183: Chapter 183 Upgrade of the Golden Finger, the Hundred Lifetimes of Defying Fate!

The moment the words fell.

"Hoo—"

A breeze mixed with an extremely thick scent of blood blew across the Nine Heavens.

Su Yu's very last trace of a remnant body turned into pure white light feathers all over the sky in the wind.

Falling in flurries, it resembled a grand avalanche suspended upside down in the sky.

Those ten thousand and seventy-two points of Heaven-Defying Fortune, sharing the same Origin as the Heavenly Dao, completed their mission and turned into the most brilliant flowing light at this moment, feeding back into the depths of the Laws of this Major Thousand Worlds.

And at the very core of those sky-filling light feathers.

Was an extremely faint yet indestructible transparent shimmer.

That was Su Yu's flawless Dao Heart after experiencing five lifetimes of Reincarnation and baptism in the Wenxin River, his indelible Primordial Spirit!

Not a single netherworld emissary dared to come capture his Soul.

Nor did any mighty figure dare to deduce the whereabouts of this Primordial Spirit.

Because.

The moment that shimmer of the Primordial Spirit drifted up.

Above the firmament of The Great World, that crimson bloody rain fell once again.

Heaven and Earth mourned together, seeing off the "Blade of Destiny" that had slashed out the fiercest sword strike.

Not only that.

The originally violent Heavenly Dao Law had actually transformed into an extremely gentle pair of invisible hands at this moment.

It gently cupped it, as if holding the most precious and rare treasure in this world.

Firmly protecting Su Yu's shimmer of the Primordial Spirit within its palms.

The Heavenly Dao personally cleared the path!

Amidst the bloody rain filling the sky, the Heavenly Dao will cleaved open a towering Dao directly leading to the deepest part of the Six Paths of Reincarnation.

Under the highest-spec escort of the Heavenly Dao.

Su Yu's Primordial Spirit, extremely steadily and without any hindrance.

Escaped into that Reincarnation vortex representing new life and hope.

...

At the same time.

Yuheng Mountain Range, Zizhu Peak.

Inside the sect-protecting grand array piercing the clouds, a suffocating stillness permeated.

Everyone stood in the square, staring blankly at the sky.

They could not see the earth-shaking battle one hundred thousand miles away.

But they saw that crimson bloody rain covering the entire The Great World.

"Crack."

Inside the ancestral temple at the highest point of Zizhu Peak.

An extremely crisp yet extremely fatal shattering sound came forth.

Old Ancestor Tianshu trembled violently all over, his entire person seeming to age by ten thousand years in an instant.

He did not turn back to confirm.

In those murky old eyes, two lines of hot tears could no longer be suppressed and rolled down.

"Yuer..."

The Old Monster raised his head, letting the bloody rain from the sky beat against his face, and let out a shrill, lingering howl in his throat like a lone wolf weeping blood.

On the square.

Mu Qingxue was still standing there.

Her moon-white long dress had already been dyed a shocking scarlet by the bloody rain in the sky.

She tightly clenched the broken jade pendant left to her by Su Yu in her hand.

On the jade pendant, Su Yu's aura had completely and thoroughly dissipated.

The azure-edge long sword in Shen Ruyue's hand dropped to the ground.

Yun Zhilan covered her mouth, limply kneeling down in the bloody rain.

Ji Wushuang's eye sockets were red, biting her lips tightly as a trace of fresh blood seeped out.

Several children fell to the ground, their heart-rending cries ringing throughout the entire Zizhu Peak.

But Mu Qingxue did not cry.

Within those cold and clear eyes of hers, although filled with bloodshots, they exuded an unprecedented and ultimate firmness.

She looked at the bloody rain falling from the sky, her mind echoing with the single word Su Yu left her last night.

"Yes."

"I believe you."

Mu Qingxue pressed that broken jade pendant tightly against her heart.

In the bloody rain, she revealed a mournful yet resolute smile.

"Even if it's a thousand years, ten thousand years."

"The road you paved, I will guard it for you."

"The doors of the Su Family, I will prop them up for you."

"The next life you owe me."

"I will wait for you to repay it!!!"

...

Darkness.

It was not the kind of black where one could not see their own fingers, but an absolute nothingness where even the concept of "seeing" did not exist.

Here, there was no up or down, no left or right, no flow of time, and no boundaries of space.

Su Yu's consciousness floated up extremely slowly within this familiar deep sea.

This was his fifth time stepping in here.

But this time, the feeling was completely different.

The first four times, he had "fallen" in.

In his first lifetime, he passed away with a smile at the peak of Mount Tai, his consciousness like a withered leaf with a cut string, drifting down into this nothingness.

In his second lifetime, he died of old age on the grand Revered Master chair of the Qianlong Su Family, swept in by a plain force.

The third and fourth lifetimes were both like this.

His Physical Body collapsed, his Primordial Spirit slipped out of its shell, and then he plunged headfirst into this endless darkness, waiting for that cold mechanical sound to ring out.

Yet this time.

He was "cupped" in.

Su Yu sensed extremely clearly that right outside his nearly transparent Primordial Spirit, there was a layer of extremely gentle and extremely heavy power tightly wrapping him in the middle.

That power was vast beyond measure.

Yet it was so gentle that it dared not even disturb the faintest tremor on the surface of his Primordial Spirit.

It was like a pair of aged and trembling hands cupping a rare and peerless treasure about to shatter, walking step by step, extremely slowly, extremely steadily.

"... Heavens."

Su Yu softly uttered these three words in the nothingness.

That pair of invisible hands trembled slightly.

Afterward, the layer of power wrapping around him slowly and with extreme reluctance retreated backward.

It did not dissipate immediately.

It retreated all the way to the very edge of this nothingness, and not until Su Yu's Primordial Spirit completely stabilized did it finally transform into a wisp of purple-golden shimmer, hiding away at the end of the darkness.

Before leaving.

That wisp of shimmer left behind an extremely ethereal sigh in the nothingness, one that could not distinguish gender or even whether it was joy or sorrow.

That sigh was not loud.

Yet it was like all the grievances, anger, helplessness, and final gratification accumulated by this world for tens of thousands of years were all spat out cleanly in this single breath.

Su Yu suspended quietly in the nothingness, listening to that sigh gradually fade away.

For a long time.

His Dao Heart—having experienced five lifetimes of Reincarnation, washed by the Wenxin River, nailed by the soul-fixing prison-suppressing nails, and submerged by the world-destroying thunder sea—

Extremely rarely, rippled with a trace of scalding warmth.

"Along this path, many thanks."

He said nothing else.

Because he knew that the "Heavens" who had just drained the operating energy of the entire world to hand him a blade was probably now so weak that it didn't even have the strength to reply with a single sentence.

...

[Ding!]

The cold, mechanical prompt tone without any emotional fluctuations finally sounded in the depths of his Primordial Spirit.

It was still that familiar voice.

But Su Yu keenly sensed that this time's prompt tone was half a breath slower than the previous four lifetimes.

It was as if even the unchanging System itself needed a little time to process what had just happened.

[Detected that the host's fifth lifetime has fallen, Primordial Spirit has been guided.]

[...Guiding method is abnormal.]

[Detected that the realm's Origin will actively intervened, escorting the Primordial Spirit the entire way and cleaving open the Reincarnation passage.]

[Judgment: This behavior has exceeded the conventional interaction permissions between this System and this realm's Laws.]

[Recalibrating settlement weights...]

[Calibration complete.]

[Beginning settlement for the fifth lifetime—]

Within the nothingness, a panel exuding a profound purple glow slowly emerged.

This time's panel was larger than the previous four lifetimes.

So large that Su Yu's entire Primordial Spirit vision was almost filled with those dense evaluation comments.

[Host Identity: Fifth Saint Son of the Celestial Pivot Sect, Old Ancestor of the Qianlong Su Family of Yuheng Mountain, Punisher on Behalf of Heaven.]

[Fifth lifetime, you descended into the Southern Wasteland frontier land carrying ten thousand points of Fortune. Upon birth, purple Qi came from the east, spiritual rain fell like sweet dew, ten thousand beasts came to pay homage, and Spiritual Qi rolled backward, gathering four great auspicious omens upon one body.]

[You stepped through the immortal path with Heaven-Defying great Fortune. Heavenly Dao Foundation Establishment was like eating and drinking, First-Grade Golden Core came naturally, and Nascent Soul Lightning Tribulation was reduced to meridian massage. You walked the flattest and most envied path in this world.]

[You crushed the boundary-sealing stone, shattering the eternal shackles that locked the Southern Wasteland for tens of thousands of years, returning a realm of incomplete Heavenly Dao to Perfection, allowing all living beings of a realm to see the light of day once more. This is the merit of mending the heavens.]

[With a Soul Transformation body, you protected your Dao Companion, raised offspring, and established a Family. You did not vie for hegemony nor act boastfully, yet you lifted the Qianlong Su Family from a bottom-tier third-rate faction to a top-tier noble Family in the Hunyuan Heavenly Domain.]

[When thirteen Mahayana held the chess pieces, over a thousand Body Integration hunted collectively, and a Tribulation Supreme personally blocked the heavens—]

[You stripped away the symbiotic blood pact, solely to avoid dragging down an ancient demon sage.]

[You scattered all your trump cards and Legacy, solely to pave a ten-thousand-year escape route for the people behind you.]

[You stood alone, with your back to the mountain gate, proclaiming your name to the entire world.]

[Under the desperate situation where Heavenly Secret Obscuration was in effect, Fortune was severed, and an arm was broken, you used your own body as bait, borrowing ancient remnants of formations, immortal peak avalanches, and spatial fault lines to slaughter hundreds of Body Integration.]

[You stepped onto the Wenxin River. You did not argue a single word of sin, nor did you shirk a fraction of your blood debts. With "On the road of the next life, I will carry you as we walk", you forced back the fallen immortal Dao Heart, causing a dead river capable of freezing True Immortals to step aside and clear a smooth path for you.]

[Before the light of the source, with your Primordial Spirit burned out, Lifespan dried up, and all five senses lost, you still lifted your broken leg and took that final step.]

[You were pierced through fatal acupuncture points by nine soul-fixing prison-suppressing nails, stripped of your autonomy over life and death, and cut off from the gates of Reincarnation. You never collapsed, never begged for mercy, and never bent a single inch of your spine.]

[You compressed your Dao Heart of Perfection into a needle, pierced through the Heavenly Secret Obscuration, and completed the most tragic cross-dimensional eye contact since eternity with the furious Heavenly Dao of a realm.]

[You did not seek life; you sought death.]

[With your own life, you invited punishment on behalf of heaven—with a single sword, you severed the supreme palm of the Tribulation Supreme; with a single sword, you cleaved apart the heaven-blocking curtain; with a single sword, you summoned the thunder sea to flow backward, obliterating eight hundred Body Integration and crippling thirteen Mahayana.]

[Your body died and your Dao vanished, your Physical Body turning into sky-filling light feathers, and ten thousand and seventy-two points of Fortune completely fed back into the depths of the Law.]

[The firmament shed bloody rain for you, and the Heavenly Dao cleaved Reincarnation for you.]

[Your Primordial Spirit trace has been engraved into the realm's Law Origin, indelible across eternity.]

[Final Evaluation: Purple Epic · Nine Stars!]

(Evaluation Ranks from lowest to highest: White, Green, Blue, Purple, Gold, Red, Color)

[Reward Obtained: 10000 Fate-Defying Points!]

The cold mechanical voice dropped its very last word.

Within the nothingness, there was dead silence.

Su Yu did not immediately look at that number.

He just suspended quietly there, rereading those lines of evaluation from beginning to end, word by word.

There was no wild joy.

Nor was there the satisfaction of "finally reaching Perfection".

As he looked and looked, he suddenly recalled many fragmented and extremely inconspicuous things.

He remembered Mu Qingxue on the stone steps of Zizhu Peak's backyard, clenching that broken jade pendant until her knuckles turned white, fresh blood seeping along the patterns.

He remembered Su Ziyue in the extreme cold ice pool, shedding her dharma robe and letting the Yin liquid scrape her bones, her frail back.

He remembered Su Chen kneeling on the martial arts arena, coughing up a large mouthful of blood yet still shouting hoarsely, "Thank you, Father, for bestowing the sword."

He remembered Su Muxue chewing beast meat with bulging cheeks, receiving a flick on the forehead from him.

He remembered Old Ancestor Tianshu grabbing him by the collar, spittle almost spraying onto his face, roaring with red eyes, "This old man is your Revered Master."

He remembered the proud snake head of the Xuanming Turtle-Snake lowering at the very last moment, making a ten-thousand-year demonic Dao grand vow.

And he also remembered...

That Mortal woman in the canyon of Tianqian Pass, lashed bloody by the Soul whips of netherworld soldiers, yet still desperately hiding her child in her embrace.

"Purple Nine Stars."

Su Yu finally spoke, his voice sounding extremely calm in the nothingness.

"Full stars."

"Ten thousand points."

He smiled, extremely rarely.

"To be honest, this deal is not a loss."

In his fourth lifetime, he ignited the Vow of All Living Beings of ten billion people, defying two realms to counter-slay the Void Refining Lord of the Abyss, obtaining a Purple Epic · One Star, five thousand points.

In this lifetime, he severed the palm of the Tribulation Supreme, shattered the Heavenly Secret Obscuration, wiped out eight hundred Body Integration, and crippled thirteen Mahayana.

In the end, he went from one star to nine stars.

Full stars indeed.

The limit of purple.

Yet above purple, there was gold.

Above gold, there was red.

Above red was that color which no one had ever touched.

"The road is still long."

Su Yu withdrew his gaze, his tone extremely plain.

In this lifetime... no, these five lifetimes, he never dreamed such pleasant dreams of "having already reached the peak".

However.

Just as he was preparing to check the initial panel of the sixth lifetime.

An unexpected change suddenly occurred.

"Hum—!"

Deep within Su Yu's Primordial Spirit, an extremely muffled yet extremely grand tremor suddenly came forth.

That sound did not come from the outside.

It came from the deepest part of his own Soul, from the book of a hundred lifetimes destiny defiance that had floated for a full five lifetimes and always exuded a archaic shimmer.

"Crack."

An extremely crisp shattering sound.

Su Yu's heart sank abruptly.

He was too familiar with this sound.

That was the sound when the natal Soul tablet shattered in the ancestral temple of Zizhu Peak.

Yet the next instant, he sensed something was wrong.

That was not the shattering of destruction.

That was... shedding its shell.

The archaic, shimmering cover of the book of a hundred lifetimes destiny defiance disintegrated inch by inch at this moment.

The disintegrated fragments did not dissipate; instead, they turned into strands of pure golden flowing light, rolling inward.

Immediately following that.

The pages turned on their own.

From the first page to the last page, the memories of five lifetimes, the evaluations of five lifetimes, and the point-allocation records of five lifetimes unfolded page by page in the nothingness, resembling a long river traversing a long period of time.

Then, those pages began to transform from paper into jade.

From jade, they transformed into light.

Finally, they condensed into a scripture whose entire body circulated with purple-golden Heavenly Dao patterns, so heavy it seemed to carry an entire era.

[Ding!]

[Detected that the realm's Origin will's gift has been completely branded onto the host's Primordial Spirit.]

[Detected that the host has completed the achievement "Realm Law Origin Engraving".]

[Triggering hidden evolution condition—]

[The book of a hundred lifetimes destiny defiance has been upgraded to the 《Classic of a Hundred Lifetimes Destiny Defiance》.]