Translator: CinderTL
"Return to zero!"
The Ultimate Powerhouse, having achieved Heart's Perfection, possessed a state of near-absolute rationality. Under no circumstances would his emotions cloud his judgment.
Thus, when the Tian Wen Supreme Powerhouse witnessed Li Chunjun devour Supreme Powerhouse Gui Ling and realized that his own fundamental daos were no match for Li Chunjun's Great Unification Realm—where forty-nine great daos converged into one—he made an immediate, decisive choice.
Retreat!
After breaking free from the starry sky Li Chunjun had pulled into the Void, he fled the area at maximum speed and contacted the Starry Sky Group, using their teleportation technology to escape.
As for Li Chunjun...
He now focused all his time and energy on Supreme Powerhouse Gui Ling, determined to extract every insight into the great dao of the soul from the powerhouse's reincarnated body. This was crucial to verify the authenticity of the cultivation insights he had imparted.
Under these circumstances, he couldn't spare sufficient power to pursue the Tian Wen Supreme Powerhouse.
In the end, the Tian Wen Supreme Powerhouse swiftly withdrew from the battlefield.
Meanwhile, Supreme Powerhouse Gui Ling's reincarnated body, after a futile struggle, suffered the same fate as the thirteen foreign race dao harmonization experts before him. Li Chunjun completely pulled him into the Void, vanishing him from the perception of the sole surviving Ultimate Powerhouse.
The battle between Li Chunjun and the thirteen foreign race dao harmonization experts, including two Ultimate Powerhouses, was not without its observers.
Xing Wu of the War Commission and Yuan Yin of the Starry Sky Group were both closely monitoring the clash.
When the reincarnated bodies of the Tian Wen Supreme Powerhouse and Supreme Powerhouse Gui Ling simultaneously launched their attacks, the two observers nearly concluded that the battle was over.
After all...
Two Ultimate Powerhouses striking at once, especially while Li Chunjun was already engaged in a life-or-death struggle against thirteen foreign race dao harmonization experts, and doing so with what amounted to a sneak attack—such a strategy would likely overwhelm even another Ultimate Powerhouse.
A faint sense of regret even stirred within them.
Another progenitor divine being who had pioneered a Dao was about to become a mere historical footnote.
But the battle's ultimate outcome far exceeded the two observers' expectations. The visual of Supreme Powerhouse Gui Ling's reincarnated body being dragged into the Void Realm sent a profound shock through their minds, leaving these two top-tier experts in utter disbelief.
"How is this possible?!"
Although Supreme Powerhouse Gui Ling's reincarnated body lacked the full power of a true Ultimate Powerhouse, this being...
...was undoubtedly among the most formidable entities just below the Ultimate Powerhouse tier.
He belonged to the same echelon as the supreme powerhouse candidates who controlled the origins of a Dao and the progenitor divine beings.
Yet this supreme being, even with the advantage of a surprise attack alongside another Ultimate Powerhouse, had still been dragged into the Void Realm by Li Chunjun...
How could his power have reached such a level?!
"Move now!"
Even as Xing Wu and Yuan Yin were still reeling from the shock, the Tian Wen Supreme Powerhouse's voice reverberated through their shared Heart-Mind resonance.
"Activate the Array Formation and return to Human Territory. Leave Li Chunjun behind—we must buy time! Time to summon the Ultimate Powerhouses, Supreme Sovereigns, and Dao Unification experts back from the great dao river!"
The Supreme Powerhouse made the decision swiftly.
Alerted by his warning, Xing Wu and Yuan Yin quickly recovered from their shock.
The stability granted by their Heart's Perfection allowed them to regain their composure with remarkable speed.
Even with a surprise attack, the reincarnated bodies of the Tian Wen and Supreme Powerhouse Gui Ling had failed to subdue Li Chunjun, and the latter had even been lost!
The power Li Chunjun had demonstrated...
...far exceeded what an Ultimate Powerhouse should possess!
To ensure he wouldn't threaten the Human Race's Overlord status in the Cosmic Void, eliminating him would require at least five or six Ultimate Powerhouses working together.
Yet summoning all these Ultimate Powerhouses back from the great dao river would take decades at the very least.
At that moment, Supreme Origin Sovereign Yuan Yin reacted with lightning speed.
Activating a Supreme Treasure-level Immortal Artifact, he successfully channeled vast Void Power, enveloping their forms and swiftly pulling them away from the starry sky.
Meanwhile, in the void, as the Supreme Powerhouse Gui Ling's reincarnated body was completely eroded by the Void Power, he plunged into an endless emptiness.
Surprisingly, he offered no further resistance, allowing the Void Power to devour him entirely.
He knew that his struggles would only allow Li Chunjun to better understand his mastery of the great dao of the soul and other great daos, thus strengthening his opponent.
Moreover...
He harbored a deep longing for this Void Power, which embodied the profound mysteries of the great unification realm.
Though he felt an unparalleled emptiness as he fell into the void, as the Void Power relentlessly eroded all the power he possessed, he also experienced an indescribable sense of fulfillment.
Hear the Dao in the morning, die content by evening.
To be annihilated by the power of the great unification realm...
This was a stroke of fortune amidst misfortune.
The only regret...
He could not share this enlightenment of the great unification realm with his true body.
Completely devoured by the Void, the Supreme Powerhouse Gui Ling remained unaware that his sense of fulfillment—his feeling of having lived a life without regrets—had forced Li Chunjun to expend far more effort than anticipated to erode him with his void great dao.
At that moment, Li Chunjun's Void Power even rippled, nearly being shattered by the Ultimate Powerhouse's reincarnated body.
Fortunately...
Completely consumed by the Void, Gui Ling never sensed this critical juncture.
Moreover, he was ultimately just the reincarnated body of the Supreme Powerhouse Gui Ling, not the true Supreme Powerhouse himself.
Such reincarnated bodies, no matter how perfect their mental state appeared or how refined their great dao of the soul, inevitably possessed an insurmountable flaw:
Their true body.
It was this flaw that prevented the Supreme Powerhouse Gui Ling's reincarnated body's "Morning I hear the Dao, evening I die content" fulfillment and profound resonance from breaking through the Void Power's erosion.
Thus, he vanished completely into the Void, carrying this lingering regret.
This outcome left Li Chunjun with a grave expression.
He had glimpsed a mental realm even higher than "Heart's Perfection."
In other words, it was the eleventh realm of the Mind Realm!
The Ultimate Powerhouses had long suspected that the so-called "perfection" and "immortality" of the tenth realm of the Mind Realm were not its true limits, but rather a relative one.
Beyond the tenth realm lay the eleventh realm!
Yet what this realm entailed remained a mystery, defying explanation even by the progenitor divine beings born from the great dao of heaven and earth.
The breakthrough to this eleventh realm...
Must be Enlightenment!
Not the sudden enlightenment granted by the leaves of the Enlightenment Divine Tree.
Nor the innate Dao-pioneering of progenitor divine beings, who were born embodying the rules of the Cosmos and carried a Companion Great Dao from birth to perfect the Cosmos.
But true Enlightenment!
The realization of one's own Dao!
Only by reaching this stage, by comprehending one's own Dao, could one shatter the shackles of the Great Dao that limited the Mind Realm to holding only nine great daos. This breakthrough would allow one to reach the eleventh realm, capable of bearing a tenth, twentieth, thirtieth, fortieth, and ultimately all forty-nine great daos.
"Heart's Perfection seeks a state of utter fulfillment, free from regret! But Enlightenment requires fervent passion, unwavering resolve, and relentless obsession."
Li Chunjun had a sudden realization: "When these passion, resolve, and obsession reach their peak within the Mind Realm, they can be ignited by external or internal forces, triggering a cosmic explosion of unprecedented brilliance. This cataclysmic event unleashes a dazzling fire of inspiration, leading to Enlightenment... the profound understanding of one's own Dao!"
In a daze, he glimpsed a new path—one that seemed to surpass the great unification realm, or perhaps belonged to Life Level 51, beyond the current maximum of 50.
Yet a critical requirement for this path remained elusive:
He possessed unwavering resolve.
He harbored relentless obsession.
But he lacked one essential element:
Fervent passion.
The moment he paused in his trance, his thoughts snapped back to rationality.
He glanced at the Supreme Powerhouse Gui Ling, already devoured by the Void, then at the foreign race dao harmonization experts, long since consumed by the Void...
Finally, his gaze settled on the Human Emperor Banner.
[ "Killed a Level 41 creature, experience +23,715!" ]
[ "Killed a Level 41 creature, experience +24,211!" ]
[ "Killed a Level 42 creature, experience +75,985!" ]
[ Life Level: 47 (369,085/7,000,000) ]
Enlightenment.
It remained merely a conjecture.
Just as Ultimate Powerhouses had made countless hypotheses and explored countless paths in their divination of the path beyond the Ultimate Powerhouse realm, no one knew where those paths would ultimately lead or whether they would succeed.
Compared to those ethereal and uncertain paths, advancing his Life Level to 51 to unlock the opportunity for Ascension to Immortality seemed far more promising.
Although the severe scarcity of dao unification experts, Supreme Sovereigns, and Ultimate Powerhouses across the cosmos meant he would need to spend an immeasurably long time cultivating enough Supreme Sovereigns and Ultimate Powerhouses to raise his Life Level to 51, still...
This path, at least, was visible.
With a wave of his void hand, Li Chunjun summoned six Immortal Artifacts into his grasp.
These weren't Quasi-Immortal Artifacts—they were genuine Immortal Artifacts!
For a Dao Venerable, even two such Supreme Treasures would be enough to guide them toward achieving Supreme Sovereign status. Yet the reincarnated body of the Supreme Powerhouse Gui Ling possessed six of these priceless artifacts.
Li Chunjun's profound understanding of the great dao of the soul had allowed him to completely suppress Gui Ling's reincarnated body, leaving the latter no time to destroy the artifacts. As a result, all six Immortal Artifacts became his spoils of war.
The only regret was failing to capture the Tian Wen Supreme Powerhouse.
Otherwise, considering the number of Immortal Artifacts an Ultimate Powerhouse's true body might carry, Li Chunjun wouldn't have been surprised to find more than ten.
Regaining his composure, Li Chunjun turned his gaze toward the starry sky beyond the Great Kun Realm.
There, the spatial ripples left by Xing Wu, Yuan Yin, Tian Wen, and the others as they teleported away still lingered.
Given the distance between the Great Kun Realm and the Profound Yellow Realm and Void Realm, Li Chunjun estimated it would take at least thirty to forty years to return, even if he "borrowed" Star Gates along the way.
But that was before he had reached the great unification realm.
Now, the profound mysteries of the great unification realm, brought about by his Life Level 47...
allowed him to swiftly recall the key to the Starry Sky Group's ultra-long-distance projection.
It was...
"The great dao light net," Li Chunjun said.
Star Gate teleportation involved transferring from one spatial node to another.
Ultra-long-distance projection, on the other hand, utilized the great dao light net to project toward another great dao light net, enabling cross-border transmission between Great Worlds.
And the great dao light net...
"Is the great unification realm itself," Li Chunjun thought, his mind racing as he repeatedly reviewed the Starry Sky Group's intricate operation of the great dao light net for ultra-long-distance projection.
In the next moment...
He activated the power of the great dao light net throughout the Great Kun Realm.
As the great dao light net of the Great Kun Realm resonated with the great dao light net of a distant Great World, his figure suddenly followed this resonance, crossing the vast distance in a single stride...
Whoosh!
A flash of light.
He vanished from the outer reaches of the Great Kun Realm's Void.
(End of the Chapter)
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