Chapter 179 - 90: Divine Seed of the Eternal Golden Bell
Chapter 179 - 90: Divine Seed of the Eternal Golden Bell
Chapter 179: Chapter 90: Divine Seed of the Eternal Golden Bell
He had already begun to question his very existence, unable to see the slightest hope of victory. So, when the final blow came, he saw it but made no move to dodge.
Being killed by Jiang Xuan actually brought him a sense of relief.
After killing him, Jiang Xuan felt no joy. Instead, his brow furrowed, his expression grave.
This wasn’t because of any side effects from swallowing the White Whale whole.
Although, swallowing it had indeed left Jiang Xuan feeling rather... full.
With a black hole as the foundation of his meditation, Jiang Xuan’s Nether Abyss Dharma Eye held immense potential—the power to one day devour heaven, earth, and the Myriad Phenomena. But in the end, potential was just that: potential.
For now, his Dharma Eye could only devour Spiritual Qi and Techniques, not physical objects.
Furthermore, after devouring a Technique, he needed time to digest it. If the consumed Technique was too powerful or struggled too violently, it would place a heavy burden on him and even cause a backlash.
It came back to the same point: a black hole possessed the mighty power to devour all things, and a fully unleashed, Righteous Level Nether Abyss Dharma Eye was also infinitely powerful.
But Jiang Xuan’s own body was too weak. He simply couldn’t sustain the terrifying consumption of a fully activated Dharma Eye, let alone bear the immense pressure it placed on his Divine Soul and Flesh Body.
Fortunately, achieving First Spirit Core Perfection had improved his situation immensely.
The Eternal Golden Bell. This was the Divine Power Seed Jiang Xuan had awakened upon reaching Primordial Sea Perfection.
The "Golden" in its name signified immortality; the "Eternal" signified constancy.
As for the Golden Bell, it was foremost among ceremonial instruments, a symbol of authority and power.
In Jiang Xuan’s understanding, once the Eternal Golden Bell Divine Technique was elevated to the Supreme Level, it would become a symbol of order and an incarnation of immortality. It would enable him to remain constant and unchanging, to pacify the world and quell all turmoil, to be indestructible through ten thousand tribulations, and to exist in unison with the Great Dao itself.
Of course, a Supreme Divine Technique was a distant dream. For now, it was merely a tiny, unformed Divine Power Seed. It was still several levels away from the Supreme Level, with ranks like Divine Techniques, Great Divine Techniques, and Inherited Divine Techniques in between.
Still, as a Divine Power Seed, its abilities were quite impressive.
For now, it possessed three abilities. The first was the Leakless Golden Bell. As its name implied, it allowed Jiang Xuan to lock down his body’s blood, qi, and cultivation foundation, preventing any Essence Qi from leaking out or any of his Cultivation from being drained away.
The all-pervasive, frigid wind of the Winter Solstice Sword Intent was perfectly countered by this Divine Power Seed.
Other abilities, such as Curses that secretly siphoned away his Vitality and Magical Power, would also be blocked by the Leakless Golden Bell.
In addition, by consuming a large amount of Magical Power, Jiang Xuan could coat his body with the Leakless Golden Bell to drastically increase his defense.
One could say that with the Leakless Golden Bell, Jiang Xuan’s body was finally, truly complete and without flaw.
After the "Leakless" aspect came "Constant Meditation."
When the Golden Bell formed, it would record Jiang Xuan’s peak condition. If he willed it, the Golden Bell would also emit a special power to "fix" his current state in place.
From then on, all external attacks and physical pressures would no longer directly harm his actual body.
Instead, those attacks and pressures would follow a mysterious connection and converge entirely upon the Golden Bell, to be shouldered by the Eternal Golden Bell.
Unless the power of an attack was of a much higher grade, or the Golden Bell’s capacity was exceeded, Jiang Xuan’s body would remain virtually unharmed.
Furthermore, the pressure the Golden Bell absorbed would be converted into a force and stored within it.
Jiang Xuan could then release this stored force in its entirety after deactivating the Constant Meditation state.
He could also let the power accumulate and then unleash it on an enemy in a sudden burst.
’It’s a shame, though. To release the force stored in the Golden Bell, I first have to deactivate Constant Meditation. Then, it takes time to re-anchor my Flesh Body and restore the state. That means I can’t just have the Eternal Golden Bell constantly absorb damage, release it, absorb more, and release again in a fast-paced battle...’
Despite its flaws, this Divine Power Seed was still the most suitable one for him. The boost it gave to his combat power was nothing short of heaven-defying.
Previously, Jiang Xuan would never have dared to swallow the Cloud Sea White Whale whole with his Nether Abyss Dharma Eye. He might have barely managed it if he went all out, but he would have had to endure an endless Gravity, which would have shattered his bones, torn his muscles, and ruptured his internal organs.
Even his skull might have cracked.
But now, the Eternal Golden Bell had shouldered it all for him.
His thoughts concluded. Jiang Xuan raised his gaze, his eyes falling upon Tang Yinzheng, who stood nearby.
The defeat and death of Yun Shengjie, the man she had admired and relied upon, had left her completely distraught.
As Jiang Xuan approached, she was so frightened that she collapsed to the ground.
However, as he drew closer, she suddenly shot up. With crimson eyes, she threw all caution to the wind and charged at him, intent on killing him.
"Die!"
As she charged, she recklessly burned away her own life force, clearly intending to take him down with her in a final, desperate battle.
Jiang Xuan was not surprised by this in the slightest.
He used neither his Netherworld Gravity nor his Frost Blade Radiance.
The pressure that the Eternal Golden Bell had absorbed when he’d consumed the White Whale was now condensed at his fingertip. He flicked it toward Tang Yinzheng.
DONG!
It was a single point of white light. As it erupted, a deafening, world-shaking bell toll resounded before him.
BOOM!
SHREEE!
The white light, carrying an incomparably immense force, exploded in an instant, utterly crushing Tang Yinzheng’s body.
But upon her death, the violent toll of the bell also blasted a ferocious-looking phantom of a Soul Spirit out of her body, shattering it instantly.
And this was the source of his grave expression.
’Ever since we entered the third stage of Purgatory, everyone’s temperament has grown more extreme and frenzied.’
’Geniuses are often aloof and proud, but not usually this blatant. Yet, since entering this third stage, both Yun Shengjie and I have been excessively arrogant, completely disregarding everything.’
’Chen Qianjun is no exception either.’
’When I was confronting Yun Shengjie, he suddenly jumped out. His timing was terrible. If Yun Shengjie and I had actually set aside our differences and ganged up on him with Xu Tang, he would have been in real danger.’
’One person acting so recklessly could be an anomaly. But for several of us to be this way... it must be something special about this area.’
’It’s affecting our temperaments, making us extreme and arrogant... and I actually thought I’d be immune.’
Protected by the Three Purification Spell, Jiang Xuan had been quite confident in the strength of his Divine Soul. Now, however, he didn’t dare to be the least bit careless.
—In truth, what Jiang Xuan didn’t realize was that he was being specifically targeted by the Road of Purgatory.
Helping others pass the trials violated the Sect’s principle of fairness in talent selection. Therefore, the backlash from the Road of Purgatory would not cease; on the contrary, it would only grow more intense.
The normal difficulty of the third stage’s trial naturally wouldn’t have affected Jiang Xuan much. The Three Purification Spell, the newly acquired Leakless Golden Bell, and the Sword of the Spirit that came with being a Clear Heart Swordsman all provided resistance to Divine Soul attacks.
Unfortunately for him, since he was acting against the Sect’s rules, the effect was amplified—doubled, or perhaps even several times over. He couldn’t withstand that.
But Jiang Xuan was unaware of all this, which was why he felt so grave.
Fortunately, there was one thing that allowed him to breathe a sigh of relief.
With the successive defeats and eliminations of Yun Shengjie and Tang Yinzheng...
...only one person remained on the battlefield who could contend with him.
SWISH!
Jiang Xuan turned his head to look forward. At the same time, another person turned their head, their piercing gaze locking onto him.
While Jiang Xuan had been killing Yun Shengjie, Chen Qianjun of the Yin Daoist School had eliminated Xu Tang and Qin Feng.
And so, in this hellish Chaotic Burial Mound, only two remained: Chen Qianjun and Jiang Xuan, facing off against each other.
The duel between them was not only the final battle of the three-school joint examination, but also the fight that would decide who would claim the Treasure Level Treasures!
FWOOSH...
As the two stared each other down, their intense battle intent collided and interwove across the distance, actually suppressing and diminishing some of the sinister Evil Qi that perpetually shrouded the Chaotic Burial Mound.