Atop the mountain peak.

An Eight Trigrams Furnace hovered in the air.

Countless runes flowed across its surface, and raging flames burned within, shimmering with a brilliant, colorful light.

Within the flames were mountains and rivers, cities and towns—it was as if they contained the entire mortal world.

And they enveloped Zen Master Kong Ming!

A torrential flood of Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi poured into the Pill Furnace, so immense that it made the very void tremble.

Wang Xiao’s Nascent Soul sat cross-legged atop the Eight Trigrams Furnace, hands forming a seal, radiating an aura of immense power.

No matter how violently the Eight Trigrams Furnace shook, the Nascent Soul remained completely still.

"Wh-What Daoist Technique is this?!"

The pupils of the assembled Dao Realm experts contracted as they stared at the Eight Trigrams Furnace in the sky.

They could clearly feel the profound power radiating from it—a power so great it made their hearts pound with fear!

Of course,

what shocked them most was that Master Wang had shattered Zen Master Kong Ming’s Bodhi Dharma Seal with a single sword strike!

Even Zen Master Kong Ming himself had been trapped inside the Eight Trigrams Furnace.

This caused the color to drain from their faces, and a monumental shock, like a river overturning the sea, surged through their hearts.

A Cultivator who had practiced for less than a century and reached the Dao Realm less than half a month ago had just suppressed a Dao Realm expert of over ninety-nine hundred years in an instant.

J-Just what level of power had this Master Wang reached?!

Looking at the Great Daoist Nascent Soul sitting cross-legged in mid-air,

a single word involuntarily surfaced in everyone’s mind: Invincible!

They felt that not even the Divine Emperor, Zhao Yin, could have accomplished such a feat.

This Master Wang most definitely possessed the power to kill a Dao Realm expert!

Just as everyone was reeling from the shock,

CLANG!

A deafening noise erupted from within the Eight Trigrams Furnace!

An earth-shattering echo suddenly rang out between Heaven and Earth.

The sound was immense and resonant!

So much so that even from a hundred zhang away, the Dao Realm experts were engulfed by the soundwave. Their internal organs vibrated violently, and blood trickled involuntarily from their seven orifices!

"This is bad! Retreat! Seal the area!"

The hearts of the Dao Realm experts pounded wildly, and their expressions changed drastically.

Their figures flickered, and at the same time, the Magical Power in their bodies surged like a rushing river, completely enveloping the mountain peak for several thousand zhang in every direction!

The next moment,

a beam of light, so brilliant it defied description, suddenly shot out of the Eight Trigrams Furnace, soaring into the sky and filling the sea of clouds between Heaven and Earth.

The magnificent light enveloped everything in all directions. It seemed endless, submerging the land for thousands, even tens of thousands of li!

This light was even more dazzling than the great sun itself.

All the common people involuntarily looked up, only for the brilliance to sting their eyes and bring tears streaming down their faces.

Thinking it was a manifestation of an Immortal, they all fell to their knees and began to kowtow repeatedly.

The Dao Realm experts, however, saw that at the very instant the sky-piercing beam appeared,

the Eight Trigrams Furnace had shattered completely.

A world-destroying power erupted like a tsunami!

Massive ripples echoed outwards, crushing the void and leaving deep wrinkles in its fabric!

Even though the Dao Realm experts had been prepared, they were still blasted away by the utterly berserk energy.

All of their Magical Power was scattered!

RUMBLE RUMBLE RUMBLE!

The entirety of Fangcun Mountain shook violently, shedding huge chunks of rock as if it were about to collapse at any moment!

"Settle!"

Just then,

the Nascent Soul in mid-air uttered a single, mighty word!

The moment that sound rang out,

all motion seemed to cease.

The intense light receded, and the Eight Trigrams Furnace transformed back into a Tai Chi Diagram, which began to rotate slowly.

The peak of Fangcun Mountain gradually returned to normal.

At this moment.

Beneath the Tai Chi Diagram.

Zen Master Kong Ming sat cross-legged on the ground. His Great Daoist Nascent Soul hovered above his head, shimmering with a faint light.

At the same time,

brilliant motes of thought continuously circled, as if trying to merge back into his Great Daoist Nascent Soul.

However,

these brilliant motes of thought were all ensnared by the Tai Chi Diagram, unable to break free.

"Is it over?!"

The Dao Realm experts all stood hovering in the air, not daring to approach.

The violent energy from before had made them feel as if the apocalypse had arrived.

The power that had erupted was even enough to threaten their very lives!

It was a sense of crisis they had never experienced in their thousands of years of cultivation.

Just then,

HUUUU...

Zen Master Kong Ming slowly opened his eyes and exhaled a breath of turbid air.

His Great Daoist Nascent Soul sank back into his body and disappeared from view.

He seemed unchanged, yet at the same time, he appeared more vibrant and full of spirit than ever.

He rose, pressed his palms together, and bowed to Wang Xiao.

"Amitabha. Thank you, Master Wang, for your assistance. Otherwise, this humble monk fears he wouldn’t have even known how he died!"

He could feel the power of that mysterious thought hidden within his Great Daoist Nascent Soul.

It had almost completely fused with his Great Daoist Nascent Soul.

Without Wang Xiao’s help,

he would have never even discovered those motes of thought!

Once that consciousness awakened, he would have been powerless to resist and would have been instantly possessed and replaced!

After all,

the Great Daoist Nascent Soul was his Yin Spirit, formed from the fusion of his Lifebound Golden Core.

It was the very foundation of his being!

Controlling his Great Daoist Nascent Soul, Wang Xiao raised a hand. The Tai Chi Diagram around him flashed, pulling all the motes of thought into his grasp.

The turbulent fluctuations emanating from these motes were hundreds, even thousands of times more powerful than the remnant soul he had collected before.

Or perhaps,

these motes of thought were themselves formed from the convergence of countless remnant souls!

’Back then, for some particular reason, this Tier Seven Life was forced to shatter its own Yin Spirit into thousands of pieces. Then, using the Netherworld Reincarnation Pool, it attached those fragments to the Yin Spirits of this world’s living beings. They were then reincarnated into the mortal realm. Through Incense and Candle Power, the fragments converged into motes of thought, which were then absorbed by Cultivators. These motes grew stronger as the Cultivators’ strength increased, until, at a certain moment, they would replace the Cultivator entirely!’