The Protagonists' Chat Group: Beyond the Boundaries — Chapter 372

Chapter 372: Westward Journey Instance Concludes, Return to Perfect World

The collective effort to clear the Westward Journey Instance had finally concluded. With the mission complete, the various powerful experts—the chat group members—each returned to their respective original worlds.

The excursion to the West yielded substantial gains for all participants.

Aside from the massive volume of Cultivation resources plundered from the Spirit Mountain coffers, they also secured a vast quantity of Heavenly Dao power, granted as a reward by the chat group’s System.

Holding this vast reservoir of Heavenly Dao power, Shi Jian felt an immense surge of confidence bolstering his path.

He immediately dove back into Cultivation, preparing in earnest to execute his long-awaited Breakthrough to the Immortal King Realm.

He had already achieved the True Immortal Realm through the arduous process of nine transformations.

At his current strength, even before the planned Breakthrough, Shi Jian could already dominate amongst conventional Immortal Kings.

However, he knew his limits. He was not yet invincible.

During his eighth body transformation, his raw Battle Intent was already comparable to a basic, ordinary Immortal King.

When he utilized his signature power, the Eternal Heavenly Song (a forbidden technique Shi Jian created), he could easily rival a peak-stage Immortal King.

[Inorin’s Note: Eternal Heavenly Song is a self-created Divine Ability based on the concept of eternal existence and endless destruction.]

Now, having achieved complete Immortal Ascension through nine perfect transformations, his normal, unleashed Battle Intent could naturally reach the absolute Immortal King peak.

When he combined the full might of the Eternal Heavenly Song with all his other Divine Abilities, his power would skyrocket, placing him firmly at the level of a Supreme Giant.

[Inorin’s Note: A Supreme Giant, or “Giant of the Immortal King,” is a designation for the most powerful Immortal Kings, capable of shattering vast realms.]

This caliber of strength, if only utilized against the peripheral forces of the Dark Turmoil, was unquestionably formidable.

But the ultimate goal was not the periphery. It was a direct confrontation with the true source of the Dark Turmoil: the three Quasi-Immortal Emperors lurking in the shadows.

Against such monstrous entities, his current power was still clearly lacking.

Therefore, Shi Jian understood the mandate. He needed to ceaselessly continue his Cultivation and achieve the Immortal King Breakthrough.

He and Shi Hao retreated into an isolated seclusion, which lasted for several long decades in the Nine Heavens and Ten Lands.

During this long period of quiet Cultivation, the macro situation of their world was never truly static; it was shifting and churning beneath the surface.

Finally, the long period of change culminated on a single, momentous day.

The immense spatial barrier that separated the Immortal Realm from the fragmented Nine Heavens and Ten Lands shuddered, cracked, and was violently broken through.

“Brother!”

“The Immortal Realm has opened!” Shi Hao cried out, immediately seeking out Shi Jian as he keenly felt the majestic, ancient aura of the Immortal Realm pouring into their world.

Shi Hao’s eyes blazed with a fierce and fervent Battle Intent. Since the great battle that decimated the Foreign Realm (often called the Exotic Realm), he hadn’t experienced a truly challenging fight for a considerable amount of time.

The journey to the Westward Journey world, while rewarding in resources, was ultimately just a diversion—a form of amusement compared to their life-and-death struggle.

Now that the imposing gates to the Immortal Realm were wide open, it was certain that the beleaguered Nine Heavens and Ten Lands would once again plunge into conflict.

“It has opened,” Shi Jian echoed, his own measured emotions finally fluctuating. His blood surged within him like crashing waves, mirroring the fervent desire in his heart to test his strength against the grander world.

To him, the Immortal Realm and the Foreign Realm were, in principle, no different.

There was no inherent concept of one being a friend and the other a sworn enemy. For his grand plan, they were all obstacles—all potential enemies to be overcome.

Shi Jian’s current ultimate goal, heavily influenced by his interactions with the chat group, was to successfully Cultivate the Wheel of Destiny.

To successfully condense this supreme artifact, he desperately needed to gather an infinite stream of faith, along with the collective Destiny Luck of countless people and vast territories. Only through this aggregation could he successfully Cultivate the Divine Ability.

Therefore, the path was clear. Shi Jian had to actively expand his power base, establish a dominant influence, and effectively collect the required faith and devotion.

The Immortal Realm was teeming with ancient Dao Lineages—sects and inheritances that had existed for an unimaginably long time.

These powerful, entrenched Dao Lineages would absolutely not sit idly by and permit the rising power of the Nine Heavens and Ten Lands to grow unchecked or strong enough to threaten their dominance.

Thus, for Shi Jian, the people of the Foreign Realm were major enemies, and now, the powerful lineages of the Immortal Realm were also to be treated as great enemies. The stage was set for a true world-spanning conflict.

As the Immortal Realm’s gate was torn open, a far more sinister, strange change simultaneously manifested across the lower realms.

The true, unbridled Dark Turmoil had arrived.

The conflict that had previously ravaged their world—the long invasion by the Foreign Realm—was merely the localized Dark Turmoil belonging only to the Nine Heavens and Ten Lands. It was a prelude.

But this new, terrifying event signaled a monumental, world-altering transformation.

Ineffable divine rainbows mysteriously flew out of the void, only to inexplicably merge and vanish into the fabric of the world. Simultaneously, distant spiritual kingdoms began to undergo drastic, terrifying changes.

In a specific, immense area of the Spirit Realm (the domain where the minds and spirits of Cultivators resided), the landscape morphed instantly from sacred and serene to profoundly dark and corrupted. It became violently choked with rolling Evil Qi.

Within that blighted area, the Divine Souls of many residing individuals shattered instantly, their existences disappearing forever from the world.

Countless other people, still in the real world, hadn’t even had time to process the danger. Dark, noxious mist surged forward, engulfing vast, continental areas of the world.

Darkness, a primordial and corrupted force, instantaneously swallowed everything it touched.

With the sudden onset of this profound darkness, the entire world began a great, convulsive change.

Innumerable amounts of corrosive dark substances began to leak and invade through the fractured membrane of the Spirit Realm. From there, they rapidly spread into the tangible world of the living, a process that confused and instilled utter terror in many millions of people.

The velocity of this dark erosion was terrifyingly fast. It swept across the land like a tsunami of black waves crashing violently on the shore, relentlessly sweeping toward the Nine Heavens and Ten Lands.

Upon contact with this corrosive darkness, some unfortunate beings saw their Primordial Spirits instantly dissipate and vanish, yet their physical bodies remained strangely intact—a silent, empty shell left behind.

This was a great, overwhelming disaster; a calamity on a scale never before witnessed by the inhabitants of this great world.

After Shi Jian sensed the immense shift, he immediately emerged from seclusion and rushed to investigate the full extent of this dark catastrophe. The mode of invasion by the dark substance was deeply strange and perplexing.

It was invading primarily through the Spirit Realm, a subtle and elusive point of entry.

Even with his near-peak Immortal King power, Shi Jian could not completely halt the initial, ethereal invasion of the pervasive dark substance.

However, using his knowledge of formations, he managed to set up a colossal Formation encircling the entirety of the Nine Heavens and Ten Lands. This immense defensive barrier could, at the very least, prevent the further spread of the dark substance into his core territory.

The arrival of this widespread dark substance signified more than just a calamity; it represented a fundamental structural change in the world. Some mysterious, ancient paths—long-sealed and forgotten—were about to reappear. Even more ominously, powerful, ancient experts who had vanished into the unknown depths of time were also preparing to return.

Shi Jian activated his Dominator’s Eye (the eye technique granted by the Divine Elephant Suppressing Prison Strength), focusing his vision through the endless, swirling darkness toward the direction of the shattered Foreign Realm. He discerned a singular ancient artifact there, hazy and mysterious, flowing with a bizarre light of nine different colors. It was a simple-looking box.

The box was silently floating above a gigantic, ominous altar.

All the dark substance in that area was furiously boiling, aggressively sweeping outward with a terrifying, corrupting vitality.

This, Shi Jian realized, was an Origin Ancient Artifact. It was the true, ultimate source of the Dark Turmoil—the central weapon wielded by those fearsome Quasi-Immortal Emperors.

It seemed that after their crushing defeat in the Foreign Realm during the last major battle, these Emperors had resorted to using this Origin Ancient Artifact to unleash the current, cataclysmic dark plague.

“This dark calamity is genuinely terrifying, brother,” Shi Hao stated, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Shi Jian and observing the areas already permeated and corrupted by the dark substance. “If we hadn’t been discovered in time, the consequences would have been utterly unimaginable for the common people!”

They had indeed acted with unprecedented promptness.

Despite their speed, some peripheral parts of the Nine Heavens and Ten Lands had already been tragically transformed into dark, dead zones. These areas had now been completely contained by Shi Jian’s restrictive Formation.

Within these new dark areas, corrupted leaders had quickly evolved one after another.

Any ordinary Yao Beast (spirit beasts) that came into contact with the darkness was quickly twisted and elevated into a fearsome Dark Beast King.

“They’re almost at the Escape One Realm. It’s only been a matter of days, and they can already evolve into Dark Beast Kings of this high Rank!” Shi Hao exclaimed, pointing to one specific monster: a gargantuan nine-headed serpent. Each head of the serpent was spewing thick, oily black flames, and its body was enormous, rivaling a great mountain.

Its offensive power was astonishing, clearly possessing the terrifying Battle Intent of the Escape One Realm.

[Inorin’s Note: The Escape One Realm, or “Escape Supremacy,” is equivalent to the Sect Master Rank in the Immortal Ancient Era Cultivation System.]

For the two brothers, Shi Jian and Shi Hao, who were both established True Immortals at the peak of their potential, this lower Realm was naturally as weak as could be.

But the speed was the terrifying factor. This nine-headed snake had only begun its evolution a few days prior.

Achieving mastery of the Escape One Realm in mere days was a genuinely horrifying rate of growth, a clear sign of the corruption’s potency.

“It is not as terrifying as you perceive, little brother,” Shi Jian calmly replied, his gaze unwavering. “These dark creatures are forced to constantly devour and evolve. While it may look like a single creature, it has, in fact, devoured countless other dark creatures to reach this point. It is less an individual monster and more a composite entity—a grotesque combination of a massive number of creatures!”

He noted the stark, uncomfortable similarity between these dark creatures and his own core method of power. They, too, grew stronger by incessant devouring.

However, the dark creatures’ evolution was crude, simple, and limited. Once they reached a certain ceiling of power, they could no longer rely solely on devouring to ascend further.

Shi Jian was fundamentally different. His Cultivation Technique (Divine Elephant Suppressing Prison Strength) allowed for infinite evolution and infinite devouring, breaking past all conventional limits.

“In any case, this immediate dark invasion is a small matter,” Shi Jian concluded, finally waving his hand dismissively. “It remains within the scope of what we can handle and contain.”

He turned to face his brother, his eyes now gleaming with a cold, calculating resolve. “Our current primary task is far grander: we must move to completely unify the Nine Heavens and Ten Lands!”

Shi Jian’s strategic vision was immense.

The Nine Heavens and Ten Lands had not always been fragmented. In an unrecorded, forgotten era, they were one single, majestic area. They were later shattered by an unknown enemy into their current scattered state.

Shi Jian had already substantially unified the separate pieces.

Now, he aimed for total unification, completely integrating the fractured realms into a single, cohesive superpower. Once that was accomplished, he would use this unified base to launch a full-scale invasion of the Immortal Realm.

Shi Hao listened to the ambitious plan, considered it seriously, and then nodded in firm agreement.

“You are correct. The Nine Heavens and Ten Lands have been separated for far too long. If they were integrated into one seamless body, it would undeniably be a great thing,” Shi Hao mused.

He then sensed a deeper, inherent shift in the macrocosm. “And now the world is in this great turmoil, the Nine Heavens and Ten Lands actually seem to be naturally moving towards unification on their own.”

Shi Jian nodded, acknowledging his brother’s acute perception.

“The world is indeed naturally merging itself, but this forceful Fusion will be met with a devastating backlash,” Shi Jian explained, his voice low and serious. “When the Nine Heavens and Ten Lands forcibly merge under the pressure of the Dark Turmoil, they will also automatically enter the dreadful Age of Dharma Decline!”

“Therefore, we two must act preemptively. We will integrate the great Earth Pulse (the world’s main spiritual meridian) and personally assist the world’s merging process. Only by doing this carefully can we prevent the catastrophic backlash of the world from occurring!”

Shi Jian knew the history from his past life/knowledge. In the original timeline, the Nine Heavens and Ten Lands, after the Dark Turmoil began, had automatically merged.

However, as a direct consequence, the entire world suffered a crippling backlash, which immediately ushered in the Age of Dharma Decline.

During the Age of Dharma Decline, it became nearly impossible for Cultivators to make any meaningful progress. The Lifespan of all beings would rapidly decline. Ancient monsters who had lived for tens of thousands or even millions of years would swiftly face extinction.

After that terrible change, the Nine Heavens and Ten Lands were utterly ruined—a land completely unsuitable for powerful experts to live in.

In that timeline, those powerful Cultivators who were over a million years old, who should have lived for several million more, directly entered their twilight years, with very few years left to live. Even a Supreme expert could only claim a meager Lifespan of a few thousand years at most.

The whole world fell silent, rendered completely void of potent Cultivators.

In the present, however, the annoying, destabilizing internal factions within the Nine Heavens and Ten Lands had been systematically cleaned up by Shi Jian’s forces.

The remaining major forces were now almost all firm supporters of Shi Jian.

These loyal forces and the territories they controlled were his foundational “capital” for Cultivating the Wheel of Destiny by collecting faith.

The current Nine Heavens and Ten Lands were effectively Shi Jian’s basic, consolidated territory.

He absolutely could not afford to stand by and watch his foundation collapse into the Age of Dharma Decline.

Therefore, he was determined to truly, physically integrate the fragmented realms. Following this integration, he would then take the entirety of the unified Nine Heavens and Ten Lands and use it as a powerful springboard to invade the Immortal Realm.

Shi Hao also deeply regarded the Nine Heavens and Ten Lands as his cherished home.

Furthermore, he had already personally witnessed the sheer terror of the Age of Dharma Decline calamity once when he was in the Lower Realm.

He knew how fundamentally terrifying the world’s backlash was.

Naturally, he was unwilling for their current great world to follow in the desolate footsteps of the shattered Lower Realm.

“Brother, what is your exact plan for the integration and the backlash?” he asked Shi Jian.

Integrating the realms physically was one matter, albeit a difficult one. However, dealing with the inevitable, world-ending backlash was the truly troublesome core issue.

When the world merges, the backlash begins.

The collective Destiny bestowed by the universe upon all living things would be suddenly and violently harvested. Once the universal Destiny vanished, the Lifespan of countless beings would instantly and rapidly decline.

Every single being, from the lowliest mortal to the loftiest Supreme, would suffer from this destructive backlash.

Not even top-tier Supremes could endure the drain. Even powerful True Immortal Rank existences could not withstand the sudden, massive cut in their long lives.

Even the encroaching dark creatures, upon facing such a terrifying world-wide self-purging, would likely be scared away or weakened.

Destiny—it was a highly intangible, unseen concept.

Yet, it profoundly existed. It was directly bestowed by the fabric of the universe itself. During a process of great structural change in the world, the universe would violently deliver this “cut”—a sudden, indiscriminate reaping of life and power from all living beings. This was the terrifying essence of the backlash.

“I plan to establish my own Dao Lineage—a divine empire—to replace the natural Heavenly Dao with my own will,” Shi Jian revealed, his voice steady.

His plan was simple, yet world-shaking: he would imitate the method of Yang Qi from the Sage Monarch world.

He would establish his own Divine Kingdom.

Specifically, he planned to Cultivate a powerful Clone of himself. This Clone would then be used to physically replace the natural Destiny of the Nine Heavens and Ten Lands. The Clone would govern the new Dao Lineage for him, constantly collecting the crucial energy of faith.

The Divine Elephant Suppressing Prison Strength was the Cultivation Technique of the gods—the supreme technique of the Dominator, who dominates all other gods and Dominators.

Establishing a new divine kingdom and collecting a massive stream of faith was absolutely necessary for the next stage.

It would exponentially accelerate his arduous Cultivation of the Wheel of Destiny.

The Wheel of Destiny was, by far, the most important artifact he needed.

Once successfully Cultivated and completed, it could literally inscribe the Heavenly Dao, the universal truths, the nature of gods and devils, Confucian thought, and even Buddhist scriptures of the world onto its surface, fully expounding the Great Dao of Destiny.

With it, he could effortlessly reverse fate and Karma; peek into and alter both the past and the future; conceal his own Karma and change all destiny connections; discern the flow of Luck, and actively manipulate the Luck of entire realms. It would even allow him to comprehend the true meaning of destiny itself, transforming into a Dragon of Destiny to attack his enemies.

This single artifact was the key to his ultimate power. Shi Jian was completely determined to successfully Cultivate it.

“Replacing the Heavenly Dao with one’s own will… that is a truly astonishing path, but indeed possible,” Shi Hao said, a flicker of awe in his eyes. “Since you already have such a concrete idea, brother, let’s begin immediately!”

Shi Hao offered his immediate and unequivocal support for Shi Jian’s decision.

“Good. You go first and focus on sorting out the Earth Pulse of the Nine Heavens and Ten Lands, physically preparing them for their complete unification,” Shi Jian directed, already turning his attention to the next stage.

“I will remain here and set up the grand Formation, preparing to entrust my will to the very essence of the Nine Heavens and Ten Lands.”

With the basic plan firmly established, Shi Jian immediately moved to action.

He began setting up an unimaginably grand Formation within the massive fortifications of the Imperial Pass.

Countless strands of Chaos Qi permeated the area, weaving together to form a colossal array. In the very center of the complete Formation, a pulsating wormhole began to appear.

This was the Taigu Divine Formation—the same powerful array he had acquired from Yang Qi.

Its core function was its ability to communicate directly with the will of heaven or a realm’s ultimate essence.

Yang Qi had famously used this Taigu Divine Formation to communicate with the Tusita Heaven, a highest-tier immortal world in his novel. He then entrusted his Primordial Spirit to the Tusita Heaven, enabling him to steal the very Law (Dao) of the Tusita Heaven every single day.

[Inorin’s Note: The Tusita Heaven is one of the ultimate, highest-ranking Immortal Realms in the Sage Monarch world, making this feat incredibly Heaven-Defying.]

Shi Jian, however, aimed for a different, though similar, goal. He wanted to communicate with the Destiny of the Nine Heavens and Ten Lands, entrust his Primordial Spirit to that Destiny, and eventually completely refine the original Origin of the shattered realms.

The Taigu Divine Formation’s power was truly Heaven-Defying to allow Yang Qi to steal the Law of a Supreme Immortal Realm.

Shi Jian devoted several years to the meticulous construction of the colossal Formation. Once the grand array was successfully established, he walked directly into the pulsating center.

He then forcefully communicated with the intrinsic Destiny of the Nine Heavens and Ten Lands, powerfully imprinting his own Primordial Spirit onto the subtle flow of fate.

His unprecedented, true action immediately and evidently angered the world’s inherent Destiny.

A terrifying, world-shattering Lightning Tribulation instantly descended from the heavens.

The destructive tribulation engulfed him, and simultaneously, a colossal, ethereal chessboard manifested, trapping him within its boundaries, effectively rendering him a mere chess piece.

He was forced to struggle within this Destiny chess game, fighting alongside and against countless other, lesser chess pieces—all mere mortals caught in the pattern of fate.

Shi Jian’s expression remained utterly calm. The nascent Wheel of Destiny—still incomplete but highly potent—vibrated powerfully within his soul, directly unleashing a force that overturned and shattered the cosmic chessboard.

The Wheel of Destiny, even in its incomplete state, still possessed unimaginable power against the abstract concepts of “destiny” and “fate.”

This immense utility was exactly why Shi Jian was so fiercely determined to successfully Cultivate it.

Once the Wheel of Destiny was complete, all forms of universal Destiny and karmic threads in the world would no longer be able to cling to him or manipulate his path.

After the chessboard was effortlessly shattered by Shi Jian’s will, the Heavenly Dao quickly brought forth other, more powerful tribulations.

Figures, one after another, were powerfully generated from the chaotic essence of the tribulation cloud. The aura emanating from these figures was terrifyingly potent; with a slight movement, they demonstrated the ultimate power of the world’s past peak.

These figures were the simulated forms of the Geniuses and Prodigies from countless forgotten past ages—the absolute peak of what the world’s Heavenly Dao could generate.

The Heavenly Dao had manifested them with a single purpose: to prevent Shi Jian from imprinting his Primordial Spirit onto the world’s Destiny.

However, Shi Jian was completely unhurried. With a mere thought, he transformed into the terrifying form of a Divine Elephant, instantly suppressing and crushing these countless simulated past Geniuses into dust.

How could these long-gone figures even compare? Even Shi Hao, the future protagonist of this world, was currently not as strong as him. Let alone these ghosts of past Geniuses.

His absolute power and overwhelming will, channeled perfectly through the grand Formation, forcefully permeated into the core essence of the world’s Destiny.

Shi Jian’s entire mind seemed to have transcended his body and entered the mysterious, intangible realm of Destiny itself.

After his power was pushed to a specific, critical extreme, the Wheel of Destiny within his consciousness suddenly flew out. His raw Primordial Spirit imprint was projected from the wheel, traversing unimaginable distances to finally reach a truly mysterious place.

This place was silently surrounded by countless streams of rich, pure purple energies—energies that felt innately noble and ancient.

Shi Jian’s projected Primordial Spirit imprint was directly and permanently fixed onto this mysterious core.

Streaks of fine, seven-colored light began to flow toward him—these were the very Laws that governed the Nine Heavens and Ten Lands.

Shi Jian found it surprisingly easy to control these Laws. Although the Nine Heavens and Ten Lands were a single, vast Realm, their inherent Laws were profoundly incomplete due to the ancient shattering.

They were so weak that they didn’t even contain true Immortal Dao Laws (the laws governing the True Immortal stage and beyond).

Shi Jian was now a True Immortal Rank figure with a terrifyingly strong Battle Intent.

Controlling the fragmented Laws of the Nine Heavens and Ten Lands—a world lacking the very Immortal Dao Laws of his rank—was naturally an easy, almost effortless feat.

He reached out his projection and grabbed. Many fine, silken seven-colored lights appeared in his hand.

These seven-colored lights, though seemingly as fine as silkworm threads, were each as structurally dense and potent as the legendary Taigu Divine Mountain.

“What a profound pity,” Shi Jian lamented softly, a hint of disappointment in his voice. “The Laws of the Nine Heavens and Ten Lands are simply too weak and incomplete. They don’t have much practical effect on my continued Cultivation!”

The Tusita Heaven that Yang Qi stole from was the ultimate, top-tier Immortal Realm in his world. The Immortal Dao Laws Yang Qi stole could be used to temper and forge a perfect Immortal Body.

The fragmented Laws of the Nine Heavens and Ten Lands that Shi Jian now controlled lacked this vital effect. The Immortal Body that could be forged by these broken Laws could not possibly be as strong as the perfect Immortal Body he had already achieved through his nine fundamental transformations.

“Next, I must refine the Clone… and use him to replace Destiny and govern the fate of this unified world,” Shi Jian muttered to himself, his mind already racing ahead. He paused, a new, audacious concept forming in his mind.

“A System… can I create a System to replace the Heavenly Dao itself?”

“A System fundamentally converts influence and obedience into energy, and the natural flow of Destiny and the Heavenly Dao constantly influences all beings…”

Shi Jian’s eyes narrowed, a brilliant, terrifying idea taking root. “If I can use a powerful, self-created System to permanently replace the natural Destiny and the Heavenly Dao of this unified world, then my flow of faith and power would be truly infinite!”