Next, Nine Eyes took action, carefully extracting the mass of Heavenly Pillar vitality and sending it into Wei Yuan's sea of consciousness.
Once the Heavenly Pillar vitality vanished, the residual afterimage left behind by Ronglong finally let go of its lingering obsession, dispersing between heaven and earth.
At the same time, Wei Yuan felt the authority over heaven and earth upon him surge abruptly. His divine sense's reach within the Desolate Realm soared effortlessly to a hundred thousand li, and he could even mobilize a minute trace of the Desolate Realm's heavenly and earthly power.
What was called a minute trace was actually equivalent to a full-force strike from an ordinary Scenery Command cultivator or Desolate Shaman. In other words, fighting an ordinary Desolate Shaman in the Desolate Realm, Wei Yuan was already invincible, capable of battling until the end of time.
By now, the Desolate Realm authority Wei Yuan bore was comparable to nearly half a Heavenly Shaman's. The power of heaven and earth of the Desolate Realm firmly suppressed the Heavenly Pillar's core, slowly ushering it into Wei Yuan's sea of consciousness.
As soon as the core entered his sea of consciousness, it was drawn toward the sixth orbit.
Calculating the sixth orbit would normally have required finishing Preliminary Exploration of the Desolate Realm, and even that might not have been enough—one would also need to study the works of Tinghai and Yanshi to build an adequate mathematical foundation. But there was simply no time for that now.
Yet just because Wei Yuan could not do it did not mean no one else could. Within the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World at this moment, at least one and a half people were up to the task: one was Xihe, and the half was Liandeng.
Relying on her Translucent Sword Heart, Xihe flashed a beam of sword light and carved out the sixth orbit directly. The orbit itself went without saying—it was unquestionably correct. As for the calculation process, there was none. Top-tier sword cultivators were just that preposterous and abstract.
Wei Yuan had no attention to spare for anything else now. With undivided focus, he guided the Heavenly Pillar vitality into the sixth orbit. The moment it entered orbit, the entire Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World roared with thunderous tremors, monstrous waves rose upon the sea, and blood dripped from the heavens!
Immediately, the entire Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World awakened like a slumbering behemoth—and the instant it opened its eyes, it beheld its natural enemy!
Even without Wei Yuan's command, the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World instantly exerted all its strength, instinctively moving to suppress the Heavenly Pillar vitality. Yet the Heavenly Pillar vitality swelled drastically, expanding several hundredfold in the blink of an eye, and several hundredfold again in another blink!
In an instant, it went from the size of a fingertip to that of a small mountain. Everything around it that came into contact—whether tangible matter or intangible world essence—was turned into its nutrients, fueling its rapid growth.
Even the ghosts in the Yellow Springs Grotto-Heaven began to tremble. The mirage demons in the Central Earth Grotto-Heaven went so far as to play dead en masse; their many Scenery Command dharma idols were as good as useless, with over half still remaining entangled.
On the isolated island in the sea, the heavenly demon wearing Xiaoyu's face wept tears of joy, roaring up at the sky, "Perish! Let it all end!"
At that moment, the chanting of sutras and the knocking of a wooden fish suddenly rang out.
The little monk Honglian was knocking on his wooden fish, silently reciting scripture that no one could understand. Meanwhile, Liandeng trimmed the wick of the Blue Lamp Before the Buddha, causing its flame to shine brilliantly, illuminating the entire small temple. Then, holding three sticks of incense, he bowed in worship before the vacant lotus throne and solemnly planted them into the incense burner.
And this time, Xihe did not stop him.
Line after line of scripture struck like heavy hammers, pounding relentlessly upon the swelling Heavenly Pillar vitality and drastically slowing its expansion. Then, wisps of incense smoke wound around it, cutting the vitality's expansion rate within the smoke by half.
Just then, the heavens abruptly shifted as vast fiery clouds rolled in. A strand of karmic luck, shimmering with platinum and iridescent immortal light, descended from the sky and fell into the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World. As soon as this advanced Heavenly Shaman karmic luck appeared, it transformed into a bolt of five-colored immortal lightning that struck down viciously upon the Heavenly Pillar vitality. With a single blast, it shattered the bulk of it, bringing its expansion almost to a dead halt.
Wei Yuan glanced at Nine Eyes in surprise, not having expected to receive yet another strand of advanced Heavenly Shaman karmic luck.
A Heavenly Shaman like Nine Eyes stood atop the peak of the world; not even an Ancestral Shaman could dream of compelling him to contribute his highest-tier karmic luck. In truth, he was incapable of heartfelt submission to any being, so a single strand of advanced Heavenly Shaman karmic luck was already the absolute limit. Wei Yuan had never imagined he would actually give it to him.
With the strike of immortal lightning formed from Nine Eyes's karmic luck, the Heavenly Pillar vitality suffered a heavy blow, its growth and spreading coming almost to a complete standstill.
At that moment, a beam of sword light spanned the sky, cleaving the Heavenly Pillar vitality in two!
Next, the Yin-Yang twin dragons appeared, each seizing half of the vitality in its jaws. The black dragon suddenly dissolved, and the Heavenly Pillar vitality in its mouth vanished along with it into thin air. Meanwhile, the white dragon lost all its strength and spat the Heavenly Pillar vitality back out.
This was the first time Yin-Yang had displayed a fully formed lethal technique. If any sentient living being were bitten by the Yin-Yang twin dragons, half of them would die instantly. This was karmic cause and effect, beyond all reason.
Normally, even if a powerful cultivator's body was cut in two, four pieces, or even minced into bits, they could piece themselves together and heal. But if bitten by the Yin-Yang twin dragons, they would permanently lose half their life force.
Having endured this blow as well, the Heavenly Pillar vitality finally grew quiet and motionless, lapsing into an unfathomable, profoundly enigmatic state, completely untouchable.
Moved by an impulse, Wei Yuan watched the One-Wondrous Treasure Tree atop the Jade Mountain grow rapidly, shooting up in an instant into a towering, sky-scraping tree, before rapidly withering away to become the original fruit of life once more.
The Jade Mountain slowly rose into the sky, accelerating until it flew into the sixth orbit, trapping the Heavenly Pillar vitality beneath it. The fruit of life landed upon the Jade Mountain once more, putting forth several tender leaves while its roots spread continuously within the Jade Mountain. Then, the heavenly and earthly power of the entire Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World bore down upon it, finally condensing the Jade Mountain into a fist-sized jade sphere.
By this point, the Heavenly Pillar vitality was almost completely suppressed, yet it continued to grow at an extremely slow pace. Having mobilized all his resources, Wei Yuan finally realized that the Heavenly Pillar vitality could not be suppressed completely. At this stage, suppressing its vigor even a fraction more would require exponentially multiplying amounts of heavenly and earthly power. It was already nearing the limit; suppressing it further was pointless.
Finally, Wei Yuan relocated the Gate of the Many Realms and the black pool, which had originally resided in the Jade Mountain, into the Yellow Springs Grotto-Heaven. This marked the first major restructuring of the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World's layout.
Suddenly, Wei Yuan felt another stirring in his heart. Looking around, he saw a vast torrent of world essence materialize in the void, rolling in like endless mountain ranges! This was a bestowal of world essence granted to Wei Yuan for performing a great meritorious deed for heaven and earth.
Nourished by this immense volume of world essence, each grotto-heaven in the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World began to change. The fist-sized jade sphere also continuously attracted minute particles from its surroundings, gradually forming a layer of gray silt on its surface, while the temperature of the entire jade sphere began to rise steadily.
The Central Earth Grotto-Heaven expanded by another ring, so the mirage demons no longer had to pile on top of one another. With a little more space, they could now exchange partners within a limited range.
The Yellow Springs Grotto-Heaven expanded slowly to accommodate the newly added black pool. The Gate of the Many Realms stood in the center of the grotto-heaven, its mysterious runes beginning to light up once more one by one.
Seeing that the situation had stabilized, Wei Yuan withdrew from the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World. He looked at Nine Eyes before him, both of them wearing complicated expressions.
At this moment, Wei Yuan felt an overwhelming affinity toward the heaven and earth of the Desolate Realm, capable of seeing effortlessly thousands of zhang into the subterranean depths. Toward the three Heavenly Pillars and the Flame Demons, however, he felt extraordinary hatred and disgust, itching to tear them apart alive. This hatred surged abruptly, directly devouring Wei Yuan's reason and urging him to charge off right then to fight the Flame Demons to the bitter end!
Fortunately, a large hand clamped onto Wei Yuan's arm in the nick of time, jolting him back to his senses. Only then did Wei Yuan realize he was poised in a posture ready to leap and charge toward the Heavenly Pillars. Had Nine Eyes not pulled him back, with his current authority over heaven and earth, he likely would have already reached the Heavenly Pillars.
Nine Eyes said, "When vested with authority over heaven and earth, it is very easy to be influenced by the Great Dao of that world. You should have experienced it just now. Therefore, if one's strength is insufficient and one's will is not firm enough, abruptly obtaining authority over heaven and earth will reduce you to a puppet of heaven and earth, perhaps even an empty shell without a self.
"The Desolate Realm authority you have right now is your limit; I have already suppressed the excess for you. Before your strength advances to Scenery Command... wait... what on earth even are you?"
"Dharma Idol Perfection," Wei Yuan replied honestly.
"Six grotto-heavens, and you call it Dharma Idol Perfection?! Can't you just act human for once?" The more Nine Eyes thought about it, the more absurd it seemed. If Wei Yuan added a few more grotto-heavens, even an ordinary immortal wouldn't have more than that!
"This junior was human to begin with."
"You're not even fit to be human!" Nine Eyes blurted out.
Hearing this made Wei Yuan feel indescribably awkward. Unsure whether he ought to be angry, he chose to ignore it. Taking stock of himself, he found he possessed roughly half the authority of a Heavenly Shaman; any more would indeed exceed what he could currently bear.
Nine Eyes said, "Until your strength has fully advanced, do not do anything beneficial for the Desolate Realm, or the authority will shift to you even further. Even though you currently have an immortal artifact from a senior suppressing things, uncontrolled authority over heaven and earth is extremely troublesome—not something a sword immortal can handle."
Xihe was furious and intended to have it out with Nine Eyes, but Wei Yuan's body was depleted, all his energy expended on suppressing the Heavenly Pillar vitality, leaving him unable to muster even a single wisp of sword qi.
Yet Wei Yuan still had one thing he didn't understand, so he asked, "How is it that I received another strand of your karmic luck? Is your karmic luck really that easy to come by?"
Nine Eyes laughed out of sheer exasperation, wishing he could swat Wei Yuan dead with a single slap. But since Wei Yuan now held the Heavenly Pillar vitality within him, killing him would unleash it, spelling doom for the entire Desolate Realm. Hesitant to break the vase to catch the rat, he could only let Wei Yuan live on a while longer.
Seeing Wei Yuan's clueless expression, Nine Eyes snorted. "If you had refused to take it, Ronglong's residual thought wouldn't have held out much longer, and this bit of vitality would have broken free very soon. There were four Heavenly Pillars in total, yet outside the Desolate Realm right now, there are only three extraterrestrial demons. Have you ever wondered where the fourth went?"
Wei Yuan was startled. "Could it be that the mass of vitality I took in..."
"That's right. That was the fourth extraterrestrial demon. Back then, Ronglong dragged it down from beyond the heavens, sacrificing his own body to suppress it. If it broke free, it would quickly regrow within the Desolate Realm, feeding on nutrients and resurrecting itself.
"So if you had refused to accept it, and it finally broke free, I intended to take it with me, activate my Source Blood divine ability, and traverse randomly into the heavens beyond. I don't know where I would have ended up, but one thing is certain: neither it nor I would ever return."
Wei Yuan was thoroughly shocked. He had never expected Nine Eyes to harbor thoughts of sacrificing himself. This... was truly incredible.
Nine Eyes rolled his eyes at Wei Yuan and snapped, "It's not that I fear death; I just need a worthwhile way to die, understand? Besides, that doesn't contradict my love of lying flat, slacking off, and enjoying my shaman life, understand?! The joy of doing nothing and getting paid every day—don't you get that?!"
Wei Yuan truly did not understand. After all, he was the one handing out the money, even if he didn't hand out all that much.
Nine Eyes continued, "If you feel guilty about it, then come over more often in the future to help me with some chores. Keep the Desolate Realm in order and educate the Strength Shaman cubs well, so that I can happily fool around with pretty young shamans. That'll be enough!"
Wei Yuan was about to nod when he suddenly caught on and said, "Wait, that's not right. Going by what you just said, didn't I save your life?!"
Without batting an eye or missing a beat, Nine Eyes said with a straight face, "If you insist on putting it that way, that works too."
Chapter 1017