Chapter 153

The black mist within the Chaos Sea was hundreds of times denser than the mist drifting in the God-Abandoned Land; relying on the faint light, Jiang Xuan could only see the scene within a few meters around him, and that eerie sea region hidden in the darkness.

The fluctuations emanating from the Blasphemy Slate grew increasingly aligned with the fluctuations of the Chaos Sea, and knowledge on how to manipulate the Blasphemy Slate to grasp a portion of the Chaos Sea's power suddenly appeared in Jiang Xuan's mind.

The Blasphemy Slate served as the medium between Jiang Xuan and the Chaos Sea; Jiang Xuan projected his consciousness into the Blasphemy Slate, and the slate mobilized the Authorities within the Chaos Sea to take effect.

The sole flaw was that if he left the Chaos Sea, some Authorities could only be used in the God-Abandoned Land; the limitation was still very great.

As his spiritual power was rapidly consumed, the Blasphemy Slate guided the dense black mist into Jiang Xuan's body.

The surrounding world suddenly grew somewhat brighter — not because the darkness had dispersed, but because Jiang Xuan's eyes, empowered by the black mist, had adapted to the environment here, and could already make out the scene a dozen meters away.

Only then did he discover he was standing on a suspended platform, the platform floating one meter above the Chaos Sea's surface, able to clearly see the black waves rolling on the surrounding sea surface.

Accompanying each roll, a large amount of mist was churned out, blending with the black fog above, then flowing back into the Chaos Slate, entering Jiang Xuan's body.

He felt the "Dreamer" ability was greatly amplified at this moment; he seemed to truly achieve "words become law," reaching a state of no taboos.

Simultaneously, he grasped the Authorities of Shadow, Mutation, Knowledge, as well as a small amount of Darkness and Pollution Authorities.

Sensing this power gradually eroding his body, Jiang Xuan stopped injecting his spirit into it; the gray fog rolling on the sea surface gradually returned to normal, the gray fog no longer served him, and there wasn't even a shred of affinity.

Dispersing his spiritual power, Jiang Xuan knitted his brows tightly.

Facing this Chaos Sea, he actually had no way to grab it into the Eight Trigrams Furnace for refining.

Although the Eight Trigrams Furnace has the characteristic of growing as large as needed, it still can't move the region occupying the Earth Core and the layer above it inside, right!

Originally he planned that after obtaining the Chaos Sea's recognition, he would find a way to shrink the Chaos Sea.

But now the Chaos Sea was like a proud Black Swan holding its head high, simply refusing to lower its head for a glance; Jiang Xuan fundamentally couldn't find a place to make the Chaos Sea recognize him as master or obey commands.

Just then, a gigantic golden-yellow eye lit up in the darkness above this darkness-pervaded Chaos Sea; its gaze held only numbness and emptiness, but very quickly that giant eye locked onto Jiang Xuan.

The surroundings blazed with light; the Chaos Sea, as if sensing its master's aura, surged turbulently, yet had no reaction whatsoever to the light shining on and dissolving the black mist.

"Back then I revived on this very platform! Do you know how difficult it was for an ordinary person to endure that long a time in darkness without mutating?" A middle-aged man's elegant, calm voice rang out beside Jiang Xuan.

Jiang Xuan was violently startled; he actually hadn't discovered when a person had sat down beside him.

"Ancient Sun God Grisha?" Jiang Xuan looked at that gigantic eyeball spanning across space, his gaze heavy, and retreated a few steps backward.

"Grisha!" The Ancient Sun God raised his head to look at that golden-yellow, sun-like indifferent eye: "It's been so long since anyone called my name!"

"When I woke up back then I thought I had gone blind, only able to feel the congealed air and a small platform. Back then I thought, even if you just gave me three days of light? I would certainly arrange my future life perfectly."

"And then right there!" Grisha pointed at the distant, endless east shrouded in black, his eyes full of reminiscence: "A Great Sun appeared there, as if it had risen for me!"

As his words fell, a faint golden-yellow suddenly emerged in the darkness, like the initial gestation of a sun about to rise.

"After that I understood, I originally possessed the power of the Great Sun!"

Griffin raised his head, the reminiscence in his eyes slowly dissipating; a Great Sun slowly rose from the Chaos Sea's surface, merging together with that golden-yellow giant eye.

"So I call myself the Ancient Sun God!" Griffin's eyes gradually turned indifferent: "At the same time I should also be the new God!"

"You want to dip your fingers into my Chaos Sea?"

The giant eye's light flashed with intense brilliance, like a massive pillar of light booming down onto the position where Jiang Xuan stood.

Jiang Xuan's figure flashed and vanished from the original spot; Griffin's this strike was an extremely pure Rule attack, and within it was also the power of black mist; he could only temporarily choose to dodge.

The light pillar fell vertically into the Chaos Sea, and did not stir up any splash; the Chaos Sea's surface remained utterly calm.

The Blasphemy Slate in Jiang Xuan's hand suddenly blazed bright; the surrounding black mist rolled and condensed, gradually gathering beside that golden giant eye.

The Authority symbolizing Pollution attempted to erode the golden giant eye.

Griffin's figure turned illusory; the golden giant eye's light gradually dimmed, and actually began to transform toward black: "Pollution? I obtained the Hanged Man Pathway from here!"

Hanged Man Sequence Zero, the True God wielding the Fallen Realm, possesses partial Authorities of the Shadow, Darkness, Fallen, Pollution, Mutation and other domains. Its divine power can create monsters out of nothing in darkness, and it itself possesses the special trait of Revival.

That giant eye actually began to fuse with the surrounding black mist; the originally dense mist seemed to have become nourishment for that pair of giant eyes.

"You killed my thought-entity avatar and that's that! You actually still dare come here! I judge you death!" The giant eye actually emitted a completely different gray-dark light, mobilizing the surrounding black mist to rush straight at Jiang Xuan.

Can't dodge!

This attack containing the Authority of Falling locked onto Jiang Xuan's figure like a bone-eating poison.

Jiang Xuan stood in place; the Eight Trigrams Furnace emerged from midair, black-gold flames condensing into a Black-Gold Dragon, colliding with that gray-dark Fallen beam.

As the surrounding black mist contacted the Eight Trigrams Furnace's flames, they actually melted instantly like snowflakes landing on a red-hot iron ball!

A large amount of black mist was refined and devoured by the flames; the Bagua Dao Patterns on the Eight Trigrams Furnace blazed bright, radiance gradually circulating on the furnace body.

The light beam and fire dragon collided; the entire space seemed torn apart, emitting a "sizzling" sound, but that Chaos Sea below remained calm, as if nothing could affect it.

One strike completed; that golden giant eye in the sky had almost lost all luster; the indifference in its eyes gradually dissipated, and at the very end a trace of human complexity flashed through, again like an expression of relief.

Jiang Xuan let out a long breath; he hadn't expected that when Adam died back then, the Ancient Sun God's Divinity would actually come here.

Fortunately this thread of Divinity, without a body's support, was merely duckweed without roots; lacking a Sequence's rank, after just a few attacks that thread of Divinity was exhausted.

Watching the giant eye in the sky shatter and dissipate, Jiang Xuan slumped to the ground.

His body had the Xuanhuang Mother Qi Pagoda supporting it, and he didn't feel tired; mainly his spirit was too exhausted; all along this road he had been consuming spiritual power to mobilize Rule Power.

The Eight Trigrams Furnace flames, having lost control, suddenly surged three zhang high; black-gold flames crazily devoured the surrounding black fog; the flames' light gradually transformed into pure black, the light gradually turning inward.

Mere black mist seemed insufficient for the Eight Trigrams Furnace; the firelight actually rushed straight for the Chaos Sea one meter below the platform.

As the black flames touched the Chaos Sea, the Chaos Sea, which had maintained calm all along, suddenly turned into scalding boiling water, violently churning; countless black water columns soared skyward, this condition gradually spreading toward the distance.

Jiang Xuan stared wide-eyed; their Sequence Zero battle hadn't made the Chaos Sea fluctuate at all, merely surging at a fixed frequency; now encountering the Eight Trigrams Furnace's flames, it was like meeting a natural enemy — how could the reaction be this big!

Those soaring black water columns forcibly pushed the Eight Trigrams Furnace's firelight up over ten meters, deadlocking with the firelight.

The flames, unwilling to be outdone, reassembled the fire dragon, mouthful after mouthful devouring the black seawater.

Jiang Xuan was just preparing to control and withdraw the Eight Trigrams Furnace, when he suddenly felt he vaguely sensed the power of the Chaos Sea's Authority.

As the fire dragon swallowed the seawater columns in big gulps, the Dao Patterns on the Eight Trigrams Furnace condensed more and more finely, more and more profoundly.

Jiang Xuan, already completely fused with the Eight Trigrams Furnace, at this moment actually emitted a faint white light from his body.

This white light actually strengthened his body in all directions!

First his physical constitution obtained an astonishing enhancement; simultaneously his comprehension and Gift were also rising in sync.

Does this white light's effect even compare to a panacea?

In the sky, the more water pillars it devoured, the larger the fire dragon grew by three parts; the flames burning on its body completely retracted inward, even transforming into a state of absorbing light!

Jiang Xuan at this moment could no longer spare any attention to control the Eight Trigrams Furnace, although he originally hadn't intended to take it back anyway!

As the black water devoured increased, Jiang Xuan surprisingly found himself able to sense the Authorities contained within the Chaos Sea.

The Authorities represented by rules such as the "White Tower" and "Dreamer" could almost be fully verified within the Chaos Sea.

And as he delved deeper into researching Authorities, endless knowledge poured into his consciousness like rivers, lakes, and seas all flowing backward at once.

This backflow came so suddenly that he had no time to react before vast amounts of knowledge drowned his emotions and consciousness.

The Eight Trigrams Furnace still did not cease; the pitch-black giant dragon in the sky was no longer satisfied with devouring mouthful by mouthful, its body instantly growing hundreds of times larger, and streams of water vanished into thin air.

At the bottom of the Eight Trigrams Furnace, the originally faint layer of misty liquid condensed into a transparent liquid like clear water; as it devoured the Chaos Sea, the transparent liquid at the furnace bottom condensed more and more.

Who knows how much more time passed in the dark space.

The black on the giant dragon seemed to suck a person's soul in; the sky-covering dragon shadow made a large patch of black liquid disappear with a single gulp.

Until the black liquid beneath the platform completely vanished, the black giant dragon finally stopped, dispersing into threads of flame that flew into the Eight Trigrams Furnace.

The Eight Trigrams Furnace at this point had completely changed appearance; its four ringed handles were all black dragon-elephants, the Bagua Dao Patterns on the furnace body fully condensed, even the minutest details clearly visible.

The furnace bottom was a stretch of transparent liquid quietly swaying; above the liquid, pitch-black flames tumbled and circulated.

This flame no longer emitted light, but began to absorb light!

Just a single thread of flame could create a dim, lightless space!

If Jiang Xuan were awake now, he would certainly feel this flame was very suited to the Goddess of Night.

But right now Jiang Xuan had completely lost autonomous consciousness!

Different from the last time he lost consciousness; last time Jiang Xuan only needed to understand all the knowledge to regain memory, thought, and emotion, because what his consciousness stored had not yet reached the threshold.

Now the Authority knowledge contained in the Source Quality was too much, long since exceeding the threshold his consciousness could accommodate.

It can be said if Jiang Xuan woke up now, he would likely lose memory and emotion, turning into a walking-corpse-like Old One!

An Old One who still grasps one of the Three Pillars' Source Quality!

With the help of the white light that arose on his body when devouring the Chaos Sea, Jiang Xuan's comprehension at this moment could be said to have reached a level that even the Heavenly Dao would be jealous of.

His speed of understanding Authorities was very fast; after completely digesting and absorbing all the knowledge, Jiang Xuan slowly opened his eyes.

The divine light in his eyes was like those giant eyes that had appeared in the sky earlier — ruthless, indifferent, uncaring toward anything, without a trace of Spirituality.

Jiang Xuan, having opened his eyes, did not rise, nor did he pay attention to the Eight Trigrams Furnace still standing beside him; he merely gazed vacantly at the darkness ahead with indifferent eyes.

Having lost the Chaos Sea, this space still looked sturdy and stable, yet unchanging.

Jiang Xuan sat withered like this, his face calm as an ancient well, all sounds stilled around him!

One hour, one day, one month...

Unknown how much time passed, Jiang Xuan seemed to feel this utterly silent space was too dark and monotonous; a fluctuation finally flashed in his eyes.

"I say! Let there be light?"

The words barely fell when a bright sun suddenly rose from the already withered hollow in the distance; scorching light illuminated the entire underground hollow.

Jiang Xuan was still unsatisfied, looking at that pitted hollow ground, thoughts circulating in his eyes.

"Should it not be divided in two? Clear Qi rises, Turbid Qi descends!"

"Where is my axe?"

As Jiang Xuan murmured lowly, a Short-Handled Great Axe appeared in his hand; endless Rules condensed on the axe blade, as if instinctively learning the meritorious "Pangu's Axe" feat of an excellent Senior.

Just as Jiang Xuan gripped the axe head with both hands, preparing to chop at the Earth Core, a sudden palpitation arose in his soul.

A thread of gray mist trembled in an inconspicuous corner deep in his consciousness.

The curious Jiang Xuan squeezed his massive consciousness into that inconspicuous mist, and heard a little fellow's voice:

"Senior! I'm now preparing to break through to Sequence Zero 'Fool'; is there anything you need me to prepare? It's been such a long time without word from you, I was worried something happened to you in the God-Abandoned Land!"

"Do you need my help, Senior? I'm already Sequence One! I should be able to help too!" Klein's tone carried some pride; he was about to become a god! And could already converse on equal footing with the Goddess of Night!

Back then Jiang Xuan had to go to a cathedral to pray to see the Goddess of Night, indicating the two's strength should be about the same.

After hearing several passages, Jiang Xuan descended his consciousness onto the anchor resembling a moon above the Gray Fog with great interest.

The next instant, Jiang Xuan finished analyzing this place's special nature, as well as Klein's experiences currently residing in this region and controlling the Surroundings Region.

He even found his own shadow in Klein's experiences!

I... am a Senior? Could it be I've already performed Pangu's Axe once?

(Chapter End)