Chapter 918: Void-Dwelling Cave

In the 47th layer of the Tower of All Heavens.

Li Hao was teleported here; the surrounding realm was desolate. As he scanned the area, he saw the ancient demon’s figure emerge from a crack ahead.

All were at the Fifth Rebirth of Immortal King realm, their qi tightly contained, and all were of the Ancient Demon royal bloodline.

With no urgency from the initial test, Li Hao’s mood was more relaxed; even if he failed, he could try again.

He glanced at the ancient demon, then turned his spirit inward.

“Three realm cores… how can they coexist?”

Previously, with two realm cores, Li Hao had made them cycle back and forth to achieve a delicate balance, but over time—over millennia—they would gradually merge. That was a flawed path, even a wrong one.

“Failure isn’t terrifying—at least, it eliminates one wrong path!”

Li Hao thought to himself.

With three realm cores refined, he had some ideas, but they needed testing—perhaps failure, perhaps success.

Yet once the bow is drawn, there is no turning back.

“Void-Dwelling Mindset, embed—Sword Dao!”

Li Hao silently chanted.

Soon, with a slight increase in Art Point, his Sword Dao rose to the Thirteenth Level.

“Void-Dwelling Sword Dao…”

The Void-Dwelling mindset of music fused with Sword Dao; vast insights of Sword Dao gathered, merging with the Void-Dwelling mindset.

Thin, sharp, void-like, ethereal sword qi emanated from Li Hao’s body, gradually extending outward.

He stood in the void, eyes gently closed, as if the Lord of Void-Dwelling, wandering between emptiness and reality, unfathomable.

With the ancient demon’s low roar, six realm domains instantly crushed down, like six bronze walls advancing from all sides, making Li Hao feel as if his body were being crushed to dust.

His Void-Inversion realm domain was instantly breached; even his dual realm domains remained as fragile as paper before them, for his realm domain was only at the First Rebirth of Immortal King, and his Life Sea had yet to birth much life.

Li Hao instantly unleashed the Emperor Art “Ultimate Extremity,” Third Level, elevating his foundation to Ninefold!

His True God blood boiled, burning entirely into terrifying control force, weaving through the shattered realm domain, compressing and merging it into a tiny fragment, like a sharp shard.

“Break!!”

Li Hao suddenly opened his eyes; countless Sword Dao insights felt as if he had cultivated them for tens of thousands of years, a strange sensation filling his entire body.

He swung his sword abruptly; the realm domain, compressed to its limit, became a sharp blade of sword qi, erupting from the chaotic spacetime. Void-Dwelling and Void-Inversion—the two ultimate realm cores—made this sword qi profoundly strange. Before it struck, the six Ancient Demon royal bloodlines had no perception of it; by the time they sensed it, they had already been wounded.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Six bursts of blood mist surrounded Li Hao.

The sword qi dissipated; the six ancient demons had been instantly slain by Li Hao using his realm domain as a blade.

This single slash equaled the combined power of three realm cores.

Seeing the exploded corpses of the ancient demons, Li Hao was startled—he hadn’t expected this sword slash to be so powerful.

But he did not rejoice; soon he felt his own realm domain’s Void-Dwelling realm core had shattered the previous balance, and all three realm cores were violently trembling, drawing toward each other.

The three realm cores were about to merge!

Merging them would certainly boost his power, but this was not the Emperor Path.

If he could make the realm cores coexist—able to merge yet also remain separate—that would mean he could fuse countless realm cores into peak ones, even Sovereign realm cores, and ultimately have multiple Sovereign realm cores coexist!

That was the greatest benefit this Emperor Path could offer!

“Would you like to proceed to Layer 48 and continue the challenge?”

At this moment, the Tower of All Heavens’ voice appeared in the sky.

But Li Hao’s spirit was entirely focused within his realm domain. He hurriedly asked: “Can I continue cultivating here?”

The Tower of All Heavens fell briefly silent, then replied: “Yes.”

Clearly, the Tower of All Heavens was no lifeless object; it treated Li Hao, this astonishing prodigy, differently, and it also recognized that Li Hao’s current situation was critical.

Li Hao said nothing more, his thoughts entirely fixed on the three realm cores.

His first thought was the Three-Legged Tripod!

Let the three realm cores form mutual corners, maintaining a state of standoff to achieve balance and stability.

But thinking was one thing; doing it was extremely difficult.

The three realm cores had already lost obedience, drawing toward each other, impossible to stabilize.

Li Hao concentrated all his True God blood’s control force, trying to move the three realm cores—but it felt like moving mountains; he could not budge them!

The gravitational pull between the three realm cores was terrifyingly strong.

Li Hao increasingly felt the difficulty of this path; perhaps every Emperor Path was this hard, with no easy ones.

He gritted his teeth, helplessly watching the three realm cores draw closer until they nearly merged.

Once merged, all prior effort would be wasted; the coexistence of his dual realm cores would be impossible to maintain.

After merging, these three realm cores would surpass ordinary peak realm cores; any new peak realm core formed afterward would be instantly drawn in and absorbed, making balance even more impossible.

“Explode!”

Seeing he could not stop it, Li Hao suddenly erupted—his True God blood spewed, his entire body violently ruptured.

He self-annihilated on the spot.

With a momentary mental stagnation, as if his brain had suffered a severe blow, his thoughts sank into numbness.

When he regained awareness, he felt dazed, with intense pain like needles stabbing into his marrow. Li Hao gritted his teeth—he hadn’t felt such “pain” in a long time. This was soul-deep agony, even Immortal Kings struggled to endure.

It seemed this was the penalty for failing the Tower of All Heavens challenge.

Li Hao’s thoughts immediately gathered into his realm domain, where he saw the three realm cores reappear at the locations where they had originally been refined, drawing toward each other.

Seeing this, Li Hao exhaled in relief.

“Indeed, the Tower of All Heavens’ Lunhui is akin to time reset—returning to before entry!”

“Yet, because I broke through and refined new realm cores within, at the moment of reset, my realm cores were born instantly within my realm domain, then began merging…”

Li Hao’s eyes gleamed; his confidence surged. The Tower of All Heavens held extraordinary significance for him—he felt he might attain the Emperor Path here!

“Enter!”

Li Hao dashed toward the Tower of All Heavens ahead, selecting again Layer 47, as it was closest.

At this moment, he no longer attempted to rush to higher layers—that was meaningless.

He intended to use the Tower of All Heavens’ Lunhui ability to resolve the coexistence of the three realm cores.

When he returned to Layer 47, as before, he immediately unleashed the Third Chapter of Ultimate Extremity, elevating his foundation ninefold, his True God blood burning and erupting, condensing his realm domain into sword qi and striking instantly.

The six ancient demons had barely approached when Li Hao slew them instantly—faster than before.

With the six ancient demons eliminated, Li Hao saw the three realm cores converging, and tensed.

Previously, he had used all his strength and still could not move the three realm cores—meaning direct interference was impossible; he must find another way to prevent their fusion.

“Balance…” Li Hao frowned, his thoughts racing. He sensed the key still lay in balance.

Only through balance could stability be achieved.

“The attraction between the three realm cores… seems equal.”

At this moment, Li Hao noticed the attraction between the three realm cores was identical.

But their positions were not an equilateral triangle; the Inversion realm core and the Void realm core were slightly closer. Thus, at this rate, the Inversion and Void realm cores would fuse first; once fused and strengthened, they would swiftly pull the Void-Dwelling realm core in, absorbing it.

“If I maintain an equilateral triangle, with equal distances between them, perhaps I can slow it down…”

Li Hao’s eyes flickered. He had tried shifting the realm cores before—unmoved.

If so, then shift the realm domain instead!

He channeled vast Immortal power into his realm domain.

Shifting the realm domain was no difficult task; Li Hao intended to expand its area. If the realm domain’s size was fixed and immovable, expanding its scope was still within his control.

Between the three realm cores, he used expansion of the realm domain to control their distances.

Soon, the distances between the three realm cores became equal.

The speed of their mutual attraction and fusion slowed dramatically.

The three realm cores pulled against each other, forming tension within the inner triangle.

“Fusion speed has decreased!”

Li Hao’s eyes brightened with surprise.

“But they’re still drawing closer—this isn’t a lasting solution…”

Li Hao gazed at the triangular arrangement of the three realm cores. He felt that achieving balance among them was far more complex than merely forming a triangle—otherwise, countless prodigies would have mastered it long ago.

Watching the realm cores slowly fuse, Li Hao estimated they would fully merge in about three incense sticks’ time.

“If they can attract each other, can they also pull apart?”

A thought suddenly struck Li Hao.

Gazing at the three realm cores, he directed his will, gathering Immortal power to deliberately disrupt the balance of distance between them. Soon, the two closer realm cores accelerated toward each other, their mutual attraction pulling them away from the third.

Li Hao adjusted again, drawing one realm core closer to another; soon, these two drew near, distancing themselves from the previous one.

Li Hao’s eyes gleamed with excitement.

“It really works!”

“The attraction between the three realm cores… set it into motion—within the triangle, a circular flow is forming!”

“So, the way to stabilize the triangle is to form a circle between them!”

Li Hao’s heart surged with excitement; the realm domain between the three realm cores continuously contracted and expanded, maintaining an arc that encircled the triangular formation, creating an invisible, hidden circle!

This circle kept the three realm cores perpetually balanced!

“Three realm cores… coexisting!”

Li Hao hadn’t expected that, on his second attempt, he’d already figured out how to handle three core realms.

He felt the difficulty of maintaining three core realms was less than that of two—the two had been the first step, extremely hard.

Li Hao controlled his realm, making minute increases and reductions to keep the three core realms in balance.

He grew ever more skilled until he could fully control all three core realms.

“Three core realms—strike simultaneously!”

After mastering the balance, Li Hao suddenly unleashed power; all three core realms erupted at once. In an instant, Reverse Time, Formless, and Void Dongxu forces emerged together—and they merged!

The core realms themselves did not merge, but their powers fused into one.

Li Hao felt his realm now existed in an extraordinarily peculiar state—not in the present time-space, nor the future, neither in emptiness nor nothingness, but in some profound, elusive fissure.

“I wonder how many layers my current realm can penetrate…”

Li Hao’s eyes flickered; he felt that if he encountered a Transcendent King of the fifth realm again, he might now be able to withstand it.

Without hesitation, Li Hao chose to challenge Layer 48.

Soon, the Ten Thousand Heavens Tower drew him into Layer 48.

Twelve ancient demons flew out from Xukong fissures before him, immediately locking onto Li Hao’s position and rushing forward.

Li Hao took a deep breath, unleashing all his power; the three core realms erupted at once, his realm transforming into the strange Formless-Void state.

Li Hao did not use sword qi—he intended to test the strength of his realm.

Soon, the twelve ancient demons surrounded him. They were constructs of the Ten Thousand Heavens Tower, not true ancient demons; thus, despite seeing Li Hao was only a Transcendent King of the first realm, they showed no contempt or complacency, attacking with full force together.

Twelve realms crushed forward, filling the Xukong with their intersecting domains—but Li Hao stood within them, sensing a thin membrane separating his realm from theirs.

This membrane prevented them from touching him.

And he…

Li Hao shifted his intent; Void sword qi shot out instantly.

The sword qi was swift, emerging from the Formless-Void realm. The twelve ancient demons had no awareness of it until they felt the injury—no, they didn’t sense the sword qi at all; they only realized they were hurt!

Throughout, they never perceived the sword qi’s presence, nor understood how they’d been wounded.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

A series of explosions rang out; the sword qi carried Formless-Void power, combined with Li Hao’s terrifying spiritual essence, and all twelve ancient demons’ spiritual cores were simultaneously obliterated.

“Pity—they’re creations of the Ten Thousand Heavens Tower, not real ancient demons. Can’t eat them…”

Gazing at the blood mist swirling around him, Li Hao’s expression had calmed; he felt a faint regret.

But fortunately, ancient demon remains here weren’t even considered low-grade supplies—he could have any amount delivered whenever he wished.

“The Transcendent King fifth realm’s domain can’t affect me. Looks like I should try the sixth realm…”

Li Hao narrowed his eyes and chose to challenge Layer 51 directly.

“Except for the initial test, subsequent challenges may only target the layer you’ve cleared or the next one—you cannot skip layers.”

The Ten Thousand Heavens Tower’s voice echoed, warning Li Hao.

Li Hao paused, slightly frustrated. “Alright.”

He chose to continue the challenge.

Moments later.

As Li Hao had guessed, he passed Layer 50 effortlessly.

The Transcendent King fifth realm’s ancient demons could not affect him, while he could launch direct attacks from within the Formless-Void realm, annihilating them.