Chapter 110: The Fusion of the Heavenly Emperor's Divine Seal! (The Grand Finale)
Your current cultivation is only at the Foundation Establishment level, so there's no need for you to know much about condensing a Nascent Soul. However, when I condense my Nascent Soul, the danger does not come from the outside, but from the Heavenly Emperor Divine Seal.
The shadowy figure speaks indifferently, as if this matter has nothing to do with him.
“How do you mean?”
Shen Yan asks urgently. This concerns his future path, so naturally he cares.
“As your cultivation increases, your control over the Heavenly Emperor Divine Seal will become more proficient. Conversely, the Heavenly Emperor Divine Seal’s influence on you will grow stronger.”
With that said, the shadowy figure stretches his body and addresses Shen Yan.
“Have you seen? Once I was a handsome youth like a jade tree in the wind, yet in less than two hundred years, I ended up in this state…”
Here he pauses briefly, ponders, and continues.
“According to my estimation, I will be extinguished within at most two hundred years.”
Upon hearing this, Shen Yan’s heart skips a beat.
“Nascent Soul cultivators live for a thousand years, yet you are only two hundred years old. Why do you have only two hundred years left?”
However, the shadowy figure offers no answer. He opens his mouth wide and suddenly asks.
“Do you know the origin of the Heavenly Emperor Divine Seal?”
Shen Yan is momentarily stunned by the abrupt topic shift, but he answers truthfully.
“When the Heavenly Court fell, the Heavenly Emperor Divine Seal crossed infinite worlds and came to our realm.”
The shadowy figure seems dissatisfied with the reply. He shakes his head, sighs, and says.
“That was merely the scene we saw when we first obtained the Heavenly Emperor Divine Seal. In truth, the true nature of the Heavenly Emperor Divine Seal is the essence of the Heavenly Emperor’s cultivation.”
“The Innate Purple Qi we absorb is not because the Heavenly Emperor Divine Seal is particularly profound, but because after it absorbed countless spiritual energies, it diluted the Heavenly Emperor’s cultivation, leading us to believe we had taken in the Purple Qi.”
Hearing the explanation, Shen Yan’s brows knit tightly, his unease deepening.
“If the facts are as you say, does that mean the spiritual energy I absorb is merely trading places with the Heavenly Emperor’s cultivation inside the Heavenly Emperor Divine Seal?”
The shadowy figure nods.
“You are correct. The facts are indeed so.”
“When the Heavenly Court perished and the Heavenly Emperor entered seclusion, after the Heavenly Emperor Divine Seal crossed infinite worlds, it finally arrived in our realm. Do not mistake the Heavenly Emperor Divine Seal for some supreme opportunity; it is merely a backhand for the Heavenly Emperor’s rebirth.”
At this point the shadowy figure suddenly grows resentful.
“When I first succeeded in condensing my Nascent Soul, just about to exit the sect, the Heavenly Emperor Divine Seal and the Blessed Land suddenly slipped from my control. Worse still, a strange consciousness appeared within the Heavenly Emperor Divine Seal, attempting to invade my body and seize it. Had my foundation not been strong, I would have been replaced long ago.”
“Even so, I ended up like this—neither human nor ghost, barely clinging to existence.”
After speaking, he looks at the voice beside him deep in thought and chuckles softly, shaking his head.
“As for you, continuing this way would only follow my own path.”
“Senior, do you have any suggestions?”
After pondering for a long time, Shen Yan’s expression shifts several times before he bows and asks.
The shadowy figure shakes his head at the question.
“I naturally have a method, but I will not tell you. It is not that I wish for you to tread my old path, but because I do not know if my approach will work. To be honest, I have been searching for a way to break this for years, and my method is far from foolproof.”
The shadowy figure refuses outright, yet Shen Yan is not anxious. He continues.
“Senior, you claim a strange consciousness suddenly appeared inside the Heavenly Emperor Divine Seal, but I believe it cannot be the Heavenly Emperor preparing to revive. If it were, not only you, an ordinary Nascent Soul cultivator, but the entire world would perish. Therefore, what we truly face is merely some consciousness within the Heavenly Emperor Divine Seal.”
The shadowy figure nods, as if he had anticipated the guess.
“I know this, but you have not faced that consciousness, so you cannot understand its power.”
He points to the Heavenly Emperor Divine Seal on his chest.
“You may not know that your Heavenly Emperor Divine Seal belongs to a cultivator from the Water Moon Sect in the East Sea Cultivation Realm. After I temporarily resolved the replacement issue, I wandered between Central Earth and the East Sea Cultivation Realm and encountered that cultivator who is identical to me.”
Upon hearing this, Shen Yan’s expression changes drastically.
“Senior has met him? How is he now?”
The shadowy figure’s pitch-black face draws closer. He stares silently at Shen Yan for a long time before speaking.
“He is dead. When I saw him, he was already dead. Otherwise, why would your Heavenly Emperor Divine Seal still be in your possession?”
He extends his dark, gnarled hand and gently presses it against Shen Yan’s forehead.
The next instant, a torrent of memories floods Shen Yan’s mind. Everything—the cultivator’s acquisition of the Heavenly Emperor Divine Seal and the events leading to his replacement by the consciousness—is laid bare before him.
“So it is. It seems I too will inevitably meet this fate.”
The last flicker of hope in Shen Yan’s heart vanishes.
The first time he met the shadowy figure, he had thought him his opponent, but now it is clear they are merely two fallen souls from the same path.
At the same time, he felt a trace of luck that the replacement consciousness existed only within the shadowy figure’s seal, yet now he realizes he too cannot escape.
“Since one Heavenly Emperor Divine Seal cannot avoid the replacement consciousness, why not two? If we combine our Heavenly Emperor Divine Seals, perhaps we can try.”
The shadowy figure is stunned. He had hoped the memory transmission would prepare the junior who shares the same fate, not that the other party would stubbornly seek a new solution to the Heavenly Emperor Divine Seal.
Yet upon reflection, both have reached a dead end. Since death is inevitable, exploring a new path is no harm.
He regards Shen Yan gravely and says.
“You are not afraid? You still have more than a hundred years to live. As long as you do not break through to the Nascent Soul, five hundred years of lifespan remains possible.”
Shen Yan shakes his head.
“Morning hearing the Dao, evening one may die. Condensing the Core is not my goal.”
The shadowy figure nods heavily, then takes out the Heavenly Emperor Divine Seal. Shen Yan pulls his own out from beneath his flesh. The two press the seals together.
The next moment, a deafening roar erupts from within the Heavenly Emperor Divine Seal, and a thick, black gelatinous fluid surges from the gap between the two seals, enveloping them both.
“If we live, the road ahead is smooth; if we die, we both sink into eternal hell.”
Shen Yan’s voice emerges from the gelatinous mass, and then he resolutely pours his consciousness into the Heavenly Emperor Divine Seal.
(The end of the book.)