The arena remained silent.
“If there are no higher bids, then this corpse of a Fire lineage Hunyuan lifeform shall belong to Emperor Jietian…” Dongbo Xueying swept his gaze across the surroundings, pausing for several breaths before declaring, “Very well, the auction concludes! This Hunyuan lifeform corpse shall belong to Emperor Jietian.”
As soon as the words fell, the red-haired Emperor Jietian took a single step, a flash of crimson light carrying him to Dongbo Xueying’s side. Without ceremony, he tossed a storage treasure to Dongbo Xueying, then waved his hand to collect the massive, two-hundred-meter-tall corpse of the Hunyuan lifeform—resembling a small mountain—before turning and departing.
“Hmm?” Dongbo Xueying immediately inspected the contents of the storage treasure, and his face lit up with joy.
Within the spatial treasure lay numerous colossal corpses of Hunyuan lifeforms, each exuding an overwhelming aura far surpassing the one he had just sold. It was only because these lifeforms in the Sacred Realm existed in large, organized tribes—and his own specimen was of a lineage absent in this realm—that he had managed to exchange for such a bounty.
—
“Damn it!” In his secluded abode, the sinister-looking, diminutive elder ‘Xie Fan’ sat cross-legged with a cold expression. Through his communication treasures, he had already received word from his allies about the auction’s outcome.
Though Xie Fan had a notorious reputation and a twisted temperament, the other powerhouses of Chiyun City were no pushovers either. Few cared about his disposition; while they might privately mock him, they still valued his strength enough to maintain ties. After all, his combat prowess ranked him among the top ten in Chiyun City—a force even the City Lord, Fengyun Yiye, relied upon as a right-hand man. Naturally, many allies kept him informed of the auction’s proceedings.
“Six corpses of perfected Divine Emperor-tier Hunyuan lifeforms, plus a million units of provisions. Emperor Jietian’s bid was indeed extravagant.” Xie Fan sneered. “That brat Feixue has landed himself a windfall.”
In Xie Fan’s eyes, cultivators were divided only by strength.
He considered ‘Feixue’ utterly unworthy of such wealth. In his view, offering three perfected Divine Emperor-tier corpses was already a generous concession—one made solely out of deference to Chiyun City’s prohibitions. Were it not for those restrictions, he would have long since resorted to murder and plunder.
“Let him revel in his luck for now. Hmph. Sooner or later, he’ll have to step outside the city.” Xie Fan mused darkly.
—
“Sister, the auction has concluded. The final bid exceeded our limits—Emperor Jietian claimed it with six corpses and a million units of provisions.”
“Return, then.”
Upon a vast bed of ice sat a breathtakingly beautiful woman clad in black robes—none other than ‘Mo Shu,’ one of the two powerhouses who had previously pressured Dongbo Xueying. She had abstained from attending the auction, instead delegating the bidding to an ally.
“Damn it. I’ll have to negotiate with Emperor Jietian later. Once he no longer needs that corpse, perhaps he’ll sell it to me.” Mo Shu’s eyes blazed with flickering flames as she opened them.
How long would it take to fully study a complete Hunyuan lifeform corpse?
Impossible to say.
Unless one became a Hunyuan lifeform themselves, no cultivator could ever fully decipher the laws manifested within such a corpse. This was precisely why Dongbo Xueying had refrained from auctioning the Void lineage corpse he had obtained from the Iron Dragon City Lord’s eldest son. Though his gains from studying it had dwindled, he would never discard such a treasure lightly.
As his own insights deepened, he could always revisit it for further enlightenment.
—
Back at Dongbo Xueying’s abode, the gathered cultivators began dispersing after the auction’s conclusion.
The Northriver Emperor cast a glance at Dongbo Xueying before departing, though inwardly, he felt a growing pressure. “This Ying Shan Xueying possesses terrifying talent. Even in the Heartvoid Continent, his cultivation speed was unprecedented. Now, his mastery of the Void Dao rivals my own, and his soul techniques stand unrivaled across countless worlds. I’ve yet to hear of anyone who can match him in that regard.”
Facing Dongbo Xueying, the Northriver Emperor couldn’t help but feel the weight of competition.
Most alarming of all—Xueying’s progress was relentless.
“In the Broken Tooth Mountain Range, he was far beneath me.”
“Yet in the Thunderbolt World, he forced me to flee.”
“Now, in this Sacred Realm teeming with Hunyuan lifeforms, his cultivation resources have multiplied. How much further will he advance? If he achieves a semi-Hunyuan lifeform body, coupled with those monstrous soul techniques, who could possibly oppose him?” The Northriver Emperor sighed inwardly. “Fortunately, for those who walk the path of enlightenment, ascending to a semi-Hunyuan lifeform is exponentially harder than for us bloodline cultivators—by hundreds, if not thousands, of times.”
Those with Hunyuan bloodlines already possessed the foundation; their path was one of excavation.
But enlightenment cultivators had to grasp the profound laws and forge a semi-Hunyuan lifeform from nothing—a feat of incomparable difficulty.
“Xie Fan? Hmph. Antagonizing Ying Shan Xueying will only end in misery.” The Northriver Emperor smirked coldly. He had long resolved to avoid conflict with Xueying in this world, especially since he could activate the mark on his wrist to teleport to the third realm at any time. “As long as I remain within the city, Xueying won’t dare act. I merely need to ensure our departures don’t coincide.”
“Once I achieve the Hunyuan realm, what will Ying Shan Xueying amount to then?”
Shaking off his grievances, the Northriver Emperor refocused on his ultimate goal—ascension to the pinnacle of existence.
—
After the auction, Dongbo Xueying retreated into a period of low-profile cultivation.
With six perfected Divine Emperor-tier Void lineage Hunyuan lifeform corpses at his disposal, his insights flourished. As his comprehension deepened, he patiently refined his techniques within his abode, sustained by ample provisions.
A mere sixty thousand years after arriving in the Sacred Realm, he restored his physical body to the ‘Divine Emperor (Late Stage)’—a stable, unshakable foundation.
Yet beyond this point…
He encountered an insurmountable bottleneck.
The leap from ‘Divine Emperor (Late Stage)’ to a semi-Hunyuan lifeform proved staggeringly difficult. Despite his ever-accumulating insights, the breakthrough eluded him.
“Not only can I not achieve a true semi-Hunyuan lifeform, I can’t even temporarily unleash its combat prowess.” Dongbo Xueying understood the core issue.
A semi-Hunyuan lifeform represented the absolute pinnacle of physical perfection beneath true Hunyuan existence—a state where no further refinement was theoretically possible.
To surpass it?
That would require breaking through with sheer force—ascending directly to the supreme rank of ‘Hunyuan Lords,’ sovereigns whose dominion spanned infinite spatial realms under their protection.
“Patience.”
Dongbo Xueying was in no rush.
First, he meticulously studied every fragment of auxiliary materials, a process spanning eighty million years.
Next, he devoted over three billion years to analyzing each of the six Hunyuan lifeform corpses in exhaustive detail.
Only then did he begin cross-referencing and synthesizing his insights.
“Perfection.”
“The absolute pinnacle of physical form beneath Hunyuan life…”
As his comprehension grew increasingly profound, Dongbo Xueying began formulating theories.
Guided by these, he commenced experimental cultivation.
“Boom.”
Within the vast underground hall of his abode, Dongbo Xueying sat cross-legged as his body abruptly transformed.
His legs thickened dramatically—only for the bones within to fracture and collapse moments later.
“Failure.”
“Boom.”
His skin erupted with a dense, armored layer, his frame swelling with primal might—before his flesh began unraveling.
“Still not enough.”
—
Though each attempt ended in failure, Dongbo Xueying remained undaunted. He knew that achieving a semi-Hunyuan lifeform was no fleeting endeavor; he had prepared for an epoch-spanning journey of refinement. His confidence stemmed from the boundless insights gleaned from the Hunyuan corpses, empowering him to boldly experiment.
Then, on a day eighty-eight billion years after his arrival in the Sacred Realm…
Dongbo Xueying initiated his nineteenth experimental transformation—a reconstruction requiring eons of accumulated wisdom to devise.
“Boom.”
His body abruptly expanded to a towering hundred meters, his skin shimmering with a faint gray radiance as an overwhelming aura erupted.
Though internal structures began collapsing, the rate was manageable.
“The degradation is within tolerable limits! In this form, I should last the duration of a cup of tea before complete disintegration.” A rare smile touched Dongbo Xueying’s lips. Previous attempts had either been partial or lasted mere fractions of a breath—far too fleeting for practical use.
But a cup of tea’s worth of time?
That was enough to matter in battle.
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