Chapter "383"
Adam: “They’ve been driven to the brink of collapse by pressure. Their will to fight is gone.”
Timothy, the Archmage: “Mm. Most likely they’re trying to kill the other Martial Saints, devour the completed martial cores or absorb the dissipating energy to barely support their ascension into the Celestial Realm.”
Adam: “Before we uncover the deepest secrets left behind from the Third Era, the most striking thing we’ve learned about them is this: their advancement relies entirely on piling up energy. As long as the energy and resources are sufficient, there are no bottlenecks.”
Rock interjected: “Much like body-refining mages. In fact, they advance even faster. Because of this, the Fourth Tower has the fewest True Spirits. I believe the same applies to them. With their current foundations, it’s almost impossible to survive the metamorphosis from level eight to level nine. Perhaps that’s why the beings of the Divine Realm have been hibernating.”
Adam: “It does seem so. To break through that bottleneck with sheer energy, the amount of primordial qi required for a Divine Realm lifeform to reach level nine from level eight must be staggering. But correspondingly, once it becomes level nine, its strength would be overwhelming—pure energy, crushing everything without reason.”
Timothy opened a discussion group through his personal chip, linking all Archmages, and said: “You’re correct. It truly would be brute-force energy. To this day, no True Spirit has surpassed level nine. A few have reached the threshold, but the path forward remains unknown. The Lords believe that the lowest rank of ultra–void life we’ve identified is already level ten, and it’s not impossible that level eleven life exists.”
Another Archmage from the Third Tower added: “Once we reach the Celestial Realm, if the being we’re after is only on the verge of level nine, we can still carry out the mission. But if it has already become a level nine entity, we must immediately self-destruct and depart. Otherwise, we won’t even have the chance for resurrection.”
Adam: “Understood. A level nine enemy is beyond what we can resist. Can the waiting legion outside handle it?”
Timothy: “All the official mages in this campaign have already descended. Only Archmage-rank and above remain within the legion. A clone of True Spirit Archmage Prometheus is also here. The Mage World has prepared a True Spirit-scale transportation array. If the situation spirals beyond control, Lord Prometheus’s true body will arrive in this void instantly, followed by Lord Laura, and the other True Spirits will strike across realms as well.”
Adam: “Then we wait. Once the Martial Saints determine a victor, we’ll eliminate the remnants and march into the Celestial Realm. But I judge it unlikely that the target has reached level nine. We’re already very close to it.”The group nodded in agreement. This calm confidence explained why they had remained composed until now. Still, one must always prepare for the worst.
Time flew. Under the mages’ watch, the Martial Saints, crushed by mounting pressure, turned on one another with brutal savagery. Over the course of a single month, the fall of more than twenty Martial Saints gave rise to the ascension of two more.
The mages refused to wait longer. They gathered their full strength and struck. Without a single loss, they effortlessly slaughtered the remaining Martial Saints and turned the Sacred Realm into a barren desert of primordial qi.
At the base of the ascension passage, they felt it: the quality of primordial qi in the Celestial Realm rivaled magic itself. Unlike the purely energetic nature of magic, the qi there already carried a trace of Aetheric, macrocosmic substance.
After warning everyone that in the face of irresistible force they must obey and self-destruct without hesitation, the group rose one by one, prepared for the final battle.
The Celestial Realm was tranquil—and heavy.
Tranquil, because so few Martial Saints lived here. At such a vital transmission point, only two stood guard.
Heavy, because every wisp of primordial qi carried tangible weight. The moment they entered, they felt its oppressive pressure. The laws here were utterly different from the lower realms or the outside void.
Here, each unit of qi contained as much energy as an entire city of the lower world could gather in a day. Running the Eighth-Generation cultivation method, every breath made the devouring cells within their bodies cry out in joy.
The Archmages breathed easier. Within this realm, where one could already look up to glimpse the Divine Realm above, they still felt no suffocating pressure of death. This proved the Divine Realm lifeform had indeed not reached level nine.
The Celestial Realm held only two factions: the Sect of Artifacts and the Alliance of Realms. Regardless of one’s previous race or inheritance, upon arrival here, all were bound to obey one of the two powers. For the first time, the mages beheld the social order of the Qianyuan Realm.
The two factions forbade private duels. There was no shortage of qi or resources here. All were compelled to cultivate in seclusion, awaiting the once-in-a-century chance for ascension.
According to them, it was “becoming a god”—serving directly under the Divine Sovereign. They considered it the highest honor.
This qualification had to be fought for. Every century, only five could ascend. Aside from the leaders of the two powers, the strongest contenders earned the right. They called it the Trial of Godhood.
The arrival of the mages was like a catastrophic mudslide, shattering the Celestial Realm’s fragile calm and plunging it into raging war.
Through a year of probing battles, Adam roughly estimated the number of Celestial Martial Saints did not exceed a hundred. So far, including those guarding the passage, each stood as tall as a Titan King.
But while Titan Kings were massive due to bodies forged of metals, the Celestial Martial Saints’ forms were flesh-and-blood, composed of devouring cells—terrifyingly powerful.
Here, one mage against one Martial Saint was no longer enough. It took ten to slay one without losses. Misjudging their opponents’ strength at first had already forced more than twenty mages back into the Mana Net.
Yet their harvest was just as great. After ambushing several Martial Saints of the Sect of Artifacts, Adam finally uncovered their inheritance.
It was not written in words but deeply imprinted in their martial cores and very cells.
The discovery thrilled the mages. None intended to charge blindly into the Divine Realm to die. Their true task was clear: complete Adam’s plan, discover how to refine Fourth-Era energy into primordial qi, and truly “kill” a plane.
The war blazed like wildfire. At first caught unprepared, the Celestial Martial Saints quickly regrouped under the coordination of the two powers, launching ferocious counterattacks that drove the mages into bitter struggle.
At this moment, Adam issued the final command:
“All mages—preserve no thought for your own survival. Even if it means self-destruction, you must drag the enemy down with you.”