234: The first source of power

The black-robed figure was startled. When he turned to look at Shen Lian, whose face was filled with malevolence, a look of disbelief flashed in his pupils.

"You, you returned so quickly?"

Shen Lian stepped forward and laughed coldly: "Are you disappointed? You wanted to use the illusions of the Twisted Forest and the God Burying Tower to devour my Divine Sense. How could such a crude method deceive me, Shen Lian!"

A trace of panic clearly flashed in the black-robed figure's eyes, and he hurriedly said: "I don't understand what you are talking about. I only asked you to kill the Asura, so that the spirits here could find complete liberation..."

"If you want to deceive Shen Lian, you may try, but please do not use such clumsy methods. From the moment I entered the Initial Cultivation Platform and began communicating with you, I understood your schemes, because you possess the thing I am looking for."

Hearing this, the black-robed figure's tone sank: "Then why didn't you expose me immediately?"

"Because the Law of this place restricts me; without reaching the Limit-Breaking Realm, it is impossible to harm you in the slightest. When I first entered and fought you, I faintly sensed this restriction of the rules. I simply played along with your little game, and while doing so, I looked for an opportunity to improve my cultivation within the Twisted Forest. After witnessing the remains of thousands of Cultivators in the Twisted Forest who had exhausted all their Qi due to the illusions, and seeing the surreal scenes in the God Burying Tower, I became even more certain of your motives. In fact, whether it was the Goddess or the Asura inside the God Burying Tower, they were all illusions cast by you. If not for the restriction of the Law here, you would have been a dead man from the very first moment I saw you."

Hearing this, the black-robed figure immediately stepped back two paces, his cloak billowing without wind behind him.

"Isn't it better to be a little foolish? Why couldn't you just obediently step into the tower?"

A cold, icy glint flashed in his eyes.

"It is a pity. Your pure True Essence, if it could be absorbed and used by me, that power could be successfully refined, and then everyone here could be resurrected."

"Hahaha!" Shen Lian laughed out loud upon hearing this.

"That thing does not belong to you. Even if you were given another thousand or a hundred years, you would never be able to refine even a single bit of it. Now, hand it over, and perhaps I will let you die quickly."

"Hahaha, even if I die, I will not hand this object over to you. This is my only hope for resurrection."

Shen Lian raised his hand and pointed: "Then prepare yourself for your Soul Flying Away and Spirit Scattering."

The black-robed figure sneered: "It's useless. Due to the rules of this Realm Boundary, without cultivation in the Limit-Breaking Realm, you cannot harm me at all."

"Is that so? Then watch closely."

Shen Lian raised his hand and flicked it, his left palm grasping casually.

The next moment, a surge of powerful Qi gathered and condensed into a sphere of Yin and Yang Qi light.

"Void Concealment · Tempering Martial Unity Qi!"

Boom— With a thunderous palm strike, a contrary gale swept through, and the converged ball of light shot straight toward the black-robed figure.

The black-robed figure was fearless. Facing the incoming palm energy, he spoke arrogantly: "Heh, you really are..."

Before he could finish his sentence, he was directly blasted back more than ten steps by the palm strike.

"Urgh~" The black-robed figure steadied his body, his face full of disbelief.

"No, this is impossible. You only have cultivation in the Immortal Realm; it is impossible for you to harm me at all."

"You had better look carefully. Do I really only have cultivation in the Immortal Realm?"

The next second, the Aura Pressure around Shen Lian blossomed, and an extremely terrifying power erupted from his body on the spot.

"Limit-Breaking Realm!?" The black-robed figure was visibly stunned.

"Impossible, this is simply impossible. You clearly only have..."

"Are you trying to say that I only had cultivation in the eighth level of the Immortal Realm, so how have I broken through the limit and entered the Limit-Breaking Realm now?"

Facing Shen Lian's questioning, the black-robed figure did not answer, but the horror revealed in his eyes had already betrayed the shock in his heart at this moment.

"Speaking of which, I still have to thank you. If it weren't for the tempering of the Twisted Forest and the God Burying Tower, I would not have been able to complete such a Breakthrough in such a short time with the help of the Five Absolutes Heaven Extinguishing Force. Originally, you would not have needed to suffer Soul Flying Away and Spirit Scattering, but now, you have been killed by your own stupidity."

"Hahaha, I never thought that after planning all of this, I would end up eating my own bitter fruit and instead fulfill you."

The black-robed figure let out a loud laugh, the laughter filled with endless exhaustion.

He manifested a palm-sized purple-gold mysterious jade.

"If I am not mistaken, this is probably the thing you are looking for, right?"

The moment he saw the purple-gold mysterious jade, Shen Lian felt a surge of blood Qi in his body, and an instinctively familiar feeling arose in his heart.

"The Dao Deriving Spirit Jade, it really is in this ghostly place." A hint of indescribable excitement flashed across his face, and he directly spread his hand, "Hand it over, and I can let you be completely liberated from the suffering of lingering in the abyss!"

"So this thing is called the Dao Deriving Spirit Jade?"

The black-robed figure looked at the mysterious jade in his hand, a trace of unwilling attachment flashing in his eyes.

"I can feel that the power contained within is peerless and ancient, but unfortunately, for five hundred years, I have never been able to refine even a single bit of it."

Shen Lian: "Since you are unwilling to hand it over, I will take it myself. As for things that belong to me, Shen Lian, no one shall dare to touch even a single bit!"

As soon as his voice fell, Shen Lian flashed and disappeared from the spot.

Reappearing, he was already behind the black-robed figure, raising his hand and bringing it down with a palm strike.

Bang—

Unexpectedly, the next moment, the black-robed figure actually blocked the palm strike with a backhand.

"Hmm?"

Shen Lian was taken aback. In that split second of distraction, he saw the black-robed figure withdraw his palm and fiercely urge his Qi, disregarding the limits of his own spirit body, and explosively erupt with an Aura Pressure that made ghosts and gods tremble.

Boom—

Upon clashing palms again, the wind and clouds were upended, and the heavens and earth changed color.

The scattered remnants of Dao Rhyme shook the entire Initial Cultivation Platform ceaselessly.

"To be willing to destroy your own spirit body just to perish together with me, this kind of desperate courage is enough for Shen Lian to look at you with new respect."

"You have never experienced the time of drifting lonely for endless years in this land of deathly silence, so how can you resonate with me?"

"Is that so?!" With a cold laugh, the heavens and earth seemed to fall into a standstill at this moment.

"Do you think that everything you have experienced is worthy of being mentioned in the same breath as me?"

Between raising his hand, a Spirit Sword condensed from Dao Rhyme slowly fell into his palm.

"Heaven-Opening Sword Strike!"

Before the black-robed figure could react, Shen Lian had already passed by behind him, and that piece of Dao Deriving Spirit Jade also fell into his own hand in the process.

"You..."

The black-robed figure had just uttered one word when a crack in the sky suddenly appeared in the Void Realm.

"What pure Sword Intent, what a Heaven-Opening Sword Strike. To be able to die under such a supreme technique, I have no regrets in this life."

After saying this, the black-robed figure's body instantly turned into dust and sand.

Shen Lian was expressionless as he slowly descended to the Initial Cultivation Platform, not feeling a shred of emotional fluctuation regarding the death of the black-robed figure.

At this moment, his concentration was entirely focused on the Dao Deriving Spirit Jade.

"Is this the Origin that I left behind in the Void Realm back then?"

As he asked this, the Spirit Jade seemed to have a reaction, glowing with seven-colored dazzling light.

The Dao light instantly dispersed the surrounding Death Qi, and at the same time, turned the scenery of the Initial Cultivation Platform, along with the creatures wailing and crying on the ground, into ashes.

When he regained his senses, the place where Shen Lian stood was an endless mass grave.

"Whether it be god or demon, one must accept one's fate upon falling. To remain in the human world unwilling to enter Reincarnation, such ridiculous persistence only invites contempt."

Leaving this sentence behind, Shen Lian integrated his life-bound Origin strength into his body, and then walked slowly out of the Abyss of Buried Gods.