Cultivating for a hundred lifetimes to ascension

Zhao Sheng saw the situation and his heart sank with a bad premonition.

"Below..."

After Zhao Sheng's eyes flickered a few times, he was just about to say something when the vast starry sky suddenly trembled. At the same time, a crisp "crack" sound emanated from the infinite void.

Immediately after, a dense array of cracks appeared out of thin air, as if the next moment, the entire world would shatter apart.

"Impossible, this Divine Thought World is actually collapsing." The originally composed Black Robed Taoist lost his composure and exclaimed in disbelief upon seeing this scene.

Zhao Sheng, witnessing the scene of the world's destruction, was also startled.

He did not know what was happening, but seeing the Black Robed Taoist's panic,

Zhao Sheng felt that this might be a good thing.

"How is this possible! With my cultivation at the realm of Crossing Tribulation back in the day, even if only a thread of residual thoughts remained, those below the realm of Divinity Transformation should absolutely not be able to shake it, let alone destroy this world."

The Black Robed Taoist watched as the stars in the sky instantly dimmed and disappeared, and the world collapsed in large swathes, his face turning deathly pale in an instant.

Zhao Sheng calmed his spirit, concentrated, and felt something strange,

"Weird! I don't sense any danger?"

Just then, the Black Robed Taoist looked up to the sky and sighed deeply, "It seems my life's fate has run out. There's no escape from this retribution. Oh well! In my life as a Spirit Venerable of my clan who once traversed the Three Thousand Realms, what great prestige I had, yet now only a wisp of a residual thought wheezily persists.

Forget it, since my true body has perished countless years ago, now it is merely the end of my life's fate." The Black Robed Taoist was briefly lost in despair, then quickly accepted his final end with resignation.

"Young man, since fate has led you to meet me, it suggests there's some destiny between us. I have an unfulfilled task to entrust to you," the Black Robed Taoist said solemnly, turning his gaze to Zhao Sheng.

Zhao Sheng declined, "I am weak and of little strength, I fear I may not be able to carry out the important task of my predecessor."

"Don't worry! The task is not difficult, you just need to do it incidentally. And as a reward, I will tell you the location of an immortal's legacy and a complete Returning to Void Skill. Regrettably, before my death, I deliberately removed all memories related to my clan's skills. Otherwise, giving you ten or eight sets of Divine Skill Treasure Books would have been effortless."

After saying this, the Black Robed Taoist confidently waited for the young man opposite him to agree.

"What is the unfulfilled matter, Senior? I am all ears!" Zhao Sheng was full of doubt in his heart, but he could not resist the temptation, so he promptly agreed.

"Hehe, no need to be so tense! If you can do it, great; if not, no harm done.

What I am asking you to do is very simple, just to pass on a message to any member of the Spirit Clan who is above the realm of the Nascent Soul."

"Senior, please tell me!"

"Remember well, inside the Tianzhu Realm, a Primordial Sea God is being nurtured. Remember, aside from the people of the Spirit Clan, you must not tell this message to anyone else," the Black Robed Taoist instructed with a grave expression.

"I will remember!" Zhao Sheng nodded and then spoke with difficulty, "Senior also knows that although I possess the bloodline of the Spirit Clan, I have never encountered any of its members. The way I see it, the Spirit Clan is either extinct or extremely rare in Tianzhu Realm. To encounter a Nascent Soul Ancestor is almost impossible!"

"No matter! As long as you pass the message to the next generation before you die, one day your descendants will encounter one," the Black Robed Taoist said unconcernedly.

"..." Zhao Sheng was speechless.

At this time, with the Star River World on the brink of complete collapse, the Black Robed Taoist sighed, stretched out his hand into empty space, and pulled out a stone tablet that looked like gold and jade, with a dull spirit light emanating from its surface.

Then, with a gentle toss, the stone tablet sharply shot towards him,

Zhao Sheng instinctively caught the stone tablet, but it blurred for a moment and then disappeared into the palm of his hand without a trace.

After doing this, the Black Robed Taoist's body suddenly became vague and misty, as if the heart core that was supporting him had been lost.

The next instant, his entire being turned into a wisp of gray smoke and merged into the surrounding void.

Boom!

This world finally completely collapsed like shattered glass, and a raging torrent of gray erupted violently from the void, instantly engulfing Zhao Sheng.

All these changes happened so quickly that Zhao Sheng couldn't react.

But the moment the torrent "engulfed" him, Zhao Sheng suddenly felt an intense danger.

"No good, I've been tricked!"

However, just as his regret emerged, at that moment, he suddenly heard a piercingly miserable scream:

"Ah! This is—"

As the scream ended, the rolling gray torrent instantly turned into a thread of gray smoke and was sucked into Zhao Sheng's chest.

The next second, his vision blurred, his spirit returned to the Purple Mansion, and he saw the tranquil and clear water of the boundless Soul Sea.

At this moment, Zhao Sheng was astonished to see the Hundred Lifetimes Book slowly sinking into the Soul Sea.

"The Hundred Lifetimes Book has actually appeared! Then... what exactly is the background of the Black Robed Taoist?" Zhao Sheng was somewhat puzzled at the moment.

With this thought, suddenly a phrase emerged in his mind: "Earth Level Achievement: Captured a strand of a Banished Immortal's residual thoughts."

This statement held so much information that Zhao Sheng couldn't quite process it momentarily.

In his previous life, he had spent all his heart and mind, not hesitating to shorten his life span, and only after a sudden collapse in the middle of his journey had he managed to barely annihilate the Zhou family.

And that was merely a Mystic Level Achievement.

Now, he had effortlessly gained an Earth Level Achievement.

This was really... a matter of giving thanks to the unfortunate remains of a Banished Immortal's soul!

As soon as this thought ended, Zhao Sheng asked himself, "Hundred Lifetimes Book, what level of existence are Banished Immortals?"

But this time, the Hundred Lifetimes Book did not respond at all.

Zhao Sheng, seeing this, repeated his question twice more, but the Hundred Lifetimes Book remained silent.

Not willing to give up, Zhao Sheng focused his thoughts, and finally, there was a reaction from the Hundred Lifetimes Book. Its pages unfolded, and his personal data panel emerged in Zhao Sheng's mind:

Name: Zhao Dingtian (Zhao Sheng)

Life Span: 20/149

Realm: Qi Refinement Seventh Layer

Profession: Second Order Talisman Master

Constitution: Water, Metal, Fire Three Spirit Roots, Spiritual Clan Bloodline (Evolving)

Talent: Bullet Time, Danger Perception, Absolute Rationality

[Skill]

Cultivation Technique: Mystic Primordial Heavy Water Technique (Great Success), Stacking Talisman Technique (Great Success)

Spell: Godslaying Sword Intent, Water Bomb Technique, Refraction Technique...

Talisman Making: Water Escape Talisman, Invisibility Talisman... Concentrating God Talisman, Water Mine Talisman, Illusion Shadow Escape Talisman (Gray)...

A glint flashed in Zhao Sheng's eyes as he suddenly noticed the words "Evolving".

He remembered that the word "Incomplete" originally followed "Spiritual Clan Bloodline", but now...

Zhao Sheng couldn't help but speculate whether the completion of the evolution of his Spiritual Clan Bloodline would be beneficial to him.

Combining what he knew, the Spirit Clan had once waged a great boundary war against the Human Clan in the Tianzhu Realm, which ultimately resulted in the Spirit Clan's defeat and expulsion from the Tianzhu Realm.

As a result, from ancient times to the present, a Spirit Clan half-blood like him was always subjected to disdain from the pure-blooded Human Clan.

If his blood concentration were to increase further, turning him into someone with silver hair and blue eyes like the Black Robed Taoist, with skin as white as jade...

Then... his fate would probably not bode well.

At this thought, Zhao Sheng's expression turned somewhat grim.

…

Just as Zhao Sheng's spirit had barely disengaged from the Purple Mansion, he felt his body shake violently, and at the same time, he heard Hai Lan'er's anxious voice crying out, "Wake up! Little Tian, what's wrong with you?"

Zhao Sheng opened his eyes to find himself lying on the ground, with Hai Lan'er looking at him in a panic.

"I'm fine," he said while quickly standing up.

At the same time, he swiftly scanned his surroundings, only to be shocked by what he saw.

At this moment, Li Mu, the Gui Xin Tree, and others lay in disarray on the ground, lifeless.

All of their faces were as pale as snow, their eyes as lifeless as dead fish, but what was terrifying was that their expressions were one of immense bliss and satisfaction, as if they had seen the utmost truth.

Right then, the ground beneath these bodies began to soften tremendously, turning into something resembling a swamp.

Countless gray "threads" stretched out from the ground beneath and spread rapidly over the bodies, wrapping them up into cocoon-like shapes.

"This... this... Dad!"

Hai Lan'er witnessed all of this, and, overwhelmed by horror, tears began to stream from her eyes, turning her into a weeping figure in no time.

Zhao Sheng inwardly sighed upon seeing this scene, instantly realizing the ultimate fate of Hai Dafu and the others.

No wonder the corpses of those who had entered before couldn't be seen; they had all become food.

Curiosity welled up in Zhao Sheng. What species of demon insects were these "threads", and what was their relationship with the Black Robed Taoist?

As he pondered this, a fine, cracking sound suddenly came from the spirit stone jade.

Zhao Sheng turned his head abruptly, only to see the surface of the jade riddled with countless cracks.

The next second, the jade collapsed with a loud bang, sending debris flying everywhere, leaving behind a large pile of spirit stones of various sizes where it once stood.