173: The innate Dao body that transcends the divine body

The green-haired youth from the Ancient Mu Family, Mu Qingya, stepped forward first, placing his palm on the cold jade stele.

Instantly, the entire white jade stele seemed to come alive; countless emerald green vines burst forth from the "jade," growing and intertwining wildly, transforming in the blink of an eye into a phantom image of a towering, ancient tree brimming with vitality!

A dense, rich life essence permeated the air, invigorating the spirit.

The top of the stele shimmered with divine light: [Ancient Mu Family, Mu Qingya. Physique: Yi Wood Longevity Body (High Grade Spirit Body). Awakening: approx. 70%. Final Score: 450].

Ao Qing strode forward with the gait of a dragon and tiger.

A drop of purple blood containing dragon might fell onto the jade stele.

The stele hummed, and a dragon roar deafened the ears!

A lifelike, purple divine dragon phantom with formidable scales coiled around the stele, its eyes like lightning, its aura imposing.

Within the dragon shadow, thirty-nine dark golden dragon patterns containing majestic Qi and blood were clearly visible, signaling his profound True Dragon Bloodline.

[Heavenly Dragon Holy Land, Ao Qing. Physique: True Dragon Battle Body (Medium Grade Divine Physique). Awakening: approx. 50% (corresponding to 70% Bloodline). Final Score: 690].

It was Luo Shen's turn.

She moved with light steps, the touch of eternal light at her fingertips making contact with the jade stele.

The entire white jade stele instantly became crystalline from the inside out, as if carved from the purest ten-thousand-year profound ice!

Inside the stele, under the absolute order of the eternal power, matter spontaneously arranged and condensed, forming a perfect, indestructible eternal ice crystal structure!

It seemed capable of resisting the erosion of time, eternal and immortal.

The numbers at the top of the stele finally settled: [Eternal Temple, Luo Shen. Physique: Eternal Divine Physique (High Grade Divine Physique). Awakening: approx. 90%. Final Score: 910].

Ninety percent Awakening, nine hundred and ten points!

The power of a nascent dao body was fully revealed!

The record was broken once again!

The gaze of the entire plaza, filled with deep awe, focused on Luo Shen.

However, before this awe could settle in the air, it was pulled by an invisible magnet, turning collectively—with a kind of near-prophetic intensity and anticipation—toward the figure who had just defied all logic in the bone age and War Spirit tests: Lin Yuan.

Lin Yuan's expression was calm, as if he were an outsider, as he stepped forward slowly and stood before the white jade divine stele that radiated a warm, gentle light.

He reached out, his palm gently covering the cold, smooth surface of the stele.

There was no earth-shattering phenomenon, no surge of overflowing Law brilliance.

There was only a profound dao rhyme, deep to the extreme, seemingly originating from the mother womb of all things and the initial opening of the Universe, quietly diffusing from his palm, infiltrating every inch of the jade substance of the divine stele silently and imperceptibly.

Hum—!

The ancient, warm, and stable radiance of the white jade divine stele, the moment it touched his palm, was like a Creation star being thrown into a calm sea of stars; it boiled and vibrated violently and unprecedentedly!

The light was no longer a gentle flow but, like the ignited fire of Chaos, rolled and roared wildly!

The mirror-like reflective capability of the stele surface instantly disintegrated, replaced by a rapidly rotating, chaotic, and misty vortex of light and shadow!

It was as if the stele itself had transformed into a primitive mirror reflecting the scene before Grandmist was judged and heaven and earth were opened!

At the core of this chaotic vortex of light and shadow, a phenomenon suddenly occurred, shocking and world-shaking!

It was not merely the manifestation of the four Origin Laws of Earth, Fire, Water, and Wind!

It was ten thousand dao phantoms vying for prominence!

Countless blurry yet profound runes, totems, and dao patterns flashed, lived, died, and reorganized wildly within the chaotic light and shadow!

They took myriad forms and possessed distinct auras—there were brilliant light wheels outlining the cycle of the Five Elements, Taiji fish diagrams deducing the balance of Yin and Yang, roaring totems containing the violent heavenly might of wind, rain, thunder, and lightning, and mysterious star tracks depicting the movement of stars and the trajectories of space and time...

All-encompassing, a myriad of phenomena!

It was as if every known and unknown, tangible and intangible Law prototype and Dao trace in heaven and earth had been forcibly dragged out from the void, floating, struggling, and evolving within this chaotic vortex!

Yet, these ten thousand dao prototypes did not conflict in a disorderly manner.

They seemed to have received a supreme summons from the source of life and Laws, and with a near-instinctual awe and submission, they engaged in a grand and orderly rotation and worship around an invisible core at the center—the place where Lin Yuan's palm pressed!

A "Dao Source" aura, surpassing all things, encompassing all things, and evolving all things, was bursting forth from there, like an invisible king ruling over these ten thousand subjects!

As a divine object reflecting the Origin of Physique, the white jade divine stele seemed to have been forcibly opened to a forbidden window peeking into the "source of the Dao."

The information of countless Physique Origins that it carried, recorded, or even just imprinted as projections of Dao principles, under the stimulation and governance of this supreme "Dao Source" aura, were like a hundred rivers returning to the sea, or ten thousand stars bowing to the ancestral peak, frantically manifesting, resonating, and finally submitting to that invisible core!

"Crack! Crackle—!"

The sound of shattering, which made one's scalp numb and Soul tremble, rang out like dense raindrops!

The warm, tough, and immortal surface of the white jade divine stele could no longer withstand the terrifying torrent of information and the impact of the Origin dao rhyme brought about by the wild manifestation and worship of the ten thousand dao prototypes within.

Instantly, it was covered in dense, bottomless cracks like a spiderweb!

Deep within the cracks, what shone through was no longer warm white light, but a chaotic-colored divine radiance, a mixture of ten thousand daos, bizarre yet forcibly constrained and smelted into one by an invisible great power!

The entire divine stele trembled violently, emitting a groan of being unable to bear the burden!

Boom—!!!

Finally, with a dull roar like the opening of the world and the fetal movement of the Universe, the white jade divine stele, which symbolized the Origin of Physique and had weathered endless years, disintegrated with a bang!

It did not explode into fragments filling the sky but was dismantled and smelted from the root particle level by an invisible giant hand, turning into a chaotic ball of light several zhang in diameter, constantly rolling and roaring, containing endless light and darkness, life and death within!

This chaotic ball of light was like a miniature Universe embryo, suspended before Lin Yuan, emitting heart-palpitating primitive fluctuations.

Inside the ball of light, ten thousand dao phantoms were still floating and flickering, but the conflict and repulsion between them had been eliminated.

Under the absolute harmony and governance of that core "Dao Source" aura, they presented a strange, unprecedented, and harmonious rhythm.

At the very core of the ball of light, a point of chaotic light, pure to the extreme and seemingly capable of devouring all light, was the most dazzling.

It slowly rotated and condensed, faintly constituting a phantom image of the chaos green lotus, rooted in Chaos and about to bloom—this was precisely the manifestation of the most core and essential form of Lin Yuan's 15% Innate Dao Body Origin!

The chaotic ball of light churned, collapsed, and expanded violently, as if conducting a final deduction and ultimate judgment from the Origin of the Dao.

Finally, all the ten thousand dao phantoms collapsed inward wildly, condensed, and unified.

In the center of the ball of light, a huge, incomparably golden number, outlined by pure chaotic dao patterns, rose like a great sun jumping out of the sea, brilliantly branded upon the Void Realm: [Innate Dao Body (Awakening 15%) Final Score: 1000].

The number spanned heaven and earth, radiating an ancient, majestic, and unquestionable supreme dao rhyme!

Silence!

Absolute silence, dead, as if even time had solidified!

Bursting the divine stele!

Ten thousand daos submitting and worshipping!

With only 15% Awakening, he ferociously snatched the terrifying evaluation of a perfect 1000 points!

This was 90 points higher than the 910 points obtained by Luo Shen's near-perfect Eternal Divine Physique!

It was like an invisible thunderclap exploding in the depths of every witness's Dao Heart!

What did this mean?

It meant that in the ancient judgment system of the Taichu Divine Palace, the supreme potential and the high status of the Origin of Lin Yuan's Innate Dao Body, which had only awakened a sliver, had completely surpassed and crushed Luo Shen's already peak Eternal Divine Physique!

This was an insurmountable chasm at the level of Physique Origin!

It was the absolute superiority of the "source of the Dao" over the "ultimate of Laws"!

"Hah... hah..." Luo Hou's breathing was as heavy as a dilapidated bellows, the aura of the destruction War Spirit leaking out uncontrollably, the space around him twisting and annihilating inch by inch, showing the destructive stormy waves raised in his heart.

On Luo Shen's eternally calm face, which was like an ancient ice lake, ripples appeared for the first time.

A trace of undisguised shock and unprecedented heavy scrutiny emerged in the depths of her eyes, which seemed to contain the River of Time.

She stared fixedly at that chaotic ball of light and the brilliant thousand points, as if wanting to see through the mystery of the "Dao Source."

Clear Emptiness was completely speechless, mouth agape; the bronze ancient jade in his hand had long since stopped deducing, his knuckles pale from excessive force, leaving only silent shock and bewilderment in the depths of his Soul.

Other prodigies, no matter where they came from, were pale-faced at this moment, their Dao Hearts swaying, their gazes toward Lin Yuan filled with incomprehensible awe and fear.

On the high platform, the nine examiners, accustomed to storms, had their gazes firmly locked onto the chaotic ball of light and the eye-piercing "1000" as if held by a magnet.

The air seemed to have solidified for several epochs before the white-robed old man's voice finally sounded, carrying a trace of dryness and hoarseness that was forcibly suppressed yet still difficult to fully conceal, like sandpaper rubbing: "The third assessment is over! Physique Origin score recorded! Lin Yuan, Innate Dao Body, score... 1000!"

He took a deep breath, as if to dispel the invisible pressure, his tone suddenly rising, carrying a determination to break through the stagnation: "Next item: Peak combat power detection, now begins!"

Boom!

On the north side of the plaza, the earth trembled!

A colossal stele, crimson all over, as if cast from billions of years of solidified magma and indestructible divine iron, rose from the ground with a roar, like a sleeping volcano waking up!

The surface of the stele was not smooth but covered with countless fine, honeycomb-like holes formed by condensation after a volcanic eruption, and scorching crimson airflow that twisted the vision was erupting violently from within, emitting a low roar.

This was the "Red Flame Suppressing Mountain Stele," the ultimate divine object used by the Taichu Divine Palace to measure the peak of pure destructive power!

Above the top of the stele, a huge, incomparably strict scale, radiating an aura of suppressing the heavens and the Universe, slowly emerged—the Nine-Layer Heaven-Sealing Ruler!