A black demonic flame with a radius of ten thousand zhang shot up into the sky; just as Pei Feng was trying to comprehend the alien great dao within the light cluster Wu Tie had sent, having just entered some strange state, he burst out of the hall.

"Who is it?" Pei Feng's angry shout echoed through Flint Martial City.

"A giant demon!" the winged scout troops trembled as they knelt on the ground, each drenched in sweat like rain, not daring to lift their heads.

A streak of light shot out from the hall; Huang Lang, his face pale, flew into the air and, looking at the scouts, demanded: "Huang Xiu was killed? What time is it? Where? How is the situation over there?"

A scout leader shouted in reply: "Just now, at the Western Border Heavenly Character No. 1 Trading Field... the enemy is extremely strong, and launched a surprise attack; now the garrison of the trading field is surrounding the enemy..."

"Pei Feng, you hold Flint Martial City." Wu Tie's vast soul power enveloped all directions; he had already heard the scouts' words.

He immediately left the hall, gave Pei Feng a quick reminder, then transformed into a giant a thousand zhang tall, stepped westward; a bolt of thunder cracked in the void, and his figure instantly vanished.

"All ministers and troops, take your posts." Pei Feng's clear whistle rang through the void: "Garrisons throughout Flint Prefecture, raise alertness; all cities, activate the grand defensive formation for emergencies... Please, all venerable ones, stand ready and prepare to receive."

The Six Desires Demon Sovereign, the Sharira Ghost Sovereign, and the Three Sovereigns of Yellow Springs all flew up into the high sky.

Zhu Ganglie and the Golden-Eyed Demon Sovereign then shot up into the clouds, closely following the direction Wu Tie had departed, rushing toward the Heavenly Character No. 1 Trading Field.

"Rest easy, junior siblings; with Old Pig following, we won't let our third junior brother suffer... Hey, this situation is off... which little brat isn't giving us face?" Zhu Ganglie roared, a bit annoyed.

Every trading post bears a demon sigil jointly crafted by the five great demon sovereigns.

Not to mention ordinary demons; even demon emperors like the Mo Yun Eagle King would not dare offend or clash with the demon sovereigns' sigil.

Demons possess a strong sense of territory.

Especially the demon sovereigns.

Anyone who dares to show disrespect to even a single hair of theirs can truly expect them to exterminate his entire clan.

To collide with their demon sigil is not merely to show disrespect to a hair; it is to stomp heavily on their face.

Thus, Zhu Ganglie and the Golden-Eyed Demon Sovereign, eyes blazing, closely followed Wu Tie as they rushed toward the Heavenly Character No. 1 Trading Field.

What shocked the two demon sovereigns was that, despite using their full speed in flight, they still could not catch up to Wu Tie!

In the void, Wu Tie merely took three steps and arrived above the Heavenly Character No. 1 Trading Field.

The trading field is now in utter chaos; dozens of giant warehouses have burned down to the state of kilns, and black smoke columns rise thousands of zhang high.

On the ground lay tens of thousands of corpses strewn haphazardly.

At a glance, there were seven to eight thousand human corpses, while the various demon corpses numbered only two to three thousand.

On the ground, battle cries shook the heavens; tens of thousands of Wuguo soldiers formed ranks, desperately resisting the frenzied charges of countless demons from all directions.

These demons, each with bloodshot eyes and drool spraying from the corners of their mouths, had already fallen into a frenzied, demonic state.