Chapter 671: Condensing the Divine Throne (Two-in-One)

"Cough, cough..." In the end, Yan Jing's coughing was the only sound left in the world.

He coughed up handfuls of dark gold blood from his throat.

The moment the blood left his body, it formed jewel-like beads. Quicksand colors surfaced within them, as if they contained countless twinkling dark gold stars.

He was injured—not lightly, but not severely either.

His windpipe and lungs had suffered some internal bleeding.

His opponent's desperate counterattack—raising a hand in the final moment before the great halberd struck—had landed a blow on his chest.

Those thick, steel-like arms had forcefully broken through the halberd's suppression to reach Yan Jing's chest, leaving behind the final trace that man could leave in this world.

Weird Energy surged around Yan Jing. Threads wove together, rapidly healing the wound.

Amid the rain, he looked back and shot a cold glance at the silent Black Tower in the distance. He said nothing, turned, and walked away.

By refusing the Divine Throne and killing its other heir, he had forged a blood feud.

It could not be resolved with words.

All he could do now was hurry and collect the remaining Divine Thrones.

Taking a single step, Yan Jing vanished from where he stood.

Not long after, a figure gradually materialized in midair.

The man seemed entirely merged with the surrounding air. Even though he had deliberately revealed himself, only a faint outline distinguished his figure from the atmosphere.

Vaguely, one could see he wore an incredibly flamboyant white robe.

Whether intentional or not, the hem of the robe looked as if it were spliced together from giant feathers. He wore a truncated cone-shaped hat, and at the brim, two fleshy flaps resembling small wings crossed downward to cover his eyes.

A massive belt hovered around his waist, strung with one white pocket after another.

"Interesting..."

The figure spoke. It was not a language of the Surface World or the Inner World, but rather pure syllables that nonetheless clearly conveyed his meaning.

"This little guy is really interesting. How does he have the auras of so many old friends on him..."

"And that damn river. Fuck, the aura is so heavy. Just how many times did he mess with it?"

"Which of those two things summoned him over? Let me see..."

Muttering to himself, the figure drifted toward the Black Tower.

He floated all the way up, finally passing through layers of clouds to reach the very top of the Black Tower.

This was also the highest point of the Surface World. Any higher, and the spatial fabric would become too thin to withstand their power.

"..."

The entity atop the Black Tower remained silent.

But the figure spoke again:

"I've recorded everything that just happened, hahaha."

His tone was light; he sounded genuinely delighted.

The entity within the Black Tower stayed silent for several seconds before finally speaking.

"Is he your man?"

"Not exactly."

The figure smiled.

"Strictly speaking, he has helped me far more than I have helped him."

"Are you going to stop me?"

The entity inside the Black Tower asked slowly.

"No, no, no, no."

The figure smiled again.

"How could I dare? Your combat strength is much greater than mine, and besides, my injuries haven't healed yet."

"But..."

The figure shifted his tone.

"Back then, that person intercepted the people below for five whole lifetimes, and you followed suit, intercepting him for five lifetimes. As a result, the succession of the Divine Thrones was broken, and the Source of Mutation forced its way in. Some entities might not say it out loud, but they still remember what you did."

"You don't have a suitable demigod candidate right now. When the Battle of the Gods begins, you'll be in trouble. You know how those guys operate. Heh heh, good luck."

The figure patted the tall tower, curled his lips upward, and vanished into midair.

Only the tall tower remained standing in silence between heaven and earth.

The rain seemed to fall even harder.

...

...

"Domain Lord Yan's ranking went up!!!"

Clutching her Computer, Lin Xiaoran looked at Zhao Dongchuan.

Ever since she learned about the leaderboard, she had become utterly obsessed, refusing to let go of it all day.

Sure enough, the moment Yan Jing's rank rose, she noticed immediately.

"What place is he in?"

Zhao Dongchuan walked over and sat down.

"Hold on, it's still rising..."

Lin Xiaoran stared intently at the screen.

Then, her mouth fell wider and wider.

Yan Jing's rank kept climbing, far surpassing her expectations, until it finally stopped at an unimaginable position.

Eleventh place.

At the same time, the description of Yan Jing's abilities had changed.

Aside from his immense strength, the Fear Tree, the Fear Thorn, and the Crown had been added.

Lin Xiaoran read through Yan Jing's battle record and took a deep breath:

"Domain Lord Yan killed a god!!!!"

Zhao Dongchuan was startled. He leaned in and saw the record stating that Yan Jing had slain the [Victory] demigod. His reaction mirrored Lin Xiaoran's.

"..."

The two exchanged a glance, too shocked to speak.

At the same time, many others were similarly stunned into silence.

...

...

"Where is he?"

A figure dressed like a monk stood up from a meditation cushion.

Every incense scar on his bald head looked like a crater, and inside those craters, clusters of tentacles writhed.

He looked at the demigod behind him. Weird Energy flared around him, flashing like the light of Buddha.

After getting a rough location from the demigod, he reached out. A Buddhist seal spun in the air, and his figure turned into an illusionary light, vanishing from the spot.

...

...

"He still hasn't advanced to the Demigod Realm?"

A man stared at Yan Jing's description on the leaderboard in front of him, Weird Energy rising around his body.

Bolts of blue-black lightning coiled around him, vibrating and colliding before suddenly exploding outward into an ocean of electricity.

"Crackle..."

The man reached out. The lightning that had instantly reduced the mountain forest below to ash was snuffed out in his grasp, dissipating into stray arcs.

Then, his figure seemed to turn into lightning itself, vanishing from the spot.

...

...

"The Domain Revelation is about to begin."

A figure stood up from the ground, looking as though his entire body had merged with the surrounding environment.

Every move he made seemed to make the ground beneath his feet tremble.

"Thud— Thud— Thud—"

A sound like a beating heart echoed from the earth beneath him. The man took a deep breath, and the ground below seemed to breathe with him.

The next second, his figure vanished from the ground.

...

...

Lin Xiaoran stared nervously at the leaderboard.

Both she and Zhao Dongchuan were waiting for Yan Jing to advance to the Demigod Realm. Given the power Yan Jing had displayed, if he truly stepped into the Demigod Realm, he would likely claim the absolute top spot on the leaderboard.

Moreover, both felt that such a shift in the rankings would probably cause others to gang up on Yan Jing.

They couldn't help but worry for him.

However...

Minutes and seconds ticked by, but Yan Jing's rank didn't budge.

The leaderboard wasn't frozen. Other people's ranks were shifting constantly. Even Mo Qian, who had been ranked first, had been bumped down to fourth. Only Yan Jing remained parked in his spot, unmoving.

After another half-day passed, Zhao Dongchuan finally caught a clue.

Even though Yan Jing's rank hadn't changed, his battle record had!

And it wasn't a small change.

{Ninth Generation Maitreya King, Demigod Realm tier, easily crushed by Yan Jing, dead}

{Hidden sect, Demigod Realm tier, Lei Jie, easily crushed by Yan Jing, dead}

{Distant era, Earth Emperor, easily crushed by Yan Jing, dead}

Another three demigods ranked in the top one hundred were dead.

And judging by the timestamps, all three had died at almost exactly the same time.

Yan Jing was on a killing spree!!!

Lin Xiaoran swallowed hard.

"Isn't Domain Lord Yan a little too fierce?"

"..."

After a few seconds of silence, Zhao Dongchuan exhaled.

"Domain Lord Yan is too dazzling. He's walking an invincible path. This path fears no enemies, but it also cannot afford a single defeat."

"If he loses even once, everyone will rush in to stomp on him. Everything he's done will be wasted, and the path he walks will crumble."

"I just hope he can hurry up and advance to the Demigod Realm."

Before he finished speaking, Lin Xiaoran cried out in excitement.

"It went up again!!! Domain Lord Yan killed two more!!!"

Zhao Dongchuan's eyes narrowed, his anxiety mounting.

...

...

"That's all of them."

Yan Jing arrived at his seclusion chamber in Yueyin's First Ring Domain and began to inspect his Divine Thrones internally.

"[Physique], Strength Pathway"

"[Folly], Folly Pathway"

"[Creator], Life Pathway"

"[Corpse of Reincarnation], Corpse Pathway"

"[Bottomless Cold Pool], Frost Pathway"

"[Time Rat], Time Pathway"

"[Folder], Space Pathway"

"[Old Man], Hundred Arts Pathway"

"[Gray Dust], Earth Pathway"

"[Upward Kite], Sky Pathway"

"[Eye of the Ocean Current], Ocean Pathway"

"[Blood Yi], Bloodline Pathway"

"[Decayed Soul], Soul Pathway"

"[The Immortal], Immortal Anomaly Pathway"

"[Messenger], Traversal Pathway"

"[Source of Fear], Fear Pathway"

"Sixteen Divine Thrones in total. That should be enough."

Yan Jing nodded and took a deep breath.

He did not intend to claim any single one of these sixteen Divine Thrones for himself.

Instead, he planned to absorb all sixteen and condense them into a Divine Throne entirely his own.

"Let's begin..."

Yan Jing took a deep breath. In his palm, the first Divine Throne emerged.

It was the Divine Throne of Physique, looking like a small, yellow-green bean.

Yet it radiated a sense of raw power, bulging as if something extraordinary was contained within.

Yan Jing reached out and pressed the bean into his palm. Weird Energy flared.

He chose [Physique] as the first Divine Throne to absorb not just because it was the easiest, but because physical durability was the foundation required to absorb the rest.

Soon, a profound and mysterious power rippled out from Yan Jing.

Countless motes of divinity materialized and gathered around him, solidifying from scattered patches of light into sharp points.

Once they fully solidified, Yan Jing would become the demigod of [Physique], and the choice could never be undone.

But...

At the final moment, Yan Jing reached out his hand, and another Divine Throne emerged.

This one resembled a gray-blue brain and belonged to Folly. Then, Weird Energy surged in Yan Jing's palm as he began his second absorption.

...

...

While Yan Jing was working overtime to condense his Divine Throne, the world outside had been turned upside down.

Three major events had occurred.

First, the Domain Revelation was about to begin, and Mo Qian had publicly announced that he would lead the hidden sect, the Mo Family, to participate in it.

This undoubtedly caught everyone off guard. Everyone assumed that Mo Qian, making such a forceful debut, was aiming straight for the Revelation of the Gods.

While it was true one could participate in both, it was extremely rare for the Lord of the Domain and a Deity to be the same person.

After all, a person's energy was limited.

The second event was even more exaggerated: fighting one against five, Mo Qian had successfully slain five Kings of the Inner World.

That one battle made him a legend.

It was important to note that his opponents were all demigods, and before reaching the Demigod Realm, every single one of them had been a peerless genius.

For one demigod to kill five others was enough to cause a massive sensation.

Some said that Mo Qian had already pushed the path of [Illusion] to its absolute peak.

"If he can kill five other demigods while still a demigod himself, he's practically guaranteed to become a divine candidate when the Revelation of the Gods descends. If that Deity happens to want to step down, he might even ascend directly to godhood."

"Who could have imagined that the Mo Family was about to produce a Deity?"

Compared to the first two events, the third was neither too big nor too small.

Mo Qian had publicly challenged Yan Jing to a duel.

He deliberately let the word out: if Yan Jing failed to advance to the Demigod Realm, Mo Qian would suppress his own power to the Tenth Tier to fight him.

His reasoning was that among the heavenly prodigies of the Surface World, Yan Jing was the only one currently in the limelight who earned his respect, and he wished to have a friendly exchange.

This wasn't a huge deal. Given that Mo Qian had just killed five demigods, adding or subtracting Yan Jing barely made a difference.

But it wasn't a small matter either.

After all, Mo Qian was now the center of attention in the Surface World, and his every move sparked debate and controversy.

People were simply curious about how Yan Jing would respond.

Naturally, no one thought Yan Jing would win; it was just a question of how he would lose.

Amid all this anticipation, Yan Jing's absorption of the Divine Thrones had reached its final step.

Sixteen Divine Thrones. Even with his current strength, he had to be exceptionally careful. He was condensing a Divine Throne that belonged solely to him. He needed to encompass all of them while giving birth to entirely new traits.

Outside, Mo Qian eventually retreated.

He never got to see Yan Jing, and the Domain Revelation had already begun.

He had to command the main battlefield and lead the Mo Family into war.

Before leaving, he left a message saying he had misjudged Yan Jing.

"A coward cannot be mentioned in the same breath as me."

Yan Jing was completely oblivious to all of this.

His eyes were shut tight. Sitting cross-legged in a corner of the room, he held his hands open. A mass of energy, looking like several nebulas blended together, trembled continuously before him.

Those "nebulas" crashed and coiled into each other, clearly trying to fuse, but... it ultimately wasn't working.

These sixteen Divine Thrones were simply too complex.

Yan Jing's initial plan was to create something akin to Chaos. As long as it was chaotic enough, he could just throw all the Divine Thrones in at once.

But...

He realized he had oversimplified it.

Many of these Divine Thrones interacted with and were connected to each other, causing his "throw-it-all-in-a-pot" method to constantly hit roadblocks.

It was as if order had emerged from chaos, which in this case was a bad thing.

Slowly, a fine layer of sweat broke out on his forehead.