Chapter 903: Achievement Is Greater Than Being Chosen

The Dark God Emperor's antlers suddenly emitted a dim blue glow, and the floor of the Yama Hall began to display dense ancient inscriptions. The Starry Sky Lord, seeing this, abruptly retreated three steps, and three tendrils before him interwove into a starlight barrier.

"Because you are not 'chosen', but 'verified'." The Dark God Emperor's pupils split into twelve dim blue specks, each reflecting an image of Yan Buji at a different stage, from the chaotic spirit light at his embryonic stir to the nine‑heaven tribulation triggered when he broke through the Martial Dao Nascent Soul.

The Starry Sky Lord's tendril suddenly pierced the void, pulling out a star map: "Behold the All Realms causal net." Among the billions of light points on the map, a crimson star frenziedly devoured the surrounding causal threads. "A normal cultivator's destiny follows the natural flow of heaven and earth, whereas you—" The tendril pressed heavily on the star's surface, instantly revealing three thousand six hundred broken heavenly‑law chains.

Yan Buji suddenly felt the beating frequency of the dragon heart in his chest resonate with the star map, and past memories flickered like a lantern show. He saw his soul, which should have been shattered by the Nascent Soul thunder tribulation when he first began cultivation, instead reverse‑devour the heavenly thunder; he saw that when he broke through to the Transforming God stage, the spirit platform that should have been consumed by a heart demon instead refined the demon into a second primordial spirit.

"Uniqueness is not a choice, but a mode of existence." The Dark God Emperor's fingertip condensed a seed; the seed hit the ground and instantly grew into a towering tree, but just as it neared the canopy it collapsed back into a sapling. "Ordinary cultivators grow like plants, but you…" The sapling suddenly burst into a rain of fire, from which a phoenix bathed in flames flew out.

The Starry Sky Lord's star‑spot tendril suddenly pierced Yan Buji's celestial spirit cover, and a vast star sea instantly unfolded before his eyes. Countless civilizations rose and fell within the star sea, each civilization's core housing a light sphere akin to a dragon heart that pulsed, yet those spheres followed fixed trajectories, while the dragon heart in his chest was warping the entire star sea's gravity field.

"Your uniqueness lies in your 'mutation coefficient'." The Dark God Emperor snapped his fingers, shattering the star‑sea illusion, and nine massive bronze cauldrons rose from the ground inscriptions: "A normal cultivator's mutation coefficient does not exceed three, yet you…"

The bodies of the cauldrons displayed blood‑red numbers, and the eighth cauldron throbbed wildly before settling on "97,654".

Yan Buji suddenly recalled the many near‑death cycles he had endured in recent years. In hindsight, those eruptions in dire straits were not accidental, but a necessity of his very essence.

Is it not that I was noticed because I am sufficiently unique, but that I achieved uniqueness, thus being chosen?

"Do you see?" The Starry Sky Lord's tendril suddenly split into seven layers of illusion, each demonstrating a different possibility, "Even if you are placed into an identical cycle, you will always forge a completely different path." Among the seven illusory Yan Buji, one fell into demonic cultivation yet ushered a golden age of blood cultivation, another rose to the immortal rank yet severed the ladder to heaven, and the most bizarre one even transformed into the Dao itself.

The Dark God Emperor suddenly lifted his robe, revealing nine hundred rotating black holes on his chest: "I have observed 129,600 'variable entities' similar to you; they all ultimately return to the natural order of heaven and earth."

The black holes instantly merged into a mirror surface, reflecting the crimson causal threads entwining Yan Buji, "Only you, with each breakthrough, tear and recombine the preset 'cultivation constant'."

The Yama Hall suddenly shook violently, and the Starry Sky Lord and the Dark God Emperor simultaneously performed a sealing gesture, their two forces forming a Taiji pattern above Yan Buji's head. In Yin Yu's eyes, the omen of his birth flickered.

The heart of the premature infant who should have perished beat with a dragon‑shaped phantom; in Yang Yu's eyes reflected his current state, and over three hundred trillion essences around him each evolved separately, bearing different fundamental laws!

"Do you understand now?" The voices of the two supreme beings overlapped for the first time, echoing across dimensions:

"It is not we who created uniqueness, but uniqueness that draws us to bear witness. Like a supernova in deep space, long before it shines, billions of stars have already burned themselves out for its birth."

"Because... the law of essence?" Yan Buji's complexion changed.

He thought of some dangerous possibilities!

Yan Buji staggered back half a step, and a buzzing rang in his ears like ten million funeral bells tolling simultaneously.

He lowered his head to gaze at the serpentine dragon‑shaped markings on his palm, and suddenly realized those markings matched the star map the Starry Sky Lord had displayed.

A metallic rust taste rose in his throat, and the hand that had never trembled in centuries of life‑and‑death battles now could not grasp a wisp of drifting yin energy.

"Observation?" He heard his own dry voice echo in the hall: "On what basis..."

The Dark God Emperor's antler suddenly snapped off, and from the break spurted not blood but a dazzling galaxy.

The Starry Sky Lord's three tendrils simultaneously pointed at the dome, and the chaotic chains that bound the heavenly law suddenly refracted countless future after‑images.

Yan Buji saw an elderly version of himself with white hair in a strange region, chatting with a young man in red clothing.

Before Yan Buji could react, a booming sound rang out!

"I have arrived!"

The Blood Daoist burst through the Yama Hall, charging inside.

Blood lotuses rained from the sky, shattering the dome of the Yama Hall!

"You old things have planned it quite thoroughly!" The Blood Daoist's surrounding sea of blood swirled into nine wicked dragons, instantly tearing apart the causal barrier the Dark God Emperor had erected.

The madman who proved his path with blood ripped half a face‑skin and pasted it onto a blood pool; Yan Buji, shocked, suddenly felt the surrounding blood surge uncontrollably!

"Defiled Blood Pool!" Yan Buji's pupils contracted; that blood pool was clearly the Blood Daoist's attainment treasure, also called the Accumulation Device, which can aid the Blood Daoist in mastering the Blood Dao.

The Starry Sky Lord's tendril was about to coil around Yan Buji when ten thousand resentful souls rising from the blood sea seized it.

Yan Buji seized the chance to press the dragon heart into his chest, not to devour but to detonate; the most terrifying aspect of the Path of Desire is not possession, but a madness that prefers to shatter like jade.

"Blood Daoist, are you mad?!" The Dark God Emperor and the Starry Sky Lord widened their eyes, watching Yan Buji get drawn into the massive spatial fissure created by the explosion, and angrily demanded the Blood Daoist.

The Blood Daoist sneered: "I'm not here for him; now I, the Old One, must achieve Dao and sainthood, and I must borrow the Six‑Path Reincarnation Disk of the Underworld!"

"Don't even think so!"

The Starry Sky Lord's expression hardened; the Six‑Path Reincarnation Disk is the key to ruling the Youming Jie, also an indispensable treasure of the entire Youming Jie, and if handed to the Blood Daoist to achieve Dao, the Youming Jie would be destroyed in an instant.

"Ha ha, you old dog, back then you ambushed the Heavenly Age Daoist, causing him to be corrupted by a heavenly demon, nearly killing me as well! I've held a grudge for many years!"

The Blood Daoist's cold voice, perhaps bearing a madness and resolve that would rather die than fail, launched the attack without hesitation!

"If I cannot become saint, I cannot even escape! Whoever dares to block me, I will fight you to the death!"