The Boundless Sea rose and fell.

  The giant was dead.

  Driven by desperate longing for his Array Word, he had tried to seize it back, only to be slain by the temporal power unleashed by the activated “Lin” Array Word. His vitality withered, his flesh decayed, his soul dried up. He was literally aged to death.

  His colossal corpse crashed into the sea, raising towering waves.

  Yet the cold, merciless waters swallowed him whole, burying him forever.

  The sea churned, the wind wailed, as though singing a dirge for the fallen giant.

  His statue-like remains sank deeper and deeper.

  Even in death, his terrifying aura frightened schools of fish and sea beasts.

  Some beasts fled in panic.

  Others, sensing opportunity, swam against the current, hoping to claim fortune from his corpse.

  A Spirit Severing expert of extraordinary bloodline—even dead, his body rivaled heavenly treasures.

  But the freshly slain giant still radiated deadly pressure.

  Foundation Establishment–level beasts that drew near were instantly shredded by lingering energy.

  The world was in uproar.

  Far away,

  Du Longyang, Ye Shoudao, and the others inhaled sharply.

  The giant had simply… died.

  No earth-shattering battle.

  He just quietly turned into a corpse and sank to the seabed.

  Young Master Lu… was too terrifying!

  That giant’s pressure had been immense, and the array formed by his eighteen stone slabs could have ended worlds.

  Yet such a being hadn’t even touched a hair on Young Master Lu’s head before dying mysteriously.

  Their reverence for Lu grew deeper.

  Zhu Long stood atop the red dragon, long lashes trembling.

  She seemed to sense the power of time.

  It resonated faintly with her innate divine ability.

  Lu stored the Array Word.

  Without the giant’s divine sense, the eighteen stone slabs lost their terrifying might and began to sink.

  Lu raised an eyebrow.

  With a thought and a wave of his hand,

  the slabs floated up.

  “Each slab bears an array rune capable of nurturing at least a Nascent Soul–level array master.”

  He considered.

  Then smiled.

  In the dao of arrays, he surpassed the giant.

  He had no personal need for the slabs.

  “Let them scatter across the world as opportunities…”

  He pushed forward.

  BOOM!

  Terrifying force erupted.

  With a tremendous roar, the eighteen slabs became streaks of light, shooting toward every corner of Five Phoenixes.

  Suddenly,

  Lu’s gaze shifted to the giant’s corpse on the seabed.

  With a thought,

  the giant’s belt floated up before him.

  Massive—nine enormous gems the size of millstones embedded in it.

  What interested Lu was the spatial fluctuations they emitted.

  Nine spatial gems!

  He pried them free.

  To the giant, the eighteen slabs had been more precious.

  But for Five Phoenixes, spatial gems were priceless.

  They heralded the age of spatial storage artifacts.

  Of course, with his Dark Profound Ring, Lu had little personal need.

  He sent his divine sense inside,

  erased the old restrictions, and examined the contents:

  array dao manuals, pills, formation tools—decent, but nothing that excited him.

  He flicked the Phoenix Feather armrest.

  The swords sang and shot skyward.

  Slash!

  The nine millstone-sized gems were sliced into many pieces.

  With a wave, the fragments became streams of light scattering across the continent.

  Though smaller, each fragment retained an independent space—a unique property of spatial gems.

  With slight refinement, they would become elegant storage jewelry.

  Five Phoenixes would soon see its first spatial storage treasures.

  You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

  Done,

  Lu vanished.

  He did not return to White Jade Capital on Lake Heart Island.

  In a flash of teleportation,

  he appeared on the blood-colored battlefield.

  The fighting had calmed.

  Jiang Li, Li Sansui, and others were cleaning up.

  The corpses of Golden Body and Prajna cultivators yielded rich spoils:

  flying bronze warships, flying kasayas, armor, weapons…

  All treasures that could advance Five Phoenixes further.

  Especially the bronze warships—if their principles could be reverse-engineered, transportation across the continent would be revolutionized. Short distances might no longer require Dragon Gates.

  Lu remained unseen.

  When he wished to stay hidden, no one could detect him.

  He surveyed the battlefield.

  Thanks to Tulang’s soul rain and the fierce battles, many were on the verge of breakthrough.

  Lu smiled.

  The tempering was effective.

  Perhaps it was time to open the battlefield to Golden Core and Heavenly Lock cultivators as well.

  Hum…

  He raised a hand, drawing runes in the air.

  Space rippled.

  Light converged.

  Tulang’s massive corpse floated before him.

  Only a phantom linked to Golden Body Continent’s origin—his true soul was already pulverized.

  The link would soon fade completely.

  Lu flicked a finger.

  The phantom exploded into starlight.

  His eyes shifted.

  His mind crossed vast distance in an instant.

  Golden Body Continent’s origin was in chaos after Tulang’s death—temporarily ownerless.

  That origin was what Lu coveted to push Five Phoenixes into High-Tier Martial.

  Yet now,

  while he dealt with the Liujia giant,

  someone was shamelessly trying to steal it.

  How could Lu’s temper tolerate that?

  …

  Golden Body Continent.

  Rumble!

  The origin roared, shocking every expert.

  Nascent Soul and above could commune with the origin—every powerful cultivator sensed the disturbance.

  As a supreme Mid-Tier Martial world, Golden Body was mighty.

  Four or five Spirit Severing experts existed—one mid-stage elder, the rest early-stage.

  Tulang, late-stage, had ruled unchallenged.

  Vajra Temple—Tulang’s faction—was the continent’s supreme power.

  Its two vice-lords were early-stage Spirit Severing.

  In the main hall,

  a colossal golden statue of Tulang loomed.

  The two vice-lords sat beneath it, circulating blood and tempering flesh.

  Suddenly—

  they opened their eyes.

  Crack… crack…

  The statue split apart.

  Both vice-lords paled.

  “The lord’s golden body has shattered! Something has happened to him!”

  They exchanged horrified glances.

  Tulang—late-stage Spirit Severing, golden body nearing semi-holy—had met misfortune.

  The origin churned wildly.

  Every Nascent Soul on the continent felt it.

  Experts rushed to Vajra Temple.

  “Vice-lords… what is happening?”

  Panic spread.

  “Reports from every branch—the lord’s statues have all exploded…”

  “Has the lord… met with disaster?”

  The vice-lords grew grave.

  Tulang’s death would plunge the continent into chaos.

  They chose to conceal it.

  “The lord is undergoing a golden body rebirth, shedding the old to form the new. That is why every statue shattered.”

  One vice-lord declared.

  The other inwardly marveled— who said they were all brawn and no brain?

  The Nascent Souls below seemed convinced.

  It was the only explanation that made sense.

  No one could imagine the invincible Tulang dead.

  Suddenly—

  the sky trembled.

  World protection force surged violently.

  As long as a world remained Mid-Tier Martial, that force persisted. Golden Body Continent, though supreme among its tier, had not yet escaped it.

  Only ascension to High-Tier Martial removed it.

  Rumble!

  Every Infant Transformation and Nascent Soul looked up.

  The vice-lords shot into the sky, blood vitality roaring, golden bodies blazing.

  Then—

  golden light flooded the heavens.

  A colossal golden Buddha manifested.

  Buddhism was not foreign here—Golden Body Continent belonged to the Venerable One.

  But this Buddha was not theirs.

  World protection force repelled it.

  Sanskrit chants echoed.

  Seven-colored light cascaded.

  Within the golden Buddha,

  a monk in blood-bright kasaya pressed palms together.

  Lotuses bloomed with every step as he descended from beyond the sky.

  “Who are you?!”

  The vice-lords roared, blood vitality weaving a net to block him.

  “Amitabha. Tulang has fallen. Heaven’s Dao collapses. This world will sink into darkness and death. The sea of suffering will devour countless beings. You need my Buddha’s salvation to escape it.”

  Wuxing’s face was pure compassion, his shaven head glowing like a true Buddha.

  “Nonsense!”

  “Our lord is merely reforming his golden body! How dare you spread lies, bald donkey!”

  One vice-lord bellowed.

  He had to defend the lie, tears and all.

  Wuxing looked upon the two early-stage Spirit Severing vice-lords with pity.

  He sighed.

  Chanted softly.

  Yet inwardly—he sensed it.

  The mysterious array master who killed Tulang was coming.

  He had to claim enough of the origin before that being arrived!

  He needed to seize this world fast.

  “Amitabha. This monk shall deliver you…”

  His fingers brushed the prayer beads at his neck—a spatial artifact.

  A golden monk’s staff appeared, adorned with ninety-nine large rings that jingled.

  Clang!

  Wuxing attacked.

  Compassion vanished from his eyes.

  Only slaughter remained.

  The Buddha’s teaching: one thought paradise, one thought hell.

  He would use the crudest method to claim the origin quickly.

  His gaze turned ice-cold.

  Staff in one hand, he strode through the void.

  Though Golden Body Continent belonged to the Venerable One,

  what did it matter?

  Wuxing sought to break free of Mid-Tier Martial shackles, ascend to the High-Tier Buddhist Realm, and reach Soul Projection.

  Ruthlessness was required.

  Supreme Mid-Tier Martial worlds were rivals by nature.

  The continent’s experts reacted, rising to fight.

  BOOM!

  The staff swept—golden light flashed.

  The two vice-lords, powerful as they were, melted into blood.

  Screams filled Vajra Temple, the holy land founded by Tulang.

  An elder with floating golden body and thundering blood vitality descended.

  An old Buddhist monk of Golden Body Continent.

  Wuxing faced him with sorrowful pity, staff in hand, walking through oceans of blood and mountains of corpses.

  He was no Buddha—he was a demon.

  They pressed palms together in greeting.

  Then Wuxing swung.

  The old monk’s body shattered.

  The staff turned blood-red, greedily drinking blood.

  The old monk’s soul radiated compassion,

  chanting as it formed a golden barrier.

  Wuxing was unmoved.

  Every Nascent Soul in Vajra Temple became blood mist.

  The holy land became a domain of death.

  “The semi-holy artifact bestowed by the Venerable One… I have refined it into a true holy-tier weapon. You cannot stop it.”

  Clang!

  The old monk’s soul sighed and was erased.

  The staff spun, emitting profound fluctuations.

  It swept across Golden Body Continent.

  Bang! Bang! Bang!

  Mortals exploded into blood mist.

  Rivers of blood, mountains of corpses—horror beyond words.

  Yet Wuxing was accustomed.

  Clearly, this was not his first genocide.

  The staff absorbed endless blood qi, wreathed in black-red karmic flames.

  Sinful karma fire.

  Wuxing gazed at it almost drunkenly.

  The flames only made the staff stronger.

  “Time to claim the origin.”

  He let the staff harvest lives across the sky.

  Pressing palms together, kasaya fluttering, he became the compassionate monk once more.

  He stepped into the origin space.

  The massive origin shone like a star.

  Far larger than Tianyuan’s—befitting a supreme Mid-Tier Martial world.

  Wuxing caressed it lovingly, though it was cold to the touch.

  But his heart burned.

  Origin was a world’s foundation.

  The stronger the world, the more precious.

  It was the only energy they could touch that reached High-Tier Martial level.

  This was why Tulang, Wuxing, and others loved destroying worlds—each granted power from the origin.

  Wuxing inhaled deeply, savoring it like fine cuisine.

  He spread his arms, blood-red kasaya falling away.

  With reverence and hunger, he dove toward the origin—like a swimmer entering water.

  He would bathe within, like the Bitter Disciple once did in Tianyuan, and absorb its power.

  Suddenly—

  just as he was about to enter,

  immense energy coalesced.

  A giant spiritual-energy palm materialized.

  SLAP!

  Wuxing—halfway inside—was slapped away.

  Terrifying force sent him tumbling through the void.

  “You thief.”

  “Do you understand first come, first served?”

  “I, Lu Ping’an, hate it most when others try to take advantage of me.”

  White robes fluttering,

  a white-clothed youth in a silver-bladed wheelchair appeared in the origin space.

  He glanced sideways at the monk he had just slapped flying.

  Far away,

  Wuxing climbed to his feet, dusting his robes.

  He pressed palms together.

  No anger, no killing intent.

  Only a gentle smile.

  “You must be the mysterious array master who used that profound formation to kill Tulang.”

  “Tulang died by your hand, so you deserve a share of the origin. But I have eliminated the other Spirit Severing threats on this continent.”

  “Such a massive origin—you cannot consume it all alone. Why not…”

  “Shall we split it 50–50?”

  Wuxing smiled warmly.

  He felt 50–50 was perfectly fair.

  Yet…

  Lu glanced at him.

  “Shameless…”

  “Get lost!”

  His words thundered like judgment.

  Wuxing’s smile froze,

  then slowly vanished.