When she opened her eyes, a hint of blue could be seen in her pupils. Her face gradually changed, as if she had forcefully stripped away time from her body, causing her to no longer look like a middle-aged woman. Instead, she looked like a young woman.
Her expression was calm at that moment. As if she did not sense the ice on the frozen altar, she lifted her head and stared into the distance. The direction of her gaze was the exit of Dark Dawn's Ninth Expanse Cosmos. Further away was Arid Triad Expanse Cosmos.
In silence, she slowly lifted her hand to reveal a blue crystal on her palm. At that moment, the crystal shone with a faint blue light. It was incredibly beautiful, and if anyone looked at it for a prolonged period of time, they would feel as if their hearts and souls would be sucked into it, and they would be unable to extricate themselves.
"For the first time in tens of thousands of years, big sister's Sacred Soul Crystal … has shone with such a light …" the woman mumbled softly. Her voice was incredibly cold.
"The light's guidance is in Arid Triad Expanse Cosmos, and the only thing in Arid Triad that could make big sister's Sacred Soul Crystal ripple is the child she gave birth to in the past. He is also the child she never forgot even when she died." The woman fell silent. After a long while, a hint of contemplation appeared on her cold face. After a moment, she waved her left hand at the layer of ice in front of her. Instantly, cracking sounds echoed and cracks appeared on the layer of ice. In the span of a few breaths, the layer of ice instantly shattered and fell in all directions.
Almost at the instant the layer of ice shattered and fell, ninety-eight shining stars appeared in the pitch-black starry sky. These ninety-eight stars seemed to be very far away, but it was precisely because they were so far away that they could form a picture.
It was the picture of a phoenix. If there were lines connecting the stars, it would form the outline of a phoenix that looked as if it was alive.
At the same time the picture of the phoenix appeared on the ninety-eight ancestral planets, figures walked out of thin air around the woman. They were packed densely together, and their numbers increased. After a moment, there were hundreds of thousands of them surrounding the area.
Their faces could not be seen clearly. They seemed to have fused with space, but the presence spreading out from their bodies made it seem as if they wanted to freeze the galaxy of this Expanse Cosmos.
Once these people appeared, they bent their backs and knelt down towards the woman.
"Congratulations, Sacred Lady, for coming out of isolation!"
"What happened in Dark Dawn during the years I was in isolation?" the woman asked faintly while staring at the hundreds of thousands of people around her calmly.
Soon, someone told the woman everything that had happened over the years in detail, including the gap in Arid Triad Expanse Cosmos and the great battle against Saint Defier over it.
After a while, the woman closed her eyes. When she opened them again, she took a step forward.
"Do not spread the news of me coming out of isolation. Su Er, continue training in my place. I'm going … to Arid Triad." One of the women in the crowd behind her immediately voiced her assent. Her body began to change, transforming into the woman who had just spoken. She went to the altar, where she sat down. Layers of ice appeared, sealing the altar once more.
…
Su Ming was bathed in golden light in the world of All Spirits Hall. His figure was indistinct, and the expression of the old man from Heavenly Spirit Tribe in the distance was dark. There was regret in his eyes.
At that moment, Su Ming's body might seem normal, but in his mind, there were 256 souls and 256 wills, which made it impossible for him to accurately locate the location of the first soul.
This was what it meant to be lost. Even though Su Ming had not completely lost himself, as time passed or if any other changes occurred, he would definitely lose his origin soul.
At the instant Su Ming tried to lock down his origin soul with great difficulty, his 256 souls suddenly shuddered at the same time. The power contained in the powerful golden light filled all 256 souls, and each of them was much stronger than Su Ming's soul from before.
At that moment, a loud bang echoed in Su Ming's mind, and the ninth split swiftly descended.
The 256 souls shuddered and split up once again, turning into 512 parts. Su Ming's will also split up, and from the 256 souls from before, he turned into 512.
This caused Su Ming, who had originally only been able to locate his origin soul with great difficulty, to be completely unable to locate it. He sank into a state of confusion. All the souls he looked at seemed to be his origin soul, but at the same time, all of them did not seem to be his origin soul.
When the old man from Heavenly Spirit Tribe saw this, he let out a long sigh. He knew that Su Ming had failed in his spirit ascension. It was not that no one could succeed in reversing the situation while they were lost, but most of them only split three or four times. Only then would there be hope for them to find their origin soul while they were lost, but Su Ming had split nine times. The difficulty was so great that it was practically impossible.
"His failure has nothing to do with himself. It's caused by the presence of the other race in his soul. Oh well, oh well." The old man from Heavenly Spirit Tribe shook his head, but the pity and regret on his face were incredibly great. He could already imagine that before long, when the power contained in the golden light became stronger, the 512 souls would fuse with each other and devour each other.
Only when Su Ming had control over his origin soul could he guide and fuse with them at that time. Then, when the fragments became whole, he would form … the soul of an Antecedental Spirit that had fused with all the other souls!
Only then would his physical body, cultivation base, and soul go through a metamorphosis at the same time. With the soul of an Ancestral Spirit as the seed, the Berserker Body in Death Realm as the root, and his cultivation base as the leaf, Su Ming would truly take the step to ascend from a Successor Spirit to an Antecedental Spirit.
'It's a pity … but I can't say that he failed. It's just that his consciousness has been wiped off and replaced by another newly born consciousness. Because of that, from a certain perspective, he is still himself, and there is a possibility of a trade.' A glint appeared in the eyes of the old man from Heavenly Spirit Tribe, then he sighed in his heart. No one could help him with this. Even he could not do it. He could only stare at Su Ming's face in the golden light with a deep, dazed look on his face.
Su Ming was lost. He was lost among the 512 wills and souls. He could not find his origin soul. When the 512 souls reached completion under the golden light, Su Ming saw in a daze … that they had started devouring and fusing with each other.
A feeling that his life was in danger instantly rose in Su Ming's heart. He had a strong feeling that if he could not find his origin soul, then once his origin soul was devoured by the other souls during the fusion, it would mean that he, Su Ming, would die in a certain sense.
Perhaps the soul that would appear in the end would also believe that it was Su Ming, but it would be the same as the clone that practiced the Art of Swallowing Hollow Shadows Whole's independent will. That would no longer be the real Su Ming.
The devouring and fusing of the souls had already begun. The 512 souls crashed into each other, and booming sounds echoed continuously in Su Ming's mind. As the souls devoured each other, the feeling that his life was in danger rose in each of Su Ming's souls, making it difficult for him to make any judgment.
"What should I do?!" The wills of the 512 souls were filled with anxiety at that moment. It was as if all of them were real, but also as if all of them were fake.
When Su Ming saw that there were already souls being devoured by the fusion, he suddenly saw a flash of blue light appear in one of the souls that was being devoured by three other souls at the same time.
The blue light was very weak, but at that moment, in Su Ming's mind, it was like a lighthouse in the dark. At the instant it shone, Su Ming did not have time to make any judgment. He could only send all of his will into the soul that was shining with blue light and was being devoured by the other souls.
At the instant his will fused into the soul, Su Ming's heart trembled. He had a strong feeling that this soul was his origin soul, and it was his soul from the very beginning.
He could not understand why he would have such a feeling, and the urgency at that moment caused him to not have time to think about what he should do. He firmly believed that this was his origin soul, and he immediately started devouring and fusing with the other souls around him.
Time trickled by, and Su Ming had long since become numb to the intense pain. If one of the five hundred something souls was devoured, then it would not just be a single soul that became stronger, but all of the souls.
Gradually, the souls in Su Ming's mind became fewer. When there were only two hundred something souls left, each of them was much stronger than Su Ming had been in the past.
As he continued fusing and devouring the souls, there were a few times when Su Ming was nearly wiped off. However, when his will was on the soul, he felt as if he was fighting against hundreds of himself. This feeling was difficult to describe, but Su Ming felt that it was much more dangerous than the battles of Arts in the world outside.
Gradually, there were fewer and fewer souls left. One hundred and twenty-eight, ninety-six, sixty-four …
Su Ming did not know how much time had passed. He could not divert his attention to anything else. He could only immerse himself in the process of the souls fusing and devouring each other. When there were only ten souls left in his mind, including himself, Su Ming could clearly sense that the strength of his soul had far surpassed his previous self. There was simply no way for him to compare them. This was a difference in the state of his life.
Booming sounds echoed in Su Ming's mind. The remaining ten souls began devouring each other in a frenzy. In the end, only one of them could survive, and the one who survived would take control of the body and become the new Su Ming.
If he was the one who chose this soul and the one he chose was indeed his origin soul from the very beginning, then he would still be him, but if there was a mistake in the process, then even if the soul Su Ming chose successfully survived, Su Ming's will would be wiped off and replaced by another will that would be born.
Time trickled by. The number of souls in Su Ming's mind increased from ten to eight, then to five. When there were only two left, one of them was Su Ming, and he started a battle.
The two souls, including Su Ming, were infinitesimally close to becoming Antecedental Spirits. The strength of their presences and the ripples of power from their souls were enough to make anyone's heart tremble, but at that moment, the two souls had to fuse into one. Only by doing so could they truly transform from Successor Spirits to Antecedental Spirits!
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