The black fish hides in the narrow crevices of a coral reef, watching the open water from the shadows.
Predators pass by from time to time, and each time, it curls deeper into the cracks, careful not to draw attention.
Lin Yu's Arrogance clone has reincarnated into an ordinary black fish, and a full month has passed since its birth.
In this world, anything in the ocean can kill him, so he lives with constant caution.
His cultivation technique is meant for humanoids, yet now he is only a fish, and even simple circulation feels wrong.
For days, he struggles with the decision—should he abandon this life and reincarnate again, or accept the challenge and continue living as a black fish?
In the end, he decides to live, taking this life as a test of his ingenuity.
For weeks, he eats the soft green weeds growing on the reef, absorbs faint traces of inner Qi, and slowly strengthens his body.
But soon he reaches the body's natural limit; the genes of this black fish cannot grow stronger on their own.
His body is too weak, and because of that weakness, he cannot use his spiritual sense freely, nor can he borrow power from the other clones through the dream space.
He deduces countless methods to break his genetic lock and evolve, but every solution requires either long years—a lifespan no black fish possesses—or rare resources he cannot possibly obtain.
After exhausting the internal approaches, he shifts his thinking.
If he cannot break the gene lock from inside, then he will create a cultivation method that transforms the body from the outside.
To do that, he must refine his inner Qi until it can influence his environment.
He begins compressing and purifying his inner Qi, and each time its quality increases, the feedback strengthens his flesh.
He does not break his genetic lock, yet his body continues to grow, bit by bit.
Years pass, and eventually his size rivals that of a great white shark—yet he is still unmistakably a black fish.
One day, while swimming through the deep blue, he spots a small modern boat drifting on the ocean surface.
He has seen ships before—massive metal crafts he once avoided for fear of discovery—but now he has strength and no reason to shy away.
He swims closer, intending to search their minds for information about this world.
For years, he has concluded that this world is ordinary with fragile spiritual energy, but he knows his perspective is limited.
As he approaches the boat, he extends his spirit and effortlessly invades the minds of the passengers.
Their memories pour into him, and instantly his understanding shifts.
The world is not ordinary—ghosts exist.
And to fight them, a profession called "Ghost Hunters" has formed.
But the people on the boat are ordinary humans, unaware of how one becomes a Ghost Hunter.
From their memories, he locates an area in the ocean where ghosts frequently appear.
Curious, he heads toward that place.
Several days later, he discovers a sunken shipwreck deep beneath the waves.
Using his spirit, he senses clusters of ghosts lingering in the drowned corridors of the ship.
He opens his mouth and devours the ghosts directly, swallowing their essence whole.
He then settles on the ocean floor and cultivates, refining the ghostly energy to enhance his inner Qi.
A year passes.
In the human world, at the headquarters of the Ghost Hunter Association, twelve top captains and the commander gather inside a conference room.
The secretary turns on a projector, and an image flickers onto the wall:
A massive underwater graveyard of shipwrecks—thousands of wooden boats piled together in a single concentrated abyss.
The commander stares directly at the projection and asks, "Can anyone tell me where this is?"
The captains exchange confused glances until one finally answers, "Commander… that's the Red Lane shipwreck. The largest and most dangerous ghost cluster in the entire ocean."
Another captain swallows hard. "Commander… you aren't suggesting our next mission is there, right?"
A third captain frowns sharply. "This must be a joke. That place would be our grave."
The room murmurs in agreement as fear spreads through the captains.
In their world, ghosts are divided by strength: D-grade, C-grade, B-grade, A-grade, and S-grade.
The Red Lane shipwreck is infamous for housing multiple A-grade ghosts.
Yet the Ghost Hunter Association barely has enough A-grade hunters to form a complete unit.
But when they look at the commander's expression—grave, unmoving—they feel a cold uncertainty settle deep in their bones.
One captain finally speaks, voice trembling, "Commander… are we really going on a mission there?"
Another captain tries to retreat, "My team members are injured. I… can't accept this mission."
The commander cuts him off.
"Do you all know how many ghost fields remain in the ocean right now?"
"About a hundred," one captain answers stiffly.
The secretary shakes her head.
"Captain Banerjee, it is not a hundred. It's only one. The Red Lane shipwreck is the only ghost field left."
All twelve captains stand at once, shock spreading across their faces before morphing into outright fear.
"A S-grade ghost… an S-grade ghost must have been born," one captain whispers.
"S-grades devour other ghosts," another adds.
D- and C-grade ghosts cannot leave their origin point.
B- and A-grade ghosts can move, the distance depending on their strength.
But only S-grade ghosts can roam freely across the ocean, consuming every ghost they encounter.
For the entire ocean's ghost fields to disappear, leaving only one…
Only an S-grade could do such a thing.
"Commander," a captain says, voice cracking, "we aren't a match for an S-grade ghost."
"I am fully aware," the commander answers calmly.
"That is why the mission is not to kill the S-grade ghost. The mission is to find out who—or what—is killing an S-grade ghost."
A captain asks nervously, "Then… which team is going?"
The commander looks each captain in the eye.
"This mission is dangerous and critical. So the team will be… us."
"You mean all of us? With you personally?" a captain confirms.
"Yes," the commander replies.
Three days later, under a heavy sky, a ship glides slowly toward the Red Lane shipwreck—now surrounded by an ominous black mist that spreads like a living veil across the water.
The Ghost Hunter team stands at the bow, staring at the swirling darkness that swallows even the sunlight.
The commander lifts his hand.
"We're going in. Activate spiritual armour."
One by one, the captains release their Qi, a thin protective layer forming around their bodies like faintly glowing armour.
They leap from the ship into the ocean, sinking beneath the surface with silent splashes before swimming toward the black shroud.
The water grows colder with every meter, and as they approach the mist, a heavy pressure clamps down on them.
The commander signals again.
"Stay close. Don't lose formation."
With their Qi protecting their flesh, they enter the black mist.
The world twists instantly.
The commander blinks—and finds himself alone.
No ship.
No captains.
Only endless, shifting darkness.
Elsewhere, each captain experiences the same thing.
Alone.
Isolated.
Surrounded by black fog that swirls like something alive.
They call out through spiritual transmission, but no sound reaches anyone else.
Even their Qi feels muted, as if the mist is swallowing it.
Minutes pass as they explore cautiously, and the fog suddenly changes.
Corridors appear—jagged tunnels of black stone rising from the deep ocean floor, forming twisting passages.
A maze.
The captains move separately through the labyrinth, each step echoing unnaturally loud in the silent corridors.
Shadows slide along the walls.
Cold winds brush their necks.
Sometimes faint whispers drift past their ears, repeating their own thoughts back at them.
Hours turn to days.
None of them meets the other, yet none die.
Time is impossible to judge; even their watches malfunction.
Some corridors loop endlessly.
Some shift the moment they turn their heads.
But eventually, after wandering through claustrophobic darkness, avoiding phantom hands that brush their ankles, sidestepping ghostly illusions that copy their faces, and resisting the pressure of unseen eyes watching every breath…
The maze finally cracks.
A blinding white light flashes—
And all of them open their eyes at once.
They are lying on the ship's deck, cold and exhausted, their spiritual armour shattered around them.
The ship's crew rushes forward in panic.
"Commander! Captains! You all just… collapsed!"
"How long were we out?" the commander asks sharply.
"Only a few minutes," a sailor answers.
The captains exchange looks of disbelief.
A few minutes…?
But to them, days had passed inside the labyrinth.
The commander forces himself to stand.
"Get us out of here. Full speed."
The engines roar to life, and the ship turns sharply away from the black mist.
As the ship escapes, the mist behind it shifts… as if something deep inside the darkness is quietly watching them leave.
From the centre of the shipwreck, the Greed clone—now taking the form of a mermaid—watches the distant vessel disappear beyond the fog.
He does not chase them, and he does not kill them; there is no need.
He only cast an illusion strong enough to instil fear, ensuring they would not return to disturb him again.
He closes his eyes, sinking deeper into the abyss, and begins condensing a Spiritual Heart aligned with the Law of Devouring.
Though his cultivation has reached the peak of the initial third grade, he still cannot break past his genetic lock.
Thus, even though he now appears like a human-sized mermaid, his true physical mass is enormous—closer to the size of a blue whale.
Unable to break the lock, he simply allows his body to grow large enough to contain his rising energy.
A few days later, the Spiritual Heart forms successfully, and he steps into the Spiritual Heart stage.
He decides not to go onto land to hunt ghosts.
Instead, he chooses to remain here in the depths, for beneath the shipwreck lies a vein of Yin crystal.
It radiates the same type of energy he would gain from absorbing ghosts, making it unnecessary to move elsewhere.
He settles there and cultivates in silence.
Decades pass.
His comprehension of the Devouring Law slowly refines and eventually reaches the peak of the third stage.
Only then does he leave the ocean trench and begin swimming toward land.
A month later, the Demon Hunter Association leaders reconvene in an emergency as ghost clusters on land begin disappearing—exactly like those that vanished in the ocean decades earlier.
Another few decades slip by.
The Greed clone's comprehension finally reaches the initial fourth stage of the Devouring Law, granting him the ability to break through to the Demigod stage.
However, he still cannot form the prototype of a World Heart.
So he shifts his approach.
He deduces a method to break his genetic lock—not through strength but through the Particle Law.
Finally, using the Particle Law as a scalpel, he shatters his biological limitations.
His body evolves, and he smoothly steps into the Demigod stage.
He continues to deepen his comprehension of the Devouring Law with renewed momentum.
While he cultivates, in the Magician World, Doha suddenly feels his immortal concept spreading faint traces into every law within the world's fragments.
In that moment, Doha feels as though the world has become part of his own body.
His control over it rises to an impossible degree—so fine that even the existence of a grain of dust cannot escape his awareness.
The overwhelming feedback triggers enlightenment.
The world's laws pour into him through the immortal concept, fusing like flowing rivers into a single ocean.
Doha's immortal concept surges upward, advancing to the half-step seventh level of the fourth stage.
At the same moment, deep inside the Extraordinary Heart World, Lin Yu opens his eyes.
A pulse of clarity spreads through his body, and he realises his soul injuries—left from cutting away Arrogance and Greed—have finally healed.
The immortal concept stabilising in Doha's world echoes faintly through all connections, and Lin Yu feels the subtle strengthening of his own foundation.
He rises from meditation and returns to the dead world, descending once more into the silent Blood Lake cavern.
The crimson mist coils around him like a familiar embrace, and the ancient lake ripples with quiet anticipation.
Lin Yu stands before the dark waters, his expression calm.
"It's time," he murmurs.
He reaches into himself and pulls forward the next emotion—Sloth.
A heavy, stagnant aura gathers around his body as the sin reveals itself, filled with apathy, indifference, and the desire for endless rest.
With a single motion, Lin Yu severs it from his soul.
The Sloth emotion condenses into a spirit body and drifts above the lake like a drowsy phantom.
Lin Yu doesn't hesitate.
He takes out another divine-stage Weird core, swirling with spatial cracks and distorted energy, and begins refining it on the spot.
The divine core shatters under his will, and the pure law essence pours into the severed emotion.
The Sloth spirit trembles, gaining strength and clarity.
Lin Yu guides the process, tempering it, stabilising it, and forging it into a proper clone.
When the Sloth clone stabilises, it slowly opens its eyes—half-lidded, lazy, and serene, as if nothing in existence mattered.
Lin Yu points toward the Soul Well at the centre of the cavern.
"Go. Reincarnate."
The Sloth clone nods slowly, unhurried, and drifts toward the Soul Well.
The shallow vortex of soul-light pulls it in, swallowing its form completely.
Moments later, the connection snaps into place, and the Sloth clone begins its new life in another world.
Lin Yu exhales, feeling the slight exhaustion of another separation settle in his soul.
But he remains steady.
Only three emotions remain.
Lin Yu returns once more to the Extraordinary Heart World, his presence rippling through the silent, broken heavens.
He rises above the scarlet lake and spreads his immortal concept outward, letting it seep into the world's laws.
The world senses him instantly—rejecting, resisting, trembling beneath the intrusion.
Yet Lin Yu's immortal concept is now far sharper than before; the traces Doha spread across creation give subtle resonance, allowing Lin Yu to slip into the world laws like a whisper through cracks.
Threads of law—life, death, wind, lightning, shadow—twist and contort as his immortal concept infects them one by one.
The world resists less with each passing day, unable to block the steady, invasive flow.
Far beneath the ocean of this same world, the enormous black fish—his Greed clone—floats in the dark water, meditating in silence.
Its body has grown vast and smooth, shimmering faintly as particles of Yin energy flow across its scaled surface.
Decades of cultivation, devouring, compressing, and refining have pushed its limits to the brink.
Today, the pressure builds to a peak.
Deep in its core, the Devouring Law trembles.
A pulse of power erupts outward, rippling through the sea like a silent explosion.
The black fish opens its eyes—now glowing with bottomless darkness and abyssal hunger.
The bottleneck shatters, and it enters the Fourth Stage.
The water around it twists, drawn toward its aura like a vortex forming around a collapsing star.
Devouring force spills from its body in every direction, refining the water, the Yin Qi, even tiny particles of matter as fuel.
In that moment, the black fish senses Lin Yu's immortal concept circulating across the world—cold, vast, and eternal.
It responds.
The Devouring Law and the immortal concept resonate in the clone's core.
Slowly, it begins to merge them.
The black fish compresses the Devouring Law, layer by layer, threading it through the immortal concept like a chain forged in darkness.
The two powers collide, grind, and fuse—devouring and eternity becoming a single path.
Heaven trembles.
The ocean shudders.
The world's Yin currents freeze for a heartbeat.
In the depths, the black fish transforms.
Its aura shifts from mere consumption to infinite, unending hunger—devouring without end, devouring beyond time.
The Devour Law fully merges with the immortal concept.
The Greed clone closes its eyes in satisfaction.
Another pillar of Lin Yu's future form is complete.
And the Greed clone, now reborn as a blue-whale-sized black fish in human form, rises from the sea and appears openly before the world, accepting all challenges and remaining invincible.
With overwhelming strength, he builds temples across the coasts and gathers faith from the terrified and awestruck masses.
Under his guidance, a new profession is born—the Black Water Priest, disciples who wield devouring power mixed with Yin currents.
In just a few years, through faith, Yin crystals, and devouring, he amasses enough energy to return to the fourth stage of Extraordinary.
His previous laws fully recover, and under Lin Yu's immortal concept, he integrates them into the Devouring Law.
The immortal concept surges and advances to the seventh stage.
Centuries pass.
During that time, Lin Yu's soul slowly heals again.
When the final cracks mend, he cuts away the emotion of Envy, purifies it, and sends it to reincarnation.
A thousand years later, both Sloth and Envy clones are reborn, regain strength, and fully return to him.
With the return of two more pillars, Lin Yu's immortal concept reaches the ninth stage.
Now, except for the dead world he anchors personally, the immortal concept extends into the six other worlds, sinking root-threads into their laws like invisible anchors.
The foundations of his path are complete.
Lin Yu gathers his seven clones, and together they begin deducing the cultivation method for the fourth stage, Extraordinary, the realm of divinity itself.
With the immortal concept guiding them, the truth appears:
The Realm of Immortality.
First Stage — Divine Seal:
Even if only a wisp of his power remains, he will not die.
He must combine his divine essence, divine energy, and divine spirit with his immortal concept to forge a Divine Seal.
As long as the Divine Seal endures, he is eternal.
And throughout the fourth stage, he must refine this Divine Seal until it transforms into a law of its own.
With the path clarified, Lin Yu returns to the dead world.
There, inside the ancient cavern, Lin Yu and his seven clones carve runes into the stone and arrange a massive space array.
The array lights up, spiralling with divine symbols.
In flashes of light, the seven clones materialise before Lin Yu.
For the first time in existence—
Lin Yu stands with all seven of his clones at once.
Silent understanding passes between them.
They step into formation, soar out of the cavern, and rise into the sky.
They fly toward the deepest region of the ocean, descending into the absolute abyss where no life can exist.
At the bottom of the world, Lin Yu stands at the centre.
His seven clones take their positions around him, forming a perfect circle.
They release their divine power—seven different laws—and each beam locks onto the next, forming an unbreakable ring.
Their energies merge, weaving a lattice of divine light.
Then, without hesitation—
The seven clones sacrifice themselves.
Their bodies ignite first, burning with divine fire.
Then their souls follow, collapsing into pure divine essence.
From within each burning soul, a hidden true spirit slips out—each one containing a Divine Seal fragment.
The seven true spirits fly into Lin Yu's body and merge into his own Divine Seal.
The divine fire spreads into Lin Yu's body.
It burns him, refines him, and crushes him—
But he endures, reshaping the seven Divine Seals into one perfect Divine Seal.
When the fusion completes, a deep satisfaction floods Lin Yu's being.
The connection with Merin—the last leftover bond from the ancient fusion—breaks completely.
He becomes truly independent, no longer a shared existence, no longer a reflected soul.
Now, Lin Yu and Merin are like twin brothers, separate beings with separate destinies.
But before he can even feel joy—
The sky rips open.
Thunder clouds swirl violently above him, filled with divine rage.
Bolts of massive tribulation lightning twist and coil like celestial serpents.
The heavens roar—
Lin Yu has stepped into the Fourth Stage of the Divine Seal Realm.
And the tribulation comes for him.